Thursday 25 October 2018

Week 3 - Term 4 - 2018

He toa taumata rau
Bravery has many resting places

Week 3
29 Ōketopa - 2 Noema

CGHS Sports Awards Evening - Tues 30

Acland Leavers Dinner - Thurs 1

Pink Day - Thurs 1

Art Exhibition - Thurs 1

Last Day Seniors - Fri 2 (See assembly below for details) 

Year 9 Paparoa DIT visit - Fri 2



Week 4
5 Noema - 9 Noema


Year 9 for 2019, Question and answer evening - 6.00pm in PAC - Tues 6

NZQA Examinations begin - Wed 7

Volleyball - Canterbury Junior Champs - Fri 9 - Sun 11

PUM Meeting, 1pm - Fri 9



Assembly - WED


Wednesday:
Year 10 - PAC - Camp briefing

Friday:
Period 1 - NZQA Assembly Year 11 - PAC
Period 2 NZQA Assembly Year 12 - PAC
Period 3 NZQA Assembly Year 13 - PAC
Period 4 Full School Assembly for Leavers - Gym

Assembly - WED

Junior Assembly

Meeting 

Learning Area
Meeting 

Student Support

Information for Staff


1. NCEA review update

Recent information has been sent through regarding the NCEA review that we discussed as a staff. There is professional widely representative advisory group that has been established alongside the ministerial advisory group.

The timeline below has been updated and established for next steps:
  • 19 October public engagement closed 
  • Late November final NZ Speaks report released
  • MoE will then work with the education profession to review what is viable
  • February 2019 MoE is to advise changes to NCEA (broad ideas with options)
  • Cabinet to agree any changes in April 2019 for sign off.
  • Further consultation towards end of 2019 when a detailed change implementation plan is released.

This is to give time for schools to prepare and ensure support for change is available there will be no changes until 2020.

2. Upcoming Clickview training - Monday 12 November

As part of our school package, we are able to have training for Clickview once a year if needed. We have booked this training for after school on Monday 12 November.
If you like to know more, and use this platform further then please come along, room and more information to be advised closer to the time.

Did You Know?

  1. You and your students have access to almost  3,000 NZ curriculum-aligned clips in the ClickView Library along with resources supplied. You can click here to see what is new for the subjects you are teaching to find a curriculum-aligned clip to suit!
  2. You have access to over 4,000 clips in the ClickView Exchange (around 200 movies) – this grows every day!
  3. ALL of our clips can be shared with students via Google Classroom or any other LMS.
  4. You have access to every free-to-air television station under the TV Tab – this means you can share anything from TV with students in class or via Google Classroom or any other LMS – you can order the program as is, instantly, or you can order it with all commercials removed – ad-free TV recordings!
  5. You can share Interactive Videos with students. These are great for formative assessment: As students watch the clips, they will be asked questions that are embedded in the video, which they can answer digitally and their results will be sent to you. Please click here to find a summary of the interactive videos added to the NZ library in September.
  6. Your students can log into ClickView using their school address where they will access almost 3,000 curriculum-aligned clips that can be used for assessment tasks, revision, or homework. Watch this clip and please note we will be releasing a NZ version shortly for your students so they know they can log in.
  7. You can upload your own Flipped Learning lessons here and share them with students!


3. ULearn 18 Keynote - Dr Hana O'Regan


Summary notes and questions to think about below.


Tō reo ki te raki, tō mana ki te whenua


How many of our people have had control over their own personal and cultural narratives as
Māori and as Māori learners as they have traveled along their educational pathways?
How many of us have successfully been able to influence the views of those around us with
regards to the value of our language and culture and our ability to achieve educational
success as Māori? As educators and educational leaders, what tools have we had at our
disposal to grow the capability of our sector to support the development of positive
dispositions of the Māori learner? (Ulearn 18)

https://edtalks.org/#/video/hana-oregan-to-reo-ki-te-raki-to-mana-ki-te-whenua - Link to full recording of the speech at ULearn18.



The danger of the story untold …

Our children are often confronted with the effect of our history, but not enlightened as to the cause. The danger of this is that they are left to think, often unconsciously - that the educational challenges and negative stereotypes many of our whanau face today - are because they are Maori.




Hana pointed out that there is still an inequity for students in the study of te reo language
subjects vs other subjects in schools. That there is inequity of treatment that our Māori students
are still faced with every day, and that this is at the core or our education system, because of this
imbalance then we are continuing to limit the capability of our tamariki in our education system.

