Google for Education: NZ Energiser 2022

Kia ora koutou, 

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Google for Education NZ Energiser event held at Google HQ here in Auckland over the last couple of days. It was a brilliant experience being able to connect with a range of Innovators, fellow Trainers, Coaches, Reference School leaders and Educator Group leaders. Our Manaiakalani team had the chance to go into Google a couple of weeks ago, but it was great to be able to do this again for a full couple of days learning before the new term started. 

The days were jam packed with information about updates to new features to come, keynote talks from Google employees, sessions lead by fellow colleagues, product reviews and opportunities to give feedback on features and apps, a very enjoyable scavenger hunt around the viaduct area, incredible food from the in-house cafeteria and much more! 

A special thanks to Steve Smith (not the Cricketer haha) and Chris Betcher from Google for making it all happen!

Fun with micro:bit!

Kia ora koutou, 

I had a lot of fun in at The Mind Lab today for a block course. Lots of cool activities and opportunities to get our hands on and create. The afternoon was spent creating using micro:bit. I was able to write my name, play Beethoven's Symphony No.9, and even programmed a compass!

A lot of fun, and a great way to spend a wet Auckland day.

Thanks to Dave and the TML team for a really interesting block course!

Programming the compass using the micro:bit

downloading the hex file onto the micro:bit using a USB 

walking around the room testing my compass

The Mind Lab - Transformation 2: Reflective entry 4

My role as a facilitator lends itself nicely to this idea of leading educational transformation. In essence, my role is to support this in every school I work in - whatever this looks like for each school. I am fortunate that I get to work with a number of different teachers, providing 1:1 support throughout the course of a year. Spending an hour a week in each class, my role is to support the teacher to develop their understanding and confidence in digital teaching and learning. No matter where they start on the ‘spectrum’ of confidence and ability to teach with digital technologies, my role is to take the teacher on a journey over the course of the year, modelling and demonstrating techniques and tools which they can use as part of their programmes. In addition to the support with individual teachers, other aspects of my role are to support senior leadership, as well as the wider staff group through staff meetings and ongoing PD sessions. In short, I am fortunate that I have tremendous potential to lead transformation in the schools I am working in.

Manaiakalani in-class facilitation

An example of how I am supporting one of my schools in changing the way that teaching and learning happens in their school, is by assisting in the transition to having a class website for every class, where teaching and learning content is readily accessible with a few clicks. Another example of how I am supporting transformation in my role has been a case of supporting the school to implement processes such as teachers switching from a weekly Word doc that is saved to a shared drive and printed off, to one single Google Doc that is embedded into the class site, with the latest learning at the top. The real-time collaboration component of the G Suite apps assists with this. 

Class Sites linked off the school website, easily accessible to anyone interested

Lockdowns and other Covid-related class/school closures highlighted the need for digital technologies in modern teaching and learning. Anecdotally, across the schools I am associated with, those that already had a reasonable level of digital infrastructure across their community were able to, more or less, continue with their programmes from home straightaway. Whereas those that didn’t have these processes in place struggled to get teaching and learning happening effectively, or else needed some time to set themselves up prepared to do so, meaning teaching from home was delayed or heavily scaled down to compensate.  

The effects of Covid 19 on education highlighted issues with equity across the country, notably around the lack of access to digital infrastructure in homes, whether that be with a lack of devices, no internet access, or both. In a 2021 blog post, Claire Amos, Principal of Albany Senior High wrote about what she calls the “digital divide”. Amos writes that it is a serious problem that so many of our young people don’t have access to their own devices for learning, or internet access. (Amos, 2021). 

Claire Amos' blog post

But what is being done about this? The Government attempted to address this by sending out devices and internet routers to families who indicated they needed them during 2020, but this only goes part of the way to addressing the issue. Putting a new device in the hands of a family is helpful initially. But what happens when that device breaks? Or when it becomes slow or unable to be updated in a few years? For me, the answer is supporting and empowering families to purchase devices of their own. As part of our partnership with our schools, and with the support of our commercial partners the Manaiakalani Education Trust offers families the opportunity to purchase Chromebooks for their children. Not just the device, but importantly device care (insurance) and a case to protect it as the learner comes to and from school. 

