Murutai Visit

Tena koutou e te kura o Muritai mo to koutou haka powhiri kia matou
Tenei te mihi atu kia a koe hoki e te rangatira a Anaru, mo to mihimihi powhiri mo te ra, i whakanuia koe te kaupapa, Tena koutou , tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Well what an inspiring visit. Thank you very much for your enthusiastic haka powhiri and greeting.
It was interesting to here Muritai Schools journey. They had to find out who they were, and where they stood after losing their principal and their management staff. What a task! I take my hat off to you Andrew!
We were encouraged to hear that your school had to lay down a solid foundation for Inquiry learning to happen across the whole school. Your approach has inspired us to look closely at what steps we will need to take to enable us to find a model that will suit our school whanau and community.

It was a privilege to have Muritai students sit in with us so that we could see what they had learnt in terms of what Inquiry Learning means to them.
In past discussion with our junior lead teacher one of our questions was answered through this visit and that is how do the junior syndicate engage their students in Inquiry Learning. Key word for me was EXPOSURE. Expose students to the language, values, process, skills, practice of and use of ICT a little at a time but often. And yes Inquiry Learning happens at their level and eventually it will happen at senior level where thy will be able use Inquiry learning as a normal process of everyday situations.

CLUSTER FEEDBACK

Our cluster feedback was informative and revealing. I do agree with the discussion that leaders and managers need to be fully supportive and have a personal buy in, and a vision for ICT to grow in their schools. I was encouraged to hear our story being told by others about their struggles that other lead teachers are having with staff resistance and the solutions that were offered to help us work out on how to bring our colleagues on board.
We would like to offer the process that we have so far used to help us kick-start our PD sessions for our school.
1. Conduct a ICT Personal Needs Survey of all staff members-One of the crucial points that came out of the 2008 Ulearn Conference was, be an expert of the tools and programmes you have in front of you right now, use them often and then teach a small group of your students to be experts as well. These students will become part of your school wide Tekky Kids group.
2. Schedule a time for Staff ICT PD that is dedicated to that. -This can be whole Staff, Syndicate, Individual, Classroom Buddy System or any other formula that works for you. This has to be part of your whole school programme staff PD
3. Up skill staff on programmes that are relevant to the classroom and meet the immediate need of the teacher (From Survey), - With success comes confidence this has to be good for the your staff and the kids.
4. Develop a whole school philosophy/long term plan for PD. We are just at the staring point for this to happen.

Thanks you all for your support

Na te Whanau o Te Kura o Hanana