Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.
Our second week of online learning began with the much anticipated Government announcement – and with it brought more change to our learning environment.
The move to Alert Level 3 next week means that we are now providing onsite supervision to Year 7-10 students who need to come to school. Thank you to all the Year 7-10 parents who responded so promptly to our survey to ascertain student numbers for next week. It means we are able to plan with more certainty.
All our students, either onsite or off, continue with our current online timetable.
In my online interactions with staff and students, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. This has been a huge learning curve for both staff and students – and their whānau. It has been truly humbling to see everyone face this time of great uncertainty, do whatever has needed to be done to make things work and exceed expectations. What is even more inspiring is that it is like re-building the aircraft while it’s still flying. Learning now involves Zoom, Google Meets, virtual whiteboards, lots of video challenges, checking your ambient lighting for online conferencing, split screens, adding Chrome extensions to upgrade online learning experiences and having to keep telling online conference participants to unmute themselves before they start talking!! And then all the inevitable tech issues like internet crashes and video buffering!!
So, as we move through the Alert Levels, we will continue to adapt to these changes and pray for a return to normalcy in the very near future.
Take care and keep safe.
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” ― C. JoyBell C.
