This month saw a film crew for a national news programme "Sunday" in the school. The brief was that the footage and commentary created with us would be the positive side of a debate on the effective use of technology in schools. Honestly, I find the words media and technology used together unsettling at least when drawing on previous experience and the current tone in the media. The way we (TAKP) roll, our culture, passion and unwavering commitment to improving student outcomes is the same each and everyday so I can only trust in the process and watch the upcoming episode in March with interest.

My end of year list of jobs includes the roll over of iPads from our Year 6 students leaving to our Year 4 students (as theses iPads are a different model to our junior school) and the setup and continuation of Classwork, Classroom and Seesaw. For sustainability I have been mentoring Richard Williams so that the knowledge is shared and to ensure the school has more than one person capable of maintaining systems and structures in the future. Having managed Apple ID's and operating Zulu as our MDM appears to have made our jobs a lot easier this year.

Twitter continues to be a source of inspiration and new learning for me as I connect with other ADE's and educators. I have had many requests for Maker space visits and technology conversations for next year and our Term 1 calendar is already filling fast. We also have ERO (Education Review Office) in school next year which is a fantastic opportunity for the Ministry to acknowledge the journey we are on and to delve deeply into the systems and processes that we have. At their last visit 5 years ago they were challenged by our digital processes and we were asked to present everything in hardcopy - let's hope things have moved on in their world in 2019. 

I hosted Bev Babbage an Apple Professional learning Specialist from Australia this month and appreciated the opportunity to strengthen relationships and share our journey. Bev came with a range of questions which allowed me to reflect on our current practises. I shared several of our Everyone Can Create digital objects as part of this visitor and it reinforced to me that our students are achieving some stunning results way beyond many expectations. I love how we continue to push boundaries and that we have no lid on our expectations. Roll on 2019!​

This is the month that all of our students (and let's be honest, our teachers too) look forward to, we have our 3 way conferences (students and teacher sharing their learning journey with whanau) and the MADE Awards Event (another platform where many of the digital objects they have created are shared). This event provides an opportunity for our students to share their creativity and learning experiences to a national audience. The Bay Court Theatre was packed full and the atmosphere was fantastic, schools from right across the country were represented. Being on this committee has been a fabulous opportunity to connect with educators and school leaders. TAKP shone and I was very proud to see our teachers and students acknowledged. I'd like to see even more schools involved in 2019 this is such a great vehicle for learners to share.

In November as a Senior Leadership Team we decided to host an event for our community to showcase how we are using technology in the classroom. I organised this event and called it  "Look how far we've come". the goal of this event was to have the opportunity to engage with parents and whanau and for them to become immersed in technology and develop an understand of the diversity of opportunities we offer our students. The evening had a relaxed and inclusive vibe where everyone was welcomed with an iPad and invited to join in in a mass Garageband session (the feedback was 100% positive and parents just didn't want to stop!). We had stations operating around the room (which myself and current ADE's and hopeful future ADE's hosted).

The stations were

1. Sphero Battle Bots (Maths - an intro to coding - run by me)
2. Keynote Line Drawing (Middle/Senior Literacy - sharing 'The Dot - run by Richard Williams')
3. Apple Books (Early Years Literacy - The High Frequency Word Series - run by Jo Weldon)
4. Kaleidacam (Schoolwide Mathematics/Symmetry and Patterning - run by Trudi Fausett ADE)
5. Nearpod (Te Reo Maori - Whole School - run by Heremia Taingahue)

Dorothea Collier ADE, Michelle Wills and Heremia Taingahue facilitated the Garageband session.

I have now finished the design concept for our next ADS book and have built a team who will help produce the written content. We plan for the book to be ready for publishing by the end of the year so that when the application opens in early 2019 we will be ahead of the game (we have ERO next year so I am ticking off as many boxes as possible before this busy time). I am thrilled with the finished design concept as I chose to push the boundaries and produce a template with flowing 'circles' across pages rather than the usual full photo pages. Learning how to edit video footage into this was an interesting challenge and I was thankful for the support of Richard Williams who continues to thrive as part of the elearning team alongside me.

