COVID-19: a bump in the road or a new highway forward? Helen Kinsey-Wightman
2020 was already going to be a unique year for me. After unexpectedly spending much of 2019 in an Acting Principal role, I applied for a TeachNZ Study Award to spend a year studying Te Reo Māori. After only 2 short weeks on campus, COVID-19 took hold and 6 hours of daily immersion has become a 2 hour daily Zoom Hui – which soon became known as a Zui!
the announcement of a timeline for the move to Level 2 and a return to a new normal in the shadow that COVID-19 has created and I am well aware of the hard work going on in schools across the country to prepare to shift gears again. One of the issues that we as educational leaders must now tackle has been discussed a great deal in my Friday evening Messenger drinks with teacher friends, via social media teacher groups, in online professional learning and in the articles within this edition: When students return, will school look exactly the same or will this experience change students, teachers and leaders and thus education itself? In the much more eloquent words of Professor Peter O’Connor: ‘In that moment between collective breaths many teachers have taken stock of what they do in schools. We can bounce back to what we had, or we can take a risk, we can leap, skip, and dance forward.’
My pre-Zui prep begins with 45 minutes of burpees and star jumps in my 9 year old’s Zoom Whakapakari tinana/exercise class. Whilst flinging myself around the lounge in a desperate bid for approval from his teacher, I cannot help but notice that way too many of my son’s peers seem to have ridiculously fit Fire Officer/ gym instructor/Iron Māori participants for parents. In the 15 minutes before my own class starts I create an exciting schedule to ensure he has enough meaningful learning activities to keep him fully engaged for 2 hours (mostly so that he doesn’t spend the lesson correcting my classmates’ Māori pronunciation and laughing at their Lockdown hairstyles when my mic is on . . . ) Whilst I cannot report that my kaiako has successfully gained 100 per cent of my attention and I may have spent more time than strictly necessary wondering whether a blue lampshade would work better in my fellow student’s lounge or becoming distracted by the cobweb in the corner of my own, I am happy to report that I have so far managed to avoid the worst kinds of Zoom oversharing using 2 key strategies, namely, (i) having a strict policy of not taking my device to the bathroom with me and (ii) ensuring I am always fully dressed during meetings even in areas of my body which will never make it on to camera. Hence you have not seen me featured in the international media, trouserless during a meeting, with a feather duster in hand. So, having shifted into gear for remote learning, we now await
TAKE THE LEAD ON SAFER SCHOOL JOURNEYS Road safety resources for teachers and school leaders. • Curriculum units Years 1-13 • School Traffic Safety Teams manual • Advice for families and school policies
www.education.nzta.govt.nz
Early indications are that schools are prepared to treat this experience as an impetus for change and creativity. In a statement on the Albany Senior High school website their principal notes: ‘Depending on the modelling you look at and how well we all abide by the lockdown rules we could be looking at further weeks of lockdown and will most likely face a future of further regional lockdowns as the COVID-19 waves roll through. Whilst on one level this is kind of terrifying, I also believe this gives us “a once in a pandemic” chance to prepare for a “new normal” in all areas of how we love, live and work but as I am a secondary school leader, I am going to focus on how we could (and possibly should) reimagine secondary schooling, so as to ensure it has a hope of rolling with the punches and coming out of this fight fit for purpose.’ Julie Henderson, Principal of Eastern Hutt School indicates that this discussion has already begun : ‘On the upside, the lockdown provides an opportunity for student agency and student led learning to thrive and this is a huge positive, especially with our senior children. The children are driving their learning. Student agency gives students voice and choice in how they are learning at home. . . . Our teachers are already reflecting and discussing what they can take from this into the classroom when students return.’ Kiri Gill, Principal of St Matthews Trinity Schools, Wairarapa and President of the Wairarapa Secondary Schools Principals’
Association picks up the theme of student agency: ‘Potentially this crisis has encouraged, through whānau involvement, our taitamariki to become better independent learners.’ One of the challenges that is easier to ignore when students are dressed uniformly at school is the inherent disadvantage that some students face on a daily basis. The fact that not all students have the physical and emotional access to resources for learning has been very obvious in recent weeks as schools have challenged themselves to provide remote learning. In a live streamed PLD session entitled Colouring in your Virtual White Spaces attended by more than two thousand educators, Ann Milne tackled both the issue of inequity and the opportunity inherent in our current situation. Always challenging – she talked about the pandemic of the Pakeha perspective that infects our schooling system and challenged educators to take this opportunity to audit both the physical and online educational spaces to ask ourselves whether Māori perspectives are present and valued. She offered an audit tool to assist us in doing so which can be found on her website. In today’s Zui, we reflected on this whakatauki and learned that the Māori word for leader comes from the words ‘ranga’ to weave and ‘tira’ group. As we listen to the kōrero of those around us, I hope that we consider how to take what we have all learned to weave our learning communities together more strongly and effectively moving forward. He aha te kai ō te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. What is the food of the leader? It is knowledge, it is conversation.
