DFI Session 9 - External Recognition

And just like that, DFI has come to an end!

Today's session was largely focused on sitting the Level 1 Google Certified Educator exam, which I'm pleased to say I PASSED! 😁🎉 Having used Google Drive and various other Google programmes throughout university and my teaching career, I found the majority of the practical scenarios relatively easy (thank goodness! 😅) and the multiple choice section was very much a reading comprehension test more than anything else. The tips shared by our Manaiakalani facilitators were also incredibly helpful in setting us up for success with this exam - thanks guys! 

Once we'd completed the exam, we were treated to a DFI Demo Slam where Jeremy and Jacob shared LOADS of quick tips, tricks and tools that weren't covered in the previous 8 weeks. My favourite tool from this was Readlee which looks to be a replacement for the standard Running Record assessment. I'm excited to look into this further as I think it will save me so much time when those end of year assessments roll around.

To round out my final DFI reflection, I just want to say a big thank you to Dorothy, Jeremy, Jacob and Vicki for all of your work and support over the last 9 weeks. Your enthusiasm for the digital world made the DFI course all the more enjoyable. I walk away from this course with a very full teaching kete. 😊

DFI Session 8 - Computational Thinking

Kia ora bloggers!

During today's DFI session we looked at computational thinking. When I think about myself and my confidence in teaching this content I am definitely at a beginner level. Over the last year or so my school has had some PLD on the new digital technologies curriculum and how to get started on teaching computational thinking in our classes. This has been really beneficial as it has helped me wrap my head around what is expected and how this can be implemented within a junior classroom. So far, I have explored unplugged programming activities with my class but I am yet to expand into the digital. I will be looking to do this by using programmes/tools like Scratch Junior and Bee-Bots (once I've explored them a bit more myself and feel confident in using them).

We then connected with the Manaiakalani pedagogy by looking at empowerment. Something that really resonated with me was the idea that choice = empowerment. This made me think about how much choice I provide my students with on a day-to-day basis. During Auckland's many lockdowns I developed learner choice boards where each week I created 9+ activities for my students. They were able to choose which activities they wanted to complete and when they wanted to complete them. This worked really well - students were engaged and enjoyed being able to select their own learning tasks. The quality of the work they produced was of a high standard as well. Post-lockdown this was something I reflected upon and said to myself I would include in my regular classroom programme but, I'm sad to say, I haven't kept up with this. Hearing Dorothy talk on this topic was a good reminder of how something so simple can empower students to achieve so much.

Deep diving into future technologies was next on the agenda. We looked at how technology has evolved over the last 10 years and how, inevitably, this evolution will continue. This moved into a conversation about how we need to prepare our students for a world filled with technologies that have not even been invented yet. The digital technologies curriculum is how we can do this. From here we were treated to a Scratch presentation by a Year 8 student from Pt England. It was awesome to see what he has learnt and been able to create through this programme. I had heard of Scratch before but hadn't properly explored it until today. Here's a quick screencastify of a project I made a start on. 😊

We also had a play with Makey Makey. Here's a video of us making some sweet sweet beats with this technology. 💃🎶

Have you used Makey Makey or Scratch with your class before? I'd love to hear how you have used it and what your students created!

DFI Session 7 - Devices

Ahiahi mārie koutou,

Today we kicked off our DFI session by taking a 'deep dive' into being cybersmart. In this digital age it is incredibly important for our students to understand what this is and how they can enact it in their online life, both inside and outside of school hours. Just as we teach positive classroom behaviours through PB4L, we need to explicitly teach positive cybersmart behaviours. Manaiakalani facilitators have created specific cybersmart lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms to teach these behaviours. However, it is important to recognise that cybersmart should not be a stand-alone subject. Instead, it should be integrated across the classroom programme.
Last year I was lucky enough to have the in-class support of our fabulous Ako Hiko facilitator, Phil, who regularly came into my class and taught these cybersamrt lessons and modelled effective practice for me. I have tried to continue this in my classroom this year but I am finding that I'm not integrating it as well as I could/should. This is an area that I'm looking to improve on over the latter half of the year.

