A Fatally Flawed NCEA?

It just wouldn't be school holidays without debating education with my friend and anchor. We see education from different perspectives, and these debates always invigorate me. Today he told me how an article by Elizabeth Rata resonated with what he sees. I was going to rebut. Then I decided to ask questions instead. Going through the article, it didn't resonate what I see. Sadly, what I see is not normal in New Zealand education. What I see is exceptional, defies the norms, and challenges thinking at all levels and from all perspectives. What I see is a rigorous approach to knowledge that manifests through skills and application. What I see is a mode of teaching and learning that is ako - it is reciprocal. It is matauranga - it is knowledge that is demonstrated through doing.

What I see is awesome.

Elizabeth Rata, come visit us. Come in on a Wednesday and see first-hand how projects can be done from a context of knowledge that allows young people to explore, make sense, evaluate. To focus, generate, and evaluate. To test, refine, and evaluate again.

But make sure you come to Hobsonville Point Secondary School. If you go to Hobsonville School, you'll wind up at the primary down the road.

Elizabeth Rata: NCEA's fatal flaw is to assess projects before knowledge

The author sounds warning alarms, the title disengages me. But, I'm open to reading a range of viewpoints and debating their merit. I persevere.

By: Elizabeth Rata

When stuck in a hole the best advice is to stop digging, but what if you can't spot the hole in the first place? The NCEA review's promotion of project-based learning is an example of the sort of frantic digging that occurs when profoundly and blindly stuck.

Where is the hole? By whose estimation is PBL a hole? Is it only white, privileged, middle-class people who define PBL as a hole? Why is it a hole? Because it doesn't fit the model of learning the Empire established? What if the empire's way of thinking is no longer relevant? What if the skills needed for the current innovation climate are not the same skills that were needed for the Industrial Revolutions climate?

What's wrong with projects? As the Hobsonville School students argued so passionately in the Herald recently, learning by doing projects is motivating and encourages learning. This "knowledge-how" approach also fits nicely with New Zealand's skills-based national curriculum. But what does the approach actually mean and what is the source of this learning?

When was Elizabeth Rata at HPSS? Does she realise that Hobsonville School is the primary down the road? Has she seen what the students must do and know in order to complete these projects? I invite her to come and spend a Wednesday with us and see how knowledgeable these students actually are. This learning not only fits with the NZC, but also with the Kaupapa Māori notion of ako and matauranga. Does Elizabeth Rata include these priority learners in her discourse?

These are the questions the NCEA review needs to ask. We curriculum designers call the source of learning "knowledge-that". It's made up of propositions, concepts, and content, referred to broadly as academic subjects. Knowledge-that is very different from the knowledge-how we practise in activities and projects.

Are teachers no longer designers of curriculum? Is the role of teachers to be conduits only and roll out knowledge that may or may not be accessible to those in front of them? Or should teachers be holders of knowledge who can deliver BOTH knowledge AND skills? Why does the conversation need to be binary? Instead of EITHER skills OR knowledge, shouldn't we be equipping students with BOTH?

The difference between the two forms of knowledge matters because the problem for our education system is to do with their order. The fatal flaw in the national curriculum and NCEA is that the knowledge order is wrong.

How can my students do their skill-based assessments without knowledge? Can they write in sophisticated ways if they only know skills? If I teach skills only (as I admit I have erroneously done in the past), I am teaching only to the assessment. Was NCEA created to be this way? Or was the point of NCEA to be flexible in the delivery of knowledge and assessing of skills. If evidence towards assessment is collected as naturally occurring as possible, doesn't that promote knowledge development alongside skill development? If I teach BOTH/AND in a context that is designed to promote this, doesn't this meet the needs of the students in the classroom?

At present we put the skills of knowledge-how first. But we need to start with academic knowledge (knowledge-that), then have the well-designed and exciting activities and projects which allow students to show their understanding.

Is this the fault of NCEA or is this the fault of teachers not having shifted their mindsets? Is this how we've ended up with a culture of credit counting and teaching to assessment? Is this why students are stressed so much?

Assessment comes in at the final stage. Crucially, it should measure the understanding of the knowledge as demonstrated in its skilful application. At present the assessment tends to measure the skills themselves. It's easier that way. 

Why do assessments do this? Is that because of the creators of the assessment or because of NCEA itself? Where in the English, Art History, or Classics curricula are skills assessed in absence of knowledge? Is this a judgement of more numeracy-based subjects than literacy ones? Does NCEA insist on numeracy-based subjects being skills-based assessments? When we combine subjects with a mix of content and skills-based learning, does this provide the context for BOTH/AND learning?


Let's look at some examples — the alphabet (for young children), trigonometry (for older students), electrical circuits (for university engineering students). The same design principles apply to all ages.

If we use a knowledge-how approach to start, we would ask students to sound out the letters of the alphabet, measure the viewshafts from Auckland's volcanoes, calculate the current in the resistor in the circuit. It certainly sounds a sensible approach. After all, we do want young people to use the knowledge they acquire at school.

What's missing from these examples is what we need to know first so that using the skills is actually showing what we understand as well as what we can do.

When children sound out alphabet letters how do we know they associate the squiggles on the page with alphabetical names or are they just parroting the adult?

Is this a real question?

What trigonometry do you need before you can measure the viewshafts from Auckland's volcanoes or do you simply follow a list of instructions?

We may be able to calculate the current in the resistor in the electrical circuit by following the rules. But if we want to be able to do this in other projects, to generalise in other words, we need to know that current is a response to the application of electric potential to a closed circuit.

Why are 2/3 of these examples numeracy-based? How can we include knowledge and skills in all subject areas?

Following instructions and applying skills won't tell us that. We have to be taught it.

This is the crucial difference between the two forms of knowledge. Academic knowledge (knowledge-that) enables us to understand the meaning of what we do. It is challenging but also deeply fulfilling when we finally "get it". Because it can't be picked up from experience, it needs to be taught by an expert; a teacher in other words.

Does academic only only belong to academics? Is there no room for allowing autodidactic learning? Can we not curate experiences for ourselves or engage with the experiences of others? If we always need an expert to tell us what to do, how are we going be life-long learners? If we always need an expert, what will happen when no one in the room is an expert? How does this align with the principles of ako?

It's the old saying, academic knowledge is "taught not caught". The problem is academic knowledge is not as visible as knowledge-how so we tend to think the skills we see in action are the same as understanding what is meant.

Is this NCEA's fault? How can teachers make academic learning more visible? Do teachers understand the importance of visible learning? How do we empower teachers to make learning visible within the NCEA setting?

A serious limitation of knowledge-how is that it doesn't provide the knowledge needed to generalise. When we think of professionals such as engineers, medical professionals, and teachers whose knowledge has consequences for the lives of others, whether the skills we see on the surface are informed by deep knowledge really does matter.

