Media Literacy with Julie Smith

 I just watched another great webinar online ditch summit. Julie Smith presented a great worshop on Media Literacy and the ever changing media world our students live in. She really made me think about how I work in the cybersmart curriculum we have and how our students world online and how they connect and relate. Our students live in a short form video world of flashy and exciting quick videos. Are we helping, coaching, and supporting them to understand the context? We need to stop worrying about the content and talk about the process. I also learnt what Smishing is, text message phishing the key topic is missed connections. We need to be teaching coping skills and how to deal with the ever changing tech world and how to keep themselves safe. Learn about the laws, the small print and rules of apps and games they are signing up to. How to self track, and use google reverse image search. A great hour of thought provoking and good questions to think about. 

Why is Tic Tok different in China than the rest of the world?

ISTE 2024

This year for the first time Manaiakalani announced 2 opportunities for facilitators to apply for fellowships to attend the ISTE Conference in Denver in 2024. I decided you had to be in to win, I probably wouldn't get chosen as we have lots of very good academic people that would write amazing applications. So with the wonderful support of AI tools Bard and ChatGPT I added the application questions and got some interesting answers and different ways of looking at the questions. So I pulled out the key points of both AI tools and then added my personal touch to the answers. I had just got back from my leave on Saturday and the application was due on Sunday. So I spent a few hours putting it all together and sent in my application. To my surprise I got an email from Jenny to tell me that I had been accepted and would be off to the conference. I was very shocked and also very excited. I danced around the house and rang my husband and daughter to let them know.

We leave on Friday 21 June 2024 and return Sunday 30 June the conference is 23-26 June so we have a couple of days to have a look around Dener. The countdown is on.

Term 4 Toolkit Mathigon

 After my BOI Summit workshop on creativity in Maths I decided to unpack one of the apps I modelled in more details. So in the holidays I choose Mathigon mainly because the manipulatives on there are so amazing and easy to use. So I upskilled myself by watching all the turorital videos and practicing all the fantastics opportunities to use this site in your maths lessons. Also another very attractive reason it is free and not only can be used in your brouser but also apple and android apps available that are also free.

Being term 4 I did not have a lot register my numbers where down to only 12 and knowing from the past that meant I would probably only get half turn up. This time I was wrong only 5 turned up. One registered person did do the professional thing and email me to say they could not make it. Thanks Penny from Paihia. The 45 minutes was probably not long enough to show everything as there is far to much but they did get a better insite into all the things that area available and the turtorial videos are there to rewind back to and watch if needed. 

Having my workshop at the same time as the Melbourne cup was on was probably not a good idea either.

Wananga 2023

 This year thanks to our convenor John and the embarrassment of only 3 of us there last year. We had a good turn out of representatives from the Te Hiku cluster, 7 of our schools were represented and Diane from the Te Hiku Trust. 

I travelled down on Tuesday night and stayed the night. This was much better than trying to get the early flight from Kerikeri. I was fresh and alert for the day. We went over the researches presentation as a group of facilitators. We also looked at the activities we would be supporting our clusters to complete. This was a good opportunity to ask questions and clarify things that the leaders would ask. Also a good opportunity to up skill ourselves in areas we were not to sure about or experts in. The bonus was our research team on the day was only a viber chat away. 

That night we had our christmas dinner at the Panmure Yacht club and farewelled some very special people Makore, Cheryl and Anne. With a busy 2 days ahead of us I was not up to late night so we got dropped off by the wonderful Andrea in the van. 

Using the theatre this year was great to hear the speakers and a very big screen to view the slides. The theatre was comfortable and also stopped leaders from working on their computers. The presentations where to the point and perfectly timed. Then we moved to break out rooms to work as a cluster. We had great discussion and conversations around the data. Some leaders did need training in how to navigate their way around edpotentail. Our cluster realised the importance of 5 or more observations in each school to get school data and would make a better effort next year to achieve this. 

The first day was a great success and a nice surprise with an open bar thanks to BP tech. It was a real treat to sit outside in the sun catching up with leaders and colleagues over a few drinks. Then off to dinner in the restaurant which was beautiful. It was very crowded and hard to talk as it was very noisy. I snuck off after dinner for a early night with another big day ahead of us.

The next day our cluster at dinner had convinced John to carry on in the convenors role and Sacha would take it on in 2025. Which is great and I really enjoy working with John. He is collaborative and very well respected amongst the leaders and educators in Te Hiku.  

