Final Day: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today we touched on the Ubiquitous aspect of Manaiakalani which is about our students being able to rewind their learning anytime, anywhere and at any place.  Dorothy explained that it is about giving lower decile children the same opportunities as higher decile students.  She talked about the importance of blogging and how it makes a difference in the summer learning drop off.  Students who blog at least three times per week during the summer break tend to keep up better in their studies when they return.

Zoe and Vivian from OMGTech! visited us today and reinforced the idea that technology is NOT just a tool.  They reinforced the fact that technology matters in our students' world.  Zoe explained that when our students enter the workforce, technology will be deeply embedded into their careers.  She also gave us insight into the world of ethics when it comes to technology and introduced us to the very intense world of robotics and future technologies.  We did a super cool algorithm activity where we had to start in pairs, find out who was born closer to Auckland and move accordingly to the next box (repeating it) until we ended up in a line with the closest to furthest.  Immediately I began thinking of ways I could do this in my own classroom with my littlies (e.g. birthdays, etc).

 We also learned about binary numbers and dabbled in some coding using the Hour of Code (Minecraft) and Scratch.  The Hour of Code taught us how to use blocks to code, as well as more intricate blocks like "repeat until goal" which help you think about code as sequences.  We are focusing on computational thinking this term, so these activities were super helpful with getting my ideas flowing for extra activities to do with my five year olds to teach directions, etc.

As this is the final day for the Digital Fluency Intensive, I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to learn alongside an amazing group of colleagues.  It has been a welcoming space that I looked forward to putting my "student hat on" and learning at every Friday.  My knowledge in Google applications has gone from 0 to 100 (at the level that I'm at!) and I feel much more confident using it in my work and personal life.  Thank you Dorothy and Gerhard for an engaging and inspiring nine weeks! 

Day 8: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today we touched on the Empowered part of Manaiakalani.  Dorothy led us through this Deep Dive where she explained that it is there for teachers and colleagues, as well as the students.  She talked about how Manaiakalani works to empower whanau and their children.  What really stood out to me was the discussion of 5+ a day which is about carrying on conversations with students which leads to better oral language.  This is something that I am working on daily with my kids in the classroom.  It was a great reminder to keep pressing on with that because it gives students opportunity to converse and improve their oral language.

In preparation for the Google Level 1 Exam, we also touched on Google Classroom.  I sat and wrote the exam... and passed!  It was quite an intense 3 hours and I was trying not to overthink the questions - which helped me in the end.  Dorothy's suggestion of using the "review later" button was also super helpful.  It was interesting to see how I coped under pressure to complete the tasks and it made me realise how much I have learned from attending the Digitial Fluency Intensive.  I am looking forward to making a certificate/badge for this blog and will also be thinking about eventually taking certification for Level 2.

Manaiakalani Create Meeting

It was a very creative afternoon where we were able to dive into a Manaiakalani Create session with other educators at Tamaki College.  There were so many great create workshops happening and it was hard to choose which one to do!  I decided to go with the workshop where we were able to create a pewter pendant because it was something that I had never done before.  Eric Grundy and Robert Thomas led us through this session.  From melting the pewter... to letting it sit... to taking most of the 90 minute session to sand my way to smoothness - my Kiwi pewter pendant was looking pretty schnazzy by the end.  The wood smells of the tech room made me reminisce of when I was in college and it was great to, once again, step into the shoes of a learner.  Most importantly, it reminded me of the importance of getting our learners engaged and hooking them into learning with meaningful, creative projects.

Day 7: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today's session kicked off with a great reminder about teaching our kids about digital citizenship.  With the Cybersmart curriculum, Gerard emphasised the importance of focusing on positive language.  When negative language is avoided (e.g. cyberbullying, cybersafety) we equip our learners with positive language around the teaching of it:

Smart Learners / Smart Footprints / Smart Relationships

The Hapara session was very useful and I learned several things that I did not realise one could do.  It was interesting to learn that all blog posts and comments can be seen as they are linked to Blogger.  I could see all the blog posts in Team 1 and was able to quickly access and comment on one of our Y1 learners' drawn image of a bee in EE.  I also discovered quick buttons like "Share Links" which give teachers the power to help their learners that might be finding it hard to navigate their chromebooks or stay caught up.

With a focus on Devices today, we explored both chromebooks and iPads.  It was cool to experience what it feels like for the students using chromebooks.  I found it a bit harder to click buttons, etc. (perhaps just because I am so used to using a Mac these days!)  We did a Digital Dig to practice as our learners would and it was challenging to find webcams and get myself organised on it.  On the iPad, we explored the Explain Everything tool for 1:1 Learners.  I am used to using this in my own classroom but it was nice to sit and explore the lassoe tool, etc. in our training.  We were shown examples of how to use EE's for math and literacy.  I look forward to exploring these more so that my students can become more digitally affluent and ready for their learning years ahead.

Day 6: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today Dorothy discussed the Connected aspect of Manaiakalani and showed us how it has grown to include eleven clusters.  She emphasised the fact that it is the Shared Language that all schools within these clusters connect together on:  learn, create, share, connected, ubiquitous, empowered and visible.  She explained that the last four are like puzzle pieces that need to fit together in order to have maximum effectiveness.

Clarelle also visited today to do the Deep Dive with us where we spent time looking at different sites and giving feedback on what works well with the site and what did not.  When creating our own class sites, she explained the importance of getting to where one needs to be in just 3 clicks.  She also asked us to think about these key things when designing our site:

• What is the purpose of your Google site?
• What is the theme that is going to pull it all together?
• How will your learners / users be accessing the site?

