Mind Lab Week 2

Week 2 Mindlab

So I was feeling quite overwhelmed about Mindlab and all that is involved but have overcome that and I am really enjoying what it has to offer me for my professional development.

The new skills that I have learnt in the last 2 weeks are overwhelming as we start to prepare to have our first assignment completed before school finishes.

Last week we made a video about one of the 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. We choose collaboration. It was great working with Rebecca and Angela who I don't usually work with. 

What do you think of these rubrics? They are so easy to use.

Faith In Action

The course about Social Justice that we took this year was a great way to show the See, Judge and Act process in our hub with our science unit last term.

See

We saw that there was a need for this issue to be made aware of in our school. We were seeing destruction and lack of respect for our common home. There was always rubbish in the playground, in the gardens and in the children’s lunchboxes. In light of us coming to know more about Catholic Social Teachings and Social Justice, we knew that now was the time. We all know that the environment is God's gift to us and we needed to show the children that if we didn't do our part now it may look dim for their future. The children knew that they needed to make some changes and were on board to help. They knew some good starting points that they could change to help look after our common home and the first initiative my group took was to have rubbish free lunch boxes.

Judge

This situation exists for many different reasons but the main ones that I will briefly talk about are, apathy on behalf of society around care for our common home, children not knowing, ill-informed parents and the convenience. So, we know that society has a lack of interest in the situations around us and we also know that they are not doing much to help them.

This is when we can use our children to give them the knowledge that they need to pass on to society, parents, whanau and caregivers. These members of society are the future and the changes they make now will be positive for the common home.

Act

Here we can show the ways that we actioned our unit of work with the children. We had a commitment to the Religious Education programme and how we used these curriculum objectives to show our commitment.

God is present everywhere in the world through creation. (AA6. Yr3, AO1)

Show love and respect for God’s gift of creation, accept responsibility for the environment and recognise the tapu sacredness of whenua land. (AA6. Yr4, AO2).

We also used the science curriculum and looked at Planet Earth and ways that the sustainable solutions we taught the children had a positive impact on our society. We were able to use the teachings from Laudato Si and incorporate this into our unit. We looked at pollution, green infrastructure, waterways and renewable energy. Using Science we taught these four topics with reference to Laudato Si throughout. We informed our parents about Catholic Social Teaching in particular Stewardship which was our focus. We also put information on our blog. We had a lot of parent interaction in our hub with this topic. The children were engaged and taking what they had learnt home, and putting it into practice. Each home base made an action plan and we made these real and achievable for the children, who were all engaged. At the end of the term, all the children wrote letters to Pope Francis about what they had been learning and putting into practice. Next term the green infrastructure team will be planting a vegetable garden for the community to use. The whole hub has made so many changes and we will continue these for the remainder of the year showing our commitment to our common home.

Term 2 was a great way to incorporate Laudato Si into our programme. The children were engaged and the goals were achievable for all. We are continuing to action the plan that we put in place and it's real and meaningful to the children.

Technology and Coding

Wow, what a great way to be ready for term 2.

The Energise conference was great PD for me. It made me very aware that I have a need to be more knowledgeable about coding and technology. The speakers were really inspirational and definitely made me rethink how I can incorporate these ideas into my hub.

One change that I have made this term is that I have been coding with the juniors and although this is just a start its a way forward and a way to get exposure for me. The juniors are amazing at trying new things and they know its ok to make mistakes and try things that they are unsure about.

Coding is the way forward and has many areas that students will gain skills in especially systematic reasoning, problem-solving and communication skills. These are all skills that they need to be 21-century learners.

My goal for this term is to be coding and be able to help and assist others with coding. I know that this is something that will be ongoing PD for me but I know that its something I need to start and get a good grasp on it now, to make me more knowledgeable for the future.

How are your coding skills? what advice do you have for me to be successful?

