Communities of Practice - Analyse issues - Activity 2 (School Culture etc)

My community of practice consists of my kura (Mainstream Public Primary School),  the Māori bilingual unit within I work, the Māori community, whānau that supports my kura and the students, kaiako Māori, kaiako pākehā, hapu - Ngai Tuahuriri, Iwi - Ngai Tahu, MOE, Professional Teaching community.
While there is government  push for students to achieve to National Standards in Numeracy and Literacy I have seen a change in the direction for what students might need to be focussed on.

The change or focus is now more on the "Soft Skills" or "Key Competencies" more than the Literacy and Numeracy skills. All of the major businesses in San Francisco are looking for people with these soft skills over those with great numeracy and literacy skills.

Soft Skills - Key Competencies

• Problem Solving
• Critical thinking and analysing (Thinking)
• Effective communication
• Working Collaboratively (Participating and contributing)
• Gritt (Managing Self)
• Passion and Curiosity

For me this change in direction has come about from discussion with various people and groups within my "community of practice". In particular teaching staff at Te Waka Unua, teachers on the Mind Lab course 2016, whānau of my students and more recently representatives from a group "Te Pōkai Tara o Te Ao" who represented Ngai Tahu at a conference for Māori rangatahi in San Francisco about Tech businesses.

This is one of my main goals for my tamariki:
My dream is to be able to teach  my students how to interact and realise that their culture, language and their learning can have relevance and impact on others around the world. I want my students to be able to do things that they see on Youtube, Facebook or on the News. I want them to realise that they have or will have the skills and abilities to create and develop new and different directions for the future.

I teach in a Māori bilingual unit. Many of my students are confident within themselves and are very proficient with their reo Māori and tikanga Māori.
So, my dream is for my students to learn the "soft skills" that these top companies are asking for their employees to have. Theses skills are transferable across different occupations. But apply these skills and work in these top industries as professional Māori (Standing strong as a Māori).

NZQA was in partnership with different iwi to send these rangatahi to San Francisco. A representative from NZQA had said that the STEM course should fit Māori students  because of their connection with the environment Papatuānuku and Ranginui. They are encouraging more Māori to take STEM courses

References

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Key-competencies

http://www.techlink.org.nz/stories.cfm?area=10&SID=244&CFID=22344612&CFTOKEN=3294cd6c1be2d882-EDBC1AA4-B492-9477-FC4F7E4D8C3F65B0

http://nz.educationhq.com/news/33914/so-why-the-stem-push/

http://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/whanau/opportunities/te-pokai-ao-silicon-valley-boot-camp/