He hui whakatairanga

Saturday 14 October
Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre, Auckland

Special conference accommodation deals will be available for those travelling.

Whether you are new to Learning Stories, or keen to learn more about how to use them in innovative ways as your Planning, Assessment AND Professional Growth! This event is dedicated to helping all mokopuna and kaiako grow and thrive in your settings.

We have created a programme that will give you practical strategies and techniques to enhance all aspects of your teaching practice, which will have you working in smarter, more meaningful ways. Learn methods for better engagement with mokopuna and whānau, explore strategies to build positive relationships with your colleagues and unpack techniques that, not only document the learning taking place for mokopuna in your setting, but as professional growth for all kaiako.

By using Learning Stories for multiple purposes, we place mokopuna firmly at the centre and keep our workloads efficiently and effectively focused on the learning that matters to mokopuna, whānau and kaiako!

To register: Scroll to the very bottom of this page, add the tickets to your cart. When you check out you will need all attendees names, email addresses, workshop choices and dietary requirements. If you have any issues at all you can call 07 856 8708 and we can register you over the phone. 

Once registered you will recieve in invoice, which you can pay by credit card or direct credit.

Āhurei – Uniqueness.

EveryBODY has their own āhurei when it comes to telling and writing stories (this includes learning stories!). EveryBODY has the potential to be a great story teller! Whether you are connected to this potential and āhurei or not, whether you have been writing stories for a long time or for only a short time – each of us have ngā tāonga tuku iho – gifts handed down to us from our ancestors that shape who we are as storytellers.

It is up to us to rediscover and reconnect to this āhurei so we can go on to write meaningful Learning Stories for our hāpori that capture the āhurei of our tamariki and whanau. Join us in a wānanga to discover your āhurei as a kaiako so together we can write stories that whakamana us all.

With two Keynote Presentations and 16 Workshops to choose from, this event is a must for your professional growth journey! Register for the earlybird price now by adding tickets at the bottom of this page, you will be able to register multiple attendees and make workshop selections from your cart.

Keynote Presentation:

Te Ahi Kā, keeping the fires burning
Lynette Tamarapa & Brenda Soutar

Ahi kā refers to home fires that indicate activity and occupation on the land. Ahi kā – home, belonging, relationships.

Analysing learning and making that learning visible for mokopuna, their whānau and for kaiako themselves can provide the motivation to explore further, to go deeper, to carry out research. It is a process that sustains everyone and in doing so the fire keeps burning. Drawing upon the concept of ahi kā, we want to share how learning stories can provide the inspiration for kaiako to keep the fires burning as they establish and maintain relationships with people, places, activities and kaupapa.

Lynette Tamarapa
Ngāti Ruanui, Te Whakatōhea
Tumuaki, Te Kōhanga Reo o Mana Tamariki
Lynette currently leads the staff team at Te Kōhanga Reo o Mana Tamariki. She has been a kaiako for 13 years in immersion reo Māori ece settings. She has four tamariki that she raises as first language Māori speakers in Palmerston North. As a leader at Mana Tamariki she continues to ensure the status, value and commitment to language revitalisation is upheld by the staff, whānau and tamariki.

Brenda Soutar
Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki
Kaihono, Mana Tamariki Inc.
Brenda is the Kaihono (Coordinator) of Mana Tamariki Inc., the governing entity for Te Kōhanga Reo o Mana Tamariki. Brenda was a kaiako for 30 years. She was involved in the Kaupapa Māori Assessment project that led to the development of Te Whatu Pōkeka and was a member of the writing team for the 2016-17 Te Whāriki refresh. She lives in Palmerston North where four of her mokopuna attend Mana Tamariki.

Keynote Presentation

Dr. Isauro M. Escamilla
Assistant Professor
San Francisco State University

Dr. Isauro Escamilla is Assistant Professor in the Elementary Education Department at San Francisco State University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Language Arts and Spanish Heritage Language and Pedagogy. He serves as the SFSU Campus Representative for the CSU Faculty Council of the Center for the Advancement of Reading and Writing (CAR/W). He is currently the Vice-President of Supporting the Advancement of Learning Stories in America. He is a member of the Executive Editorial Board of the NAEYC journal Voices of Practitioners and is a co-author of Learning Stories and Teacher Inquiry Groups (NAEYC, 2021).

Isauro has included Learning Stories as assignments in some of the undergraduate classes that he has been teaching. He has also written articles on Learning Stories as authentic assessment as examples of children’s translanguaging.

Reporting with the Head and the Heart
– Tara O’Neill

I am me: celebrating the uniqueness of the infant and toddler
– Anita Homewood

Embracing Learning Stories in the school environment
– Jo Weston

Infants, toddlers & kaiako. Te Ako ngātahi: Learning together
– Helen Lye

PROGRAMME

8:30-9:00am: Registration
9.00-9:30: Mihi Whakatau (Welcome)
9:30-10:30: First Keynote Presentation from Lynette Tamarapa & Brenda Soutar
10:30-11:00 Break (morning tea provided)
11:00-12:30pm: Workshop Session One (8 Workshops to choose from)
12:30-1:30: Break (lunch provided)
1:30-3:00: Workshop Session Two (8 Workshops to choose from)
3:00-3:15: Short break
3:15-4:15pm: Second Keynote Presentation from Dr. Isauro M. Escamilla
4:15-4:30pm: Whakawātea (Farewell)