Term 4 Toolkiit

I decided in the school holidays to do a workshop around interactive whiteboards. With Jamboards being deleted on December 31 2024. December 31, 2024 Last day to migrate Jams to a supported partner application. After this day, they will begin the final shutdown process and Jams will be deleted over the next several weeks. With this happening I decided to look at alternative options. It was good to research what was available and at what costs. Being a very busy term and competing with Steve from google around Gemmini at the same time I had 19 register and about 10 turn up. I gave them all time to explore and try different options. I had also invited them to try some templates. It was a great topic very appropriate to the time of Jamboards being deleted.

Term 3 Toolkit Digital Storytelling

After attending great workshops at ISTE around digital storytelling I desided to do a toolkit around all the fantastic resources that where shared with me. It was also an oportunity to share about the ISTE trip at the beginning. There was so many valuable resources, sites, padlets, wakelets with great teacher and student resources. It was a bit of a resource drop or dump with lots of links. But I did take them to the main sites and pages and showed them what was available so they could go back and look in their spare time. I did have 43 register but only 23 attended. It was on the last day of toolkits at 4:30pm. But it is frustrating when you prepare for a large group and only half turn up. The feedback I did get was very positive. I am still searching through the resources and picking out ideas that I can connect to our cyber smart curriculum and Summer Learning Journey activities. So many ideas and so little time.

Term 2 Toolkit-Microsoft designer

 

For a change I decided not to do a maths workshop and try something new. Ditch that text book Matt Millar shared a great idea of Microsoft designer a great text to image AI tool. He also shared the prompts that you could edit to suit you. I wasted so much time in the holidays playing with the prompts and creating fun images I decided to do a toolkit around it. I only had 5 register and 4 turn up. But it is very popular and they had fun creating and could see the value of using it in the classroom. Maybe if I had added that it was an AI tool into the discription I may have had more register for the workshop. I must admit having low numbers was much more personal and fun. A lot less stress than with big numbers. Giving them lots of time to play and explore was important. My creations 

Term 1 Toolkit Battling Multiplication Facts

 

Another great toolkit 36 educators from accross the cluster attended. It was fantastic to have Fiona Fox as my wingman and also her great expertise and input into the workshop was very valuable. I enjoyed attending the maths summits and workshops available online to see what the latest research and experts from around the world are saying about the learning of the multiplication facts. It was great to share the new Te Mātaiaho refreshed curriculum phases and I know that... I know how to... and I can do for Mathematics. Donna Golightly had put them all together on a google sheet. I emailed her to check it was OK to share with the teachers. This I found easy to follow and see the progressions across the phases much easier. We had the usual discussions and questions around rote learning and speed tests. I really enjoyed putting this together and learning what other countries and researchers are saying to support the learnig of multiplication. I tried to support the research with lots of great resources, web sites, and online manipulatives to support the teaching in the classroom. It may have taken along time to put together but it was a great learning experience.

Term 4 Toolkit Mathigon

 After my BOI Summit workshop on creativity in Maths I decided to unpack one of the apps I modelled in more details. So in the holidays I choose Mathigon mainly because the manipulatives on there are so amazing and easy to use. So I upskilled myself by watching all the turorital videos and practicing all the fantastics opportunities to use this site in your maths lessons. Also another very attractive reason it is free and not only can be used in your brouser but also apple and android apps available that are also free.

Being term 4 I did not have a lot register my numbers where down to only 12 and knowing from the past that meant I would probably only get half turn up. This time I was wrong only 5 turned up. One registered person did do the professional thing and email me to say they could not make it. Thanks Penny from Paihia. The 45 minutes was probably not long enough to show everything as there is far to much but they did get a better insite into all the things that area available and the turtorial videos are there to rewind back to and watch if needed. 

Having my workshop at the same time as the Melbourne cup was on was probably not a good idea either.

Term 3 online toolkit Getting Creative in Maths.

Another toolkit completted, I have noticed in my searching cluster sites and the edublog search there is not alot of create happening in Mathematics and statistics.So I desided to put together a workshop to look at how we can get creative in Maths. I looked at all the amazing tools we are already using and how we can transfer them across the the math curriculum. I linked in past toolkits for teachers to watch and learn from if needed. Where I could find examples on blog posts I also linked them in as exemplars. Again there was a high registration number in the 50s as maths is something teachers want. Fiona Fox our new Maths Facilitator was my wing person and shared her expertise. Fiona is in the process of writing the MPI that will be out for trial next Feb. she commented on alot of great ideas she got out of the workshop she can embedd into the MPI. The feedback was great and teachers loved the resources and creative ideas they can introduce in the maths and statistic curriculum.

Term 2 Online Toolkits

This term I choose to do my toolkit on google Earth. In the holidays I researched and experimented with all the different tools and options on how to use google Earth in the classroom. I also watched you tube clips and looked at Eric Curts amazing site and work he produces. 

