Thursday - heading to Raumati Beach

Up early and away I go over well travelled land… all the way to Raumati Beach.  Much to my surprise, the 3 hour journey was only 35 minutes further south than I had been yesterday!  I arrived at Raumati Beach School in time for a game of corridor cricket.  After break we began a very exciting green screen session, shooting legends scripted by the learners in six groups.  Not only had they created the legends, they made the props and planned all the scenes.  Here I must share the story of the grasshoppers that I heard many years ago…  If you keep grasshoppers in a shoe box with the lid on for a period of time, when you eventually take the lid off, they will only jump as high as the lid, because they are conditioned to only do what is allowed or expected of them.  However, if you take the lid of and let the grasshoppers take risks, challenge themselves, leap and learn, they will forever reach outside the boundaries.  

I saw the evidence of learners used to challenging themselves and problem solving as they co-operated, collaborated and created.  Fun times indeed.  Thanks Jo and Room 12.  After school, Jo and I set off for a geocache session, a walk up the hill, and a walk through the Coastlands Mall. 

The day was completed with dinner out at Mediterranean Food Warehouse with Jo and her daughter Emma and Julie.  What exciting times ahead for the learning hub at Raumati Beach.

Wednesday in and around Taranaki....

Continuing the magic of family times.  Mum and Doug and I set off on an adventure to visit grand children and great grandchildren.  Does anyone know this magic park we stopped at along the way?  

Travelling 2 hours south for lunch with family, I decided to travel on a bit further to catch up with Regan Orr at Koputaroa School.  Just another hour south and what a magic visit.  Regan and I originally met in 2006 on an Apple Bus Tour in Christchurch and have been chatting on twitter together for ages.  

Canterbury Apple Bus Tour 2006 

It was magic to meet up again and have an amazing discussion about the leadership journey and leading with passion.  Thanks for sharing your exciting learning adventures Regan.  It was awesome to visit your school, and I look forward to keeping in touch…  

Two and a half hours later and I arrived back in Hawera for a great family dinner again…

Tuesday - a magical family celebration..

Up after a reasonable sleep and so begins another adventure.  Marie and I were heading off for a day touring garden with the Taranaki garden spectacular but we had the opportunity for a very special family reunion. This family reunion was celebrated around the table with more crayfish than I have ever seen and more whitebait than I have ever eaten...
What a magic day.  

How truly serendipitous to spend a day with very special family members.  Thanks Stephen for all the seafood treats...
At the end of the day Marie and I got to visit two gardens and back in time for the Melbourne cup.  What a magic day in Taranaki.

Monday - Twitter Tour heads of to Taranaki...

After a walk around the lake and a coffee at the church café off Mum and I headed.  

First stop Otoronhonga where we had the most amazing look around the Kiwiana display.  It was truly amazing.  

Next stop Te Kuiti where we had an awesome walk and checked out the amazing tribute to Pine Tree Meads and the shearing displays.

On the road again, next stop, on the coast at Mokau where we feasted on whitebait patties. 

We met the most amazing people in and around the café; a great group of gardeners from Tauranga, who had been on a four day garden tour around Taranaki and one of them grew up in Romahapa, not far from where Mum did; two men cycling from Cape Reinga to Wellington and a lovely man who showed us the track down to the beach.  We had an awesome paddle in the sea and got our feet burnt walking back up the black sand.  Then the same lovely local took us to the river mouth and showed us where the 350 whitebait stands are along the Mokau river.  

A few stops for photos later, a coffee in Waitara, we finally arrived at Hawera and went out for tea with family.  What a wonderful night reminiscing.

Sunday, funday

Sunday morning, up for an amazing breakfast on the deck (this Twitter Tour sure has involved a lot of eating…) then off to the Waikato.  I had a wonderful coffee at the Lake with Jane, my Principal from three years ago then toured her school St Pius. 

It is so nice to now be able to picture where she is everyday.  I really appreciate all that Jane did for me, employing me, giving me freedom, believing in me.  And inspiring me to study my Masters.  It is so great to keep in touch. 

Next stop Barbs place for a coffee and a catchup.  I have met sooo many amazing people this year and I value their friendship so much.  Thank you Barbs for being the awesome friend you are.  

Finally I arrived at my sister’s house in Cambridge and oh what a surprise there was in store for me.  I was greeted by the door swinging open and two fully Halloween clothed monsters showered me with confetti…. 

And so it continued way into the night, with snakes around my room, balloon people in my bed, and trick or treat everywhere.  Revenge was sweet and I was able to continually surprise them with party poppers when they least expected it….. They soaked me with water bombs and hid from me and leapt out on me…. Oh the fun.  And to top it off, after not quite enough sleep, they leapt onto my bed at 6.57am costumed and pelted me again with confetti… my secret stash of party poppers was soon discovered and on and on it went….

Saturday on the Auckland Waterfront again...

Saturday morning, first sleep in for a very long time… Then it was off to Mission Bay with the bikes.   We biked around the waterfront and met with Ann and Caroline at the cloud.  

It is very hard to believe that this is the same place Claire and I spent last Saturday night.  So much has changed.  The ball has gone, the whole fan zone area is cordoned off and the waka is coming down.  The waterfront is still buzzing with people and the celebration is still evident.  We eventually decided to have lunch in the Wynyard quarter at JackTar.  

