Day 9: External Recognition

                    Day 9: External Recognition

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

It is so strange to think I have reached the end of my intensive DFI Term 2 journey.

In the beginning, I was a little nervous, excited and happy to join and learn something new.

It has been incredibly insightful to learn and understand the pedagogy and kaupapa that has been created to bring about change in bridging the gap to bring about equity or liberation.

Teaching through the first lock down (In 2020), it was very difficult to make connections with parents and students due to the limitations of resources. It also showed the importance of having a blog, a class site, a place for students to be reached out to. Previously, I had set up a class hub through Classdojo and I was able to communicate (to a certain few, but it was better than nothing)-

Teachers that had not set up digital roots struggled to connect, and it was a really dissatisfying time.

This year I have made it an effort to be proactive with getting my site up to scratch. I know that little by little it will blossom and be ready for next year when my school will have set up the 1to1 devices system. Which I am very excited about.

I am so excited for the future and the exciting things that will continue to come through Manaiakalani, and the exciting growth and shift that will occur with education through the Manaiakalani lense of learn, create and share. To provide students with opportunities to express themselves, take ownership of their learning and to have purpose.

Because at the end of the day, as an educator I want to make sure that my students have authentic learning where they are empowered and feel comfortable being who they really, truely are.

Day 8. Computational thinking

                         Day 8: Computational thinking

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

"A digitally fluent person can decide when and why to use specific digital technologies to achieve a specific task or solve problems. A digitally capable person can create their own digital technologies solution." MoE (2018).

I think the biggest thing for me, was understanding how important the role of the teacher is in integrating and instilling the knowledge that students will need to become technologically capable and digitally fluent. We as educators need to make sure that we are constantly moving with the times, educating ourselves and providing students with what they will need for their ever changing future.

We keep hearing again and again that the jobs students are preparing for now may not even exist. As a kid, growing up in the 90's I grew up with the technology boom. We were on the cusp of huge computers with green screens. We saw the first gameboys, playstations and the internet kind of evolve into what it is today. I know that I did not have much of an education around technology - until my intermediate and high school years, but I know that the education I did have around it made me think outside the box. I was able to be creative, able to design and have access to so many resources and devices I previously had not had. It is through Manaiakalani and through these amazing models that we seek empowerment, that we provide an opening for students to have true, authentic learning and to see themselves within their learning.

Computational Thinking:

Input

Output

Sequence

Iteration 

Selection

Variables 

Unplugged activities 

Algorithms

Understanding human behaviour

Understanding Binary

Robotics

Sphero

Arduino Lego Makey Makey

Scratch Coding

App Development: code.org

It is really exciting to see what we have at our finger tips now, in terms of coding and having more of an open platform where students aren't just using apps to game, but are creating games themselves.

"It's important that students have opportunities to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions – moving beyond solely being users and consumers of digital technologies." TKI Design and Developing digital outcomes: Digital learning objects Google slides Google Drawings Animation: Stopframe 
3D modelling environments: Google SketchUp, Tinkercad

Movie making: imovie, Movie Maker

Game Design

Designing systems

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Mainly the importance of explicit teaching and how beneficial it will be moving forward, especially in terms of my students getting used to coding and exploring that realm. I have been creating and exploring with my students to get a handle on the basics so it will be awesome to see what they can create, after having the knowledge and confidence moving forward. In terms of filming themselves and making videos they love to get in front of a camera and film themselves but it will be really awesome to see them film something that actually shows a handle on story telling, that an audience would be interested in seeing. What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I had done it before, but again re-iterating and exploring coding again through Minecraft was pretty cute and fun. I love the gaming dynamics that come into coding and solving little puzzles. It gave me a little bit of confidence as coding is my weakness, but I'm slowly getting there.

Day 7: Devices

                    

                                Day 7: Devices

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

"Ubiquitous carries the idea that learning takes places outside of the traditional school/ classroom in the digital era"

Really liked the opportunities that rewindable learning has. The freedom that enables teaching to not stop once students have left the classroom. It felt like such a shame learning all of this amazing digital PD after we were so effected last year with covid. Eventually, when our students have more access to devices we will be able to connect easier through the tools that we have now - sites, blogs, etc. It also makes it really awesome in terms of connecting with family to show what their students are learning and what they have been doing in class instead of wondering what they have been doing. It also provides teachers with more of an opportunity to reach out when they are away and another teacher is in the classroom.

