DFI Day 9: Reflecting and Certification Day (aka Google Exam)

 

 

 

Celebrate Good Times!

A young teacher I knew years ago would play this song as students entered her classes for any type of assessment - it was her audio cue to destress and signal assessment.  She singlehandedly tried to turn testing into a positive moment to celebrate showing what you have learned.  I always loved that and enjoy sharing it with you.  (Might need to find a new updated song though). 

Reflecting:  

Today was a lovely day to reflect and share with colleagues and the facilitators with how far we have come as individuals and as a group regarding our own comfort, confidence and risk-taking within our varied pedagogical and educational roles.  For me it was also a great opportunity to meet with other teachers in the Horowhenua area who teach in so many different roles - some primary, working within a teen mom program, learning support and ORS students (aka Bases, or low incidence), as deputy principals, wider roles within a region supporting Māori Language learners, and even connected to the Ministry.  This did surprise me at first as I thought the DFI programme may not be as tailored to our unique needs and roles.  However, I now think that it is a strength of the programme - not only does it enable educators of varied backgrounds and experiences to share, but also to learn and problem-solve with other educational professionals.  As the most recent NZ educator, except for the rookie NZ superstar, this also helped me to understand more of how the New Zealand Education system works.  

One thing I think Manaiakalani should consider adding to our repertoire for senior students, teachers and perhaps whanau / community education, would be a cybersmart social media course.  Too many of our young people and young adults, older adults too, are using social media platforms as consumers and creators.  Often we are not fully aware of how these work, mine our data and can be both a tool to connect, share, market, but also spread dis- / mis-information, scam and harm individuals, organizations, reputations and even our systems.  While we can't solve the world's problems with social media / online abuses and misuses - we could start small and start local with common tools, like facebook, twitter and Instagram. Cyber smart curriculum could also have a branch for the online dating and use of professional networking tools or sites like Linked In. 

THE TEST - Level 1 Google Certified Educator

Whew!  Done, done and dusted! Happy that is over.  I was surprised how stressful parts of the exam seemed even though I was fairly confident going in - it was open book (read Google) too and had lots of time to complete.  However, a few questions had wordings that were out of date with the tools they  referenced, which was frustrating and challenging.  Several questions had some very confusing wording that made it difficult to feel confident.  In the end, I got there.  Yay for me and my colleagues - Level 1 done.  I have also signed up for Level 2 - I just need a break before I tackle that one too. 

DFI Day 8: Computational Thinking

 Manaiakalani Kaupapa (Pedagaogy):

I know I have writing a fair bit about the pedagogical, or teacher talk, aspects (the hows and whys) of becoming more openly visible with our learning in class moving beyond the walls of the classroom, or "flattening the walls of the classroom" to use an early 2000s term. It has helped me to relay my thinking, my questions, concerns and observations.  I hope I model that for students too - to learn well is to grapple with it all. Thank you for including this in the DFI days.

This week's kaupapa has focused on the EMPOWERED aspect of our new and improved "Ubiquitous Hybrid Learning" model.  Now in 2022, we forget perhaps how much our devices, our TOOL actually enables us to do more, better, faster, and sometimes opens doors and creative critical thinking beyond our expectations.  That is not to devalue all our other learning, at home, in nature, social and otherwise, but is to say in our modern day world we need to remember these devices do offer opportunity to connect globally, create and share widely, enable access for so many, empower individuals and communities.  This includes teachers.  Sure... you've got my "buy-in."

In every school staffroom, there are the "luddites" timid or slower to learn and /or adapt to the many devices and tools we are asked to become familiar with, there are the teachers who hesitate, because maybe they did not sign up to teach online - just teach kids, or the "tech savvy" or "early adopters" who may be intimidating without even knowing it.  We need to help each other let go of such "old school" terms, to enable each other to become empowered in their own way, on their own timetable and with support.  Just as we do with students - DFI helps us do that.  DFI Starts where we may have experience already, email, drive, etc,... 

.....and then.....

Ends with COMPUTATIONAL THINKING!  

Ok... this was my 1970's wish for today!  This year, George Jetson is being born....Crazy!

And this is where we are today...

I am not going to lie, today's deep dive made me feel extra old and amazed too at the power and creativity of people everywhere.  

Today made me realise how much I have seen in my shorter time and how much I really need to embrace teaching and learning the bigger skills or competencies - some call soft skills (communication, critical and creative thinking, literacy, numeracy, collaboration, ...).  I loved exploring our Deep Dive Presentation today - thank you! here it is for you to enjoy and revisit: Deep Dive - the Future of Tech 

I also do struggle with ethical dilemmas that technology proposes at times.  This simulation provides some interesting practice to consider moral quandries.  Check out the Moral Machine.

On an aside - reflecting...

This past week - the Queen has also passed.  After 70 years of service, 96 years of age, she has seen and done a lot. I reflect on how far she and women have come in leadership.  I also struggle to reconcile that with how some are still fighting for equitable treatment across the globe. Education is empowering - gives people voice and choice.  Devices are an important part of continuing to bring that equity, access and empowerment across gender, race, culture, socioeconomic situation or geography. 

