Kia ora koutou. It's hard to believe we are halfway through the term.

Our inquiries for the term focus on science and technology. You will see a couple of articles that show some of the wonderful hands-on learning that is happening in our classrooms and fabulous Education Outside the Classroom experiences.

I am old enough to remember a time when virtually no learning happened on digital devices. My first ever experience of surfing the internet was in 1995 when I worked at the University of Waikato. The university was the internet gateway for NZ so I had the opportunity to play with technology that even my husband as an IT professional had never experienced. And I was instantly hooked, lured by the massive potential that it provided, where we could suddenly link to people and learning from right across the world. 

However, in spite of the amazing digital technologies that are now commonplace in our classrooms, we as teachers still want to support and encourage students to learn through their own firsthand experiences. These authentic opportunities create very powerful and often deep learning. And our children love them, being highly engaged and motivated to learn. Because they are heavy on physical resources, and need greater organisation, these activities generally take a lot more teacher time to plan. But our teachers believe it is worth that extra effort to see the shining eyes and smiling faces as children discover for themselves.

Nga mihi nui

Carolyn Crow