Bring on 2021

Kia ora whanau

2021 is a big year for me. 

I'm stepping out of the classroom, and into a specialist role for Manaiakalani. I will be a Manaiakalani Facilitator, and will be supporting teachers with Digital immersion and Cybersmart teaching.

I have taught at Pt England School for the last 7 years in the Year 5&6 team. The last 3 years as the Team leader of an awesome team. Saying goodbye to the team and the rest of the staff was hard, however made somewhat easier by the fact that I will still be able to visit under my responsibilities as a Manaiakalani facilitator. 

I have always had a strong connection to the the Maianakalani programme beyond simply working in a Manaiakalani school. In fact my career started with a Manaiakalani appointment into the Manaiakalani Digital teacher academy. Here I was paired up with an expert teacher Juanita Garden in a shared class model, and attended a digital fluency intensive programme with Dorothy Burt. We also had support from Anne Sinclair once a week, with regards to our beginning teacher registrations. To top it all off we  completed a Honours degree part time with the University of Auckland, and the Woolf Fisher research centre.  It was a busy first 2 years, however in truth its never really felt like it slowed down.

Following the MDTA programme, I've been lucky to be part of other Maniakalani programmes such as the MIT programme, Manaiakalani Class OnAir, and as a CoL across schools teacher in the Maniakalani Kāhui Ako.

This year I will be supporting teachers who are new to a 1-1 digital environment. I will be potentially be working in all 13 Manaiakalani schools, including the college. I'm also very excited to still be apart of the MIT and the Class OnAir programmes in a supportive role.

Now let's just hope our old mate COVID doesn't get in the way of an otherwise new and exciting year.

p.s. Yes I know it's quite bizarre that I have bow tie on in this photo.