Contribution to Corporate Life of the School
Prior to my appointment as Principal of Rere
Planning,
Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting
My sound
knowledge of the Curriculum, experience as a Work Study Engineer
and ability with computer systems, have helped me to develop
effective Planning, Evaluation and Reporting templates and systems.
Throughout my teaching career my abilities within these areas have
always been in demand on a school wide level. I have on many occasions
worked with teams of teachers coordinating a new reporting format,
planning templates or programme.
Implementation of New Technology Initiatives
In 1995 I set up a computer lab consisting of :
- 13 PC Windows based computers
- 3 multimedia CD ROM machines,
- two laser printers,
- and appropriate software.
A simple task except for the fact that I only had a budget of $10,000. This meant I had to build many of the machines up out of second hand or donated parts. The project also required writing a programme proposal, planning and teaching a course that integrated up to date computer technology to an outside School half a day per week.
I spent hundreds of hours after school and one Christmas holiday setting up this computer lab. The school required the lab to retain a large Tech Art contract with an outside school and thus retain staff. For me personally I saw the computer lab as an opportunity to give our own Glen Innes (low socio-economic) students:
- Access to new areas of information technology.
- And computer skills that are essential for widening employment opportunities.
I saw this opportunity as significant for our students as I knew not a single student had access to a computer at home.
In the following year I added to this lab full Internet, colour scanning and colour printing facilities and increased the number of work stations to 22.
News of my abilities travelled quickly and I soon found myself voluntarily helping a neighbouring school set up 6 donated second hand machines. I repaired these machines and set them up for educational use. This work was followed up by staff training.
At Glen Innes I was also called upon to provide computer training and instruction for the whole staff. The Group training sessions were followed up with one to one tutorials in an effort to equip staff with the skills required to make use of our computer lab resources.
Over the a 3 year period while working in Glen Innes I led a total of 15 educational trips outside of school time. On these trips groups of up to 12 underprivileged students:
- hand fed snapper while snorkeling at the Goats Island Marine Reserve,
- rode horses through the country (in fact for some of the 12 year old students it was the first time they had seen a horse in real life),
- canoed around lakes,
- caught fish for our class tank,
- enjoyed Maori performances,
- participated in tree planting conservation work on Motutapu Island,
I also organised and ran :
- a free Badminton club on Wednesday nights,
- a small swimming squad that trained early in the mornings,
- a weekly after school guitar group that performed for the school.
During the May holidays I ran daily training for the Cross Country Team and in November after school and lunch times training for Athletics. A few of the students I trained did really well, one beat the South Auckland High Jump record and another went onto beat the National Girls (14 year) Discus record.
In 1995 I played a very active role in a school musical production in which 50 Form Two students toured around the North Island and performed Phantom of the Opera. Three of my responsibilities were the Backdrop, Lighting and Sound system utilising four radio microphones.
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