Monday 4 December 2017

Term 4 2107 - Inquiry Update

In Term 4, I wanted to explore how I could use modelling books more effectively to scaffold my priority students to improve their problem solving strategies. 

I had initially thought that taking photos of the working out recorded in the modelling book would be sufficient but have realised this is not necessarily a great leap forward as I have really just created a digital version of the original modelling book. 

After talking with my inquiry group leader, he explained that if I am to take the modelling book to the next level I need to make it a resource that will allow students to 'rewind their learning' so that at a time and place that was convenient for them they can access previous work.

This made total sense and it would be possible to achieve this by simply adding an audio track (from myself or ideally the students themselves) that would allow anyone using the online modelling book to have instructions to guide them on how to use a given maths strategy.

This innovation is something that will be useful across all subject areas so that any prior learning can be shared for others to access.

What a year 2017 has been! It has taken a while to wrap my head around the Teaching as Inquiry process and navigate the process of how to reflect on my teaching practice when as a Beginning Teacher there feels like there is still a lot more learning to be done.  

To get real benefit from this reflective practise, I want to have a clear focus (subject area, target students) and then quickly gather relevant historical data as a starting point. I then need to be more methodical in how I select, implement, monitor and analyse how a change in an aspect of my teaching practise will positively impact my target learners. Bring on 2018!