DFI- Week 9

Week 9- Revision

Ubiquitous Learning- Able to learn anywhere, anytime, any pace from anyone 

Making the learner the centre of the learning. The digital world has enabled this to become a reality. This became a reality this year. If the technology hadn’t been embraced in your school before this, lockdown was difficult.

Traditionally, learning took place at school. This is still a reality for some kids (NE students arriving with 30,000,000 less than ‘usual’)- not only low decile kids but a good percentage of them are affected by this. Summer slide is a typical example of this. Outside of the hours of schooling, a lot of young people aren’t having highly effective learning experiences. Summer Learning Journey example. Access vs no access. 

Makes a difference when teachers take time to create rewindable learning. E.g. older students helping out siblings were able to go back and do their learning at a later time.

DFI Week 8- Computational Thinking

Today we had a focus on Computational Thinking. We talked about the the Digital Technology Curriculum. 

If we have digitally fluent teachers we will naturally get digitally fluent students. Working side by side and working together/learning together.

Important to teach students how to validate information on the web as so much fake news and information online! 

Three strands

• Technology practice

• Technology knowledge

• Nature of Technology- good starting point for how to include aspects of the new digital curriculum across subjects. (e.g. creating digital timeline, creating Whakapapa)

In progress outcome 1 you are often not using a computer.

Progress outcome 2: outputs and sequencing- a series of instructions. E.g. programming the bee to get to the hive. (start with pen and paper to write the instructions).

We looked at some different Coding opportunities to help our understanding of Computational Thinking. This just frustrated me as it was tricky to get it to do what I wanted. The kids are much better at using these than me! I use Code.org as part of my Literacy Can dos and some of the kids are really good at creating their own codes and work on them over a period of time. In the future perhaps I can use as a Tuakana Teina programme.

Here is a screenshot of my Scratch background which I got frustrated with and gave up.

Week 7 DFI

 Being Smart Online-

I liked these little images from a GIF that was in the slides that Fiona from Manaiakalani shared with us during her Google Meet this morning. I am thinking about printing them and laminating them to display in our space. A lot of the online language focuses on ‘being safe’ and scare mongering. ‘DON’T share online or you will get into trouble’ type of message. New focus is to empower learners, more of a positive way of spreading the message ‘Be internet awesome, be strong, brave’.

Empowering- Term one focus, Kawa of care. This looks different in different schools. This was developed in partnership with whanau. What does it mean to ‘be in the right place at the right time’ 

Ubiquitous- Kind, positive, helpful. Being in the right place, what do you do if you don’t know what to do, keeping your passwords secret. This empowers learners. 

Connected: Strong focus on using the language. Sharing content that creates authentic connection in order to maintain the positive online relationship. Blogging is an important aspect of cybersmart learning. Providing an authentic opportunity for learning and connecting. How do I feel when someone leaves a positive comment on my blog. Develops empathy and what it feels like to have positive online relationships. We want kids to be able to make that smart decision about whether their information is shareable or private. If you are not sharing anything personal, you’re not really sharing. Empowering kids to know the difference between shareable and private and to ask if they are not sure. 

In conclusion, Learn Create Share is based on these 4 parts .

Even 5 year olds can do this via a class blog. Another important part of the puzzle is parents. Families have a key role in helping our learners become cybersmart. We need to connect them into our learning. Positive, helpful, thoughtful blog commenting. 

Conversations online and offline are very important.

Chromebook Shortcuts

We did some exploration on chromebooks so that we know how the kids use the tools they have in the classroom. I learned some new shortcuts during a digital dig. Here is the slides that I worked through.

Here are some key take aways for me.

iPads- Explain Everything

We used Explain Everything- played around with some different functions and created slide on Explain Everything. I Airdropped to myself. See below.

DFI- Week 6

How empowering is it to be connected? Technology allows us to make real connections with people. The ability to connect beyond the people we know is essential.

Today we talked about visibility and the importance of everything we do being visible. I understand this but at the same time disagree with this to a point. There are some things that don't need to be visible to everyone e.g. resources we've paid for and don't have the rights to share OR reflections and observations. In saying this however, over the last year my opinion has been changed about ensuring the learning is open to any teacher or learner who may want to access the learning. We are professionals who like to share, share, share.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu- Quad blogging. Many schools have used this to connect across the country. Valuable connections for students. Allows other kids in NZ to see that CHCH kids are just like them. We used to have cluster blogging buddies, I wonder why the children don't have these anymore?

