Professional Development - Bruce Moody

Mathematics

What are we teaching?
How are we teaching?

Looking for children to be able to complete tasks independently and most of the time.
What did you do today to develop children's independence?

How do you think the learning went today?

Key progressions:
Ready to add (and subtract)
Getting children reading to add is important
Getting a child to understand place value - structure of numbers
Learn to add - not counting
Understanding of a two digit number
24 - 24 children versus $24.  Children can read these numbers but have no idea about how they work.  Numbers can be overwhelming when thought about in certain ways - e.g 24 individual children versus $24 whole dollars.  Given a sernio they can demonstrate that number.
Until children can add/sub confidentially and effectively up to 100 don't bother teaching them strategies.

32 + 51 =
Splitting numbers up is discouraged - makes the problem look harder.
Doesn't fit the meaningful realm- you don't tip your 32 apples to add on your 51.

32 + 51 =
32 + 50 = 82
82 + 1 = 83

81 - 54 =
81-50 = 31
31 - 4 = 27

Importance or recording their thinking.
Use the equal sign correctly e.g
25 +34 =
25 +30 = 55 + 4 - incorrect
Correct recording is essential

Reasons why children fall away from mathematics

• Times table knowledge
• can't interact with the equals sign
• fractions, decimals and percentages

How:

Teacher Lust - Urge to go help someone.

Should be getting the kids to do more and more of the same level of questions with less and less support from the teacher.

Reduce verbal and material scaffolding.

Spray and walk away.  Give children time to solve it without the pressure of having you there looking at them. 

Matariki 2020 - Lessons with Weka and Brenda

New Learning from workshops with Weka and Brenda

Some think that Matariki are the ‘eyes of the god’. When Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother, were separated by their children the god of wind, Tāwhirimātea, became angry, tearing out his eyes and hurling them into the heavens.

Hiwa-i-te-ranhi is the star associated with granting wishes, and realising our goals for the coming year

Puanga is the rising star just before dawn.
Rangi Matamua - Maori Astronoma

The best time to observe the rising of Matariki is in the phase of the moon know as Tangaroa, the moon of plenty.  The Tangaroa phase happens 3-4 days leading to a new moon.


Maranga Matariki (song)

Maranga, Maranga mai
E te Matariki
Piata, piata mai
Ngaa kahui whetu e
Hakari, hakari e
Kua tae mai te tau hou
Haapai, haapai I a Matariki x 2

What indicators teach us about Learner Agency

What indicators teach us about Learner Agency - Derek's Blog
Link to blog post

Key points for me:

What is meant by the term ‘learner agency’?  
Used interchangeably with terms such as ‘personalisation’, ‘learner-centred’, ‘self-regulated’, ‘self-managing’ and ‘individualised’ his term has become somewhat popular among educators in recent times. It’s a reflection of the philosophical shift within education from being primarily about ‘delivering’ an education (in the form of a set curriculum based on pre-determined bodies of knowledge etc.) to a focus on learning that takes account of the differences in learner abilities and dispositions, and where the learner is a more active participant in the learning process (as distinct from being simply the ‘receiver’ at the end of the delivery channel).

There is a growing tension emerging in discussions around learner agency. One the one hand, we’re working hard to build the confidence and competence of individual learners through personalised/individualised programmes of instruction – firstly establishing their competence and and then giving them permission to ‘drive their own car of learning’ on the road to greater knowledge etc. 

On the other, we’ve embraced the importance of collaboration as a key competency in our increasingly complex and changing world and build programmes designed to foster collaborative learning and collaborative outcomes – recognising that we are travelling together on this road to greater knowledge/wisdom etc.

The OECD defines learner agency as “the capacity to behave as purposeful, reflective, responsible social beings, actively seeking to achieve goals that have been understood and endorsed.” 

This definition aligns the two dimensions of the tension outlined in the previous paragraph very well. For the individual there is the need to develop the skills, knowledge and dispositions to be able to operate effectively in such an environment – but then comes the responsibility to recognised the existence of others in this milieu.

The three dimensions of agency that build the complete picture:
Responsibility to Self – involves the initiative or self-regulation of the learner
Responsibility to Others –  is interdependent. It mediates and is mediated by the sociocultural context of the classroom.
Responsibility to our Environment – includes an awareness of the responsibility of ones own actions on the environment shared with others.
While these words sound good (and even obvious) when read like this, we need to understand that, in our Western culture at least, we are, by nature, very individualistic in the way we operate .

As we make learner agency a focus of our programmes in schools and classrooms, we need to understand that this shift from ‘compliance’ to ‘agency’ doesn’t mean we are abandoning rules altogether

Look beyond the narrow definitions of ‘choice and voice’
“the capacity to behave as purposeful, reflective, responsible social beings, actively seeking to achieve goals that have been understood and endorsed.”