Koanga Festival with my Students

I am lucky enough to have some amazing teachers at my school who do amazing things with my students. This Saturday I got to see firsthand some of those amazing things at the Koanga Festival at Bucklands Beach Intermediate. Our school's Kapa Haka group was performing and I made sure that I would make it, having two of my students in the group. I had seen the performance a day earlier, but wanted to go to show my support. The students were amazing in their performance! Even better than the day before (though, the lighting and the larger stage no doubt helped that). Their hard work was clear and evident.


It was nice to be invited to this and to get a chance to experience life outside of school with my students. Being a foreigner (taking all your jobs and such) I have to admit ignorance when it comes to many things Maori. This was a positive way for me to learn a bit more and to help build those relationships with some of my students (even if one of them told me he didn't want to smile for the picture). As an added bonus, three of my students have brothers or sisters in Kapa Haka and I got to see them outside of the normal classroom setting.

Building a Community Vibe with Karakia

Earlier this year, an RTLB working with one of my students suggested we start a daily Karakia to help make the student she was working with more comfortable in the classroom. I was keen but hesitant (what with the religious connotations and all). Being a foreigner in New Zealand, I do think it's important to learn about the unique cultural history and customs of my newly adopted country. I wanted to strike a balance between doing so and not having students pray in school. I waffled on this idea for a while but a few months ago I spent some time and researched some karakia that are commonly used in schools that had no religious connotations. I ended up finding a few good ones, so I actually made a morning version and an end of day version. We've been doing this for so long now that we've memorized both of them.

I cannot claim that one thing caused the other, but since we've been doing this, I have sensed a feeling of community within my classroom. I do feel that this has made my students more comfortable in class and it has added some structure to our day. A way to start and end it. All in all, it's a small effort that can potentially have very positive outcomes. I recommend that every New Zealand teacher try this (you can even use the ones I've borrowed off of the Internet).

Introduction

Welcome to my professional learning blog.

Introduction

My name is Michael Davidson. I'm a child of the (early) 80s who grew up in Canada. Besides being a teacher, I was and am still trying to be an above average runner. I've now lived in New Zealand for just over 4 years.

Education & Experience

After graduating from High School (Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) I spent 3 years at York University in Toronto. After spending that third year in the Faculty of Education, I transferred to the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia where I completed a B.Ed.

Over the next few years I taught in both Seoul, Korea and London, England, teaching students from Kindergarten to Year 6. After my visa ran out in England, I moved to New Zealand and found work here. While in New Zealand, I was part of the inaugural Mind Lab Postdegree Certificate program (Digital and Collaborative Learning). I have also recently completed online courses with Google and am a Google Certified Teacher (Level 2).

Past

This is not my first professional blog, but the last one was not very good and wasn't really for me - it was for my old school. For the purposes of sharing the whole journey, you can find that site here.

Purpose of Blog

The purpose of this blog will be threefold: 1) to share what I've done with interested parties, 2) to reflect on things that I've tried (when I've got time to actually do those reflections) and 3) to tick some boxes so that I can renew my registration when it comes up. Hopefully I can focus on the first two more than the 3rd, but let's be honest, that 3rd one makes sure I can keep on eating and sleeping under a roof :)

Watch this space for some entries in the next few days to get me going...