Maniakalani DFI: Day 9 External Recognition

The last 8 weeks have been really helpful to me, especially fine tuning lots of the things that I had already been using. The session on using sheets was extremely helpful as now I feel a lot more comfortable using this and am now using sheets for all of my planning, which makes life far easier. Sharing ideas with others and seeing what they are doing has also benefited what I am doing, especially with my focus on T Shaped learning and making it rewindable. Lastly I have been very interested in Dorothy’s chats and learning more about the pedagogy of Maniakalani.

Today was the day for our Google exams. I felt relatively comfortable going into the exam as I had been using a lot of the Google tools already. The DFI sharpened everything up and I came out of it feeling confident that I have passed. One area that I wasn't too strong on was Google classroom. I managed to 'fudge' my way through it as I've always found that once you have used Google products they all seem pretty intuitive. I'll have another look at this in the coming weeks and see if it suits what we are doing in our studio.

There are a few things I want to look at further:

• I liked the idea of using Twinery for my advanced writers who are comfortable with using devices to create.
• I'm still not 100% with sheets - KEEP PRACTISING!
• Can our learning site be more streamlined where all of our pages are the same
• Use the skills I've learnt to help with my T Shaped literacy focus
• Make parents more aware of our site as well as letting them see how far their children have advanced in the digital world we live in.

I have had an excellent time over the last 9 weeks and have found the whole course invaluable. It all links really well with what we are doing at school and it has made me feel even more confident in leading my students along the digital path.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped along the way.

Maniakalani DFI: Day 6 Enabling Access

After last weeks session I went through our learning site to make sure everything was working as it should (links etc). I also created a NZ history page on the site that we will be able to add to and use as a resource in the coming years. I also began the process of my students organising their folders in Drive.

This session was all about Leading Learning with Class sites

Unfortunately I was sick on this day so I was unable to attend for the day. I made sure that I downloaded all of the relevant support material and read through it I found this really interesting as I have made an effort to make my site interesting for the students and easy to access the resources. I enjoyed looking at other sites and getting ideas for ours. After looking at these I felt really good about our site. It looks interesting and most things can be accessed in 3 clicks.

I used the rest of the week to make sure everything on our site was up to speed.

Maniakalani DFI: Day 8 Computational Thinking

Over the last week I have introduced the idea of a Matariki page as well as a T shaped literacy activity based on Matariki to the other teachers in my studio.. They thought it was a great idea to create a resource that we can keep and add to for the following years. During my observation from Sharon she was able to see the engagement levels and knowledge the students had built up through the use of T shaped literacy. It also helped me a few times over the week helping the students on their chromebooks after last week's practise on one.

This week is all about Computational Thinking.

The discussion at the start of our day is always informative as we get to hear about how the others are travelling along. Everyone is so much more confident and are trying lots of new things. I have asked to look at Anna's Matariki site that she has created recently to get some ideas for ours. Campbell another teacher in our group asked if he could make a copy of our T shaped Matariki slideshow as he really liked it. This is what it's all about, sharing ideas to make life easier.

We then looked at the Maniakalani Pedagogy of Empowered.

Dorothy firstly talked about the differences between Agency and Empowerment. Agency is a piece of educational jargon that has a negative connotation, especially with lower decile families due to their contact with agencies such as OT. Teachers were having to explain what agency is and that it is about empowering our students and whānau. 

"Lets use EMPOWERMENT!"

Communities in low social areas increasingly find it hard to feel empowered in this day and age due to low budgets. They are facing things like health issues and lack of quality health care, students arriving at school with mean performance levels of a 3 year old and 1/3 of students moving schools every year which leads to them feeling disempowered from the outset.

 

Students need to experience freedom which inevitably lead to empowerment. Digital technology has been proven to have the ability to set these children free. Our experiences through the lockdown gave a lot of empowerment to students. If they were not interested in what we were providing they would switch off and go onto Fortnite or Youtube as it was far more engaging. We noticed that and changed what we were doing due to the feedback we were getting.

I feel Rāwhiti School has done an exceptional job in empowering our learners by providing 1:1 devices. They are building their skills and knowledge around the use of digital tools and giving them every possible chance to feel success by enabling them to share their creations. It is also a great way for whānau to see the value of devices and the engagement that their children have.

We then looked at signing up to the Google Exams, which I am feeling confident about (at Level 1). It was really nice that Sharon went through the whole process and made us feel all very calm. Why not "Give it a go".

