Tonight I am just quickly putting my thoughts down, we had Maths PD today and I need to write some things! I keep thinking about the quote in the reading we had by Richard DuFour, "Rather than listing what students need to do to correct the problem, educators need to address what they can do better collectively." I think that we do need to think about what we are doing, and I found the idea of intervention interesting. I like the idea of identifying struggling students through exit tickets (I've just started using these) to see exactly what needs to be focused on, and that intervention should be timely, directive, diagnostic and systematic. I admit that I am finding it hard to think of putting all of the blame for struggling students back on the teacher... the ones who don't or won't put in any effort at all... so now I'm thinking there has to be ways to get those children involved, eager to learn, wanting to contribute, and about all the fun things that we do in class... I guess you really never do get to a point where you have the whole thing perfected. I don't know whether or not I am making sense, but I'm posting it anyway. And one other thing that leads back to us as teachers continually trying to find ways that work... if everyone is capable of succeeding in maths (growth mindset - and yes I truly believe we all are) then why are there so many people (adults) out there that seem to not have a clue? Is it the way they were taught, they way that they learned, with their fixed mindsets? Is it always the teachers fault? And if, as adults, they still don't get it, why are they not trying to learn now? Why aren't we (as adults) taking responsibility for our own learning? I never want to stop learning.
And that all sounds like a load of waffle when I read it back but never mind, it's what I am thinking, even though I'm not really communicating with clarity and precision.
This was the awesome thing I took away from today's session...
click the link Have you got maths eyes?
Kia ora Kelly
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honest reflections on your MLC day with us. It is really rewarding to read what you're thinking about as a result of the professional reading.
When I think about why some children haven't learnt something yet - I don't think about teachers having to take the blame, I think about it as having not found the representation or context that makes sense to the child, so as the teacher I think about what else I could try. Or should I "park" that activity/ or concept and come back to it at a later date. Or have I chosen something that the child is not conceptually ready for yet?
Your wondering about adult learners is great. I think that a lot of adults struggle with mathematics because of the way it was taught to us. We were shown procedure without connection to conceptual understanding so we engaged in surface learning, and did not develop deep knowledge that we could transfer.
Keep up the great thinking, it certainly struck a chord with me.
I look forward to seeing the evidence of your class putting their maths eyes on! And great work with excel and the pivot tables also.
Kia ora ra.
Nga mihi nui
Dianne