A Visit To Apii Te Uki Ou

 He taonga te mokopuna, kia whāngaia, kia tipu, kia rea.

A child is a treasure, to be nurtured, to grow, to flourish.

Apii Te Uki Ou, a small school on the island of Rarotonga. A school where confident students, strong in their identity, language, and culture grow and learn in a beautiful nurturing environment. 

I was extremely lucky to visit Apii Te Uki Ou on a Manaiakalani MIT trip to the Cook Islands. 

Welcomed onto the school grounds with an official welcome, the students then performed to us and their school oozing pride and talent. 

After Kaikai (beautiful food shared with us), we partook in set cultural activities presented by the students. These included making Partau, weaving flax, drumming, and husking a coconut. The student's confidence, knowledge, and understanding of their cultural practices were amazing and made me think of those students in my class that have experienced culture and language loss since moving to New Zealand and ways in which I can help them to grow their cultural identity.

A tour of the classes in the school highlighted students' engagement, wellbeing, and holistic development in their learning. The feel of the school was beautiful.

Educational environments as special as this don't just happen by chance. They are created. 

Thank you so much for your beautiful hospitality Apii Te Uki Ou You have made me reflect on cultural responsiveness, holistic models of education, and the importance of honoring cultural identity.

MIT Engage Project

 

MIT KPMG Hui Term 4

So what now?

What will the hui look like for the launch of my site?

It will have a focus on home learning during any future lockdowns, the ENGAGE site will fit beautifully within this.

• Invite one of my student's whanau to share their lockdown experiences and how they accessed learning and supported their child. They can share experiences in Tongan as this would be far more powerful coming from teachers. Show the data of students who participated in home learning and celebrate success. 
• Physically share Engage games so parents can see their children playing the game.
• Share Engage at home within the context of other aspects of home learning e.g. Google Hangouts, class site navigation, a checklist for parents.
• Share food and have this as an informal meeting of teachers, chance for teachers and whānau to develop relationships.
• Advertise at prize-giving hui date and time

Include ENGAGE Site on Transition to school site (Thanks for the idea Kiriwai!) as well on all Junior class sites.

Reflection Of This Years Journey; Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Woulda

I woulda if I'd known about covid...have the site up and going for the first lockdown with student and whanau at the forefront of my mind. I would have started earlier. Now I am finding that it is too late in the year and not the right time. For me now I feel it is best to be strategic in the timing of the launch to get maximum whānau uptake/ buy-in.

Coulda

I coulda but circumstances challenged....total implementation of ENGAGE across the whole team but capacity to take on ENGAGE wasn't there for some teachers in my team. Also creating videos during lockdown didn't happen even though I had put it out there as a project for students.

Shoulda

I shoulda taken action sooner instead of being stuck in the thinking/planning stage.

Presenting At Manaiakalani Wānanga

Today we presented our projects at the Manaiakalani Wānanga.

Public speaking never gets any easier. But with the support of my wonderful MIT colleagues, I did it...we did it.

Listening to my fellow MIT team members sharing their journeys and projects I felt so blessed to have been a part of this journey. Not only have I learnt through my own project but I have all of theirs too. I know that every single member of the teams Mahi has made an impact on not only my practice now but will do into the future. 

With a few little presenting hitches and a discovery that I need glasses (reading of my phone was a little tricky), the nerves subsided and my project was shared.

A big thank you to Dorothy and Matt for making this all happen. You are both amazing.

KPMG Hui Term 3

Finally, we meet again face to face. Today's MIT hui at KPMG was the only time since February that we have actually been able to get together. It goes to show how February's hui cemented the relationships between the team that we would carry throughout the year. It was fantastic having the setting of KPMG, away from school (and home), to allow for fresh thinking to take place. 

Today's hui gave an opportunity for us to share our almost finished digital tools and gain feedback from our peers. 

As is always the way, feedback points out all those things you don't see yourself, the things you are blinded to when you are looking at it from one perspective. Even the simplest things are often something that doesn't even cross your mind until pointed out to you.

This is the website so far:

Draft ENGAGE Site

Feedback From The MIT Team

The feedback I received focused on writing the content of the site so that whānau can understand by avoiding teacher talk and to hook whānau in to explore the site by showing them how it meets a need.

Next steps to think about:

• Think about 'what is the need that this website meets?' and pitch meeting this on the home page to draw whānau in. This is the selling point. Will whānau be hooked into looking further into the site? The answer to this at the moment is no. Therefore I need to think of it from a marketing point of view. Could the header be a staged photo of parents with speech bubbles saying something like "It doesn't have to be like this!" "Have you noticed your child..." "If only my child could.."

