Ihumātao - Trip Cancelled 🤦‍♀️ - 12th Sept

This was so gutting. 

I shared this message below with our Maurua whanau group. 

"Based on the behaviour from our junior Maurua students recently we've decided to call off our trip to Ihumātao. Despite the whanau hui, all the prep and mahi behind the scenes with getting the trip ready, the approval to go from Whaea Susan etc - we've been incredibly disappointed by some of the behavioural issues and negative attitudes of a small group of students. As a result, we will not be visiting Ihumātao this term.

We want our Maurua students to push themselves to do their best in all their classes, have resilient and focussed attitudes towards their learning, respect their kaiako and give their best with all things they do.

However - we also don't want to penalise those students who have been working hard, staying positive and encouraging each other to do their best. The majority of our Maurua students have been incredible, focussed and positive. We still want to acknowledge those students who have been doing the right thing. 

Perhaps if students can refocus we might be able to relook at heading to Ihumātao early next term. 

Ngā mihi whanau"

I guess - in the long run this was still the right decision. Frustrating when they were still able to go with Tu Rangatahi, which completely undermined our decision to call off the trip. Cool that they got to experience it. But still sucky too. All that planning... And then... 

Hopefully next time they'll be more mindful of the hard mahi their kaiako put in to the opportunities we try to provide for them.

Word: The Frontline - Aug 11

Yesterday I took 11 students up to watch 'Word: The Frontline's semi-final #2 in Auckland at the town hall. It was a long journey up and back all in one day - but so worthwhile. Much discussion on the schools who had entered and the winning team's poems. The three teams that made it into the final on Sept 14th included: De La Salle, Te Puna o Waiorea and Auckland Girl's Grammar. 

The spoken word competition was broken into three rounds with teams competing in each round. They could have single, duo or full team groups participating in each round. 

The one thing our Ōpōtiki College students kept discussing was the LEVEL of support the students in the audience were giving to their school's performances on stage. The students kept talking about how surprising the support was, the level of excitement and pride the audience had for their mates on stage. We talked about how we need to change the culture of support at our kura to fully acknowledge the incredible mahi our peers do. This I think was the biggest takeaway from the day. Because the students want to do cool stuff like Spoken Word Poetry, speeches etc but they said they would never get that level of tautoko from their peers. So - we decided it needed to change because like one of the girls said, "We need something like this in Opo." 

Absolutely. We're working on it ❤️

Funny thing - some of the girls fell for one of the Poly boys from De La Salle and were giggling each time his team went up on stage. It was crack up actually because they'd come over to sit by me and watch him walk past us. When I figured out what was going on, I of course tried to embarrass them 😂 but I didn't need to. When De La Salle's last round was over, the participants left the stage and walked down to their parents. His parents had been sitting behind us the entire time and what's more - the young man sat down behind us too, kissed his whanau and they talked to him about how incredibly proud they were of him. The girls were so embarrassed and it was hilarious watching it all unfold. 

We were brought to tears by two performances - another young man called Mafi (not sure of spelling!!) from De La Salle and the last group performance from Te Puna o Waiorea. Mafi discussed the shadows and how his young siblings helped lighten his load. TPoW shared their whakaaro on Papatūānuku and how she has been savagely assaulted. 

We loved the group performance by DLS who combined both Tongan dance with spoken word and it was a very inspired formation and use of stage. 

The Auckland Girl's Grammar group and solo performance just blew me away. The young woman's solo performance at the end combatted the expectations of Pasifika women and how the cycle perpetuates with each new generation. 

Quotes I wrote down include: 

Do you not taste the metallic tang of the blood of the people you stayed silent when they were killed?

We come from broken homes but our sisterhood is the glue that holds us together

History doesn't repeat itself, humans just don't change

Grandma's hands hold our hands for a little while but hold our hearts forever

A disaster is coming - the disaster is already here. 

