Revision

Today was a great day for our Tairawhiti Group. We all sat the Google Exam together and it was a great experience. We found we were quite tight for time and in reflection we needed to work faster. We also had not covered Google Classroom, Seesaw which gobbled up some of our time learning how to use it. We all got a lot out of sitting the exam and now feel more confident going into the resit session together. Despite feeling a little deflated I still really appreciate the DFI programme. I have learnt so much and would not have been as well equipped for online learning through Covid lockdown if I hadn't attended this programme.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
• Using the Class blog to share completed learning has been so powerful for my learners. They really enjoy sharing what they have done and thinking positively and reflectively about completed tasks. Through sharing learning with each other during lockdown we have been able to continue our Learn, Create, Share journey. The learn, create, share pedagogy has permanently shaped my style of teaching. It is so powerful and makes logical sense. I ams so excited creating tasks that are engaging for my learners. The enthusiasm rubs off and my class get so excited to share their learning. Love multimodal learning. It really makes sense to deliver information in different ways, multiple times, rewindable learning and so on.
• Enabling access was so helpful!
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  
• I really enjoyed looking at Google forms again today. I think it could be really interesting to gather student voice after we return from lockdown in that first week. It will be great to use Forms to gather information to support learners transitioning back into school life.
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
• Through sitting the Google Exam I have become more aware what is involved through working through the Google education programme. I am also open to extending my knowledge through the next level of DFI if there is further study. I feel like the lockdown gave us an intense time to learn, create and share ourselves. We have built such a momentum with our learning. I would like to keep firing along on my DFI journey.

Close ... but not yet!

Our DFI topic today was based around "Computational thinking". There was a lot of new learning in this session for me. I am not naturally drawn to the tech world of gadgets, future inventions and I was unaware of many of the technology that is already in place. Needless to say, I already felt excited that there was so much to learn and a little nervous and out of my depth too.

We started the day discussing Empowered Learners. We looked at how low income earners are affected by not being able to access technology. Dorothy also showed examples of poor housing conditions, and financial pit falls like "The Good Guys" can affect low income earners and their families learning.  We went on to learn how Maniakilani's pedagogy is designed to reach all students through being connected, ubiquitous (found anywhere), empowered, and visible. We went on to unpack these and discuss examples of how we show this in our own learning programme.
In my class we are:
connected- Google hangouts/meets, classroom blog, sharing completed learning on the class site, the class site shares learning tasks and access information to other sites for the students. Parents are connected through eTap, text, messenger, phone calls, emails (whatever works). Parents are sent screencastify's so they can help their children.

ubiquitous (found anywhere)- I have made all sites, slides, learning, online reading, online maths all accessible to students. We had a DFI session about limiting the links and that really hit home. If we make it too hard for them to get to the learning,  they just won't do it.

empowered- My class love sharing their learning, they love talking about their learning, they recently discovered they love blogging about their learning and they have the power to comment, encourage, feedforward ideas to their peers. Empowering the learners to take charge of their learning and drive it is a very meaningful way of teaching. I can't imagine going back to the old style of teaching of the children being empty and the teacher filling them with knowledge. It is just not going to work anymore. Children have lifted the lid on possibilities through learning and the teacher is working in the background now bringing the students what they need to continue growing and learning.

visible- We looked at "Embedding" a couple of weeks ago and a part of that session touched on how powerful it is to get your teaching and learning out there into the world. I often talk to my students about how they are famous and are teaching other kids just like them amazing things by sharing on their blog. They enjoy receiving comments about their learning and it adds to their understanding that they are visually out there for the world to see. I use recorded lessons to share with my students, reading stories, screencasts and so on to add to the multi-modal way of teaching. I noticed today Pt England school use OnAir sessions and have these on their sites. These are videos of teachers teaching in the classroom. I thought this was very brave and helpful, especially to parents and students.

Today we also looked at the latest Maniakalani mailout . There has been a great spike in blogging through lock down. It had doubled in the past four weeks. I thought this was really powerful and supported our latest feedback from our parents at our school. Student engagement has remained desipe online distance learning.

