F is for favourite things... Show your work!

A little behind but F is for favourite things. In particular, my favourite thing I found today is a site called Dear Data. In my never ending search to give mathematics education a makeover so that more students see it as a creative, problem finding and problem solving way of thinking, I stumbled on what might be the most beautiful mathematics I have in a while.

It started with my interest in data visualisation after meeting the fascinating @kamal_hothi , a data visualiser for the New Zealand Herald. He shared a link to the Factor Dance (you need to click on this link and look, trust me).

The idea of data visualisation fascinated me as it is a role than combines artistry with a solid understanding of data and often, coding too. Hence, it is another example of why we can not continue to only teach maths, but all learning areas in isolation. It is not the data that matters, but what we do with it that matters. Is it useful? How can we use it solve a problem? What problems does the data present? The Dear Data website does a beautiful job of showing creativity in mathematics, problem finding and problem solving. I think I am in love.

Image source
Please note, I could not find a creative commons or any other licence on the site. I have however emailed the owners to let them know that I am sharing their fabulous work on my site and will remove the work if they have any issues with me sharing it here. 

Additionally, many maths teachers also have an ongoing effort with getting students to 'show their work'. I have been focussing on developing this in my students lately using a SOLO rubric and the language of the Hobsonville Point Secondary School Learning Design Model. The Dear Data site includes not only beautiful, but clear examples of showing your work.

All of this makes me want to re-read my current favourite book, Austin Kleon's Show your work. It's a must read for everyone, and is cheap as chips on Amazon.com.

E for Easter in Education

Take a moment to consider how many of the students in your class were born in the same city or country. How many of the students that were born here, have parents that were born in another city? How many of the students in your class have no religion? How many of the students in your class are very religious? How many of the students in your class are deeply connected to their cultural heritage? How many of the students in your class are not particularly connected to their cultural heritage and might be searching for cultural or other roots? How many of the students in your class have particular traditions that are of special value to them? And then consider the cultural capital possibly hidden within your students. The parts of their identities that 'appear' to have no place in their maths, reading, writing... Yet, Shakespeare, Pythagoras, Pol Pot does.

E for easter has me thinking of the cultural, religious and other factors that contribute to student and teacher's identities that are simply ignored in schools. My own family have many cultural traditions related to easter and christmas. These traditions form a key part of my identity. Although we might never say your religion or your culture is not important whilst we are in a school context, we unfortunately do send negative messages about these critical contributors to identity when we do not acknowledge and integrate them. I worry that by removing the cultural and religious aspects from our academic curriculum, we are suggesting that it has no part to play in the preparation for our futures, the skills needed to gain jobs, pass exams and succeed.

In schools, we often tend to spend more, if not all of our time on academic, intellectual pursuits. As a result, we implicitly send the message that academic, intellectual pursuits are valued above all. You can see this attitude in the performing arts (think Ken Robinson's argument about schools killing creativity), but also in the Education Review Office's recent report around student well being that highlights explicitly how assessment and curriculum are valued over student well being. I have talked about this in a previous post, asking "What type of students our schools and the systems therein will be turning out? If we only teach and emphasise achievement, NCEA and national standards, then what are we teaching kids to value?" I wonder whether the similar messages are being sent implicitly around diversity?

And when we do set out to 'prove' that we value diversity, what does this look like? A map put up in class to show where different students come from? How does this teach students to value diversity and cultural capital? It may serve as a starting point but what long term impact could this possibly have? What about cultural interest groups at schools? Are they open to only students that identify with that culture, or are they open, and are advertised to be so, for any students who wants to learn about and with that cultural group?

Personally, it puts a great smile on my face seeing Asian, South African, Maori and other students performing side by side in Kapa Haka groups. It sees these groups side by side, valuing cultural capital enough to invest time and effort into understanding and empathising with its ideas. Key Competencies for the Future highlighted this idea for me again, when one of the authors talked about how she had always acknowledged diversity in her class, but she had not yet taught in such a way that valuing and utilising diversity became critical to the success of a project. Wouldn't you send a very different message about valuing diversity if this was your approach?

Consider the enormous amounts of immigrants world wide, and consider the ethnic groups that makeup schools in New Zealand (see Education counts for this data). I think it is safe to say that future success for our students requires them to celebrate and utilise the diversity of the teams in which they will work. Not only that, but responding effectively to diversity forms part of your Registered Teacher Criteria.

Given the above, I wonder... How might we embrace and utilise diversity in our schools more effectively?

