22 July:
This was an interesting day of professional learning for teachers.
The keynote speaker Marcus Akuhata-Brown was very inspirational, a great story teller, teacher, and person.
The following are some collective responses to his talk:
To Encourage: is to enable courage
Remember we are contributing to things larger than ourselves.
Life is like a valuable coin - you can choose wherever you want to spend it but you can only spend it once.
This was an interesting day of professional learning for teachers.
The keynote speaker Marcus Akuhata-Brown was very inspirational, a great story teller, teacher, and person.
The following are some collective responses to his talk:
How do we identify where home is? How do we make connections? Connections - there is a power of connecting to people and place - when they operate together they give you power to do things - to be who you are.
What stories can you tell? What is your narrative? Connectiveness allows you to transmit knowledge to others.
This feels - ‘Boom” - when have you felt this? (place, people)-what things have a negative impact on your beliefs/your pathway? - there are things that you can control/ cannot control.
When you are threatened/ may have lost connections - you may feel - lost/isolated/alone
When crisis hits, where do you go? Who do you turn to? Schools and communities maybe the only place that students can go.
Need vision - otherwise it can lead to drop in self-respect
Give students’ purpose.
Find a song/poem that can tell a story - they have function ( to express feelings- emotions )
Refugees must feel displaced - I wonder what songs they would recollect that would take them back to their place of origin? A minority in a majority country - how can we learn to understand these people? What are the actions that we can do to help people back to a place where they have mana?
Students need to be able to identify their culture - can all New Zealanders do this - especially Europeans?
It is ok to have weaknesses - how do you deal with these? Identify/protect
What is your whakapapa? Can you identify it? It helps you to identify your responsibilities to whanau/community.
Names have purpose - or can have purpose. Can you identify the meaning/connection to whanau with your name? ( could do this visually - images)
Use the analogy of the ‘flea’- glass lid effect. Do we put lids on students? Do we have basis? - recent article identify that teachers have basis that are holding students back.
How well do we know our students?
Operate with our hearts and not our heads. A condition of belief can be communicated - students can pick this up. Are our messages real? Connections can determine the nature and strength of your contributions.
Kiwis can be moaners - how can we change this- do we monitor our own conversations ?
See potential in other people? What will that require from a student? This can enable courage.
Become uncomfortable! - growth happens.
Growth occurs when we become uncomfortable….encourage growth by pushing boundaries (out of your comfort zone). Become passionate about something that challenges you.
How can we ‘teach’ connectedness to learners who may not have this modelled at home? Or have been to many homes/schools in their lives?
Connection to people and place, power to change, your choices can determine your destiny.
Who are you working with? - are you on a journey together - how can you have a common vision?
Policies can impede or enable - programmes - these do not make the impact - it is people.
Lack of vision can be directly related to diminished mana, How can we rebuild mana? How can we teach our young people to be intentional?
Cultural capital- culture counts!
Narrative: connections to people & places. Whakapapa.
Understanding your past and imagining the future gives purpose to our present.
How do we prevent ‘conditioning’ learners to their ‘environments’?
If you are only thinking with your head it is like trying to clap with one hand. But when you think with your head and your heart your hands connect.
Head-heart connecting moments change your life.
How do we elevate the potential to lift glass roofs off of people's lives? #connectednz #edchatnz
How uncomfortable are we willing to become?
Do our learners know where to go in their moments of crisis? Do we tell them / show them / encourage them about what they could become so they know what they should become?
Acknowledge where our learners come from. Build their pride in themselves.
We have no right to ask of or expect from others what we are not prepared to do for ourselves!
We have a responsibility to recognise the potential we see in others
To Encourage: is to enable courage
Remember we are contributing to things larger than ourselves.
Life is like a valuable coin - you can choose wherever you want to spend it but you can only spend it once.
The second talk I went to was presented by Pippa Wright and Gaylene Bobsien from HES on social justice.
We explored barriers to living and working in ways that support and highlight social justice, and also in the classroom.
In the afternoon I went to a talk presented by Caro Bush from Ormiston Primary School in Auckland. Caro has been implementing a play based learning programme in a NE class at her school, and has combined this with researching play in the early learning years. I was particularly interested in this given my background of ECE. While I found it interesting, I also found that there was a little negativity towards ECE teachers about how prepared children were for school, in that important play skills were missing. I think to make this judgment it is really important to fully understand the pressures of teaching in an ECE environment. Nonetheless I also felt that some of these 'missing' play skills could also be environmental and cultural.
I was interested to see how she balanced play with formal learning, as that is something I struggle a little with. I was surprised, and very happy to see that there is no formal learning with the children she works with, until they indicate themselves that they are ready for more. This school has the advantage of a specifically modified area for such play, which hopefully my room and room 5 will become.
The following are links to Caro Bush vimeo on CoreEd Talks, and her presentation I attended.
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