What happens when we know what we need to do but don't have the knowledge? Are we expected to teach only the things we've been taught? Should there be a space for knowledge creation? What happens when the teacher knows the skills the student needs and not the knowledge? Can the teacher engage with ako and take the students through the process of knowledge creation in a genuine way?

Starting with knowledge-how, with the project hands-on approach, leads to the very rote learning its supporters are, rightly, so opposed to. But there are deeper problems caused by starting with knowledge-how.
Does it have to?

Without being taught the academic ideas behind the "doing" we cannot generalise to other projects or other situations. We are stuck in the one instance, in the here and now. We can follow instructions. We can apply skills, often quite advanced skills, but we can't understand, let alone explain and justify, why we do what we do.

Is this an NCEA problem or a teaching and learning one?

It should concern us all that while New Zealand students are stuck in the knowledge-how world of experience, the NCEA review is there too.

Should assessment be a one-size-fits-all scenario?

• Professor Elizabeth Rata is director of the Knowledge in Education research unit in the faculty of education and social work at the University of Auckland

It should concern us all that while New Zealand is going through the NCEA review that researchers are publishing work that appears to lack due diligence to work happening in their own country.

When Technology Becomes a Teaching Trap

I went to the mall today to pick up a few things. I stopped at a small jewellery store and chose two items for my daughter - one for her birthday, and one for Christmas. When I was ready to pay for them, the sales lady used an app on her phone to send the purchase through to the computer. We then walked three steps to the computer to pay for the items. The store was not large - perhaps five meters across and 10 meters long. The store was not busy - I was the only customer. Why then did we have to go through such a show in order for me to purchase these two items?

It reminds me of what we can be guilty of as teachers. There is a not-so-silent voice that perpetuates this idea that using technology will make us more productive. It will make us more efficient. It will improve life for all. If we're using technology, that automatically makes us future-focused and twenty-first century-ish.

The trouble is this: If we weren't good enough without it, we'll never be good enough with it.

I love technology, and I use it in the classroom every lesson of every day. I 'speak' both Google Apps for Education and Microsoft Office 365. I use the best of both worlds and manipulate tools to suit my purpose and the purpose of my students. But if using technology adds more pressure, more steps, and takes longer to achieve the purpose that I set out to, then I'm using it wrong. A good friend once encouraged me not to look for "workarounds" when using technology, but to "look for new and better ways of doing things".

Technology becomes a trap for teachers when we expect it to make us better teachers. When we get it into our heads that the technology will teach the students, engage the students, relate to the students. When we forget that technology is just a tool. When we do the basics well, technology will enable us to fly with our students, and launch them onto greater heights.

Let's use technology what it was used for - to genuinely make us more productive and efficient and let's avoid the trap of relying on technology to make us look good. If we genuinely are looking forward to the future, and preparing our students for their world, these things will follow. Technology will be the tool we use to equip our students, not the bedazzlement to show how futuristic we are.

Whoa-ora and Sheesh-kanga

First off, an apology to my colleagues. A conversation taking place around me yesterday left me feeling concerned about a few people I care about. The emotional toll left me a bit empty for staff only day today, which impacted my filter, my ability to receive from those teaching, and my ability to engage with people on anything beyond the surface. I eventually took myself off to a quiet corner to refresh and restore somewhat. I am aware that my lack of freeboard will impact the telling of this story, however, I am also aware that our students come into our classes with their own lack of freeboard. For that reason, I hope this will help us all. Help me to process and be back to normal, and help us to remember to look beyond the surface when a student is disengaged.

So, whoa-ora and sheesh-kanga. What do I mean by that. Firstly, it is not meant as derogatory slurs against te Reo Māori. It's to express my feeling of overwhelm at concepts that feel so foreign to me. I thought I was pretty good at ticking the criteria 3 and 10 boxes in the previous Registered Teacher Criteria (they're the ones that were to do with Māori learners and Māori learning). Seems that's actually exactly all I was doing. How was I being inclusive? Chuck a couple of NZ short stories in the year somewhere and yup - I've included Māori learners in my curriculum. If they had actual te Reo words in them - great. 3 and 10 done. Tick tick.

So when I started teaching Kaupapa Māori as a critical lens to teach literature through this term, I actually had no concept of the magnitude of the task we are undertaking. I am so grateful that my students expect their teachers to be learners, because right now we are all wrestling together.

Here's a website that clearly outlines Kaupapa Māori.  Whaea said "ka rewe", so I'm going to use this as our base.
Here's a Mansfield text. How well is it fitting Kaupapa Māori? Not great - she's Pākeha (Kaupapa Māori includes "by Māori, for Māori, about Māori in its definition). Nonetheless, we explored the Pākeha construct of Māori in this text, as breaking down the Pākeha-born identity is one thing Kaupapa Māori seeks to do (Kayla.net)
Here's an Ihimaera one. Same event as Mansfield, but a Māori author's response. How are the two stories the same? Different? Where's Waari in this story? What's Kaupapa Māori about this story?
Let's watch Waru - Whaea said this was Kaupapa Māori. But how is this Kaupapa Māori when Whaea also said that The Pā Boys isn't Māori?
Let's watch The Pā Boys and see if we can work it out.
We are wrestling. It's hard. The students are doing better at it than I am, that's for sure. I'm joining in with all the learning activities, including myself in the groupings, because I'm learning right along with these year 13 students. Once we've finished watching The Pā Boys, we'll go back to critical texts again and try and work this out together. I gave the students their Assessment documents at the beginning of the unit, and told them to hand them into me on or before the first day of next term, so they know what ways they're evidencing their learning this term. Which means right now we can focus on this challenge of deconstructing texts to work out what Kaupapa Māori actually means.

And yet despite all this - or perhaps because of it - when I went to the workshop on matauranga Māori and the one on tikanga, I still felt very overwhelmed. I did a full year paper on Matauranga Maori in 2006 as a compulsory part of my dip ed., but I can't remember anything other than circles - teach in a cyclic way and keep coming back to content. So when asked "What do I want to know", I freeze. I have no idea - I'm so challenged in my own understanding and I'm so emotionally depleted that I'm struggling to know even where to begin. I feel like the student we write off as being disengaged: just tell me what I can do. Tell me something. I can't think yet because I feel so overwhelmed that I don't know where to start because everything is spinning. It's not that I'm intentionally disengaging, nor am I disengaging out of disrespect, apathy, or arrogance. Simply not knowing means there's nowhere where I can fit yet. Nothing to build from. Nothing that looks / sounds / feels familiar and I don't quite know what to do about it.

So when it came to writing my goal based on what I learned that session, sorry kaiako, it's still blank. I think it'll probably read "by the end of this term I will have prioritised the principles of Matauranga Māori and chosen one to incorporate into a class".