The next session was focussing on The future of tech.  Moral Machines website

What does future tech mean for our ākonga? Breakthrough Technologies

This was quite interesting as we looked at where technology is leading (AI, facial recognition, robotics etc) and what are the positives, what could go wrong and what values are involved. What is the outcome for our students who will be living with these technologies? I often think about how these technologies are going to affect education and what is going to be expected of us in the future. Are we going to have to teach our students how to cope in this new world? Are robots going to be the new teachers? What about privacy? Is the digital curriculum aimed towards these new technologies? 

This is where the next session with Vicky came in. She discussed Computational Thinking

Interesting points:

• Students should not just be users, but creators of digital solutions.
• The progress outcomes for the Digital Curriculum have to be are not reporting tools nor a recipe for what to teach, they are guides rather than maps. 
• It is geared to provide our ākonga with the best possible tools and knowledge for a life in a digital world
• There have been lots of resources created already to help with designing digital outcomes.
• It was interesting seeing where I am in the journey by looking at the Find out where you are on the journey - an example andragogy slideshow.

The afternoon session was focussed on coding and sorting and implementing it into our programmes. We were introduced to Twine which is an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. The lesson plan  really helped when creating interactive fiction. I really liked Twine and once I knew the basics found it easy to use. I will definitely show some of my students who I know have a passion for writing and this will give them another option when creating pieces of writing. I began creating my own story and I already have some great ideas for the students.

Things to sort out this week:

• Our admin won't let us insert add ons, I will chat with Elizabeth about this. 
• Show my advanced writers Twine and see how they fund using it.
• Make sure I'm clear with what is involved in the Google Exams next week.

Overall reflection of the day.

Today was quite interesting as I had to get my head around a few new things and be mindful of our learners at school. The question I have is 'Are we empowering our learners?' We are on a great path at school that we will continue to travel along it. It was quite a fast paced session with Viv and Maggie but I took out of it what I wanted and I will continue practise with Twine.

Thanks, Sharon, Emily, Viv and Maggie, this was another excellent day.

Maniakalani DFI: Day 7 Devices

Over the last 2 weeks I have been putting a lot of things into place. After the session on sites I went through our learning site to make sure everything was working as it should (links etc). I also created a NZ history page on the site that we will be able to add to and use as a resource in the coming years. I also began the process of my students organising their folders in Drive. During our learning conversations I showed parents our learning site and all of the resources that we have on there. I also chatted with my team about creating a Matariki page similar to the history page that I made. They liked the history page and I’ll do a similar one for Matariki.I also created a My Map of New Brighton landmarks for our students to follow on a walking trip we did last week.

This weeks session is all about Devices

As always we started with a check in on how everyone had been going over the last week. I was really interested in another teachers Matariki page they had created on their site, I got some excellent ideas for the page I am planning. Sharon helped me with the issue I was having with downloading photos from my iPad to my Drive, which was a lifesaver.

We then looked at the Maniakalani Pedagogy Ubiquitous

Vicki talked about how the learning we provide should be Ubiquitous and available anytime, anywhere, at any place by anyone. This is all about "Removing the walls of the classroom to allow for learning at anytime, not just from 9am - 3pm. I always refer to the learning during lockdown, but I think this is where the idea of rewindable and ubiquitous learning really came to the fore. We were able to connect with a lot of our learners through our site at anytime. My question that came out of this was "What about those students who are not connected at home?" We were in a relatively good position as we had been using our site and the students using chromebooks for learning. But over the lockdown it became obvious that we weren't really ubiquitous as a good chunk of our learners had to be sent the paper learning pack from the government and were missing out on the more interesting things that we were providing. At school we are lucky to have 1:1 devices, I suppose the question is "What do we do if there is another lockdown?". Do we loan school chromebooks out? Do we find other ways for whānau to get connected? Is the government responsible to find a solution?

Summer Learning Journey Success from Next Foundation

Research shows that providing Ubiquitous learning spaces accelerates the progress of learners that haven't been exposed to learning at home, especially in the lower decile areas. The only problem is that it is these families who traditionally struggle with providing devices and connectivity for the children. Technology allows us to remove some of the barriers and open up a whole new world of learning. In this respect when talking about chromebooks we need to remember:

In our Hapara hot tips we looked at Workspaces, which I hadn't used before. It was interesting to see that cards can be created where students can add resources, which would be beneficial for topic areas such as History, Matariki etc. These workspaces can also be embedded on our site so that is visible to whānau.