We also spent time looking through different Google Sites today and had the chance to talk to others in the DFI group and receive feedback about our site. We used this feedback to then moderate our own sites, making changes and adding new functions to make it more user friendly. I did the following: - hid some pages which aren't currently being used - add where we are in NZ - add more columns so that don't need to scroll so far to find kids blogs - fixed some buttons that didn't seem to be working

Next steps (for next year) - Bilingual buttons - Use audio - Use photos of the kids?? I saw a really cool example on a Point England site. (see image below)

DFI- Week 5

 Today at DFOI (Week 5) we looked Google Sites. With Dorothy, we discussed the importance of making learning visible for our Tamariki. It..

• Encourages partnership with school and home 

• Teachers being able to see what the child is doing 

• Visibility of what other teachers are doing (blogs, planning etc)

Dorothy talked about the Hapara Hot Tip- using the sharing function on Hapara to find the children's things that they haven't put into their folders. This is a part of Hapara that I use regularly to find things that the children I teach haven't put into a folder. It's a very useful button to know about.. although still doesn't create finished work!! 

Our task today was to create a Multi Modal Site which encompasses a variety of texts to support our learners. Click this link to take you to the site I created. The site focuses on the text 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio that I'm reading with my reading group.

I used the MultiText Data Base to support the children.

Here is the link to my learning space site that my children use daily. This is where literally everything goes that we need the children to access.

DFI- Week 4

Sharing isn’t something new, it’s part of being human.  

Connected learners share: positive, thoughtful, helpful.  Face to face sharing, Small group- whanau size, sharing with a group of known people, big groups that we share to (assembly, festival, still in real time), online world.

BLOGGER: Why was it chosen as our online platform? 

• Resembles the spaces that young people want to be on

• Able to provision this legally, systematically and securely

• No new sign in with GSuite users

• Guaranteed three check system

• Largest audience reached via Google

• Multi Purposed- it can look and feel different to other blogs

• Can be used by learners and teachers

• Supports our cybersmart curriculum 

• Teaches kids how to ‘drive’ in the digital world, Blogger is functional and allows kids to learn in an easy way

• Connecting with whanau is not the purpose of Blogger, it is to protect our kids and allow them to become cybersmart 

Share to finish learning: 

• Encourages kids to ‘finish’ something in order to be able to share it

• Lots of kids don’t value ‘finishing’ so giving them this opportunity will benefit them when they are in the workforce. 

• Having a  purpose for sharing is important (for learning from others, to teach others and to start new learning conversations) Sharing for feedback (feed forward)

Google Forms: Good for student voice and evaluations 

• A way to collect and sort information 

• Search ‘forms.new’ and start with a blank template 

• Add, duplicate, required are all great options 

• Add images, titles, sections and videos

• Settings: Top right hand corner- can turn off and on depending on what you are wanting. You can restrict the user info (distribute to people further than your school). Check only add the form once. Allowing others to edit their mistakes. 

• Summary chart - You can choose whether others can see this - or just yourself. 

• You can send the form once complete via email. You don’t actually share the file with others like with other google apps. Share it as an email, as a link or embedded (like on the site)

• Viewing response data, you can export this into a spreadsheet. You can link other forms to the same spreadsheet (this is to create a new tab).

Google maps

• Good way to introduce a new place e.g. camp destination to anxious learners. 

• Can add layers, move map around, marker - grab and drop-, pin places, add information and pictures. Line tool to connect two parts together. Use the measuring tool 

• Great for measurement - maths 

• Layering- School map with ECEs underneath then the universities on top etc

• Customise markers - click on in and add details on style, pictures, make it a house or a star etc

• Can bring in information from a spreadsheet (e.g we filled in the form, download the data from there into a spreadsheet and import the data from there. Tell google maps what you want to ‘bring in’  e.g. names and selfie pics etc

DFI Week 3- Media

Today at DFI we learned about different types of Media (Slides, Drawing etc) that we can use.

Three things I learned today
- masking an image
- aligning images with 'arrange'
- adding a clip to a playlist in Youtube

Here is a Google Drawing to show some take aways for me today.

Here is my Pick a Path for 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'

About Me

Google Meet Recording

Screen recording of blog conversation (used this a lot (everyday 3x a day) during lockdown).

DFI- Session 2 (Workflow)

Today our focus was about 'workflow'. Honestly, I'd already set up a lot of the functions that we covered today so today I haven't learned a lot. However, upwards and onwards!

One thing that I have taken away from today was how to change the 'unsend' time limit on my Gmail. I've used it previously but didn't know you could change how long you had to unsend the email. So... I've changed it to 30 seconds... just in case!

Although I knew about Google Keep (and don't like it for myself- I use Google Tasks), I might try and use it with some children to see if they like it or not.

