Manaiakalani Secondary Schools Connect Presentation

Manaiakalani provides opportunities for Secondary School teachers in our wider cluster to share the awesome things happening in our schools.  Our kaupapa was how to engage students through digital technologies in Social Sciences.   

My presentation talked about how we connected and collaborated with my students and their whanau during Covids level 3 and 4 or ‘lockdown’ as we loosely call it.  I tried to add rewindable clips to the presentation to help clarify some of what we got up to.  I was a bit nervous but once I got going, I think I was o.k.

The recording will be out soon.

The ease of using MIRO for planning in Senior Sos

My level 3's have been using MIRO as part of the assessment.  They need to collaborate on a campaign of Social Actions which meant planning and discussing how to run the campaign.  I asked a few students who were working on a MIRO what their thoughts were on the platform.  Here is the interview below (please turn it up as the sound isn’t great).

Using the PAT reading data to find interventions

After our PLD with literacy expert Mele Suipi-Latu, I set about applying our discussions to my inquiry on finding data that related to the learning needs of my year 9 Social Studies class.  

On the NZCER PAT site I found my class and found the item report on the test questions that were assigned different text types. 

I then noticed that 3 of the text types were relevant to Social Studies:

• Explanation (Questions 7 - 10)
  
• Report (Questions 21 - 25)
  
• Persuasive (Questions 37 - 42)

I then had a look at a few of the questions and found that for each question, the report showed for each question, what each student had selected.  The interesting thing was that it showed it highlighted certain students this way: 

The key showed that based on student's overall result

• has high expectancy to correctly answer this question
  
• was not expected to correctly answer this question
  
• was not expected to incorrectly answer this question
  

Then I noticed that out of the 3 text types, persuasive language had the lowest percentage of questions correctly answered.

Why persuasive writing and language is important in social studies:

This text type can be incorporated into the talanoa as a debate topic and current issues when you have to argue why your perspective should be believed.  

Politicians use persuasive writing and language, advertisers and media people.

On closer examination of the questions, I found that question 38 ‘what is the main reason…’ only 21.4% of students got it right, question 40 only 17.9% could answer ‘according to the author, why…’, question 41, what is the main argument the author is trying to make only 21.4% got it right and question 42 ‘Which statement makes the strongest attempt to appeal to the reader's emotions?, 32.1% got it correct.

The last column above compares us to the national norm and it highlights which question in particular students struggled with.

What’s next?

Discuss the steps more purposefully with my department.

At the bottom of the report, I clicked on ‘more resources’.

Looking at the Recycling is Essential (level 5)

Understanding STAR and PAT data PLD

One of our school goals is to raise student reading and writing literacy levels in our junior school by the time they get to the end of year 10.  As a department, we have developed some good strategies to engage students in their learning but on reflection, we identified the need to find more effective ways to support our junior students better.  

One of the aspects that we use to know our learners is data.  Students are tested at the start of the year and again at the end and between both tests, we try our best to shift student achievement.  But just knowing the results of their tests is not enough as it limits the depth of the support that we could offer to each student who have different learning needs.  To understand how to interpret the data better and use if more effectively, I asked Mele Suipi-Latu if she could take my department through some PLD to share her learnings and research with us in order to better understand what data is important to know, what it means and how to create some actionable steps.

Below is the recording of our PLD and the powerpoint used for the presentation.

As a department we will sit down with the data and brainstorm ways we can utilise it better in our planning for teaching.  Our goal is to ensure we design differentiated tasks to suit the learners but also challenge them to shift in their achievement.  Watch this space!

"I would like to thank my laptop"

At 10.46am today, my laptop was lagging.  Here's why:

This laptop helped me connect with my students and keep my job alive as a teacher.

This laptop helped me help a colleague understand how to do something better while we waited for our students to come to online class.

This laptop helped me entertain 3 grandkids whilst my daughter was working.

Today this laptop was my best friend. Thanks buddy. You rock.

Making the learning rewindable for my year 9's

This lockdown has given me the chance to really look at how I am presenting my teaching and learning to an global online audience.  During lockdown, there are students who will come to class religiously, there are others who will pop in from time to time and then there are others that I would not see until we are physically back at school.  The importance of providing rewindable lessons for both those on and offline is imperative.

For my year 9's, I decided to first work on my teaching site. We are studying the Pacific at the moment and I created a simple front page with each lesson provided on the right. 

I decided that I wanted to have a really basic template which had LEARN, CREATE, SHARE and NEXT STEPS as a format for each lesson.  This would be a generic teaching site for all year 9's.

