Powhiri at Ōpōtiki College

Officially part of the Ōpōtiki College whanau. A colleague asked me if it felt weird to be welcomed on after a week of being at school. Two weeks really because we were in planning and organising the resource room (read: chucking HEAPS of old resources from the 70s-recently). And yeah, it was a bit weird and also because it was only new staff and a couple international kids. The Y9s had been welcomed on last year during their orientation day.

The young man that did our wero was incredibly talented. I thought he was a Y12. Nope. He's a Y10 and in my Tihi class. I was thinking once we were sitting on the pae mo manuhiri that it would have been cool to video the powhiri and haka - but I guess it's also tapu due to the nature of the karanga and tikanga. It was so special though. I really want to learn the Whakatohea me Ōpōtiki waiata-a-ringa.

He waiata matou? Ma wai ra ❤

I also want my conversational Reo Māori skills stronger. Like right now. Bahahaha

After the powhiri, we had more LA time where we planned out some adulting classes for the Y12s and Y13s for the year. Then an awesome kai in the DC (Discovery Centre).

Had my first run through of all my classes. Started some good learning and my 11 English class had way less students in it so it was a lot more manageable. We talked about oriori and babies cranial softness and how histories were past on back in the ra. The end point being that our heads are tapu, and so are our hats and that's why we don't wear them inside, nor have our hats on the ground or the table. I said to them it was a moral thing whether they followed tikanga - but I'd prefer they didn't wear them inside... And don't get me started on the durags... (Facepalm emoji...)

My 13s and I planned out our first assessment - a public history/oral history assessment where they have to interview someone to create a Book of Wisdom. We are starting with a practice target - a member of staff. Then they will proceed to interview someone they think would be interesting in the community. I had a brainwave that we could also go to the old folks home (Thornton here) and ask if we could interview them.

The 11THI kids were hilarious again yesterday. Far. Crack up as. I'm so grateful for the relationships we built during the Tu Rangatahi programme. Those kids crack me up something chronic. They're just really cool too.

The 10 Tihi kids are honestly so cool. Super respectful of my crappy Reo Māori and willing to help me too. We also felt weird being over in mainstream - so that's something I need to talk about with Te Hira. Whether we're in my class or in KKU.
The kids Reo Pakeha ranges. Some able to write long sentences, some not so much. Having only the tens yesterday meant we could create those bonds before the nines turned up. Though I'd already met the nines the day previously with the testing for PAT. Now that I've met the tens - I have a way better idea of what we're dealing with in terms of our baseline. So we'll do bits and pieces of the junior POL but I also need to scaffold everything for the TIHI kids. Will need to make an entirely TIHI focused POL this weekend and finish off the junior POL too.

I still need to do some Connected Learners for all the Freyberg and other house kids with the testing. So resilient.

I colour-coded the Chromebooks. Yay! Will set up a booking system soon too.

Much more to do this weekend.

❤