Number Agents

This is my last blog post of the year.  My last day of school is the 20th, so my brain has not quite signed off yet.  Before I take a break for the holidays I wanted to do a blog post that specifically addresses a question I often get.... How do you ensure all children can participate and are learning? Firstly, let me start by saying that this was my burning question when I started maths PLD.  With the change to mixed ability groups and a problem solving focus I genuinely questioned how this process could be effective for those children that seemingly sit on the fringes and don't seem to be getting involved. As I had already started using Number Agents, I simply moulded what I was currently doing around this new idea of teaching that I was being presented with.  I can tell you though that I entirely expected to discard these strategies once our PLD was over and go back to how I had always done things. However as time went by I began to see the benefits, I beg...

Dear me of seven years ago, Firstly, before I cause you offense, let me start by saying, you are a brilliant teacher, fun, caring and creative.  The children in your class are lucky to have you and are achieving remarkable results. But what if I told you that what you are doing could be even better? What if I told you that by doing this you would be happier and your children would beyond happy, happy is not really the right word, they will be content, secure, confident and open to new ideas?  What if I told you that by listening to me, your whole view of success for children would change, your whole definition of learning would change? If I told you this, would you change what you are doing right now? I'm not completely sure you are ready to listen to me, I mean why would you, there isn't a problem to solve, you run a safe, happy classroom and a safe happy school, children leave your school often working far beyond where they need to be academically, surely there...

Anyone that has been reading my blog posts knows that I am a massive fan of Mantle of the Expert.  Website here for those interested in finding out more. The thing I love about Mantle as it is play, drama and inquiry all rolled into one.  Our school have been using this approach for a while now and have had brilliant results. If you are looking to transform inquiry, this might be the answer for you. Today Room One were part of four worlds in one...did it phase them....not one bit.  First we were posed as party planners.  All I did to get them into this world was use the words "Is it ok if we imagine that we are a party planning company?"  The children of course say yes and off we went.  Straight into the drama and play of being the company approached to plan a party for the Number Agents.  Our company had various divisions and the children self-directed this process.  Some running workshops on creating paper cut outs, others teaching childre...

Wow, I find it hard to believe that I sit here reflecting on a full year of Number Agents, almost done and dusted (other than our office party.) This year saw some changes in agency as I approached it as a full blown Mantle and added some bells and whistles.  The world has been so much better developed this year with puppets taking the role of villains and the Professor and Cowgirl Calculation taking a hero role to assist us in our development.  It is fun to look back at this post reflecting on two weeks in and see that I was already seeing these benefits at the beginning of the year. I was also able to use drama a whole heap more and quickly found that children became confident taking the role of clients.  More recently they took an active part in communicating with our recon agent 556.  The more they became a part of the drama, the more they connected to agency. Another change for me, from a teaching perspective, was to throw away a large degree of the overv...

Well I am sitting here amongst 23 learning journals trying to write reports.  With my annual reporting and strategic planning up on my computer screen that I am now officially half way through, as well as planning for 2018 and thinking about our upcoming planning day and Empty Classroom day. However invading my mind over the last few days has been this blog post, rather than continue to push it to the side, I have decided to just get it out. Writing, wow, there has been some real learning in this area for me this year.  Which in fact I didn't even realise until last week.  My complete perception of what a child that is ready to write has changed, in fact my thinking has done a complete flip. I used to love it when children came in already able to write some words, letters and perhaps even put a basic "I went to..." story together.  In fact I would breathe a sigh of relief because I was confident that I could get those children to where I wanted them by the end ...

Before this year, I had dabbled with the use of maths eyes and always used a lot of subitizing activities within my sessions.  I also used a lot of ten frame work and lots of similar patterns for ten shown in different way.  I also have a few numicon resources that I use from time to time. Dice and cards have also always been a big part of my programme, and continue to be so. This year I have really got stuck into number talks.  In particular dot talks and using a range of other visual images. Dot talks have proved to be amazing and I am really impressed with how this approach has really assisted children to develop flexibility with number.  In particular it has really helped them with the concept that there is not only one way to see or do things and often not one 'right' answer. A concept I have really been hammering lately is that a number can be expressed in different ways but mean the same thing e.g. 11 + 1 is the same as saying 6 + 6 etc. I think dot ...

My journey into play based learning and my resulting learning (ongoing of course) about brain development has led me to this question.  In all our wisdom and push to provide for modern learners, have we forgotten that children are still just children? We seem to be so desperate to jump on the next bandwagon, to shape our classrooms for the future, to teach these supposedly 'different' learners, who are so 'different' to how we were, in progressive ways. There are businesses shaped around providing professional development and resources so we can provide for these supposed different learners....but what is it that has made them so different? My thinking has now meandered to this point....children are no different to how we were....they are still just children....with the same developmental needs...the environment around them has shaped them in different ways, which leads them to engage or seek activities that are different to those we sought out, but is this ne...

Something that interests me is our obsession in education on assessing children, assessing them for their progress, but also assessing them for their knowledge gaps.  Then filling these gaps with focused teaching of the knowledge we believe will fill this gap. Very rarely do we look beyond the knowledge that may be needed to fill this gap and think about why the child is having difficulty making our perceived 'expected' level of progress in the first place. I have been just as guilty of this and used to cycle Number Agents through a two week cycle of knowledge focus so that I was 'covering' what I thought I needed to. In writing I would focus in on that specific thing the child was not doing to try and ensure that on their next sample they showed me they could indeed do it. And so it went on, I was constantly filling up gaps in the knowledge that in doing so I could 'accelerate' their progress to a level that would prove I had 'taught' them ...

Ingredients of my play-based room I have updated the mindmap and here is the PDF I have also updated my Term 4 planner and that is here in PDF The other link people have found useful is my goal sheet that is based on the sequential development of the brain... current copy is here. This is also our dispositions/habits sheet that I have developed and we will be using to drive our thinking and reflection around children's learning and growth. I hope these are useful.

First I want to preface this post with a disclaimer...I am not claiming that this is the only way to run a play-based room, I am not claiming to be an expert, I am simply sharing my experience so far.  Have I got everything right?  No probably not.   Am I still learning and developing my own pedagogy and understanding?  Yes absolutely! Our days are never the same, but they do follow the same basic flow.  The one thing that is important to us, is the freedom to just go with the children's passions or interest if the urge so takes us :) 9.00 - 9.10am - We start the day with play.  The bell means to come inside, but not to stop playing.  As children are playing we wander round, greet them and do the roll. 9.10 ish - Our morning song will play from Wai Ako, this is the signal that children are to come to the mat, we generally sing two or three songs together.  Here we will do a what's on top, if we are looking at growth mindset, we may do ...