A Box of Thistles

Nethui 2017

Published on 14th November 201715th July 2018 by robeanneLeave a comment

Collage 2017-11-14 14_13_23
I had the privilege of participating in Nethui 2017 in Auckland last week. I haven’t been to a ‘full’ Nethui before although I went to the regional roadshow in Rotorua last year. I believe that this is the best value for money, most enriching conference I have been to for a long time. I think it is because, although I love teaching, teachers and the education world, we can sometimes become wrapped up in it and forget that there is a real world out there too. According to the conference website;
“NetHui brings everybody and anybody that wants to talk about the Internet together. We’re not a conference and speakers won’t talk at you all day. NetHui is a community event – made for the community, by the community.

Participation and collaboration are at the heart of NetHui. The programme isn’t decided by InternetNZ – it’s designed by the community. NetHui is about issues that actually matter to your community.”

Given the political climate at the moment the theme of “Trust and Freedom on the Internet” was entirely apposite.

Here is a Wakelet of the tweets interspersed with a few of my own comments.

Upoku Pakaru

Published on 27th October 2017 by robeanneLeave a comment

a black and grey photo of a boy, head in hands and the words Upoku Pakaru A few weeks ago I talked about kickstarting my reo.

As usual, good intentions turn to custard when other, more pressing things take over my time. So, my daily half hour has turned into a weekly, manic rush to catch up before the next webinar!

Anyway, these are my musings this week…

In this week’s mahi we had to make an image to express something about ourselves and use the structures;

Ko ___ tōku wāhi pai rawa. My favourite place is _.

Ko __ tōku papakāinga. is my home.

I had a go at saying that my favourite places were the mountains and the ocean. I created this image; photo of mountain overlaid by a beach with tress framing the image and the caption Ko ngā maunga rāua ko te moana tōku wāhi pai rawa.

I posted it on Twitter with my image and then when I saw a Māori colleague, I asked her if it was right. She helped me correct it to this:

Ko ngā maunga me te moana tōku wāhi pai rawa

So far so good. I will go back and edit!

Then, today, I spotted roses in my garden with raindrops on them which made me think ‘of my favourite things‘ – “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…..”. So I thought I would have a go…

I tried to adapt the base sentence – changing ‘wāhi’ to ‘mea’ – thing (though not sure if that is the correct word for ‘thing’ amongst the hundreds in the Māori dictionary!) and came up with this;

My favourite thing is = Ko …………tōku mea pai rawa.

Then to add ‘raindrops on roses’ – more searching in the Māori dictionary and who knows if it is right!?

Ko ngā tōuarangi ki runga i te rōhi tōku mea pai rawa

My favourite things are raindrops on roses

BUT.. then I thought, I actually want ‘things’ plural not ‘thing’ singular, so does that mean that tōku becomes ōku? Aha! Good thinking methinks! I might be getting this, feeling a little smug!

BUT THEN …. places take ‘ō’ but things take ‘ā’ – so surely I should change it to ‘āku’ instead of ‘ōku’

Ko ngā tōuarangi ki runga i te rōhi āku mea pai rawa.

OR does the fact that they are favourite things and therefore precious make them ‘ōku’ ??

a yellow and an orange rose with raindrops on and the caption: Ko ngā tōuarangi ki runga i te rōhi āku mea pai rawa.

AND THEN that took me back to my original sentence about mountains and ocean and I thought, that too is plural so ‘tōku’ should be ‘ōku’. So should my original sentence be?;

Ko ngā maunga me te moana ōku wāhi pai rawa.

My head hurts – I’m not even going to “whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens”!

‘We’re all doomed, I tell ye’. ‘We’re all doomed!’

