Introducing Janine Bava - Tairāwhiti's New Facilitator

Welcome to Janine Bava - our new facilitator for our Tairāwhiti Cluster. She started as a facilitator in term 2, 2022 bringing a wealth of knowledge, effective practice and skills with her. 

Janine has been teaching at Awapuni School here in Gisborne for 10 years. She has been part of the Manaiakalani programme in several ways. 

Janine had in-class support for a year. She and her team quickly took on the Manaiakalani kaupapa of Learn Create Share. Her team developed a learning site for their year 5 & 6 students that was visible and contained rewindable learning. 

Janine was also a Manaiakalani Innovate Teacher in 2021. Her inquiry was around inclusive practice in the classroom. Her site is here for you to explore.

We wish Janine every success in her new role and we know that she has so much to offer teachers in our cluster.

Amplifying our Practise - Giving to others

Continuing on from my previous post about getting from others - here is the second part about giving to others.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give - Maya Angelou

So my question is - how do you give to others? And for that matter - how do I give to others?

Lots of share in our own settings with colleagues. I know that once we became a Google Domain at my previous job that we were able to create and file and share easily. We did not have to re-invent the wheel and that made us really efficient in the admin side of our job which hopefully, left us time and energy for the real part of the job - teaching! Because we all understood each other and knew the context of your teaching we also had the confidence to share with each other. So sharing is easy in our own settings.

Sharing outside our own settings is enabled by the ubiquitousness of digital technologies. We have platforms that we can share and once we are active on these platforms we can get from others. 

Locally we have a Facebook group to share stuff that we find useful. Join us and share the good stuff you have. We also have a Google + community for out Tairāwhiti cluster to share good stuff.

Are you on Twitter? If you are pop your Twitter handle in the comments so I can follow you. You can find me on Twitter @GigagalGizzy.

Is there anything holding you back from sharing which could include documenting your learning? I sense a real lack of confidence and purpose in teachers when talking to them about sharing on a professional learning blog. This could be for many reasons including  a lack of time or technology. Self-confidence can also be a limiting factor and/or worrying about bragging, judgement, or not feeling worthy enough etc. If we lived in USA we would probably be shouting it from the rooftops - or form the laptop screen. IS this a cultural thing? Or is it something else? I need to ask teachers directly instead of making assumptions.   

My job as a facilitator is about giving to others. And yes - I get paid for it, but I believe the work of The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach has meant that more teachers have access to quality PLD in digital fluency that will mean better outcomes for the learners in our local schools. Apart for that I am able to immerse myself in my technology and use Chromebooks and iPads with learners all day, every day. 

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.

New job - new horizons

How many people get this opportunity to change jobs at my age and at my stage in my career? I have moved from a long standing position at Awapuni School in Gisborne to becoming a PLD facilitator for The Manaiakalani Outreach Programme in Gisborne.

"The purpose of the Outreach Facilitator is to deliver high quality professional learning and
development (PLD) to support leaders and teachers across the nominated Kahui Ako/Col/Cluster to
become proficient in the Learn Create Share pedagogy, and successfully transition from analogue to
digital learning environments, becoming “At Home in a Digital World”

A key focus is to support educators to use the affordances of technology to accelerate learning
outcomes, encouraging “Future Focused Learners in Connected Communities”."

Such a great kaupapa - let the mahi begin!