It was a fantastic event our cluster had great robust discussions and set some goals across the cluster for 2024. Our leaders that came really enjoyed the 2 days and felt they had a much better understanding of Manaiakalani and the great resources and oportunities there are available for the teachers and schools. They also realised how innovative and forward thinking Manaiakalani is and how lucky they are to be part of the fantastic program. I myself also came away feeling motivated and enthusiastic as our cluster is positive and paddling our waka in the same direction. 

Move over Jamboard FigJam is moving in.

 Google has announced that they will not be having Jamboard as one of their tools as of the end of next year. I am not a prolific user of Jamboard but I do model and use it as a collaboration tool in lots of my in class facilitation and in toolkits and presentations. 

It has been interesting to look at what is being promoted as an alternative to Jamboard. I watched an interesting presentation be Alice Keller, Laureen McCann and David Curran on Move Over Jamboard-Meet Figjam. I was very impressed with Figjam it can do so much more than Jamboard could do and it is free. You can also upgrade to the Education version for free and it was quick. You can add video and links, you can drag and drop images, google docs, slides, sheets. It has an infinite canvas which was the hardest thing to get my head around, it has no pages but you can add sections to your canvas and group them so they appear next to each other in a nice order. Even better and more helpful you can right click and get a copy link to the sections. There is also so many templates available for you to use. It had lots of fun with the extras like stamps that you can personalise, sticky notes and extra widgets and Plugins. A great tool that is easy to share with students and collaborate. A great easy to use tool. Now to investigate some of the other collaborative tools that are being suggested as an alternative to jamboard. Mural, Whimsical and Canva.

Bay of Islands Summit 2023

 This year the summit was held in the Bay of Islands and the venue was the Bay of Islands college at kawakawa. With a focus on inovation with tech, effective teaching practice and cultural capability. Unfortunaly we did not have the nice warmth of the Cook Islands. Also this year was the first 2 days of the holidays 25 and 26 September. I booked into the bay of islands accomodation and the hilghlight for me was Zana my daughter who is a teacher at Levin Intermediate was comming again and this time bringing most of her staff from her school. Monday started of with a very nice powhiri and the key note speaker was Edith the principal of BOI College. Then lots of great sessions to choose from and it was nice to choose on the day and not have to register before the event. My first presentation was creativity in Maths which was very popular and they where turning away educators as numbers where capped at 25 and the door was closed when numbers reached their limit. With lots of great feedback and thanks it was nice to have the first one over and done but also good to hear the relevance of the ideas and resources shared. The sun came out and the afternoon was beautiful as Zana and I headed off to the Waitangi treaty grounds to do the tour. Having been there many times to the education center and for eduction TOD I had not done a tour or had a good look around in many years. It was so special, the place has a very peaceful feel about it and so much Wairua. It was very suprising the amount of teachers that have never been there before. The Levin teachers loved it and where real tourists. The next day was another great day of wonderfull workshops and my other workshop Google Earth was also packed and well recieved by teachers. The panel disscussion was interesting with the big common factor being AI. Unfortunately no prizes won this year, after lots of good byes and hugs we headed home to Coopers beach in the pouring rain and very cold tempertures.  Lots of positive talk from teachers saying how good the 2 days where and how much they had got out of the 2 days I would say it was another very successful summit.

Te Hiku 4th Film Festival

Another very successful Te Hiku Film festival. On Wednesday 13 September we held our 4th Film Festival at the Te Ahu Cinema in Kaitaia. We had three sessions during the day for the schools to attend and a 5:30 pm session for the Whanau and prize giving. We had 14 3 minute movies from 8 of our 9 schools. This year we did not have a theme or topic we left in open with the idea that teachers would embed movie making into their teaching and learning throughout the year and choose one for the festival. This did not happen; they all waited until term 3 to start their films. Some schools did integrate it into their learning topic. I just love watching the reactions of the students on the red carpet even the cool kids transform into a star role as soon as they step on it. The cheering, laughing, clapping and yelling from the audience is also fantastic to hear. Watching the students look at themselves on the big screen through the gaps of their fingers over their faces, pointing and yelling each other's names as they appear. This is what makes all the hard work and time to organise it so worthwhile. We had a mixture of genres of movies from music videos, documentaries, humour and history. Our winning film this year was from Mangonui School which was a music video to go with the song they had written and composed. They had also used an AI app to get great effects. These were the winners at the prize giving. Best Film 2023 – Mangonui School-"Get Down With Us" Second best Film –(2nd equal) Kaingaroa School-The River & Ngataki School-Tumatahina Trophy for most creative school display-Ahipara School Best Script – Tumatahina Best Camerawork –Mangonui School - “Get Down With Us” Best lead Actor – Matteo Noema-Wakarua -who played Manu Ahipara School Best supporting Actor-Jimmy Heighway -Whaea Jasmine Best Ensemble Cast – Tumatahina This is the link to our Te Hiku Site where you access all the movies from. 

