Tēnā koutou katoa
I raro i te maru o te maunga o Pirongia
I whanaketanga ahau i te pūkaki o te awa o Mangaokewa
Ko Ingarangi, nō Kotirana te whakapaparanga mai
Ko Helen tōku whaea
Nō London tōku whaea
Ko Neville tōku matua
Nō Āria tōku pāpā
engari 
Ko Te Kuiti te whenua tupu
Ko Alec taku tungāne
Ko Eleanor rāua ko Madeleine aku tamāhine
Kei te noho au kei Ōtepoti
Ko Alison Macdonald tōku ingoa
Hei kupu whaka-mu-tunga māku …
Ko te kōrero e kī ana…
Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi
Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa

Under the shelter of Mount Pirongia
I grew up on the banks of the Mangaokewa Stream
my ancestry is English and Scottish
Helen is my mother
My mother is from London
Neville is my father
My father is from Āria 
however
Te Kuiti is where I grew up
Alec is my brother
Eleanor and madeleine are my daughters
I live in Dunedin
My name is Alison Macdonald
And finally I say
As the saying goes…
With your basket and my basket the people will live
therefore, greetings to you, greeting to you, greetings to us all

With a passion for making complicated concepts accessible to people, regardless of their background knowledge, I have spent several years working as a freelance writer while completing my Bachelor of Communication (Journalism). This helped re-spark my desire to take that love of learning into the classroom.

Raising two active and creative children, 10 and 4 years, has seen me constantly stepping out of my comfort zone in a range of areas to support their interests and develop my own. This has included Cancan dancing with my local Alliance Française group, learning to make s’mores as a Brownie Leader, working at Riding for the Disabled, and I currently find myself trying to play cello and discovering the teaching pedagogy of Dr Suzuki.

In short, I am passionate about learning!

I love technology and the opportunities this provides for people to develop whatever skills they desire. I am also a reader, having established and operated two online bookstores in the last 20 years allowing me to develop relationships with authors, publishers, booksellers, and other readers and reviewers throughout the book world.

I have a strong need to try to see the “why” behind behaviour. I have found this to be particularly helpful when dealing with children. Although I am nervous about applying this to a large classroom, I have high hopes that my study through Massey will provide insight and guidance to making this part of my teaching kete.

Obviously, I am a verbose writer, particularly around areas that I am passionate about! I can certainly see that an area I will need to be vigilant about as a teacher is not allowing students to distract me, too far, off-task by asking insightful questions.

Ngā mihi ora

Alison