DFI Day 5 – Collaborate – Sites

DFI Day 5 – Collaboration through creating effective, engaging and inspiring GoogleSites

GoogleSites Paetuktuku Kūkara are a tool for visible learning. Visible learning is ‘turbocharges’ learning and achievement. Visibility enables an accelerated shift. Ākonga know what they need to learn and how to get there.

We can create deep engagement through multimodal design on our GoogleSites. How do we get our learners and whānau to say “Oh WOW! I want to go in?”. We want the visuals of the learning to inspire our ākonga. GoogleSites are an ideal platform to support our practice of T-Shape, wide and deep literacy; and to make visible the links between reading, writing, spelling, morphology and inquiry.

Does this inspire and engage? Not so much.   This one’s better!

  • More space.
  • Less text heavy – more inviting and intuitive.
  • Use of effective design principles and techniques.
  • Ākonga have agency and are empowered to make connections and flow in their learning. Teachers are not the gatekeepers of knowledge.
  • Multimodal for behavioural engagement.
  • Multi-textual for cognitive engagement.

How will I make the learning visible to students and whānau?

How can I make learning visible to colleagues? How can we build this into our professional practice?

How can I embed collaboration and sharing into the GoogleSite? (I will try embedding FreeForm).

I also need to check if we have a Hub email address so I can have a go at scaffolding GoogleSheets creating, sharing, reflecting and assessment. 

I’d also love to embed intro and exit practices into my practice that connects to visible learning. I can record these as audio, as video, take photos of whiteboard or post-it note reflection or students can learn a reflective exit routine that they can share to the GoogleSite. Eventually it would be awesome for them to learn how to make effective comments and do this through the slideshows on the GoogleSite. Short, sharp and shiny. Do it well and do it often. Turn it into a rapid routine to support critical thinking and build a class culture of engagement and curiosity.

I’m very interested in the practice of gameifying learning and learning from social media techniques to engage students through the GoogleSite. I’m also aware

 of making sure that our Year 3s are scaffolded with a range of skills working towards being able to make their own GoogleSite and blog posts so they can make their own learning visible, connect to others and empower their whānau.

The aim of my GoogleSite is to engage my ākonga with the science of sound through the endangered native bird, the Matuku Bittern and it’s mating call booms. My class loves cool and different things about the natural world. I would ha

ve loved to start the term off with an authentic text about the Hochstetter’s frogs research using tiny radio transmitters but really want

to get into building vocabulary and knowledge around sound. Unfortunately, our native frogs don’t make any sounds or calls at all!!! We do have small local populations of Matuku and one of our school Hubs is named Matuku. It’s also Conservation Week! They loved previously learning about Holly the Frog-sniffing Dog so I’m hoping they’ll be interested in Bittern Boom counting as well as learning about sound waves and how sound is transmitted through vibrations through the context of Matuku Bittern booms.

The GoogleSite will also include the whole class text and my slideshow which includes keyu vocabulary, morphology, reading comprehension skills and critical thinking questions. My goal will be for my literacy group to have iPad access in their reading group time so they can be empowered to drive their own learning.

Dorothy Burt, Manaiakalani’s Programme Director also mentioned T-Shape Literacy. This was the first time I’d heard this term. I’m interested to learn more about the research and practice. 

 

DFI Day 4 – Dealing with Data

DFI Day 4 – Dealing with Data

Today was fast and furious! So much learning!

Some insight from Dorothy Burt, Co-founder and Programme Director of Manaiakalani. The Manaiakalani Programme is an innovative education initiative in New Zealand focused on improving learning outcomes for students in low socio-economic communities through digital pedagogy. Founded in 2011, it uses a “Learn, Create, Share” model to empower students and has shown to significantly boost writing progress compared to national averages. 

I was inspired by Dorothy’s statement’s (re)connecting us to the work of Vygotsky and social constructivism. Particularly with regards to our current problematic curriculum. One of the key foundations of Manaikalani is for learners to have an authentic audience for authentic outcomes. I was inspired to reflect on my current practice and how the push to implement structured this, that and everything devalues clear evidence and research based pedagogy. We need to protect our learner’s rights to articulate their understanding clearly for others. Not just knowledge in, knowledge out but theories and developing ideas. Learners need to receive feedback that helps refine their knowledge. Teachers need time to give this feedback and teachers need to create time and scaffold learners to give feedback and receive it from others! 

The Quality Blog Comments visual was very helpful. I can see this being scaffolded for Year 3s through oral language and classroom routines before moving to blog comments. We will start with our class blog. I do think it will take a term of laying in the learning before they start commenting on the class blog. Some of my students could potentially take blog comments very seriously so I want to make sure that the tamariki can show Positive, Thoughtful and Helpful comments in their oral and written feedback first. They will need to prove they can be CyberSmart, follow our Kawa of Care and understand the effects online comments can have before they can make an online comment on the class blog. Find key learning for quality blog comment here.

As Dorothy said, our tamariki need to encounter different perspectives that challenge or enhance their understanding. The push towards a ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum that has already devalued Māori perspectives, our unique values and our local histories intrinsically, within the curriculum, means that learners are less likely to encounter different perspectives and there is a restricted and prescriptive set of understandings rather than supporting ākonga to develop their own. 

I was reinspired to begin creating a learning community with my class whānau through a class blog. I have asked to get a class blog (not a ‘hub’ blog used across 3 classess). The learning in each class ecosystem is so unique! And to create strong connections, and deep, meaningful connections, I think teachers need to be able to create those relationships to suit their own class community.

Share to Learn and Learn to Share

I have been inspired by the Italian-origin early childhood philosophy of Reggio Emilia. Reggio Emilia documentation deepens children’s relationships to their learning, to others and to memory. I am inspired to create a rich, engaging, learning-focused blog where tamariki are the heart of everything I do. 

I am excited to make the learning visible:

Some reflective questions for my practice:

  • How can we capture the sharing?
  • How can I capture the ako process?
  • How can I get my Year 3s to participate in the feedback process?
  • Could I start using GoogleForms for a reading comprehension activity or a reading response?
  • I could work towards scaffolding their skills so that they are able to make their own GoogleForm reading response or activity?

See Dorothy’s presentation here.

Connect and Learn

I am inspired to use Google MyMaps to embed learning and for assessment. I could have created (and did today) a Local Histories map based on our Whole Class reading rich texts. So the map becomes a jumping off place and is literally a map of their learning. I wonder what other ways I could link to the map? The Local Histories map could include:

  • All the important places in our local area that we read about.
  • Links to the Pūrākau we learnt.
  • A map showing migrations for Mahinga Kai.
  • Show all the local areas with wildlife.
  • Include links to resources.
  • And continue to build in CyberSmart learning.

I wonder how I could use MyMaps in Term 2 with regards to our Science of Sound Inquiry? And how could I co-construct the map with my learners? I already know that they are very engaged with maps and science! The Science of Sound map could include:

  • Wigram Airforce Base
  • Where to listen to local wildlife. Cicadas? Do we have them in our area?
  • Noisiest areas of Wigram? What are the sound levels of the industrial areas? The large roads? The motorway?
  • What are the rules for sound levels in our community? Do they notice anything that is positive, negative, interesting?
  • How loud are the planes that visit Wigram Airforce Base? (E.g. the Hercules).

A Day for Data

I used the graph function at the beginning of the year to model how to turn data into a graph. Magic! I literally got oohs and aahs and they were SO engaged in creating their own written graphs! Today I looked at one of our former students’, Tahlia’s, blogging data. Ka pai to mahi Tahlia! Winter seemed to be the best time for blogging!

I would love to work with my DFI friends from Te Piki Kāhu Wigram Primary to create rich and engaging class blogs. I hope they will join me!

DFI – Day 3 Media and Creativity

Learn + Create = Accelerate

What would learning, classrooms and schools look like if creativity was at the heart of everything we do? Instead of the focus on the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading perhaps we could build learning spaces based on the Science of Creativity. 

I am empowered by Dorothy Burt’s powerful words about creativity’s place in the Manaiakalani pedagogy. I think we need to hold strong in our values of creativity and student empowerment in our practice so that tamariki can form original ideas through exploration and discovery. Do they need knowledge to do this? Yes. But not at the expense of the creativity of our learners.

This DFI session was empowering because of the many ways in which our facilitators enthusiastically shared skills to scaffold children’s creativity in digital spaces such as sharing their learning through videos, using GoogleDrawing and GoogleSlides.

We know that media engages. We know the multisensory media engages and embeds learning more than just sight or sound. And we know that when akonga share their learning and teach others through creativity, they learn the most and that learning is about creative growth and empowerment, not just knowledge transfer.

I think at Te Piki Kahu Wigram we need to look at what barriers we might still have that stop us from upskilling ourselves and our tamariki with digital tools. We need to look at resourcing our spaces with tools to make sharing part of our daily habits. I would suggests we need to look at purchasing tripods and ipad grips for the Junior school, provide quiet places for filming and possibly purchase lapel mics. 

I would also love to support my team by suggesting we bring creativity into our collaborative planning and if we know that digital technologies empower creativity, then what will we do to enable our learners to be creative every day? At Te Piki Kahu Wigram, what are the steps our learners need to take to become creative thinkers? Do we know what this looks like? Do we have a shared understanding and vision of this as a school? I think there is room for growth in this area.

I am excited to continue to teach the use of digital tools such as GoogleDrawings and GoogleSlides as well as review their learning from last year (how to take a good photo, how to take a good video, how to do an audio recording) so they can USE these skills to share their learning. I think we will start small, for example, video themselves playing a new maths game that we can upload to our blog or create a GoogleDrawing about a new spelling rule and build from there.

Digital technologies empower creativity. We need to stand strong in our pedagogy that is ‘driven by a belief in the creative power of the learners themselves…based on the internal and external lives of the children. Dorothy Burt

What are the steps we need to take to become a creative school?

DFI Day 2 – Workflow

DFI Day 2 – Workflow

Reflecting on a learner’s Summer Learning Journey Blogpost with a partner in GoogleMeet.

I chose Albert, Year 3 from Kaniere School. Nita said he’s definitely a hands on learner and you can see that in his learning!

Albert created a cloak made out of nature materials. He spent two days making it out of flax, ferns/bracken, feathers and flowers. He had to figure out how to stop the flax from slipping out the sides of the weaving so he used stickytape. On Day 2 he added ferns/bracken, feathers and flowers into the weaving and made a very lush looking cloak.

The comments supported his thinking by asking what was challenging and a student comment gave positive feedback on his creativity and effort. Albert should be very proud of sharing his learning and hopefully the comments will kickstart some further exploration into weaving and cloakmaking.

 

I discussed with Nita how this blogging process could be modified for younger or learners earlier on their learning journey. Using an ipad, they could record a video and upload, or record a video and do a separate voiceover. They could use text to talk with support in their blog. They could add some questions for their readers to kickstart their thinking.

We also discussed how we could use strong blogging examples in the classroom to scaffold learners. What makes a strong blogpost? What are the elements or parts of a strong blogpost? You could look at a whole lot of examples and analyse them and create success criteria including how to make a good comment!

Here are some more examples of the Summer Learning Journey Blogposts.

In my professional practice this year, I would like to empower ākonga to share their learning regularly as well as comment on others. I think Year 3s will need the full year to be able to create their own blog post independently. (I’m new to teaching juniors!). To get started, they could add a video to Explain Everything (we will need to do a fair bit of review and refresh in Term 1 first) and do a voiceover, then share with me and we can add to our class blog. Then they can add comments to the class blogpost.

It would be great to discuss with my team what are some non-negotiable skills we want them to have by the end of each term based on last years iPad skills sessions. We can then create a planner with links to essential resources and scaffolding so we don’t feel like we have to make everything from scratch and it’s not on one teacher’s shoulders to create everything and drive the practice. I wonder if GoogleKeep could be a good tool to use for this so we have documentation and resources for the whole time available at any time.

I’m looking forward to sharing my learning with my team!

 

DFI Day 1

Know your Purpose. Know your Learners. Resource yourself! Be intentional. Keep it Simple!

It was wonderful to be reminded about the beginnings of Manaiakalani and the strength of its growth and impact. I was reminded about Learn, Create, Share and the importance of connecting the learning to parents and whānau. I will have Year 3s and I would love to scaffold their ability to share their learning with a regular, structured sharing practice.

I thought the quote that the tablets, iPads and various laptops and notebooks are replacing the pencil not the book was quite powerful. The pencil is ACTIVE! A lot of our work with junior children using iPads is teaching them how to be active creators not passive consumers.

Another powerful quote that stood out for me was Amie’s reminder to ‘resource yourselves well’. I would like to make this a personal focus for this year supported by a personal reminder that I don’t have to achieve everything at once. One small change at a time that I know well and feel confident using in the classroom because I’ve already done the mahi. This also means that I won’t waste precious learning time. 

My goal will be to have artefacts and resources already made and accessible on the GoogleSite. This will be supported by a very strong start with Kawa of Care and purposeful iPad use. There may have to be quite a lot of learning around this for our cohort of Year 3s. 

I would also like to look at how I manage my workflow and how I can unlearn some old habits and learn some new, more efficient ways of doing things in the Google WorkSpace. For example, organising My Drive so it becomes a useful library that documents my work for example creating purposeful and intentional folders with areas of learning, professional reading and resources where everyhting is linked together. So if I wanted to show all the work I have created for Junior Journals and whole class reading, it’s all in one folder, easy to find and ready to share, be used again or modified.

So, I need to empower myself so I can empower my ākonga who can then share and empower their parents and whānau to take part in their learning. I can empower myself by resourcing myself effectively, being organised and prepared with intentional and purposeful tools based on last year’s learning. Here is my list I will share with my team so we can build learning around these tools and behaviour expectations.

Year 3 Continuation of Learning from Year 2 includes:

  • Kawa of Care Agreement
  • Cybersmart Review
  • Voice Typing for Writing – Expectations for recording (depends on how we set up our space?)
  • Taking Photos
  • Edit Photos in the Photos App
  • Recording
  • Scratch Jr.?
  • Explain Everything – Rules about using Unsplash and videos. Kawa of Care – need to be very firm about learning expectations when creating DLOs. At school, the iPads are NOT for play which includes memes.
  • Octostudio

I really want our new cohort of Year 3s to feel a strong sense of achievement when they use digital tools and create Digital Learning Objects. I think we need to go from good to great and create purposeful, intentional, powerful learning with our ākonga.