Graduations - MDTA and PRT

November and December have been busy months with loads of deadlines looming for both study and school assessment however it was great to stop and celebrate some of the milestones at the end of this year.

We were fortunate to have our MDTA graduation at the Google HQ in the CBD where we all came together to celebrate.  The support for the group was oozing out of the room and it was great to hear everyones mentors and principals speak highly of our journeys.  While I already considered myself fortunate to be a part of the MDTA, it wasn't until I reflected on the great opportunities I had since joining the programme.  I now feel more confident within my teaching practice and the skills that I have gathered since starting will allow me to continue to grow as a teacher.

What made me more humble about the experience was the support we have had from the start, both Dorothy and Anne have added so much to my kete and I look forward to connecting with me in 2018.  I was also fortunate to have Latai at school with me and this shared experience has allowed me to see all opportunities for collaboration.  What I am most grateful for is the support of my mentor teacher who exemplifies what it means to mentor and has inspired me to become an AUT mentor in 2018.

Today I was also fortunate to have a graduation ceremony at school for the end of my provisional registeration.  Through an administrative error, this meant that Stonefields graciously held a ceremony for myself, Latai and Sammy and looking back, I would have not had it any other way.  To celebrate with the kids meant the world to me!

So while this brings me to the end of my journey as both a MDTA and a PRT, this is not the end of my blog.  I am moving into a new year level in 2018 and intend to continue blogging not only to help me with reflecting but also help me develop further as a writer and connect with others as I move onto the next stage of my teaching practice.  For all those who have supported me so far, thank you very much.

PLG - Digital CV

Today was our last ever Digital Immersion Day - hard to believe that it is been a year already into our practice and the MDTA.

We started down at Point England Beach, getting a few new team shots as this would be one of the last times we were together as a group.

The remainder of the day was dedicated to creating a digital CV that showcases the skills that we have developed over the course of the year.  I have made a start and gathered a lot of the examples of resources we have created.  It was pretty cool to go back and look at some of the work I had created during the beginning of the year and assess how I have developed in my practice as well as my digital skills.

Here is a look at my first start of my site - I have yet to add into some of the more aesthetics of the site which might need to wait until the holidays.  Any feedback is welcome and appreciated at this stage of the process!

First Year Reflection

Todays session was about reflecting on the year and how I have grown not only in the pedagogy of "Learn, Create, Share" but also in my own practice as a first year teacher.

I chose to go back and watch my mid year reflection and felt that I was somewhat robotic and not reflective of my true self in that first video so aimed to make sure that my personality came through in this presentation.

Watching through this one, I had to smile at myself at the amount of times I used the word "amazing" (still better than awesome!).

I am looking forward to moving into next year - I have a great foundation year to base my practice on and feel more confident to keep exploring the pedagogy with my new cohort of learners.

Manaiakalani Film Festival

Such an air of excitement at school today with the students looking forward to seeing not only our school's entries into the Manaiakalani Film Festival, but other schools from around our cluster.

The MDTA cohort switched days to be at the Film Festival for the entire day and I was fortunate to watch both my entry and others from the cohort and Stonefields.  What a fantastic array of films that were on display!

This was the first time that the film that I had been creating with a group from my hub was going to be shared with others.  I was extremely proud of two of my learners who had created the story from an idea that they had for our break through exhibition as they presented their film today.  They spoke with such confidence and passion and their film was a hit with the audience from both the sessions it screened at.

You can watch Rubbish Busters in its entirety here and if you could, please leave a comment for the group as they would love some feedback from their audience!

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

In lieu of a PLG session today, I did some reflection on a busy week.

On Tuesday, Latai and I presented at a session at the University of Auckland run by the team of 23teaching that focused on the shift to Innovative Learning Environments (ILE's).  We spoke about the power of collaboration and co-teaching in an ILE space and it was fitting that we co-presented this!  We spoke about the importance of knowing both yourself and your practice so you can be confident to communicate effectively with your colleagues and you have the self-awareness of how your behaviour may be perceived and the impact on your learners.  A great insight that we came up with was that we are the role models for our learners for the skills of collaboration so how can we ensure that we are being consistent with our behaviours.

On Thursday, we repeated our team effort and ran a toolkit on the use of Stop Motion Animation.  A toolkit is a workshop that teachers in our schools can run to help build our knowledge and capacity in the various tools we use in our learning spaces.  We chose to run this workshop as we thought it may help empower some teachers with the confidence to use these techniques for the upcoming Manaiakalani Film Festival.  Really cool to have the support of some of our hub mates who came along for the session!

Add to this week both our school cross country yesterday and me attempting to get all my raw footage for my entry in the film festival today and I may have been dead on my feet by 3pm.  However the power of the collective really got me through this week and it is great to have a critical friend at school who is willing to not only lend a hand, but also critique and offer alternative suggestions.  Both sessions to have present to colleagues and the public would have been daunting enough but knowing you have someone that has your back really helped boost the confidence and allowed me to take risks.

I will look forward to giving you an update in the later weeks on how my film festival entry is going!

PLG - Social Media and PLNs

This diagram from James Hopkin's presentation resonated with me.

In my response to James after his presentation to this morning, I called myself #currentlyincuriousity as a reflection of my status of a Twitter user.  I follow people, I read posts, however, I have not found the courage to engage with others in this forum.  Discussing it with the members of the MDTA cohort, I put it down to where I am in my teaching career and how I feel that I do not have a voice yet to engage with others.

Upon reflection, this feeling does not sit right with my teaching philosophy where I value the power of conversation.  Twitter is a powerful connector and I need to start engaging with others to develop my own Professional Learning Network (PLN).

Why is it important to have a PLN?  This infographic from Sylvia Duckworth gives some strong context.

To help build all our confidence in how to connect and discuss with others, Dorothy and Anne set up a provocation where we were answering a series of questions and using the hashtag #MDTAchat.  We were able to gain the technical expertise of responding to others from this exercise.

While doing this, I found myself in the "zone" - I was reading, responding and formulating ideas at a quick pace and it gave me the insight into the personal philosophies of my cohort.  I was able to see the connections that others made as well as challenge both others and my own thinking.  I found my Twitter voice!

So what next?  You tell me, I want to talk!

PLG - Garageband 101

I was quite apprehensive about this week's PLG as it focused on the cohort learning to use Garageband in preparation for creating a film to share at the Manaiakalani Film Festival later this year.

Garageband is a whole music creation studio, which also has a complete sound library including software instruments, presents for guitar and voice as well as virtual session drummers.  A lot of teachers in the cluster already use this software to enhance audio elements in recordings or more simply for recording instructions for rewindable learning for learners.

We were fortunate enough to have Rob Wiseman from Pt England School come and spend the day with us to help build our confidence with using the software.

The reason for my initial apprehension was that most people who I spoke to are quite adept in the use of the app and when I had a look through it, it was a bit daunting.  Luckily Rob was able to scaffold us into using it with the design of a few tasks.

Our first task was to record ourselves reading a school reader and making it as clear as possible.  I found that the use of it was very similar to that of iMovie where you could cut out parts where there was additional sound (ie, page turns, doors shutting) and clean up your raw footage before saving it for use.

Here is the recording with an image of the book to see how my first attempt went!

Our second task was to create a backing track for some video footage that we had already captured.  Rob bought up a good point about how audio work is just as important as working with the visual and how we should not treat audio as the "poor cousin" to visual.  As we began to experiment with the different elements, I started to see how you could spend a lot of time on these tracks.  Here is a screenshot of the various options you can choose from (there is a lot!)

You can see how audio can add atmosphere or another layer to a film so the last part of our day was spent discussing how it is important to prepare for filming and plan out all elements of your filming.

Here is my track from the second session:

Thoughts or wonderings for my practice:

- I am now a Garageband convert and am keen to try these new skills!
- As mentioned above, I really can see the benefits for rewindable learning.  This can help learners who may struggle with reading instructions or allow them a choice on how to receive instruction.
- It could add another element to my literacy program where we can work on using reading with expression or add personalities to various characters within texts by experimenting with how we imagine they would sound or speak.

Look forward to showing some more recording skills later this year!  If you want any further tips, Ashley wrote a great blog post about it!

PLG - Sketchnoting

Today's PLG had us looking at sketchnoting.  For anyone like myself who is hearing this term for the first time, sketchnoting is a process when you create a personal visual story as you either listen to a speaker or read a text.

There are a number of apps that can help you with this process such as flipink (free), Paper by 53 (free) or if you feel like an expert, you can try Procreate  ($8.99 for the purchase of the app).  The cohort spent time looking into this after Dorothy shared her own experience with the process.

The implications for using this process in the design of learning are many - to begin with, this may be a great strategy for learners who process information visually to make meaning of the learning they are engaging with.  Sketchnoting also has a great connection with literacy and how learners can use visualising strategies to help them build confidence in that skill.

