Its Trickey

He rā ki tua, better times are coming. What a stunning term as I sit and reflect and draw breath I can really see how happy I am with the progress we have made this year. This blog today is going to celebrate some of that and also work as a thinking point for me to start moving forward into the next term. As ever I welcome and relish your input though understand in our busy world it is difficult to engage with these things.

So what do we have to celebrate? One of my most celebrated moments was having my rugby development squad lift in the lineout in their last game. These students have been an absolute joy to coach and this simple moment summed up a lot to me the tenacity and grit in the squad is amazing and they remained cool under pressure from a big physical side to put the move into practice. I do not know if anyone would celebrate that as much as me but there you go.

My year 9 students their awakeness to global politics has shown in their unbelievable efforts in creating political parties and running a mock election. Prior to this, we ran two days of mock parliamentary debate on issues like life imprisonment and euthanasia. It amazed me that they had chosen the topic of life imprisonment (being a liberal hearted idealist who believes in reform). really the girls just wanted time to air their opinions on the possible sentencing of the Christchurch gunman. The whole unit culminated in a half an hour discussion and set up a coalition government. It was amazing how well the students did in their speeches and manifestos. I strongly believe this is a direct result of the climate crisis strikes or the Greta Thunberg effect as I have now coined (there is no proof I coined this term). Of course, it ain't all roses I often think about the other students during this time it was an empowering event for many but what about them sitting on the fringes did they enjoy it and did it meet their needs? Well if we look at the Universal design for learning possibly not.

How can the task better meet the diverse needs of our learner? That is an issue to keep working forward on.

The year tens looked in-depth at Te Tiriti O Waitangi and also visited the marae. As a part of this process, every student in the class also did their Papeha. It was a great learning and empowering for the students. As part of getting ready for the marae, my focus was on getting students used to karakia and Tikanga. Unfortunately, this approach did not pay dividends with the essay writing in class being not of a fantastic standard. The students also didn't enjoy looking at Te Tiriti they found the history frustrating and questioned the need to understand this. The students did produce some fantastic static images with their opinion and other opinions on Te Tiriti on them. One of the best saw a student look at depth into Parihaka. This led to a chat with a parent saying that her daughter had been really trying to get a hold of Ian Church's Salutary Punishment. For a year ten student to be looking at analysing texts at this level is a massive win, yet this is one student and not the spark to raise the mana in the whole class.

The staff, the wonderful wonderful staff. We were on mass in our Union action we discussed and engaged and settled on a new deal after taking part in the largest day of industrial action seen in New Zealand. I know there is a heap of work ahead of this but will discuss this in other forums. I do wonder though with the 3rd climate strike coming up is this time for us who are informed to further show our mettle? I have supported the students in the last 2 strikes using my noncontact time. Am I willing enough to engage in an active strike of my own outside of my union?

Minecraft club! This has been amazing, I was lucky to get some time to work with a small (37 students, could have been 45 plus but I had to make a cut off due to the room size) group of interested student on Minecraft Education Edition. This was amazing, the first lesson saw me set up the students and allow them all to get Minecraft free on their computer. The students then were able to play in worlds together and this made it really fun. One student made a full hub world for students to all play in together. I didn't get it right but now can move on with more confidence to use this platform to teach with. Very exciting things have been happening within this platform. Pikistudios have been working on more indigenous content for the platform. Perhaps I could be in the driving seat to help the student engage with this as we look at Te Wiki o te Reo Māori coming up.

So where are we going? Well next term sees the year 10's looking at The World of work including:

Understand how economic decisions impact on people, communities and nations Changes in work over time Workers Rights and Employment Contracts Goal-setting and Decision-making Pathways and Consequences Voluntary and Community Work

How best approach this? The people at My Mahi came in to look at some of their approaches to the topic area. Some ready-made lessons are in the web-based system and they also have a great place for the students to link into their interests. This will replace what we used to do on Career quest I feel. It is really important for students to spend time looking at potential careers and where they might venture in their lives. Though quite dry it is also important for students to understand workers rights and contracts, especially as we head towards what people are calling the gig economy as they change jobs more often to adapt to an ever-changing world. The students are a little averse to history and the history of the workforce and women's changing roles within society will need to be thought about. One idea a member of my PLG had was Grandparents day when the grandparents came in to talk about their experiences in the workforce. Could this be a good way of exploring this concept? Possibly the students could interview parents and older people to talk about their work experience. Another tool we often use is the Real Game, this has proved successful in the past with students really enjoying the role-playing aspect of this. I have adapted it with a series of digital tools to help play the game and do the budgeting how much fun can I have in further gamifying this experience, is it possible to further gamify the game, what are the important aspects of it. Last year I had a lot of fun with this unit also using the time to teach project management skills to the students should I retain this element. The end of the term assessment sees the students develop a business idea and pitch it. I would like to do this on a bigger more real stage take these ideas and pitch them to business people in a setting outside of the school in an accelerator type of environment. Obviously, a lot of internal and external discussions are needed moving forward.

The Year 9's will be exploring Travelling Right, Treading Light a unit that looks at Tourism and the effect of tourism in New Zealand. The unit looks at mapping and the end of term assessment is creating an Eco resort. This assessment I am looking at shifting completely into Minecraft Education Edition and having the students produce a video tour of their resort.

These are just a few of the many things on the radar, we have an under 15's rugby tournament and feel bad I have neglected to talk about my seniors bounding progress. I feel it is important to reflect on these point so I can fully see the pathway ahead. Often in teaching, we get into the tired hand to mouth day to day things and forget where we are heading with administrivia getting in the way of our lofty goal. What is for sure is there are challenges ahead and I will look forward to this journey onwards.

1 year of Trickey Thoughts by the way hopefully I can continue to sustain this reflection on my practice as I find it cathartic and also a useful tool to journey onwards with.