Rāmere, te 17 o te Hune 2022
Competition – Each week we will have a competition. One lucky winner will receive a $20 Millie’s Coffee voucher! It’s simple, just email your answer to kahuiako@orewacollege.nz
Congratulations to Naomi Gillam this weeks winner!
This weeks Question: What does the colloquium “Me he tē!” translate to?
Have something to share? Get in contact with one of our Across School Leaders – we would love to hear from you!
markralston@silverdaleprimary.school.nz Te ao Māori
l.evans@orewacollege.nz Hauora
jackieboyd@silverdaleprimary.school.nz Future Ready
bodea-bayes@orewaprimary.school.nz 21st Century Pathways
Matariki
Matariki is with us next week from Tuesday 21 June/Rātū, te 21 June and celebrations are happening across the Kāhui Ako ki Orewa kura. This is a very special time in the history of Aotearoa as it’s the first official public holiday on Friday 24.
Most of you will already have plans to follow in your kura and classrooms but in case you need material, here is a choice board that can be given to students to work on independently or worked through as a class.
It would also be great if you could share photos with us from within your classroom or kura to go into our next newsletter. If you do anything special with your tamariki, please take photos and share them with us.
Over the long weekend, be sure to get out to the Tāmaki Matariki Festival and enjoy this special time.
Upcoming Kāhui Ako ki Orewa Pōhiri for Staff at Marae
Check out our invitations for the upcoming Pōhiri for all staff who have never been to Te Herenga Waka o Orewa.
It’s been a long time coming and it’s a big moment for us to be able to head back to the marae again.
If you want to get on this waka, let your Maori leader know at your kura and you’re in. No matter how long you have taught in the area, if you have never been then this is for you.
If you would like to attend, please fill in the form via this link
Nau mai haere mai ki tō tātou marae.
Invitation below:
I am HOPE
Tai from I AM HOPE spoke to Orewa College Students this week.
We all have conversations with ourselves in our heads. We can find it hard to get those conversations out and communicate them to others. These conversations are usually our Inner Critic. One of the most important things in life is knowing how to communicate.
The biggest problem with Mental Health is that we have an overactive inner critic. We say some mean things to ourselves. We smash ourselves in the head about things that are accidents, mistakes, doubts, self judgements.
So many times in our day we meet people with a smile on their face pretending they are ok.
Why? Because of us!
We create an environment where we are pretending so we can fit in and look better than we are. If we are struggling we need to reach out. People don’t reach out.
Why? Because of us!
Telling people to reach out doesn’t work because we are getting the people who are struggling to do all the work to get help. This is especially when there is judgement, mocking all around, and then we ask them to reach out.
The way we talk to others affects how they build their inner critic or their voice of reason.
THREE MAIN RULES IN MENTAL HEALTH
Rule #1
- Nobody has their stuff together
- Adults too. They have been through things
- There are things you are going to go through but you will get through
Rule #2
- We all have an ‘Inner Critic’.
- Constantly doubting ourselves
- Occupying a lot of space in oUr heads
- We also have a ‘ Voice of Reason’
- We need to feed the voice of reason
Rule #3
- There are 3 reasons why people don’t tell others and ask for help
- They are worried about what will you THINK (judgement is around everyday)
- They are worried about what you will SAY (say nothing /I know what you are going through – no you don’t!)
- They are worried about what you will DO (who are you going to tell? rumours)
80% of young people won’t ask for help, Why? Because they are worried about us.
Why can’t we step in?
“How are you?”
“Good”
Ask again!
“Are you sure? I wanna make sure you are ok”.
People then usually end up telling you.
Tell them “I don’t know what you are going through, but I got your back, anything you need”.
If we are carrying something heavy, when we say it to someone else, we release it, we feel a lot better and freer. Secrets make you sick.
No one told me it’s normal to have mental health things going on in my head.
Growing up, society is telling young men and boys how to be tough. The toughest thing you can do is find someone you trust to talk to.
If you know someone who is not having a good time and is struggling, will you do everything you can to help them get to a better place?
Stand up, step in, don’t wait. Action it.
Everyday you have an opportunity to tell people:
- We appreciate them
- We care
- We are proud of them
Start telling people!
When everyone around us also says these things to you, it isn’t awkward anymore.
We need to be more vulnerable to those around us. Then we will stop being fake. We need to normalise it’s ok to say so when things aren’t ok.
Keep turning up for your friend, one day you never know, you might need them to turn up for you when you fall over.
Every day there are people walking around feeling no value.Imagine what your inner critic is saying if you feel no value. If you are in a good place, it is your job to give these people their value back. Give them some life back.
We need to Step In
Help those around you
Stand Up and Step In
Being Safe Online:
Interactive slides using Pear Deck, tailor made for the
Be Internet Awesome curriculum
Google has partnered with the educators at Pear Deck to create custom, interactive presentations and vocabulary flashcards to accompany the Be Internet Awesome curriculum. Students engage and respond to questions from their individual classroom device, while teachers can:
- Control the pace of the lesson
- View student answers from their Pear Deck Teacher Dashboard
- Share completed lessons with students and parents through Google Drive
Pear Deck is 100% web-based, device agnostic, and completely integrated with Google Classroom. Getting started couldn’t be simpler: just install the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on and use the Be Internet Awesome installer to get your slides and flashcard files. Just power it with Pear Deck, and you’re all set!
