Modern Learning Practice - Module one

Catching up on my online learning! 
As I work my way through my modules I will share my thoughts and wonderings here.  
Today I am beginning with rethinking learners, looking at a learner's perspective.  How well this ties in with last Thursday night's #edchatnz (http://annekcam.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/mlpmle-catching-up-on-edchatnz.html)

What a wonderful set of questions to begin to unpack! 
Already this is helping me with my facilitation role!  As I am preparing for a session on collaborative planning, I think this slide is a wonderful place to start.  The value will be in the discussion around the learner perspective. 

This also causes me to reflect on the four questions we were introduced to by Lynda Kaser and Jane Halbert:

Four big questions:

1.     Where are you going with your learning?

2.     How’s it going? Matched to criteria…

3.     Where to next?

4.     Can you name two adults in this school who believe you will be a success in life?

http://annekcam.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/workshop-transforming-learning-in.html 
"As a learner, I expect to take joint responsibility for and be seen as an active agent in determining my own learning priorities.”

http://archive.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/opening_education/Learners_Charter.pdf 

How well do we know our learners?

I am loving our UDL approaches which ensure we get to know as much as possible about our our learners.

How often do we really dig into our learner's opinions of what they are learning, what choice they are having with their learning, whether or not it is meeting their needs?

Te Reo Puāwai Māori resources

During the next seven weeks I am going to be completing a Te Reo Puāwai Māori course.  As a way of gathering sharing resources I am going to continue to add links here for anyone to use to support their language learning journey.  I hope you enjoy learning along with me. 

http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/ 

CORE Education podcasts

http://www.maorilanguage.net/maori-words-phrases/greetings-mihi/

http://www.korero.maori.nz/home.html

http://tewhanake.maori.nz/

MLP/MLE catching up on #edchatnz

What a fabulous recording of the thoughts, wonderings, ideas and challenges from educators. I hate missing #edchat! Thanks so much to Marnel for the opportunity to catch up asynchronously!

Te Reo Puāwai Māori

Whakataukī
Tūawhitia te hopo - feel the fear and do it anyway.

Kīanga - Phrases
Kei a koutou - Up to you all (3+)
He pātai ā koutou? Any questions?
He pātai tāku - I have a question
Me inoi tātou - let us all pray
Mai i te topi - From the top (start)
Kia pai tō rā - Have a good day
He whakaaro noa iho - just a thought

Kupu hou - new words
puāwai - to blossom/bloom
kaitautoko - supporter/cheerleader
tuatahi - first
Whāinga - goals
kāo/kāore - no
Āe - yes
Paramanawa - morning tea
tō - your
ahau/au - me/I
tohutō - macron
anō - again
matua - dad
mātua - parents
moumou - waste

http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/ 

Use images and word posters to support me in my journey!
Practice in our sessions.
Make whakatauki, karakia and waiata a part of our facilitative practice.
Commit to our weekly sessions, our modules, and the forum - really looking forward to seeing our relationships grow.

A huge mihi to Gemma, Anaru and Rochelle for a fabulous face to face day. From the moment we arrived til the moment we left there was a surreal feeling of openness, connectedness, willingness to take a risk, learn and grow together.  From my perspective this was due in part to some of the following:

• We had your online welcome;
• We arrived to a room set up with flexibility, space and choice of seating and groupings;
• Arrangements on our table gave a distinct New Zealand flavour;
• Friendly greetings from you all;
• Enthusiasm of participants;
• Very relaxed, welcoming feel;
• First session - the web of connectedness was amazing.  So many connections were made to set the scene for growing these throughout the day. 

Thanks to all the participants!  What an exciting journey we are on!

Mentoring video - tWOW - soooo worth a watch...

Mentoring - a conversation with Professor Sharon Feiman-Nemser from New Zealand Teachers Council on Vimeo.

Memories…

One of my favourite children’s books is Mem fox’s Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge.  I have always loved the images, the story and the concepts of memories. 

As I am faced with an immediate family member with memory issues I am reminded of the power of memories, whatever they are, and how they are interpreted. 

·      Are our memories locked in as we experience them and sealed for all time?

·      Are memories started with an experience and grown as we reflect on them and view photos recording these memories?

·      Are they shaped by conversations with those whom we shape our memories with?

·      Are memories stored logically?

·      How do we determine what creates a significant impact, and stays etched in our memory forever?

·      Why do we only remember the very good, and very ‘not so good’ experiences sometimes?

·      Can we change the way we remember?

I know there will be answers to these questions online.  Maybe it is not clinical answers I am after.  Maybe I am just trying to sort why memories are so complex, complicated and confusing when they muddle.  Why do some memories get stuck on replay in our minds?  Why do some memories disappear? 

