Digital Intensive Fluency (DFI) : Day 1

Today was my first session at the DFI. As a CoL teacher I have been popping in and out of these sessions but actually being involved from day one is quite amazing.

My understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
Dorothy's talk about the origins of Manaiakalani truely touched me. It took me back to the years to when we first started and how this journey has brought us to where we are today. Teachers sharing their knowledge, skills and working collaboratively to improve children's learning.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
We worked on using Google documents and how to set the norm and workflow for children using Google doc's on their device. I now understand how using headings can make learning specific, informative and it's so quick and easy to access information.

Some new tools that I discovered within Google Doc was the:
-Table of contents
-Show document outline
- The comment box that can give specific feedback and support-the idea of anywhere, anytime and anyplace.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
For Year One children in a 1:1 iPad environment
Some of the learning/ideas that I got from today can be implemented to my learners for example:
Labelling your project with the date.
Saving your work as we do not have revision history.
When children save their work it needs to go to the correct folder in their drive.
Always saving as a video file or image.

Gerhard showed me how children can use voice text on their iPads to record their thinking making
learning rewindable.Susan and I discussed how we could use this idea for children to publishing their writing on their blog.This means they read their written story(in their books) to the voice text on their iPad, draw a picture on their iPad or take a photo of their picture, save it as an image to their drive ready to put onto their blog.

Although learners have Google doc's on their i Pads they are not yet capable of working on the document. I am hoping that some of my capable learners may towards the end of Term 3 start using Google Doc's.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
I will be using Google docs with headings and table of contents when I am planning for the term or making notes. When my children are capable of using Google documents I will revisit the site and ensure that I set up the necessary structures, norms and routines which will enable the children to be smart learners.

DMiC lessons

Over the last two weeks I decided to video my children working in their groups just to see the progress they have made since my first DMiC lesson.
I think what I am doing is working but will take a long time before we get everyone on board.

DMiC Lesson with Don

This week I had my second session with Don supporting me.I had about 6 children in my group.
The problem launched: I have 8 stickers on my sticker chart. My teacher gives me 5 more. How many stickers do I have altogether?
Firstly I read the problem to the group and then we read it together. We then discussed what the story is asking us to do? At this point one of the children gave the answer and said 13. Don suggested I make the problem challenging so instead of 8 stickers I changed it to 28 stickers.

The children went with their partners to discuss what strategy they would use to solve the problem. Don and I walked around listening to their conversations and they explained to us what strategy they were going to use to solve the problem. A few children could confidently explain that they were going to put the biggest number in their head and count on. The others sort of understood but had difficulty verbalising their thinking or were not very confident to talk. I handed each group a paper and 1 pencil. All three groups solved the problem by counting on from the biggest number. I was not surprised as we have been working on ways to solve a problem(one to one counting using materials, drawing, counting on or counting back). I was really happy that finally got it, but then Don asked some children who seemed quite confident to solve it another way. He prompted for them to use a number line and with Don supporting them they gave it a go.

We came together as a group to share and the pair talked about how they solved the problem using a number line. We did not have much time to do the connect part of the lesson.

The valuable feedback that I got given was to work on:

Responding prompts that I can use.
Revoicing what others have said
Encourage children to ask questions.
Whether they agree or disagree.

Here are some prompts that Don has shared for me to use in my teaching.

Term 2 DMiC Week 1

We are back from the holidays and I feel that the children settled and are ready to learn. They can follow
classroom routines and most of them can work independently and support the others long enough
for me to do a DMiC lesson. I can split my class into 2 groups and successfully complete a DMiC
lesson on some days. I feel that the children are beginning to follow the norms that have been set up in
my group teaching.

Towards the end of Term 1 a few colleagues that shared the same inquiry focus and decided to
work together to create a rubric for the children to measure their learning.
It was great working together, watching the ideas flow as we shared ideas and some concerns.
We hope that this rubric will be beneficial to the learners and we will be able to see some changes,
improvement or progress compared to our first DMiC lesson.

Our focus is on speaking, talking, listening and responding. We have decided to use a colours
(traffic lights: red, orange, green and the medals: silver and gold) as a visual for our juniors to
track their progress.

 We had a classroom discussion and talked about the rubric and our goals. It is displayed on the classroom wall and we refer too it all the time.

DMiC lesson with my mentor

Last week my DMiC mentor Don, came to my classroom for an hour to support me with my group of learners. It was a really good session and Don was patient, very helpful.

 Problem that I launched: 

 There were 18 children in a bus. At the bus stop 4 children hopped on. How many children in the bus now? I had a group of 6 children and they were paired with a partner. Each pair was given a blank paper. 

Don suggested I give them counters and a pencil to show/write down their thinking. I read the word problem and talked about it making it a real life story (picture this in your head, imagine). Don asked to me ask the children ”Do we know what we are trying to find out?” One child said “How many children in the bus.” Other children in the group had to repeat ” We are finding out how many children in the bus altogether?” Children had to work with their partners and then share back to the group. Findings: It was interesting to observe and notice behaviours of the children in that group (social interaction with each other). Some worked together as a team, made certain that they took turns. Another pair worked on the problem by themselves whilst the other two children just played with the counters. It was really difficult to sit back and watch without talking as much. Don said to praise children who are taking turns, talking to each other, telling one another what they doing, telling someone that they cannot hear him/her or to repeat what they said. We also worked on unpacking the vocabulary in the word problem. One child made 18 children using counters and took away 4 counters. We talked about what hoped on meant. They made 18 children and 4 children but then did not understand what altogether meant.

 My focus over the next few weeks is: 

 Conversation. 

 I need to create opportunities in my class where children can have these conversations. Children need to start talking to each other about their learning, thinking, problem solving. I also need to work on selecting problems that are of interest to the children for example: instead of using bus stop I could say for example: How many children at church, or in the pool, on the field. I need to find out what about my pupils likes and interests which will then lead to engagement. I also need to ensure that they understand the word problem, the language, unpack and scaffold mathematical terms and language and words for example: altogether, hopped in, left over, share evenly/equally.
 Don suggested:
 -We do our planning as a team and work collaboratively.
-When working on an activity on the iPad-work in pairs- increase confidence to talk and have --conversations with each other. Record children’s learning making it re-windable. Share on Apple T.V. and blog.

 My next steps:
 -Encourage children to have conversations, they can work in pairs, groups to complete tasks, read your PM reader to a friend, retell them the story in your own words.
-Continue to work on scaffolding mathematical language.
-Continue to talk to my colleagues, get some ideas of what they doing with their children and do some research.

Counting in 2's

This week my focus for my learners was to learn to count in 2’s.

The children worked with their partners to make a number by counting in 2’s. They used materials to complete this task.

What I noticed:

- They worked well with their partner because I deliberately paired them together using my OTJ’s (overall teacher judgement) specifically taking into account children’s:

v character and personality

v social behaviour

v strengths

v weaknesses

There was: 

-Higher level of engagement.

-Turn taking and taking to each other.

-Talking and supporting their partner (He couldn’t write the number 2 so I showed/helped him.)

-staying focused for a longer period than previous lessons.

-watching what others in the group were doing when they were stuck.

-use of mathematical equipment.

My next goal for this group is to work with a buddy and do a similar task with less support from the teacher and eventually this will lead up to completing an iPad activity supporting the learning. (Counting in 2’s). Children can record their voice within Explain Everything and count in 2’s.

Launching a problem- Second attempt

Following on from our session with Dr. Hunt and some of her suggestions I decided to have another go at a Math’s lesson.

This time round I selected 6 children and deliberately and constructively grouped children into pairs of two. I asked them to sit in specific places around my teaching table and explained how our math’s lesson would like for example taking turns, talking and helping each other and then having to explain to the group their thinking and how they worked it out.

I used the same problem Dr. Hunt used in our session.

Sheet 1- How many dots can you see?

How many dots can you see?

Each pair was given the same sheet.

Pair A&B counted the dots one by one and got 7.

Pair C&D are two very quiet and soft spoke girls. One of the girls actually surprised me with her knowledge of numbers and counted by pointing to two dots saying 2,4 and her partner said 6 and they both stopped at 6 not knowing how to add the other dot when child B who was listening to them quickly said 7. Pair E&F counted the dots one by one and got 7.

When I asked them to do it a different way:
Pair E&F counted 2 4 and then said 7.

The others counted one by one.

I then handed the group another sheet.  

Sheet 2- How many dots can you see?

They all counted the dots one by one.

I asked them if they could use another way of counting.

They could say 2,4,6 but then stopped. I then said 8, 9 and the children joined in 10,11,12,13.

I asked them to look at the 4 dot pattern and one boy used his fingers and said 4 and 4 makes 8 but we could not go further.

What I noticed was:

-       I paired the children correctly.

-       They were better focused at the table.

-       The problem launched was appropriate.

-       Having a copy per pair worked well.

-       Children can find patterns of 2,4.

-       They can notice dice patterns 5

-       They talked and helped each other see the pattern.

-       Two problems were enough, they were starting to get restless and loose focus.

Problems:

-       They can count in 2’s up to 4 or 6.

-       They revert back to one to one counting because this is how they can get it correct.

-       They interested in the final answer and don’t want to get it wrong.

-       Lack of number knowledge-counting in 2’s up to 20, counting on from the largest number.

Reflections: 
I was quite happy and surprised at what I noticed from this session. For me, the grouping of children is what made this work. I think the talk we had about what I expected from them at the beginning of the session was important. It set the scene for learning, talking, supporting and engaging with each other. I need work on my timing of session so that children don’t get restless. As a teacher doing Math’s this way, I feel that I lack the knowledge and skills of how I need to approach or support children when they are stuck and don’t know what to do next.Talking to my colleagues seems to be very helpful and encouraging.