We were also able to get feedback on our existing class sites, as the whole class spent time together going from one site to the next.  We used Google forms to send feedback to each person in the DFI - which was super useful.  Then, we used Google sheets to compile all our individual feedback so we could improve our sites.  Thinking forward from the feedback I received, I will plan on creating a button to link our classroom blog to the site.  Also, I realised that some permissions were not enabled which I will get to fixing right away.

For the Create time today, we were able to fix our sites or create one.  Just having the time and space to work on this has been so beneficial and I feel more confident using Google sites from the extra practise.  I chose to revamp the Inquiry Site for my space for the Term 2 focus which is "How Can We Keep the Hive Alive?"  I was able to use the banner I created in Google Draw as the header which worked out amazingly!  The site still needs work, but as I go I am keeping in mind what feedback came out of looking at other classroom sites today and the importance of...

• Clean and crisp background colours
• Buttons that are easy to read
• Colour schemes in place and not too busy or overwhelming
• Buttons linking back to the homepage / classroom blog / school website
• Accessibility and easy to click through and navigate

I plan to upload all the images and videos here for my new entrant students to explore about the bees.  This will help them have a place where they can easily rewind the content we do in class and get excited about finding ways we can keep the bees safe and alive!  

Day 5: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today we discussed Visible Sites for Learning which is really important when it comes to teaching digitally.  Dorothy emphasised the importance of whanau having access to their child's learning at all times.  She also talked about how there should be "no surprises" in learning for children... that it should be accessible, available and laid out in advance - which works to save lots of future conflict by talking about what's coming next for our students.

Clarelle Carruthers visited today and talked about MultiModal Learning which involves taking different modes of communication and giving children access to them to learn with.  She expressed that engagement starts with us and how we need to motivate our learners to want to engage with the curriculum.  It is through having choice that students are empowered, with their interests driving their learning.   

For the second part of the day, we were very busy creating Google Sites in age level groups.  Gerhard walked us through a quick sandpit in it and emphasised the importance of drafting out our Google site beforehand so that we have a clear direction of where are headed.  Using the Garden With Science curriculum resource, we drafted out a plan for a Google site.  This involved thinking of buttons we wanted on our site and the subpages/content to go along with it.  Our group first wrote down all our ideas and then colour-coded it for different headings.  Then, we drew out our own draft together for a potential site.

Following that, we created our own individual drafts which we then turned into our very own Google site which was super fun and engaging.  Looking forward to working on this site more and creating other Google sites!

https://sites.google.com/ptengland.school.nz/inquiry-rm-13/home

Inquiry Update: Playing and Writing

For my inquiry focus I have been looking deeper at the different ways to incorporate play-based learning in the classroom and what it does to improve oral language.  In an effort to get the students talking more, we tried using fairytales to increase engagement.  This term we dove into the story of The Gingerbread Man where we read the book, watched the movie, did pieces of writing on it while majoring on the language of the story, illustrated pictures related to it, reenacted the play... and even made gingerbread men!  As we set-up up a felt board with the characters, we would often find students practising and using their language during free play time which was encouraging to see.  

In an effort to do less-structured play based learning, I also experimented with building out of cardboard boxes with the students.  However, it was done in a way that was very casual during their play time in the afternoons where I would pose questions like "Hmm, I think I will make something out of this cardboard.  What should I make?"  The response from the students was overwhelming and at one point we had to split into little groups because they were so enthusiastic about creating.  With one group of students, we made a house and it was interesting to see the ideas / language that came out of it.  For instance, one boy took a flat piece of cardboard and placed it over the window and we were able to talk about how that was called a "shutter".  The following day, we all wrote about what had been built and we used the house as a prop and labelled it with the key words like "chimney" "tall swinging door" "triangle window" and "shutter".  On another day, I began to construct a castle with a few students and it led to us looking up what castles look like and finding pictures of castles on Google.  After that, they decided that they needed a "pointy" roof for their castle!  

While all these experiences were amazing for the students, my mentor teacher and I had this epiphany that "play" was more of a side activity than being a motivation in our classrooms.  After reading about experiences in other classrooms, we decided that we were almost doing our writing in a way that was not motivating enough for our students.  A usual day would look like us front-loading our students with a topic for the day and then having them write about it - followed by play.  We have taken a few weeks and done it differently... playing first and then writing.  As the students played, we would continue with our reading groups and students would take pictures on the iPads of their play with/of others.  During a quick morning tea, we would revisit the play on the iPads and front-load them for writing.  What a difference this has made in the classroom and here's a few highlights I've noticed from trying this specific intervention in the classroom:

When given the chance to play and create on their own terms, students have more motivation than being instructed to "create". 

Playing is a catalyst for writing; student engagement and willingness to draw detailed pictures / write their own stories increased.

Every story was different and it gave them more independence in their writing.

Having students taking pictures was also a motivating factor which gave them more purpose in their play.

In the term to come, I plan to dive into more open-ended play where students have less restriction and more options with play such as sensory stations, small world areas, and construction areas.  As play is about finding out what their interests are, I aim to use that to inspire their writing and give them individuality in the process.  Increasingly, I have also seen how much play is linked to storytelling, so I will aim to engage them in more stories and try to have them record on the iPads their own stories in their writing.