Create Time:  

I enjoyed learning to play with Minecaft, and making little animals dance to music.  I enjoyed making my poem come alive with some animation (I can't find it at the moment but will look that up again. Maybe someone can remind me where that is?)  The Exploring Coding and Computational Thinking was fun and frustrating at the same time.  I am definitely of the generation that needs more time to play.  

My biggest frustration came with this simple dot coding game - the English teacher in me is still disagreeing with some of the coding language.  I need to work on this more. Give it a go - click on the image or if that does not work try here See if you agree with me!

Thank you very much for the opportunities to share, learn, struggle alongside a wonderful group of educators and with a very patient, helpful team of facilitators.  Kind, encouraging and optimistic even when we challenged you.  I am glad you challenged me too! I don't want to miss anyone on the Manaiakalani team as I know there are so many of you working behind the scenes, infront of us online and in person, in our schools and beyond.  Such a great program - happy I could take part.  

Update:  21/9/2022

Found a screenshot of my animating my poem - not as ideal as being able to run it, but still evidence of playing and coding.  Baby steps are still steps :)

DFI Day 7: Devices

Today was a day to put ourselves in our learners' seats using the devices the students use most - Chromebooks and ipads.  Before we continue down that path, we return to unpacking the "why" or the Manaiakalani Kaupapa (pedagogy) further.

Today's Manaiakalani Kaupapa:

Today we focus on devices being "more than just a TOOL"  enabling and empowering learning to be UBIQUITOUS (great word says the English teacher in me!). Clicking the image should give you access to the slides that accompanied today's Manaiakalani kaupapa chat:

I like coming back to this image because I am now understanding it better and better. Reminder -  the lowest level is the foundation (infrastructure necessary to hold up the rest), the top layer is the floorboards that students, whanau (families), community should be able to see as visible (Learn,Create, Share), and the middle layer (Connected, ubiquitous, visible, empowered) are the joists.  Joists are important to connect the solid foundational knowledge, skills, tools of all involved (research-based data, community resources and educator/expertise) to the Learners in the whare (house). 

Ubiquitous Learning - is it the newer Hybrid Learning Model?

Today's image really speaks to the nature of what teaching and learning has become more and more in the last few years as we were forces through crises problem solving living and teaching through a global pandemic, to try and ensure learning continued.  This shifts the 2022 hybrid model of teaching and learning to moving far beyond the initial pre - 2020 "flipped classroom" models.  Flipped classrooms tried to engage students to do the readings or film viewing at home and use class time for the important collaborative and communication rich learning experiences.  Focus in class could focus on the skills, the lessons and the practice whilst the things students could do without as much support, like reading and watching (secondary level) could be completed at home.  Whether you agree or like this model at all, it did propose different ways to approach learning beyond "homework" tasks being completed at home without help. 

Is it working?

The current model A4 (can't figure out the superscript yet) = Anywhere, Anytime, Anyone, and Any Pace is absolutely where educators and the our new Covid prompted "hybrid" learning should be. In an ideal world - embracing ubiquitous A4 learning with our lessons and learning visible, rewindable, accessible anywhere, any time and at any pace, should enable and empower students and families to not only achieve their academic goals, but perhaps surpass our outdated class-only based learning. As a school supported by Manaiakalani with all the infrastructure and devices, this could be happening.  

How do we engage our learners, their whanau (family), and our educational communities to work better together for our akonga (students)? 

However, surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising, I have so far found this model to be a struggle for students and families to "buy in" fully.  In class teachers continuously struggle to maintain student attention or focus on ask / learning, partly due to the device access/use, and perhaps also due to the nature of learning being a social experience for most.  Perhaps our youths struggled during past lockdowns so much with the lack of connection with peers, so it has become an even greater challenge to regain their focus in school when peer relationships and fun are more appealing.  Out of school, despite our efforts to make the learning ubiquitous (A4) family commitments, home life, and living conditions may prevent the "buy-in," or perhaps there is a complete difference of opinion on what ubiquitous hybrid learning means.  My observations are not intended to lay blame, but perhaps push myself and others to work more with our communities to figure out (perhaps gain more data) where the "disconnect" is occurring for A4 learning to be valued by all.  My feeling is we need to have more open korero together.  How do we connect and engage our communities further with this conversation?  

Possible solutions for some of our students:

• Did you know there was a summer program using our blogs as a base for some summer creative learning?
• Did you know if you are travelling or out in the "wop wops" (aka Canadian translation - boondocks, woods, middle of no where) you can now get the "internet in a box" -about the size of a suitcase!

Moving on to being a learner on student devices:

Hmmm.. so this is where, of course I consider myself fairly educated and would have /should have known, learning on a Chromebook is very different from my PC or MacBook. But from hotkeys to navigating Hapara and other sites, I have learned it can be a lot different. So, like anything, I will need practice and may consider using them more often to be better able to help students.

