What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise.
As you will remember from Dianne’s interview, when we were choosing our inquiry focus we chatted about our own spelling memories from school. We both understand the frustration spelling hurdles bring. In my case it stems from the portion of time spent learning in the American curriculum. To succeed I had to unlearn the spelling of words I had already mastered, and relearn them without the u vowel. I was then forced to repeat the process in reverse when we moved back to NZ. I went from being the top speller to writing out words 10 times because I missed a vowel. I felt caught between 2 languages so I can truly relate to how many of my learners feel.
What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.
Learning with and from my fellow CoL teachers has meant I have collected many gems from others along the way that have become firmly embedded in my practice. To this day I use Andrea’s ‘explain ready’ phrase when I want my learners to be able to share their ‘how’ in their own words. It is the ongoing opportunities to strategize over our ideas that didn’t quite go to plan, that inspires me. How unplanned hurdles are overcome is what truly captures my interest, as it is these ideas I tap into and tweak when I have my own hurdles to climb over, or am helping someone else find a way around theirs
How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?
To accelerate student achievement the Learn Create Share pedagogy and kaupapa of Manaiakalani is the glue that holds my planning together. Analysing the data helps me highlight knowledge gaps, and identifies where I need to be explicit and where I need to be creative in my teaching.
Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?
Recognising our tamariki don’t have the academic literacy to access the learning is the research finding that continues to challenge me. Many of our learners simply do not have the literacy skills and confidence needed to record their ideas independently. When you add to this the fear of failure spelling errors brings, it’s not hard to see the reality of the struggle many of our children face in Y7/8 when asked to write to explain.
How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?
The support I would like in 2023 is to be a part of planned opportunities to see and hear how other COL teachers drive inquiry in their schools. This would enable us to build on and strengthen the processes we already have in place.
How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?
Aside from continuing to model my inquiry on my blog, I have found that the best support I can offer my colleagues with their inquiries is to guide them through the inquiry process term by term. To make this rewindable and manageable a few years ago I created our PBS Teacher Inquiry DLO, which is our version of a ‘how to’ process and is shared with staff in termly chunks. If both Dianne and I are successful in gaining a CoL position Dianne would support the teachers new to our school, and I would support the more experienced teachers who move at a faster pace, as this plays to both our strengths.
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