As always, the cohort were charged with giving sketchnoting a go with a lot of us downloading the apps and quickly getting into the process.  I have kept it old school with drawing it in a notebook but I will see if I can replicate some of my learning over onto one of the apps.  I chose to articulate my current professional goal for Term 3 so would be keen to see if people who follow this blog are able to decipher this - please feel free to comment below!

I am the first who would not call myself an artist so am keen to try this process further to help build my confidence in my art skills and I feel that it will help me with my university readings.

For those who are keen to try this out, I feel Georgia has summed it up perfectly with her sketchnote below!

PLG - MDTA Interview Video - Part 2

Today we had the goal of finishing our interview video that outlines our first six months in the MDTA programme.  I was amazed that a lot of the skills I had learned previously in regards to iMovie stayed with me and I was able to able to get this version of the video finished.

Upon watching it back, I started to notice things that I had missed and began to critique the video.  We shared our videos with each other to get some feedback and I was ready to restart the project.  It was not until I was driving home that I realised that like my learners, I needed to give projects a go and be determined to learn from this process so I have made the decision to show the first cut of the video here.

Things I learned while undergoing the process:

The Power of Preparation - I do not feel the quality of my speaking reflects my passion for my position (I blame part of this to doing this at 11pm at night) so will do an updated version towards the end of the term.  I tried to go off a script and this is why at times the speech does not sound very nature.

Video as a form of Reflection - It can be daunting recording yourself however I do see the benefit of using this as a form of reflection.  I can only get better with practice.

My Passion for Collaboration - This was the first thing I started to note down when brainstorming and it got me thinking about one of my placements last year where I was able to collaborate with two of my fellow student teachers on the design and of execution of a joint weekly block.  I really enjoyed the sharing of ideas and how we used our different perspectives to design outcomes suitable not only for our different teaching practices but the needs of our learners.  Like I mention in the video, I am fortunate that in my current role, I get to do this on a daily basis and I am really enjoying the dialogues and outcomes our team are creating on a daily basis.

I need to update my camera or stick to one filming device - It was not until I uploaded the video onto Youtube and played it that I realised that I could see the difference between footage that I shot on my camera to the footage that I shot on either my phone or iPad.  Consistency is key with filming especially as I do not want the quality of the film to detract from the message from the video.

I hope you enjoy this video and I would love to hear any thoughts or feedback on it if you have the time!

PLG - MDTA Interview Video - Part 1

Our next task is to create an interview with ourselves on our MDTA journey so far.  We have been given some prompts to help create a video which can be shared with others.  The first MDTA cohort did their own videos and we were shown these as a guide on how to structure our own.

I decided to head down to school to get some video of the school itself as I did not have much footage of that so far and it was a great day outside.  I even went up Mount Wellington to get some footage and this step of the process really helped me jumpstart the thinking behind how I wanted to create this video.

Getting out of the lecture room really helped put into perspective why I chose to go into teaching and why I chose to take part in the MDTA so I went back to university all keen to begin to storyboard and plan out the rest of the video.  The day was full of some insightful dialogue with everyone but I wanted to especially thank Latai, Danni and Clarelle as our conversations helped me better articulate what I was thinking and what the next steps are going to look like.

I now have the next week to map out the rest of my video, take any remainder footage and edit and prepare the video to share with the rest of the MDTA cohort next week.  It is going to be a very busy week!

PLG - StopMotion

Today I was carrying on with my side career of becoming a movie maestro with the MDTA cohort learning the basics about Stop Motion Animation.  If you are like me and do not know what this was, here is the general idea:

"Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own.  The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence."

We were tasked with creating a movie for a concept that would be beneficial for our learners so I chose to create something to help discuss the importance of collaboration when stuck with something in regards to their learning.  At Stonefields School, we are encouraged to celebrate being in the "learning pit" so used this as imagery for part of the film.

This was a great "create" task today and I got to relive some of my childhood and play with Lego for the majority of the day!  A lot of my learners already demonstrate the skill to create animations so I was grateful for the opportunity to have some time to explore this.  It speaks to the pedagogy of our cluster so it was empowering to develop these skills further in preparation for both designing future learning and getting in preparation for the upcoming Manaiakalani Film Festival.

