The value of having a wonderful team was emphasised for me today. We had 60 teachers and 10 facilitators online and the atmosphere was just wonderful. Manaiakalani continues to be a vehicle and a movement inspiring me. From more than five years ago when I was first introduced by an excited colleague to the Manaiakalani modes of operating, through my time as a classroom teacher receiving in-class facilitation, to my work as an in-class support Manaiakalani Facilitator, I have felt the magic in many occasions. Being part of this wonderful team throughout my time with Manaiakalani has been so rewarding and my own learning has grown exponentially with such strengths around me.
Participating in the online DFI has allowed me to continue to deepen my understanding of my role as a facilitator as well as my knowledge of tools, especially with the online component necessitating me recalling how to do things without necessarily being able to physically sit next to the teachers I'm working with. With Google Docs, adding annotated footnotes and matching heading styles was a great reminder that what I don't use often, I forget about! I will be using these tools more in the future to ensure this is less likely to occur.
Revisiting the Eyes on Text task was also a wonderful reminder that we have a number of great tools to use with learners that are engaging and motivating that are also very simple and don't require teachers to do huge hours of preparation. Our learners should always be working harder than our teachers. Sadly, this is often not the case. I can see that often this means our learners feel they are able to abdicate responsibility for their learning to their teachers, even in situations that could empower them. The more of these types of learning opportunities we can add to classroom programmes, the higher the likelihood is that they will again regain a sense of agency in their learning.
Having used the same Voice Typing feature that is used within Eyes on Text in some of my facilitation sessions, along with the Word Count feature, I have seen firsthand the power of a little self-competition. An activity that I often find challenging in terms of motivating students, was super engaging when they had a timer running and regular checkins to see how many words they were up to for their profile designs. One young man who usually spends a lot of time distracting others actually voice typed 750 words for his profile introduction! Highly engaging.
I thought a lot about our new MAPIC acronym which I'm working on developing an in-depth understanding about. This was recently introduced to us by Naomi Rosedale from Woolf Fisher Research Centre and there is so much scope for amazing pedagogical development within it once I can understand it a bit better. Many of the lessons I run with learners now are assessment tools for me, to see how well we are employing each of the different elements in order to create engaging and purposeful learning for our tamariki. What a fortunate position we are in with Naomi Rosedale and Woolf Fisher Research Centre to be able to have access to the wonderful research that has been undertaken that we can employ to inform our practice - both as facilitators, and also in helping our teachers to strive to do the same in the lessons they are creating for their learners.
I thought a lot about our new MAPIC acronym which I'm working on developing an in-depth understanding about. This was recently introduced to us by Naomi Rosedale from Woolf Fisher Research Centre and there is so much scope for amazing pedagogical development within it once I can understand it a bit better. Many of the lessons I run with learners now are assessment tools for me, to see how well we are employing each of the different elements in order to create engaging and purposeful learning for our tamariki. What a fortunate position we are in with Naomi Rosedale and Woolf Fisher Research Centre to be able to have access to the wonderful research that has been undertaken that we can employ to inform our practice - both as facilitators, and also in helping our teachers to strive to do the same in the lessons they are creating for their learners.
