Digital Technologies Curriculum

Victoria has worked with Waipawa School over the last 12 months in Digital Technologies PLD. She connected with staff and made an impact from day 1. Victoria sets high expectations and supports and guides teachers to reach these expectations. She is highly knowledgeable and collaborative in her practice.
Victoria personalises the learning for staff so they work at a pace that suits them and does this in a challenging but caring manner. She has pushed our thinking, modelled new learning and supported each teacher in their development. I believe Victoria has set our school up in a sustainable way that when her time finishes we will be able to push on and flourish. She is amazing! I can’t wait to have her back!

Shona is a vastly creative and experienced practitioner who has helped our staff navigate through the complexities of 21st-century learning concepts and the exponential increase in access to digital technologies. As a result, we are a school with a strong sense of direction and philosophy around our learning culture, especially in the digital facets of learning and the links with effective practice.

Kia ora, my name is Emma Ranui and I am Deputy Principal here at Pyes Pa School. We’ve been fortunate having Victoria Macann deliver a workstream of professional learning for all of our staff around digital technologies and in particular focusing in on computational thinking, we’ve enjoyed the ease of her facilitation. Victoria is an approachable facilitator, that has education experience in the classroom, which is invaluable, and can relate to our teachers.
Victoria has been able to create the contextual base that we can translate into the classroom. She has a hands-on approach, that is differentiated for our staff but also our students. This has been valuable. Victoria has also been able to provide in-class support, and because of her personality and approach, the staff have been very open to their professional learning. For us in terms of the computational thinking journey, Victoria has been able to unpack what’s been some very difficult language, so that it’s plain and unambiguous for us.
We were treated as learners and fully supported. Her notes are very thorough providing good reference notes for when we are stuck. Victoria also gave us time to generate resources that are relevant to our learners. We have been able to personalize these for our learners and our classrooms, which has been fantastic. I can’t thank her enough for the ongoing support that we’ve been able to access. Victoria understands what it’s like to be a teacher and she works the hours that teachers work and for us, that’s made a difference.
Kia ora kouto. Thank you for Victoria for the workstream you have provided at Pyes Pa School. Your content and pedagogy his meant that you have delivered an extremely valuable series of professional learning that has been well received by our staff. I thank you for delivering one of the best Professional Learning Series of my career.

Working with Shona has been brilliant. She has a strong grasp of the new Digital Technologies Curriculum and provides fantastic support. However, it is her ability to see the bigger picture within a schools infrastructure, ethos and vision to cater professional learning to our specific situation, with the foresight to see what we will need next in our learning journey.

Our college is integrating the DTHM curriculum across our junior Ignite Programme. We wanted a PLD partner with a broad knowledge of all curriculum areas and expertise in cross-curriculum project-based integration to support us with our implementation. Our team has come away from our first session with a clear understanding of the curriculum and ideas to get started. Shona’s ability to break everything down into small steps and explain things simply has meant our team is feeling really confident in where we are going.

I have to admit I was a bit sceptical at the beginning of how Computational Thinking would fit into our programme with the range of learners I have, however, I shouldn’t have been because it has been great.
Shona unpacked the Digital Technologies Curriculum with us and supported us to incorporate it in our Maths – my students were highly engaged. I found that it made some difficult concepts easier to teach! We stream Maths and trialled three different level maths classes. Across all classes there was high engagement and a whole lot of fun!
Having Shona guide us through the curriculum and come in, to model how lessons can be run was a huge advantage. She had incredibly creative ideas to help implement the DTC, and as the one who was sceptical at the beginning, I can now happily say I’m hooked. Year 8 Level Leader.

It has been inspiring working alongside Shona as we develop the DT Curriculum for the Junior School – Years 0-2. She has excellent curriculum knowledge and she has a passion to see DT integrated into all areas of the curriculum. Shona is able to work effectively 1:1 with staff, work with small groups of children, and work with the whole class and/or staff. This approach has inspired our team as a whole. A particular area of strength is her ability to differentiate learning opportunities across the different age groups, ensuring the best possible outcomes for the students. It has been a fantastic learning journey with Shona.”

The staff of our school have certainly appreciated and benefited from the professional development around the Digital Technology Curriculum provided by Victoria this year.
Victoria brings everything from a teaching perspective and each session has included direct tangibles for teachers to be able to use the next day in their classrooms.
Her ability to empathise with teachers and the multiple needs they are meeting has meant she has been extremely successful in gaining buy-in from our teachers.
Our school is far better off for having an association with Victoria and Learning Architects. We are exploring ways in which we can continue to utilise her and benefit from her expertise.
I would unreservedly recommend Victoria to any school looking for an external PLD facilitator to provide assistance in the roll-out of the ‘DTC’ in their schools.

We worked with Victoria at the Makerspace classroom and again with the introduction of the new Digital Technology Curriculum.
Victoria has worked closely with teaching staff on progress outcomes, and how to include these into their classroom practice.
I can’t speak highly enough of how Victoria has developed sound professional relationships with the staff and taken us through the document.
We have all appreciated the pacing of the work Victoria has done with us and how she has supported our learning this year.

Victoria is an enthusiastic, passionate and encouraging facilitator of the Digital Technology Curriculum. As one of the lead teachers of the Digital Technology Curriculum at Tauranga Intermediate School, I’ve had a lot to do with Victoria. She is extremely supportive towards not only myself but members of my team who are less comfortable/familiar with the Progress Outcomes and activities. The time, effort and thought Victoria puts into not only the activities we do but the professional learning sessions we are a part of is not only admired but really appreciated! Victoria is very approachable and really easy to communicate with outside of school hours.
The amount of resources Victoria shares with us is incredible! She is always thinking of ways to further support us as teachers in our classrooms so we can gain further confidence and experience success with our students. I am constantly blown away by the thought Victoria puts into resources which are specific to my level of teaching the Digital Technology Curriculum, but also the varying levels of students in my class. I have some boys who love to be challenged, so Victoria created some fantastic activities for them to complete which they thoroughly enjoyed.
Teachers and schools who haven’t yet had the good fortune of working alongside Victoria are really missing out. She is an absolute asset and I’m really grateful I get to learn from her as it’s making me a better teacher. I can’t speak highly enough of Victoria and all she is doing for the teachers and students at Tauranga Intermediate School. She is the reason the Digital Technology Curriculum is being integrated into our teaching with such enthusiasm.

I had a great day with Victoria today. I was feeling a little apprehensive about how this would work for my class (NE in a play based setting) but I am walking out feeling inspired and keen to try out the great ideas we have been given.
Victoria has a lovely warm personality and listening to her advice and explanations of things was a breeze. She understands the demands of being a teacher, and therefore her suggestions were completely achievable.
Thank you for unpacking a very wordy document in a user-friendly way Victoria!!

I came to this PLD today very unsure of what was expected of me. I have been so surprised at the ease of learning and the knowledge I feel I have now after this professional learning with Victoria. It has really made me keen to have a go in my classroom with my learners.
Prior to today’s session, I would not have considered doing digital technology with my learners. Victoria made learning very easy and fun. Her positive and supportive approach made it a very worthwhile PD session. Thank you so much.