Mangonui School Tuatara Talks Podcast.

I was very privileged and humbled to be invited to the Mangonui school tuatara talks podcast. 

The students invited me along to be interviewed about Manaiakalani and what it was and what I do in my job. The podcast had developed out of a toolkit that Jonella attended and now thanks to her hard work and perseverance they have a weekly podcast. The BOT put financial backing to get all the technology gear and set up the old dental nurse clinic as a tech room. They are also very lucky to have a parent who is also a voice actor Toby Ricketts to support them and help get it all set up. I did find it very hard as you can not see your audience and read their facial expressions to see if you are on track and not boring them. I did get the questions beforehand and took some notes but most of the time I forgot to look at them and went off on a verbal tangent. It was a good experience and I did listen to myself when it was launched and felt I did alright. There were some controversial questions I had to be careful how I answered. I do want to keep my job!!!     

 

Term 3 Share Staff Meeting Pitomata

 For our share staff meeting in Term 3 we introduced the new Pitomato Sharing platform that has been created by Manaiakalani. It is so easy to use and to upload things straight from your drive. 

As a teacher it is also easy to monitor the posts and comments in just 2 clicks. 

We got to have our own class and account to practice and explore before we modelled with the teachers in the staff meeting. 

The responses we had from the teachers that attended were very positive and they were very excited by how easy it was to use. The junior teachers who use seesaw were only happy to change if there was an app associated and parent notifications. 

This is going to roll out next year 2027 across our Manaiakalani cluster schools. We will be saying goodbye to edublogs. I am looking forward to teaching schools how you use the platform to share Tohatoha.

Pitomata highlights the potential inherent in the learning, growth and development of an individual; and in turn sharing that to enhance potential in others through a ripple effect. The desired outcome of the promise or potential of sharing knowledge and experiences is the ability to enhance the potential of others, significantly contributing to the ongoing potential of all involved.

The word Pitomata was gifted to Manaiakalani by Susanne Simmons-Kopa, Tumuaki of Te Kura Amorangi o Whakawātea.

Te Hiku Film Festival 2026

Our seventh film festival here in our Te Hiku Schools. We had 14 Movies from all of our 9 schools. There was 3 school screenings during the day and a 5:30pm screening and prize giving. Another day loved by the students seeing themselves up on the big screen.Lots of different genre of movies all written, recorded, filmed, edited and created by the students. This is the link to the Te Hiku Film Festival site. 

 Our winners for 2026: 

Trophy for Best Film 2026 – Rahi & Tiara Paparore school 

Second best Film – The Last Kaikomako Te Hāpua 

Best Camerawork – Night with the Gods - Lola Baker Pompallier very close second Rona and the Moon Harper Pukenui 

Best lead Actor – Hey Bro - Don't Be Racist Te Koha Tahana Oturu 

Best supporting Actor - The Last Kaikomako Goats - Motu Horne-Everitt, Te Keu Weti-Norman, Wairua Piggot, Khobey Marsh, Arv'e-Louise Clark Te Hāpua 

Best Ensemble Cast – Ahipara Countdown 

Best Script – The Thread We Weave Ahipara

Trophy for most creative school display- Pukenui school The Tale of Two Sisters

Term 3 Toolkit

This term I did one around multiplicaiton Basic facts always an interesting topic. Usually rote learning verses strategy. I used a past workshop and up dated it with links to the mathematics and statistic curriculum, MoE school modules, research and Tāhurangi resources. Again I had very high registration numbers up in the 50s but again only half turning up. I did have about 3 apology emails. The workshop had good feedback. One being from a principal Richard at Panmure bridge “Thank you very much for your tool kit presentation yesterday afternoon. Just what we needed to hear and reinforced some of the messages that I have been trying to share with staff. When / if the recording is available I'll get the staff to view this. Thank you for your contribution. “ It is so nice to get an appreaciation email as you always wonder if these are worthwhile.

Apple Teacher

Completed my apple teacher course on the apple education page. It was good to go over numbers, notes, garageband some of the apps I am not familar with. Once you had gone through the training session which incuded some videos and reading then you had to sit a quizz of 5 questions and get at least 4 correct to move onto the next module. It was good to be reminded of the apple apps, tools, shortcuts and options and also learn lots of new ones.

Term 2 Manaiakalani PLD

In week 10 of term 2 we had 2 days of online PLD. Reflecting on the reading observations was good and we really needed this with something new. I would like to have spent more time on the Pitomata blogs especially as we are doing a shared staff meeting around them. I would like a Q and A sheet for Pitomata as I can not answer a lot of the questions we are going to get asked. The curriculum insights I found very rushed and not enough time to give research and readings the time they deserve. Also could not see the purpose of looking at research that related to the last curriculum not the current one. We could do with more time unpacking the curriculums themselves before looking at research about them. Going over the week 3 online google meets for our in class facilitation was good to hear from facilitators like Marea and Hiniwa who do this all the time. The tips and tricks were great. This is something that is going to be challenging in some classes. But it is so essential for students to experience and play with the tools in Google meet. It might encourage them to use it more to get remote people to join for discussions and present to the class. It was hard being online on my own again for these. In the past we met for one day in Kerikeri together as a team and had lunch together. Nice to see everyone face to face. But we were not allowed to travel so had to be on my own again. The last time we saw each other face to face was at Vaughn park. The second day was another great Fazilabaloza By Matt these are so well paced with a great balance of listening and creating in groups collaboratively. It was good to share resources and ideas for next term Smart Relationships so we don’t recreate wheels. Great apple tips and tricks. Pacifica and Te Reo Maori resources. How to create games using Gemini Canva I had already completed this for my toolkit. But it was great to see examples like class spinners and group organisers that can be created. It was good to hear from Vicki about some of the Google updates and the courses and certificates you can do through Google. She has so much swag!!! Another creative idea was using Google vids to make animations. It was nice to work with Monica. Overall a great 2 days of catching up with colleges and learning new things and being reminded about others.

Term 2 Toolkit

 This term I desiced to do something that was not Maths. So in the none contact time I choose Gemini Canva looking at creating interactive games and apps. 

It was lots of fun to explore and go to youtube channels and google to learn about the app and what creations you can make. I had 62 register for the workshop and 30 attend, Monika was a great support being my wingperson. It was also nice to get a message from Vicki to say teachers where talking about my toolkit and how great it was. This is so appreciated as sometimes you are not sure if it was worthwhile for teachers.

New Google Learning

Google has some new shart learning workshops around their apps and teaching pedogogy. They are really good with lots of ideas, videos, examples and a chance for you to have ago and trial the apps. Then you sit a short questionnaire and earn badges. I had ago at 3 of them and in our none contact time in the holidays I will have ago at some of the others around teaching and pedegogy ideas.

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.