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.

Day 4: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today we focused on the Share aspect of Manaiakalani which was about sharing content via digital media and in a safe environment.  The importance of not sharing personal details online was mentioned and it was a great reminder to use blogs and sites with the utmost professionalism.

Google Forms was introduced which seems to be super helpful for making questionnaires, surveys, and gathering feedback when needed.  If I was teaching an older year level, this would be a creative way to enlist their feedback on lessons or even gauge their understanding of content by using exit tickets, etc.  It lets you view your responses and even analyses your data for you!  We had a chance to create a Google Form of our own as well.

The Google Sheets session also showed us many things.  I am usually terrified of anything spreadsheet related (with an admin background and having had to use Excel randomly for accountants).  However, I do find that Google Sheets is much easier to navigate.  I am looking forward to being able to do more in spreadsheet shared planning and assessment as I feel more confident about being able to do these tasks:

• How to share spreadsheets outside of email
• How to change rows/columns
• How to sort in descending and ascending order
• Using and setting conditional format rules
• Changing text direction and using borders
• Arranging class lists (oldest to youngest)
• Inserting tick boxes for teachers to use for marking
• Creating graphs and choosing charts

Day 3: Digital Fluency Intensive

What a fun day exploring the Create side of Manaiakalani, as Gherard and Dorothy led us through this session.  Dorothy encouraged us to weave creativity in and throughout our lessons every week.  With an emphasis on using the multiple senses, she explained that Create is all about the "hook" - the hook for our young people to stay captivated and engaged in their learning.  As a result, I have been thinking of ways to give my 5-year olds more opportunities to express themselves creatively with less direction from myself. 

Here are a few quotes that resonated with me today from Dorothy's presentation...

"Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining" 

Kohl, 2008 

“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

We also got introduced to Live-streaming and YouTube, learning how to create channels and playlists.  We were able to get our feet wet in Google Draw and Slides - learning how to draw self-portraits and match colourings from images, as well as getting familiar with animating slides.  Google Draw was especially helpful as I began to think of ways that I could have my students draw pictures related to what they are learning (e.g. different shapes, etc.)  As my students are getting familiar with the iPads, I will look into doing a session with a few of them and practising drawing in Explain Everything.  Here is my self-portrait (in the making of course) with a missing nose... still figuring out how to do that!

I made a super cool "About Me" gadget for this blog - of which I have been curious about how-to-do since I began blogging.  I plan to create an additional button for a quick link to my class blog.

I also got to create my very own digital Pepeha which I will present next week in the sharing time (coming soon).  Learning to pronounce the words correctly will be this week's challenge!  

Day 2: Digital Fluency Intensive

If it’s worth teaching, it’s worth capturing

If it’s worth learning, it’s worth capturing

Today we explored the "Learn" aspect of Manaiakalani where Dorothy emphasised the importance of effective teaching and digital learning going side by side.  She explained that teachers are still the "vital ingredient" in a digital learning environment where the craft of teaching is still key to student learning.  The value placed on Rewindable Learning really stood out to me as she explained that in order to make a difference in young peoples' lives, learning needs to be captures in a way that they can go back and revisit their learning - at their own pace.  With technology NOT being just a tool, she explained that giving kids the future they deserve to have is critical - and technology plays a key role in helping them become successful in life.

I learned a few valuable things today around the use of Gmail, Calendar and Hangouts.  We spent time organising our inboxes and changing our settings to make it suitable to our own needs.  I also learned how to differentiate between the various calendars and create events - and even scheduled a Hangout for this upcoming week.  I was also grateful for the introduction of Google Keep.  As I tend to be quite old-school with to-do lists in a chart in my Drive that I print out (yes, print out), I could not believe how easy it was to access this tool with a simple download on my phone and as an extension on Chrome.  Can't wait to explore this app more to simplify the planning aspects of my life.

Midway through the day, we each had to look at one Summer Learning Journey Blog from a student and talk about it on a Google Hangout - while recording on Quicktime - with two other colleagues.  What my group didn't do properly was the group roles, which we did not establish very well from the beginning.  This was a learning point for me...

It was very evident in our long 15-min video where we troubleshooted for half the video - trying to figure out if we had even recorded it.  Here is the condensed version...

This week, I am planning to do a Google Hangout with Sonali Carter's class in Room 24 at Pt England where we can connect our learners and a few of them can introduce themselves - which will be super cool.  Hoping to be able to record that one more smoothly this time - but at least we have had today's experience with it.  Here goes.. stay tuned!

Day 1: Digital Fluency Intensive

Today was the first day of the Digital Fluency Intensive...

Here are the Four Goals of the DFI:

1. Teachers supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools for young people to use for learning
2. Teachers supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools for effective teaching
3. Teachers supported to understand how digital technologies can raise achievement outcomes
4. Teachers supported to understand Manaiakalani

Wow - what a day of just getting right into the nitty gritty of Google Docs with colleagues in first day at the Intensive.  Diving right into Google has been exceptionally eye-opening as I learned to create groups, use voice typing, properly paste into blogs... and a whole bunch of useful steps to navigate easier.  I always considered myself to be "ok" with digital technology, but I feel like I have stepped up my skills in just one 6 hour session at the DFI.  Most importantly, something I have questioned for awhile now:  "Exactly how do people get newsletters, etc. so neatly aligned using both words and images in a Google Doc!?" (as I would struggle trying to make this happen and then eventually switch to Google Slides as a way out of my digital mess).  Today, that was answered for me and I have learned to use the table in Docs to my own benefit... creating this visual image - in a very short time - for my classroom!

Being a New Entrance teacher, I found it so cool to fiddle around with the Voice Typing tool where I immediately thought of ways in which I could use this in my classroom with my little learners.  As a next step, I will use it as a way for my 5 year olds to practise responding to blogs and comments that users might leave on our classroom blog... as they are just getting introduced to taking pictures and blogging!

This day also deepened my understanding of Manaiakalani as Dorothy Burt walked us through the story of its birth in 2006/7.  Here are some of my take-aways from her presentation... and it was so interesting to hear about how Hapara came about with the organising of floating docs! 

• Successful innovation requires champions - principals, teachers taking the first steps in 2006/7
• Paper and pencil technology did not necessarily engage our young people
• Seeking to empower learners and raise achievement outcomes
• Blending schooling improvement and digital learning
• Began with focussing on literacy - using the technology to create and share, as well as sharing the devices in classes
• Lead teachers exploring what would make the difference in their spaces for the  Learn Create Share model
• Researching → what device could we put into the hands of our learners?
• Hapara Teacher Dashboard: created and launched to control the large number of Google Docs that teachers had difficulty keeping track of!
• Visible Teaching and Learning → Google Sites
• "Learn Create Share" emerged and it became very clear that this could be done in any subject

Looking forward to what I will learn next class!

Inquiry Action Plan 2019

For my inquiry focus this year, I will be working on play-based learning again as I only worked on it last year for two terms.  These will be my focus questions in two different parts:

Terms 1 & 2:

What are the different ways to incorporate play-based learning in the classroom and how do they work to improve oral language / speech?  What is the visible proof?  With our ESOL student, how might play be working to speed up her understanding of the English language and improve her oral language as she increasingly interacts with her peers. 

Terms 3 & 4:

How might play work to complement and improve reading/writing with my highest level group?