It is this kind of model which I believe is the answer to supporting young people to be successful in education. We know that technology is only going to become a more crucial part of modern teaching and learning, and so device access is essential to facilitate this. 

References

Amos, C. (2021, August 24). Why need to close the digital divide in our schools - now! Teaching. Learning. Leading change. Retrieved July 18, 2022, from https://teachingandelearning.blogspot.com/2021/08/why-need-to-close-digital-divide-in-our.html

Hāpara Champion Trainer

Kia ora koutou, 

I am very happy to announce that I have completed the Hāpara Champion Trainer course!

It has been a great experience completing the course and I have learnt a lot of valuable knowledge and expertise to be able to support the teachers I work with. 

The Mind Lab - Transformation 2: Reflective entry 3

The most significant change made in my own attitude and philosophy towards teaching came when I started in a Manaiakalani school and gained an understanding of the pedagogy guiding the programme. As I have already reflected in the earlier entries, the sum of my use of digital technologies in my first couple of years of teaching was very surface-level. I had an understanding of the tools and knew of some simple ways to use them, but what I was missing was the pedagogy or the ‘why’ behind what I was doing with digital devices in my class. 

The Manaiakalani pedagogy is made up of 3 components: Learn, Create and Share. The Learn component looks like teaching and learning being visible using a Google Site. Create is done primarily using the Google G Suite apps on Chromebooks, and the use of blogs is a fundamental part of the Share component of the pedagogy. (Manaiakalani Education Trust, n.d.). It was once I had begun in this new role and started to gain an understanding of what the Manaiakalani pedagogy looked like, that I realised that there were parts that our school wasn’t doing well and needed support with. Blogging, for instance, was an area that needed some leadership and direction in order to get it moving. The content was there - teachers were planning and delivering awesome learning content, but there was all of the behind the scenes work and implementation that needed to be done at the start of the year. Although this work didn’t technically come under my role, it was an opportunity for me to take leadership as well as gaining some valuable experience on how these systems of established. 

Manaiakalani's Learn Create Share pedagogy

Transitioning out of my own classroom and into a role of facilitation has been a really valuable experience. I started my new role by spending time shadowing some of my experienced colleagues in the classes they were facilitating in. This was a really valuable experience, as I found that I was able to take bits and pieces from what I was observing and experiencing from being alongside each of them. Some had been in facilitation for a number of years, some had spent a lot of time in the classroom, and some had recently come out of leadership positions in the classroom. This meant that each of them brought different perspectives to the role and looked at their facilitation through different lenses. Having the exposure to these differing approaches meant that I have been able to decide on my own style and approach with the best bits of all of what I have seen. 

Working in this role has also presented me with opportunities to work with senior leadership teams, making suggestions and problem solving, in addition to core parts of my role. An example of this was supporting a school to create a new school website that could be managed internally by a member of staff, rather than having to contact a third party to get changes made. The idea started with me replicating what the school had on their then website, using a Google Site. I showed the concept to the leadership team and explained the benefits that using a Google Site could bring in their context. In the end, I worked with the school’s tech leader to upskill them and prepare them to be able to manage the Site for themselves. It is now their current school site and they have autonomy over the content and the upkeep - something they had been wanting to happen for a long time, but didn’t have the means to make this happen for themselves. This type of change is referred to as ‘Adaptive’ change, where the change has been established by stakeholders within the school, with the knowledge and understanding being passed on to allow it to be supported internally (Osborne, 2014). 