Next I needed to create a more specific rewindable learning site for my class with recorded lessons taken during online lessons.  Here, I would have short edited video's that students can review and reflect on related to my teaching site as well as examples of student work.  I would hope that kids who can't come to class would use these links in their own time to catch up on their learning. 

Reflection:

I like to press the record button when I have a hangout or an online lesson.  Not because I enjoy the sound of my own voice but because I know that many of my students will miss out some important learning and it would take the hassle out of having to repeat myself again in class.  I like the fact that usually in an online class there is an audience and they can tell me if they don't understand something or need help with any of the learning.  I will try to continue to create my lessons this way even when we are out of lockdown 3 and will check with my year 9 class online whether any of them have utilised my sites.

Connecting with Whanau in an online google hangout

One of our challenges from lockdown one was that we didn’t get a chance to connect with whanau as much as we wanted to.  This time round, we were more prepared for what to expect and wanted to connect with our whanau and families as soon as we could to see how they were doing and to share how their child's learning would continue online.  We choose the Akomanga Kaihanga class to enable this to happen and invited whanau to a google hangout earlier this week.  

We called our hui the 'Whanau Talanoa' with the main purpose to connect and hear from our kids, staff and families how lockdown learning has been for them.  Our facilitator was our DP Russell Dunn and our support staff were Whaea Kata, Karen Ferguson, Karl Bailey, Jannie Van Hees, Jay Malholtra and myself.  We had different areas to cover all linked to keeping our students and families informed about online teaching and learning.  

After Russell welcomed our attendees, one of our students Saia, led us in a karakia.  I then thanked families for their participation and feedback from our Showcase evening held recently.  I shared some of the blogposts from the students that talked about their learnings.

Russell then shared how important it was to for our students to make connections with their learning, review what they had learnt and to keep in touch through email all whilst taking care of their wellbeing.  Whaea Kata then shared that in her Health class, students were learning about gratitude.


Danielle, Siaosi and Cherry-Anne from the class then shared what they had learnt.

The classes graphics teacher Karen, then shared what the class had been up to with regard to creating a graphic novel.  She shared how students can access their learning site and where to find the resources they needed to complete their tasks set.

To give whanau a heads up as to what to expect for the rest of the year, I shared a simplified version of the year plan.  This then led into a short talanoa where parents had the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings before our closing karakia.

Reflection:
It was really lovely to engage with our whanau and parents.  It felt we were invited into their homes for a cup of tea and there was no stress or expectation to engage.  As a staff team, it was exciting to be connected with our students and their families online and to be able to share how learning happened in an online classroom.  During the talanoa, families shared their challenges and rewards and were thankful for the opportunity to connect.  This hui has definitely been a highlight of my lockdown to date and I look forward to connecting with our whanau more in the future.

Using MIRO to connect my year 9's to each other

We are learning about our community and as part of this, I wanted to try a mapping activity where students could point out where they lived and create a short blurb about their household.

I tried to figure out if we could insert an interactive map into MIRO that could be zoomed in and out but I couldn’t figure it out.  So I took multiple screen shots of our local area around school, and put them together in a MIRO like a jigsaw.  I then locked it in so it couldn’t be moved.  Although it took awhile to put together, I enjoyed the challenge.  

While we were on the MIRO, I encouraged the students to try and use the video chat but they didn’t appear to want which was fine.  I found zooming in and out of the MIRO awesome because zooming in allowed the students to find their street, even their house and zooming out let us see how far kids lived away from school and how near and far they were away from each other. I enjoyed seeing the kids working in MIRO in real time as their names were the cursor so I could direct them to go to the school grounds etc which was cool.  I will definitely be sharing this activity with my department and my other classes (below is a short video of me showing them what to do in the MIRO).

The completed MIRO

Year 13's collaborating on a MIRO using the video conference tool

Our year 13's have been working in groups to collaborate over their assessment which requires them to work in groups.  We held a google hangout to connect with the class and to let them have time to work on their MIRO boards in a separate google hangout.  I asked one group to get into to their MIRO boards and start using the chat function to connect whilst I tried to create a separate google hangout for them on my calendar.  

After I created the hangout, I went into their MIRO board and noticed that one of the group had invited me to join the chat.  I accepted the invite and low and behold, I was in a video call with the team as part of the MIRO!  I did not even know there was a video chat feature available!

