My inquiry learners' movie

 My Inquiry class produced a movie to capitalize on the journey as a team. They helped each other with full of dedication and co-operation. I noticed positive teamwork. After the movie production, I started to emphasize the learners by asking how can we do well in Maths as a team. 

Bursts in Bubbles

 My inquiry focus is based on the year 11 General Mathematics(11MAT) class. The class entails internals, targeted Maori students and the goal is for students to gain Numeracy with at least 16 credits and a pathway into year 12 using literacy strategies and skills practice.

 My personal goal is that as an Assistant HOD, I want to Increase students’ Mathematics achievement in year 12 and Year 13. This goal will make a powerful contribution towards Numeracy,  school goals, Department goals, and Manaiakalani

My Specific Outcomes include: 

• Facilitating year11 students’ pathway into the year12 General Mathematics course, which includes gaining at least Numeracy(10 internal) credits.

• Learners must also pass at least 16 credits to contribute powerfully to NCEA L1.

By the end of the year, all students can experience success in their learning by gaining Numeracy and fulfilling their requirements for NCEA L1 by using literacy strategies and skill practice.

The catalytic component of student learning is ensuring how I can promote self-confidence, independent learning, and positive online teaching due to COVID.I identified this as my focus from the past experiences of students.

To build up a rich picture of my learners I used student's voice, Pre-test/Post-test/halfway test/end of topic test, and PAT results.

This is a low-ability class of 23 consisting of; 4 Maori students,1 cook island Maori, 8 Tongan students, 3 Samoan students, 1 Cook Island Maori,2 Fijian, 1 Filipino, 2 Niuean, and 1 Afshani and four of them are ESOL learners. However, there are now, 19 students and as I moved 3 of them to top class due to their huge shift within in a short period  So now I have 19 students consisting of 8 Tongans, 3 Samoan, 1 cookIsland Maori, 2 Fijian, 2 Maori, 2 Niuean, and 1 Afghani.

From the PAT results last year, one group are working at-stanine 4, the second group are at -stanine 3, the third group are working at -stanine 1-2, and the 4th group are ESOL learners. There are clear gaps shown here in terms of mathematics and literacy skills.

The challenges will be cultivating their accuracy skills, literacy strategies, deepening their understanding, creating confidence, ownership, promoting engagement, leadership skills, love of learning, confidence, and collaboration across their subjects.

My students would likely make more progress if I developed how to use literacy skills with confidence. I asked my students for feedback and 

I made the following changes: 

Promoting culturally responsive pedagogy by translating into Tongan languages, Learners to lead Learn to create a session at manaiakalani cluster create staff session, critique each other's work, Literacy strategy from Dr. Janni and Mrs Latu, Multimodal instructions, Collaboration with ESOL department, Making a movie at manaiakalani festival and working with Lanva Shearing, SOLO taxonomy, 3 Act strategy, KWL chart, PEEL structure, Do nows and Professional reading.

As I step into term3 Lockdown hit Tweak Causal Chain-After the first lockdown causal steps are matching activity using  Google jam board, Miro online board, tracking sheet, setting lessons on google calendar, checking periodically with Whanau,DOC hub lessons, videos, and Miro lessons to rewind.

The easiest thing is teaching using online Trig and Linear Algebra packages-demos, GeoGebra, google spreadsheet, DocHub, Google jam board, and online matching activities to teach Trigonometry(1.7) and Linear Algebra(1.4).

The hardest thing is to teach Number(1.1) and Multivariate data(1.10). I sought help from Dr. Janni and Mrs Latu, PEEL structure to reflect on each other's work and differentiated teaching.

This year I divided them into groups due to their availability and covid conditions.

Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as impressive so far because of no loss during the lockdown.I offered 4 internals and three have been completed before lockdown and my learners have been working through the internal during lockdown and bcos of no loss they started their test on their return to school.

Quantitative shift-  According to my understanding online learning is working. More time and pastoral care is needed to address these issues, especially covid. Nothing was lost, everyone adapted to being online effective learners and finished their tasks. 16 out of the 19 students were in class regularly.  

Due to covid, learners are eligible for learning recognition credits which means for every 4 credits they earn, they get one extra credit. According to that calculation, to date 11 have gained 16 credits, 4 have gained 13 credits, two of them have gained 12 credits and 3 of them have gained 8 credits.16 out of 19 have gained Numeracy.

Qualitative shift- positive attitude, questioning skills, critique each other, and independent learners and leadership skills. As a result, my learners lead a Learn create share session at manaiakalani cluster create a staff session and make a movie for manaiakalani festival.

Some learning that would be relevant to other teachers is KWL chart, PEEL, Dochub. Google jam board, Miro online board, and 3 Act strategy. And my learners ran Learn create share PD on Geogebra and created a movie on it for manaiakalani festival to promote confidence and leadership skills. Promoting Dochub and google jam board at the staff meeting and ran a session on 3 Act strategy in the department meeting. I strongly believe that collaboration adds motivation and values. When we work together with teachers we can identify the common challenges, analyse common data, which can improve our instructional approach.

My next steps are that  I am waiting for the rest of the students to finalise.16 credits as six of these students are works in progress and 3 of them are yet to return to school.  I also wish to collaborate with other teachers and share my findings with colleagues/DPT. Feel free to view my blog, Thank you.

Numeracy	Total Credits
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	16+
✓	13
✓	13
✓	13
✓	13
✓	12
✓	12
	8
	8
	8

Face to face teaching

 Last week the year11 learners returned to an in-person class, which was very exciting. Out of the 20 students, I was pleased to see 11 face-to-face and 5 online. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of my students. It was difficult over lockdown with online classes, but 16 of my learners are on track and this is a good result. 10 of them completed their real internal test last week and six of them agreed to finish it next week. It is under marking/moderation now. 

I found that teaching online without skipping any lessons, collaboration, working with the whanau to close the gap, flexibility, motivation and online tools helped me in making sure the learners stayed on track.  The learners look very eager to learn after they return back to school, which is encouraging to see. tracking sheet Link.