My MAGICAL year

As the year comes to a close it is a great time to reflect on the journey.  It is almost 365 days since I received the call confirming my offer of adoption into the CORE whanau! Throughout the year I have been blessed with the opportunity of meeting most of CORE’s amazing staff, working in BeL south team, coming together with Bel Teams around New Zealand, learning and being at Turangawaewae, meeting and interacting with many other teams and people.  I have had the privilege of working in schools and facilitating a journey towards a blended learning environment to support all learners with a specific emphasis on our priority learners.  The ultimate MAGIC, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata!  The people in this organization are amazing!

I have recently spent two days with Bel South Team and believe some of our MAGIC and strength is in our diversity and in our complex and complimentary skill sets and personalities.  These last two days are unrecognizable from our first meeting when I was completely in awe of the team and completely unaware of anything I had to offer.  We have grown, in numbers, in strength and in team.  We are meshing together, collaborating, provoking and supporting each other. 

Being in the main office over these two days bought us into contact with whanau from all around the country and across many teams and projects.  The pure MAGIC of reconnecting, sharing a story, catching up with these amazing people is what makes CORE a family as opposed to a company.  Indeed, to me, it felt very much like a family reunion. 

Together we have had the privilege of reflecting on the challenges and successes of the year’s journey and the opportunity to glimpse the potential for our future with the Learning with Digital Technologies project.  We begin to see the pure MAGIC of Tatai Aho Rau in the way we weave together, support, nurture, provoke, challenge and grow together.

Karen Melhuish-Spencer issued a challenge. - to spend some time over the break really coming to know our song Tatai Aho Rau.  This beautiful song is a wonderful celebration of who we are, why and what we are!  Together we are CORE!  I willingly accept this challenge! 

As the year comes to a close I reflect on the journey and eagerly look forward to 2014!  I am very fortunate to be continuing my journey with CORE Education!  Woohoo!!!

Literacy online update - 20 December 2013

Kia ora tātou,

Week ten signals our final update for the year. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be part of Literacy Online and I have thoroughly enjoyed connecting with you this year.  

I would like to take this chance to wish you well for the end of the year.  I hope there is a fair amount of relaxing and reading for pleasure scheduled in your break time.  I have recently seen a couple of lists of holiday reading that you might be interested in following up on:

Holiday reading list in the vln

What’s on my holiday reading list on stuff.co.nz

My copy of Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller arrived in the mail today.  I can’t wait to read this and the Book Whisperer over the break!

And although it is set for winter, here is another wonderful link to ideas to support your learners through the break from the Nerdy Book Club.  Top Ten Ways to Encourage Children to Read Over Winter Break by Katherine Sokolowski

The December Community newsletter is well worth a read too!

Best wishes for a safe and restful break

Mere Kirihimete

Anne Kenneally

Literacy Online Facilitator

CORE Education

@LiteracyOnline2

To post to the list email: literacy@lists.tki.org.nz

Literacy online update - 11 December 2013

Kia ora tātou,

Week nine and, as promised, this update is focused on opportunities to engage priority learners in continuing their learning over the break! But first let’s take a moment to celebrate a very important birthday! Happy 50th birthday 'Ready to Read'  It’s time to celebrate - the Ready to Read series turned fifty this year! For half a century, Ready to Read books have inspired, delighted, stretched, and supported New Zealand students as they learn to read. There are more details on the Ready To Read Flyer including important changes to text levels.

I have noticed a real increase in my social media stream of ideas for keeping readers reading through the summer holiday break:

Check out some of these:

Literacy Tips and Tricks for parents discussion in the vln has a wealth of ideas to support learners through the break.

Reading Together is a great Home School Partnership support.

Reading at Home from National Library has great ideas.

Kapiti Coast Library Holiday reading support Perhaps we could each add a response with the library holiday programme in our individuals areas to support all learners across NZ.  Let’s see if we can have NZ covered by the end of the school year with links to send home with our learners. 

Dunedin Public Library Summer Reading Programme.  I have also linked my home town programme to get this initiative going.

What are you doing?  How can you use and share these resources?

Blog posts to check out:

How do we develop an agreed methodology for teaching literacy? An interesting Australian based look at literacy instruction.

5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students How could you use these questions to enhance your learning journey?

·      What do you think?

·      Why do you think that?

·      How do you know this?

·      Can you tell me more?

·      What questions do you still have?

Other sites to check out:

Readworks is well worthwhile checking out for support for your literacy programme.  It contains a wealth of research and resources.

Survey – A HUGE thank you!

We are delighted with the number of responses to our survey so far but would love your feedback if you have not yet had a chance to complete our Literacy Online Survey.  We really value your feedback; in fact we NEED it, to improve your experience with Literacy Online and the community forums. 

Ngā mihi nui

Anne Kenneally

Literacy Online Facilitator

CORE Education

@LiteracyOnline2

To post to the list email: literacy@lists.tki.org.nz

Literacy Online Update 4 December 2013

Kia ora tātou,

Week eight,

What have you got planned for the last few weeks of learning?  Check out this collaborative crowd sourced resource.  How can you share or add to this growing resource? Finish the year with a bang!

How To Use Crowdsourcing In The Classroom Increasingly we are seeing crowd sourced documents created to grow a ready resource to meet a specific need.  You may like to check out some of them here:

Encouraging blog interaction

Making the writing programme

Back to school ideas to share

Creative ways to use GAFE

Universal Design for Learning

Knowing my learners – in the Universal Design for Learning site in the vln.  Tessa has posted a link to the video by Principal Baruti Karele.

“You can't teach them if you don't know them."

This could be a very valuable resource for thinking how you are going to get to know your learners in the New Year. 

In this video he asks us to ask ourselves what we know about our learners:

·       keeping them inspired about learning and motivated to excel?

·       their learning styles?

·       their goals and aspirations?

·       their needs and interests?

·       their experiences and realities

·       their challenges obstacles and distractions?

·       their peers?

·       their neighbourhood?

·       their parents

·       their history and culture?

Redefining the Writing Process with iPads

This post by Beth Holland is well worth a read.

“With what we'll call Writing 3.0, students and teachers can:

·       Organize and draft through handwriting, drawing, text and voice

·       Collaborate and incorporate multimodal feedback

·       Create a final product that demonstrates mastery and communicates understanding beyond the literal confines of paper”

When the ipad is used for the entire process of crafting a piece of writing from planning, organising, drafting, through to collaborating with others and incorporating feedback and feed-forward the transformative power of the mobile device can be realised.

Following up from this post, you could check out the writing page in the blended e-learning literacy site in the vln.  This is a co-constructed resource for you to use, share and add to. 

Eduslam is a wonderful place to view educational youtube clips. I am linking a couple to this update but the whole site is worth exploring.

Digital Portfolios in the Primary Classroom with @kathycassidy

Episode 28 - Collaborative Writing in 3rd Grade with Carolyn Skibba

Blog posts to check out:

The Best Ways To Use Mistakes When Teaching Writing by Larry Ferlazzo

What my students taught me about reading by Pernille Ripp

Survey – please help us to help you!

One way you can help us to help you is by taking 5-10 minutes to complete our Literacy Online Survey.  We really value your feedback; in fact we NEED it, to improve your experience with Literacy Online and the community forums. 

And coming next week… how to keep your priority learners learning over the break!

Ngā mihi nui

Anne Kenneally

Literacy Online Facilitator

CORE Education

@LiteracyOnline2

To post to the list email: literacy@lists.tki.org.nz