Tuakana-teina in action

As part of a whole-school Matariki celebration at PES last Friday, an amazing group of tamariki created kites in Room 11 with Mrs Stone and I. The reason for reflecting upon this event is the absolute joy of witnessing tuakana-teina in action. Vertical cross-groupings meant that the kite-makers ranged from Year 1 up to Year 8. Throughout the day there was a sense of whānau and belonging as older students supported and helped younger students design and create their kites from the assortment of materials provided. This sense of community was enhanced by rich oral language as young people negotiated sharing resources, shared design ideas and asked questions of others to find out how they had solved a particular design problem.

Participating in this hands-on experience offered all learners an opportunity to strengthen positive relationships beyond individual classroom walls and extend their sense of belonging within the wider learning community at school.

Developing in Digital Worlds

The Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the University of Auckland, led by Dr Stuart McNaughton, is currently carrying out research to find out how we teach 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, self-regulation and collaborative reasoning, using digital technologies. As part of this research, Room 9 @ Pt England were observed by a member of the Woolf Fisher team yesterday. My focus during this observation was the teaching of prosocial skills in a digital world by integrating Cybersmart learning and the key competency of relating to others.

As a hook to engage the learners in a fun and positive way, I chose a movie created by Room 18 @ Pt England for this year's Manaiakalani Film Festival, Make Kindness Go Viral!  My lesson plan involved learners using positive words and their manners to find a buddy so that they were able to interact and take turns in a conversation as they brainstormed ideas and relevant vocabulary.

Following our Think, Pair, Share brainstorm for the whole class, each student accessed the digital resources by making a personal copy of this DLO.



Overall, this Cybersmart lesson was highly effective in promoting positive social skills and relationships between the students, while making deliberate and specific connections to the positive communications they create when crafting quality blog comments as part of the Cybersmart programme. It was also fantastic to listen to and read the rich language that was selected to create these comments.