KĀHUI AKO, JULY 27, 2O23: TERM 2 REFLECTION

 

KĀHUI AKO, JULY 27, 2O23: TERM 2  REFLECTION

I have found the last term's teaching for this group difficult. This has been a result of external factors (personal and family sickness) , the internal class culture that has been affected by students' known attitude (unreliable attendance to school, for example) and how these factors intersect. 

A clear example is that I want to be able to provide these students routine and reliability, as I only see them once a week. I was interested assessing their  attendance that out of my 10 students there was a small core group who had come every week, a fluctuating group who were affected by their absences from school and a group who rarely attended due to absences and not wishing to attend. I had regular 60% attendance but very rarely the same students.

The main conclusions that are relevant to my inquiry were:

1. Assessment and regular data collection was difficult for the maths focus

2. My theory that individual, student led  projects would be motivating and helpful for focus and attendance was presumptive and possibly had the opposite effect.  

3. Are we "stuck" and how can I "un-stick"  the situation next term?

Looking Forward:

I have decided an intervention or new strategy is to give the students the same task (laser cutting a design of their choosing into a wooden ruler) to give them some certainty and scaffold use and enthusiasm for the machine. 

I had presumed the children would be really keen and motivated to use the machine, however have noticed most have been shy or unwilling to ask questions about how to use it. Perhaps I need to hook them into seeing the machine work before exploring independent projects.