My learners, especially the boys, enjoy using animation in literacy however I have noticed it can be quite time consuming so having a plan or goal in mind is key for undertaking this.  This was my workstation for the majority of the day:

As you could imagine, there is a lot of patience and determination required for this task but I think these are valuable skills to pass onto learners as they move through their school careers.  A break down on this one minute video meant that I spent the following time on elements of the video:

Preparation of materials - 30 minutes

Storyboarding and concept development - 45 minutes

Photography - 1 hour (I took 589 photos)

Editing - 2.5 hours

Factors to consider for next time:

1. I would spend more time storyboarding, including the design element at the end with my editing - I am not 100% happy with the colour schemes and messages.
2. I would pay attention to shots - I had to spend a bit of time trying to cut out my thumb in some frames.
3. I would like to experiment more with using voice overs - I think I am still a bit shy about using my own voice in filming however I do feel that I would make more of a connection with my learners if they could hear my or their own voice in any future videos.  Upon reflection of this video, I used music to help explain the themes so learners could concentrate on watching the video and coming up with their own message (I have done two videos, one without the text to show some of my learners to get their feedback and ideas on the video.)

Here is the finished result, keen to hear your feedback and thoughts:

PLG - Explainer Videos

It was back into Friday PLG's for Term Two today and we were fortunate enough to join other teachers in the cluster for a digital immersion day at Panmure Bridge Primary School.

The focus around this day was building our understanding of the create element of our pedagogy in order to help develop this skill for our learners with their learning.

We were challenged with the following:

"How often are you including opportunities for learners to CREATE to learn?"
"Where and how could you include increased opportunities to CREATE to learn?"

For me, I want to learn more about what my learners think about what it means to them to create something and how they could learn from this.  I feel getting this insight first would really help we as a hub team think about our design of learning and how we could look to promote this more within our planning.

The remainder of the day was spent on learning to create an explainer video around our inquiries.  Please note, I am a complete rookie to movie making so the below is a great benchmark for me to explore this area of learning more and it is very timely that we are having a iMovie 101 session next week!

On reflection, here are some notes for development:

• I need to lift my game from stick figures!
• I should look into building my recording skills - both presenting and the audio management!

Apart from that, I am stoked to have given this a go and am looking forward to building my skills!  Great connections with how my learners may feel at times when they are challenged in their learnings.  Bring on next week!

PLG - HTML and being in the Learning Pit!

Last week the MDTA cohort got stuck into developing our Google Site for Current Events around the world.  This was the task which Caleb came to speak to us about a few weeks back, which the aim to develop both our own critical thinking skills along with those of our learners.

I chose to concentrate on creating a page for my higher level readers where they could develop their own skills in thinking based on the Christchurch Earthquake and more particularly, the debate about whether or not to close Redcliffs School.  I felt that my learners would be able to connect with this as they would be able to empathise with other learners facing challenges and thought that by scaffolding the lessons and using a multi-modal approach, the concept would be achievable.

With that in mind, today was an intense day and I found myself in the learning pit!

The Learning Pit is a metaphor we use at school to help learners feel comfortable with being uncomfortable when faced with challenges.  It is an incredible feeling to celebrate when we are being challenged and how we can use both collaboration and the learner qualities to help us achieve our goals.

With this project, I was in the pit for the majority of time while creating the page.  At first I began to feel frustrated with the project, but with the end goal in sight, I was determined to keep going.  My cohort are amazing and very patient individuals and I am very lucky to be in a team where collaboration is natural and becoming second-nature.  By being self-aware of my learning style, I was able to ask for help and had some great discussions with the others to find out answers to some of my problems.  I thought a lot about how I wanted the site to look and was able to make connections with previous sessions where we had been taught some amazing skills in how to design a Google Site.  I had to leave early to fly home, but found myself reflecting on the work I had done so far and wondered what else I could do to make sure that I would be able to complete this by the end of the week.  While I have spent a lot of time with this, I know that I can do a lot more in this space and am now inspired to take risks and try more with Google Sites.

Please check out our site as I think everyone has done an amazing job!  Each cohort member has created a separate page with a different context and focus to develop a series of lessons to help build learners confidence in aspects such as literacy, critical thinking and Social Studies.

PLG - Multi-Modal Learning with Google Sites

If someone had told me that I would be creating web sites when I entered teaching, I would have definitely thought them to be slightly mad!  However this was the focus on today's session with a focus on how to build our own Google sites.

The first part of the day had the cohort really focusing on what does "learning" mean for us in our school environments.  The below graphic shows what Stonefields School work on and this resonated with me as I am currently building my knowledge in the learning process as a Term One Professional Goal - there will be a blog post to update you on this coming shortly!

