Google Kupu

I put together a poster on the Te reo Māori Google apps names and some commands. As I felt this is something teachers can put on the classroom walls and support the jorney our Te Hiku teachers are on. Thanks to the great resources shared by our old Te Reo facilitator Mak. This is also good to practice my Te reo in the classroom during the cybsmart lessons.

Walking Stories of Te Hiku TOD

First day of term 2 and the teachers in the Te Hiku Kahui Ako had a teacher only day. A first for our schools in the Far North, a ground breaking day for our students and teachers. The first hui lead by our iwi in Te Hiku for all schools. We had a  powhiri onto the Te Rangi Aniwaniwa kura by their students and kaiako. The first key note speaker was by Anahera Herbert Graves talking about the history of Te Tiriti and the Ngapuhi. The next speaker was Shane Jones who I have heard talk many times and new we would enjoy it. He is such a good story teller, with great history and humour. He told the story of Te Kāinga Ngāi Takoto the land we where on. We then had break out sessions run by the different iwi Te Aupouri, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Takoto. We heard the stories of each of the iwi. Then we had the Iwi panel answering questions.

This was a great day to have everyone together hearing the stories from all the iwi. We heard a lot of the what they want us as teachers to tell the students in the classrooms and the why, the only thing that is missing is the how and the resources to support the what? Who are the experts in our iwi, the story tellers the come in and correctly tell the stories. We need more books, songs, videos, podcasts for teachers to tell the stories. So our students can learn who they are and where they come from. They can learn their Whakapapa and about their turangawaewae. So they can locate themselves and where they belong, how they got here. The significance of their iwi stories is vital to understand who you are.

This was a fantastic start to the histories of Te Hiku, the stories of significance and connecting our tamariki. Faces where put to names and great people with amazing talents where show cased. I am looking forward to the follow up workshops, resources and Teacher Only days that will develop out of this.

Te Mātaiaho The refreshed New Zealand Curriculum

 

I attended the MOE webinar on Te Mātaiaho The refreshed New Zealand Curriulum on Thursday 23 March. I attended one when it first came out and it was good to hear it again and some of the changes they have made since than. I think it is about time Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the local comunity, iwi and inclusive of all ākonga is better embeded into school curriculums and strategic plans. The story behind the develoment of whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho is very beautiful and good to hear from Dr Wayne Ngata himself and how it is the foundation of the Te Mātaiaho and the meaning of the 7 curriculum components. I need to spend some time going over it again and watching the video again. I also need to go to the web site and look at the resources they have available. It will be good when more resources and progressions are out over the year to put the components together and understant the Whakapapa through to the ākonga in the classroom. It will be good to unpack the new phases of learning and progression out comes and steps. The progression out come describes what ākonga should Understand, Know and Do at each phase of learning. Which fits very nicely with the Learn, create and share pedegogy of Manaiakalani.

Relationship Building

It is so important to bulid relationships with the students in your classrooms. I may only be in the classes for 1 hour a week but the students see me in the school and other classes. They also see me in the community. So this year I made a google drawing to introdcue myself with my Pepeha and photos and information about myself. Connections where made with many students also coming from the some iwi and having very simular pepeha. But over all my cat was the winner on the day. As I vist each week I am often asked how my cat Tutu is.

Te Hiku and Kaikohekohe Symposium

A great, successful day! We didn't have to good of a start with arriving at 8 am to set up the power was off. As everyone was arriving and with us about to start the room was very dark and still no power. The power company was contacted and no time could be given as they were still trying to find the fault. With a chat with the big wigs and presenters we choose to go ahead with Fraser the keynote speaker to start in the dark. He was given permission to carry on over his time if the power was still off. Options where discussed to moving to Oruaiti school where the power was on. We decided to wait and be optimistic the power will come back on in time. So in true Northland style we laughed and carried on with hope. Someone was on our side with 10 minutes to go with the keynote speaker, the power came on. With a big cheer from our crowd of enthusiastic teachers the day was to go as planned. It was a fantastic day with great presenters and lots of learning happening. The conversations from the teachers was very positive and lots of thank-yous. The food for morning tea and lunch was also to a good standard and lots of it. When we packed up at the end of the day and everyone headed off home with their knowledge kete full. I have to admit I was relieved and exhausted. There is a huge amount of work and organsiation that goes to setting up a day like this for 155 teachers. You don't realise the pressure that is put on your shoulders for it to be successful. Then to add an extra stress I had to head home and get organised for a big dinner out for 15 people for my son's 21st dinner. I can admit I slept well that night.

