Jono's Amazing Professional Blog

For those educators and anyone else interested, Algebro's has been posted here for you to use with your classes (or yourselves). I've included my Pecha Kucha presentation for you to view. My notes are in the notes section of this slide deck. I've also managed to upload my pecha kucha recording further below.  Your feedback would appreciated if you have the time. Just click the icon across the top of the Algebro's website.  Huge thanks to all who have made this site a possiblity, and to the principals at today's Wananga for supporting all of our projects.  More in-depth post to come.  Enjoy!  UPDATE: I learned earlier today that Algebro's has been used to support the students at Pt England School. Click here to see how Mr Moran has used Algebro's to help his students succeed in maths! 

Image attribution Algebro's progress So Far ... Algebro’s is getting that much closer to being a final product. The focus has been on recording enough videos per Transum Algebra Level. Student’s are getting more confident in their explanations and conversations with each other when solving algebraic equations. They have surpassed Level 1 (e.g. 2x=10) and more likely to start at Level 2 (2x + 3 = 13). Possibly the greatest learning has been recognising letters as variables. Students seem to be more likely to identify and use more of what they know vs not knowing where to start (“I dunno”).  Applying integers has tripped us up a handful of times in our problem solving. We’ve been doing enough algebra practise combined with integers to make sense of what we’re doing. I feel like we need more time teaching and practising before making tutorials for this section.  I’ve shared Algebro’s with the teachers at my school. They seem to like what I’ve created so far and that I’ve include...

Hey Room 1  MASSIVE effort on Thursday from everyone who played their part in the afternoon with digging, weeding and planting both outside Room 1 and at behind the multipurpose room. Those spaces are going to grow and flourish thanks to you laying the foundations for it - well done, tika!  Thanks to those of you who went the extra mile with responsibilities like looking after our younger students, packing up and clearing the class, and allowing each other to have a break where possible.  Hope you have an awesome evening - can't wait for assembly tomorrow.  Regards  Mr N 

What’s on top?  I always enjoy catching up in person with the MIT-22 crew. Huge thanks to KPMG for hosting us in one of their amazing workspaces and for providing lunch. I love being in my class and teaching my students but having the “brain space” to complete this project is necessary for my target group to succeed in their maths learning. I have used my MIT release days mostly for filming and a little bit of editing. Crafting the Algebro’s website, on the other hand, has required a bit more individual time and effort to get exactly how I want it to be.  Any time spent on creating the Algebro’s website has been both a blessing and a curse: blessed to be working on it, cursed to keep getting every little thing right (i.e. graphics, layout, colours, titles, subheadings, links). “Curse” probably isn’t the right word to use as I’ve actually enjoyed working on this project! It’s more a reflection on me and how much I want to get Algebro’s to be the best possible tool it can be; to...

Room 1 were lead by Ray and Sefo in hosting the Week 5 Whole School Assembly. They showed a bit of nerves but spoke clearly in all of their parts to lead the acts, karakia and waiata. Room 1's class item was sharing their "wins" from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. I found it particularly interesting learning about the South Pacific Islands. Room 1 presented their learning on colourful A3 posters about New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and a few other places.  My class did an awesome job to prepare and present. Everyone showed great leadership, teamwork and played their part in contributing to the assembly. Foli and I'Ola were great directors in the lead up, while many others stepped up to present, write a script or refine what it was they wanted to share.  Ka rawe, Room 1! 

August 12  Tell us where you've got to The site is looking really good! I think I’ve settled on a name as well …  Algebra’s: Developing Year 7&8 Knowledge and Achievement in Basic Algebra  I’m still recording and adding videos, pondering if I need to delete some parts of the page or not and working on the overall “feel” of the site - how easy is it for a Y7&8 student to navigate the site?  What’s been added, what’s dropped off  I think I’ve settled on the home page and the current structure. I believe the links to different levels of algebra, along with an equation example makes things obvious enough. I think I’m going to add pics of the students in class working on Algebro’s, to make it a personalised site to Ruapotaka School.  The addition of sub-elements like integers, basic facts and integers practise will remain. It was confirmed through teaching this level of algebra how much more my students needed to work on these parts. We then recorded a c...