DFI Day 5

Visible teaching and learning - the idea of can we see it? or can we not? Important this is about teaching and learning. We need to think about - Is it visible to the learners? Is it visible to the Whanau? Is it visible to the teacher? Is it visible to colleagues?

We need to think about when is it truly necessary to have stuff password protected. We want our students and Whanau to be able to access our teaching and learning without barriers. One of the helpful tips I got from Vicki previously is make the folder assessable for everyone so when you create documents in the folder you don't have to share again. 

I still don't have a lot of parents that make comments on blogs but it is something we are working on. Going into lockdown has made the visibility of teaching and learning even more important. I have had a few comments during lockdown from parents that they have had a good look at our class site and like how students can carry on with work as if they were at school.

One of the things I am still working on is creating videos of teaching to share on my site. This is quite out of my comfort zone but I am finding students are engaging well with this. It has meant when I am away they can continue with their work and they can work from home. 

Multimodal - delivering communication to people in a way that interests them and suits them. We want to design a class site that is accessible for all of our learners. This can help students become self directed. 

Leveraging up - Multiple texts through multiple modes. Exposing students to a whole range of texts and different. Gives students the opportunity to be critical thinkers (something I am currently working on with my students).
We are able to improve students' understanding for;
- Different perspectives and points of view
- Discern levels of credibility and reliability (really important!!)
- Different 'types' of texts - written, audio, visual, symbolic, etc

This has been an area I have really on just started to look into. We have done 1 off multimodal tasks for students but I really want to make this much more common within my teaching programme. I really like how we were shared the multi-text database and can see the value of this. I want this to be a focus for the near future in my planning. I look forward to continue exploring different ways that teachers set this up for students (again another amazing thing of everyone's sites being visible!!).

Kerry also spoke about recreating a new site each year and seeing how much these develop over the years. This got me really curious to go have a look at my sites from previous years. I have been using google sites since I started teaching in 2016 (back in the old sites days). It was great to go back and see how my sites have developed over the years. Some things I noticed - I have a lot more of my teaching/learning visible, I have changed the way I have my learning planner (I have written straight onto sites, used calendars, used google sheets, and the last couple of years I have been using google slides). Its amazing how much google sites have changed since I have been using them, they are always adding more options which is exciting! There are so many possibilities!

Google sites

Today we have gone over the basics for creating a site again. I found this very helpful as I am often one of the people in my school who helps others when they need assistance in creating their sites. Tips - making sure that you use the year in your site URL so you know what year it is from. 

We also got the time to start creating our own multimodal sites. I started 2 (because I kept changing my mind on what I wanted to create and had a really good idea related to next term). I started with an ANZAC day site - check it out here but keep in mind it is still a work in progress. 

I plan on using this next year so will continue to work on. So far I have really only added in videos and texts but will work on some tasks to complete with these. The other site I started to create is to do with our health topic for next term which is focused on getting active. This was sparked by looking through the multimodal text data base that was shared with us and one related to walking/getting active. I will continue to work on this site too and use it as a way to introduce our topic next term.

Overall another very enjoyable day on DFI! I am getting so much out of being part of this PLD and really enjoy working with my bubble. I can also see the benefit in using multimodal texts! I am looking forward to seeing how much students engage with these. Can't wait for next week.

DFI 4 - Sharing and working with data

Today was Day 4 of DFI, also our first one in lockdown. DFI was moved to online last year because of the lockdowns. I think it is great being able to connect with teachers from all around the country for DFI so really enjoy having it online. Also very evident is the importance of the skills we are learning with the potential of lockdown being extended.

Sharing

The ability to share and connect with other people is so important. Using blogger students have share with a much wider audience that they previously could. 

There were many reasons why blogger was chosen as the platform for students to use to share their learning. I actually remember using blogger as a year 8 student and how exciting it was seeing each others posts.

Some of the things we do in my class

- Having blogs shared with Whanau 

- Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu

- Commenting on other students without our school blogs (students love this!)

