I was lucky and privileged enough to be asked to be a 'co host' alongside the fellow School Leaders of Manaiakalani Mel and Sharon and our Uru Manuka Facilitator Kelsey at the Christchurch Delving Deeper Conference.
In all fairness, I didn't know what I was getting myself into as this was the first that I had heard about the conference and when Kelsey asked us to stand alongside her to talk about Learn Create Share it was an instant YES! Why wouldn't I want to share my experiences, journey and development with colleagues, teachers and total strangers?
During the day there were 4 sessions that attendees would opt into. As we were presenting in session 1 and 3, we were able to attend sessions 2 and 4.
Whether people had a genuine interest in what they were opting into, were just being nosey, or they liked the look of the presenters - there was definitely something on tap for everyone.
Heading into our first session, we set up upstairs at Riccarton Racecourse and looked out over the track, the beer fridge was full, the sun was shining and our attendees for our first presentation started to roll on in (note: beer fridge remained full for the entirety of the day).
The general vibe that we got after our first presentation was instant engagement with a hint of jealousy.. who wouldn't be jealous of what we are seeing and engaging in with our teaching and learning programmes?! We were faced with challenging questions, things to think about and also threw back the same to our audience. We challenged their thinking around their programmes and their approach to making things happen in their learning spaces.
One of the questions that stood out to me in this first session was 'if you accepted a job in a single cell classroom, with only a few devices, would you do it?' Mel was quick to answer with 'I just wouldn't do it' 😂 but thinking about it.. my answer was yes. Yes. Because.. knowing what I know now, the journey that I have been on over the past 4.5 years, why wouldn't I go into a school, a single cell learning space and flip it on its head to prove that what we are doing, is doing wondrous things for our teachers and learners?
Another question was 'if you bought this into a school, where do you even start?' .. My suggestion was begin with the staff. You need staff to understand the whole concept in full and have an understanding before you begin to put it into practise. It's important to be realistic during the whole process, not idealistic.
Our first presentation was successful and we had some great feedback from the attendees, we learnt about them and their reasons for choosing our presentation and where they might be in their journey.
Heading into the second presentation, I personally am having difficulty in having a sound Numeracy programme that I and the students enjoy while using devices as a learning tool. I'm all about getting ideas and seeing how other people do it so I decided to attend the IT in Numeracy. It was really interesting to see how Waltham Primary have set up their Numeracy programme, I definitely got some ideas about how to change my Numeracy programme for the better.
We again got to present during the third presentation. This was a smaller group, not as many challenging questions but was great to be able to present again and feel a little more comfortable the second time around. It was interesting hearing that a particular school thought they were strides ahead in teaching and learning, until they listened to us. They said that after listening to us they need to go back to their school and re look at their learning programmes, because they know longer thought they were ahead.
The final presentations for the day and I opted into going to Collaboration For The Future, hosted by a teacher from Haeata Community College. Interesting to see and ask questions about how their systems and learning programmes work. It was directed from a High School point of view but I took a lot out of it as many of our students head into a High School from us, so being able to help prepare them for that is definitely a positive.
Can highly recommend attending Delving Deeper, even if you aren't presenting!
In all fairness, I didn't know what I was getting myself into as this was the first that I had heard about the conference and when Kelsey asked us to stand alongside her to talk about Learn Create Share it was an instant YES! Why wouldn't I want to share my experiences, journey and development with colleagues, teachers and total strangers?
During the day there were 4 sessions that attendees would opt into. As we were presenting in session 1 and 3, we were able to attend sessions 2 and 4.
Whether people had a genuine interest in what they were opting into, were just being nosey, or they liked the look of the presenters - there was definitely something on tap for everyone.
Heading into our first session, we set up upstairs at Riccarton Racecourse and looked out over the track, the beer fridge was full, the sun was shining and our attendees for our first presentation started to roll on in (note: beer fridge remained full for the entirety of the day).
The general vibe that we got after our first presentation was instant engagement with a hint of jealousy.. who wouldn't be jealous of what we are seeing and engaging in with our teaching and learning programmes?! We were faced with challenging questions, things to think about and also threw back the same to our audience. We challenged their thinking around their programmes and their approach to making things happen in their learning spaces.
One of the questions that stood out to me in this first session was 'if you accepted a job in a single cell classroom, with only a few devices, would you do it?' Mel was quick to answer with 'I just wouldn't do it' 😂 but thinking about it.. my answer was yes. Yes. Because.. knowing what I know now, the journey that I have been on over the past 4.5 years, why wouldn't I go into a school, a single cell learning space and flip it on its head to prove that what we are doing, is doing wondrous things for our teachers and learners?
Another question was 'if you bought this into a school, where do you even start?' .. My suggestion was begin with the staff. You need staff to understand the whole concept in full and have an understanding before you begin to put it into practise. It's important to be realistic during the whole process, not idealistic.
Our first presentation was successful and we had some great feedback from the attendees, we learnt about them and their reasons for choosing our presentation and where they might be in their journey.
Heading into the second presentation, I personally am having difficulty in having a sound Numeracy programme that I and the students enjoy while using devices as a learning tool. I'm all about getting ideas and seeing how other people do it so I decided to attend the IT in Numeracy. It was really interesting to see how Waltham Primary have set up their Numeracy programme, I definitely got some ideas about how to change my Numeracy programme for the better.
We again got to present during the third presentation. This was a smaller group, not as many challenging questions but was great to be able to present again and feel a little more comfortable the second time around. It was interesting hearing that a particular school thought they were strides ahead in teaching and learning, until they listened to us. They said that after listening to us they need to go back to their school and re look at their learning programmes, because they know longer thought they were ahead.
The final presentations for the day and I opted into going to Collaboration For The Future, hosted by a teacher from Haeata Community College. Interesting to see and ask questions about how their systems and learning programmes work. It was directed from a High School point of view but I took a lot out of it as many of our students head into a High School from us, so being able to help prepare them for that is definitely a positive.
Can highly recommend attending Delving Deeper, even if you aren't presenting!
