From the Chair

Kia ora,

When I started drafting this I wrote “I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. We all hope you had a relaxing Christmas with family and friends”. However, it is hard to believe we are already three months into 2019.

Three months on, the first thing I would now like to say is that we are thinking of all our colleagues in Christchurch and those affected by the shooting. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Kia Kaha

Over the Christmas break, I reflected on how lucky TENZ is to have such an incredible council. The council members work extremely hard and put in a great deal of personal time. Each council member is solely responsible for a portfolio. As Chair I have been busy doing a wide range of things; from contacting the Prime Minister and Minister of Education, voicing our concerns over staffing; working with the Ministry to develop close ties; attending the launches of new products and initiatives; as well as visiting teachers and schools. Mike Forret is deputy chair. He and I work together seamlessly. We teleconference at least once a week to discuss matters. He is the sole person developing the new TENZ website and has been very busy coordinating our membership database. He is now also responsible for gaining sponsorship for TENZ.  Wendy Slatter is responsible for coordinating the chairs of all the regions. However whilst we are waiting for people to step up into the role of regional chairs Wendy is travelling around New Zealand supporting teachers. She is also regional chair of Auckland (we are still hoping someone will step into this role… volunteers???). As well as this she is one of the two people organising the October national conference. We are grateful that Wendy is able to travel and support other council members whenever needed. If you are happy to help out please contact Wendy. Ceri deBoo is working hard to support and represent the South Island. Ceri is working alongside many of NZ’s top digital leaders to plan a Teacher Refresher Course (TRCC) workshop for July 17-19 2019. Liz Reinsfield is our lead for the national Mātanga Professional Development Project. Liz collaborated with a core team, gained funding, identified our Mātanga experts and then recruited teachers to work with these experts. Liz has been required to write the modules for the PD workshops and work with a team to ensure valuable learning workshops and sessions are provided.  Louise Milne is our TENZ secretary who beavers away behind the scenes making sure that all boxes are ticked and administration is undertaken in a timely fashion. She keeps the minutes during our very lengthy teleconferences and follows up on all action points. Louise is responsible for these timely newsletters. Wendy Fox is our previous past chair.  Wendy is a wonderful source of knowledge. As she was the chair for so long she knows who to speak to and where to find any information. She has also volunteered to be our spokesperson on all curriculum matters relating to digital technologies. Wendy is an associate professor at Waikato university and is more than happy to help anyone contemplating or undertaking tertiary study (undergraduate, postgraduate, masters or doctoral). Professor John Williams is our sage in Australia.  He has been working internationally in technology education for decades and is a font of knowledge. He coordinates the TENZ research portfolio and is always ready to offer help in any aspect possible. John will be coordinating the reviewing of all the research papers at the TENZ Conference

We are also very lucky to have three co-opted members on the Council. These members are soon to take up active roles/portfolios.  We will be announcing and showcasing these new Council members and their portfolios in our next newsletter. Watch this space.

Although our TENZ Conference is this year we felt it was important to support the Primary Schools Teachers’ Conference. This conference is designed to be holistic with representatives and speakers from all learning areas. The Conference will be in Wellington on the 15th and 16th of April 2019. I am a member of the organising committee. I think this will be a great conference for those teaching in the primary sector.  If you attend – please take photos and write us a report, and/or post something on Facebook.

Best wishes/ Ngā mihi,

Kerry Lee (Chair of TENZ)

Mātanga Project Update

Both the Mātanga and teachers have shown considerable commitment to get underway with the project, during the busy start to the year. There are 76 participants in the Mātanga project (23 Mātanga and 53 teachers). These participants are distributed nationwide across ECE, Primary, Intermediate, and Secondary sectors.

During the initial stages of 2019, time has been spent becoming familiar with Zoho Connect and forming collaborative relationships in each group. Most participants have now completed Module 1 (the goal setting task) and are moving into Module 2, which focuses on curriculum meaning making. The most significant progress has been observed where Mātanga have spent time establishing these relationships, shown regular online presence, and fostered a safe environment for learning.

26 have also joined a Mātanga Masters group, consisting of those who are hoping to use the work that they do in the programme towards future study. There is also now a group for the represented Technology Centres, so these teachers can interact and connect online.

