Time for Reading

Its that time of year when we get a chance to stop and think about all the things we wanted to do and never quite got done.


For me one of those things is reducing the reading list & next year I plan to allocate some time each week to professional reading.





ULearn15 :

If you didn't get the chance to go or like me couldn't be in several places at once and missed some of the spotlight sessions, you can find their presentations here.
Keynote presenters included, Grant Lichtman, Dr Ann Leiberman, Pat Sneddon.

Over the weekend, I watched Leaders growing Leaders, from Barbara Cavanagh, Principal, of Albany Senior High School. A key message was, to be an educational leader we should learn about learning so we can make every student a successful learner.

Her reading list for us included

• Leadership Mindsets. Linda Kaser & Judy Halbert 
• Building Learning Power. Guy Claxton 
• Mindset. Carol Dwek 
• Student Centred Leadership. Vivianne Robinson 
• Visible learning for Teachers. John Hattie 
• Simply Better. Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success. Bryan Goodwin

I saw somewhere recently successful CEO's read 60 books a year.


Much of my reading these days is done via blogs. Each day about 172,800 blogs are created. That is two blogs every second. Here are a few that I have found to have some interesting posts - the list of course is endless - add your favourite blogs to the comments below.


Mathematics Specific Blogs

Dan Myer: Blog from Dan Myer famous for his YouTube video, Math Class Needs a Makeover

Oxford Education blog - post from John Mason who presented at NZAMT14


Mathematics, learning & technology from Colleen Young, a UK teacher


National Council of Maths Teachers Middle School Blog


and to help you in your quest for information, this link searches only Maths Blogs: http://www.fishing4tech.com/mtbos.html



For blogs on

1. Teaching & Learning try Edutopia
2. Reflective Practice: read Teaching and elearning; from Claire Amos, DP at Hobsonville Point SS. Claire is also a member of the 21st Century Learning & Digital Literacy Reference Group.
3. Technology: browse ipad4schools. the internationally recognised blog of Richard Wells, Head of Technology at Orewa College. This blog shows how to use the iPad in the classroom for flipped learning, student centred and mobile learning

and finally

The Transport Blog is a great source of contextual data and graphs.  Today's post, entitled, No White Elephants to be found here, is all about the use of rail as a means of getting about in Auckland

eMCAT Creating History

     

This week 12000+  secondary students in New Zealand sat their first digitally assessed exam.

One Auckland school had 350 students complete digital mcat and by all accounts things ran pretty smoothly.

However the trusty pen still rules in 2015. All students are sitting the paper version this week.  

In this post there are links to access the digital versions of the paper, videos of worked solutions (EOE) and a few thoughts about preparing students for exams in general.



The 2 mcat papers can be found on the NZQA Maths & Statistics Page along with all past papers







Subash Chandar K worked his magic Friday afternoon and recorded solutions for the 
Day 1 paper.

This is a great example of how in NZ we can make use of technology to bring teachers together, innovate & share for the benefit of all students.  After 24 hours hours there had been 600+ views. I will be interested to see what this number will be by Thursday.

While looking up the link to add Subash's video to this post I found that Mr Eisener from Rosmini College has also shared videos for the Day 2 version in 3 separate videos. Here is Question 1. A quick YouTUbe search will reveal the other 2

These two teachers have got me inspired to make more use of video technology. 

Thinking about the November exams, another great source of video tutorials and support for NCEA Maths & Science externals is the LearnCoach site 

Writing exams is not just about skills & knowledge around content it is also about skills & knowledge of how to tackle an exam.
How do we prepare our students for tackling their exams?
I have gathered a few ideas here that might be useful.


Ian McHale a Science Facilitator at Team Solutions created this Pecha Kucha around discussion we had on externally assessed standards.

Students do not come to exams & leave early for all sorts of reasons. It is also worth having conversations with students about the logistics of the day.   Conversation starters might include

• Have they got the date, time & place of the exam correct?
• Can they get to the exam on time ? 
• Have they had something to eat? If not they might leave simply because they are hungry.
• Is the exam on the day they normally work or have to pick up younger brothers or sisters after school? Have they organised to have the time off  or do they need help to make that happen?

and finally

3 things for teachers to do before external exams. 