• Write a description under How To Play videos so that whānau can get a summary of how to play the game without having to watch the videos.

• Change the header Whānau Voice to a parent-friendly header, what I have is teacher talk, not parent talk. Change it to "What is our whānau saying?" 

• Include comments/ testimonials from whānau e.g. quotes from whānau saying how the children have benefitted from playing the games.

• Give to whānau to trial and to gain feedback 

• Rewrite parent questionnaire to everyday language or translate into Te Reo Māori, Samoan or Tongan e.g. which of these skills are important to learn?

TAI20 The Nature and Extent of the Student Challenge: Whānau Voice

I have been collecting parent voice through the method of Talanoa. This method allows whānau to speak openly without the expectation to answer questions in a forced and directed way. These conversations are a way to listen to whānau and the messages they are sharing in a comfortable natural way.
All three pieces of whānau voice were collected through long comfortable conversations in natural environments with other whānau members present. This information was given by them without prompting or questioning. 

One mum talked about the impact of helping her children do their learning during the lockdown:
"I wasn't aware of the impact of what was going on at home was having on the children's achievement. They didn't use to be like this. (This is referring to an extremely difficult situation the family has been through).

They are at a 5-year-old level. I don't want them falling further behind. It wasn't only me it was the older siblings helping them.

I'm glad all the growling at them to do their work has paid off. It was hard work.

I have noticed they have changed. They are happy kids. They come home from school all talking at once wanting to tell me about their day."

Another mum discussed how she loved working with her daughter during the lockdown: 

"I want to keep working with her. I can see the progress she is making. We don't do the projects as we don't have the things you need but we do reading, writing and maths. I haven't paid much attention to their leaning before but now I'm reading and doing things with my younger children too."

Discussion during a home visit with Samoan whānau: 
"We don't feel safe coming back to school yet. We are learning through our bible studies and the church band. We are doing things together as a small family group. I am teaching them about God's ways. The children use my hotspot to go on their site in the evening after they have done their jobs." As we were talking the children were playing doctors with a toy medical kit.

My reflection of whānau voice is 

• The impact high levels of stress in the home setting has on students self-regulation and uptake of new learning at school. As illustrated above whānau may not be aware of the impact stressful home situations have on children's learning. Once made aware of this whanau made changes to their family interactions and gave more support with their children's learning.
• Families have limited resources at home however during the lockdown, having learning visible on the class site allowed whānau to become more involved in their child's learning and they could see the progress their child was making. This was a motivating factor for some whānau and they wanted to continue helping their child with their learning after the lockdown.
• It is easy to look at education and views of success through a Pakeha lense. However, it is important to step out of our cultural world view into the world views of our students. I need to gain a deeper understanding of  Māori and Pasifika beliefs of success, values and education if I am to truly look at achievement and what we measure as success. 

Reflection Of Engagement With Learning During Lockdown

I have written a quick summary of how a selection of my students connected and engaged with online learning during the lockdown and reflected of the differences between families. Learning was provided via our class site and students were able to connect with me during two hangouts each day. The class site provided tasks across the curriculum, including high-interest hands-on inquiry tasks. Instructions and models were given using explain everything videos, teacher videos, audio and written instructions.

Student's 21 and 22 couldn't connect to hangouts but completed most of the tasks on the class site. They especially enjoyed the hands-on inquiry tasks that I had made videos for. They shared their video's with me via google drive. I was amazed at how much work they had done on their return to school as their mum had found it hard to motivate them to do work at the start of lockdown. The hands-on videos were a motivator.

Student's 7 and 16 had not connected at all during level 1. However, during level 2 they returned to school to work from school. This shows the need for some students to be at school.

Student 2 independently connected to each hangout but didn't complete the set work without the support from his parents. He has continued to be motivated and is participating and contributing but has fallen back a bit in his reading.

Students 6 and 13 connected to each hangout and were self-motivated in their learning completing most online learning tasks. Both had support from parents. These are the two highest academically achieving students in the class.

Student 3 worked with mum each day. Mum realised the difficulties he has retaining information and concentration. She now wants to continue supporting him with his learning at home and at school and has seen a huge shift in his eagerness to learn and confidence to talk about his ideas.

Student 5 worked with her mum and sister a year younger each day, They worked through the phonics, reading, writing and maths activities on the site. They left the hands-on activities as they didn't have the materials to do them.