How do we best support others with memory challenges.  I feel like an external hard drive…

What a rare and beautiful privilege this is…

Green Prescription

Have any of you heard of Green Prescription?  I had never heard of it until recently when talking with my doctor and discussing my increasingly busy work schedule which involves a lot of travel and sitting, and not a lot of time for me and exercise.

I had an appointment with a gorgeous young lady from Sport Otago who ‘facilitated’ a session incredibly well.  I now have short, mid and longterm goals around my fitness and health and well being.  Two weeks in and I am delighted to report that not only am I incredibly more active, I feel better, and I am loving the time I am making for me and getting out and about in the outdoors no matter where I am with work.  Over the past two days I have fitted in a 38min walk and a 53min walk.  Not only is it a fabulous break from the computer for me, it is a chance to walk, see the sights, listen to my music and reflect on the day.  I am loving it.  WHY then have I not made time for myself over the past two years?  What am I finding it so incredibly easy to fit some activity into every day?   Is it because of the accountability?  To my mentor? To my tracking sheet?  To myself – now that I have flicked the switch?  Great wonderings for me.  Up until my change of role I was a regular gym attendee, with at least 2-3 sessions per week.  My travelling life style with my facilitation role just doesn’t allow for this and I found that over 2014 I was nothing more than a ‘financial gym member’, the sort the gym owners love.  Pay the regular weekly fee, but never enter the building.  I refused to put the gym membership on hold because I saw that as a sign of admitting defeat.  The moment I did put it on hold though was a huge break through and now I am on a path of exercising wherever I am.

At a session recently, I heard for the first time, the saying “sitting is the new smoking”.  Since then I have repeatedly heard this phrase and the internet is chocka full of articles and images to support this claim.  I am now sharing little snippets of this phrase in my sessions and we are increasingly trying to make our sessions active. 

I have a growth mindset about my goals… I am not there YET but I have made a start, I am on the way and I am committed.

Wellington Bound…

Uber early start but a win to start the day!  I woke at 5.01am when the alarm was set for 5.10am.  It is always so much greater for me to be awake before the alarm.  Up and away to the airport before 6, looking forward to a full on fun day with our team and team Central South.  And here I am cutting through day break on a glorious autumn morning.

What am I most looking forward to? 

·      Undoubtedly it is time with team members.  I always love time to catch up and re-connect with facilitators across the teams. 

·      I am also especially looking forward to exploring Story Hui some more as this is one way of working that I still need to upskill on.  We are planning on using Story Hui in our session next week so I am really keen to know more.

·      I am looking forward to continued discussion on ways of working as we are increasingly busy in our roles.

·      I am looking forward to spending more time looking at UDL.  Our recent session with Lynne has really bought this incredibly powerful learning concept to the forefront of our learning, planning and facilitation again and I can’t wait to explore and learn more about how best to support the educators I work with.

·      I am really looking forward to being back in Wellington.  We do not get there often with work and I really love the place.  I think I fell in love with it back in 2009 – 2011 when I visited regularly while studying for my Masters.

CORE Workshop- Janelle Riki - Modern Pathways to raising Māori achievement

Unpacking Tātaiako
Engage over a multitude of ways, events, happenings.
Equitable relationships should start on an equal footing.  Start at ground zero together on projects.

Bringing the Treaty to Life in our schools:
Partnership

• Equitable and reciprocal
• Acknowledge their mana and whakapapa
• Acknowledge and grow their potential
• Active engagement
• Collaborative decisions
• Equity and equality

Participation

• Invite and engage
• Go and learn about them
• Whanau know their family best and want what you want
• Whanau have valuable knowledge and expertise
• They are more than just immediate family

Protection

• Their aspirations
• Their culture, reo, iwi,
• Their whanau
• Protection of tikanga, culture, identity, language

Getting to know the family, beyond the learner, the families individual strengths, needs and expertise. 

A possible framework for whānau hui:

• appropriate time
• kai
• tikanga: kaumata, karakia, mihimihi
• Child care
• Students present?
• Kaupapa: Māori Student Achievement

Three powerful questions:

What are your aspirations for your tamariki?

What are we doing well?

What could we do better?

Engagement with iwi:

Partnership

• acknowledge mana whenua
• acknowledge mokopuna

Participation

• Invite and engage
• Go and learn about their place

Protection

• History
• Tikanga
• Reo
• Mana

Consider the perceptions, consider developing relationships!

Māori Students

Partnership

• Acknowledge their mana and whakapapa
• Acknowledge their potential

Participation

• Invite and engage
• Go and learn about them

Protection

• Their aspirations
• Their culture
• Their whānau

The Modern Māori Learner:

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy - within Agency, Ubiquity, Connectedness, Collaboration...

