Production

We had amazing night for the first public performance of our show… Here's just a snapshot of what it looked like.  I am so proud of our children, the staff and all of our wonderfully supportive families who have put together such an awesome performance.

2015 Information Evening for Future Year 7 & 8 Learners and their Families

Last night we hosted a very successful information evening for the parents of learners moving into Year 7 & 8 in 2015.  With the 1-1 device initiative and the move to learning environments that encourage and motivate student agency through self management, the nature of learning at these levels will look slightly different in 2015.

I was very proud of our past and current students who spoke last night not only about how well Maungaraki School has prepared them for High School, but also how they are benefiting from their time in Year 7 & 8 this year.

This presentation shows you a little of the detail that was shared last night, however the real gems were in the words of the learners themselves.

Please do not hesitate to pop in a visit myself or Jackie Sutherland if you would like more information about how our Year 7 & 8 programmes operate.

Whānau Hui - Survey

Kia Ora Tatou,

As you  can see from the post below, we are thrilled with the input we have had during last week's Whānau hui… we know that some of you will have left the hui and come up with new ideas, and some of you may not have been able to attend the hui, but have some ideas you would like us to consider.  You do not have to be Māori to contribute to the survey we value everybody's input about Tikanga and Te Reo Māori at Maungaraki school!

Whānau Hui

Last week we held our first Whānau Hui for the year.  We were thrilled to have so many parents there representing many cultural backgrounds.  We have a very diverse cultural mix that makes up our school and acknowledge that the one thing we all have in common as New Zealanders is the cultural heritage of the country in which we live.  I was very proud to see children of all nationalities perform with enthusiasm in our Kapahaka group on the night.  We also shared some of the things that we are doing / have been doing as a school to celebrate our national heritage and to acknowledge the unique place of Tangata Whenua in New Zealand society.

During our hui we asked the parents and the students present a few key questions to help guide and direct us in terms of actions we can take to continue along this path.  The information has been summarised in this google doc:

Whānau Hui - Summary Responses - 18 August 2014

NB: An online survey will be posted for families to contribute to and add to the discussion sometime in the next couple of days.

Here's a quick clip of our Kapa Haka treasures performing a short medley to kick off our hui...

Unfortunately our kapa haka tutor is no longer able to support us for the remainder of the year, so we once again find ourselves on the lookout for someone who can help with this role.  If you know of anyone with a passion for kapa haka and things Māori, who is prepared to give us an hour a week, we would love to hear from you.

1-1 Device - Student Voice Video

We have now had 1 month with Chromebooks in our Year 5 & 6 classrooms - I thought it would be a great opportunity to hear how things are going from the students themselves…

Nigel Latta: School Report - What's going on?

It was so refreshing to watch a positive education story in the media last night.

As adults we remember our own schooling, we know it was successful for us, and we can't understand why the system of schooling needs to change so radically.  The reality is that education WAS successful for us… to prepare us for life in the 70s, 80s and 90s… but children today are leaving school to enter a very different workforce and society to the one we left school to join.   Our relationship to knowledge and the way we access it has fundamentally changed with the advent of the world wide web and the introduction of mobile devices… and schools need to change with it.

Last night's documentary demonstrated the changes in education, outlining the shift away from replicating knowledge and ideas, towards thinking creatively and innovatively.  It showed us how new ways of teaching and learning are not only engaging and motivating students, but are enabling learners to gain much deeper understandings of curriculum content, than if they had rote learnt vast quantities of factual knowledge.

If you didn't get a chance to see the documentary, you can watch it on demand here:

Nigel Latta: School Report - What's going on?

It's well worth 45 minutes of your life!

Passionate Teachers and Enthusiastic Learners Lead the Way!

Chromebooks are go!

We had a wonderful first day with the Chromebooks in Year 5&6 on Monday.  Learners are focused, engaged, and thoroughly enjoying using their new learning tools.