Resource 1:
Helping kids understand that what they post can be forwarded, copied, and found is crucial to staying safe online. Teach students how to recognize and steer clear of potentially embarrassing or even dangerous situations that could have lasting consequences.
Communicate Responsibly
Spotlight: Silverdale School
Managing Our Own Learning
Alongside explicit teaching and support around what self management means and the skills and decisions it requires, we utilise google classroom and google sheets to allow learners more agency in managing their learning. One google sheet is pushed out to learners each week with an individual tab for each student. This sheet holds brief details of what tasks they are required to complete throughout the week and links to google classroom assignments or other sites.
To begin with learners are given set tasks to complete in a set order. Once their self management skills develop they progress to choosing the order to complete their tasks within the day. They then move to planning when to complete the set tasks across the week and then to choosing what tasks to work on and when based on what their individual learning needs are.
Having a shared google sheet allows us to see each individual learner’s plan & progress quickly and easily make changes to tabs as the week progresses. It also allows learners to view each other’s tabs to see who might be working on the same task. Google classroom allows us to make learning material available to everyone at all times. This can all be accessed from both home and school, read at an individual pace and revisited whenever needed.
We are finding that our learners are more engaged in their learning, have greatly improved their purposeful use of digital tools and are finding the ongoing access to learning tasks helpful. They are transferring their increased self management skills into everyday classroom life which allows us to run more focussed explicit workshops as well as offer more creative learning opportunities.
For more information contact Kate – katefriedwald@silverdaleprimary.school.nz
Kīwaha o Te Wiki (Idiom)
“Me he tē!” (Meh-heh-teh!)
Like a boss!
Used to describe something that someone did as amazing or awesome.
Understand, Know, Do
The New Zealand Curriculum refresh is underway, signalling a major next step in the development of our national curriculum. In this article, we explore some of the changes, including Understand, Know and Do – the new framing in all of Aotearoa New Zealand’s curriculum content.
A new conversation
The framework shapes the conversation in the form of “Understand. Know. Do.” It emphasises that these three elements are not carried out in some linear progression but are interdependent on each other through the whole learning process.
The ‘Understand, Know, Do’ structure encompasses:
- Understand: the big ideas
- Know: rich contexts for exploring the big ideas
- Do: practices that bring rigour to learning
Each of these elements has a separate focus. They don’t need to be used in a certain sequence, instead they enhance each other. Students deepen their understanding of the big ideas as they explore the context (know) using the critical inquiry practices (do).
UNDERSTAND – provide purpose and motivation
The Understand component asks teachers and schools to ensure there is always an on-going wider context or “big idea” to all learning. It is important for teachers to understand that this essentially should not include what traditionally might’ve been the content you want to teach. The purpose of this part of learning is the motivation and the answer to why the example content is taught and relevant. The Understand component of the learning process is a recognition that to learn and to be motivated to learn, one must always have a personal answer to the question: why am I learning this? The big idea should also be aimed at being applicable in multiple contexts so as to encourage students to explore, personalise and culturally respond to this ‘big idea’. Understanding implies connecting to and creates a purpose for knowledge and a reason to apply(do), this in turn drives better outcomes.
KNOW – knowledge as a tool not an end in itself
The Know component of this framework covers where teachers might exemplify using knowledge and content that apply to the big idea. The content knowledge should introduce sub issues and concepts that although are exemplified by the content also point to being applicable in other scenarios. In learning, knowledge is not an end in itself like in the performance-based traditional model, it is a context with which we understand wider concepts and implications that we can then apply in the third component of this learning framework ‘Do.”
DO – Good rigour over bad rigour.
Under this third element of Do, the ministry outlines that this is where rigour is applied but it is very very important for educators to understand that this is good rigour (sorry for the UK spelling) rather than bad rigour.
Good rigour is shown by emphasising the idea that knowledge is used to understand wider ideas and by doing activity at school you are challenged to display your understanding by shifting knowledge and examples to new contexts. It is far more rigorous but also more meaningful to display understanding through applying knowledge in new contexts, especially if those new contexts are intellectually or culturally relevant to you personally. It is less rigorous and more just a matter of compliance to regurgitate the exact knowledge you have already been shown.
Kāhui Ako Hui Dates – Term Two 2022
23rd June – Orewa College – 10.15am ASL
30th June – Dairy Flat School – 11am ASL
30th June – Orewa College – 3.30pm ASL and WSL
Other Dates:
Matariki – 21st to the 29th June
New Staff Pōhiri @ Te Herenga Waka o Orewa Marae 9th August/Ākuhata – 3:45pm
Māori Leaders Hui @ Te Herenga Waka o Orewa Marae 11th August/Ākuhata – 9am
Kāhui Ako ki Orewa 
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