We were also fortunate to have Caleb Allison from the first MDTA cohort come and present a provocation to us about building critical thinking in our learners.  This will form the basis for our first collaborative assignment as we work to build a tool to help him develop these skills within his Year 9 social studies classes with a focus on current events.  Sounds like an exciting challenge and again I can guarantee I will be blogging about that too.

The rest of the day was spent learning the basic skills of creating and designing Google Sites - we all created a "sandpit" site where we could experiment with the different features and get a better understanding of the tool.  This is a very important tool to understand as the majority of our schools use this format to share information with not only our learners and our colleagues but our families and communities.

In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to build a quick multi-modal site for students to explore popular fairy stories.  The concept of being multi-modal can be connected with Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences.  This recognises that our learners all learn in unique ways so we need to find ways to engage with them and by making the site multi-modal, this can allow learners to participate in various activities to generate interest and gain perspectives from various parties.

I chose "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and was tasked with finding six various forms of resources to help to stretch learners to look at the story from various perspectives.  There were some modern takes on the story with the porridge being replaced with devices or phones and I even put in a link where learners could discuss whether or not they thought that the bears were actually living in a safe environment and if there was anything else they could do to prevent this happening again.  While there is a rich resource of material online in the forms of images and videos, we were reminded to not shy away from text as this will help build those fundamental literacy skills.

I walked away from the session absolutely shattered however also empowered to think about how I can use this resource to benefit the changing needs of my learners.

Google Certified Educator - Level 1

Armed with plenty of water and snacks, I undertook a three hour exam today in order to become a Google Certified Educator (Level 1) and passed.

Such a great way to finish this week - this test took all the information that I had learned in the Google Apps for Education and presented itself in a practical assessment where I had to demonstrate confidence in all the applications.

This has given me the confidence to be brave with lesson planning and utilise these to help complement my teaching.  Onwards to the next challenge!

Perception versus Reality

"You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy.  Choose wisely."

This quote pretty much sums up this week - I had my first official observation by Anne Sinclair.  I have the dichotomy of finding being observed both daunting and incredibly beneficial.  As I was preparing my planning for the time that I was being observed, I had a lot of negative self talk in my head about how I had just picked up three new reading groups and I had not had a chance to gauge where my lesson would meet the needs of the learners.  A few years ago this would have thrown me but reflecting on it, I knew that any feedback that I was to receive would only benefit not only myself but both my learners and my colleagues in the hub.

Anne gave me a very thorough review of the session and I have some goals to work towards now however the majority of the feedback from both herself and my mentor was positive and actionable.

I am going to have some great days and I am going to have some rough days, such is life and I am not only privy to this - we all are.  This notion is something that I need to be actively mindful of as I work with my learners to overcome similar problems and develop critical thinking skills.

This morning, our cohort was fortunate to have Pat Snedden, the executive chair of the Manaiakalani Education Trust - this was the first time meeting Pat and while he spoke to us for 30 minutes, I could have listened to him for the remainder of the day.  The way in which he communicated was very engaging and some of his points really hit home with me.

We all are humble by nature and to have words thrown out about our cohort like having "grit", "determination", "courage and "resilience" was very humbling - he reminded me why I was in this programme and challenged me to bring my background into my practice to generate aspiration in my learners.  This has challenged me to think about my current identity in my team and how I can aspire to be the best teacher I can be.  The final aspect that hit a note with me was the notion of "servant leadership" - this fits in with my pedagogy as it begins with the natural feeling that one has serve first, then making the conscious choice to aspire to lead.  Again, this is very timely as our cohort become active members of our community by engaging with our learners and their families.

PLG - Efficient Tools

Looking at the agenda for today's session, I had flashbacks to my corporate job where I had roles that circulated around the use of spreadsheets. While I see the logic behind the use of such tools, I remembered dry conversations about Excel formulas and thought how would tools like these would be used in the teaching profession.

I had already had a glimpse of how my school utilise both Google Sheets and Google Forms - we use Sheets for jobs like timetabling and recording of students progressions but I had not really seen much use of Forms. The morning session had us split into ability groups where those of us who required a refresher on how to use Sheets were taken through the various steps and others were able to jump into looking at the various add ons that are available to the program. Something that used to frustrate me before was when you received information and fields like first name and surnames would be in the same cell and you would need to separate these out using a formula. We found an Add On called Split Name which adds to the application and then whenever you receive information that requires this to be tidied up, you can solve this with a couple clicks of a button.