Ipads -   It had been ages since I have used an iPad so I did not get enough time to explore that tool.  However, I was ok with that as we don't have them at my school as far as I know.  

My favourite activity - was the simple but very necessary "Digital Dig" - I do plan to use this and I think it could be great to set up a page or site for parent help or "Chromebook Hot Tips" like the "Hapara Hot Tips"  we have enjoyed here. Perhaps some of the community "buy-in" I discussed above, is partly due to a lack of confidence on devices themselves. 

I think the Chromebook simulator could also help.  Thanks for sharing that too!

Finally - Cybersmart Learning

I loved the shift in language from digital awareness, digital safety and digital citizenship - to me they are all varying levels of becoming digitally literate - smart online consumers and creators.  I am looking forward to exploring and including some of the Cybersmart lessons to my classes.  I also liked the idea of shifting the language to more positive terms like being smart learners, building smart relationships, understanding what it is to create a smart footprint.  Words do shift thinking when we use the same language.  

Cybersmart lessons are here to stay and we can't forget that as digitally fluent our students appear to be, they need to be taught to be cybersmart.  Some need to gain confidence as a cybersmart student to feel confident and able to engage online.  My only concern I have had has been around -where does this fit in the curriculum?  So far as I can tell, it is meant to be embedded, or ubiquitous, in all curricular areas.  But if everyone assumes students are being taught x,y, and z elsewhere, chances are it is not and students will be missing pieces.  Sometimes it is assumed to be the responsibility of either digital /computer technologies or part of the "home" - parental responsibilities.  In an ideal world, this would be great - but we also know that some of our families are not comfortable online.  I think it is important for schools to decide how to share the load so as not to repeat too often, but also to reinforce and support each other in making being cybersmart as important as being literate.  I am not sure where this conversation needs to start.  Suggestions welcome.

How do I know this is just as important as other curriculum?  I learned with my students, modeled with them too.

When I first began blogging years ago in Canada, we learned together with a few devices at a time in class.  We spent a fair bit of time learning to be digitally fluent by trial and error, exploring (hmmmm... part of the Manaiakalani DFI day structure), discussing and problem solving together with my students.  Sometimes this meant revisiting our "why" and purpose behind our blogging to remind each other that the blogs were for our specific learning goals.  (to start - as I was cautiously timid too - we set 1 focus at a time. Eg. writing responses, mystery skype, building our class collaboration and community).

When students tried to challenge that the blogging was the problem - we listed all the issues they said were the fault of the technology, wifi, devices or blogging platform,.... and discovered, most of their "problems" were more learner based (work habits) not device, online or blogger based.  This was a big AHA moment for that year 10 class who tried to lay blame elsewhere.  

Then... full buy-in and their writing and engagement really improved.  Growing pains with devices as well as learning to be cybersmart after being told how many scammers, cyberbullies and other "bad" people were online.  Students were more open to keeping our focus, learning to respond if there was an inappropriate comment, using settings, and connecting globally.  

I apologise for not sharing a "create" task today - I was as guilty as my students.  I blame the Manaiakalani crew  for  luring me into my own "rabbit hole" exploring the "Wonderland" of the Cybersmart resources.  

 

DFI Day 6:  Enhancing our Google Sites

Manaiakalani Kaupapa story continues...

These slides from the morning's Manaiakalani Pedagogy Story - remind us the world our students are living in is always a connected one.  As such, our teaching and learning needs to be part of that process too.  Key slides for me in the Connected set shared today by Dorothy Burt of Manaiakalani   While this slide emphasises the gist of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa, the image with the foundational concepts and practices of Learn, Create, and Share being supported by the joists below, the support offered by Manaiakalani in our schools to help us learn with technological tools being ubiquitous, connected, visible and empowering for students, families, colleagues and the community.  

One aspect I had not considered - until today, yet seems obvious now, is the more I use sites or hapara or any tools to make the learning visible from anywhere, any time and any place, the more I will be able to spend less time "teaching the - what we are going to do today" and more time in the more important learning conversations with students - facilitating learning, questioning, and working with students. While I know I have made progress with this, in general,  I have not yet met one of the main goals of teaching students - using the technology tools to help students become more self-reliant, independent and in charge of their learning. Some of my class routines and structures will change to better facilitate this in class.  Prior to today, I had not considered how further "empowering" students in this manner will allow me to have deeper, more valuable learning conversations with my students. More 1:1 and small group discussions means deeper connections with students and hopefully, better outcomes. 

Afternoon: Leading the Learning with Google Sites

Much of the afternoon was spent exploring sites and considering these elements from our "Leading the Learning with Google Sites" slide set shared by Vicki from Manaiakalani.

This slide reinforces the idea that the research has shown as students become more independent with their learning online, the student experiences with the teacher can also be more personalized - engaging in teaching and learning conversations.  More "guide on the side" style vs the older "sage on the stage" style of teaching.  Both still have merit, but in today's world it is easier to address learning needs as well as the greater synchronicity we have been challenged with during the pandemic.  

