Day 18 - Haeata - Connections in week 1

I have been so excited about starting at Haeata Community Campus and was very keen to keep a diary of what I was thinking and what we have been doing and so I decided I would write a bit each day and publish at the end of the week. This is an amazing opportunity to be in at the beginning of a new school, and the process is very different from when you change schools at the end of a year. I have been lucky to be part of this new venture and I am finding it fascinating.

The day before...

After meeting with #ChchEd Educators @paulinehendog, @mattynicoll, @karyngra and @ginippi on Sunday afternoon, I had more questions than answers and the excitement started to build. We had a good discussion about uniform in schools and I found that I hadn't even given a thought as to whether there was a dress code for staff in my new school. I just assumed that I would wear what I normally would for teaching. It was good having Karyn there, so I did get to ask. Interestingly, she said it wasn't something that they had thought about. There are so many things that a new school has to think about, it has been interesting to see what the priorities are as another school had stipulated what they wanted their staff to wear. As Matt was also going to a new school this term, there was talk about the balance of getting to know staff, but also getting on with what we need to do for planning and I look forward to seeing how this pans out in our induction weeks. I am sure my social media accounts will be busy over the next few weeks as I learn new things and get more excited about meeting our students next year.

Day One

Some nerves this morning as I drove over to the old Burwood School site ready for our mihi whakatau. Great to meet with some new staff first thing and then we were welcomed to Haeata.  After our mihimihi Mana Whenua facilitator Corban Te Aika and Mel Taite (SLT) spent time to teach us the waiata that we would be mainly using. Our day was spent getting to know each other. We spent time in small groups, doing the usual icebreaker type activities and the SLT ran some excellent activities. We went outside and did a treasure hunt in teams - a great way to get to know a few of our colleagues and show our true colours (maybe I am a little competitive). There were lots of laughs and a lot of talking. We also got to see the new uniform, which looks really practical and low cost for families. Over lunch, a few of us decided that the getting to know people was quite exhausting. You are continually listening, talking, asking questions and trying to remember names and details. It really was a tiring day.
During the day we were encouraged to ask questions and a few came up over the day, checking if we can blog/tweet, uniform questions, dates and times as well as talking about going into our contributing schools. Many things are still in progress and will take more discussion over the coming weeks.

Day Two

I presented my digital korowai this morning and challenged myself to present something in a way I hadn't done before so did my first Office Mix and made it into a movie. It was good to push myself out of my comfort zone - something I feel we will all be doing over the next weeks. Each day a few of us are presenting about ourselves - a really great way to get to know one another and learn about some of the interests we have.

We then had a presentation and discussion around our values at Haeata. Andy, Cheryl and Haneta from the board talked us through what the school is based on and how the values came about in consultation with the community. There was discussion around PPP - Public Private Partnership which is what this school has been funded by. You can read more about that here.
We watched The Future of Learning and we had discussions around what this meant for us as a school. We watched it again and were encouraged to take notes in whatever way we wanted. Really interesting to see the range of ways people wanted to record their thoughts. My note-taking lives in OneNote and I love being able to write and draw and highlight as I note take. Being able to put pictures in and links is just the best. I would be hard pushed to find another tool that would do all of that!
After lunch we had a "Passion Unconference". This was the opportunity to experience learning about other staff member's passions. We were treated to workshops from playing cards to baking and writing Chinese characters to making Samoan ula lole. A great opportunity to learn more about others and also experience something a little different for ourselves.We were then split into groups and given a packet of pipecleaners and had to create something that was representative of learning at Haeata. Ours showed chaos, infinity, connectedness, strong foundations, collaboration and thinking outside the box.