The following session on tikanga I thought I'd be a bit better with. I had a whole place on my back wall with the tikanga of my class written on it.
We respect:
Ourselves by doing our work and asking for help.
Others by supporting their efforts and encouraging their risks.
Learning by trying everything and trying again.
The environment by keeping it clean and keeping it calm.

Tikanga - a way of doing things. There are so many tikanga for so many differnt things. I kinda feel like my 10yo daughter a bit - she often laments all the rules she has to know. Why so many rules? Well, it's the way of doing things in society.

It's not that they were tricky, and many of them are already in place in my home even - we have Kai karakia at home, we just have them in English. It wouldn't be hard to ask someone to help me translate a few into te Reo Māori for me. It also wouldn't be hard to have some karakia that we all know to start each lesson with. Every time I observe a Māori class, I see a karakia being given, and I really like it. There was a lot of tikanga Māori that really resonated with me, and I kept finding myself staring at the list in awe and wonder, "that's really ok to do?"

One of the reasons I came to HPSS for my next set of challenges was to extend further into skills that I valued and are normal here. I romantically forgot that challenges come with struggles, and learning pits are innate too! Fortunately I can recognise that in myself - this is a learning pit, it won't last.

And fortunately also, I carry with me my learning from my previous kaumatua: to take one thing at a time, to be patient, to count on people to support me in my struggles (bless you, Whaea! Answering my continuous questions).

And so, by the end of the term I will have started a journey with my year 13 students towards a deeper understanding of what "as Maori" really looks like.

To MLE or Not to MLE... That is the Question.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The ways and means of teaching no longer relevant,

Or to take arms against school traditions

And by opposing change them.

To learn —to sleep, no more;

and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That past is heir to: 'tis a redundance

Devoutly futile.

To learn: to teach;

To teach: perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in the teaching of teens what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

They give us pause—they reflect upon our time spent

And they thank us for a life taught to dream.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of cynic?

Th'oppressor's wrong, the children create!

The pangs to innovate and lead the way,

Silences the office, and the spurns those

That block path many innovators take,

When naysayers might their quietus make

When learning flourishes. Who would history bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

When that the dread of visions unfulfilled,

The undiscovere'd brilliance, from whose mind

No brainchild is birthed, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills of tradition

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus custom does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of transformation

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great import and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

Shakespeare was such a great writer. He had such a way of communicating big ideas. I borrowed his structure and changed up a few words to change Hamlet's speech to be one about the changing face of education.

Is it hypocritical to use a piece of writing more than 400 years old to lead into a post about Modern Learning Environments? The traditionalists might be surprised: No. Shakespeare has just as much place in modern teaching environments as in traditional schools. The teachers I know - in a range of school types - don't wheel out Shakespeare because they can't think of anything else, or it's the 'right thing to do'. Shakespeare's work comes out when it's the right fit for the class (although this might change if people are afraid that English teachers don't know how to teach, and an arbitrary panel of disengaged 'experts' tells the nation what they will and won't read and learn about...)

Open plan learning works. Modern learning environments work. Single-cell classrooms work. None of these concepts are new. Traditional teaching is no longer as relevant as it used to be. Flexible and responsive spaces enable flexible and responsive teachers. Flexibility and responsiveness happen in single-cell classrooms, MLEs, and OPLs.

As a student I was a quiet introvert in an MLE environment in intermediate. There were two teachers (sometimes more) around and 60 students in a twin-class set up (one room that was the length of two classrooms). There were three of these spaces in my school, a number of single-cell rooms, two rooms for independent learners... It had a film studio, a music room, a dedicated science room - and this was a public school.

I always felt my teachers knew me, and knew where I was at.

This year we moved, and my children have moved from a traditionally-built school to a full MLE school. They received excellent teaching at their previous school in their single cell rooms, however there are some significant differences I've noticed this term.

1. My eldest child has struggled with self-direction to start with because she was so used to being told what to do. She wasn't used to thinking for herself. This is a child who attended a gifted school one day a week alongside her regular school. The gifted school is a place where creativity and own thinking was not only encouraged, but expected. She one referred to her new school being like the gifted school on steroids. It has taken her a term to transition, however I still believe that this environment will be of the highest benefit to her as there is a duel focus: academics and relationships.

2. My son is at the other end of the scale where he has a team of therapists and other adults around him helping him to access the curriculum. At his most recent team meeting I was blown away to hear that he was talking, participating, answering questions in class, and that he had made friends BECAUSE HE WANTED TO. This had never happened before - he usually required a lot of intervention from his teacher aide to support him to do these things. He is a completely new child  the MLE. He is not lost, he is a happy, contributing member of the class.

3. My third daughter is exceptionally advanced in her reading, and so I give her te Reo books to read because she loves learning the language. When her teachers found out, they invited her to run a workshop to share her love of te Reo with others. She's so excited to be given this opportunity.

What I love about my children's school is that they acknowledge individual needs and have flexibility. There are large open spaces and small enclosed spaces. There are quiet spaces and communicative spaces. The teaching is online, off-line, high-tech, low-tech. It's hands-on, hands-off, It's reading, writing, maths, and science. It's playdough, it's music, it's sport, it's STEM. It's relationship building, communication enabling. It's a place to try, to learn, to make mistakes, to have a go, to fail, to try a different way, to explore, to make sense, to focus, to refine, to generate, to evaluate, to test, to refine. It's a place to learn to be people. A place to learn knowledge and skills. A place to practise skills.

My experience shows me that MLEs work - and they work well. So well, in fact, I too have returned to the MLE environment. I want to be a part of this. In a world where, like the Industrial Revolution times, society is going through a massive change, unlike the IR times we have a different type of change. It's exciting. I want to prepare my students for this world as I explore it with them. I want to go out into businesses and enterprises and find out what the future of employment looks like, and bring it back to school and unpack that with my students. My students in my MLE school get the same high expectations placed on them that I've always in traditional schools. They also get to have real-world experiences to an extent I've never been able to provide on my own before. The students' thinking is sophisticated and interesting.

Do all of them always do all their work all the time? No. I still work with teenagers. I still have to keep track of where they're at and make sure they're completing what they need to complete so that they can demonstrate to others the proof of their thinking ability. If they don't do their work, they still get fair and logical consequences.

Kids will be kids and environment's important. An MLE can, in fact, be found in a traditional, single-cell classroom. I certainly did, and many of my colleagues did too. It's not about being right - it's about being flexible. When spaces and teachers are flexible, they can respond to the needs of the students. That's what teaching is about.

I believe in MLEs. They work. But even more, I believe in teachers who teach in these spaces, and the kids who learn.

A Week in my HPSS Life - Friday

🎉🎉The last day of term!🎉🎉
💤💤It's time for sleep...💤💤

There's newborn tired. There's special needs tired. There's teacher at the end of term tired. It's its own special kind of tiredness. Pretty sure we've all seen this doing the rounds on the internet before!

