Thank you GTS! Looking back... but Moving Forward!

I am very excited to embark on the next chapter in my educational career. At the same time, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Glen Taylor School and its wonderful community for the great past years. The sincere farewell they organised for me was truly touching, reflecting the thoughtfulness and warmth of GTS's exceptional whanau. While saying goodbye is bittersweet, knowing that I will always cherish the memories and connections to GTS in my heart and soul brings comfort. To everyone at Glen Taylor School, thank you for the invaluable experiences and friendships. You will always hold a special place in my heart. With that said, I look forward to seeing you soon as I continue to work at Manaiakalani, joining the fantastic Research Team.

Thinking of my TAI 2024

I will continue to improve my teaching practice and support other teachers in enhancing their teaching of mathematics. While participating in MPI, my main inquiry focus will remain on developing teacher content knowledge and an effective maths programme. However, I also feel the need to promote critical thinking in students and educators to achieve the best outcomes.

I decided to reflect on my work during the first four weeks of this year. Have I been thinking critically? What have I done to enhance my practice, and what evidence can I provide? So, I began by reflecting on "Our Code, Our Standards for the Teaching Profession" and gathered some evidence to create the Padlet below:

Insights from the initial MPI Pilot Sessions

I'm excited to share some snippets of the new Maths Practice Intensive (MPI) that we're piloting this term and that will be launched for the first cohort from term 2.

Day #1. We began by looking at the pillars of practice - the integral components of the effective maths programme. 

We also highlighted the importance of fostering a positive learning environment for maths, nurturing creativity and integrating cross-curricular opportunities for real-life application. Exploring the concept of teachers seeing themselves as mathematicians, we recognised that this perspective can lead to a transformative shift in our approach to designing our maths programmes and opening the door to a more dynamic and engaging teaching style. This shift can instil confidence in both teachers and students, promoting the belief that everyone has the potential to excel in maths.

Day #2. We explored a range of formal and informal assessments to fully understand the available tools and practical implementation of Assessment for Learning (AFL). We practised analysing PAT and e-asttle data and engaged in coaching conversations about how to use this data wisely. The emphasis on sharing assessment data with students and incorporating self-assessment tools in our teaching was also discussed. The program encourages us to reflect on how often we allow and prompt students to reflect on their learning and whether we are tapping into their self-driven learning potential (student empowerment).

Day #3 was all about practical aspects: long and short-term overviews, timetabling, flexible grouping, lesson planning, and organising for group discussions (group talk). It was great to give it a go and solve a 'low floor high ceiling' problem ourselves in breakout spaces, followed by sharing with the big group. This activity will be useful for teachers' learning as it encourages thinking about their own mathematical knowledge, ideas, gaps, next steps, and resources they might need for the lesson, etc. I loved that Fiona used Talk moves with us, letting us experience how our learners would feel and behave; "revoicing" definitely made me refocus on the group conversation. Another practical aspect of the programme is "gifting" well-designed and pre-planned task boards ready to be used in class. Finally, we shared some resources for independent activities that might enhance students' learning experiences and help develop fluency.

To conclude, I'd like to emphasise that every part of the programme is designed with robust evidence in mind and backed up by research. Throughout the programme, teachers will be referred to relevant readings to deepen their pedagogical knowledge and better understand why the offered approach is effective.

 

Calendar Booking Page

Kia Ora teachers!

I am excited to work with you this year. My COL days are Thursday and Friday. This Term, I am part of a new MPI (Maths Practice Intensive) pilot, working with a collaborative team every Thursday. I am available on Fridays this term. Please click and book any of the time slots available on my calendar booking page below:

Calendar Booking Page Link

I am happy to meet in person or online, or support your teaching in class. I would appreciate it if you let me know what support you are after following the booking, so I can come prepared and utilise our time effectively.

Please check this blog post for some ideas of how I can help you, but there are no limits. I look forward to getting connected with you and supporting our tamariki to thrive with their learning!

Across Schools COL Teacher 2024

 Kia Ora wonderful Manaiakalani educators

This year, I'm excited to continue collaborating with Kahui Ako teachers and sharing my knowledge and skills as an AS COL teacher. I'm particularly passionate about Maths and will be focusing on effective teaching practices in Mathematics across Y1–6. However, I am always happy to support teachers with all of their questions across the curriculum. I can offer:

• Working with you on developing and implementing a balanced classroom programme 
• Developing student agency/ student empowerment. I'm happy to explain the approach we developed at GTS and support implementing it with your class.
• Designing engaging LCS projects (integrated curriculum)
• Unpacking curriculum progressions across the curriculum 
• Planning lessons or units
• Understanding and using various assessments (formative and summative)
• Analysing assessment data and using it for planning
• Selecting the best resources to teach different concepts in Maths
• Co-teaching, observing, feedback and modelling
• Number Talk and the use of various manipulatives and digital tools in maths
• Creating multi-modal sites 
• Support with your movie for the Film Festival

I truly look forward to collaborating with you to create engaging learning opportunities for our tamariki and to help them achieve their full potential.

I'm available to work with teachers during their class and release time. This term, I am part of the MPI (Maths Programme Intensive) pilot program on Thursdays but available every Friday. 

End-of-Year Progress Data for My Year 3-4 Class: Maths, Reading and Writing

In this blog post, I'd like to share the end-of-year data for my Year 3-4 class. 

All results have been filtered to include only the 'same students,' ensuring a direct 'apples-to-apples' comparison of progress.

1. Mathematics Term 1- 4 PAT data

2. Reading comprehension Term 1- 4 PAT data

Year 4 (same students only) achieved a gain of 9 units, (=1.3 years of progress)

. 3. Writing Term 1- 4 OTJ (supported by e-asttle) 

Burst and Bubbles 2023

Since 2021, my inquiry focus has been on improving teacher practice and raising student achievement  in mathematics. Over the past years, the Maths achievement data has been consistently concerning across many Manaiakalani schools at all year levels. Furthermore, the issue of students underperforming in math has captured national attention.

At the start of the year, I discovered that almost 90% of our new Y3 students were working below and well below their expected levels in mathematics. Their Term 1 PAT results confirmed the data I collected during other summative and formative assessments. This group of students became my target group, or I prefer to call them my control group, as I always strive to deliver the best teaching to all students. 

After analysing the school-wide T1 PAT results, I engaged in several professional conversations with my school leaders and teachers. We decided to adopt a more data-informed approach and redesigned and restructured our maths programmes across all year levels. We ensured a well-rounded focus on both Number and Strand, employing an integrated curriculum and fostering student agency.

I’ve been actively involved in supporting my school and other COL teachers by working on understanding various assessments, analyzing and using data for more effective planning. 

I've supported a number of teachers and teams by discussing and collaboratively reviewing their maths programmes, by selecting the best resources for teaching different concepts, compiling and sharing practical resources, for example, maths-integrated Matariki resources for L1 to 4 of the curriculum, by observing lessons, providing feedback, unpacking it and planning next steps. 

To share my expertise and passion for this subject, I provided in-class support by both modeling and co-teaching maths lessons.

This year, I’ve had the privilege of working as part of the Maths design group, with the goal of launching a new maths PLD program next year. I've already volunteered to pilot this program in Term 1. I really hope that this new Manaiakalani initiative will support our teachers in growing their capability and love for teaching mathematics.

To conclude my presentation, I’d like to share the end-of-year PAT results of my targeted Year 3 cohort (Y3 learners in my class achieved 18.6 gain).  We filtered the data analysis by "same students only" to compare apples to apples. The group achieved a gain of 17 points, compared to the national average of 9.2. This difference translates to nearly 2 years of progress and means that, with my team, we successfully accelerated their learning.