Digital Connections

13.2.18

WFRC feedback

It was great to hear Dr Rebecca Jesson sharing the Manaiakalani data this afternoon. This was a great opportunity to reflect on how we are going as a cluster, a school, and as a teacher. My main take away was that the acceleration we are achieving in writing needs to be replicated in reading and maths. Another point of interest is how we can continue to grow our success into year 9 and 10. Congrats to Tamaki College, Dot shared their NCEA results. Well done everyone, our results speak for themselves in terms of acceleration and our goals for our students.

9.2.18

Abundance of Language

Dr Jannie van Hees spoke to the Kahui Ako teachers last night at our meeting about the use of language in our classrooms. We were challenged to think about activities we set for our students and what it might be like for them if they don't have the vocabulary to go with a certain task or learning opportunity.
We talked about “Language in Abundance” and what this might look like in our classrooms and for our students.

My notes from the session

1.2.18

Teacher Only Day PLD

One of the take away messages from this morning discussion with RTLB on Understanding Behaviour and Responding Safely.

Our students come to school with a wealth of knowledge but sometimes also with a lot of stress in their home lives. We see only a small part of their experience.

31.1.18

Curation of on-line feeds

I found this a very interesting watch after a discussion with friends when camping about receiving targeted advertising over the holiday break. Might be of interest, certainly raises questions about the quality and bias of the media our students are seeing.

26.1.18

Writing PD

Robyn and I were lucky enough to go to the Writing PD session with Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. A fantastic opportunity to step back and look at our writing programme overall, and make sure we are using a shared language of instruction. (and the lunch was yummy too...)

Manaiakalani Orientation

As usual a wonderful way to start the year, meeting all our new teachers joining us, and a reminder about the who, what and why of it all and how we fit into the bigger picture. Thanks Fiona, Dorothy and all those involved in the day.