1. Look at past papers & students exemplars for A M E from previous years. 
2. Read Exam specifications for 2015. These documents have special notes for the exam, further clarifications of the standard & a list of equipment the students shold bring to the exam. 
3. Read Assessment Reports for previous exams. These reports are useful for noting what students did at N A M E that year. The other comments section offers an insight into what students should focus on. 

These documents are in the resources for externally assessed standards on the NZQA Mathematics & Statistics Page  

Getting to Grips with Technology

On the way to work this morning I was captured by an interview,on Radio New New Zealand National, with Tim Gander, Centre Director, for the Gisborne MindLab about improving the engagement of students through technology. 
Listen to the interview here 

Also check out the post grad diplomas available through The MINDLAB here. 
The next course begins on November 2nd & teacher scholarships are available.


One school using technology to enhance learning is Ormiston Senior College.

I went to Subash Chandra K's workshop at the recent NZAMT conference in Auckland and got re-inspired to work on my video making skills.  He began his journey with an inquiry into flipping the classroom with his year 13 Calculus class.

Top tips from the workshop were, keep it simple, keep them short and if you make a mistake while recording just correct yourself and keep going. In the early days he re-recorded videos to try and make them perfect which took a lot of time. Don't be too hard on yourself - you will get better over time. 

These videos are available any time for his students to go back to. They are also available to anyone on the web. 
With exams coming up why not record problems as you do them in class & share with your students or have them make their own revision videos to share.

Maths OSC on Youtube

Students like to hear their own teachers voice so it is worth having a go & creating a you tube channel to store them. 

There are lots of options for making videos  - some of the more common ones include

• Explain Everything
• Screencast-O-Matic
• Doceri  
• Quick time for the mac offers voice & video recording & OfficeMix plug in for powerpoint is another option.

I  have also invested in a JotPro stylus for writing on my ipad.


At the end of the Radio Interview Tim talked about augmented reality which was pretty exciting as a colleague shared Aurasma with me this week. 

Aurasma is an APP that brings pictures to life. Maybe this will get our students really talking maths. 

Teaching with Aurasma

Download the app & set up your account

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aurasma.aurasma&hl=en 

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/aurasma/id432526396?mt=8 

Print this picture of Robert Burns from here 
http://www.skylarknetworks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/robertburns.jpg 

Scan using the Aurasma APP & watch the picture come to life

Imagine what your students could do with this. Enjoy the learning journey with them. 

Over the hump

[image credit]

I always looked forward to getting to the end of Term Two - the hump term of the year - the shortest day has been and gone and by start of term 3 the days are longer and summer feels like it is is on its way again.

Early in Term 2, I was lucky enough to go to TEDx Auckland. With a line up of 16 awesome speakers the day delivered much more than I was expecting. A selection of the talks are now on youtube.
Tama Iti, spoke about Mana & the power of knowing who you are.
Hong Sheng Chiong, received a standing ovation for his work in fighting preventable blindness with $20 and a smartphone

Shaun Hendy's talk on innovating struck a chord and I have been wondering how his thoughts around the need to connect to share ideas in order to innovate can be applied to teaching & learning in our maths classrooms.  By using our number 8 wire approach and the power of the internet maybe we can bring teachers together, a bit like the water cooler effect; when working in companies you meet people at the water cooler that you often didn't expect to meet and over a conversation you may find your ideas being advanced or possibly being sent in a new direction.
New Zealand has a relatively small dispersed population, meeting at the water cooler is not so easy but maybe we can use social media as our water cooler.

Recently  Paul Little NZ Herald wrote a handy guide to the Big 5 of social media. His definition of social media being digital media that enables users/members/followers to share information largely at their own discretion

Being a digital novice not a digital native, I am slowly navigating my way through the maze of social media and how we can best use this to our advantage.

Facebook
We have  NZ secondary teachers sharing and supporting each other through Facebook groups.

• Stats teachers
• Calculus teachers
• Maths Teachers  for everything else

3 gems from these groups over the term

1. Michael Jordan's Hang time from TedEd.
   There are so many great lessons ready to go on this site
2. Resourceaholic ; free resources for secondary maths. (UK)
3. A quick guide to spotting graphics that lie from National Geographic

Twitter
I have yet to get to grips with twitter. I have been told I should be there .... a couple of groups currently operating that might be of interest..

