Regular Blogging

Term 3   2018 - Week 10

Regular Blog spot - Wednesday 26th September 2018

Having participated in the Nine week Maniaiakalani program, I am 'synchronized' with Wednesday blogging and have noticed myself planning the blog post for this week.

My Professional shifts this week, involve; Attending the Mana potential staff PD on Friday 21st Sept, adding tasks to the Tai Auaha Site, and improving student capabilities with writing particularly - literacy.

MANA POTENTIAL & RESTORATIVE PRACTICES

This day was useful as a chance to review our classroom practices in relation to consistency with classroom rules and the ways we can encourage students to be following our school values. I developed a student self checking tool to share with staff. The triangle design has the school values images and some prompts for students to be ready for learning.

TAI AUAHA SITE -I have been successful adding to the team site, adding a slide show (Rice topic) and linking some tasks to this. My wonderings about this are...how long does it take the students to do tasks when they work on-line. As I will not be prompting the learning.

I have also experimented with prompting writing from the Y9 Food technology class, as school wide we are focusing on literacy and levels of writing. I have started the new topic burgers, I am aiming to gather three pieces of writing during the term. I hope to have help from the literacy team to use the rubrics for assessing the levels. My goals is to improve the writing and capacity for students to attain at the suggested curriculum level in Technology, by assisting them to access suitable descriptive language. This is especially important for describing the product, when students are undertaking 'outcome development and evaluation' tasks.

Last Session - Maniaiakalani

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 9

DAY Nine - Wednesday 19th September 2018

The picture below is the Y13 Student cohort TAS -In term 4 2018 - I will support this group of students to complete the Te Paki Stream coastal walk. 

The point is - well beyond the classroom the students are influenced by us. I am already connected to many students or ex students through social media.  I am still in-contact with students whom I taught over 10 years ago via Facebook. 

Ubiquitous learning? My example, refers to my encouragement - and the  un-measurable ....subjective influence that follows our youths as they  go of into the 'adult world' with my support.

This week I have prepped the google + educator exam. I also thinking about  about the application of the new knowledge that I have acquired through both the MindLab course, that I completed in July, and the last 9 weeks of Maniaiakalani . I am feeling much more ready to be helping students in modern learning environments.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? The preparation for the exam consolidated lots about the last 9 weeks. I am feeling like a lot has falling into place and that this is influencing my classroom positively. I am excited to get things working and use my site, but I am aware that I will need to do some planning and organisation to enable all of the resources to be ready.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I have learned that many of the resources that I will need exist already and can be adapted; I dont have to completely invent the wheel.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners, capability or workflow in my personal life? I am sure that I am going to be able to implement the learning and continue to motivate learners to achieve positively in the classroom. I feel like I am 'up -to -speed' and able to assist my learners, who dont actually know much about the digital world sometimes.

I have a mindset now where I am willing to test trial and embrace. I am also aware that 'things wont always work.. I have some safe 'fall back' learning tasks.

Another realization is that as a result of this courses I now feel more resolved with the issues surrounding digital footprint, and our interactions in the digital world. I was concerned about privacy but I have realized that my relationships with students already extend beyond the school gate in this digital world.

We will continue to affect each other for a long time and that this is all part of Ubiquitous learning. Therefore- I have added the image below- a picture that I took this morning on the school grounds - I have filtered, cropped and downloaded to add it to my blog site.

This is a representation of the Kaupapa I now feel that I am practicing; through Maniaiakalani; I have a suite that assist me to manage and check my work and interactions.

YESTERDAY TODAY TOMORROW

Brunfelsia

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 8

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 8

DAY Eight - Wednesday 12th September 2018

Today's session was hosted at Waitangi in the learning center. I had so much fun working with a buddy using different creative apps.
I am proud of the video creation a combination of different tools - while i had alot if help... it was fun to see the end result.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? The two tutors gave me heaps of help to use the various tools to create images and videos. I had fun working wit Jasmine to make a cool underwater scene.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I was pleased with the outcome though I am still unsure about how some of the file types are converted.However is good to know that just by 'playing' its possible to work it out.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners, capability or workflow in my personal life? Having knowledge of the possibilities is so good. I am still thinking about the applications for some of the digital tools. I can see that its an advantage to have i-pads and I will talk to my primary school colleagues at work about learning more about using these.

