Pepeha Art

Part of Room 21's learning this term has been doing their own Pepeha - a Maori way of introducing ourselves. It also tells a story of people and places each student is connected to. This is all connected in context to Taha Whanau, as part of our Te Whare Tapa Wha learning. 

Everyone has a pepeha which links them to their ancestors. It's like a story that connects you to your waka, your hapū and iwi. It identifies important places like your maunga, awa and marae. 

Our Art process was to draw our awa and maunga, and to integrate the words of our whanau, awa, maunga, name, cultures and home into our drawing.

Students were able to discuss the art process of mixed media and materials and textures, and also lines, shapes, form and patterns.

Collecting Assessment data

 Love or hate them, assessments for every student is a necessity every term.  

One of the toughest, yet most rewarding, tasks to do in a very busy classroom, is doing assessments of all students' learning. Tough, because I have to find the time in each day to test for each students whenever I can. And rewarding because you see the learning growth of each students after your teaching and their hard work. 

I especially love seeing the look on some students faces when I tell them that they have gone up a level and the totally satisfying feeling is when the students retain what you have been teaching them all term coming to fruition. 

We test each student one-on-one at least once per term for reading and maths, and as a whole class for writing. We also get to see the strategies students use with maths and the ways they decode when the are reading. 

One thing is for sure though - every single student is unique and they all learn at their own pace and time.

Running Record testing

JAM testing

Covid-19 lockdown return- take 2!!

School were reopened again this week, after another lockdown in Auckland. Our return was effectively under Covid-Alert Level 2.5 in Auckland.

With South Auckland, and in particular Mangere being the hub of the latest outbreak of COVID-19, many parents were anxious to send their kids back to school. 

Anxiety is high across the community as cases are still active in the community and wider Tamaki Makaurau area. My whanau were also anxious with me going back to school, with an unknown amount of students returning, and social distancing being closer in a confined classroom. Masks were not compulsory, but I wore one for the first day and a few students also chose to wear them. I have to be honest, I was quite anxious and felt that we should have waited another week at least before going back.  

 

Social distancing rules, hygiene and overall safety has been my main focus in the classroom and wider school community. Only half of my class returned during the first week back, and this helped with good desk spacing and easier to keep students away from each other. Well. this is easier said than done, as all the students were happy to see each other again and wanted to play games, eat together and hug each other. 
But, the learning must go on and all the students were excited to be back and doing some school work. My goal was to ease their anxiety, making them feel safe back at school and having lots of fun activities to do. 
Well, I think I achieved all of these and had lots of fun myself - it's so good to be back in my classroom!!!