Published on 12th October 2017 by robeanneLeave a comment

Just found this post from a while back which I started writing after the announcement about CoLs and CoOLs. I never finished it as plenty of others responded in a similar vein to me and in a much more eloquent way. See this post ‘Keeping our cool about CoOLs’ from Claire Amos. There was a lot of ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ and cries that ‘the sky is falling’ about online learning. Things have gone quiet since then and we have seen the introduction of the new Digital Technologies|Hangarau Matihiko Curriculum and, of course a new government. The reason that I have come back to this post is, partly because I found it in my drafts, and having found it, it resonated with me as I am currently reading “Different Schools for a Different World” by Dean Sharesku and Scott McLeod. Now I don’t think that, for many of us who are steeped in the NZ education system with our flexible and forward thinking curriculum, they say anything particularly groundbreaking. Much of their commentary is of US schools and school system. But despite seeing plenty of excellent contemporary, collaborative, student centred learning happening in schools, I also know that there is plenty of mediocre teaching and learning happening which is not meeting the needs of all our learners.

In the book, the authors offer 6 arguments for why schools need to be different. As I read the book I am tweeting the thoughts and questions it is provoking in me. The first deals with information, where we get it from, how we get it, and what we do with it.

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We, and our students, can find all the information we need online; what our kids need is to ‘master the skills of information filtering and critical thinking’ so that they have the skills to thrive in their world. That is the role of the teacher.

The 2nd argument is that of economics. We’ve all heard it said – the jobs our kids will do haven’t even been invented yet, automation has taken our jobs, a job won’t be for life. Shareski and McLeod suggest that manufacturing jobs are being replaced by higher skill service jobs and creative jobs. They ask ‘what value do human workers add that software robots don’t’? Critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, high level communication, collaboration…

Screen Shot 2017-10-27 at 16.51.28 Then we come to learning. How we learn, how we teach, what our role as teacher is, whether we are meeting the needs of our learners.

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A blend of digital and kanohi ki te kanohi learning provides both content and the interactions necessary for developing the soft skills needed to manage the information. We need to prepare our students to be fluent navigators of an online world, to have a positive digital presence, to understand the ethics and legalities of a digital landscape, to be able to share their knowledge and skills as both consumers and creators. We need to prepare students for learning agility – they need to know how to ‘flounder intelligently’. (Guy Claxton)

I think online learning offers us some really positive options especially for kids who are isolated or marginalised, but also for those who sit in a system that sort of works for them but sort of doesn’t. I’m thinking of the majority of middle of the road kids who get by in spite of a school system that is out of date and not a good fit for them. The kids who are ‘passively disengaged’.

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This is dealt with in Chapter 4: The Boredom Argument. A question for every teacher….

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How much time is spent in your classroom when the student is ‘passive’? What activities motivate your students to learn? My wero to you is to time some of your lessons, or someone else’s, and reflect.

George Couros asks in one of his blogs;

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‘Different’ schools could be online schools but there is a danger that all we do is extend a traditional model of learning into an online environment. We need to think of ways to allow our kids to learn without just replacing an exercise book with a device. Teachers need support to design blended learning opportunities that allow pathways for all learners. Students need to collaborate – the classroom should be a space for ‘doing’, asking, sharing, exploring, then go home and use a computer to reflect on content, write up notes etc. So, there has to be a lot of thought as to how online education is blended with face to face interaction. And online doesn’t mean ‘robots’ delivering courses as some have said. It means carefully constructed pathways of learning created by teachers, with discussions facilitated by teachers and learners with multiple ways of accessing content and creating responses.

This brings us on to the Innovation Argument; Dyer, Gregersen and Christensen (2009) suggest that innovators possess 5 key skills; Screen Shot 2017-10-27 at 17.40.43

and that we need to create an environment in school which allows for those skills to be developed and flourish. My question is;

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We are constrained by top down drivers – results and standards, which can be used as an excuse not to provide opportunities for genuine inquiry and experimentation, to limit questioning, to stimy divergent thinking, and to prevent kids from forming and using networks to amplify their learning. I can see so many possibilities to support and develop these 5 key skills by using a powerful blend of online and face to face learning. At the moment, though, our assessment system isn’t playing ball and too much testing is still geared towards passive ingestion and thoughtless regurgitation.