The Maniakalani 1:1 Devices Journey chat was interesting as we have found how much easier it is when our students have access to their own devices. The Maniakalani ethos of Partnership, Participation and Protection really underpins what we are aiming for:

"Providing the very best device for learning for EVERY young person"

I found the session on exploring Chromebooks (chromebook simulator) very informative as I often say to the kids "Yours is different than mine, how do you do that on a chromebook? The main thing I took away from this session was that chromebooks are a lot harder to use than my Macbook

We then got to have a session using Explain Everything (Manaiakalani iPad PLD Site ) we don't use this as our students are all on Chromebooks, but it's still great to learn how to use it if I need it in the future.

It was great looking at what students had created from other schools, to show me what our students could do.

This is my first Explain Everything project. I found it very easy to use and I can see how the juniors can use it and how usable it would be for younger children.

Things I'm happy with:

The session on Recording your screen through Screencastify showed me that I was ok with this. I did find out that my Screencastify isn't working properly, which I will get fixed when back at school.

I was interested to revise what I had done with Mark 3 years ago around the Cybersmart Curriculum. We have found over the years that this is a very important part of what we expose our learners to. Our students live in a digital world and they need to know what is appropriate and what is not for them to view online and the fact that their footprint will always be there.

I liked the following diagram which shows us as the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cybersafety. We can show them how to be safe and encourage them and their whānau to be responsible online. What underpins us is the technologies that are implemented by schools, BOT's and the ministry (N4L, Hapara etc) to keep the students safe and are educated in the ways of the net.

This session was a good refresher as we have always implemented this with our students.

Things to look at during this week that I'm not clear about:

The afternoon session was to create a lesson using Screencastify, Explain everything of Hapara Workspace

I decided to have a go at creating a Hapara Workspace as I've never done this before. My focus was "Creating Quality Blog posts". This is where I got to after an hour, I was happy with this function and will definitely create some more for the students to use.

Overall reflection of the day.

I found aspects of today's session quite challenging, from certain apps not working as they should to using tools that I haven't even thought about (Workspaces). I will need to play around with this quite a bit to make sure I am using it efficiently before I introduce it to the students. I was also glad to have a play with a chromebook as now I feel a bit more confident in answering questions that they may have. Once again this has been an informative day where I have learnt lots of things I could bring into the classroom.

Thanks Sharon, Emily and Vicky

Maniakalani DFI: Day 5 Collaborate - Sites

During the term I have found that I am learning lots of great tips on how to make myself more efficient when using digital tools. Over the last week I practised a lot with Sheets and used quite a few of the things I learnt last week. My planning is now all on sheets and I really found things like freezing a column so it’s always in view, pulling cells across to duplicate them and creating new tabs by duplicating them for the next week's planning.

Maths Planning Literacy/Reading Planning

I also showed some of my students the functions on My Maps that could help them create a presentation on early settler migration to NZ.

This week's session is all about Collaborative Teaching and Learning

The first part was as always checking in with each other and seeing how we are progressing. By the sounds of it everyone is giving it a go and using their new digital tools. A great idea I heard from another teacher was using google forms as a way of finding out where in the world our families are from. This would tie in really well with our 'Belonging' theme.

We then looked at the Maniakalani Pedagogy Visible Kaupapa.

Dorothy spoke about how everything we do should be visible to all (students, teacher, schools, whanau, caregivers). She feels, and I agree with, that the lack of transparency with what we taught the kids back in the day led to a decline in achievement levels. Making everything visible means the students and whānau don't have to read our minds

What it used to be...

...and now!

It is important that we show the students and whānau the entire learning process from planning to assessment process. The use of Digital tools such as sites has meant we can 'Turbocharge the Classroom' and we all can access our learning at anytime and anywhere. Barriers can be removed so that everything is:

Accessible > Available > Advance

If I have learnt anything from today it is:

Be Visible

The next part on Multi Modal. I feel is where as a school we have progressed a lot over the last few years with all of us reworking our sites to make them as accessible as possible to all learners and learner types. 

What I took out of this session:

• Allows for increased engagement.
• It allows different ways to pass on the same message depending on the learner types.
• Sites create "An exciting shop window for learning" that 'HOOKS' the leaner in and makes it interesting and relevant.
• Our job is to create an 'Inspirational Window to Learning'
• I really enjoyed the video from CORE Education's Chrissie Butler where she talks about Universal Design for Learning. I liked where she said that "Should every student have to use the same digital tool to show their learning when they may prefer and feel more comfortable using another?

