Where are we after COVID-19?

Term 1 ended quite abruptly on Monday 23 March 2020 due to the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 and weeks later, in May we were back on board. First day back was a teacher only day where the staff discussed our new norm of
social distancing
sanitising hands
sanitising surfaces
sanitising devices after each use
signing in and out for contact tracing
eliminating the need for students to leave campus by providing them with morning tea and lunch
setting up a roster to supervise our smokers during both breaks and of course
rearranging our teaching spaces and staffroom to suit.

Week 1 began with student briefing at the start of each day and again at the end to reinforce expectations of our new norm and by week 2 we only had student briefings in the mornings. Our students adapted remarkably well to the new norm.

What a difference feeding our students........
 Quantity of work produced and quality of learning evidence was impressive. It certainly helped that during the lockdown period I had created a variety of screencasts for all standards so that learners could self manage and have rewindable resources at their fingertips.
By week 1:
50% of my 11Elective class had passed their Physics assessment worth 4 credits
By week 2:
63% of my 11MAT students had passed their Algebra assessment worth 3 credits and immediately immediately moved onto Probability.
100% of my 12MAT students had passed their Networks assessment worth 2 credits.

Only ONE student in all 3 classes worked online during lockdown, so it is impressive to see that after such a long break, my students returned to school ready to learn. Below are a few examples of  bite-sized rewindable learning resources which students have been accessing.

Probability                    Physics         Algebra          Networks Cheat Sheet

Nothing breeds success, like success

Tis a bit of a long story, so please bear with me. I taught student K last year when he was in year 11 and it was an uphill battle as any attempt at Maths was accompanied by a whinge and moan and then some. He let me know in no uncertain terms that he HATED maths. This year student K transitioned to year 12 and was attempting NCEA L2. He was timetabled to do maths only in terms 2 and 4, so after a lockdown period of 7 weeks due to COVID-19, student K walked smack bang into maths. While a few students had accessed their learning online during the lockdown period, student K had not; he was starting afresh while others had covered a decent amount of work. It is normal practice in my classes for students to work through their learning programme at their own pace, sit assessments when they feel super-confident and self-manage (one of the 5 key competencies from the NZ curriculum) their progress. Students also had access to a variety of  rewindable learning resources which they could access at any time.

The 12MAT students were making remarkable progress and within the first week back after lockdown, some sat their summative assessment and were successful and immediately started their next standard. Student K was amazed at the pace at which his peers were progressing particularly when one of the boys was finishing his second standard by week 2.  He soon realised that everyone around him was on the road to success and that success seemed to impact him greatly as out of the blue, in week 2 after lockdown, student K asked if I could share the assessment with him. By then he had covered sufficient work and had a good grasp of the standard. I continued conferencing with the class while student K sat his assessment and by the end of that period he had completed and was successful. When I asked him how he found the assessment, he complained (unsurprisingly) so not much has changed, but the success of those around him definitely spurred him on. So now, fingers crossed, it is onward and upward. Nothing breeds success, like success

Let the data tell the story

As we near the end of the year, I decided to take a closer look at published NCEA L1 and NCEA L2 Maths data for a few standards taught this year.
Below is NCEA Level 2 Simulation, worth 2 Literacy/Numeracy credits and
NCEA L2 Networks, worth 2 Numeracy credits.
The highest achievement has been for our Pasifika students where 100% of them achieved for both Simulation and Networks compared to national data for the same standard, where achievement was  74% and 76% respectively. Our Pasifika NCEA L2 maths students have clearly outperformed national data.

Overall 91% of the cohort gained credits for Simulation compared to 80% nationally and  93% gained credits for Networks compared to 80% nationally.

Below is a similar comparison with NCEA L1 Maths published data. Probability seems to be a strength for both Maori and Pasifika students.

The data shows that overall, 100% of our cohort gained credits for the Probability Achievement Standard compared to 94% nationally, 100% Maori gained credits compared to 85% nationally and 100% Pasifika gained credits compared to 81% nationally.

This strength in Probability is carried through to the NCEA L2 Probability Simulation standard as discussed above where 100% of our Pasifika learners gained credits.

NCEA L1 Algebra also proved to be successful as overall achievement was 94% compared to 86% nationally. 

Students deserve all the success because throughout their learning journey they showed that they could manage self, one of the 5 key competencies, track their progress while working at their own pace and sat assessments when they felt confident. Most of these students had had unpleasant experiences in maths prior to 2019, so I created a "CHEAT SHEET" for each standard taught just to build their efficacy in the subject and this has resulted in a huge shift in their achievement.

Patience is a virtue

Earlier this year, one of my Y12 learners struggled to commit to their learning. They completed one of two NCEA L2 standards, moved on to another course for term 2 and then transitioned to a nearby tertiary institution in term 3.