Other highlights: 

- The students kept telling me about how fancy the wharepaku in the Auckland Town Hall was 😂 When we finally left to go and have a look after the perfomances - they had reserved the downstairs space for the poet's afterparty

- The elevators and escalators and Lime scooters 😂 Opo kids in the city ❤️

- The students were in awe of the beautiful architecture in the Town Hall 

- I got better at hill starts and backing out of parks 😂 Only four bunny hops - the kids counted 🤦 Manual vans for the win 😂

- Lots of singing in the car and opportunities to talk about their dreams for the future

A MASSIVE shoutout to the students who came with me and to their forgiving whanau - Auckland traffic and the rainy weather caused us to be off schedule on our return but a safe arrival home.

It was such an incredible opportunity and seeing the light in the kids faces is why I do offer these opportunities at kura. Yes - it's a lot of organising and planning but providing opportunities to explore and develop new skills, increase confidence and inspire them to achieve even heigher heights - priceless. 

Ngā mihi anō

Ihumātao - 28th July 2019

Today we were on the frontline. With my back to the police officers, sitting with incredible young rangatahi, kuia alike - It was truly a blessing to be able to be there. The discussions, the waiata, the early morning korero and general buzz of the frontline and kaimahi. 

I'm so stoked I was able to get up there, that I was able to sleep on the whenua and help protect Ihumātao. So much korero. Many memories. Very little photos. Our phones died last night and I only had enough charge for a few pics today.

Caught up with a few friends, some ex-students and made many new activist mates and connected with awesome people. 

Epic journey. Stoked to have been able to take Te Ratahi, a Y9 Maurua student with us from Ōpōtiki College and to have shared this experience with him and a new mate from Ōpōtiki, Hōri. Such an incredible trip and am so impressed with the whakaaro, energy and overall ahua of the roopu representing at Ihumātao. I wish I could have stayed there longer. ❤️ Mihi atu ki a rātou kei Ihumātao ❤️

#ProtectIhumātao

Y13 English - Providing Options & Text Selection at OC

Providing options today...

Back in Term 1 my Y13 class and I had this EPIC day where we discussed and co-constructed text selection for the coming year. I'd chosen texts based off of what I thought would be suitable for a Y13 year with thematic connections and historical themes as well. However, they'd already tried reading the text the year previously and were not keen on the film.

That day we looked at film trailers and I took them over to the English department where I asked them to have a look through the texts that they were interested in. They came back with three texts: 'Animal Farm', 'The Book Thief' and 'Loves Me Not'.

When we got back to class - we talked more about these three texts and they began their reading from that point. Some continued reading several texts, some read and then stopped and started. Some finished. Some didn't.

Being Term 3 - with the knowledge that the texts needed to be read by now and that I wasn't sure whether they had or not (my problem - I should have been making them more accountable with their reading and shoulf have given them their novel study booklets back in term 1 and provided some sort of way to track their reading throughout the term... All learning and reflection!) I gave them the novel study booklets and very briefly went over the essay questions.

Last term they'd been wanting essay practice. I want them to be there - but without having read the text we can't do anything.

So today - I said, "If you haven't read the text yet - email me and tell me. I will send you a short story." I've since had two students own up and be accountable, emailed me and we now have a plan moving forward.

Awesome! Hopefully any others will still email me. And the majority will have finished/re-read the text by Week 3.

Week 5 exams!!! 😭❤️😂👐 So many emotions. We'll be sweet for film study essay. We'll have more time to do novel essays after the exams and prior to the externals.

If I can just have all my students feeling a LITTLE or a LOT more confident in their writing - then I've won. Therefore - we soldier on and finish close viewing.

