Crowdsourced Whakatauki - An example of Collaboration

LINK HERE

Crowdsourcing - Collaboration in Action.  Thanks Anne Kenneally (@annekenn) for sharing this fantastic example of teachers collaborating. See more examples at Anne's blog Crowdsourced documents

Day 29 -Connections - Past, Present, Future

CONNECTING WITH THE PAST TO MAKE SENSE OF THE PRESENT AND READY YOURSELF FOR THE FUTURE

It is often said that we learn from the past, but how often do we take the opportunity to reflect on years gone by? With all this talk of connecting in education, do any of us take the time to connect with ourselves, our past, our present and our possible future, and the impact that life has had, and will have on our identity?

At a recent boarding school reunion, I reconnected with many friends and was able to reflect on the impact that boarding school had on my identity. One friend, Soo Bee explained to me how she had always felt that she didn’t belong anywhere. She no longer identified strongly with Malaysia her country of birth, and had always felt like an outsider in Melbourne her home for nearly thirty years. It was through returning to the boarding school that was her home in her formative years and connecting with her past, that she was able to make sense of her identity and through this gain a sense of belonging.

Soo Bee’s journey enabled me to connect with my past and through this connection I came to understand how boarding school had influenced me and my identity. In brief boarding school was  a crash course on the key competencies. I had to manage myself, I had to learn to relate to others from diverse backgrounds, I had to participate and contribute, thinking was essential, as was understanding language, symbols and texts. I discovered that my identity was strongly linked to my time at boarding school and the independence that I gained through living away from home.

I spent two nights with old friends at my old boarding school. It had been a very long time since we had all gathered together to share laughter and fun. I took away with me a better understanding of my identity and a clear direction for my teaching. If I can embed the key competencies through my teaching, I will provide an environment where my students can connect with their own past and develop their own strong identity thus enabling them to achieve success in whatever future they choose for themselves.

Day 26 - Moving from vision to action

This post explores the idea of bringing your vision to life through practical strategies and empowering others. It is written by Rob Clarke and originally appears on learningarchitects.com

Effective school leaders instinctively grasp the vital importance of a shared, coherent, and inspiring vision for their school. They also grasp, and are able to put into action, the various elements that enable that vision to translate into practice. 

When it is fully manifested, this vision forms the very heart and identity of that community, acting as the foundation for a curriculum and a culture that is responsive and ‘flexes’ to the specific needs and aspirations of everyone involved. This is equally true of the new schools I am involved in as well as those that have existed for a while.

But very often, a school’s vision remains just that – an idea or a set of aspirations that forever remain on the horizon. A significant proportion of schools never quite manage to turn them into reality, and this is not due to any lack of commitment or genuine desire to effect change. Could this be due to a lack of tangible strategies the leadership has to draw from perhaps? Or perhaps it is the mistaken belief that the vision will somehow magically take everyone in the right direction once it has been decided upon and shared.

The successful implementation of a vision does not happen by accident, and the good news is that taking a few simple steps can quickly point you in the right direction and start the process towards transformation.

This transformation begins with the school’s leadership and staff clarifying its vision and the goals that support the realisation of the vision, then taking action consistent with those goals. By then designing and implementing defined, measurable strategies and actions, the school has the ability to mobilise the whole school community towards achieving its fullest potential. Indeed one of the workshops we offer ‘Developing Your School Vision’ enables leaders and their teams to identify the goals and behaviours they choose which will take them closer to this vision.

David Taylor (2014) describes some of the practical steps in effecting change management, from initiating a formal plan, discussing and revising ideas, to establishing how progress will be measured, anticipating problems and ensuring all the necessary resources and supports are in place along the way. Crucially, he also notes the critical role of communication throughout this process, which he sees as the key predictor of success in effecting change.

“As leaders, if we do not communicate clearly to inspire the correct [I prefer the words ‘consistent and/or ‘aligned’ rather than the term ‘correct’...] actions and behaviors, our visions and all related initiatives will fail.” (Taylor, 2014)

Vision and action are interdependent and intertwined throughout this process of improvement and innovation: without strategic action, the vision will never be realised, and without a coherent shared vision that your team has committed to, no one will be inspired to action. When these elements are present, there is limitless potential for positive transformation. Tony Robbins summarises this nicely with his views on the importance of execution in this short video which you can see on learningarchitects.com here...

As the driving force behind the vision, the school leadership and staff must provide the focus for the actions which build towards the vision, discussing it and supporting it from a place of enthusiastic and authentic commitment. They must manifest the new vision, demonstrating that it is tangible, right now, even if it has not yet been achieved to its fullest extent.

