Nurture. Learn. Grow.

Reflective entry 3

My inquiry stemmed from my perspective of being Maori in a largely European school. I believe schools no matter where they are in New Zealand have a responsibility to uphold Treaty rights and reflect policies and effective practices that are culturally responsive firstly to Maori but also to all cultures. Effective teachers have a strong understanding of cultural identities and perspectives and embrace this part of teaching into their pedagogy because they believe the child is at the heart of all matters (Education Review Office, 2013).

My understanding of indigenous knowledge is about recognising the differences in cultures and accepting the differences. The most simplest reason and purpose for teachers to be culturally responsive is to ensure that Maori learn as Maori, acknowledging that all learners are different and that naturally as teachers we strive to cater to all the needs, in New Zealand that means making learning experiences relevant to indigenous peoples f…

Reflective entry 2: 
Teaching inquiries need to have a level of professionalism. At the back of your mind as a teacher you know that an inquiry you undertake has to have some sort of impact or relevance to your teaching and your learners. The Teaching Council of New Zealand has documents that inform teachers of the Professional Standards need to adhere to. I would like to focus particularly on one of these standards titled: Design for learning.


Design for learning
This standard refers to designing and creating meaningful learning sought from a range of knowledge and resources for the diversity of learners we have in our classroom. This particular statement from Education Council (2017) encompasses another Professional Standard relating to Te Tiriti o Waitangi “Design and plan culturally responsive, evidence-based approaches that reflect the local community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in New Zealand” which I believe also needs to heavily influence practice. This code of standar…

Reflective entry 1
Audiences beyond my immediate context can be identified as linguists, policy makers and Te Reo language advocates. My inquiry focus is on a rather hot topic in education, particularly in New Zealand, as we see a shift in policies and practices in schools to educate and teach Te Reo Maori as a compulsory subject; although facing some tough backlash the argument is still relevant (Barback, 2017). On our way to reaching compulsory status, teachers like myself are delving into ways technology can support the goal of having majority of students fluent speakers of Te Reo leaving high school. Te Reo Maori was once considered a near death or by some a dead language, the after effects of colonisation where it met its match in the 1970s and survived. This is something that can be compared to other indigenous cultures experiencing similar loses of identity and language as mentioned in Spolsky (1989). It is an ongoing process to recover language lost over many years. Education …

FocusingWhere will we concentrate our energies in order to make a big and lasting difference for our learners?
My key question from the scanning phase:
How can digital and collaborative technologies support teachers to teach Te Reo Maori in an English medium, mainstream school? I may consider rewording this to become

Impact of digital and collaborative technologies for teaching Te Reo Maori in an English medium school.
Considering this, what can I most effectively tackle over the next few weeks or months?
From the scanning phase I identified that teachers in my 'community' are needing support to build upon their knowledge of Te Reo so that they will be able to support our learners. Within our school we have limited resources, but good resources in terms of people for example myself and another Maori teacher, however they cannot be stretched in such a large school. There is much to consider here, time being a huge influence, as well as importance -  and from my scanning phase w…

This week we delve into the Research part of our course (which by the way has been fantastic!).

Research is something I quite like to do, especially when you know you are addressing a need that is relevant to the community.

This is something that is necessary in the scanning part of the Spiral of Inquiry.

It is a fantastic visual!

Much like the inquiry model I like to use with the learners in my class - we start asking questions of ourselves, start with a wondering, look at prompts, reflect and consider what topic within education is worth researching about.

This is where I began to reflect on my school and discussions we have had as a staff, with our previous visit from ERO, meetings both formal and informal to do with particular focuses and inquiries we have of our own, what was it that I would like to research.

As I am in the midst of the first assignments innovation (Using podcasting/radio broadcasting to teach Te Reo Maori) I decided to keep riding this wave because as a staff we…

Leadership Teaching as inquiry - (online part of the programme for the final 16 weeks)
Spirals of inquiry
Scan - getting a perspective, interviewing, 'what is happening for learners' Focus - narrowing down purpose Hunch -  Learn Take Action Check in 
Will be using this model of inquiry for a reflective assignment.

Digital Inquiry-based learning
Involve me and I will understand
We all experience this in our lives.
Asking questions e.g. why is the sky always grey in Ireland?
"What will I learn today?"
Constructivist theory - learning through experiences
Ask  Investigate Collate new knowledge Discuss Reflect
Teacher is a facilitator, content expert, carefully plans - starting with an open ended question or a topic, designing exploration type activities.