Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Listening to Janelle Riki-Waaka  " Seeing your school through the eyes of Māori parents" The Key messages Putting on the lens of a Maori parent about what is success for their child ? what would I see, hear, and feel in the school/classroom that shows that a child’s culture, language, history and tikanga will be valued and celebrated? My thoughts: How am I going to give my Maori learners more choices to manage their learning? The first step is to do this through a digital lens (Explain Everything) The second step is setting goals with my learners through knowing which 'learner qualities' are to support their learning, looking at data together, having a visual to work with. Through visual and interactive displays The third step is to reflect on how learners are being engaged, involve whanaū as part of the review process, collect student and parent voice. 

Last Thursday I was able to share my Teaching as Inquiry with all staff at Stonefields School. I discussed the process. Beginning with what my hunch was, how I collected my data and caused shifts. My main message is what I am going to do differently now! I am putting an empowering learners lens on my Inquiry. Reducing barriers in reading is through intrinsically motivating learners to become agents of their learning.

After our  Manaiakalani - Woolf Fisher Research feedback I went in with an inquiring mind, thinking what am I going to do differently this year. Yes I began to dig deeper into my inquiry Dig Deeper - my reflections Who big areas come to mind... How are we going to create student agency for our learners and what are we going to differently to engage our Maori Learners and their families? Already planting some ideas Reading together workshop run during the day before 3pm to get in parents before picking up their learners. Open up to Y1/2  and Y2/3 hubs. Bringing in more Maori, Pacifika and other parents in shared morning tea or afternoon inclusive with sharing learner achievements. Teachers released to be part of the discussion group to find out what is it that will help to engage our learners. Find out what support our parents need? More ideas bubbling...Watch this space...I'm excited of the possibilities...

2018 here we come Excited to be continuing my Col role this year. I am in Akomanga Tahi with Year 2/3 learners. I am thrilled to be with working alongside two other amazing teachers. We have 69 learners and three teachers. I feel like we have already hit the ground running this as a majority of the learners have come from Year 1/2 whom I previously taught. So we have already started some extra dose and density in reading. This is what our reading levels look like from Term 4 2017 data. Four of our readers are below in reading and one of them is NZ Maori.