GEG Aotearoa Workshops

GEG Aotearoa I received some invites from Donna Golightly to attend some workshops from the GEG Aotearoa team. So I attended one and loved the idea of quick tips around the super admin, latest updates form Google. Other great ideas, resources and classroom successes. So I have also attended another one on April 1. They are fun and send through the recording and slides. They also ask us to fill in a google form to get ideas and recommendations for up and coming workshops. The best part about it is that it is run by kiwi’s a New Zealand team of experts.

They had some great ideas and tips around google forms.

Facil-a-palooza

Thanks Matt for another great day in the holidays. It is always fun to catch up with everyone and work in small groups or pairs and build even stronger relationships with fellow facilitators from across the country. Everyone has different skills, ideas and knowledge to share and learn off. It was great to do a self assessment of our facilitator jobs and responsibilities. It was interesting on the different interpretations of some of them. It was great to discuss and clarify the create understanding of the Kaupapa of Manaiakalani especially in the busy time we are in with all the new curriculums and structured approaches to teaching this seems to be an area that is getting watered down and yet it is such an import area in students learning and deeper understanding. Is a poster creating or just transferring information onto a page? Short verses long create ideas. Loved the video challenge that we managed to complete in the time frame while all remotely across the country in a google meet. Thanks to google vids. If we can do it online, why are teachers not doing this in the classroom? Do they need to add time restraints? Clear instructions and learning intentions. As a facilitator I can add this to a cyber smart challenge. The story activity was fun and definitely got the creative juices flowing having to add to a story sentence. Again a fun easy writing activity that can be done in the classroom using google slides. Making sure they change the font colour to white only leaving the last sentence black. Using AI to create a cyber smart activity was good use of the tools and gave us another pool of resources and ideas we can use in our practice. Discussing the issues and challenges we come across and how we deal with these was also a good reminder of our roles and responsibilities in the schools we work in. Having quick and fun hands-on activities makes the day go by quickly and also gets us using the tools in exciting and innovative ways to transfer into our facilitation. Again thanks Matt for putting this together and leading the day. 🎬 48 Minute Film Festival Challenge Your challenge ⏱️ In teams, create a short film in 48 minutes. Rules Your film must be 48–60 seconds long You must use Google Vids only You may only film using a webcam (like a Chromebook) All team members must appear in the film You must include audio (dialogue, sound, or music) Your film must be original and created during the time Creative Requirements 🎥 Your film must include: A genre (you choose: comedy, horror, documentary, etc.) A required prop (assigned from the table) A line of dialogue (assigned from the table) A clear beginning, middle, and end What we’re looking for 👀 Clear storytelling Creative use of limited tools All team members actively involved Smart use of webcam, sound, and editing Something engaging or memorable These come straight from how real teams succeed: Keep the idea simple and clear Plan quickly, then start filming fast Don’t aim for perfect, aim for finished Use one strong idea, not five weak ones Make sure your audio is clear Great reminders about our in class facilitation.

Making Graphic Novels

What a fun and easy way to create innovative and engaging learning. I just watched and created a graphic novel using Gemini, note book LM and Google vids.

Eric Curts from control ALT Achieve. A fun way to learn from or motivate students or even teachers. I had ago at making one about Place Value which fitted into our current up and coming MPI day 5 to show teachers how to teach maths through fun grapic novels and turning them into a video using google vids.

Term 1 2026

What a very fast and busy term. As I returned from a very exciting and fabulous holiday sailing through the Panama canal. I didn't return to work until the second week of February and started back in classes in the third week in Feb. I hit the ground running. I caught up with Elena and helped to rewrite our MPI to aline with the current curriculum. This has been a big job and a great way to come familar with the new curriculum. I also had 2 MoE days at schools so also had to plan and organise new modules for these. Elena and myself did our toolkit for the term around planning mathematics and Statistics so we also had to plan and organise that. We had a good turn out and had positive feedback. Kiri from the research team came up for the research reflections hosted at Mangonui school and a staff meeting on PAT assessment. At the end of the term we had our great 2 days in Auckland at our Manaiakalani hui. We spent a majority of the time learning about the new Litercy observation tool. It was also great to catch up with everyone and meet the new facilitators.

Term 3 Toolkit

Another popular and great toolkit. With the new mathematics and statistics curriculum being slowly rolled out to schools any maths PLD linked to the new curriculum is what teachers want. It is also good for me to put them together and link it to the new curriculum. Unpacking and diving in to the phases and teaching sequece statements.

Generative AI for Educators with Gemini certificate

Being a very stormy wet weekend and sick of watching movies I completted the Google Gemini certificate. It was good to learn about the Prompts and how important they are in getting what you wont and changing and adding till you get what you wont. It was good to see the updates and changes. It was also good to experience and tial things as you went through the course. It is good to keep up to date as AI is changing at such a quick pace.

Google Summit

We started the journey on Sunday with a five-hour drive to Auckland Zana, my daughter and myself. We did manage to get a few hours of shopping in on the way down. I also treated us to accommodation at the Horizon hotel which was lovely. On the first day of the holidays Monday 22 September we attended the Google summit at Albany high in Auckland. It was such a great event with lots of great presenters from around the world. The keynote speaker was Eric Curt from the USA I have followed him online and used a lot of his work in the past. I was also lucky enough while I was at ISTE in Denvor last year to attend some of his workshops face to face so I was looking forward to hearing from him again and attending some of his workshops in Auckland. I also attended gemini, Note take LM, Google vids in movie making, and Chromebook tools. It was also great to catch up with the team and other teachers face to face. It was also nice to be sitting and learning and not presenting. A very worthwhile day even though we didn’t win any swag.