Goals to work towards as my sites progress.

I am going to commit to making this shift to using Class sites as my main learning platform for at least 1 class in 2023. This will likely be for my junior classes - Humanities 9.  But, who knows, maybe I will gain enough confidence to try using sites as my primary learning access point for all my classes.

Exploring time:   These sites offered a lot of inspiration - thank you!

"Shout Outs" 

I like the simplicity and clarity of this site in particular - also in my subject area. 

Repetitive structure - easy to follow and clear for anyone who wishes to "see" into your classroom. 

Learning Goals, Content, Tasks. 

*This site is one of the ones that have convinced me I can "hook" learners without it being too busy or confusing, yet still attractive and appealing.

 Hornby High English and Media

I am still exploring these sites but each have some interesting features I have not yet tried - from collapsible content and buttons.  Some even have moving headers!  More learning to do!

Create time for Me:  

Sad to say - today was mostly a pen/paper planning day for me thinking of my bigger questions in the hopes of being able to sort out some of my questions.  I still have some reservation about switching from Hapara as my main learning "platform" but want to give it a go and compare next year. I have now a plan for structuring my layout and class sites.

Next Challenge - how do I want students to use their blogs in Humanities (or any course)?  This one is still percolating and processing in discussions - mostly in my head, to be honest, but considering discussing in my departments too.

I have also been thinking a lot about the sharing aspect for students and how their blogs may become their digital portfolios. My students so far have been reluctant to blog, but I am working on this and hope to embed it more regularly next year. 

However, one of my "wonderings" is around the empowerment aspect of sharing work.  To be truly empowering, we would want students to have choice in what they post.  To fit more Manaiakalani pedagogy - the more we share, data shows student learning accelerates.  I noticed this with my own students over 10 years ago teaching in Surrey, BC and using Blogger with my classes (we did not have sites -I don't think).  We usually started or used the blogging for one purpose at a time - eg. literature circle groups, or Law 12 discussion groups. My students also noticed their writing and engagement increased - as well as their interest in presenting and sharing "cool stuff" within their blogs - from games, videos and other little widgets.  We learned together and I am thankful for those early days and now the DFI course and Manaiakalani to further my own practice. 

Here are some of my rambling thoughts and questions:

Should their digital portfolios be more process focussed?
        Consistent posting on blogs would help with that. 

Or more "showcase" and summative in nature?  

        Students selecting towards the end of term to showcase their learning and reflections on their 

        own progress. 

In this case - perhaps a Google Site may be a better option? 

Or a combination - process work on main pages and published "proud" works on summative / showcase pages?  

Solutions discussed today suggested - to use the blogs for both digital showcase portfolios and ongoing process assignments.  How to do this without pages (like in Sites) instead use tags and labels on their blog posts.

This should work - but will it be as appealing and intuitive to find as they would be on Google Site pages?  

This might be a great conversation to have as a school - for some consistency around blog posting and doc labelling.  EG. student initials and course code / year  at the beginning of all posts or docs?

Example:  VLS HMT9A - Types of government 2022

                   VLS SCI 9A - Flora and Fauna of NZ 2022

Thinking - we are already having some consistency across our Hapara workspaces with Learn, Create, Share and adding New Pedagogies for Deep Learning Practices to our planning.  Perhaps a conversation around something like labelling our work, filing in folders and sharing on blogs would help us overall as a school.  "Singing from the same song page creates beautiful music, even when we sing in different melodies and beats."

I will be looking at a few more sites this week for sure - Waiopehu College (our hosts for DFI F2F Horowhenua 2022 Term 3 - has some great sites and ideas too!  I love their theme unit titles like Guts and Glory! 

Watch this space!

DFI Day 5: Collaborating and Creating with Google Sites

 Today's Manaiakalani Kaupapa 

Part I: Making the learning Visible - all aspects!

In earlier years, it has been well established that often student's way to success in school has been trying to figure out the GWITH of the lesson - "Guess What's In the Teacher's Head?" This is true from the planning, the lessons and learning, to the assessment. Often parts have been visible to different people at different times.  Eg.  Parents receive the end reports and sometimes the lesson activities when they help their children with the work, students work on the middle processes - the learning and assessing, and the teachers start from the beginning through to the end.  This also means that those who learned to "do school" could do well and those that could not or did not have support were left lost. 

At Ōtaki College, some of us use Hapara and some use Google Classroom as their main platforms for managing student work.  This is in addition to our class sites - which some teachers use as the learning platform for student or parent access, but others, like myself, have used my class site as a more static site for information with links to the actual work.  You can see this here on my varied class sites for 2022.  

