Number Agents

There have been a lot of posts online about this subject recently, particularly in relation to reading development.  For the purpose of this blog post I refer to 'literacy development' as I believe that reading, writing and oral language can not be separated in terms of development, they are symbiotic and exist for the purpose of communication. The belief that we are critically harming a child if they are not not 'taught' to read in the first couple of years is to me, very flawed when you look at progress from a developmental perspective.  The idea that if we are not 'directly instructing' them in reading from the day they enter school we are hindering their progress is a in my opinion scaremongering.  If a child is not developmentally ready to read or write and we apply direct instruction in literacy, we are likely to be doing more harm than good.  A child's brain does not stagnate if we are not 'directly instructing' them, the brain will constant...

This is something I have felt passionately about for some time now, since starting my journey with Mantle of the Expert my eyes were opened widely to the benefits learning through the arts could have for children.  Previously an area that I only dabbled with because of my own lack of ability, I quickly came to realise using the arts as a vehicle for the curriculum had an incredible effect on the engagement of all children (not just the ones talented in these areas) and increased the emotional connection ten fold.  Not only did it have a huge impact on their engagement, it also had an incredible effect on their understanding of what we were learning.  The biggest eye opener for me was how using the arts as a vehicle for curriculum, opened up access to learning for those we would consider 'struggling, shy' learners, and even our ESOL children.  All children seemed to connect with learning in a much deeper way.  The arts is a language we are all capable of...

Over the last few weeks I have been mulling a question over and over in my head...as a teacher what is our role...what is our most important work?  For many teachers buried under a pile of paperwork it would seem that our most important work would be planning and preparing lessons, setting learning intentions and success criteria and then measuring their students against this.  If you have ever read any of my blog posts, you will absolutely know that this is an answer that would not wash with me.  To answer this question for myself I have been delving back into my memories of school, Primary and Secondary, what is it from this time in my life that I actually learned. Now this is going to sound harsh, but there is little learning wise I can remember from school, however I do remember a lot socially and emotionally, good and bad. For the most part I enjoyed primary school.  I was an 'average' child academically...probably because I was never encouraged or ...

Quite honestly, I am always super surprised by how well children just slip into the world of Number Agents.  This year has been no different and every year, I get better at building the storyline, increasing the children's belief in this imagined world. Isn't that the amazing thing about teaching?  That we get to build on our practice each year and make things new an improved, not just repeat what we have always done? This year with our play-based environment evolving and improving, I think the attachment to Number Agents has been even stronger.  The children ask daily if we are going to be agents, and just like the agents before them they take this world into their own play. Through the hooking in process, which took us about three weeks, children became more and more intrigued by this world and just like classes before them started to invent their own stories about the portal.  That is where the idea of a crack in time and space came from, and now this crack ...

Wow, that term went by in a blink of an eye.  We started the term with 27 children between the two of us, 14 of those first timers :) Our term has been completely based around play, with children spending large chunks of their day directing their own play.  Usually during the day there will be anywhere between 2 and 4 more teacher directed sessions. We have altered a few things to start the year, basically this year we are using the developmental indicators that we decided upon through our inquiry last year.  These indicators are a huge foundation of our classroom The diagram associated with these can be f ound here  and the goals directly associated with this here. These developmental indicators have proved to be absolutely invaluable in helping not only gauge readiness, but to also 'see' progress in a different way.   About 12 of our children have transitioned to one to one reading with us twice a week and are showing good progress.  By...

This is an answer that as a teacher I used to hate, or should I say rather than hate, it absolutely frustrated me.  "Can you tell me how you solved that?"  "I just knew!" or the good old shrug of the shoulders, where a child would have the right answer, but had absolutely no idea how to explain how they solved the problem. So many times I remember waiting patiently, giving them time, trying not to throw my voice in there, and in the end basically answering my question myself.  I often wondered why they were unable to explain their strategies to me.  Since I participated in maths PLD, a few years ago now, I have had a few lightbulb moments and come to realise why the stock standard answer was "I just knew it." There are several reasons in fact. 1) The way I presented maths encouraged children to be fast, and very much valued knowledge, children felt that they were successful if they did have the answer straight away.  They knew this was what I want...