Maths - A different approach

After doing another blog on maths I was given a book written by Jo Boaler which I had mention in my blog. I found the book easy to read and was able to relate to some of the situations and thoughts that was mentioned. Something that got me from the start of the book is what they said about powerful thinkers are those who make connections, think logically and use space, data and numbers creatively. Which is definitely what we want children to be able to do, but the thing is how do you do it? How do you use numbers creatively, this intrigued me as the making connections makes sense as we try where possible to make maths relate to situations that might come up in their life.

The book talks about how the problems that the children look at in groups with different leveled children allows the opportunity for the problem to be approached in different ways. By sharing the different methods it can show that problems can be worked out in different ways. The tasks that the children complete are open tasks allowing different approaches and strategies to be used. From this task the children  have to convince others of the answer and how they got their answer. It talked about how visually showing these strategies can be helpful too.

The idea of the different ability groups got me on to this book in the first place as I had a few questions on how that would work successfully. This book helped me to understand a little as to how you set up the environment and the tasks. According to this book they found that the low achieving students rise to the level of the highest achieving students. They feel that both the high and low achievers gain from this type of grouping. I still have my concerns a bit on this but would love to give it a go.

I do like aspects of this approach such as how the children are encouraged to pose questions reason and justify and be sceptical about the task.

If we give students a rich creative, growth mindset experience then we change them as people and the ways they interact with the world.

These key points come up
1. Everyone can learn maths to the highest levels.
2. Mistakes are valuable
3. Questions are really important
4. Math is about creativity and making sense
5. Math is about connections and communicating
6. Value depth over spread
7. Math class is about learning not performing.

These ideas help wrap up the main ideas of the book.  This book certainly gave me some good ideas and some inspiration to keep looking at  new ideas to teach in maths.

Cultural Reponsiveness

After reading Helen's blog it made me think about cultural responsiveness in my own teaching. As a class we have been looking at cultures and so it has made me think about making sure I am inclusive of different cultures. I enjoy learning about other cultures and learning languages as I am currently learning sign language. I have learnt from learning sign language there is more than just learning the correct signs when learning sign language. Deaf culture is also important and I learn from a teacher who is deaf and she is often sharing about the deaf culture and how this important and different from my culture.

 So just speaking Maori in the class is only the start of ensuring that I am being culturally responsive. I need to ensure that other aspects occur such as engaging the whanau, achnowledging whakapapa and Tikanga. Tikaga as mentioned in Helen's blog is to do with correct procedure and traditions. It covers different aspects  Rangatiratanga, Manaakitanga,Kaitiakitangi and Whanaugatanga. When I teach I need to ensure that I always respect the Maori culture.  I believe I am continually working on making sure that I learn more about Maori culture not just the teaching of the language as there is definitely more to it then that. By doing this it will help to empower and ensure that Maori students are valued in whatever they do and help them to succeed in education. It is my job to ensure the classroom is one in which Maori children are valued and by making connections with them and showing a general respect this will help towards this.

Self Regulation

self regulated- in parts

I read this article as I am interested in helping children become more self regulated. I feel in the last few years more and  more children need help in this area. Initially I was thinking how children in this more modern learning environment need to be self regulated when learning, however this can also be children who need to work on self regulating their emotions.  It talks about in this article that you need to coach children through problems with self regulating and provide support so you get the behaviour you want. This would mean scaffolding in different situations and possibly breaking things down to help them work through a situation.

Although this mainly talked about emotional regulation in children it did say that the environment needs to be one that is reflective and analytical and this would be beneficial to have.

I think that self regulation can't be expected to just occur and needs to be modelled by children shown how to do this in practical situations. This support needs to be with emotional self regulation and the self regulation with their learning as well. As mentioned before I feel that I have to give more and more children strategies and support to help self regulate themselves both emotionally and in other areas, than I have had in the past. I personally think that the environments we are trying to set up in the classrooms are one in which they get practise at working on being self regulated and I don't think you can expect them to always get this right but it is our job to keep giving them the skills and strategies to help them. These  skills  will definitely be needed in the future. I am asking myself now am I giving all the support and strategies to help all children to become self regulated. I think sometimes it is easier to give them to help them be self regulated as learners but the emotional side is harder to give strategies for as there are many factors that need to be considered.

Paths to 21st Century Success

I liked this poster as it showed some of the things we are trying to teach in this collaborative environment. It clearly states some very important skills that the children need to succeed in life. I think the left side is what is happening or should be happening in the class and the right being what Universities or jobs are looking for. It would be good to share this with parents who sometimes question some of the activities that we do with the children. I do think though that many parents are beginning to understand some of the different approaches to teaching today.  I also read the blog that Rob Kriete wrote who came up with this. It would be interesting to fill in the activities I do in the hub to see how they fit in to the poster part where evidence can be used.