It was a very long day but so worth it when you watch the very creative movies and see those faces on and off the screen.

Term 3 online toolkit Getting Creative in Maths.

Another toolkit completted, I have noticed in my searching cluster sites and the edublog search there is not alot of create happening in Mathematics and statistics.So I desided to put together a workshop to look at how we can get creative in Maths. I looked at all the amazing tools we are already using and how we can transfer them across the the math curriculum. I linked in past toolkits for teachers to watch and learn from if needed. Where I could find examples on blog posts I also linked them in as exemplars. Again there was a high registration number in the 50s as maths is something teachers want. Fiona Fox our new Maths Facilitator was my wing person and shared her expertise. Fiona is in the process of writing the MPI that will be out for trial next Feb. she commented on alot of great ideas she got out of the workshop she can embedd into the MPI. The feedback was great and teachers loved the resources and creative ideas they can introduce in the maths and statistic curriculum.

Maths design group

With great appreciation and recognition of experince I was invited to be part of the Manaiakalani Maths design group. A group of maths experts accross all the Manaiakalani clusters are meeting with the research team in Auckland this week. We where given 3 readings to read and unpack before we meet. I am really looking forward to the 2 days and will share some of the outcomes. This is a real need accross schools with varied types of mathematics and satistics teaching being implemented. I am also looking froward to again working with Fiona Fox a previous work collegue and good friend who is leading the Maths Research at Manaiakalani. Using Culturally embedded problem-solving tasks to promote equity within mathematical inquiry communities. Orchestrating productive mathematical discussions: Five practices for helping teachers move beyond show and tell. BES Effective pedagogy in mathematics Using Culturally embedded problem-solving tasks to promote equity within mathematical inquiry communities. Home and cultural contexts and connections. Strength based approach Understanding the cultural values and beliefs which shapes the students Transformative approach-mathematical practices and the use of contextually based problem solving tasks. Home cultures and values become learning tools Complex and challenging problem solving tasks Make connections between different pieces of maths, devise their own solution strategies and explore different solution pathways. High level reasoning and justification. Engagement. Students see maths in their everyday lives. Contextual tasks-Relationships and connectedness Cultural connectedness=active participants Discourse-student voice, teacher questioning to gain deeper learning and conceptual understanding. Orchestrating productive mathematical discussions: Five practices for helping teachers move beyond show and tell. anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and making connections between student responses. facilitating mathematical discussions that are launched through cognitively demanding mathematical tasks—problems that promote conceptual understanding and the development of thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills (Doyle, 1983, 1988; Henning-sen & Stein, 1997; Hiebert & Wearne, 1993; Stein, Grover, & Henningsen,1996). Teachers require content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and knowledge of students as learners (1) anticipating likely student responses to cognitively demanding mathematical tasks, (2) monitoring students’ responses to the tasks during the explore phase, (3) selecting particular students to present their mathematical responses during the discuss-and-summarize phase, (4) purposefully sequencing the student responses that will be displayed, and (5) helping the class make mathematical connections between different students’ responses and between students’ responses and the key ideas. Launch-explore-discuss By giving teachers a roadmap engaging their students in the discussion of a cognitively challenging mathematical task. BES Effective pedagogy in mathematics 1. An ethic of care, Trusting classroom communities, High realistic expectations, think, reason, communicate, reflect upon, and critique the mathematics they encounter; respecting and valuing the mathematics and the cultures that students bring to the classroom. Safe environment. Inclusive classroom. Teachers care. Connections to culture and home. 2. Arranging for learning, Independently, whole class, pairs, groups. Mixed ability groups. encourage higher level thinking. 3. Building on students’ thinking, students’ current knowledge and interests at the centre of their instructional decision making. Engaging students and the ability to extend through posing questions, and designing new tasks to challenge and extend thinking. Mistakes are building blocks. 4. Worthwhile mathematical tasks, design learning experiences and tasks to engage and extend mathematical thinking that connects to concepts, understanding and meaning. Think for themselves. Think deeply about math ideas and connections. students to make and test conjectures, pose problems, look for patterns, and explore alternative solution paths. Open-ended and Effective teachers understand that the tasks and examples they select influence how students come to view, develop, use, and make sense of mathematics. modelling tasks, in particular, require students to interpret a context and then to make sense of the embedded mathematics. Students need opportunities to practice what they are learning, whether it be to improve their computational fluency, problem solving skills, or conceptual understanding. Skill development can often be incorporated into “doing” mathematics; 5. Making connections, Multi connections within and across different areas and real life. Multi solutions and representations. 6. Assessment for learning, Range of assessment tasks to make students thinking visible. Formal and informal. Teacher questioning. Feedback. Self and peer assessment. 7. Mathematical Communication, Explain and justify, defend positions, examine conjectures, disagreements, and counterarguments. learn how to use mathematical ideas, language, and methods. As attention shifts from procedural rules to making sense of mathematics, students become less preoccupied with finding the answers and more with the thinking that leads to the answers.students to communicate their ideas orally, in writing, and by using a variety of representations. 8. Mathematical language, use and understanding of the terminology that is endorsed by the wider mathematical community. They do this by making links between mathematical language, students’ intuitive understandings, and the home language.Explicit language instruction. Link to home language and multilingual 9. Tools and representations, range of representations and tools to support their students’ mathematical development. Thinking tools. New technologies. 10. Teacher knowledge, Teacher content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

DFI Term 2

DFI has just come to an end for term 2 which is sad as I really enjoy being a coach one day a week. I get to work with a great team of coaches that include other Manaiakalani facilitators and also teachers from schools. As a team we meet on a Wednesday afternoon for planning and had a reflection meeting after the day on a Thursday. This term I had a much bigger bubble group with a mixture of secondary, primary and junior teachers. I also had a wide level of expertise in the group. Just like in a classroom I had a mixed ability group of learners and just like in the classroom I spent more time with the lower level experts than with my top level experts. I was challenged regularly by the secondary teacher as there planning is done for them and their class site is set up for them so they did not have any input into that. Which I did ask how they differentiated the learning and catered for all the different learning needs in the class. Which they said was there job to do in the classroom teaching. As a primary trained teacher I strugle with this. But it was not my job to debate this kind of set up I was there to coach DFI. Some of the bubble group struggled with the blogging and reflecting on the day which we had to disscuss the point of us being role models for our students and experiencing how some of the students feel. Through ignoring the moaning, complainng and loud sighing they did complete their 9 blog posts. The one embarrassing moment that one of my bubble group got caught, (thought they had there camera turned off had told us they where not feeling well) was laid back in the lazy boy playing on the playstation. I was speechless (which does not happen very often) and didn't quite know what to say. But one of the others in the bubble group unmuted and loudly commented you forgot to turn off your camera and we can see you playing on your playstation Obviously not as sick as you said you where. Nothing else was needed to be said. The fun of working online in others houses. I also challenged myself this DFI round and had ago at presenting aspects I have not presented before. I am not part of the DFI next term as the day clashes with a busy day so I might be able to be part of term 4 DFI. Everyday on DFI there is always something new to learn and share. A new update or tip. Thanks Vicki and the team for another great DFI.

Term 2 Online Toolkits

This term I choose to do my toolkit on google Earth. In the holidays I researched and experimented with all the different tools and options on how to use google Earth in the classroom. I also watched you tube clips and looked at Eric Curts amazing site and work he produces. 

I had 27 register for my workshop and choose the first night of the 3 days of toolkits. This time I did choose the 4:30pm session time instead of the usual 3:30 pm. Lucky I did as there was a major car accident at Kaingaroa and the road was closed and I had to go back into Kaitaia and travel home by Fairburns road and through Peria which added an each hour to getting home. 

Today at a school I got some great feedback from some teachers that attended and they could not get over the amount of resources and how realistic the imagery was. They where also blown away with the street view and ability to look around inside museums and shopping malls. Both where planning Google Earth projects around shared books in their classes.  

