Virtual Learning Network

At MoTEC, we teach Y7&8 students from all the surrounding 13 rural schools in Motueka and west of Nelson (top of the South Island). The unique difference about our centre, is that all the teachers here teach every technology subject (as opposed to only teaching foods, hard materials etc).We work with the same children for thier whole 2 years at our centre, moving through the different technology areas with them, so we get to know them better than the average technology teacher would.

I have the travel bug, and since I was a young child yearned to leave the shores of NZ. This was not possible due to family circumstances, until I was 18 - when I went on a trip to India with the meditation club at my university. From there, there was no looking back.  I started by teaching kindergarten first in Australia, and then spent 7 years in East & West Africa - mainly running schools. I spent 5 of those years in Ghana, where I supervised a childrens home, kindergarten and rural clinic project. Every year now, I regularly go to the Philippines to work with a childrens home and education project that my husband and I started there. Last year, I spent 6 months there and worked with some of the local schools, as well as setting up a kindergarten at our house / volunteer centre.

I became interested in learning more about web design and computers whilst I was in West Africa, so decided to return back to NZ to get a degree in ICT. I did this, and then zoomed off to Brazil for a year, using my time there to work with childrens homes and to design a website called www.kidsworldwide.org which advocated these projects and sought international volunteers who would like to come and volunteer their time. The website grew very quickly and within 2 years, I was in charge of a network of 30 childrens projects and organising volunteer placements for 300 or so volunteers. We decentralised the process and organised it so that a team of volunteers would help to communicate and book in volunteers at projects where they had personally visited. This still works really well to this day.

After Brazil, I returned to NZ and decided it was time to get a proper teaching qualification as I could see that just sitting behind a desk on the computer all day was not my kettle of fish. This resulted in my graduation in 2006 as a primary teacher.

My passions are connecting with other educators and exploring ways to collaborate and make the world a better place for those born in less fortunate circumstances. I started a music project in the Philippines last year, where I carried over 20 or so violins and a host of other musical instruments to distribute amongst the childrens homes. I then found local teachers who would be able to come to the centres to offer lessons on a voluntary basis, with us supporting thier transport costs.