1-1 Device Initiative Update

Today we sent home an update regarding the one to one initiative.  This outlines timeframes for the remainder of the year, as well as options for participating in the initiative.  The update can be viewed here:

1-1 Device Initiative - Update for Parents

One of the new options outlined in this update is the option to rent a Chromebook from the school on either a yearly, or a term by term basis.  We have nearly finalised a rental agreement to be used for this purpose.  Here is the link to the final draft of the rental agreement that we intend to use:

Chromebook Rental Agreement 

I encourage you to make contact with myself, Janet Evans or Eric Pampalone should you have any questions relating to the information in the update or the rental agreement.

Solar Panels

Our solar panels have now been up for almost 6 months.  We finally have the "Splash Monitoring" system properly installed so that you can see what sort of energy we are generating at any one time.  If you're interested in taking a look, you can visit our site at:

Maungaraki School Solar Panel Monitoring

I particularly like the graphic in the bottom right where it gives comparisons to the cumulative energy we have generated… At the time that I wrote this post, we had generated 5125KWh (Kilo Watt Hours) of electricity since the panels went up, this is the same as:

• boiling 215 thousand cups of tea
• making 273 thousand pieces of toast
• driving a car 6ooo Kilometers
• powering a house (for 3 people) for 25 weeks
• preventing the release of 2.7 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere

WOW!  That's a lot of electricity!  It's great to see the panels are doing their job so efficiently.  I know lots of the classes are studying energy sustainability this term - so hopefully this new monitoring system will help us all learn more about solar power.

Mr Rathbone (from the Dynamis project) made a documentary for Enviroschools about the solar panels that are going up around some Wellington Schools.  Here is a compilation of some of the Maungaraki School learners who contributed to the documentary:

1-1 Device Initiative - Consultation Workshop 3 - Device Safety

I really enjoyed the 3rd Consultation Workshop on the 15th May.   Although there was only a small group in attendance, we had some robust discussion around how we can all ensure the safety of learner devices.

Here is the link to the notes from the evening's discussions:

Consultation Workshop 3 - Device Safety and Kawa of Care

This is a 'Google Doc' meaning that you can comment on this document directly if you would like to leave us some feedback, suggestions or further questions.  There are several other ways you can comment:   Comment under this post, email Janet, Eric or I at school, or pop in and see Janet or I in the staffroom next week during 3-Way Conferences.

Tech Think Tank Meeting - 14 May

We had some great discussion at the Tech Think Tank meeting on the 14th May.   It was good to have some constructive and forward thinking suggestions.

Here is the link to the notes from the evening's discussions:

Tech Think Tank 14 May 

This is a 'Google Doc' meaning that you can comment on this document directly if you would like to leave us some feedback, suggestions or further questions.  There are several other ways you can comment:   Comment under this post, email Janet, Eric or I at school, or pop in and see Janet or I in the staffroom next week during 3-Way Conferences.

1-1 Device Initiative - Consultation Workshop 2 - Student Safety

On Tuesday night we held the 2nd of our three initial consultation Workshops. We had some great discussion about the procedures and protocols relating to digital citizenship and managing the challenges that come with working in a digital environment.

These links take you to the information that you might find useful if you were unable to make the meeting.

Minutes of meeting / Q&A etc.  (Google Doc)

Maungaraki School Digital Citizenship Procedures (Google Doc)

MOE Bullying Guidelines

Proposed Google Apps for Education Protocols (Google Doc)

Several of these are 'Google Docs' meaning that you can comment on these documents directly if you choose.  There are several other ways you can provide us with your feedback:   Comment under this post, email Janet, Eric or I at school, or pop in and see Janet or I in the staffroom next week during 3-Way Conferences.

I also thought I would share with you this article on Social Media use in Education that just arrived in schools yesterday - very interesting follow up from Tuesday's discussion!

"How Social is Your Classroom?"

