I have to apologise.  My 2015 goal was to blog regularly, reflecting on my progress and chronicling by efellowship journey.

But I have been so busy with the hectic start to the year.

I have finally (but excitedly) finished my Post Grad Certificate in Applied Learning through The Mindlab NZ.  It was great learning and network, but took up 10-15 hours per week (for the last 40 weeks). Now I'm free! So I'm going to try and blog once a week.

This year also sees me leading the Year 1 teaching team at my school and helping to transition students and families into their schooling adventures.

Today has been such a whirlwind.
Today I was privileged to be announced as an e-Fellow with Core Education for 2015. 
It was so surreal, hearing my name announced. Standing on stage, being introduced and sharing my inquiry with the nearly 2000 people in the audience was nerve-racking, but we were received so warmly by our fellow educators.

This is such a great opportunity.
I will be getting mentored by Core Education, while working to improve my own practice and research an educational inquiry of my design.  
I will be exploring what personalised and modern learning approaches work best together, to support Maori and Pasifika students to become engaged and empowered lifelong learners.

I can't wait to start working with some amazingly talented educators on this adventure.

Thanks to all of the people who stopped me today to congratulate me, or has messaged or tweeted me in support

This month is Connected Educator Month and I have been inspired by the great learning and connecting opportunities.  I was lucky enough to hear about #blogsync in the first few days of the month. I thought it was a great way to focus my blogging.  The first topic was - What it means to be a connected educator.

So, What does it mean to be a connected educator?

For me, it means support.  
I often feel I am the only person on my little island, doing and thinking they way I do. Being a connected educator means I have support, guidance, and friendship from others like me.  It means my ideas can be validated, encouraged, questioned and challenged.  It means I am not alone on my isolated island anymore.

This connection allows me to feel supported to take risks and try new things.  It allows me to gain insight and inspiration from others who are doing things similarly and differently.  It allows me to ask for help and share my successes.  Most importantly it allows me to learn and question!

I think one thing we often overlook these days are the different ways of connecting, we often assume we mean through digital mediums, but to me, being a Connected Educator is more than that.
My connections happen online (through blogs, twitter, VLN, videos etc) but also happen in person (through face to face discussions, group meetings, PLN etc).  All these connections are important and certainly help build my connectedness.

All of this has huge impact on my classroom and on myself as an educator.
If I wasn't connected, my island would keep me sheltered and I would probably keep doing it the "same old way", as I wouldn't know any better. It has opened the world to myself and my classroom and helped developed some allies for my island, myself and my students.

Connecting Educators is extremely important for both the educator and their students.  I think we should be helping others to develop connections and relationships with other educators, to help inspire their growth and so they don't feel like they are alone.

Make sure you check out http://connectededucator.org.nz to help you or someone else connect!

I was really interested in this session on the second day of Connected Educator Month.

It was really inspiring to listen to Mark Osborne, Derek Wenmoth, Stephen Heppell, Karen Melhuish Spencer and Janelle Riki talk about the importance of modern learning practices now and in the future.

One strong view that resonated with me was that MLP is all about relationships and connections. It is so important for students, whanau and schools to build, develop and foster relationships and work together as a team.

I was particularly interested in Janelle's discussion around culturally responsive MLP both because it relates directly to my students but also to my eFellow inquiry.

It is important that our Maori students are connected (including connection to their culture).

Together, Ako (learning and teaching as a reciprocal process) and Tuakana/teina (using the expert to teach and support sharing the knowledge)  lead to the perfect modern learner!

Mark spoke about schools being awesome incubators. What a great analogy! We should be heating and super charging our students awesomeness.  It made me reflect on what I do to incubate awesomeness.  Am I a super charging heat lamp or am I an ordinary bulb?  What can I do to ensure I am super charging the awesomeness in my students (and staff)?  Build and foster relationships, and ensure people feel connected and important!

On Monday, I was sitting having lunch with a friend before heading to study, when we were rudely interrupted by my mobile.

After complaining about the interruption and apologising to Tracy (@CrimsonNZ) I answered the phone.

My face soon turned to shock as I was informed I had been selected as an e-fellow for 2015! I was (and still am) in complete shock.

The next few minutes were spent trying to take in all the information John was giving me, while trying not to make too much of a scene in the cafe.

The hardest part of the whole thing is having to keep it hush, hush until the announcement next week at ULearn!

I can't wait to work with the fabulous CORE Education team, my fellow e-fellows and the amazing educators I will meet on this journey.  I really hope I can find some great answers to my questions that will make a difference for the learners.

I'm really excited to have sent off my e-fellow application (but now the waiting begins).

The e-fellowship is designed to transform your educational practice through inquiry.
It provides comprehensive professional learning opportunities and supports fellows to foster and share innovative practice and leadership throughout various educational communities and networks.

Below is a brief outline of my inquiry question and background.

There are so many great ideas to personalise learning - IEPs, goal setting, workshopping, facilitating, inquiry learning, MLEs to name a few. But which ones work best for my Maori and Pasifika rich classroom? How can these techniques work together to engage and accelerate learning? What skills and attitudes need developing alongside these approaches?

My inquiry will look into how we can best fit the pieces of the puzzle together for this specific cohort. What specifically works best to meet the needs of Maori and Pasifika low decile students to allow them equitable access to the personalised future-focussed learning they deserve?