October has been another action packed month, during the holidays our whole staff (33 educators) attended the TECHpalooza (formerly iPadpalooza) event at St Hildas in the Gold Coast. I was a Keynote Speaker at the event, sharing Cultural Responsiveness and how using iPad can foster and grow inclusive teaching and learning practises, I also hosted a Makerspace workshop.

I have completed the roll out of our new 6th Generation devices and change over to managed Apple ID's and Zulu as an MDM. We now have just two year levels with iPad mini's (Year 2 and 3, only one class with mini 1's so all others are able to use Apple Classroom). My next step is to collect in all International Student devices and complete the change over.

Last week I hosted a Teacher Only Day for Taupo Primary School hosting 27 educators in the Makerspace. Kim Horne (who I have mentored to facilitate the Makerspace attended so that she could see how these events can take place and she can hopefully host in the future). Thankfully we had brilliant weather and were able to utilise the deck area. The Sphero Battlebots station was highly engaging and teachers benefited from seeing how these devices can be used across all year levels. I applaud this school for diving deeply into creating a new curriculum that rather than divided into teaching traditional subject areas they will integrate and teach the whole curriculum through STEAM and the maker movement. I think this will be a real challenge as many of their teachers are very early on the ICT continuum and have had no previous experience with Maker or curriculum  integration. I will watch their journey closely as I can see this concept as working brilliantly for us at TAKP. I wonder if our teachers would agree? I also wonder what measures will be put in place to ensure achievement data holds at a consistently high level? I can see this style of content delivery as being brilliant for the Year 7/8/9 age group but wonder if the strong building blocks needed in the Early Years can still be achieved?

Oh and yes, the MADE awards finalists were announced, so exciting. TAKP have done exceptionally well with a significant amount of entries making the top 5 in the country in every category in both the Year 1-3 and the Year 4-6 age groups. We will be celebrating every finalist in our own community at a school wide event after the offical ceremony as to make it this far, winner or not, it is a huge achievement. I continue to be in awe of what is possible when you weave creative minds, rich pedagogy and powerful tech!

The Apple NZ Primary event was hosted in Auckland on September 4th. There was barely a dry eye in the room after Jo's showcase, she was certainly a shining star and I look forward to supporting her with her future ADE application, she has grown so much in the last two years both personally and professionally. Bruce flew in from Korea the night before the event and having him there was brilliant, seeing his pride and having the opportunity to acknowledge his role in this journey was very important to me. A true leader allows others to lead and affords them the opportunity to grow through role modelling effective leadership.

MADE Awards entries closed and we have entered 40 stunning examples of learning with digital technologies across all 8 categories, fingers crossed our students will be recognised by Judges as finalists for this years event. We set our standards very high and each year our students lift that expectation even higher, especially this years entries using the Keynote line animation. Finalists are announced October 19th.

This month I hosted a school visit from the Principal and leading e-Learning teacher from Douglas Park School in Masterton. 

Meredith Bean, Dan Partridge and I hosted an Apple Classroom and Classwork PD session for our whole staff to answer questions and challenge ongoing practises. Both Dan and I were thankful that we could answer all questions and problem solve on the spot (we found that the connection between Zulu and ASM had created a couple of issues when teachers were trying to deliver 'handouts' to students). Our staff are always excepting of taking on new challenges and change and having support from the Apple staff is invaluable - especially at the moment when we appear to be the only school in NZ using this ecosystem school wide. Solving the problem of pushing out multitouch books to student devices will be my next challenge, so far no one has answers for us.

This month I am mentoring Jo (from TAKP), Karen and Julia (from The Gardens School) to present a teacher showcase at the first NZ Primary iPad event, I will meet with them via Skype every week to craft their presentation. I have heard the initial pitch from both Jo and the girls and feel that they will complement each other well, Jo's is sharing a very personal individual student journey and the girls are sharing a whole class collaborative lesson focusing on the software and procedures. I will be Keynote Speaking at the event sharing our school journey. It will be the first time that Bruce (our Principal) will be in the audience to hear my korero, I am thankful for this opportunity and feel proud that we finally get to share our journey in our own country. I am hoping that these events will continue, especially in the Early years and Intermediate environments as this is where I feel the greatest need is.

