Combined Teacher Only Day

We have had a great start to the year with a Combined Te Hiku and Kiakohekohe cluster Teacher Only Day at the Treaty of Waitangi grounds.This is the first time we have combined together for this day. We had around 140 teachers come for the day. Being the first day back for teachers the request was not to have our teachers being spoke at for long periods of time. The teachers wanted hands on practicle based activities that where not for to long. We put an agenda together at the end of last year utilising on local talents and experts. Thanks to Monica and her great team from the education centre at the TOW and also the great staff from Tautoro School who bought along there resources and shared the great teaching and learning they are presenting at their school. The day was made more special being held at such a spiricial and sacrid place. The feedback and conversation were very positive and enthusiastic. Nexts years TOD will be combinded again and be held in the Te Hiku cluster area we have started conversations allready as it will be hard to bet the great day we had this year. This was the agenda for the day and some photos.

Hapara Champion Educator

For the past 6 weeks I have been participating in the Hapara Champion Educator course online. It was worthwhile completting the course to get a good understanding of the Kaupapa of the whole program and why it was created. It is quite humbling to know it was created in New Zealand for Manaiaklani and is now a world wide resource very popular in th USA and Canadian schools. It was a good reminder to learn about how to use Dashboard and highlights especially the clear formative assesment purpose of them. The most I learnt was about Workspaces as I have not used or created many so it was good to get to create a resource in workspaces and practise using all the great tools available. I enjoyed the course so much I have registered for the next level Hapara Scholar which starts in January 2021.

Amplify Basic Facts Online Toolkit

 Term 3 toolkits I decided to do another workshop based around Mathematics and statistics. My last ones were very popular and seem to be of high demand. So I choose Basic Facts always an area of need and concern. I started it in lockdown so I had my site I developed already started and just needed to add to it. My big idea was how to link the creation into the teaching of basic facts and using a lot more of the online manipulatives to model number sense and understanding of the facts. I had 57 registered to attend and had 36 turn up for the hangout. I was concerned that it would become a lecture at that high number and still wanted to include some activities. So I included a padlet to assess what our teachers are using currently to teach the Basic facts. I then decided to give an activity at the end so the teachers had a chance to be in the students' shoes. I got some great feedback. 

Great Sense Making with WFRC.

Going to online hangout meets for the sense-making was a great move. With the leaders joining at 1.30pm to 3pm going over the writing and Maths data and then the teachers in the Te Hiku cluster joining at 3.15am to review the Reading data. Having also unpacked the Te Hiku cluster data at the week before leaders PLG saved a lot of time doing this in the sense-making meeting. This also helped to support the WFRC team to present the data. Kerry and I organised the break out sessions for the teachers to be sharing time. Sharing what they are currently doing for HLPs in their classroom reading programs. The WFRC also created a short video on HLPs to share with staff to remind them of what they are, which was very helpful. I think it was more successful as teachers were not sitting and listening for such long periods of time and listening to data talk. The talking related to what is actually going on in classrooms, they were getting ideas and resources they can take back and introduce into their classroom work. They were also getting reassurance.

Level 2 Tomorrow

Thursday 14 May we move to Level 2 retail shops can open again, gyms, hairdressers (I am booked for next Friday lucky I am not grey yet!!!) Restaurants, and beauticians, normality in the economic sector start. Schools go back on Monday 18th May.  At the moment with the distancing of a meter still in place and staggering lunchtime and morning teas, I am not wanted back till the following week the 25 May. Schools and Teachers want to settle students back into routines and socializing but hardest of all the health and safety regulations. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!!!!!! So I carry on working from home. It is starting to send me into a mental state, I am missing company and people. Stuck in a house for nearly 9 weeks is a long time. You get very lonely and bored with your own company very easily.
There has been some good distance learning happening a lot of teachers are enjoying it. What changes will schools make or do differently when schools are back?  Some great relationships have been established with whanau and this needs to continue it is a partnership between the whanau, and school to educate children. Will our very capable self motivated students be able to drive their own learning more and not have to wait for the teacher.  Will school devices be sent home and used more to enhance the learning. these great articles have been coming out which are a good read.

Digital learning 2025
Classroom or Community

DFI By Hangout Through Lock Down.

Today Friday 27 March day 2 of the lockdown Manaiakalani did a DFI (Digital fluency Intensive) by google hangout from all across New Zealand. Dorothy leads the day and lots of facilitators were there to support and lead some presentations. Everyone was asking questions in the comments. Then for the leveling up sessions 2 or 3 participants were paired up with a facilitator and we went into our own hangouts and supported small groups through setting up a google form and google sheets. The small groups worked well with them being able to share their screens and me talking them through things. Then I could also share my screen and model for them and they could follow on their device. Having 2 devices for the day made it a lot easier to follow the slide show and the speaker and comments. With the corona 19 lockdown teachers are being forced to use their devices and are stepping up and taking more risks and trying new things. They are going outside their comfort zones. They realize after the 2-week break which starts today, when school goes back on Wednesday 15 April we will still be in lockdown and will be doing learning through distance learning on the class learning site.

Online toolkit

This week I presented my online toolkit on Amplify Talk Moves. It was great to get back into my Mathematics and statistics hat. This presentation I made a very hands-on one with the teachers doing exactly what you would get the students to do. It was hard to judge the time as it is teachers, not students completing the activities. Some of the main areas, I wanted to emphasize was the purpose and big idea of the lesson. We also looked at a couple of tools to help amplify the student's voice and discussed and shared ideas of how we could turbocharge the get ideas and voice of the students. I felt it went well and feel after looking at the cluster data Maths and statistics is an area we need to focus on.

Blog Post Analysis

This week I have been working with students completing Robyn Anderson from Panmure Bridge,
her wonderfull lesson on statistical analysis on blog posts.  I role modeled my graph with the students and we unpacked my graphs. I am working in January but not in schools so I have lots of time to catch up on readings, research and investigating other great ideas and work. So I have the time to post to my blog. December is my busiest month so didn't have the time to share to my blog.
My goal for this year is to increase my posts from about 2 a month up to at least 6 a month. This means I need to take the time to share and it can be a mixture of things. This is a good challenge for me and I know I can do it.