Chisnallwood Intermediate - Year 8 (single cell)

Jumping from one end of the school to another. Following my new entrant placement I was placed at Chisnallwood Intermediate working in a single cell classroom of 32 year 8 ākonga. My class was a  tama-heavy class with a wide range of learning needs with some ākonga working from level 2 of the New Zealand curriculum with most working at level 3. I was excited to get in amongst a completely different learning environment which was technology-driven. 

On my first morning at Chisnallwood my class were in charge of running a mihi whakatau for the Japanese exchange students who were visiting the school. Immediately this gave me the unique experience to jump out with the manuhiri and guide them through the process. My experience of attended numerous pōwhiri and mihi whakatau came in very useful and was noted by my associate and the school Principal of my contribution.

Back into the classroom it was a buzz of activity, as we were in an intermediate structured environment no day was the same. Ākonga would go off to PE, technology, science, meetings, art club, Extention PE groups, Culture groups, Kapa Haka and mentoring. This gave me, as kaiako, the freedom to plan the day around what needed to be done and what else was happening around the school. When there was a lot of work to be finish ākonga would be given SRL time Self-regulated learning in which they were able to choose what they worked on. There was always something for ākonga to do and this time of choice provided ākonga agency and they produced some excellent work. 

Friday 15th March, my class were in the music room doing African drumming when there was a knock on the door and we were told that the school was in lock down. Without my Associate that day the reliever and I did our best to keep our ākonga calm, safe and informed on the things we needed them to know. Luckily one of the music kaiako was in the office next door so she was being updated by school via email and passed on the details to us. My ākonga did so well on that day, I was very proud of them and I think the experience led to a mutual respect for one another. From Monday my Associate took the lead on learning to ensure there was a 'normal' for our ākonga and that week. My associate did well at leading a debriefing conversation which was a very educational experience in tackling a big issue within a class environment. Throughout the week I slowly started teaching more and more aspects to build up to my full control.

Building relationships with ākonga was my focus and finding out at least one piece of information about them and their interests. There were two Samoan ākonga in this learning space and I was able to share some of my memories, photos and souvenirs from my visit to Samoa the previous year. I saw a spark in their eyes when I asked if they were from Savai'i or Upolu. The next day I bought in my tapa cloth and other Samoan treasures to share with them. This connection was important when planning learning experiences for them later on in reading and writing.

At the start of my full control, I introduced a weekly whakataukī. At the start of the week I would introduce it, translate it, bring meaning to it within the classroom and school context. I would connect it to the school's Chissy Champ values and challenge ākonga to see identify this throughout their week. At the end of the day I would check in with them and ask how they saw this whakataukī in the classroom that day. Each morning I would remind them of its meaning and get them to say it all together. By the end of each week they were able to explain the whakataukī to me and clearly explain it and how it links not only to them but the Chissy Champ values.

During my time at Chisnallwood I learnt about Google classroom and the great resource it is! I had to change my thinking completely when it came to planning, presenting and getting ākonga to work on projects. There was limited book work and most learning was done on the class set of Chromebooks. I quickly translated my teaching into google slide which I could present to the whole class and then make a "working slide" available to each ākonga to work on themselves. The perks of google classroom was having individual slides accessible to each ākonga which I was then able to access to check their process and to give feedback on. I used this for ākonga information reports, reading follow up activities, inquiry tasks and SRL information.

The school-wide theme for the term was Identity. I took up from where my associate had started with doing an Identity inquiry topic linking Social Sciences, Drama, Writing, Oral Language and Te reo Māori. We started by looking at the identity of Aotearoa then linked it with each ākonga reflecting on their identity and their place within Aotearoa. Through using the text The House that Jack built we talking about European coming to Aotearoa and the changes over time. Ākonga were then asked to research how they came to Aotearoa and we each created a pēpehā. We created our pēpehā through a google slide layout then used the pepeha.nz website to create visual pēpehā to create a classroom wall display.


As I was leading learning during this placement it freeded my Associate up to launch ākonga into alternative education experiences within the classroom. A group of tama started building bird houses for the school garden and then saw it as an entrepreneurial opportunity. One of the kaiako gave them a brief and asked them to make her a bird house. Another ākonga was working on a skating website and blog where he rated and recommended the best skate parks in Ōtautahi. He then went on to design and make this own longboards. My associate connected these ākonga in with woodwork teacher who mentored them but they created most of their products in our classroom space or outside.

As a leaving gift ākonga built me my own birdhouse and presented it to me with a card during the party that they planned for me on my last day! I was very spoiled by these ākonga and really loved the creative and interesting way that they approached their learning.