How do my students know what they are learning in Mathematics

This term I have changed up maths in my class to make it more realistic for my students. I have given each student a copy of the Numeracy progressions for Geometry (What we are focussing on) and have got them each to identify what they are able to do. This actually took a lot longer than I thought as some students we very careful about what they put. Once they identified their gaps, I then put on some workshops for what I thought were gaps in their learning. This was working okay, but I wanted to see what I could do better and how I could make maths more engaging.

Thus I decided to get students to give me workshop topics on a Friday about what they needed run. As a class we then select four options, and then the students sign up to these. I have seen a real growth in the few weeks I have been doing this. Students are relating back to their Numeracy Progressions and really thinking about what their next steps are, and what they need to work on. Some students are signing up to more than one workshop and are very engaged when they come.

By getting students to select on a Friday what they need workshops run on, means that I have the weekend to plan for maths, and can start Monday running. Maths classes have a real buzz, and students are engaged with their learning.

Currently my maths programme is Monday - Thursday Workshops and activities and Friday is whole class problem solving. In whole class problem solving students are put into mixed ability grouping and given a level 4 problem from the NZ Maths website.

Next Steps: Start getting the students to design their activities when they are not with me, currently I assign work that they need to do. I am going to start looking at Number Strand, and run workshops on Geometry. I would also like students that are more confident to start running workshops too.

The Effectiveness of Teaching PE Skills

This term the school has been doing Volley Ball I started this by writing a unit to cover the skills my kids would need. I have booked the MLT stadium for all the classes to use. On the first session I thought about giving all my students a rubric so they could highlight what they couldn't do, and set goals around the skills for Volley Ball. After chatting to my class, I realised that most of them had never played Volley Ball so giving them the rubric without first trying the skills would be a fruitless waste of time. Thus we headed over to the Stadium without any pre teaching.

Once we got to the stadium I showed the Students the Four basic skills needed to play Volley Ball. These being the Under Arm Serve, the set, the forearm pass and the spike. I demonstrated each skill to the class and then let them loose to have a go. I then brought the class back and explained a modified version of the rules, then got them into four teams to have a game. When we got back to school, students were then able to identify the skills they needed to work on. I feel like doing it this way worked better as students were able to experience the skills required.

The next session we looked at under arm serving, I am using a kiwi sports manual aimed at Year 5&6. Whilst it is aimed at younger students, I have found it beneficial in being able to break down the skills into easier teaching sequences. Most of my students are beginning to have success with underarm serving. I am enjoying being able to float around the class and help with any that are struggling.

Overall my students are really enjoying Volleyball. They are slowly improving in their skills and having fun doing it. All are joining in.

My next steps with these PE lessons are: Ensure ALL students are arriving at school with the correct PE gear, as some are not. So far I am trialing using Banqer and "Fining" them if they haven't brought their gear. I am also going to put something in regards to having correct gear in the class "Licensing system" I have introduced to the class.

Bamford - Observation of teaching Practices

I was in Christchurch for an athletics competition, so decided to visit a lower decile school to gain some ideas for Longford.

Bamford school is a full primary school located in Woolston Christchurch. It is a decile 3 school with a new senior management team and quite a few new staff.

I was in a year 7 & 8 class and notice that the students seem very low in their learning, this was confirmed by the teacher as true. Some of the students struggle with behavioural issues and this affects their learning. However, their teacher is working on behaviour with leadership roles within in the school which is engaging the students better.

The classroom set up in the year 7 & 8 Class was they had assigned seating, but where at tables rather than desks. The students had cubbies for their equipment, but the teacher has larger containers on each desk that their books and pencil cases live in. I questioned this, and she said it was because they used to muck around at their cubbies and were wasting time.

Raising Student Achievement in Writing

I have been giving lots of thought about my writing programme in my class, and how I can best raise the student achievement in this. I was feeling bored with my writing programme and felt that it lacked purposed. This feeling has grown considerably since the Murray Gadd PLD, and I think if I felt like that, how so my kids feel?

Over the holidays I did a little reading around engaging students during writing and have decided to specifically target what they feel they are lacking. We used the literacy progressions last term, and students have been able to identify what they need to work on, and thus set goals around their own learning.  One area that seemed to be coming up frequently in the students goals was working on their spelling. Thus I have decided to start looking at how I can better run this in my class.

I started looking at Greek words, and we discussed what they meant. (This should help with reading decoding) Theses are now displayed on the wall and the students have access to them. I have also been looking at different spelling programmes. I have talked to other teachers about what they run, both here at school and at other schools. I thought about using the De Ath spelling programme as it was something I have used in the past at another school, but decided after talking to several other teachers to use the Spelling Under Scrutiny programme.

This programme is designed to target gaps in the students spelling knowledge and helps teach them rules around spelling.There are also activities around these, and I can target the gaps in the students knowledge. We started with the first 40 words of the spelling test today, I will get the students to finish it tomorrow. I am envisioning that they will have work around their spelling weaknesses each week to work on during writing time, as well as completing their writing.

I have also starting using a Literacy skills programme aimed at Year 7 & 8 this week. We have pre tested to again see our gaps, and are working through the weekly activities which are around different writing types, similes ect. Students seem to be enjoying them.

So far the students seem to be enjoying the difference in writing. I will continue to keep evaluating this and will use their writing to hopefully see an improve