Your Stories - St Mark's Fawkner - Maths Collective

In April 2018, we reported on a group of Victorian Catholic schools forming a Maths Collective. Almost a year on, we hear from Daniela Lazzarro, St Mark’s Fawkner, about the impact our project has had on their Collective. 

The connections started with three, full day sessions facilitated by CSER Victorian Project Officer, Celia Coffa, connecting teachers from five schools in year level groupings (F-2, 3-4 and 5-6). Daniela reflects “ The main focus of the program that was delivered to the Pentagonal Collective targeted using Digital Technologies to enhance Mathematical understanding and learning.  The knowledge obtained from the program gave me confidence to assist teachers in incorporating Digital Technologies into the curriculum.”

Following the first introductory sessions, St Mark’s gained access to various robotics, Spheros and Beebots through our CSER Lending library.   “The robotics experience enabled the students to explore positioning and movement, explore shapes and geometry, look at co-ordinate systems, navigation, etc.  The links to Mathematics were endless.” 

The continuing impact of the MOOC’s was enhanced by supportive leadership as Daniela details,  “Our Principal fully endorsed the program emphasising its importance by granting time at staff meetings, as well as an entire planning day for each staff member to work through the CSER modules. This allowed for the collaborative planning of units between teachers with their Leaders also in attendance for support.  Teachers valued the planning opportunities with their teaching teams to link quality and explicit learning in Digital Technology and Mathematics. Having extended time to plan in teams with new knowledge and understandings enabled the use of Digital technology tools across the curriculum. It also led to sharing of best practice by teachers and leaders across the Collective via the Google Community.” 

The key features here - leadership support, access to quality professional learning, availability of resources and a meaningful link to the student needs and school priority area of Mathematics are a perfect recipe for success. 

Image:  Looking at the Maths, Digital Technologies and Critical thinking skills involved in a simple Beebot activity. 

Thank you for sharing this update with us Daniela! If you would like to work Celia Coffa, CSER VIC Project Officer, you can register by visiting CSER's Professional Learning Page.