Cindy Wihongi - Professional Blog

  Day 7 - RPI  Today's session had me thinking about HOT and just how many models I had exposed different students to over the years.  In various kura, different focus on specific models had been given so i was unsure what to expect from today and which model would be prioritized.  It was awesome that there was no ‘one’ way and it was all about ensuring that the questions we are asking are in fact questions that make our tamariki think!  I really feel like my students are quick to answer questions and often appear to come up with answers that they think the teacher wants to hear or answers they think might be correct based on a quick skim of the text, rather than them really thinking about it.   I really enjoyed learning about importance of ensuring I provide learners with opportunities to ‘think’, rather than just expecting this to happen on its own.  Texts were shown as to how we can promote and offer such opportunities.  The table below al...

  I have found today to be one of the most beneficial days of this programme!  All the other days have been awesome but for some reason, today really resonated with me?  I am wondering if this is due to me not feeling like I am doing a great job of word work in my classroom or not deliberately planning for this, like I do for the other areas we have covered.  This is certainly an area of improvement for me!  Like it has been reiterated today, we can not assume that our learners know words or will simply learn this by osmosis and this teaching needs to be planned and explicit.  The apps and resources we have been supplied with today make this an exciting challenge, one of which I am certain my kids will just love!   Anna was able to share a couple of great apps with us which lead to others in our breakout also sharing.  This collaborative learning is so awesome given that we are so busy, it's great to have someone recommend particular resource...

 Day 5 RPI What an amazing day full of such great resources that although I did know about, didn’t know about the extent of what they could do!   Sometimes I forget about JUST using images to begin discussions, particularly in regards to inferencing.   Great way to use reading for writing and vice versa.   Good reminder to be aware of splitting the timetable to be inclusive and the rationale behind this.  I liked the idea that Georgie spoke about, of swapping times to ensure that those that are withdrawn don’t miss out but am grateful that in my class, withdrawal is the same time each day so I am able to avoid doing this.  This is great for my class learners as they are so much productive when routine is maintained!  I also struggle with the possibility of not offering choice for learners in order for them to take some agency over their learning and think that sometimes timetabling takes this away from our kids.  It was great that t...

Day 4 The day was a little frustrating as my device wouldn’t allow the camera or mic, but it certainly did give me the chance to reflect on how kids must feel (particularly now that I am teaching Year 4’s and 5’s who are just learning how to use chrome books!)   The day went really quickly with lots of learning.  There was lots of reiterating of what I already knew but this was really good as just because I know it, doesn’t actually mean that it is always what I do!!   One thing that I really haven’t done in my practice and really liked and think I need to be inclusive of is the prior knowledge through the use of videos etc.  I really enjoyed seeing the clip about how this was beneficial and although I usually try to select texts that the children have some familiarity with, this is another way to ensure I am exposing them to things that they are not familiar with as well as this allowing me to access a lot more texts.   I don’t always record obse...

I have learnt a lot today in regards to the entire reading programme and some new resources to access reading material for my learners.  It was great to have my teaching practice both affirmed and challenged with some great ideas about how to be inclusive of new resources within a well resourced/well rounded reading programme.   I did feel really frustrated however as when I struggled to find reading material that was appropriate for the group I had hoped to ‘target’ in today’s RPI.  They are readers of approx 7-7.5 years and there didn’t seem to be a lot available.  I found the journal surf offered a huge range for more able readers and I found it difficult to negotiate the TKI website.  I did persevere with this after our day had finished and managed to find some appropriate leveled books.  Although we had hoped to find ‘sets’, I managed to find 3 texts which could ‘loosely’ be grouped based on experiencing emotions and how different experiences make...

 This survey was really insightful in finding out about the habit and attitudes of our Year 4/5 learners in Totara.  In our remote area we do have trouble with accessing public libraries but we do have a small library at school and also a well resourced book shelf in our classroom.  We also are part of the Duffy Book initiative so the students are regularly gifted books of their choice so most definitely have access to a range of texts. It was interesting that they thought that their ability of reading matched their teachers opinions but that they believed their whanau had a higher opinion of their reading ability.  This is an area that I am keen to explore a bit more.   The results re the amount and times that they read was no surprise.  It was hugely variable and it would be amazing to increase these times/amounts.  I believe that the insight into their choice of books and topics enjoyed is one way to increase this.   Feedback from men...

There is so much to learn!!  It has been a little overwhelming today with the collation of data and new places to source this from and then share in!  I can absolutely see the benefit of doing this but think the last couple of weeks with camp and sickness has added to the way I am feeling.   I am excited though about the end result of this as I can see how this allows me to understand my readers so much better and be able to cater for this through the LI’s, WALT’s and S/C that I am able to pitch based on their needs.   I look forward to using the task board but do have apprehensions about how SOME of my learners will be able to manage themselves independently.  For lots of them, this is the first year on chrome books so that in itself is proving challenging.  I just need to introduce this when I have support of TA in class and have the chance to actually ‘teach’ the learners how to use the board.  I am also excited to share with my teaching c...

  What a first day!! Feeling a little overwhelmed but also excited about how I can become a more effective teacher of reading.  The pillars of learning is a great analogy and one that I can picture and hopefully remember in order to include these aspects into my teaching of reading. Although there is so much to include in our practice, the fact that we can teach across the curriculum makes it less daunting (just a wee bit!!)  It was great to see how the survey of reading was then part of a math programme - it just requires lots of smart thinking.  Seeing how others do this is encouraging and allows me to see it is possible.   There is so much that I could take away from today but feel like I need to hear more before I run with it and it fails because I am doing too much without knowing what I am actually doing so will wait till we’ve had a couple more days before doing too much! At this stage, I need to have explicit, planned (for me) conversations with my ...

