Anne Sinclair

What else did I learn at the DFI at Otaki? I learnt that what Vicki espouses in her practice and pedagogy is aligned. When we say 'walk the talk' and 'talk the walk' Vicki demonstrates these principles visibly.

Thursday 25th What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? Every time I hear the back story of the Manaiakalani history I learn something new, which reminds me how dynamic the journey has been for so many people. The exciting part for me is the progress over time, which is consistent and evolutionary. What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I have been chaotic in the management of my folders and files and the session on Drive was illuminating, in that I realised how much time I wasted by not using a better workflow system. What did I learn that could be used with my learners?   The learner possibilities have been endless and being cognisant of adult learners, the potential for them of how to extend their learning was evident in the many ideas presented. The sites we explored offered many possibilities such as RBG, which I had never used before. The many aspects of today...

        Deliberate acts of facilitation  Develop trust and respect as a foundation to build rapport  The process of transferring from modelling to teacher actually doing it. Putting the challenge of how to do it in their hands. Making no assumptions about what they can/can’t do/know but having conversation as you are modelling and how this can be integrated into their actions and practice with their own flavour and spin for their practice. Using tangible things for them to go further on so they try. Continuing open to learning conversations as to how they are doing. Being patient and encouraging and understanding different levels of engageme nt Challenging and encouraging other perspectives and views

                       Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir started in 2016 and has grown exponentially since that time. The team are contracted to share their teaching from the planning of a lesson, to the actual teaching of the lesson (filmed by them) to the experience the students engage in, to the teacher reflection of the lesson to the student content captured on their Blogs. What exciting and truly inspiring episodes have been coming on stream from our innovative teachers. We have maths (DMIC teaching), science (Squid dissection and DNA Murder mystery), literacy ( vocabulary in abundance, writing (how to change a tyre on a real car), reading (exciting stories) and design, to share, all of which have been done in an engaging and innovative way. Our teachers are sharing the ‘visible’ kaupapa and creating lessons, which show enjoyment and learning with their learners. Great to see the tech...

Design Thinking:  Our KPMG day of superlatives and surptises The importance of working in teams to design ideas. It is amazing to see the change in thinking when ideas are interrogated and grappled and puzzled over. The first idea not necessarily the best idea ......  Experimenting with some of the many solutions is the next step in the design process. Here, the designer might make rapid prototypes or models of their solutions and use them to gather feedback from the team. It is important to focus on the minimum viable product, or the concept of an idea, rather than worrying about creating a perfect finalized version of your idea at this point. How could you make a prototype of your ideas you are exploring to help with your problem? Who could you test it on? What would you have to do? Who could help you? The game of Catalyst was used to interrogate ideas and confront issues and question assumptions. Sometimes we do not look at the reasons behind our ideas and the b...

EDTECH Summit Rooty Hill, Sydney, 2018 EDTECH Summit It is always noticeable, the difference in some countries, where First Nations people are not included in this introductory narrative.  It feels as though something is missing in the kaupapa of collaboration, coming together and the wairua of the ‘place’. Many of the attendees wanted help and ideas for their practice and this was reflected in the attendance at the workshops given by Gerhard on Google Sheets, Hinerau on VTAL tracking student progress, Dorothy with Google Keep, Jacob on using websites to increase engagement in writing, Clarelle with learning on Google Sites, Heather with her session on using digital technology to teach a second language, Kariene and Jackie  on Blogging, Zac with his session on movie making, Rebecca in Class on Air and my Paideia online/offline approach for teaching critical thinking. Some of the team introduced the session with a waiata and pepeha and acknowledging and bringing greetings...

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers Workshop at KMPG Headquarters in May Following the Hui in March and taking the feedback and different perspectives of Moonshot Thinking, our day at KMPG required a lot of down to earth thinking on how our Inquiry was going to look.  Ideas had changed from the previous day and the input from Rebecca Jesson also impacted on how we were going to frame the inquiry. Original thinking changed and a lot of talking followed, with justification as to why the changes had been made. We tested our ideas on each other for validity and effectiveness in accelerating learning and had robust discussion, which helped us to look at tour hypothesis and rethink the purpose and goal. This was a great example of not being in a fixed mindset but open to other ideas from the cooperative. Group think is powerful and empowering.  A feature of this day was being introduced to the Catalyst Board Game to interrogate our Inquiries. The questions really helped everyo...