MPI - Day 2: Know your learners as Mathematicians

Today's focus was on knowing and understanding our learners as Mathematicians. We looked at the following areas:

1. What makes a confident maths teacher?
2. Assessment 101
3. Keeping track of learning
4. Assessment Data and Planning 
5. Developing assessment capable learners 
6. Tracking Maths Profiles

The most impactful part of today was thinking about, "What makes a confident maths teacher?" As a mentor and a maths teacher myself, this is an important question to ask when thinking around the development of a teacher's pedagogy. 

This got me thinking around what dispositions I would need to have to be an effective teacher (or what items to focus on when helper others to develop in their teaching of maths). We need to work on:

Acquiring a deep understanding of maths knowledge:

We need to have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts ourselves. This will allow us to explain ideas clearly and answer student questions effectively. It's also critical for us to be able to guide learners through their next steps and provide them with effective feedback.

A growth mindset:

If we truly want maths to be enjoyable (which evidence suggests that learners produce the best outcomes when enjoyment is part of the learning), then we as teachers need to portray maths as an interesting and engaging subject. We need to foster a love of learning and reflect this in out teaching style in such a way that allows learners to enjoy the challenge that maths can provide.

Create a supportive environment:

We were encouraged today that we need to create a safe space where mistakes are seen as a natural part of the learning process, encouraging students to take risks and persevere.

Assessment as a means to track and build next learning steps:

We were given a teacher workbook to use for planning and tracking of learners current/next steps. This is a great resource. It has led me to think around how this could neatly fit into what we are already doing as a school and how we can adjust to fit in with the HERO learning intentions, etc...

Today was very thought provoking and an excellent reminder of what we can do to become the best maths teachers for our amazing learners.