Barriers are removed

Students could choose to do more work when they are at home during the weekend, if they want to. They could return to learning they didn't keep up with to catch up. They could move ahead should they choose to. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Explain Everything

Really awesome to see how explain everything could be used. I had fun playing around with how my students could participate with this app in their iPads. It is something to definitely consider implementing moving forward at our school.

Chrome books

I feel like, especially having year 3 & 4 students has really made me aware of how good chromebooks are for them and I hope that moving forward I can use them more in the future. I am happy though with the fun activities and options that are open with Ipads - especially working with iMovie. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life? Putting myself into my students shoes when interacting with devices and recognising how frustrating they can be. Especially working with an iPad in contrast to a Chromebook.

Day 6: Enabling Access

 

                            Day 6: Enabling Access

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

I think it was just the extension of the importance of visibility and how effective it is for communities to have access to what is actually going on in the classroom - or what students are learning. This is for learners, parents, whanau and also bigger extension of teacher bubbles that take inspiration from each other when considering planning and considering their own practice.

This is where I kind of need to shift my focus in my own teaching, as i tend to worry about making mistakes, the fear of opening up and sharing my planning and teaching to the world is a little daunting - not gonna lie, but if it helps promote collaboration and extend me to be open to new things, I will try anything. I have loved exploring the different exemplars of how other schools do their lessons through learn, create and share and it has opened me to have new ideas, working from the templates they have provided and I've actually been having a bit of fun making and changing up my class site. I find at times when I'm feeling creative I go and spend my time changing up the site. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

Automatically copying files when opening

Latham taught me how to automatic copy into my students drives. Copying and pasting below as a note of how to do it for future me if I forget:

How to Force "Make a Copy" with Google Docs
Open the doc, slide deck, sheet, or drawing you want to use.
Click in the search box and look at the end of the link.
Replace the word EDIT with the word COPY in the link.
Click return/enter.

Buttons, buttons, buttons

Really had fun using buttons and making a HEAP of them today - I liked that Latham showed us how to add the link into the photo, before even adding it to our websites

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Just not fearing about being public about what Im doing in the classroom. To be open to be visible. 
I also really liked learning about the visual aspects of designing a site - to have less is more sometimes. I find that too many visuals and clutter make websites too overwhelming and chaotic. 

Day 5: Collaborate

Day 5: Collaborate

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? In this particular session we looked at exploring the importance of making learning visible. I liked to hear about the reasons behind why visible learning is important. Extending from the idea of sharing. 

I like that through making learning visible, students have their learning more accessible to their friends, teachers and whanau. In my own experience, the only time that students have access to share to the wider community in our own school is in the school newsletter - which is amazing, and so exciting for students to see their work read by people outside of the classroom. 

I love that through exploring students that have been in the blogging for many years, a lot of what they have done in their learning is visible so it is a great way for educators to form and understand a student by looking through their previous posts.

I also recognise how through this aspect, teachers are becoming more visible in their teachings - which is great for me because i love seeing what people do and draw inspiration from that.

"When teaching and learning  are visible, there is a greater likelihood of students reaching higher levels of achievement"

-John Hattie

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

Multi Modal

I really have been thinking about making my site more multi-modal moving forward. Essentially, I don't want to just upload a pdf for a student to read and then fill out an online worksheet everyday - I want students to be excited by what they see in their learning. The ability to learn through technology opens up so many more digital resources at each of our fingertips (students and teacher) that it would be silly to stick to the same thing over and over and over. It's my plan to make sure that I'm going to use different models to help create engagement and to think about what will hook my students in.

Learning through complex texts

Through Epic I want to provide access for students to explore more complex texts, especially through the read to me section where students can listen while they read. It means that students have more access to different texts and information without being overwhelmed by sounding out words.

Exploring other schools sites to gain ideas

This has honestly been the biggest thing that I find I could use in the future. I love seeing what other people have done through the resources they have made or the lessons they provide through their sites. I have been taking examples, editing them and changing them to fit what my own class needs.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life? I really think that just keeping in the loop with what other people are doing, making sure I'm having fun creating and making work fun, visual and interactive. Taking things one step at a time knowing that my students do not have access to technology 100% of the time so having my site at a point where it is slowly coming together at a pace where i can explore and try new things without being too overwhelmed and keeping up with the ordinary day-to-day school work i am currently doing.

https://sites.google.com/manaiakalani.org/puanga-matariki21/home

Day 4: Dealing with Data

Day 4: Dealing with Data

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

In this particular session we looked at exploring the realm of 'SHARE'. Having grown up in the age where myspace, bebo and youtube exploded into our lives during high school it didn't seem surprising the importance of sharing, especially as it is a way of connecting to one another - Story times on youtube have been a great example of this.

