I reflect of this video because little did I know at this time, it was the last time I was going to have a class as a teacher...
During my sabbitcal in Guatemala in 2020, I won a posistion as a walking DP at Winchester School. Little did I know that I was going to start this job during a global pandemic... In 2021, I was going to attend a first aide course and little did I know we were going back into Alert Level 4 lockdown with the delta circulating Aotearoa New Zealand.
Little do we know what's coming around the corner!
#bepresent #liveinthenow
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Nau mai hoki mai to this Edu-Fuse space under the umbrella of Digits. Ko Nic Mason ahau. I intend to bring some of my connections and whakaaro (thinking) to digital kaupapa through an education lens. Nau mai hoki mai to Digits in 2021. We hope that you have had a great and restful summer with your families and loved ones. Tēnā koutou,
Nau mai hoki mai to this Edu-Fuse space under the umbrella of Digits. Ko Nic Mason ahau. I intend to bring some of my connections and whakaaro (thinking) to digital kaupapa through an education lens. The Girl Powered Robotics event held at Te Manawa on Tuesday. As you can see in the photos, being able to relate and communicate and collaborate across a series of tasks is so important! I spoke with Samaya and Tamara from Room 2 to get some more details” What was the coolest part about the day and why? Samaya: The robots because we got to drive them and play the game or complete the challenge. Tamara: Driving the robots we built because it was really fun and my team was really supportive when I was driving because we did it blind folded. They used good communication to support me. What was the most challenging for you and why? Samaya: The discussion was challenging for me because there were some new words about coding and robotics that I hadn’t heard of before so it was hard! Tamara: The most difficult part for me was building using the blocks I haven’t used before. They worked differently compared to what I’m used to. Also, working with other people I didn’t know was a bit hard because some of them didn’t let other people have a say. What I’m hearing here is that being digitally literate, showing flexibility in our thinking and using emotional intelligence to work together are 3 things that are really evident within this learning context. It made me reflect back to a report I read earlier in the year as part of my sabbatical called “Skills for 2030”(OECD, 2019). It states that “Social and emotional skills, such as empathy and respect for others, are becoming essential as classrooms and workplaces become more diverse.” As part of our values consultation, our whānau last night agreed that values such as Manaakitanga & Awhi (caring, sharing, respect) are the most important. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Ka mihi nui ki a koutou EduFuse by Nic Mason Tēnā koutou,
Nau mai hoki mai to this Edu-Fuse space under the umbrella of Digits. Ko Nic Mason ahau. I intend to bring some of my connections and whakaaro (thinking) to digital kaupapa through an education lens. I was recently working with Katrina Laurie from CoreEd. CoreEd is a world-class, professional learning and development organisation, providing a diverse range of innovative, inspiring, and creative solutions to support educators and learners. Their aim is to build an excellent tomorrow, by helping us transform education today. As part of our professional development day, we looked into one of the new technology curriculum strands “Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes” or DDDO or more simply 3DO. There are a few chrome extensions that you might like to explore using your chromebook. Have a look here: Chrome Extensions: QR code generator Chrome extension Generate QR codes to create scavenger hunts for your family. Stop Motion Chromebooks Create stop motion videos by clapping your hands to take a photo. Simple audio recorder Capture sound bites and save it straight onto your google drive. Good for practising speeches or recording a song. ScreenCastify Record your screen to your google drive. Create gaming videos or “how to videos” for your older whānau to follow! You can manage your chrome extensions using the puzzle icon found on the top right on your browser window. If you click on that icon a drop down window will appear where you can pin the extensions to stay visible on your window for easy ease. Ka mihi nui ki a koutou EduFuse by Nic Mason Tēnā koutou, Nau mai haere mai to this Edu-Fuse space under the umbrella of Digits. Ko Nic Mason ahau. I intend to bring some of my connections and whakaaro (thinking) to digital kaupapa through an education lens. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori took place from 14-20 September. The theme for the week is "Kia kaha te reo Māori – Let’s make the Māori language strong!" It’s a week that the beautiful language of Te Reo Māori is highlighted in the media and around Aotearoa. Let it be the start of your journey with the language, not just this week, but every day. Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) is a ministry funded website full of excellent resources for our kaiako (teachers) and here is the link for digital tools for teaching and learning te reo Māori: https://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Inclusive-classrooms/Te-reo-Maori-digital-tools Within this resource you can find links to websites and useful apps that you can use to upskill your reo proficiency. Living in this digital age, there are so many opportunities for akonga (learners) to have access to whatever learning you are interested in! So, let it be the start of your journey with te reo, not just this week, but every day. It's been quite interesting reflecting on planning school events with the current climate of Covid-19 Alert restrictions. The first time we entered Level 3 and 2 Alert levels, the answer to a lot of our plans were “cancel it”. So we cancelled this and that - hours and hours of time spent planning was for nothing as everything was cancelled “due to Covid-19”... One example of looking through a more innovative lens, was to re-imagine what an Assembly might look like without the literal assembly of people. We turned the school office into a T.V. studio and broadcast our assemblies to classes and the community via Zoom. We called it an “Azoombly”. To get an idea of what this looked like, you can view it here. All of this brings into the fore 21st century skills such as un-learning and re-learning with creativity and dispositions that come with it. As we all know, the world is an ever changing landscape and what worked for “us” yesterday won’t necessarily be able to work for the “us” of tomorrow. Ka mihi nui ki a koutou EduFuse by Nic Mason
Tēnā koutou, I am sharing our school's journey in learning, creating, understanding and embedding culturally enhancing practices within our school.
Kia Ora, ko Nic Mason ahau, and I am the Kaitiriwā Tumuaki (deputy principal) at Winchester School in Palmerston North. If you have read any of my other posts, you may be aware of my interest in developing wrapping te ao Māori around school learning contexts, weaving it together for the benefit of our Māori learners and their whānau. But I am no expert. I am a learner alongside our venture. I write this after the second staff meeting that Bede Gilmore (tumuaki) and myself planned and delivered to our classroom teaching staff. We are a part of Te Oro Karaka, Kāhui Ako which is focusing their strategic planning and implementation on Culturally Responsive and Relational Pedagogy. It may be just a little journal, capturing the journey for me as I endeveour in co-leading this. If you are new to Winchester, may this be a seed to plant so that we may nurture and grow this idea for the benefit of our tamariki and our community.
Dr Ann Milne’s Colouring in the White Spaces speech didn’t disappoint. Sending shivers up and down my spine with every bold, unapologetic statement about the white spaces that exist within our school systems. White spaces are the spaces that exist within a school setting that we blindly follow that only serve one singular epistemology.
We asked our teaching staff to critique our spaces at Winchester School. What are they? Where are they? Why might they exist? It was also a time where we could celebrate and confirm what we are doing well - and there is much to celebrate! But with this critique we identified what some of our gaps might be? It was pretty confronting to bare our opinions, beliefs, values held up for all to see! If nothing else, we were trying to communicate our why. Why are we even focusing on this? Why is it important? Why should we spend time and energy on this? We concluded with the video 10 Ways to teach me by Brigham Riwai-Couch. And if you have't seen this yet, make sure you do!
The next time we met we used a range of readings including The Effective Teacher Profile (EFT) by Russell Bishop and The Hikairo Schema by Angus McFarlane to pull apart each principle from the ETP: Whanaungatanga, Kotahitanga, Ako, Kaupapa, Wānanga and Whakapapa - what do these look like? Sound like? Feel like? Within a classroom setting? Then we constructed some deliberate acts so that we can make these things happen for our tamariki. These deliberate acts became the foundation of our teacher Poutama we are creating.
In between these Staff Meetings, Hine Waitere our PLD facilitator for our Kāhui Ako led us through 6 Wānanga style workshops unpacking each concept. We were able to bring 6 of our teachers along to a workshop. I asked them to consider a "something significant" (a quote, an image or a movie) from their day that was a significant learning moment for them and add it to the slide.