References

Manaiakalani Education Trust. (n.d.). Manaiakalani Pedagogy. The Manaiakalani Programme. Retrieved July 14, 2022, from https://www.manaiakalani.org/programme/pedagogy#h.vwynzcsw76k2

Osborne, M. (2014). Inviting innovation: Leading meaningful change in schools. Set, 2, 3-8.

https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/journals/set/downloads/set2014_2_003.pdf

The Mind Lab - Transformation 2: Reflective entry 2

I am fortunate that I am able to work alongside a range of different educators in my role as a facilitator. From those in their first year of teaching, all the way across the spectrum to those who have been teaching for far longer than I have been alive. Interestingly, technology is often the great neutraliser. I have worked with vastly experienced teachers with very little confidence and fluency using technology, and with brand new teachers with incredible levels of digital skill. This, in a nutshell, is the nature of leading and supporting teachers. Age and experience doesn’t always have a direct correlation to teaching ability. Effective education leadership is about identifying strengths and weaknesses of a teacher, no matter their experience, and supporting them to grow in whichever way they need.

Covid has come as a crossroads for a lot of teachers. What was possible pre-Covid, or what worked, doesn’t necessarily work anymore. I have found this was particularly the case with those teachers I work with who didn’t use technology much prior to Covid. For teachers who had minimal digital integration to their programmes, the idea of taking their teaching and learning online meant a massive shift in thinking. A lot is possible within the walls of a physical classroom, but when this is suddenly no longer an option, and teaching has to happen differently in order for learning to happen online. That’s was assuming the learners had internet and device access to be able to take part. 

Manaiakalani Education Trust is in partnership with more than 120 schools over the country, many of which are low decile schools or in low socio-economic areas. We are constantly looking for ways in which we can help support our whānau with setting their young people up for success. Developed in 2011, our Cybersmart curriculum (Manaiakalani Education Trust, 2011) is a positive alternative to the other Cybersafety and Digital Citizenship curriculums. It was later translated into te reo Māori, establishing the Tū Atamai i te Ipurangi curriculum. 

Manaiakalani's Cybersmart curriculum

Tū Atamai i te Ipurangi - the te reo Māori Cybersmart curriculum

A project that I am working on this year is bringing together a group of Samoan and Samoan-speaking educators from across our network to develop resources in Gagana Samoa for use in Samoan Bilingual Units across our network and classes with Samoan-speaking learners. This is in response to the fact that Samoan is the 3rd most commonly spoken language in New Zealand, and we have a Samoan representation across our network. The aim would be that eventually, we would be able to do the same process with other Pasifika languages. 

An important part of the Manaiakalani kaupapa is visibility of learning to all stakeholders in a child’s life. Tātaiako and Tapasā are cultural frameworks for supporting the educational achievement of Māori and Pasifika learners in New Zealand schools. The ‘Pasifika Success Compass’ from Tapasā (Ministry of Education, 2018) places “Pasifika learners, parents, families and communities at the centre” of Pasifika achievement and success in learning. Visibility of what the child is learning, through the mode of class websites enables all of these parties to be along for the journey with their child’s learning. All that a family member or other stakeholder needs to do in order to see what their young person is learning is to simply Google search the school’s name and follow the link to the class sites from the website.   

Tapasā - Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners

These two components of Pasifika learners being able to learn in their own language, and having their ‘aiga and those important to them involved with their learning, are culturally intelligent ways of setting Pasifika learners up for success, using the proven principles that are found within Tapasā.

These principles of Tapasā are very similar to those found in Tātaiako (Education Council New Zealand, 2011) when looking at best practice for teaching Māori learners. The core principle of this approach is “Māori learners achieving educational success as Māori”. In order for this to happen, leaders of learning are challenged to foster the competencies of Ako, Whanaungatanga, Tangata Whenuatanga, Manaakitanga and Wānanga within our learning environments. 

