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.

Maniakalani DFI: day 2 Workflow

At the start of the session we talked about all of the successes and challenges that we have had after our first session. Everyone found aspects of what we learned very helpful and most have implemented some things. I personally liked using remove.bg and headings with links when creating docs. It's always great sharing ideas with others and finding out they are travelling the same path as me and facing the same challenges with remembering everything.

Part 2 was about using Google Meet. This was a great way to remember how to use this effectively as we used this comprehensively during last years lockdown. Once again I had forgotten some of the tools you can use and also we learnt about the updates that have happened since I last used Meet.

The session with Dorothy Burt on the Maniakalani Pedagogy was very helpful, the following statement really sums up how I personally feel about the use of digital technology in schools.

Dorothy explained that the whole idea is for schools and Maniakalani to form a partnership where the school provides a localised and relevant curriculum and Maniakalani provide a support structure/framework. A very important point is that schools mix digital technologies with existing highly effective practices.

"Computers are not the silver bullet"

One thing I have noticed through working with the students for 4 years on the devices is how engaged they can become when you introduce them to new and exciting ways of learning through the use of their chromebooks. Reading is one area in particular where the level of engagement has increased, especially among boys and our lower readers. Dorothy backed this up when she stated that: 

"Great teaching + Digital Technology = Accelerated learning"

All of this means that we can 'Turbo Charge' teaching through the creation of activities that previously were never thought possible.

Things I'm happy about:

• Organising my Gmail account
• Using Google Meet
• Taming my tabs

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

• Working with Google Keep (I've never used this before)
• Using Google Calendar effectively, in particular appointment slots which will be great to remember ongoing appointments the students have (counselling etc), music lessons and sports lessons.
• Have a look at One tab to see if it would work for me.
• The session on creating a Meet, recording it and then embedding the presentation was really informative. I had never tried this before and will work out how we can use it with our students. Previously we have been hesitant to let the kids create Meets as we had problems over lockdown time with kids staying on the Meet and creating chaos. I also found out how to find an embed code for the Meet video as previously I couldn't work it out. The step I was missing was to open the video in another tab and then the embed code appears. Excellent.

 

Overall reflection of the day.

Today was another informative day with lots of opportunities to practise what we were learning. I particularly liked what Dorothy had to say about incorporating digital technologies into our already established teaching practices. I've always felt that chromebooks open up a whole new world for the learners and teachers but we mustn't forget how we managed and prepared for lessons before they (chromebooks) arrived. I have seen, many times in our studio, how the use of technology has increased the engagement levels in our students and how it really does help accelerate their learning.

.

Sharon, Vicki and Emily are always obliging and offer excellent tips to help us find our way through the Google maze.

Maniakalani DFI: Day 1 Core Business

I have been really excited about the DFI course and have been wanting to attend for a long time as I was one of the first in our school to work closely with Mark when we first joined Maniakalani 4 years ago (when DFI wasn't offered).

Day 1 has really re affirmed to me that over these years I have learnt a lot about using Google products and have become proficient in many areas. The exciting thing is that within the first day I have learnt new things that for a long time I have not been sure about. Things like using headings for links and creating table of contents, pasting without formatting, changing the language on my computer to Te Reo so that I can use macrons and how to create my own blog.

The way the course has been set out was also refreshing. Lots of short sharp lessons and strict timekeeping kept my interest levels up and the facilitators were more than helpful. All in all it was a very relaxed day.

It was really great to be able to put what I have learnt into practise and create a poster for our upcoming planting day using Google Docs as a creating tool rather than using Google Draw.

All in all, a great day.