One very practical approach is to take the vision and treat it as a lens through which schools can evaluate various activities (for example: such as staff professional learning meetings, board meetings or new initiatives) to ascertain ‘how has this brought us closer to our vision for student learning?’ This is one of the many practical strategies that can ‘give your vision legs’.

This sort of leadership does not need to demand “buy-in”; it naturally calls forth genuine, wholehearted responses and calls to action, and consequently empowers everyone in the wider community to become a fully engaged changemaker in their own right too. It is on this firm foundation that progress can be made towards making this shared vision a reality that you can see, touch, hear and feel in your school.

It is written by Rob Clarke. Rob is the founder of learningarchitects.com

Day 24 -Why do we have to change?

This post was written by Rob Ferguson, one of the foundation teaching staff at Rolleston College/Horoeka Haemata. His blog can be found here.

I've started a new job! It's a unique opportunity. It's at a brand new school, so new in fact it's still wrapped in plastic as I type. This means we have term 4 to reflect on the past and what the future could and will look like with out the pressure of students.

At Rolleston College we are going to be doing things quite differently from the ways of the past. Dr Julia Atkin in so many of her presentations about change says you should first of all ask the question 'Why?'. In the two weeks leading up to starting my new position there were a couple of links to articles that turned up on social media that are part of the answer that question for me.

The first was written by Nigal Latta for the Star Sunday Times outlining his thoughts on the direction the New Zealand economy needs to evolve. For me his second last sentence says it all "it's that they find little niches in the world market and fill them." I'm no economic expert, but to me, it seems the best way for a small country in the South Pacific to compete on the world stage.

The second 'Nigal Latta only tells half the story on the economy' was by Geoff Simmons for the Morgan Foundation. In it he talks about how more than half of our national wealth is in housing and the affect this has on our businesses ability to step into overseas markets.

To effect change that can address the issues outlined in these two articles, we need to look to our youth. No pressure on teachers, but if we do things differently in education, then maybe in the near distant future things will start to change more in the New Zealand economy.

The interesting thing, is the inspiration and exemplars are out there. At the same time I was reading the above articles these two came out. One on Jamie Beaton and his Crimson Consulting company raising of capital in New York. Tech based companies are an obvious direction but not the only one. This article on Celia Robinson, group  co-CEO of Myfoodbag gets you thinking how big could it get?

Dan Pink in his book 'A whole new mind' talks about the world entering the 'Conceptual Age' and suggests that to survive and thrive in this age you need to ask 3 simple questions. Can a computer do what you do faster? Can someone in the world do what you do cheaper? Are you producing something in demand in the age of abundance? If you answer yes to the first 2 and no to the last, things will be tough.

I like what Dan has to say in his book and the two examples of success above answer his questions in the way they need to in the conceptual age. 

Day23 -Subject Communities, not Silos...

During the week, two of our tasks at Rolleston College/ Horoeka Haemata involved the unpacking of two Learning Areas from the New Zealand Curriculum: one given to us (not one we strongly identified with – unfamiliar text, you might say…); and the one we most strongly identified with. For me, this meant the first task was to try and unpack Health and Physical Education and to present what I thought to others, one of whom was actually an HPE specialist! For the second task, I worked with another Science specialist to unpack this Learning Area, and present the key elements (and “non-negotiables”) to all other staff.

One of our Senior Leaders talked about how we needed to be respectful when unpacking Learning Areas that were not our own. He addressed the term “Silos” that keeps being bandied around. He explained that he preferred to think of these more as Communities. This resonated with me. These Communities are populated by people. These people have adapted to be successful in these Communities. These people know what the key elements are for being successful in their respective Community. These strengths and predispositions need to be respected when we try to communicate which elements we see as being important in our new Community of Learning…

If we think of Silos instead, it is very easy to forget the human side of the Learning Areas. I know that I immediately think of each Silo being a different part of a machine, doing its own unique and important role, that contributes to the functioning of the machine we call Student Learning. To get those Silos (machine parts) to work together successfully takes a fair bit of coordination. It often takes students a long time to see the connections between the parts. I guess this analogy works for me as well, but it lacks the human element of Communities. I like the human element.

What about those tasks?

Unfamiliar Learning Area

He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.

We were given a period of time to try and break the Learning Area down into 20 (or so) words/key points. From this, we had to break it down into only five!! When discussing multi-disciplinary learning with peers in the past, the common concern has been about the potential for “dilution” of content and key skills. This thought struck me again – only five words/key points?!