VLS HMT 9A 2022        VLS English 10-O        VLS SOC 10T        VLS English L1

To be kind to myself - I had to learn very quickly how to make sites during lockdown.  I was able to do this with the generous assistance of my colleague tutoring me through a Google Meet session, and several Manaiakalani toolkit sessions that I used to "upskill" myself as last year was my first year at ŌC.   I decided to make things manageable - by having the only real "live" or changing parts of my class sites being my "Daily Planner" slide shows that detail our learning daily with links to guide students. This seemed satisfactory and working.

However, after today's session I am once again rethinking using Hapara as the main learning access site and instead switching to my Class site - considering the "store window analogy" in the video below. To attract engagement and make things simpler for students and their whanau - class sites may be the more user friendly option as they will be similar to other sites most are familiar with.  

However, I am also conscious that the layout of Hapara does lend itself to making things easier for those students who need a clear and repetitive structure so as not to get too distracted by the "bling" you can use in class sites.  Additionally, students are not the best at creating docs, naming them and filing them.  But... that is partly my fault for not establishing this at the beginning of the year in our routines.  

One negative aspect about class sites is that we need to recreate them each year for each class.  This is more work in some ways.  This is in addition to setting up Hapara workspaces, Google classroom (which I use as a backup- and to communicate quick reminders to students).  

 

So where to from here? 

My class sites are already mostly visible.  (So yay!)  

        Students can access their learning through my class sites and see the tasks and resources linked. 

             But I can make things even more clear.  

                    I am looking forward to next week when we will be "boosting" our class sites, 

                    or starting fresh.  

DFI Day 5 - Part II:  Collaborating and Creating Multi-Modal Sites

One part of the learning that has not always been visible or accessible to students, whanau and the wider world has been the teacher planning aspect.  Students are usually provided with content or skills to develop using content, and sometimes a learning goal or Big Question / Inquiry Question to Explore in a unit.  While most teachers I know are fully aware of the complexity of trying to meet the diverse needs of our learners, as well as find resources to attract student attention, today was review of T-shaped Literacy and planning with multi-modal texts.  In simplified teacher speak for students and parents, T-shaped literacy means providing access for students to broaden their understanding of a topic with a variety of types of texts and perspectives and deepen their understanding with varied complexity in the content.  You can read more about it here.  

Last year I attended a Toolkit session facilitated by Manaikalani and they, in collaboration with the  Woolf Fisher Research Centre, had some quick and clear resources to explain this concept with a slightly different slant on the types of texts we should try to aim for in our planning of content.  Take a look at their videos. 

T-shaped literacy marries well with using multi-modal texts to find as many ways as possible to allow students access to content.  T-shaped literacy and planning to include multi-modal texts are not so much new concepts in teaching and learning, but building upon or reframing from earlier educational practices.  My early teaching days used Bloom's Taxononomy and Gardener's Multiple Intelligences (now considered somewhat debunked) as ways to remind us to provide as many opportunities as we can for students to learn, develop and practice their skills.  Later, we were reminded again with language shifting to "differentiating" to meet the needs of all our learners.  How T-shaped literacy differs slightly  is in the description of the 4 types of texts.  Instead of multi-modal in terms of genre, text type and difficulty level, they use the types of texts described below, on the understanding that teachers will already be differentiating to meet the needs of their learners. 

Scaffolding Texts:  Introduce the Topic (content), "hook" student interest, 

set purpose or goal (best with a question) and introduce key new or topic specific vocabulary.

*Accessible (multi-modal), key concepts and vocabulary

Complimentary Texts: texts with similar perspectives or building upon the knowledge of the topic.  

 Challenge Texts - provide alternative points of view or questions to further student critical thinking on a topic.  Cause tension with students to push them to think beyond their own perspectives or the most common perspectives.

Student Choice Texts - allowing options for students to explore.  These will be texts students choose to fit their goal / purpose of their task or unit concepts. 

With this in mind, NZ Teacher, Dave Winter, along with many others, have put together this starting database to help teachers share resources and plan with this T-shaped multi-modality in mind.  

Today, a group of us collaborated and gathered resources that might be used for a "language feature focus through the use of stories with twisted endings.  You can see our collected resources here.  Keep in mind, our goal was to collaborate and gather resources quickly as a means to the introduction of creating a class site.  

From those resources, we spent the afternoon playing and setting up a new site - you can see mine linked to the screenshot below:

I chose to make this site as a single page site.  I can see that this one has a simpler, therefore more intuitively user-friendly layout, and has a bit more appeal in colours, images and selections.   This one includes all aspects of the planning and content.  The only thing missing is the actual tasks - and this is only because it is a demo practice site and not one I will have added the student learning tasks to... yet.  I think this shows some further interest and development using the T-shaped literacy multi-modal design.  I hope it shows further growth than my first sites linked above.   Suggestions are always welcome!

I am looking forward to learning more tips and tricks to continue my sites' development. 

Data Day at DFI - Day 4.....

Data Day at DFI Day 4 Horowhenua F2F Cohort:

I have to admit, I was not keen on today's topic but thankfully found it more useful than I thought it might be for me as an English and Social Sciences teacher.  Lots of opportunities in Social Sciences to play with different data but less so in English.   

