Critical thinking and media literacy

I recently showed my Year 12 class a documentary called Childhood 2.0 which discusses many of the issues that teens face with the rise of social media. These issues include cyberbullying, sexting, suicide, porn, grooming and catfishing. Each learner has chosen a topic to research which will enable them to learn information literacy skills. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ucrDBe8v1q4…

A few things I’ve learned about leadership

It’s been about 5 and half years since I started my role as head of the English faculty at Whangaparaoa College now. I wrote a post about leading the faculty at the beginning of my journey and giggled when I reread it recently - so many rookie mistakes! Over the last few years I’ve made…

Leadership, values, & culture

Photo by David Garrison on Pexels.com We are nearly at the end of Term 3 and I am noticing that my team are getting tired and fragile. I’ve been thinking about the culture of our faculty and how I would love it to grow and develop to help us get through this time well. I've…

What have we learned from the Lockdown?

At the end of March 2020, New Zealand went into Lockdown which meant that we have had to deliver the curriculum in an online environment. This is titled @homelearning by our Principal who has also decided on a shorter school day for all. Our day begins at 9 am with learners coming online at 10:45…

Choice! Challenges, and Workflow in Lockdown

We have now completed one week of @home learning in Level 4 of Lockdown and it seems to be going well for most people. So what is going well and what is not going so well? Choice! I'm seeing learners who find it difficult to engage at school, engaging in their learning as they are…