We then took a quick look at Screencastify and Hapara Workspace. I became familiar with Screencastify last year during lockdown and found it SO helpful! Because we went into our first lockdown so early in the year, we hadn't used the iPads very much at all and the majority of my students didn't know how to use their Google Drive or navigate the class site. Thankfully, I was able to use Screencastify to record visual and audio instructions and talk my students through how to access their learning. 

Next up, we moved into taking a look at ubiquitous learning and teaching. This refers to learning and teaching being accessible anytime, anywhere, by anyone, at any pace. Last years lockdowns were a prime example of why this is so important. Through my class site I was able to deliver learning to my students despite us not being able to be in the classroom together. This learning was shared mainly through Google Meets, (some) Google Meet recordings, Screencastify and Google Slides. This is something that I am quite proud of, especially as I was only in my first few months of teaching when we went into that first level 4 lockdown. Something I regret from that time is not remembering to record ALL of the Google Meet sessions I ran. While I did have a decent turn out of students at these Meets (most days), there were many students who weren't, for whatever reason, able to make the scheduled Meets. Having all content recorded and these recordings uploaded on the class site would have been incredibly valuable not only for those learners who missed out, but for students who wanted/needed to revisit the learning and instructions in their own time. Fingers crossed there won't be any lockdowns in the future but if there is, I will certainly remember to hit that record button.

Later in the session, we stepped into the role of the student and explored the devices they use in class; Chromebooks and iPads. It was a good reminder of how apps and programmes look and operate differently on different devices. This is something that became VERY obvious to me during lockdown when some students were using school iPads and others were using their own devices. We ran into quite a few problems during the first lockdown because of this, so I had to think carefully about the tasks I was creating, as well as how and through which apps I was getting students to complete these tasks. It was a steep learning curve for me, that's for sure. 😅

Although my students use iPads, I found doing the Chromebook 'digital dig' task particularly useful as I've never used a chromebook before - what a great way to help children get familiar with navigating and using their device! This is something that I'd love to do with my junior students at the beginning of the year, when they are first learning how to use their iPad.

One the iPads, we looked at Explain Everything (EE) - an interactive online whiteboard. Thanks again to the fabulous Phil, I was introduced to this programme last year so my students and I are quite familiar with it. Today, we played around with some of the basic tools to create our own EE project. Check out mine below. 😊

The last task of the day was to repurpose a cybersmart lesson using one of the tools covered in today's session. I choose to use EE as this is what I use in class with my learners. I chose to focus on the idea of being a 'Smart Surfer' and knowing how to effectively search for information online. Here is the task I made a start on creating for my kids. My next step will be to add audio instructions to each slide.

DFI Session 5 - Collaboration

Talofa lava!

Manuia le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa! 😄

Today's DFI session focussed on visibility. Dorothy spoke on the importance of making our planning, the learning process and outcomes, and assessment visible to learners, whānau and other educators. Visibility for learners is important so that they can access their learning, feedback and feedforward. Visibility for whānau is important so that they are aware of what is going on in their child's school life and can be involved in the learning. Visibility for our colleagues is important so that we can share our knowledge, ideas and any resources we have made and/or found - teaching is a collaborative profession, after all. For me, some areas of learning and teaching are already visible on my class site but I am not yet consistently doing this in all subject areas. This is a work on for me.

We also looked at the ideas of multi-modal and multi-textual. This was quite timely for me as we are currently working to implement T-shape literacy into our reading programme at my school, which is based around these exact ideas. Through personalising learning and providing more options and choice for our students we can capture their engagement and hook them into the learning. Working in a junior classroom, I am finding it a bit difficult to find multiple texts that address the themes, concepts and issues we are looking at in class so I am still working on developing my T-shape literacy programme at a level that my students can access.