With an early finish today due to teachers at a union meeting I also got to watch the recording of Cheryls toolkit on chromes screencast. 

Walking Stories of Te Hiku TOD

First day of term 2 and the teachers in the Te Hiku Kahui Ako had a teacher only day. A first for our schools in the Far North, a ground breaking day for our students and teachers. The first hui lead by our iwi in Te Hiku for all schools. We had a  powhiri onto the Te Rangi Aniwaniwa kura by their students and kaiako. The first key note speaker was by Anahera Herbert Graves talking about the history of Te Tiriti and the Ngapuhi. The next speaker was Shane Jones who I have heard talk many times and new we would enjoy it. He is such a good story teller, with great history and humour. He told the story of Te Kāinga Ngāi Takoto the land we where on. We then had break out sessions run by the different iwi Te Aupouri, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Takoto. We heard the stories of each of the iwi. Then we had the Iwi panel answering questions.

This was a great day to have everyone together hearing the stories from all the iwi. We heard a lot of the what they want us as teachers to tell the students in the classrooms and the why, the only thing that is missing is the how and the resources to support the what? Who are the experts in our iwi, the story tellers the come in and correctly tell the stories. We need more books, songs, videos, podcasts for teachers to tell the stories. So our students can learn who they are and where they come from. They can learn their Whakapapa and about their turangawaewae. So they can locate themselves and where they belong, how they got here. The significance of their iwi stories is vital to understand who you are.

This was a fantastic start to the histories of Te Hiku, the stories of significance and connecting our tamariki. Faces where put to names and great people with amazing talents where show cased. I am looking forward to the follow up workshops, resources and Teacher Only days that will develop out of this.

Digital Fluency Intensive Coach term 1

I was lucky enough to be a coach for the online Digital Fluency Intensive for term 1. I managed to change my timetable to fit all my teachers in over 4 days. For the full 9 weeks I was a coach and had a bubble group of teachers I supported and guided and got to build a great relationship with over the 9 weeks. I had a mixture of male and female primary and secondary teachers with a varried level of knowledge of Google apps and Manaiakalani kaupapa. I pushed myself to take some of the sessions for the whole of DFI participants this was great to keep me upto date with all the changes and upgrades. Also the challenge to keep to the time limits. This took some practice as it is so easy to go over time and also a challenge to not rush and talk to fast. Our leader Vicki is so professional to work with and encourages and supports us to take sessions and offers time to go over the workshops if we need. Having the reflection time as facilitators after each day is great to disscuss, change and follow up emails to teachers or facilitators working in the schools to follow up. The feed back was great to read and nice to have some specific to myself "I loved my bubble group. I felt very fortunate to have a group of teachers that had a mix of genders (we have no male teachers at our kura), spread across Aotearoa, spread across year levels/experience. It was SO interesting to hear the experiences of everyday teaching life in all these different environments and Donna was an amazing facilitator that was able to share her knowledge of how Manaiakalani DFI might help us meet some of our personalised challenges/goals/expectations for learners." "Donna was an amazing bubble leader. Was always helping and finding ways to create good and thought provoking discussion." Next term I am able to be a coach again and am looking forward to my next bubble group and pushing myself more and taking some of the workshops I am not confident with to learn and extend myself. I feel confident to do this with such great facilitators and Vicki that will jump in an help at anytime.

Te Mātaiaho The refreshed New Zealand Curriculum

 

I attended the MOE webinar on Te Mātaiaho The refreshed New Zealand Curriulum on Thursday 23 March. I attended one when it first came out and it was good to hear it again and some of the changes they have made since than. I think it is about time Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the local comunity, iwi and inclusive of all ākonga is better embeded into school curriculums and strategic plans. The story behind the develoment of whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho is very beautiful and good to hear from Dr Wayne Ngata himself and how it is the foundation of the Te Mātaiaho and the meaning of the 7 curriculum components. I need to spend some time going over it again and watching the video again. I also need to go to the web site and look at the resources they have available. It will be good when more resources and progressions are out over the year to put the components together and understant the Whakapapa through to the ākonga in the classroom. It will be good to unpack the new phases of learning and progression out comes and steps. The progression out come describes what ākonga should Understand, Know and Do at each phase of learning. Which fits very nicely with the Learn, create and share pedegogy of Manaiakalani.

