PD coming up and feedback

Kaitaia College is going well with their use of Myclasses and MyDesktop for their administration purposes. Great to hear about and to view their pages. The model of spending time with a few key players in the school has worked with Kaitaia and they have asked me to come back for another catch up session in a couple of weeks time.

I have been spending quite abit of my time working on administration tasks, which they seem to be growing, but I am feeling good about what I have been accomplishing. I need to work on some student and staff surveys and have decided it is important to carry out these to gather some baseline data. I will then do another survey following some PD sessions with the staff.

I have a PD session organised with the Senior Leadership Team at Northland College in a fortnight, followed by a PD session with the full staff a couple of days later.

There has been quite abit of activity through the list serve, especially surrounding the future of the VLN.

Visit to Northland College - 23rd May 2008

Went back to my old school today, where I have taken leave from or two years. Must admit, was really nice to see all the staff, but it was particularly nice not to have to deal with the day to day problems. Instead, I based myself in the staffroom and was able to make myself available to staff who wanted to discuss MyClasses and FarNet.

Worked with Steve Radich, setting up an online class for his environmental science classes. This will give the Year 10 staff he works with the opportunity of following his programme and feel they are fully informed. Mareea Paitai wanted a follow up from the previous weeks' PD. She is setting up an online class for the CApBL team. She is going to work with Eileen on further developing the Careers Corner class I set up last year. John Tapene had a meeting in the morning, but we caught up in the afternoon to look at what he wants to develop for staff. We looked at a google calendar that the Board is using, which will probably be able to integrate into MyClasses for his staff.

Journey to Te Hapua

Along with Jill Garrett (Schooling Improvement from Ministry) and Leslie Whitehorn (with home-made scones), we headed off from Awanui at 8.00am. Arriving at Te Hapua some 2 hours later, we spent the next few hours with the Year 9 and 10 students and their kaiako Te Aroha Wihapi. We participated in a basketball lesson, run by their one and only Year 10 student. They have 6 Year 9 students and these seven students travel to Kaitaia College each Friday for some face to face lessons. This is complimented with twice-weekly VCs with a Science, English and Maths teacher from Kaitaia College.

The remaining 7 senior students travel by bus to Kaitaia College daily, leaving home at 6.00am and returning around 6.00pm.

I was amazed at how Te Aroha had organised her room, with the VC equipment being an integral piece of equipment. A pleasure to have visited!

They don't often get visitors, but today was an exception because there was an inter-agency meeting in Te Hapua, so everyone was dropping in to say "Kia ora".

Visit to Kaitaia College - 19th May 2008

Travelled up the beautiful east coast through Mangonui , Doubtless Bay, through to Awanui and back down to Kaitaia. A one and a half hour trip. Didn't get a chance to stop at the Kauri Kingdom for a coffee ..... but will do that in the morning before heading to Te Hapua.

Visited the ministry office and spent some time with Jill Garrett, developing a site for TKA which will sit on the FarNet website. The Lead teachers of TKA will manage this site.

William Tailby invited me to work with some of his office staff on developing their school calendar of events. I also had an opportunity to work with Jackie Fowke (Careers Adviser). Jackie is going to set up a site on Kaitaia College's MyClasses for senior careers for the senior students.

Catching up with my old flatmate, from training college days and her family .... gee I love this job!

Visit to Kaitaia College on Friday, 16th March 2008

Staying in Kaitaia the previous night was great, catching up with my old flatmate from my training college days and being able to capture William Tailby (Principal) for a undisturbed meeting first thing.

I had planned for some PD on MyClasses with some staff and ended up working with:
Wayne Harrison, Leslie, Jill Garrett (Ministry), Ngaire King (Team Solutions), Te Aroha Wihape (Te Hapua), Mareea Paitai (Northland College), Mike Bryan and Mike Ryken (Taipa Area School), William Tailby (Principal) and John Paitai (Principal).

I must have done a relatively good job because I have been asked to go back for another session with the office staff on Monday.

Visit to Panguru on Thursday 15th May 2008

The roadway between Panguru and Kaitaia, coming out by Ahipara.

Leaving home at 8:00am, I arrived at the beautiful Te Kura o Panguru school at 11:00am, just in time to listen to the wonderful speeches being given by the tamariki at the top marae above the school. Was a great opportunity to catch up with Marietta Rihari (our Te Reo Maori teacher) and Mina Pomare (Principal). Following the visit, I travelled the back road up to Kaitaia. Had to stop to take a photograph of the one lane road, just to be able to remind people why we need meetings via VC so that we don't have to travel.

Panguru is set in a beautiful valley and it was so enjoyable to be around the students from Panguru.

Before travelling North, we joined a VC with StudyIt from Wellington and the "expert English teacher", Roz from Bay of Islands College. This was a great PD opportunity and no one had to travel.