Plus, I always find it brings purpose to creating - if there was no audience, the intention or purpose of creating seems lost. Why bother with creating, if no one is going to comment or consume the content I'm making? 

I have noticed this in even my own practice in writing sessions, while at the end of each writing time the class comes down to the mat and shares their writing with a buddy next to them, and should they choose to - to the class.

That being said, finding an audience is not something that is passive - if students want to create and maintain an audience they need to constantly interact and provide content.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”—B.B. KING

I also really related to the quote "Share to finish learning" 

 which got me to the realisation that sharing holds even me accountable.

When I have a date that I have to share a blog post by, or an assignment which needs to be in I get it done! With my students I can see this being so much better than the usual work that is in books, which sometimes, never ever seems to get finished.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

Google Forms

I have used Google forms previously, but I have never created a form before. I had a lot of fun with using the different question types. I could definitely see me using google forms in the future to gather and collect student voice. I believe I could also teach my students to create their own google forms eventually.

My Map

I had fun exploring the my map feature on Google. I have my own map on my classroom wall where the cultures of students have been displayed using string. I would love students to explore their own maps digitally to see where their ancestry is from!

Google Sheets

Google sheets is something I use personally to help with my wedding budgeting. I hadn't used it for data analysis but I could see how the tools here could be beneficial in providing visual feedback when it comes to making charts etc. I personally struggle with anything that relates to numbers so at first I found this quite intimidating, but I was able to link the prior knowledge of excel to recognise formulas. Made me thankful that I had taken ICT during high school :).

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Honestly? All the tools I used today are going to be SO useful moving forward - even just recognising how to use these tools in different ways. I was getting major wanderlust looking at all the destinations during our map activity and it had me wanting to plan and organise my own honeymoon! 

Day 3: Media

Day 3: Media

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

I loved exploring the realm of the 'CREATE' side of Manaiakalani. It really inspired me to provide and look into more opportunities where students could actually represent their learning in a way that stems from their interests and uses a more creative thinking -/ hands on approach. I can relate to this, as I am quite a visual/ hands on learner. 

"When it comes to learning, if the hands are involved the head really gets going." - Stuart Middleton

It also fostered the concept of learning through play, and enables students to have their own drive to follow through their learning in different ways.

Looking and producing work that does not all look the same. I think also fostering and believing in students enough to trust them to explore their own creative ideas.

"Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results." John Dewey

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Youtube

I have used Youtube previously in the class, but I had not thought about creating a playlist of videos for my students to explore. I also thought having an option to stop the suggestion function was really helpful, especially because of the fear that students will click from one video to another and then land on something they shouldn't have seen.

Film making
I have always wanted to do this in my class. Previously we had worked through I-Movie on the iPads and students have uploaded their own clips through the format of 'landscape shot' etc. I would love to expand, and move to different areas of movie making - especially through stop motion movie making, News reporting using green screen, filming interviews and doing a lot of work and exploration through drama. Would love sharing these having a film festival or even on the blogs so that students and whanau have access to them and celebrate what they've created.

From my own experience of using a little video camera and making videos with my friends and family it is really awesome to see this being explored in our own classroom spaces. I just need to make sure my students can manage themselves in a way where they can work together to produce content.

Podcasting
Eventually, I'd love to have a space where students can podcast, maybe this could be done through a book club? I have a lot of chatty, funny, bubbly students so I feel this would be a great tool for them to explore and enjoy. 

Google Drawing
Would be amazing way for students to create digital posters and illustrate themselves digitally. Would be also cool to see students creating their own memes possibly? There are plenty of ideas that could be explored through Google drawing. 

Google Slides
I have always wanted to eventually create Google Slides that students can work from and use in their learning. I really want to in the future get more confident with interactive slides where students can move images around and use the slides as a fun interactive working document.
I have not personally reached this point yet as I feel if I were to create so many activities now the activities would not be used to their advantage due to the amount of time my students have with devices, but in the future this is definitely something I want to be really good at.

I could also look into creating an animation with google slides and even getting my students to create a little video with their own animations.

 What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Personally, I believe that it has helped me to think outside of the box a bit more. I feel like it helps me even accessing my own creativity and exploring areas that may feel a little daunting, but are worth it in the long run.

Animating with google slides: