Keeping Up with Mrs Faalili

Bursts and Bubbles - Live stream! That was fun! I really enjoyed this way of sharing, listening to everyone's inquiry for the year in a short, sharp, digital platform.  Check out my Bursts and Bubbles Presentation 2021                                    

One of the many lockdown struggles with this group of boys has been trying to get them connected in their calls, by choice. Wanting to connect in. Each time I'd pop on their calls, there was only ever 1 or 2 of them connected. This has been ongoing, since we first went into lockdown.  You would've seen on a previous post that I had sent my group of boys an email in an attempt to connect in with them.  Today we got to catch up and how good it was to finally connect with them and just chill. We spent a small bit just talking about how home learning is going, the struggles etc and then spent the rest of it just listening and laughing to their stories.  Today reminded me that we, as educators need to be going the extra mile for our tamariki. It's not detailed in our job description but I believe that this is a way to break down barriers and build on our connections with our tamariki and whanau. Why should we go the extra mile? Because if we don't, who will? If we don't,...

We're sitting at day 70 something and it seems to be repetitive -  getting up, logging in, seeing who has chosen to connect, who has their camera on, and going through the motions of home learning.  My Hiss Hass Hoos boys have been at the forefront of my mind this entire lockdown. We'd gained some great momentum at the start of our intervention, planning and integrating the curriculum to help make some sort of connection to their learning. They were engaged, self motivated, turning up to my office and just taking over the space. Which brought me so much joy, because that's what I wanted. But then lockdown hit. And it hit hard. of the 6 boys, 3 have been actively engaged, attending google meets and attempting to doing some work.  I spent some time at the end of last term trying to think of ways to motivate them. Bribe them. A feed when were back at school was definitely on the cards. But it slowly died off as the several announcements after that were making it nearly impos...

Restate your inquiry question and your theory of action/chain of events My inquiry question is a 2 part sandwich; "How will being culturally responsive in my teaching and an integrated approach to teaching and learning accelerate achievement?" The focus of my inquiry is to be culturally responsive in my practice for this group of boys. In order to do this successfully I will seek information, relevant data to build a picture/baseline information on my group. We will start with teacher guided sessions with the aim to have our sessions fully run by the group. The aim is to work together with students, 3-4 times a week where we plan and create a shared authentic learning experience for the whole school. As a result of this, student engagement and motivation increases, they see themselves as learners, but also as carriers of knowledge, much like our 'Ava analogy as shared in our  Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day Presentation .   Describe how you will collect information about ...

  Finding your voice in a digital world Core Education blog post - Kit Haynes; Head of English Kelston Boys High School The power of talanoa. This reading is another one that supports what I know and believe to be powerful and effective in teaching, when done right. After sitting through a range of video calls with students this morning, popping in and engaging with what was happening in their class, with the goal to stay connected and support, I couldn't help but think 'Dang, I wish I had my own class because I'd be doing it way differently'. This has led to me write this reflection because I know at a point last year, I came to the conclusion that I spoke too much during our class calls. Way too much. And at that point I had to make a change, allowing students to share more, talk more. The bit that got me was the 'just mute your microphone' as kids are coming in phrase. So damn true. Even sitting here, now, a year later and still saying that in calls is off pu...

Sitting in a lockdown thinking about the next steps for my Hiss Hass Hoos Boys  While in lockdown we will connect online, during the school day . The goal is to support them in their learning tasks as well as check in on their well-being , how things are going generally. This will give me an indication of who may need other support.  The aim, when we're back at school is to use ALL strategies to support the boys in making tracks in their writing. A few years ago, my colleague Christine Tupou had real success with her ALL group in writing and the boys that I have this year, present very similar abilities and struggles in their learning. I aim to replicate this and apply it to the group. What she did was  > GAP ANALYSIS - identifying what they were able to do, where that fit in writing matrix and then identifying where they're expected to be (Level 4).  > Sharing that with the students - she did the same thing with her target students, and unpacked, compared the...