This week I was lucky to attend a Tui Mai, tuhi Atu meeting again. I really enjoy listening to the experts share what is working well for them. This week they did a blog shout out to students, classes, professional who were working well using their blogs. I was especially proud that two classes from our school was mentioned as well as a beginning teacher. It resonated how much of an impact online a digital presence can have.

One of my favourite parts of the day was looking at "Future tech". I especially enjoyed learning about the robot development, artificial intelligence, coding and ethics within tech development.  We had to complete an online activity called the Moral Machine. It looked at coding cars to driverless and how the car would be programmed to assess situations like a child running out on the road at the same time as an old person. How do you programme which being would die. It was really challenging but just opened my mind to a whole world of ethical decisions that are made by programmers.

This lead on to the topic of Computational thinking, hangarau mitihiko and the digital curriculum. Through the slide show different videos explained computational thinking. Once I got my head around a few basic words I understood a lot more.  Kia Takatu a matihiko looked like a very helpful resource to help teachers review, assess, add to tool kits for digital fluency and set up a pathway for the future.

Today we spent part of the day exploring code. We went on a range of sites to play with coding. It was so much fun! Two of my favourite sites were toxic code and minecraft. I will definitely use these in my planning next week. It was very engaging, challenging and addictive!

Towards the end of the day by registering for our exam, preparing for our exam and looking at what will be included.

We went over what needs to be included in our professional blog to graduated for our DFI course. I will ask my peers to double check that I have completed everything.

Below are links to my coding game - it did not go well but I did learn a lot and it helped me practice my mindfulness when facing tech issues.

My Gamefroot

Agenda for Computational thinking

Devices

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

At the beginning of the DFI I was very new to Manaiakalani, the way of teachinging, the pedagogy

and so on. Through the weeks I have developed a greater understanding and appreciation.
This week I became award that everything we get out students to do is based around their learning
and supports that. For example this week we learned how to use Harpara more effectively and how
to help the students organise their files. We also looked at a range of technology used including ipads
and Chromebooks. We looked at software that supports our learners like Explain Everything (on iPads).
All elements that we looked at soul purpose was to make learning happen. The student's learning is the
absolute focus and activities, tasks, readings, are all built on helping this happen.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I enjoyed learning more about iPads this week. I use Chromebooks in my class and I was great

to explore iPads. We used a programme called Explain everything. It was quite clunky to use but
in a junior context it would be good to develop a range of skills such as collecting information,
ordering and sorting, reading, maths exploration and so on. Screenshot of explain everything.

I learned a lot about using quick keys to help students using their Chromebooks. This week I will

spend time teaching my students some of these keys. They are all helpful but the one I am most
excited about teaching them is the screenshot quick key

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I really enjoyed learning more about what the Chromebook is like to use. It helped me develop a

greater understanding for my students technology. I enjoyed learning more about Harapara and
especially enjoyed finding out about the sharing folder. Now I know it is there I will put in my planning
to work with my students to tidy it up! I also found the session using Screencastify very helpful. I use
Screencastify a lot in my teaching at the moment. It was great to see other ways it can be utilised.

Example of screencastify

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
I found understanding for about the technology my students are using really helpful. They are able to achieve so much. By planning tasks and experiences that are meaningful they can literally achieve anything. I am really excited to teach them how to use screenshot quick keys this week and see what they can create and share using this.

• Devices link

Enabling Access

The Enabling Access session was very helpful. I was unaware of just how little people could see of my site. The

feedback from my peers was so valuable and I was able to make a lot of changes.

I enjoyed having the time to work on my site and give it the attention it needed to be more successful. I have started

to think ahead how I will set up my site for later on in the year. Learning from home (through lockdown) and learning

in the classroom requires different elements and functionalities. I am committed to less scrolling and limiting the

clicks to access the learning.

