How can we harness curiosity, observation and connection to deepen student understanding in mathematics K-6?

Fully booked

How can we harness curiosity, observation and connection to deepen student understanding in mathematics K-6?

Description:
What happens when thinking moves become the centre of planning, teaching and learning in mathematics K-6?

“The study of mathematics provides opportunities for students to appreciate the elegance and power of mathematical reasoning and to apply mathematical understanding creatively and efficiently. The study of the subject enables students to develop a positive self-concept as learners of mathematics, obtain enjoyment from mathematics, and become self-motivated learners through inquiry and active participation in challenging and engaging experiences.”

Rationale, Mathematics K-10 Syllabus, NESA.

In this workshop, we will share how building a Culture of Thinking in our classrooms has supported students in developing deeper understanding in mathematics K-6.

Participants will explore how images, number talks, mathematical investigations and thinking routines can be powerful tools to support the aims, objectives and rationale of the Mathematics K-10 syllabus, harnessing the engaging and exciting aspects of mathematics and developing students as pattern-finders, connectors and effective communicators.

Goals of workshop:
The goal of this workshop is to explore the idea of noticing and wondering in mathematics and how we can use the vehicle of images and investigations to encourage students to be more curious about the patterns and connections that are found in maths concepts. Participants will see the power of Cultures of Thinking principles in deepening the ‘working mathematically’ aspects of the K-6 syllabus.

Audience: Primary

Presenter: Kath Boon - Thornleigh West Public School

Bio: 
Kath is an Assistant Principal and current Year 6 teacher with a passion for teaching mathematics K-6 and many years experience facilitating mathematics programs and professional learning at a school, district and regional level. She has been inspired by the power of building a culture of thinking in her classroom and looks forward to her ongoing learning.

 
Code: WS04

Curiosity-Based-Learning

Fully booked

Curiosity-Based-Learning: How K-12 teachers cultivate students’ curiosity to enhance engagement and deepen understanding.

Description:
‘Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning’ (Ward, 2008).

There is at least fifty years’ worth of research showing that curiosity is one of the most important ingredients of rich learning experiences.

In this workshop, teachers will explore the values and beliefs at play in classrooms where curiosity thrives, the features of learning experiences which generate curiosity, and the nature of relationships and interactions which allow curiosity to be nurtured and sustained.

Simon will draw on examples from a variety of different faculty areas and age-ranges, exploring several practical strategies that teachers might employ to ignite students' curiosity, leading to the development of deeper and more robust understandings, enhanced retention of information, and heightened levels of cognitive and emotional engagement.

Goals of workshop:
Participants will understand that curiosity is more than a character trait that students either 'have' or 'don't have', but rather that it is a disposition which we as teachers can nurture. They will understand the importance of ‘creating a muddle’, along with strategies such as cultivating uncertainty, surfacing prior knowledge, promoting prediction, encouraging diverse ideas, and courting controversy.

Audience: Primary & Secondary

Presenter: Simon Brooks - Simon Brooks Education

Bio: 
Simon works with educators and schools around the world interested in building cultures of thinking, where children delight in their learning and develop deep understandings through the process of becoming critical and creative thinkers. For many years, Simon was Director of Teaching and Learning at Masada College in Sydney, leading its transformation into a lighthouse school for Cultures of Thinking pedagogy and practice, and becoming a key influencer in the cultures of thinking movement in Australia. Simon is currently completing his PhD with the University of Sydney where his research focus is Curiosity-Based-Learning.
 
Code: WS05

How can slowing down the learning increase curiosity and deepen understanding?

How can slowing down the learning increase curiosity and deepen understanding?

Description:
We will be exploring the Agency By Design framework and thinking routines to explore the idea of starting with an object to allow students to construct meaning and understanding.

Slowing down the learning allows students and teachers to share their curiosity for investigating how things work and where they would like the learning to go next. You are only limited by your own imagination. This will be a practical, hands-on workshop.

Goals of workshop:
Our classrooms are busy places and we want to make every lesson count. Students come to school with a natural curiosity and their own perspective on how the world around them works. Using the Agency by Design framework and thinking routines can help us slow down and allow students time and opportunities to construct understanding and explore ideas. This allows both the teacher and students to share in meaningful learning and be inspired to explore new ideas.

Audience: Primary focus but accessible to all

Presenter: Ruth Carlos - Asquith Public School

Bio: 
Ruth is a K-6 teacher with a passion for helping students and teachers build understanding through curiosity and exploration. While embedding the Cultures of Thinking framework into her K-2 classrooms over the past 3 years she has found that it has reinforced her teaching philosophy and allowed her to learn from her students everyday.

 
Code: WS06

How might I build a classroom culture that encourages all students to truly value thinking?

How might I build a classroom culture that encourages all students to truly value thinking?

Description:
Be transformed into a Year 5/ 6 class (let’s call them 5/6 Guinea Pigs). The same Year 5/6 class who became the test subjects of my year long Action Research Project.

In this class and previous classes, there have always been some students consistently engaged in the processes of thinking and learning, while others seem to sit back. I wondered why this was and what I could do to support these students see that the learning really was for them as well.

