Celebrate Pasifika

March is Pasifika Month, in Auckland we take the opportunity to celebrate this with fabulous flair, armed with an array of powerful performances across a number of genres - dance, music, art etc. Perhaps the most common events are the ASB Polyfest, Pasifika - previously blogged about here. And in recent years an uproar of awesome plays from - Laughing Samoans, Diana Fuemana, Kila Kokonut Krew.



To find out what else is on in Auckland check out the Celebrate Pasifika site for more information, or download this brochure.  Stay Fresh!

The Art of Facilitation...

Its been over 10 months since I attended the Art of Facilitation course with Joan Dalton & David Anderson. The high-quality professional learning opportunity has made a significant impact on my facilitation and teaching craft over the past several months.  I would dearly love to attend another one. So for those of you haven't I urge  you to email Mel Stopford to register for upcoming 2009 workshops.

So what changed?

• Intentions - Joan and David talk lots about 'purpose',   Before organising anything with teachers I think about the purpose...J & D used the analogy of a parrot sitting on your shoulder asking "What's your purpose?" (I have the same little sticky they gave us at the course stuck to my whiteboard right next to my desk). Always asking myself "what's my purpose?" has really challenged me in some situations.  Yes it would be cool to run a movie making workshop - but what's the purpose?  Answer: To extend on their digital storytelling concept even further etc...I am continually having a conversation with myself when designing workshops and centre visits so that I am consciously checking the rationale and articulating my thoughts, consequently this then leads to me being able to justify why I do what I do.  So with my intentions or purpose in check designing workshops to cater for teachers has been very worthwhile and rewarding.

• My actions match my beliefs - Confession time! When I first started this position as facilitator I was mostly absorbed by the 'seductive ICT'.  Yep. It was all about the bling baby.  J & D challenged us to think about our role as facilitators, what I realised over the week with them was that what I was actually doing was soothing my own ego.  I liked having the answers and seducing teachers with the ICT.  In reality this is perfect for shallow lifeless learning - not suitable for vibrant, deep, life-long learning.  I was stuck in a "Guru Loop" (a term I learned from Julia Atkin), and I was the Guru not letting go of the loop".  I believe that teachers should be life-long learners - my actions did not say that.  So as a result, overnight I magically changed - NOT! I have continually worked hard over the past several months to stop being the answer machine, to work with teachers from where they are at, challenge, provoke, inspire and encourage them to take risks and learn through mistakes.

• Listening - The first thing that pops into my head is Beyonce's song - Listen. No seriously, Listen...so simple yet so complex.  I'm not going to pretend that I was totally ignorant before this workshop but I certainly learned how to fine tune the little skill I had in listening - the activities based around paraphrasing, active listening and probing and clarifying were exactly what I needed to really get my head around the importance of truly listening to people.  This led me on to further research into Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott (suggested reading by J & D). Great little journey with lots of though provoking and oh-my-goodness-I-so-do that moments, my journey will never be over and I'm learning so much on the way.

• 1%'ers - a huge mix of little 1%'ers that will complement purposeful workshops! My fav's are stickies, lightning round, quotes and remembering to greet people at the door (to some this may be common practice and many of these I have used previously but it its affirming to know that every little action counts - especially when you have a purpose...), personal information disclaimer - not that I ask for this much but it really does set the tone in the environment as safe. Ones that I am working on getting right are: sway the disequilibrium - change the environment or seating position after lunch to kind of kick start the afternoon, the power of pause (seriously I am trying) and 1 was easy 5 was hard -want to try that hand game but haven't yet had the opportunity.

• Feedback - this one was instantly a hit on my return to work, I came back from this course to some work that required me to respond with my 'professional facilitator hat on', and instead of responding directly to the key points (as i might normally do) I took note of the Feedback notes that J&D had talked us through during the week.  There are 3 types of providing feedback I used the second one for the written feedback I was providing but may use the first one when I am trying to encourage someone along.- Positive feedback: to appreciate and empower
  - Constructive feedback: to help improve skills/practices
  - Feedback to evaluate performance against standards, agreements or criteria

Overall, an amazing experience - one which I would highly reccommend to absolutely anybody who wants to take the lead in ensuring they contribute to an efficient, proactive and thoughtful environment - even though it is called Art of Facilitation it is totally relevant to teachers in early childhood and I have suggested several of our ECE ICT PL teachers attend as a way of extending them further.  I hear some have enrolled or are on the waiting list.

And the best part for last - the website resource PLOT is a priceless tool that I use just about every day to support my planning of workshops, centre visits, meetings, conversations.  Loads of well thought out plans, musings, suggested books and reading, links, theories all on one site. My absolute fav strategies to date 3,2,1; Final Word Strategy and the Placemat Process.

Thanks again Joan and David (J&D).  Truly life-changing and inspiring.

If you want to find out more about  things I have mentioned here be sure to enrol ASAP.

Choosing your passion..

I have been struggling for the past few years with finding a particular passion in my teaching career. Not because I don't have 'any passion' but because I have a passion for lots of things.  This has impacted on my studies so much that when it came to writing a thesis for my Masters of Education (Early Years) I struggled to pick 'a topic'.  So I played it safe and completed 7 papers and a research report.

Now as I ponder enrolling in an Educational Doctorate I am struggling to make a decision on a particular topic to explore further.  Here are my thoughts so far:

- Something to do with engaging families in the suburb of Otara, researched over a number of contexts i.e. early childhood, primary and secondary.

- The impact blogging has on children's ability to engage in global dialogue (from Otara of course) and what difference does this have on their learning.

- Digital Storytelling that brings communities together...

- The impact of ICT on infant and toddler interactions...(needs to be unpacked further).

Off the top of my head my passions in the context of my work life are: Otara, South Auckland, early childhood education, Pasifika/Māori education, arts, drama, music; ICT, engaging families, community sustainability and raising expectations for all children and families.

Below are the points identified by Randy Komisar that resonated with me.

What are my values what do I care about?

What are my opportunities facing that direction?  How do they sync up with my passion?

My career makes no sense in the windshield, it only makes sense in the rear view.

Hmmm...lots of thinking to do...it was interesting to hear that he suggests that our perpectives of the situation impact on our decisions.  When I choose one particular passion it does not mean that I have lost the other 7 rather I have opened at least another ten.  Great now Imm off to look at my horizons.

For further Academic Earth videos visit: http://academicearth.org

Samoana Online!

While working with teachers from A'oga Fa'a Samoa we came across this amazing site, an online village specifically designed to support Samoans globally, this site is jam packed withwith some very talented blogs written by those that identify with being Samoan.  Although I am Cook Island Maori & NZ Maori I so totally relate to some of the posts, and growing up in South Auckland has certainly given me an appreciation of my Samoan friends, neighbours and colleagues.

My top pic's are:

Hamo Geek Girl: This writer is incredibly talented, her writing is hilarious and very accessible, even if your not Samoan you will find this a great read. Fav post to date here

I'm a Genius: Another hilarious writer - must run in the Samoan blood! His writing is well beyond his years (raw natural talent) and I can definitely see this guy being the next Barack Obama of sorts! Fav post to date here


John @ Tala'aga Another amazing writer whose depth of writing will leave you yearning for more, seriously this guy has got game - funny, serious and inspiring. Fav post to date here

Niu Zila Life of a Samoan in New Zealand, very inspiring.  Writes with realism and offers us a political perspective to topics that arise again and again. Fav post to date here

Its very rare to find talented writers such as these and to find them all in one village: Samoana is just pure awesome! Go along to check them out, you will not be dissapointed.

Tofa soifua!

Through the lens of a camera

Yesterday I blogged about how I was going to take up the "photo a day" concept.  I have now started and you can find my photos here.  Today I found this post over on Maureens blog, it leads to this site, then this site. Basically what the articles refer to is our ongoing need to document everything, and witness some of our most memorable moments through the lens of a camera.  They use the picture below to highlight their point.