Introducing Google Screencast for ChromeOS

Started introducing this app to the students this week. Such a game changer and so easy to use. 

We needed to change the keyboard to English USA which was simple enough. It also would only work on chromebooks with 103 version or later. The great part of using google screencast app is they save to the drive and are not limited. We have always used the screencasitify extension which was a great app but it is limited to 10 a month and only limited to 5 minutes. The activity we did today with the students was to record the great chicken coup designs they had made on Tinkercad and show all the component's on the design and explain them while recording the design in tinkercad and show the 3D design and zoom in to each component. The students gave good feedback on the activity and the app. If they where working in a group they had to have verbal input from everyone in the group in the recording. 

They did need to remember to check the sharing permissions on the recordings are set to anyone with the link can view as some we could not see on their blog posts. I will be using this resource more in the create side of my pedagogy. To gather student voice and create rewindable resources.  

Online Toolkit Term 1 2023

 Term 1 toolkit I decided to introduce digital escape rooms. I had created one as part of the summer Learning Journey activities and thought I would turn it into a toolkit. I already had the videos I had created for the SLJ so could repurpose them and teach the teachers in the toolkit. I put it as a beginners and after the toolkit I should have had it as an intermediate level. So teachers struggled with some of the technology tools.  Especially the google form validation process. I had created a digital escape room for the kawa of care, I have trialed it with a year 7 class and they enjoyed it and gave me positive feedback. It was great to have the teachers share and email me some of their escape rooms. It is a great creative learning digital process for learning that can be integrated into any curriculum area.  For our digital proficient students we could also add digital escape rooms as part of the Hanga.

 

ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence.

This has been at the forefront of the media with lots of controversy and panic. As a team we had OMG Tech come to one of our Friday Meetings and introduce us to it and discuss the pros and cons of ChatGPT.We also had lots of readings shared with us. All I can say is mind blowing and what a time saver. I can see so much time being saved and ideas for starting points for lots of work. I also had the opportunity to introduce it to the Te Hiku cluster at the term one AKO staff meeting. I was surprised that no one had tried it and the only comments made about it was from teachers doing University papers. They where told form the university that it was a bad thing and to stay away from it and not to use it. After introducing it and watching some videos I gave the teachers some time to experiment with it. There was lots of Wows and shock on how it can be such a time saver for teachers. I also head of a teacher using in a class with the students this week. I can not wait to the next update and other new AI introduction's and improvements.    The one things we must remember is it is not 100% correct. It will also never replace the classroom teacher. Some other great resources and readings Ditch that text book.  OMG Tech,  Adapt to ChatGPT with Art.

 

Relationship Building

It is so important to bulid relationships with the students in your classrooms. I may only be in the classes for 1 hour a week but the students see me in the school and other classes. They also see me in the community. So this year I made a google drawing to introdcue myself with my Pepeha and photos and information about myself. Connections where made with many students also coming from the some iwi and having very simular pepeha. But over all my cat was the winner on the day. As I vist each week I am often asked how my cat Tutu is.

Te Hiku and Kaikohekohe Symposium

A great, successful day! We didn't have to good of a start with arriving at 8 am to set up the power was off. As everyone was arriving and with us about to start the room was very dark and still no power. The power company was contacted and no time could be given as they were still trying to find the fault. With a chat with the big wigs and presenters we choose to go ahead with Fraser the keynote speaker to start in the dark. He was given permission to carry on over his time if the power was still off. Options where discussed to moving to Oruaiti school where the power was on. We decided to wait and be optimistic the power will come back on in time. So in true Northland style we laughed and carried on with hope. Someone was on our side with 10 minutes to go with the keynote speaker, the power came on. With a big cheer from our crowd of enthusiastic teachers the day was to go as planned. It was a fantastic day with great presenters and lots of learning happening. The conversations from the teachers was very positive and lots of thank-yous. The food for morning tea and lunch was also to a good standard and lots of it. When we packed up at the end of the day and everyone headed off home with their knowledge kete full. I have to admit I was relieved and exhausted. There is a huge amount of work and organsiation that goes to setting up a day like this for 155 teachers. You don't realise the pressure that is put on your shoulders for it to be successful. Then to add an extra stress I had to head home and get organised for a big dinner out for 15 people for my son's 21st dinner. I can admit I slept well that night.