Source: Internet

08:30 - Community Kitchen Table

Gathered in spaces around the building four communities of teachers could be found. I found Tiriwa in the kitchen cooking breakfast - smelled amazing. I found Taheretikitiki sitting in a Porohita on the floor in Delta. My community, Waiarohia was in Kilo, and I don't actually know where Onekiritea were. One thing was the same of almost everyone I saw today - we were all wearing black. An email was sent out yesterday from one of the teachers about wearing black today to make visible the stand against sexual harassment in the work place. In a school usually so full of colour and colourfully-dressed people, it was uncomfortable and unsettling to see so much black.

But that's the point - sexual harassment in any form isn't ok.

#MeTooNZ Tweets

So far this year I have worn orange for Domestic Violence awareness, Teal for athletics day, Green for St. Patrick's day, and black for Sexual Harassment day. I'd better make sure my Pink is ready to go for Bullying Day in May, too.

As for our community meeting, today we discussed what we wanted to do with huis next term, our leader checked in with how everyone was feeling about our Learning to Learn topic, and also checked in to see how we were going with our one-on-ones and logging them into Kamar.

09:00 - Hub Check-in and send off

Birthdays! Two birthdays this morning, happy birthday was sung, and my directive from the hublings for next term is to be more proactive about celebrating birthdays and making a big deal about them. I'm also thinking next term I'm going to move spaces, as I have been eyeing up the lab opposite me for a while...

09:10 - Block 1 - TEENAGE

My Level 2 class today had a set series of tasks to achieve as they prepared a piece of writing for their writing portfolio. The task we are working on at the moment is writing a letter to Chris Hipkins, expressing our views on what should be included in the education reform. I had my idea of what it should look like - however every step of the way at least one student has said "I don't want to do it like this. I think..." and this stoked great discussions as the students had to justify their reasons. These discussions led me into areas of exploration that stirred me as well. One student I was discussing work with had the point that relationships are important in teaching. He said he couldn't find any where where Chris Hipkins was talking about relationship in education. I found this interesting, as when I looked at a range of sources, including his twitter stream and his webpage, I couldn't find any mention of relationship either. It was a cursory glance, but it led me to think about the relevance of omissions - the importance of relationships in education was conspicuous by its (perceived?) absence.

I know the Ministry of Education places a huge importance on Knowing Your Student - so why couldn't I find any evidence today?

10:30 - Morning Tea

10:50 - Block 2 - Office Time

I keep calling it office time, even though I'm not always in the office. Fridays are when I meet with my Foundation co-teacher and today we were planning for first week back next term. In a good way our planning session exposed how white we both are, especially when we invited Whaea to come and help us with our planning! We want to explore pepeha and get each student creating a cuff bracelet out of copper that portrays their own pepeha, using Maori symbols and design. It's going to be so cool! But man - do I know nothing about te toi o Maori!! I used to think I was pretty good - I did a paper on taonga in my Art History Honours...

12:10 - Block 3: DBAD101

The same as yesterday, we separated the students into two groups and gave them focused time to get work of each subject complete.

1:30 - Lunch time: Duty in Taharetikitiki

It's a fairly quiet space, so when one of my students walked past who I needed to have a restorative conversation with, it was easy enough to chat with him as well. What I really like about restorative practice is that students and teachers can both get to a place of calm with behaviours discussed and and solutions put in place. For me, it allows me time to settle myself before I have a conversation with the students. It can be trying, because I like to tell students that they're wrong if they've done something they keep trying to find excuses for their behaviour. I have to breathe - not taking the bait is something that I'm getting better - but there were still a couple of times when breathing didn't quite engage the filter...

2:10 - Block 4: DBAD101

Time for PE outside... with a whole bunch of gannets! I was eating some lunch on the run, and had a pot of beetroot and pomegranate falaffel in one hand and a bag of corn thins in the other. A couple of the students saw this as I walked on the courts, asked what it was, and then asked to try it. I have long known the importance of sharing food in building relationships - but I don't usually share with students! Sharing kai has been discouraged in many situations, and so it isn't my natural response. The first thing that came to mind this time was our presentation on Monday about kai and pasifika cultures. So, I let them share my lunch and eat together.

3:29

"Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy! Have a great holiday!"

3:30

We made it through another term - for me my first term at HPSS.
I might do a first term review later in the holidays.
But for now...

A Week in my HPSS Life - Thursday

I have been duly and wisely informed that my husband will only read my recounts if they're written in the past tense. And then being highly clever, he referred to this pun:

So, for the sake of my husband, I'm going to write the rest of this blog post in past tense. 😀

8:30

We had the second Q3 (level 3) teachers meeting this morning. Thursdays are put aside for learning design  - so curriculum thinking - and the first time we got together we shared what we were doing in each of our classes. This enabled us to make connections with what other subjects were doing, and therefore identify potential crossover.

This morning we focused on footnoting. We established that English and potentially Social Sciences are the two subjects which formally assess referencing, and asked that everyone else did the same thing as us. To do this, English and Social Sciences will need to come together at some point soon and work out what we each need to assess and formulate a plan from there. Just as how the whole school does PEEL paragraphs, and the whole school uses the learning design model, we'll make sure we have a whole-school structure for referencing as well.

Hobsonville Point Secondary School Learning Design Model

8:55 - Hub Time

Quickly checked in with the hublings, talked to them about where they were when they were missing during extended hub yesterday, and sent them off on their day.

9:10 - Block 1: LITHEO

My lovely year 13 class worked away on their first (three) assessment(s). (Brackets because it's one unit of work that we have been doing all term, and I've been able to align three standards to it: connections, oral presentation, and writing portfolio). Working in this way on this unit of feminist theory in literature has been really cool. It did mean that I had to say no to a student who asked to join my class at this stage of the year. When I explained to him how we've been working, he said that it was "how my teacher last year did things too". A quick look at the Kamar screen we were discussing showed me he did Black Civil Rights for his English course last year. I know who that teacher is and I'm stoked to have my practise recognised as being similar to hers. Biggest compliment!

10:30 - Morning Tea: Duty

Wandering up and down the Waiarohia section of corridor is nice this morning. The students and I are getting to know each other more, and I regularly hear "Toni!" being shouted out followed by a wave. Even students I don't know will fall into really relaxed and natural conversation when I wander into their space. It again shows me what an impact building a school on relationships has. 

10:50 - Office Time

Marked a bit, teased a bit, chatted a bit to the teachers either side of me. Told a science teacher that yes, formal writing can be typed, and yes students can use spellcheck in English assignments. Then followed that conversation with one of my all time favourite spell check gimmics:

Candidate for a Pullet Surprise
by Mark Eckman and Jerrold H. Zar

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.

