My new learning journey

Thinking about learning dispositions; resilience, interest/involvement and reciprocity, how do they impact on the learning and engagement of students?   Two students' experiences and engagement was discussed in this article.  One student was presented as not being able to fully engage in learning tasks due to time constraints and the way that their day was structured.  This included the type of activities, who was present and physically the way the students were working (in a room inside with a select group).  The early childhood and school experiences seemed similar (how coincidental was this as the early childhood centre and the school were 800km away from each other). The second student's experiences seemed to be more conducive to him being engaged in the task,  He was allowed as much time as he needed and he was allowed to do things that were different to what was set, as long as the activities he chose were similar (ie writing about boats rather tha...

Medical model: From Independent Living and the Medical Model of Disability by Simon Brisenden (1986) disabled people's opinions not generally considered as valid as the opinion of medical 'experts' have to get to the real person inside the disability, not the disabled, but disabled people or people with disabilities, using the term 'the disabled' depersonalises and denies their right to be seen as unique, the terms 'the disabled',  'spina bifida', 'tetraplegic', 'muscular dystrophy', - terminology that throws away all the important things about disabled people (p2), mistaken belief that by asking questions about the nature of a person's disability then you can learn about their life - this assumes that the person is defined by their disability.  In reality, this way of educating med students helps to foster an image which is negative and disabling in itself, and all under the guise of an objective scientific enquiry. (p 3)...

"Every person, whatever the level of his academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country, has the right, as a citizen, to a free education of a kind for which he is best suited and to the fullest extent of his powers."    ("1948, Clarence Beeby: Father of modern education", 2020) I have always felt this quote (despite the archaic language) sums up inclusive education as I think of it.  It covers all locations and talks about how suited everyone is and invites all to be educated in a way that suits them. What is inclusive education to me?  Everyone is included and the education is tailored to meet everyone's needs.  Needs is a broad term that includes physical health and mental health, to name two that I can think of at the moment.  Where do you actually start?  I'm hoping that readings will help to narrow things down and crystallise thoughts.

There is a moment in  Joseph Masiello's video when he talks about how in his class everyone was just like him, caucasian.  I have memories of my class in school being very european too and I was actually surprised when I went back and looked at my school photos and saw that there were actually more māori students than the two I remembered.  I recall when we gave one of our classmates the nickname 'burnt toast' completely due to his skin colour.  I recall having no idea at the time that this was a terrible thing to do.  We shortened it to toast and he was known as Toast from then on.  A few years ago I heard a story of him introducing himself to someone as Toast and I think he has it in brackets after his name on his Facebook page.  This was the 70s and I was growing up in my own little bubble.  I recently told my young, new choir director the story of how when I was growing up we had a black cat called Mandy but we called her Nig.  I had no ...

Zion (2005) quotes Delpit (1995) "As Lisa Delpit has said, our schools are teaching “other people’s children” and they are unprepared for the complexities of the task" (p.2).  This is an a-ha moment for me.  Yes, we are teaching 'other people's children' and we are totally unprepared.  I had a meeting with a young teacher yesterday who is struggling with one of her NE students.  I have had an email from her principal and have had further contact with her as the teacher left the meeting feeling really overwhelmed and maybe a bit 'got at'.  This is really good learning for me as I didn't fully appreciate just how bad the teacher was feeling.  The principal suggested that I ascertain how she felt towards the end of the meeting.  This is a good point and I will endeavour to do that.  Here is what I am reflecting on: My lack of experience with 5 year olds, My lack of experience of knowing how severe is severe behaviour, Forgetting how it is to be ...

What is Te Ao Māori? The Māori world-view” or “Māori perceptions and experiences of the world" Here are some words and concepts gleaned from Henare (1988) Nga Tikanga me Nga Ritenga o te Ao Māori: Ngā Paiaka o Te Māoritanga - The Roots of Māoritanga:  the land and people covenant has formed as a source of identity for the tangata whenua, the people that are of the land and indeed are the land (p8) The whenua is the nourisher of Māori people, reflected in the use of 'whenua' for placenta, and in the custom of returning the placenta to the land (p8).  They have then included a paragraph from Tikao 1921, in Mead 1984b:222 which explains the reason for returning the whenua (placenta) to the whenua (earth) rather than burning it as Pakeha did.  They believed it was against the mana of the child and would destroy its mauri (life-force).  It must have been horrific for the pakeha to burn the placenta and thus destroy the child's mauri.  How do we, as teachers, pr...

I know how to get macrons into a word document by inserting a symbol but I can't use that in myPortfolio unless I want to write a Word Doc and then copy and paste.  This is one way to do it but is not transferable to other documents and could be labour intensive.  I also think a visual will be helpful to develop firstly so I can remember how to do it and also as it may be helpful for others to use. Here is an article I found: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/maori-language-week/96716977/its-mori-language-week--heres-how-to-install-macrons-so-you-can-get-involved   This article proved unhelpful as I couldn't actually follow it! I googled again and found some instructions: http://otago.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2080/~/m%C4%81ori-keyboard This proved much more helpful and, after restarting, I can make macrons...māori.  Yay!

Prior to starting this domain, I was thinking about cultural competencies and models I have used.  I also picked up a case that I could use for this domain.  I am coworking it with a colleague and her initial thought was to use Mason Durie's (1984) Whare Tapa Wha model as a basis for the intervention plan.  As I am familiar with this, I figured it would be a good idea.  However, this may keep me in the green zone.  Having done the quiz and had a look at the initial posts in the forum, it seems there are two other models that may be useful.  Educultural (which I think I have seen somewhere before) and Te Pikinga ki Runga ( https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/journals/set/downloads/set2009_2_042_0.pdf ).   Reference:   Site designed and developed bka interactive ltd, N. (2020).  Te whare tapa whā and wellbeing | Health Navigator NZ . Health Navigator New Zealand. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz...

Domain 1, Goal 1 15/02  My wonderings today are around when is the best time to set up my first Domain myPortfolio pages.  Yesterday, while on the Block Course I made a start and set up all my pages for all the domains and then I grouped them together.  Today, in order to stay in the yellow, I felt I needed to make a start on something so I did the first Self Assessment and made some notes on where I was a novice.  I'm going to use this as a way to think about where I should set my first goals. 21/02/20  Have decided that a blog might be a good way to record my reflections and map my journey. https://myrtlblearningjourney.blogspot.com/ Domain 1, Goal 2 15/02  Began reading the first page and realised that I needed a way to record things that were relevant to me in the text.  While I am trying to come to grips with getting back into study (it has been ten years since I completed my Master's) I think I will use a hardcopy book at present...