Tātaiako - cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners

References

Manaiakalani Education Trust. (2011). Manaiakalani Cybersmart. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://cybersmart.manaiakalani.org/

Ministry of Education. (2018). Tapasā: Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners.
https://teachingcouncil.nz/assets/Files/Tapasa/Tapasa-Cultural-Competencies-Framework-for-Teachers-of-Pacific-Learners-2019.pdf

Education Council New Zealand–Matatū Aotearoa. (2011). Tātaiako: Cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners. Ministry of Education.

The Mind Lab - Transformation 2: Reflective entry 1

I have seen many types of tech emerge; some came and were soon superseded. Some are still with us today, and in some cases, hanging on the wall, covered in cobwebs and swimming lesson recount plans.

A typical-looking secondary school computer lab from the 2000s

A 'Smartboard' in a class I visited in 2021, is not completely useless

My first teaching position came with an introduction to Hāpara Teacher Dashboard, a classroom management software with a range of features to help with digital teaching and learning. Teaching in a 1:1 BYOD class, Hāpara’s Teacher Dashboard created individual subject folders in each of the learner’s Google Drives, meaning they could easily organise their work. Hāpara allowed me the ability to view, monitor and leave feedback on my learner’s work, all on one easy dashboard. Although I probably didn’t get a chance to make the most out of all of its features, Hāpara was a great digital tool to use in my class. (K-12 Online Learning Platform, n.d.). 

A teacher's view of Hāpara Teacher Dashboard

In my first full year of teaching, it was difficult to create an effective teaching and learning environment without the knowledge or understanding of what an effective digital teaching environment looked like. I had the tools, but not much support with how to use them effectively. The BYOD devices in my class essentially were used for publishing or reading and maths games. Looking back now, this wasn’t effective, nor was it collaborative.

The Manaiakalani Programme

Starting a job teaching at a Manaiakalani school in 2020 saw a fundamental change in my approach to teaching in a digital learning environment. At the centre of the Manaiakalani programme is the Learn Create Share pedagogy. Professor Stuart McNaughton from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre talks about the LCS framework, “Using the Learn Create Share framework to manage learning in a digital learning environment that is truly visible, through Google Sites leading learning, blogging sharing outcomes and highly effective teaching practice, has enabled this accelerated rate of progress.” (Jesson, McNaughton, Wilson, et al., 2018). 

The practicalities of teaching with the Learn Create Share pedagogy meant an intentional shift towards deliberately planning and the creation of resources with this structure in mind; learning, having a chance to create something related to the learning, and an opportunity to share. In Manaiaklaani schools, blogging is a central component of this sharing. Learners have their own blogs which they share individually, classes share using their class blogs, and teachers use a professional blog to share their own learning journeys.

A key component of the Learn Create Share pedagogy working effectively is through the use of Google Sites to make learning visible. Visibility is a key part of the Manaiakalani kaupapa, with the belief that all learning should be visible to everyone, anywhere and at any pace. Each class in Manaiakalani schools have a Class Site where their learning is visible and accessible. In classes Year 3 and above, learners use their devices to access their work and use the G Suite apps to complete it. 

I first used Google Sites as a simple way of bringing together the links to the various learning sites and apps that I used as part of my programme. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective - at least it stopped my kids coming up to me every few minutes to ask for the link to the maths website they were supposed to be on, or for me to remind them of their password. It was once I had professional development in the form of Manaiakalani’s Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) - a 9-week course where participants engage with both the Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa, as well as digital technologies. This ongoing PD gave me an opportunity to increase my level of confidence in teaching in a digital environment, along with developing an understanding of the Manaiakalani pedagogy. At the conclusion of the DFI, we were given the opportunity to sit the Google for Education exams. It was at this point that I did both the Level 1 & 2 exams.