The final argument is one of equity. The obvious is a lack of access to digital technologies and thus online opportunities. But it is also a question of usage – even with access what do kids from different socio-economic backgrounds use digital technology for? Studies done in the USA suggest that substitute tasks such as drilling and practice are overwhelmingly done by African American kids whilst more affluent students use technology for creative, higher order thinking activities.

I haven’t had time as yet, to explore my thinking about how online learning would solve the issue of equity – my initial thought is around attendance. It is clear that lack of attendance at school has a profound effect on kids learning outcomes. Barriers to getting to school are many but if kids can access learning from home when they can’t get to school, surely that helps to reduce the inequity in some small way? It is also a question that Shareski and McLeod don’t really answer either apart from suggesting that we ask questions of our communities to get a clear picture of who has access and who hasn’t, and to build partnerships with community and businesses to support access.

When we think about ‘different schools’ we are not talking about the physical or virtual space, we are talking about pedagogical philosophy. As teachers we can all be part of the conversation, pushing for dialogue, questioning our own assumptions about how we teach and how our kids learn. We can demand (in reasonable terms) that those in power think very carefully about how to implement what could be a very positive model for learning. We also have a responsibility to read widely all of the information and assess critically, not jump to conclusions and onto the ‘sky is falling’ bandwagon. Online learning in some shape or form is going to happen so we might as well work together to ensure that we implement the best model possible which works for all our learners.

Kickstarting my Reo

Published on 2nd October 2017 by robeanneLeave a comment

September 13, 2017 at 10-45PM A year on and I am kickstarting my reo journey by following Te Reo Manahua. In the year since I completed Te Reo Pouāwai I have tried to keep my Reo going and embed vocabulary more deeply in my mahi. I have become more comfortable saying my pepeha and have extended it and improved the way that I say it as I have listened to feedback from Māori speakers.

I get the Kupu o te Rā delivered to my inbox everyday but mostly it passes me by after I skim read it. Earlier this year I joined the 100 Day Project and decided to use the Kupu o te Rā as a focus for my creative challenge. I know that some of my sentences are incorrect but the process of trying to work them out was good for me!

It is exciting as the start of the course follows hot on the heels of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and there has been lots of kōrero about the language and tikanga in the media. I enjoyed the focus on using the language as much as possible by joining in with Mahuru Māori. I committed myself to always greeting people in Māori and my husband I practised our numbers by using them when we played cribbage in the evenings! I have loved that there seemed to be so much more engagement with Te Wiki o te Reo Māori across the country this year.

I like this article about Guyon Espiner – RNZ presenter, who has made a real effort to learn Te Reo and use it as much as possible on the radio. He talks about how he felt when he first started learning – about not wanting to get it wrong and feel humiliated. I guess for him it is a bigger step than for most of us as he has a large audience! He also talks about how people send in feedback, sometimes positive and sometimes negative and how easy it could be to focus on the negative when in reality there are more positive comments. But it hurts when someone puts you down when you are trying. It is interesting that he says that he encouraging comments come from Māori who are pleased that he is having a go and that the mistakes don’t matter too much. We have had mixed messages about that and there are now one or two people who I am reluctant to try speaking Māori in front of. They are people who, I think, have my best interests at heart and don’t want me to put myself in an ‘unsafe’ space where I may offend if I get the tikanga or the language wrong.

The pākeha who have criticised Guyon seem to be those who have been brought up in NZ, they may well be 3rd generation Kiwis and see the resurgence of Māori as a threat to all that they have ever known. Other radio and TV presenters spoke about what they believe is their role in promoting the use of Te Reo; Duncan Garner said about the people who don’t believe that Te Reo should be used more widely; “It’s sad because it’s a taonga, it is a treasure. And once we lose it, it’s gone mate.” Kanoa Lloyd says she reckons New Zealanders are too scared to give it a go, and she doesn’t think that’s a decent excuse either.