We had a great session where we modelled wānanga and dialogic conversations. Some powerful conversations were captured! Term 3 was a great term for absorbing new learning and now it's about making small strategic changes that align with this new kaupapa. We are in the process of consultation work with our whānau around what we value. We have secured Veronica Tawhai to open 2021 with Te Tiriti implications for a 2-day workshop. I can't wait to tackle 2021. #bringiton
Tēnā kouotu,
I've recently noticed that I have had a "have to" mindset... "Oh, I have to do this..." "Oh, I have to do that..." "I have to go to this PD course..." "I have to deal with this behaviour..." "I have to lead this meeting..." Sound familiar? I'm wondering if the share volume of new tasks, systems and ideas are flooding my mind in this new job?? And as a result, I am a little overwhelmed. A trip to Wellington to attend a maths PD workshop with our leadership crew, we discussed the difference between a "I have to" mindset and a "I get to" mindset. A small change in my mindset has really helped me to keep positive. "Oh, I get to do this..." "Oh, I get to do that..." "I get to go to this PD course..." "I get to deal with this behaviour..." "I get to lead this meeting..." What a difference. If you try it, let me know how you get on. Formal vs Informal learning
I get to set up an informal DP network and join a formal DP network.
Which do you prefer? Formal? Or informal? As a leader / learner / teacher / follower? When do you get to do your best thinking? When you are nice and calm? Or when the pressure is on? When it is taught? Or discovered on your own? I think it's important to acknowledge the value of developing within all of the above settings. I don't know if I have a preference - I've been immersed in all 4 within a week and feeling fulfilled and motivated to lean in to achieve my next goals. For our informal network, we created a group from a range of schools, deciles, Kāhui and regions within Manawatū and met a local pub, ordered food and drinks and had an awesome, fluid and dynamic kōrero about all things "on top" for us in our new roles. It validated the business of my new job, how important it is to be ready at the drop of a hat to engage in the past, in the present and in the future, sometimes all within a mere 5 minutes. It's crazy. But I get to lean in to my feelings and stretch my skills.
At the same time, it's quite pleasant to be led and stretched from an expert within a formal setting. I got to join a DP network to explore and extend our leadership. We used the tool "Sentence, Phrase, Word" to focus our readings this week and to explain why we chose this particular sentence, phrase or word. I used a combination of the above video by Simon Sinek and HOW YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE AFFECTS THOSE AROUND YOU -Leaders bring the weather - how your mood affects those around you at work by Christine Kininmonth / 21st November 2019:
Sentence: "Weather is the Leader's Profile in action - the way we show up to people" I loved this idea. Because leadership is a choice. Like my mindset change, it's a choice to think "I have to" or "I get to"... so true is this when we show up to people, we always have a choice how we show up. This has caused me to reflect on my body language, my tone, perhaps subconsciously sighing... Phrase: "Cortisol creates paranoia" Wow. How many times throughout my life have I been guilty of walking away from a situation I didn't quite understand and made a story up to protect myself? Reading this felt so familiar but from a distant memory. All of those conflicts from classmates and workmates, friends and partners, it was quite crazy to think that humans naturally make up stories that square issues away to protect themselves. It makes me wonder what habits have I formed as a result of this. I wonder how I might lean in to these stories and check for future reference. Word: "Sacrifice" Muhammad Ali said "What you are thinking about, you are becoming." I have made the choice that I want to pursue a career in leadership. I get to pursue it! But with that comes sacrifice to look after the person next me. Hierarchy vs networked leadership
What does leadership look like in your school?
We explored the notion of changing from a hierarchy leadership model (left) towards a networked leadership (right) from Nick Rate's blog (and also my ex-principal!).
As a learner, I was excited about operating within a networked leadership model. And it connected with the ideas from the earlier videos and readings. Anyone can be a leader or 'leaderful'. For Russell Street School, this meant that teachers were more empowered to make decisions over the learning outcomes of the students they taught (or were in care of). Know Thy Impact! As collaborative teaching and planning teams, we were able to exercise our agency to organise ourselves in ways that met the needs of our learners. We could be responsive to PD we needed and organised a facilitator or a school visit. Carol used an example of building the tallest lego tower in 3 minutes. It was fascinating how we approached this task. No-one took a photo as it wasn't the prettiest lego tower but unpacking how leadership showed up afterwards was amazing.
