Perrie Topia Professional Learning Blog

Today further built my understanding of the Manaiakalani kaupapa of Empowerment. The Tamaki story was very relatable and real for many of us in our settings. I liked the change of wording from Agency to Empowerment as this confused whānau with its meaning. The comment from Pat about advancing rangatiratanga is very true and within New Zealand, I feel that this can really happen and give people a choice with what and how they do things. I can relate to the comments made about the mean cognitive, emotional and physical ability of many 5-year-olds being 3 years old. I am sure this is a talking point throughout the country and needs addressing at a higher level. The study of lower decile rated school children hearing 32 million fewer words when they start school is a very hard-hitting statistic that also needs addressing. I enjoyed the video of Russel explaining equity and access and feel that by joining Manaiakalani we can further do everything we can to address the issues and empower stu...

  Today I found the session on Ubiquitous Learning great as it helped me understand its meaning. The A4 idea of any time, anywhere, anyplace for anyone was what I needed as it really put it in context. When relating this to lockdown last year much of our students were not in a good space to be able to access learning in a way that we had hoped. Devices were not great and connectivity in the home was difficult. Even though I was very proud of our teachers who got their learning sites up and running in time some whānau struggled to connect with it. Device day was a real eye-opener and understanding the mahi that has gone into ensuring that the devices we use support ubiquitous learning . The 3 p’s link was great and will be something I use when discussing the term with our staff, whānau and BOT. Using the devices our students use is a great way to see learning through another lens. The shortcut activity on the Chromebooks had me stumped at times but it made me realise how awesome som...

  The focus on the Connection (joist) section of the pataka model added to my knowledge of Manaiakalani Kaupapa further again today. It is evident that being connected in a way that enables access for everyone can be daunting for teachers and can often overwhelm teachers without clear expectations and guidance. I have enjoyed the opportunity today to explore other teachers' learning sites and grasped a better understanding of multimodal use within them. I feel that we will need to really do a serious amount of work within our school to help teachers understand a lot of the connected aspect but with the DFI and guided facilitation, we will get there.  The power and use of Google sites within the Manaiakalani kaupapa has really amazed me. The ideas of some of the teachers in the example sites are vast and are real-life examples of enabling learning through connection via a website. The next step for me would be to deeply explore our own teachers' sites to review their impact and...

The unpacking of the pataka model has been very valuable to understand the Manaiakalani kaupapa. This week Dorothy unpacked the floor foundations and zoomed in on Visible Learning. The bit that hit home to me was that visibility means it's not just the learning that needs to be visible to the learner but to everyone. Learning must be visible to the learner, visible to the whānau, visible to the teacher and visible to colleagues. Looking at learning from a 360-degree lens is essential, meaning that none of the learning journey is hidden in any way from anyone. Even the people viewing from the back, which can often be parents and/or whānau.  Teachers' intentions/ideas in their head no longer should be anticipated by learners to be successful. Visible learning starts with teacher planning, lesson delivery, student engagement, learning activities and resources, assessment and real-life application. All of this needs to be visual and accessible to everyone at all times. Digital tool...

  Today I enjoyed the presentation on Tohatoha. On this journey so far I have felt the real power of sharing to an audience myself with Blogging. This has encouraged me to learn more and helps me as a learner feel that I am on the right track with the feedback received.  The idea that we as humans are designed to share is very interesting and I was able to connect with this at many levels, both personally and within my professional working life. As a school, we have gone through a considerable amount of change in the last 3 years and sharing our goals, path and findings along the way has helped us develop a positive culture of learning within our school.  The idea that sharing sparks others to learn about something, add to it, and/or shoot off into a new direction is so true and I feel that when students and teachers grasp this idea they will be empowered to go further and learn more.  So often in projects, I have worked on all around the world the ‘Share to finish’ ...