I was looking forward to our first eFellows 2014 Master Class in Auckland with great excitement. This by the way, did not disappoint! Our programme was stunning, well planned and well organised by John and Louise from CORE.
Meeting the other #eFellow14 (Anne-Louise @robeanne; Tim @TimGanderNZ; Vicki @hagrnz; Bec @Bec_Power; Rowan @RowanTaigel and Ben @mrbenbritton) at the CORE office was fantastic. Some of us were already interacting on Twitter and I relished the opportunity to meeting them f2f ! We chatted through our first morning, sharing our Mihimihi and learnt what the eFellows is about. At the end of this session, we were given three questions to ponder for the next day.
Then we had our first lunch together, with the complements of CORE Education.
We were fortunate to visit Stonefields School and listened to Sarah Martin, sharing the schools educative purpose and explaining the learning philosophy which rest on their Four Vision Principles - Building learning Capacity, Collaborating, Making Meaning and Break Through, by using a very informative presentation. A highlight for me was seeing junior students in action in their Learning Hub.
Back at our accommodation the seven of us talked, shared and chatted until late at night around our camp fire.
On day two we had inspirational conversations about bringing a transformative lens to inquiry, led by Louise Taylor. We discussed key points for our project, critical pedagogical theory, things we notice, how we make sense of the world and positive transformation.
Lunch at Catalina Cafe
After lunch, we toured the new Hobsonville Point Secondary School with Claire Amos, who enlightened us with her presentation about what excellence look like at HPSS. We learnt about their Vision and Shared Values and the Hobsonville Habits which covered their four areas of personal development required for optimum success - strategic, cognitive, innovative and relational.
Back at the CORE office, Mark Osborne's passion for Modern Learning Environments was evidence during his session in which he further discussed ways to "Innovate, Engage and Inspire."
John Fenaughty organised a yum potluck to enable us to meet some CORE whanau and where we could connect with past eFellows. I had the privilege of meeting my mentor, Sonya van Schaijik for the first time f2f!
On our last day, we had another great session with Louise and we were reminded to "seeing the possibilities within the impossibilities". We talked about some key points to 'throw together' and continued our discussion on how to bring a trans-formative lens to our inquiries. We started on our projects with reflective tasks and left with a clear sense of where we want to go and what to look at.
What an amazing three days (with an awesome and enthusiastic group of people), filled with laughs and inspiration!
Slide created by Louise Taylor
Great reflection Marnel, and it was a pleasure to meet you too. I will follow your efellow journey with interest.
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