Our+Teacher



Kia ora Koutou.

I do hope you are enjoying our wiki as much as we enjoy presenting it to you. It IS a work in progress and as we learn more about Web 2 Tools, we will incorporate some of our new skills onto our site. I'm new to our school having started here in February 2010. Teaching via ICT is a great experience and huge learning curve for me. It's not just about having our students word-process instead of writing. It's about exploring the possibilities, imagining outcomes and extending our learning. We use ICT to practise, to investigate, to communicate and to grow as learners. We challenge other children from round the world in sites like Mathletics and [|Jetski Maths]. We email and 'gchat' to find out information, and are learning to be discerning about what we read on the internet. I have never worked in a class where students are so enthusiastic about beginning and finishing activities, about presenting their new knowledge to the class and to their whanau (family).

Recently we have explored [|Prezi.com], [|Voice Thread] and [|Photopeach] We've found these sites to be new and exciting and so easy to use. We love to investigate, find out things about the sites and share our ideas with each other....

As for me, I'm 48 years old and have 4 adult children. I've been a teacher since 2003, my first teaching position was at Postgate School in Whitby, Porirua, as a Y2/3 teacher. Eighteen months in Y7/8 followed and I realised that our older students were really my forte. I love to teach them drama and how they can use this in their lives. I am passionate about literacy and am learning to be an effective maths teacher. While at Postgate I was given a once in a life time opportunity to work for the [|Life Education Trust New Zealand], teaching in a 'mobile classroom' with my 'colleague' Harold the Giraffe'. I loved my 2 years teaching about food and nutrition, self esteem, social relationships, body systems and drug and alcohol education.

I followed this with a year teaching in England at the wonderful Dogsthorpe Junior School.

All good things come to an end, and I returned to NZ to teach at [|Brandon Intermediate School]  in Cannon's Creek, Porirua. A few months later, I moved to Corinna School just a bit further up Warspite Avenue, and I really enjoyed my Y6/7/8 class in 2009.

Now I find myself in small town New Zealand [|My Town]. I love every minute of it. Our town has about 2,000 people, and includes lots of rural folk. Every weekend, we are 'invaded' by the hoards from Wellington who come to visit for our cafes, weather and boutique shopping. We're right in the middle of one of the prominent grape growing areas on NZ...and of course the vineyards that turn the grapes into wine....heaven. Main Street Summer/Autumn

Please come and visit our wiki again and leave us a positive comment - we would love to hear from you.

Suzanne