How my Class Sites transitioned over the course of my classroom teaching career

As part of my first year teaching in a Manaiakalani school, I received weekly in-class-support sessions from a facilitator, who would come in and teach my class, allowing me to observe and co-teach on occasion. This experience was great, as it allowed me to observe a specialist in this area. Last year, an opportunity presented itself to work for Manaiakalani in a role doing the same type of facilitation that I was receiving in 2020. I am now working in this role, supporting teachers from a range of schools. The biggest transition for me has been towards learning how to teach both the learners and the teacher at the same time. Designing lessons that are both engaging for the learners, whilst being explicit enough to help the teacher understand what I am wanting the learners to engage with, and why. I am loving this role, and know that is exactly the kind of position I am suited for. 

References

K-12 Online Learning Platform. (n.d.). Hāpara. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://hapara.com/workspace/

Rebecca Jesson, Stuart McNaughton, Aaron Wilson, Tong Zhu & Victoria Cockle (2018) Improving Achievement Using Digital Pedagogy: Impact of a Research Practice Partnership in New Zealand, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 50:3, 183-199, DOI: 10.1080/15391523.2018.1436012

The Mind Lab: Transformation 1 assignment

Kia ora koutou, 

For the first of my assignments with The Mind Lab this year, I had to collaborate with Bhavik, another member of this cohort, based in Masterton. We chose topics we found interesting relating to the key idea of educational innovation through digital and collaborative learning. 

We both found not being in the same geographic area a bit of a challenge in terms of how we were able to make things work. Others in our cohort were able to meet up for coffee and work in the same place, whereas we had to try and schedule video calls and trade emails back and forth in order to get it done. I recorded my segments and sent them to Bhavik to edit together using software he had access to through school which was better than what I had. We also got together via Meet and recorded a couple of segments to make it come together nicely. 

All in all, a really interesting process and one that was worthwhile.

Check out our submission here:

The Mind Lab - continuing my learning journey!

Kia ora koutou, 

I am very excited to announce that I have enrolled to do Postgraduate study this year with The Mind Lab. I will be completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Digital and Collaborative Learning over the course of the year. I have colleagues who have completed this course in the past and have had a lot of positive feedback about it. I am looking forward to it!

Manaiakalani Orientation 2022

Kia ora koutou, it was great to be part of the Manaiakalani Orientation event, held over the last couple of days at Tāmaki College. Beginning the journey working in South Auckland this year, as part of the Te Purupura Ngātahi o Manaiakalani cluster, today has been a very helpful exercise to see how new teachers are introduced to Manaiakalani kaupapa and what is done to engage them with what we do, right from the beginning. 

There were many highlights, but what I always enjoy is hearing Dorothy speak about the Manaiakalani story and her love for what we do. I have heard the story many times over the last year, but I always seem to get something new out of every talk. 

Maria and me are running out Te Purupura Ngātahi o Manaiakalani orientation next week, and the last couple of days have been really helpful for giving me some ideas for what we could do with our orientation event.

Ngā mihi 

Jeremy

Dorothy delivering her Manaiakalani story korero

A fun activity involving scenarios and acting

Dorothy talking us through the scenarios

Hāpara Champion Scholar

Happy New Year everyone!

Very happy to announce that I am now a Hāpara Champion Scholar! Really enjoyed the opportunity to grow my knowledge and confidence in using the Hāpara tools, and looking forward to use these new skills to support teachers and learners!

Te Wiki o te reo Māori 2021... from lockdown

Kia ora koutou, 

Māori Language Week has looked a little different this year with being in lockdown. My wife Chloe, also a teacher, asked me for some support with creating a video for her to share with their NE/Y1 syndicate at school to help the little ones at her school learn some basic reo Māori. It was a lot of fun!

Here's our video!

Manaiakalani Share Staff Meeting - Term 3

Kia ora koutou,

It was a real pleasure to facilitate a couple of really rich conversations with 2 brilliant groups of educators on Monday and this afternoon. Monday's session was with a group of secondary school Maths teachers and Wednesday was a discussion around Writing with Year 6-8 teachers. These two discussions were 2 of almost 60 that happened across the country. Click on this link to check out the Photo album with all of the screenshots from each group!