I went to a leadership workshop in Christchurch during the 2019 well-being conference and I was introduced to the idea that a constant flow between hierarchy and network is the key. Below are my scruffy notes using Google Draw. Leaders can cycle in and out of each domain as we plough towards our visions.
My reflection - what shifts do I need to make towards building a networked model at WS? How will I know we are ready to move towards a networked model? Observe how leadership shows up at WS?
Tēnā koutou,
This week signals the Māori new year in Aotearoa, New Zealand - Matariki. Alas, it is the third morning I have been up this week to watch Matariki rising but it has been too cloudy! Manawatū - I still love you! I was first introduced to Matariki when I first started working as a beginning teacher at Coley Street School. Maurice Rehu lead us through creating a day where the whole school community came together to celebrate things Māori - play games, spend time with each other and eat kai. Maurice used half a term to train our Kapa Haka to lead activities with the rest of our school. With my new learning nested in my kete, I took my understanding of Matariki to my new school, Russell Street School. And for 10 years there, Rosie Parker and I explored many different ways that we could celebrate Matariki as a community - wananga days, performances, hangi, soup etc. Initially, my understanding was that there were 7 stars of Matariki. You may have heard of "The 7 Sisters" or "Pleiades"... however, the most accurate kōrero for Māori is Te Iwa o Matariki - the nine stars of Matariki. In 2017, a mate of mine posted that he was going to see a Dr Rangi Matamua up at Massey. I was sitting on the couch and was obviously too late to book a ticket so I did what any digital native (or in my case, digital immigrant) would do... I did a quick google search on the name. An hour long video came up and I clicked on it thinking, "flip, an hour? I'm never gonna watch all that!" An hour later, I was still on the couch feeling ecstatic. My mind was blown! I was inspired and I couldn't wait to share my new learning. However, on the other hand I also felt embarrassed because the books and stories I had been telling the students in my class and the teachers in my school were based on a Pākehā world view. And this is always the case that we teach "knowledge" to our students but seldom we consider whose knowledge we are teaching, which is scary. The first thing I did was delete a 7 Sisters of Matariki youtube video from my youtube channel. Check out this video explaining Te Iwi o Matariki by Te Wananga o Aotearoa.
Like the video, all good stories have a back story. This has been my journey so far.
And now, as Kaitirwā Tumuaki (deputy principal) of a new school I am wondering how I might impart my knowledge within this new space? As a leader, how do I impart knowledge for our teachers? I feel quite frightened by this seemingly new process. Because as a classroom teacher, I would just do it: provide some inspiration, initiate a class discussion, spark some imagination to demonstrate learning and then step back and observe to provide feedback and feed forward for my learners. This learning cycle seems very easy and familiar to me when working with learners in the same space for six hours a day... how do leaders get the same level of involvement, engagement or accelerated progress at a 2 hour staff meeting once a fortnight? How do leaders transfer their learning in such a way that they empower teac-hers to provide opportunities for our tamariki? How do leaders prevent teachers from just going back to their classrooms and doing the same thing they have always done? Grace Hopper's famous quote, “The most dangerous phrase in the language is: We’ve always done it this way.“, raises the question “Are we doing this because we always have, or because it’s the right thing to do?“ I have digressed from the purpose of my post, but I am glad I have because this has caused me to think. I have some questions that I am going to let simmer for a while. And also in a way, it has helped me to circle back to my purpose... leading through a Māori lens. I want to acknowledge each star within the Matariki cluster and consider ways in which I can position myself as a leader within each using the information from https://www.twoa.ac.nz/hononga-stay-connected/te-iwa-o-matariki MatarikiReflection: I feel so grateful for the year that has passed.
Environment:
PōhutukawaWaitī
WaitāWaipuna-ā-Rangi, Ururangi
Waipuna-ā-Rangi is connected with the rain. Ururangi is the star connected with the winds.
Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi
Tupuānuku is the star connected with everything that grows within the soil to be harvested or gathered for food. Tupuārangi is connected with everything that grows up in the trees: fruits, berries and birds.