Surely, if I could create a classroom culture that supports all students to truly value the process of thinking and listening to others’ thinking, they would be more actively engaged in learning.

Experience some of the learning opportunities and shifts in pedagogy that helped me and my 5/6 Guinea Pigs learn to incite and foster curiosity, value our thinking and ultimately become more actively engaged in our learning.

Goals of workshop:
This workshop aims to share my own puzzle of practice, the journey I took in investigating this puzzle and what I have learnt as a result.

Through hands-on and minds-on opportunities, participants will share in some of the thinking routines and shifts in practice that helped me and my students to develop and nurture a culture of thinking.

Audience: Primary & Secondary - Examples come from Upper Primary

Presenter: Sarah Fay - Newtown Public School

Bio: 
Sarah is a passionate educator who has taught upper primary for six years and is particularly interested in the relationship between curiosity, engagement and understanding. She is currently helping to lead the ongoing professional learning and collegial discussions needed to establish a school-wide Culture of Thinking.

 
Code: WS07

How can we build a culture of thinking in a foreign language?

How can we build a culture of thinking in a foreign language where thinking about their use of language enriches their competency?

Description:
The workshop will be divided into 3 parts:

• My journey of discovery with it’s sucesses and disasters in working out how best to exploit the cultures of thinking methods, as well as using the activities to get the students to think and function in the target language.

• Y8 (Stage 4) demonstration lesson for participants in French (using very basic words)

• Workshopping of activities that are hands on and useful and can be amended by the participants for their Language classrooms 

Goal of Workshop:
The goal of the workshop is to explore ways in which cultures of thinking can be exploited in a Foreign languages classroom in the target language from Years 8-12 to help the students enrich their vocabulary and grammar, whilst increasing their confidence, particularly in the productive skills of speaking and writing.

Audience: Primary & Secondary

Presenter: Karen Downes - St Aloysius’ College

Bio: 
Karen is Head of Languages and teacher of French Years 7-12; HSC Senior marker and examiner for French for Beginners, Continuers and Extension; an active member of NAFT (French teacher’s association of NSW) leading teacher workshops, student study skills days and leading groups in the HSC Trial writing for French.
 
Code: WS08

Bump it: From Puzzle to Practice

Bump it: From Puzzle to Practice: How might we bump up learning opportunities in a culture of thinking?

Description:
Participants are invited to step into the role of learners in a culture of thinking while being guided through a range of carefully selected thinking routines and protocols. The presenters will draw on their practice as both early years and middle years teachers to share opportunities for deepening student understanding.

Goals of workshop:
Participants will leave this experience with a mental goodie bag of ideas for deepening student understanding through the cultural force of opportunities.

Audience: Primary

Presenter: Kylie Gardner & Dan Johnson - Coromandel Valley Primary School

Bio: 
Kylie Gardner is an experienced early years educator who finds joy in creating opportunities to deepen student understanding through a culture of thinking. She thrives on the challenge of teaching and learning alongside five year olds.

Dan Johnson is a beginning teacher in his third year of primary education. He is passionate about creating a culture of thinking in his classroom and values facilitating opportunities to develop curiously minded global thinkers.
 
Code: WS09

Cultivating Confidence and Igniting Curiosity: How might I use my students’ curiosity to empower them?

Fully booked

Cultivating Confidence and Igniting Curiosity: How might I use my students’ curiosity to empower them?

Description:
Have your students ever waited patiently for you to fill in the gap for them? Do you find yourself playing “what-the-teacher-said-bingo” when you mark responses? What would happen if your students had the tools to develop confidence in the unknown and used their curiosity instead?

Against a backdrop of curriculum change and a School-wide priority that prioritises the building of a culture of thinking, we wanted to think about how we develop our students’ confidence, spark their curiosity and place the responsibility for thinking with them. We wanted to prioritising slow looking and depth of understanding.

In this workshop, we will share our experiences and insights, giving you a hands-on experience of thinking routines as well as an insight into the story of our classrooms where we actively worked to place curiosity and confidence at the centre.

Goals of workshop:
The goal of this workshop is to show and empower participants to understand the flexibility that CoT and Thinking Routines afford a classroom environment. Through hands on practice and some ‘bigger thinking ideas’ participants see that not having all of the answers and letting students’ curiosity run the classroom can lead to greater and more in-depth coverage and understanding. Participants will also, hopefully, be able to take away their own questions for their own teaching practice about how they might nurture dispositions of curiosity and confidence in their own classrooms.

Audience: Secondary & Primary - Examples are from a Secondary context

Presenter: Sarah Frey & Meghan Parry

Bio: 
Ms Sarah Frew is the Associate Dean at Brisbane Girls Grammar Grammar School. Previously a Head of Faculty – English, Sarah understands the demands of the curriculum and brings with her a wealth of experience and expertise in supporting students in their academic endeavours. Sarah reveres scholarship and is passionate about nurturing dispositions of confidence, curiosity, and resilience, and equipping students with the tools they need for active citizenship and successful futures.