Image Source

Design Thinking

Sharing an office with Steve Mouldey a massive advocate for Design Thinking, I was always bound to pick up a few more things about it (read more about Steve's thoughts around Design Thinking on his blog). However, from the many conversations and book recommendations (Creative Confidence and How To Come Up With Great Ideas and Actually Make Them Happen), I am increasingly seeing reasons for more teachers to explore the use of design thinking.

"“leading into the future” involves abandoning the idea that there are “right answers” out there. Rather, problem definition, data collection, and experimentation all need to be carried out together, alongside each other, in a continually repeating cycle in which the aim isn’t to “solve” whatever has been identified as “the problem”, but to understand the system, to learn, and to have one’s thinking changed, along the way. As they put it: The key lever in a complex system is learning. The key methods are conversation, discovery, and experimentation." - see references below.

The above paragraph surprisingly does not describe design thinking, but rather comes from a reading describing what our students will need to be able to do in the future. Yet, if you know anything about Design Thinking, you might recognise just how well it sits with the needs identified above. In other words, Design Thinking gives one an explicit process to teach complex problem solving. Not only that, but it teaches tools and processes for empathising with different people and situations. It teaches skills like incorporating feedback, and that creativity is a process, not a light bulb moment that only some people have.

Perhaps I will use the E post to elaborate some more tomorrow...

B is for Back to the future and C for Change is afoot

Over the past few weeks I have been spending a significant amount of time focussing on the ideologies that our education system in the past, and largely still in the present was founded on. You may have even read my post, Education's great wicked problem where I explore some of these ideas. However there is always more to the story...

Our ideologies are the things that we think with rather than about. It is how we think rather than what we think. There are examples of this everywhere. What we think about any given thing, a government proposal, gay marriage and even whether you recycle, is driven by your underlying ideologies. What we value drives our choices. Hence, if I value the earth and the future generations who will have to deal with the problems created by current generations (environmental degradation, over population, global warming etc.), I might be more inclined to actively promote and participate in ideas and actions around sustainability. Equally, if I value honesty, I will be more inclined to be honest. Although in both cases I might actively think about the fact that I value sustainability, or that I value honesty. What I am less likely to think about is what caused me to value it. What experiences shaped my world view, my perceptions to value those things? And further, what experiences has shaped others to think about the world and all that happens therein, differently? And without actively stopping and thinking how and why did I come to think in a certain way, I am likely to simply think about the what, e.g. recycling, asset sales, education reform and then find the evidence to support my argument. Most likely, and without meaning to, I would probably be employing some selection bias to bolster whatever I was thinking about.

It seems that everyone has an opinion about education, and rightly so since everyone has experience of it. Perhaps, what we spend less time on is thinking about what shaped our underlying view of what an education system might be. For example, most people would agree that education is a means of addressing inequality. However, have you stopped to think about what shaped that view? If you were going to cite some facts and figures now about how education has allowed some to break the cycles of poverty, I might remind you of my previous comment about selection bias. Again, what we think is that education should address inequality. But how we think is a whole other ball game. How have you come to believe your views? 

The above seems very philosophical, and you might wonder what it has to do with you. Remember those arguments you have with colleagues when you are taking risks, trying to be more future focussed? And it seems that they just can not get on board? Chances are, the way you think about the world is different. Although what you think about is the same, students, pastoral care, assessment, developing thinking, how you think about it is probably different. Given the breakdown of the ages of teachers in New Zealand, the types of thinking and socialisation that each generation would have encountered is likely to be different. 

Currently falling in the under 25 to 29 category, it is very likely that I think of the world as a constantly changing place. In fact, it is what I expect of the world, that it does constantly change. Perhaps some things stay the same, like human nature. Many other things are not the same. Society, the way it works, what we value, what our goals are, has changed. Once upon a time it may have been the case that you could go to university so that you get a good job, and then you can buy a house. You might have gone to work and spent time with your friends and family on the weekend or the evening. Some might even have travelled to other cities and countries for work. What are the chances that many if not most of the 59% of the teachers over the age of 40, currently in our education system still has a world view that resembles this? Many of those in their 30s and below will also have this world view. Go to university to get a good job. 

