Making Sense Of Maths

Cooktown Cluster July 2008

Mathematics Professional Development

This P.C.A.P funded project was planned to benefit the teachers and students of the Cooktown Cluster.
It was well timed: to start with the Student Free Days at the beginning of Term 3.

A full day PD with the teachers of Year 4-7, followed by a full day PD with the teachers of Years Prep-3 for all the participating schools was very beneficial.

Not only were teachers able to network among themselves, but they took part in a hands-on workshop modelling some of the “ways of working” suitable for motivating and encouraging their students to learn different concepts in a variety of ways.

The provision of an additional teacher to accompany me to help with organisation, supporting group work, contributing her own talents, and work with the classes was of significant benefit.

All the teachers were prepared for our visit, and made good use of their chosen time.
Most teachers had recorded their request for a topic (e.g. Metric Measurement) and/or style of working (e.g. rotational groups), on the Student Free Day, so we were able to tailor the visit for each class. Where possible we also discussed the content and plan with the teacher before visiting the class.

The school visits this time were two days at Hopevale SS, one day at Rossville SS, one day at Lakeland SS and four days at Cooktown SS.

Each school had its own needs and characteristics, but my overall impression was that each visit was valued, and that there was significant progress made since my last visit in 2006.

Heidi was in demand to demonstrate the use of Excel for spreadsheets at several locations. Some classes built up a comparison for heights, arm span and feet and hand measurement. This was particularly beneficial for the Year 5 and 6 students who are preparing a study of types of food they eat, and would transfer their knowledge of spreadsheets over to the different topic.

Teacher Aides working alongside their teachers is an ideal learning environment.
The collegial sharing and reflection on the learning was a feature of the workshops, and hopefully that will carry over into classrooms.

In all, this visit was significantly more successful than the previous visit in 2006.

Some of the contributing factors were:

1. Student Free Days at the beginning of the visit made for excellent timing. This allowed teachers to experience different ways of teaching and learning in workshop style, before any classroom visits.
2. Better time to plan – teachers had thought about topics, and processes.
3. Longer sessions for classes in Cooktown SS, were beneficial, as well as the opportunity to speak to the teachers before, during and/or after sessions.
4. The provision of an accompanying classroom teacher to me to support and supervise the class while teachers were discussing the processes or curriculum with me.