Farewell...

 

Wow! I'm so incredibly grateful
to have been part of

the Pt England School whanau

but... after 4 (and a bit)! years, 

it's time to say farewell.

I will leave with a 

heart full of many precious memories 

of my life at PES.

To the staff at PES
Thank you for your friendship, 

your willingness to share ideas,
 your passion for educating young people 

and plenty of good laughs!

To my students - past and present:)

I learnt so much from each of you -

thank you for being my teacher!

My deepest wish for each of you is

that you find a way

to step into your amazingness

(yes - this is now a word!)

and show up as

the best you can be!

Ka kite Pt England, 

Team 5 and Room 2 

- it's been a journey!

Arohanui,

Ms. Tapuke 

MIT2020 - Final Meetup/Reflections

Today my MIT journey for 2020 wrapped up as our crew gathered at KPMG for the last time. Given the year we have had, it was actually the first and only time that we were all present in person in Auckland. We took time to reflect on our projects, share next steps and offered up words of support and advice to each other. 

It seems a mighty long time since we are first gathered at Kuaotuna in late February that is 9 months and 2 lockdowns ago!

My next steps:

- Update content (videos, site pages) on Get Ready site for 2021 using feedback from colleagues and students
- Continue to reach out to the local high school and leverage the learning I have gained from designing Get Ready! site and attempt to bring my original achievement objective to fruition i.e. develop a digital tool to assist with Year 8 transition to high school

What could I have done differently?

Woulda (With 20/20 hindsight)

• Identified AND met with a larger group of key stakeholders at local high school from start of 2020;
• Done thorough inventory of the resources/programmes the local high school currently uses for Year 9 transition 
• Focused on Year 8s exclusively from the start of the year - for feedback
• Identify gaps/opportunities to develop resources further or create new tool from scratch

Shoulda (Woulda but circumstances made it challenging to do)

• Had better lead times for student surveys to get as much feedback as possible, 

Coulda (Should have but didn't!)

• Met with/interviewed Year 9 deans at other Manaiakalani High Schools  to find out how they handle Year 9 transition.

Thank you to Dorothy, Matt and Jenny for supporting us all through this MIT experience - what a journey for us especially in a year that COVID threw a spanner in the works many times over! Thanks for the opportunity to explore digital solutions to a range of issues that are impacting student achievement.

MIT2020 - Manaiakalani Outreach and Principals Wananga 2020

Today's wananga was a moment to come together at the end of what has been a challenging year and celebrate milestones in student achievement (thank you to Dr Aaron Wilson from Woolf-Fisher) and for our MIT 2020 cohort to present their design projects.

The hui opened with a performance from Manaia ki te rangi - the senior kapa haka group from Pt England School and opening remarks from Russell Burt (Convenor of the Manaiakalani schools cluster, Principal of Pt. England ) and Pat Sneddon (Chairman, Manaiakalani Education Trust). 

L to R: Manaia ki te rangi (Kapa haka roopu), Russell Burt

MIT 2020 - Break time!

It was quite an experience to be speaking in front of a room full of 150 school leaders and educators. The time limit (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide )was both a blessing and a curse - each of us presenting, needed to be ruthless with what we included and culled to keep to the timeframes; I chose 'old skool' styles and went with my printed notes - it gave me much comfort to have sheets of paper in my hands!

I'd like to extend a huge pakipaki and congratulations to Sarah, Alethea, Tanya, Angela, Kerianna, Sonali and Jo - my fellow MITers - so very proud of all of you!

MIT2020 - Launch Day - Get Ready! Kia Rite! Nofo Sauni!

Last day of the term and one month exactly before the Year 8s go to camp! Today is launch day for the Get Ready! site. It will be linked off the main learning site for all intermediate students. Below are screenshots of the landing page - click here to see the published site which includes:

- the Get Ready! Kia Rite! Nofo sauni! banner - translations in Te Reo Māori and Samoan

- key dates/deadlines, location map and a photo gallery

- a questionnaire for all camp related queries, 

-  Four student videos

- key Mindset slogans

- Karakia 

GOOGLE Analytics has been activated to monitor usage of the site.  By the end of Day 1, 22 users had accessed the site - a promising start!

MIT 2020 - Tuakana-teina: Year 9s in action!