However, Is this a likely future for the students currently in our schools? Or are they more likely to work with many individuals, in many countries, possibly without ever needing to leave their home? I know that already I regularly Skype people from across the country and across the world, working alongside on a range of projects. I also know that the current success in my career can not be solely attributed to a university degree. It is only one brick in the wall, it is not the foundation. It is a ticket to a big party in town, with many many other guests. So I am nothing special having this ticket, but not having it just makes things a lot more challenging. Last night I attended the TEDx Auckland launch party. Of the range of people approximately my age that I spoke to, not a single one of them went to work, and then went home at the end of the night, only to repeat it the next day. They all collaborated on projects outside their 'main' job. They use social media, and any other resource available to make connections. They carve out niches for themselves, not ones that are predefined roles. And there are many people like this.Think Michelle Dickinson, Jade Leung, Oscar Ellison, Emma Winder, Claire Amos. These people don't just have a day job. The manage a portfolio of projects.

People often cite that old pearl "there is nothing new under the sun". But that is just not true anymore. Do you realise, that the question "where are you?" is a new question? Because before mobile phones, email, internet, you could only contact someone if you knew where they were.

The way we communicate, they way we network, the way we build relationships, the way we run companies, the way we organise events have all changed. Children working abroad don't get occasional letters from their family or friends that they left behind. They can Skype them, see them, interact with them, on a daily basis. Talking to an employee at Spark's Lightbox (TV programme streaming service), she commented on the distinctive difference between viewing habits of those above and below 30. If you ask my 14 year olds at school how they would go about learning something new, they would say Youtube and Google, usually in that order. We are never going to go back to the local library being the place for information. It is not just book publishers and journals that are publishing and creating knowledge. They key difference to note here is that although anyone might recognise that trends come and go, what everyone does not recognise is that they way the world works is fundamentally shifting. Where things might have stayed largely the same with a few trends changing around the peripheries, we are moving to and already largely living in a world where things are constantly changing and a few things are staying the same around the peripheries. 

You might recognise some other events in history that caused fundamental changes in the way the world works and how people view it. Namely, world war one and world war two. You can imagine the massive paradigm shifts that people experienced when women all of a sudden had to work. You can imagine the personal conflicts that many would have experienced, debating whether some individuals were taking too many risks, letting their daughters go to work! Can you imagine the outrage. Yet, compare that with how we view woman in the workplace today. Can you imagine the personal conflict, the emotional lashing out against those who challenged world views? 

Granted, and thankfully, we are not experiencing another world war. But we are experiencing another fundamental change in the way the world works, in how people view and create their identities in the word. We are experiencing fundamental changes in how and where people work. We are experiencing changes in the skills needed to do our jobs. An example being a conversation I have heard time and time again, "I was hired to be a teacher, not to build a website" - this is in reference to adding resources onto a student learning system for learners to access. Where one used to be hired to do a job, chances are, you are now hired in an 'evolving' role. To prove my point, use a job search website and search for the word 'evolving'...  Does evolving really just mean that we can not guarantee that your job is going to stay the same, because the world is changing? Given that there were literally hundreds of search results for this...

These screenshots were taken from Seek.co.nz today...

Change is the new normal. No wait, break neck, constant, large scale change is the new normal. In other words, the way the world functions is and has changed. Hence, when we still maintain our old paradigms about how the world works, it is likely that we will struggle to embrace change. It is likely that our organisations and companies will struggle. But also, if we do embrace change, unless we realise that the way we view the world is different, it is likely that we will encounter dissonance with our ideas. Our new New Zealand curriculum states "New Zealand needs its young people to be skilled and educated, able to contribute fully to its well-being, and able to meet the changing needs of the workplace and the economy." Has the way you view the world meant that you assumed that the world is changing and students need be prepared for this 'new world', or, has it meant that you assumed that every job that a student will do, will constantly evolve? Even check out operators at supermarkets work differently nowadays... 

Another blog challenge....

Yup. It is A for April and A for the A to Z challenge, a blogging challenge I joined with my colleague Ros at HPSS whilst teaching a module about Social Media last year. Participating in Tom Barrett's #28daysofwriting challenge I remembered just how much I enjoy having a bit of external motivation to share and contribute. Starting my masters this year also means that a writing habit is probably a good thing to keep on developing.

So... It's not too late. You can join the blogging challenge too! Jump in, have a go, participate. Especially with two weeks of school holidays to get you started if you are in New Zealand. You can sign up here.


