Learning languages is fun!!

Within our Kia Toa team we really enjoy learning languages with our students. Every week Whaea Salena comes into our room and teach Te Reo, she teaches them about Maori cultures, songs and stories. The pupils enjoy it and participate with pride. I really enjoyed learning Te Reo with my class getting to know more about most of my students and their background.

This week is the Tongan language week and I am quite proud of the students and teachers around the school using the Tongan greeting and trying to use some Tongan phrases. As a Tongan I am proud to see the children who were born here in New Zealand and are trying their best to learn a little bit about their culture and background and using the language around the school and in the classroom.

To me, knowing your learners and where they come from give us teachers some knowledge and understanding of who they are which helps in building up a positive relationship between the teacher and the learners. I want to know more about my students from other cultures too and celebrating a language week is a great opportunity that every teacher should make the most of. As a whole school we are doing performing arts where every teacher has been assigned a group of students where they can teach a dance from their own culture. The students are being distributed evenly to each group where they will learn about a dance from another culture. All this is very exciting for me because I can see students respecting and knowing about each other.

Ngaue fakataha - Collaboration!

Na'e lava lelei 'i he uike ni hono katoanga'i 'i Nuusila ni 'a e mahu'inga 'o e lea faka-Tonga. Ne kau atu ai e lautohi 'a Tamaki ki hono fakamahu'inga'i e uike mahu'inga ko 'eni. 'I he 'aho Falaite ne kau mai ai e ngaahi matu'a e fanau 'i he loki ako fika fa mo e nima 'o e ako'anga ni hono teuteu'i mai e ngaahi me'atokoni faka-Tonga ke ma'utokoni ai e fanau mo hono faka'osi 'o e uike mahu'inga ko eni ki he kainga Tonga 'i Aotearoa.
Ne lava 'e he fanau Tonga 'o e ongo loki ako ko eni 'o fai ha ngaahi hiva faka-Tonga kimu'a pea toki tapuaki'i e me'atokoni.
'Oku 'oatu 'a e fakamalo ki he pule ako, Rhonda Kelly mo hono tokoni moe kau faiako hono kotoa he poupou moe tokoni ke patoloaki 'a e mahu'inga ke ngaue'aki 'a e lea faka-Tonga 'e he fanau Tonga 'i he uike ni.
'Oku ou fie puke 'ae faingamalie ko eni ke 'oatu ai ha fakamalo loto hounga mo'oni ki he matu'a tauhi fanau 'i ho'omou loto fie taliangi 'i ho'omou 'ofa homou fanau moe fie poupou kihe uike faka-Tonga kae si'i lukuluku mai ha kii konga me'akai ke mau mama fakataha ai mo homou fanau he 'aho Falaite, 'oku 'oatu 'ae fakamalo loto hounga mo'oni meiate au. Ka ne ta'e 'oua ho'omou tokoni he 'ikai faingofua 'a e ngaue mo e ako 'a 'etau fanau malo pea malo e tokoni. Fakatauange ki he 'Otua mafimafi kene tokoni adu 'i he fua fatongia kotoa pe mei api na.

Tongan Language Week - Uike Lea Faka-Tonga.

Fakakaloa Aotearoa 'aki 'a e faiva 'a e Tonga – Enriching Aotearoa with Tongan arts.


'I he uike ni 'oku faka'ilonga'i ai 'i Nu'usila ni 'a e mahu'inga 'o e lea faka-Tonga. 'Oku fakafiefia 'aupito 'a e mamata atu ki he'etau fanau Tonga 'oku nau polepole honau tupu'anga 'aki 'enau lea 'aki e lea faka-Tonga, hiva faka-Tonga pea nau toe teki faiva foki.

'Oku fakafiefia ko e 'iai mo e ngaahi naunau kuo fa'u 'o fakatau 'i he 'initaneti ke tokoni ki he kau faiako ki hono ako'i e fanau tautefito ki he kau faiako 'oku 'ikai ke nau lea faka-Tonga. Ko e ki'i kole pe fekau'aki mo e ngaahi naunau ko eni ke toe fakatokanga'i ange hono liliu e ngaahi lea 'oku 'i ai e ngaahi lea ia ai 'oku 'ikai ke 'iai ha'atau ngaahi lea pehe 'a kitautolu. Kapau ko e feinga ke paotoloaki 'etau lea pea 'oku mahu'inga ke fakatonutonu pea toki tuku mai he 'e ma'u hala aipe e ngaahi matakali kehe 'etau lea. Ko e ki'i sipinga eni ne u fakatokanga'i ko e fo'ilea ko e fanongo ne 'ai ia ko e fanono mo e ngaahi lea kehe pe ne fehalaaki ka 'oku 'ikai ke tonu ke pehe he 'oku totongi pa'anga kae toki lava 'o ma'u.
'Oku 'ikai foki ke mau ma'u ha faingamalie tatau hange ko ia ko e ngaahi ako lautohi 'e ni'ihi 'oku fakalele faka-Tonga e ngaahi lesoni ke mau ma'u ha faingamalie ke ako pea faka'ali'ali ai e ngaahi teunga faka-Tonga pe faiva he ngaahi 'aho pehe ni. Ka neongo ia 'oku mau fiefia pe ke mau kaunga kau hono katoanga'i e uike mahu'inga ko eni 'o fakafou 'i he fekumi 'a e fanau fekau'aki mo e ngaahi tefoto'i fakakaukau 'oku nau faka'amau ke nau 'ilo kiai o 'ikai ngata pe he fanau Tonga ka 'oku kau ki ai mo e ngaahi matakali kehe foki.
'I lalo 'oku ha atu ai e ngaahi konga e fekumi 'a e fanau 'i loki ako fekau'aki mo honau fonua tupu'anga.

Running dictation

Today I had a few students to start with so we had the opportunity to do a fun activity which I have learnt from my TESSOL course plus it is the Tongan language week. The children are divided into groups of 5 where they have to organise themselves so they will have a recorder and a runner. They will also have a turn in being a runner and recorder. The runner must run and read the text on their sheet of paper from the whiteboard then run back and report it back to the recorder. The next runner will repeat the same thing until the text is finished. The challenge was that first half of the text was in Tongan and the last part was in English. The children are familiar with the text.

The children absolutely love it. They were working well in their groups. Not every group was able to complete the activity but they were all excited and all put effort into completing the activity.

Children had so much fun, they were helping each other and they were so proud of what they had achieved.

Cummins Framework

This past three weeks I have been learning about Cummins Framework. This framework has taught me a lots of things about the activities that I provide for my students.

In this assignment I was able to discuss what I have observed and analysed, whether the activities that I have provided for the students are catered for my bilingual learners’ needs or not. I have chosen a group of students to complete five activities in the classroom and for each activity I have determined whether the intended learning intention has been achieved or not. Then a set of principles was emerged which I believe are necessary to ensure that future activities are suitable to meet the needs of bilingual learners in my classroom.

The purpose of this assignment was to closely observe and analyse the activities with reference to Cummin’s “quadrant” framework by discussing the match or mismatch between my intended outcomes and the actual outcomes for each activity. Within the framework I have to place the five activities from my classroom in each “quadrant” and give explanation for my placement.

This assignment has taught me the importance of learning needs of my students. I need to consider the activities I am choosing to ensure that all my learners will be able to meet the learning intention. I need to consider the language that I need to use and always begin the lesson from context embedded tasks. By doing this I will ensure that my learners are extended and are being nurtured by our classroom activities in a safe environment.

Writing with my students

This week I have been focusing on Writing with my students.

We have been learning to use describing words in our story.

This is a follow up from my observation of Mrs. Sharma. She showed me how I could link the learning Intention with my success criteria. Our learning Intention was to use describing words in our stories. As my students highlighted the describing words in their stories, they got deeper understanding of the describing words and could see how they have met their success criteria.  Below is an example of  the work one of my students has done.

Incredible Years Training

Incredible Years Training

“Incredible Teachers: Nurturing Children’s Social, Emotional and Academic Competence” I have been Training for this course for the last few months. The last session was a bit heartening,  sitting there and listening to every teacher sharing the same challenges that we are facing in the classroom. At the same time it does confirm some of the strategies that we are using to manage those challenging children. It doesn’t matter whether you are teaching at a Decile 10 or Decile 1 school, there is always a group of students who will challenge us across the board.

Incredible Years Teachers is such a great programme which gives teachers a “variety of creative classroom management strategies to meet children’s development milestone” (Carolyn Webster -Stratton, 2012) Even though there are only one or two children with challenging behaviour in a classroom but sometimes at the end of the day, it feels like you have dealt with the whole class. They always take a lot of  our time, and it is the good students who are missing out because they always get on with their work quietly.

With these training sessions I have noticed that I have utilized some of the strategies in my classroom and I have developed more classroom management strategies which helped deterring negative behaviour in the classroom. I have learnt to ignore the undesirable behaviour and focus on the positive behaviours, constantly identifying positive behaviour to eliminate negative behaviour without mentioning it.

The other strategy is to build positive relationship with the students as soon as a child sets foot in your classroom. You must always be firm but fair. I have to agree with Rita Pierson that “ Every kid needs a champion.” At the IYT course, we were shown a diagram of a triangle. At the bottom of the triangle its all about building relationships. This is the part where the teacher needs to find out more about the student and getting to know them will build up their relationship with that child. Students who have developed a good relation will look at their teacher as their hero, their champion, and they will do anything to please you just because you listen and talk to them.

Praising is the third strategy that I have learnt. It raises their confidence and  gives them raising them the boost that they need for the day. AND…

have you notice one thing about our challenging students...

they will never miss a day of school.