DFI - Computational Thinking

Reflection:

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at DFI. I have found my confidence has increased around using Google and technology as whole. I have found some really good ideas when it comes to taking what I have learnt and putting this into my class practice. Especially after today's session. I think that coding will be a great addition to my classroom teaching.

On Monday we have the Google Exam. This is to pass the level 1 educators exam. I am both confident and nervous to sit this. Although, after learning everything  I have over the passed term, I think it will go smoothly. This will be a great addition to my teaching practice.

Future in Technology:

Today we were looking at technology on a future basis. There has been some interesting technologies come through this year and more in the works. Technology is a huge part of our daily life and it's forever adapting and changing.

Will technologies take our jobs or allow for more creativity?

Coding:

As a group we had to choose the correct code to get one person from the start of the maze to the other. Avoiding the "bombs". This was really fun and could work well with the learners. It was super simple but allows students to see how coding works in a more physical way.

After this we made our own code for a robot. Below is what I have created.

We were given time to explore the technology games. Many of which had coding behind them. This was a really fun thing to do as we don't often get time to explore these sorts of things. I think it was great to be able to experiment so I can take these into my classroom practice with my learners.

After this we had the opportunity to have a play on different sites. I enjoyed using the "Dance Party" website as you could choose the music to go along with the dance moves and characters. I think this could be awesome thing to introduce to my learners in order to incorporate both technology and the arts into a lesson.

Below is my creation.

Manaiakalani Create Meeting

We had a Manaiakalani Create staff meeting which consisted of us choosing two workshops to attend. These were used to help teachers with more ways to show create with their students. 

The first workshop I attended was Thinglink - Zhydah Petersen and Sandhya Naicker. We used a website called Thinglink which is an interactive slide that can be created to aid students in their work. The students themselves, can also make these slides and share them via their blog.

Below is what I have made:

ThingLink

The next workshop I did was presented by Louise Potter. The focus of this was on drama activities. This was such a fun workshop and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

She showed us a range of games such as Pums, Space Jump, Mystery Box and Key Keeper. These were easy games that could be adapted to fit into any year level.

My favourite game was definitely Key Keeper. This game consists of one person at the front of the class facing away from everyone. The remaining students must get to the keys placed behind the key keeper. The key keeper will turn around at different times and if they spot someone moving, they go back to the start again. The aim of the game is to get to the keys and pass them back to the starting line. It can be challenging as the keys make noises so using an object that doesn't make noises would be a good adaption to this game.

Another game we played was Pums. In this game we made an original freeze frame or Pum as a group. We were then given other freeze frames to make. When the caller said "pums" we had to go back to the original freeze frame.

DFI - Devices

CyberSmart:

Cybersmart is used within Manaiakalani as a step to keep our learners using their devices in a smart way. This is a whole school focus and is split amongst 3 terms (smart learners, smart footprint and smart relationships).

Smart Learners - building those routines and going over how to appropriately use and care for the learner device is important. This needs to be taught at the start of each year as a reminder.

Smart Footprint - This helps show learners how to advertise themselves online and ensuring they understand that everything they put online will be there forever. 

Smart Relationship - This is the 'share' aspect of Manaiakalani. Ensuring that what they are sharing online and with who is thoroughly important. This aspect also teaches them what to do if something goes wrong.

Empowering students to make the correct decisions is the main key. This is the reason why Cybersmart was created and implemented. 

Devices:

The Treaty of Waitangi has been a strong drive for the Manaiakalani programme, specifically devices. The three aspects that consist of this are partnership, participation and protection. Hapara Teacher Dashboard was designed for Manaiakalani to bring the "protection" aspect from the Treaty of Waitangi. 

Manaiakalani chose to go a different path than BYOD (bring your own device). The reason for this is the variety learners would bring in the community. This would be harder to manage and there would be a range of platforms used via those devices.

We were given time to use a chromebook and find everything that goes with them. This was very fun as I found out some interesting keyboard shortcuts. Below is the work I did.

iPads:

For the iPads we used Explain Everything to write our name, insert a photo and draw an iPad using shapes. This is what I did.

