The Makerspace is well underway and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive both from Teachers, students and whanau. I blog almost everyday and share the learning experiences that have taken place, click HERE to view the Makerspace Blog page. I also cross post some of my reflections onto the NZ Teachers Facebook page which has more than 25,000 members, so the blog is getting a lot of hits and interest. I have had several requests to visit our space and are connecting via social networking and FaceTime with many teachers embarking on the Maker space journey.
Earlier this year I supported three teachers from our school in applying to become ADE's and with that taking on board their Apple Teacher PD (as well as completing my own). We all had such a positive experience in completing these badges and knew our staff would benefit greatly from taking part as well. Having Donna Smith (our ANZ Apple Board representative set down the challenge via our ADE Facebook page certainly helped spur our competitive natures too!) So this month I introduced the possibility of our whole staff becoming Apple Teachers and within 2 weeks 31 staff had completed a minimum of one of the three options - Apple Teacher iMac, iPad or Swift. Our Principal and the whole senior management team were on board and staff appreciated learning alongside them and seeing that we are all in this together regardless of our role within the school. In fact as at this week we have almost all staff with both iMac and iPad badges completed and many with all 3! We are the first school in ANZ to complete the challenge - hopefully the first of many as this PD was invaluable both to affirm what we already knew, to deepen our understanding and to introduce new learning in some instances. Many teachers mentioned they just didn't realise what they did know until sitting the badges and also just how competitive they became to complete all 8. A HUGE shout out to Apple for this initiative which has certainly helped to support our school culture of inclusion, support and guidance to be the best educators we can be (which of course impacts on positive student outcomes which is why we are all here!).
Visit this link for more about the Apple Teacher programme
Earlier this year I supported three teachers from our school in applying to become ADE's and with that taking on board their Apple Teacher PD (as well as completing my own). We all had such a positive experience in completing these badges and knew our staff would benefit greatly from taking part as well. Having Donna Smith (our ANZ Apple Board representative set down the challenge via our ADE Facebook page certainly helped spur our competitive natures too!) So this month I introduced the possibility of our whole staff becoming Apple Teachers and within 2 weeks 31 staff had completed a minimum of one of the three options - Apple Teacher iMac, iPad or Swift. Our Principal and the whole senior management team were on board and staff appreciated learning alongside them and seeing that we are all in this together regardless of our role within the school. In fact as at this week we have almost all staff with both iMac and iPad badges completed and many with all 3! We are the first school in ANZ to complete the challenge - hopefully the first of many as this PD was invaluable both to affirm what we already knew, to deepen our understanding and to introduce new learning in some instances. Many teachers mentioned they just didn't realise what they did know until sitting the badges and also just how competitive they became to complete all 8. A HUGE shout out to Apple for this initiative which has certainly helped to support our school culture of inclusion, support and guidance to be the best educators we can be (which of course impacts on positive student outcomes which is why we are all here!).
Visit this link for more about the Apple Teacher programme
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