Case Studies
Field Based STEM
Tony Jones is the founder of Field-Based STEM (FBS) has come from a long teaching career........[read case study]
Judi Cranston - kindyRock
Judi Cranston from kindyRock is my most long standing client........[read case study]
Off The Page
Off The Page produces high interest reading material for older, low level readers........[read case study]
Tanya Batt
Tanya Batt and her musician partner Peter Forster are based on Waiheke Island but their music and story telling business........[read case study]
Create4Life - Bronwyn Romain,
Time Genie now has a variety of clients - some I work for every week and others I do one-off tasks for. Bronwyn is one of these people........[read case study]
Kapiti Olive Oil
Diana and Grant Crosse are the relatively new owners of Kapiti Olive Oil. They bought the business about 18 months ago........[read case study]
Natalie (Nat) Bryan - author
Natalie Byran (Nat) is one of my newest clients. She is the author and illustrator of a very special children's book........[read case study]
Field Based STEM
Tony Jones is the founder of Field-Based STEM (FBS). He has come from a long teaching career specialising in science, and has a passion for getting kids and teachers out in the field to learn about their environment through hands on experiences.
This business supports schools to apply for funding from the Ministry of Education, which comes in the form of hours. FBS then organises for scientists from a large range of specialisms from bugs through to space, to work with, and up-skill teachers using those hours. It's a fantastic programme and more and more schools are coming on board.
My role is School Liaison. I keep in touch with schools to ensure the programme is meeting their needs, speak with principals and teachers about the programme, assist with writing applications and more! If you have links with any school that you think would benefit from this programme, please pass on my details.
Judi Cranston - kindyRock
Judi Cranston from kindyRock is my most long standing client. We started working together in 2019 and have weathered the ups and downs of Covid together!
We met when I was a health promoter at the Cancer Society National Office, overseeing the SunSmart Schools programme and Judi had scored some funding from NZ on Air to write a song about 'Slip. Slop, Slap and Wrap'. A friendship and working relationship ensued.
Judi is a musician, educator and composer. She mainly writes children's music but also has some beautiful grownup soul songs that she has recently recorded.
She has written over 150 songs and musical activities for kids from babies to 6 years. Most recently she has been running a fantastic course for early childhood teachers entitled 'Rock Your Music Program'(RYMP). This is to teach and encourage educators how to run top quality music sessions in their centre.
I help Judi in a variety of ways. Music was my speciality when I was teaching, so I have been able to support her in the RYMP sessions and looked after the assessment side. I also assist with writing funding applications as well as promotion and outreach when she is launching new songs or videos.
If you have any little people in your life, have a look at Judi's You Tube channel for some really fun and educational songs to share with them.
Off The Page
Off The Page produces high interest reading material for older, low level readers. They are a longstanding client of mine.
The creators of Off The Page are Anne Russell (right) and Rosemary Emery. They both have years of educational experience, working both in mainstream classes and special education - across all age groups; Anne as a teacher and Rosemary as a speech language therapist.
Off the Page ebooks are suited to adolescents and young adults with any reading disability, struggling readers and adults learning to read. The topics chosen are designed to interest these older, low level readers and include photographs of young people doing interesting things such as surfing, playing the drums and working in a pet store. These are accompanied by simple text aimed at the emergent level of reading (5-7 year old reading age).
The inspiration for OTP came from a persistent call from schools for age appropriate books for this group of students. Anne and Rosemary researched structured literacy to create a series of ebooks to cater for these young people. They also created five worksheets to go with each ebook to support teachers or parents using the stories with students or family.
Off The Page have recently launched a new website. Books can be bought individually through the site. They are currently developing an app - three stories with related activities and both in English and Spanish to cater for an overseas market.
I do a variety of work for Anne and Rosemary who both work full time in their specialised educational fields. I manage their emails and also contact schools, create resources keep in touch with stakeholders such as the web and now app developer, and whatever else is needed to assist them.
Tanya Batt
Tanya Batt and her musician partner Peter Forster are based on Waiheke Island but their music and story telling business reaches all over Aotearoa and beyond.
Tanya describes herself as a "story-o-phile and frock-o-holic, a word warbler, tale teacher, seed sower and story stitcher who channelled her childhood propensity for talking and her love of dressing up into a real ‘imaginary job’."
Tanya is a professional storyteller who uses her huge collection of costumes bring to life her words, when she visits schools, libraries and festivals worldwide. She has published four children’s books, often retelling fairy tales from cultures as diverse as Armenian, Swahili, Chinese, Swedish and Jewish. She has also written several resources to assist teachers and other adults to work independently and creatively with children.
