Pristine Senior School

An afternoon at Ormiston with its open learning spaces also very enjoyable.



This school has been open two years and had the same architect as Albany which is very evident in the large learning spaces - so much potential in these. The school is underpopulated due to slowed growth in the area but when the growth starts again it will be ready. Beautiful gym and theatre



The school has space for 1000 and at present has 200 students. The senior management team have a strong vision to implement for the school- their own special set of challenges to address.
Lots of IT potential there and some use of Myportfolio by the Art teacher.



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Albany Senior School Wow

Wow wow wow omg blown away!  This school is AMAZING!


-Have been led through a mind blowing feast by Mark Osborne showing me so many possibilities with Myportfolio. If i were a student i would love being at Albany Senior School.


Open class rooms, no uniforms, bring your own digital device, plus desktops available in the spaces if you prefer. This school is for year 11 12 and 13 only.
And look here are Maths classes working in the same spaces as other classes with technology for 100 minutes.


Cafeteria for all


Other spaces just amazing More to come.


Mark Osborne is god. I think i love him.

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Location:Albany Hwy,Auckland,New Zealand

Back home in Kune

Was great to be back at Ruapehu College again today enjoying morning tea spectacular from Tui staff


bit of an Olympic them going on


-And the room decorated up with flags


With the principal wearing the nz flag instead of the Scottish



Great to see everyone and be wished bon voyage. Proud of the staff.
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A trip to the other side

Visited Diocesan on Tuesday -a decile 10 school beautiful grounds and buildings classrooms and lovely young ladies from Remuera and the like. Oh the infrastructure and facilities left me green with envy - the fun and every girl from yr 7 with a Mac laptop or a think pad


Year 4 onwards all have their own iPads which they use throughout their class day.



The library had this reading space



The grounds were immaculate and this is the untidiest corner I saw looked like a great area to explore


All teachers using moodle in the senior school in a limited way they were mainly docs and pdfs uploaded and students downloaded them to their files to use.
Junior school were using blogger to do their blogs and had google apps including gmail addresses. If you wanted to ask a question you could put a post-it up next to yr photo


Senior school not using eportfolios such as Myportfolio although the icon was prominent on the home page.
An interesting day - they have different challenges to us.



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Reblogging this telling blog

Education Rethink: 11 Reasons Teachers Aren't Using Technology #edcha...: I know that all tools are technically technology. However, for the purpose of this post, I'm thinking computers, tablets and mobile devices....
John T Spencer posted this blog on Education Rethink which is well worth a read.

At Reporoa college

Talked with principal Kris Bhatt who is leading the staff pd of Myportfolio, with compulsory appraisal documents uploaded to their portfolios being their first steps. Two staff members are using mp for collection of their evidence for Prt registration.



This large totara trunk in the foyer was taken out of a local swamp and has evidence of ash from the 1010AD eruption. Impressive!







Their staffroom does not have the beautiful outlook that we at Ruapehu enjoy. And it's a foggy day. Kris tells me that sometimes the fog does not lift all day.



However the tea and coffee making facilities could well be copied I feel.



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Location:No 3 Rd,Reporoa,New Zealand

Day one

At home making contacts with principals in the Volcanics cluster and other teachers involved with elearning in this community.


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Location:Wembley Pl,Taupo,New Zealand

A special hi going out to all my students going back to school tomorrow!  It's true I am missing you already.

And be kind to all the teachers, please, especially Mrs Mikaere.

Car rentals

Trying to get the best car rental deal my brother in Denver says he can get it because of business rates but looks like Shelagh Buck at Harvey's World travel in Ohakune has come through trumps instead! You have to look around, huh?

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Location:Taupo