Here we go again....

It has been an interesting week. The facilitation team is a lot bigger this year, and we were all in this week to meet some of the new members of staff. They have to get on board with the whole Google thing really quickly if they are to keep up with the students. It is a big ask, I think, but this is the way that teaching and learning is going so they may as well get on board now. We ARE the first!!
Dorothy and Fiona gave them the the whole "big picture" thing. I think it is bigger than they thought by the looks on some of their faces. It wouldn't hurt all the staff in the cluster to hear that too so they can see where they are in the whole project. It is easy to get bogged down in the little things like netbook and connection issues, students being off task, transferring all your planning to online, learning new ways to do things when you didn't want to, and everything else that keeps teachers on their toes. It is perfectly normal to stress / moan about these things, but if they could just see where we are and why we are going through these speed bumps, it might give them the perspective to not worry so much.
A great site has been set up for everyone to access, The Manaiakalani Professional Learning Network. This is for everyone to dip into and get ideas and support from. Thanks Fiona for this, and thanks to Dorothy and Fiona for an interesting and useful two days.
We spent a large part of the time working on starting sites with the new staff members so they have the basics under their belt and something to build on with their subject content. It was a good way to get to know new colleagues.
More PD planned for next week, and we also get to see the students too!! And it was soooo quiet without them.....