My Space and My Place

The following is a breakdown of the Level 2 students undertaking Digital Technologies in 2020, who were identified as Priority Learners in 2019 as Year 11 Students.


The table above shows that 7 out of 9 students gained less than 80 Level 1 credits in 2019 across all of their subjects.

The primary intervention that I have put in place to support these learners is by enrolling the students into the Techtorium ICT Program for 2020 under the Trades Academy. The ICT Program means that the students attend Techtorium one day per week over the course of the year, with the potential of gaining 30 Level 2 unit standards that contribute towards their NCEA Level 2 and Level 1 qualifications.



Attending Techtorium gives the students the opportunity to experience a tertiary learning environment outside of their regular learning programs, which is often an awesome way of engaging learners who may (for any number of reasons), not be achieving within the normal onsite programs.

This week is the first week that the Level 2 students attended the Techtorium course, and the feedback from students was that the course was fantastic and they can’t wait until next week!  Long may this level of enthusiasm and engagement last.

Career Pathways 

I intend using the LearnCoach online programs to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.

During JumpStart 2019, I managed to trial some of the online LearnCoach tutorials with my NCEA Level 1 class. I developed a Workspace so that the students could capture the work that they had been completing on the LearnCoach site. The purpose of the Workspace was so that students could submit individual tasks relating to various sections of the module, and I could provide the students with formative feedback as well as track student progress. The Workspace was also designed to give the students who essentially were transitioning out of Year 10 and into the senior school, insight into the evidence that they have to provide, to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding when undertaking NCEA standards.

The students found the work to be extremely engaging. The students were already familiar with using Workspaces in my class for completing and submitting work, as well as tracking their achievement. Accessing learning activities through the LearnCoach site, was a new experience for the learners. They enjoyed being able to undertake learning activities that involved a mix of audio/visual video modules, developing codes to perform tasks, and testing their codes which they recorded using PhotoBooth on the Mac machines.

Here is an example of a slide deck that one of the students submitted into the Workspace:



Based on the impact of trialing the LearnCoach resources during the JumpStart 2019 program with my NCEA Level 1 class, I am keen to utilise the LearnCoach modules for all of my NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 students in 2020.

I would like to integrate my knowledge of the Digital Technologies curriculum to support schools to deliver programs in alignment with the new digital technologies progress outcomes.

I would like to use the content knowledge and understanding that I have from my involvement on the LearnCoach Panel, and from delivering the Digital Technologies programs to Tamaki College students, to support planning that enables learners in Year 7-10 to develop their understanding of digital technologies terminology and content knowledge in preparation for NCEA.

I believe this can be achieved by refining courses and programs in readiness for the new Digital Technologies curriculum, that are easily accessible to learners, and that supports accelerated achievement for learners within the Manaiakalani Cluster and Outreach schools. This includes teaching and learning programs that enable:

• Access to all learning resources 
• Access to regular formative feedback 
• Access to representations of student work that creatively demonstrates understanding of learning 

The following is the mBoT and Robotics Unit Plan that Russel asked me to put together for when Bucklands Beach Intermediate visited Tamaki College last year to observe how the Digital Technologies was being implemented within the Year 7 and 8 program. It's based off the learning activities that Russel had planned for Year 7 and 8 last year.  The Unit Plan includes links to the Digital Technologies Curriculum, links to Assessment and Reporting, as well as information relating to Teaching and Learning.  The Unit Plan is a starting point for planning, as well as reviewing the teaching and learning.



Nilesh Krishna is one of our Maths teachers, who also teaches Robotics to Year 7 and 8, and is teaching some of the students from Panmure Bridge while Bucklands Beach was visiting.