Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher Project Summary 
2022

2021 ended with excitement as I was selected to be involved in the Manaikalani Innovative Teachers program (MIT).

It meant that in 2022 I would be working out how to solve a challenge I felt was impacting achievement. I wouldn't be doing it alone as the facilitators had sourced some wonderful brains from across Aotearoa.

Whanau are not engaging with online learning

My initial 'moonshot' was unveiled through a slide share and I immediately got feedback and forward through the 'why' process. This idea was Whanau are not engaging with online learning. I had ideas but these were unrefined and ultimately irrelevant. The Design Thinking Process introduced many other ideas and as I moved through the initial stages of this process my ideas and even my focus changed.

How might we...

So from here we looked at ways we could solve this problem. How we could turn it into an opportunity. We thought of reading parents comments so children would encourage home to engage. We talked about children flipping the learning by making videos to teach others. Info evenings came up. From these discussions we honed into using the word connect.

Camera's to Connect

The design boiled down to the 'Camera's to Connect' innovation. This was chosen because all my research pointed to the desire for humans to watch short videos that get to the point. These videos were short interviews with the children about one aspect of their learning.

The Design Thinking Process also allowed the idea to develop. Initially it was overly led by me but as the idea developed the children took more leadership of the presentation, making for a more appealing product. The use of a script polished things again and finally using the Google Meet streamlined recording.

I chose to email these as parents would look at emails from the teacher and by putting the video directly on the email they would have less distance to travel to connect. This also gave them an easy reply so I could access responses quickly and directly.

Here are some examples of correspondence -

Action Stations

The video involves...

• Considering the work you want to share.
• Aiming for something in the formative stage so the children can voice where to
• Giving the children a script to fill and think of
• Setting up a meet and area

These pre things mean when you get to the meet things will be smooth.

Filming the meet

• Introduce the children and have the child explain their learning

Sharing the Meet

• Email the parents with a link to the video
• Include a question so they have more incentive to reply

Wananga

As we neared the end of the process we headed to share our innovation with the Manaikalani Principlas at the annual Wananga. This year it was back on site at Waipuna. Thanks to previous opportunities to share in Rarotonga the public speaking aspect was less daunting. The relationships formed through the MIT sessions also gave us a support base and the experience was a highlight of my career so far. If you've made to here you might as well strap in and relive my Wananga experience in the video below.