Once I started, it was surprising how easily this Learning Area unpacked. A couple of different ways to arrange the Learning Area quickly evolved for me:

Four Strands/Contexts

• Personal Health and Physical Development
• Movement Concepts and Motor Skill
• Relationships with Other People
• Healthy Communities and Environments

 Four Concepts

• Hauora
• Attitudes and values
• The socio-ecological perspective
• Health promotion

Ultimately, though, I felt that everything emanated from Hauora. Therefore, I felt I had my five words, so long as I showed their interdependence with arrows:

Then came the tough part. Share this with someone from the HPE Community. When I fleshed out my simple little diagram with some thoughts about context and content, this was received much better than I thought!!

Familiar Learning Area

Mā te whakaaro nui e hanga te whare;
mā te mātauranga e whakaū

The task for this seemed much easier. It was the same task but within “my” Community – Science. I worked with another member of the same Community. This should be easy, surely! Not so. Within our Community, each member seems to put different value on different elements of the Community. That is natural.

However, what prevented this becoming a barrier was how easily these could be fleshed out. We were speaking the same language. We were able to group, classify and categorise our own ideas into bigger pictures under the “Nature of Science” umbrella. Finding five words/key concepts was, ultimately, not too tough (being familiar with TKI helped a lot with this, too!!):

• Evidence-based
• Knowledge is Provisional
• Uses Models and Theories
• Influenced by Society

We then unpacked each strand (Material World, Physical World, Living World, and Planet Earth and Beyond) into a couple of key “non-negotiable” points. These were the elements we felt were non-negotiable and may not be “diluted” by involvement in multi-disciplinary learning. Student learning must include the key elements (content and/or skills) of Science we identified. Boiled down, we did really get it down to:

• Matter
• Energy
• Forces
• MRS GREN
• Ecosystems
• Inheritance
• Cycles

Throw in some critical thinking, and I think the key words and non-negotiables cover the nature of the Nature of Science. The excitement came from hearing how other Learning Areas were unpacked, and seeing how Science could complement each of those “Communities” without diluting either. 

In fact, I can imagine how each Community (Learning Area) will be enhanced, along with the overall learning of each student, by having natives from each Community involved in each multi-disciplinary module. The NZ Police may build “Safer Communities Together”, but we will build “Stronger [Learning] Communities Together”.




Matt Nicoll is one of the foundation teachers at Rolleston College/Horoeaka Haemata. His blog can be found here. 

Day 21 Can There Really Be A Unicorn School?

Today's post is by Sophie Ralph, the Hauora Leader at Rolleston College/Horoeka Haemata.

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business review about ‘unicorn’ businesses, such as Uber, and how they have grown from simple ideas to worldwide business models which are challenging the status quo. HBR How Unicorns Grow. It made me think of kura in New Zealand and of course worldwide who are challenging the status quo and pushing for dramatic change in our education system of old.

After reading this article it made me think of how starting with a clean slate we could in-fact grow a unicorn. We would not be the first to try it and our unicorn may be different to others but with all mythical creatures we have our own interpretation. I like to think that a unicorn has a little bit of magic and all learning institutions have this but how do we use this ‘little bit of magic’ for good rather than evil. A tad dramatic possibly, however all researching on educational change is pointing in a certain direction but many are hesitant and fighting to stop ourselves from going towards the light.

What would a Unicorn School have?

Magic – This can be seen in the people within the unicorn school who feed and nurture the unicorn from a young age. People who care, people with passion, people who are invested in the values and mission of the kura. People who have a strong moral purpose for all learners, a moral purpose that to goes beyond the school gate with learning and support. I see this happening a lot already in many schools. All staff, sports coaches, cultural tutors, mentors and administrators often go above and beyond harnessing and exploring the passions  of students. Looks like we already have magic covered.

Ideal Growing/Living conditions – An environment that learners are connected to both the physical and spiritual world. An environment that is not ‘cut off’ from the resources that it needs. An environment that nurtures growth and safe exploration within the surrounds. An environment that explores connections to local and global networks, this can be achieved through online connections or face to face connections from the magical people previously mentioned. Conditions that feed the belly, soul and mind. Looks like we have ideal growing/living conditions covered.

Ability to Fly – This could be tricky but if we take the time we can often see learners challenging themselves with difficult tasks and challenges that they set themselves. I guess it depends on your definition of flying. To see a learner fly under their own steam and from their own creations, even if at times a little close to the sun. The magic and living conditions support them to fly.

