TBCS - Craig - Deliberate Acts of Teaching - Maths

Teaching Maths

Maths is one subject I love to teach. I have seen such pleasing progress in all my students. Most of my students are happy to do their Math lessons, and some will even choose to do it at break times or when they have finished other work. I have had a multi-faceted approach to teaching Maths this year.
This year, I have had students working at all the Grade levels from Year 1 - Year 7


My deliberate acts of teaching have included...

• Testing each student at the beginning of the year to access where they are.
• Each student is placed at the appropriate level for their skills in the Maths Buddy Programme that the School Uses. (Please see my Blogg on Maths Buddy)
• Monitor how each student is doing by roaming the room constantly and encouraging and giving help where needed.
• Monitoring each student through my laptop after hours to identify students who need particular help or groups of students who need help in a particular area and writing them in my weekly planning folder.
• At the beginning of most lessons, students who needed extra help are brought down to a table so I can help them as individuals or in groups as required. They will go back to their individual desks once they are confident and have passed the lesson they were stuck on.
• Setting a minimum achievement rate of 80% or more in any given lesson before allowing a student to move on.
• Year 6 students are to complete a Diagnostic test at the end of each section to ensure all lessons have been learned. If gaps are identified in their learning, they are required to redo those identified lessons again to ensure they are confident before they move on.
• The emphasis I encourage is not on completing a certain about of work or working at a certain speed, but on learning the concepts and being able to confidently use them, especially in Problem Solving situations. 
• I encourage students to redo lessons, even if they have passed them at 80% if they are not completely confident in themselves.
• I place an emphasis on learning times tables which we start every day with.
• I get the students to do warm-up activities of times tables before they go on with their lessons.
• If there are particular lessons that the whole class needs to learn, I will gather the whole class around the board and we will go over them together. These have included... 

                      -  Understanding mathematical words like addends and sums, minuends, subtrahends,                              and differences, etc.
                      -  Greater than and less than
                      -  Rounding
                      -  Telling the time.
                      -  And other issues identified in daily classwork or testing such as e-asttle.

• I try to know where each student is at, and plot their progress on an XL spreadsheet to help me have an overview of the whole class.

Next Steps

Place a bigger emphasis on learning Time Tables and add a Times Tables test at the end of each week to keep the spotlight on our need to know them by rote.

Be more forthright with the expectation that the lessons need to be learned and not just passed. This will include encouraging the students to use a star chart to indicate how confident they are at the end of every lesson, so they can revisit or redo lessons that may have been passed but not confidently grasped.

Make better use of the e-asttle tests that the class sits to identify areas of weakness and get more group work established based on what is identified at the time.

Standard 6
Teach in ways that ensure all learners are making sufficient progress, and monitor the extent and pace of learning, focusing on equity and excellence for all.

Standard 5
Select teaching approaches, resources, and learning and assessment activities based on a thorough knowledge of curriculum content, pedagogy, progressions in learning and the learners.

Standard 4
Manage learning setting to ensure access to learning for all and to maximise learner's physical, social, cultural, and emotional safety.

TBCS - Craig - Maori Language

I have a lovely new student in my room called Waihou. She started at our school only a few weeks ago. She was not able to swim during our swimming lessons last Monday, so we got to talk while sitting and watching the lessons.

She told me that she had come from Christchurch, where she had attended a Maori school called Haeata Community Campus. She was not allowed to speak any English there. I commented on how good her English was and that I didn't know very much Maori.

She taught me how to say ice cream in Maori 'ihecreamy'

She then asked me what Maori words I knew. As I said them, she would say the meaning in Maori and say, "What other word? ... What other word?" till I had exhausted all the words I could think of on the spot. She then proceeded to tell me Maori words that I should know and I told her the meanings in English. I knew all of them and had not been fast enough to think of them while she quizzed me earlier.

She was very proud of her knowledge and she seemed really keen that I should know more so I made a bargain with her. I would teach her English, Math, Reading, Typing etc. and she would teach me Maori. I asked her to teach me a new word every day and to test me several times over the day so I would remember it. She agreed.

Today's word was

• 1  Regular use of te reo Māori.
• 1  Recognising, valuing and utilising Māori ākonga knowledge within school setting.
• 4  Providing opportunities for ākonga engagement in co-operative learning, and reciprocal teaching. 
• 4  Fostering tuakana/tēina relationships.
• 4  Learning phrases of languages that are familiar to my ākonga who come from different cultures.
• 6  Where appropriate seeking out and validating the prior knowledge that Māori ākonga bring to their learning.

TBCS - Craig - Voice Typing Trial - Something I Love

I decided to try to increase engagement in Writing by getting the students to write about a subject of their choice.

I asked the students to find a photo of something they loved and write me paragraph about why they loved it, using complete sentences.

The next writing period, I introduced them to voice typing to allow them to put more ideas down on screen and excite them about the process. 

The intent was to give them a tool to get their thoughts down quickly and completely and help reluctant writers to enjoy the process and to begin to allow their creativity to flow and not be hampered by the writing process.

It was a messy lesson and it ended up being about experimenting with microphones etc.

They were very impressed when I said full stop and it did!

Where to next.

Use this to cement the show where full stops live and to get the students to think and speak in sentences.

Try to engender excitement and engagement with Writing.

I will blogg results as time goes by...

• 4  Effectively incorporating digital media into the learning environment.
• 6  Use of relevant resources
• 6  Monitoring of ākonga learning during the implementation of a programme of learning, so that the programme can be adapted where needed to better achieve desired outcomes for ākonga.
• 6  Using appropriate pedagogies to accelerate progress of ākonga who are achieving below national expectations.