Manaiakalani Pedagogy:  "Share" Images and Key Take-aways.

1. Sharing - Overcoming sharing online because we are not wanting or used to having an audience... basic nerves.

 

This image is one that I may use with my classes to remind students that actually, people have always shared 

• 1:1 --> 
• in small groups -->  their friends and whanau
•  in front of larger audiences --> in an assembly, athletic or cultural performance
• and now online --> globally

The Why:

Sharing online helps remind us that any engagement with others will have a purpose and an audience. Even when we "hang with our friends" we will be connecting, learning and communicating all the time.  Perhaps this week I propose to students that we need to let go of the idea that our work online (or in class) needs to be "perfect" or "right." We, teachers, also need to open up to the idea and model making mistakes online and problem-solving, just as much as we do "in person" in our classes.  

How?  

1. Shifting from a "fearful/overly cautious" place to a more "mindful and purposeful" mindset.  Our language matters.

Instead of being fearful of sharing to a world wide audience through our blogging, we could change our language and our mindset.   Blogging and sharing our work is an opportunity to develop our skills to attract an audience.  Responses will help us figure out how to attract viewers and readers who want to share ideas. Sharing open, reflective and process-oriented work, along with our polished and published pieces can help everyone feel more human online.  

2.  "Learn - Create - Share" is not meant to be a linear process only. 

One of the aspects I have been grappling with in my classes is the reluctance of students, and myself (as I have mentioned previously) to think of the sharing process as a need to be completed and/or as "perfect" as I can get it before hitting publish or submit.  I think this is where my students feel the most reluctance too.  It was a great reminder that the Manaiakalani kaupapa of Learn - Create - Share is not meant to be a linear process only.  As a teacher, I am aware of this but had not thought of trying to engage the students with the idea that we can also Share to Learn and the process is more cyclical. 

We need to see the learning process as ongoing and 

fluid.  Learn - create - share

or  Create - share - learn from others

3. Google - My Maps

I need to have a bigger play around with this tool.  I wish I had learned more about it last year as I was trying to get my students to create and map the journey of the characters in the novel Refugee.  I will be trying to use this in a few weeks with my learners in Social Sciences 10 - watch this space for updates!

4.  Google Sheets:  whew! 

This session was the one I was most fearful of, as spreadsheets are not my strong suit.  I try and use them, but get frustrated when I can't figure out ways to use them efficiently.  Admittedly, it has been a long time since my own secondary learning in my '80s IDP class (Intro to Data Processing - year 12) and I have mainly used sheets as a table for record keeping having long since lost any memory or ability to figure out formulas for different calculations.  Thankfully Google Sheets, and the AI that learns with our use, has created some great shortcuts.  The AI and the Explore option for analysis was a great eye opener for me. New knowledge for me - the AI learns with my use of Google Sheets and suggests options for analysis and trends in the data.  

I found the session quite fast and furious but I am glad to have the resources to go back to when I want to remember some of the simple quick tips that save time. Eg.  Filling in a sequence like months, days or numbers and having the technology carry it through after the first 2 cells. 

I need to play and spend more time with sheets to make better use of them.  But hoping that will come in time as I start to use them more.  I especially like the Spark Line feature to show at glance progress over time.  Although - admittedly, I quickly became frustrated creating the simple chart and data collection below - thank you to Moahia @Otaki College - here is a snapshot of graph I made of her blog posts.  

Final Thoughts.... and advice please...

I have also been thinking of how I may be able to use Sheets to help with building student ownership and responsibility using sheets like tick box "to do" lists.  I am thinking I want students and whanau to be able to see their own progress and link their work, but without breaking their privacy and showing other students work progress at the same time.  I am not sure if this is possible and I will be exploring whether this can be done via assigning students their own sheets (pages) within 1 Google Sheet or if there may be another way.  This may not be possible - ideas and/or possible collaboration welcome!

DFI Day 3: Create and Different Media Forms

Welcome back to my R-e-learning Day 3 DFI Horowhenua 2022 (online day)

Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Create 

My Reflections as a Learner

I have to admit, I am thankful and enjoying the time and expertise of the facilitators sharing tips and tricks of tools I know and use, but also introducing new ways to use them.  Today was day 3 of our DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive Course) and the focus was on Create - using varied Media.  

Where I am struggling is trying to finish my reflective blog posts.  I feel like a student who wants to share their best, but keeps starting, stopping, revising and then admittedly wanting to redraft to perfect.  In fact, I am still working on my first post for Day 1 as I had had a few hiccups and needed to restart the blog, and then.... teaching life happens.  (I will finish soon).   My second post (Day 2) was certainly less than perfect as our main task - the video, had no sound and we did not have time to re-do.  I decided to post anyway, mistakes and all - good modelling for students too I hope.  It is interesting to me that the hesitation to share online is now my own issue as a professional, when, in the past, I was always happy creating and sharing our class work on our class blog or student blogs.  

