Kia ora Kootuitui ki Papakura

I am so delighted to be appointed to the new role of Education Programme Leader for the Kootuitui ki Papakura schools' cluster. In my first two weeks I have visited five of the six schools and met the principals, attended three Manaiakalani and one Kootuitui professional development days, started working with Dave Winter, the Manaiakalani Outreach Delivery Manager and Maria Krausse, the cluster's Outreach Facilitator and spent time at my base school, Edmund Hillary School, with the Principal Convenor, Kataraina Nock, and her staff. What a dedicated group of professionals there are in this cluster and working with this cluster, all with their focus firmly on the children and their learning.

"He waka eke noa"

We are all in this canoe together and I am privileged to have been given a seat in this waka.

My blog is going to chronicle our journey. I will write about our plans, activities, successes, failures, and things we learn along the way, and discuss how these shape our direction. Along with the narrative, I will add my reflections and ideas, especially in relation to the quality of my paddling in the waka. 

Well hello Google! Since 2011, I have had just a few forays into the world of Google, sharing documents in Drive and forming circles in Google +. As Kootuitui ki Papakura operates in a Google world, I am busy getting to grips with this world so that I am conversant within it. I now have three 'user' profiles in Google so that I can separate Kootuitui from home and from my base school through which I blog. I have joined a number of communities in Google+ and shared into the Kootuitui site from other sites. I have started using Google calendar, had my first Hangout and have started learning the basics of a Google Site. Finally, Blogger is my first serious attempt at blogging.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.