Tessa's+musings

**Tessa's musings **


 * Initial thoughts after meeting with Anne, April 5, 2012**

Anne: //The best people to listen to are the ones who don’t agree with you. While it can be satisfying to engage with people who agree with you.//

Love the challenge and the warmth of this mahi. Have blooged about what it means to be a critical buddy and need to continue to read Margaret's research on this from Te Toi Tupu links.

Talked about the **Inquiry cycle:**



When I have done this…this will look like…This is when I will feel good about my learning…localized belonging, how is important to the people – tangatawhenua Tauranga Moana, investigating history, Iisten to the stories, how do I listen, do I take it away and reflect.


 * What is my Inquiry?**

Being with the people, talking to the people, I want to know who you are? Telling of stories questions have to be tucked away and ask later – Maori, is what it is. Koha.

Need to get the koha – get it right Culture – not what I will get out of it, what I will be able to give. Deeper levels of the relationship. Give in more appropriate way. Methodology Humility Mana is bestowed

1. Have started reading my books, research papers and material from Anne 2. Made connect with local kura to ask for people to meet with. 3. Created this wiki for Anne and I. 4. Still need to clarify Inquiry statements, sub-questions to drive this cycle.
 * May 4, 2012**


 * May15th Blackboard Collaborate session on Evidence Based Inquiry**


 * June 25th: Visit with Matapihi kura and Nana Eileen**



> everyone connected to Matapihi in some way (even the kids that come from Arataki), seen something, interviews, strong on tikanga, live and breathe, kokari, Maoao, Maori staff strong in the area, whanau important, mixed families, community is strong - bit more than just a school > Parents matter, Whakatu, empathy, knowing your kids, curriculum isn't going to get through unless your kids ok, not just the reo, mainstream go wrong...tokenism, wrong grouping of kids, who then go on and play up, downplay their abilities, bored at school, our kids need savvy, strong Maori teachers, teacher relationship, kura teachers are worried about their kids moving on to mainstream college.
 * What ideas are new to me?
 * [|Five generations turn Matapihi School into a tradition - BOP times] - I have been very honored to have been able to have tea with Nana Eilleen, who told me about the local area, iwi and some traditions. Staff (Leone and Ange) at Matapihi school were only too please to share with me about their kids and community that is Matapihi.
 * Local Maori: Nga reta timutimu iwi, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga, family names such as Ruanui, Bidois, Burrells, Maori council, Charlie tahirau
 * Strong belief in child's ability to learn, teacher connections with students, bi-lingual, tikanga, reo, marae, ngatai pukenga, Papamoa
 * What surprised me?
 * How settled, happy - a world away from Bayfair and the hustle bustle of the city, lovely settlement
 * What didn't surprised me?
 * What do I want to follow up on?
 * I have been invited back and will go back for more visits - to reciprocate the relationship, learn some more reo, some more tikanga, share my e-learning skills/ability in exchange
 * How will this impact on my practice?
 * Hopefully I'll be able to show more emphathy, understanding and know more about the kids and their whanau from this area, connect with kids when I go into schools, highlight the trends, be aware of the issues as well as strategies for empowering Māori to achieve as Māori. Be a role model for mainstream teachers and for the people around me after school hours.
 * What are the key challenges?
 * Keep the momentum, interest, inquiry going - keep asking questions, find connections, comparisons, aha moments
 * What were my ‘aha’ moments?
 * Something very special and magic when you start to ask questions, dig deeper, show an interest, very moving experience, open hearts, trusting, felt very humbled
 * What further questions do I have?
 * More research in relation to what works for Maori, equate this to my own actions, behaviors, attitudes.
 * Add any other notes or references you wish
 * Enjoyed the webinar on culturally responsive practice from Janelle - the following slides have implications for me in the work I do with teachers.





29th June 2012: Further investigation into local Māori: The Tauranga Moana tribes affirm their identity in the tribal saying:

Ko Mauao te Maunga Ko Tauranga te Moana Ko Ngati Ranginui Ko Ngai te Rangi Ko Ngati Pukenga nga Iwi ‘//Mauao is the mountain,// //Tauranga is the sea,// //Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Pūkenga// //are the tribes.'//
 * Tauranga Moana Maori Trust Board **[] and the history can be found [|HERE:]


 * Overriding: **
 * What are my beliefs around effective teacher professional development in schools?
 * This is starting to develop - with the help of research and support from Janelle Riki and her material on culturally responsive practice

May, 2013 Have met and worked with Tui Yeager (Tumuaki, Te Kura o Matapihi) to discuss current practice of engaging local whānu and Iwi with school programmes, celebrations. This year has been the [|100 year centennial celebrations]. This school has been proactive with archiving and capturing their development via e-tools. Great role-models for others.

