Anne Sinclair

Learning, Creating, Sharing, Inspiring, Connecting, Reminding, Pursuing, Main thing is the main thing, Collaborating, Fearless Fellowship, Enjoying and Celebrating who we are. What an amazing Hui this was, with student learning and achievement at the heart of everything we saw and heard. Thank you to all the teachers and learners and generous people who make Manaiakalani what it is. A centre for making futures happen for our young people and community. Mā te rongo, ka mōhio; Mā te mōhio, ka mārama; Mā te mārama, ka mātau; Mā te mātau, ka ora.   Through resonance comes cognisance; through cognisance comes understanding; through understanding comes knowledge; through knowledge comes life and well-being.

                    Procedural Writing making Takakau bread John Hattie’s research shows it is the way teachers teach and the way students see themselves as learners that matters the most difference. This MDTA teacher considers the impact of her teaching on her student's learning and continually thinks of how she can engage them, when she plans and builds learning experiences. These students were keen to try something new and saw it as a challenge to do this task. 12:50 PM - 29 Aug 2017                   Many hands make light work making  Takakau bread and collaborating in a task, which requires working together to construct the bread.  The students were given the ingredients, but not the written recipe, just oral instructions, as the students proceeded with the making. They were not given the steps.  Working in groups of 4 they all got a chance to have a part in t...

. Business partnership opportunity for our extension groups. The Warehouse Group wanted some new look ideas for designs for their school range of products and what better place to come than to Point England school! This group of creative and hardworking designers got to work and spent 2 days under the guidance of the Warehouse design team, to produce 'kidspeak' designs for stationery, clothing, backpacks, lunch boxes, drink bottles and emojis. They worked nonstop for 2 whole days, but were so engaged and enjoying the chance to think and create the time flew by. As you can see they were rewarded for their work in these brown paper bags!  Learn Create Share

Term 2 Production by Yr 5&6 Extension Group Back in da Day was written, music composed, lyrics written, dances choreographed, casting, lighting and sound designed, digital backdrop designed, researched, costumes created, directed and produced by the students. This was an example of teachers talking and doing less and students talking and doing more. As teachers, we find it very hard to 'let go' and be more student centric. It is about giving students space and permission to 'have a go' and create. This production was 'going beyond the reef' and resulted in increased confidence, self efficacy, enjoyment, using talents, trying new things, learning, learning, learning.  It was about us teachers trusting the students and empowering them to reach for the sky without setting limits to their potential and imaginations. The planning involved and the discipline needed to do something of this magnitude, was testament to the philosophy of learn, create, share and ...

                                   Dress Rehearsal Saturday, 24th June It is all coming together! The 'cast' could see how the parts make up the whole and how important their 'part' was in the final production. The children demonstrated the key competencies in being wholehearted, taking responsibility, self managing, collaborating, participating, helping each other and throwing themselves enthusiastically into the day. Their demeanour and attitude illustrated their growing confidence and willingness to be part of a collaboration. Having Mr Jacobsen manning the lighting and sound desk and bringing to life all the work they had done to put together the show, was so appreciated and needed.  Seeing their work projected onto the big screen was awesome and they loved being part of the changing 'scene' and teleporting through time with the sound they had created. This has been an ambitious proje...

BACK IN DA DAY by Yr 5 & 6 Extension group The extension group are working very hard on contributing their part of the jigsaw towards the production entitled Back in Da Day. This is a story of a group of children who had not realised the power of their digital devices in transporting them back and forward in time, to different countries and different time zones. This has meant they have been able to see what it was like Back in Da Day and what it could be like in the future. It has also meant that they realise they need to balance their online lives and their off line lives, to get the best of both worlds. The class have done a lot of research in the Learn stage and are now in the Create stage and will soon Share what they have done with a wider audience.  They have experimented with many facets of digital affordances in order to design and create the effects they want to get. The backdrops,  the costumes, the props, the sound, the dance and music and lighting have al...

  Term 2 Extension Group and the challenges they face this term  At the first session the group reflected on last term and thought about what they had learnt, what they wanted to learn and what they could improve. They came with a very upbeat attitude and full of excitement and anticipation for what we were going to do this term. They had learned a lot last term on collaboration, dialogic discussion and listening to others and hearing what they said.  This resulted in responding, questioning, clarifying, inviting, piggy backing, challenging ideas and presenting their viewpoint informed by evidence. This was quite a task for yr 5 & 6 learners and the skills were taught within a contextualised situation, so integrated into the normal class programme.  If we want learners to take part in discussions they need to know something about the subject/topic/issue so they can actually talk and grapple with it. So content (learn) is important.  This term we are work...