Beyond a Blackboard

Each morning, I open my can of energy drink in the secrecy of the staff room. This is smuggled inside of my bag and often drunk alone, the evidence carefully stashed in the staff recycling bin. I then move stealthily to my classroom, energized for the day. On this journey I will publicly advertise the fruit or health bar that I have brought for breakfast.  This spruiking of healthy ideals continues  during fitness, when I run the laps of the field with my learners, in silent reading, as I read alongside my learners, or at morning tea when I proudly take out my lunchbox filled with nutritious goodies.  As I teach at a health-promoting school, I am constantly discussing well-being with my learners: We have conversations about the benefits of physical activity before fitness each morning, while the school rules make special mention of the unacceptability of soft drinks and lollies within the grounds. The rules about sustained sile nt reading and book logs...

There are some things that we ask our learners to do over and over, so that they might improve. Each week we ask children to start a new piece of writing, 'moving on' from the work that they previously completed. Perhaps we put their best pieces on the wall, or bring out their books so that their parents may flick through when visiting. Is the teachers red pen an authentic audience? I can see why children become frustrated with this system, when they are writing their tenth story of the term, going through the process as their previous work sits unread in their writing book or worse, crumpled in their tote trays. I have even seen children recycle their own pieces of work. Of course, I understand that in order to improve in writing, children must write. It is the same with reading and maths.  I know that the intrinsically motivated child will continue to write until they see progress or feel like they have mastered a particular genre.  But can't we give them an a...

You never forget your first job. My professional journey began as a waitress in the hospitality industry, fresh out of high school and new to the working world. But before I headed to University to study education, I was already having experiences that would appear in my lesson plans. On my first shift, I was completely shocked at the amount of food that was wasted. We were serving a buffet lunch and dish after dish of half eaten platters were removed from the buffet table and dumped in to the rubbish. Even more mind-boggling was the fact that there was a homeless shelter only a few minutes' walk away. Yet when I asked my supervisor why food could not be donated, they explained that the company would be held liable if anything were to go wrong.This is the same argument that supermarkets make regarding the unsold food that they throw out.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste_in_New_Zealand I was intrigued when I learnt that France was proposing a ban tha...

As teachers, we know that nobody is an pedagogical island: you cannot learn within a vacuum. As such, taking inspiration from other schools is an integral part of bettering our own professional skillset. Which is exactly why I was so pleased to be able to visit and participate in a teaching environment that was so different from my own. On Friday 19th March the MDTA cohort joined our school leaders to attend a tour of Stonefields school and to participate in various workshops. This experience made me more aware of how a modern or innovative learning environment functions: my own practice will benefit from the new ideas that this trip inspired. Making Learning Explicit Explicit learning was the focus for the Stonefield teachers, ensuring that they have a firm understanding of the learning cycle and understand the terminology concerned with learning. Even in junior classes teachers would facilitate vocabulary lessons using the Stonefields learning words as a focus. To reinforce th...

Creativity is one of the fundamental ways that we, as humans, express our individuality. At this point in their lives, our children are beginning to define themselves as people within their friendship groups, the school and greater society. Essentially, creativity is a means for them to construct a sense of self. This is perhaps why the  Global Creativity Network asserts that creativity is the most fundamental of human rights, a notion supported by Manaiakalani - after all, 'Create' is part of ou r learning mo del.  As such, ou r students are given daily opportunities to express themselves in this way. The first thing that comes to mind when many people think of creativity in schools is art: painting, sculpting, drawing. This is the focus of my school this year and my students participate in art lessons a few times a week. This is, of course, a means to express ourselves creatively, but ultimately we teach the subject in a far more holistic and wide reaching ...

In the modern world where truth can often be concealed, we must be able to sift fact from fiction. This is also the case for our learners, who must make sense of the information presented from various sources on the internet. During this week's MDTA PLG, we discussed the importance of teaching critical thinking in our classrooms. We considered how this could be covered in a various subject areas, including guided reading and social sciences. Caleb , an MDTA graduate, talked us through how he fostered critical thinking skills in his learners by discussing current events with them. He described how solo taxonomy can be used to support learners in developing this skill. Solo Taxonomy Model - HookED As I attended a professional development workshop regarding solo taxonomy at the beginning of the year, I intend to foster critical thinking through the use of this framework. I have introduced various critical thinking activities to my learners, including the hexagon task from H...

Some would say that racism pervedes every aspect of New Zealand culture. But nowhere is it more important to be aware of racial prejudices than in the education section.  On Friday, Pat Snedden (chair of the Manaiakalani Education Trust) delivered a  kōrero that required us to  consider racism in New Zealand.  He began by recounting the efforts taken by Ngāti Whātua to reclaim the land that had been wrongfully taken from them. It took great  effort on the part of Ngāti Whātua, but they rose from occupying a tiny amount of land in the 50’s to reclaim their land and becoming one of the most successful iwi in New Zealand.  This reminded us of the racism that has occurred in this country and the relevance that this has to us as educators. We cannot allow racism to present itself in our hidden curriculum and we must speak out about such matters. It is so important for our learners to feel empowered and proud to be who they are. There is still much to be ...