Kāhui Ako ki Orewa

Rāmere, te 18 o Pēpuere 2022

We have updated our Kāhui Ako ki Orewa Lessons and overview for those of you who are wanting to try out our resource. We currently have an overview with teacher notes and slideshows set up for term 1 which is aimed at Years 2 to 6. They can be adapted for other years if you wish.

The main changes this year are the inclusion of the Tiki Tour videos and the NZ Post Kupu o Te Wiki have been updated so as not to repeat from last year.

This year, we hope to create a set of lessons for 2023 of our year 5 and 6 students as a progression so if you have any ideas, we would love to hear from you.

Kāhui Ako ki Orewa Māori Lesson Overview

Digital Fluency

Digital fluency is about supporting teachers, kaiako, ākonga and students to confidently and effectively use digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.

Digital fluency includes being an adept producer of digital content and understanding the social costs and benefits associated with digital technologies, including issues of access and equity.

Digital fluency is about helping ākonga to develop skills in critical literacy in digital contexts, and to recognise how language, symbol and text affect understanding and communications. – Ministry of Education

Digital fluency encompasses:

• digital capabilities – being digitally adept and innovative; able to confidently choose and use digital tools to learn, create, and share
• digital principles – demonstrating values when working digitally; being an ethical, respectful, and responsible digital citizen
• digital literacies – being discerning and critical; able to locate, understand, organise, evaluate, and adapt digital content.

The importance of digital fluency

Digital information has rapidly overtaken print as the principal means of communication. Digital technologies are increasingly ubiquitous in our home, work, and social lives.

It is essential that digital fluency is fostered within the local curriculum and in the pedagogical practices of schools and teachers so students can thrive in the digital age.

Digital fluency is one of the Ministry’s PLD priorities which supports teachers and kaiako to provide more responsive and rich learning experiences for all ākonga and students.

Additional professional learning and development (PLD) support for Hybrid Teaching and Learning

As the COVID-19 situation continues, we are able to offer additional PLD support to any school or kura that needs it.

Schools and kura can access up to 25 hours of support to develop understanding, processes and resources that will ensure the learning of all ākonga continues regardless of whether they are in school or offsite. This support should also help school leaders plan for the possibility of learning being disrupted due to staff illness or absence from school sites due to isolation requirements. The aim is to enable the continuation of quality learning and this support will be flexible enough to meet the needs of schools and kura as they emerge.

This PLD support must be for an immediate need to work towards delivering hybrid teaching and learning and/or contingency planning. It must be delivered virtually by the PLD facilitator and must be used within the next three months. Our intention is for this support to be given to any school or kura who requests it, within the aforementioned parameters, regardless of any existing PLD allocations.

For further information click here

Dani Jolly (Orewa Primary SchoolKāhui Ako ki Orewa WSL) is this year facilitating for Digital Circus and is happy to assist with any questions – dani@digitalcircus.org.nz

In life, anxiety can be highly influenced by what we know for sure, what our brains think they know, and what our imaginations run wild with. Being forewarned with helpful, relevant information can lower anxiety and trepidation. 

So what is it like? A personal story 

(I’ve had my possible Covid hospital practice run!)

The following information explains the definitions and actions required under phase 2 of the Omicron response. 

Medical Practise/GP: If you receive a positive test result, your Medical Centre/GP  will also be notified. Each Medical Practice is able to  contact their patients to do a needs assessment. As the experts on their enrolled patients, they can  provide assistance for those who have higher health needs and/or underlying conditions which may need to be monitored more closely, 

How do we look out for our Staff and Students?

Here is a reminder of the psychologist first aid of Covid response.  This has been our mantra over the last two years and it continues to be even more relevant today as Omicron is building in our communities. 

Note: Listen – we are listening for distress, physically and emotionally, but also keep an ear open to rumours. Stories can grow into mountains given the chance, creating the opportunity for fear.  Reassurance and fact will be the counter action required to calm such rumours. 

Note: Listen – we are listening for distress, physically and emotionally, but also keep an ear open to rumours. Stories can grow into mountains given the chance, creating the opportunity for fear.  Reassurance and fact will be the counter action required to calm such rumours. 

If curriculum is the what of teaching and learning models are the how, assessment is the puzzled ‘Hmmmm’–as in, I assumed this and this about student learning, but after giving this assessment, well….”Hmmmmm.”

So what are the different types of assessment of learning? The next time someone says ‘assessment,’ you can say “Which type, and what are we doing with the data?”

While the role of testing in instructional design isn’t simple, it really might be. If the goal of any assessment is to provide data to refine planned instruction, then the primary function of any assessment, whether an authentic, challenge-based learning performance or a standardised test, should be to answer the following question for any teacher:

“What now?”

If the data doesn’t provide a clear path forward for both students and teachers, it likely obscures more than it clarifies.