Purpose:

To provide an opportunity for innovative teachers to form a network for support and mentoring as they continue to explore ways to enrich the lives and learning of the young people they work with, their whānau and the wider community.


The Manaiakalani Programme has gained national and international credibility as an innovative approach to ensuring the foundation requirements of schooling are being met whilst offering young people the opportunity to learn in an environment which recognises the special character of our children as digital citizens whose world is very different from their teachers at the same age.

Over the eight years of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher programme we have had teachers who have taken this opportunity to investigate ways to accelerate learning outcomes for our young people via the Manaiakalani pedagogy. The most successful projects have subsequently become the foundation of classroom implementation for their colleagues within Manaiakalani and around New Zealand. The Manaiakalani Education Trust is keen to support teachers who are challenging their own teaching practice through inquiring into innovative ways to meet our cluster goals and provide inspiration to their colleagues. This is a collaborative process using Design Thinking principles to guide us. To quote Michael Fullan 2/11/16, we are looking for "purposeful, focused and disciplined innovation".

2020 Cohort:

Manaiakalani Education Trust has offered 10 innovative teachers from the Manaiakalani cluster, including our Outreach clusters, the opportunity to

  • design an innovative tool tool to enhance their inquiry into one of the challenges facing Manaiakalani learners in 2020

  • design and implement this tool within their contexts (two days per term release)

  • receive ongoing mentoring

  • form a collegial network (one day per term release)

School leaders (APs, DPs, Principals, HoDs, Team Leaders) were invited to apply to join this group as they inquire into innovative ways of changing teacher practice as they implement the Manaiakalani pedagogy.

MIT20 teachers will

  • use the “Learn Create Share” model in their own journey of innovation

  • Network and collaborate with colleagues in the group online and face-to face at regular intervals

  • present to their Manaiakalani colleagues at the annual Wānanga 22 October 2020

  • present to colleagues in the Cook Islands during the School holidays, October 1-4, 2020

  • design a tool to use in their context and share with colleagues that supports the intervention agreed upon

  • use a public blog for ongoing sharing and reflection


Dates for 2020

Connect Hui Overnight: Hui Feb 27 - 29

Network Meeting Days: 23 March, 25 May , 31 August , 30 November (all Mondays)

Wānanga 22 October

Conference October Holidays, Cook Is Oct 1-4

Hangouts online: see calendar

Release days organise yourself


Is my MIT proposal something that could NOT have been done without digital technologies?

Have I looked closely at the previous years of Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers and checked that I am not repeating something from the past? We are not interested in funding a repeat of past inquiries.

NB: we welcome inquiries which build on previously successful inquiries and extend or enrich the innovation.

Have I conceptualised a tool that I will design to support my inquiry

Does my inquiry support the cluster kaupapa goals?

  • Ubiquitous

  • Visible

  • Connected

  • Empowered


Is this innovation designed to accelerate our priority learners' achievement outcomes?

  • Every priority learner will make 1.5 years progress every academic year from Yrs 1-10

or

  • Increase pass rates and endorsements in NCEA.

Current recommendations from the WFRC signal the affordances of Learn Create Share in a digital learning environment contribute to...

  • Engagement

  • Achievement

  • Cognitive Challenge

  • Scaffolding

  • Visibility

Conditions of Participation

  • Agree to model "Learn Create Share" both in work with learners and throughout the MIT19 year

  • Outcomes to be publicly available online

  • Reflections to be available to Manaiakalani Google+ community, PLD team, MET, Principals and research team

  • Targets to be set and met each term in negotiation with MIT20 leader

  • Availability to attend and share at agreed hui and conferences - these will include overnight, and one will require a current passport!

  • Release time each term to attend MIT20 network sessions 1 x day each term

  • Release from class to focus on project 2 x days each term

  • Regular Hangouts to network and support progress