Student 19 connected later into lockdown with help from the teacher. Dad helped with the hands-on inquiry activities and they connected each day to share their learning via hangouts. He also had help from other family members. Dad relied on my verbal instructions, videos and audio to follow the instructions for learning activities as he is unable to read written instructions.

Students 10, 11 and 14 were uncontactable during the lockdown. These families didn't answer phone calls. One of these families has not since returned to school. One family has discussed that they were unable to get their child to do any school work.

What you will notice is how every family was different in the way they connected and engaged in the learning. Each family had very individual circumstances and experiences during lockdown which influenced how and in which ways they connected with the learning activities provided. As a junior teacher, it was a huge job ringing each family on a regular base to help them connect. At times you felt like a stalker especially with those at-risk families that had seemed to have disappeared off our radar. However, those conversations and the talking through technical issues helping families to connect to google meet is what built the relationships that I now have with many of my families. I am so incredibly proud of my parents that lead their children's learning at home. Especially as many of them were facing their own challenges during lock-down. The difference they have made in their children's learning is so obvious now we are back in the classroom. These students are confident, happy and ploughing ahead with their learning.

Some families did not connect at all and for whatever reasons and have not completed any set learning tasks via google sites. Each child had an iPad and internet access. It is not my place to judge as I know the challenges many of our families have on a daily basis. This experience has left me continuing to wonder about ways in which I can better connect with these parents and help them if this situation was to arise again.

MIT and TAI2020 Gaining a Greater Understanding of Māori and Pasifika Perspectives of Play

It is a common perception that play is a normal way for children to learn about themselves and their environment and that the learning and development that happens through play reflect the social and cultural contexts in which the child lives. Also, that play is important for the holistic development of the child. (Bruce, 2001; Leaupepe, 2011)

The ENGAGE Programme takes this further by showing the importance games can make as a catalyst for developing self-regulation skills needed to navigate successfully through life.

My proposed project outcome is to create an online platform to connect our Māori and Pasifika whanau with the Engage programme that our schools are incorporating into their daily curriculum.

However, Leaupepe (2011) indicates through her research into Pasifika Perceptions of Play that the above common viewpoint may not a Pasifika viewpoint. Her paper illustrates the perception of play can sometimes be seen as inappropriate and taking children's time away from more productive activities like helping around the house.  Contribution/ service is a hugely important value in Pasifika cultures. 

If this is the case then will whanau see the value in the ENGAGE programme, and be willing to learn more about it through the proposed website?


To gain further insight into a Māori and Pasifika view regarding play I meet with Maori and Pasifika teaching colleagues using the Pasifika method of Talanoa. 

My Colleague Talking From a Māori Perspective:

"Games are viewed as learning- you are learning as you play, through play learning is achieved. Maori believe should be enjoyable because through play learning is achieved.

What memories do you have of play as a child?


"Marbles, pūrerehua, ti rakau, poi, spinning top hit with a harakeke, pole with ropes like a swing, kōruru (cow knuckle bones), and calabashes,"

What games do you play as a family at home? Are they different from when you were a child?


"Video games, more electronic games. The Whakawhanaunga, the intimacy, wairua, the spiritual connection has been lost. It is missing, noho ngātahi (being together as one)"

What are the positives about helping your child learn at home?

"Whakawhanaungatanga , spiritual connection. We are very kanohi ki te kanohi."

Two Of My Colleagues Talking From a Pasifika Perspective

Some families are strict and children have to do what they are told to do. Others allow for time to do something and spending time together as a family and play. 
Traditionally games are competitive... egg and spoon races, sack races.

The conversation turned to opportunities and challenges of sharing the ENGAGE programme with families and expecting them to implement the games at home. 

It was mentioned that it can be difficult to have the drive, and daily routines and there is the distraction of social media e.g.facebook, this takes time away from spending time interacting with children. They said that there is the risk that they will say they will do things that the school recommends but in reality when they get home it probably won't happen. 

School is school, and home is home. It is polite to say the right things and families don't necessarily say what they think. When discussing ways of sharing... Culturally, if it is fun families will come especially if it is something simple ..... food and their children performing.... bring families in to share. 


My Reflection after meeting with colleagues:

• It is important to value Whakawhanaungatanga and embed this value throughout the process and within the prototype.
• Include Maori games such as ti rakau 
• Incorporate competitive games
• Students demonstrate games as an incentive for parents to connect.
• Launch an online platform through a celebration for our Pasifika community, sharing food and cultural performances.