Hiwa-i-te-Rangi
Wayfinding Leardership
My initial thoughts to somehow connect each star to a personal aspect of my life left me a little spars, especially with using knowledge of the waters, the rains and wind... I needed to read a little further so I extended search on the internet to discover this article. Man, did this speak to me? Check out the video where Dr Chellie Spiller explains further. As a descendant of Hoturoa, the great high priest who navigated the Tainui Waka to Aotearoa combined with my Swedish Viking roots, I related strongly with the concepts of this. I have discovered my inner Wayfinder because this is me, this is within my DNA.
If you are still with me, I thank you for sticking around this long... I have set out to post about one thing, and discovered another. All the best with the up and coming term. Ngā mihi nui Nic Kia Ora e te whānau, I am 2 months into a new job; a new school, a new position, new people, new names, new vision and new challenges. I am blinded by all the new. The road has been quite rocky but I don't think any challenging road is meant to be easy. But as I sit here and reflect on the journey, I feel content that the haze is evaporating, I can just make out some land in the distance and I am gaining more clarity of what I must do. Let me describe to you the rocky road. Sabbatical It all started off with unicorns and rainbows... I won a sabbatical in 2019 to use in Term 1 2020. This was all part of my plan to delve into indigenous education, travel with my family through Guatemala, read culturally responsive literature from Aotearoa and compare findings with indigenous schools in Guatemala. I threaded through the element of Learner Agency, something I am hugely passionate about - what does Learner Agency look like through a Māori lens? And how might schools operate to achieve better outcomes for our Māori learners? What an enriching experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing process and exploring my ideas and connecting it to my own personal experience, the research I had read, and to the current educational challenges my role as an AST for the Palmerston North East Kāhui Ako required. It is almost complete, as I am just allowing it to sit and simmer until I am ready to tie up the summary and make some recommendations. You can read it here. Please feel free to add any thoughts to my thinking in the comments below. During my sabbatical, I was travelling through Antigua, Guatemala when I received the email from the Education Gazette with a Deputy Principal position at Winchester School in Palmerston North. I was in a space to begin the process of applying; updating my C.V., preparing an application pack, talking to referees and my family to see if this was the right move. I created and hosted my own Zoom meeting for my interview managing time differences and just to give you a bit of context, here is an image of the location I was in for the interview. Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala! I won the job! But this is also when the rocky road began. Level 3 Pandemic To cut a long story short. We got locked inside Guatemala on the day we were meant to be leaving due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. The Guatemalan government closed the borders - no flights in and no flights out of the country. They also put restrictions on the number of people allowed to travel in private cars to no more than 3. So we (my family of 4, plus my mum, uncle and mother n'law) had a tumultuous transition through Guatemala and Mexico to try and make our flight from Houston to Aotearoa / New Zealand. We arrived home 18 hours before the nation wide Level 4 lockdown and went into self isolation with everyone else. During this time I was able to synthesise all of my readings and notes and observations from my sabbatical and write it all up before I started my new job. This was quite difficult managing as the plan was for the kids to go back to school while I had uninterrupted days writing everything up. On the 28th of April, I began my role as the Deputy Principal at Winchester School. The country had just moved out of Level 4 lockdown and into Level 3 where we opened up the school for families of essential workers. We were operating 3 bubbles with 3 teachers plus 6-8 children. My new principal had just been appointed the new co-leader of the Kāhui Ako "Te Oro Karaka", was training up a new office manager, a pay role officer, a new deputy principal, the AP/SENCO was on refreshment leave so all Teacher Aide timetables and organisation were all jobs for him to do. All the while, managing and leading his staff and community through a global pandemic. I take my hat off to him. Little did I know how sweet Level 3 life was. I had two weeks of deep uninterrupted conversations with my principal about everything. I feel so lucky to have had this time. Our three bubble teachers did an outstanding job! I think it must have been so hard to only teach 7 kids for a whole day with all the restrictions of doing normal things e.g. sharing equipment, art, playing on the playground. There was also the fact that to minimise crossing bubbles, teachers taught siblings within the same bubbles of different ages and stages and all of the problems that sometimes comes with teaching