Sunday 23 September 2018

Apple Teacher Certification

Another wet weekend so got stuck in and did the iPad Badges which resulted in gaining Apple Teacher status. While doing this realised the power of an iPad and will revisit these apps and extend my use of them, especially iMovie and Garageband.





Tuesday 11 September 2018

Accreditation Application

One of the uncharted territories of my new role is to go through the application process to be an accredited PLD facilitator with the MoE. Once accredited, facilitators can then tout their wares and be contracted by schools under the centrally funded PLD scheme. Being a Manaiakalani facilitator means that CFPLD can be used as we work in schools in our cluster.

Under the professional supervision of Anne, she has cajoled and encouraged me to complete this process. Being the queen of procrastination I found many excuses to not get going like being "busy". Being busy is a good smokescreen that many of us cough and splutter behind. But Anne kept it on the front burner and finally, a wet weekend forced me to confront this herculean task.

The first words that jumped off the application form were "No more than 10 pages in size 10 font".  I have never written 10 pages about myself or my work. How would I fill 10 pages...and in such a small font?

Anne's prompt of looking in our Drive and at the work we have done was my starting point. I looked a the big picture stuff first and summarised what it is that our work as Manaiakalani facilitators is all about.

I remembered one of the first days at our orientation with The Manaiakalani Programme in January and we had to write in tweet format what we thought Manaiakalani is. Good way to start. With that I got going...and once I got going there was no stopping. Anne - you were right, I had plenty to write about.

Three examples of practice were asked for so I chose the Manaiakalani Outreach programme and all that it stands for as #1. #2 was about collaborating online. #3 was about using assistive technologies to support diverse learners in accessing the curriculum. Phew! And those 3 examples are each a blog post in themselves. Watch this space.

Wow - thank goodness for 10 pages and size 10 font or else this would have turned into a textbook. Can see why the limit is put in place because I'm sure some would write a textbook. Now the waiting game for the result.