Te Awamutu Intermediate - TAI Karakia

Ngaa Karikia o te Kura

MPA sent the following information in regards to Karakia that will be used at Te Awamutu Intermediate. There was a general consensus that previous Karakia didn't embody the culture/spirit of the school.

I will have to double check the expectations around the use of these Karakia. 

I am familiar with Karakia Timatanga :-) 

Teacher Only Day - Te Awamutu Intermediate

Staff Briefing:
We began in the staff room, given a bunch of different handouts for a range of curriculum areas, a yearly planner and the agenda for the day. There are so many classroom things that do not affect me as the Fabrics teacher however, it's always good to know what's going on across the school
I will have further induction next week, along with other new staff members.

We all jumped on the bus and went to the Te Awamutu Museum where the lovely staff gave us an overview of the different types of educational programmes they provide. We also looked at some a range of historical apparatus/animal parts etc. that they allow students to touch - with special gloves on of course!

We then had the pleasure of being taken on a tour of sites around the Waipa that shaped the district. Most of the incidents described were to do with Maori land confiscation and Maori land wars.

These are all the notes I took as Chuck took us to a number of different historical sites.

Morgan - missionary who have the government info about Māori movement supporting Taranaki.
Morgan taught local Māori animal husbandry, farming techniques and introduced technology. He bright numerous seeds etc and this area had loads of fruit trees.
His dog carried a little bag that had clover seeds in it. He sewed clover all over the place!

Catholics had an influence in the area: Rangiaowhia urupa

Finance minister set up a company to buy land off soldiers, sometimes just for a bottle of whisky. Huge profits were made.

After a particularly nasty attack on local Māori, the wife of a pakeha officer - Rahapa - wrote to Grey about the way soldiers looted her house. She did not mention any of the despicable behaviour of some of the soldiers towards the Māori women and children.

1854
The church timber was milled locally. Pitch-sawn timber. Thomas Power was behind this church being built by Māori labour.

Rangiaowhia: karakia was part of daily life. Produce was a massive industry and a lot was shipped to Auckland. 35 hectares of wheat. £330 profit from sales of produce

The declaration of independence was signed in 1835 this led to the treaty

Wakefield created the NZ Company to 'advertise' living in New Zealand. Land packages etc

1860s
Soldiers moved South and were threatening war on local Māori. They were told If you cross the Rangiriri part of the river you are declaring war. Which they promptly did. (I was unsure if he said the Rangriri as he spoke rather quickly!)

Rewi Maniapoto - Rangatira. Was in a fortified pa and refused to give up when they were surrounded by troops. Escaped with women and children surrounded by the men. Under fire and pursued by troops.
Governor Grey erected a monument in his memory - while he was still alive

Matakitaki: a site where Nga puhi came and killed many thousands. Nga puhi established themselves here and used this as their base to hunt  thoise that had offended them further north. Because they settled in the area, there were a number of relationships/marriages formed with the local iwi. This put an end to any type of conflict with locals because they essentially became kin.

I've never heard of a Redoubt before today. We visited a couple of sites and this one in particular was still as it was when in use - despite a wee church having been taken away. Chuck described the ins and outs and we got a good view of Pirongia from every side.

Colonial soldiers were given 1 acre of land after a certain amount of service and officers were given 40 acres. Often this land was abandoned or sold for a bottle of whisky because it was inaccessible - no roads - and not the best soil to grow crops.

Although I won't be a regular classroom teacher, the knowledge I have gained about the local iwi and historical events in the Waipa is invaluable. I love knowing more of New Zealand's history and how certain events shaped the way we are today.
This was a fantastic day where I was also able to connect with new colleagues :-) 

Teacher Only Day - Te Awamutu Intermediate

Te Awamutu Intermediate TOD – Using Technology Better

Lara Kirk & Clement Lind - https://usingtechnologybetter.com/

lara@usingtechnologybetter.com

clement@usingtechnologybetter.com

Increased confidence and competence delivering the Digital Technologies curriculum in meaningful engaging ways.

Lara began by discussing what Google Suites is and what we will be doing today – I’m fairly confident of my ability with using a range of Google apps with students. We were then asked to go to utb.fyi/teawa2020 and this is the page that popped up:

e-learning: Using tools that have already been created. Learning with technology
Digital Technology: Being a creator in the digital world. Learning about technology

Our task is to create a game using Scratch and “maKey maKey” to encourage fitness

Decomposition: breaking it down                                                                                                            

Pattern recognition: the most important way to outline what is needed – we did this to create a word cloud and by inputting all the key words that we thought were important to creating a game.

Abstraction: leave things out that aren’t important

Algorithm: Figuring out the objectives of your game

Reflecting throughout this process will enable you and students to refine games that you create

We had a go using the Makey Makey tool by connecting to a laptop and putting the crocodile clips into playdough as our ‘buttons’. We took a little time to figure out exactly how to get it going – having an earth element to close the circuit was what we needed! We tried it to different ways firstly, by everyone playing and tapping/touching the person who was ‘earth’. Secondly, we took turns being ‘earth’ and playing the game solo. Turned into a competition to collect the most jewels 😊

After morning tea I chose to go to the more complex PD about Micro:bit

Encouraging children to “think like designers and engineers”

Ziplock bags are great to protect the micro:bit when using outside.

Programming platform is Makecode

Began by looking through tutorials and giving different things a try. Started by creating a heart that remained on the LEDs on the microbit. Then gave the paper, scissors, rock a go. This was a little more complicated, however the tutorial was an awesome guide. I can now play paper, scissors, rock with someone by shaking the microbit – a different symbol will show up.

Where to from here: create different images to represent paper, scissors, rock or add new ones! Refine the coding by adding a pause so that the symbol shows up after a slight pause, as it does show up very quickly.

There is a great tutorial book that has many ideas to lead teachers and students through the basics towards more complex

    

Complications arising are great teachable moments. Things to check are that the batteries are working, components are connected correctly and if that fails go back to the beginning - disconnect everything and start again!

Microbit or Makey Makey
We were directed to another utb.fyi/ link and made a copy of the Venn diagram below, to then fill and discuss our answers. i realised as we went over the answers that I had placed answers into the opposite of where they were supposed to be. My solution, rather than starting again, I changed the title and the swapped the pictures over!

                  

1:15 – 2:45 – G Suite intermediate/advanced
Why G Suite – these are the tools that are available for us to use with our school Gmail. This software is available no matter what device you use as long as there is internet access. This is cloud and desktop tools combined.

Chrome is a window to the internet.

Bookmarking; Drive; Shared with me; Settings; Google Forms – Google forms were new to me, although I have answered questions on Forms before I have never created one.

2:45 – 3:15 – Wrap up

PLJ Blog Change

I decided to start a completely new Professional Learning Journal Blog – rather than change the format of the current one I use.

I start at Te Awamutu Intermediate this year and have the privilege of teaching Soft Materials/Fabric full time. My start to the year is a little different because the current Soft Materials teacher isn't finishing until the end of term one. The school has taken me on and I will be floating around in tech arts, supporting classes that have large numbers, and using downtime to prepare to take classes. I actually feel incredibly fortunate that the leadership team took my concerns on board and have been flexible in giving me a position for 2020.

I'm really looking forward to learning more about the school culture and building relationships with new colleagues and students.