I got in touch with Year 9 students at the local high school last week to see if they would be keen to be part of the GET READY! project. Many were keen but in the end was happy to reconnect with two ex-Pt Englanders - Charlese was in my home class from last year and in school to help out with the weekly Riverside Club as student leader and Troy, was super keen to help out and ended up being very generous with his time,- I ended up filming bulk of videos with him!

Their input seemed like a positive way to build the tuakana-teina connection. Reaching out (via video). Being older/recent peers of the current batch of Year 8s the tips/advice they had to offer were likely to resonate more effectively than if the same information was coming from a well-meaning teacher!

Here are two examples of the videos we filmed:

PAPERWORK

GEAR LIST

MIT 2020: The latest iteration!

In today's GOOGLE HANGOUT  I got to share the latest iteration (draft version!) of my digital tool - named Get Ready! Kia Rite! Nofo Sauni! - my latest attempt to create a one stop site that  would be engaging and will support students' preparation for the upcoming Year 8 camp.

I started with all the practical elements for students and Team 5 staff going to the Year 8 Leadership camp e.g. key dates (camp and our annual fundraiser), permission slips, and the gear list as well as a map and a photo gallery with highlights from camp in 2019.

To get some benchmark data, I asked all Year 8 students to fill out a survey form - a self-assessment of their organisation skills and a set of questions to gauge their interest, excitement and concerns about Year 8 camp.

Survey responses provide valuable feedback for further site content. There were common themes in the concerns that student's had about their camp experience e.g. nerves around having to say a karakia at meal times, not having friends in their camp groups, feeling homesick and the possibility of getting hurt!

Using the template of the TAHA CHALLENGE site, I wanted to incorporate student videos into the site as way to deliver key messages. 

We are blessed with a rich diversity of languages amongst our Year 8 cohort. To celebrate this living resource and bring forth students who are not the regular student leaders, a group of Year 8s have been recorded reciting prayers in their mother languages.

Karakia - Cook Island Māori

   

Overall, I am feeling pretty confident about how I am tracking but still need to complete the student videos for the site and have it ready to launch by end of this term.

I really appreciate the feedback I received from MITers in my hangout session:

Sonali: Great archive for siblings of senior students as they come through to the intermediate block and see their older brothers/sisters/cousins 

Angela: Consider how to work in with local college and see if can link to Graduate Profile

Dorothy: Get in touch with Hinearau, COL Across Schools Support based at Tamaki College to see how this tool could be developed further into resource to support the Year 9 transition

MIT2020 - Research: What is self-management?

Reading through the literature, the importance of being a competent self-management should not be underestimated. Studies show that strong self-management skills in students leads to better life outcomes, better performance in school and lower school dropout rates.

It is clear that being a successful self-manager requires a person to be competent across a number of areas including a person's skillset for organisation, planning, time management, stress management and self-motivation.

For the purposes of my design project, I will focus on the ORGANISATION component. My aim is to design a tool that will support Year 8 students to get ready for their leadership camp in the first week of Term 3.

MIT2020 - Meeting May 7th - Impact on my thinking/planning

I was really looking forward to this meeting - a great opportunity to catch up with fellow MITers and hear where they were at with their design projects AND to get some much needed feedback to guide the next steps for my own project.

REFLECTIONS:  During COVID lockdown, I got to see my prototype in action and embrace the mantra, Fail Fast, Fail Forward!  Over the month of April, I got to road test a digital tool designed to help students build and maintain connections with each other during a period where there would be no face to face contact with teachers or their peers. 

My experiment has run its course and now,  I am left with lots of questions - what exactly was the connection, if any, that students achieved during the Taha Challenge experience? Is this 'connection' to their peers what I need to be focusing on to prepare? Should I be focussing more on developing the 'self-management' part of the toolkit of my project challenge?

NEXT STEPS: I need to go back to the drawing board - do some more ruminating - connect with my support team and figure out how to progress.

Term 2 - 2020 - Day 1 begins!

What a day! Easter holidays are done and today we kicked off a brand new term in lockdown mode. We started the morning with an assembly using GOOGLE Meet for all Team 5 teachers and students - 75 of us in one hangout - what an awesome start! 

We had two subject MEETs for the day - 9.30am for Literacy and 11.30am for Maths - time enough to touch base with our students see how they have been over the break and ease them back into some kind of learning mode. It was great to see kids in the virtual flesh especially those who had gone to ground at the end of Term 1 and had not surfaced (via their blogs) during the holidays.  18 students out of 26 for Literacy; 12 out of 25 for Maths! Making a start!

