DFI Session 9 - Revision

Revision: Agenda Day 9

REFLECTION

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• That learners have the potential to be experience high quality learning.
• Through digital learning children can rewind their learning experiences either:
• themselves
• or in Junior classes - teachers ensure lots of repetition.
• Summer Learning Journey has proven to increase learning.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• The exam today was daunting and I felt quite pressured before the exam.
• It was very helpful to go over the rewindables (on speed) in preparation of the exam over the last couple of weeks. I gained a lot more tips and knowledge from them.
• During the exam I felt a lot more confidence as most things are was able to work out.
• I was concerned with the speed in which I would complete the exam and in the end I did not finish the exam by about 2 questions and failed the Google Exam.
• My confidence has diminished somewhat however I was able understand most questions.
• I am interested to go back and find out what I need help on.
• I finished multi-choice in a reasonable amount of time 
• The scenario questions were more time consuming for me as many of them I do not use
  frequently in the case.
• Therefore - even though I did go through all the rewindables, for myself"
  I need to go over a lot more and do a lot more examples.
• Google Forms - this I struggled with.
• Playlists was ok but this was at the end of my exam and only went half way through.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

• Through the DFI Course there are quite a few things that I can use.
• Some of the learning in DFI was for more older children but I can see the vast benefit for Year 3 upwards teachers.
• I am very keen going back in the class to try out all the new and wonderful things I have learnt in this course as well as teaching them Cybersafety. This will be my first port of call and .... requesting for more devices in the Junior classes.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

• The DFI course has helped me become more familiar at using technology in my personal life. I have even bought a new iPad and have downloaded APPs to practice on such as Sketches, Scratch. :)

Computational Thinking: Agenda Day 8

Computational Thinking: Agenda Day 8

Notes - 7/5/2020

REFLECTIONS

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa
and pedagogy?

• When using digital devices in the classroom it is important that they are used for more than just tools.
• From my understanding of this session - For families with limited financial means, having access of being connected via digital devices and internet, through the schools, can help them to feel empowered. Potentially this will help them in the long term when seeking employment.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Intro to computational thinking and Hangarau Matihiko - In this talk by Kerry I learnt about the pedagogy and ways to introduce the new digital Technology Curriculum into classroom teaching. Through the Manaiakalani Outreach programme, teachers can become digitally fluent to enable them to feel a lot more confident in helping students to be digitally fluent students. I feel that I am part way through the steps of becoming digital fluent. I learnt that the Juniors involvement is at the beginning of the Computational Thinking aspect of the Curriculum. The design aspect is more for older children. Computational Thinking would involve a lot of sequencing activities - you do not necessarily need to use a device to start computational thinking. It could be learning the steps to cross the road, writing down a set of instructions. Cybersmart learning would start also at the basic levels with Kawa - Care. See earlier Sessions.
• The New Digital technologies Curriculum - It was helpful to look at the site with Progress Outcomes that helps learning intentions for teachers and students. There were good resources that would benefit my classroom teaching in TKI and the last few slides had some good resources such as Kia Takatu, Unplugged. Unplugged was a good resource for classrooms who do not have 1:1 device/limited devices. My classroom has only 3 iPads, hence a good site for me.
• Future of Tech - This slide gave me some food for thought on the future in technology. In the Juniors I could use some images of new technology to inspire writing / discussion or showing how technology has changed old to new.
• Exploring Coding - For my classroom I learnt about sites such as:
• Scratch - Junior Scratch
• Scratch is about making games and interactive stories
• Minecraft - block coding
• Apple version of Minecraft is Swift
• Hello Ruby
• Paper based resource/site
• I quite liked the slide from other classes and it was good to see youtube examples of how teachers used Scratch as a teaching tool in the classroom.





• one lesson was about having a conversation between 2 characters
• one was about drawing and creating own character and background
• I could see this being adapted to my Year 1/2 class.

• Creating with Code - Scratch. Here is my example (above) using a snipping tool from my screen rather than sharing. I was a little frustrated in making it work but did manage to create a small clip. I was able to add a characters and item (guitar). I need a tutorial to progress. :)

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

• I could use
• Scratch, Hello Ruby quite successfully.
• The TKI Progress site to plan my teaching
• Cybersmart - using the Kawa of Care as the beginning of computational thinking introduction stage for juniors. Repeat as necessary and then progress in structured steps.
• Using a variety of examples through Scratch or Unplugged ideas and lessons.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal Life?

• This course continues to up-skill my computer / iPad knowledge that I can use at home. With this increased knowledge I am planning to become more efficient and streamline in my teaching and planning which will of course mean more time for work / life balance.

