Embedding a 1:1 programme

The school year is well underway and all our Year 5 to 13 classes in the seven Manaiakalani schools are now using netbooks as the basic learning tool for every child.  It has been useful to stop and reflect on our progress in the last week. To those in the know, that means we have just completed our mid year milestone document for the Ministry of Education!

We are only in our second year of going 1:1, but it is already becoming increasingly difficult to write a blanket report about our progress.  We need to differentiate in our reporting, and this graphic below is our attempt to show the complexities developing within our schools.

Each X represents a teacher in one of our Manaiakalani schools

We have some students who are in their first year of net booking (1:1) and some who are in their second year. Then we have teachers who are in first year of 1:1 and teachers who are in their second year.

And just to make it a little more interesting we have about 60 kids in Year 9 this year who are in their third year as they were in the two pilot classes back in Year 7.

It probably is no surprise to you that the teachers reporting the easiest start to the year are those who are in their second year of 1:1 teaching with second year kids.

The most challenging?  Teachers in their first year with second year kids.

This is going to get increasingly challenging in 2013 when our schools hire in new teachers for students in their third year of 1:1 learning! 

Managing the Learning Environment

Last year our teachers in 1:1 classes experimented with a variety of ways of managing the learning environment in the digital world. Over the course of the year their thinking began to converge as
• Teachers shared their practice at Netbook Teachers' meetings 
• The PD facilitators, who moved from class to class, began to collate their observations and to share these  
• The recently published research evaluation report included observations and teacher reflections around this.

So this year many of the Manaiakalani Schools felt confident that they had an approach that, while still a work-in-progress,  worked for them.  It created a personalised learning environment for the students, it helped teaching and planning 'make sense', it was transparent to whanau and school management - and was creative, collaborative and fun!


I asked a number of teachers across our schools to create a creen recording video sharing one aspect of how the learning environment was managed in their classes last term.


This post provides links to four primary school classes.  Take the time to explore the links and watch the videos as these teachers talk you through their students use of their Google Site and Google Apps. 


Chris Marks, Pt England School - Year 5/6
Writing movie here, class Google Site here


Sarah Gleeson, St Pius X School - Year 5
Reading movie here, class Google Site here


Helen King, Pt England School - Year 5
Maths (number Strategy) movie here, class Google Site here


Joy Paton, Panmure Bridge School - Year 5/6
Art movie here, class Google Site here


Examples from Tamaki College coming soon…..