Beyond a Blackboard

We would all agree that health is an important subject, particularly in the wake of the lockdown. Yet in our already crowded curriculum, it can be challenging to find time to teach it. Many of us already dedicate time planning sports trips, planning netball training sessions or slotting in daily fitness activities. HPE then becomes a subject solely taught in a gym or court. I believe now is the time to do better. When I talk about teaching Health with my non teacher friends, they often imagine that I am referring to either healthy eating or puberty. Perhaps because these are the topics they remember learning themselves at school! But when you explore the curriculum and what health looks like at college, you realise it is much more than that. Last term, for example, we explored Te Whare Tapa Wha. We started by discussing each principle before looking at how this model of health aligns with our own wellbeing. The students discussed ways in which they could improve different aspec...

We educators teach a lot more than reading, writing or maths. We spend much time on developing life skills and preparing our tamariki for their futures. With this in mind, we in team five spent our first meeting creating graduating profiles of our learners. That is, we considered the skills, knowledge and traits that we hope they will possess as they leave our classes. This was a fantastic activity (created by my amazing team leader Andrea) that got us on the same page and excited about teaching a new cohort of children. We discussed motivation and resilience at length; we want our students to be driven, to love learning, to persevere and set lofty goals. We also discussed some of the challenges our students face at this age, as they become more self aware (and self conscious) and are beginning to make choices for their future. This is something that hit me hard at the end of 2019 as I started to connect more with teachers at the local college. Previously I had quizzed them on ...

Later in the MIT retreat we looked at the people involved in the issue and those that could support us to facilitate the approach. I created this diagram to represent those that are involved in my issue to support me to explore it in greater depth. It was during the creation of this diagram that I realised how helpful it would be for me to discuss the issue with other educators - those teaching at year six, at intermediate, at the college and with Manaiakalani facilitators and senior management. After unpacking the problem we were tasked with imagining different approaches that might address the issue. We had to create eight ideas to ensure that we were thinking broadly and widely (we could be as imaginative as we liked). The hearts indicate which approaches the educators favoured From creating these possible approaches it became obvious that a link between college and intermediate might not help my year sevens, although it might make life a little simpler for the year e...

This year I have moved 1.5km up the road to teach a year 7 and 8 class at Point England School. I was really excited to have the chance to teach year eights again and to gain the opportunity to teach in a hub with four other teachers. I feel absolutely honoured to be able to work with these strong kaiako, as despite finding the move pretty challenging, I have felt really supported by my team. It is taking me a little while to adjust to the routines and differences between the schools, but I am enjoying the journey and I can already feel myself learning a lot because of this. This year I would like to develop strategies that I can carry with me from class to class, as I realised that a lot of my management techniques relied on my strong relationships with my students. This year I will have three different classes and I will be interacting with over a hundred and fourty students on a regular basis, so this will be an important skill to develop. I would also like to continue to develo...