Me in the chat in the middle of the MIRO

The students didn't know that I had joined the video chat at first and I funnily heard one of them say to the other 'why is Ms here?' to which I laughed out loud.  When I turned my mike on, I said 'hellloooo' and there were a few gasps.  Then I told them 'someone said why is Ms on here' to which they started to blame each other for who said it.  One finally owned up saying 'I said it Ms caused we weren't prepared and only want you to see our work when finished'. 

What I noticed was that video was a lot clearer then a google hangout and we were able to work on the MIRO whilst we live chatted. It made sense to have a live video feed going whilst we were collaborating right on the document!  The students who did not come to the hangout actually turned up to the MIRO which I was surprised at.  I wondered if they did not feel comfortable or confident so I will check in with them before our next class.  So I've decided, instead of getting the students to join a google hangout first, they will go directly to their MIRO's and work collaboratively on their projects using the awesome video tool on the MIRO.

Back to lockdown learning with 9KMe Akomanga Kaihanga class

This morning I had my first online lesson with my year 9KMe class and I had 10 students join me.  I was worried that not many kids would connect and I was pleasantly surprised when they did.

I did not want to create any new learning for my kids as I know from the first lockdown, many kids weren't able to get online.  Our main focus was to connect, check-in and tidy up any work we started last week.  We agreed that we only needed to catch-up for the first half of a double period.

We started with a karakia and for our do now, we moved into a fun socrative quiz where I played the 'Eye of the Tiger' to hype up the kids and expose them to some classic old school music (check out the short clip below).  Then we went into our lesson (I have purposefully recorded the lesson this way for those who didn't make it to class).

After the socrative, I sent out a check-in survey to my kids inviting to share their thoughts about the lockdown.  Here are the results.

From the results, there are a answers that I'd expected and others which surprised me.  In our next class, we may discuss the answers further.

Online MIRO discussions with a year 13 student

Today we connected with one our year 13 students about her groups social action assessment and how much progress they had made since our last discussion before lockdown.  I recorded part of our conversation.

The social issue that Sarah's team are wanting to address relates to homelessness.  Sarah shared how her team had created a poster to raise awareness and powerpoint presentation detailing why they choose homelessness.  She had added them both their MIRO.  It was a good way to reinforce why MIRO was the best platform for their collaboration.  During our discussions, I helped her brainstorm her next steps on her MIRO.  It was a productive meeting that enabled us to continue to support one of our kids' learnings online during lockdown. 

Using MIRO with my year 13's just before lockdown

My year 13’s started their last internal assessment last week ‘Examine personal involvement in a social action(s) that aims to influence policy change(s)’ worth 6 credits.  Students need to work in groups to complete the assessment.

After organising their groups, they began by looking at a social issue they were interested in to focus on, and had to create an argument as to why this would be an important issue for them to pursue.  The next step was to brainstorm what social actions they could do as part of their assessment. Usually we would have the students collaborate on a document and in the past they would be linking relevant information all over the place.  We found that students couldn’t keep a good track of where their work was and it tended to be messy and disorganised. 

My colleague suggested we taught our kids to use MIRO as the platform for collaboration and it made sense.  It would be one space for them to collaborate on without having to search and find documents and links in their individual drives to their one document. 

Here is a recording of me attempting to teach the year 13’s how to use MIRO before lockdown.

Once each group created their own MIRO, my co-teacher and I talked about templates they could use to organise their planning and create a to-do list.  I would still like to create a common template for them all, although we went into lockdown and we missed the chance in person to do that.  Hopefully the groups will use it during lockdown! (Below are some screenshots of how two groups of students started to use MIRO in class).

Manaiakalani Create Staff Meeting: Using MIRO for integration and collaboration

This week my colleagues Christine David, Mele Suipi-Latu and I, presented a workshop on how to collaborate and create integrated lessons using the MIRO online whiteboard platform.  One of my team Christine shared how her daughter used MIRO at university and from there we saw how it could be used effectively as a tool for online collaboration between ourselves as teachers and our students.

For our presentation, we centred around a maths text and shared the benefits of MIRO in allowing users to see the big picture.  Here is the powerpoint we used.

For the create part of our presentation, everyone got into groups and shared a text or resource that they could collaborate over using MIRO.  My team and I spent the rest of the workshop helping groups with their collaborations.

After the session, I sent out a quick survey out to those who attended for their feedback.

• What did you think of the MIRO workshop?

• Would you use MIRO for collaboration between teachers?

• If yes, how would use it for collaborating between teachers?

• Would you use MIRO in the classroom as a tool for students to collaborate with?

