Task-Based Teaching & Learning

Today is the first day I have started using a different teaching approach (task-based teaching and learning) using a different resource. I used a resource pack that I had purchased from Jannie van Hees who is our English language specialist here at my school. Before using the pack, I sat in one of her ELL…

He Puna Rautaki e Kore e Mimiti

Ako Panuku Workshop | Friday 20 May 2022 Click here for a more detailed description of the workshop. I went to a one-day workshop in Hamilton, which was run by Rauhina Cooper at the University of Waikato. There was a lot to take in today. Rauhina covered an array of second language teaching strategies for teaching grammar…

Te Reo Matatini

Accord Teacher Only Day | Monday 16 May 2022 As a Co-joined Department (Māori and English) we discussed the following…. Upcoming Changes to NCEA and Literacy  Questions explored: What are the changes to NCEA? What are the changes to literacy? What are the big ideas in the literacy learning matrix? What do they entail? What are…

A Lesson from the Stars

Click here for the Matariki celebrations at Tāmaki College. The stars have enabled our ancestors to traverse the largest expanse of ocean on the planet to arrive here in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Before the Gregorian calendar, the stars were our time-keeping system that guided our ancestors’ day-to-day, month-to-month, season-to-season, and year-to-year activities. When to plant,…

Ka Kūkū te Kererū

Ako Inquiry 1 – Term 1, 2021 Ka koekoe te tūī, ka ketekete te kākā, ka kūkū te kererū Whakataukī The tūī bird squawks, the kākā bird chatters, and the kererū bird coos. I used this whakataukī or ancestral proverb to drive home the key understanding acquired from my first Ako Inquiry, and that is,…

Haramai tētahi toki!

Otāhuhu College Observation | Wednesday 16 June 2021 The title is an adaptation of the phrase ‘Haramai te toki,’ which is part of a longer phrase that normally wraps up a traditional karakia (incantation or prayer) to signal group agreeance and unity. I have adapted this phrase to reference the northern idiom of ‘Haramai tētahi…