12:10 - Block 3: DBAD101

We split the class in two today to give them 30 minutes of focused English with me and 30 minutes of focused PE with the PE teacher. We needed to make sure that everyone had their work complete before they go on holiday tomorrow. It was great to see that people made use of the time, asked meaningful questions, and that everyone had a chance to feel successful today.

The other thing that was really powerful for me was the way students reacted when other students had difficulties. Students included and encouraged another who was feeling incompetent. They understood when I sat of the floor with this student and practised sentence structures with him. Later in the block when two students were upset and needed support, other students supported them quickly and without fuss. When I needed extra support to help the students, and asked one student to go downstairs and find someone the atmosphere was positive. No shame or ridicule came from the students because they know that adults are here to support them through whatever they're going through. There was no rubbernecking or FOMO running through the class - as soon as everyone knew that their friends were looked after, they got back on with their work. No derailing of the lesson, just a temporary detour.

1:30 - Lunchtime

2:10 - Block 4: KAKAHU

The last lesson of the term with these awesome young people. I was really bothered when one student told me today that he didn't like the class, and didn't understand what was going on. I wish he'd told me sooner. As we sat together, and talked about reading and fashion, we explored different angles and looked for ways that would be meaningful. We talked of motocross, and I was shown photos of injuries that were sustained as a result of crashes. That was when I was able to reshape his perception of what we were doing. His task then became to read stories about motocross accidents and conceptualise what he could do to improve the protective wear and prevent more injuries.

3:30

And then, just like that, Thursday was finished. So too, I hope, is everyone's work...

A Week in My Life at HPSS - Wednesday

8:30

Stories of power loss and stranded teachers - a bit of an exciting start to the day as people were catching up with each other about how they were affected by the storm. Turns out the primary had lost a bit of roof - whoops, didn't notice that this morning when I dropped the kids off! Cold though! I found my toe socks this morning - and wore these with my jandals. :) 

Wednesday morning is PD morning. This morning, two of our LCLs (Learning Community Leaders: Deans, pastoral leaders... I'm not actually sure where they'd fit into the model I'm used to) took us through the Hub curriculum planners. We were given time to look back on our goals from the beginning of the term, and to reflect and evaluate how we were going to go forward next term. I finished two columns, 3 to do. I was surprised at how much I had done - it's easy to get caught up in the day to day and following up with different things that don't end up on the planner, so taking that moment to breathe and acknowledge the things I had accomplished was pretty cool.

The next job - have a look through Term Two's planner. Yus - I've been looking forward to this topic! Learning to Learn!! I've been interested in this for so many years, and collecting information for so many years that I'm looking forward to sharing it with my hub!! I've used the information in my own teaching and learning practises, and I've been longing to teach it so I'm so excited that the opportunity is here this year! :D 

The third section of PD was considering the effects on hauora using Bono's thinking hats. I didn't take a photo so found this one on the internet. We didn't have the purple hat, but I thought it was cool enough to include.

It was interesting. We were split into groups using the coloured hats, and my group was to look at the negative effects on hauora (we got the black hat). Each group quickly presented back, as the LCL also mad the connection between what we were doing and writing an essay. A sneaky way to build literacy skills in to hub - love it!

credit: https://mgrush.com/blog/2017/06/22/debono-six-thinking-hats/

9:30 - Block 1

The kids have a late start every Wednesday morning. I've worked out that we make up for this time by finishing school at 3:30 every afternoon, not 3:15. This is the day they do projects - on site, with a rigorous curriculum. As I don't have a project, this is essentially an office day for me.

The office day starts with my weekly meeting with my PE co-teacher. Every week we sit down and work through what we need to do with the students for the next week. Today we were going through the markbook and checking who's handed in work. We were updating notes on Kamar. She was teaching me about what to look for when assessing the PE kids. We reviewed a video I took of the kids on Monday where they were playing basketball - and I mentioned how I found it less overwhelming to view the video and mark than to mark in real time. I feel this is how I go with most unfamiliar situations - find a way I can control my learning, and once I've got it I can feel more confident with using the knowledge.

10:50 - Morning Tea

Later today because of the late start. :)

11:10 - Block 2 - In the Office

Winter arrived - I went looking for my office-mate's blanket!

Office time = thinking time. I was working through preparation for the next few lessons, and just working through stuff - as we do as teachers.

12:30 - Block 3 - Office time continues.

The students have floor time during this block and as my books arrived from London during this block, I sat with the students working near my office door and opened the package! :) A couple of the students also happened to be my English students, so they were reminded to get on with the English work they were behind on! 

The new books from the National Galley of London that disrupted my thinking time!

The cool thing about opening this package meant that I was sharing something I love with the kids, I was talking with kids whom I hadn't met before, and we were exploring this together. At the moment I'm really intrigued by text adaptations, and one of the books that arrived is Metamorphosis: Poems Inspired by Titian. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm pretty sure that there's some way I can work with biology in the future and create a unit out of this.

Wednesday. Thinking time. So Awesome.

1:30 - Lunchtime.

Deeply back in thought, I was retrospectively vaguely aware of my critical friend telling me to stop for lunch. I can't even remember what I was working on at the time - but it had me hooked at the time!

2:10 - Hub Time

This is our second 80-minute block of the week. We started off with a celebrations assembly today, and then came back and finished off our porohita question from yesterday morning. The furniture had been left in interesting places today - and it kinda made a cave-like feel. We girls sat on the floor, while the boys were on chairs. Following that, they finished their forms for me - Floor time selections for term 2, reflections, and student voice. I then gave them time to catch up on assessments, as they requested, and I tried to get around students who I hadn't chatted with for a while and just chill with them.

I was talking with a friend tonight about how much time we spend with our hublings. 80 minutes twice a week and 20 minutes four times a week because relationships are paramount. Relationships are the most important thing, and they're what everything else is based on. Without a strong foundation, we can't have a strong building. The storm last night illustrates that nicely!

3-storey scaffolding (a structure with no foundation) that blew over in the wind storm.
Photo cred: Carrick Hill

3:30 - Home time

Throw the shoes in the drawer and put on the toe-socks and jandals to walk home :)

8:48pm - LBC Whanau: Love you

I've just come back from the farewell of an amazing teacher at Long Bay. Spending time at LBC, the place where my training wheels came off, was like going back to mum and dad's house. It was like whanau. Mum was there, Dad was there, aunties, uncles, cousins... I've always said (and I heard it tonight) that a school is not about the building (or the results... ;) ), it's about the people. I came home filled with aroha at having spent time with whanau I love. Whanau - you know I write these for you. I couldn't bring you with me to HPSS in person, and so many of you expressed desires to know about what's happening over here. So many of you look at HPSS and see glimpses of what we're doing and want to know more. This is my way of helping to remove the fence so that you can see what goes on and how we make it work.
Arohanui tatou.