 So today has been a really interesting day and great to get some history on the empowerment aspect of Manaiakalani.  I really enjoyed Dorothy's presentation where we worked through some examples of just how empowering the ability to access information is.  Students who are able to take responsibility for some of this accessing for the whanau and even teaching their whanau is incredibly exciting - an authentic example of tuakana-teina relationship working in reverse.  The accessing of all devices and making this possible for all socio-economics within our communities is also an amazing advantage for our tamariki.  It allows for equality, which although should always be the case in education, is certainly not.  I loved the quote that Dorothy shared with us along with her wero... Based on what we have been learning about today, my statemnt would be as follows:  The greatest joy comes from Empowering students to....allow them to follow any path they may w...

So today was all about the big word.... Ubiquitous!! In a nut shell I was able to determine that this really means that all our learning needs to be rewindable and as one of the facilitators put it, 'if it's worth teaching, it's worth recording (or something along those lines!!).  I think like all of the learning that we have experienced throughout the DFI, although things take a while to get my head around and a while to set up, it is worth it once it is done.  I really feel like this in regards to the Screencastify and also the Workspace within Hapara.  I believe that given my students year group (6 and 7), they have the ability to be accountable for their learning (well most of them!) and therefore the opportunity to present learning opportunities through Workspace would be a good way to assist them with this.   As I have never used Screencastify or Workspace before, this is going to involve a bit of self-training and also perseverance.  I do think ...

It was great to hear Dorothy converse regarding connection today. This to me, is a huge part of why we communicate online or should I say, one of the massive benefits of online learning. We live within a world today where whanau are so spread out but yet their support around learning is still invaluable. To have the opportunity for them to be able to be in touch with their tamariki's learning is so crucial and so possible. When looking at our sites from Amy's screen, it became very obvious what could be viewed etc and how appealing/not appealing my site was! I have been able to look at my site today from another perspective which I feel has been great in improving my workflow as a professional. If it doesn't do what its meant to do, then its not worth having?? Having had the opportunity to begin fiddling around with my site will definitely have some benefit to both me and my learners. I feel that when I set it up, it was a matter of getting information on there. Now ...

  What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? What did I learn that could be used with my learners?   What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life? Its was great to get some insight into the kaupapa around visibility.  It was interesting to understand and discuss the benefits of the visibility as I was not in the classroom last year during lockdown.  It made complete sense and I look forward to seeing this in 'action' once my class site is all up and running.  The ability to be so collaborative is also a massive benefit and one that I am already seeing happen within my kura.   Having a go at making a site based on a topic/inquiry was an awesome way of promoting student agency as well as getting whanau involved in their tamariki learning.  I really enjoyed seein...

It was really good today to 'wrap' up the complete pedagogy with the SHARE part of this being covered. This is such an important part of the kaupapa and it was great to see the blogs that people are using to do this. I feel that personally, being aware of blogs and the purpose for this along with the audience will increase the quality of my own blogs as well as supporting my learners with theres. It is a piece of writing and we do this naturally when teaching 'writing' but I feel that when teaching blogs I don't tend to be as explicit in my instructions. I also have had the chance to reflect on my own feedback to learners with their blogs and don't believe that I always give them the feedback that they need/deserve. Like Dorothy raised today, this is such an effective and authentic context for the learners along with being immediate. Therefore I should be making the most of this opportunity and using this platform to provide them with feedback/feed forward....

Another day where I have been fortunate enough to particpate in the DFI and learn lots more about both the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy and also google tools to help in personal and profesional life! It was great to have Dorothy articulate the create aspect today. I do beleive that we do tend to stiffle students creativity and certainly not deliberatly. Sometimes the pressures of the classroom seem to have us spending the bulk of our times on the traditional subjects, rather than allowing students time to experiment with who they are in a creative context. I personally think that with the 'create' aspect of Manaiakalani, it allows us time to be delivberate in actually providing opporutnities for our learners to be creative. I learnt a number of ways in which I could do this today using Google. I think I overthibnk things so when planning for create time, I try and find a range of websites and 'fandangle' apps for them to do this in. To discover today, that ...

 

Today was an interesting day, although a little frustrating at times with my technology not doing what it should!!   I do feel however, at the end of the day, that I have lots to take away and put into practice - so many things that can be used in Google to make my life easier.  In terms of what I have learnt to increase my understanding regarding the kaupapa and pedagogy of Manaiakalani just continued from the previous weeks learning.  The reality of every student having access to digital learning, in an environment where it is deliberate and authentic is a huge advantage growing up in a digital era.  The research to support what this looks like has been strongly embedded in the Manaiakalani pedagogy, allowing our learners the best opportunities.  There was a lot of learning today around how to use Google apps to make my teaching life (and personal life) much more organised.  These functions are so available and it is a matter of me becoming more fami...

Today was the first day of DFI and I was a little unsure what to expect.  I had attended the beginning of the year day for new staff to Manaiakalani and had a little understanding of the kaupapa but really enjoyed hearing some of this again, along with new information.  I guess my first (beginning of year intro) was a little overwhelming with the shift north and not knowing anyone at the course, as well as having little knowledge of Manaiakalani.  To have had a term in the classroom and the support of our local facilitator, things just made more sense today.  I enjoyed finding out about the set up and the involvement of whanau voice in this.  The ability to have technology accessible to all enables all our learners to equity and the opportunity for better outcomes.  I also had not considered a device the way it was compared to a pencil today and this allowed me a better understanding of the choice of devices being different for the junior and senior student...