school life
maths
Great learners and great teachers- what qualities do they have?
Jessie and I had our next PMSS sessions this week and it was filled with new ideas, strategies, games and theory. We heard some amazing people speak and (as usual!) Jessie and I were off on our own tangent, thinking of ways we can adapt it to BNW. We were also very privileged to be asked to present all the things we’ve been able to achieve so far to our cohort. As teachers, we are comfortable talking to kids but as soon as adults are in front of us it’s a totally different ball game! However, we were amongst supportive colleagues and were able to talk about our family info night, sharing lesson structures to staff and how we use data to inform our teaching. It was great to show other schools how amazing BNW is and for us to stop and think about the things we’ve been able to achieve over a semester.
During our Monday session, we were asked to reflect on what make a great maths learner and what makes a great maths teacher. We all had to write words up on a poster to describe what qualities we think a great teacher and learner has, and it was interesting seeing other teacher’s responses. We were then asked to have a go at this maths question:
My dad offered me a deal. I choose any number on a hundreds chart. He’d then roll a 6 sided dice and we’ve count by that number (for example, if he rolled a 5 we could count by 5s) from 0. If we land on my number he’d give me $10 and if we skip my number, I’d give him $10. What are some
good numbers I could choose? Should I take the deal?
After we had a go at this problem, we then reflected on what we wrote down on the poster and decided if we wanted to add anything to it. It was really interesting to be a learner again and to experience how it might feel as a student attempting a maths problem. While we were completing the problem, I had a moment of “oh no…my strategy isn’t the same as the person next to me, maybe I’m doing this wrong…” which led me to add to the poster that a great learner needs to be okay with making mistakes and knows that you can use different strategies to solve a problem (and just because someone is solving a problem one way doesn’t mean that’s the way for you).
When each group shared what they wrote on their poster there were some that resinated with me, some that I hadn’t even thought of and some that I necessarily didn’t agree with which is the great thing about working with different people; you get to hear such a variety of different responses! Which gave me a thought...what do the parents at BNW think make a good maths learner and a good maths teacher? At our info night we asked parents to think of a teacher that inspired them, but this time we want you to think about characteristics that make a good learner and teacher. Near the office we will have two posters up, one that says what makes a good maths learner and the other, what makes a good maths teacher and we want you to write down what qualities you think you need to be these two things. Please add as many things as you want and feel free to add on to other people’s ideas. We want to have a poster full of qualities from our wonderful parent community, because you will no doubt have ideas that we may not have thought about before!
Are you curious about all the awesome maths things we do at BNW? Follow @BnwpsM to have a squiz at our photos (including Jessie and I being great maths learners!)
Have a great weekend and feel free to try our hundreds chart maths challenge and let us know if you would take the $10 deal or not! :)
100 days of school
To celebrate 100 days of school the foundies and their teachers have dressed up in their best 100-year-old attire and put on a wonderful parade.
juniors
For ‘Schools Tree Day’ & ‘National Tree Day’ we wrote stories about micro bats and birds living along Merri Creek and the problems they encounter when their environment changes.
Completed during Craft Club is the poster to go alongside our Merri Creek threatened species writing pieces. This has been submitted to Humane Society International’s art competition.
building works
A quick update on our building works process:
If you have been keeping track of our progress, you will likely remember the survey I invited all community members to complete and held student workshops to inform where our school vision was heading and what we deem as being most urgent. This information was used to complete our AMP-1, which has been finalised and submitted to the three architecture firms tendering for the project. I School Council for assisting with this application and endorsement process, especially given a tight timeline. For any members of the community interested in reading the document, you can access it through the link below.
This document has been provided to the tenderers, who will consider this along with their visit to the school earlier in the term as well as the strategic infrastructure needs statement that was emailed after their visit. This information is used to put together a proposal, which they will talk to next week when I will be interviewing the three firms, in order to make a decision about moving forward. I am seeking student input to questions and have again received support from school council and buildings & grounds, for which I am very grateful. I will of course keep you up-to-date on any progress, but if you have any questions along the way, please let me know - your questions are generally shared by more than one person within the community!