Reflection: Uru Mānuka Orientation Day 2018

Yesterday I had the chance to attend an orientation session for new teachers to the Uru Mānuka Cluster and Manaiakalani Outreach Programme. I was fortunate enough to have done my final teaching placement at Ara Tū Whakatā Gilberthorpe School and had some knowledge of what being part of Uru Mānuka meant. As a new teacher at Hornby High School, I am glad that I'm able to keep working within the Learn, Create, Share model and receive more professional development in the area of digital technology and enhancing achievement in tamariki through e-Learning.

For those of you who do not know, the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme provides an e-Learning action plan specifically designed for Decile 1-3 schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. The programme started in Tamaki in the North Island and has been successful in creating a variety of clusters or Communities of Learning (CoL's) nationwide. Uru Mānuka specifically has seen growth in performance across all three targets; Reading, Writing and Maths, since it was launched in 2015.

Us newbies spent the day learning from Miss Kelsey Morgan, who is the Uru Mānuka Cluster Education Programme Leader. Kelsey is very knowledgeable as she has been working within Uru Mānuka, and the Hornby area, for many years. Part of her role is that she provides new teachers and their students in all seven cluster schools with 1 hour per week lessons on the CyberSmart content she has created. This support continues for one year and I am thrilled to have Kelsey alongside me in the classroom as her teaching energy is infectious and her passion for this learning speaks for itself.

My biggest takeaway is that I still have much to learn about digital technologies in order to successfully teach in a 1:1 Chromebook classroom. While I am from the digital/social media generation, my Year 8 students will likely know much more than I do. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the variety of tools I will need this year; a Google site for my classroom to post lessons and tasks for students, a class blog to share our learning in J6 and this professional blog to document my progress. I feel supported knowing that I have Kelsey as a resource and I anticipate many lessons spent sitting alongside my students with my device out, creating and sharing content together!