DFI - Session 7 - Devices

Agenda - 30-4- 2020

Notes from Session 7

My Reflections

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• This session was about the kaupapa and pedagogy around Cybersafety and how we can teach our students to be cyber smart.  It is our jobs as teachers to empower our learners to be connected and confident decision makers in a digital world. Ideally Cybersafety should be a whole-school consistent programme approach.  Whilst the actual lesson may look different across the year levels, the content will basically stay the same to create consistency and give clear progressions.  Deliberate teaching is also important.  

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Hapara Teacher Dashboard - Purpose to make learning visible and enables the teacher/facilitator to view, comment and give feedback in a very organised way.
  It was good to get a background of how the Dashboard works however is not a tool that we use for our Juniors at Belfast School.  I can see the benefit for Teachers at Year 5-8 level.  
• Chromebooks - These are not used in the Junior school.  However, it was good to have a background of different functions that I was able to transfer to my own laptop. I enjoyed and gained more knowledge carrying out the activity on the Activity Dig that was set for us.  This included finding shortcut keys and different functions of the Chromebook.
• iPads - As a junior teacher this part of the day was very beneficial and has helped me know how to make iPads work effectively in my classroom and to set it up successfully in a classroom.  Good to have examples and to find out about the site - whiteboard.explain everything.  Great information for teaching Cybersafety to Juniors in this session. The video on setting up for success slide was very helpful for teaching children on the kawa / care for iPads.

Using some functions on the iPad: 

Click for - Task completed on actual iPad
😀

• Screencastify - At last I have made a screencastify, albeit basic.  (See my example below).  Thanks to Kelsey for some directing me to ways I can use in the Juniors.  
• Exploring Cybersmart areas - I found the following site beneficial to use in my classroom.  https://ipads.manaiakalani.org/

• Blogging - embedding screencastify video - Yahoo - I managed to complete this task as you can see below.  :)

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

• Being more aware about Cybersafety and to be cyber smart in my personal life. 

VERY FIRST ATTEMPT - of creating my own Screencastify:

Cyber-safety - Smart Learners

DFI - Session 6 - Collaborate - Sites

AGENDA - Session 6 - Collaborate Sites

Session Notes

Time to reflect and share with colleagues. Share what it is like being on the other end of a Distance Learning experience all day!

• I am now in a good routine of setting up for Distance Learning for the day. It is a fairly intensive day of learning new aspects of digital learning tools. Today was a good session as it was a continuation of last week's session on Sites and I felt I consolidated of the knowledge and skills learnt in Session 5. Quite enjoy breaking off into the smaller groups.

What ideas has this given to you for working with your kids in the coming weeks?

• Today I have acquired quite a few ideas to incorporate into our Junior Home Learning page. It has also made me think of things we need to think about on how home learning will look in two settings.
• those children at home and
• those at school.

• Making my own Room 6 Google Site, if Level 3 continues after 2 weeks, to allow for more curriculum groups and possibly use once everyone is back at school.
• Adding extras/improvements to our Junior Home Learning Site
• Photos of Junior Staff
• Adding scaffolding sites e.g. Teaching Tools in our Numeracy Tab
• Making it more consistent to our other Syndicate sites
• What tasks can we give our class that will be able to be managed in both settings?

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• The overall message was the need to implement 4 main aspects to have an effective Kaupapa, namely: Being CONNECTED, UBIQUITOUS, EMPOWERED, VISIBLE.
• Blogs are an used because of their authentic audience - to find out how many children/people are blogging on a site for a large school, Twitter-feed can be used.
• The importance of incorporating over the terms of the school year - LEARN, CREATE & SHARE.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Today's session was very beneficial as I was able to consolidate the knowledge learnt in the last Session about Google Sites.
• I learnt how to what makes a good Google Site that is engaging and has effective teaching on it.
• How to set up a class Google Site, include text boxes, make a round button using Google Drawings - thanks to our facilitator. Cropping pictures, downloading into a JPEG, making shapes, inserting into the main Google Site.
• Blog session was informative - however as my Juniors do not use a class blog, was not relevant.
• Each Session is improving my confidence and what I am capable of doing. I have now set up my own Google Planning Site that is very accessible on my Internet Page. I am hoping this will reduce my workflow in finding thing and for future teaching years. Spreadsheets have a whole new meaning.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

• LOTS. Gerhard's session on Good Google Learning Sites was beneficial in making my own Site. I liked the examples given in this session. Great to use these, rather than starting from scratch.
• For Juniors - make it uncluttered, easy to use, keeping in mind that it can used on an IPad, can be used independently, making it personalised with your own class/syndicate,   

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

• My new knowledge will help me keep up with my Partner and my children when they discuss technology!! It has helped me communicate with family during this Lockdown through Family Chat sessions in a Google Meet setting and using more Emojis. 🤣😁🥰