Agency:

• The power to act - do you have the power to act here at our school?
• Empowered leaners
• Choice, self directed
• Independance
• Leadership
• Ako
• Tino Rangatiratanga - self determination
• Tuakana/Teina

Creating a Tuakana wall - add names

Creating a Teina wall - add names

Model this with our learners... interact with learners in a whole new way... 

Learner directed learning...

Ubiquity:

• Anytime, anywhere learning
• not confined to a place or time frame
• Māori adapting to surroundings
• Just in time contextual learning

Connectedness:

• Relationship connections
• Connecting to spaces and places
• Being connected - plugged in 
• Face to face - virtual - global
• Whakapapa
• Whenua
• Mahi toi 
• Hononga - taumau, whānau (organised marriages)

Collaboration

• Working together
• Communication
• Learn together
• Roles/responsibilities
• Tuakana/teina
• Wānanga
• Hāpu: roles and responsibilities
• Together with each other, for each other - looking at ways of making tasks for learners to be responsible for parts of tasks...

Māori - means special and normal... Māori was a term Pakeha gave to the people of NZ, just as Pasifika is a term others gave to people from the Pasific nations...

Very powerful words from Janelle... you can leave here today and say I went a session and I learnt... or you can back and say 

"I need sometime to unpack this with you all now..."  explicitly making time to unpack new learning.

Practical ideas:

• visual ideas around your school - Maori artwork, te reo, 
• answerphone messages - kia ora, welcome to our school
• key messages, vision, visual ideas, images, at first point of contact
• making it very clear what our school does stand for
• local names/words visible
• mihi at start of assembly
• Teachers sharing mihi
• NZ in the only place in the world where we can hold up and celebrate the Māori culture

CORE Breakfast - Janelle Riki - Modern Pathways to raising Māori achievement

Tip number one:
School: a place to come home to 
He āhuru mōwai
Having a relationship with those at school is critical for our learners.

"...places that allow and enable students to be who and what they are."  Creating Culturally-Safe Schools for Māori Students. A. McFarlane et al.

To be responsive requires a reciprocal arrangement. Knowing our learner, knowing their iwi, knowing what they are and do in their Māori world. When I know I will respond to those needs.  Knowing and respecting our learners. Getting below the surface level of knowledge about our learners. 

Giving educators permission to see and respond to the colour of our skin.  

Tip number two
Empower our learners with skills to prepare them for their future. 
We cannot do what we did yesterday, or we are not doing our job.  

New Millennium learner needs:
creative, confident, capable, collaborative, connected, competitive, culturally responsive. 

Can our learners say:
I am home grown, I speak Māori, I am confident, I can do this...

Are we preparing our learners so they know how to learn?  What are we doing to ensure this...

Can our learners see what needs to be done, work out what to do, and do it... even if not YET?

Tip number three
Grow and leverage what they are already good at!
Arohia ūna angitutanga

Know your learners - where are they at with their technological savvy.  

Knowing our learners, seeing our learners in a way their family see them.  How do we ensure we get to know the learner that their family know and love, how do we ensure our learners shine?

How often do our learners get to do, know, be good at what they shine at?  

How do we figure out how to put social studies, maths, etc into what our learners do very well already.  Are we allowing our learners the opportunity to engage with technology to develop the skills they need to participate and succeed in a modern world. 

Tip number 4
Empower them
Whakaūngia tōna mana

Choice - about what they learn
Agency - over what they learn
Independence - when they learn
Leadership - sharing their learning
Tuakana - teaching to (the power of teaching something to others grows us exponentially)
Teina - learning from

Mixing with our programme allowing for learners to be creative and have autonomy with how and what they learn, to be ready to teach others.  

Where is Self Determination for our learners? Power and mana, meeting in the middle, staying true and keeping self worth, but meeting in the middle.  

Ways to engage learners:
Showing our learning in different ways - eg. book creator - multiple ways of engaging, alternative methods of assessment.
Using sock puppets to learn mihi.
Alternative ways to learn and teach, and engage, 
Allowing our learners to use technology to show what they can do. 

If the barrier is the physical act of writing, find alternatives... speech to text?  Utilise the technology - eg skyping, as we used with the marvellous Myles Webb!  
http://stmarys-room6.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/skyping-with-melville-intermediate.html 

Tip number 5
Māori achieving success as Māori
Notice natural inherent talents and grow those!
Learning based on potential - remembering you are not there YET - but you will get there...

Celebrate and excel in own culture.

Celebrate and excel in being Māori!

Walk around our schools and classes - what celebrates Māoriness in our environment!

Why is Kapa Haka not a part of our learning programme? 

Intent is one thing perception is everything...

Shift the focus from others to ourselves... could we be doing this differently, better? 

Do we ask our learners what and how they want to learn?
Have we got the right perception of what our learners need?