Evaluation of 2021 Intervention

 

Lockdown Learning

 I found it really hard to engage my students and families over lockdown. I had an average attendance of around 50%, Mondays were usually lower. I tried calling and many numbers were disconnected and had not been updated by families on the school management system. 

One parent confided that she knew that her boy stayed up all night and played online games, but that meant he normally slept most of the day and only woke up around the time she got back from work. This worked for her because this meant he was safe and not up and about. 

I tried various ways to contact families to get their tamariki online. Some avenues trialled:

• Asking the students who were present to contact their friends who were not in class.
• Using Skool Loop.
• Once Level 3 was introduced, dropped off home learning packs for students who had damaged their devices and had no way of accessing online learning.
•  Calling and doing welfare checks.
• Texting/ calling

I decided to suspend my enquiry during lockdown as I did not want to add to my stress and that of our families and we just continued lessons with the students who came online. 

DFI Week 9 - Google Level 1 & 2 Results

 I did it! A BIG THANK YOU  to the DFI Team for all the help and support. 

DFI Week 8: Computational Thinking

 Another challenging week - learning to code and use Scratch. Below is my first attempt

DFI Week 7: Devices

This week we got to use the Chromebooks and iPads that the students use.  We used Explain Everything on the iPads to create resources. I found this really difficult because I seldom use an iPad, but I also lacked motivation as my students don't use iPads. I was more focused on fully understanding the Chromebook (and doing the 'Digital Dig' ) as this is the tool used by students.

The Evolution of Classroom Technology

Chalkboard (1890)

Projector (1925)

Calculator (1970)

Chromebooks (today)

Computers and devices do more than provide students with a platform and resources with which to learn. They also help engage students, prepare them for careers (which is particularly important as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields continue to increase in demand) and close achievement gaps. 

Technology changes all the time and it is our responsibility as teachers to keep pace with this change in order to provide the best possible outcomes for our ākonga.

Who Are We?

This past fortnight our text focussed on 'Who are we? What makes us who we are? This led to fascinating discussions as to who or what we identify as and what makes us who we are'. Are you still Samoan if your parents are Samoan, but you were born in New Zealand and never been to Samoa?

It was great to debate topics in a respectful way (speaking frames were put up as a scaffold/ support for some learners).

One of the tasks students had to complete was to create a family tree and to go back as far as possible. It was lovely to hear how students had to ask their grandparents for some details and the incidental family stories that were shared. Students had to publish their Family Tree on their blogs. Here is an example from Deborah (Y8 student): 

              

DFI - Week 6: Enabling Access Sites

 This week we continued looking at sites. We learned how to create them and how to use them to hook the attention of our students. 

We also learned a few more 'Hapara Hot Tips'. 

Key benefits of using Hapara include:

Easy access and visibility to learner work:

View a quick summary of learner progress across OneNote organised by classes and subjects

Improve skills development:

Organise learners into groups and provide individual feedback and support to improve skills and mastery of topics

Quickly share documents with learners:

Share documents, assignments and resources quickly with individual learners, groups and the whole class

Individualise learning by differentiating assignments:

Track progress and submissions, provide feedback and guidance

Promote student agency and responsibility:

Give learners an easy interface to manage their assignments, customise their submissions and participate in learning and collaboration.

Activity visibility tools:

Allow teachers to see learner screens and class browsing activity.

DFI - Week 5: Sites

 This week we focussed on creating sites. This was a great opportunity to refresh some really rusty skills. Because most of us only create one site per year, you tend to forget how to use certain functions and also because Google constantly upgrades features, things change. 

One of the most important takeaways from today's session was the power of multi-modal sites.

The Benefits of Multimodal Sites

• Promotes more interactivity.
• Portrays information in multiple ways.
• Adapts projects to befit different audiences.
• Keeps focus better since more senses are being used to process information.
• Allows for more flexibility and creativity to present information.

