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.
Kia ora Valerie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reflections on today and the DFI as a whole. I'm glad you feel we were able to cater to the very wide variety of educators in the room with you! I love the idea that you shared of your colleague who would share the music to celebrate the assessments, what a neat way to view them, as celebrations of our successes. Best of luck for the L2 exam when you do sit that, I think once you've sat L1, you have a much better idea of the types of questions they will ask in L2.
Enjoy the rest of term!
Ngā mihi nui
Vicki