One thing that I need to work on is not just using blogs to share 'finished/final' version of work. Students can use it as a way of getting feed-forward from others. I also need to get students to start replying to the comments they get. 

Google forms

I love google forms. They are something I have been teaching myself how to use for a while so it was good to have a focus session on using google forms. There are a lot of different settings with google forms that I have not explored yet. So I will be able to have a good look at these in the future. I did really like how people use google forms to do spelling tests and can see how good this would be!

My test form

I have also created another form my students to fill out while in lockdown, just so they can check in with me each day and I can get a sense of how they are feeling or if they have any questions.

Google My Maps

I have used google my maps with my students before but today I learned so much more about my maps! I did not know you could import spreadsheets which is really handy to know,  I will think about how I can use this in class. Here is a quick google my map I created with places around my town. 

Google Sheets

Filter options - There are a lot of filters that you can use to sort data. I had a play around with this and can already see how I can use this to look at data differently!! (and a lot easier to sort that manually). I would like to keep working on how I use sheets for my assessment data in the future. 

We also looked at using sheets to do an analysis of blog posts. We watched a lovely video of a student doing this with her blog pots. 

Here is the example I made using data from one of my students blog posts. I really liked this! We are currently doing statistics in mathematics and I think I will use this as one of my tasks for next week! Will also be a great way to show students what their blogging stats look like.

Quality blog comments

Its important that students have a framework when commenting on blogs. Below is one about writing quality blog comments. I will be showing this to my students again and talking through it with them. I think this is something that constantly needs to be revisited with students as they often forget what a quality blog comment should look like.

Overall another great day of learning. It will be good to be a bit more creative over the next couple of weeks with my students. 

DFI Day 3 - Media/Create

Manaiakalani pedagogy - Create

Creative skills help students become better problem solvers, communicators, and collaborators.

I really liked the quote “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). I think it's really important that we encourage our students to be creative and that they know anyone can be creative! I find that giving the students the change to be creative is a great way to get them engaged in learning.

"Not just getting them to use the tools we have - getting them to use them in a creative way"

"We want them to create content, not just sit there and consume."

Something I have been trying to do is give students more choice. For example, we are currently working on novel studies this week. For one of the independent tasks students were given was “create a quiz with questions about the chapters you have read this week”. I did not say how they needed to create this and students choose lots of different ways to do this. I really liked how some students created pick a paths in google slides.

I do realise some students really struggle with this and having too much choice or just having no idea where to start. I found one of the really beneficial things we have done is being apart of Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu where they have been able to see what other students their age have created. This has really pushed my students further with their creativity.

As we are currently going down the Deep learning path at my school it was good to see how closely this relates with the Manaiakalani pedagogy. 

Fonts

One of the most exciting things from today was being introduced to google fonts and the amazing amount of different fonts available!! I could spend a very long time exploring the different fonts. I am going to choose a couple I really like and start using them with my learning planning etc. I love fonts and am happy to know how easy it is to get new fonts! Also Cheryl showed us the perfect pairings too! Can't wait to keep exploring.

Pick a path 

For our create time today I attended a pick a path workshop. I thought it was relevant because of the work my students created in the last couple of days. Today I created a maths starter for my year 9s to get started on our next unit.

Handy tip - always make sure that you check as you go by going into present mode.

Google drawings

Today we created a blog profile in google drawings. I have now put this on the side of my blog for people to look at when they go onto my blog. Next step make sure every student has one and also make one for my class blog!

 

 Today we also had the chance to have a play with google drawings and making a cartoon version of a picture. Here is my not so amazing first attempt (this was very challenging). This is something I could see my students loving though! Might be a fun afternoon creative task for them to create a new blog profile picture.

Overall this was another great day of learning! I am looking forward to being more creative with my class.

DFI week 2 - Workflow

Today was day 2 of DFI - Our focus was workflow.