A Week in my HPSS Life - Tuesday

8:30

I arrive at school - walked here in jandals today. As they get kicked off under my desk, I notice a growing pile. Better take these home tonight! Nude heels are retrieved from my bag, and put next to the pile. Teachers who lead projects have a meeting 'round the kitchen table today but as I don't have a project, I spend the 25 minutes catching up on things. Emails, quick look over attendance, quick check of Kamar notifications to see if there's anything that needs addressing.

8:55 - Hub Check-in

Leaving the office, I go out to my hub space in Foxtrot (oooh - that would have been an excellent photo op! I'll try to remember to take a photo tomorrow). Today I notice that as I sit on a couch with my laptop and do the roll, my hublings start forming the porohita (circle) without me prompting them. Win! Devices are still coming out, so that may be the next thing to work on. My quick question this morning is again reflective. Each student is asked to state one success and one challenge they have faced this term. I decide that this is an excellent thing to write down, and pull out my diary to note their responses. This is met with a little bit of a groan - I don't think they like the idea of being held accountable to meet their challenges! We only get half way around the porohita though, before it's past 9:10 and time for first block.

9:10 - Block 1: KAKAHU

Kakahu Google Classroom

Our year 9 and 10 students are in composite classes, which we call the Foundation classes. Kakahu is a module, meaning that there are two learning areas being taught. Two teachers support the students through the learning - and support each other to make the learning deeper.

We started in the library today. A half hour reading session each week is awesome. The students are really valuing it, and for the most part are using the time really well. After half an hour, my co-teacher and I gave instructions for what they needed to do, each of us giving the things that the students needed to be achieving and what learning we were looking for for each learning area. This was the best delivery of instructions I've had this term - it was a tag team. Completely unplanned, each giving one instruction at a time, and each building on the other person's point. Pretty fun.

I then spent time looking through the students' work on Google classroom and working with individual students, while my co-teacher spent time checking in with small groups.

10:30 - Morning tea

I'm still adjusting to this 20 minutes deal! 30 minutes for morning tea was a luxury that I never took for granted and always enjoyed. I needed to catch up with two people - one of the clever techy teachers to help me find a missing message on Kamar, and with a DP who sent me the message.

10:50 - Block 2: KAKAHU

Twenty minute break, and we're back into it. Students are still working on completing their work for their portfolios so that we can assess them against the learning outcomes for the term (for English: To make sense by understanding that texts are crafted for different purposes and audiences - Oh no! I just spotted a typo in my mark book!! - and for Technology: To explore by investigating the nature and principles of design in a range of contexts).

How does this all come together in one unified course? This term, we worked on a play. They read plays and understood the structure. They read short stories and re-crafted them into play-scripts. They unpacked their characters deeply, making inferences about what the characters would be like as people. They created a wooden theatre and made backgrounds of the settings for the play that they adapted. Today, they were finishing their materials analysis where they are investigating the types of fabrics their characters would wear based on their inferences and interpretations of the story. 

The students then either wrote their responses into their chart, or I filmed them talking through their responses and linked them to their forms.

12:10 - Block 3: LITHEO

We have been investigating feminism theory in Level 3 English this term. The students have read a number of texts around an aspect of feminist theory that has caught their attention. From this reading, I looked at all their topics and crafted a prompt for a seminar. In preparing their seminar, they will be addressing how texts are connected as well as using them as a window into society. Their seminar topic is The way a society treats its women determines the strength of its nation. This will allow every student to use their reading as a basis to ground their seminar in, while giving them scope to explore their ideas in depth and detail. This will also form the draft of another piece of writing for their writing portfolio.

I've also found this chrome extension that allows me to record the instructions and the doc as I'm explaining the instructions, so that the students can come back and listen to the instructions again if they need to.

The other tool I used this block was my OneNote notebook. These days it functions only as a whiteboard, but it in this function it works really well. I talk through the questions that the students ask, and then upload the image onto their Google Classroom.

1:30 - Lunch

Sitting in the staffroom, completing forgetting that I had students due to arrive to foxtrot to catch up on work for DBAD101. All I can do is hope...

2:10 - Block 4: LITHEO

Our second block today, where students worked away on preparing their seminars.

3:30 - Home time

Well, actually, I found my kids in the library sitting and enjoying books, so I sat with them and wrote this before I went home to sleep! :P

A Week in My HPSS Life - Monday

This series of blog posts is inspired by Bex who, more than once, has tried to get her head around my timetable. Sometimes the best way to understand things is to experience them - but unfortunately I can't bring Bex here for an entire week - as much as I'd love to! So, I'll walk you through my week, one day at a time. Each day, with its outline, hopefully some photos, and let you into my world.

So let's start at the beginning.

Monday

8:30 - Mondays with Maurie Kitchen Table

All staff in the staffroom, the school waiata is sung. Singing together builds culture, a commonality, community - Whanaungatanga. It's nice, actually. Maurie (or sometimes others are given the slot) speaks to us - so far I've noticed these kitchen tables have something to do about building the culture, upfronting the school culture. This morning's was about cultural sustainability.

Our Teacher Only Day before Easter features Anne Milne's Colouring in the White Spaces - and this is what Maurie koreroed about further.

He shared stories from his past, telling of how he went about building relationships with whanau, and emphasised the importance of relationships. I tend to think no matter what colour a person is, relationship and a sense of belonging is of utmost importance.
He shared different strategies of engaging with another's culture including reading about the history and engaging with the literature.

We were issued a challenge around Culturally Sustainable Practice:
* we're all responsible for making changes - I have to read, I have to learn the language, I have to get into it.

But that makes sense, right? Nothing changes if nothing changes.

We were directed towards an email that Maurie had sent and given about 3 minutes to 1. Write down what we learned from TOD and 2. What one thing we were going to do differently to be more culturally sustainable.

* he aha tatou

We then went on to revisit the definition of what success should look like for students at our school.
staff voice
student voice

Following Maurie, one of our SLT spoke with conviction about the importance of Pasifika, and how Pasifika viewed our school:
"Palangi with a touch of Asian"

We heard that the most important thing for them is to feel happy and proud of who they are, where they come from, of their family, their culture and their identity.

The feedback was that families and students want to learn their own languages because knowing the language leads to understanding the culture.
We heard how humility is valued by pasifika people and how we need to celebrate pasifika achievements - find stories about Maori students and Pasifika students because they won't be forthcoming with them.

Where do the kids get a chance to find out about things that are important to them?

8:55 - Hub Time

Right up until today, our community huis have been on a Monday morning! We're switching this up today - so no hui to write about. Instead, I'll have the full time (from 8:55 to 10:30) to spend with my hub - my 15 hublings who I have pastoral care for.

Being the last week of term, I asked them to reflect on their learning so far this term. When they gave me shallow responses, I challenged them to go further and think deeper. 