I think it is also really important to limit the password and user name access to learning. It makes it difficult for some

students to keep on top of their passwords.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

We started off the day learning about what makes sites more successful. We looked at the way it is set up, the flow of pages, limiting the scrolling, images and themes, consistency in font, colours and layout. We also looked at the functionality of the site and how the students can access the learning, and can follow the learn, create, share model.

Gerhard's presentation

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Through learning about making a successful site I learnt a lot about access, continuity and opening sharing settings. I found it really helpful when others looked at my site and fed back to me about what they could and couldn't see on my site as well as how they felt my site was going and improvements that were needed.

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Opening up the sharing setting for whole folders was really helpful. This meant every time I moved something to that folder it would immediately have the sharing setting for that folder.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

We spent some time working on our professional blog. We learnt how to put codes in to change theme. We also learnt how to add blog lists. I would like to spend more time exploring Blogger and how to use it properly.

Blogger slides

This coming week I would like to spend more time learning about Blogger and how it can be used to support my teaching and learning journey.

Learning slides

Dealing with data

What ideas has this given to you for working with your kids in the coming weeks?

• As we are currently using an online approach to teaching this is the perfect opportunity to track and measure student engagement. This data could look at students interaction in the Google Meet forum, understanding and seeing clarification of tasks, completing tasks, sharing tasks, students feeding back on other students learning and feedback from the teacher. This data could also record the contact between parent and teacher and how that impacts students learning.
• This data could be used to formulate a plan going into Term 2 (still currently in lockdown) and how my learning programmes could become more effective. It could help improve communication with family and change the way information is delivered on the class site so it is clear.
• Using google maps to discuss our different backgrounds and share our heritage online together could be a great way to continue to grow our class community.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• The importance of  LEARN CREATE SHARE. Everything we teach has to be purposeful and have meaning. We use tasks to practice a skill we have tried to teach our students. The task is the opportunity to create. The magic really happens when the students get the chance to SHARE. Through the sharing process the students naturally reflect on their process, skills, next steps and outcome. They seek guidance and advice from their peers and sometimes the teacher. 
• I have noticed over the past couple of days of teaching online that students are independently emailing me to clarify learning tasks. I think this is a massive step as they are not asking their parents anymore, they are actually taking responsibility for their own learning. so exciting!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Using Google sheets.
• Learning why data is so important for tracking progress and implementing independent learning plans.
• Using Google Maps

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

• Google forms was really helpful. It could gather student voice and be used as an assessment tool. It could also be used to gauge students understanding and need for additional clarification.
• Data collection using Sheets to formulate next steps.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

• I need to make time to practice using sheets in a meaningful way.
• Use Google forms to collect student voice regularly.

Collaborative teaching and learning using a Class Site

Collaboration

Introduction

I found today's session on Collaboration incredibly helpful and informative. I am using my class site a lot at the

moment and have been increasingly more frustrated in the way I was organising my learning and tasks. Today

we spent a large part of the day understanding and developing sites that were really successful. We looked into

Multi-modal, multi-level and and multi- text. It all made perfect sense and fitted in well with my developing digital

pedagogy. Using the questions below I intend on expanding on the ideas, issues, challenges and solutions raised

today when exploring Google Site.

Questions and Answers:

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today we looked at how Class sites can be used. It challenged me to rethink how I will use my class site and how I will endeavor this term to used multiple sites to share learning, planning and teaching across the curriculum areas. It is so exciting to be able to use a simple forum such as Sites to teach cross curricular, multi-level, multi-cognitive and easy to access for students and parents.

Earlier in the day we discussed how important it is to limit the links and how the students must be able to access learning without passwords, persimmon and without receiving an email telling them what to do. As I am in the middle of planning for my Term 2 learning, almost guaranteed to be mainly online without access to my classroom, I needed to hear this advice. We spent time building a site on one topic - our group looked at Mars. Our whole Site was on one topic. This site could be linked to another "Class Site" as a period of learning. This was so exciting for me. I hadn't until this point realised how Sites could be used in a multi-leveled way. I have also realised that this would be a more efficient way to plan also. I usually use Google Slides but it makes much more sense to link in another Site for teacher planning and use the learning site for planning solely for the students to see.

