Reggio-Inspired Mathematics

cross-district professional learning event - February 19

On the afternoon of February 19, a common pro-d day for many Lower Mainland school districts, the Richmond School District hosted a professional learning event for educators. There were 40 Richmond teachers along with 40 teachers from Delta, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Vancouver Island, West Vancouver, Langley and others districts. The focus of the afternoon was for many, to introduce the principles and practices of Reggio-Inspired Mathematics and for all, to make connections between BC's redesigned curriculum and these principles and practices. A good portion of the afternoon was spent chatting with each other and working with materials, co-constructing ideas for mathematical provocations for our students.

The event was hosted at Blair Elementary and we used the three adjoining primary rooms. A huge thank you to the school staff, but particularly grades 2&3 teacher Jaclyn Cruz for her support in helping host this event. As teachers arrived, they picked up some articles, some photo provocations and then wandered through the learning spaces, taking photographs as they went.

Several provocations were set up to inspire teachers to make connections to BC's redesigned curriculum.

One of the main questions that we often get asked is "Where do your provocations/questions come from?" and then followed by "Do you have a list? May I have it?" We have been hesitant to publish a list of possible provocations because we feel that essential to a provocation is that it is responsive to and inclusive of the students that will be engaging in the learning experience. Provocations come from  an intersection between children's interests and wonders and our knowledge of the big ideas, curriculum competencies and content. Provocations may be inspired by what a student has said, wondered or done. The teacher then uses that inspiration and combines that with her understanding of the curriculum to engage in a "ball toss" with her students and throws a provocation back at them that might move and challenge their thinking. In examining the provocations that teachers and I have developed lately, there is a series of "frames" that we draw upon and we thought these would be worth sharing. On Friday, I shared these with the reminder that this language needs to make sense for teachers and their students - in our classrooms, we talk a lot about stories and so the provocation of "What stories live within these shapes?" resonates with the students we work with but might not in other contexts. 

Much of the formal presentation part of the event (the powerpoint slides) is posted under Presentations and Articles (in the right side bar of this blog).

It was a great afternoon of learning together and the energy in the rooms was inspiring - our community is growing and growing!

~Janice

 

our second sharing session of the year

The lead teams from the districts involved in our project (Richmond, Surrey, Delta, Burnaby, Vancouver and West Vancouver) came together during the evening of February 3 at Elsie Roy Elementary in Vancouver. We welcomed a team from Coquitlam and hope that a Langley team will be able to join us at our next event.

Several different materials were brought and displayed for others to be inspired by, or to add to their shopping lists!

We provided some updates to our project - that we received a third grant from the BCAMT to support our work together. We will need to write another article for the BCAMT journal Vector - wondering what we should share this time!

Each district team shared an update from their district - we are all in different places and points of our own professional inquiries and hearing from other districts helps us to consider professional learning structures that might work to support teachers in our districts as well as hear about exciting things happening in classrooms!

We heard how the Surrey School District hosted an event for their teachers - almost 130 of them! More info about this is here on Sandra Ball's blog: click here

There was lots of tweeting during the evening...

We heard about how counting collections have taken off in many classrooms across the Lower Mainland, how some classes are beginning to consider the question "what mathematics lives in this place?" and how digging deep into a concept like shapes, big numbers or equivalence provides such insight into students' thinking and understanding and how students' questions can guide the learning.

 

Based on some questions from district teams, I shared some thoughts on place-based pedagogy and the First Peoples Principles of Learning in relation to Reggio-Inspired principles and practices. Focusing on the ideas of self, story and place, we talked about the possibilities of story-ing in math and how the use of natural materials is relevant to our context. Here on the west coast of Canada, children find and use shells, pinecones, rocks, twigs etc as their "loose parts" in their outdoor play and it only makes sense to bring these into the classroom to provide a blurred line between these learning spaces. Teachers were able to create a "story box" to take away with them.

And the next day on twitter, this pops up in my feed. Alana in Delta brought together ideas about mathematical ideas, place and story in her classroom.

 It was another great evening of networking, sharing and learning. One teacher came up to me at the end of the evening and thanked me - she said she always felt "filled up" after time with this group. It is always stimulating, inspiring and collaborative - we are learning together.

We will be having a sharing meeting again in the spring and plans for a Saturday spring institute are in the works!

~Janice