Inquiry - Mixed Ability Groupings UPDATE

I am in my third week of doing the mixed ability groups with my students. The first week was really interesting. I grouped them boys with boys and girls with girls. This pairing worked ok but I felt like it was not the best for the students. They did work well together and knew what was expected of them but were not as engaged as I expected them to be. They began using the card that was given to them with questions and prompts that they could ask their buddy. They knew that they had to share back the following day. It was not about getting it right but talking with their buddy and working out how they could find an answer together.

The following day we went and shared back with some of the senior students. They modelled what was expected and used maths language with them. The senior students were great role models and showed them the process of sharing back and being accountable.

The next day as a class we shared back. The students used this card to help clarify any thinking of their peers as they were sharing back.

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After week 3, the students told me that they have really been enjoying maths problem solving and want to keep doing it. They are talking together, being cooperative and supporting each other.

The next part that I want to introduce is more maths talk and questioning.

If you have any suggestions on how I can get them to do this, I would appreciate you sharing.

Inquiry - Mixed Ability Maths Grouping

I have been thinking for a while how I was going to implement my Inquiry into my maths programme that we have in our hub. So after talking to my team leader and my tutor teacher I have decided to start problem-solving maths with mixed ability groupings.

I was lucky enough that I experienced how this works last year when I taught Year 7/8, so I am feeling confident about introducing it to the children. I did a pre-test with the children on Friday and have told them what will be happening on Monday.

I have ten problems for them to work through with their buddy. I will need to launch these to them well and explain clearly what they need to do with their buddy. I will be setting them up in an area of the hub where they will be able to have access to me. They will also have a card that they can use when talking with their buddy to clarify anything they are unsure of.

Before this session has finished I will bring them back and get feedback about how they felt it went. What did they enjoy? or not enjoy? Why?

 I will then explain that the next day they will be sharing back their answers and their maths thinking with the class. We are going to go to the Year 7/8 hub to watch them sharing back so they can model what is involved. They will have some practice sharing back to the Year 7/8 children.

After the sharing back has happened I will then decide what areas need to be covered so that they can successfully answer all of the problems.

I am really looking forward to introducing this into the Year 3/4 hub and I am looking forward to seeing how the children adapt to a new way of learning maths.

Mixed Ability Maths Grouping

This year I have moved year levels and we are looking at introducing mixed ability maths groupings in Term 2. I feel that this will be a good change for many of the students.

I know that I need some extra information to support me to use the right maths language, and to be more confident with what is involved in each maths stage.

I do think that the exposure that I had last year will be useful for my team when we are putting this into practice in the classroom. With year 3/4 students we will need to scaffold how they will do this and model good practice to them.

The evidence from EROs report about keeping children engaged and achieving in mathematics and the strategies that have been trailed makes me confident that this will be successful in the hub.

I want to be involved when this is shared with the parents and show them that this will be a positive change for their children.

Now, I need to find some more research and information to support me to be able to implement this successfully in the hub.


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Mixed ability maths groups

Last week, I was lucky enough to be able to attend some maths PD at Hoon Hay School. I found the ideas that Wendy shared something that I have been thinking about over the last week.

I loved seeing the children in action, showing us how they did their problem solving. I did think about how we had been doing it in Kaupeka from the beginning of the year and that it was similar to this, I just think that they were going that little step extra with their students thinking.

The students that I talked to were really engaged and could tell me their thinking on the problems. I loved when they both showed each other how they got their answers, and then trying to prove to their partner that their answer was right. The teacher had obviously thought very carefully with whom she paired up together, and it worked so well.

I did think, how will this work in the junior school, but it was amazing! The students in year 0-2 were so engaged, and they were so good at telling you what they were doing, and how the got their answer. It was really fantastic seeing these students getting great exposure to real life situations in their maths learning.

I still have mixed feelings about mixed ability groupings but I am going to look into it more, and find some readings and evidence that this is the way forward. I can see that all students would think that they are great mathematicians with mixed ability groups and really this is what we want for all students.

What are your thoughts on mixed ability maths groups? and do you have any readings that I could read about this?