Eyes on the Horizon, Feet on the Ground

As all of my work is exclusively in the virtual and online education world, it has been a welcome change in the last couple of weeks to have the opportunity to meet with teachers and get my feet on the ground in schools. It's exciting to be working on the edges of educational change but it's so important to keep it real too! Here's my first update:

EBOP Connected Teachers

Thanks to Edgecumbe Primary for hosting, @jeanettem1 for organising and leading this initiative and  @mrs_hyde for supporting this first event. This builds on from other Connected teachers groups in Rotorua, Taupo & more recently Napier. DIY PLD, the knowledge is in the room! Good to be around classroom teachers, hearing what is important and happening in their schools and getting to know people in the Eastern Bay. Looking forward to another hui at the end of the month in my town Matata.

Ngatea Primary School

Image attribution:http://karlas-learning.blogspot.co.nz/

I have been following @Neil_NPS 'Principal of Ngatea Primary School where we challenge and re-define our learning environment.' and had been keen to stop in and see what was happening at this school, so just to be nosy i invited myself for a school visit on my way up to Auckland. Thanks @hull_karla for showing me around and sharing your school's learning journey with me. Lots of great things happening with student centred personalised learning, flexible timetables, collaborative teaching, open learning spaces, 1:1 chromebooks. Most of my questions were around logistical things like how to support learning in flexible time & space; now I'm keen to go back and find our more about about the learning than the organisation. Has any research been done yet in our MLE schools? Would be interested to see.
Check out this short virtual tour: