Implementing Matihiko

Staffing 24 classes of year 9's and 10's (1 period a week) was always going to be a challenge. If anyone has ever done timetabling at a secondary school before, its one big intractable problem! There are too many variables... teacher's classes, student's classes, specialist classrooms, limited periods etc. The way it worked out for us was that our timetable was changed so juniors (year 9 and 10) were moved to have 4 periods a week of each subject, except PE and Health, where they had 3 periods and the 4th period became Matihiko. 

We started by asking volunteers who wanted to teach Matihiko. However, teachers first priority is to their own subject areas, so none of these teachers ended up with spare time to pick up an extra period or two. So we ended up with a list of teachers who had a spare hour or more. These teachers were approached to take Matihiko... with the promise of an amazing, planned program to engage students. Of course they all agreed (who wouldn't?). Its also a good way for the teachers themselves to upskill.

So a total of 17 teachers, including us 4 Digital Technologies teachers, ended up with Matihiko classes. I started with a session on the Teacher Only day in January, where I summarised the course overview for teachers and went over the content for the first 10 lesson unit of work. 

Delivering the lessons

We are a google school and use schoology for our learning management system. This allowed us to create slides and worksheets, then I added all the content into schoology including "assignments" for submitting small tasks and end of topic assessment tasks. Teachers were able to copy the content into their own course. Some careful naming of resources made it really clear and easy for teachers. I also shared the google folder with them which contains videos and extra resources.

Above is an example of what teachers load into their course. The teachers have given lots of complements and gratitude on the great resources we've provided. Note that the lessons are labelled "lesson", not week, teachers are able to work through at their own pace.

Keeping in Touch with Teachers

I've made it really clear to teachers that I'm always available to assist with lessons, trouble shoot etc. I also have a subset of Matihiko teachers who meet with me twice a term during our PD session. We are able to discuss issues, practice with tools they might not be familiar with and look ahead at what's to come in the program. These sessions are really valuable. I also touched base with every Matihiko teacher early in term 2 to go through the second unit, which includes teaching Binary - way outside some of the English teachers comfort zone! And will do the same in Term 3 for the third unit.

I'm extremely grateful to the teachers who are willing to deliver this program, for most, its completely new. With clear teaching materials and support it is going well. The most difficult part has been gaining a meaningful relationship with students who you only see for 1 hour once a week.