With all the things mentioned above in place why are schools acting more like unicorns? We are so bogged down with meeting national standards assessment has begun to drive learning. Reporting back in a way that makes a child a level or a number is pleasing for whanau. We accept this. Hearing discussions  that “My child is above average” congratulations, above average how about inquisitive, curious, and creative. Would you like to be described as above average in your online profile, would you write this in an application letter. “I am above average and can meet deadlines”….I would rather be described as creative, curious and caring. Don’t get me wrong standards are important and a robust education system with appropriate checks and measures in place are important but lets be more like a unicorn. Whatever you want that makes you magic and able to fly.

Upon sharing this article with another teacher I was told unicorns are a lovely idea but not real….but they could be. Let’s do it, watch this space.

Day 19 -Beyond Your Own Backyard: collaborating across the globe

Collaboration and Cooperation are two of the educational buzz-words of today. Yet, at first glance, they would seem to be fairly similar to each other. In fact, when I searched for a definition of each, the first results I got were:

Collaboration: the action of working with someone to produce something

Cooperation: the action or process of working together to the same end

John Spencer explores the differences between the two in this video: (embed video - https://youtu.be/Gr5mAboH1Kk )

He concludes that both are essential for creative work that is more innovative and of higher quality. The challenge for teachers in smaller schools is that you may not have other teachers to collaborate and cooperate with. This is where being a connected educator can really benefit you. No longer are you confined to collaborating with only the teachers in your school or area, now you have an entire world full of teachers to collaborate with!

So, how do you get started? The Connected Educator Starter Kete has a couple of ideas. You could start by going to the shared Google Slide to read others’ stories of why being a connected educator matters to them, then add your own story of being a connected educator. After that, you could check out some of these crowdsourced resources:

• Making the writing programme fun - Started by Anne Kenneally in mid 2013 as a way to share fun ways to engage learners with their writing

• Encouraging blog interaction - Started by Anne Kenneally in August 2013 to promote classroom blogs.
• Maths Inspiration - Ideas to inspire, motivate, and educate... Started by Jennie Lyall in August 2013
• Digital Citizenship Started by Annemarie Hyde in October 2013
• Chromebook Tips and Tricks... Started by Allanah King in May 2014
• Collaborative Planning template examples... Started by Mark Maddren in October 2014
• ANZAC Day Resources... Started by Anne Kenneally in March 2015
• Picture Book Celebration... Started by Bridget Compton-Moen in April 2015
• Growth Mindset Resources... Started by Justine Hughes in April 2015
• Modern Learning for secondary schools... Started by Tessa Gray in May 2015
• Matariki... Started by Anne Kenneally in June 2015

Remember to add your ideas to the resources while you’re there - your contributions are valuable and vital to the continuing success of these documents.

Finally, if you want some ideas on a topic not covered above, why not start your own collaborative, crowdsourced document? Put your ideas in to get it started, then share the link with your PLN and ask them to contribute and share. If you’ve already started one, share a link in the comments below.

This is just one way of broadening your collaborative horizons. How do you collaborate with your PLN to be a more innovative, creative educator?

Maree Boyd

Day 14 - Reminder about this opportunity and more on Getting Connected

Make links to early literacy and numeracy with a hands-on workshop enabling young children’s learning with STEAM subjects.

When: Friday 28th October

Where: Sumner School

Cost: $100 - morning tea and lunch provided

Register by: Monday 17th October

READ MORE HERE

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Day 14 - Webinars - what are you learning?

Are you taking the opportunity to find some DIYPD? Check out this webinar coming up soon.

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SCHOOLS AREN"T BUILT FOR LEARNING

In this TED talk by Will Richardson, he shares how his two children are directing their own learning on subjects that interest them. In this video "The Surprising Truth about Learning in Schools" he looks at how students learn, why this is changing and the large numbers of disengaged students sitting in our classes.

In classrooms all over the world we are seeing that how students learn is changing. Students are connecting globally by Skype, collaborating with other students in their own class, school and with other schools. They use snapchat, instagram and Facebook to connect with friends. They upload to You Tube, have a YouTube channel and see You Tube as a way of getting information about

areas of interest. They do just "google it" and watch the video.

Day 13 - Connecting Educators through TeachMeets

Earlier this year I had the privilege of attending my first ever TeachMeet and it just so happened to be in Melbourne at Ivanhoe Grammar School.  If you’re unsure of what a TeachMeet actually is, you can find more at the website http://www.teachmeet.co.nz but in short:

A TeachMeet is an organised but informal meeting (in the style of an unconference) for teachers to share good practice, practical innovations and personal insights in teaching with technology.

