Maniakalani Create Staff Meeting

Maniakalani Create Staff Meeting.

Todays workshop was a chance to get hands on with the create facet of our pedagogical model.  What was fantastic about today's meeting was that it fully embraced Ako.  The students were the leaders today and worked alongside us and led us in our learning.  

Workshop details.

Using ideas from picture books to create. Connecting literacy to technology and maths. With Jo Gormly and students from Tamaki Primary School. Bring hands on learning and your inner child.

Why I chose this workshop.   

I chose to attend this workshop because I am very interested in using shared reading within my classroom for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I love reading to my children.  I like the performance of reading a book that captures the imagination of the child.  I like the opportunity to unpack and gift language to learners. My teaching inquiry this year is centred on phonetic awareness and I believe the skill to hear sounds in words is like any skill and needs to be practised.  I like to use shared reading to introduce phonetic concepts such as rhyme and alliteration. 

I wanted to hear how Jo had extended the ideas generated through the reading of pictures into other area's of the curriculum 

What resonated with me.  

I loved the enthusiasm and confidence of the Tamariki Jo brought with her.  They shared their learning experiences with the picture book.. The Bomb by Sasha Cotter.  Jo shared how multiple lessons were constructed around the shared reading of this New Zealand text.  The choice of the book was deliberate as a text which mirrored the lives of her learners and allowed them prior experiences to scaffold their thinking.  

I was interested to hear that Jo had presented an image from the text to the learners before she read the text.  I thought that this was a great way to aid comprehension and allow the tamariki to build their own narrative around the text. 

After the reading of the text.  Maths lessons were designed around measurement, Drama was introduced by inviting the learners to re-enact scenes, Writing lessons were based around these the children giving advice, Technology and design concepts were introduced by allowing the children to design tools to propel their toy man to do a manu.

How I will adapt it to my classroom.

I loved the way that Jo was able to capture the enthusiasm garnered from the book to engage the children in a wide variety of learning opportunities.  I also was inspired by the way Jo allowed the children to spend time exploring the learning, and she resisted the urge to tell them how to do it.. but rather let them make discovers through trial and error.  I will attempt to do this more.