Action Planning

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Things to think about

Write an Action Plan, listing your goals – and record what you need to do to achieve those goals.

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Transcript

Jane Brown - Te Reo Māori Advisor, UC Education Plus, University of Canterbury:
We want you to develop a goal, and my goal was to develop mine and my students’ confidence in learning and speaking te reo Māori. That was the goal that I wanted to take from here. Alright? And into the teaching as inquiry and put it on my action plan.

I broke it down a little bit more in the fact that I had to start with my own knowledge, what do I know? Where do I use te reo Māori? I also broke it down to my students ... my students’ knowledge: what do my students know? And where do they use te reo Māori?

And then I came down to the whānau, what do the whānau want me to teach and who may be able to help me teach this?

So, the evidence of need – what I've put in there is what is happening right now in my classroom. The children and I only speak Māori in te reo Māori lessons. Not usually anywhere else, not outside of the classroom. Just only in that session when I have te reo Māori.

We have one 30-minute lesson a week.

And I don’t know much, but I’m willing to give it a go. I have some resources I have used before and I can keep using. There are some resources around that I can use.

I have four Māori students in my class, and they have shared some of their knowledge, and some tamariki go to the marae for funeral and hui. That’s what I know about my tamariki so far.

My Māori parents, I’ve asked them what they’re wanting, and Māori parents have said that they don’t want their kids to be treated any differently. Alright? So that’s what’s happening in my class at the moment.

How will I get to my goal? I will use te reo Māori in all areas in the school – in the playground and the classroom. I have to be deliberate about that. I have to be conscious that when I’m out in the classroom, I’m going to use te reo Māori.

I’m going to use prompt cards – put them all around my classroom so that they’re good reminders for me and they’re good reminders for our tamariki. They’ll be things that we’re learning all the time and we’re practicing all the time.

I’m going to ask other teachers for any ideas or any other games that they might have as well. Any other resources.

And then from the ... we have one 30-minute lesson, I’m actually going to break that down. This term we’re going to have three ten-minute lessons. Why is that? Because the tamariki get to practice te reo three times a week instead of once a week. Ten-minute slots because it makes sure that I can actually slot those times in deliberately into my programme, and it’s not one big 30-minute session where I think, oh no how am I going to fill that in?

It’s actually going to be little steps and I’m going to be using little windows of opportunity three times a week instead of once a week. Okay?

I’m going to find out what PD is available, and I’m going to make sure that I go to that. And I’m going to actually ask or – well, not ask – I’m actually going to tell the principal or whoever’s in charge of PD ... that I need to go because that’s what I need to do for myself and for my tamariki in my classroom.

I’ll ask my Māori students individually, not all in front of the classroom, if they’re willing to help me, and if they’re willing to help the other tamariki to help with pronunciation and also share their experiences about what they’ve been involved in at the marae.

And to help with the parents not wanting their children to be treated any differently, we’re all learners and we’re all going to learn te reo Māori, including myself the teacher. So nobody’s being treated any differently, we’re all learners together.

And then who will be involved ... sharing ... how am I going to share this? I’m going to take my plan and I’m going to share it at the staff meeting and I’m going to ask other teachers if they want to join me. Because it can be a lonely place. And they may be feeling that over in their classroom, and they don’t realise that I’m passionate about it or I want to do something about it ... so join networks there.

So what I want you to do now – pick a goal that you would like to work on. It can be from that goal that you’ve chosen this morning from your group or it can be something else that you want to work on.

(Students participate in this activity):

Student 1:
One of the topics I want to do next term for the ten weeks maybe is Ngā mahi a rēhia, I’m sorry Ngā mahi a ngā tīpuna. So you can look at Ngā mahi i ngā wā o mua, ngā mahi o nāianei, tētahi tupuna rongonui, and then you can look at ngā mahi a te wā kei te heke mai.

Student 2:
‘Cause that’s level one, aye? Famous Māori youth, is that level 1?

Student 1:
So you could look at Sonny Bill, Te Kohi Tuhaka.

Student 2:
Someone who’s talking about hopes and aspirations, maybe Toi Te Kupu.

Student 3:
I really do want to make a link and have a strong link with us.

Student 4:
So maybe that could be a big thing for us ... to maybe establish contacts.

Student 5:
Start introducing activities that they could do to break down the barriers and develop their confidence. Then they’ll gradually introduce that in the classroom. Or do we do it a bit like what we’ve been doing on Mondays with the other curriculum, is give people different areas to go away and find resources on.

Student 6:
Well, I like the way they did it here today.

Student 7:
After morning tea we do silent reading and I’ve got out those songs from kapa haka, like two of the songs and I’ve got the music as well on my laptop ... so I thought after silent reading when I bring them down to the mat, that would be a perfect time to spend three minutes singing one of the songs. So, I’m going to do that ‘cause I think about it a lot, how could I fit this in but I just don’t ...

Student 8:
Or pack up five minutes early ... sing before you go home.

Student 7:
That’s a good idea, too. And it’s just having that stuff at hand to be able to go yeah I’m going to do that, even if it makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable initially, I’m going to do it.

Student 8:
Set it into a routine because kids pick those up really quickly, don’t they?

Student 4:
So maybe say like, okay we’re going to do the body this term and then we’re going to do colours or whatever. So maybe we start thinking of topics that are tikanga based ... let’s do the marae ... let’s do food or kai and what happens around kai prep and stuff like that rather than just always focussing on a topic like animals.

Student 3:
I was thinking before that the story of Tāne, god of the forest, well that would be perfect.

Student 9:
So you’ve got the unit standards during the year, and you hit them with the big thing at the end of term 3 is that they’re going to do a two-minute speech, hey guys that’s why we’re here.

At the end of term 1 you’ve got to do 45-second speech. At the end of term 2 you’ve got to do a minute and half, and by term 3 you can do a two-minute one. You know that’s not hard.

And I’d like to see family invited in ... this is just like a whakapiki, that last day ... family come in ... everybody watches as they perform. Which puts some pressure on but it also makes people bloody proud when they perform, on parents or kids side of the fence.