I am going to try and use Toby Mini so that I can keep all my planning in one place (instead of clicking from folder to folder ugh!!).

DFI Week 1

Today was the first day out of nine sessions for the Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) Term 3, 2020.

Throughout the day, we covered a variety of learning including:
- Add ons and Google Extensions
- Google Groups vs Contacts
- Formatting Google Docs (to make it pretty!!)


The following is my favourite take-aways from today's session



We played around with Google Docs and this is the 'poster' I've created to fit into my technology for the term. Click on the link at the bottom to go to the pdf to access the links to take you to the videos!


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5dTD1LpYB726N0G2LRODhdc2BhF7pCG/view?usp=sharing

Teaching As Inquiry- A Reflection

The Learning Pit

This year we have begun to focus on the "Learning Pit" concept as a growth mindset. The aim of it is to teach children that learning isn't always easy and that when the learning is tricky, that's when you will accomplish the most when you succeed.

The children have adapted to using the term "I'm in the pit" to communicate that they are finding the task at hand difficult, instead of saying "It's too hard" without giving it a proper go. Since introducing this simple concept, the mindset of the children has shifted to become more positive and believing in themselves that they can achieve any task they put their mind to.

The "Learning Pit" is about challenging learning and challenging children's comfort zones. It teaches them to become resilient learners. The simple concept provides them with steps and skills to get through a learning challenge. The challenge of the "Learning Pit" leads to more enhanced learning and encourages students to challenge themselves.

This image, perfectly captures what the "Learning Pit" is all about.

The best thing about the "Learning Pit" concept is that it can be easily adapted to suit any age group. It is important that the children understand from an early age that learning shouldn't be easy because otherwise they aren't challenging themselves, and therefore potentially not learning anything new.

This video provides more information on the "Learning Pit".

The Power of Three

Over the past couple of terms in our collaborative classroom we have been using the "Power of Three" with our learners for collaborative group work.

The idea came about initially because we have a few rather low learners who struggle to keep up on occasion, when working with just one other buddy. This therefore, leaves the other buddy within the pair swamped with most of the hard work.

By adding another student into the mix, it enables a weight to be lifted off the one student who would have otherwise been "weighted down" with the majority of the tasks involved in the learning and creates a shift enabling the work load to be shared.

However, as with any way of learning- problems do still occasionally arise. The main problem that my collaborative teaching partner and I have encountered is forming the right combinations. We learnt the hard way.
Initially we let the children choose their combinations- mistake number one. This was just too hard. All our most difficult children seemed to place themselves within the same sets of three. Our effort that went into management seemed to escalate incredibly.
We then tried to choose the groups ourselves but even sometimes this wouldn't work because some children would just not work together. It was like a clash of heads- nobody would co-operate.
Lately we tried letting them choose their groups but giving them guidelines they had to meet e.g. one year 5, one year 6, one girl, one boy, someone you haven't worked with before etc. This tends to work really well because they still have some control over the people that they are working with and everyone is included.
The latest way of forming groups we tried is by using an online random group generator and then moving some children around that wouldn't work in some combinations. We have done this with our most recent writing groups and the combinations are a dream!

The best thing about children working within a group of three is there are more ideas floating around rather than just two heads working together. The work load is shared more equally and there is a broader range of skills that can contribute to the learning. The children also actually seem to be way more on task as well.

I personally find the "Power of Three" to be highly beneficial to children of all learning capabilities and will endeavour to continue using it within our learning space.

Teaching As Inquiry

This year as a staff, we have been focusing on the area of mathematics for our Teaching as Inquiry (TAI) focus.

As I started at my current school half way through last year, I didn't have the opportunity to start a full TAI last year. As this is my first one, I found the lead up to it daunting. I constantly had multiple questions running through my head. How would I identify my target children? How would I ensure that my target group would improve? How can I justify these improvements? Are only a few of the questions that took over my mind and stressed me out.

In the Senior Syndicate we are working our mathematics programme across a four. We have a system where we see the same groups at the same time every week. Each of us roam for half a session a week. For example I roam on a Tuesday for the first half of a session and then work with a group. (All of us are teaching during this point). The purpose of a roaming teacher for the first half of the session is to assist children where they need it, check in on specific learners to ensure they are on-task and observe teaching when/where needed. It is also beneficial for the roamer to see how other teachers teach certain strategies/work with children to gain ideas and professionally develop their own teaching and learning.
We have a "roaming book" which we record anything necessary in, so that we have a record of it.