Recently, my partner and I attended a beautiful wedding, the bride was stunnng the groom very handsome and the thought that went into making their day original and amazing was obvious, down to the very last detail  As the gorgeous bride walked down the aisle there were at least 7 people standing and clicking taking their own photos of the brides (in some cases standing in front of the actual paid photographer), as the ceremony commenced there were more clicks and people bobbing up and down to get the best pic, after the formalities the couple with their gorgeous children stood and waited as over 15 people took photos of them.  It has never struck me more than it did on this day that we may be going a tad bit overboard with our digital recording.  Especially when you could see that the couple and their children were ready to move on and get on with the posing for the professional photographer. I wonder if it would have been better to have the professional photographer and a representative from each family take photos and then guests get a CD of the photos?

So what about those cameras in early childhood education, how many times do we as teachers leave the learning moment and participate in children's learning through the lens of a camera.  I became conscious of this a while back when working in a kindergarten, the amount of times I left the 'shared learning moment' to get a camera was frightening, only later when recording the learning through a learning story did I realise that I had missed a big chunk of the moment.  If I had my time again I would certainly pay more attention to the moments that don't necessarily need to be docmented.

Photography connects us...a photo a day!

I took the time out this morning to catch up with my TedTalks and randomly chose David Griffin's talk on how Photography connects us with the world, he highlighted many points that confirm why I love photos, some of the ways photography inspires me include:

1. Photos can capture moments in time

2. Photos can provoke emotion

3. Photos can tell stories



This talk then prompted me to re-visit some of my earlier bookmarks about photography, Ive posted about photography here and here.  And I often visit the Auckland Festival of Photography site to check out new photos of my hometown, with this image by Manuel Toribio - THE FLIGHT now my new favourite.



I then went back to my starred blog posts from Dean Shareski about his journey of 'a photo a day' for a year.  You can find his thoughts on the topic here, here and here.  Wesley Fryer also appears in my starred blog posts for his discussion about the Flickr group "Telling a Story with 5 Photos for educators".  Their group was inspired by another Flickr Group "Tell a story in 5 frames" which can be found here. I actually first learned of this concept through Ewan McIntosh while in one if his sessions at Ulearn07 in Auckland.

So as you may have gathered I really like photos, Im one of those people, hoping there are more like me where photos in one way or another inspire me, especially artistic-kind-of-abstracy-ones taken by professional photographers.  Unfortunately, I'm not too good at taking them myself and dont have a fancy camera or such like to match my enthusiasm, just a cheap digital one that is always set to automatic and very rarely charged.  So in light of this mornings research/surfing/inspiration Ive decided to set a belated New Years 2009 resolution.  Ive been debating whether or not I should participate in the "A Photo a Day" concept for some time now, purely for my own personal entertainment and in my opinion a wonderful way to sharpen my photography skills (one of the benefits mentioned at PhotoJojo). Ive decided that today I will start my very own library of "One Photo A Day".  I'm thinking of uploading to Flickr rather than here on the blog so that I can streamline tag and keep them all organised.  Stay tuned or shall I say stay focussed for updates. (Pun totally intended!)

Stories to tell my grandchildren...When I turned 30!

Not sure why this was sitting in the drafts folder, several months later here I am hitting the publish button.

In November 2008, I turned 30...strange I know cos I only look a day over 20! - seriously...

One of the wonderful things about having a huge extended whanau other than lots of babysitters is the 'hook-up's' you get from family.  My little cousin texted me a few days before my 30th to ask if I would like to walk around the Skytower otherwise known as SkyWalk - are you mad? crazy? Stupid? - Yep thats what every other person I told said.

Initially, I was like "uh uh, no way", then I thought hey what better way is there to celebrate my graceful entrance into the 30's - how about dinner, party, shopping spree, scrapbooking, jewellery making?..anyway I wouldnt be writing this post if I didnt go through with it right...of course not! So here goes...I did it, and I also did the SkyJump.  It was absolutely the best birthday present ever - excluding that big bar of chocolate I got from grandad on my 10th - but anyway check out my photographic evidence below. I cant speak highly enough of the crew at Skyjump/Skywalk, absolutely professional, safe, funny, safe, pleasant, safe, inspiring, safe, careful, safe...well you get the drift.