I am hopeful that participants in the Mātanga project will be keen to present at the TENZ Conference in October.

Website

Please check the TENZ website and remember to login to your TENZ account to check your membership details and complete your profile. Many changes have been made. Mike is putting in many hours on this and would love to hear your thoughts. If you have any queries or suggestions regarding the website, please contact Mike Forret at [email protected] .

Regional update

Kia ora tatou          (From Wendy Slatter)

There are a few things happening in our TENZ regions:

Best Practice Seminars

TENZ is partnering with NZQA to provide Best Practice Assessment Seminars around the country.  Planning for this is already underway and I am very grateful to the members I have approached to ask their schools to host these.

I am still seeking schools that can offer to host in:

• Auckland – The Shore, West, Central and East.
• The Central region – I hopefully have a school host in New Plymouth, but any colleagues in the Central region (basically across the centre of New Zealand from Gisborne-Napier-Central Plateau- Wanganui-Palmerston North.
• Wellington region.
• Upper South – Nelson
• Christchurch
• West Coast
• Southern –I hopefully have a school host in Dunedin, but Invercargill…anyone?

If you think you may be able to help, please email me and I can explain in more detail.

 Facebook  We are up to 360+ members on facebook and it is exciting to see the sharing of ideas within the wider technology education whanau. Found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/technoteach Just a note, when you ask to join (as it’s a closed group) please fill in the school, university or interest in technology education – I do check.  Please take a look at the mentorship and files section (down the top right of the main fb page) there are educators who have shared resources or want to make connections with others.

Members Only Section A couple of things are coming online within the members-only section of the TENZ site.

• Resource Catalogue

This is being populated at present. The more resource ideas I get, the quicker this will be live. Do you have a supplier/resource pack/community link that you would like to share – please email me.

• Members Information

We are now populating the members’ information section of the TENZ website. Please log in and complete your member information.

Help Requested: Is there anyone teaching these Level 3 standards:  91620  & 91643 .  If you are willing to share your expertise please contact me.

Help Received:  TENZ has been involved with supporting some schools where they have experienced some misfortune, be it teacher illness, bereavement or vandalism and fire. I have really appreciated the collegial approach and support members have provided when I have asked for help for these schools. Thank you.

 Working with a Food Company. It was heart-warming to receive over 20 offers to work with a food company from members. At present we are waiting for the company to finalise their product ideas and come back to us.  As a result of this response, I am working on some ideas to do with expanding teacher knowledge and skill base, and context-driven/student agency in senior food technology. If you would like to be ‘in’ on this project, please drop me a line.

Regional Meetings: Regional meetings have been held in the Waikato and Wellington regions. I am still short of some regional chairs (Central region and Wellington region). If you are interested in becoming involved please contact me. Auckland – I have had a few rearrangements with our speakers so we will probably have two next term. My apologies.Please keep an eye on the TENZ webpage as events are being listed here as well as being sent out via email.

Digital Technology TENZ in partnership with TRCC is running a Demystifying Digital Technologies course. If you have the responsibility for this new area this course may appeal: https://trcc.org.nz/catalogue/12-demystifying-digital-technologies/  If you want PD in the comfort of your own home, register with the Kia Takatu website. There is a lot of support material online through this page. https://kiatakatu.ac.nz

TENZ Conference 1-3 Oct, Albany Senior High School Being on the conference committee means I get to see what’s being planned. This is going to be good. There is a storyline of ‘teachers for teachers’ and we have been receiving some great proposals for the Exemplary practice workshops and Interactive Workshops.  But there’s always room for more!  I’m also looking for more poster displays. I’ve been seeing some great pictures online of technology rooms around the country, and student exemplary work in fb groups – please, if you don’t want to run a workshop -consider getting those pictures made up as an A1 poster! I’m looking forward to seeing you all there.

As always, feel free to drop me an email or call.     Kia tau te rangimarie.  Wendy .  [email protected] .   021 795 366

 

We regularly receive emails from members, requesting information or suggesting new directions. We want to build a strong, connected and collaborative technology education community and, to this end, we are keen to hear from you. Please feel free to contact us with any queries, new developments or suggestions you might have, either via our website https://tenz.org.nz/contact or by direct email or phone.

Best wishes

Louise Milne

(Secretary of TENZ)