Gaylene Young Professional Blog

Kia Ora Koutou, It's the start of a brand new year with brand new goals and aspirations for myself. I've decided to establish systems within our school that will enable us to be effective in our teaching practice to achieve maximum results in mathematics.  Below you will find my focus for 2024.  Growth Cycle 2024 by Gaylenep> 

One key component that I've come to realise supports the acceleration of math concepts is ensuring that my students are exposed to opportunities to solve word problems that have multiple entry points, connect to the big ideas, and can be solved in a variety of ways. 'Rich Tasks ' are a term many of you will be familiar with.  The tasks are primarily reared to a particular strand, but you soon discover that multiple strategies, engaging discussions, questioning, feedback, as well as opportunities to show their thinking are elements that are demonstrated by students. Here is a presentation with a variety of tasks for my students to solve. Please find attached work from some of my students:  

This afternoon we moderated teacher samples of the Multiplicative Thinking aspect.  Every teacher had to bring copies of their student's written responses to various problems that primarily focused on multiplicative ideas. Great discussions were had.  It was quite telling when we had varying understandings of what we felt the students were demonstrating in their thinking and how this aligned with the LPF rubric.  Below are scanned copies of our thoughts and why. Multiplicative Thinking Rubric                       Student Exemplars We will remain focusing on the 'Multiplicative Thinking' aspect, and hopefully we will have a more unified opinion on where our student's samples sit within the LPF rubric.

Tautoro School Math Moderation               Term 1                                                                 Term 2 I've come to realise the importance of understanding student data.  It is the basis in which we collaboratively set goals as a school, a syndicate, a teacher, and therefore, as students.  We strive to strategically plan effective learning experiences for our students. As a leader of mathematics, it's important to provide professional learning opportunities for your team and colleagues so they too become proficient in the long-term implementation of effective practices of mathematics. We're fortunate enough to be part of the Kaikohekohe Education Network, which at the moment is focusing on moderating mathematics.  We've designed a student recording sheet that captures the student's thinking.  Furthermore, a teacher's recording sheet that highlights signposts that align with the Math Learning Progressions Framework (LPF's).  Our focus at

  Word Problems - Maths. One of the key areas that we've been focusing on in our maths programme, is ensuring the students understand the problems they solve.  Equations are straightforward.  You know whether it requires addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Word problems require students to think a little more deeply.  There are a few key strategies that I've been implementing to support my students logical sequencing of working through any problem. R ead - Read the problem I dentify - Identify any key information S trategy - What strategies can you use. S olve - Solve the problem, and be logical in your sequencing. C heck - Self-check, correct if wrong, and reflect on misconceptions or where you went wrong. I've found that when they follow these steps, they are able to share with their peers their thinking and the steps they followed to solve a mathematical problem.  If they can share their thinking with others, they're able to teach it to others. 

  Math PD - Curriculum Refresh, 2023 I had the opportunity to attend a Mathematics PLD which covered information about the curriculum refresh.  As a whole, I'm really liking the direction in which the curriculum is shifting - embedding the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, identifying the overarching focus and essential pedagogies within each phase of a student's learning pathway, will in my opinion help teachers moving forward. My understanding is that schools have until 2027 to familiarise and build teacher knowledge and understanding of key changes. Our school aims to implement regular meetings and discussions to build teacher capabilities in mathematics.  We hope to be more focused and intentional in our lessons for our students.  Math moderation, sharing of effective practice and/or lessons will hopefully instill inspiration in our teaching practices.