2018: The year that was ...

As I reflect on 2018, the one word that comes to mind is 'grateful'. I am grateful, humbled and proud that I serve a GOD who continues to strengthen, uplift, repair, restore and renew me. I am truly thankful for my wife, family, friends, work colleagues and students that I get to journey with.

One of my favorite quotes from Pastor Hart Ramsey; 

I am grateful for this job. My Tamaki College experience for 2018, saw me experience and explore different teaching methods in my own practice. Using blogging as a part of my writing program for my Year 9 students has been one area that I am excited about. This was something that I always wanted to pursue but I the excuses became a wall that I was comfortable to sit behind - I am scared what people will think, what if it does not look/sound right? Or my personal favorite - I don't have time to do this. 

I was immediately excited by the idea of students reflecting on what they learnt, liked and disliked, sharing what they have created - without any formal assessment criteria to measure it by. It was complete freedom in writing. I hope to continue blogging - not just with my students - but for my own reflection and review. As Pastor Hart Ramsey states, "Someone took a chance", I believe that I took a chance on myself to do things that I wouldn't normally do. I look forward in making blogging a important and natural part in my teaching. 

I am grateful for the students I get to lead and work alongside with. This job can be frustrating and fulfilling all at the same time. It can almost feel like you are walking down a never ending road of disappointment, regurgitating the same expectations or concerns that seem to fall on deaf ears.But it can also feel like a road where even the smallest breakthrough in your student's attitude towards learning or even just making it school, can give you hope. A hope that keeps you going and gives you a real sense of promise and purpose, making you reflect and really believe that this is why you are a teacher. 

This overwhelming sense of gratitude is planted in something that is deep and goes way beyond anything that I have done in the classroom with my students. My 'thanks' is rooted in my faith. My faith journey is exactly that, a journey, that is full of incredible highs and scary lows. But I know that I am not alone. My wife and I were blessed with our first born, Faith Tu'uga Stevenson, who was born on May 1 2018. She is now living in the arms of God. My heart is full, I am grateful for my daughter. She has changed my life forever and has restored my faith in myself and what I can do. Thank you God for an amazing 2018. I look forward to what 2019 has in store. 

I dedicate this post and the year of 2018 to my beautiful daughter Faith Tu'uga Stevenson. 

Revisiting LSC - Learn Create Share

LEARN CREATE SHARE

"Inside of the kaupapa of Manaiakalani is 'learn, create share' that drives the pedagogy. This pedagogy has nothing to do with devices, but about teaching and learning." - Lenva Shearing

LEARN - Effective Practice Challenge - Recognize, Amplify, Turbocharge

CREATE - Once they have learnt, they can create

SHARE - Communicating with a real audience

This must be specifically and strategically part of our teacher's planning.

Teacher examples:

Mrs Dunn  - Math (how she uses LCS with her L1 students in Mathematics)

Ms Wells - Science
Learn - work, activities, build understanding
Create - build on knowledge
Share - recount on the blog
Y9 - learnt how to make a hangi, created it and shared the kai. Shared their presentations on their blogs.

Ms Anderson - Digital Technology
L3 Unit
Learn - what is expected for each student
Create - what will they create with the unit?
Share - share their work into a L3 Google+ Community

Ms Apelu - Social Studies
We are already doing it, just need to identity it in our own practice.
Learn - lean about a social action (L3 SOS)
Create - Create a campaign of social justice action (L3 SOS) they promote what they are learning
Share - Share presentations in the BOT, in school assembly

Ms Ferguson - Digital Technology
Learn - Karen teaching to the students
Create - All project work, creating something
Share - Sharing on Google+ Community

Great to see my colleagues in their element and share their digital experiences!

All things in moderation

Moderation, moderation, moderation!

Moderating student work is an important practice in our English department when marking our NCEA Level 1,2 and 3 student assessments. We have looked at 6 student exemplars from each class (Achieved exemplars x2, Merit exemplars x2, Excellence exemplars x2 and Not Achieved exemplars x2). We measure our results against the criteria for each achievement standard and unit standard. Also the NZQA Student Exemplar booklet provides a good guideline to help support us with our marking.

The exemplars have the marking criteria and annotated notes from the marker, explaining why they have given this particular grade.

Marker's feedback

Student work

My level 3 students have completed the writing portfolio standard (3.4 - 91475 - Produce a selection of fluent and coherent writing which develops, sustains and structures ideas). 

During the moderation for this standard, an excellence exemplar was considered a merit - after discussion, questioning, more discussion - it was highlight through both the NZQA annotated student work and assessment criteria that the excellence exemplar lacked analysis of theme and connection to society. 

Excellence now Merit exemplar - needs to develop on how the technique helps to show the theme and how the theme is presented in the scene. 

We then looked at another excellence exemplar from my L3 class - where the student emphasized the connection to theme and society (something that was is encouraged more for 3.4)

This excellence exemplar highlights the theme, director's purpose etc. 

