Energise Conference 2018

I was lucky enough to go to this conference in Rolleston and had the privilege of listening and actively learning some new things.

I learnt more about robots and how to include these into the  classroom programme. I liked how West Rolleston has sorted a progression for the computer science area. It states which robots they would use at which level. Although the children can use robots at lower levels if appropriate. I talked to Megan afterwards and she explained that the juniors tended to integrate where possible the robot work and the year 5-8 did computer science once a week for an hour. This was good to hear as I would love to do work with robots but just need to think how can it practically put in the classroom programme. I really enjoyed having a go with the robots and look forward to doing more of this in the future. 

Sketchnoting- Sylvia Duckworth-a name I knew and was pleased to meet this lady.  Sketchnoting is an interesting approach to taking notes. I am definitely a person who tries to take notes in a creative way and if you look at my notes you will often see me trying to be creative. I enjoyed learning about this and was lucky enough to hear from a few other teachers how they incorporate this into their programme. In my current class I have a couple children who would probably benefit from learning how to do this and would like to teach it to all the children as it is interesting way to take notes. I would love to get her book to get more ideas on how to do this and you definitely need practise this skill. Sylvia's final speech she talked about Why creativity Matters.  The three truths she talked about with creativity is,  it is good for mental health, has cooperative benefits and can be learnt. Creativity allows people to express themselves in different ways and can allow us to go further with our ideas. Being creative is a skill that we need and so what I need to ensure is I allow plenty of opportunities for children to be creative. 

Keeping Children Engaged and Achieving in Mathematics

I recently read some reports on teaching strategies and approaches that were observed in schools across New Zealand. This report shares some of the simple strategies used in classrooms where achievement in mathematics had been accelerated.
Some key things came out of the different studies I read

• Mixed ability groups-what the studies said in this area is that there are several positives to this approach. Benefit for more able mathematicians was that they think more deeply about alternative solutions. It helped with children who were not positive about maths by changing their thinking as they gained more confidence since working in mixed ability groups. These children were also able to experience a wider variety of mathematical strategies.
• Maths Talk-  A good thing that I can see from this approach is that they speak more maths talk. It is important that they are taught how to do this and how to approach the maths problem. If children share their approaches to a problem it will help them have a deeper understanding of what they have learnt. Children were noted to say that they liked being taught strategies by their peers because they found it easier to understand their language.
• Support- There is a need for some Professional Development in this problem solving approach  to ensure all teachers are on the same page in going forward. Parents/caregivers need to be aware of this different approach for maths and how it can benefit their child and also how they can help at home to support their child. 

I plan to get started on including more problem solving in my maths programme and reading this does certainly show some positives for starting this type of approach. I of course still admittedly have a few concerns about mixed ability but do like the idea of doing problem solving that is authentic and will give definitely give a go. I wish to get some resources in the area of teaching the children how to approach problem solving questions. I have found in what I have done so far they need some work in this area.