Our Target Groups consist of children who we have identified from Gloss Testing, that are below where they currently should be. The other groups are not based on ability. They are completely mixed ability.
I find this beneficial as the children at higher stages, who are able to make sense of a strategy quickly are able to also become a teacher and teach their peers, engraining their knowledge further. Children who are working at a lower strategy stage then learn from their peers as are exposed to a wider range of mathematical vocabulary and reasoning.

My target group has been my main focus this term. However, my teaching strategies which I use on these children automatically flow through to my teaching of my other maths groups.

When working with my groups, I use my modelling book. I have one for each of my groups. I ensure we recap on the previous session and share any new learning that is going to occur within the next few sessions. The children use the modelling book when working independently or away from the teacher but collaboratively, to further understanding and challenge themselves.

Some of the activities that I have the children working through include:

- Working through a Task Board. This has been set up to encourage the children to purely work on what they need to learn based on their I Kan knowledge test results.
- Working through strategy based activities made up with informative videos, questions and games.
- Figure it out activities
- Weekly challenges
- Variety of group box games
- Knowledge games e.g. greedy pig, place value millionaire, rocket, countdown numbers, maths tag


Overall, I'm not sure what I was so worried about. I have found that with the right support, I have managed to keep on track and really dive head first into my TAI- with confidence and with the willingness to learn!
Most importantly though, the feedback provided from the children in the syndicate and the parents has been phenomenal! One parent has said "I don't think I've ever heard so many children rave about how much they are enjoying maths!"
Feedback like this, for me speaks for itself. The children are excited about their learning and can't wait to come to mathematics each day. I can't wait to see if there has been a change in their mathematics results, as there has been in their attitudes towards maths.

Collaborative Teaching

The term "collaborative teaching" is becoming very loosely used as of late- not really having a stand alone term that truly defines it. This is because, I believe, that no two teachers collaboratively teach exactly like another two teachers.

At the school I work at, I teach in a year 5/6 syndicate with 3 other teachers, who are a lot more experienced than myself. We all have different styles of teaching and over the years they have learnt what not to do/what things work better. For me, working alongside them in a collaborative environment is a bonus- I learn so much from them! Instead of being shut inside your single cell classroom awaiting the horrors that are going to occur, I have support- constantly! This is what collaborative teaching is for me, it's all about the underlying support that you have from and for the fellow teachers in your syndicate and within your school.

When people ask my: Is it hard working collaboratively? My response... YES!  It is, but it is so worth it. With the support I have from my collaborative teaching partner, I am able to learn in a more productive way than I would in a single cell class. It doesn't daunt me when I am being observed anymore because, you are being constantly observed anyway! The feedback I receive is daily instead of once every now and again, and my feedback to my collaborative teaching partner is also valued- no matter how different our experience levels are.

I'm still a BT and without the support of my team and teaching partner- I'd be half-way lost, buried in a deepening hole of stress and worry. Not to say, I don't stress and worry now, I do, but I have guidance to get through it everyday.

Teaching collaboratively has been an exhausting, stressful and challenging journey so far. However, I love coming to school everyday- knowing that I don't have to teach these kids on my own, knowing that my co-teacher is there for me, knowing that I will make it out alive.
It won't always be happy smiles and wonderful days, don't get me wrong, we have bad days too. Someone else is just there with you. They can back you up. You're exposed to ways of teaching you never dreamed of. You develop strong rapports with a wider range of children and they learn that "Hey! Working alongside this child and this child isn't really so bad".

You may not accomplish as much as fast in a collaborative environment as you would in a single cell classroom, but we teachers, and the children are going to be better prepared for the future. The skills being developed will take everyone further than before!

2015 So Far!

Wow! How far we have come along since the start of the year!

Since the beginning of Term 1 we have jumped hurdles, pulled ourselves through muddy waters and crashed head first... not literally, but we may as well have!

With our classrooms being completely opened up this year we have been presented with a whole new way of learning. Collaborative teaching and learning. What a journey we have travelled. It is quite honestly the hardest thing I've ever done, but along with the challenges come the rewards. What a fantastic bunch of kids we get to work with!

At the beginning of the year we really struggled with the noise level and ways around ensuring that the other end of the syndicate wasn't being disrupted from their learning. Since then, the children and teachers within our space have all become better at managing the noise so that it is acceptable. Of course, we still have hiccups which, we tackle when we reach them.
As you will see in the pictures below, our spaces are very open with the giant holes in the walls and no way of blocking out sound- so as you can imagine, it can be hard. But! We are getting better. To avoid distracting other crucial learning from occurring down the other end of the block we try to place our noisier learning in the end rooms or deeper into the rooms so that the noise doesn't travel.