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Module 5

 Module 5- PLC and Contribution 




 

 In the previous module, I discussed about my professional learning to numeracy and how I was able to collaborate and explore different planning strategies. When you're able to collaborate and learn from others on what works in their classroom and their own interpretation of the curriculum, it enables educators to bring new resources, strategies and planning on it. 

Numeracy and mathematical teaching is what is focused at my school as the school theme and story. Thus, I wanted to explore this topic more in my professional learning. I have attended workshops where different strategies of instruction and assessment were brought up. 

It started last year in May 2022 where I attended a 3 part series workshop on Numeracy. This was held by Dr. Marian Small. She wrote a book and shared it as a resource for all the teachers. Inside the book, it talks about different strategies for instruction and assessment. 



During the workshop, we would start  with a presentation by her talking about a mathematical concept. We had one about pattern, operations (+ - x etc) and number sense and assessment. Below is a screenshot of one of our discussion. Ideas were shared afterwards in a breakout room to share how we can use her ideas and apply it within our grade level. 

She focused on the child's performance and having open-ended questions, having performance-based and constructed-response for her assessment as discussed in McMillan (2014).  Here are two screenshots of the workshops and what we were able to use and bring into our classroom.

 

From this workshop, I was able to learn more about mathematical thinking than computational thinking of math. One activity I was able to bring into my classroom is outdoor activities. 

This mathematical thinking and journey did not end last year. As a school and myself, I continued to explore more about mathematical thinking, especially instruction and assessment and how it can relate to the curriculum. 

 Many teachers struggled with the curriculum and how to relate it to their teaching and learning for both students and themselves. The curriculum reflects "our perception, values and knowledge" (Ornstein, 2013)  In British Columbia, they are focusing on students as life-long learners and having the skills to become independent and critical thinkers to be able to tackle whatever happens in the future. These are the skill set that will help them grow and be prepared for the future. Therefore, we have 3 core competencies that are integrated within the curriculum. We have "Communication" , "Thinking" and "Personal and Social". The district wanted to focus on these as foundational topics. School is seen as an "extension of society and students are capable of changing society" (Ornstein, 2013). 

The design of the curriculum was prevalent when we talked about numeracy. We didn't focus on computational thinking but on how numeracy and mathematical thinking is more important and helps the child's tackle more problems. It is thinking outside the box and not doing calculator math. 


At the school level and amongst staff, we had to do a reflection. This was one of the reflection we had to with the students. I did another one in January this year. We then shared what we have noticed and then created a padlet. 


Here is our padlet after our sharing of what is happening in our classrooms and what we pattern we noticed that can be addressed. We then shared our ideas on here.

 

 

Within the school community, we focused a lot on instruction and planning because many teachers struggled on the progressive curriculum that was implemnted by the district. We had to do assessment that was uploaded onto a portfolio and digital platform. Afterwards, the BC government decided not to continue that and use paper and traditional reporting. There has been a lot of changes and for some teachers, instruction and planning was difficult to relate to the new curriculum. 

For example, for Kindergarden teachers, they need to teach numbers to 10 but to them, they felt like it was very little. In my February workshop for professional learning, the Kindergarten teacher discussed how it seemed unreasonable to just teach 10 numbers but after doing assessment, she understood why it was designed that way. The students were able to count and do simple adding like 3+2 but when it was different, the students struggled. This was visible when it was about numeracy. An example would be, if there is 5 in this cup, and you see 3, how many are there in total. 

For myself, I teach grade 1s and I have to focus on 1-20 for math. It seems alright but when I taught a grade 2 class, the students struggled to jump from 1-20 to 1-100. My assessment had to change and focus on not the number but the concepts. For students that were struggling, I was using a "humanistic approach" in instruction and assessment (McNeil, 2009). I want to create a warm and nurturing environment to help students feel empowered. It is focused on their growth and even if they do not reach grade level for the curriculum, they demonstrated personal growth and achievement in their learning. 

I enjoy incorporating cooking and outdoor activities with Math as it's something they're interested in. It is important to incorporate children's interests into the classroom, which ties well with the curriculum design. When I look at the curriculum, cooking is suggested and incorporating Indigenous learning as well. Indigenous learning and teaching is incorporated in the curriculum to teach students about hands-on learning and to be inclusive.

For the rest of the year, I do plan to explore more assessment and finding resources that explore numeracy outside of Canada and BC. I want to see how curriculum is taught in international schools outside of Canada and their approach.




References 

McMillan, J. H. (2014).  Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective standards-based instruction (6th ed., pp. 1-20, 57-64,74-88). Boston, MA: Pearson. 

McNeil, J. D. (2009).  Contemporary curriculum in thought and action (7th ed.).  Hoboken, NJ:  John Wiley.  Pages 1, 3-14, 27-39, 52-60, 71-74.

Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2013). Curriculum: Foundations, principles, and issues (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  Read Chapter 6, pp. 149-173

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