Google Forms was something that I really wanted to look into more, especially with the linking with Google Sheets where you can manipulate the data. Some great insight I got was how to use these tools for teaching aspects such as marking and the tracking of assessment. Another great insight shared today was the use of Google Forms to gather prior knowledge before a lesson so you can tailor it to the needs of your learners.

I'm looking forward to working more with these tools to help streamline not only some of my own processes but hopefully we can use them to collaborate more within our learning space. Stay tuned!

PLG - Insights and Immersion...

Today sparked the first of our Digital Immersion days - every Friday the MDTA cohort join Dorothy Burt and Anne Sinclair at Tamaki campus for the day to connect and share with each other our learnings from the week and gain skills in the digital space within our spaces.

We began with a reconnect with our community and faced the reality of our community which was a great insight into why our programme was created and how we can use the skills we are building our capability in to help support our learners with their own learning.

The digital aspect of today was a look at Google Drive and Documents with some great tips on how to effectively use these in our teaching practice.

We were then able to reflect from the day using Google Draw - I am not the worlds best artist so I will be challenging myself to take risks with the visual arts and learn alongside my learners.

I was interested to see how many touch points learners in our community have in relation to a "regular" learner in another community.  To meet learners in our community, and especially as a newcomer, I would not be aware of some of these aspects of our learners lives and how myself as a teacher can play a small part of their lives (in their perception).  I can see how building visible connections with my learners and their families can not only empower the learners while at school, but also empower my own teaching practice to be reactive to the community.  I think having this awareness is key to aid me with these relationships and help me develop a responsive pedagogy to the needs of my learners.

First Week Down.

I have heard stories about people "surviving" their first weeks however with the speed of which this week has moved, I can see how some may begin to explain their experience as surviving by way of meeting their basic needs in order to move onto the next task.

As mentioned before, I am teaching at Stonefields School near Mount Wellington in a Year 2/3 Hub.  This is an open space in which we have 71 learners between the teaching team.  I am fortunate to be in a team with four other teachers so as a beginning teacher, I am in a great space to develop my own practice by observation and working with the others to reflect and build on my skills.

The first weeks focus has been connecting with our learners and getting to know them as we develop a programme for the year.  This is the second year in which some of these learners will be using an iPad for their learning however with all the Year 2s moving into the space, we need to ensure that we are giving them the skills to use the devices as an effective tool for their learning.  These are some of the skills that I will be learning through the Digital Immersion Fridays with the MDTA cohort.

So how was my first week?

Apart from the speed where the hours quickly sped away from me, I thoroughly enjoyed my first week teaching!

Honestly, I find making connections with all my learners a bit daunting however it is a good challenge to set myself for my first year.  I am going to start by concentrating on my Guardian, numeracy and literacy groups as these will be the learners that I will be interacting with on a regular basis.

A lot of the activities this week were spent on getting the learners to interact and collaborate with each other - I need to begin to look at these activities and use them in my planning to help build those skills when the groups are learning.  I also need to remember to look for ways to collaborate with my team - look for opportunities to team teach where our strengths and passions can complement each others.

Introduction and Orientation 2016

A year to the day on which I began my step into teaching allowed me to get an appreciation for the community which I am now fortunate to call myself a part of.

Picture this, a group of 9 enthusiastic beginning teachers (BT's) raring to jump into their careers, armed with their backpacks full of knowledge and experience.  The first day had the focus of connecting with both our community and each other as we explored the geography and demographics of our cluster as a team.  This enthusiasm was infectious as we set off and it was awesome to see that this energy kept going throughout the day.

Day two had us explore the expectations and guidelines of the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy (MDTA) and while it may have seemed like information overload at times, it was very evident that the supportive nature of our cohort has already begun to develop and we have the support of our leaders and mentors.  We were fortunate to meet with our academic partners from the University of Auckland this day.

The final day, the MDTA cohort joined with the other new teachers for the cluster at Tamaki College for the official Orientation Day.  I found this day very beneficial as it was a great refresher of where the cluster had come from, but also allowed me to appreciate more the direction in which they were moving towards and how I could be a part of this development.

Looking back, there were times where I said "what have I signed up for?" but the focus on both communication and collaboration is so natural that by talking with others or asking questions, all the current questions have been answered.  Don't worry, I know that there will more questions to come!