Tag Archives: coaching

Manaiakalani Secondary Teacher’s Summit

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One of the key benefits of being present at the Manaiakalani Wānanga held in Auckland each year, is the opportunity to network and collaborate kanohi ki te kanohi or face to face.   With over 100 participants in attendance, it’s the ideal place to share practice, brainstorm ideas and discover what’s on top for our teachers.   Inspired by the presentations and conversations with like-minded colleagues, it’s the perfect environment for hatching a plan, so over a few canapes and refreshments it became a recurring theme that there was strong interest for a professional development event specifically geared towards our secondary school teachers.

Our secondary colleagues were keen to spend some time together over a day to discuss issues that spoke directly to NCEA, how to enhance teacher practice, and the unique challenges of the high school classroom.   There was a surge of interest in learning more about  AI tools like Gemini, Canvas and NotebookLM.

Google HQ hosted us and it was a fabulous day.  Special thanks to Steve Smith, the NZ Education Manager and our Manaiakalani Facilitation team, who supported our teachers to move beyond theory and into the practical world of AI. Together, we built curated agents grounded in our Learn, Create, Share pedagogy, specifically aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum and NCEA standards.

As I looked around the room at Google HQ, I didn’t just see teachers learning about ‘tools’—I saw them reclaiming time, collaborating with peers, and rediscovering creative ways to support their students. For an inaugural summit, the energy was exactly what we’d hoped for: a collective of educators inspired by new possibilities for teaching and learning. We set out to create a space for secondary teachers to connect, and this was the perfect start to this journey

Check out our photos and feedback from the day on our Secondary Support site. 

Learning by Design: Intentional Practice in Secondary Classrooms

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Designing learning in a digital space isn’t about using technology for its own sake. It’s about being intentional with our choices—using digital tools to deepen engagement, amplify student voice, and connect learning to the world beyond the classroom.

This year, I’ve been fortunate to work with teachers from across the curriculum. One of the defining strengths of secondary teaching is the depth of subject expertise each teacher brings. Many have worked in industry or the commercial sector before entering education, and they carry that real-world experience directly into their classroom practice.

Take Abby, for example. A Social Sciences and History teacher, she brings both subject expertise and professional experience into her teaching. Having worked for several years with the Department of Conservation and in the environment and tourism sector, Abby is intentional about designing learning that helps students grapple with real-world issues — including how power operates, how decisions are made, and how systems shape people’s lives.

A Learn, Create, Share moment

Yr 10 Government systems

Learn
In Social Sciences, Abby’s students were exploring different systems of government. They built a shared understanding of how power operates by examining systems such as democracy, dictatorship, and authoritarianism. Students investigated how leaders come to power, how authority is exercised, and the role citizens play within each system, using contemporary and historical examples to ground their thinking.

Create
Students then chose a country — or designed one of their own — and applied their learning by developing a set of rules based on a chosen government system. Their task required them to clearly define the system, explain how power is acquired and exercised, outline decision-making processes, and identify key characteristics such as citizen rights and the rule of law. Some students used digital tools to visualise their ideas, others to structure explanations or present comparisons. The focus remained on clarity of thinking and depth of understanding, with technology supporting how ideas were organised and communicated.

Share
Students shared their work with their peers, explaining the logic behind their systems and responding to questions and challenges. Abby also embedded a voting form into the class site, allowing student choices to be captured and displayed in real time. Seeing the results update as votes were cast added an element of fun while deepening engagement with ideas about participation and decision-making.

Moments like this are a reminder that effective digital design is less about the tools we use and more about the intentional choices we make — choices that deepen engagement, amplify student voice, and connect learning to the world beyond the classroom.

 

Effective coaching

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During the July school holidays, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on a whole lot of admin for the coming term.  I’ve also given myself time to reflect on my own professional practice.  With that in mind, I’ve reviewed tracking docs that I have with those teachers that I’m working with and added a few prompts for them to consider in terms of their goals, what’s worked and what hasn’t gone so well.

I’m also applying for Google Trainer Certification and in the process, came across this article by Grant Wiggins, Seven Keys to Effective Feedback  (2012).  Wiggins, highlights one of the key elements to good feedback is to leverage off a defined goal.  It’s a dominate theme I like to apply in my coaching practice.  The ubiquitous nature of online learning and the plethora of approaches available to teachers invites us, tempts us even to want to try them all.  Personally, I can easily get drawn into a rabbit hole of ideas and options, but keeping my eye on the goal helps me and the teachers I’m working with stay focused to achieve our objectives.

Wiggins, also advocated for feedback to be given in a timely manner.  I’d do this each time I meet with a teacher, a quick debrief at the end of a lesson, followed by an email before the next session.  When time allows, meeting during a non-contact period allows us to have a conversation in detail about what’s worked well and next steps.  This ongoing and consistent manner, reflecting on identified goals should lead to a satisfying outcome for all involved.  A win, win situation.