Next up, we took a 'deep dive' into Google Sites. We explored creating a multi-modal site using tips Jeremy shared around creating a site, inserting banner images and adding content to a page. Having attended the Ako Hiko orientation day at the beginning of 2020, where we focussed on building our class sites, I feel quite confident in using Google Sites but I do like the idea of creating multi-modal sites that are seperate from our class site. Using a seperate site may be an easier way of setting up and using T-shaped literacy in my classroom.

Unfortunately, I had to leave today's session early so I don't have a 'create' element to share this week but I'm looking forward to next week where we will continue to explore Google Sites and enabling access through this platform.

Until then, happy blogging (and long weekend)! 😊

DFI Session 4 - Dealing With Data

Malo e lelei bloggers,

Another week, another DFI session!

We began today's session by looking at the 'Share' element of Manaiakalani's pedagogy, an idea that Dorothy and the Manaiakalani team associate directly with connectedness. Something that was made clear during this presentation was that the 'old school' ways of sharing learning, such as showing work to the principal and presenting at assemblies, are still very important for students to experience. However, the digital age has enhanced the sharing process by opening it up to a global audience. Dorothy noted that the global audience is an authentic audience because the choice to be viewing and (hopefully) commenting on content is entirely their own.

Blogger is the platform that schools under the Manaiakalani umbrella use to share student learning. Being in a junior class, my students do not have their own blogs but share a class one which I am responsible for updating. Unfortunately, regular is not an adjective I would attach to these updates 😬but after listening to how providing students with this digital audience can increase their motivation for finishing work I think I seriously need to reassess the frequency at which I post on our class blog. I have a number of students that never seem to finish their work, no matter the incentive I use to try and encourage it. Perhaps, sharing work on our class blog is the motivation they need? Watch this space! 🤞

Over the course of the rest of the day we looked at Google Forms, Google Sheets and My Maps. I am quite familiar with Forms, both filling them out and creating them (another skill I can thank lockdown level 4 for) but creating pathways from one question to another was new learning for me. Being able to bypass any irrelevant questions/information is such a great feature! I think this is particularly useful in a heavily ESOL junior classroom where I need to limit the information I am throwing at my students.

Google Sheets is another programme I use a lot of but only at a very basic level. I was excited to learn about formulas, creating filters and conditions, and displaying data using charts. I will definitely be using these features to display and analyse my own students' progress and data from now on.

Here is a chart I created in Sheets to show how often I have posted on our class blog over the last year and a half - I told you it was a sad state of affairs 😅. At the moment, I am taking full responsibility for adding posts to our blog but I think if I involve my students more by getting them to create the posts themselves the number of posts will definitely grow, as will my students ownership of our blog.

My Maps is a Google app that I actually hadn't heard of before today. I found it to be super easy to use and I can already see how it could be used in the classroom. Some possibilities could be:

    - as a part of our current inquiry topic, Cultures in our Classroom, where students could pin and share where they are from.

    - to map out where students have travelled to during the school holidays.

    - to plot our cross country route.

    - to calculate distances.

Here is a map I created in My Maps that pins the top holiday destinations of my DFI cohort. Something I really like about this app is being able to customise the pins so that, at a glance, it is easy to see why one might want to travel to these places.

Have you used any of these programmes in your classroom? I'd love to hear how you've utilised them.

DFI Session 3 - Media

Talofa lava bloggers!

Through the magic of Google Meet, I enjoyed today's DFI session from the comfort of my own home and it was delightful! If I weren't a teacher, I'd be all about this WFH (work from home) stuff!

This morning Dorothy spoke on the 'Create' element of Manaiakalani's Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. For many educators, opportunities for students to create were lost when National Standards came about. A statement that seems quite strange when you think about how creativity develops collaboration, communication and problem solving skills in our young people. All skills prioritised by our curriculum, might I add. BUT! With National Standards out, now is a perfect time for teachers themselves to get creative (with their lesson plans) and provide students with the opportunities and resources to create, create, create! 🎨🎉
It was also interesting to learn that the Learn, Create, Share model does not have to be used in that set order.  'Create' can, and in many cases should, be the vehicle through which students access the learning, not just the end product or outcome. 

