Homework for teachers (given at our staff meeting)

All this technology is making us antisocial......


I totally disagree with this provocation.
Firstly, the definition of "antisocial" is not wanting the company of others
Posting on Social media is an efficient way to interact with a wider audience and reduces anxiety for those who feel unsafe in the physical presence of others.

Snapshot of how I am raising Maori achievement in NCEA L1 maths

 This is the second year that my inquiry is focusing on raising Maori achievement in NCEAL1 mathematics.

I am continuing to:
- teach in context so that learners see the relevance of the learning
- use literacy strategies to give learners more confidence in the subject
- focus on the key competency "managing self" so that learners take ownership of their learning.

This year I have made a concerted effort to promote:
- "language in abundance" which supports NCEA achievement as all learner evidence needs to be explained in context.
- the inclusion of teacher-created teaching and learning strategies to give learners a head start in understanding mathematical content

Cheat Sheet

Chunking literacy Strategy

Student work in one place for easy access for both learner and teacher

Tracking sheet to encourage the key competency "managing self"

Challenge oucome

First thing this morning, just before 8am, I kept my word and rang home to have a chat with one of my Maori learner's parents.

I started by congratulating him on his daughter's success the previous term; 2 MERIT grades totalling 7 credits and asked if he had received my postcards sharing her success. Sadly, he did not recall receiving any mail, so I promised to resend them.

I reached out to him saying that I needed his support ...........wait for it..............wait for it............
"I need "child's name" to be present in maths every day so that she can end the year strongly. Are you able to encourage "child's name" to come to maths every day, please?" Dad did not commit to attendance but thanked me for my call.

As I am marking the roll for period 1 today, the student is being marked as absent.....

I accept the challenge.......with knees knocking

In June, I titled a blog "Where there's a will, there's a way" (link) where one of my Maori learner's successfully gained 7 credits all at MERIT level within a week.  She had achieved her predetermined goal. Through a Student Voice survey, she wrote that she wanted whanau support in the form of making sure she comes to school every day.

Well, a bad habit is like a warm bed.......easy to get into and difficult to get out of; this learner has reverted to her old ways of missing school..........many many many days of school. Dean and tutor teacher interventions have failed and as her maths teacher, I let it ride. I was AFRAID to make contact with her whanau about their child's attendance as I felt that I did not have the mana to challenge such a deep-rooted problem.

At the 2018 Manaiakalani Hui today a few people at my table, who have been following my blog CHALLENGED me to contact her whanau...............with knees knocking........I ACCEPTED the challenge. Come Monday, I will be contacting home whether the student is at school or not. Hopefully, my knocking knees will have settled by then.

I promise to blog the outcome of my conversation.....stay tuned......

Raising Maori Achievement mid term 3 - The bottom line

This is a snippet of my inquiry to date.

The bottom line is:
Arriving at the college in year 9 at curriculum L4 seems to have had the highest impact on Maori achievement as 100% of them have NCEA L1 Numeracy compared to those who arrived pre-level 4 (10%)

No child left behind

We can learn a great deal from our gorgeous learners.

After a somewhat disruptive day taking sporting, cultural and class photos throughout the day, my year 10's were in top form for the last period of the week. We are building our confidence with the Algebra strand in maths and had an option to do a Quizlet Activity, where each learner works at their pace and can compete against the clock for some activities OR a quizizz activity where the class competes against each other.

On our first attempt, we had an accuracy rate of 56% and there were numerous requests to give the quiz another go. When I questioned students, they informed me that they were aiming for 80% accuracy. After numerous attempts, we reached an accuracy rate of 83%. I thought, mission accomplished.......................... Well......................students decided to shift the goal posts and were aiming for 100% accuracy.

Students decided that collaboration was the way to achieve this goal. The school bell rang at 3.00 pm and all remained behind so that no child was left behind. They stayed until the last student completed the quiz and we have pics below to prove our 100% accuracy rate.

What a way to end the week!

Data does not lie

A comparison between my 2 Year 11 NCEA L1 classes about shifting Maori achievement has been outlined in the table below. This is our REALITY.

Arriving at the college in year 9 at curriculum L4 seems to have had the highest impact on Maori achievement as 100% of them have Numeracy

Similarities: Programme, Teaching and Learning Resources, Literacy strategies, Conferencing, Feedback, Tracking sheet, number of timetabled maths periods per week

CRITERIA	1104MAT	1105MAT
Prior achievement - Asttle tests	100% achieved consistently at L4	0% achieved consistently at L4
Class size	17	23
Late Maori Enrolments in Y11	0%	27%
Lost teaching periods due to school activities	9	9
0 credits (Maori)	0%	70%
1 std away from Numeracy (Maori)	0%	20%
Numeracy (Maori)	100%	10%
Numeracy (Whole class)	41%	13%
Numeracy cross curricula (Whole class)	53%	26%

Raising engagement in Junior secondary Mathematics

An abridged version of my Dissertation done in 2016 for my Masters of Professional Studies degree was selected for publication by the Mathematical Association in the UK which caters specifically for secondary and college teachers of Mathematics.

Cover

Contents Page

In a nutshell, this study hoped to provide results that would lead to an improvement in engagement when working in an online junior secondary mathematics environment and to provide further evidence on the effects on engagement when working collaboratively in junior secondary mathematics.

The relevance of the contextual task played a vital role in student engagement. Learners had to search online for relevant information to complement the already-existing content, while the rest of the tasks only provided the context and students had to build the resources around it. 

Considering all the evidence of the data collected, collaborative learning resulted in overall higher levels of engagement in comparison to engagement when learning was done independently. It could be said from the results of the study that the relevance of the learning, active participation as well as opportunities for collaboration, raised student engagement in junior secondary mathematics.

L1 Probability Cheat Sheet

My NCEA L1 class started off the term discussing and understanding the L1 Probability Cheat Sheet and then created a word bank of subject-specific words needed for this standard. Learners are finding the use of Google sheets invaluable as they need to use the =SUM and =COUNTIF formula to collate and analyse data and draw appropriate graphs. They have all set an achievement goal that they are working towards which range from MERIT to EXCELLENCE

For most learners, this is their last standard for the year before they embark on revisiting previous standards done earlier on in the year where they did not manage to complete all set tasks, sit the practice test or summative test, so we have our work cut out for us to end the term strongly.