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.

2024 Virtual Math Summit

 

It was great to attend some of the workshops at the 2024 Virtural Math Summit. I watched 

Juli Dixon

Multiplication Fact Fluency:
A School-Wide Solution (3rd-5th)

How can students achieve a deep understanding of multiplication that allows them to develop fluency with their basic facts for multiplication that goes beyond recall to explain and justify their thinking? Experience the six tactics that make up the Fact Tactics(TM) Fluency Program designed to shift from drill-and-kill instruction to an approach that helps students make sense of multiplication while developing automaticity and procedural fluency.

Website: http://www.dnamath.com/

Facebook: Juli Dixon

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thestrokeofluck

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julidixonmath

It was good to listen and hear the same things being said like many of the other researchers like Jo Boaler. We should be teaching strategies, conceptual understanding and context. Then through practice they develop fluency. We want students to develop multiplicative thinking to support them with higher level maths. The fluency helps with less loads or processes when working out higher level problems that involve basic facts to suport the strategies.We do not learn through drill and kill or speed games and tests. As these develop maths anxiety and puts students off wanting to learn. This was also a good workshop to support my next toolkit I am doing around Multiplication facts.

Latrenda Knighten

Windows and Mirrors: Implementing Teaching Practices that Build Students’ Mathematical Identities

In a student-centered mathematics classroom, students should have the opportunity to see themselves as doers of mathematics (mirrors) as well as view real-world connections to mathematics (windows). Windows and mirrors in the mathematics classroom allow students to develop positive attitudes about mathematics and build strong mathematical identities. Attend this session to learn practical strategies for building and nurturing students’ mathematical identities.

Twitter https://twitter.com/LatrendaK

This was a great workshop to link nicely with our reading practice around the importance of window and mirror text for our students. This transfers to our maths exactly the same. 

We need to give maths a real world purpose and connect to our student worlds they live in. 

I am looking forward to going and watching some of the other workshops when I get some spare time. I love keeping up to date with the latest research in maths and watching changes develop. Having spent many years as a maths facilitator I still have a passion for the subject. 

Learn with Google session.

 

Another great Learn with Google session. That’s the way we do it: Building a Culture of Innovation in your school. Really enjoy these sessions I always get great ideas and tips. This one was really interesting to hear about the culture at google. Bard has now changed to Gemini. A very usefull AI tool from google. I am still waiting for the video in slides which rolled out last week but not here yet. Can take 2 weeks to roll out accross the country.

BTS24 with GEG Aotearoa day

 I attended the BTS24 with GEG Aotearoa day online yesterday, would have been nice to be in the new gooogle office in Auckland. Would have gone down for the day but I am in Auckland next week with my son at Auckland hospital and couldn't afford 2 trips to Auckland. But we where lucky enough to be able to attend the great variety of informative workshops through google meets. They had a great variety of experts presenting great tools, Ideas and resources. 

I love the work of Donna Golightly and follow her on lots of social media platforms so I attended her workshops and got great ideas and resources. 

The top take away for me was the AI presentation looking at some of the AI tools available I have just completted the Level 3 of Magic school and am currently exploring Curipod which is one I had not heard of. 

Steve also gave a great presentation on whats new in google which keeps me up to date and also allows me to then share them with teachers. Having an orientation day planned next week with new teachers to our Te Hiku cluster I am adding some of the new tools and resources into my day. 

I love these days and always come away motivated and enthusiastic to try new things and explore new apps (AI tools). This is the link to the days workshops and recordings. A great rewindable tool we can go back to at any time. 

Meaningful feedback for continuous improvement in school.

 NZCER had a great webinar today by Professor Brent Duckor and Carrie Holmbry on Formative assessment. 

It was based around the book they have written on Feedback for continuous improvement in the classroom. 

They are based in San Jose State University in the centre for Innovation in applied education policy.

They acknowledged and recognised Hattie and Timperleys work in assessment. 

They had a framework which I liked: the the Focal points of Directionality-who is most responsible and who is the primary driver? The teacher, student, self driven or peer to peer. 

Configeruration -the spatial arrangement and interpersonal dynamics- coaching how to talk? Being positive and collaborative. 

Modality- non verbal, written and spoken. Blended both written and spoken. Digital a new schema. 

It is about building and creating dialogue, trust and resilience. Using concrete visible scaffolds to invite opportunities for self. 

1) setting the purpose

2)agree on goals

3) developing drafts 

4) planning next moves 

5) Evaluating the project.

We should focus on evidence and they use progress guides. 

Qualitative descriptors

Progress guide

My current draft demonstrates, a column on graded simple goals  and a column opposite Next steps are To improve my draft I will..... 1) 2).    This is the performance. Can invite conversations with peers, teacher and class for some examples and discuss ideas. 

I liked their reference to circling back. 

It is about communicating learning goals with visible processes. Engaging in multiple information exchanges(just in time, nudges, scaffolds)

Focusing on closing the gap.

Moment of pause to unpack the language. Using multi context. 

I totally agree that the students need to be part of the construction and have their say in the progress guide. I also like the clear guide that we can not assess everything we teach to this degree and depth we need to decide on which big idea we will assess. I can see the use of google forms to make this much easier to monitor and review with all the information appearing on a single sheet and using sheets to have individual students' progress guide being sent to its own sheet. It was a great reminder of formative assessment and the purpose and processes. I am thinking about how I can create a progress guide in my cybersmart lessons with the students. 

2024

 Happy New Year!

Just like they do every year, the holidays have gone by to quick and fast. I am feeling very refreshed and relaxed after a very lazy few weeks. Lovely to catch up with my daughter and have her home for a few days. Also all her friends came over for a yearly catch up and school reunion. A very fun night had by them all just like they did when they were tenagers. Liam, my son, is still on crutches and will be for another 4-5 months. Good news: the bone grafts are growing. He is off for another operation on the 25/1/2024 for more bone grafts being added to the hip. Bill, my partner is also back to work today and he also saw his heart specialist last week and got a good report. So all are healthy for the start of the year.

Had a great Christmas at the Fairburns hall with all the Whanau a great catch up in the pouring down rain and hot humid weather. 

This year my exciting adventures are having a new school starting, Pukenui which I am looking forward to. Being on the trial for the maths Intensive Program. Also the countdown is on for ISTE in Denver USA 22 weeks and 4 days till we fly out. I have got my ESTA visa waiver and got some travel items in the boxing down sales. I am so looking forward to the adventure. 

Back to work today, emails all checked and to do list has been written. Booked into a couple of webinars, google back to school, Apple back to school, Australian Virtual Maths summit and Formative assessment.

I have been looking at all the AI tools and what could be useful for our teachers and myself. I just completed the level 1 and 2 course for Magic school and looking forward to exploring this tool and may complete a toolkit on it. 

Media Literacy with Julie Smith

 I just watched another great webinar online ditch summit. Julie Smith presented a great worshop on Media Literacy and the ever changing media world our students live in. She really made me think about how I work in the cybersmart curriculum we have and how our students world online and how they connect and relate. Our students live in a short form video world of flashy and exciting quick videos. Are we helping, coaching, and supporting them to understand the context? We need to stop worrying about the content and talk about the process. I also learnt what Smishing is, text message phishing the key topic is missed connections. We need to be teaching coping skills and how to deal with the ever changing tech world and how to keep themselves safe. Learn about the laws, the small print and rules of apps and games they are signing up to. How to self track, and use google reverse image search. A great hour of thought provoking and good questions to think about. 

Why is Tic Tok different in China than the rest of the world?