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Kōtui Ako | Virtual Learning Network Aotearoa

October update 2017

Kia ora koutou katoa

Naumai, haere mai ki te Kura Tuatahi - Akonga Aka Mariko. Welcome to the VLN Primary School

Our goal is to:

Create Connected, Passionate, Purposeful Learners

Welcome back to Term four.  A busy time for our rural schools with Calf & Lamb Day season in full swing. I am enjoying all the pictures from these days coming up in my Facebook feed.

 I have now officially returned from sabbatical, although I still have to complete writing up my research and look forward to sharing this before the end of the year. 

Our focus this term is on preparing for 2018, so keep a look out for our 2018 programmes prospectus and enrolment call coming out soon & get your interest in early. 

I will be advocating with the new Minister of Education for increased support for the VLN Primary for 2018. This year our number of student enrolments was 870! Yet our operational funding (now our ALLiS contract is nearly over) is the same as when we had a roll of 200. Any advocacy support you can provide on our behalf would be really helpful. We are still a long way from any CoOLs resourcing, and if that even eventuates or not will be uncertain.

In this newsletter we invite schools to participate in Waitangi Treaty Grounds new virtual field trips. The VLN Primary is supporting Waitangi teachers in getting this off the ground so would love our schools to be the first to come onboard and help them shape their new virtual programme. 

We share some interesting findings from research about the VLN Primary presented at ULearn by teachers from Wairakei Taupo. This is important for schools considering learning online and our currently participating schools to look at their own practice.

We have a couple of webinars coming up in November. We are teaming up with our partners Hail to run a webinar on their super cool tool. Come and have a look at how we produce our newsletters and maintain our social media through Hail. We have also been invited by the Enabling Elearning team to present (along with NetNZ) on the benefits of online learning. This is on 1st November - details and registration here

Last week was Chinese language week, see how we celebrated this on the VLN Primary and access contacts and ideas for bringing cultural activities to your school.

Finally we are still on the lookout for our second te reo Māori teacher. We will advertise in the gazette but in the meantime please share this with your networks.

Ngā mihi nui

Rachel

Contents

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

Visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds Virtually

by Rachel Whalley

Te Tiriti (The Treaty of Waitangi) was taken around Aotearoa back in 1840. Let us take you back to where it all began through a personalised virtual visit with our Education Team at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

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Olivia Graham & Melanie Matthews present at ULearn17

Connecting to expert teachers virtually

by Rachel Whalley

Kudos to Melanie & Olivia who presented at ULearn this year. They shared findings from their study of how the VLN Primary is working in their school.

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Hail - Create Once - Publish Everywhere!

Hail - Create. Curate. Communicate Webinar 

by Rachel Whalley

Having a strong online presence and coherent communication channels is really important for the VLN Primary School, that's why we partner with Hail. Join our webinar to see how Hail is being used effectively in schools and how you can use it collaboratively in your own school setting.

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Auckland children martial arts performance at Confucius Institute 10th Birthday dinner

Celebrating Chinese Language Week

by Rachel Whalley

Chinese Language Week was celebrated in the VLN Primary with schools celebrations and attendance at Confucius Institute Auckland's 10 th birthday celebrations.

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