Rethinking Lockdown Maths

 One of the things that I have been focusing on during the lockdown, is how to best adapt my teaching practise in order to provide the most effective learning for my students. This week, one of the things that I decided to do was to find online interactive geometric tools for my students to use to help create plans and nets while building isometric buildings.

Knowing that I would not have all of my students in attendance when I held the Google Meet introducing the task, I decided it would be best to create a video for them to watch explaining and demonstrating the concepts behind using isometric dot paper. This way, all students would have the opportunity to fully understand the task and how to use the digital tool.

This was highly effective with the students who attended the Meet because they were able to hear in person how to use the tool properly and they were able to go back and watch the video while they were working to help them to troubleshoot any problems they were having. Some students who did not attend the scheduled Meet were able to remain on the pathway to success because they were able to watch the video and complete their work without any problems. 

Preliminary Findings

Begin to collect evidence and data  and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. (WFRC #4)

Prior to the Covid Lockdown, I began to collect data to help formulate my preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenges. Unfortunately, this is only the first of my posts that will discuss this topic due to the timing of the lockdown and the inability to collect all the data that I would like to have at this time.

When looking at the 9 students in my direct focus group, it is important to note that 3 of the students are in Year 7, while the other 6 are in Year 8. They are listed on the graphs in no particular order.

Here are the results for a survey that we gave our intermediate students at the beginning of the year that was based on the GLOSS assessment. Based on this data, I can determine that all students tested (A, B, C, D, E and H) were able to obtain accurate answers on 7/21 questions. Unfortunately, due to consistent attendance issues students F, G and I were unable to take this assessment. Looking closely at the questions that these students missed allows me to alter their small group sessions to be sure that we focus on filling some of the gaps shown as a result of this assessment.

Students also took a PAT Maths test to help provide baseline data for the school year. On the graph below the red line indicates the mean scale score of 55 for a Year 8 student. This is the goal for these students by the end of this year. However, it is important to note that this focus group of students is made up of year 7 and year 8 students. Students A, B.G, and I are all around a score of 50, which is right around an end of year 7 score. 

Lastly, we also participated in an e-asTTle Maths Number assessment to provide us with baseline number data for the year. It also allowed us to see where to begin structuring our lessons for students when working strictly on number knowledge problems. It is important to note that we did not have the best success with this test this time around. The e-asTTle system crashed during our test and as a result, our students had to sit this test twice. We strongly believe that this caused some students to not do their best the second time around. 

It is my hope that once we are back at school, I will also be able to begin collecting data using the IKANN test multiple times throughout the year. I will also be conducting a student voice survey. 

The last piece of evidence that I collect is anecdotal notes for each student based on our experiences, trials, and mathematical successes during our in class learning sessions. 

Class on Air: Writing From Home

With our country in Level 4 lockdown, in response to the Covid-19 epidemic, teachers are learning how to effectively adapt their pedagogy to ensure that their students are learning from home. For those of us in Manaiakalani schools, we are exploring new ways to have students participate in our Learn, Create, Share pedagogy from home. In addition, our Manaiakalani Class on Air team was challenged to begin thinking outside of the box when designing our lessons during this period of distance learning. 

This past week, our country celebrated Anzac Day as we do each year. However, this year, due to the lockdown things were a tad bit different across the country. As a result, the lesson that I prepared for my students was also a tad bit different. 

Check out my Manaiakalani Class on Air episode where students were encouraged to come up with a way to make their own poppy or poppy display around their house. After creating their poppy, students were tasked with writing step by step instructions and presenting those instructions in a creative manner on their blogs. 

Distance Learning: Kahoot!

This week, we jumped back into Term 2 and my maths students are engaging in a two week continuation of our statistics unit we were in the middle of before the isolation period began.

In addition to completing learning tasks found on our class site, the students are engaging in daily Google Meets to check in for clarification purposes and to have their questions answered. One of the things that we have grown to enjoy as a class is playing Kahoot trivia together.  We decided we should still do this as a class in our Distance Learning classroom.

Click Here for Kahoot!

If you haven't tried Kahoot with your online (on in person class) I strongly suggest it for formative assessment and review purposes (or sometimes just for something fun!).  You are able to make up your own quizzes or select one that meets your needs from a rather extensive database.

Today, we used a statistics quiz as a review. It was great because I was able to display the graphs to my class after they answered the question and discuss the questions they had about the graph and question. I was also able to extend their knowledge by providing two questions that covered vocabulary and a graph that was new for them. We had great discussions during our game today.

Another very cool feature is that Kahoot provides a detailed summary of each question via email after the game has ended. Here is an example:



We will continue using these Kahoot quizzes during our distant learning to provide a platform for extension, review, formative assessment, and plan old fun with our friends!

Holiday Lockdown Learning Journey

 This term, we had to think of our Term 1 holidays a little differently. We were released from school a few weeks early, to stay at home in our bubbles in order to keep NZ safe from Covid-19. Our students were just beginning to settle into Level 4 lockdown life and were starting to understand what it meant to be distance learning from home. Although the teachers of Team 5 really were looking forward to a week off of school, we understood that we needed to capitalise on the learning that our students had started to be involved in while at home. As a result, some teachers on our team created our "Easter Learning Journey" directly based on former Manaiakalani Summer Learning Journey tasks. 

I hope you take some time to check out my Class on Air episode that shares this learning journey with you, along with my personal elaborated lesson plans, reflections and student blog post examples.