Manaiakalani COL teachers share teaching inquiries

 

What a great afternoon sharing alongside all CoL teachers!   We all presented in a session to showcase our inquiries at the Annual Manaiakalani Hui.  It was great to share our inquiries with a whole range of people.   The audience I shared with were from a range of places:

• old teachers friends from across the cluster dating back over 10 years!
• core education representatives
• members of the Woolf Fisher Research 
• Manaiakalani Outreach Team
• new teachers to our cluster
• members of our Manaiakalani Hackers Team 

A few standout points for me was finding out from colleagues a common goal of having students AND teachers 'Explain Ready'.  Meaning:

a. students are ready to explain how they might solve a problem in maths.  

b. they are able to interpret what a word problem is actually asking

c. the need for educators to be more aligned in the terminology

d. the need think carefully of  the style of questioning and processing we need to promote.  

e. teacher choice of language and modelling will develop mathematical understanding to the point of being able to transfer knowledge and practice into other strands and curriculum areas.

As I shared in my recent post my inquiry falls under achievement challenge #4: 

Increase the achievement of Years 7-10, in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets

Here is the presentation I shared..  I must say it was fun setting up the 3 panelled board - really made me think about what really needed to be shared given the limited space to display.  Thanks to the Manaiakalani team for their leadership in setting up this valuable opportunity for us all.  You are very welcome to visit my professional blog to read and see more.

Preparing and refining - Manaiakalani Hui 2017

Here's sneak peak at one piece from my presentation.  Come along and find out what it's all about!  Friday 25th August, Panmure Yacht Club 2 - 4pm.

Tomorrow we get to share our COL inquiries with the whole Manaiakalani Cluster. This will be taking place at the Panmure Yacht Club. Opportunities to share in such forums prompts to check and look again at the components that make up your teaching inquiry.

The team I am in are targeting the '#4 Achievement Challenge' which reads:
4. Increase the achievement of Years 7-10, in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

My focus is specifically maths with a target group of learners who are sitting below the national standard, combination of boys and girls, year 7 and 8.   Our COL team for this particular achievement challenge are going to use the following headings to organise our presentation.

• What the inquiry is about
• Hunches
• Actions taken
• Successes
• Failures or setbacks
• Changes in the learning 
• Changes in our practice

I'm looking forward to being there the whole day where we will hear from our MIT Spark teachers, our student ambassadors from every school in the cluster, feedback from WF Researchers team and more.    Always a valuable time of learning and reflecting.  Kia Manuia!