Participants volunteer (via the TeachMeet website) to demonstrate good practice they’ve delivered over the past year, or discuss a product that enhances classroom practice.

Source: Wikipedia

With the themes of this year’s Christchurch Educators Month being “connect, innovate and collaborate” I felt that a summary blog on how TeachMeet Christchurch has gone would be appropriate.

I recognised that teachers are very busy people and wanted to keep the commitment levels to TeachMeet pretty low – a once per term meeting that ran for no more than 90mins and in true keeping with the spirit of TeachMeets, each presentation could be no longer than 7 minutes. To facilitate the launch I arranged to host first two sessions at St Andrew’s College where I was confident I could drum up some speakers and also a crowd of listeners and then used an open Google Doc for people to register. You can see the topics and attendees for TeachMeet 0.1 and TeachMeet 0.2.

I was delighted with the turnout for these events and the quality of the presentations from the speakers. Many shared something from a technology / eLearning perspective however the format allows for any educational topic to be shared. Importantly, and in keeping with the theme of connecting, the events were split in half to allow a time for networking with other teachers over a coffee.

As always at events like this, there was good sharing on Twitter of what was being presented via the hashtag #TMChch and you can see a twitter recap for TeachMeet 0.1 and TeachMeet 0.2

I am pleased that Jeremy Cumming (former teacher at Catholic Cathedral College and now working for the Catholic Education Office) asked to pick up the organisation and hosting of TeachMeet 0.3 that will run on 17th November and be hosted at Villa Maria College. This represents a natural progression and maturing of TeachMeet by sharing the hosting and co-ordinating responsibilities amongst teachers and schools which will naturally shape the themes and focus of each session. Ultimately, this is key for the ongoing success of TeachMeet – to be sustainable there needs to be collective responsibilities and a desire amongst teachers to want to connect with each other and share best practice from their classroom, things they are experimenting with, or research they are undertaking in post-graduate studies.

When teachers maintain a mind-set of being lifelong learners then I believe a natural outworking of this is wanting to connect at various sessions like TeachMeet and others that are routinely organised by the teaching community in wider Canterbury.

If you have never been to a TeachMeet before, can I encourage you to consider signing up at www.teachmeet.co.nz for TeachMeet 0.3 which will be the last for 2016, but hopefully just one in a long line of many more where teachers can remain connected.

By Sam McNeill

(Sam is the Director of ICT at St Andrew’s College and blogs regularly about technology and innovation at http://eblog.stac.school.nz)

Day 11 - My First year in an MLE

My First year in an MLE - Kate Bodger

This year I have made the transition from single cell classrooms to an MLE. I am very lucky to be teaching in a purpose built environment at Halswell School. (My ideas are completely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.) I think the transition was even more intense coming from a small school with no syndicates.  I will admit I am finding it quite difficult to articulate the amount of learning and unlearning I have done this year into a blog post.. But here goes…

Having only ever taught in single cell classrooms I have found this year to be a massive change. Being on my own in a small school without a syndicate to share planning, I had a lot of autonomy over my own programme. I would implement new things, see if they worked, reflect and start again. I have found it so refreshing to draw on five other people’s experiences to decide on programmes to best suit the learners.

Coming from a digital 1:1 class and being the teacher in charge of ICT my teaching philosophy was largely based around using digital technologies to engage my students.

I have been absolutely humbled by what I didn’t and still don’t know about teaching and learning. This year I have been predominantly teaching with two other teachers with 90 children. Moving into a decile 10 school the resources although generous were nothing near 1:1. I found my philosophy of teaching was slowly changing.

We have a wonderful team leader. I think she has made this process so easy to adjust to, as I have never felt like I have had to ‘pick my battles’ which was the piece of advice most often dished out by friends already working in these environments. We talk. We talk about everything, we discuss, we research, we use our experiences just as I did in a single cell classroom, but with five other ideas, points of view and expertise. I felt because I saw these people teaching everyday, I had such a high level of respect for them as educators I really value their input and feedback.

Working so closely with other teachers who are really passionate about certain subjects is really infectious. Was I as an educator starting to enjoy teaching P.E?! Surely not… But spending a lesson observing amazing teaching, being shown incredible resources and being encouraged along the way has been amazing. I didn’t exactly say I enjoy teaching P.E, but am definitely warming up to it!