"Different Hooks to Engage Different Learners"

This all links in well with our focus of implementing T-Shaped literacy this year. We have been mindful of catering with the different learning styles within our students. We have used a range of texts, video and audio to support the students. This is an example of where we are at:

I liked this video which really enforces what we are doing.

 

 Things I'm happy with:

• Hapara Hot Tips was about looking at the Sharing Tab. Once again I found it a good reminder, especially looking at the unshared tabs as a reminder for them to file their docs in the correct folders.
• The session where we looked at other school sites made me realise that we are doing a great job with our studio site as well as getting good ideas to implement.
• How to set up a site with Vicky was also an opportunity for me to learn a couple of simple things that will make life easier. Finding out about the preview function, anchor image and the copy published site link button are wonderful.
• Remembering about the Multi Text Database that was created by Angela Moala and added to by other teachers. It is a great resource especially with our focus on T-Shaped literacy. I was interested in reading the slideshows by Dr Aaron Wilson & Dr Rebecca Jesson about T-Shaped literacy (Show 1. Show 2.)

I was happy with the quick website on financial literacy I created using Google Sites as I was able to insert docs, pdf's, video, audio books etc and practise what I will be doing with T-Shaped literacy.

https://sites.google.com/rawhiti.school.nz/how-to-be-good-with-your-money/home

Things to look at during this week that I'm not clear about:

• After looking at our own site I found a couple of things that I want to change up. I really liked the idea of having a dedicated site to one topic (ie Waitangi Day) and plan on creating these.
• How can I make the learning more visible to whānau?
• Start using the Multi Text Database as a way to save time when planning.

Overall reflection of the day.

Another great day, especially the words from Dorothy. I have really changed my opinions on how much we share with the students and their family. With how we use digital tools it has become increasingly easy to accommodate the families and the students having their own blog has allowed them to share lots with the world.

Thanks for the excellent day Vicky, Emily and Sharon.

Manaiakalani DFI: Day 4 Dealing With Data

This week we were back as a group face to face, which I prefer. In our sharing session it is obvious that everyone are giving things a go and are extremely positive about implementing new things. Over the last week I  I showed the students the easier way of inserting a Google Drawing onto their blog by downloading it as an image first. I also shared the slideshow on Solar Energy that was created by a student. I thought this was a very effective use of animations. I also kept emphasising to the students that school should be fun! I tried with Google Keep but have realised that at the moment it is not for me.

This session is all about Dealing With Data

The session with Dorothy was all about Maniakalani's pedagogy in relation to Share. This has been a huge focus for us , especially since all of the home learning we did last year and noticing the power of students sharing their creations on their blogs or through Hapara. The students feel really empowered when the know that someone is looking at their work.

"Connected Learner's Share"

As Dorothy stated, sharing has always been around whether it's art on the walls, productions, newsletters etc and as such we don't need to shove digital tools down the students throat for them to be able to share. Once again we need to use them as one of the tools that allow students to share in real time.with not only the school community but to the greater world audience. 

It's all about sharing with purpose

Why we use Blogger.

At our school we have been using Blogger for 4 years and our students have become very proficient in using their blogs to share their learning with a wider audience. I love the fact that it gives more purpose to their learning as well as connecting with friends/family across the world. One father who lives in England is so happy that he is able to access what his daughter is doing in real time. I liked it when Dorothy said: 

"Sharing can be the start of new learning, not just the finish"

We have really embraced the idea of sharing throughout our school across all curriculum areas, whether it's during DMIC maths sessions, writing they have completed, or things they find out during inquiry cycles.

I was really interested in the session on Google Forms as we have used them recently in Maths for our statistics unit. The students really enjoyed using this and loved the way it created the graphs. Here is an example of what they created.

We then got to create our own Google Form Survey and then I inserted this onto my site, which I didn't realise I could do.

Things I'm happy about:

• Hapara Hot Tips once again was a good refresher to various aspects of using Dashboard. I learnt what the green pencil means (unpublished)
• Google My Maps: I learnt quite a few new things about maps such as:

Changing map types

Linking from Google Forms results

Adding images to markers

It is a lot like using Tour Builder

• Using Blogger with our students.