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 7

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 7

DAY Seven - Wednesday 5th September 2018

Today started out looking at learning sites.We viewed a number of sites - most of the sites are for Junior & Primary school.  Those we viewed were teachers who have have had a site set up for some time. 
I had made a start some months ago on making a site, but hadn't progressed it at all so 
today It was good to get some information about how to get underway with developing the pages & buttons and to add some links.I had success and I am enthused about the possibilities.

I was able to create some buttons and make links to learning.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? The exemplars and explanations by Clarell helped me to clarify how to set out the site. I took a large piece of paper and planned the layout. This was enormously helpful as a start point. I was able to then start learning the processes, as I haven't been able to progress since i wanted things straight in my mind before I started out the making!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I was able to do something...I have been stuck! Today I made progress and felt encouraged!

What did I learn that could be used with my learners, capability or workflow in my personal life? I will be able to set up and have learning activities available for my learners. I am especially interested in rewindable learning.I would like to have videos available that evidence my cookery demonstrations. These 'snippets' can assist stud nets who didn't get the information first time.

The following is an example of a video clip- the first of many little learning tasks that I can publish to the sites.

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 6

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 6

DAY SIX - Wednesday 29th August  2018

Today started out looking at the the ways to manage students activities in class, looking at Hapara.

We also veiwed class sites for a number of schools including the Paihia  Te Ngahere  class. Later in the morning we had the opportunity to visit classrooms and see the students progressing through the activities at a suitable pace and level.

we worked with Chrome books and i- pads looking at some classroom applications 

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? The session with Khismira was very fast paced and as it was unfamiliar content i was was not to keep up during the learning session, and
• consequently did not feel that I can use these applications.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?I will look forward to having Hapara access to monitor students in class, and to check work output and completion.
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners, capability or workflow in my personal life? I will look forward to having personalized learning tasks/stages that can be accessed by students. I liked the high engagement level that i saw when we visited a class and it is good to look toward that being possible in my class.

Digital Fluency Intensive

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 5

DAY Five- Wednesday 22 nd August  2018

Away for the week attending a Y13 Camp in Auckland (Wed - Friday )
On Wednesday I was at Rainbows end for most of the day.....

I did however, spend some time at the weekend, looking at the week five DFI agenda and thinking about the learning.  I visited the site that I have already created and looked thought about how I would like it to look.

I am frustrated that I have not yet added anything to the site, and that my set up is not how I would like it to be.

Thursday 23rd 

Tough Guy Tough Girl   Challenge 

 Helensville   Auckland

This event has students participate in a training program and then complete the 6km course with obstacles and MUD. By competing the course the students gain NCEA credits. The Level gained is performance based.

I completed the event as support teacher

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 4

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 4

DAY FOUR- 15 th August  2018

Wow It was a Stormie night last - we all woke with the thunder and lightening at 4am.

Met on time and left Taipa at 7 am and arrived Kaikohe in good time. 

Our program on DATA took us through lots of interesting new learning today. While I have dabbled briefly with using forms and sheets before I have a lot to learn.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?Today we had a session with Kerri relating to the Share section of the philosophy. We viewed blog posts and have access to videos crated by students form other schools. One of the learning tasks was created by a students who guided us through the process of using the sheets to create a graph using the data.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I will have to work on recalling and practicing the skills covered as I dont feel confident after trying today. I made a cool form- but the data that I exported to sheets needs organizing before it would give me any king of comparative data.
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners, capability or workflow in my personal life? I will be able to obtain useful information from my learners using forms.
  

I also looked at using spreadsheets to record data to represent students achievement results

We also had a  learning session from Kerri with useful tips for using google functions to create our blog embedding the documents and videos

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 3

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 3

DAY THREE - 8th August  2018

Based at Taipa Area School Today. I arranged for the Y11 Students to make Raspberry and white Chocolate Muffins for the group.Another great day with lots of learning. Everything useful and helpful.
Today we explored the idea of Create - I find this so natural as I am teaching in a practical subject. I know how much the students enjoy creating food in the food practical sessions.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? Dorothy explained the concept of ' Create' Her slideshow had some great information about the Maniaiakalani philosophy. It was good to be reminded that tasks dont have to be an actual physical written activity. Create includes videos of students doing, making molding and creating beyond a written piece.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I am sure that in time I am going to have an orderly email set up. A well organised Drive, with access to loads of good tools. Today using the youtube account I have started a collection of neat good morning short clips to show at Whanau time.I have Made a Screencastify, which is shared below. Importantly too - I have been supported and helped by my colleague in the seat next door ( Gaylene)
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners , capability or workflow in my personal life? I envisioning using the google draw function a lot! I enjoyed making the 'about me' button.