Ngā mihi 

Monday's group of Secondary Maths teachers

Wednesday's discussion around writing at Year 6-8 level

Learn - Create - Share journey with Mercer School

Kia ora koutou, 

I am really excited to be supporting Mercer School with their journey of discovery of understanding Manaiakalani. A small school, but one with such a lovely feel to it. Fiona Grant and I were made to feel so welcome on our first visit to the school during the first week of the recent holidays. We had the chance to give the staff an introduction into what Manaiakalani is all about, and some examples of our kaupapa in action. 

They have a wonderful staff, led by Paula Faitala, a former member of Senior Leadership at Glen Taylor School in Glen Innes. Paula has been in her role at Mercer for 4 years and has done a brilliant job amercing herself in the local community and history of the local area. In fact, as part of this process, she, along with the Board of Trustees and local haapu, have made the decision to change the name of the school to Te Paina School. Below is the information provided to the local community regarding their decision to change the name.

The letter to the school's community, outlining the context for the name change

It is such a privilege for me to be part of this process of journeying with this awesome school in the process of changing their name. Aotearoa history is a particular passion of mine. During my time studying at Laidlaw, we went for a trip down through the Waikato to visit some of the sites that were central to the Waikato Wars, guided by Tereora Crane, now a Senior Education Specialist with National Library. Starting at Pokeno, our first stop was the Mangatawhiri Stream. "Where's that?", you might be thinking to yourself. Like most, I had never heard of this stream, nor understood its significance to our nation's history. It's under the bridge that you drive over on SH1, just before you get to Mercer. It's not signposted, it's not marked. The vast majority of people will have driven over the bridge without ever knowing what was below them. As it happens, the stream was the mark at which King Tāwhiao (the then Māori King) said to the British forces said to come no further. These forces had already taken land all the way from what is now Māngere Bridge, South. Tāwhiao said that if the forces crossed the stream into the Waikato, that it would be war. They did, and the rest is history. 

Standing around in our group on the edge of the stream at Mangatawhiri, Tereora was explaining the significance of this spot to us. "If this were America, there would be a monument, tourist centre and gift shop...". That line is one that I will not soon forget.

From there, we headed further South, working our way down through the likes of Meremere, Rangariri, Te Awamutu and eventually Rangiaowhia. Below is a photo of our group standing in front of the church and urupa at Rangiaowhia. Below is a photo of our group standing outside the church at Rangiowhia.

With regards to Mercer School themselves and their journey to rebranding their school, I am so heartened by what they are doing. This whole idea of name changing, removing statues, etc has been a big one in our society over the last couple of years, and a conversation which I think we should be including our students in. Having spoken to Paula and the other staff at the school, this is something that the school are very much aware of with their journey forwards.

I'm so excited to be part of this process moving forward! Below are some shots of our teacher only day today.

Ngā mihi  

The awesome teaching staff at Te Paina School

The awesome teaching staff at Te Paina School

Imagine having this view outside your classroom each day!

Math Whiteboard

Kia ora koutou, 

I was very fortunate to be able to attend an online demonstration of the new Math Whiteboard with Dr Donald Carney from mathwhiteboard.com and Chris Betcher from Google for Education. Dr Carney took us through a very comprehensive demonstration of the new tool and ways in which it could be used in a range of different classrooms and across year levels. 

Some of my highlights and hot takes:

• each whiteboard has its own unique URL 
• no accounts or sign ins needed 
• collaboration in real time on the same whiteboard
• a range of different ways to work on the whiteboard; drawing, text, maths drawing, etc
• high level algebraic graphs and drawings can be easily and autonomously inserted as the user is typing or drawing
• order of operation equations are colour-coded as you work through the equation. If an error is made in a row, that row's colour will change

I am really excited to see how this brilliant new tool is going to be used by teachers of Maths.

