Manaiakalani Hui 25/8/2017

Manaiakalani Hui 

Friday 25th August 2017

Congratulations on cracking the Q.R code.  

You now have the opportunity to browse through my teaching inquiry and leave a comment, a thought or a wondering... 

Hui Prep

With the Manaiakalani Hui rapidly approaching I need to come up with an interesting and innovative way to present my inquiry...

Simple but effective, 
real and relevant, 
honest and authentic
was the message from Glen Innes! 

In the age of numerous digital platforms a picture (or Q.R code) can still paint a thousand words...

Teaching as Inquiry - Manaiakalani Hui Science Fair Board

CoL Meeting 24th August....reflection

Story Sack; 2 perspectives for the visit of 3.

With only 3 more recipients of the story sack in line, and only 2 households to gain further perspective, I need to think ...

WHAT NEXT?  

From professional discussions with colleagues following my CoL Staff Meeting, one suggestion which I particularly liked was that I could invite those who have taken part thus far in the inquiry into school one afternoon to make other Story Sacks to be shared amongst our community.  

We could...

• collectively identify another 5/6 stories                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         which we could then 

• 'brain-storm' purposeful resources 

• provide a small budget to purchase and equip the sacks 

• have a "making / packing" session at school                                                                                                                      and then 

• send those next generation story sacks out into the community to gauge whanua engagement at a deeper level.

By developing the inquiry this way I am hoping to create cultural authenticity to the much needed engagement with many families, care-givers and whanau in Glen Innes.  By using the initial "target" group I am also facilitating the authority from, and to, the parents, care-givers and whanau that they too can support their tamariki’s speaking and listening skills at home through this medium which is essential to their learning journey. 

Story Sack Cont...a boys perspective.

The story sack went home with my youngest male subject... a child for whom the learning journey puzzle pieces are just starting to fit into place some 3 terms into his schooling.  He is beginning to make connections, and join some dots across the curriculum which is great to see, and he is supported whole-heartedly by his Mum.   

I note that he is DETERMINED in his application to read and ENJOYED the interactive activities.   He can IDENTIFY and JUSTIFY who his favourite character is with LOGICAL RATIONALE and he can INFER information NOT provided in the text ...these are the foundational skills of any reader, but through the accelerated pace of the given format (Story Sack) they have been exposed in a safe environment with whanua engagement.

How-parents-and-whanau-can-help-at-home

CoL Teachers Staff Meeting @ GIS Term 3

Here is a copy of the Staff Meeting which I facilitated on Tuesday 15th August at Glen Innes School.

It was invaluable as an information tool to show the collaboration between, and amongst, the CoL teachers and the wealth of knowledge available across the cluster.  We also shared our internal school inquiries into Reading which gave a progressive look into how we are promoting acceleration and consolidation into all of our classrooms to gain better progress as a collective body.

Story Sack feedback x2; is this the future?

The initial feedback about the "Story-Sack" was very positive and caused HUGE interest not only with the specific student, but within the whole whanau.  The "S.S" was kept for x5 days and a request followed for other similar stories to be presented in such an interactive way for everyone to enjoy and participate with.

The second home visit of the "Story Sack" took on a journey of x10 days and again caused HUGE involvement across 3 generations of the specifically targeted whanau...  The request/suggestion of having a new vocab word to learn in association with the story is a worthy one and one which I will embrace.

Feedback thus far from both whanau's (J.T and F.H) has indicated that with an interactive approach both engagement and progress has been affective in the context of Reading!  

Yeah...maybe I'm onto something?? Is this the way forward for G.I?

Whanau Engagement...DOJO style!

So...this term as a Jnr Syndicate we have rolled out Class DOJO across all 5 classes and the response we (Room 2) have received is phenomenal!!!  Out of the 20 families / whanau represented in our classroom we have had 12 parents/caregivers sign up to date; 60%!

They have all been active on the application either by "liking" the whole-school stories from the x10 contributing teachers, Room 2 class stories or their child's individual story and every whanau represented has messaged either myself or my co-teacher most days.

As I reflect as to why this format is working, I wonder if it is because it can be done without the "threat" of being at or on school premises, or having to have a face to face meeting...  

What then does this say about the traumas / preconceived ideas that are held by the whanau's we  teach of tomorrow and therefore the future of the education system in its present form?