The set up of our class sites followed the format from the end of Term 1 to LIMIT THE LINKS!

 and students can access their learning in just TWO CLICKS.
1) Click to the TEAM 5 site then,

2) Click on the individual teachers's learning pages:

So this is how my ROOM 2 Class learning site looks for TERM 2:

Parent feedback suggested it would help them out if we split Literacy learning into Reading and Writing - no problem!

Going forward, the key will be to provide tasks that students can for the most part tackle independently - will  be interesting to see how this goes and am at the ready to make tweaks as needed in the weeks ahead.

Looking forward to Day 2 back in the saddle tomorrow!

MIT 2020 - Launch Day - TAHA CHALLENGE First Responses!

By the end of the first day - SUCCESS! There were a total of five Taha Challenges recorded from three students and two teachers (my team leader and myself).

Kahurangi 

Tuluinga 

Sauma

MIT 2020 - Launch Day - TAKE THE TAHA CHALLENGE

April 1st - it's no April Fool! Today, Kahurangi became the unofficial poster child to launch DAY 1 of the TAHA CHALLENGE. Let the fun begin!

MIT 2020 - Building a Prototype (Part 2)

prototype: the first design of something from which other forms are copied or developed (Oxford Dictionary)

Newly enthused from our MIT meeting on Monday and lock down looming,  I was focussed on getting a website prototype up and running pretty quickly. Without the luxury of 'user' testing with a group of my target students, here's how things unfolded:

Tracking Student Participation/Building Connections
One gremlin was to find a way to track and give visibility to students as they completed the challenges. Matt suggested a survey form similar to what he was already using to monitor student learning for his class. Students were asked to log their challenges and the comments they had made on others blogs.

Student centred content
A team of TAHA Challengers - a mix of Year 7 & 8 students - created the video/visual content for the site. Due to time restrictions and physical distancing, I chose students who I was already seeing online for distance learning at the end of Term 1. We met informally  at the end of a GOOGLE MEET session (all filmed!)and using a spreadsheet were able to plan and assign tasks amongst ourselves with time lines to get as much content finished as quickly as possible. A template script for the TAHA videos proved helpful to support students as they added their own flavour to the TAHA  'adverts' they created.

Engaging Tasks
A key element of the whole TAHA CHALLENGE was to find a collection of tasks that  Year 7 & 8 students would be willing to try - nothing too serious but nothing too lame either! I got inspiration from a lot of different sources including:
- a BINGO Board of Awesomeness from the folks at KIWIKIDS NEWS
- the Mental Health Awareness Week initiative
- Rangitahi Tū Rangituhi , a rangtahi leadership organisation in Wellington that offers Ngā Taonga
  Tākaro wānanga (traditional Māori games workshops)

MIT 2020 - Building a Prototype (Part 1)

prototype: the first design of something from which other forms are copied or developed (Oxford Dictionary)

Newly enthused from our MIT meeting on Monday and with lock down looming,  I was focussed on getting a website prototype up and running pretty quickly. Without the luxury of 'user' testing with a group of my target students, here's how things unfolded:

Digital Tool
It made sense to use New GOOGLE Sites to build my new website. It would be less stressful than trying to design something from scratch using another software programme that I was less familiar with.

Overall Concept 
Big shout out to Matt for letting me throw ideas at him and troubleshoot how my digital tool was going to work. His timely wisdom had already steered me clear of trying to develop an app.  My thought now was to design a site as the hub through which students could stay connected with each other. There would be a series of tasks, with elements of competition (points) and opportunities to share their experiences (blog posts) and also check out and give feedback on what others were up to (blog commenting).

A culturally approriate framework
Our Year 7 & 8 students were familiar with the Te Whare Tapa Wha model of Maori health from the term's inquiry topic. They had been introduced to the analogy that a person's overall health was like a wharenui or meeting house - it stands strong if all four walls are all in balance.  Framing the challenges to the four dimensions of Te Whare Tapa Wha -  Taha Tinana (physical wellbeing), Taha Wairua (spiritual wellbeing), Taha Whanau (healthy relationships) and Taha Hinengaro (emotional wellbeing) would allow students to build on their prior knowledge and understanding of Te Whare Tapa Wha but also provided a real-time context for them to see this approach to hauora/wellbeing in action.

