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Day 1 DFI.....Let The Journey Begin!!

What a journey we are about to embark on. Listening to Dorothy speak about the journey which started in 2006 was inspiring and further confirmed to me, that as a school, we have made a positive choice for our tamariki, whānau, teachers and community. I am excited to think about the future learning we can engage in and learn from the facilitators and leaders within the Manaiakalani team. The WHY (equity, achievement, hope, 21st-century skills) within this kaupapa I feel sits at the heart of what our Kura has started to build towards fits with what we see in our context daily. Onwards on this journey!!

Learning tricks and tips to make us better at what we do is a main benefit for me. Seeing and practising these skills will be essential to making them a habit. In reflection,  It wasn’t that I wasn't doing these things on a daily basis but with the shortcuts/workarounds we worked with today I feel I will improve my workflow, confidence and capability as a Principal. I am excited to meet with my other staff members on the DFI to discuss our learning and find out what they think will help them be more effective in what they do. One aspect that I feel I can and will be looking at more deeply is the use of Google Groups as this will be a game-changer in what I do and keeping track of communication, which can be a bit of a work-on for me when I have too many spinning plates.


From a Principal's perspective, I see teachers, tamariki, whānau and our community as our learners. All aspects of the Google suite covered today will be a great foundation for everyone to start to understand in more depth. One area I will be exploring more is the use of Talk to Text and how that can build capacity in our readers and writers in the school. I feel this will lift writing to a new level of achievement, especially with our boys. The possibilities are endless and if we can get all of our staff into a place where some of these tools can be used so they become the new normal, the impact will be huge!


From a personal perspective, I feel that many of the workarounds/tips/tricks that we engaged in today will save me time on a daily basis. The simple use of Extensions, Google Docs (contents page, headings etc) is an example of this and I feel with further exploration and practice will streamline what I do daily.


Next steps for me is to go over my notes and practice the things that I feel need more refining. I don't think this will be hard as we use, live and breathe Google Suite every day. It was an awesome day of learning and I am excited about all of the staff getting on this waka and paddling together.


Sandpit tasks from day 1


Comments

  1. Kia ora Perrie. I love how you see multi-dimensional learning in everything that you took away from the first day of the DFI. How it will support the tamariki, their kaitiaki, yourself as tumuaki, and even spiralling outward to your whānau and the wider community. Can't wait to see the impact when all the dots join up!

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  2. Kia Ora Perrie,
    I enjoyed reading this blogpost and am so glad that your Kura is a part of the Manaiakalani Outreach programme. As you say, it's an exciting kaupapa to be a part of! Great that you have found some useful tools to streamline your day and to improve outcomes for the learners in your school and community.
    How did you find the create task with Google Docs?
    I look forward to following your journey.

    Nga mihi
    Stef

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  3. Kia ora anō Perrie,
    I too enjoyed reading your thoughts and reflections from our first DFI session, it was great to read that last weeks content will assist your day to day workflow. When I first learnt about the table of contents and headers in Docs, my first thought was 'I wish I knew this a fews years ago'. I look forward to connecting with you again for week two of our DFI kaupapa.
    Ngā mihi anō
    Nā Makaore

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