Beyond a Blackboard

After seven weeks in the sun, I was eager to get back to school and meet my new class. It was the first time that I got to stay in the same classroom (what a difference that makes!) and my second year at Pt England School. This time I felt confident to draw on my past experiences;  I am familiar with the Pt England way and the norms of the school, so I knew what to expect. As I love getting my students to collaborate, debate and discuss their learning with others, I set a series of team building tasks to build a positive class culture. I linked each task with our theme for the term: Kia pai te kotahi, better together and we used the experiences as a springboard for our discussion about our class treaty. This class were extremely receptive to team building and I was blown away by their confidence in speaking to each other and willingness to work with anyone. In each activity I got them to work in different groups and some even required them to hold hands (which can be quite t...

Like most new teachers, I tend to find school trips pretty stressful. I take frequent head counts of the children, have a bit of a korero beforehand about my expectations and how the day will run and I keep my tamariki close to me at all times. However, up until this point my school trips have been pretty simple to manage. I have often been accompanied by several other classes (and teachers) and I often only have to guide my students through an enclosed and controlled area, such as a museum or theatre. That all changed this week as I escorted the year sevens from my class on a week long camp to the Bay of Islands. This camp would involve kayaking, spending the night in the bush and visiting numerous locations. The thought of this was pretty daunting and I even had a few nightmares in the week leading up to the camp! I was all too aware of the headlines about disasters that had occurred during school camps. I was also a little worried that my students would begin to forget some of t...

In a few weeks time my learners and I will be heading off to Russell for a school camp focused on the Treaty of Waitangi and the history of New Zealand. To ensure that my learners can connect with this topic, we have been studying history and the Treaty in our inquiry lessons.    This was the first time that my learners had investigated the Treaty in depth and many of them were quite surprised by what they learnt. In particular, they were startled by the fact that there were two versions of the Treaty and that the land wars occurred shortly after the Treaty was signed. As we investigated the clauses of the Treaty, there was much discussion around how it is used today. Many of my learners thought that it would contain laws much like those that we follow today. This lead onto a discussion about the partnership between Māori and Pakeha and the importance of learning Te Reo  Māori and about Māori tikanga. As a class we reflected on the fact that we have...