I hosted another group of educators this month, a Whangarei Principals group. I continue to be amazed at the fact that these schools appear to be isolated and have had next to no experience or support in implementing Apple devices in their schools. Interestingly they have been visited by reps selling Google Chrome Books and it continues to annoy me that Principals are then left making uninformed decisions with price point as their only decider. After a visit with us and having their questions answered...or in some cases an aha moment after realising 'they don't know what they don't know' they are all passionate about learning more about the potential of embedding Apple technologies.

This month I published the 4th and final multitouch book in the Early Years - iPad in the Classroom series; Viewing. I am most proud of this book as it embeds and encapsulates the 
Everyone Can Create curriculum. Producing these resources and holding a leadership position is a real challenge, especially this term as I hold the role of Acting Deputy Principal and shared SENCO responsibilities. I am looking forward to trying the new feature within the Pages software to produce Ebooks, I can see this as being an achievable option for our teachers and younger students also,

This month I had the honour of joining my fellow ADE Trudi Fausett and attending the ADE Global World Summit in Austin Texas. These events are always such a valuable opportunity to network and learn alongside, with and through this powerful group of innovators. I have to say that this was the most impactful learning I have ever done, the flow on effect straight back to our teachers, community and learners has been amazing. With our new learning around the updates to GarageBand, Pages and Keynote our learners now have the ability to become musicians, publishers and animators at a much younger age. On our first day back we had 5 year olds using Keynote shapes to capture their learning and Year 2's doing line animations to tell their stories! 
I was also given the opportunity to continue with my Early Years - iPad in the Classroom Series and made significant progress towards publication. I have set myself the goal to have it published by the end of August.Trudi and I hosted an Inspire PD session to share back to our whole staff the new learning we had taken onboard from the summit. We also encouraged all staff that haven't already to sign up to Twitter and to follow the ADE threads and conversations.

I hosted another school visit this month, a group of PRT (provisionally registered teachers, their associate teachers and senior leadership team) from Tauranga Intermediate. It is comforting knowing that our journey and success is beginning to filter to higher level education which in turn will hopefully mean our graduating tamariki will have more opportunity to work with digital technologies.

I am continuing to work on problem solving and reflecting on our new journey with Apple School Manager, managed Apple ID's and Classwork. I have made contact with NZ's Apple System manager (Dan Partridge) to have a sounding board for the issues we face. Implementing new products is exciting yet frustrating at the same time. It is the potential of these innovative products that pushes us to be successful with their implementation. I will continue to connect with American educators via twitter who are currently experimenting with these products to learn from their journey.

I hosted another school visit this month, this time a large group of Principals and key decision makers from school up in the far north of New Zealand.

I have begun work on producing the final book in our Early Years iPad in the Classroom Series - 'Viewing'. These resources are invaluable to our teachers, our initiation process for new teachers to our school, for educating our parents in 'what learning looks like' in our classrooms (which instantly dispels myths of kids on screens all day 'playing' games!) and as a valuable marketing tool when sharing globally and to perspective international families. I plan to have this resource published by September so that I can then start supporting our teachers more to produce their ideas. I can see content creation playing a more important role in our school in the future as both our teachers and learners use these resources in their everyday teaching and learning.

Next month I have a change in role and will be Acting Deputy Principal for the term while the DP is on sabbatical. I will be mentoring another teacher to take over the running of the Makerspace, although this will be a challenge (I mean the 'letting go' of 'my space' not the mentoring). I am looking forward to seeing if what I have set up is sustainable and also to see the flavour someone else can bring and how this space may evolve.

I continue to be the chairperson of the MADE (Movie and Digital Excellence) committee. We are well into planning this years events and are forever thankful to our major sponsors, Noel Leeming who continue to support us and make this event possible. Having this event as a vehicle to share learners digital creations from across the whole of New Zealand is such a bonus as often only their classmates or families get to see the results of their creativity and passion. I can see this year being even more powerful as I have spoken at local Intermediate schools to get even more teachers and learners on board. Traditionally we get significantly less entries from years 7 and 8, I am hoping that this year will be different. At TAKP we send our learners onto their next level of schooling knowing they wont be given the same opportunities digitally, I hope this changes in the future.

