Two of My Favourites - 2016 in Review

Favourite Number One:  Clearing up Misconceptions

This is an excerpt from a post I wrote earlier this year.  The tool I used is called 'My Favourite No".  I found that with less confident students, using "My Favourite No" on a regular basis both cleared up misconceptions and helped students to feel that they are not 'alone' in the classroom.

 'My Favourite No'

I first learned about this strategy when I took a professional learning course called 'How to Learn Math for Teachers’, presented by Jo Boaler of Stanford University.

Leah Alcala, the presenter of 'My Favourite No'  uses a simple warm up routine to help students learn by analysing and discussing mistakes.

What I love about 'My Favourite No'

1. It is a simple, safe technique that engages the students!  Everyone does the same problem, anonymously.
2. When to solution cards are quickly checked, students will see that they are not alone in making mistakes.
3. When critiquing solutions, we always look for the positives first.  What did this student do really well?

by helping students to understand that they can learn from their mistakes, as well as the mistakes of others, we can promote a growth mindset in a safe classroom environment.

My challenge to you:

Try 'My Favourite No' in your next lessons!  And send your feedback in the comments section.

Favourite Number Two: The Power of Student Centred Learning

2016 was a stellar year for active Mathematics learning in my classroom.  My goal was to work smarter, not harder than my students - and the result was astounding!  I found, by moving more toward active, student-centred learning that my students

• developed more initiative
• asked more questions
• used more reasoning and justified that reasoning with their peers
• looked to each other, not to me as their learning partners
• became better problem solvers
• were more engaged, 
• embraced challenges
• gained in self-confidence

My Favourite tools for moving towards student-centred learning were:

For  teacher inspiration, ideas, research:

Twitter feed - this could always re-inspire me after a rough day at work
Continuous Everywhere, Differentiable Nowhere   a positive, pleasure to read
dy/dan  - for great links to great teachers and ideas
TEDEd - Lessons Worth Sharing - Especially the Logic videos
YouCubed -  to keep maths accessible to all students and their parents
NCTM - Journals   Mathematics Teacher and Math Teaching in the Middle School 

For Interactive Learning Tools and resources:

Desmos - Card Sort,  graphing
Scootle - Education Services Australia - for great topic specific interactives
Twig - Maths and Science Videos and worksheets - visual, real world connections

For Student Motivation and Challenge:

NRich - try a challenge at the start of each lesson to get the students going
Desmos  - Marbleslides - My students thank you!
Stile Education  - A great, free platform to introduce Flipped Learning

My New Year Resolution: 

In 2017 I plan to continue to use these resources and tools to continue to find motivation and inspiration for the role I love - teaching students to learn and LOVE mathematics.  

Why Collaboration is So Important!

It's hard being a teacher.  

We all know how hard we work, and the myth that our 'holidays' means time off, only does us a disservice.

A friend of mine recently shared with me her frustration with teaching:

When I first started teaching  there would be at least 3 teachers each working alone, to prepare 3 different sets of lesson plans based on one established curriculum.  Each of the three teachers would communicate learning objectives in 3 different ways and learning would unfold differently in each of 3 + classes according to the preferred teaching style.

We thought together about what that meant:

• not tripling of effort, rather  3 to the power of 4  potential points of difference
• inconsistent learning opportunities across a range of students
• confusion amongst students and their parents about what was meant to be achieved. 

We came to one very OBVIOUS conclusion -              

                                    Working independently is just not working smart!

On Working Collaboratively

Recently, I was ill and unable to teach my classes for a whole week.  During that week, I was also not equiped to 'prepare' a two and a half week Probability Module for my Year 8 classes that I would need to begin upon my return.

To my great relief, when I returned to work, I was buoyed by some amazing collaboration by my Year 8 colleagues, who developed a flipped Learning Probability Module using the free online platform from  Stile Education  so that all the students could have the same learning outcomes and learning experiences.

Contributing to Collaborative Feedback and Improvement

I learned so much whilst engaging with this collaborative  probability module about formative assessment, flipped learning and using STILE as an at home learning platform.  And I wanted to contribute to the ongoing collaborative feedback and improvement process.   So, I am developing and trialling a Year 8 level Design Thinking project to add to the module based on Dan Meyer's Three-Act Math 'Money Duck'  Activity.  

Design Thinking the 'Money Product'

I am adapting a 'Money Animal' project following the ideas described by Dan Anderson's blog post "142 - Money Duck".   

Design of the Product  (Curiosity, Creative and Critical Thinking, Enterprise)

• Design their 'Money Product', within costing parameters;
• Explore various mark-up and profit options, making a decision about the sell price;
• Explore and select the probability distribution of the 'prize money'; 
• Design the 'selling' simulation that has the buyer randomly select their product.

Market Day  (Critical Thinking, Decision making, Truth)

• 'Money Product' designs will be presented, with the price and probability distribution of winnings available for buyers to make purchase decisions; 
• Students will be given a set amount of pretend '$' to spend on products;
• Students will use a 'account balance' sheet to keep track of their expenditure;  
• Buyers will engage in a simulated purchase that determines which of the pre-determined number of products the buyer will purchase (random);
• Sellers will determine overall profit made.

Since we are approaching summer here in Australia, I think this activity will make the final 3 weeks of school a lot more fun, and the collaborative engagement with my colleagues will ensure that next year we will all have less work to do, and students will achieve a more consistent learning objectives and activities framework.

And I can only sincerely thank my colleagues who were

 SMART ENOUGH to ENGAGE IN COLLABORATIVE LESSON PLANNING