Last year with my class of 32 I had five Maths groups. Ranging from stage 3-7 I tried to put them together as much as I could, but I really struggled to see my groups as much as I would have liked to. I really started to not enjoy teaching Maths which I usually adore. I found it such a "brain frying" to go from stage three to six, to seven to see all my groups. My book five was a rainbow of coloured tabs trying to keep me on track with where I was with each group. I had tried a few new things but just found I was too stretched to be an effective Maths teacher to such a range of needs. Hats off to those that do it and do it well!

So what a treat being able to ability group a larger range of children. This year I have a group of stage five children and that’s it. My teaching and assessment I feel are better than they’ve ever been. I don’t feel stretched, I love teaching Maths. I talk about my teaching all the time and get advice, encouragement and ideas daily. The reflections just become a part of my day.

I did find with this way grouping/timetabling that I lost a lot of flexibility. We would start our literacy and numeracy rotations promptly and because of the mixed groups would have to be ready to go at certain times. I am aware this would be the same as any other interchange situation, but it was new for me. I found it hard to squeeze in those incidental learning opportunities, when a child asks a question in the morning, discovers something new or brings something into share. It could be quite restrictive I have realised it is important to make the most of the time I am alone with my own class.

One thing I have noticed, I’m exhausted. More than the usual level of ‘where’s the wine on a Tuesday tired’, but could sleep for a year tired. As a team we have discussed what makes us so tired. It’s more than the noise which was the first thing everyone has asked me about… But more being constantly ‘on’. There is always a buzz of activity, with 90 children, many more parents, grandparents etc. We are always talking/reflecting/changing/sharing. There is no down time where you are alone with your thoughts.

After all the talking, reflecting and trying to explain this amazing rollercoaster of a year I found the best analogy from the owner of my local cafe. (Hector in New Brighton amazing coffee if you’re in the area!) He said “ it sounds like a really long group project at uni”. How true I thought to myself.

There are those in the group stronger than others in certain areas that take responsibility for that to be completed to the best of their ability. There are times in the group project that someone has other things going on and needs to lean on the group to get everything done. But at the end we are all working together to achieve the best results possible for our akonga.

I really couldn’t imagine going back into it alone!

You can check out our team blog here.

Term Four Events

Today’s blog post is to keep you informed with the events we are aware of that are available in Canterbury in Term Four. If there are any others, please let us know via chchednet@gmail.com so those events can be added to this post. Thanks a million!

If there is enough demand, we will look into setting up a calendar of events that can be accessed via this blog. Let us know what you thing about this idea.

TeachMeet 3.0

The third one of these for 2016 has been arranged. Come along to learn about some great things going on in Canterbury, or take the plunge and present something you are doing.

Register here: https://teachmeet.co.nz/

Date: 17 November

Time: 4:15pm

Venue: Villa Maria College

Innovative Learning Environments Workshop

The workshop is part of the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change project. This is a research partnership between the University of Melbourne, the Australian Research Council, the New Zealand Ministry of Education and 14 other education and industry partners.

Unfortunately this does class with TeachMeet 3.0.

Learn more and Register here: http://bit.ly/2dTjbaW

Date: 17 November

Time: 4:30pm

Venue: Avonside Girls' High School

Christmas Drinks!

A great chance for a social get together for Canterbury educators. Please come along at any stage through the late afternoon - early evening. If you have any ideas for events that we could arrange and/or promote in 2017, this is an ideal time to talk it through.

Date: 30 November

Time: From 4:00pm

Venue: Strange's Lane

31 Days of Blogging

We are also still looking for anyone who would like to contribute to "31 Days of Blogging". If you would like to write anything, or if you have already written something that you are happy for us to share via this blog, please let us know via chchednet@gmail.com.

Twitter Chats

Don't forget that there are lots of great education conversations happening on Twitter. For example, #edchatNZ is 8:30-9:30pm every second Thursday.

The next #scichatNZ chat (8:30pm, 18 October) is a collaboration with #scicommNZ about engagement and being run by two Canterbury-based educators (Matt Nicoll and Dr Victoria Metcalf).

If you strike gold in any chats or other collaboration on Twitter (anywhere, actually), please retweet and/or share this gold with the #ChchED hashtag, so the rest of us get to see it too.

Facebook

If Twitter and blogs are not your thing, Gin Thorner has set up a Facebook Group to help people keep connected, collaborate, and to be aware of events.

Email us via chchednet@gmail.com if you would like to be added to this group.