Google Energiser

On the Tuesday of the first week of the holidays Zana and I got to attend the Google Energiser event at Google headquaters in Auckland. This year to encourage more to get certified they could bring a friend so we could attend. So Zana and I walked down from the Horizon we had breakfast at the Pantry in the wynyard quarter and had a nice treat some of the All blacks where also having breakfast there, so we played spot the AB. We headed to the Google Headquarters for a 9am start. Most of the Manaiakalani was there again. We got to hear about all the new things coming out from google but I cant so what as we signed a NDA. Very secret and exciting. We got to hear from some of the experts and also .There where break out sessions to choose from I went to Justine Scott leveraging interactive video for formative assesment and Kerrin Corcoran on Geo tools in the classroom. We also broke out to groups to disscuss how we could support the new curriculum of course I went to Maths which just ended up being a moaning session about the supplementry books(text books) not alot of good things where said. The only positive person was Donna Golightly who works for a private school and does not have the supplementry text books. They had aligned their maths program to the new curriculum. So we did not achieve a lot in our group. I did get to have a look at the latest RFP from the governement about new supplementry resources that better align with the new currciulum and the cost of these are scary. We had a beautiful lunch in the chilly bin cafe at google and a tour around the offices and explanantions behind the designs. We got a lovely swag and I got a drink bottle for entering the google vids compitition. We had the youtuber Subash Chander K present and tell us about his journey which was interesting. We had another amazing day and stayed for nibbles and a drink then headed back to the hotel in the rain. Another day of new learning, building relationships and getting inspired. It was worthwhile spending the money to travel and stay in Auckland to upskill my knowledge kete. But the most special of all was getting to share this with my daughter Zana.

Google Summit

I was lucky enough to attend the google Summit in Auckland on the first day of our holidays(non contact time for me). Even more lucky I got to have my daughter Zana with me. We drove down to Auckland on the Sunday as it is a 5 hour drive. We did mangage to get in a few hours of shopping on the way down. I booked us into the Horizon hotel in the city which was a nice treat. We headed over to Albany high on the North Shore for the Google Summit on the Monday morning. That school was very flash. It was such a nice time to catch up with lots of Manaiaklani facilitators and teachers. The key note speaker was Eric Curts from USA who I follow and use alot of his work. I also was lucky enough in 2024 at ISTE in Denvor to meet him and attend some of his work shops. He is a great speaker and is great to hear about AI and how students and teachers are using it. I also went to one of his break out session on chromebook tips and tricks. Then we atteded Steve from google NZ to see and hear all about the latest up dates on Gemini and note book LM. It was great to have a play and explore the amazing AI tools from Google. I also attended the very funny Jim Sills session on movie making with google vids. Luke Starczak on unlocking the power note book LM. The google slam at the end was very good and some very creative. We didn't win any goodies but went away with lots of new learning and ideas. Meet lots of amazing people and had a great day.

Term 3 toolkit

Another very popular subject with the new curriculum rolling out. So I adapted one of my old workshops and conected it to the new mathematics and statistics curriculum. Making sure there where lots of resources and activities that teachers could take straight back to the classroom and introduce. Also links to great apps and webb pages that can support the classroom teaching and students learning. I feel this is a vital part for teaching mathematics. When students understand place value they will do well in maths.