LAND+Term+2+and+beyond+(Perth)

After having our latest meeting with Matt and Julie we had our school based LAND meeting today (5/5/09) and discussed the whole school approach for Numeracy at Banksia Grove Catholic Primary School from here onwards until the end of Semester 2.


 * __Long Term Goal__** - After much discussion our long term goal really is to get a common element across all year levels, much like RAISe Literacy. We discussed these elements and this 'commonality' at LAND itself so we feel that it is a good long term goal to aim for.


 * __PLC__** - Following up from our PLC last week we are getting staff to bring in two games that they utilise during class based on the strand of number. Staff will explain the game and demonstrate, we will then either get the student teachers, TAs etc to photocopy these so **all** staff have a copy for their classroom, no matter what level.

We have also allowed time for staff to use and discuss collaborative learning in the numeracy environment. Now collaborative learning is great in literacy but we have to make sure we are using the same common language within our numeracy dedicated time.

Along with this common language we will be talking about what prompts we could use for the students themselves to help answer questions. Students who may find things hard will look to these prompts/gambits to try and help them devise what the question is asking and how to solve it or how to go about trying to solve it. These gambits can then be placed around either the school (whole school approach) or in each individual classroom. Once again this will have that common element about it all.

Finally we will be discussing the common elements of what each individual teachers dedicated numeracy time looks like. We will try to find some common ground on what is essential during this time and come up with a plan of attack for a whole school approach to numeracy, once again those common elements and getting that commonality amongst all year levels.


 * __Teachers Teaching Teachers__** - During week 4 of term 2 we have decided to start teaching the teachers on using Emu Maths. We have, once again, gone for a whole school approach by covering the area of place value. We have one Emu trained teacher who has already taught myself, so we are allowing that expertise to flow on through to the rest of the teaching staff. This way individual teachers can then cover this in their classroom and we can have a whole school approach to see where students are either falling down and where they need extra help or to see where they are excelling.


 * __Classroom Viewing__** - During semester 2 we will be opening up our classroom doors to allow other classroom teachers to view what our numeracy dedicated time looks like. Further discuss these times during our PLC times later on during the year.