Meghan Parry is the Head of Literature at Brisbane Girls Grammar. Currently overseeing the implementation of the new subject and syllabus, she loves to create classrooms full of curiosity that can go in any direction.
 

Code: WS10

Creative Writing: How can slow looking foster creativity in writing?

Fully booked

Creative Writing: How can slow looking foster creativity in writing?

How can we assist students be creative & critical writers. How can we use ‘Slow looking’ and curiosity so as to have our students highly engaged in their writing?

Description:
Storytelling is an art form that has existed for as long as humans have inhabited the earth. Creative Writing is one way a teacher can assist students develop a skill that will be in high demand in the workforce of the imminent future - creative thinking. This session will look at:

• My year long journey on the role of creative writing (I worked with author Bernard Cohen and Simon Brooks throughout my journey). I will share my successful learning experiences which utilized thinking routines that facilitated Creative Writing.

• The importance of educating our children into creativity. Their future success relies on it!

• The role ‘Slow Looking’ plays in Creative Writing

• The role criteria plays in bumping up student writing and allowing for purposeful peer feedback.

• How creative writing helps students find their voice and build confidence in their ideas and expressing themselves.
  

Goal of workshop:

• Understand the importance of having students engage in creative writing regularly

• How to use ‘Slow Looking’ as a tool to facilitate creative writing.

• How to bump up student writing with criteria

• How to assist students provide peer feedback during the creative writing process

• How to implement creative writing

Audience: Primary focus but accessible to all

Presenter: Michelle Caruso

Bio: 
Michelle is a passionate teacher (Primary K-6) who aims to develop students’ curiosity and creativity. In 2018 Michelle embarked on a year long journey around the role of creativity in writing.

Code: WS11

Knowledge vs Understanding

Uncovering Hidden Treasures and Mathematical Understanding

Knowledge vs Understanding: Uncovering Hidden Treasures and Mathematical Understanding

Description:
Ever found yourself asking, “didn’t they learn this last year?”

This workshop questions the dichotomy between knowledge and understanding.

As we begin to delve into the cultural force of expectations, exploring these ideas through the context of an upper primary mathematics classroom, we will use practical examples and routines to engage with the theory around our expectations ‘for’ students.

Goals of workshop:
To begin to explore:

• the cultural force of expectations

• how understanding differs from knowledge acquisition

• what this looks like in the context of the Australian Curriculum Mathematics (upper primary)

Audience: Primary

Presenter: Krystal Lawrie - Mitcham Hills Partnership

Bio: 
Krystal is a passionate educator who shares her enthusiasm for learning and expertise with students, teachers and school leaders in her current role as a Senior Leader in the Mitcham Hills Partnership of schools. Krystal’s pedagogical imperative is to empower students with the skills, understandings and dispositions they need to be embrace a rapidly changing, global society.
 
Code: WS12

How can we tap into the visual strengths of students to encourage creativity? 

How can we tap into the visual strengths of students to encourage creativity?

Description:
Our students are bombarded with visual information and feel comfortable exploiting this sense. How can we use this as an opportunity to extend their learning?

This workshop will look at various activities which have been used in the context of English in various courses and year groups, to use this visual sense to ease students into thinking critically and writing creatively.

Goal of Workshop:
The goal of the workshop is to explore some strategies and teaching materials which can be used to encourage students to value their own ideas and creative thinking and to spark ideas for participants to rethink ways of promoting student creativity.

Audience: Primary & Secondary

Presenter: Karen McEwen - Masada College

Bio: 
Karen is a passionate teacher who aims to develop students’ self belief making them into risk takers in their learning who value the opportunity to strive for their personal best. She is a presenter at English Teachers Association workshops for students and teachers.
 
Code: WS13

Designed for Understanding 

Fully booked

Designed for Understanding: How Design Thinking might be leveraged to teach for understanding.

Description:
In this Workshop we will explore how a Design Thinking approach allows us to navigate our way through the complex tasks of translating curriculum documents, meeting our students where they are in their learning and maximising the impact of our teaching. Design thinking provides us with a set of tools that allow us to manage complexity and develop creative solutions based upon a considered analysis of numerous factors.

Goals of workshop:

• To provide practical a experience in planning units that promote student understanding of what matters most.

• Offer a set of tools which are readily adapted to multiple settings, promote collaborative ideation and builds confidence in the planning process.

Audience: Primary

Presenter: Nigel Coutts, Julie Francis, Jo Benneyworth - Redlands

Bio:
Nigel is Dean of Teaching & Learning P-6 at Redlands. He is a cultivator of thinking, creativity, deep understanding and a love of lifelong learning. He is passionate about learner agency, maker centred learning and the role education plays in preparing children for success in a rapidly changing world.

Julie is a forward-thinking educator and facilitator of personalised learning who aims to support the unique needs, and fulfil the diverse capabilities of each student. Julie leads a team of teachers who facilitate teaching for understanding within a culture of thinking.

Jo is driven to engage her learners in spectacular learning that provides them with rich opportunities to think and build their understandings. Her classroom is place where students learn with agency and gain confidence in their dispositions.


 
Code: WS14