PD - Full Group Meeting - Thoughts from the Day 1 Meeting in Oslo (Monday)
- There are a wide array of projects being undertaken by the project schools. This is a very diverse project. I don’t envy the researcher who has to tie it all together.I’m very intrigued by the “Full-Day Friday” being tried in the Molde school. Every Friday, students spend the whole day in one class. I’m trying to figure out how that model might work in our current schedule at SBS.
- Based on what I heard, the Borresen school is doing a project that is most similar to what we are doing in the JP catchment. I was glad that we were spreading out so that one of our team members would be there to see their school.
- The Ranvik school project is also intriguing to me, because they are looking at trends over 5 years, and the gap in achievement between girls and boys. I think this project would blend well with our Equity project. Again, I was glad that we would be represented in the school visit here too. I like that we have team members from across the grade levels to get exposure to all the Norway schools.
- I got two other things out of this meeting that are relevant to my work and maybe to this project.
- Roger Antonsen, the mathematician who spoke to us is brilliant and engaging. I will work towards getting him to Alberta to keynote a MCATA conference within the next year or two.
The video that Meriel’s students put together at Jasper Place was fantastic. I loved the quote from the math professor about mathematics being music for your brain. The shirtless fellow was surprising in his eloquence and astute observations about math.
Culture of Schooling and Equity - Molde School Visit
- Equity seemed a strange notion to many of the Norwegians I spoke to. They told me over and over again that in their society, they take care of each other.
- The school we visited had a University feel, and didn’t resemble the high schools I’ve worked in in Alberta. There are two streams of High School in Norway. Vocational school, and the University track school. The one we visited is the higher level.
- Their teachers do not supervise. The students still behave.
- The principal assures me he deals with almost no discipline problems.
- The teaching load is different than in Alberta.
- Full time teachers teach 18 or 22 periods out of 40 in the week.
Math Instruction Observed - Molde
- The math classes we saw looked very similar to the classrooms I have observed across Alberta. I even saw a teacher using a red/green formative assessment method.
- The instruction was typically teacher-led.
- Students all had their own laptops. I was fascinated that they use GeoGebra on the computers, even during exams, rather than graphing calculators. They are even permitted to use Geogebra on the national exams. I’d love to convince Alberta Education to move this way on Diploma Exams.
- I saw one teacher using a simple formative assessment strategy to check if her students understood. After working out a question, they voted on the answer by holding up Red or Blue pieces of paper.
- Since I can't quit consulting, even in Norway, I have emailed the Molde teachers my giant list of formative assessment strategies, collected over many years. It is also posted on this blog.
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