Term 3 Online Toolkit

 

After attending the AMA Auckland Mathematics Association coffee morning I was introduced to CODAP. I had a play with it and could see the value and how easy it was to use. I then attended another webinar run by one of the developers Tim and got some more background and basics around the tools and what it can do. This then made me want to share the great tool with others so I created a toolkit around it. I did not have large numbers register and even less attend. With only 4 turning up I showed them the background behind it and watched the introduction video on their web page. We then had a chance to explore the tool. I also created a google form to gather some data and showed how easy it was to upload the data from the form and graph the variables. Some good questions asked: what was the difference between CODAP and google sheets? Also how you can add algebra?

Te Hiku Newsletter

 

This year I have introduced a term newsletter to the Te Hiku Cluster. The idea is to share some of the great work that is happening across our schools and celebrate the successes. Also to share some tips, tricks and up and coming google updates and new products. I have also shared them with our trust members and on our cluster site. The feedback from teachers has been very positive and the principals have given good responses. I need to look at how I can get this out to the parents, community and share it further to celebrate with the world.

July Auckland Hui

The highlight of our July Auckland Hui was the half day spent at the new Auckland Google Headquarters. They are very flash and tell a beautiful New Zealand story. Steve gave us a tour around and explained the story behind the design and then presented to us the updates in Google and whats new. We also did a lot of work around Edublogs which was good to look at lots of tips and tricks and sharing of resources created so we are not recreating the wheel. The soap boxes which cause so my stress and anxiety where a great mixture of fun, interesting and creative presentations from all the team. They are a good way to get to know each other. Friday we where based a Stonefields School and went over the research and up and coming events for the future. The reading workshops based similar to the DFI model look great for teachers to learn about quality reading lessons and pedagogy of reading. I would love to do the course to keep update and knowledgeable. We said a sad goodbye to Cam who is moving on to bigger and better things look out for her in the future of app designing. She will be missed for her fun and bubbly personality but most of all her innovative ideas and future thinking. The other great thing happening next school holidays in Rarotonga is the Google summit that Dorothy has organised which looks exciting and a great way to learn the culture of the magic island. I have registered myself to go and be part of an exciting event. 

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.

Happy New Year 2022

Those holidays went far to quick but it was a very relaxing holiday, a good time to rechange the batteries and reflect on the year we had. Back in schools this week meeting lots of new teachers and students. Te Hiku had a great orientation day in January with 10 teachers attending the day at Mangonui school. It was really helpful and great to work with Jacob to present the day.It makes it so less streesful when you are planning and presenting as part of a team and not on your own. What will this year bring with the onset of Ormicon on the way, compulsory wearing of masks for students and staff year 4 and up. Also another injection needed a boaster for the Ormicon varient which we are waiting for the spread accross our comunities with it being so contagious. I thought it would be here by now but we are still waiting. When it does arrive I will be back to online facilitation as visitors will not be allowed in schools especially someone like me who visits 7 schools each week. I would hate to be the spreader.

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.