DFI DAy 8 MEDIA with Matt

DFI Day 7 - Media

Was great to have Matt here from Point England school and see examples of what they are doing as they are further along in their Manaiakalani journey then we are. Am now thinking I need to lift my self expectations and where I will be operating in a decades time! Nice to know I have enough time to get more confident and capable in my digital technology abilities!

Part of the learning today was about Empowerment, or student agency or efficacy. I love the term that Manaiakalani use better because it's all about empowering the learners. With my five year-olds and in my class we call it "Kid power' or 'Kid choice", and when they talk about it they throw one fist into the air as if they are going to launch themselves into space! I bite the sides of my mouth to stop my smiles as they take it very seriously...and I love that they do!

I am quite keen to get a bit more up-skilled in using google slides as an educational tool for my wee ones. I made this one today but it is pretty basic...

I am also loving making the Explain Everything projects and spend quite a bit of time making differentiated projects for my learners. They are now using them at a more independent level which has further inspired me to attempt to make more incorporating the different curriculums. Next we are going to learn how to video and record ourselves practicing saying our speeches - we have two weeks until speech finals and having them being able to see what they look and sound like will, I believe, make for powerful learning!

Learnt how to make a youtube playlist which I can see myself using, finding and creating lists for future learning for my students. Having everything off of my bookmarks and into another source will be brilliant!

Matt took us through how to live stream and I am wondering if that would be a possibility for our school to use during our speech finals for our whanau who can't make it in. Or perhaps it would be of more value to record each classes speeches so ALL parents can view their child's presentations. Need to think what I will use to do this and how to get it through to my families. I could drop it onto my fb page which is up and running and most parents are part of our class community.

Next week is our Google Educators Exam, a feeling a bit of anxiety however my plan, as it stands, is to find some time to go through the practice exams and see what I need to brush up on! Or maybe not...someone said don't go near them, they tried them, failed them all, lost confidence but still passed the actual exam...go figure eh!

DFI Session 1 Term 3 2019

My First Day

My understanding of the Manaiakalani initiative and where it all started was enhanced from the slide show presentation. I hadn't realised that the initiative was begun over 13 years ago and that the four principles of the project remain the same to this day. The pedagogy of learn-create-share is used in most of our classrooms across New Zealand, without having to have the digital tools at our disposal. We encourage and support the students in their learning, we ask them to create new knowledge and understandings from this and then to share this knowledge and learning with others. Using the digital tools helps to better engage the learners with this process but, I feel, are not an imperative to the pedagogy.

Today I learnt a few tips that I wish I had known a fair few months ago!! Removing backgrounds from pics so inserted pics don't look trashy was one particular piece of information and skill-set that I will definately be utilising! Also using the headings, indenting and inputting the contents table were also all great new learning!

I have also set up a google group so emailing and sharing information with the team at school will be as quick as pressing one button, and not loading the emails in one by one. I know archaic practice right??

For use with my learners, who are 5 years old and just starting on their learning journey I think what I may try using would be the talk to text function. This could prove challenging with the noise in the class and I need to find out if that function is available with the ipads!

As part of the create and share focus for the day we had to use a google doc and create something. So I attempted to make a template to use with the students as we are about to begin learning how to write reports with a focus on bees. Here is my creation...needs more work!

Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei taonga

Welcome to my professional learning blog.

This is a place where I can reflect on my Teaching as Inquiry goals

and how they link to the Education Council's

Standards for the Teaching Profession