Doing so much for and with those who have so little...

I have had my eyes well and truly opened in the last two days to the determination of the staff that have done an amazing amount in low decile schools.

Manaia View School shared their journey to reach a point where their students are happy to come to school, creating a collective responsibility for their learning and the care of the tools that help make their learning a joy. 

They are fortunate to have a collaborative agreement with Channel North whereby their students learn Media Studies alongside the staff at Channel North - creating storyboards, scripts, presenting, editing and finally showing a television show.  They were in the process of celebrating their fifth anniversary of producing 'Pukeko Echo' and the excitement was obvious. 

Students in the classes we visited were completely engaged with real learning and creating for a real audience.  They were happy to talk about the wonderful work they were doing as well.  Their teachers had a sound understanding of what 'rocked their boats' and had grabbed them into learning effortlessly. 

Whanau show a strong support of their tamariki through online feedback on their work and wanting to watch the shows they have produced.

A huge thank you to Leanne Otene, the school's principal, for all that was shared and the great welcome I received. 

This morning was spent at another low decile school doing amazing things with their students - Point England Primary School.  As we waited to go in after beating the Auckland traffic and arriving early we noted every child that arrived was smiling, happy or just plain racing in the gate to start their day - no matter their age.  Well done on this accomplishment alone to the amazing team we met today.  And why were they racing in?  Their world is a digital one, set up so all learning has an authentic audience as they publish to the web daily (and receive feedback from any/everywhere), they learn about what is relevant to them, and they also have huge whanau support behind them. 

I joined a group of teachers from many different schools with a variety of purposes.  We were privileged enough to have the Year 6 student ambassadors present the background to their learning in a very professional manner, then to visit a variety of classes. The students spoken to in every class without fail were able to give the purpose for their tasks, talk animatedly of why their digital world was so awesome (not an exercise book to be found from Years 5 to 8 - my dream!) and were again completely engaged in their learning. 

The feel of the school was one of having real passion for the students and their achievements.  We heard stories of how students have continued to practice literacy and numeracy skills they knew would drop off over summer recording the evidence and their reflections on their blogs, how teachers in the senior school mark and feedback daily online - no more piles of books to mark, and research that demonstrates what they are doing is working! http://manaiakalani.blogspot.co.nz/

A huge thank you to Dorothy and Russell Burt, the Year 6 Ambassadors and Tyler Marie, hostess extraordinaire, and of course the staff and students in the classes we visited.

What have I learned? 

• There is no such thing as a barrier aside from the attitudes of the teachers in front of the students. 
• We need to let go of our adult fears and embrace the world these students live in. 
• We also need to thoroughly explore what both schools have done to improve the achievement of their students through engagement in their learning.  This does not necessarily mean the students are always attending class.  It can mean they are picking up the tasks online at a time that they can from wherever they are, as not every student has control over their school attendance.  They do, however, have control over the mana they place on their learning and the need for it to continue.
• We have a duty to find the best hooks for our students so they all learn and all make gains in their achievement.
• The schools with the least  seem to find ways to do the most.  Seems we should all be finding ways to do the most for our students instead of stopping at the first hurdle.
• A truly digital world is the goal - not integrated digital learning nor blended elearning.  We need to go the whole way, with sound pedagogy and the students at the heart of what we are doing.  There are those blazing trails we could learn a lot from.
• I have a long way to go - but the path I am on is definitely the right one!