Adobe Express - Animate Characters

 Te pārekareka hoki, me te pīwari hoki! Anei taku tutu tuatahi ki roto o Animate Characters - Adobe Express. 

Google Videos

Anei taku tutu tuatahi ki roto i a Google Videos (Kiriata Kūkara??) He poto engari he pārekareka te mahi.

 

MPI 9

 Yippee! Kua tutuki, kua ea!

Happy and excited to have completed MPI 2024. It was not easy at all, and sometimes added extra pressure where it was definitely not needed (I recall the end of term 2 being particularly yuck). But nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. I also need to acknowledge my amazing colleagues here at kura, who have often taken on my class as well as their own; and my wonderful principal, who despite being overloaded with normal principal stuff, sometimes took them for English on MPI days. Ka nui te mihi aroha ki a koutou - mwah.

Biggest takeaways from the MPI:

- let the students use materials, even though they are "big kids". One of my most capable students had an important epiphany about fractions after being able to use foam fraction pieces. 

- rich tasks one day a week are an awesome way to get them working in different groups, taking on different roles, and challenging themselves beyond the normal daily maths grind. After five or so weeks of doing them, one student (same student as above, with the fraction pieces) asked if we were going to keep on doing them (and not in an "Ugh" kind of way, but an "Ooh!" kind of way). Implementing them with a new class next year, with Group Rules for Talk from day one, is something I am looking forward to. I also find the planning template really useful, as it helps me to get ahead of what the students might do, or misconceptions they might have, and what they need to be able to do to solve it.

- tip charts for vocabulary. Love them! I have used them a few times during the MPI, and it also helps me to remember important vocab myself. 

- ambitious outcomes. I think too often I keep children back in their maths progress because of gaps that need filling. But I think MPI has made me see that memorising facts (while important) is not EVERYTHING, and that they can continue to learn more complex strategies and build their knowledge at the same time. 

Thank you to all our amazing facilitators! You've all done a wonderful job. Ngā mihi!

 

MPI Day 8

 Te Tauanga me te Tūponotanga - Statistics and Probability: usually taught in term 3 at our kura, as it aligns with other kaupapa such as cross country (great opportunities for measuring heart rates before and after running, and plotting on dot plots, or individual line graphs to show changes over the term) and worldwide events such as the Olympics. From a personal perspective, probability is my least favourite maths strand, and the one that I find the most difficult. As a year 8 teacher (which I have been for the last five years - only a short time really, in my 14 years of teaching!) I have to reteach myself every single third term so that I can teach the students. I can understand the basic principles of the topic, but probability trees in particular are my kryptonite. I was hoping that this session of the MPI would offer more insight or give me that aha! moment I need - maybe upon further exploration of the resources and planning on offer, I might still find it. 

In terms of statistics, while I do find it easy in comparison to probability, it was great to learn about the different types of questions that we should be asking. Some of them call for higher order thinking which is awesome, and I will try to ensure that I include every type of question in my statistics planning from now on, along with opportunities to critically analyse data and graphs. I can see potential for integrating it with critical literacy, especially anything starting with "studies show that" or "according to the statistics"...

MPI Day 7

 Geometry - I think this subject is made harder by the vocabulary involved, which seems (in my brain) to be much much more than any other strand (eg the different names for shapes, and parts of shapes, different types of angles etc etc). So it is heavy in that respect. Remembering them all is difficult so it will be necessary to have the words visible on the wall (for students and teacher), but word saturation in classrooms is an expectation of teachers at our kura so that will not be new. Planning to use them all will be necessary though. Teaching orientation and the measurement of angles is something that I feel comfortable with at year 7/8 level - however other aspects of geometry have been overlooked (eg nets, enlargement) so this is something to remedy, and the planning for that can start now. We usually focus on Measurement/Geometry in term 1 and then Location/Direction/Transformation (thankfully just called Mokowā now)  in term 2 (so geometry overall gets quite a lot of attention at our kura) so I think there's really no excuse to not cover all aspects of geometry. Again, just like with measurement, assessments are not readily available in all aspects of the strand, so these will need to be created with support from my mentor to ensure validity and credibility. 

MPI Day 6

 Measurement today. Not one of my personal favourites, and I unfortunately haven't spent a lot of time teaching area and perimeter to my students. I've mostly focused on time, angles, volume, temperature etc - this absolutely needs to change! We teach Measurement in term 1 of each year so I've made it my goal to focus on area, perimeter and volume for my next unit plan. It will mean finding or creating a suitable assessment in te reo Māori, but I'm sure with my amazing mentor's support it can be done.

Classroom practise: I am finding it easier to stick to the system that I am already using for my maths website so I haven't started using taskboards yet. I think if I just focus on using them for teaching strands for now (algebra for term 4, measurement for term 1 2025, and so on) then that will be an easier approach. 

Rich task Thursdays (or Fridays on an MPI week) are becoming a normal part of the classroom programme. I try to allow 40-45 minutes for this - the students are often finished way quicker than that! I obviously need to find some more challenging tasks. However we are still developing the discussion aspect of the activity - it doesn't seem to matter how I change the groupings, there is always someone who dominates, or someone who will quite happily say nothing at all - so while the maths element of rich tasks seems to be pumping, the discussion side of it is not.  

See you soon Manaiakalani Summit Rarotonga :)

MPI 5

 Algebra!!!!
As a kid I hated algebra, and did not understand it at all. However, as a teacher, I have grown to love it, and it has become one of my favourite strands to teach. Having said that, I still struggle with the nuts and bolts of algebra, and I found myself confused by some of the content today. I will need to go back through and process the information again at my own pace to understand it fully. 

In terms of teaching algebra at year 7 and 8 level (which I have been doing for about four years now), materials have not been a big feature in my maths programme, as I have always been concerned with making sure the students can see rules, and use rules to solve algebraic problems, etc. However MPI has taught me that equipment (whether physical or digital) is hugely important so I will need to find a way to incorporate materials in to our algebra programme. As it is a schoolwide focus for term 4, I do have a little bit of time to plan for it, however I am aware that if I leave it for too long I will forget the amazing things I learned today and just revert to doing the same old stuff! So starting to work on it now (and using MPI taskboards and activities etc) will be valuable.

Vocabulary was a big feature of our session today, and it is another area that I would like to spend more teaching time on, especially working in Māori medium. I love the TIP chart idea and will use it more often. I am thankful for resources like Paekupu and Te Poutama Tau for having done most of the legwork in this area - my job is to find ways/activities to embed these kupu while also using them in real contexts in class. 

Reflecting on two changes that I have made that I have consistently implemented in my classroom maths practise:

1. Rich tasks Thursdays. They have become a regular feature every Thursday, and I change maths groupings on these days. Some groupings work better than others, and there will always be students who are more vocal than others, but in general the students seem to work through them at a good pace, so it seems as if they are achievable without being too easy. One students even asked last Thursday if we were still going to do one that day :)  - from this particular student it is a positive question, not a negative one (so not "do we really have to do that again?")

2. Introducing learning outcomes and success criteria with group session times. It hasn't been something I have done in the past with small group maths, but I have found it is great for getting students to reflect on whether or not they achieved the intentions of the session.

When I discussed this with my mentor, she also mentioned rauemi/resources. She has observed that I am using rauemi more often than I used to, and allowing the students to manipulate them, whereas before I thought it was babyish for year 7 and 8s! So this is probably a third area (but needs to remain a constant).