What is the cost of conflict at school? Support student led pastoral care that reduces teacher workload and stress. Empower students to take responsibility for behaviour management without teacher intervention. Conflict resolution programmes improve the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and students within the school community. Research has demonstrated positive results in all participating schools. Leadership through Peer Mediation (LtPM)
Cool Schools Peer Mediation Programme
for Secondary Schools (Years 11 – 13)
for Primary Schools (Years 1 – 8)
These programmes are available FREE to schools. Funding provides training and resources, including revisits. For more information: The Peace Foundation www.peace.net.nz christina@peacefoundation.org.nz Ph (09) 373 2379
ThePeaceFoundationNZ ThePeaceFoundationNZ
g n i c u d Intro new our tool InterLEAD is pleased to announce the newest tool in the InterLEAD Suite…
SLEUTH SLEUTH™ is a developmental tool. It allows teachers to identify their pedagogical strengths and weaknesses and provides solutions to implement and track progress to improve the identified pedagogical areas.
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If you are an InterLEAD Connector customer you will get access to SLEUTH™ as part of your subscription, or alternatively your school will be able to subscribe to SLEUTH™ plus get access to InterLEAD Connector free of charge… Win Win
History shows us that Schools focus on Assessment and Curriculum because it’s easier and it’s in their face on a daily basis. Teachers are drowning in assessment data – it finds them. Curriculum is also easy because it is what teachers are required to teach, it’s found online, in books and in school documentation. You can understand why focusing on these areas has been the path of least resistance and currently occupies teachers’ and leaders’ time and energy. The unfortunate truth is that Pedagogy is the most important and significant factor influencing student learning over which teachers have influence (it accounts for around 30% of variation in student achievement – students’ ability is the biggest at around 50%), but improving pedagogy can be challenging and until now it has been an arduous and time consuming process as schools don’t have systems that capture the school’s expertise in these areas.
Pedagogy
Curriculum
Assessment
(How teachers teach)
(What teachers teach)
(The result)
SLEUTH™ – (Version 1) aims to change this by matching pedagogical capabilities within your school, by surveying and collecting valuable pedagogical skills data to identify those that can offer help in an area with those who need help – using your Internal Capabilities – ultimately to grow the pedagogy in your school.
In a nutshell SLEUTH™ is designed to help teachers grow their pedagogy and ultimately advance the progress of their students.
If you would like to know more about SLEUTH™ please contact either Tony / Andrew or any of the team as they will be more than happy to provide further details. Tony Burkin
021 729 008 t.burkin@interlead.co.nz
Andrew Ormsby
+64 3 420 2800 ext1 a.ormsby@interlead.co.nz
2020
connect with technology
The importance of the Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko curriculum
has never been clearer
Creative solutions enabled by digital technology are critical to our new everyday lives. Now is the time to take your technology knowledge to the next level. Use our kete of supports and your DT & HM content to enrich learning. Support is here • Online courses to build teacher and student skills, tailored to your needs. Innovative, fun and available in both English and Māori mediums. Raranga Matihiko/Weaving Digital Futures – rarangamatihiko.com Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko /National Digital Readiness – kiatakatu.ac.nz • The Digital Technologies Implementation support tool helps you manage the change at your school. The tool, and the full kete of support, information and resources is available on Technology Online – technology.tki.org.nz • Find information and curriculum support resources for understanding and implementing Hangarau Matihiko as part of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. EducationGovtNZ
@educationnz