To my surprise, my learner returned in term 3 to complete unfinished work from term 1. He would set himself up every Friday and managed his learning by working through his unfinished term 1 programme.

Today (week 4), my learner finished his assessment and gained NCEA L2 Maths credits. While chatting to him he mentioned that he had set himself a few goals; one of them was sitting his driver's test next week. I am going to be bold and say that sitting his maths test was another of his goals.

Without patience and persistence, my learner would not have gained his L2 credits today. Patience is a virtue.

Review of term 2 data

My Physics Elective class in term 2, 11ELE B outperformed both my term 1 class , 11ELE A and national data as shown above

My term 2 Algebra class,  11MAT B had maximum success with 100% achieving. 11MAT A whom I taught in term 1 achieved higher that national data. The Probability data for both classes 11MAT A and 11MAT B has 100% success, once again outperforming national data as shown above.

The standards taught in term 1 were repeated in term 2 to a different cohort. My term 1 cohort, 12MAT A outperformed my term 2 cohort, 12MAT B.

Maori A (term 1 students) outperformed both Maori B (term 2 students) and national data; whereas Pasifika A (term 1 students) and B (term 2 students) both outperformed Coordinate Geometry National data - shown above

100% of Pasifika students in both terms 1 (Pasifika A) and 2 (Pasifika 2) achieved maximum success and outperformed national data

My reluctant learner is no more

I have a somewhat reluctant learner who gets bored/distracted quite easily so I had him work on an Algebra standard worth 3 credits for a while, then switched to Probability, another standard worth 3 credits. That continued all term and seemed to give him more confidence as his prior knowledge was fairly recent each time he switched standards. He was also armed with a teacher-created
 CHEAT SHEET, subject-specific LITERACY STRATEGIES as well as LEARNING STRATEGIES

Well it has paid off big time.....my learner sat his Algebra assessment on one day and gained 3 credits and then sat his Probability assessment the next and gained another 3 credits.

The 6 credits within 2 days seems remarkable, but I am more impressed by my learner's new-found confidence in his ability and he now knows what SUCCESS feels like........ My reluctant learner is no more

Working smarter not harder.............

In my 12MAT class, I have learners working on up to 4 different achievement standards at any given time and all are at varying levels of competence. In order to maximise engagement and give students more ownership of their learning, all the teaching and learning resources have been centralised on a Google site with teacher-created "Cheat Sheets", learning programmes, tracking sheets, exemplars, practice tests and rewindable learning opportunities which they can access 24/7.


In a bid to work smarter not harder, I have armed students with the tools for success thereby giving me an opportunity to conference with small groups or work one-on-one as opposed to drip feeding information to students and hampering their progress.

Update

Just a follow up on my two previous posts about one of my undisciplined learners who was struggling to self manage, so I resorted to removing his laptop and making him work on paper,  has now had a change of heart.

He questioned me for a while about why I was taking such action and how long it would last, which I appreciated. Today, I gave him a choice of working online or on paper and he chose the former. He seems to have a renewed desire to be successful and is now showing commitment to his learning by focusing on the task at hand and initiating learning conversations whilst working  through his programme.  He has asked for assistance 3 times and not shown any signs of being distracted. What a joy to witness learners "managing self", one of the 5 Key Competencies in the NZ curriculum. He has been rewarded with a sense of accomplishment and much praise from me.

I love it when a plan comes together

I love it when a plan comes together....................my previous post about "desperate times calls for desperate  measures" was a plan that did not come together. This is the evidence of my reluctant learner after 3 and a half hours of maths. To be honest, it was an intermittent 3 and a half hours with toilet breaks, water breaks, blowing nose breaks etc.

I had to come with a plan B and fast. My plan B is to always make plan A work, so my learner was given a laptop today and he chose to start a new standard. We went over 

expectations for the standard, 

criteria for achievement 

subject-specific terminology needed for the standard

a few "Cheats" and

did a few examples together to build his confidence in the subject.

Hopefully, my learner will spread his maths wings and fly.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

I did not think that I would have to acquaint myself with the photocopying machine or laminator (pictured below in case you too have forgotten).......
     

......and I cannot say the "good old days" because teachers and learners and in fact, society has moved on. So what has caused me to resort to these desperate measures? 

Recently I formalised my goal setting where I aim to increase participation by using the Key Competency "Managing self" and it is going fairly well with most of my learners engaging, participating and progressing fairly well. Going fairly well does not sit well with me and goes against one of our school values of being EXCELLENT. A few ......and by that I mean one or two, ok maybe up to three learners have minimal "managing self" skills and are ill-disciplined when learning online and using digital technology responsibly, another school value. 

In a desperate bid to get them engaging and actively participating with their learning, I have resorted to laminating resources specially for them which I hope only lasts a day. I am saddened that I had to resort to that option but desperate times call for desperate measures.