                                                          

                                                      

We learnt the importance of using a photo on your site, rather than a Bitmoji, (cause let's face it - no one actually looks like their Bitmoji!) so that your audience can connect with you

DFI - Week 4: Dealing with Data

 Another fabulous Friday filled with lots of new learning. 

Some of the things we covered today were:

* Google Forms - Although I had created forms before, I never realised there was an option to create pathways for your answers e.g. a yes or no answer can lead you on to another section depending on your answer. Also, the creator of the Form could allow images to be uploaded as part of the answer. This is really cool when requiring students to take the photos and then upload them to the Google Form.  

I also learned that I couldn't embed my Google form into my blog as it made use of file upload questions, so I was only able to use the link. 

* We also dealt quite extensively with Google sheets. I was amazed to learn that I could alternate the colours of the horizontal rows. This was super helpful as I find that the data often merges into one and I sometimes hold a sheet of paper under the data or manually change the colour of each row. To alternate colours of the rows is as easy as:- 

1. select all your data CTRL+A

2. clicking on the paint bucket

3. scrolling down to 'alternating colours'

4. choose your colour from the panel on your right

5. Done

* We also learned how to view students blog activity on Hapara. This included their comments and posts. We also discussed the importance of sharing the blog stats with our students as they aren't privy to that information. 

Dame Cindy Kiro

 This week I chose our reading text from the NZ Herald. We were reading about Dame Cindy Kiro, the next governor-general of NZ.  

I thought it would be great to do a story about an important woman of colour. I remember as a child never having dolls that looked like me, never seeing people that looked like me on television (except on the Police Wanted program) and never seeing people that looked like me in positions of authority. 

This text generated heaps of conversation. Students had no knowledge of what a governor-general was or the amount of authority they actually have. We discussed stereotypes in society and the expectations of our whanau.

In this lesson, I found it was important to get students to justify/ explain their answers and this led to a higher quality  of discussion. Students were encouraged to use respectful language and tone even when they disagreed with others. The engagement and banter contributed to a successful lesson. 

DFI - Week 3: Media

Another Friday, another day of amazing learning with the DFI facilitators! Today we learned how to set up a Youtube channel and add playlists- remember students are not to set up Youtube channels. it's just for educators! We also had a korero about media and ways we could implement it in our classrooms or in the Manaiakalani Film Festival. Movie submissions for the Film Festival are normally due at the end of term 3, so get your students thinking of some fabulous ideas! We also went over Google slides, drawings and my favourite for today - animations!Animations are created using a series of slides, just like an old-fashioned flip-book!

Cultural Capital and Vocabulary

 Term 2 is off to a great start! This term I made a conscious effort to choose text that will allow students to share their expertise and prior knowledge. The text we started this term with was Rongoā for the Land. This was a good choice because it tied in with our topic of plants and it allowed students to showcase their cultural capital.

Before reading we completed a pre and post vocabulary grid to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary. The benefit of using a pre and post vocabulary guide is that it causes students to look for and notice unfamiliar vocabulary.

We know that students are reluctant to use words that they cannot pronounce so whether a student is six or 16, they must be given the opportunity to repeat the word after the teacher has said it. This can be done as simply as saying, ‘I say the word … now you (the student) say the word’. If the word is difficult to pronounce then do this a couple of times.

Some incorrect word pronunciation has crept into our language. For example, many people pronounce ‘pronunciation’ as ‘pronounciation’ and ‘advertisement’ not as ‘advertisment’ but as it is spelt ‘advertisement’. Another common mispronunciation I hear is ‘liberry’ for ‘library’. Correct pronunciation makes a speaker more confident and assists with spelling. Other commonly mispronounced words are 'somefink' instead of something, 'aks' instead of ask and generally pronouncing the 'th' sound as an 'f'. 

DFI - Week 2: Workflow

 I was unable to attend today's DFI as I was celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr ( a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan). 