This process alone is helping me to empathize with the akonga in my classroom as I am just getting started with having a professional blog.   I have long believed blogging helps with my own reflective practice and provides opportunities to archive my own growth as an educator/lead learner, but until this course, I had not actually started my own fully.  My first attempt (nearly 10 -15 years ago) had my students naming my blog ("Midnight Musings of a Modern Day School Marm"- they loved the alliteration even though it was long.  I like to think it was my constant reminders about "word choice" mattering that led to their suggestion,) Sadly, I never published this professional blog to be visible, and now I can no longer access it as the account associated had become corrupted. I think part of the reason for my reluctance was I had not quite sorted out the focus and Why of that professional blog.  DFI has pushed me in this way and I am thankful for this, even though I still ramble, revise and take a while to commit before publishing, then revisit, refine and update my posts again.  I suppose that too is really what we all want of our learners - to keep improving and growing.  

Today's Focus:  Create - using varied Media

Today's focus was on the Create aspect of the "Learn, Create, Share" Manaiakalani Pedagogy.  I am aware that in recent years my own classroom process has been a bit more of the "low grade clerical work" Ken Robinson refers to in his Ted Talk "A Future For Us All."  

 

 

I agree with Ken Robinson and other educators that often we don't have time, or feel we have the time, to engage our students in creative tasks.  This is partially driven by the greater "testing" culture in Aotearoa New Zealand that I have been readjusting to when I arrived.   It was good to be reminded of what most educators, parents and kids know intuitively - we learn far more though the creative process than through some of the work I have assigned in recent years.  Yes, this has been pushed by the frantic shift to hybridized learning the Covid world required.  We all scrambled to become more flexible providing learning online and trying to make sure families had access at home.  Some of the ideas and video clips shared today are included here in the Manaiakalani DFI Create pedagogy led by Vicki today.   The discussion and video clips today suggest we can't afford not to shift our teaching and learning in schools to enable more collaborative and creative opportunities.  This is a global issue that can only be made better through individual efforts of teachers willing to engage themselves in the same process.

Today reminds me to be less worried about the time it takes to create, which tends to be more than we feel we can allow.  I will be trying to re-focus on the engagement opportunities and quality of the learning that occurs naturally through the problem solving, communication, critical thinking and collaborative nature of creative tasks. 

What did I learn that can be used with our learners?

Google slides can do so much more than present...

I will start with my junior class - as early as tomorrow using the "Types of Government - 'Pick a Path'" task I have designed for students to collaborate with me.  Wednesday (today) it is in it's incomplete form but hopefully tomorrow and Friday it will be completed by the students.  Granted, the instructions are not allowing students as much "creative freedom" but the goal for this task is working together to produce a cohesive presentation.  My students have struggled with completing collaborative tasks lately so I am also hoping this one will be short enough to complete in 1-2 periods, and then share with them on my professional blog.  Perhaps my modelling of sharing my thoughts and our collaborative work will help students to overcome some of their hesitation to share online. 

Below is a slide show with a "pick a path" interactivity aspect that I created today in Google Slides - My year 9 Humanities class at Ōtaki College will be working on this tomorrow in pairs.  

 

Finished Product from 9A at Ōtaki College

Perhaps the next "Pick a Path" Journey will be to create their own story slide show - like a "choose your own adventure" story students can create and share on their own blogs.  Stay tuned.

 DFI Day 2:  Creating with Google Meet 

*Apologies for the shorter post today - too many glitches to work out with my first post and setting up my blog on Blogger.  Everyone, in the cohort, is using Edublog at this time, but I opted for Blogger as my current students are still grandfathered in using Blogger.  This led to a few bumps in the set-up week. I missed some of the create time for a mini-private session with Vicki, facilitator from Manaiakalani.  I had to restart my blog.  It happens. 

DFI Day 2:

Google Meets:

Today was an opportunity to relearn how to record a conversation about student learning evident through student blog posts.  The snapshot below was our task today:

I met with fellow ŌC yr 7/8 teacher Saph Taylor to discuss Rael's beautiful poetry

Please remember to be kind - this is our first attempt at running a Google Meet Discussion in a while and it is amazing what you can forget to do when you aren't in the practice of doing daily like we were in lockdown last year. For instance -the video is a very rough recording of our discussion, mistakes and all, including me forgetting I need to turn my headphones on to hear Saph! 

Wish me luck that this works!  

Ok so.. Upon watching and reviewing.  Next step.  Learning to record with sound - hah!

Problem - we think this occurred as I did not turn on my headphones right away.  Ugh... it reminds me of some year 12s I had in Canada who were learning to film.  These two girls were highly academic in their courses, but as such, they never really allowed themselves the time or space to play and learn with the technology, until their Genius Hour course (I really wish I had access still to my early class blogs to show you).  They learned via trial and error that you can't move the camera (iPad) around and fix it in editing, and that it is difficult to get good sound on a windy day!  Today reminded me being a learner takes time.  Sadly- we did not have the chance to "repeat and refilm" our conversation for today's post.