Day Three

The day started with our karakia and himene (I have been learning a lot in regards to Tikanga Maori and Te Reo)and then moved into a session on Unschooling. We had a lot of opportunities to talk in pairs and small groups about our experiences and in one part to discuss failure and success and what the conditions were to make us meet these two things. Why do we try again and again and then give up? Or alternatively why do we try and try again and keep trying until we succeed? We came up with a lot of conditions that make these things happen. A really good way to see how we can support our learners to succeed. I realised for myself that I often don't risk take for fear of failure and things outside my comfort zone often don't even get attempted. We are all too quick to make excuses - not enough time, not interested and so on.
Andy Kai Fong talked about the cynefin framework by Dan Snowden (place of multiple belongings) and we looked at what each of these areas could look like in a school situation. I felt this resonated as I know I have been in all four quadrants over my teaching time.
We had some time in our hapori today which was good to get to know each other a little better. We played games (cards were a definite hit) and chatted about ourselves.
I had an interesting discussion with some staff at lunchtime around student well-being and was introduced to theCircle of Wellbeing and Achievement which Haeata is using when interviewing parents of new students. This has a really good framework to get to know students and plan goals and strategies to help with the transition into the school.
We had more digital korowai today and it has been great learning about our staff who have been very open in sharing information about their family and their teaching.
The afternoon was about our personal sites that had been set up for us which have our contracts and information and documentation about our reflections as well as space for working towards our Registered Teaching Criteria.

Day Four

Our first session was on the principles today - Authentic, Connected, Culturally intelligent, Inclusive, Social, Open, Personalised. These are what Haeata is based upon and it was great to have time to learn about and unpack these. Firstly we had blank sheets of paper to write our ideas and unpack each principle. Then we gathered in groups and were given photos that we felt represented those principles and it was interesting to see how people interpreted those pictures and the different ways of thinking. We shared a story each that related to one of the principles and looked at how we would show success in that area. This was a good exercise in working out how we define success. It made me think more about what success is and how our students show that. In groups we also made a slide show with a quote, definition, song and slogan about one of the principles. This let us unpack them a little more as well as get to know more staff. I felt that the principles are all interconnected and felt good about how they would impact on our teaching and learning at Haeata.

Day Five

Today was a different day. We started with a shared breakfast and then had an Amazing Race. We were split into different groups yet again and sent off around Christchurch to find a range of items, build sandcastles and meet people in businesses. The highlights would have to be one of our team removing the required chicken feather from a dead chicken, pretending to be sheep on the side of the road, meeting some amazing people and convincing tourists to have their photo taken with us. We came back for a BBQ lunch then worked together on a presentation for the rest of the staff on our excursion.


This week has been like a huge week of professional development. My daughter thought it sounded like a school camp and in some ways it was. We had time to socialise, to connect with one another and learn about others as well as ourselves. We are very lucky to have this opportunity.  I certainly felt that my brain was about to explode a few times. However, it has been a very rewarding week and I know that I feel connected to staff and to this amazing new school, Haeata.

Sue McLachlan 

Day 16 - Making connections across learning areas - messy and engaging.

Interdisciplinary connections between subject areas might seem innovative and new as seen in Hobsonville Point Secondary School but it is something primary school teachers have been experimenting with for years. The only way to fit everything in, at a depth that makes learning purposeful and interesting, is to mix it all up together like it happens in life!

But how do we define Interdisciplinary teaching? Mathison and Freeman (1997) suggest the purpose is to enhance learning by having two or more subjects work in together to help make the connections. They suggest that the interdisciplimnary approach is more teacher driven, an intergrate approach is inquiry driven and the intergrative approach is about sharing student and teacher ideas to co-construct the curriculum. The basis of all of these approaches is to make connections between learning areas and apply skills across different contexts.

Interdisciplinary connection map:

My interdisciplinary connection map is totally different from those of other Mindlab students because I have focussed on aspects I am so passionate about that they seep into everything I do as a teacher.

I love utilizing digital technologies for learning to scaffold student success. They allow students to create and share their learning as digital citizens with an understanding of the strengths and challenges involved in working ‘online’.

Being the Enviro School lead teacher has a huge impact on how I do everything. The five guiding principles are that of empowering students to take action for real change, teaching and learning for sustainability, honouring Māori perspectives, respecting the diversity of people and cultures and developing the skills in our students that will nurture both people and nature as a sustainable community. These Enviroschool principles tie in with my passion for Te Reo, raranga (flax weaving), Māori tikanga and empowering students to be independent change-makers.