During our Connecting with Manaiakalani we focused on ‘Learn’. Some of the key ideas I took from this were discussions about effective teaching practice, knowing that we want to do the best for our students.

We were introduced to the acronym RATE. 

Recognising that effective teaching practice, especially in a digital space

Amplify how can we amplify the effective practice

Turbocharge - taking it to the next level

Effective practice - we need to recognise what effective practice is and what it looks like in our school. 

This is something I need to think about more so I am able to turbocharge what we are doing to enhance the learning for our students and make the most out of the digital technology we are lucky to have access to. It's important to know that technology is not just a tool, we need to use it to transform the way we use it to make the most for our students. This led into the next part where we were asked “What does learn look like in your school?”. This is something we are spending quite a bit of time thinking about in our school at the moment. We are currently heading down the path of New Pedagogies for Deep learning, and I am lucky enough to be apart of a lead team in my school. Currently my focus is looking at critical thinking and of the dimensions of this is leveraging digital.

Vicky also touched on the importance of rewindable learning. This is something I am focusing on at the moment, especially with having this one day a week off for DFI. My recent focus has been with my year 9s, ensuring they can continue with the normal class work they would be doing if I was there. The great thing about having the site is being able to have all of the work visible for students. Currently we are working on measurement so I have created recordings using jam board, google castify, and my touch screen laptop to record myself explaining how to find the perimeter, area, and volume of shapes. I have embedded these on my site so students can watch these when they need help. I have had positive feedback from students about this so far which is good because I can't stand the sound of my own voice. Another teacher in my department has also used these videos to share on her site too. This something I really need to push myself to do this more often because it is very worthwhile.

Google apps/tools - Learning for the day

Google keep - note taking, filing, quick thinking. There is a phone version (have been using this for a while for my personal account but not for work) and an extension (will install this as it looks really good and easy to use)

One thing I love about Google keep is how pretty you can make the notes look. I really enjoy personalising slides, sites etc and being able to do this on notes looks great too! 

- Something I have not done before is adding collaborators to a note. Can see how helpful this would be! Will have to think about using this feature in the future.

- I also have not had a good look through the settings looking at reminders etc. Something I will have to look at. 

- Archiving - just pops it into the background, you can access later if needed.

- I also like how you can take a photo and get it converted into text! (one copy of a book and want to use the text etc). I think I will try to use this one out over the next week. I also want to use this for my lists of things I need to do, rather than random post it notes stuck to my laptop.

Gmail

Today I made a signature for my email. You can find this under settings in gmail It was good to learn you can make multiple ones. Here is one I made today.

My handy tip - If you are like me and often have unread emails and don't like having the unread emails at the top and want to sort them out you can search in the search mail bar "label:unread category:primary". This will show you all of your unread emails in your primary category. You can do this with any tabs by changing the word after category.

Calender

Something to use - Shortcut keys to change the view. This is so handy to know! Will save a bit of time!

d - day, t - today, w - week, y - year, m - month

Tabs 

Well, I am definitely a tab collector. You know its bad when you open a new window so you can have less, rather than closing the ones you already have. I already use bookmarks, although Its probably time to sort out my bookmarks again... I will put that on my to do list. I also need to spend some time looking at the different ways I can organise my tabs a lot better, which will help me stop feeling so cluttered while I am working. There are also some cool extensions to help with this too. This is my job over the next week. 

Create

Today for our create tasks we looked at using google meet to record and then using this recording to embed into our blogs. Its important to know that when you create a google meet recording it will automatically save into your drive under meet recordings (it may take a bit of time to show up depending on how long the recording is). 

How to embed a video on blogger

- Find recording in google drive

- Open in new window

- Embed item

- Copy the link

- Past into blog post under html view

Here is my google meet record I made today with Kate from my DFI bubble

Overall this was another great day of learning! I really enjoy the structure of the day - learning in a large group then having a time to practice what we have been learning in our small groups. There are lots of new skills I will take away from today. I really look forward to next weeks one!