Histories at Tamaki College

 It was great to catch up with Mr Russel Dunn, Deputy Principal of teaching and learning at Tamaki College, to discuss his vision for the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum (ANZHC) at Tamaki College.

Currently there is no seperate ANZHC at Tamaki College. History is taught within the social studies programme in years 9 and 10 and then becomes an option for NCEA at Years 11, 12 and 13.  However the introduction of this new curriculum does provide an opportunity for colleges such as Tamaki to engage with and critically evaluate stories of our past, particually in a local context. 

Russel was clear that the new ANZHC "Must be given the mana it deserves". This, from my perspective, was great to hear!. Russel was especially excited about the opportunity to embrace the new curriculum with the front half of the NZC. Relating to others, critical thinking and collaberating are all Key Competencies that can be explicitly taught using the contexts within the ANZHC.  

Russel cautioned that as we embark on the journey of embracing the ANZHC we must be mindful of the lense that we are using.  We have to be mindful for instance of the Treaty of Waitangi not just in a historical context but how it remains relevant to all New Zealanders today. 

Thank you Russel for your time - I am excited to see how we can incorporate the new ANZHC into both Tamaki College and the Manaiakalani cluster.

Connections in the Secondary School space

 It was fantastic to be invited to and participate in the Social Science Manaiakalani Departmental discussion. This initative connects secondary school teachers in the same subject area in order to collaberate.

Kerry Boyde Preece from Manaiakalani led the round table discussion and we were fortunate to have Maria Perreau from the Aotearoa Social Science Educators' Network join the korero.

Kerry introduced the Manaiakalani Kaupapa of Learn Create Share and spoke about the out reach that Manaiakalani has around Aotearoa.

The discussion centred around the development of new resources, Workshop videos/PD available for teachers, scaffolding of assessments, using digital technologies such as pod casting, digital strategies for NCEA assessment.

I really enjoyed the korero about how we can make learning in Social Science more engaging for students - something they want to do for more than just credits.

I am really looking forward to be continual participation in these deparment discussions later in 2022

Introducing Myself

Kia Ora, Malo e Lelei, Talofa Lava, Fakaalofa Lahi Atu, Bula Vinaka and Hello

My name is Scott Mansell and I am a new across - CoL teacher in the Manaiakalani Cluster for 2022. 

First a little about myself. I am married to a wonderful woman (Wendy) and am the father to Liam, who is 12 going on 18. I have been blessed to be the Teacher in Charge of History for Tamaki College since 2012. I love my job and my students

The focus of my new CoL role will be to support teachers and schools with the implementation of the new Histories curriculum. After a student led petition, which was started by Otorohanga College gained 13,000 signatures, was presented to parliament, it was evident that there was a desire to place more emphasis on New Zealand History    In September 2019 it was announced that the teaching of Aotearoa History would be compulsory in all schools from 2022, to be taught from years 1-10. It is expected that schools make a start on the implementation of this curriculum should begin in 2022 with full implementation by 2025. Covid-19 has delayed this by one year.

I believe that this shift towards a prescriptive curriculum is a positive step. Currently, in social science, we have some rather broad Achievement Objectives. For example, at Level 5 of the curriculum, Students need to learn that people move between places and how this has consequences for the people and the places. There is no requirement for this to have any focus on Aotearoa New Zealand. The context could be, for example, Irish migration to the United States. In other words, under the current curriculum framework it is entirely possible that students can graduate secondary school without knowing history that is relevant to them. To quote the draft curriculum document, this is “Learning that can not be left to chance”. It is possible for learners to graduate from secondary school with no real insight into the history of their own country. The stories that are important to modern New Zealand, be it the loss of land following the Treaty and subsequent settlement process, the Spanish Flu epidemic or the Dawn Raids.  

Thus the pivot towards a focus on Aotearoa histories is exciting. I feel that the more educated the population is with regards to their own country, the better they are able to contribute to and participate in society. 

I look forward to working with teachers and learners as we embark on this new and exciting journey. 

DFI Day 2

Back to Papakura Central School for Day 2 of DFI.

Today was about a few things, but mainly the overall theme was working smarter not harder. Technology is great but  efficient use of it will save time. And teachers all need more time!

We are all familiar with the google suite and have used their most common apps often. Gmail, Calendar and meet became our go to tools especially when distance learning is needed. But I discovered today that there is far more than meets the eye with many of these tools. For example the ability to colour different calendars can make navigating the site (or app) a lot easier.

Tab rationalisation is also a useful concept for those of us who are guilty of having far too many tabs open at any one time. I did not know that this can impact the performance of my Macbook and will need to ensure I am better at closing them. My homework is to try some of the tools that were shown to help me with this.

I am looking forward to continuing DFI in term 2!

DFI Day 1

Today I began my DFI journey, as I undertake the Across School Kahui Ako role in the Manaiakalani Cluster of schools in Tamaki. 

A DFI, or Digital Fluency Intensive, is a series of 8 1 day sessions focusing on using digital tools in the classroom effectively. These skills are important pedagogical skills to have in a modern classroom.

Today we focused on the history and kaupapa of Manaiakalani, getting an understanding of the reason it came into existence and the goals around educational equity.

We were given a brief overview of the Google Apps suite and then were given a deep dive into Google Docs. I could really see the benefit in particular of using the Table of Contents function for Docs with my students as they undertake their research assessments. This functionality will enable students to organise their work effectively which is a key element of the task.

The highlight of the day was the learning that I undertook around formatting in Google Docs using images. This was not something I was overly confident in before, but I gave it a go and below is my creation. Not the most advanced, but it is a start.

 

Relational Pedagogy

In 2017 I taught only seniors. At the time I thought this would allow me to be really focused on lifting NCEA achievement. A nobel goal. But with the benefit of hindsight, a mistake.

Results, Credits, Achievement matters. But at the core of that is relationships. Educators spend a great deal of time learning to, and understanding how to build relationships with students. This year I have learned the best place to do that is in the junior school.

In the junior school achievement does matter, it is important to have a literacy and a numeracy focus to raise achievement BUT there is more freedom to be experimental without the pressure of the NCEA assessment due next week Friday.

Relationship pedagogy to me is building an effective connection with students, that is built on mutual respect and an understanding of where each other comes from. Its not a hard thing to do, if you take the time to get to know the students. In the junior school this is so much easier.

 

External Time

Over the last week the focus of my senior classes has shifted to preparation for their external exams. There is an opportunity for students to sit a mock exam in week 8 and then their actual exams in September.

I always start asking my students 2 questions. 

     1) Put your hand up if you like exams

     2) Put your hand up if you like essays.

Needless to say the response is fairly predictable. Students fear exams, so I see it as my job to help build their confidence and make them believe that they can be successful.

I have really enjoyed Team Teaching the year 13s with Mr Brown. We have used a number of different strategies to build self believe with our learners, and so far I believe we have been successful.

These include

   1) Breaking down the achievement standard so students are aware of exactly what is required

   2) Showing exemplars of former Tamaki Students who have been successful in the standard.

   3) Having surprise "pop" tests at the start of the lesson - eg write the topic sentence of every paragraph. The students are often surprised at how easy this is.

   4) Allowing the students to mark exemplars - making them think like a marker.

   5) Revising the content that they have previously learned.
   6) Allowing students to draw pictures as visual queues for remembering. For example for Hiroshima and the Manhattan Project, one student drew NYC letters as her way of remembering.

In the last 2 weeks their confidence levels have increased hugely - and I am hoping to see wonderful results at the end of the year.