May was another very busy month, after returning form the US events I had just two days before heading back to Australia for another week of Keynoting another series of Apple Early Years events, this time in Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane. Canberra was a different format as this was 'Primary' focused rather than just the Early Years. I wondered if this would be the style of events to happen if they were ever hosted in New Zealand? I could see this format being useful in Auckland where the market was very similar to Canberra but hope that the style and focus on the Early years would be replicated throughout the rest of the country as there was a definite need for it. I am being contacted every week from Early Years teachers just desperate for support and guidance in not only purchasing devices but in successfully using them in their schools and daycares.

I hosted two school visits in May, one was a Principal who had visited previously with a Principal group but now returned with all of her senior teachers. The other was a group of educators from 8 different schools who came to hear about both our 1:1 journey and the makerspace, they were particularly interested in our systems and structures.

I delivered professional development to Ursula Frayne School from Western Australia through a contact made with Paul Reid (and Apple Learning Specialist) at one of the the Early Years events. This was the first time I had delivered PD via a WebX format, several of the the questions from teachers were challenging and allowed me to really considered the 'why' were were doing what we were doing and I appreciated this conversation.

I hosted a Makerspace Open Day where 35 teachers from across the north island were able to explore and interact in our space, you can read my blog post
http://www.takpmakerspace.co.nz/blog/whats-it-all-about

I am receiving countless emails almost everyday about the Makerspace and the use of digital technologies within this space. I paused to consider one email and the questions that make me think and reflect
http://www.takpmakerspace.co.nz/blog/questions-that-made-me-think-and-reflect

April was a very exciting month for me, I got to visit an Apple Distinguished school in New York (Marymount, see blog post www.takpmakerspace.co.nz/blog/kiwis-in-new-york)
to attend the Apple Distinguished Schools Summit in Chicago alongside my Principal and to top it off I got to meet Tricia Fuglestad (see blog post http://www.takpmakerspace.co.nz/blog/when-you-meet-someone-that-inspires-you). Bruce presented a 2 minute showcase which I helped support him in putting together and then to hear him deliver it with pride and confidence on the world stage was an honour. The two of us presented a workshop where we were challenged to think deeper and to question what we do. The depth of conversations at the World summit and the way the event was structured allowed us to form strong bonds with other ADS schools - an opportunity we had never had in the past, we left inspired and thankful for the opportunity.

The Makerspace is absolutely humming along and learners are thriving. For each lesson I run so much goes on behind that people 'looking in' aren't aware of...

Firstly I connect with every classroom teacher via their teams long term plan. I find out what the focus is, what the learning targets are and what that teams overarching goals are. For the lessons in the makerspace to be worthwhile they need to be targeted and linked to the learning in the classroom, I need teachers to buy in and for the projects learners start to be allowed to continue back in class. Let me explain...

For the early years classrooms up to year 2 their Makerspace session starts and finishes within a block session, they either have rotations where get the opportunity to visit every station (eg 5 separate STEAM stations, Science, Engineering, Art and Mathematics - whether interdisciplinary or stand alone), I do this for the 5 year olds or they have the choice of which station they want to be at for the entire length of the session (I don't do this with the 5 year olds, if you've taught five year olds you know why...think Nemo fish!) They often don't know what they are passionate about and need the opportunity to experience all disciplines. 

But as our learners get older, the less time they spend on the project with me and the more time they have completing it back in class eg the Year 5/6's might do 30% with me and 70% back in class. Sometimes if they see me early in the term they may also have rotations so that they are becoming informed on which track they wish to follow for their project.

You can visit my blog to see the learning in action
http://www.takpmakerspace.co.nz/blog

In the middle of this month I was lucky to have the opportunity to represent my school and travel Australia sharing our journey as a Keynote Speaker at a series of Apple Early Years events. I presented in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, working with the Apple team was a privilege and I learn so much from these experiences. Educators are an amazing breed, all striving for the same goal, making a difference in the lives of children, each and everyday. I am forever thankful for the power of technology to allow me to do this in so many innovative ways. 

I have almost completed my Post Graduate through Mind Lab, if I am being honest I have not found the digital component of this study to be of much use, they are years behind what we are doing in the classroom but the leadership part has been a worthwhile journey for me.