• If yes, how and why? Would you recommend this tool 

I enjoyed presenting and supporting teachers with MIRO.  I can honestly say after trying out the MIRO for my own use, it has changed my life.  It is my go to platform now where everything I plan and can collaborate on is easily accessible.  

The Akomanga Kaihanga 9KMe Lab Showcase for Whanau

Over the last two terms, the year 9 Akomanga Kaihanga class had been working on their projects in a hope to raise awareness and social exposure to an issue they have been researching.  They were led through their projects by their mentor Karl Bailey who used design-based methods to engage the class in their learning alongside their subject teachers who worked collaboratively to support the students.  The projects came to fruition on Thursday 23rd July with our first ever Lab Showcase for whanau and stakeholders that was held in our school auditorium.

Planning and preparation:

It took us 4 full days of planning for the class to prepare to present which enabled the teams and the projects to finally come together.  Each group would have an area assigned to them and needed to have the following things ready:

• A poster:  This was to be put onto an A2 size poster, made in digital copy drawing.  It needed to show of the groups projects, from the progression from the idea, to actions, to reflections.  This was to be the focal point of each groups presentations.
• A takeaway pamphlet:  This may be a short blurb about their projects or a smaller version of their posters.
• A video:  This would be a short 2 minute documentary type video to support their presentations.
• A presentation table:  This could include props, the pamphlets and any other items that would suit the theme of their projects.

During their preparations, their subject teachers would join them for extra subject during their timetabled classes.  I was fortunate enough to have Jannie and Karl as our go to people whilst students were busy getting ready.

Showcase day:

After our karakia, the afternoon started with Nicky and Kirsty from the Ministry sharing their thoughts and our DP Russell Dunn explaining the purpose of our showcase.  Parents were then invited to have some food before moving around to listen to the groups presentations.  For 40 minutes, our students led their whanau through their projects, facilitating discussions and inviting feedback.  At the end of the time, we gathered once more to thank everyone for coming, before heading home for the evening.  

I enjoyed meeting many of the parents and hearing from them about what they saw.  Observing the kids presenting to their whanau was really rewarding and I had wished we had thought to do this sooner.  We had some awesome feedback from parents and whanau, all of which we will collate and put forward to the planning team of the Akomanga Kaihanga class. Check out the highlights video below!

Below are some blogposts from students about their presentations.  

Amelia

Riiana

Mafi

The Importance of Making Connections through telling our own stories

Making connections with Pacific ideas in health education - an invitation to tell my own story.

Our TIC of Health, Whaea Kata told me about how she collaborated with Gloria, a year 13 student, class of 2019 and Jenny Robertson, a Health educator, to put together a relevant piece of work for the health curriculum that could be used in a high school classroom.  Gloria Tu’itupou was the top Health and P.E Scholarship student in N.Z last year and wrote a report called ‘Navigating vā in search of Connection:  The Kahoa (Lole)’.  The report has become part of new resource for the Health curriculum called “Making connections with Pacific ideas in health education”.  When Whaea described Gloria’s understanding of the vā and how she explored the use of the Kahoa as symbol of the connections between her two worlds, I was hooked.  I was amazed at the insights that I’d heard and felt proud, not because Gloria was a student of ours but because I could connect with what she was saying- I could see myself in her words.  

The story of my two worlds

My own battle to work in two worlds, the Samoan world and the Palagi/Kiwi world came to the front and centre of my mind when reading Gloria’s report.  I had limited understanding of the concept of the vā, which I thought meant that unspoken place in relation to how you act and feel in the Samoan world.  I didn’t really want to go there to be honest because of my I felt I wouldn’t do it justice but that’s okay, these are simply my musings.

“Vā is the space between, the betweeness, not empty space, not space that separates, but space that relates, that holds separate entities and things together in the Unity-that-is-All, the space that is context, giving meaning to things” (Wendt,pg 402, 1999). 

I hadn’t really tried to understand my existence in my two worlds much until now.   I’ve always thought you were either one or the other and trying to be in the middle was a really a confusing place.  I’ve come to realise that everyone’s story has a place in that ‘space’ and as an educator, I’ve got the chance to help my kids know who they are and how to navigate their ‘space’.  To do this, I needed to really understand and appreciate my own journey. 

Growing up, I didn’t have much to do with my ‘Samoan’ side (even though I am full Samoan).  My mum always used to say, the key to success is education and that success starts with speaking proper English.  At home, my parents spoke to us kids in Samoan but we were encouraged to reply and speak in English.  We attended a palagi Catholic church.  I watched many of my school friends grow up in the ‘autalavou’ (church youth group) and I yearned to be part of the White Sunday celebrations.  I felt like a bit of an outsider.  

