After rising to the glorious views of Monument Valley this morning we spent the day on the road to Flagstaff. On our way we detoured to Chinle on the Navajo reservation to have a korero with Michelle Woody a teacher at Chinle Elementary School. She teaches reading in grades 5&6. It was
interesting learning about what teachers teach at this level and how they teach it. I had many questions about the 'standards' which they tested every two weeks and the curriculum. My wonderings were about how the curriculum and the standards fit together...were they teaching to the test or to the curriculum. With the many sites and documents she shared I was astounded by the amount of admin work that she did to monitor student's progress and check and recheck standards. Michelle and her team had an obvious passion for the progress of the children they teach and listening to her speak about her students she obviously knew them and their families very well. She was certainly grounded in her community and appeared to love her job her community.
On reflection of our conversation with Michelle and the system she works in, I questioned the New Zealand system we work in, the curriculum we teach and how we teach it. Would I be happy teaching to the test? Could the rigid structure their system provides be what children in New Zealand need? Does this rigidity better set up students for the rigidity of secondary school and
university? How are individuals not impacted negatively if they are labeled as struggling learners early in their schooling? How can a rigid system not label learners as they go through their schooling? What about specialist teachers? At Michelle's school she taught reading, another teacher taught maths and another taught writing. Each taught 90 minutes a day so children rotated through their room. Following the core subject areas, children had electives where all the other subjects were taught. Children had PE daily but culture, music and art were timetabled for every four weeks for 40 mins...does this extinguish the opportunity for students to grow in their passions in other areas? I was mindblown by their system and would love to have had some time in the school to really dig into what and how they taught to see it in action.
Back on the road we headed to Flagstaff, it was a long couple of hours but gave me an opportunity to put some thoughts on paper. I will never get used to the vastness of this land...there is such beauty in its rugged flats and rocky formations. Like we look out across the ocean from most places at home, here you out across endless landscapes that change colour at every horizon reached. When we finally hit Flagstaff we decompressed with a swim and a spa, then went to meet Monica, another friend from the res of Nardi's. We went out to dinner where Monica told us a little about life on the res. Her brief little stories were a prelude to our intended podcast planned with her tomorrow. I can't wait to korero with her...she has so many fascinating stories to get into with us.
On that note...after a long day of travel it's time for sleep.
NARDI
Our visit to Chinle Elementary School only made me want to break into the song - There are more questions than
answers (Johnny Nash, 1972)
There are more questions than answers
Pictures in my mind that will not show
There are more questions than answers
And the more I find out the less I know
Yeah, the more I find out the less I know
For every piece of information shared, I had 2 - 3 questions wanting a deeper understanding. I don’t think Michelle Woody was expecting such an intense time but I am grateful my friend accommodated her kiwi guests. In general it appeared to be very much teaching the test, teaching to the whole class, narrow scope across the curriculum, high administrative workload on the teachers part.
If this is the pathway New Zealand is heading down, I worry about the creative and kinesthetics learners who sit in
our class seeing the world through a different set of lenses?
How will we keep learning exciting in such a structured environment? Or teaching exciting for that matter?
Does this approach fit the brainwaves of our maori tamariki? The current system seems to be failing them
according to the data being bounced around in the media so why not try something new? BUT the kura kaupapa
have data to support their learning approach?
There’s that song again in my head - “there are more questions than answers”
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