Manaiakalani Digital Practicum

Three weeks ago I signed up for the first fully digital practicum where Manaiakalani and Auckland University where facilitating one year post grad students through a completely online practicum.
The idea was for groups of 4 students to be assigned an Associate Teacher who would introduce themselves vis Google Meet, take them through their site, planning and class descriptions, and then assign them a brief to work on. This brief was to involve a challenge the teacher had in Mathematics in their classroom. The 4 students would then make a digital tool or resource for the teacher to implement within their class at the target group of students and give feedback.
I had decided to give them my Wheke group. This is a group of 6 students who sit at Stage 4 and struggle to move. We are working on fractions at the moment and these students are still learning to find 1/4 of a number. In my brief I outlined what I had done previously with the students, what assessments I had of their abilities and knowledge.
Brief:

 
The initial meet was great, the 4 student teachers asked lots of questions, but were yet to have the meeting which would outline how or what kind of resource they should build. After they had this they were able to ask for more specific evidence such as book work (above) modelling book and assessment evidence.
The following week they sent me the draft of their resource which looked fantastic, I was well impressed, given that they didn't seem confident with their digital abilities initially. I gave them some feedback of how it would be delivered (they had at least two lesson work of work in one slideshow and some of it was very busy/wordy for my group.
I delivered the lesson in two parts, using the first two concepts on Friday and the remaining on Monday.

The first part of the lesson went very well and the students were engaged. The lesson on Monday where they had to show the fraction in 7 different ways lost the a little bit. They hadn't learnt about improper fractions at this point so the multiple concepts were a little overwhelming. I gave then counters to physically manipulate to help them understand each concept.

 

As you can see from these screenshots, they got a little confused between E (improper fraction) and G. I have told my ST group I will remove E an F and pitch it to the same group in Term 3.


Overall, it is a fantastic resource, which I am going to pitch to my Stage Early 5 group as I think it is suited more to that level. I was very impressed with the students teachers communication and digital capabilities. I very much enjoyed being part of this new practicum initiative.