Maths- PD- Wendy Dent

After reading the Boaler book it was great to get the opportunity to attend the Wendy Dent Workshop.  I had been questioning how this looks in the classroom and how they manage the programme. She shared some results indicating that the children's national standard results improved by using this approach to maths, for at least the older children.
I agree that maths talk is important and it really does improve the depth of the children's understanding. While observing at the school it was clear that there had been some guidelines set with children in how to work with their math buddy. There were posters and reflective questions that were used to guide the math sessions.
The children were in pairs mainly on our observations which I thought did allow the children to confidently share their math thinking and not get lost in a group. I liked when children shared their work and they had set it so that one speaks and the other child writes. Hopefully by doing it this way will ensure that each child has the opportunty to both be heard.
From attending this workshop I plan to work on giving the children more opportunities to experience working with someone of a different ability on a word problem. I need to work hard on setting up systems with children sharing and asking questions some of the posters and reflective questions will help.
I found that this school on whole teach by this problem solving way. However some classes appeared to have worked on some aspects of maths and had teaching moments. You would need to do this I think as the children would be limited to the strategies they could use if they didn't know them.

Personalities

I am currently working collaboratively in a modern learning environment and have been able to observe what it is like to work so closely. It made me think what makes a successful collaborative environment. At first I think you need to look at the people involved in this as no matter what training you have had for this kind of environment, it is the people that play a big role in this.  So what personalities do you need to have in this type of environment to work well.

I found this article which I liked when they talked about how it is not the introvert v's the extrovert situation that we need to be thinking about.  Personal and emotional intelligence is very important in ensuring a group of people can work collaboratively. Being able to read the situations and emotions of the people you work with can help with working together.
One thing Mayer's research has shown is that people who are able to better understand and react to people's personalities tend to be happier in the workplace. "We find that on the job people with higher personal intelligence are happier and more likely to appear agreeable and helpful to more people," says Mayer.
You can't really change people's personalities and hopefully Principals and Board of Trustees  consider this when employing and think about who might work best with this person. It is not always the case for many reasons. This article made sense to me as how you interact with your colleagues is very important and if you except their personalities the easier it is to get along. I think respect is also a big thing that needs to be considered when working with others in this collaborative modern learning environment.

We need to work well together otherwise the affects of this will be on the children's learning and the general hum of the environment.  It doesn't matter how nice your environment is the teaching will not be great unless the teachers work well together as a collaborative team.

Self-regulated Haven

After reading a blog on self-regulated haven it made me think how things are going at my new school. I have this year being enjoying the challenge of starting a new school and all that that entitles. The feel of a school is very important and sometimes it is not till you leave or go to other schools that you really notice it in your own school. It can be the little things that can make a place seem like a self-regulated haven such as a calm environment which is not the same as a quiet environment as it is one in which the children are interacting but in a respectful way. The children I work with have the skills to work alongside others in an environment which in my current situation is a very open one with many children moving and working together.
I think sometimes we just have to look at where we have come with this way of teaching and environment as I find the children do really well in this situation. I enjoy just taking a moment to look at the focused children who know where they need to be and what is expected and who are making good choices in their learning.  I think that if we put a whole of lot adults in a shared space and said okay work together in this area there would be many issues. So to see children do this is great.
I believe that the children do feel safe in our environment and I think one of the reasons is because it is a calm environment. With having different teachers in the environment the children have different teachers they can go to which is great as this means that they can make a connection with at least one teacher.  However the flip side of that is that teachers need to work hard to form relationships with more children. For me this is a good challenge to get to know different children in the hub.

The other aspect is that the interactions the adults have within in these environment is important and needs to be one of professionalism and one where good interactions between the adults happens. We are role models and the children see us interacting and if done well then this will hopefully rub off on them which will help to create a calm and self-regulated haven.

Maths Mindfulness

I was looking into finding some more open ended maths questions for mainly my top maths group, when I came across this lady Jo Boaler. She talks about maths mindsets and what this means in the class for the children. She talks about the studies she has done and others where taking a different approach to  maths and getting the children to do more inquiry type maths can make changes to their mindset and results.
 She also talks about maths being more creative and visual. It made me think I often don't think of Maths as being a creative activity. When I am doing maths problems I do like being visual and after listening to her it makes me think I should encourage it more. I would like to encourage more creativity in maths.
I like how she talks about changing children's mindset to maths as I know there are children in my hub who think they can't do maths. Another thing I have an issue with at times are the parents who say that I was not good at maths so my daughter or son is not.  I sometimes feel that this attitude to maths rubs off from the parents on to the children. So my question is how can I change this? I guess I can only change the child's mindfulness not the parents.
 So listening to her makes me think I still need to think carefully about the mindsets the children have in maths and would like to change this for some children.  She talks about how speed is not important and that how they get the answer and also how they interact with others to get the answer is important.
Watching her videos has made me think a bit about what I can do to improve my maths programme and so I look forward to checking out her website and to try some of the ideas.

Math mindfulness

Leadership

Leadership

Okay so leadership is not something that I would of ever thought I would be interested in. In fact I guess for many years I wouldn't consider myself to be a leader even though I am a teacher I was not one who ever had a desire to be in any management position. These people were the leaders as they held the authority. 

Over the years though,  after reading this article it really made me think more about leadership and if I am a leader and what kind.  I have taken on what I consider to be small leadership roles e.g, sport co-ordinator and Jump Jam coach etc. I did not necessarily put my hand up for these positions I usually got asked and being the person I am I did not say no.  But maybe I needed that as I had throughout my childhood always been the quiet one who did as I was told. I always thought the loud  confident and bossy people were the leaders. During my childhood I had a group of friends and I never got to be the girl smurf when we were playing this was again me showing how I preferred just to follow and do what I was told. I have learnt a lot more about leadership since then.

After reading this article Reflecting on Yourself as a Leader I saw myself as more of a leader. Of course I am a leader when in front of the class, however I see that as different to what I originally thought a leader was. It says in the reading does it excite you to be a leader?. The answer to that is probably not really it scares me a bit because of all the responsibility, however maybe that is okay to be a little scared. I mean this can make you really think about what you are doing and how you lead. Of course in my teaching team we are all leaders in that we are all teachers however we must all work together. We have a leader of the team which is a different level. I think a leader has to be one who truly listens to what others wants and takes this into consideration when making decisions. I think how you deal with people is extremenly important and I hope that although not a leader of a team I do this when in more of leadership role. The other things that the article mentions like a persons background and the system in which a leader works in can make a difference.