Branding
 I kicked around a few ideas for naming the site including Kia Kaha! and Make the Taha Connection! I really wanted to focus on the importance of being resilient and staying connected with their peers.  I  eventually settled on TAKE THE TAHA CHALLENGE!  It provided a clear invitation for students to try something new while also developing their personal wellbeing 

Remote Learning: The view from home

Day 2 of Remote Learning. A snapshot from home from our Google Meet today for Literacy. All from the comfort of her bedroom - the 'new normal' for teaching and learning spaces in lockdown.

Remote Learning: Go Live for Team 5!

As a team, we met informally after school last Friday for a quick debrief of the week that was. There was a definite vibe that schools were very likely to be shutdown at some point in the near future. Our talk soon turned into a constructive brainstorming session where we thrashed out how to  LIMIT THE LINKS  on our learning site so that access to learning at home in lockdown would be as streamlined and straightforward as possible.

Today, we reaped the benefits of this forward planning. While, we had started the week thinking we would have a good couple more days to trial and tweak things we quite simply ran out of time! So,  six of us took the plunge with our very first Google Meets and experienced our first taste of teaching and learning remotely in real time!

What a buzz! Lots of excitement as I met with my students as a group online. Students quickly learnt how to mute their microphones while I got to grips with the technical skills like finding the correct 'view' to see all of my students at once and remembering how to click RECORD for the session. Thank you for Dorothy for capturing the moment as members of our SMT came through the block to see us in action.

MIT 2020 - Reality checks are invaluable!

Reality Check #1: The last day 'in' school for our kids was yesterday, our lessons switched to distance learning mode as of this morning and we will enter COVID19 Lockdown Level 4 as of midnight tomorrow night.
Time is of the essence to get a prototype up and running. The mantra FAIL FAST, FAIL FORWARD is foremost in my mind. I was more than ready to make mistakes, find the learning, reset, and keep moving on!

Freshly inspired, I caught up with Matt earlier today and pitched him my new idea - I wanted to build either an app or site that will connect students during lockdown and bring together the Key Competency of Managing Self, the taha components of Te Whare Tapa Wha with blogging.

Reality Check #2: An app would be super appealing to Year 7 & 8 students however developing one would require a skill level and an investment of time well beyond the scope of our MIT project

This realisation was a blessing -  I would devote my time to building a site (not an app) as the digital tool to anchor by design project.

Reality Check #3: One of the core aims was to increase connectedness between students so the plan was to have as much of the site content made by and featuring students. How to make this happen given we had started 4 weeks of physical distancing?

I figured since I still had 3 days teaching before the school term ends, the best way forward was to invite a handful of students who I already knew from my Literacy or Maths classes to join my 'as yet unnamed' project team. 

MIT 2020 - Revisiting our Project

Dorothy encouraged us to revisit our MIT projects in light of pending lock down due to COVID19 framing it as a time of opportunity rather than a setback to the work we had already done.There was an acceptance/acknowledgement in the group that yes, things may need to change as the ideas that had been swirling and starting to take form during/since our weekend at Kuaotunu were more than likely no longer workable or relevant. 

My initial concern was centred around getting access to former Year 8 students. I hadn't really factored in that they were 'no longer my kids' and even with 'inside' help at one of the local colleges it was always going to be tricky to negotiate parental permission as well.

So gifted with time out from the main session, I literally had a meeting with myself to thrash out what direction I wanted to take my project - do I stick with figuring out a way to help Year 8s make confident transitions to secondary school/Year 9 OR do I find another path?

I went back to basics, trawled through notes and readings. The Key Competency of managing self still made sense. So too did the section on connectedness and inclusion in the ERO publication, Transition from Primary to Secondary
    

One of the most influential aspects of school environments is the extent to which students feel connected while they are at school (Jose and Pryor, 2010). Connectedness was defined in terms of students feeling that they: belonged, felt included (regardless of their ethnicity, ability, gender or sexual orientation), had a contribution to make to the school, were cared for by their teachers, were accepted by their friends, were physically and emotionally safe and were learning (Adolescent Health Research Group, 2009).


BING! BING! My epiphany:

1) Why not focus on my current cohort of students (both Year 7 & 8)?

2) What would they need to manage themselves/stay connected during an extended period of home lockdown and a switch to distance learning online?

3) How could I help keep the kids engaged with and connected to each other through this time?

What did I land on? I decided that my new project challenge will be to design:

an app/site page that provides a 'one stop' shop for students, teachers and whanau to access a toolkit for self-management and staying connected that is
based on Te Whare Tapa Wha*.

