Tohatoha Online Staff Meeting

Manaiakalani facilitated a 'Tohatoha' online Shared staff Meeting with approx 500 teachers across the country. Our group was facilitated by Christine (Team leader for Year 7&8 - Glen Taylor School), she shared her rich experiences used within her class and team and extended to one of our Teacher PD incorporating Culturally Responsive practice. It wasn't just 'ethnicity' teaching but 'student-led' learning.

My Inquiry Plan 2019

This year, my professional inquiry focus was looking at the dynamics of DMIC and grasping
the concepts which are relevant for the teaching of this method to my students. In
retrospect, I have also been looking at how my teaching could lift the achievement levels
of students through a culturally responsive lens.

My questions leading into this inquiry were:
* Through the lenses of Tongan/Samoan and Cook Island languages/cultures how could
I increase my students learning levels within their maths understanding?

* How could I create learning tasks that were relevant and deeply embedded in the LCS

framework to inspire and share with others?

Reflecting over my mathematics programme and teaching for 2018, it seemed that I
needed to look more closely into the maths content knowledge in order to keep my
students engaged and on task.

While learning how to facilitate and teach a DMIC plan, I could see the students struggle
with number knowledge. This realisation occurred during independent or group tasks.

While reflecting on what could have improved within my teaching, I discovered that the
followup experiences should have reflected the WALT of the lesson in more detail and
could have been more hands on. I fell into the habit of reusing a lot of tasks and plans
of other teachers. These were tasks that were not specifically designed or reflected the
needs of my own students. This was a major factor in the disengagement of the students.

The follow-up tasks were more like time fillers instead of focusing tasks on specific needs
of the students.

My 5 priority learners are either an ESOL student or students who portray behavioural or
learning challenges.  I will endeavour to blog and gather data on their progress
throughout this year. I am hoping to improve their learning levels and see a positive
shift in how I plan and teach a diverse range of students.