Swimming Technology - WaterSafe Pools2Schools

"If schools can't get their students to a pool, why not bring the pool to the school?

It sounds far-fetched, but that's exactly what WaterSafe Pools2Schools programme is doing in Auckland..."

Pt England School has never had a swimming pool and providing water safety lessons for the 600+ students has become increasingly difficult as the local swimming pool, a short walk across the field, has intensified the barriers: regular price hikes, making access very difficult (ever tried taking 60 kids for swimming lessons in ONE lane -while the other lanes have at most 1-4 members of the public doing lengths in them?), and a general attitude of intolerance to the local children sullying their waters. It became so difficult that a group of children invited the Mayor of Auckland to school in 2010 to present to him their concerns about why they were unable to access their local swimming pool.

So it was a wonderful bonus when Watersafe Auckland decided to bring their pool - and all the associated paraphenalia - to the school and put it down on the netball court! And as an added bonus it also came with WaterSafe Auckland's aquatic education facilitator Chris Burton, who taught the students and the teachers.

Check out the video below to get an idea about it, and this article in the Sunday Star Times. And more from the kids themselves about it below....

Swimming Pool from KPE TV on Vimeo.

The students LOVED the whole concept and blogged endlessly about it:
Chante;
On Friday after school the hard courts were empty but on Monday it was a different story.
When I came to school a pool had magically appeared. I went to go see how big it was but there was a big bunch of kids doing something so I went to see what all the commotion was about. It was just people admiring the school pool...
Dante;
We all had life jackets to put on. Some of them were a tight fit and some of them fitted snugly. When I put on my life jacket I was shivering and shuddering.
Lola;
Eagerly waiting outside the pool, we all had to put on a life jacket. It was damp and clammy because it was wet.
Turuhira;
I wish we could still have the swimming pool so we don’t need to walk down to the public pool near our School.
Teresa;
Chris is from Water Safety NZ, he is very kind. Chris teaches the whole school about safety, one of the safety rules is to float on your back and don't panic.
Brooklyn;
As I hopped into the pool my teeth started to chatter like beaver gnawing at wood. After a while I got used to it and and the chatter of my teeth started to die down.

Food Technology

Holidays at the beach, and this year we are enjoying a faster internet connection than many New Zealanders experience in the city. We are making the most of the fibre rollout around the Coromandel and are catching up on all kinds of recreational web surfing that got put aside in the busyness of the year just gone.

We discovered one piece of technology that made us laugh when we walked down the beach to Luke's Kitchen for dinner.  Luke has been enterprising and has started up a pizza place out of a caravan and a lean-to he built that kinda reminds us of eateries in Phuket.  He says he built it himself using bamboo out of the bush behind (it is at the foot of the Black Jack Hill). He also has live music provided by friends playing in the garage alongside. The pizzas are fabulous and the million dollar view over the Bay makes it a great night out.

After placing our order over the counter in the caravan, the waitress attached the Post-it to a pully and whisked it outside to the oven.  I pulled out my iPhone to grab a few photos and put together this movie.

I have been experimenting with a fun piece of movie making software from Aquafadas called "KidsMotion". These guys keep rolling out cool apps that are must haves for schools.

2010 - Young Ambassadors

During 2010 a group of Year 6 students from Pt England School have acted as ambassadors not only for the school but on behalf of the Manaiakalani project.  They auditioned for the role in February and developed their own presentations which they have since shared with visitors from around the country and overseas. Some of the groups have been large, some have included folk like Cabinet Ministers, and some have been interested classroom teachers.  Regardless of who the audience was (and what these kids were missing out on -  from Maths to Art to Swimming!) these ten year olds gave more than 100% to the task of sharing how they learn with others.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley chatting with the children after they have presented to him.

Many people have asked if they could have a video of the student presentations, so as the year ends I am publishing links to them.  I am not embedding them in this post. You will need to follow the links to each of their blogs - and leave them some feedback :)

Angela: What is eLearning?

Selena: Television and other screens

Toreka: Blogging

Ala: Graphic Art

Seini-Mino: Podcasting with KPE

Mubasshira: Google Apps

Erene: Video Conferencing

Aidan -Multimedia Technician 

Wireless Solution

Sometimes you see something that makes you smile and you just have to pull up, hold up the traffic on the round-about and take a photo.

This was one of those times - driving past Tamaki College and I saw the big aerial going up on the roof for the wireless connection to Pt England School.  For someone like me, who needs to see something to believe it, this was a big moment.  Yes, this wireless connection between our schools is really happening. Thanks to the team from Fusion Networks.  This is a big project they are giving their time and energy to.

So I went round the round-about again and got myself into position to take my pics - and because this is Glen Innes, the traffic just waited :)  The next visible sign of progress is seeing the network pop up on my mobile devices as I drive around the district - and No, I am not about to reveal the password! But TLN is the Tamaki Learning Network...

Netbook Handover

Tuesday November 16th came and the first two classes of Netbook students in our Manaiakalani Cluster received their Netbooks. What an awesome occasion to be part of. One of the many spin-offs is that by giving the students connectivity on a 1:1 basis they have blogged about how they felt.

So here come some links if you want to read it through the kids' eyes....

Helen T and Sam and Tuipulotu and Ocean and Shaniah and Tia

One quote from Year 7 student:
I am really excited about the future and how this may change our school lives forever

These two classes, Room 19 with Ms Tito and Room 20 Mrs Nua have not only the pleasure of being first, but also the responsibility of piloting the project. This includes keeping smiling through all the teething issues, exploring the possibilities and recording their findings. They will also be required to mentor others when they get their turn next year. The two links in this paragraph will give you a perspective from the two teachers' point of view.

Netbooks in our Hands! from KPE TV on Vimeo.

These students signed a useage agreement form before taking temporary possession of their Netbooks for four weeks. This batch of Netbooks are owned by the cluster (thanks to a philanthrophic donation) and will become our insurance pool of Netbooks for 2011. They will have to start leasing their own along with everyone else in 2011.

We have a three stage pilot for the 1:1 roll out across our seven schools.

Stage One: 2010 two classes in one school to work through the teething problems

Stage Two: 2011 13 classes across six schools (including two Year 10 classes)

Stage Three: 2012 All students from Year 5-13 in our seven schools

Student Netbook Agreement:
I agree that:
I will respect the equipment by always looking after it and keeping it safe
I will respect others by always using this netbook to interact with other people in a positive and caring way
I will make the most of this opportunity to learn lots of new things and to share them with others
I will always be in the right place, at the right time, when I am online. If I am in doubt I will ask my teacher.
I will protect my password and keep it completely secret.