During my school years, were only allowed to go to school and come straight home, no friends, no extra-curricular, just school and home.  It was my cousins that lived the ‘real’ Samoan life and I enjoyed the few times that we got together.  They could speak Samoan freely and I got good at nodding my head and saying ‘iiii’ (meaning ‘yes’, pronounced ‘eee’ - supposed to be ‘ioe’ but I didn’t know).  Watching them answer their parents commands in the Samoan language made me envious of them.  When we were alone,  I would purposefully try to sound smarter then them by telling them to say words like ‘discussion’ and ‘decision’ because I knew they would struggle and sound like ‘fobs’ (a term coined ‘fresh off the boat’ which meant P.I immigrants who came to N.Z unable to speak English).  We would laugh and it would make me feel better.

Someone said to me once ‘Dorothy, as a Pacific Islander, if you want to prove yourself in this world, you have to work twice as hard’.  This became my mantra.  In my early college years, I excelled at school and had mainly palagi friends.  I had to work extra hard in class and I remember coming 13th out of 120 students in the end of year maths test in year 9.  I thought I was really brainy.  This made me fit in with the palagi kids even more, except when they wanted to hang out after school.  I wasn’t allowed and I felt left out.  I didn’t really have any Samoan friends because I didn’t feel comfortable around them.  They acted different, they sounded different and they looked at me like I was different.  Looking back now, I could see that their Samoan way of life (fa’a Samoa) was what kept them together.

In years 9 and 10, I enjoyed writing poetry and stories, as a way to disguise my feelings.  Through poetry, I could control my world, and my language was my power.  My teachers were really caring and in year 10, we had a reliever for our English class who was really an Art teacher.  So all we did was draw what we wrote.  In our drawings, we could visually share our stories without judgement.  I can clearly recall looking around the classroom, at all the static images that we’d drawn and thought ‘wow, I can see how others feel, I can feel what others feel and that's okay’.  I remember seeing lots of bright colours and feeling free and connected to something for the first time.  I found my happy place.  I appreciated the chance that that teacher gave me to see my place in the world.  It had a profound affect on me. It was then in year 10, I decided I wanted to be an English teacher and to use my skills of knowing English pretty well (I thought), to be somebody and to help somebody. 

Looking back, I guess it was only in a classroom that I was allowed to find my space.  I can appreciate that those feelings of being lost in 'space', were building my resilience and I've come to navigate my space better.  Now that I’ve unpacked my journey, I feel ready to help my learners unpack their space or ‘va’.  The vā or space between my two worlds is where I now sit safely and comfortably.  There is a famous Samoan proverb that says ‘Teuteu le vā’ and translated it means 'nurture/take care of the vā'.  With this in my mind, I feel it is my purpose to help my learners to navigate and find themselves in their 'vā'.  

Allowing the conversations to start by being deeply connected

Gloria’s report put into words the struggle that many of our Pasifica kids go through all at this time. I felt a deep sense of gratitude and it's given me purpose to work through the recommendations she's suggested in her report (pg 22).  To ensure success, we need to adhere to the voices of students who share the same journey as Gloria.  We have to start somewhere and this 'space' in time, is the right time.  Our principal Soana proudly shared the Health resource with our staff last week via email.  One of our senior staff members Mele Suipi-Latu articulated a response which I want to share:

‘It's moments like this that deeply connect us all to a collective joy and pride 'i he'etau fanau tama' - 'he'etau' means our, 'fanau' means birth, 'tama' means a daughter or son. It means that we can all identify and equally share the joy of Gloria's success - our daughter - because part of her making or 'birth' was done here in the community and family of Tamaki College.  So although it was your deliberation, Whaea Kata, and your own daughter and commitment, Seini Tu'itupou', Gloria is a Tamaki College daughter and we are all proud!”.  

Thank you Whaea Kata, Seini and Gloria for allowing us to share in your moment and to begin to tell our stories.  Malo lava soifua.

References: 

Tu’itupou, G., O’Donnell, K., & Robertson J. (2020). Making connections with Pacific ideas in health education: A resource to support teaching and learning in The New Zealand Curriculum. New Zealand: NZHEA.

Wendt, Albert The Space Between [34] 1999 Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body. In Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific, edited by Vilsoni Hereniko and Rob Wilson, 399–412. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.