Maths Whizz

Our 1:1 programme has been well supported in Maths in the last 18 months with the introduction of Maths Whizz.  We have teachers across six of the Manaiakalani schools from Years 5-10 using it as part of their Maths programme.

Ted Barks, a Year 7/8 class teacher at Pt England School, presented at the recent Ulearn12 Conference in Auckland how he uses Maths Whizz with his students to compliment his teaching.
Watch this video showing part of his presentation:

Partnership Hui

On August 3rd we held our first annual Hui for all the partners of the Manaiakalani Programme.    The aim of the whole day event was

To bring together members of the Manaiakalani Programme to 

• share and consolidate  work and achievements to date across all Programme workstreams
• identify short and longer term goals
• identify challenges and what is needed to overcome these
• discuss and define the Programme’s strategic direction  

Around 100 people came together on the day from all our representative groups including; Boards of Trustees, Principals, Teachers, Students (high school), Hackers, Researchers, Corporate partners, Philanthropic Partners, Service providers and the Manaiakalani Education Trust.

The day began with an inspirational address by Derek Wenmoth before we got down to the business of reflection and visioning in our various work-stream groups.

The events and dialogue of the day were recorded on Google Docs and embedded in a Site which we are sharing publicly here.

Rob Munnik from our own Schools Inc was there to capture the day on video and two episodes have been shared on Schools Inc already, with one more to come.
(see embedded below)

There was complete agreement at the end of the day that the feedback most appreciated by all present was from the group of students from Tamaki College.  Many gems emerged, but a particularly poignant one came from a year 11 student who said that when he was handed his netbook this year it was the first time he had touched a computer, and now he was not only expected to learn using it but also to prepare for NCEA Level One!

While we as teachers and school leaders feel we have shouldered an enormous challenge moving our institutions into the digital age, it is easy to wrongly assume that our 'digital natives' will find this transition easy.

Agents of Change

Many of the students in the Manaiakalani Cluster come from homes where a language other than English is spoken, so at any given time a number of our teachers will be enrolled in TESSOL papers at university.

Two of our inspirational teachers, Kyla Hansell and Aireen Ah Kui from Tamaki Primary School, have been taking the same paper this semester and presented one of their assignments in the form of a video entitled "Agents of Change".

Take the time to watch this video and be inspired by how the Manaiakalani Programme can enrich and strengthen the learning of our English as a second language learners.

TESSOL - Agents of Change from Tamaki Primary on Vimeo.

Managing the Learning Environment Pt2

Several months ago I posted links to short videos some of the innovative Manaiakalani teachers had created to share their teaching experience, focussing on how they have created a Managed Learning Environment using Google Apps for Education.

I promised there would be more to share, and here they are.  One is from a High School Graphics teacher and one is from a teacher in a Year 3 class.  The rest are Year 5-8 classes.


Karen Ferguson, Tamaki College
NCEA Level 1 Graphics, Google Site here

Wendy Burne,Year 3/4  Pt England School 
Literacy Cycle movie here, class Google Site here

Juanita Garden, Year 5/6, Pt England School
Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Kent Somerville, Year 6, Pt England School 
Maths movie here, class Google Site here

Kimberley Ouano, Year 5, Pt England School 
Reading movie here, Maths movie here, class Google Site here

Helen King, Year 5, Pt England School 
Writing movie here, Movie Making movie here, class Google Site here
Check out Helen's collection of Maths strategies videos here

Sarah Gleeson, Year 5, St Pius X Catholic School
Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Toni Nua, Year 7/8, Pt England School 
Inquiry (Mihimihi) movie here, class Google Site here

Sandy Lagitupu, Year 7/8, Pt England School 
Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Ted Barks, Year 7/8, Pt England School 
Reading movie here, class Google Site here

Helen Squires, Year 7/8, Pt England School 
Cybersmart Inquiry movie here, class Google Site here

Mike Harris, Year 7/8, Pt England School 
Reading movie here, class Google Site here

Nick Major, Science, Tamaki College
Presentation is here, Science Google Site is here

For those who missed them, here is the earlier collection:

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

Child's Perspective

Last post I shared the amazing speech given by one of Mt Roskill Grammar's prefects, Joshua Iosefa, at a school assembly.


In the first week of this school term Helen Squires used this as an opportunity to expand the horizons and challenge the thinking of her Year 7 and 8 class (11-12 year olds). The students shared their thinking via a written piece on their blogs.  This response excerpt is from the blog of Crusader, a year 7 boy:

This speech had a message to it, and it was telling brown people especially to stop limiting yourself by listening to the stereotypes because they are not true. Some messages in his speech relate to some of the messages that we have at our school here such as; Strive to succeed, Champions never Give Up and much more.
 My response to this speech is that, brown people like me can do anything we want as long as you have determination in what you do. It doesn’t have to be a sports star or a music person but you can be anything else like a lawyer or even the next Prime Minister.

There are many more such pieces from his classmates linked at the bottom of this post.


The Education Gazette, New Zealand's magazine where teachers find their next job, decided to post the entire transcript of the speech in this week's edition and is well worth checking out.


However, a particular delight for this class was receiving an email from Joshua's mother who had discovered their blog responses online and gave them some encouragement including;

I am Joshuas mother and it wasn't so long ago he was the same age as yourselves.  He didn't have a blog like you all do but he would write into a journal all his thoughts. Some were like poetic prayers and others were scribbles of inspiration he would pick up from people, or books he was reading.  We were encouraged by reading your blogs of the inspirations you all had chosen to keep in your heart and mind from Joshuas 'brown brother-spoken word'.

This was such an affirmation of our 'Learn Create Share' pedagogy on many levels and yet another example of how the online world our students inhabit can enrich their lives and experiences.


Links to other students' reponses below:


Darius
Mubasshira
Kaiden
Kobe
Sylvia
Ashleigh