Continual moderation - checking in with your colleagues, cross marking etc - can be really useful and meaningful for your own teaching practice. 

The art of persuasion.

In preparation for end of year Junior School exams (it is all going down week 3 of term 4), I have spoken to 9KRo about the importance of the written component for their English exam. The students will be revisiting a written or visual text that we have studied and will write an essay on an important character from the text. Before we get into the essay structure, character traits and evidence from the text - I figured that I need to get them back into writing. We are now into our second day of term 4, the students started off by doing creative writing on Monday. Today, the students have been given the task of writing a paragraph using persuasive writing techniques. I know that the one way to hook students into your program of learning, is by creating a space where they can voice their opinion (constructively of course!).

We spoke about what persuasive writing is. Not many clicked on to it straight away, so I spoke to them about church. Seeing as though many of the students attend church, I used the role of the minister and how they have been given the responsibility to encourage and persuade people through their sermons. From here the students shared that they think that 'persuasive writing is meant to convince people to believe what the writer believes'. I used the following persuasive statements/sentence starters and useful adjectives - as a prompt for the students to use for their writing exercise today.

The students were asked to write a statement - I was expecting one sentence - and this was the result...

Thaisoni- "I dont get why people just think its okay to judge certain people about how they act ,look ,and how they live. Just think how the people who are getting judge will feel. Just of if they judged them how would they feel. It's time for them to stand up and speak for themselves and to be assertive. I hate seeing people getting mocked and bullied it's so damn unbelievable seeing people constantly doing it. It's so extraordinary seeing bystanders just watching it happen."

Some took a creative approach ...
Tukaha - "It will be amazing if you’re able to communicate with this monster and make him fight with us against all the great nations.

“It would make things easier but it’ll take time, we need to negotiate with it and persuade it into helping us to win this war”

So what should we do to make it help us fight?

“We need to give it a name, calling it a monster will make it hate us if it understands us.”

So what should we call it sir?

“How about...Hakai”

What does Hakai mean anyway?

“It means Destruction and just by looking at it, it looks like it can do lots of destruction and bring pain upon everyone”

It was a fun exercise that was meant to take 15 minutes. The students were really engaged and decided to have fun with it, it took the whole period!

Children Matter

Part of my job as Dean of Year 9 is to recognize, understand and support the well being of every student in my cohort. From classroom to pastoral issues, my day is made up of different conversations with students, teachers, counselors & parents (to name a few) around these issues.

At a recent professional development workshop hosted by Child Matters, we focused on how we can recognize and respond to child abuse. Child Matters is an organization who educate professionals within the health & education sector on how to prevent child abuse. Child abuse is a sensitive topic, that presents itself in all types of scenarios and people, one thing that stuck with me from a conversation I had with a counselor from Oranga Tamariki was 'if you have a concern, do something, don't do nothing'.

Here is my takeaway from the presentation ...

“Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia. Learn a little, use a little.”

Last week we celebrated Maori Language Week. One thing that I have taken away from last week's celebration is the phrase that Whaea Kata shared with the staff -

“Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia. Learn a little, use a little.”

My interpretation of this is that the quality of what you are doing or saying is important. Sometimes we can stress that we have not done enough or what we have done is not enough. What “Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia" highlights is that we are constantly learning, learning at our own pace, learning and sharing what we have.

On Thursday September 20, I took ten Year 9 students and one Year 12 students to play table tennis with the Chinese elderly community at Grace International Hall in Glen Innes. This is a community initiative that is run by Constable Len. The students were given a crash course in Chinese greetings from Constable Len - "Ni Hao Ma" (hello/how are you?) & "Wo Jiao (I am). The students were worried about the language barrier and were concerned that they did not know enough. However once they met the folk, this 'little' greeting was more than enough. It helped to break the ice, connecting our young with the old.

“Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia. Learn a little, use a little” goes a long way.

Express Yourself

Rap/Hip Hop is an art form that has had a huge impact in popular music and culture. NWA's 'Express Yourself' from NWA's album 'Straight Outta Compton" (1988) is a song that encourages listeners, in particular teenagers, to feel comfortable in expressing their opinions and thoughts.

As I go through the creative writing unit with my Y9 class, 9KRo, we have spent time looking various creative short texts and the students have spent this week creating their own poetry.

I used this song, with the intention that the students will understand that rap is a form of poetry. We listened to the song and went through the lyrics, unpacking what the underlying messages are saying to us. The students were given a 3 Level Guide set of questions -

• Level 1 - Words/definitions 
• Level 2 - Finding examples/quotes from the text that highlight a particular theme/idea. Explain what these examples from the text highlight.
• Level 3 - Write a paragraph on a phrase from the song and what it shows

(Click on the link for the lyrics and 3 Level Guide activity)

This was a great exercise as this song also featured in the film that we have studied this term, Freedom Writers. The students were are asked to write a few sentences on a topic/issue that they feel strongly about. This will be part of their final spoken word piece.