A HUGE thank you Kim and Jaime from the Trident English Dept for their resources and benchmark exemplars, my incredible mate Pip at Mount Maunganui College for her ongoing support and to my incredible friend and colleague Tina Carlson from WHHS for the moderation during the holidays ❤️ #NgaMihi

#Y13 #evolutionandimagination #blogging #engchatnz

Te Rākau Ture - 2nd July

Today we had Te Rākau Ture - the Maori Students Law Association at Auckland Uni - come to our kura. So cool!! ♥️ My Tihi kids were craving for some selfies too 😂 So proud of our OC kids. They blow my mind each day. It's opportunities like these that are so crucial to pathway planning. I heard from two of our Tihi kids that they're keen to be lawyers and one wants to be doctor! Love this. ♥️

Term 2 - Ōpōtiki College - 29th June

It's time for a full and detailed reflection:

9&10 Tihi - this is my bi-lingual class for English. It's been absolutely challenging because of the behavioral levels and the underlying actual issue of incredibly low levels of literacy with some of our boys.

For the first term I spent it watching the students and creating relationships. The Y9 girls were onside almost immediately. The Y10 girls are slowly getting onside now - especially since hearing more about who their new boyfriends are haha the trust levels are increasing and that's a huge win. Especially because they've trusted me enough with the information but also to let them mock them a little 

The boys though... That's been tricky. The standoffish behaviour was a known factor into coming to this kura - based on my own experience with my whanau. Now that they've seen I've stuck with them a term, they've got to know who I am and my whanau links and connections - they're slowly opening up and connecting more with me. There's still a few that are on and off behaviour - yet I know that they really do just want to learn. I've continued to be surprised by the focus and determination from some students who have been the most disruptive in terms of behavioral issues. They want to try and are showing this in class. We've seen K reading an entire chapter of the BFG in the library and C actually sitting down and iniating discussions with the Protest Project mahi due to his prior experience. T and TM are the ones I want to accelerate the most - T because he's a leader and needs to feel comfortable and confident i te ao Pākehā me te ao Māori hoki. TM because he has SO much background historical knowledge and if he had more confidence and less of an internal block that he is incapable of doing the mahi - he'd be able to share his whakaaro in so much more depth. D has been trying - but needs to catch up with his maturity. P has impressed me considerably. His reading with the Tiriti o Waitangi book blew me away. Him and C fighting to reas the last few pages was awesome. I wish all lessons had been like that one.

With some of the behavioral stuff nailed through restorative hui where the girls, the kaiako and some of the boys owned their behaviour and shared what was disrupting the learning - it was interesting to see those boys who were (and some who still are) being disruptive jusy couldn't comprehend how they had contributed to the ridiculous behaviours in class and lack of learning.

There is still much more work to be done but we're slowly getting there.

Favourite lessons so far:
- TOW
- Protest project and research
- BFG Chapter 3

11THI - This class honestly cracks me up. So funny. I need more time to write about these guys! Such focus and determination.

I've missed a couple arvos with PPTA regional hui and the last Thursday for the two PUMs. And one day when the Queensland researchers interviewed me about charter schools.

Favourite lessons:

Pretty much every Thursday is awesome. The focus on film study and close viewing has been cool just because they have so much analysis skills. It's awesome.

Taking some of them to the slam poetry night was really awesome - definitely a highlight when E stood and did his poem.

11ENG - This class is hard. Straight up. Lots of students. Crazy situation. But we're getting there. After two terms - we're seeing achievement and success. I need time to mark all their work and doing the marking alongside them is way easier because they get that immediate feedback to fix up their Unit Standard mahi

TL;DR -

A reflection - Tihi

Am teaching our 9&10 Maurua Tihi class (bi-lingual) and it's definitely been an experience! Many whanau hui, restorative hui and hoha lessons later - the girls and I FINALLY have the boys on our side (still more work to be done though!) and we're making headway with the learning. Am loving the new mahi we're doing on protests and the rangahau (research) coming out from this has been really special.

Am learning to remember that not everyone has the same foundational blocks they should have when they enter the year level and that if I want to survive, I MUST differentiate to find any success in achieving my awesome students.