I work with Tanya to help promote her online storytelling and arts based monthly Professional Development service. She has a wonderful programme called "Batt on the Mat" and teachers and parents who subscribe to her 'Imagined World' website will be able to access:
- Arts based content on a monthly basis including stories, songs, imaginative exercises, movement stories, dances and a host of extension ideas and activities.
- A monthly webinar with Tanya demonstrating and sharing ideas about how the material can be integrated into classroom teaching practise.
- An online ‘Chat on the Mat’ facebook page to share experiences, ask questions and offer support to/with other kaiako/teachers.
- Links to interesting books, papers and research in the area of children’s learning and arts education.
Tanya and Peter Forster also have a collection of musical stories for young children from the Batt Cave.Tall tales of friendships, food and fun that are guaranteed to delight and have you singing along with their catchy refrains. See Tanya's website for details.
Create4Life - Bronwyn Romain,
Time Genie now has a variety of clients - some I work for every week and others I do one-off tasks for. Bronwyn is one of these people; but I would love to work with her again!
I met Bronwyn Romain, the founder of Creative4Life earlier this year. She is an interesting person with a variety of work experience - including running a Chimney Sweep business!
Bronwyn runs several courses for women. One entitled 'Wellness Through Creativity' is a science based program which blends science and creativity together. It focuses on increasing an understanding of the mind-body connection and introduces creative tools to apply both in the workplace and in personal lives. The programme consists of 3 two hour face to face sessions followed by self-led exploration through the module material. She also runs a Wellbeing and Stress Management and Understanding Stress courses for women.
However Bronwyn's real zone of genius is teaching women about menopause. She has done significant study through Menopause Experts and is one of their 'Champions'. She runs a series of courses pitched at workplaces to help women understand what they are going through. Topics covered include: Menopause at Work (which men can also attend), Health and Menopause, Food and Menopause, and Psychology and Menopause.
I worked with Bronwyn before we went to Scotland. She ran a great workshop about menopause, for local women. This was in the early stages of her business. She is now focusing on supporting business/corporate wellness programmes. She is however, available to speak to community groups in the Wellington area, face to face, and via zoom for groups further afield.
Find out more about Bronwyn and what she offers through her website Creative4Life.
Kapiti Olive Oil
Diana and Grant Crosse are the relatively new owners of Kapiti Olive Oil. They bought the business about 18 months ago after sheep and beef farming for 36 years, just east of Dannevirke.
They swapped the East Coast for the West Coast and hill country for flat land, and their labrador now has 8ha to play in rather than the 1000ha they used to have! The olive grove keeps them connected to the land, which is very important to them.
The Kāpiti Coast has a cool maritime climate with warm summer days of around 24 degrees, but cool nights of around 10 – 12 degrees. This creates enough stress on the trees to ensure they produce robust fruit that is packed full of flavours.
Diana and Grant grow five varieties of Olive trees - Frantoio, Leccino, Picual, Pendalino and Koroneiki. The oil produced from these trees varies in strength and flavour. Leccino will typically be at the milder end of the scale, moving up to Frantoio then to Picual and Koroneiki for more robust flavours.
They harvest the fruit as soon as it starts to ripen and send it to the press within hours. This means the fruit is in perfect condition and the resulting oil retains all the pure olive flavours and health giving properties.
Their focus is to ensure Kāpiti Olives is a natural, sustainable business. The olives are cold pressed which gives them EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Their aim is to keep producing the best EVOO their trees can produce.
Last month Chris and I formatted and edited their Process and Procedures document. That also entailed an interesting tour around the grove and plant.
If you are interested in the wonderful health benefits and flavours of locally made olive oil, you can order online. See their website to find out more!
Natalie (Nat) Bryan - author
Natalie Byran (Nat) is one of my newest clients. She is the author and illustrator of a very special children's book entitled 'JC the Bumble Bee with APD'. This wonderful story, all written in rhyme and illustrated in bright, vibrant colours has been a very personal project for Nat.
Nat's son has a condition known as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), which means although he can hear well enough, his brain takes a little longer to process the information. This has made learning challenging.
The point of the book is two-fold; firstly to let others know what APD is and how others around can assist young people with this condition but it is more than that. Nat says "It's overall message is that we are all unique; we are all on our own path of discovery. Once you realise that you are amazing no matter what strengths and challenges that you may have, there is so much value, inspiration and joy you can bring to this world. You just have to Beelieve".
My work with Nat involves outreach into primary school and public libraries.
Apart from the book there is also a song! Nat wrote the lyrics and the music was written and is performed by AJ Crawshaw.
You can purchase the book, a copy of "JC the Bumble Bee Loves to Sing", tee shirts and book marks from the JC the Bumblebee website.