My top tips for a blogging challenge:

1. Preplan the day before when you will blog.
2. Set a timer. The 28 minutes challenge from Tom Barrett was particularly good. It forced me to write long enough to explain a single idea well. Hence, some of the more difficult to explain thoughts that had been drifting around in my head, were distilled to manageable chunks.
3. Use photos. A great way to blog if you are pressed for time is to take a couple of photos you would like to share and then caption those.
4. Try and push your creativity. Draw something. Annotate something. Review something. Try something new. Creativity is all about risk taking.
5. Because your mind will be looking for ideas to blog about, you might find that inspiration hits at weird times (the shower, in the car, whilst trying to concentrate in a meeting). Record those ideas as they are great to go back to when you are stuck. 

Good luck to all the other A to Z participants. Check out the #atozchallenge hashtag to see what they are sharing. 

Volanoes

V is for volcanoes in the A to Z challenge...

Welcome to Auckland, New Zealand, a city built on a dormant volcanic field. As a result, we have 53 volcanoes in Auckland. There is also Rotorua, one of my favourite New Zealand cities where you can visit geothermal tourist attractions, or just watch the steam rise and the mud bubble in a local public park. This is of course a wonder land for a girl who used to collect rocks. My mum tells me that we used to have arguments when she unpacked my far too heavy school bags because I wouldn't let her throw my rock collections out. Apparently I insisted that each one had a special colour, a special shape or something else special.

Public park, Rotorua New Zealand

This term, I will be working with Sally and Pete on a module called The MASTER behind the chef. We will be exploring our geological past, present and future through food and maths. Since every year, I identify my insufficient knowledge of Māori language and culture as a professional development need, I am really looking forward to working with two educators who are role models in this field.

Even more so, I am excited to explore the great impact that these beautiful but vicious features of our landscape have had on New Zealanders. As a tourist in New Zealand, you can have corn cooked in a geothermal pit as Māori did in their past. A friend of mine has a tiny garden at the foot of Mount Albert, another Auckland volcano. She rarely buys vegetables because her soil is so fertile due to the volcano on her doorstep. Just as Māori found value in the geology of the landscape, so too can we find value in it now. There are parts of our knowledge about volcanoes that have evolved, but there are also parts that stayed the same. The New Zealand Curriculum requires that all students should learn about how scientific knowledge changes over time, and so, I am looking forward to a great term exploring the ties with which geology connects New Zealand past, present and future.

Rotorua, New Zealand

Rangitoto Island, Auckland, New Zealand

There is still magic in the world

U is for Unusual and unexpected in the A to Z challenge...

As a tweenager, I was somewhat obsessed with all things magic. I am part of the original Harry Potter generation after all. As well as Harry Potter though, there were others. Patricia C. Wrede's enchanted forest chronicles, Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet but also Orson Scott Card's Enchantment. It was during this phase of my life that I discovered my favourite book of all time - Ender's Game (see the video below for the movie trailer). If you are going to surround yourself with magic and science fiction, and then mix in a very overactive imagination, there is really only one way things will end... A grown up who still believes in magic. The magic isn't so much fairies and dragons anymore though...

Take for example the incredible things shared on www.iflscience.com on a daily basis. On their home page right now is an article about a recently discovered earth size planet in a habitable zone and another about some super massive black holes that were discovered. On the BBC's science page you can find some wonder in the scientist who made an exceptional discovery using a kitchen blender, dishwashing liquid and pencils. It seems there really is magic in the world, and it is found in science.

As a science teacher, I often feel that I have two main goals. The first, is to introduce and expand students' knowledge and curiosity of the marvels, the magic, the unusual and the unexpected in science. The second is to teach them that with great power, comes great responsibility (yes that is a quote from Spiderman, but I think it's from Voltaire originally which gives it a bit more street credit).

With these two goals in mind, think about my term one module called glow in the dark cats. The magic and marvel part is obvious, glow in the dark animals! This then leads you to learn about genes and genetic engineering. And then next thing you know, Voltaire and Spiderman with their idea of great responsibility turn up. Is it ethical to produce glow in the dark animals? Would be it be ethical to apply this technology in other places? Is it ethical to genetically engineer humans?

Again keeping in mind these ideas of teaching science with the goals of curiosity and responsibility, I would like to share with you a plan for our next term at school. English teacher and Deputy Principal Claire Amos and I will be teaching a module all about Ender's Game. While she will look at all thing English (I'm imagining language features, character development etc.), I will have a term to explore the science behind Ender's Game. Think gravitational fields, planets, stars and space travel. It doesn't end there though. Ender's Game as you may know, is centred around the idea of war games. And of course, our students today are very familiar with war games. So what if we could get a real scientist to come and monitor student's brains as they play war games to see if they are affected? Thanks to Claire and her new friend, Dmitry Selitskiy we just might... I will keep you updated.