References

Bruce, T. (2001). Learning through play: Babies, toddlers and the foundation years (pp. 112-124). London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Leaupepe, M. (2011). Pasifika perspectives of play: challenges and responsibilities. Peer-Reviewed Paper: Vol2, Num4-March 2011, The University of Auckland.

MIT May 7th Meet- What impact did this meet have on my thinking and planning?

With the COVID-19 lockdown came pressure and extra work as educators moving into a completely digital way of teaching and learning. Also came the extra work as SENCO helping our whanau navigate their way through this period.

My passion and excitement from our hui one week prior to lockdown turned to frustration and zero output as I became time poor, extremely busy with the extra lockdown workload.

I entered the meeting feeling frustrated and feeling like I was failing. 

However, the meeting quickly allowed me to gain a positive perspective.

What we have just gone through as educators is unprecedented. We have had to change how we teach and connect with our leaners, and deal with situations that are new to everyone. Being kind to myself is not something that comes easy to me and this is what I needed to do.

Taking the pressure off myself has allowed the passion and excitement to return in a natural way. Since returning to school, being open again to this journey and where it is taking me,  has made me look at the project with new eyes.

I have returned to the empathise phase of the project with the learnings I have gained from the COVID experience connecting with whānau. Exploring the 'partnership' aspect of the challenge focus as become key, as it was the partnership between home and school during lockdown that fueled our successful teaching and learning opportunities during that time.

MIT2020 Crazy 8's - IDEATE

Session 6: The Crazy 8's

After spending one and a half days unpacking the problem it was now time to come up with possible solutions. 

We had to come up with eight possible digital solutions. After we had written these down we read our colleagues crazy 8's and put stickers on the ones we liked. 

This was followed up with a googly eye for our very favourite. 
It was interesting to see what solutions people prefer and some great conversations were had around the 'why'.

My ultimate 'crazy eight' solution was ...

Creating a digital portal for whanau to connect with the ENGAGE programme with games, exemplars and information in Te Reo Maori and Pasifika Languages.

This was the solution that I had envisioned so it affirmed my decision to explore this solution to my challenge of partnering with whanau to implement the ENGAGE programme at school and at home.

MIT2020 Connections & Resource people (who)

Session 5: The Who

This session was aimed at us to think about who might possibly be involved in the project. 

Who does this Moonshot project involve?

Colleagues- Engage teachers within my school and the MIT team

Whānau- They are at the centre of this project

Students- Those participating in the ENGAGE Programme to develop self-regulation skills.

Who am I collaborating with on this project?

Whānau

Sonali- also designing a digital tool for implementing ENGAGE in our schools

Who are my team?

Whānau

Dorothy and Matt

The MIT Teachers

Experts that may help me with the digital side of things (unsure who this may be yet)

My school colleagues including the support of my principal and DP

Lee- Cultural perspective; how to address this challenge through a Māori perspective

Luti- Cultural perspective; how to address this challenge through a Pasifika perspective

Who has a voice in this project?

Whānau

What will work for them? What will work for Whānau that are least engaged?

MIT

Who: 

• Learners - All students participating in the ENGAGE Programme
• Colleagues: co-designers, collaborators, sounding boards etc
• Experts: The ENGAGE Team; People to help me learn to create a digital tool

MIT2020 How Might We- bringing multiple optimistic viewpoints to the challenge

Session 4: How Might We Turn This Problem Into An Opportunity...

Gifting each other ways to turn our challenges into opportunities. We wrote our perspectives onto post-it notes and stuck them to each others MIT challenges.

Here are my colleague's questions

How might we...

• assess home engagement
• keep whānau engaged in learning in the long term
• encourage siblings to participate in ENGAGE at home
• foster an understanding with whānau around why their input/involvement is important and valued
• support the cultural difference in your community
• get whānau buy-in?
• engage wider whānau to be involved? Do they have time to help?
• think about what parents want
• make a non-organisational space to get together and talk
• help whānau understand the benefit they will experience in the home if their child develops the self-regulation skills through the ENGAGE programme
• model Engage to non-English speaking families

MIT2020 Empathy session - using role play and a poster do gain deeper understanding of the needs of the people involved

Session 3

Understanding the needs of whanau is going to be instrumental when it comes to creating a home/school partnership to implement ENGAGE both at school and at home. The following activity allowed us to show empathy to those at the centre of our challenge. 

Activity: Role Play

In pairs, each person demonstrates what this problem looks like when it is happening in the classroom.

