Bream Bay College

Opening sequence (background music): title of the strategy, Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning, appears with graphical images of a puna (spring). Transition to moving icons of punas that represent the 6 areas of mahi in the strategy. 
Transition to footage of the story. Speaker presenting with imagery represented on screen.

[Tracey Scott, Head of Department Art, Bream Bay College] “I’ve been an art teacher for 20+ years in HOD art for the last fifteen at Bream Bay College. But over the course of 2022, we didn’t know when students were going to be away, how long they’d be away for and what if any art supplies, they had with them at home. The attendance rates this year has been better than expected at 60-70% but every day it is a different 60-70%.”
New slide appears with strategy and cycle of artwork graphics.

“My first strategy was to breakdown the cycle of learning. My inspiration for this was this beautiful Whakatauki, that got my brain in overdrive because of its clear connection to the process of creating artwork. For each step of the whakatauki, I made a link to specific learning tasks.”

New graphic slide appears illustrating Year 12 and 13 painting independent activities.

“Using that concept as a base, I created this living document so that students could continue learning and even if they weren’t creating art at home, there was still activities they could do that were part of the cycle of creating art.

These independent learning activities encompass the research or artist models using Pinterest links looking at what other students have done before. Sketching up rough thumbnails and seeking feedback about their work and annotating their work.”

New slide appears illustrating Year 10 art working from home learning activities.

“My approach for the Year 10’s was slightly different where I adapted a drawing and design unit that had a lot of activities that involved research around Karangi artist models and sketching with whatever materials they had at hand and presenting their work on a Google Classroom slideshow.

The first three learning activities involved using digital media, including Zoom and Google Classroom proactively and regularly. For this to work, I myself had to proactively open up classroom every single lesson, so that this routine became so common place that students would hopefully continue doing so at home.”

New slide appears illustrating the tracking form and how teacher Tracey Scott reached out to students with a message “How are you tracking? I have just updated our progress chart – well done to those students who are fully up to date!”

“Students were able to track their progress using a progress chart on their Google Classroom to ensure all aspects of the term long assignment were completed.”

New slide appears illustrating strategy 2: Utilising parents/caregivers as learning partners.

“Which brings me to my second strategy was to contact students’ caregivers to make them part of the online learning process. So that they understand the importance of how their child can continue learning even with prolonged absences.”

New slide appears illustrating strategy 3: Instructional videos for all practical activities.

“My third strategy for bringing hybrid learning into the art room was to make all practical activity instructions available to students through a series of videos uploaded to Google Classroom.

Students can work through at their own pace or reply if they encompass something particularly tricky. The technique videos were an absolute lifesaver.”

New slide appears illustrating strategy 4: Linking back to deep learning.

“The last part of my plan was to ensure that it ties into our school’s deep learning focus. Which ties to the four learning quadrants and the six competencies that drives all our teaching and learning at Bream Bay college.

My focus area didn’t really require any new technology or apps but more of a change of paleontological focus. The hard data shows that the Year 10 student performance has improved significantly since term one and two.

Out of all my strategies, I found that the ‘how to’ videos had the most buy in and is something I’d like to explore in the future to make them more accessible maybe via YouTube so other teachers can use them.

My biggest takeaway from the whole process is a really timely reminder just how important teaching 101s are. Building and maintaining connections with students and their parents, being open to finding new ways of doing things if your first 10, 50 or 100 ways didn’t work, teaching not just content but self-management skills, and even if a project isn’t a complete success, it’s also not a complete failure.”

Closing sequence (background music) with graphical image of the Puna.

Onscreen title appears: Connected Ako: living, learning, and working in the digital world.

Final screen shows logos of the education agencies. Top line showing agencies leading this work which will develop workplans based on the strategy: Ministry of Education (MoE), New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Bottom line showing the broader education agencies who have contributed to the strategy and will use it to inform and guide their own plans and decisions: Education New Zealand (ENZ), Education Payroll Limited, Education Review Office (ERO), Network for Learning (N4L), Teaching Council, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) and Research Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ).