Anne Sinclair

Anne Sinclair: Mentoring PLGs : Mentoring PLGs for continuing to foster and encourage teachers in our profession to make learning better for our learners . Mentoring i...

Mentoring PLGs for continuing to foster and encourage teachers in our profession to make learning better for our learners . Mentoring is such an important support and educative feature of our profession and one that requires a lot of skill and understanding. It is also a most rewarding and collaborative partnership and should be a win/win for everyone. It is about delving deeply into your practice and beliefs about teaching and learning and talking about why you do what you do and being able to unpack and repack your ideas. It is learning from each other and always working towards better teaching, which helps better learning.  The collegial nature of such an endeavour contributes to the deprivatisation of the profession and making everything visible, ubiquitous, connected and empowered.   We always challenge thinking and the status quo, to enable us to think differently and get into 'another pair of shoes'. The process is a collaborative one, where all ideas ar...

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers  2018 A lot is happening this year with new opportunities, new challenges and new horizons, but we are all travelling in the same direction towards what is best for our learners in Manaiakalani to help them to be the best they can be.  The Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers 2018 group began at the end of 2017 thinking about their Inquiry and how it would make a difference for their learners.  They had a challenge over the holidays to prepare for this year, with an in depth look at their inquiry question.  They had to ask each other 5 why questions about their inquiry and answer 5 why questions, which proved to be more challenging than anticipated. This was followed by a weekend retreat at Coromandel away from any distractions to pursue Design Thinking.                     The concentration was evident but the creative thinking palpable with discovery, interpretation, ideati...

                            The Manaiakalani Outreach Programme     The Outreach has now reached out far and wide, from the far north in the North Island to east and west coasts of the South Island.  There is a great sense of community developing amongst all the clusters, with the knowledge that we are all under the same big umbrella.

Orientation 2018 This was a wonderful opportunity to come together and celebrate what it is to be part of Manaiakalani. Yes there was a house full of people with different points of view, which is what we want in education if we are critical thinkers, but we were all united in the kaupapa of Manaiakalani and what that means for our children.  The week was one of learning, creating and sharing of ideas and skills, with a lot of korero to stimulate the senses. It was great to see so many teachers eager to contribute to the community and provide narratives from their place.  This week is so important in the Manaiakalani calendar and provides a clear pathway and direction for all of us.

Graduation November 2018 What an amazing journey with such a talented group of young teachers in our MDTA programme, ably led by Dorothy Burt. Graduation night was a culmination of 2 years very hard work, but has resulted in the 'release' of a batch of capable exponents of Learn, Create and Share. We are lucky that they have all stayed in Manaiakalani schools, so the 'beat goes on'.            Where to next?    All the world's a stage and we take on many parts ...... so....... This year I am taking on another role, which is extending Professional Supervision to the Outreach Facilitators. Having worked in the MDTA programme in a similar role, this is an exciting innovation being implemented. The chance to work with such dedicated people is a privilege and a chance for me to be immersed in the Outreach programme as well.  We never sit still in education, we are always moving ahead and finding new challenges, but always with wha...