#Maths ChatNZ
#edchatNZ

both meet fortnightly on Thursday evenings at 8.30 pm




Pinterest
Despite this being described in the NZ Herald recently as for someone who wanted to get into scrapbooking but couldn't cope with the messy glue Pinterest is a quick way to keep track of those websites that you come across when browsing the web and then can never find again.

I started using pinterest earlier this year. To avoid it being like a teenagers bedroom floor have set up boards for different topics. It has been useful in that it gives me a central place to check back for sites I have come across.


Is there a better way to keep track of all those sites with good ideas?

The Maths & Statistics ICT community page may be found here

What other groups are out there for New Zealand teachers ?




How do you share ideas & resources with your colleagues within your school? your region ?

Navigating the Maze

When thinking about putting to together a learning programme I often hear , Where do I find ....  in this post I have gathered the key sites for teaching maths & stats in NZ & added links in the side bar for quick reference

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The senior secondary guides  on TKI have been designed to help us develop quality teaching and learning programmes at levels 6–8 of The New Zealand Curriculum (2007). THere is a senior secondary guide for all curriculum areas.

The maths & statistics guide is full of useful information we should be using to plan our teaching & learning programme.

• The Achievement Objectives section includes a list if what can be taught, examples of teaching activities that could be used in the teaching programme, key changes, and at the bottom of each page,Achievement standards that can be used to assess the learning.
• Learning programme design gives examples of different courses at L1,2,3
• The resources section has a number of interesting links, including the Plus magazine,Ted-Ed videos to build lessons around, Real world maths using google earth.

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NZmaths is used for everything from level 1 to 5. There is a huge amount of information here that can be used as is or adapted for our junior programme

• Activities from 48 of the Figure it out series are online here. Many of these activities will challenge our junior students.
• e-AKO maths, a great resource for our year 9's with gaps this now includes activities from the algebra strand. Check out the PLD section for teachers.
• Digital learning objects are a collection of graded online activities  

To make the best use of NZmaths create an account for free and build your plans using the resource finder

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CensusAt School aims to be the first port of call for NZ teachers looking for information related to the teaching statistics 

Did your classes take part in this years Census? 

Data Collection has closed for 2015. The data will be available later in June for students to explore using the online data viewer. Previous years data is available now.

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NZQA Mathematics & Statistics page is the goto page for all things for NCEA. From this page you can link to everything related to assessment & also back to the senior secondary guides.

Resources for internally assessed standards section links to 

• Moderators newsletters, are published as needed. The April newsletter highlighted changes to online submissions of moderation materials.
• Clarification documents  which provide extra information from the moderators based on issues that have emerged from student work that they have seen.
• Annotated exemplars giving snapshots of student work to guide you in marking assessments.
• Mathematics & Statistics matrices links to sample assessments for level 1,2 & 3. These should not be used as assessments. On the page for each level is a download for the maths matrix & a link to conditions of assessment.

I have created standard summaries for all internal assessments with as much of this information as I can fit onto an A3 page - click here to access.

Resources for externally assessed standards section links to

• Previous exam papers & schedules. If you want copies of past papers with the copyrighted material included you will need to log-in using your school’s log-in. From the homepage select search exam material containing third party copyright content.
• Annotated exemplars of student scripts. 
• Assessment specifications.

Literacy & Numeracy Requirements  for Level 1  for University Entrance

NZQA send news via Facebook feeds. Like the NZQA Facebook page to receive notifications.

Getting NZQA Data
For school specific data, log in using your school log in and password. 

• The Credit Summary Report is useful for giving an overall picture of a cohort and can be downloaded regularly to track student progress.
• The Summary of Total Grades report gives a quick snapshot either by NZQA subject or School Course.

Each year NZQA produces its annual statistics report - Annual Report on NCEA & New Zealand Scholarship Data & Statistics. The 2014 report was released on May 29 and can be accessed here 

They also consolidate NCEA data each year. the .csv files may be found here 

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The Vocational Pathways provide new ways to achieve NCEA Level 2. They align the NCEA Level 2 Assessment Standards including specific ‘sector related’ standards with six industries.

