1.+Overview

= Superior Greenstone District School Board = = Student Work Study Initiative = = Learning Supposition for 2012-2013 =

Overview of the Initiative
In my region I was able to closely support 2 schools, and of the other 2 schools, I was able to visit 1 a few times before Christmas and the other 1 a few times since March. Most of my work focuses on what grade 2/3/4 students are thinking/doing, however other examples are included from other grades as well. As a SWST I would try to visit host classrooms at least once a week. Balancing the SWST position with the other initiatives I was involved, made it difficult to ensure visits on a 'regular' basis. But teachers were very open and flexible. Classroom teachers in our Board were invited to volunteer to be part of the learning. The invitation below was sent out:



Together our School Effectiveness Support team also created the following Prezi that was shared (elaborated on) at a September PD day to introduce the initiative to schools:

media type="custom" key="23184856"

Prior to entering the teachers' classrooms I met with each of the teachers who had volunteered to host me to further outline the initiative. As classes tended to be small and numeracy the focus it was decided not to initially choose students to focus on, but to have more of an open global student focus looking for trends to emerge. Co-learning in the form of informal, ongoing dialogue, as well as teacher release time for collaboration was key. Research-based practice was encouraged by referencing and taking the time to read together, leading to deep discussions and providing 'food for thought', pushing us to want to dig deeper into the study. Observations from classrooms were shared with other host teachers as well as with principals at System Implementation hub sessions and also became the focus of our Math Camps and Grade 3/6 PLC's.

The distribution of grades and numbers of students involved were as follows:

JK/SK/Gr. 1 with 8 students
 * //Regularly supported all Year:// || //Others supported for parts of Year:// ||
 * **School A**

Gr. 2/3/4 with 9 students

Gr. 6/7 with 8 students

Gr. 2 with 18 students
 * School B**

Gr. 4/5 with 20 students || **School B** JK/SK with 20 students

Gr. 7 with 20 students

Gr. 8 with 27 students

Gr. 3/4 with 11 students
 * School C**

Gr. 5/6 with 11 students ||

It should be noted that the Political Situation did impede on the work being done. Just as we were beginning to develop relationships and to dig deeper into what some of the student work was saying, ETFO's stance impeded on us traveling and we weren't able to return to some of the classrooms until the end of January.

However, the spark had been well established and host teachers were thirsty to build their own content knowledge around multiple representations through the use of various mathematical models.

One day "Math Camps" were hosted on Feb. 28th, April 10th and May 8th, and then 3 in-depth planning sessions were hosted in June with host teachers who wanted to use what they had learned from their students this year to help with planning for next year. For information on topics covered during the Math Camp sessions visit: Math Camp Link

=  Continue on to 'Early Observations'   =