Today we had five teachers visit from Northland Kindergarten Association to come and see our Enviroschools in action and come out with us on Nature Discovery.

I really enjoy opportunities to have conversations with other professionals from out of our Association, it gives me a great insight to their practice and allows me to share my passions with them. I also feel it is an opportunity to give back to our sector as at the beginning of our Nature Discovery program Te Anau were so generous to us and I feel it is important to help inspire other centers to see it in action and maybe think that they could implement something similar at their center. It was wonderful to hear their feed back and that to hear that they feel what we are doing is so valuable to our tamariki.

I found it interesting to here that big changes are happening within their Association as well, that the pressure for extend hours and remaining open throughout term break. This is a sad time for Kindergartens on a national level, all that we are is being eroded which I believe to to the detriment to children. I strongly believe that there are still families that value Kindergarten for what it stands for, that they do not want their two year old starting kindergarten and do not want their children in a center for significant hours of the day. I think it is disheartening that we do not have a government that supports this.

Today the teaching team from Pukekohe Kindergarten visited us to see our Enviroschools in action. It was a great opportunity to share my knowledge and expertise in this area. I always enjoy either visiting other teams or having them visit us as it gives me the opportunity to korero about different aspects of my teaching practice. I was able to give advice on the worm farm techniques we use as one of the teachers is struggling getting theirs working. I think it was valuable to the other team to here how when we started Enviroschools that we approached it very slowly and made sure each new idea was well implemented before introducing our tamariki to the next. I feel that it is this approach that has given us such great success and is what has embedded Enviroschools so thoroughly into our practice. It was also interesting to hear the other team speaking about up grading all their furniture so it reflects a more natural environment, although this would be visually appealing I think that purhaps they are slightly missing the essence of what Enviroshools is about, it is about reducing and reusing, not adding to our waste full society. I like to think that if its broken try and fix it first so suggested maybe updating the table tops as the underneath are still fine. I think these types of visits help me to think more deeply about my teaching practice and why I am passionate about the things that are important to me and the tamariki that I teach.

I decided to challenge myself to taking my conference notes on my Ipad, I had been feeling a little hesitant about this but after taking the first days notes the old way with pen and paper I decided to give it ago. I used Google Docs thinking that I could then add any relevant material to my blog. During the conference I took the notes for our team brain storming session. Once back at kindergarten Dianne and Donna then asked for a copy of the notes, I felt really proud of myself when I worked out how to export, change format and sent to the printer and was able to share this new knowledge with the rest of the team aiding in their learning. And now I am going to link it to this post.Notes that I shared with team

Today I showed Dianne how to put Google Drive and Google Docs onto her IPad. She then said that she had another problem and wasn't sure how to add a link to her blog post. I wasn't sure how to do this either so together we began working out what to do. The first problem I came across was how to highlight and copy the URLs so you can put them in as a link. I know how to do this on my lap top but just couldn't work it out. So I went to Safari and typed in a search and discovered by holding my finger down on the URLs it would copy it. Next problem was how to paste it to my link, Dianne worked this one out and together we felt rather clever!

Through this experience I have gained new skills and knowledge that will help me document my blog with links, this will be a helpful reference point for in the future if I want to revisit articles that I have found useful. 

Click here to see my first URL Link

After having a conversation with Dianne about how we are going to take notes at our up in coming conference on our Ipad I decided to have a go at problem solving this issue. I started experimenting and exploring different areas, firstly installing the notes app thinking that this might be the answer but it wasn't. Then I installed google drive and discovered that this bought me a step closer but I knew that I probably would need Google docs as well. So I down loaded this app and discovered it worked, wow I felt great finally I am able to share something that I had learnt on the Ipad with the rest of my team. By sorting this out I will now be able to take notes on my Ipad at the conference on my Ipad that I will be able to directly link to areas of my appraisal blog. What a huge step for me...and it feels great! My next step will be to see if I can record children's learning that I've extended on my Ipad and include photos as it happens and add it to my blog, fingers crossed it works!

28 May 2016

Presentation at Wintec Outside Voices book launch about Nature Discovery

This evidence meets the following criteria: -       4 Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional development of personal professional practice. -        -5 Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Why does this evidence this criterion? How has this impacted on your practice? It has helped reaffirm that I am making a difference in our children’s learning by proving our Nature Discovery Programme. It was inspiring to hear what other centres are providing and recognising that there is a growing movement towards being immersed in nature. I not really enjoy public speaking but by having these type of experiences I am finding they are getting easier. I know it’s important to spread the word on Nature Discovery and hope that I am able to inspire other professionals through sharing my knowledge with them. I feel this presentation was a two way learning experience, gaining new knowledge and sharing my own.

14.3.2016

Creating a Learning Story using my ipad

Which criteria does this evidence?            Why does this evidence this criterion? How has does this show that your practice has changed/improved? I have been struggling to incorporate the ipad into my daily recording of children’s learning. I have begun experimenting with different apps already on my ipad and have managed to create a story using ‘pages’ and using a poster template. I was happy with the end product and think with time and practice this could be a very useful tool which could help me record learning as it happens and have it published to storypark quickly. I was stuck as to how to print it to our kindergarten printer but by problem solving with my colleagues I was able to work it out for myself! My next dilemma was trying to up load it onto storypark…frustrating but once again brain storming with others helped and now it is there! I feel through this experience it has given me greater confidence when using my ipad and I felt I was able to share what I had learnt with my colleagues.