My Map

 

Things to look at during this week that I'm not clear about:

• Before this session I had mentioned quite often that I find  Google Sheets difficult and I needed to upskill myself due to the fact that we are now using them more and more for lanning etc. I liked the way we went step by step while creating our own sheet. I learnt these things:

How to highlight a whole column/graph

Using the Grab Hand 

Freezing A column so that is always visible even when scrolling

How to use the calculations tool to get totals, averages etc

Create a chart using the data I have entered and insert it on the sheet

I really liked the session where we were able to split into groups to focus on to our individual needs. I decided to go right back to the start as I'm not confident with using Sheets. I went through the Sheets on Speed slideshow, which is what the Google exam is about and I feel confident that I can pass.

During the coming week I plan on exploring sheets a lot more as well as introducing the things we could create using MyMaps.

Overall reflection of the day.

I really liked today's session as I learnt so much about using Google Sheets. Once again it was great listening to Dorothy about the pedagogy behind sharing. Emily, Sharon, Vicky and Dorothy did another great job and I can't wait for next week.

Maniakalani DFI: Day 3 Media

 This week was our at home day where we met using Google Meet. I found this relatively easy as we did lots last year during lockdown. The first part was in our bubble groups dicussing what went well etc. It's great to hear what the others are up to. Ilisa mentioned how good Google Keep is for making notes etc, I'll have a good look at this.

Over the last week I have implemented quite a few things that have made my life easier. These include using tables in google docs to create interesting documents for the students. I have always found Docs a bit limiting and this was a simple solution. I've also started using remove.bg a lot more when creating documents. It makes the documents look really cool!

The second part looking at Hapara hot tips. This was a good refresher as we use this lots at school.

Todays session with Dorothy was about Create: 

What is Creativity?

"Creativity empowers our learners"

Once again Dorothy emphasised that digital technology is a tool to use not the answer. Creativity has always occurred and is entirely possible without a chromebook. Digital technology enables students to: 'Capture ➢ Share ➢ Turbocharge'

Allowing for creativity in our students, not just everyone doing the same thing, enables all of them to learn in their own ways in relation to thinking and forming original ideas.

"HOOK THEM INTO LEARNING"

I have often said that school doesn't seem as fun as it used to be. Over my 17 years in teaching I have seen many changes in what the expectations of students and teachers are. I don't know if it is since the introduction (and demise) of National Standards, an overcrowded curriculum where things keep getting added but not much removed, expectations of parents/caregivers changing..... the list goes on, but we seem to have only worried about reporting on levels in maths and literacy not how much fun the children are having and what things they get to create using their own strengths and interests. Creativity was sidelined in the pursuit of raising standards by constant testing and reporting. The question I have is:

Is school fun?

I really liked it when Dorothy explained that being creative through the use of digital tools has allowed kids to share their thinking/creations around the world and not just the school community (or in a book or on the wall of a classroom where very few people can see them. This really gives purpose to what the students are creating. The more I listen to Dorothy the more I love her ideas on the road forward for our learners. My moto has always been:

"My job is to make them want to come to school, have fun and then they will learn"

From this discussion I feel the aim is to

  'Bring creativity back into the classroom'

Things I'm happy about:

• Using Google Slides. I really liked the animation Solar Energy that a student had created at St Patrick's school. I will look at doing similar with my students. One thing I did learn was to use the little blue camera on the top of the slide to record a video and insert it straight away. Nice!
  
  
• Creating using Google Draw. I quickly had to whip up an example for the reliever taking my groups today using Draw. This only took 5 minutes. I find it very easy to use. I also looked at the tutorial about creating a cartoon of a photo using Draw. This was really informative and I will definitely give it a go with my students.
• Creating a basic animation on slides 

Things to look at during this week that I'm not clear about:

• Creating animations on slides similar to Solar Energy 
• Look at Wevideo and explore the features.
• How to utilise Youtube channels and save playlists that I can use in future rather than always searching for resources. Change the settings to unlisted video and turn the comments off for security reasons.
• Google Meet won't let me share my screen all of a sudden. I will look at this and check with our techy at school.

Overall reflection of the day.

Today was quite different in the fact it was completely online. I found it easy to work my way through the tutorials etc. I prefer the face to face sessions as I don't like being stuck alone all day looking at a screen. The main thing I took away from today was Dorothy's words about schools losing their creativity and fun. I have felt this for a few years now and it excites me to know that I am not the only one.

Once again this was a well run session and Sharon, Vicki and Emily were as always easy to follow and very helpful.