We spent time in our smaller group designing a site. We noticed the most success sites were the ones that had very little scrolling required and all the links were there. I am not sure if the normal templated could be manipulated to look like this but the person that created the best site changed all the sizes of the boxes himself. Things to remember when doing this is you would want to have a unified colour scheme and font and font size. You would have to plan out your boxes first before starting the designing process so you could see what would work and what wouldn't. I am really looking forward to changing things around on my sight and hopefully having a smoother, more powerful and fun learning experience for my students.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Managing my planning using Sites and linking things in when required. It made so much more sense and cut out a lot of double handling and made the planning more meaningful.

This idea could also be used for recording data and comparing trends. You could link in Sheets and have everything in the one place for the particular area you are working on. For example you could have a writing site linked to your class site. This writing site could have everything the student needs for the task and behind that could be the things the teacher needs to measure learning, monitor progress, collect student voice, share data, information, successes and concerns with SENCO etc.

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I have finally learnt how to use Screencastify! This will be a great tool to share with my learners. I also have been introduced to new things like Canva, Flipgrid, Padlet and our MultiText Sheet. All of these things I need to have a play around with more but I can see them all being helpful. The MultiText Sheet was just absolutely amazing. I think if we all made a commitment to add just one thing per term there would be such a wealth of learning resources available to our group.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I really need to just make time and practice. I think planning for Term 2 will help with that but just trying new things and reaching out to the facilitators for help when I get stuck. I will make the commitment to share with my team what I have and ask for feedback. I feel like I have so much to learn and you don't know what you don't know. I am really enjoying the pace of the sessions. It definitely isn't easy but it is interesting. I feel this week went really well and last week I feel like I would like a recap session on some of those test questions around Google Sheets.

Here is the link to my Mars site. It really needs to be less scrolly but I enjoyed trying new things on it.

Mission to Mars This is a link to a page we put all our sites on. I hope this shares ok because it will be so helpful to look at others learning. List of test sites.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read my post today. I really am very excited about what we learnt today. I feel like we are going to have a great start to the term with building my digital fluency. The students will directly benefit from all of the mahi we are putting and it is so exciting. I really feel like I have transitioned into a new stage of teaching and passion for my job has just been taken to the next level. Thank you everyone for your support and guidance.

Managing Media and CREATING a buzz in the classroom

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
• Anne Sinclair spoke to use about the importance of the CREATE. This is where the students get to be hands on, exploring, making things to share their understanding and knowledge. Provide experiences that enrich their involvement in the learning. Ms Sinclair mentioned how she set the task of learning about Auckland history. The students all complained and wanted to learn about Ancient Grease. She made the decision to base all of the learning around that one topic. Art, maths, music, writing, reading, sports, technology was all based around Ancient Grease. At the end of the topic the class celebrated with a Ancient Greek feast where they ate traditional food, performed plays, read stories and so on based on that topic. The learning was more powerful because the students had taken ownership and driven the project. There was also another example of a Year 13 class making a rap video about about the scientific concept of respiration.
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
• Using Google Drawings
• Using Google slides for animations.
• Linking documents, websites, readings, model text etc.
• Using Youtube to imbed learning playlists.
• Setting up a channel on Youtube.
• Recording videos, uploading to your Youtube account - make sure it is through your professional teaching account.
• How to livestream, delay livestream events. How to link a series of events videoed that are connected under the title of a playlist. Share the playlist with other teachers so they can add to the list. Share via email invite. click share.
• The three stages of Youtube 1) consumer (the opening page) 2 Creator (playlists) 3) Studio - where you set up live streams, upload videos.
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
• How to make an animation.
• How to create a playlist.
• How to imbed a playlist.
• How to setup task boards for groups linking activities and websites.
• How live stream.
• How to make a new professional Youtube account.
• When to use pnf pictures.
• What to keep in mind when making a slideshow.
• How to use Google Drawings.
• How to set up a task on Google Drawing for students.

Writing task example