Te Hiku and Kaikohekohe Symposium 2023

For the past few months we have been busy organising our combined symposium for 2023. Next year it is being held at the Taipa Beach Resort on Thursday 26 January. We desided as a cluster to include some local curriculum and invited the iwi to talk about the Ngati kahu area of Taipa point and how they got the land back. We have also got Mangonui school and Ian Swindel talking about the Rangikapiti Pa restoration program and Oruaiti school show casing their enviro school and how they achieved winning the award. Fraser Smith who is the ex Oturu principal is introducing the day with his good sense of humour and experience of telling stories. He has been writing lots of journal stories and books in retirement with a context to suit our local students. Steve from Google has also kindly offered to come up and present at the day. We also have Jenny Skinner presenting on the new history curriculum. So far it has all come together and is looking good and well organised thanks to a great collaborative Te Hiku team. So far we have 96 registrations. This is the site about the day.

Combined Teacher Only Day

We have had a great start to the year with a Combined Te Hiku and Kiakohekohe cluster Teacher Only Day at the Treaty of Waitangi grounds.This is the first time we have combined together for this day. We had around 140 teachers come for the day. Being the first day back for teachers the request was not to have our teachers being spoke at for long periods of time. The teachers wanted hands on practicle based activities that where not for to long. We put an agenda together at the end of last year utilising on local talents and experts. Thanks to Monica and her great team from the education centre at the TOW and also the great staff from Tautoro School who bought along there resources and shared the great teaching and learning they are presenting at their school. The day was made more special being held at such a spiricial and sacrid place. The feedback and conversation were very positive and enthusiastic. Nexts years TOD will be combinded again and be held in the Te Hiku cluster area we have started conversations allready as it will be hard to bet the great day we had this year. This was the agenda for the day and some photos.

Amplify Basic Facts Online Toolkit

 Term 3 toolkits I decided to do another workshop based around Mathematics and statistics. My last ones were very popular and seem to be of high demand. So I choose Basic Facts always an area of need and concern. I started it in lockdown so I had my site I developed already started and just needed to add to it. My big idea was how to link the creation into the teaching of basic facts and using a lot more of the online manipulatives to model number sense and understanding of the facts. I had 57 registered to attend and had 36 turn up for the hangout. I was concerned that it would become a lecture at that high number and still wanted to include some activities. So I included a padlet to assess what our teachers are using currently to teach the Basic facts. I then decided to give an activity at the end so the teachers had a chance to be in the students' shoes. I got some great feedback. 

Grid view for Hangout meets

This wonderful resource has been shared which allows you to view every screen in the hangout on your screen. Which as we move to distance learning using this as a key connect tool this is vital.
This is a great extension for google hangout "Google Meet Grid View " we have been trialing it in our daily hangouts and it is a great way to view everyone in the hangout. Here are the instructions on how to install it.
Installation
To install the "Google Meet Grid View" extension do the following:

• Go to the extension's page in the Chrome Web Store - "Google Meet Grid View"
• Click the "Add to Chrome" button to install the extension.
• Give it permission to install.
• And then that is it! The extension will now show up in the top right corner of your web browser.

Using Grid View
Now that the Grid View extension is installed, anytime you are in a Google Meet you will now see a new button in the top right corner of the Meet window (next to the "People" and "Chat" button).
Simply click on this button to turn Grid View on or off. Once you turn it on you will now see all of the participants in the meeting.
There are a few options you can adjust in the drop-down menu below the button.

