Juggling

As a combination of reflecting on how teaching and learning is going, as well a variety of professional development courses I've attended recently, I find the desire to implement new ideas (requiring creation of class resources) comes up against day-to-day preparation time.

So, what specifically? I want to put together some box resources for my maths groups to help in organising a better-functioning rotation of learning experiences. I need to have a range of practice activities that can be attempted independently and hopefully match with current learning going on in the teaching group sessions.

What is lacking is a single resource point that links with the Numeracy Project and is suitable for independent work - particularly in knowledge maintenance. The closest thing I've found so far is a support material PDF that is suitable for students working with number properties (ie. they don't require the use of materials or imaging to understand the problem to work out). This particular booklet links to Books 5 and 6 (Add/Sub, Mult/Div).

I guess the only approach at this stage is a 'bit-by-bit' accumulation of materials and hopefully next year will see me a step ahead?

Different Perspectives

I had an observation of my teaching today during a writing lesson. The focus was interaction with children. Overall the feedback was very positive.

• great questioning
• supportive manner with children
• clear learning outcomes expressed
• links with prior learning made
• whole class, group, and individual interactions
• good wait times for attention and answers
• dealing appropriately with distractions
• children's input/sharing encouraged - leading to further learning

So I should feel good about it, and in terms of the observation focus, I am. However, I found myself inwardly frustrated with the progress of the lesson itself.

Yesterday's lesson was focussed on 'planning for writing an informal letter' Today's was to be 'drafting an informal letter using a plan'. I was discouraged by the small number of students who had completed their plan from yesterday.

I am unsure whether it is lack of focussed work habits or just that I expected too much? But really, I don't think I expected too much. So, one could say I could have collected all the books in to check progress - fair enough, but that can't be done everyday (I had feed back in writing the day prior).

So where to from here? Maybe it's a combination of continuing to give clear direction and learning intentions with the added and continual positive sharing of expectations in regard to quality work and good work habits.