OK! Well, now to embrace the mantra: Fail Fast, Fail Forward! - time to get a prototype up and running!
*Te Whare Tapa Wha is a Māori model of health developed by Dr. Mason Drurie in 1982 that the students are familiar with.

MIT 2020 - Distance Learning 101

Hard to believe that in the space of a 2-3 days, plans for our first MIT 2020 gathering since Kuaotunu changed as many times, such was the fast changing impact of COVID19 as logistics fell into line with measures introduced by the government to stem the spread of this disease.

Plan A - carpooling and jumping on a train and heading into downtown Auckland to KPMG Offices
Plan B - relocate to Sommerville School in Glen Innes with one person self-isolating
Plan C - everyone at home joining the meeting via GOOGLE Meet

So, armed with a headset, laptop and decent internet connection I was ready to sign in and catchup with the rest of the MIT 2020 crew. It was great to 'see' everyone again after a break of 3 weeks or so and as Dorothy pointed out we were lucky we had already met in person so no awkwardness to overcome.

A GOOGLE Sheet was shared amongst us with an agenda to guide our session for the day and space to record reflections for WWW - What's working? What's not? (Barriers/Road Bumps) and What opportunities do you sense? We each took turns to unmute our mics and in 3 minutes (or less!) update our fellow MITers as to how our projects were going. 

This was a golden opportunity for Dorothy and Matt to hear directly from each of us about our projects and for all of us to pitch in with suggestions and advice to steer us in the right direction. We were encouraged to rethink our projects in light of changes brought about by COVID19. The seriousness of the pandemic did not dampen our enthusiasm. Indeed, there was a lot of positive energy, excitement, solutions on the fly, clarity and a strong sense of purpose throughout our virtual meeting room - from each other, and towards each other!

I was impressed with how easily we adapted to this style of gathering. Being physically apart did not seem to be a disadvantage. We could still interact with each other in a group setting and also had plenty of opportunities throughout the day to take time out by ourselves or with other MITers to focus on our projects. Connecting online was certainly not an obstacle to robust discussion - if anything it made us more focussed, wanting to make the most of the time we had together away from our regular teaching commitments.

As I write this post, I am still processing what 'school' will now look like as as we enter a period of now certain shutdown due to COVID19. What started as a necessary work around to comply with new government health policies, is now set to be the 'new normal' as a shutdown of schools looms large.

The challenge for both teachers and students, switches to how quickly we can all figure out how best to deliver and participate in effective distance learning programmes using digital technology.

A FEW POINTS TO PONDER (for teachers and students)

• What is your WIFI/Internet connection like - broadband? fibre? unlimited? data cap in place?
• How many number/what type of devices do you have available to use - laptop? phone? second laptop? desktop screen?
• What platform will you use for video conferencing between staff and/or students - GOOGLE Meet? Zoom? Skype? 
• How proficient are you in using the chosen video conferencing platform? Protocols for interacting online
• What is your distance learning/home learning set-up going to look like - background - distracting or nondescript? dress code? 

HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT - Exciting times ahead!

MIT 2020 - A note of appreciation!

The past couple of days has been a gift - time out from the usual hustle and bustle of our daily routines to meet in person as MITers of 2020. We've used the time to put into practice a range of design thinking tools to unpack our proposals and get them into shape for the year head. 

Thanks to Dorothy and Russell for being gracious hosts in Kuaotunu, to Matt for being an able navigator and sounding board and to my fellow MITers for sharing your ideas, generous feedback and collaborative spirit! Looking forward to catching up with you all again later this month!

MIT 2020 - Step 8: Crazy 8's - IDEATE

The final step of our design thinking process was to use the CRAZY 8s technique to come up with eight different ideas or solutions for our newly improved challenge.

We each contributed to two cycles of anonymous feedback by:

Round 1: Placing stickers next to solutions we thought could fly
Round 2: Sticking googly eyes on the best idea 

We had time to reflect on which of our potential solutions the other MITers thought had traction and then took turns to present our 'findings' to the group. It was reassuring to see that six of my original ideas were considered viable. There was a clear 'winner' with five votes, however three other ideas also had support.

5 eyes 

An app/site page that provides a 'one stop' shop for students, teachers and whanau to access self-management toolkit based on a cultural model e.g. Te Whare Tapa Wha, Kete of Knowledge, Wayfinding