Create:

For the Create task of today we had to repurpose a Cybersmart lesson. We had the option of using iPads or chromebooks. I chose to use the iPad as I have little to no experience using these in a classroom. We created an Explain Everything using the iPads. I chose to focus on the Kawa of Care. 

This is the activity I came up with which was designed for juniours.

Teacher Inquiry 2022

Manaiakalani are focusing on Extended Discussion this year. This is due to the data showing a gap within this aspect of literacy. As a syndicate we decided to also focus on this as our Teacher Inquiry for 2022.

My question is:

"Will implementing extended discussion in reading help learners comprehend what they are reading? "

The reason for this focus is due to Manaiakalani's push on literacy, specifically extended discussion. As a class, I have noticed comprehension in reading is lacking. While testing students on their reading, most were able to read the text very well but didn't understand the comprehension questions. I believe that if they converse amongst each other that this will help them understand what they are reading. Learners will be able to be open about their understanding of the questions and with no teacher intervention, this means they can bounce ideas off one another.

Below are my introductory slides to my Teacher Inquiry, this includes the time point 1 data.

Staff Sync

For the senior syndicate meeting, I was asked to go over how to use Staff Sync. I was asked as I have used Staff Sync in order to get relievers a few times. 

Staff Sync is an online platform that connects teachers with relievers. It has helped immensely during Covid as so many sicknesses are going through school staff. It is so easy to use as the teacher places up an ad online and any relievers available to work are able to apply for that job. 

After showing my syndicate how to use Staff Sync, I was asked to create something that walks through all of the steps in order to post up an ad. I thought this was a fantastic idea and decided to create a slide show. This is a step-by-step guide to using Staff Sync and it includes screenshots.

This will be a great tool for future use.

DFI - Enabling Access

Manaiakalani - Connected :

Connections are an important aspect to the Manaiakalani programme. There is a huge diversity in schools but all of their connections are unique and strong. 

There is a huge amount of clusters that are all in the same area. Manaiakalani has formed a new cluster that is a range of schools from other parts of the country. These schools are not in the same area but still wanted to join the programme.

Manaiakalani stay connected to the world by using RSS. The app that they use to share their students learning is Twitter. All of the students blog posts go directly to the Twitter feed. The top posts are the newest ones added to the learners blogs. 

Here is the live twitter link

Google Sites:

In order to have a successful site there are two aspects that need to be taken into consideration. The visual appearance and user experience. The visual appearance includes looking at the theme, colour palette, visuals, etc. While the user experience ensures that it is easily accessible by anyone on the site, it is easy to follow and navigate.

As a group we were able to give each other feedback on our websites. This meant we could get some ideas from each and see what our suggestions are for our class site.

After this we were given the task to change and adjust our class sites. As I am in a MLI and team teach, I chose to change and adjust my Multimodal Cultural Celebrations site. This is to hopefully have it ready for Matariki in week 8.

I feel as if this website will be able to be used for many years to come. There is so much on the website that it can be a long task over a few weeks to complete. I am going to try and incorporate this into my teaching in week 8.

Here is my updated site

Data Analysis - Manaiakalani

Assessment Data link

Manaiakalani had a Data Analysis staff meeting. These meetings are in place to share the group data collected by Manaiakalani. These graphs are broken into each individual school and shows the gaps within our area and group of schools.

As a group we were shown how to view these graphs via EdPotential. This gives us access to our individual school data and the cluster data. It was very interesting to see the results due to the recent Covid Lockdowns.

Below are the cluster results from the PAT reading data and Panmure Bridge PAT reading results based on year.

At the start of the meeting we were given a colour and a number. These would later be used to determine our group. We had to find specific data based on the Manaiakalani data using EdPotential. As a group we did well and were able to get through majority of our group tasks. These tasks were then placed on the group Jamboard that included our questions to go through. 

Overall it was an interesting meeting that displayed the data within the cluster. The competition at the end was a fun aspect included to ensure we could use EdPotential. 

Extended Discussion - Senior Syndicate Meeting

As a syndicate we had a meeting dedicated to extended discussion. This is due to being the focus for our Teacher Inquiry. Here are the slides from this meeting. Robyn ran this discussion and gave us an example and background information about extended discussion.

