Sonya Van Schaijik is an experienced SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcome) teacher from Auckland, New Zealand. Her teaching and thinking is underpinned by SOLO Taxonomy. She coauthored and published a book SOLO Taxonomy and English Language Learners. She was born and spent her first decade in Samoa. She is tattooed with the woman’s malu, is a bilingual learner who speaks Samoan fluently, and has trained in effective pedagogies for Bilingual Education and ESOL.
She has attained a Postgraduate Diploma in Education. She is a 2011 New Zealand CORE Education efellow, and a recipient of a 2013 TEACHNZ sabbatical. In 2016 she passed HSK level 1 and completed her TPDL certificate. In 2017 she was a recipient of the China Scholarship Programme to Beijing. In 2018 she was certified as a Seesaw Ambassador and a Hapara Champion Trainer. In 2019 she became a Book Creator Ambassador.
At Newmarket School, she has responsibility for the integration of technology into teaching and learning programmes in ways that maximise student learning outcomes. She taught English as a second langage, over saw all learning assistants in class learning programmes and reports progress to the board annually. Sonya has taught Mandarin and Samoan as a second language. She has led her school in ‘Asian Language Learning in Schools’, ALLiS Teacher. She was the school’s Travelwise Lead Teacher for eight years and the school is now at Gold Level. In 2018 she joined the Auckland Central Community of Schools (ACCoS) as an across school leader (ASL) with a focus on building the community digitally while maintaining a commitment to student learning. During her time as an ASL, she built and maintained all digital systems including the Kahui Ako Blog. She worked with all principals to implement the Local Curriculum within their schools. In her final year with ACCoS. she colead Te Ao Maori across the schools.
She completed her ACCoS contract in 2023 and is now back in the class full time teaching years 4 & 5. She continues to manage the ESOL application and this year implement the New ELLP Pathways form. She also manages all digital systems within the school with a focus on digital safety.
She tweets, blogs and presents regularly on connecting, collaborating, co-creating and celebrating in education.
Sonya is certified as a Flat Connections Global Educator and is enthusiastic in how teachers and children learn with and from other teachers and children in other parts of the world. She has participated in several global projects including ‘Flat Connections A Week in the Life’ and can be found hosting and curating #TeachMeetNZ, administrating @globalsolo, helps to curate EdblogNZ and published the yearly #EdBookNZ.
You can follow Sonya on Twitter and Google+ and Facebook and Instagram.
Sonya @VanSchaijik 