20170923_061712 Recently, we stayed at Michael King’s house in Opoutere (it is now owned by the University of Waikato and is available to rent for employees and their whānau). Whilst I was there I read his book “Being Pākeha Now“. It is not a long book and it is very readable; it tells his story as a Pakeha and his ‘growing up’ and his developing understanding of Māori tikanga and reo and his sense of identity as a Pakeha. He talks about our responsibility to know where we fit as Pākeha in New Zealand, about not being afraid to find our own identities but to also respect others’ cultures and language and value the place of Māori tikanga and reo in Aotearoa. In an interview with Terry Locke he talks also about how New Zealand attitudes, values and habits as well as his experiences growing up ‘have contributed to or intensified that feeling I have that my culture is not European. It’s something different, it’s Pakeha, and it’s something which I now would define, as I say, as a second New Zealand indigenous culture.’ Both are well worth a read.

Welcome to a bi-cultural Aotearoa

Published on 19th August 2017 by robeanne3 Comments

Two weeks ago my family and I became New Zealand citizens. We came here 10 years ago this coming January from the UK. Why did we choose New Zealand over any other country? Partly because Nigel lived here 40 years ago when his parents emigrated from Scotland when he was 2 years old. He went to primary school here and his brother was born here. Although they went back to Scotland when he was 8 years old, by that time his Aunties had come out and so we have some relatives here and a strong connection with the place. Partly because it is an English speaking country so the boys and Nigel wouldn’t have to cope with learning a new language (our other option had been France). Partly because we are adventurers!

We came for a holiday in 2005 with our boys and we were struck by the beauty of the landscape, the open spaces, the lack of traffic on the roads…. Careful not to be swayed by the rose tinted glasses of being on holiday, we tried to look beyond the veneer as we travelled and considered whether NZ was a place we could live in. As a traveller and a linguist, I am fascinated by language, culture, customs and people and how they interrelate. I was fascinated by the fact that Aotearoa is a bicultural country with three official languages. Although I was struck early on by the lack of visibility of Te Reo; apart from a few signs at the airport saying Haere mai, Kia ora, Haere ra, images of the All Blacks performing the haka, Māori patterns and carved pou, there is little beyond that to indicate that the Māori language is living and breathing in all facets of the country .

Over the last ten years, I have learned a lot. I have made every effort to find out more about Māori tikanga (customs), and learn Te Reo Māori. It is hard. Not like any other language I have learned. Mainly because so many of the words have multiple meanings depending on the context. It is heavily nuanced and spiritual. I think to learn it you really need to be immersed in the language and the people. I am surprised as I learn about the pronunciation of the words, how badly the general populace articulates place names such as Taupō, and how they refuse to accept the Māori names of places they have long known in English such as Taranaki (Mount Egmont). Places whose names were changed when Europeans came to Aotearoa and settled here. This is because they have been mispronounced for so long that people believe that the way they were brought up pronouncing them is the correct way. However, there is a growing awareness of the language and how words should be pronounced and I hear that on the radio, on TV and amongst my friends and colleagues. I also know that many resist!

As an educator, I am encouraged to recognise diversity and respect the bi-cultural nature of Aotearoa. For the last two years, I have been lucky enough to work for a company that values the language and the tikanga, celebrates what everyone brings to the table and promotes cultural responsiveness. I am learning more language, developing a greater understanding of tikanga (though I have so much to learn) and I am learning more about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and how it represents a partnership between Māori and Tou Iwi (other people). A responsibility to recognise the values that all cultures bring to the rich tapestry of Aotearoa. The articles are:

A1. Kāwanatanga
Honourable Governance: the right of the British to govern

A2. Rangatiratanga
Māori Retaining Agency, Voice, Choice
the right of hapū to retain sovereignty

A3. Ōritetanga
Equity: the guarantee that Māori would have the same rights as others

A4. Tikanga, Ahurea, Whakapono
Cultural & Spiritual Freedom: Māori customs shall be protected (the spoken promise)

Image of an original version of Tiriti o Waitangi -it is an old, yellowed document with maori text By Archives New Zealand from New Zealand (Printed Sheet, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

So, back to our citizenship ceremony. This was our official welcome to the country we have chosen to call home. We dressed in our best clothes – I got the boys “Robertson” ties to reflect their Scottish heritage (we thought about kilts but it was just too expensive!), took the day off work and school, planned a celebration (at the behest of friends – any excuse to party) and turned up at the Pavilion in Hamilton Gardens.