Thank goodness for rewindable learning! I was able to access the slides and work through the items that were covered today. 

I learned that I could 'pin' tabs. This allows me to keep frequently used docs and sites open. I also tidied up my bookmarks by placing them in folders. 

     

DFI- Week 1: Core Business

This is my second time attending the DFI, I attended in 2017 and opted to do the course again as so much has changed in Google and my certification had lapsed as it is only valid for three years. I was really happy to learn how to remove the white frame and background from images using remove.bg. We also learned how to create posters using Google docs. This was really cool because creating a poster in docs gives you the freedom to choose the paper size. The only drawback was that you cannot upload a doc to you blog as it doesn't show poroperlyy, but that is easily overcome by using screen shot or snipping tool if you wish to upload it to your blog.

The Changing Face of the NZ Classroom

 

"Pasifika learners, along with Maori, continue to experience high disparities in New Zealand’s education system. Furthermore, it is predicted that over the next few decades, the majority of students in New Zealand primary schools will be Maori and Pasifika. The implications for classroom teachers are enormous." - Tute Porter-Samuels

There has been much research published about the benefits of using the students' cultural capital in the classroom, yet many teachers are reluctant to try/ implement it in their classrooms. 

Here were some of the reasons teachers gave (from the 16 April Manaiakalani TOD) for not using culturally inclusive pedagogy:

• It takes time to be inclusive. Easier to teach the way we know and were taught.
• It's scary - We feel embarrassed and inadequate, bad experience with our own schooling. Being English - it's engrained that other people speak English.
• It's not important to achievement. 
• Do not have the knowledge. 
• Uncomfortable 
• Confrontational 
• Do not want to be disrespectful - want to be culturally respectful (lots of information available but we want to ensure that we have all the right information e.g. centre pepeha which area do we serve do we have the right maunga, awa)
• Persistent ideologies, thoughts, ideas and opinions 
• Fear of getting something wrong.

These are just a few of the responses. The complete list can be viewed here.

It's probably time that we take a long, hard look at the most direct and significant influence on student achievement – the classroom teacher, us. 

We need to be honest with ourselves, encourage ourselves, challenge ourselves; do all the things we encourage our students to do in order to achieve a better educational outcome for our students. 

References:

•  Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling: Best evidence synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
•  Tute Porter-Samuels. Raising Pasifika Achievement: Teacher Cultural Responsiveness. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1025674.pdf

Welcome to Term 2!

Term 2 is going to be a really busy term! I have been released from my class for two days a week to do the SENCO role and I'm really excited to be starting my DFI this Friday. I completed the DFI in 2017 but when attending toolkits I realised how much had changed. My principal has agreed to me attending the course, provided I feedback to staff during our weekly staff meetings. In this way all staff can be kept abreast of the latest Google updates.

Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day - 16 April 2021

My colleague, Hevaha, and I presented a workshop at the Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day. We discussed the importance of harnessing the wealth of knowledge and the cultural capital that students bring with them. 

Introduced by French thinker Pierre Bourdieu in the 1970s, cultural capital refers to the social and cultural knowledge that can help a student make progress. In education, cultural capital should be woven through the whole curriculum, giving context and reference points to topics that allow students to build schema.

TAI 2021- Reading

This year I am going to focus on Reading (as I did last year). It was apparent from our cluster meeting that Reading remains an area of concern. 

I was thinking of tapping into cultural capital within the classroom as a way of lifting and accelerating achievement in Reading. 

What is cultural capital?

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a student can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu coined the term in his 1973 paper "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction". 

I have started the online 'Everyday Conversation in Lea Faka Tonga' course. It is a 10-week course and I'm hoping it will allow me to connect in a more meaningful way with some of our whanau. Right now my knowledge of the Tongan language is limited to greetings and encouraging my students to "vave". 

At my school over 95% of our students are of Pacifika descent. I believe that one way of enhancing their learning is by tapping into the cultural capital of our students and whanau.