Session 5 - Collaborate - Sites

Agenda - Collaborate - Sites

Session Notes

Time to reflect and share with colleagues

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• Today I learnt that visibility is important to make the online learning engaging for learners. Feedback from parents with online learning is that they are liking that what and why they are learning is visible. Hence the session today fits with making Sites engaging for learners and of course being age appropriate. When designing Google Sites for the learner ensure that you follow the pedagogy of LEARN, CREATE, SHARE in your site.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• When making Google Sites and getting information, bear in mind, that they need to be visually engaging, simple to use for the age it is geared for, providing a variety of Multi Texts, now know as T Shaped Literacy, and include appropriate and worthwhile content.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

• Heaps - Google Site was a very helpful session both with the facilitator and in our groups. I am slow in putting things together as this is the first time I have made a Google Site. I copied the template of the Spreadsheet of MultiText - Database into my drive to ensure that I was covering each aspect of this learning model/structure. This was beneficial. Next time I would use a whiteboard/sticky notes etc.
• Lots of the examples appeared to be for older children - I was focused on making my site easy for Year 1 / 2 to use.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

• I can see the benefit of the Multitext - Data base using Google Spreadsheet in that if a good bank of activities are inserted into your own Data base for your class and age, lots of your planning would be completed. Easy to find and use for future years / future topics. I would imagine this could be used in Maths, Inquiry links etc. Very keen to pass on this knowledge to my colleagues.

DFI Session 4 - Dealing with Data

Agenda - Dealing with Data
Notes

The following are examples of my attempts of today's learning:

Sheets on Speed link
It took me a wee while to understand instructions - but got there in the end. ;)

Google Forms

Creating own My Map


Spreadsheets




Reflections




ANALYSING DATA FROM A 'STUDENTS' BLOG
This Blog data is from a student called Amelia, acquired from DFI student list.

• Reminder that if the chart is too big to change in HTML from say 960 to 600-660.  Just experiment and view blog post to check that it fits.

Reflections:

Key points to comment on:

Share what it is like being on the other end of a Distance Learning experience all day!

• Brain is truly stretched, in a good way. Lockdown has made this more authentic.
• Body is stiff from sitting for a period of time - hence half hour stretches are needed.
• Have in a side bar easy leg stretches whilst listening would be a great idea.
• This happened in my word processing years - a prompt box would come up with exercises.
• Being prepared beforehand gives you an advantage
• good to read over the content - to help to embed in brain!
• drink regularly 
• I liked using the chat today to ask 'burning' questions, during sessions.

What ideas has this given to you for working with your kids in the coming weeks?

• Encourage regular breaks - using a timer or look at the clock,
• Make a timetable that fits with your learners - they need their parents to help
• Content - to grab their attention, not too long, motivating
• Find exercises that are appropriate for stretching (legs / arms / neck
• Being careful not to overload student (parents) with too much
• First week start simple and small
• Strand - make into google slides for children to use.
• Make it fun and Just have a go! Both for me as a teacher and for students.:)

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

• Today I learnt that SHARING in an authentic way is a very important part of students learning.
• Whether it is orally, through blogging, emails, Seesaw posts and comments
• Feedback is important and a way of finishing the learn, create, sharing cycle.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Collaboration with colleagues / facilitators - no question is silly. 
• I liked the break out to smaller groups.
• Using 'chat' to ask burning questions.
• Google Forms, Google MyMaps, Google Spreadsheets, Analysing Blogs have all been new learning experiences for me today.
• My challenge is to be able to use today's knowledge with Year 1 / 2. 
• Love the Bear Hunt idea in Google MyMaps
• Spreadsheets - this session has helped me understand how useful this will be for assessment data, planning throughout the year, making groups.
• I can see it will limit the need of too many folders/documents.  
• Sheets on Speed
• Blogging Tips and Labels
• Overall - Today has given more insight to how Management/Lead Teachers have dealt with data to help our learning and students learning.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

• Google Forms
• I could use this with my parents on their expectations
• Would love to see if my class were able to complete a 'learning' form (see my Weather Form)
• perhaps this could be used when out of Lockdown - in a small group with 1:1 device 
• Google MyMaps
• Bear Hunt
• Using a story book with characters that live in different places.
• Modelling to children distances e.g. London to Christchurch.
• Google Spreadsheets
• This will help in quickly making groups and being able to assess and meet needs of the class.
• Analysing Blogs
• Tricky for my class of Year 1/2 children - perhaps I could use this as a model for an extension reading group.
• Observation - I feel that a lot of information today will be very beneficial for older years (Year 3 up), who have access to 1:1 device

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
Today's session continues to increase my brain power. Everything I have learnt today will help my personal life!!

DFI - Alphabet Songs

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXgOEH1E2NxeogQlWDN8wdsYm--7wt3r