It was pleasant enough – 132 people representing 22 different nations, all seeking to become NZ citizens. We recited our affirmation of allegiance together and then one by one, family by family, received our certificates from the mayor and a Kowhai sapling to plant. Bright yellow flower formed like elongated bells

What was missing then? Any indication that we were becoming citizens of a bicultural country. Oh, apart from a bit of tokenism.

Neither the MC, nor the Mayor, nor the Member of Parliament who spoke to welcome us after we received our certificates of citizenship made any attempt to use any Reo Māori. The Kaumatua seemed to have been ‘wheeled’ in to fulfil the niceties of the occasion but it was shallow and meaningless. How can officials of our bicultural country, a country which has at its basis a partnership, hold an important ceremony in which they fail to even use the most basic words of one of its official languages? Our Member of Parliament even made reference to the diversity of the country and how all cultures were welcomed and recognised. He even urged those 22 different nationalities to hold on to their customs and languages, to keep our identities, hold on to our whakapapa (though he didn’t use that language). He went as far as stressing that our language is an essential part of who we are. Yet he didn’t use Te Reo Māori, he didn’t even make reference to the Māori name of Hamilton, Kirikiriroa, as he welcomed us.

I left feeling a little empty and quite angry. Maybe I expected too much. From the land where the Haka is performed with such pride and gusto at every international rugby match, a visible and very physical representation of Māori-ness to the world. I have grown used to Pōwhiri, to waiata, to karakia. To the warmth and richness of celebrations and welcomes in schools I have been a part of and that I have visited. I have been privileged to have been welcomed on to Marae as I have travelled the country, to have been welcomed into communities with warmth and friendship. Our citizenship ceremony lacked that warmth, that true welcome, it lacked a bi-cultural depth. It felt like it was a ceremony that goes through the motions – well oiled, smoothly executed. But it didn’t really seem like it was all about he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. It was Hamilton’s opportunity to show how important it perceives Te Tiriti to be as a guiding document and a way of living in partnership. To exemplify what partnership is to 132 people who have chosen to live in a bicultural, multicultural country. I don’t feel that it did that.

However, we do feel that we belong…we have been welcomed by friends. colleagues and whānau ever since we arrived here 10 years ago, so maybe we should put the ‘official’ welcome in context. This whakatauki talks of Turangawaewae, of belonging.

E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea

I will never be lost for I am a seed sown in the heavens

Collaboration, co-operation, co-construction, choice….

Published on 20th May 201715th July 2018 by robeanneLeave a comment

At EducampTheTron today, one of the discussions we had centred around collaboration. In our schools we are all grappling with it; teachers collaborating together to create learning programmes, students collaborating with each other on solving problems and teachers collaborating with students to co-construct learning.

A few questions cropped up which I thought were worthwhile jotting down. Not that I have any answers but maybe this will spark some thoughts.

two girls working together. They are in a school playground, with a large paper map they have designed. They have a robotic car which they have programmed.

How far do the tasks, projects, problems – call them what you will – that teachers set, lead to real collaboration? Are we providing tasks that allow for collaboration or cooperation? Do we allow for students to make real choices about what they learn? Do we co-construct learning with our students?

Often we create tasks with elements that students can divide up so each person has a different section to complete. This is cooperative. When does cooperation move to collaboration? Does it need to – are both essential skills that students need to develop? Is one necessary for the other to happen? What place does peer feedback play? How can reflection lead to more effective collaboration and learning? If each person has their own space to work in and they know that what they complete has to fit into what the others are doing, then they need to communicate and negotiate to ensure that the connections are effective and the outcome is successful.

