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.

Library Discussions - 17th June

I had in-depth reading discussions with three students today. Four books were borrowed today. Two books returned. One upset student because I'd given the book she'd started reading (and left behind last week) to someone else to read first. That student's excited facial expressions when she saw Telesā.  Excitement and enthusiasm - for reading.

Small changes. Slowly. The reading culture at Ōpōtiki College still has a heartbeat. I see it coming back each day. Slowly and slowly. ♥️ Beautiful. 

#OClibrary

The Eve of Mega-Strike 2019

In a few hours, I begin my strike.

Striking because:

*Teacher workload is real and so is teacher burnout.
* My students deserve better and so do I.
* I know that there are nights I literally cannot go to sleep because I'm thinking about EVERYTHING I need to do, ALL the issues I need to try conquer on behalf of my students the following day and mentally ticking off all the things I have done and still yet to do.
* Even though I have recently paid off my student loan, I am still not a good enough risk to the bank - I still can't buy a house on my own (even with my travel debt, kiwisaver deposit and MU, MMA responsibilities).
* I struggle to get the multitude of marking done. I spend hours and hours in the school library, in my classroom, in other spaces trying my hardest to get the marking done. It's just never enough.
* I need more time. More time to finish my marking. More time to create resources. More time to send info to parents. More time to engage with parents and students holistically. More time to develop better processes to ensure my workload doesn't get the best of me.
* I am overstressed, overloaded and underpaid. There is NEVER enough time to do the job. But I continue. Because I love my job. I love my students. I love this community.

Our students deserve better. Our teachers deserve better.

Come on Chris. I still believe in you. I know you have some money sitting aside somewhere. I know you have some awesome ideas in your mind of minimising our workload. We've got this. Let's do this. Please. Before there are none of us left.

#teachersareendangered #ppta #bringoutthebest #BelieveInUs ❤️

Chimamanda Adiche's Ted Talk: 'The Danger of a Single Story'

Awesome korero. Check it out ❤️

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

The importance of avoiding listening to and only hearing One Story. There are many stories within people and of which we need to know before we make judgements. People need to feel comfortable sharing their own stories and share their perspectives.

If there was one story you've had shared about yourself, what else would you like people to know?

Me - a student asked yesterday if I went/go to MacDonald's a lot when I was growing up / now. That got my back up - because 1) I did grow up going to Maccas. I have a whole box of Maccas toys that I've lovingly kept for over 25 years. 2) I'm always going to revert back to that little kid who got mocked for her weight and am just now more decisive about how I respond to the question.

Another story I'd like people to know - is how hard I work to eat healthy food and how much I enjoy cooking and how much I enjoy gardening and how much I enjoy walking and running. These other stories are who I've always been. But sometimes my story has been hidden by my insecurity of my weight and also my hurt from growing up fat. All of the realities and the imagined realities that reinforced my thinking that I wasn't good enough. Other stories - how I have used my weight to keep people away from me. So that I wouldn't get hurt again in the future. Because it hurts to have your heart (and body) broken again and again.

Share stories. Be proud of all the experiences that have created you and acknowledge both the dark and the light in creating who you are now and who you will become ❤️

Y9 &10 Tihi Timetable Change

Yesterday I was told about an upcoming timetable change that would mean I have the Y9&10 Tihi kids on Monday Block 2 as usual and Y9&10 on Friday Block 4 as usual, however I would now have the Y9s during Wednesday Block 1 and a colleague would have the Y10s on Friday Block 3.

At first this timetable change confused me and I was unsure how this would affect 1) the dynamics of the class and 2) the programme of learning.

At the crux of it though - this means I can properly focus on the Y9s Wednesday mornings and get them prepped in a few ways.

* Building their reading capacity
* Practicing their writing
* Building their confidence without the Y10s to help them
* Developing more skills in English overall

This will also help me figure out who's Y9 and Y10 😂

Plus having that time with the Y9s will give me more time to get to know them individually and build them up.

Next thing to work out is how Fridays will work as my colleague will be taking the 10s Block 3 before they reunite as Y9&10 on Friday. I need to have a sit down with my colleague to figure this out asap. Because I now don't have a double block to teach them it makes it tricky (but also better too in some ways) to get full assessments completed - like the recent 'Sad Joke on a Marae' illustrative narration posters.

Creative Commons 101

Creative Commons licensing is CRITICAL. I've been saying this for years. I've presented at conferences about it and each time people are shocked when I tell them the reasons why we should be using them. Seriously - we need to be adopting CC licenses in our kura.

What is it?
A creative commons licence is an open source copyright platform used to protect individual and collective intellectual property eg school resources that you make for your students. There are a range of different ways you can protect yourself through CC and more importantly share these licenses on your work. 

Why use them?
To me they're a better alternative to traditional copyright. More importantly - as you may or may not know - school boards of trustees own anything that is produced for the students at that school. Even if you create something in your own time, it will still be under the copyright of the school as you are employed via salary and employed by the school. Eg - the board of trustees own all of your resources you've made.

If you wanted to create a series of resources to share for example, you couldn't, because you don't own them. The school BOT does. You are illegally sharing resources if you do not have a creative commons policy in your school as you would be breaking copyright.

Another situation might be that you want to publish and make money from your series of resources - you couldn't because school doesn't have a CC policy. If it did - you could publish your work and use the CC licences of your choosing.

Also - if you've created resources in one school, moved to a new school - LEGALLY you can't take your resources. Because they're owned by the previous school's BOT under their copyright policy.

How do you use them?
Like I said above - there are different ways to use them. Usually I have BY-NC-SA -- meaning that if you used my resource you would have to say where you got it eg attribute my name in the adaptation, non commercial eg you can't make money from it, share alike eg you'd use it as is. To me - this is a very strong copyright. But flexible.

There are heaps of other options too though. And a really simple way of using them and figuring out which ones to use.

Where to access the licence?
Access it here: https://www.tohatoha.org.nz
There are heaps of helpful videos too and info for schools to use eg example policies and explanations of why we should use CC licensing.

Ngā mihi,
Alex Le Long
BY-NC-SA