1 - 1 Device Initiative, Consultation Workshop 1

Thank you to those who attended our 1-1 Device Consultation Workshop last week.   We have compiled a document that combines the speaker notes from the teacher's presentation with the minutes of Q&A that happened throughout the evening (attached to this email).  We hope that those who weren't able to attend, will find this to be a useful document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mnImBiIjWnQvUaMLW59FRF28VGQLbUqPd7QNB8LTihI/edit?usp=sharing

If you have a Google account you will be able to leave comments on this document.  If you would like to comment on the information in the document but don't have a google account, or you have further questions around what the 1-1 Device initiative will look like in the classroom, please feel free to leave a comment below or to contact Janet, Eric or myself at school.

1-1 Device Consultation Workshops

In the first two weeks of Term 2 we will be holding a series of 1-1 device consultation workshops.  The purpose of these workshops is to answer any of the questions you have relating to specific themes, and to collaboratively problem solve around concerns that have been raised.

This post outlines the content of each workshop with an outline of the questions we hope to answer and the concerns we hope to address:

Workshop 1

What will this look like in Classrooms?

Thursday 8^th May 5:30 – 6:30

Staffroom

“A typical day with Chromebooks … including hands on opportunities to explore how the Chromebook works.”

Questions raised around this theme based on emails received and "post it" charts at the parent evening: 

• What is the expected life of a Chromebook?
• What kind of device will parents need to access the portal?
• What access is there to the print server?
• What will teaching in maths look like – do they just learn off the web now?
• Will there be a keyboard skills component to teaching?
• Will there still be traditional reading, writing etc (don’t want devices to take over)?
• How will Chromebooks help to better cater for different ability levels?
• How will Communication skills be developed… this looks like less personal interaction with teacher and each other?
• How will Chromebooks support pure curriculum (numeracy literacy)?
• Will there be time wasted learning basic computer skills when my child should be focusing on foundation learning?
• Will there be training for parents on how to use the Chromebook?
• What about homework...  Will I be expected to have Wifi/broadband at home?
• What charging facilities will be provided at school for these devices?

Workshop 2

How can we protect our learners?

Tuesday 13^th May 5:30 – 6:30

Staffroom

“Including Discussion on Digital Citizenship, Cyberbullying, Email Protocols etc.”

Questions raised around this theme based on emails received and "post it" charts at the parent evening: 

• What is the school’s cyber bullying strategy?
• How will my child learn to filter all the crap on the web?
• What controls will there be to protect my child’s identity?
• Will I be able to see all my child’s online communications?
• How can I prevent them download software onto  the Chromebook without my permission?
• I want to make sure my child will not be left behind if they choose to run and play in the weekends.
• How will we manage the increase of screen time?
• Will the school enable access to unmonitored social media like facebook or twitter?
• Will Chromebooks have unlimited access to Youtube, Google etc?
• Are we making our children innocent targets?

Tech Think Tank Meeting

Further Financial Considerations

Thursday Wednesday 14^th May 6:00 – 7:00

Staffroom

Including discussion on rental options, insurance considerations, sponsorship/donation of individual machines.

Questions raised around this theme based on emails received and "post it" charts at the parent evening: 

• My excess won’t cover it, why should I bear all the risk?
• It is irresponsible for the school to suggest retail finance… what other options are there for those that can't afford it?
• What other costs will there be?  Can we have a full cost break down… bags, mice etc)?

NB: Most questions from the post its at the parent evening have been answered either on the evening or through the supplementary FAQs (click here to access), this session will predominantly be to discuss/explore other options as outlined in italics above.

Workshop 3

How can we ensure the safety of devices?

Thursday 15^th May 5:30 – 6:30

Staffroom

“Including discussion on care of devices, insurance considerations etc.”

Questions raised around this theme based on emails received and "post it" charts at the parent evening: 

• Who will care for the safety of devices after school at sports practices etc?
• What if a drink bottle leaks onto the Chromebook?
• Potential for this to be lost / stolen / damaged?
• My excess won’t cover it, why should I bear all the risk?
• How will Chromebooks be stored/looked after before school?
• What about during assembly times or when classes go out for PE?