With great power comes great responsibility, and I hope that all teachers take this to heart. We are able to install wonder, awe and engagement in many of our students. But we can also take it away. How are you hoping to install wonder, awe and curiosity in your students? But also, how are you educating them about the risks and dangers? Energy crisis, future food shortages, over population?

Mirror mirror on the wall, are kids in maths classes having a ball?

R is for research in the A to Z challenge...

Have you ever noticed the way people talk about maths? "I don't like maths" or "I'm bad at maths" Even in my post graduate level, starting masters degree, critical research methodologies course, from a top university, students shy away from quantitative research due their 'feelings' about maths.

A 2009 report from the New Zealand Ministry of Education suggested that 37% of the students in their survey selected maths as their least favourite subject. Incase you think you might be bad at maths too, let me interpret for you... This means that more than a third of students have selected maths as their least favourite subject. Not just that they dislike it, but that out off all the subjects they do dislike, maths is the one they dislike the most.

In 2013, New Zealand fell from 13th to 22nd in their PISA maths scores. Although there was some discussion in the media and in staff rooms, PISA was labelled just another test. And since, I have heard nothing of it.

As a bit of a maths victim myself, I set out to restore the relationship between myself and maths when I accidentally ended up teaching it. And yes, we really have restored the relationship. I have discovered that I am very mathematically minded and that I enjoy maths. So why is it that for so many years as a student, I thought that I was bad at maths? Why is it that I too would have chosen maths as my least favourite subject?

Images from Pic Sauce and Teenager Post via Pinterest

Over Christmas I read Jo Boaler's The Elephant in the Classroom (a MUST read for all maths teachers). There is a great line in her book that is echoed in much of the work on Dan Meyer's blog too -“in maths classrooms, trains travel towards each other on the same tracks and people paint houses at identical speeds all day long. Water fills baths at the same rate each minute, and people run around tracks at the same distance from the edge” - Boaler (2009, Loc 715). Both Dan Meyer and Jo Boaler then go on to then talk about how the maths classroom could be changed, for the better. And so I started wondering... What is actually happening in maths classrooms? And the more I wonder, the more I am dead curious and actually want to go look.

All over Twitter and and all over the internet educators are sharing fantastic, innovative, engaging pedagogy. You can just look at the great conversations that happen anywhere, anytime using the symbol of the moment, the hashtag. Even a quick look through #mathchat on Twitter reveals some exciting and engaging maths tasks.

Area project idea that incorporates real world concepts! http://t.co/WGSZj0AmLu #mathchat

— Matt Davis (@Mathman17) April 21, 2014

Neat collection of real world math problems w/ theme "Would you rather...?" http://t.co/Dcj44XULeT #mathchat #ntchat

— Betty Fei (@BettyFei) April 21, 2014

So if all this is going on in the cyber world, is it happening in maths classrooms? I'd like to know. So after much deliberation, going this way and that way, I have officially chosen a topic for my masters. I want to know what is going on in maths classrooms at the moment. Are teachers using e-learning to make rewindable videos for their students? Have they mastered the art of the explanation on a white board? Are they using flipped class models or project based learning? Are they using cooperative strategies? Or are kids going it solo, focussed on the task at hand? Where are the problems the students are solving coming from? Textbooks? The internet? Did the teacher choose the problems? Did the teacher make up the problems? Do the problems require replication of methods or analytical thinking skills? I want to know!

What do you think I will find? Even better, what do you think I will find in those first two years of high school where I want to focus my study?

Boaler, J. (Ed.). (2009). The elephant in the classroom: helping children learn and love maths: Souvenir.
Davison, I. (2013). Gap widens between NZ students. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11167148
Meyer, D. (2013). Fake World Math.  Retrieved from http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?cat=109
Wylie, C., Hodgen, E., Hipkins, R., & Vaughan, K. (2009). Competent Learners on the Edge of Adulthood. Wellington: Ministry of Education

Nerd Online

Next on the A to Z challenge is N and O for Nerd Online

Please note, I have't asked permission to use this amge

The image above from laughing squid by Craig Newmark definitely clarifies a few things for me.
Obsession - Education
Intelligence - I am a firm believer in having a growth mindset, so I have gone out of my way to 'grow my intelligence'
Social Ineptitude - Happiest on my own, definitely an introvert
So... obsession + intelligence + social ineptitude = nerd or at the very least, a geek.

