The K/1 teachers met to observe Leona in her busy kindergarten class. Teachers were eager to see her adaptation of the weekly graph using pictures and actual leaves. Students were on task and doing many different activities: match it using power of ten cards, puzzle, bump, clock numeral matching, math tools (pattern blocks) and time with the teacher. Leona wanted to know if the students seemed ready and prepared for the activities and the teachers all found that they were. We also looked at the assessment tool in the k-3 Teachable moment by Trevor Caulkins. We collaborated on it, tweaked it and decided to use it 3 times a year.
What a great sharing session today in Tracy Walton's grade 4 class. The teachers observing and sharing wanted more ideas for organisation. What was great was our discovery that each of us will develop our own way using ideas from each other and tweaking as we go. We had great fun doing a a demo lesson on place value cards, and the open number line, discovering the many ways of approaching mental math. There were many ahah moments and goals set:
Chris shared with five teachers watching. It was the very beginning of introducing rotations so he had 3 large groups of 9 or 10 students rotating through 'Number stories', a graph and time at the table. At the table he taught a game focusing on place value and the students ability to say it aloud accurately. He then sent them off to play while he rotated around the room supporting students. The focus on place value came from his Math Profile Assessment and his follow up with a math 'check' on this concept. Teachers were impressed with: how on task the students were, how he used power of ten cards to represent digits, his encouragement of 'playing' with numbers for number stories, and his ability to let the students discover how works rather than telling them. New pictures of this morning have been uploaded to weekly graph, number stories and a video of the game in the 'games section'.
Thank you to Kristy Davis for sharing in her room so early in the year. All students were so engaged and on task and the routines were well established. Some great learning points: Kids cheered for the choices to be used on the graph, they decided on the title from the question. Kristy uses their student login for the school computers for every login on apps etc. . They are happily engaged in 'Sum dog' on the ipad. The most striking element was how Kristy always gave the choice to the kids- What is working well? How would you change it? What do you think? Is it accurate? were just a few of the questions she asked her students. She also shared the idea of a colleague (Catherine Cook) to put the students duo-tangs in group buckets so they were easy to grab. Her fellow teachers were in awe of her organization.
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Sylvia SwiftA comment on our latest sessions with testimonials from the participants. Archives
May 2016
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