Tag Archives: reflections

Reflections from NAPP HUI

A week ago I attended the NAPP hui as part of the national aspiring principals program. It was an amazing few days that have really challenged my thinking and what I am trying to achieve as an educator. Finding the WHY was the theme that reoccurred for me over the 2 days. For me, theContinue reading “Reflections from NAPP HUI”

Playing along with gamification

Gamification is a word I don’t like very much. It has been used a lot in an educational context (simply searching gamification in education gave over 1 million hits) around making learning more: fun; engaging; relevant; real life contexts etc. I have yet to decide whether for me it means actually building games, or just utilising games inContinue reading “Playing along with gamification”

OneNote has levelled up with Learning Tools

OneNote learning tools is AWESOME. It is an add on for Microsoft OneNote that contains an immersive reader and a dictation function. I didn’t think it was possible to love OneNote any more than I did, but I do now. When using OneNote learning tools, you can take ANY text and be able to change the font,Continue reading “OneNote has levelled up with Learning Tools”

Fly away…. as long as you come back some day

I have this super awesome song from fly my pretties on repeat in my head. It has got wedged in my head with the news that not one, not two but three (THREE) people I have a lot of time for are leaving New Zealand classrooms for ‘brighter shores’. All have told me in theContinue reading “Fly away…. as long as you come back some day”

Equity, Equality, Results and Comparisons…

At the NAPP secondary day, we were shown this picture image sourced from HERE (Office of Health Equity, Maine) The image was in context of build collaboration and sharing between schools and being very aware of the language we are using. For example, you are not building collaboration if you ‘offer to help’ primary schools withContinue reading “Equity, Equality, Results and Comparisons…”

Letting it go…… with Yr 10 Staying Alive

I LOVE year 10 Science. There is more freedom (still have to do standard tests/assessments that all the other classes are doing and have the exams at the end of the year but there doesn’t seem to be the same pressure….)  and you can take a little bit of extra time to get to whereContinue reading “Letting it go…… with Yr 10 Staying Alive”

How can we get schools and teachers to share?

I have been reading ‘Vital Connections’ – why we need more than self managing schools as part of my professional reading for NAPP. As a relative NOOB to teaching (my first year teaching was in 2010, and my last year of secondary school was 1999) it has given me a much better understanding of whyContinue reading “How can we get schools and teachers to share?”

Sharepoint update – almost ready to be the LMS

So, after a big effort over 2 terms we are nearly reading to roll out SharePoint sites for staff next year. The Student learning management system side still needs a few more tweaks as departments decide how they will be running certain tasks. For example, the English department needs to be able to track changesContinue reading “Sharepoint update – almost ready to be the LMS”

Follow the leader…..

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to ‘lead’. What it means to be a ‘leader’, or what is my ‘leadership style’. I’m toying with the idea of doing some ‘educational leadership papers’ or perhaps a masters. What could I do  to improve my performance as a leader, what expectations do people haveContinue reading “Follow the leader…..”

Values and boundaries

This post is a bit ‘venty’ but I’ve got lots kicking around in my head. In the last couple of months I have been thinking about my ‘values’ as a teacher. More specifically, how do I align my ‘personal’ values from my ‘professional’ ones, the values of my school and the ‘expectation’ around what IContinue reading “Values and boundaries”