For me, it was important to roleplay the challenge parents may have, understanding what is happening at school and the role we are asking them to play at home.

The scenario I acted out was a scene I have experienced during whanau conferences (a student lead meeting whereby the student, parent and teacher discuss learning goals for the year ahead).

Alethea played the teacher and I played a Tongan Parent with very limited English language.

Communication between teacher and parent was difficult and both parties had a different understanding of roles regarding education at school and at home. It showed how difficult it must be to understand what the school is asking of them and for them to know how to best support their students at home. It also showed the value our parents put in the education of their children.

The outcome of this activity was the importance of finding another way to communicate and connect with whanau in a way that they will understand. It also indicates that what we are currently doing to connect with parents isn't working.

For my design to be successful I am going to have to communicate with whanau through their own languages to find out how they perceive the challenge and what their needs are. I need to see this challenge through the eyes of the parents within our school community.

MIT2020 Tweaking and Redefining the Challenge

Session 2

Dorothy, Sonali and I came together over coffee and cake to relook at our challenges.

There were two main challenges we had identified relating to implementing the ENGAGE programme within our school. Both Sonali and I had already started implementing the programme and had similar experiences regarding the challenges. However, we were individually leaning towards separate problems.

Sonali was steering towards the digital collection of data and the practical side of teaching and formative assessing the programme within the classroom setting whereas I was steering towards home/school partnership and the challenges we have faced in this regard to date.

Therefore my challenge has been redefined as

Partnering with Whanau to implement the school-based ENGAGE programme at home.

MIT2020; School Hall scenario bringing a wide range of perspectives to the challenge ( a confronting experience for some!)

MIT Seaside Hui

MIT teachers came together at a Seaside Hui to begin work on the design process of creating a digital tool to address challenges faced within our Manaiakalani schools. 

Session 1

After a leisurely start to our day, swim on the beautiful beach, breakfast and morning coffee we came together for the first time as a group.

Activity: Role Play

Dorothy and Matt welcomed us into a 'mock' school hall to a 'whanau hui' to discuss some of the issues within our local Coromandel School.  

We were each given a card with the character we were to play, all concerned parents interested in the challenges that were to be discussed.

As each challenge was presented (by Matt the 'Acting Principal') we were to voice our concerns and opinions from the perspectives of the character we were playing. Dorothy (playing an ERO officer visiting the school) gave another level of perspective, the possible perspective of the Ministry of Education and the questions they may ask regarding the challenges we have identified. 

To be fair it took me a while to work out that the challenges we were role-playing were in fact, each of the challenges we had identified in our Moonshot Proposals. When I did it was actually really confronting to hear other perspectives of parents who saw this challenge differently to me. It also illustrated that actually, the challenge that I had identified was not actually the problem that I needed to focus on. It became apparent through this process that the challenge was in fact:

Partnering with Whanau to implement the school-based ENGAGE programme at home. 

How can we communicate better with Whanau so they can be partners in the Programme, empowering all parties involved?

MIT2020 Five Whys - Examing The Problem In Detail With A Partner

Prior to the meeting my colleagues at the Coromandel Hui we were buddied up and set with a challenge to unpack our problem using the 5 Whys Method. My buddy was Aletha DeJong from Hornby Primary.

We were to make comments on our buddies (Ale Alethea DeJong slide deck asking one 'why' at a time in response to their answers to help them unpack the problem.

Initially the thought of thinking of 5 why questions in answer to our buddies responses were daunting. However, as the process began and we learned more about the challenge our buddies were addressing the wonder and curiosity set in and the 'whys' flowed. In fact so much so that I sat eagerly waiting for my buddies response with the next 'why' ready to go'. By the end of this process not only had we unpacked our own challenge but gained a beautiful understanding of our buddies problem before even meeting them.

What a brilliant connection formed with colleagues we will be working closely with over the next year. Below is the '5 Why's' process unpacking my challenge.

MIT2020 Moonshot slide deck

2020 is a year of growth and exciting opportunities in my teaching pathway.

I have been lucky enough to be accepted onto the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers (MIT) programme and set with the challenge of designing a digital tool in response to an identified challenge within our Manaiakalani schools. I was accepted into the programme, along with Sonali Carter, as participating teachers in the ENGAGE Programme, designed to develop student's self-regulation skills.

On acceptance, I needed to provide a Moonshot Proposal. This was an initial proposal that would later be tweaked as we began the design process.

This is where it all begins...