Lesson learned - 

Students will usually need more time than we imagine for new learning or ways of showing their learning.

Manaiakalani Digital Intensive Fluency Horowhenua F2F Cohort Term 3 2022 (Day 1)

 What a day!  Welcome to my first, (belated post), and take-aways from today's Digital Fluency Intensive Course (DFI) Day 1 of PD supported by the Manaiakalani group of schools. 

As a first day, the structure of the days to come and how the DFI program works, was useful to know what to expect as a matter of comfort following a set pattern each session, similar to the "Shape of the Day" for Professional Leaning Days (TOD) and a daily planner/calendar or routine for our students. Prior to this, I had only had a peak into the program through my English HOD, Jess Torley, who was participated in DFI last year.  She sometimes shared some tips, tricks and tools with us. I also knew to expect to be overwhelmed by the pace at times, but I am eager to enjoy the learning and collaborative opportunities this will open up as an educator.

Manaiakalani Origins, Kaupapa and Tikanga: 

(please forgive me if I use the Māori words incorrectly - I am learning and welcome corrective supportive feedback in the comments.) 

Each session - will begin with learning more about the Manaiakalani kaupapa.  Today, was the Manaiakalani Origin and early evolution: 

(All Slides from Dorothy Burt - Manaiakalani Origins Story) 

I am always keen to unpack some of the "why" behind the "how and what" we do as educators as it usually helps me to teach better.  I found this very helpful and encouraging to understand better how the Manaiakalani kaupapa all started with noticing and acknowledging the needs of a small group of schools in a generally low- socioeconomic area in Auckland surrounded by the more "flash" private schools.  These schools sought to enable and empower students through the use of technology, and "level the playing field"  by providing equitable learning experiences to communities that may not have access without the support of Manaiakalani.  This resonated with me as an educator and reminds me of Simon Sinek's talk about finding your "why": 

I was impressed the Manaiakalani program began with noticing community needs, gathering input and data, from learners, educators and the wider community.  This process included whanau who were engaged in setting up the microfinancing required provide the infrastructure and tools (devices, bandwidth, and PLD for staff and students) that would were needed to begin.  This "ground up" approach and the data it provides from schools helps the Manaiakalani program develop and improve faster than other approaches I have experienced.  I am hopeful to further my own skills and abilities to engage better with the facilitators and supports offered, to enhance the learning of my akonga (learning and teaching community).  

The above slides, also from Dorothy Burt's  slides, are ones I will likely use a lot. They are visual reminders that while we are learning in our varied subject specific disciplines, our devices are only the tools that can help us with the learning, creating and sharing of our ideas. About 10 years ago, as the world was becoming more digitally fluent and reliant, I often received questions, and occasionally resistance, from students, families and educators about using too much technology or "having to learn to teach technology" rather than the content or skills of the course.  Specifiacally, the slides above with the analogy of the devices taking the place of basic tools to create and store our learning, will likely be useful in these conversations.  (They will also be useful in conversations with students trying to "opt-out" of learning when their "device is dead." My usual response is to ask the student, "what can you or do you need do to solve this problem?  Eg.  Use alternative tools, like "old school books or paper and pen",  or seek to borrow charge cords or department devices, to carry on). 

Much more was discussed in the overview and timeline of the Manaiakalani origins story, and will be extended each week as we delve deeper into the kaupapa, educational practices.  However,  this part was important for me to marry my own "Why" as an educator with that of the philosophy and tikanga (common values/practices) of my school, learners and the wider community. 

The rest of day 1 at DFI Horowhenua F2F Cohort, was a fast-paced blur:  

I followed along, often taking notes in a notebook,  and lots of screenshots as we skimmed quickly through the rest of the day's program emphasis on "core business." These turned out to be tools we likely use to some degree, but may still learn some tips and tricks to become more efficient - through organising / saving time and also opening up our minds to different ways to use the tools we already "know."

Tools, Tricks and things to think about when we use:

And yes... it was a fast and furious day!  

So far I have already begun to:

• organise my Drive and actively think about teaching this with the students
• clean up Gmail - again teach students too
• use tab pins
• use some extensions more often, eliminate some extensions with similar uses to things like tab pinning (read write for my students with dyslexia and / or ADD) 
• use Chrome more efficiently
• dip into understanding Google Groups - more work needed on this for me. 
• different features in Docs I never understood.  Things like headings, subheadings, etc. and why I have had trouble with some resources (ones with hidden invisible tables used as formatting template).  I always thought I was just inept at figuring out format issues.  This will save me a lot of frustration and time!

Signing off Day 1 DFI:

Today was a whirlwind mix of blending my current knowledge and use of tools in the Google suite with new tips, tricks and possibilities, as well as connecting my own "eduteahing/r-e-learning" journey with the Manaiakalani Kaupapa and my own "Why" as a lead learner in the classroom.  I am excited about learning more and embedding into my practices in the classroom with students.