She offered up some thoughts of how we could change this. "We need to start with ourselves and the messages that we choose to share ... with the stories that we choose to tell. To do this we, as educationalists, must do the following:
1. Acknowledge the existence of the negative messages that are portrayed around Maori.
2. Acknowledge the role those societal messages play in shaping self perception
3. Understand where these messages have come from
4. Work collectively to change them.

To see where you are at, ask yourself the following question - "What are the commonly known characteristics or emblems of the kiwi identity?
Think about what you have come up with....




Then ask yourself the second question "What are the commonly known characteristics or emblems
of Māori ? Are they as easy to list?
Think about what you have come up with, and what might be a stereotype based on what has been
portrayed.



How are we actively challenging the stereotypes? - once you add in the negative stereotypes.
These are experiences that young Maori grow up with. There are many messages being
portrayed in our society. How do you think the child in your classroom feels about their identity knowing that
this is the view that society has of them?
These negative perceptions are not OK and we need to be more proactive regarding making
cultural change or “Cultural Self Belief”


So how do we get a system shift from content to capability and competencies? We need to
change the narratives that we share with our children.


Hana gave some interesting historical background re the history of learning in New Zealand,
“by early 1900s Govt education policy saw academic subjects being dropped from the native
schools. Learners were increasingly exposed to racist stereotypes of Māori as less intelligent, backward,
predominantly  ‘kinaesthetic learners’, as opposed to academic".
Where in the late 1800s/ early 1900s there were 47 Maori language newspapers in circulation,
showing a large literacy heritage.


I don’t believe we will achieve the necessary shift in self-belief required to build our capability
as a people - until we actively clear the clutter from our consciousness that clouds our vision
of ourselves and those around us” Hana O'Regan.


Are we brave enough to hear what we might not like to hear - as educationalists we need to
acknowledge the issue and address it in order move forward, or it will continue to be the anchor,
the weight, that holds our tamariki down.

Thursday 18 October 2018

Week 2 - Term 4 - 2018

He kai kei aku ringa
There is food at the end of my hands

Week 2
22 Ōketopa - 26 Ōketopa


Labour Day - Mon 22

LEF T4 Due - Wed 24

English 3.5 Seminars - Tues 23 - Wed 24

Service and Cultural Awards 6.30pm - Tues 23

L2 Art Portfolio marking - Thurs 25 - Fri 26

12PED - Big Event P3 & 4 - Thursday 25

Zonta Sports Awards - Thurs 25



Week 3
29 Ōketopa - 2 Noema


CGHS Sports Awards Evening - Tues 30

Acland Leavers Dinner - Thurs 1

Pink Day - Thurs 1

Art Exhibition - Thurs 1

Last Day Seniors - Fri 2 (See assembly below for details) 

Year 9 Paparoa DIT visit - Fri 2
Assembly - WED

Year 13 - PAC
Year 11 - Gym

Assembly - WED

Wednesday:
Year 10 - PAC - Camp briefing

Friday:
Period 1 - NZQA Assembly Year 11 - PAC
Period 2 NZQA Assembly Year 12 - PAC
Period 3 NZQA Assembly Year 13 - PAC
Period 4 Full School Assembly for Leavers - Gym


Meeting 

Learning and Teaching
Meeting 

Learning Area


Information for Staff

1. Final Day for Seniors -Friday 2nd November: Just a reminder that all seniors will finish on Friday 2nd at lunchtime, after the end of the leavers assembly.
The NZQA briefing assemblies will be in the PAC, where students will be given their instructions and examination entry slips. The Year 11 and 12's will be in class the other two lessons of the morning.
Year 13 are in class period 1, period 2 they are to go to the gym, where Sandy will be working with them on their time capsule reveal. They will then have their 'Garden Party' morning tea before going to their NZQA assembly and the final leavers assembly.

2.The information below was sent through to me, you may wish to check out the links if you think they could be relevant.

  • Walking with an Anzac - You will receive a box containing 32 tangible items (a mixture of both 3D and paper-based items) in addition to a Fact Sheet for your classroom wall, link to a bespoke website and a Pinterest Board.
  • Are we there yet? Investigate female NZ icons and understand the importance of the suffragette movement.
  • The Student Volunteer Army kit - you'll get everything your kids need to imagine, choose, dream up, plan and carry out a volunteer service project in your community. Your kids won't just have the chance to make a difference in the lives of others but they'll learn the future focused skill of project management along the way.