June, 2013 Tui Yeager delivers a webinar for other teachers in the VLN on ways to engage with whānau. Regardless of the context of the webinars, karakia is an important part of the EEL webinar structure. Recordings from Anaru White help with this process while modelling the effective use of e-tools.
 * [|Engaging with whānau and the wider community - a kura perspective]: 19 June. [|Tui Yeager],Tumuaki of Te Kura o Matapihi shared her story about keeping whānau and iwi connected, informed and encouraged to participate, with school, both face to face and via digital technologies. This webinar is also supported by a blog post, [|WEBINAR 19 June, 2013: Engaging with whānau and the wider community - a kura perspective].

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When delivering Digital Citizenship workshop to the parents/whānau at Te Kura o Matapihi, I used my mihi and took an additional leap of faith to weave Te Reo throughout my presentation. Here's my mihi:

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Nov, 2013 The knowledge I've obtained throughout this engagement with Tui - makes me realise the potential for getting to know your local community, the parents, making yourself available, providing warm, welcoming atmosphere with mannerisms, koha, kai. How these effective processes are no different for Māori in kura or mainstream schools, however Kura have these practices embedded as part of tikanga, culture, language and identity throughout the whole community. How effective this is - in terms of parents being involved in the school, how engaged the students are when this happens between school and home. More te reo. Te kura o Matapihi have Wananga visit to teacher the local community Māori, I want to be part of this too. More reo, more understanding, more knowledge of learner needs, expectations for Māori. Making the commitment to do the Wananga course. The other great 'aha' learning from this process has been my interaction with Daphne Papuni (great friend and mentor) who has been able to grant me access to TMOA resources, transcripts and background stories in this field. I've since used and applied this knowledge elsewhere in my work on the VLN. (Threads to come) More research in relation to what works for Maori, equate this to my own actions, behaviours, attitudes. I have readings, I need to commit more time to these and feedback here.
 * What ideas are new to me?
 * What surprised me?
 * What didn't surprised me?
 * What do I want to follow up on?
 * How will this impact on my practice?
 * What are the key challenges?
 * What were my ‘aha’ moments?
 * What further questions do I have?
 * Add any other notes or references you wish:

Nov 2013: ** Recent reading: In search of culturally-inclusive curriculum, Angus MacFarlane, University of Waikato. ** Findings and reflections include: // Te ao hurihuri (knowledge and skills) in an educational system that has had many changing influences - including social and economic, the challenges remains for how teachers can provide an equitable education for all students from a variety of different cultural backgrounds. //
 * acceptance of diversity - non negotiable
 * multicultural education with bi-cultural understandings
 * clarification of this through principles values, KCs, learning areas and improved outcomes
 * importance of Treaty of Waitangi
 * protect taonga of language, knowledge, transmission of knowledge
 * recognition of Māori autonomy
 * position locates Māori and Pakeha at the centre but also includes migrant groups too
 * Te reo hugely important to this

Based on this reading, I wanted to unpack clarification of learning areas and improved outcomes, with an understanding of the importance the partnership between Pakeha and Māori (as well as other migrant cultures) - with an e-learning lens. When Manu invited us to think about e-learning with a culturally responsive lens, this was timely for me to jump in and add my own thoughts/ideas/resources. Here's the VLN thread on, [|Indigenous cultures and e-Learning]. Have reworked the material on eLPF, Registered Teacher Criteria and e-learning to include Culturally responsive practice. This shared [|Google Doc] has been created to try and align aspects from the Leadership, Teaching, Professional learning and Beyond the Classroom dimensions of the eLPF with a cultural responsive lens. EEL Community members have been invited to share their own ideas, goals, resources in this thread and Google doc also.

Overriding: Keeping a clear focus on ways to be culturally responsive, may in-turn aide teachers in the VLN and as well as locally - to help enable/empower/educate children from the local Iwi around Tauranga Moana to achieve educational success as Māori.

Where to from here: Focus for 2014: Learn more from Kathe Tawhiwhirangi and Trevor Bond on MSAM frameworks (Māori acheiving success as Māori). Carefully watch re-alignment between e-Learning Planning Framework and Te Rangitukutuku framework and weave these into my work online - webinars threads etc (possibly locally).

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