Other things covered in today's session included YouTube, Google Drawing and Google Slides. Creating a Youtube channel wasn't something I'd ever seen the need to do but after today's 'Chalk n Talk' I can see why it would be beneficial in the classroom. So much so that I have set up playlists and started compiling videos to add to the resources for the concept my junior team is looking at this term. At the moment I share YouTube videos with my students through slide decks embedded in our class site, but having all of the relevant videos in the one playlist could be a more efficient way for students to access them.

Google Drawing is something I've used quite a lot since my Ako Hiko Orientation Day with Gerhard last year. I love using it to create buttons and banners for my class site. Today we used it to create a little 'All About Me' button to add to our blog (see top right (and have a guess as to what my favourite colour is 😅)).

Google Slides is another programme I use a lot in my classroom already. However, I'd never created an animation using Slides before. Vicki ran a mini-workshop where she explained the ins and outs of doing this and I cannot wait to teach my students how to do it! Being in a 1:1 iPad class I would have to have a play around with how Google Slides works on the iPads first. Past lockdown experiences have taught me that the iPad app versions of these Google programmes can be quite a bit more difficult to use than their MacBook counterparts. Fingers crossed it will be reasonably easy for my little ones to navigate and eventually create their own animations on. In the meantime, check out the animation I made today! 😁

 

Have you used Google Slides on iPads with your students? I'd love to hear any tips and tricks you might have! 😊

DFI Session 2 - Workflow

Kia ora koutou,

Today's DFI session has really highlighted for me the number of Google programs that have a LOT of extra features that I was not aware of. Google Keep, Calendar and Gmail are all apps that I have used previously/regularly but, evidently, not to their full potential.

After 'deep diving' into the ins and outs of Google Keep, I will definitely be using this on a more regular basis. I'm an old school post-it-note-stuck-to-my-laptop kind of girl but Keep will be a much more efficient way of organising my chaos. I have already created a to-do list for next week, as well as a check list of students I still need to assess in preparation for report writing, and I'm looking forward to having a play around with the voice notes function too. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't support Google services so this particular little treasure will have to remain in my professional life only. 😞

As far as the tips around Gmail go, I had noticed many of these things before but never actually explored them. Today I organised my inbox to prioritise unread emails and created labels for some important contacts within my Google account. Both actions have already streamlined my emailing system so much! (Thank you, Jeremy and Fiona 😊).

Google Calendar is another app that I have dabbled in but not extensively used. Again, my old soul prefers an old school diary where I physically write down my meetings and appointments, but I can definitely see the benefit in using Google Calendar. A feature I found particularly useful was being able to view multiple people's calendars and use this information to arrange meetings instead of emailing back and forth, trying to find a time that suits all parties. What an incredible stroke of time-saving genius! 

Dorothy joined us via Google Meet today to provide an insight into Manaiakalani's pedagogy; Learn, Create, Share. Today she focussed solely on the 'Learn' element and talked about how effective practice can be achieved. Recognising what effective practice looks like in our own schools is the first step then, amplifying and turbocharging the learning. In short, these two things are about providing students with a depth and breadth of resources, and transforming the way they learn through offering them new opportunities and experiences, which the digital day and age allows us to access and utilise in abundance.

Google Meet was another program we explored today. Due to last year's lockdowns, this is a video conferencing tool I feel quite confident in using. From creating a meet to recording and sharing screens, level 4 lockdown has prepared me well for participating in this particular DFI session (turns out lockdown wasn't all bad after all, hey 😅). Here is a recording of a Google Meet I participated in today. The purpose of this Meet was to practise how to share and record our screens (something I clearly needed practise with as you will see me struggling to remember where the 'stop recording' button is at the end 😂). Enjoy!