The profile builder is a useful tool for seeing how courses contributes to a pathway or pathways. Enter the standards of a course and watch the graphs grow.

Occupation Outlook is a free App that has useful careers information for students.

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NZAMT keep teachers up to date with happenings around mathematics & statistics in NZ. They also provide teaching and assessment resources to member schools.

Information about membership is available on the website.

NZAMT also run a news feed via their Facebook Page

Regional Maths associations include

• Auckland Maths Association
• Bay of Plenty Maths Association
• Manawatu Maths Association
• Wellington Maths Association
• Canterbury Maths Association
• Otago Maths Association

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ESOL Online has a number of useful resources for maths teachers in their pedagogy section, the DVD about integrating language and learning in secondary maths & science is worth watching 

The qualities at the heart of effective leadership are

Secondary Middle Leaders section includes a range of information, tools, and resources to support secondary middle leaders. 

The National newsletters are also found  in this section of TKI.

What's literacy got to do with it?

14th April was Literacy Leaders day -  as you were probably enjoying your holiday and blissfully unaware of Literacy Leaders day I thought it fine to visit the idea of literacy now.

When literacy is mentioned in a mathematical context the first thing that comes to mind is statistics & preparing students to write reports. 

Google uncovered many kinds of  literacy - digital, financial, cultural, emotional, geographical, environmental, academic, information ..... 

Looks like all teachers are teachers of literacy - this prompted 3 questions

1. What is mathematical literacy?
2. Why is it important?
3. What do we need to know about effective literacy teaching?

The NZ curriculum says

Literacy is the ability to understand respond to, and use those forms of written language that are required by society and valued by individuals and communities (MOE, 2003)

PISA defines mathematical literacy as:

an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics play in the world, to make well-founded judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen. (OECD, 2009, p.14)


Why has literacy become more important ?

1. Tasks in the senior school have changed. Once they were skills based and now they are context based

2. Expected responses to tasks has changed. Once students could simply find the answer or give single word/sentence responses, now they are expected to communicate their thinking and in the case of statistics write reports.

Being able to communicate ideas has become as essential as fluency with the language & symbols.  
It is important that we find ways to encourage reading & writing while maintaining fluency of language & symbols.

How can we encourage natural reading & writing in our classroom ?

Here are 5 tried & true strategies 

1. Exit Slips - maybe overused but still offer a quick opportunity for students to communicate in writing with you. An exit slip could be a sticky note, a card, a google form, twitter  and be about what they learned, how they found the lesson, a question they have for tomorrow.

2. How much emphasis do we put on ensuring students understand the mathematical meaning of common words. 

The word RULE springs to mind. After spending some time using the word rule to describe the equation of a line, I then asked a student what a rule meant to her ... her response  "something my mother says I have to do" 

 The Frayer model is one I like,  especially the non examples section which encourages  students to think more deeply about a concept or word

This template could be adapted to include an illustration or maybe a section for what the word means in terms of their own experience.  

3. Writing Frames in statistics help build structural fluency in report writing as well as developing vocabulary. Reduce the scaffolding as students develop confidence.

4. Foldables made with 2 A4 sheets of paper offer an alternative to writing in an exercise book or writing online

they also make a great reference tool

5. Age old games like bingo build fluency with language and symbols. 
Use for number facts, algebra expressions, vocab, quadratic expansions ...

 Another Ten Ways Literacy can promote a deeper understanding of maths

For more information try: 

Literacy in Maths on TKI

Ideas for Leading literacy from Literacy Online 

Fact or Fiction

Towards the end of Term 1 while teachers were finalising their first round of assessment grades a number of questions came up around resubmission. Who to offer a resubmission to, how much can the student "fix" up, can I tell them what to fix, how much time can they have, can we reteach them ....

I thought it would be good to share with you some of the "myths" surrounding resubmissions

Myth #5 Resubmissions

Myth #1. If I want to offer a resubmission to one student then I have to offer it to all students
Myth #2. I can show students what they should fix up
Myth #3. I can offer multiple resubmission opportunities
Myth #4. A student cannot be awarded anything higher than Achieved for a resubmission

A resubmission is offered to an individual student on a case-by-case basis.