They also filled in a hubling voice form which asked them 10 questions about how they thought I was going as a coach. The responses were more brutal than expected, and I put some paper and pens around the room asking for their solutions to the problems.

10:30 - Morning Tea time

I sat in my office with the A3 pieces of paper and thought about what these meant.

10:50 - Block 2 - DBAD101

This is a Level 1 (Year 11) module combining English and PE. Today my co-teacher and I are watching the students and assessing them on their effective communication goals. The students set these goals on Friday, and today we were watching them, trying to catch them displaying the communication techniques they have chosen to improve. I videoed them for a few minutes so we can go back and analyse their skills later.

A lot of my time this block was spent following up students who had missed the deadline.

12:10 - Block 3 - TEENAGE

This block I spent going over the steps involved in writing an in-depth letter. We looked at planning, selecting, testing points to figure out if they were compelling or not. After I spent about a half-hour chunk of the lesson talking through rubrics, planning, and expectations of challenge, the students were set free to work on their own. I gave them a few minutes to get started, then talked to each one of the kids about what they would like to focus their letter around. Some would like to let Chris Hopkins know their thoughts towards NCEA, others think languages or or soft skills must be built into the new education system. Really cool discussions emerged as students and I wondered about issues together, and generated avenues of research.

1:30 Lunchtime

Back to foxtrot to meet the L1 students coming in for a catch up. I also spoke with one of my students about the difficulty he was having in L1 English, and we investigated some alternatives for him to try so that he can find success.

2:10 - Block 4 - TEENAGE

For our second 80-minute block of the day, the students were continuing to prepare their letter info and discuss their ideas.

3:30 - Home time (For students)

I had two meetings on simultaneously: Hub coach training for new coaches and an English meeting. I prioritised the English meeting today, as it had been some time since all 5 of us have been in the same place at the same time.

4:30 - Home time  :)

What is Success?

As the concept of expectations and definitions of success continue to rattle around my mind, the question that propels itself to the top with the most force is What's wrong with a white, middle class mother having white, middle class expectations for her children?

I have to say: nothing.

Yesterday I was giving thought to the differences of expectations of expectations I have for my own kids. People have often mistakenly accused me of pushing my kids, when in fact all I do is listen to their interests and support them the best I can. This usually means they get the most support in literacy and inquiry because these are my two strengths. Many of the things they are interested in are typical of white, middle-class because this is our culture. So why do I feel like this is wrong?

I came to see that it's not. My family is white, we are middle class. I was feeling like a bad guy for having and perpetuating this culture until I took the time to acknowledge that this is our culture and our heritage.

And yet my children are also interested in kapa haka and learning te Reo, so we have te Reo books at home. They're interested in bush craft and Maori knowledge of the bush is far superior to my own.

Being white and having a white, middle-class culture isn't wrong or bad. It's just different.

What is wrong is when we try to purport that other people are failures for enjoying success in their culture. It's wrong to ignore individuality and force an identity onto people. It would be wrong of me to tell my children they should not be interested in learning te Reo. It would be a shallow understanding and knowledge of bush craft we'd have it we only used a white botanical construct. We need Maori voice - the Waitakere rahui is an excellent example of this. They care about our natural resources. They are about our history. We're lucky we have Maori people who are holding onto their Maoridom - all over the world we see indigenous peoples making a far better job of being kaitiaki of the land than white people. They know the land and how to respect it in ways I - for one - do not. If nothing else, it makes sense for our survival to make sure Maori voice is heard.

My husband was challenging me last night, asking what if our #3 wanted to be a race car driver? My tummy tightened and my jaw clenched at that. It's not something I want my intelligent little girl to do.

As we've been walking around MOTAT today, my husband takes every opportunity to challenge my thinking and my perceptions. The Dig It exhibition is on this weekend, so there are construction-themed activities everywhere. "You should be a stop-go girl", he said to #1, with a swift swat from me. "She'll earn lots of money", he said. "You could be a digger driver and ear lots of money" he said to another - again with another swift flick from me.

See, there's nothing wrong with money. Nothing wrong with having money or earning money. With money you can do a lot of good and help a lot of people. But money isn't my measure of success. Maybe that's because I was raised in a white middle class family. I read an article a while ago that suggested people who were raised in white middle class families accounted for a significant proportion of conceptual degrees - Arts degrees and the like. The reasoning the writer put forward was that people from these families weren't in need of anything so they didn't study skills-based qualifications to learn how to do something specific. Building, mechanics, engineering for example. They studied thinkgs that were interesting to them because they weren't driven by an economic need. So if my definition of success isn't an economic one, and it's not necessarily an academic one, then what is it?

I think my definition of success has more to do with an intrinsic sense of purpose. My #1 child has a dream of being a scientist, so if she wound up being a digger driver I don't think she'd feel successful. She may enjoy learning how to drive a digger, and she may enjoy using one on the weekends to dig holes to build gardents, but I don't think she'd feel successful. Not unless she was researching the physics of the machines and innovating a green, sustainable replacement. On teh other hand, my #2 child was stoked to be driving a digger today, and maybe that's something that would give him a feeling of success and satisfaction. On the other hand, it may not because he has the goal of becoming a nurse.

Some would see - and do see - teachers and nurses as being unsuccessful because we get paid so little. It's certainly not a career you get into if you're looking for a 6-figure salary right off the bat (although that would be nice, thanks government). Yet teaching leaves me immensely satisfied. I see changes in people's skills and thinking everyday. I see young people journey from being children to young adults. I'm home with my kids in the holidays and after school. I have a consistent flow of learning available to me. I can push boundaries and find new ways to engage teenagers in their learning - and their world. I never have the same day twice.

So I feel that my definition of success actually still remains. I will be a successful teacher if every students (and colleague) feels valued and supported to explore the things that matter most to them. That means my Maori students feel that their culture and their stories are valuable and valued. My musical students feel supported to express their teenage angst in their writing. My dyslexics feel confident and competent sharing their understanding using pictures and audio rather than writing everything down if that's what they need to do.



And maybe the Maori students just need me to stand out of their way. Maybe I present them with a range of texts to study and bring in Matua or Whaea to help them unpack the Maori texts in a genuine way. Maybe I need to change my pathway to success. Maybe then I can authentically say I'm providing a space that allows Maori to achieve AS Maori.

What REALLY makes a CoL a Kahui Ako?

Teacher Only Day - Whiriatetangata Kahui Ako Day #1

Storified session Tweets



Challenging.
Disruptive.
Mental Assent.

Words to describe my experience of today's teacher only day - the first for the Whiriatetangata Kahui Ako.

I say every child deserves an equal opportunity.
I say success looks different for everyone.
I can give mental assent to cultural sustainability and to equity; to having a different version of success for everyone - but do I really mean it? I had a great couple of colleagues press me on this today - and found that as much as I espouse these ideas, my underlying prejudice says otherwise. I say these things, but what I really mean is:

You can have equal opportunity - but only if you agree with what I think is important and valuable.
You can have your version of success - and I can look down on you and celebrate your success from a position of superiority because my children have true success.