What a magnificent celebration with my study buddies.  This really is very special to be together on the waterfront.  I love this place, from the pallet walls to the speights crate bar.

Back up to Brown’s Bay for a BBQ on the deck with a magnificent fireworks display below on the domain.  What a wonderful celebration for my last night in Auckland.

Twitter Tour 2011 heads into the future....

28 October 2011

Up early for the slow drive across town to Stonefields School.  My first impressions were that I have arrived at a school of the future.  I met Sarah, Chris and Kirsty and immediately sensed the passion, the pedagogy and the Magic of this place.  The learning spaces are pure magic, the thinking is visible, the student voice is audible.  I really wish I had been educated in an environment like this where I feel a real ‘honouring’ of the learner.  The syergy, the learning buzz, the discussions – PURE MAGIC

Takeaways from Stonefields:

• Make thinking visible;
• Honour the learner and listen to and really hear the student voice;
• Collaborate;
• Be aware of every learner and celebrate successes;
• Is there really any way to teach other than collaboratively in hubs...
• I am incredibly determined to make the most amazing learning space for my learners for 2012....

Next stop – Hingaia Peninsulaschool which opens in 2012 where I met (in a temporary office) with Jane, Haley and Cole.  This is just truly amazing.  This is really the future, living the dream, designing a learning environment for the learner of today and tomorrow.  I am in awe of the journey…  Spent a wonderful afternoon chatting and soaking up the magic.  Thanks so much team!  I really look forward to following the journey….

Day two in Tauranga

Off through town to SelwynRidge to meet with Matt Thomas.  This really is a magical place to visit.  First point of difference is the day – class starts at 8.30 and ends at 2.30! A tour of the school followed.  This school is undergoing a major refurb due to leaky building issues.  Some of the many highlights are:    

• the radio station where the seniors run a news bulletin that it broadcast across the school and the local community;
•    the green room, a full working film studio;
•   the swiss drums – would love to see these in action
•   the magic of the library and the reading resources.  I have never seen so many big books in my life…… what a dream
• the QR codes in the books with book reviews - all done on ipads
•   the learning buzz….

Thanks for a magical visit Matt.

Off I headed, north.   I loved the murals of KatiKati and gatherings of tourists chatting and  viewing. 

I headed to Waihi beach for a walk and a look around.  I met and chatted with a number of locals and visitors and experienced the magic of the peace of Waihi Beach.  

Off to Waihi for a look around the mine.  The sheer size of the whole in the ground is amazing, but the more I read the more impressed I became with the vision of beautifying the area.  Really future focussed thinking.

I arrived on the North Shore in time to visit Geoff  Wood at Rosmini college.  Now Geoff and I met at Ulearn after we had both presented and missed our bus back to the events centre.  On the walk back we talked about our learning passions and immediately came up with a collaborative project to share in 2012.  I sat in with a Year 12 class at Rosmini and discussed the adaptation of a project “over the back fence” where the year 12 students have mentored year 3-6 students with health and wellness messages, alongside face to face physical education sessions.  We would not have the advantage of face to face for 2012 but see enormous potential for the sharing of the health and wellness messages, using blogs and skyping.  We may even extend this to include collaborative writing using google docs.   Very exciting times ahead indeed. 

I returned to St Josephs, Takapuna, the school ‘over the fence’ and chatted with my many friends there.  The is my third visit to Takapuna this year and I really feel at home here.  Innovative idea for the day – a year 6 boy had today been ‘Principal forthe day’ – an auctioned prize, and the Principal was in turn, a student for the day.  Possibilities here indeed… 

Back up to Brown’s Bay for dinner out with my favourite North Shore friends who now feel like family.

Twitter Tour 2011 North Island

After two days at home it was back out to the airport and off on another leg of Twitter Tour 2011.  We flew into Auckland and drove to Cambridge where Mum is spending a week.  I drove over to Tauranga and met Janet McCarroll at St Mary’s Tauranga.  Thanks to @heugumperNZ for this magic connection.  Janet and I shared a magic day, discussing pedagogy, people, practice, and much much more.  We really connected and are eagerly anticipating exciting collaboration on our Technology Hub for Conference 2012.  The magic of St Mary’s is evident as you enter the foyer and continues throughout.  Thanks Janet.

After a gorgeous drive in the country I met up with Marcus Norrish at Pahoia School.  I felt an immediate connection with the learning space and have so many takeaways with furniture spaces.  

The Pahoia hall story is pure magic, as is the entire environment.  Thanks for a magical meet up Marcus.

An awesome evening was had Mount Manganui with Janet.  We walked around the mount and reflected on the disaster of Rena.  

There is evidence of the drama throughout the area with a constant buzz of helicopters, uniformed workers, tanks and clean up stations.  Janet shared with me the wisdom of a harbour employee who is reflecting on the positives from Rena.  It is inspirational to see a ‘glass half full’ attitude coming through in the face of adversity.  Tauranga and the Mount are now fully in the world eye; the town is inundated with workers collaborating to minimise the damage, the flow on for businesses is huge and having a very positive effect on the economy, the people are talking and collaborating, one day there will be an amazing dive site to investigate the Rena in the depths...

A magical dinner at the mount followed.  What a truly wonderful  time I have had here.