Extracts from SecQual S2009/022 New Rules & Procedures for Further Assessment Opportunities

A resubmission should only be offered where a teacher judges that a mistake has been made by the student, which the student should be capable of discovering and correcting themselves.

A resubmission should be limited to specific aspects of the assessment and no more than one resubmission should be provided [per assessment event]. 

A resubmission can be offered after either the first or the second assessment opportunity or after both. 

Teachers should give only general advice…[and] ensure the resubmission takes place in a timely fashion. 

If a resubmission is offered, it must take place before the teacher gives any feedback to the whole class (or any student) on the work done. 

If more teaching has occurred…resubmission is not possible.

just when you thought you had it all sorted .... a few extra things to ponder

• If conferencing with a student, write transcript notes to form part of the assessment evidence.
• Will offering a student a resubmission improve their grade? if so go ahead.
• How do we ensure authenticity of the resubmission.
• What is a reasonable time to offer, bearing in mind that no further teaching or learning should take place prior to a resubmission - professional judgment will be key here 
• How much needs to be fixed ? ..  if there’s a lot to be fixed, then it’s not a resubmission

More myths can be confirmed and busted here  

Weekend Reading

Here is the first National Maths & Stats Newsletter of the year with many useful links. 

I particularly like the new you cubed site from Stanford University http://youcubed.stanford.edu/, and Jo Boaler,  Professor of Mathematics Education and the driving force behind the very successful “How to Learn Maths” course.  She uses Carol Dweck’s work and this website is heavily informed by her interpretations of “Mindset”. 
http://youcubed.stanford.edu/category/teaching-ideas/growing-mindset/ . 

The positive class norms section contains a document worth sharing with her 7 favourite messages for students

Stanford also released a news article last week on the need to teach maths without fear or speed. You can find the article here 

The short paper the news article is based on is worth downloading and having a read through.

While this paper is aimed at younger students, as secondary teachers having students coming into year 9 without a sound knowledge of basic facts is not uncommon. 
Included in the paper are a number of activities that could be used to practice basic facts and embed number sense.
Students I have worked with have always loved the "how close to 100" activity. We often used it as a whole class activity and threw in  questions like, how many squares did you fill in with that roll, what fraction of your grid is coloured now? What % do you have left ?

This paper has also got me thinking about my response to parents of young children asking what they should do about their child's maths.

Just make sure they can add subtract multiple divide has been my stock standard response however I will now be sure to include making sure they learn their facts  by using them in different mathematical situations to help build that flexibility of thinking and so number sense.

What will your response be?

First Lessons

This post from the secondary literacy on line forum got me thinking about what we do in maths to start the year. 

Great first lessons: Igniting the fire in your students.

There is nothing like the first lesson to excite students about the learning both as an individual and as a class of learners who are hopefully going to take charge of their own learning.

How do you want them to feel when they leave your classroom? What is the most important thing you want them to know? Are they going to feel a part of a class or feel like a separate individual?

How are you going to establish manaakitanga (values of integrity, trust, sincerity and integrity) 

What are you going to do to build whanaungatanga (relationships based on high expectations)?

1. To build whanaungatanga: The string activity: In groups of 4, students are given two pieces of string and some post-its. They are to use the string to make the North and South Island. Individually students write on a post-it a place that has special meaning to them. They do this for three special places- then place each post-it within (or outside) of the pieces of string.  They then go around and share their place and why it has meaning to them. Making connections and building relationships. Alternatively you could do the same with a map of the Pacific.

I thought we could share some ideas together that could be used as first lessons. To start the ball rolling here are  6 more ideas: 

1. Habits of successful learners : Get a SKAR
2. Joining squares - investigation
3. Who am I ? - know your learner
4. Why is a manhole round & other ideas ?
5. Calculator capers
6. 9 questions

New Year = New challenge

Kia Ora Koutou
Welcome everyone
With so much information coming at us from so many directions it is hard to keep up. This blog is a trial in keeping our maths & statistics related information together on a continuum and in one place. It is also be a learning experience for me having never used blogs before despite them being around for a number of years.
Have you trialled blogs with your students?  
How could they be used to improve teaching and learning in maths & statistics? 
How might  a blog be used to create opportunities for natural reading and writing? 
Could a blog be used to collect evidence for assessments?