Introducing Maria - Facilitator

I am excited to be in the Tairāwhiti Cluster, as a facilitator in The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach. I have come from working in the Kootuitui Cluster in Papakura, South Auckland where I was doing the same role. Prior to that, I was in senior leadership in the secondary part of a multi-campus area school.

I am working in four schools on a weekly basis. I facilitate in primary and secondary classes where I am modelling Learn, Create, Share and teaching teachers to use the GSuite of tools alongside other digital tools. Learners use 1:1 Chromebooks and 1:1 ipads in the younger classes and share their learning on blogs. The blogs are either class blogs for Y 1-3 learners or individual school-owned blogs for Y4 - 10 learners.

I am delighted to see the teachers and students grow in their knowledge and capability through the facilitation.  My goal is that I am no longer needed in that class as the teacher is empowered to use anytime, anywhere learning through the visible teaching on class sites and visible learning on blogs that I model.

Alongside the regular in-class facilitation, The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach promotes and enables schools to cluster through the use of Professional Learning Groups. Principals and School Leaders meet each term to share their practice, understand one another better and to develop trust as a group. I see the huge potential in these regular meetings and so enjoy the progress that is made as a group when people work together.

Currently, I commute to Gisborne on a Monday and head home to Auckland and my husband on a Friday. The phone gets a lot of use in the evenings and at times it is hard but we are making it work.

We have recently had our first grandson, named Joshua, so will be trekking to Taihape to visit more often.

Introducing Cheryl - Facilitator

I am a facilitator working in the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme in Tairāwhiti, New Zealand.

In 2018 I have been working in 9 schools in Gisborne providing a programme of in-class support for 18 pilot teachers. Before joining the Manaiakalani team, I had been a long-serving staff member of Awapuni School.

What excites me about the Manaiakalani programme goes back to what I saw when I visited Pt England School many years ago. Russel and Dorothy Burt had by then clustered some local schools together and were leading the way by using the Learn Create Share pedagogy and building partnerships with whānau to access devices for their children.

Since then I have used the affordances of digital technologies to break down barriers to learning, engage ākonga, motivate and sustain motivation, offer choices and allow learners to work at their own pace. The use of digital technologies brings meaning to collaboration, connecting, critical thinking and communicating.

Seeing the growing confidence of teachers and students this year in using devices to Learn Create and Share is the best part of the job. The creativity that is shared on blogs is exciting and viewable by a global audience.

"Tech gives the quietest student a voice"

Jerry Blumengarten

@cybraryman1

Nau Mai, Haere Mai!

Nau Mai, Haere Mai! Welcome to this blog. Here we will share announcements and progress of The Tairāwhiti Cluster of schools supported by The Manaiakalani Trust and The Connext Trust.

What is The Tairāwhiti Cluster? In 2018, 12 schools in the Gisborne region joined together to engage in The Manaiakalanai Programme Outreach. The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach is an opportunity for communities to partner with The Manaiakalani Trust to embracing a Learn Create Share pedagogy, shared digital infrastructures and affordances. Including;

• Professional learning facilitation
• Regional programme coordination
• Device procurement systems
• Independent research analysis
• Access to curated resources
• Supported knowledge sharing across all Manaiakalani Outreach schools. 

Photo by Connext Trust.
Learn-Create-Share in action at Makauri School with Facilitator, Cheryl Torrie.

How did we get involved here in Te Tairāwhiti? In 2018, The HB Williams Family Charitable Trusts’ invited The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach to present this opportunity to our schools. The trust announced that they would contribute $1.2 million towards the delivery of the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme in East Coast/Gisborne/Wairoa. Expressing that “strategically supporting schools, teachers, learners and their whānau through a collaborative, evidence-based model with a focus on empowering young people” is central to this decision. Read more in this public statement by JN Williams Memorial Trust and HB Williams Turanga Trust: Manaiakalani Outreach Programme, 1 May 2018.

Which of our schools are connected with this opportunity? The initial year of the programme saw 12 schools engage as early adopters. See The Tairāwhiti Cluster Site for a list of those schools currently involved. The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach is supported by three locally based facilitators; Maria Krausse, Cheryl Torrie and Renee Raroa. Check out their introduction blogs here soon. In 2019, three more outstanding educators will join the facilitation team! Watch this space for announcements.

So, how can I be included? In 2019, all schools and kura from Pōtaka to Wairoa are invited to express an interest in partnering with The Manaiaklani Programme Outreach. Please get in touch with Renee at renee.raroa@core-ed.ac.nz for more information. If you are at a school outside of those currently partnering or are a community member interested in upskilling your digital fluency, you are welcome to join in on professional learning opportunities, sign up at bit.ly/ManaiakalaniToolkits.

Manaiakalani is a nationwide learning community for effective teaching and accelerated learning of students, teachers and whānau through creative sharing in a global digital world.  Check out www.manaiakalani.org for more information.