Kāhui Ako ki Orewa

 

Rāmere, te 31 o Hōngongoi, 2020

Tuhituhi / Writing: Curriculum Integration

Connecting English through the Science Curriculum

Continuing with our term 3 theme of integrating literacy across our curriculum, the focus for this update is science. Using the science curriculum as the context to teach literacy skills enables teachers to create many cross-curricular opportunities. Both the English and Science strands in the curriculum have many commonalities where, with thoughtful planning, teachers can integrate science with literacy to enhance learning in both areas.

For example, the English and Science curriculum strands

• encourage the reader to explore how texts are shaped for different purposes and audiences
• encourage the writer to use particular conventions to shape texts for different purposes and audiences
• promote the understanding and use of topic-specific vocabulary
• promote the choice of vocabulary to communicate precise meaning.

Building our capabilities of implementing an integrated curriculum

How could this Wordle have been created and for what particular purpose or audience? How could this task create cross curricula opportunities?

Follow the link here to the NZ Science Hub for more information on literacy through science.

Useful Links

• Science and Literacy making connections here
• Fostering literacy through primary science here
• Literacy in the secondary science classroom here
• Films for a literary writing response / student action: The story of bottled water
• Link here to movies on the Story of Stuff website – secondary level
• Link here to Edutopia article ‘Using science to bring literature alive’
• Link here to Edutopia Science Literacy: Sparking Curiosity and Solving Real-World Problems
• Link here to NZ website Wicked themes – fabulous resources for primary students (Social Science and Digital Curriculum)
• Link here to TedEd Superhero Science

VR- The New Reality

It is a fact that virtual reality (VR), amongst other emerging technologies, is impacting our world now. Not our future world, but the current world we live in. So how do the wonders of VR sit within this new emerging world and our forward thinking approach? JJ Purton Jones, originally a teacher in New Zealand but currently living in Australia, examines a workable VR experience for the classroom: Link to Full Article

 

 

Student Inquiry

This blog post by John Spencer looks at the four possible steps to take with student inquiry. The levels range from limited, or confirmation inquiry (most guided form of inquiry) to open inquiry (least guided inquiry).

Noticing big little things happening in our Kāhui

This week a staff member from Wainui sent through an email and we just had to share. This was a part of their sign off at the end of the email.

Wainui’s slogan has become a personal whakataukī, the values are bilingual and represent values held by Māori and name of the kura, “Te Kura o Wainui” is in te reo Māori first.

It may seem small but the use of te reo Māori like this says so much to Māori and non-Māori. It shows whoever reads these emails that the sender and their kura are actively working to normalise te ao Māori in their practice. It shows that te ao Māori is valued.

We have a long way to go on our journey as a Kāhui but the big little changes such as this are all adding up.

New Team Managers

Pōhiri dates

• New Teacher Pōhiri: Thursday/Rāpare 6 August/Hereturikōkā at 3:45 pm

A pōhiri for teachers who have joined one of our schools/kura in 2020.

• In-School Leader Pōhiri: Thursday/Rāpare 13 August/Hereturikōkā at 3:45 pm

A pōhiri for In-school and across school leaders.

• Combined Board of Trustees Pōhiri: Tuesday/Rātū 15 September/Mahuru

A pōhiri for all board of trustees from across all of our kura/schools.

Kāhui Ako After School Meeting Dates

 

30 July

13 August

27 August

10 September

14 September