Winter 202127 Apr 2021
Nurtured minds are our friends!
Sam Hayden of Northcross Intermediate writes about “Add Value”, the programme he created to support student hauora.
Features
Winter 202125 Apr 2021
Be open-minded about mindfulness
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally. Try this mindfulness practice!
Summer 202114 Jan 2021
Making Transitions
As Taranaki makes a “Just Transition” from fossil fuels to a carbon-neutral economy, educators, whānau and tamariki must transition as well.
Summer 202114 Jan 2021
Gumboots and Gloves: Coming together in the face of climate threat
For many communities in Aotearoa the impacts of climate change are already being felt. Ako talks to educators about floods, droughts and hurricanes, and how they get through.
Summer 202114 Jan 2021
Planting the seed of environmental citizenship
Early childhood centres are educating and empowering tamariki on how to make their world a better place. The work is changing mindsets and behaviour far beyond centre walls.
Summer 202113 Jan 2021
Te Maramataka: A way to live and know
As mātauranga Māori is more widely recognised, schools and kura are using Te Maramataka to connect with the environment and themselves.
Summer 202113 Jan 2021
How to effect change
Once you identify that you want to take climate action, how do you get everyone on board? Ako asks educators who have succeeded how they created change.
15 Oct 2020
Spilling the beans
Ally Kemplen is a teacher aide at Newton Central School in Auckland. She shares her memories of her favourite year at school, before talking with the current principal.
Covid-19 20207 Aug 2020
Member memories: The school in my backyard
Erin Dalton Steel recalls her childhood at Oranga Primary School, before talking with current principal Bridget Lummis.
Covid-19 20206 Aug 2020
The journey to pay equity for teacher aides
Ako speaks with Annie Te Moana and Ally Kemplen, members of the teacher aide pay equity negotiation team about the journey to mana taurite
Covid-19 202020 Jul 2020
Member memories: Riselaw Road School and Macandrew Intermediate, Dunedin
Alison Kroon who has retired, but is still a highly sought after relief teacher, recalls her own schooling more than 50 years ago.
Covid-19 202019 Jun 2020
Member memories: Rural Manawatū schools
NZEI Te Riu Roa member Kylie Parry, a teacher aide and librarian at St Mary’s School in Carterton, reminisces about her time at Rangiwahia School, a rural school in Manawatū that opened in 1895 and closed for good in 2013.
Covid-19 202017 Jun 2020
A cloud looming
The effects of Covid-19 will linger long after the country is clear of symptoms. AKO talks to schools in popular tourist centres Queenstown and Rotorua about the impact on their economies and communities.
Covid-19 20205 Jun 2020
Q&A with Api Nathan, Otari School’s Māori immersion strand leader
AKO catches up with Api Nathan, deputy principal and Māori immersion strand leader at Otari School in Wellington, and hears how they supported immersion learning while the country was in lockdown.
Covid-19 202029 May 2020
Counting the friendly frogs: welcoming children back to early learning centres
Parents experienced a mix of emotions when their children returned to schools and centres at the end of Alert Level 3. Two kindergartens share their stories of transition with AKO.
Covid-19 202025 May 2020
Q&A with Mark Jensen, drama teacher at Northcross Intermediate
Mark Jensen, the drama teacher at Northcross Intermediate School in Auckland, talks about how performing arts activities have been used by staff across the school as a positive way to reconnect with their thousand-plus students in the first days of reopening at Level 2.
Covid-19 202022 May 2020
“Another way of doing it”: being a beginning teacher during Covid-19
The disruption caused by Covid-19 has been particularly felt by hundreds of beginning teachers. Barely settled into their classrooms, they have suddenly found themselves having to work in a different way. Ako spoke with three new teachers about meeting the challenge.
Covid-19 202020 May 2020
In the deep end: new principals leading through a pandemic
The Covid-19 crisis has tested everyone involved in our education system. But for scores of new principals, the challenge has been particularly fraught.
AKO talks with three beginning principals in the Auckland region about how they have managed through a crisis, while still coming to terms with their new role.
Covid-19 202013 May 2020
Tuakana, teina, whānau: lockdown learnings in Kawerau
AKO catches up again with Ripeka Lessels, tumuaki of Te Whata Tau o Pūtauaki in Kawerau, as she reflects on how her students and their whānau have got on during the lockdown, and what everyone has learnt.