Yorkshire and Humber Maths Hub Secondary Specialist visits Shanghai
Chloe Scott, Secondary Mastery specialist for Yorkshire and Humber Maths Hub is currently visiting Shanghai with two other Specialists from other Maths Hubs. Chloe is getting the opportunity to spend time in Shanghai schools learning first hand about the Maths experience over there.
Here's what Chloe is feeding back to us about her experience so far (she is clearly loving it!):
Thursday 14th November 2019 (School Day 3)
Good evening!Sorry I am late getting back to you. I know we had a meeting to discuss the trip but nothing could compare me to this.
Nick, Alex and myself have been utterly overwhelmed by both the hospitality and the lessons we have seen. Gu has give us a lot a variety over three days. We have seen an introduction to Pythagoras' theorem; a 'special' lesson with a very able Grade 9 class on 'quadratic surds’ and simple continued fractions. This was observed by the department and we did a Teacher Research Group (TRG) after. We have seen them teach the final lesson on geometric proof to both a top set and their weakest set (same objective, same key learning and questions, very different lessons) and did a TRG after. We have seen a STEM lesson and a wonderful lesson on algebraic fractions that we were all blown away with. Honestly I could talk to you all night!
Tomorrow we visit a primary school! We are also doing preliminary planning for our lessons next Wednesday. We are alo getting the opportunity to join plans with Zhu's colleagues at our next school too.
Chloe (Nick and Alex)
Tuesday 19th November 2019 (School Day 10)
Sorry about the delay - we are having intermittent internet trouble here.
On Friday we visited Shanghai Fushan Primary school. The work they did on Geometry was really eye opening and I am looking forward to exploring more ways to work with Geogebra and geometry sketchpad when I return to really highlight the structure of 2D shapes.
We watched an RQT teach a lesson on the properties of a trapezium in the afternoon; and a specialist came in to run the TRG with us. This is a monthly activity for RQTs to help support their teaching development. Though admittedly they struggled to find much to critique.
This week we are at Yan'An Middle School. We had the honour of hosting Pete and Sue from the NCETM today. The lessons we observed were so carefully crafted that the teachers could explain why every single question was asked. The reasoning pulled out of the students was lovely. We then had a conference where we had to present our planned lesson that we deliver in the morning. We were all very nervous but the feedback from everybody was overwhelmingly positive. I cannot wait to teach tomorrow!
On our return to the hotel, Pete and Sue said that today was some of the best conversations they had heard about Mastery, and that they were so pleased we had got so much from the experience of being here. Ray, one of our host teachers, is a true craftsman. We are very lucky to have such skilled teachers coming over to work with us in March next year.
Chloe (Nick and Alex)
"How many ways would you expect your class to simplify a ratio! This lesson was beautiful to watch."