Cluster Connect

Our Online Cluster of schools is trying a new way to connect.

Each term we have a staff meeting for an hour based on one of the Manaiakalani kaupapa words. This term is Create. In the past, we have led a staff meeting in each school face to face. This was our first cluster-wide staff hui.

We decided we wanted to use the Staff Meeting as an opportunity to connect as well as create.

Five schools joined together via Google Meet. This included schools from South Auckland and Hamilton. Each person joined individually. We had a time of introductions and connecting and then we shifted into three self-selected groups: beginner, intermediate, and extended. Breakout rooms as well as links to other Meets were used.

We had 90 teachers and leaders on the Meet with six facilitators, each taking a breakout group.

Connecting

Here is an example from our Jamboard, where people introduced themselves. The aim was that this was a starting point for connecting.

Creating

In our breakout groups we focussed on creating a digital learning object with the theme of 'This is my Story | Ko au tēnei'.

We used a padlet to share what we created.

We encouraged adding a comment to what people posted on the padlet.

 We hope that the teachers will see reasons to continue to connect and that they will share what they do with one another. Class Sites are a great place to start to find similarities and ways to connect.

  

Feedback 

People seemed really positive about the staff meeting. They were talking about it in the Digital Fluency Intensive the next day and verbal feedback was that the hui was worthwhile. Many teachers thought it was relevant to their teaching. People like the choices. They enjoyed seeing one another from other schools.

Reflections

This hui was a great start for connecting across our schools. 

We had some technical aspects we could have done better. More clarity was needed on the purpose of the  Jamboard and perhaps having this available at the start of the Meet rather than later. We also need to consider how to better include a digital learning object for junior teachers with ipads.

It was great to see the connections that were already there as some teachers knew each other. Teachers were confident in small groups to unmute and ask questions. 

We will need to consider what other opportunities we can use to purposefully connect.