                 

                     I also used the google draw to make a basic Junior Resource!
                    ................................And I tested  embedding a Screencastify

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 2

DAY TWO -1st August  2018

Recap of the four Main Goals; 

1. Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools our young people use for learning
2. Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools required for effective teaching, planning, assessment and professional learning
3. Our teachers are supported to understand how digital technologies used effectively can have a significant impact on accelerating achievement outcomes
4. Our teachers are supported to understand how the Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa has been co-constructed over more than a decade to maximise the impact of effective teaching and learning in a digital learning environment.

Todays activities

Today we made an early start from Taipa - the light was just coming into the day, but it was mild. We traveled to Kaikohe and arrived in good time. 

My reflections for the day on the following foci follow;

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
• 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 , capability or workflow in my personal life?

Again I found the tasks and information was  great, there is a feeling that its okay to ask, I am not supposed to know everything...and as always more help with greats tips. 

We started with Dorothy - who with a click of her heels made everything seem simple. She spoke about the philosophy surrounding 'share' from the circular Maniakalani model 'Learn create share'
Dorothy reiterated that the schools pedagogy and specialist ideals surrounding Learning are central in the process.

 

We had a chance to reflect on how last weeks learning was useful and shred in our week.
My share;
- What Worked

• Told colleague in ChCh about Keep - will use it and Google it to find out more - felt great! Didn’t actually use it myself during the week
• What didnt work

Karren TAS

Need practice & reminders about how to use;

Google keep

Google docs - headings

Folder organisation.

First up in the explore section -Practical tips for 'Taming your TABS' -Arranging and organizing the gmail inbox email. Currently I have 1800+ emails that are not sorted - so useful to have a refresher on making folders and being able to have emails sorted when they arrive. We also looked at ways to use TAB managers to handle multiple window and tasks. I am not sure that I grasped all of this.
I did find it useful to know how to make sure my bookmarks are organised ...and that its possible to have cool folders that set out group.
I had lots of laughs when we trialed the using of google chat and did some handout discussion groups.
Our group has success communicating and Tina recorded this as a video which I will attempt to link to the Blog.

Every thing is still bedding in and I will need to do more experimenting with all of the task today. Once I sort my files and have a good system set up it will make it so much easier to find resources! This will be so helpful as currently I my files are a mess.
Today I have used Calendar to set up a dept meeting and I was able to link the agenda, also made a fabulous group in Team drive. 
 would like to use goggle chat to contact my colleague in Christchurch with whom I have help with Senior assessment & moderation.
In my classroom, I believe that I could use chat in the multilevel class situation, to move between groups possibly?
Will look forward to experimenting with new skills and sharing ideas with collegues.

Update 
1/08/18 Have a Google hangouts meeting on line with Kerry.
6/8/18 Students in Y9 are creating Docs in food tech folders to share with me. Using explore to find images and information - Booya!

Digital Fluency Week 1 -July 2018

                    Digital Fluency Intensive

DAY ONE -25 th July 2018

The 9 week Intensive program involve developing knowledge and skills to be savvy in the digital world.The four Main Goals; 

1. Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools our young people use for learning
2. Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools required for effective teaching, planning, assessment and professional learning
3. Our teachers are supported to understand how digital technologies used effectively can have a significant impact on accelerating achievement outcomes
4. Our teachers are supported to understand how the Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa has been co-constructed over more than a decade to maximise the impact of effective teaching and learning in a digital learning environment.

Todays activities

Today I found extremely useful as the back to basic session had us just look at our google DOCs and how to manage these files. Moreover how to use the tools that support these documents. I found the possibility to use voice recording to record text to be extremely useful! This training is something that I have wanted /needed for a long time! 

The presentations were great, the ideas all good and I will find it useful to use google keep as a way of saving details about sites and information. It good to know that I can sync  devices and accounts.

Easter Baking

Students are preparing to make Easter cupcakes this week. We are examining packet mix cakes and thinking about whether these are useful. Students are designing the garnish and decorations to use to make a sweet treat.