Teaching mathematics
This week I was assigned a lesson on Mathematics. Mathematics is one of my strengths and I spent a lot of time preparing the lesson trying to use different teaching strategies that would make the lesson interesting and motivating for the students. Previous lessons were on the sub strand Area. Using the Mathematics K-6 syllabus I worked out the outcomes and indicators but I wanted to focus the lesson on the Working Mathematically section.( Board of studies) This section of the syllabus is more creative and gets the students thinking independently.
The students were not very enthusiastic at start of lesson. This was Week 11 and only 2 days left at school. But it was revision week and assessments needed to be completed. Only one boy was giving answers so I began to choose students to encourage participation. This brought the students back on task as they were not sure who was going to be asked a question next. The lesson involved a section of self discovery which the students were very enthusiastic about and excited to share their answers. Outcomes were achieved and assessments obtained through observations and work in maths books. The feedback from the teacher was positive although through self-reflection I can see I need to focus on getting all the students to participation to enforce learning. Also I needed to questions students on how they arrived at their answer to get an understand of the way they were learning. Planning through reflection enhances my teaching growth.
Highly Achieved Teacher (HAT)
One area of focus of the HAT teacher is to support teachers' professional development. Fortunately, my teacher was getting support in programming. So I sat in with the discussions on programming. The HAT teacher gave advice on how to program and what methods and techniques she has found that work best. She also provided us with Internet resources that help teachers with programming. In particular Teachers Educational Software Solutions.(TESS) Programming is a major concern when I first start teaching as I will need to build up a record to validate my work as a teacher for professional competency. (NSW Institute of Teachers)
Guest speaker
That afternoon there was a staff meeting and the guest speaker was Anita Chin, Mathematics Consultancy. Anita focused on the importance of mathematical thinking. Applying mathematics to the real world and understanding how the students are thinking mathematically. The concept is based on the aims of the new National curriculum relating mathematics to the real world. (ACARA)
It was very interesting to see how the teachers were open to the changes in strategies of teaching mathematics. Many of the teachers have over 25 years teaching experience making them very experience teachers and I thought they would not adapt to change well. The framework for professional teaching involves personal development and growth through reflection and learning programs. John Hattie's research on "Teachers Make a Difference" comparing Experienced teachers and Expert teachers suggests Expert teachers continual growth through professional development enhances the effectiveness of students learning.
References
ACARA. The Australian Curriculum. (2010) Retrieved from
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_Maths.pdf
Board of Studies. (2007) "Mathematics K-6 NSW syllabus" Sydney. Board of Studies.
Hattie, J. (2011) "Teachers Make a Difference" Retrieved from
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf
NSW Institute of teachers.(2010)."Professional teaching standards" Retrieved from
http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/Main-Professional-Teaching-Standards/
Teacher Educational Software Support. (2010) Retrieved from
http://www.tess.com.au/
This week I was assigned a lesson on Mathematics. Mathematics is one of my strengths and I spent a lot of time preparing the lesson trying to use different teaching strategies that would make the lesson interesting and motivating for the students. Previous lessons were on the sub strand Area. Using the Mathematics K-6 syllabus I worked out the outcomes and indicators but I wanted to focus the lesson on the Working Mathematically section.( Board of studies) This section of the syllabus is more creative and gets the students thinking independently.
The students were not very enthusiastic at start of lesson. This was Week 11 and only 2 days left at school. But it was revision week and assessments needed to be completed. Only one boy was giving answers so I began to choose students to encourage participation. This brought the students back on task as they were not sure who was going to be asked a question next. The lesson involved a section of self discovery which the students were very enthusiastic about and excited to share their answers. Outcomes were achieved and assessments obtained through observations and work in maths books. The feedback from the teacher was positive although through self-reflection I can see I need to focus on getting all the students to participation to enforce learning. Also I needed to questions students on how they arrived at their answer to get an understand of the way they were learning. Planning through reflection enhances my teaching growth.
Highly Achieved Teacher (HAT)
One area of focus of the HAT teacher is to support teachers' professional development. Fortunately, my teacher was getting support in programming. So I sat in with the discussions on programming. The HAT teacher gave advice on how to program and what methods and techniques she has found that work best. She also provided us with Internet resources that help teachers with programming. In particular Teachers Educational Software Solutions.(TESS) Programming is a major concern when I first start teaching as I will need to build up a record to validate my work as a teacher for professional competency. (NSW Institute of Teachers)
Guest speaker
That afternoon there was a staff meeting and the guest speaker was Anita Chin, Mathematics Consultancy. Anita focused on the importance of mathematical thinking. Applying mathematics to the real world and understanding how the students are thinking mathematically. The concept is based on the aims of the new National curriculum relating mathematics to the real world. (ACARA)
It was very interesting to see how the teachers were open to the changes in strategies of teaching mathematics. Many of the teachers have over 25 years teaching experience making them very experience teachers and I thought they would not adapt to change well. The framework for professional teaching involves personal development and growth through reflection and learning programs. John Hattie's research on "Teachers Make a Difference" comparing Experienced teachers and Expert teachers suggests Expert teachers continual growth through professional development enhances the effectiveness of students learning.
References
ACARA. The Australian Curriculum. (2010) Retrieved from
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_Maths.pdf
Board of Studies. (2007) "Mathematics K-6 NSW syllabus" Sydney. Board of Studies.
Hattie, J. (2011) "Teachers Make a Difference" Retrieved from
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf
NSW Institute of teachers.(2010)."Professional teaching standards" Retrieved from
http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/Main-Professional-Teaching-Standards/
Teacher Educational Software Support. (2010) Retrieved from
http://www.tess.com.au/
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