School Kit provides resources and classroom kits free to teachers and schools. It is simply a matter of visiting their website www.schoolkit.co.nz to download the resources. 


3. ULearn18 Key Note: Pasi Sahlberg
If you don’t lead with small data, you’ll be led by Big Data

"Learning analytics, algorithms and big data are knocking on the doors of many schools promising fast improvements and new solutions to wicked problems facing schools today. In the midst of datafication educators need to remember the power of small data: tiny clues through personal observations, collective human judgment, and raw instinct that can lead to big change in schools. Leading with small data requires collaboration, trust and professionalism as key features of educational change." (ULearn 18).

Big Data is about extremely large data sets which may be analysed computationally to real patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions. The characteristics of big data include the following: Big trends, processed by machines, involves algorithms and analytics, it reveals correlations, and is used to help predict the future. So can 'Big Data' make education smarter?
Small Data includes tiny clues, that can processed by humans, it requires a collective professional wisdom, reveals causation's, and helps us to understand the present. Small data gives value to small things that can be very important. It is critical that we use the clues to reveal the big trends in Education.

Find out more about small data by watching the video below:


Pasi gave an example of where the small data has come into play in his own research. In his previous life he had been a Mathematics teacher, and asked himself the question of "why do so many kids not like mathematics" So he asked them to draw an image of a mathematician at work. What he found was that all of the students drew a 'male'.


From ULearn Presentation: https://pasisahlberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/uLearn-Talk-2018.pdf
So he used the small data, the observations and wisdom to make the change, something that the big data in Education would not reveal.


What can you do?
Don’t just observe from the distance - you will miss the small data in the classroom
Build trust-based professionalism - need to trust colleagues as well as the students.
Relate through the culture and shared values.
Professional wisdom as evidence - instinct that this works - based on experience and values. Balance this with the evidence.
Lead with small data - not just the big overview of data.



Monday 8 October 2018

Week 1 - Term 4 - 2018

Mauria te pono
Believe in yourself

Week 1
15 Ōketopa - 19 Ōketopa

South Island Mountain Bike Championships - Mon 15 - Tues 16

Senior Grade Reports (school examination grade and comment for external preparation) - Wed 17 emailed to parents.

New Entrant testing catch up day - Tues 16

Summer Sports starts - Wed 17

Big Band festival - Fri 19 - Mon 22


Week 2
22 Ōketopa - 26 Ōketopa

Labour Day - Mon 22

LEF T4 Due - Wed 24

English 3.5 Seminars - Tues 23 - Wed 24

Service and Cultural Awards - Tues 23

L2 Art Portfolio marking - Thurs 25 - Fri 26

12PED - Big Event P3 & 4 - Thursday 25

Zonta Sports Awards - Thurs 25

Pink Day - Fri 26
Assembly - WED

Full School Assembly

Assembly - WED

Nil - all levels in Ako


Meeting 

Staff Meeting
Meeting 

Learning and Teaching

Information for Staff

1. For those of you who may be interested in developing your leadership skills, or are thinking next steps with regards to leadership positions, then you may be interested in this one day Leadership workshop on November 20. http://www.interlead.co.nz/events/christchurch-lets-talk-leadership-one-day-workshop/

If you think this could be you, then please apply through the normal Professional Learning and Development process.

2. A number of staff are planning to go on school camps at the end of the year. If you need to update your first aid certificate please let me know.
We use City First Aid Training, and their upcoming days for courses in Term 4 can be found HERE.


3. An opportunity has been made available for 10 Canterbury secondary teachers/leaders to become one of the first Boma NZ Education Fellows for 2019. This opportunity is provided through the generous sponsorship of Christchurch International Airport Ltd and Boma NZ. It is a chance to explore exponential thinking, technology and innovative leadership. Applications close on 19 October

If this is something that you would like to explore further, details can be found at https://nz.boma.global/fellows-overview.


Distinguished Emeritus Professor Viviane Robinson has had an incredibly influential career working to change the way educators around the world view school leadership and improving outcomes for school students across the globe. This interview was recorded on Radio New Zealand, where she talks about her career at the University of Auckland, and her work on the improvement of student outcomes.