I thought I would take a moment to share some of the source of my daily inspiration towards greater nerdhood with you.

1. Steve Mouldey started challenging my thinking the year before last through being a super star Twitter connection. He reads like a machine, is enthusiastic and looks for inspiration in all kinds of places. He now has the desk next to mine at work and let me tell you, he inspires, challenges and questions your thinking even better in person.
2. Matt Nicoll is possibly the most loyal #edchatNZ participant. He has great ideas and takes inspirational risks in his science classroom. Great to have inspiration in my subject field!
3. One of my favourite places for inspiration is Zite. It's a great way to get all kinds of exciting education (and other) updates from all over the world. The thumbs up thumbs down system means that my feed is completely customised with articles that I enjoy. 
4. Of course, don't forget Pinterest for a bit of visual inspiration for great teaching ideas. Here is my science board, maths board and general teaching board, all ready to inspire a great lesson at a drop of a hat.
5. Of course, I must include Dan Meyer in my lists of inspiration. The man always has food for thought on his blog. Over the next two weeks I will begin working on my masters proposal, a proposal heavily inspired by Dan Meyer. I'd love to know if there is a poster child for science education the way that Dan is for maths education. If you know of anyone, I'd love to know.

So there you go, some people and places to look into for a bit of inspiration if like me, you are a nerd online too.  

What would you put in a museum of yourself?

M is for Museum of Mihi in the A to Z challenge...

Some teachers ask students to write a letter about who they are. Other schools might do a title page. Our school had students make a museum. The Museum of Mihi module as run by Sally, Megan and Steve had students explore their identities and then present it as a museum. They even took the students on a field trip to look at how museums were designed.
*If you are not from New Zealand, a Mihi is a greeting 

The photos below are artefacts  and parts of the students' museums that they either collected or made. They include everything from a walk through tunnel, a book, a wardrobe, celebrations, a family tree, an olympic swimming pool and a stable.

Learning 2.0

L is for Learning 2.0 in the A to Z challenge:

At Hobsonville Point Secondary School, we want to personalise learning. We want our kids to love learning. And we want the learning for both academic and personal dispositions to be rigorous. You might be curious about how a public secondary school is trying to achieve this. So here is the cheat sheet...

Start with Claire's blog post that describes the different structures of our school. Then read Megan's blog post that describes the anatomy of our learning hubs. And then, read through the modules we are offering for term two. In short though, modules cover the curriculum whilst learning hubs is where we develop the whole learner and where we make and develop our connections with families.

We still teach maths, english, science and so forth. But we do things a little differently. For example, you can choose how you do your maths and science in term two... So everyone is learning about maths and science, but you can choose to do it it in a visual arts context, a food and culture context or a social science context.

You might wonder what this looks like in practice...Below is a comparison between one of the modules I taught this term with Ros MacEachern called Larger than Life. You can see that I still taught statistics, however I just wrapped it in a context. And this clever wrapping allow us to personalise whilst providing rigour and curriculum coverage.

What we do: Maths at HPSS	New Zealand Curriculum
Modules take the place of subjects at HPSS. A module combines two or three subject areas. Students who have additional interests in maths will be able to gain extra coverage in  SPINS (special interest modules) which focus on extended coverage of learning areas	The New Zealand curriculum dictates what all students across the country should be learning at school From the New Zealand Curriculum: In a range of meaningful contexts, students will be engaged in thinking mathematically and statistically. They will solve problems and model situations.
Larger Than Life: (combining English and Maths) Under the English component of this module, students produced their own blog or vlog. Students in this module: Analysed graphs based on the content of their blogs/vlogs. E.g. Students who were blogging about gaming looked at graphs of console prices over time. Entered the amount of ‘hits’ from each of theirs sites in a spread sheet Posed questions about the amount of ‘hits’ that we were getting as a class. E.g. Did YouTube channels or blogs of the students in our class have the most hits? Did the boys or girls in our class get more hits? Calculated the averages to determine the answers for the questions above Begin to manipulate a spread sheet to input formulae and produce graphs	In statistics students will: Interpret statistical displays Use a calculator to determine averages Undertake a statistical investigation Flow chart from NZ Maths http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/elaborations-level-five-statistics

Of course, because the learning for every student looks different, we need to make sure there is consistency across the modules. This is gained from the learning design model which was constructed by pulling the New Zealand curriculum to pieces and the putting it back together again. Just one term in and most of the students are able to verbalise the main parts of the model and understand its process on driving learning.