TBCS - Craig - Learner Agency Examples Room 3

These were my examples of learner agency in Room 3 

They showed students going beyond what was expected, students helping one another, Students teaching each other aspects about devotions using the whiteboard (at break time), setting a goals and choosing to do it while everyone enjoyed Sumdog.

Where to next...

Put it up on Seesaw to share with parents.

There are other things on the rubric which can be added.

Share it with the rest of the class.

Loop it on T.V as an example.

Add video and get students to articulate what they are doing and learning, and where they are going.

• 6  Using appropriate pedagogies to accelerate progress of ākonga who are achieving below national expectations.
• 6  Having high expectations for all ākonga and sharing these expectations with ākonga and whānau.
• 6  Undertaking a detailed evaluation of learning programmes and their impact on all ākonga, that takes into account ākonga feedback.
• 5  Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• 3  Participating fully in school/syndicate/faculty/department meetings and be an active member of the team. Share ideas with others.
• 3  Participation in professional development (PLD), both in school and through outside agencies. Working with colleagues to enact the new learning. 

TBCS - Craig - Reflection Kaea and reading groups

I noticed yesterday how Kaea struggled to concentrate, keep up, and participate while we were reading in a group situation.
I expect with her hearing loss, that while she hears me clearly enough, she struggles to hear the other students, especially in a group situation.
(The back ground is that Kaea has refused to wear her hearing aids this year and has not brought them to school at all.)
After talking to Steve we came to the conclusion that if we could get Kaea to bring her hearing aids to school, if only to use them at reading time and take them off again, it could help her be engaged and learn more than she is at the moment.

Action plan.

Speak to Judy, Wendy, and Rrbekah about contacting the family to get the hearing aids brought to school.

23/2/2018
I spoke with Judy Larkin today who has in turn e-mailed Rebecca to find out about the hearing aid situation.

Hopefully we can see some progress soon.

28/2/2018
I spoke to Judy today and we discussed the hearing aids which haven't turned up. She was going to see if she could help to to get them in class.

14/3/18
The hearing aids turned up a week ago. When we have the gear all charged properly charged, it makes a marked difference and allows Kaea to be involved with the group and allow to hear the other students clearly.
She says I am too loud, so Judy is making an audiology appointment so the aids can be set to the correct levels and I am not so loud in her ears.
I have also learned how to ensure the aids are turned off. If they are not turned off over night, they go flat over night.

31/3/18 We had an IEP meeting with Mum, Judy, Wendy, and the educational psychologist about Kaeas behaviour and her refusal to wear her hearing aids. See here.

2/7/18
After having a bad start to the term and lots of work from Judy, Wendy and myself, Kaea is wearing her hearing aids almost full time at school. The audiologist said she needed to wear them as much as possible to allow her brain to use them effectively and to set the pathways.
Success is sweet. Not only is Kaea hearing better, but her compliance in wearing them is part of an overall improvement in her behaviour.

• 2  Following an inquiry model appropriate to my setting, and using goals and/or inquiry questions that are linked to identified priorities for my ākonga and school.
• 2  Making time to have professional discussions with colleagues.
• 2  Effective communication with ākonga and whānau about ākonga achievement, learning and well-being.
• 3  Appropriate and professional communication with colleagues, ākonga and whānau.
• 3  Engaging with whānau and ākonga to discuss ākonga well-being and achievement. Engaging in regular professional communication as appropriate. 
• 4  Observations in my classroom that focus on the learning environment.
• 4  Classroom observations with a specific focus on this standard.
• 6  Using feedback from classroom observations to improve learning programmes.

TBCS - Craig - Reading - Reflection

I started the year feeling a little under prepared. I had a good understanding about the Lexia and Reading Plus programmes from last year and had them sorted and operational for the start of the term. The thing I was not sorted with was reading groups. Judy-Anne and I had meant to get together, but it had never happened. Thank the Lord for C.R.T days!
I had a C.R.T Day on Tuesday, and Judy-Anne put her class with mine so we had the morning together to sort out what I was meant to do and how to achieve it.

The groups were established from data gathered at the end of last year. Only one student had no data to work from, so we went from her level on Lexia, which as it turned out was far below her reading level. This  became a blessing because although we will have to do a running record on her, she has realised how far below her level she is working on Lexia and has determined to catch up, which is great.

One problem I ran into was that one of my groups has 6 students in it and we do not have many sets of journals with 6 or more. It became a real problem till I had an epiphany. Sunshine online has a great reading resource of journals at the levels I need and because every student in my class has a device, they can all access the same journal at the same time. The added bonus is the extra activities attached to each journal.

I have also given each student access to sunshine classics to use for homework reading if they do not have a novel they wish to read. I have set up each account with books at their individual levels.

My big teaching books were set up using the rocket reading sheets.

I will report on how things progress.

Judy-Anne and I also discussed Spelling essential lists and the Gloss test.

• 2  Making time to have professional discussions with colleagues.
• 2  Observing and learning from experienced teachers.
• 3  Understanding and using existing models of effective practice (e.g., Te Kotahitanga and Ka Hikitia)
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• 4  Observing other teachers practices and approaches in the establishment of an inclusive and supportive learning environment.
• 5  Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.
• 6  Observing other teachers’ use of resources and teaching strategies.
• 6  Seeking advice and feedback from colleagues on planning units, useful resources, and strategies to enhance ākonga interest and engagement.