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Summer is winding down, and it’s back-to-school time in the Southern Hemisphere. Whether you teach, support educators or manage technology, we have some best practices to help you start the year smoothly with Hāpara. We hope your 2024 school year is the best yet!
In the classroom
A quick refresher
This series of videos will give you a refresher on Hāpara tools or help you get acquainted with them if you’re new to Hāpara.
- Welcome to Hāpara: Your quick start guide
- Getting to know Teacher Dashboard
- Hāpara Highlights: Guide browsing
- Hāpara Workspace overview
- Hāpara Student Dashboard overview
Workspaces you’ll love
We gathered some engaging Workspaces that educators have shared in Discover. Make a copy for your personal Workspace library if you’d like to save one and use it this year.
Back to School
This Workspace is a back-to-school template with fun activities for the beginning of the year.
Maths Mindset
This Workspace has engaging, maths-centered activities, designed to offer practice in solving problems and grow learners’ math skills.
Workspace Template
This template was created so you can easily start creating your own Workspaces.
Anzac and Australia Unit
This Workspace about Anzac commemorates those throughout history who have fought for Australia.
The Gold Era: Australia
After completing this Workspace, learners will understand that the 19th century, and the influx of new settlers into Australia, was a time of incredible change.
Māori Language Week: Language and Maths
This Workspace was designed to teach basic Māori and can be used during Māori Language Week or any time of the year.
Science: (Geography) Describe aspects of a contemporary New Zealand geographic issue
Learners will use this Workspace to help them with their research about a contemporary geographic issue in New Zealand.
New Zealand – Conflicts Over Time
In this Workspace, students will learn about New Zealand’s history with war and conflict.
New Zealand Social Action for Equality
In this Workspace, students will learn and write about social actions taken in reference to women in New Zealand seeking equality.
Building positive relationships with your learners
According to New Zealand education researcher John Hattie, “It is teachers who have created positive teacher-student relationships who are more likely to have above average effects on student achievement.”
One way to do this is by investing in some time at the beginning of the year building relationships with your learners. Not only will it help you with classroom management going forward, but it will also motivate learners academically.
The Highlights messaging feature is an easy way to start building relationships. The message will pop up on a learner’s screen. Or you can send a message to the class or a group of learners.
You can also use Share links to send a meme, a funny video or an inspirational article.
Ethical monitoring
You can close learners’ off-task browser tabs with Highlights. We also believe in transparency and teaching digital citizenship along the way. Learn more about ethical monitoring and join educators worldwide who have taken the ethical monitoring pledge.
Professional development and training
We offer several online resources to help educators in your school use Hāpara for focused and engaging digital learning.
Hāpara Learning Bytes
These micro-badging courses each focus on one Hāpara tool:
- Highlights
- Teacher Dashboard
- Workspace
- Student Dashboard
Because educators are short on time, we created these one-hour courses so that educators can get the training they need online in one sitting.
Hāpara Champion certification
If educators at your school want to dive deeper into the full Hāpara Instructional Suite and pedagogy, they can become certified through the Hāpara Champion programme.
The online courses are asynchronous, but a facilitator is available to help every step of the way.
“The pedagogical skills and practices I learned about were ones that will highly impact my teaching going into this school year.” ~ Michelle, educator
Camp Hāpara: New Teacher Edition
For new teachers, we offer Camp Hāpara, a virtual learning event. Through videos and resources, they’ll learn from veteran educators who have been in their shoes. They can explore teaching strategies, Hāpara tips and get inspired. Educators can access Camp Hāpara anytime.
Hāpara administrator tips
Loading classes
It’s data loading time! Once you load classes, teachers and students will be able to start using Hāpara. Check out the guides below, but reach out anytime if you would like one-on-one support.
- Hāpara administrator refresher (change to Admin refresher)
- Manual loading
- How to sync your data using SIS integrations
- How to enable Google Classroom sync
Self-service usage reports
In the Hāpara Admin Console, school leaders can access usage reports that show how Hāpara tools are being used. It has four different views, and you can generate your own reports on demand.
View usage data on:
- Number of unique instructional users
- Days active in a given time period
- Pages visited on the Hāpara platform
- Actions such as closing tabs or creating a guided browsing session
You can use this data to plan professional development, support teachers one-on-one or understand how digital citizenship is being practiced in classrooms. Overall, this tool gives you a clear picture of how your school is using Hāpara.
Fun for everyone
It’s time for Hipi’s back-to-school playlist for school staff! We have favorite classics and billboard hits to get you pumped as you prep in your classroom or office, drive to school or need a dance break at lunch. 🎶
We hope you have a smooth start to the school year! Our team is always available to help if you need support or have questions.
Explore how an educator uses Hāpara Highlights as a coaching tool for social and emotional learning in her classroom.