If I ask a group of students to explore a topic and come up with a presentation to show their learning, do I provide them with enough scope to choose their area of inquiry, to work together not just in terms of sharing out the work (co-operation) but also to collaborate on the research, the findings and the outcome? Do they develop the skills to question each others findings, critique them, wordsmith text, wrangle with meaning and hone arguments, trial tools to show learning and make decisions together, bringing each person’s particular strengths to the table to help them all learn?

A year 13 class is working on a collaborative social justice issue. This is a ‘collaborative’ project. A group of up to 6 students work together to design a social action campaign to argue their case. Alongside this they also have to produce some individual evidence of their learning. My first wondering is what the optimum number for effective collaboration is? My second is how the task is scaffolded so that students develop the competencies and skills to collaborate effectively. What does that look like? If the task is poorly structured it will lead to confusion, and a lack of understanding about how to approach it. There is also a perception amongst kids based on previous experience that ‘group work’ is unfair – some kids do all the work whilst others slouch, but they all get the same mark. This leads to a reluctance to engage or some members of the group protecting what they have done and not sharing.

One of the people in our discussion today is a computer science student and she explained that in peer programming, a more advanced student works with a less accomplished student on a project. They learn together as they develop the programme and inevitably go more slowly. Who gets most benefit? The mentor or the mentee? As a business model, she suggested that it was not necessarily cost effective with two people doing the same job. But it builds sustainability in the long term and it has been well documented that we learn more through teaching. The Tuakana Teina model has already been adopted in many schools where students work together – a mentor and a mentee – to support each others’ learning in a zone of proximal development.

Let’s examine an example of co-construction and choice. In a Year 13 language class students study a set topic and produce an individual piece of work. There is some choice given to the students in as much as there is a list of possible issues to discuss and sometimes, if there is a particularly interesting topical issue e.g. election, natural disaster, social issue, there may be scope to deviate from the usual list. Students then have some explicit teaching to model language, sentence structure and content before they go off to put their learning into a finished product. There is also some opportunity for feedback during the planning process from the teacher. But what if that topic – chosen by the whole class – doesn’t suit some students? How does that affect their engagement in it and subsequent outcomes? The difficulty here for the teacher is having potentially 30 students all studying a different topic – how do they structure a task so that students will meet all the language criteria to achieve a wide scope of topics? How do they provide the content? How do they provide a context for the language that is needed?

How can digital technology support both of these scenarios? Collaborative tools in Office 365 or the Google Suite as well as a range of teamwork platforms such as Trello or Evernote allow students and teachers to work asynchronously, to share documents, to assign activities, to choose appropriate media to find content, analyse it and critique it and to give feedback.

But how much input does the teacher need to provide? A degree of re-thinking of what ‘we have always done’ is needed. Collaborative projects need scaffolding, they need a solid rubric that provides clarity about the task and the required end product. Teachers need to work alongside the students, checking in regularly with them, questioning what they are doing, observing the interaction and mentoring where necessary to help develop critiquing skills, provide effective ways to give each other feedback and to be demanding of what students are doing. Jeffery Heil talked at the recent Google Summit about having regular, staged check ins to keep kids honest. He says that it is important to have a concrete achievable goal, so students don’t get lost in the process with frustration. Left to their own devices they will leave everything to the last minute – don’t we all? It’s human nature! But when a teacher, who is used to providing content and leading the activity in the classroom, finds themselves in a mentoring role, where they are facilitating groups of students or individual students, they may feel a sense of redundancy and assume that students don’t need them. My fear is that teachers assume that students, by the time they are in year 13, know how to work collaboratively. Because the digital tools enable students to work together at home there may be a temptation to let students get on with it on their own and use class time to get on with other work which is more teacher centred.

I would welcome your thoughts. There are more questions than answers in this post. How do you enable true collaboration and provide choice for your students?

Two girls in a school yard collaborating on a project using an ipad