Check it out for yourselves at mathwhiteboard.com

Ngā mihi 

Dr Carney's presentation

 

the landing page when you launch a new whiteboard

demonstrating that the same whiteboard can be open by two people at the same time on different devices

order of operations being demonstrated with colour-coding as each step is made

the ability to drag and drop a PDF worksheet file from your desktop straight into the whiteboard

making your worksheets interactive and collaborative in real time between teacher and learner

Looking back at my journey to becoming an educator

Kia ora koutou, 

I was pleased to be able to get access to my original MyPortfolio account which I used during my time training to be a teacher from 2013 to 2014 and then again in 2017 to 2018. My hope was that I would be able to get access to this content again and that it wouldn't be lost. Needless to say, I was very happy to be able to get into it again. 

I will gradually work at getting it transferred over onto this blog over the coming time, and will backdate it to the dates in which the original content was posted. I will also curate the posts to the 'From my time at University' page on my blog so that all of those posts are in the same place. 

I look forward to taking a trip back down memory lane to remind myself of what was going through young Jeremy's mind!

Ngā mihi 

Changing image upload format for iPhone

Kia ora koutou, 

I have made a quick screen recording of how you can change the settings that control the format which images are uploaded with on an iPhone. By default, images are uploaded as an HEIC or High Efficiency Image Format which is not easily compatible for Google Drive, especially if your plan is to embed the images into your Site. 

To change the setting, all that needs to be done is to follow the process of Settings - Camera - Formats - Most Compatible.

If you're an iPhone user, check out the screen recording below to change this setting.

Ngā mihi 

T-shaped Literacy: Skills for Juniors - Dr Rebecca Jesson @ Pt England School, Mon 21st June 2021

Kia ora koutou, 

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to hear from Dr Rebecca Jesson on the fundamentals of what effective T-shaped literacy looks like in Junior classes. T-shaped literacy is an area which I am interested in learning more about, having first heard about the concept within in the last year. In all honesty, it's a concept that I have struggled to understand, never really having an opportunity to see it in practice. Without the chance to see it being modelled in person and without an example of a teacher plan being implemented in person, it never really clicked with me.

That said, I really enjoyed the way that Dr Jesson broke the presentation down into practical steps and 'how to' do t-shaped literacy for early readers. Speaking to other facilitators who attended, they were all in agreement that it would have been really beneficial for junior teachers.  

A realisation that I made during the presentation was the fact that I had been getting confused between the idea of 'topic' vs 'theme' when it comes to putting together a set of texts. I was prompted to reflect on what are the transferable ideas? What can be taken from text 1 and applied across texts 2, 3, 4, etc?

All in all, a really helpful talk that I thoroughly enjoyed. Dr Jesson is a fountain of knowledge in this area, and I am looking forward to further opportunities of hearing her speak again in the future. 

Click on the screenshots of the Slides and YouTube video below to revisit Dr Jesson's content.

Ngā mihi 

Dr Jesson presenting her content

Kent Somerville's impressive livestream set up

Link to Dr Jesson's Slides 

live stream of the event

Progression of my Google Sites - Then vs Now

Kia ora koutou, 

It's that point in our DFI cohorts where we are beginning to look at Google Sites. Week 5 of DFI focuses on Multi-modal/Multi-textual sites, and Week 6 provides an opportunity for participants to create or work on their class or subject sites. 

Often as facilitators, we encounter teachers who feel intimidated by the exemplar sites that we reference in the content of DFI, thinking that their site is inadequate or not as good as those which they are looking at on the screen. 

I think it's important to remember that each person starts somewhere, and that everyone learns and progresses at their own pace. With this in mind, I had a hunt and came across the first site that I created in my first year of teaching. It was simple, uninteresting and very 'meat and potatoes' for what my class of Year 3&4 kids needed to help with their learning. 

Check out the screenshots below to compare and contrast from where I started to where I am now! 👇

My first class site - before I began in a Manaiakalani school

My first site as a Manaiakalani teacher

My most recent site from 2021 before I began full time with Manaiakalani