My focus is to develop independence in learning and developing the Key Competencies so my students have the necessary skills for participating in the challenges of the 21st Century.  A key component of this is self reflection, unpacking the metacognition behind their learning which will help them develop as a self directed learner. (Ministry of Education 2016)

Topmost in my mind is the way the Feuerstein Method has changed my teaching. I focus on unpacking - cognitive functions into manageable chunks, mediate learning by asking those challenging questions that help students identify effective strategies, while making connections from learning to other contexts and the real world. I believe that every student is modifiable and feel that it is my responsibility to give them the skills they need to grow. (Feuerstein 2010)

Finally, I strive to make learning engaging, for a purpose and social. We co-create learning as we struggle with an inquiry or problem based learning which requires us to use all of our skills and make connections across the curriculum areas.

Identify two of the potential connections from your map as your near future goals:
In the challenge of fitting everything onto the page in my map, I forgot to mention the possible future steps.....

1. Make closer links with the Marae and local Māori community. I hope to return to studying raranga (flax weaving) in 2017, which will continue to build my relationships within tthe Māori community, but also need to look at ways to make my teaching even more culturally responsive. One way is to take more of an active role in my local marae so that I can build relationships and incorporate these into my classroom.

2. Unpack the effect of Feuerstein amongst our learners. This will take the form of carrying out my research project, supporting new other teachers from the school in their training and developing a bank of resources that can be used in implementing this amazing method. This will also require further training over the next few years, so that I can teach the full range of enrichment tasks within our school Dynamic Thinking programme, while also embedding the approach across the curriculum with the aim of providing ‘Equity for all’. (Ministry of Education 2016, NEG 2).

The beneifts of making connections:
Feuerstein states that teaching specific cognitive functions should be done repeatedly and in isolation so it can then be embedded in a task. His key focus is to always make those connections between the strategy and where in the world it was being used. This is fine for an intense cognitive function programme but I believe that it is more motivating if the 'need' for learning arises from an authentic learning opportunity. This results in....

• clear connections being made between subjects, strategies and encourages application into new contexts
• more complex and challenging isssues can be unpacked - in depth rather than superficial 'coverage'
• collaboration as a focus, using creativity, communication, problem solving and critical thinking to socially co-construct knowledge
• authentic lines of inquiry engage and inspire students
• student interest and voice leads the direction of inquiry or problem soving challenge
• learning being fresh and interesting because it is driven by student interests

The challenges of interdisciplinary connections:
Uncertainity of planning:
These issues tend to sit with the teacher. Are they prepared to 'back-plan' or cope with the uncertainty of not having the planning completed for the term? Relying on student imput takes the control away from the teacher and requires flexibility. 

Curriculum hour blocks:
The other current issue I can see in primary school is moving away from specific subject blocks. While we might be using reading or writing to support the inquiry or project based leawrning - why do we need to separate the day into 1 hour sections? Breaking down these barriers is fine in a single cell classroom but how do you manage three teachers and 90 students in the mix?

Tracking and assessment:
If the subject blocks are removed and we focus on 'Integrated Learning' how do you check that each subject recieves an appropriate amount of time, track the learning in separate subjects and keep it sorted in your own mind? How then do you explain this to parents who are set in the traditional apporach of hour blocks?

It is obvious that real life does not fit into small clearly labelled sections but is messy and skills from one part of life are always applied to other areas. This is the life we are preparing our students to thrive in. Lets give them the skills they need!

Allana Taylor's Blog
References:

Feuerstein, R., Feuerstein, R. S., & Falik, L. H. (2010). Beyond smarter: Mediated learning and the brain's capacity for change. New York: Teachers College Press. 

Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Boyd, S., & McDowall, S. (2014). Key competencies for the future. New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) Press.

Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhME

Ministry of Education, http://www.education.govt.nz/ministry-of-education/legislation/negs/  11/5/16 uploaded

Ministiry of Education, Key Competencies. http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Key-competencies 26.6.16 uploaded. 

TEDx Talks (2001, April 6). TEDxBYU - David Wiley - An interdisciplinary path to innovation. [video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4