When it comes to extended discussion there is a foundation for these discussions. This includes whanaungatanga, discussion scaffolds, thought provoking questions/statements, timetable and learner reflection.

Whanaungatanga includes creating a set of rules and boundaries for these discussions. This will allow learners to feel comfortable when sharing their opinion and encourage positive interactions even with disagreements. 

Using thought provoking questions encourages each learner to think and use their own prior knowledge to answer the question. These can be opinion based and will allow for appropriate disagreements to take place.

Putting this into practice allowed us to understand how it can work in a group. We started off with reading a passage (Humpty Dumpty). After this we were prompted with a question using one of the following to start us off: who, what, when, where, why and how.

This question was then answered by someone and passed onto the next person using "what do you think ..." This included everyone in the conversation and allowed everyone to voice their opinion. The leader then asked another question and the discussion continued. The aim of this was to continue the conversation and not use close ended question (yes or no answers only).

Seeing this in action helped me understand how to implement this into my reading groups and the tools needed to do this.

Extended Discussion Toolkit

Extended discussion in literacy is the main focus of Manaiakalani for this year. When the data for Manaiakalani was analysed there was a gap within extended discussion. Due to this it is their focus for this year. 

Extended discussion focuses on building the learners vocabulary, encouraging rigorous discussions, respecting others opinions and ideas, and extends their independence with peer discussions. 

I attended a Manaiakalani toolkit by Amie Williams which gave some tools used for extended discussion.

Extended discussion is a conversation technique that is used to help learners comprehend and understand texts by discussing with their peers. This allows them to incorporate their point of view and encourages open conversations without the assistance of the teacher. 

Students are given different roles in order to implement extended discussion into their reading sessions. These roles could include but are not limited to the leader, questioner, comprehender, opposer and clarifier. These roles are given to learners in order to encourage learner initiated conversation. These roles are recorded on cards with some talk points added to remind and help learners understand their role for the discussion.

Scaffolds such as talk cards are needed to prompt learners discussion and to guide them in these extended discussions. The following are examples of these:

The tools that help when incorporating extended discussion into the reading groups included Jamboard, Screencastify, voice typing through Google Docs and Google Sheets to record and track progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this toolkit as it gave me a few ideas when it comes to implementing this technique into my class. There was a lot of information regarding the background of extended discussion and tools that aid this implementation.

 

DFI - Collaborate

Reflection:

After last week I have used Google Sheets a few times. I was able to help a colleague with sorting their sheet due to last weeks DFI session. This was a "wahoo" moment as I knew what to do when usually I wouldn't be able t help with sheets. I have found that I am finally able to use sheets properly without guessing to get myself anywhere.

I have thoroughly enjoyed DFI so far and I have found myself using majority of the DFI tips and tricks. This has been so fantastic as I have built more confidence when it comes to using Google as a whole.

Manaiakalani:

Manaiakalani kaupapa includes connected, ubiquitous, visible and empowered. Learning in Manaiakalani schools must be visible to anyone wanting to view students' work. Visibility is important for the learners, whanau, teaching colleagues and ourselves. This is important particularly to the learners. It shows the journey of their learning. Visibility to the whanau is key to including them into their child's learning.

Multi Modal:

Your class site is like a store front. They should make you want to go in and find out what else is inside. Make the most of the front page. This helps to hook those learners in and engage them into interacting with the site.

Behavioural engagement (multimodal) and cognitive engagement (multi-textual) are very important when it comes to creating a useful site. Make the site engaging and interesting. Using texts, videos and links helps to engage those students in their work. Multimodal designed websites both behaviourally engage students and cognitively.

Examples of multimodal sites

Site:

Planning out the design for a site is important. This makes it easier to follow and get started. Planning out the main pages and sub pages means you can have everything included. Ensuring these main pages are link at the top make them easily accessible. Having a fun/engaging first page hooks those students in. Providing buttons on the first page are a great way to make the site easy to follow.

Download your images as a JPEG not insert them as a Google Draw. This works better when switching between devices (iPads to computers). 

Multi-text database

Create:

As a part of the create task we had to create our own Multi-modal site. 

Here is mine