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.