The past few weeks have seen our Unitec staff and students make the transition to working and studying at home. Our teachers, supported by Te Puna Ako (TPA) and Te Korowai Kahurangi (TKK), have put in a huge amount of mahi to adapt to remote teaching delivery, and our support teams have adjusted to working in their bubbles, away from their usual team environment.
Many of us are continuing with our usual mahi – albeit in different ways – from within our bubbles. For those of you who have the capacity and are looking for ways to keep up-skilling while at home, the Learning and Development team has put together a range of professional development (PD) options to explore.
Recognising what we’ve already achieved
Firstly, we should recognise that for all of us the last few weeks has involved a significant amount of on-the-job (which should make up 70% of your PD) learning – adapting to the “new normal”, including new technologies for teaching and for communicating with our learners and our colleagues, and finding new ways of doing things. All of this will continue through Alert Level 3 for most of us.
There are also a number of great online PD options available for all of our staff over the next few weeks. Please check in with your manager on the PD you are planning to do to ensure workload management and ongoing alignment with your ADEP Plan, and make sure you capture and log your time as PD leave.
Badges and International Code of Practice – contributions to your ADEP
You can still complete your professional development requirements in your ADEP Plan during lockdown, if you have the time:
Living Te Noho Kotahitanga badge
- If you’ve already done the ‘Living Te Noho Kotahitanga’ workshop, now is a great time to complete the badge requirements and get your submission in
- If you haven’t signed up for a workshop yet, there are still spaces available for the next workshops on 6, 7 and 12 May which will be delivered online – register now!
Tracy Chapman, Director – International Success
For teaching staff: all badges for our teaching staff are accessible through Moodle – try to capture some of the on-the-job (70%) learning you’ve been doing, so that you can use this as evidence towards your badges at a later point.
Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice requirements
If you haven’t already, you can complete your requirements for the International Code of Practice online
Tracy Chapman, Director – International Success, is also offering online workshops on request for teams who want to complete their requirements. Managers can email learnanddevelop@unitec.ac.nz to request a Zoom session for their team.
Chance Taylor facilitates Kura Reo classes
Te Reo PD Online
There are lots of opportunities for you to get online and strengthen your Te Reo while working at home. Check out these links:
- Toro Mai – an online course for Te Reo and Tikanga. Work through at your own pace.
- Ōpaki – a great way to learn with your family, watch, learn and practice.
- Ako – for those who are already engaged in Te Reo and looking for a challenge.
- Te Reo for staff classes continue on ‘Zui’ (Zoom Hui) with Chance Taylor – email Chance if you’re keen to jump in.
- Waiata sessions with Kimoro are now on Zoom – Thursdays from 9.00am – 9.30am. Bring your whānau along. Email Toni Rewiri if you would like to join in.
Get up to speed with ‘I See Me’ Initiatives
Many of you – especially our teaching staff – will have been involved in I See Me initiatives over the last few months, but some may not have had the opportunity to get involved yet. With I See Me initiatives, we aim to make all our learners feel welcome, supported and part of our whānau. There are a number of initiatives underway and some fantastic things happening in the organisation that people are sharing on the I See Me Moodle site. This is a great time to review what’s there and make sure you’re up to speed with it. Note: You will need access to Moodle. If you haven’t used Moodle before, check out this Quick Start Guide.
- Check out the I See Me Moodle course – this course will soon be extended to include guidance for Support Teams
- Watch 10 Ways to Teach Me where Māori student Brigham Riwai-Couch describes those things that make a difference to him and his educational success as Māori
- Watch Land of the Long White Cloud – a powerful kōrero from Alex Hotere-Barnes that reinforces the step-change we are seeking with I See Me
- Read this report on Tukua ki ta Ao – Seven Steps to Te Reo Success, authored by our own Jenny Lee-Morgan and colleagues.
Take advantage of the comprehensive range of courses on LinkedIn Learning
All Unitec staff have full access to the LinkedIn Learning online learning centre, which includes over 10,000 online courses and there is something for everyone in there – from technical training, to teaching or eLearning techniques, to project management, through to mindfulness.
- If you haven’t used LinkedIn Learning before, here is an overview of what’s on offer including some curated “playlists” built around our leadership competencies
- Or you can sign in, have a browse, sort based on your interests and create your own playlist
- If you have an interest in a specific area or come across a topic that really appeals to you, and you think others might share your interest, we could set up an online learning group to work through the course together – just email us on learnanddevelop@unitec.ac.nz and we can help to facilitate this.
Happy learning!
Contact learnanddevelop@unitec.ac.nz for further information on any of the offerings above.