As we look forward to new learning and new opportunities in Term 3, it is exciting to report that all learners in Room 10 @ Ruapotaka now have a personal Chromebook. Parent interviews at the end of Term 2 enabled me to catch up with those families/whānau who were unable to attend our whānau hui earlier in the term. This development affords every student the opportunity to learn at home using a personal digital device from now on.

Whānau will continue to have opportunities to find out more about their child's digital learning journey by training with Manaiakalani's Kaiarahi/Whānau Engagement Facilitator. Our whānau blog is supporting the connections between home and school too: A group of students recently shared their screencast to explain the basics of a Chromebook for whānau.

Despite the Chromebooks remaining at school during the holidays, three learners have been actively blogging about the Olympics as part of the Winter Learning Journey blogging programme run by Rachel Williams of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. 

In Term 3, while we learn about the challenges faced by Olympians going for gold, learners will be challenged to go for reading gold by taking the opportunities afforded by ubiquitous learning.

The future looks rosy - and golden!

Sparking Connections!

An engaging afternoon was spent sparking connections with Rachel Williams at the Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the University of Auckland yesterday to support my Spark-MIT 2016 inquiry. Rachel is addressing the summer slide in literacy specifically within Manaiakalani and created a pilot holiday blogging programme, Summer Learning Journey, which ran over three weeks in January 2016. Blogging was chosen for this initiative as a positive way to hook learners into creating and sharing more writing. Eight 1:1 digital classes across three Manaiakalani schools participated in the pilot programme with approximately one-third of those learners actively blogging during this time.

How does this relate to my inquiry? As the programme is set to expand during the July holidays, it offers learners motivation and a framework for authentic and fun reading and writing activities in addition to any holiday leisure reading. Rachel is excited to have an opportunity to connect with the learners in Room 10 @ Ruapotaka and enable their involvement in this ubiquitous literacy journey, taking advantage of digital affordances at home and in the community. We will collaborate to enable whānau to engage and connect with this blogging journey.