Manaiakalani Kahui Ako Teacher Only Day - Key note Dr Rae Si'ilata

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Key note Dr Rae Si'ilata

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We need to give our tamariki the keys to the language of the culture of power, but this is not all. We are not subtracting - we need to not remove the language of their culture. 

Privilege the native speaker in the room. 

Listening reading viewing - input channels

Speaking writing presenting - output channels

6 modes of communication we need to be integrating. 

You will get much greater bang for your buck if you are integrating these modes of communication. 

What are Māori medium doing that isn't happening in English medium - they are achieving much better in Māori in English medium. 

English for Speakers of Other Languages - ESOL - adding English not replacing other languages with English. 

 

  

Young students being the kaiako to support teachers to learn languages. 

Government provides some support for Pacific/Pasifika dual language resources. 

Bilingual = like the kahikitaea trees above the surface are seperate - under the surface they are combined. Input in one language - make meaning in stronger language - respond in the initial language.

   

The teacher does need not be bilingual (see, e.g., Pacheco, Daniel, Pray, & Jimenez, 2019) but must understand how language is much more than the linguistic code reified in school, as well as how school epistemologies about language are related to power.

Getting students to use their strongest language to grapple with concepts and then outputting in English.

Phonics plus - are they 

Prior knowledge is part of learning to read and reading to learn. 

We want our tamariki to be critical about power. 

Providing texts that are mirrors provide opportunities for our learning to connect with their prior knowledge. 

Notes from Workshops at the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako ToD 2021

Effective Reading Practise with Georgie Hamilton, Kiri Kirkpatrick (R8)

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Surfing semantic waves in written texts with Dr Jannie van Hees (R4)

Semantic - meaning-making

Semantic Waves

Newsela - you can change the level complexity of the text your students. 

He ako whakaaweawe, he ako whakatere | Effective Teaching, Accelerated Learning

 Monday the 14th of September 2020, was a momentus day for the education community in Ōtaki. We held a Teacher Only Day with over 100 teachers from across the community coming together to learn - a first for our community. Teachers from Ōtaki College, Ōtaki School, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rito, Te Kura-ā-Iwi o Whakatupuranga Rua Mano, Te Horo School and  Waitohu School.

There were two key goals for the day, the first was to support our educators in professional learning around the kaupapa of He ako whakaaweawe, he ako whakatere | Effective Teaching, Accelerated Learning. The second was to create a feeling of connectedness across our schools. Though we might be close geographically there are many of our educators who don't know each other. 

This second goal was a real challenge for us, our first scheduled date for this TOD was during the first lockdown when we were in Covid Level 4 and then this date when we ended up being in Level 2 with gatherings limited to 100 people we needed to think outside the box in terms of how we could still make this a successful day. 

One of the key things we did was to create a Google Site where all information, links and anything you'd need to know was held in one place. Everyone had the access to the content, regardless of where they were physically sitting. 

We also utilised Google Currents (formally Google +) to try and create a space for our teachers to connect with one another, to share key ideas that spoke to them, or highlights from the sessions. Before we started this TOD, we had 35 members of our Currents Community, we now have 67 and approximately 20 people used this as a place to share during the day. We also incentivised people joining and commenting by including several coffee draws throughout the day.  As always with a group of teachers these went down well! 

I hope that this Currents Community is able to be used beyond the TOD as a way for teachers to remain connected across the community. 

There was a lot of really positive feedback from our teachers and tumuaki after the day. It was a great way to see that we can connect and have professional learning opportunities even if we couldn't meet face to face on the day. 

Week 22!

  This week in Ōtaki there is a very tired feel around the education community. After Term 1, and then Lockdown and now Term 2, without a break everyone seems to have run out of steam. 

Kids are tired, teachers are tired... everyone is ready for a break. 

Leveraging the Manaiakalani Kaupapa

The kaupapa of Connected, Ubiquitous, Visible, & Empowered has been a catalyst for change in the weeks following lockdown. For some schools and teachers there has been a real embracing of this  kaupapa. It is now becoming what they do, as part and parcel of learning in their kura. 

What lessons have schools in your cluster taken from the distance learning experience to enhance or improve the face to face schooling experience? 

There is far more collaborative practice -  teachers working together to support one another, especially at one particular school where teachers sharing resources who would never have shared before!

The value of ubiquitous learning - available anytime any where at any pace from anyone. We gathered feedback from students once they had returned to school after the lock down and this was by far one of the things they enjoyed the most, especially in a secondary setting, being able to complete things at their own pace, choosing which subjects work they wanted to focus on and not having to stop because the bell had gone. 

Lockdown has really shown us the value of ubiquity. 

We have also seen an increase in independence - and whānau involvement with learning. It was so heartening to join in class Google Meet sessions and see whānau supporting students. 

Time for a well deserved break I think!

Our Code, Our Standards - Standards for the Teaching Profession

The practising teacher criteria have been replaced with the Standards for the Teaching Profession which is a part of Our Code, Our Standard - Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession.  Further information can be found on the Education Council Website. 

End of Term 2 Reflection

One of the things that I have a bit of a love hate relationship with is the end of term WWW for our facilitation hui. I really appreciate the opportunity to reflect on the term, the highs, lows and all the in-between, but I find finding the time to complete this in the last few weeks tricky. Perhaps next term I'll use the weekly team meeting minutes to go back look at the WWW's we do each week for inspiration.

I really like that this time around the things that aren't working and I need help with were sentiments echoed around the room during the sharing time. It really helped me to see that these struggles aren't mine alone.

Google Certified!

I finally sat the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam, it's only been a few years on meaning to do it.

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, and it's really nice to be certified now.  I'm also keen to do sit level 2, perhaps in the summer holidays.

Going through the sessions and completing the review questions definitely made me feel more confident going into the exam, but I was still really nervous waiting for my results. The first section which was multi-choice had some questions which I felt were really easy and some were tricky. I enjoyed the second section which was more practical and made me miss making docs etc for my class!

Time to start prepping for level 2 I think!