This year I plan to post about my journey in agency, how I get ready, how I hook the children in, what it looks like in the setting up phase and then the successes and challenges I have throughout the year.
I thought this may be useful for teachers starting out with this approach, however it is also very useful as professional reflection for myself.
Firstly as we begin the year, on this the first day of 2017 I ask this challenge question for myself and all teachers:
-Where are the children in what you are teaching? Where is their voice, their say, their agency? Where is the playfulness, the creativity, the imagination...the fun? If you were a child taking part in this 'lesson' would YOU be engaged?
I intend to check myself with these questions each time I sit down to 'teach'...my belief is that the narrowing of the curriculum (which is an absolutely amazing curriculum if used as intended) has led to children being thrown out of the curriculum. It is my absolute mission to bring children back to what we are teaching. I see number agency as one way I can promote this. It is one cog in my play based classroom, but it has become a very important cog.
If you would answer no to that last question, if what you are teaching wouldn't have engaged you as a child, stop what you are doing and do it differently...
I am lucky enough to teach in a school where the curriculum has become one lovely beautifully authentic entity. We have done this through Mantle of the Expert and I encourage others to look at this approach too.
Getting Ready For Agency:
At the beginning of the year there is not a lot that can be done to get agency ready before the children come back. The whole intention of number agency is that the children are the driving force in forming the agency....so it will evolve throughout the hook and building belief phase.
However there are some things you can do to prepare:
1) Tool boxes, this is one of the most costly items in agency. I purchased mine from the Warehouse on special, however you probably can pick up these second hand if you have time to look. Each mixed problem solving group had a toolbox, with each group having between 3-5 children in them. This is a lot of toolboxes if you have a big class, but they are worth it. The other spin off is children love using them at play based time, as long as they are kept tidy this is great. The tool boxes with the small drawers at the top and then a big compartment at the bottom are the best. Materials to go in them can also be gathered (number lines, counters, joining blocks, small abacus) basically anything children can manipulate and use to solve problems.
The agents have a lot of fun setting these up when you come to that point in 'setting up' usually I will have them delivered by 'head agent' when we are ready for them and let each group take charge of filling them up with what they need.
**Obviously you do not have to have toolboxes, and big containers would probably do the job absolutely fine. Toolboxes are simply a gimmick and a prop that builds a picture of what I want agency to be in my classroom.
2)Clients - You can have these ready and laminated. Feel free to make up your own, or to purchase here through TPT.
3) File box and lead agent handbook - The file box will be added to with the secret files as you come to them. However the talk moves (which we use for problem solving) can be found here and put in the file if you want. Obviously you can make your own as well. I just purchased a file box from Warehouse Stationery and found a free to use clip art to make the top secret sign. We use the agent handbook to store our planning, so games that will be used etc could be filed in here for future reference. I do have some of the games I use here. As you encounter each new villain it is important that a photo is taken of this villain and the agents help to write a short bio about this character. I then place the photo on our agent wall and place the bio we have written together in the file box once it has been laminated.
4)Starting out in agency will look like 'hooking' the children in, so you might like to consider what kind of problems the children may encounter and solve before they realise that they must be 'experts' in solving maths related problems. I usually have a mixture of problems and try to relate them to nursery rhymes or fairy tales. E.G an urgent message from the little old lady, she has not got enough pebbles to make the gingerbread mans buttons....she has one, but needs five, how many more does she need? Having these kind of problems ready is a good idea.
5) Checking in and checking out - I did describe some ways of doing this, but it is worth considering what will work best in your situation. I have found that having buzzers on the wall works best labelled check in and check out. This seems to be the fastest way of moving children in and out of agency.
6)Before even starting the 'hook' phase it is useful to start with drama. I use a lot of drama in the first few weeks and it really helps to get children used to this way of working. These are my six favourite ones. I am sure you can find many more that suit your needs. The biggest element you want to establish is a playful classroom, where every children feel confident and happy to participate and know that their offerings will be accepted in a positive manner.
7) Puppets - obviously I use puppets a lot. You do not have to have your villains represented as puppets, when I first started my villains were just represented as a still image. Find a way that you feel confident as working. This year I would like my villains to take a larger role in other areas of our learning...e.g. having an actual world map with pins to represent where in the world they currently are, and having postcards written by the villains to us when they are away...this is just a germ of an idea, but the children love these characters so much I see a greater role for them in the classroom as motivators for reading and writing. I purchase my puppets from trade me, amazon and mighty ape.
8) Of course if you have not purchased the book, you can do here The book is also available in hard copy and you can email me on numberagents@gmail.com or contact me via my facebook page. It is important that you read the book so you understand more fully the philosophy and ins and outs of this approach.
The first few weeks of setting up agency is an evolving process and children should be involved in as much as possible. This phase is really important and if the children have not worked a lot in this way before it is even more crucial to ensure agency is established well in the classroom.
***If you don't feel like your class is quite ready for problem solving and needs more development of number sense as a beginning, starting out as an agent academy is a good place to start. This has all the facets of agency, other than the villains, clients and problems. It allows time to build up number concepts without the problem solving side of things. Think Monsters Inc - agent academy is where agents go to learn how to be number agents. If this is what you choose to do I would only keep children in this academy for five to six weeks as the fun is in the clients and villains and agent academy can start to feel too much like normal 'maths.'
I have also been giving some thought to how this may look in an ILE. We operate with two teachers in our agency. Both teachers are lead agents and what largely happens is that we take turns being lead and being support. The support teacher will support those in our class that struggle particularly at problem solving time. In bigger ILE I would envision that during professional development each teacher could technically work in the same way and on the same PD, but perhaps breaking the bigger agency into three or four seperate 'classes' just so that the group is smaller. This could also work for games etc, playing the same game but in three or four different 'classes.' Each lead agent (teacher) could have a 'division' of agency that they are responsible for and these divisions could be given code names. This would still need to be mixed ability as this is a very important part of agency.
Problem solving time would be lead by one teacher and then supported by the two our three others just as it is in our smaller situation. So whilst maybe being a little different management wise I think it is entirely possible that this will run just as smoothly in an ILE. In fact it is probably a lovely fit.
We also like to take photos of what the 'agents' are up to during professional development and problem solving as a record of their learning....one lead agent could also take responsibility for this.
I am so excited to hear about all of the agencies setting up around NZ and am only to happy to help if needed. Please free free to contact me. Perhaps there is a way agencies can start communicating with each other? Wow how authentic would that be!
We are in Whangarei and happy for others to visit at any stage. :)
All the best getting ready for agency!
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