Day 5: Collaborative Sites

MULTIMODAL LEARNING IS EMPOWERING

It is an inclusive, differentiated approach to teaching in a digital learning environment. Kerry talked about our sites being like a store front window and learning being fresh and relevant year after year. My class Site is a work in progress. With Kerry's help, I have added more content that is 'Multimodal' to increase student engagment and accelerate achievement. I am particularly happy with the online crossword maker and the 'Get to Know you' activities that my Year 10s can access. Some have even completed a pepeha using pepeha.nz and a Letter to Me (The Teacher).

I have added a introduction/all about me using Screencastify. I am now planning to develop my Food tech and English pages with this in mind:

Learn Create Share + Visible teaching and learning  = Acceleration

Day 7: Devices

 The Power of Being Ubiquitous (Rangiwhāwhā)

Dorothy talked about if we want our young people to succeed as well as their priviledged peers, we need to embrace the hours outside of 9-3pm so that they are more empowered digitally.

Prepping lessons and material - making rewindable resource. I could create a rewindable literary resource for my low-level students using Screencastify.

What are you proud of?

In 2020, my partner teacher and I were able to establish a google classroom for work and create zoom meetings to connect with our class.

What do you regret?

I regret that we didn't use Google meet instead of Zoom in March 2020 - I didn't know about it! 

What have you taken forward into the 'new' era of schooling?

I have discovered Google Meet, Hapara and Jamboard and most of the Google Apps. And I have enjoyed seeing students engage with these apps, especially Google Maps and Jamboard.

Vicki talked about being 'Cybersmart' and empowering our learners as connected and confident decision makers. It helps students as they move through school, especially outside of the classroom as well. She talked about the 'Cybersmart' learning and the creation of the digital curriculum, empowering young people to make smart decisions. 

Cybersmart is about being 'up to date' and this Manaiakalani PLD feels like the right course to do at exactly right time. The apps are changing all the time.  She talked about sharing content that you and your whanau would be proud of, talking about respecting others and engaging online and connecting with each other in a kind and positive way. Is it positive, thoughtful and helpful?

I enjoyed using Explain Everything. This is what I created. I think this would be great for Junior students. I wasn't sure if the sound recording had saved on it (not visible) but when I went back into it, it was there.

In the afternoon lesson, I chose to work on Hāpara workspace. Everytime I log into Hāpara I learn something new and it will be very valuable for assessments. I discovered that the 3rd column is the only one that can create deadlines. I created a Cybersmart Workspace as a practice and embedded it into my class site. I even copied some amazing English resources from another workspace to use next year with the Year 10s.

I managed to create gadgets in my blog (a link to my class site) and a 'Favourite books' gadget too which I will add to.

Day 6: Enabling Access

 

Day 6: Enabling Access
Google Sites (Paenga Kūkura) and Developing a Learning site for your students

Dorothy talked about how we can lead learning using google sites and how we can use google sites to best help learners connect with all aspects of the DFI pedagogy and make learning accessible. I like the idea of one platform for all learning areas that encompass the DFI Kaupapa of empowering learners, being visible, ubiquitous, and connected.
Vicki talked about how fluid the transition from school learning in 2020 to lockdown learning was within Manaiakalani cluster schools because the students had been practising using online learning prior to lockdown using google sites. This familiarisation enabled students to continue mahi without too many disruptions.

She talked about how it was purposeful to put learning on a site for whānau to see and links for students to the Hāpara workspace and Class blogs. These are things I am still yet to do with my class site. My class site is published and students have been accessing it to complete quizzes and I've found hot tips along the way (thanks Kerry), for example, making sure all the content on the class site is in a shared folder so it can be viewed by anyone on the site. I'm certainly putting it to the test with my social studies class.

I really enjoyed the collaborative task of viewing sites (including my colleagues) and critiqueing the sites. It makes me think of what I will include for ease of accessing relevant work. I then opened my unfinished site and showed my group and this is the response. I can definitely make it more interactive and include multimodal learning activities. Here is my feedback from my class members about my class site.

Google sites enables consistency across all year groups to access their learning. Good google sites ideas: inserting a google form for the students to ask the teacher a question; make sure the site is clear and easy to access and the content is visible. Making sure the images are free to use and share, use 'Unsplash' (free-usable images). I have bookmarked 'Unsplash' for free images. I need to practice making buttons in google draw. I have already been planning the 'visual appeal' of my site and different pages for my Year 9 and 10 English classes. I like the idea of '3 clicks' from the home page to the learning that they will be doing.

This is my class site before the changes:

This is my class site after the changes: 

It is a work in progress. Today I achieved 2/3 of my goals. I uploaded some work for the students to do next week onto the Year 10 English page and I made a ScreenCastify introducing myself and a pepeha in pepeha.nz for the students to do next week too (new classes). I would like to make my site brighter - I just need some time to play around and get familiar with the different functions. I need to develop my confidence using google sites further as I'm feeling slightly anxious about using it next week with my new classes! 

 

Day 4: Dealing with Data

The Manaiakalani Way: Dorothy talked about The Third Plank on the floorboards: ‘Share’ or Tohatoha and it has me thinking how I incorporate this currently and how I can show this in my class.

Dorothy talked about sharing being nothing new but it is an instinct in human nature regardless of faith or beliefs. Almost everyone loves to share but I respect there are students that would rather not and remain anonymous.

I did find the history behind the choice to choose Blogger when exploring online spaces really interesting. I like how it resembled the online spaces that the students were using at the time (some years ago, but still relevant!).

I enjoyed the phrase 'being cybersmart, just like learning to drive, you’ve got to go beyond theory at some stage.' It makes me think about how I can best maximise the use of technology in the new curriculum. Being fairly new to my kura, there has been so much to learn over the past 3 weeks. At our school 'Learn' looks like sharing mahi online and reminding the students to take ownership, managing themselves and get creative! I'm really looking forward to seeing what my Cybersmart class can do for me tomorrow - I have a blogging session and cyber challenge prepared for them.

A little summary about today: Google Forms (Tūhura) 

A Great tool! So helpful for evaluations and questionnaires. I have made one for my social studies class.

Google MyMaps  (Very handy to show the trail of where certain things are made)

Could definitely use this for Social studies in the Globalisation assessment.

Google Spreadsheets

I found this very confusing but very challenging- I even made a couple of charts to show averages and data!

I had to give the Spreadsheet task another go to try to show the average for each year:

Here is my Map that I made using MyMap. It shows the Teachers Dream Destinations in the course, plus my favourite places in the Bay of Islands to visit.