siblings... During Level 2 I was finally allowed to enter Russell Street School to collect my belongings. Which I did on a Sunday afternoon. I Filled my boot with books and art folders and photos and cards had given me over the years and left... alone. What a way to finish 10 years of blood, sweat and tears? It was quite a surreal experience. Definitely not the farewell I had ever pictured. Having been away from Russell Street for 4 months, it was so weird to walk around. To not have a proper farewell or a proper welcome, was a bizarre place to be in. Also, during Level 2, schools were able to open up to the community and we all began to get back to a bit of normality... or new normal which everyone seems to be talking about. I got to know the kids and parents slowly but we still weren't allowed full school assemblies or powhiri. Finally Level 1 came along and we were able to set the date for a farewell for me at Russell Street, a welcoming "mihi whakatau" at Winchester and another farewell high tea for the previous Deputy Principal at Winchester who had retired after 31 years. Coaching, Farewells and legacies After what seems like floating in the Covid dream clouds of travel, sabbatical writing, distance learning, bubble operation I had my first 1:1 coaching time with my leadership coach. I am lucky that I have been working with her for 5 years now, and she has been helping me to grow as a leader for that time. But it was a massive step up. Or was it a step sideways? Or backwards? In any case, this was the conversation that popped my balloon! I had been expecting but dreading to happen: why am I here? What's my purpose? What do I want to achieve? How am I going to lead? The conversation was a good shake up for me. As I was still blinded by the new. A week later, I was farewelled from Russell Street with an emotional-filled poroporoaki (farewell). My principal opened with a speech about the legacy that I will leave at Russell Street and he communicated these as 3 things: 1. Disobediance 2. Creativity 3. Relationships Disobedience No. This does not mean I am naughty nor disrespectful. The disobedience which he spoke of is from the book by Welby Ings, "Disobedient Teaching". Ings encourages teachers to not take things, systems, status quo for granted. Question everything. The ideas from this book spoke to me so much because of my upbringing and experiences. And Russell Street encouraged me to explore this as a teacher, as a leader and as a colleague during my 10 year career there. When our vision re-branded as innovation I was on a roll. For me, innovation is the essence of disobedience and vice versa. Creativity One of the best things about growth is self-discovery. I am not black and white. I am grey. I live and operate within all of the shades of my thinking and decision making. Learning to make a difference in the things that make me different is my personal driver. And creativity is nested right within this. Creativity isn't about just being creative and making creative things. Creativity is a state of mind, it's the way we think and approach problems. Relationships The success of my influence lies in the relationships I develop with others. I am will ing to bet that I was only able to achieve the above legacy through the relationships I formed with others. Being disobedient and creativity are nothing without connections with our environment and with other people: students, whānau, colleagues, community, iwi, Kāhui Ako or Twitter PLNs etc. If writing floats on a sea of talk, then learning floats on a sea of meaningful relationships. On the same day, I attended the farewell for the person who I was replacing as she was retiring. Her legacy was more than 30 years! It was staggering to hear and see her legacy as staff and community came together to tell stories of what she helped to build. I couldn't help but feel very insecure. Her strengths and accomplishments were completely opposite to my strengths. Was I supposed to be a duplicate or a replica of this legacy? My head began to swim... what have I gotten myself into? My way? Your way? Or a new way?
So what I am finding is that I am viewing all this "new" through 10 years of knowledge of how we do things. I feel exhausted because I am constantly scrutinising every piece of the puzzle. Is this the right way? Is it the wrong way? Is it the wrong way around? Upside-down? Is this piece from a completely seperate puzzle? Mana potential / Mana enhancement One thing that I have learnt and consolidated during my sabbatical is that and appreciative approach is the key. Research states that if we keep looking for deficit, we keep finding it. In terms of things Māori, the key principle of mana enhancement is appreciative - what are we doing well? What are our strengths? And let's build on them. "Te Ara Whakamana: Mana Enhancement is a circular framework that uses colour, imagery, narrative and cultural metaphors as powerful tools to connect individuals to their Mana, their sources of strength, and their world. It is a tool that develops rapport, a fundamental requirement for positive communication." So let's weave the best of our strengths, knowledge, disobedience, creativity and relationships and path our new way through Mana enhancement. |
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