Te Whakatipuranga Hou Cluster

Today I had the pleasure of attending Te Whakatipurangi’s Cluster Conference in Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty. Paula Jamieson, the cluster ICT facilitator, had been following my stuff for a while and had been at ULearn08 in Christchurch last year.

I did a couple of workshops- one on podcasting and another on Adobe OnLine. The feedback from the podcasting sessions were very positive with people enjoying the conversations and fun of it all.

Quote- “Podcasting looks much more straightforward than I thought. Great! I will try this!

Unfortunately we had a bit of a problem all logging on to the internet at the same time in the second workshop but at least we got some useful tips on how to make good use of Google Docs. If you would like to look at what I was going to talk about in Google Docs as a presentation click on the graphic below and follow along by clicking on the arrows on the bottom left hand corner of the presentation.

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The conference was held at Te Akau Ki Papamoa School. What a wonderful set up that was- the school has quite a distinct character and vision. Their vision comprises seven waves with the proximity to Papamoa Beach being recognised. Each wave is a separate learning goal. That visual symbol of the vision is great for learners to identify with.

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Vision – Clearly define our preferred future. Provide a clear learning continuum.
Think – Focus on Higher Order Thinking, critical self-reflection, Essential Skills, individualised learning, in depth learning and research.
Learn – Provide the environment and opportunities for our learners to develop the skills, attitudes and values to contribute to society and to be self-motivating, life long learners.
Nurture – applying a Whanau approach in all we do. Providing a safe physical and emotional environment. Applying “good choices” and “restorative justice”. Nurturing each child as our own.
Grow – Assist learners to discover, develop, demonstrate and celebrate their talents. Apply Benchmarks to measure progress. Focus on goals and ways to achieve them.
Communicate – Celebrate the excellence we achieve. Share what we expect, stand for and believe in. Consult with our community regularly.
Shine – Focus on “Best Practice.” Identify, harness, develop, utilise and build on individual strengths.


Here is a link to one of our early Skype podcasts as we tried to learn more about neighbouring Brightwater School‘s logo in order to help us think of ideas that we needed for our own .

Here is Appleby’s newish logo. We were trying to articulate and represent our new vision statement in our logo. Has anyone else got any good visual symbols of their learning vision?

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2 thoughts on “Te Whakatipuranga Hou Cluster

  1. Morena Allanah

    Thanks for opening my breakfast bar yesterday and of course our little discussions as they were. I would love to have attended your breakout sessions as I am keen to learn more about podcasting. Would you be keen to present at a Conference in Kawerau? Let me know. Have a gr8 day.

  2. check out our one at Outram School (www.outram.school.nz) …. our vision is completely visual and although I have had little to do with the initial work developing it I think it is very creative. It permeates all that we do.
    cheers
    Greg

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