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.
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