Kapa Haka

29/11/16

Okay so this post is really old, I had started writing it but never finished it, so i guess it gives me an opportunity to reflect on this and see if it actually occurred or not.

(previously written)
I have decided that in this half of the year I really want to ensure I have a balance between committing my time to many school activities like school camps, Japan trip and Geography field trip as well as developing myself professionally, so i joined the kapa haka group. I have wanted to learn the school haka for a long time now and never really had the confidence to put myself out there and try it, the same old feelings of being out of your comfort zone and mucking up in front of the kids, especially with something like performing the hake (a culturally sensitive activity which i know means a lot to our Maori students). Below on the right are the words to the haka, while on the left are the words to the waiata. Both have been written by Matua, with relevance to the community and the students of Hornby High, hence where the discomfort and nerves come when performing it.

(now)
Unfortunately I was unable to continue with Kapa Haka in term 4 as the importance of the students getting their work completed before leaving had to be priority, however, i really enjoyed the opportunity to challenge my speaking of another language, and doing it side by side with our students and at times with them as my teacher. I loved seeing the confidence of our senior kids as they thrived in this environment, envious that i didn't see that same enthusiasm applied in all areas of their school life. It makes me wonder how much more can i do to allow these kids to trust me, to allow them to see that we are trying to help them and get the best out of them, for their benefit, I have know for years that our kids are happy to not try and fail, rather than taking that risk and failing anyway. What will build resilience in  our students so that they see what we see in them..

Anyway back to the balance of lifestyles of work vs self, i still see this as important, but i think i care too much about student success that i continue to put my welfare to a side and focus on them. This year saw the last of my mentee kids leave hornby and will see me for the first time in 8 years without a student to mentor, its a weird feeling but perhaps a sign that 2017 is a year to focus on myself a little bit, swing that balance a little bit back in my favour, especially as the school goes through both curriculum, staff and building changes over the next few years.

Tuesday 3rd

Had a go at doing expert groups with my childcare class today because I thought it would get them communicating a little more and the activity forces them to work co-cooperatively with each other. However i felt like it was an epic fail. the students were so reluctant to participate that they individually read the article and wrote their own notes, then when they had to report to others they just gave them the sheet to copy.

A positive about this activity though was the third part , where they had to go into pairs and one reported - filling the gap, while the one person had the sheet of words that best filled the gaps. working together they had to finish this sheet using the knowledge they received during the expert activity. they fact they were able to complete this showed they took in the information they had read about but was not able to share it confidently.

In reflection it is certainly an activity i will try again as it allows the students to take ownership of their learning, confidence in sharing ideas and the ability to write notes in a format that allows them to understand it

Staff Pd - Teaching Criteria

Forms

Staff Meeting on Monday (30th) was a co construction activity that involved the staff answering a survey on examples of what they see as the 12 teaching criteria. It was interesting having the opportunity to actually reflect on how am i showing this, what am i doing in my class to demonstrate this. If you click on the words form then you will see some of my answers

https://docs.google.com/a/hornby.school.nz/spreadsheets/d/1_yqCFRONkaHlsGbnW43gkGcYw_Ikz-bhkJl2Jhf1Rr0/edit?usp=sharing

the link above shows the final results of staff feedback and some ideas that staff are doing and showing in their classes

Blogging a priority at HHS

November 14th
Today has  been a difficult day at school due to the 7.5 earthquake that struck at 12am this morning. Most of the staff have looked pretty shattered coming to school, but having that normality and a sense of routine is important for our community and our students. NCEA exams are continuing as normal, which is hard for the students, as like us many of them will have little sleep last night. One thing we learnt from the 2011 earthquakes  is that ensuring the our students feel a sense of being cared for is important, hence the relational side to teaching is extremely important in these events. Also its important that as a teacher today you are flexible, as well as understanding of students moods and unpredictability.

A week a go today we had a staff meeting that was apart of our Uru Manuka Program. The main focus they have decided on for the school at this stage is to establish our use of blogger. We had to set up a picture that we could install on our sites that would assist our kids with producing a worthwhile and meaning full blog that will give good constructive feedback. Below is what i designed for both my hospo and home ec students

I believe that using these steps the students should be able to understand the requirements that are need for them to met the criteria for each assessment.