From Hokianga Harbour on the West to Whangaroa
Harbour on the East of New Zealand’s Far North Computers in Homes has
travelled. We have now been as far North
as Te Kao and as far South in our region as Waima and Kaikohe with a large
chunk in the middle also being covered.
The word has spread and we now have 13 schools on our waiting list and
several individuals who weren’t able to get onto the courses at nearby schools.
Totara North School was selected to take part in
Term 4 this year and began their training of 7 participants on the 16th
October on which day we also had their launch.
For this tiny school of only 35 students there was no problem getting an
eager 7 whanau on-board. Kristina Lane
the Tutor has been training weekly on Tuesday afternoons and are coming up to
their graduation to be held on the 18th of December, 4:30 pm at the
school. I’m looking forward to joining
in on their other prize giving’s at the school on this afternoon and I hear
there is going to be a very special visitor attending afterwards for the kids
possibly bearing gifts. Well done to all
of these whanau for their efforts and commitment so far, not long to go now and
you’ll have a computer at home for Christmas.
Thank you to Kristina for all your hard work and to Bastienne Kruger the
Principal for her support.
Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Whangaroa were also selected
for Term 4 to train 14 whanau. With one
person having to pull out due to gaining full time work the kura trained and
graduated 13 whanau. They had their
launch on the 3rd of November and dived right into training.
They had their graduation recently on Sunday the 18th
of November 2012, 10 am at the kura. The
kura did a wananga style of training which trained each of the 13 graduates for
4 hours (plus breaks) on Saturdays and Sundays for three weekends to complete
their 20 hours of training. While one
group of 7 trained the other group of 6 would prepare the lunch and vice
versa. We had wonderful support from
Maria Allerby kura Administration and Pauline More the Tutor to make everything
happen without a hitch. Maria was the
behind the scenes person and she was absolutely wonderful in the planning and
implementation. Pauline had lesson plans
worked out and was in communication with the participants regularly to keep
them up to date with what was happening throughout the planning phase.
We had a lovely graduation with just the whanau,
Maria, Pauline, the Principal, myself and Brett Hunter the Technician. A few of the students from the kura were
selected to help out on the day and led the karakia and mihi, they did a
fantastic job! (One of the graduates, Haki,
even managed to sneak in a quick look at Facebook before the graduation started
showing off his new skills in front of the group and also played some
background music for us all). After
short speeches were made the certificates were handed out, photos taken and the
cake was cut and we sat down for kai.
What a great bunch of graduates, congratulations to you all.
It was at this time I had the opportunity to talk
with Tania Ngatai and hear her story on how Computers in Homes has changed her
life. Tania started studying with Massey
University for BTchg/DipTchg with Te Aho Tatairangi, a four year new course
that is done extramurally. Although the
course itself presents challenges the biggest and most difficult challenge for
her was learning and presenting her work online. After an embarrassing experience at a wananga
noho involving a Power Point Presentation and several other difficult computer
tasks set Tania was delighted when Computers in Homes was offered to her.
Since the course she has had to do two more power
point presentations and in her own words “O.M.G they were absolutely ‘deadly’”
she said with a laugh. “I had eight
pages of beeeeaaauuuutiful pictures, which manoeuvred around the page in so
many different styles, animations and sounds, all going at once. I was so proud of myself and extra excited to
present it in front of my peers whom afterwards gave me the biggest applause as
they knew my difficulty beforehand. I am
now confident and not afraid to ask any and all the questions, and am left with
the thought “next year, watch out, here I
come!!!”
Tania is now eager to begin Stepping UP training
which will be set up at the kura for her fellow graduates and members of the
community. Well done Tania, keep up the
good work!
Photos to follow.
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