• "Only show participants with video" - If you check this box then Grid View will not show anyone who has turned off their webcam or who doesn't have a camera to begin with.
• "Highlight speakers" - If you check this box then anytime someone is speaking, a yellow box will appear around their them in the grid. This can help make it easier to see who is talking.
• "Include yourself in the grid" - You can check or uncheck this if you want to see yourself as well or not.

Note: Keep in mind, this extension is only changing the view for you, and not for the other people in the meeting. Each person controls their own view. For other people in the meeting to see the grid, they also need to install the extension one time, and then they can turn the Grid View on or off for themselves.
Google Meet Grid View is a great extension to help everyone in a meeting or classroom feel like they are more connected with the group.

Limit the Links

One week has gone very quick when you have a long list of things to do. I have been part of 4 online DFI workshops which has been good to connect with others across the country. It is also an opportunity to keep up to date with the google resources and changes that are happening daily especially as the world is going to distance learning. Also to hear Dorothy make the connects to the Manaiakalani Pedagogy.
I have made class sets of blogs, added resources to the Te hiku site, created a Distance learning page to share resources. I also realized the links to school class sites needed updating so I had to get them off the school web pages and add them to the Te Hiku site.
Daily we have been having catch-ups as a team in a google hangout from 3.30-4pm which has been great to connect and make sure we are all feeling safe and sharing the correct information at such an unsure time in education. The key document for us is Limit the Links.

DFI By Hangout Through Lock Down.

Today Friday 27 March day 2 of the lockdown Manaiakalani did a DFI (Digital fluency Intensive) by google hangout from all across New Zealand. Dorothy leads the day and lots of facilitators were there to support and lead some presentations. Everyone was asking questions in the comments. Then for the leveling up sessions 2 or 3 participants were paired up with a facilitator and we went into our own hangouts and supported small groups through setting up a google form and google sheets. The small groups worked well with them being able to share their screens and me talking them through things. Then I could also share my screen and model for them and they could follow on their device. Having 2 devices for the day made it a lot easier to follow the slide show and the speaker and comments. With the corona 19 lockdown teachers are being forced to use their devices and are stepping up and taking more risks and trying new things. They are going outside their comfort zones. They realize after the 2-week break which starts today, when school goes back on Wednesday 15 April we will still be in lockdown and will be doing learning through distance learning on the class learning site.

Online toolkit

This week I presented my online toolkit on Amplify Talk Moves. It was great to get back into my Mathematics and statistics hat. This presentation I made a very hands-on one with the teachers doing exactly what you would get the students to do. It was hard to judge the time as it is teachers, not students completing the activities. Some of the main areas, I wanted to emphasize was the purpose and big idea of the lesson. We also looked at a couple of tools to help amplify the student's voice and discussed and shared ideas of how we could turbocharge the get ideas and voice of the students. I felt it went well and feel after looking at the cluster data Maths and statistics is an area we need to focus on.

Auckland Visit June 2019

My visit to Auckland for the week started on Tuesday 4 June observing and following Heather Collins as she visited a Point England senior year 6 class working on their profiles for their blogs. Using and sharing individuals up on the TV and asking students for the helpful, thoughtful and positive feedback and feedforward. Which reassured that I was also doing that exact activity in my work. .

I also observed and supported her in a NE class with students brand new to IPads. She worked with a small group and we went outside and took photographs and went back in and they had to choose 4 favorites and delete the others. This reinforced the importance of learning the basics and practicing using Ipad tools. I then got to observe in Khismira junior class of Ipads and got to see the IPads Blog app in action and some students shared me their blogs and how they post up using the app.

Then I observed in Clarelle’s IPad class they where practicing maths gaps they had found form the JAM assessments they had just completed. Through drawing and writing answers to teachers questions on an EE project.

 Then I got to spend some time with Anne my supervisor working on my Inquiry and effective facilitation and changes I have made to my facilitation over the year and a half. Importance of effective pedagogy, Deprivatizing, Explicit facilitation, Modeling good practice, and Co-facilitating. Wednesday I followed Fiona to Ruapotaka school in an IPad class and across to Tamaki primary. Thursday I got to Observe and chat to Robyn Anderson at Pamure Bridge primary. Looking at her very detailed processes. Great create activities. Acronyms for writing processes. Students shared their learning and blog posts. This was very motivating and inspirational. I got lots of ideas and she also picked my Maths experience. From this, we are meeting in a hangout next week with her senior syndicate to discuss some maths and statistic ideas for year 7 and 8.

Mele’s blog Pbsmelel.blogspot.co.nz
Then Fiona and I met to go over effective pedagogy and Learn, create and share.
4.30pm Thursday afternoon I facilitated my online toolkit.
 Friday I joined the Auckland cohort 2 DFI it was great to learn some more tips on Google keep I love the grab image text tool which can take text off images. Also, lots of good reminders to share with teachers. The good Gmail tips setting up filters and layouts. I then took a group to practice hangouts and sharing screens, turning the mike and video on and off, and leaving messages. This was a good visit to Auckland to get the reassurance of the work I am facilitating up North and the processes and pedagogy I am using is similar to what is happening in Auckland. I also got some good reminders of not forgetting to remind students of some of the basics (control shift V). Photo tools. The visit to experienced teachers class Robyn Andersons, Clarelle and Khismira were great, very beneficial I probably could have spent more time with them.

Deliberate acts of facilitation

What is this? How am I embedding this into my work? Is it working?
Modeling exactly what you would like the teacher to do, actually stopping and making the connections for the teacher. "Where else could you use this strategy?"  How can you use this in your teaching?
Making sure they have noticed and connected to what you are modeling and the importance of it.
This week I used a literacy example from the WOLF Fisher research in relation to the cybersmart curriculum on blogging.

1. Jot down 20 important words from the videos. (could be a reading, book, chapter, picture)
2. Now highlight the 6 MOST important words.
3. Now use those six words, to sum up, the video in a couple of sentences.

The challenge for the teachers was to think we're in their teaching they would use this example. Where would it be relevant? What is the purpose?

Create

A fantastic workshop. The create activity for the video was so much fun and we got very creative and had to work as a team. Looking forward to presenting this with our teachers in our clusters.

Kaikohkohe Cluster day Presentation

Treaty of Waitangi

Kia Ora,
With the Treaty of Waitangi day creeping up on us very quickly and schools starting back shortly I wanted to share some resources.
What a great way to start the year and build relationships and get to know your students.
Also remembering it is part of the key principles of our curriculum.

"The curriculum acknowledges the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. All students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga."

The New Zealand Curriculum, p 9

Tiki (Te Kete Ipurangi) has some knowledgeable resources, information, and videos that can be used. 

Treaty 2U from Te Papa

Waitangi Tribunal Resources 

Manata Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage

NZ History

Top Teaching Tasks Blog
Interactively explore the document
Treaty of Waitangi Grounds Education resources
National Library 


Get creative with your students writing ebooks, videos, animations, posters, multi-modal sites, drama, or art.

Creativity

Was a good way to get teachers creating and using authentic creating relating to
their pasts. Teachers did not wont to stop creating. Teachers realize they are rushing
and not letting the student have the time to create. Was good to have a local school as an example from the 1960's Oruaiti primary school. They made a connection to our local community. Schools are enjoying students using google draw and screen castify they are getting very creative and thinking outside the square. TIME!!!!!! to create is important.

Pompallier Whanau Evening

A great night at Pompallier primary Kaitaia last night. I was very proud of the students who presented all their learning they have been doing with me over the last 2 terms. They were cyber smart and confident at explaining the learning and the why. It was positive to hear the enthusiasm from the parents wanting to support the Manaiakalani process.  I was also overwhelmed by the thank you gift and kind words.