We recently hadMaria Tibble from Core Education talk with us about Culturally Responsive Practices, Cultural Identity and the role Ngati Whakaue and Te Rangihakahaka can have in supporting your teaching in 2017. She discussed the importance of Maori achieving success as Maori and our responsibilities as teachers to ensure this happens. I have also started to read Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017.
As part of my role as curriculum leader of the Science RLE group we were also tasked to try and create a new planning template for the unit.
We first looked at creating templates within our own group then the leaders met with the Deputy Principal and Principal to discuss the ideas we came up with.
What was clear was that we had all came up with similar templates which truth be told were not too dissimilar to the templates we had been using previously.
Then as a leadership group we tried to think more outside the box to create a more responsive template that could change as the inquiry from the children changed so that we weren't stuck going down one avenue.
I am yet to see the finished template but below are some of the core ideas that came from that brainstorm.
As part of our unit on myths and legends we visited Rotorua Museum, which is an amazing resource. There we had a museum facilitator talk to us about some local myths an legends. It is fantastic for the children to have such a fantastic resource at their doorstep and for them to be able to engage in the local myths and legends as there is such a depth of story in the local area.
There was over 10 parents that joined us on the trip and some that I spoke to said how they had forgotten a lot about the stories they heard growing up. So I feel they realised the importance of engaging with the local history.
The museum was also running a super interactive programme on the sun and this complimented the unit that we had just completed on space so students were able to bring what they had learned through our space unit and extend it during this visit.
One of my students exploring one of the interactive sun experiments
Teacher as role model is something that I believe is very important and something that is central to me as a teacher. With this in mind when I received an email promoting drinking water only for the month of April I discussed it with my class and asked them if they wanted to try and take on the challenge with me.
In New Zealand obesity and diabetes are an increasing problem, and a major component of this is the intake of fizzy drinks, energy drinks etc. This challenge could act as a locus of change in their thought process with regards to their intake of copious amounts of sugar through their choice of drink.
We had a guest speaker in to talk to us about the amount of sugar in certain drinks and the health value to changing to water.
I have been super impressed with the way most of the class took on the challenge and they are so proud that they have gone so far on only water. For me it has been a challenge too. I went two weeks on only water or milk (midterm break). I know when I return to school on Monday I will have eager students who will beam with pride that they have managed to go a whole month on only water and I think that is a credit to them, but it also shows the importance of leading the way as a role model.
Below is a picture of my class with our guest speaker.
Each Friday Lynmore School has a whole school assembly, called Community. It is a great way for the school to come together to strengthen the bonds between, students, classes, school houses and the wider community.
It is also a chance for the school to acknowledge achievements of students. There is also another element. Each week one class puts on a Community Item. This is a whole school class performance of any description it is at the discretion of the individual teacher.
This week it was the chance for my class to put on a show. We brainstormed ideas in the class as a collective and the idea of a variety show like the X-Factot or New Zealand's Got Talent was the idea that garnered most traction.
I wanted to create a fun show that the rest of the school could get involved with singing along, clapping, booing our pantomime villain and really for it to be very interactive.
We had a four day week to put it all together (due to Good Friday being a day off). The students could chop and change the script and ad lib lines and reactions. They really seemed to enjoy the process and we created our show in just three days!
It was great to see the students working in a different context and how much certain students loved to perform and those that might be considered quiet were able to shine when the stage lights shone on them.
I have attached the video below and I am very proud of the performance my class gave.
I have recently been helping the Year 5 and 6 boys practise the school Haka. The importance of the Haka to link the students to their school is very significant. It also allows the akonga to demonstrate their respect to the Maori heritage, language and culture.
The boys get great mana in performing the Haka during special events and it can leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up when it is performed correctly.
