A story of what can happen when a teacher believes in the kaupapa of Manaiakalani.
supporting Uru Mānuka. I need to say from the outset that Ruth is an incredible teacher who brings joy, energy and fun to her classroom. She blows me away with her dedication to her craft that is teaching.
During her time at Yaldhrust, Ruth was supported by Mark for a year of in-class support. Ruth enjoyed the learning and supported the kaupapa of Manaiakalani. She changed her practice based on what she learned and quickly became very fluent in the affordances of digital technologies in her classroom. The Woolf Fisher team found her classroom to be ahead of the curve at the time and she received many accolades from them because of what was happening in her classroom, particularly around student engagement. In 2017 Ruth left Yaldhurst Model School to bike around the North Island. She blogged her journey for her students, friends, and family to follow. She was very committed to sharing her journey.
Following this time she did a lot of relief teaching in a range of Dunedin schools while trying to decide if she wanted to continue teaching full time. During this time she shared how she couldn’t understand the lack of knowledge on how to best use the Chromebooks so many of these schools had in their classrooms. It confirmed for her that her time at Yaldhurst Model School learning the Manaiakalani kaupapa was worth it.
Ruth has constantly stayed connected with the Manaiakalani kaupapa through conversations we have. She also helps my own development of ideas as she is someone that is always asking questions and learning. Currently, she has three different areas of learning developing for herself through school PD and her own PD of choice. She is incredible.
Enter Covid. Ruth was straight onto what she can do and use to support her learners and her staff so that they can do the best they can for the time of lockdown. Because she was already using blogs and was connected with a mini 'Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu' she set up with a couple of teacher contacts through Mark and myself she had the beginnings of what was needed to help the students to fly. A quick whip up of a site, plus time spent as staff using the 'Limit the Links' doc to shape their way forward and Lochiel School was ready to go.
Mark Maddren said the following about Ruth:
Ruth's site and blogs that have been implemented this year are a real testament to the sustainability of Manaiakalani once a teacher has had the support and continues to stay connected with the programme through colleagues.
With this lockdown, Ruth has been able to upskill her colleagues and ensure their teaching and learning is also visible during this period.
So to end this story I just want to say that I believe that Manaiakalni kaupapa is not only powerful in the context of the Outreach, it is also something that can be adapted to any context. The pedagogy is rewindable, it is visible and most of all it is ubiquitous in any place where a teacher 'gets it'.
If you want to check out what it all looks like then head to these links. I'm sure Ruth would love to see some people checking our her class site and blog.
School site: http://www.lochiel.school.nz/
Class Sites for Online Learning
Below are the links to their online learning programmes for each class.
Some examples of the blogging that her students have been doing:
And her class blog: https://room4lochiel.blogspot.com/
