Gina’s Blog

 Dave and I ran the fourth and final workshop for the  BITABL project in Gisborne on Thursday for a group or early childhood educators and parents.

The BITABL (Better Information to Address Barriers to Learning) project initiated and facilitated a collaboratively developed resource to:

• Develop resource material for educators of children aged 0 - 8 years that will help them to clarify learning needs of children and to better respond to those needs.
• Engage with specific local communities and education facilities to clarify what is working well and what can be done to help identify needs at the earliest possible time.
• Link with local health and community services to make best use of the support networks available.
(Quoted from the Ministry of Education  website)

Dave and I have been assisting the good GSE people at the Ministry to put the Resource online and to provide a way for the users to communicate online. We have been working with the facilitators and educators over the three pilot sites to show them how to use the website and to create and develop an online community.

Yesterday was the final workshop! We had a typically enjoyable, high energy day, with passionate teachers and parents, some who had never even used a mouse before. By the end of the morning, they had all logged on to the online space and made a contribution and have gone back to their centres to spread the word. It’s hard not to feel good working with people with such an open-minded attitude towards new ideas and skills.