I was challenged: What does success for my children look like to me?
Competent and capable to do what it is they want to do.
But what about kindness? Happiness?
Kind people can get used as doormats, I'd rather they were assertive.
Happiness comes from being competent and capable.
But does it really?
Well, I certainly feel happier now that I don't feel incompetent and incapable every day of the week.
What does success for your children look like for you?
My #1 is academically very capable and aspires to be an innovative and inventive scientist. My #2 was given a 1% chance of life, and now he's beaten the odds and progressing. #3 is flying along enjoying learning and enjoying people, while #4 is happy cruising, exploring, and just being in the world.

If I'm truly honest - I struggle daily with the fact that my #4 just doesn't seem as motivated to learn as the others, and worry that she's not as smart as the others.

So what's my measure of success for my children? I can't say it's academic success, because I don't expect #2 to reach any lofty academic goals. He aspires to be a nurse, and I feel that a health care assistant might be a more appropriate goal for him. Yet, academic success is what I expect from my girls and worry when my #4 aspires to be a frog and a bulldozer and barbie, and Hulksmash...

What I can say is that I have a different measure for success for each child. I can say that I have never pushed my kids into being something or doing something - I've just supported in the best way that I can. When that has meant bringing home friends who are cleverer in Maths than I am to play maths games with my 3-4 year old because that was what she was loving, and I have no idea how to do that, that's what's happened. When that's meant searching high and low to find reading material that is suitable for my bookwormy children who have a higher reading age than what emotionally their minds can handle, that's what's happened.

Perhaps it's easier in my family because we're all the same culture, colour, ethnicity, background. I'm sharing with my kids my values and beliefs because that's my job as a parent.

So what's my job as a teacher?

To be culturally responsive?
But that doesn't just mean stick Maori labels on things and tick the box. I was heading more in the culturally sustainable way when I had my te Reo learning goals up on my whiteboard and my Maori ako gave me feedback on my learning.
It also doesn't mean chuck in some Maori authors.
I've never agreed with the idea of focusing on Maori (or anyone) as targeted, priority learners, because I've always fought for treating every student as an individual, and finding ways for the student to succeed. My late high school principal said "if the student isn't learning then the teacher isn't teaching" and I took that to heart. So if my students are not achieving the success they deserve, then what is it that's missing?

When everyone can achieve success in a way that is meaningful for them - is that when a Community of Learning can authentically call itself a Kahui Ako?

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Would still smell as sweet, wouldn't it?

My brother's mother-in-law asked me last week what the difference was between teaching at the two different schools. Week 4 at HPSS has had me reflecting on the differences in teaching practise between what I was doing at my last school and what I do now. Not much is different - yet. However, I have taken mental note of the differences in teaching, and this is what I've come up with.

Two Teachers and Subjects in Some Classes

The most obvious difference are the modules. These are the classes I teach with another teacher from another curriculum area. I teach two of these - one is called Kakahu and the other is called DBAD101. Both of these courses run for a semester.

Kakahu
Kakahu is a foundation module which means the students are years 9 and 10. I co-teach this module with a technology teacher and together we're exploring fashion. We sit together for 80 minutes every Friday morning and plan our next week.

This week we are using reading and drawing skills to interpret characterization. We'll look at characters and interpret their personalities. We'll look at the opening clip of Inside Out and look at how characters and emotions are visualised. We'll read a text and highlight character descriptions. Based on the interpretations of characters, they'll use kiki babou and color theories to create symbols for characters. They will then use these symbols in creating a storyboard to visualize a short story that we'll annotate and unpack together.

This is different to teaching my year 9 classes and my year 10 classes on my own. While I still had the reading skills happening, and I still tried to get students to visualize the symbols, I never managed to get the quality of work out of students that my co-teacher does. She has the subject-specific knowledge which empowers her to get great visual results out of the students.

A section of our planning document where we can see who is responsible for what for our up-coming classes.

DBAD101
As with Kakahu, this is a one-semester course. It's year 11 / Level 1 NCEA. It's a combo of English and PE with a focus on leadership, communication, and conflict. We have chosen texts that look at these concepts, and I have asked the students to find a novel that has these ideas in them as well.

We have been looking at the concepts of leadership and communication, and as we have done so, we have taken them out to the PE field and had a go at using these skills in practical situations. This is something I was always keen on doing, but didn't know how to pull it off. Having a PE teacher in every class means I always have someone to bounce off.

Having two teachers in the class is great in other ways too - when kids who are working hard and need my time to really get the concepts, there is another teacher available for behaviour management, or to float and talk to the other students and explore concepts with.

A section of our planning doc showing how we are going to explore the film in a practical way through PE

Flexible, Responsive, Blended Learning

This kind of practise all teachers strive for. We all want to ensure the success of all our students. I've always had playdough in my room. In recent years I've had maker-spaces with equipment to create with. Colored paper, glue, scissors... I've spent hours and hours learning how to teach with technology, so that devices weren't just word processor, but powerful learning tools. Difficulties arose with students not wanting to bring their devices to school. Being in an environment where devices, Universal Design for Learning strategies, and flexibility is normal makes teaching in this way much much easier.

My plan for my Level 2 class on Monday (2x80 minute blocks) has space for this.
Romeo and Juliet Act Two Activities

Flexibility also comes in spaces that I can use. I have taught in small, glass-encased meeting rooms, large open spaces, the auditorium, the tennis courts, the library, a social space, a tech room... All in two weeks. I currently have a lot of flexibility in where my class is depending on what we're doing.

The online classrooms that facilitate flexible, autonomous learning

Structured Tools Enable Flexibility

This has been instrumental to my feeling of calm in teaching. I have always strived for flexible, differentiated learning, and have tried to use assessment for learning techniques. I kept looking to find the best way, and never managed to get or create what I wanted. One of the biggest blessings in coming to HPSS is that the DP in charge of Curriculum and Learning has spent the time with her team researching and deconstructing every facet of the New Zealand Curriulum and the NCEA assessment documents. This has allowed her, with her team, to generate a solid foundation of tools, vocabulary, and practices that are versatile and cover every learning area. I feel freed up to use the tools, design my lessons, and know that the students will understand.

By looking at the learning matrix for the school and combining it with the assessment rubric for the work that I'm doing, I get clear and streamlined learning objectives that clarify what learning activities I need to find or create.

Romeo's and Juliet's Coming of Age Journey

So What is the Difference?

In the end, the differences come down to:
Consistent, visible learning frameworks
Consistent expectations for autonomous learning
Consistent expectation that learning is grounded with a real-life application, and
Consistent expectation that the students can get out into the community or engage the community and use their skills.