I had 27 register for my workshop and choose the first night of the 3 days of toolkits. This time I did choose the 4:30pm session time instead of the usual 3:30 pm. Lucky I did as there was a major car accident at Kaingaroa and the road was closed and I had to go back into Kaitaia and travel home by Fairburns road and through Peria which added an each hour to getting home. 

Today at a school I got some great feedback from some teachers that attended and they could not get over the amount of resources and how realistic the imagery was. They where also blown away with the street view and ability to look around inside museums and shopping malls. Both where planning Google Earth projects around shared books in their classes.  

With an early finish today due to teachers at a union meeting I also got to watch the recording of Cheryls toolkit on chromes screencast. 

Term 2 Toolkits

This time I decided to try a practical paper folding shape online toolkit. In the past this has been a very popular workshop being hands on and involving lots of learning around geometry.The challenge was would it be as popular online. It had been quite a while since I had facilitated this workshop so I went hunting in my Math resources and found all my paper folded shapes. I then had a practice to make sure I could follow the instructions and give support to the teachers. My next job was to look at how we could amplify and turbocharge this practical workshop with technology. The Jamboard was a good collaborative idea so all the students could be sharing the ideas together. Also the use of photos, screencastify and video to capture the voice and hear the students' understanding. I set up 2 screens so I could see everyone and manage the pace and complexity of the workshop. Unfortunately it was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I lost some teachers who struggled with the paper folding and following the visual diagrams. It is definitely a workshop that is better face to face. I did receive some feedback that was positive, a principal who had to relieve a lot due to the influenza hitting and low staff numbers, she said she used the workshop a lot as it went across all year levels and you could pull parts out and the students really enjoyed it. Maybe next time I will not try to do all the shapes while online.

Term 1 toolkits

March is here already and online toolkits for term 1 are here. I started off as wingperson for Joanne Ryken and she had 65 participants for her workshop on shared reading and T shaped literacy. Then today I presented mine to 21 keen teachers on Measurement. The more I researched into the topic the more complex and complicatted you realise it is the teach the subject. The language, attributes, units and different areas that need to be covered. The best way to teach this area is hands on practicle, investigation rich and problem based. Exposing students to the different tools and units. Experience based allowing students to develope bench marks to be able to estimate and predict. Insteed of sharing great resources and tools in the slide I created a data base for everyone to share great resources. I also linked in the MIT and class on air resources. This could then become a one stop place to find great support and teaching resources. Now to start thinking about my topic for term 2 online tool kit. Before it sneaks up on us.

Place Value toolkit

 We had term four toolkits this week after the last high registrations and popular demand for maths I decided to do another math toolkit this time around place Value. I spent some of my non-contact time in the holidays researching and looking at the digital resources available. It was valuable to look at the work I covered as a maths facilitator 4 years ago and what is out there and being researched today and it is still the same misconceptions and a lot of the same activities. The only difference is the digital access to online manipulatives and materials and lots of videos so the work becomes multimodal. So I connected what we were facilitating over 4 years ago with the digital resources available today.  There is also a big focus on mixed ability groups and rich mathematical questions with the context connected to the student's interests, culture, and community.  It was a great workshop with over 66 registered and over 50 attending. 

 

 This is some of the feedback from the participants. There seems to be a high need for maths PLD across our schools. Manaiakalani is in the process of creating a maths expert role in maths for the clusters to focus on maths and PLD. 

Fractions Online Toolkit

 Having these online toolkits during lockdown I didn't think we would get as many participants with busy households and changes to distance learning. I choose to do another maths toolkit as they are very popular and have high turnouts. That alerts me to the lack of maths PLD currently and teacher concerns and need for ideas, pedagogical and content knowledge. It was a subject of Fractions the hardest area of maths to teach the area that students find hard to gain the conceptual understanding. So I unpacked the misconceptions of teaching fractions. This was nothing new, looking at the current research and websites like Youcube, nrich, and nzmaths. They are the same misconceptions and same concerns as to when I was a maths facilitator 4 years ago. I focused with a real emphasis on the language of maths and transferring what we do in literacy across the maths. Also starting of with understanding with multi representations using materials hands-on and technology manipulatives. Then introducing the symbols. Also context and real-life examples that relate to your students. They need to understand why we need to learn Fractions. 

Unpacking the key ideas for the teachers and the progressions through the levels helps to see the big picture and the connections. Especially to multiplication and division. The feedback from the teachers was positive and they enjoyed lots of the resources that they can use in their distance learning.  

As a Manaiakalani cluster, we have all these great resources for literacy and sites for teachers to refer to but we have nothing for Maths. I am looking at putting together a site for maths. With research, resources, exemplars for teachers.