Beginning of term 2 Inquiry Update

This term, I hope find out about the characteristics of mathematical thinking which my students are displaying. I hope to do this through using screencasts. At the end of last term, I was able to listen back to some really interesting screencasts which my students had created. Through these screencasts, I was able to clearly see gaps in student knowledge when it came to explaining their mathematical thinking. I was drawn to the fact that a lot of this information I was able to gather from the screencasts would not have been possible (or would have been much more difficult) when just looking at students' written responses to mathematical problems.

This term, I hope to use screencasts as another dimension for students to share their mathematical reasoning, and as an assessment tool to student learning. This may look like:

- Creating a rubric which students fill out after completing each screencast, in regards to their mathematical thinking/ explanations.

- Using screencasts to explain what they have already done to solve a mathematical problem.

- Using screencasts while they solve a mathematical problem.

- Exploring language used by students in their oral mathematical explanation.

Miss West and the Protractors

During the process of completing a class on air episode, I was able to reflect on my teaching. Being able to watch myself teach allowed me to be critical of what I could be doing better, and what I have been doing well.

 Follow the link below to see my Class on Air site!

Universal Design for Learning

As part of our term 4 inquiry, Ch...ch...ch...ch...changes (The Material World), I created this site which follows a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for students to use in their learning about Pseudoscience.

It was interesting that learners found it difficult to navigate in this site. I believe this was due to the fact that our students have been using our current class site for their learning during the year, so this new site was unfamiliar to them. More scaffolding will be required in the future for using a site like this.

Click the link below to explore the Pseudoscience site which I created:

Students were linked the this site, through our current site, here.

Screencast Part 2: Screencast of class site navigation

Following on from my previous post, in this screencast I explain how learners access their learning in maths by navigating through the class site.



Through the process of creating screencasts as well as through discussion with colleagues, I have come to realise the value of screencasts in learning. Screencasts could be used to clearly explain instructions for learners on the site, alongside the written instructions.

Screencast Part 1: Screencast explaining collaborative problem solving in maths

Today we created screencasts using quicktime. This was a long process which I was expecting after my first attempt at creating a screencast last week! Some challenges I had to overcome included:

1. Finding a place which was quiet and without interruptions.
2. Being able to consistently use accurate language and explain concepts correctly in one go. For example, to explain the learn-create-share pedagogy, I wanted to ensure I was consistent in using the word 'create' instead of 'do' and 'learn' instead of 'work'.
3. Playing my screencast back to myself and realising I did not explain concepts as clearly as I could have.

This screencast demonstrates the process my learners follow to learn-create-share in maths by collaboratively problem-solving.