On Friday the MDTA were very lucky to attend Manaiakalani's 5th annual Hui - a place where teachers and learners across Manaiakalani celebrate and share their accomplishments.
This has ended up being a rather lengthy post, as I gained many new insights from the teachers, researchers and learners at the hui.
In the morning
First up we heard our Manaiakalani student ambassadors share their learning. It was really interesting to hear from students how they learnt in their school. What I like about Manaiakalani is that every school is different. Although we are all following Manaiakalani's 'Learn, Create, Share' pedagogy, each school is able to put their own spin on it to reflect the community they are in. There were plenty of ideas that I will borrow and repurpose in my classroom, like the use of a 'Goal Wall' to make goals visible to learners.
Following this, the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher's shared their inquiries with the insights they gained along the way. I came away feeling inspired to give my own teaching programme a shake up to ensure my lessons are engaging, motivating and using digital technologies as much as possible. Whilst I do believe I use technology a lot in the classroom, these teachers had come up with ideas that I had not thought of before. Check out my infographic to see my main takeaways from the MIT.
Next up
After morning tea we heard from Rachel Williams about her holiday intervention programmes 'Summer Learning Journey' and 'Winter Learning Journey'. Rachel's aim is to help lesson the 'summer drop off', where learners achievement declines between T4 and T1 after the school holidays. Her results show that students who participated in the 'Summer Learning Journey' had less of a drop compared to students who did not participate in the intervention. Rachel's data was very compelling and I am excited to encourage my learners to participate in 'Summer Learning Journey 2.0'.
Next Woolf Fisher researchers, Rebecca Jesson, Stuart McNaughton and Aaron Wilson shared their insights gathered from observing teachers, and challenged us to consider what we are doing to accelerate our learners achievement.
Lastly
Dorothy, Russell and Pat Snedden spoke about where we are now and where to next for Manaiakalani. Although we are doing a great job accelerating our student's achievement, we need to continue to reflect, refine and improve our teaching. We have a series of outreach clusters which are looking at us and using what we are doing to accelerate their learners achievement too. Therefore, we need to be at the forefront of change and be constantly seeking ways to help our learners achieve. Pat Snedden's talk was the most inspiring of the day. He is so passionate about lifting our learners out of subsistence to capital builders. I think Pat Snedden gave me the kick I needed to ensure that I am constantly doing my best and seeking ways to improve my teaching, because it is what my learners deserve.
I also used Twitter when I heard something which resonated with me. Here is a collation of my tweets from the Hui.
