Day 9 - External Recognition

Today was the first time I had ever sat a digital exam in the form of the Google Educator Level 1 Certificate. I was rather apprehensive at first and it took me a while to get into the flow of thinking. The multi-choice was rather deceptive so you had to read the questions well. I'm always telling my students that!  Yeah - I managed to achieve this exam - it was a test of skills and the application of these skills that we covered during the DFI course.

Things to talk with our technician at school is to ask about the incognito window access - it is seems to be blocked for our school.

The opportunity of attending this DFI was a privilege and I found it very useful to have the time and be able to put into practise new concepts. The Manaiakalani pedagogy brings together many  aspects of good practice with the learner always at the centre.   I feel MK brings this all together - recognising what I need to improve and build on in my teaching. I enjoyed the time to explore different apps and look forward to using them next year. The delivery and support by the DFI facilitators has been amazing and I have a new confidence in developing digital resources to enhance my teaching. Thanks to you all.

Day 8 - Computational Thinking

I've really enjoyed today despite the frustration of Tinkercad.  I have been empowered by the opportunity to be part of the DFI - with over 750 teachers in 44 different schools. Being empowered was the key message for the Manaiakalani pedagogy. Being empowered - not just learners but teachers, principals and whānau. Empowerment often equals choice, choice is not present in many of our students in our schools. Manaiakalani is absolutely committed to empowering the lives of many. Do we want to give our students agency or empowerment?  For some whānau agency needs explaining because of experiences they have with state agencies, which were negative. Manaiakalani dropped the jargon 'agency' and moved to empowered. Our current health issues New Zealander’s are experiencing links back to empowerment - an indicator you can’t ignore when you talking about education. Some interesting quotes shared by Dorothy

• For some schools the mean academic performance for new entrants are at the age of 3; 

• Five year olds with 32 million words much more empowered than the child who has not - thy require meaninful conversation. Decile 1 schools 1/3 of children move from school to school more; this includes staff

We need to encourage our communities to embrace Rangatiritanga -  to take control of their own lives. We need to ensure as teachers we have 5+day meaningful conversations with our students. The quote shared by Marie Mitchell is powerful and I believe many teachers in Aotearoa are experiencing this often -  "The greatest joy comes from empowering students to discover the treasure that lies within them."  

On both a personal and professional level the Deep Dive presented by Vicki about what will our future jobs, communities and societies look like, was very thought provoking. Where is it going to go to next? The key questions for educators - What we are developing in our students to enable them to cope with in the future? I thought of my own children and grandchildren. The statement  that a digitally fluent person can decide when and why to use specific digital technologies to achieve a specific task or solve problems is something that I would like to strive for in my learners. For some learners being a digitally capable person would mean can create their own digital technologies solution.

As teachers we need to be confident we can impart that knowledge to our students. I like what Kerry said about that we need to develop in our students characteristics that they can change and adapt. In our professional space ideally student and teachers should be side by side.

I really enjoyed the time spent on investigating the Technology currciulum and the various tools available, including Trinket, Toxicode, Replit and Scratch. The resources provided by Raranga Matihiko look very useful and I can see me using these with my students. I chanced upon a slide with 10 Useful Digital Tools which I hope to explore later. I also like the way they break down the progress outcomes into clear, straight forward statements. 

Our create session using Tinkercad could be used with our classes - but today I found it frustrating, even though I can see its potential.  Overall another stimulating session, thanks to Manaiakalani and our facilitators.

Day 7 - Devices

Another day of DFI which was focussed on devices. I'd never really heard the word ubiquitous until my journey with Manaiakalani began in late 2020. Today my understanding of the importance of ubiquitous in the pedagogy of Manaiakalani was deepened through Dorothy's session. The A4 is simple to remember - anytime, anywhere, any pace and anyone and connects back to all the other principles we have heard about like rewindable learning, visibility to all, equal opportunity for all learners. Covid lockdowns made my teaching and learning ubiquitous, but I have not maintained that on the return to school. I need to get into the habit of record my teaching points to be uploaded so students can access it later.

I use to think that technology was a tool for learning - another tool, but through the DFI I am now seeing it differently. Technology enables the removal of barriers, previously inconceivable solutions to problems, opportunities for new ways of learning. I was shocked by the figure shared by Vicki - Some students arrive at school 30,000,000 words behind other learners.

As a professional I think having the time to tinker with a chromebook will improve by cability as a teacher. This gave me the time to see and do what the students deal with. I was impressed with the functionability of the chromebook. I can see that digital fluency starts with the ability to use the device, this is for learners, teachers and  whānau. I can see the importance of the three P's -  partnership, participation, protection.  The partnership of owning the device with the whānau, fostering the engagement with the kawa of care for the device. I can see how it is so much easier if all the devices are the same, everyone has the same powerful tool in their hands.

The principles of being cybersmart are extremely important and what I being exposed to over the last couple of days has made me realise how important my digital footprint on a personal level, is. A smart footprint, is when you create content that you and your whānau would be proud it. Developing a culture of thoughtful and helpful comments among students when they are connecting with eadch other. What message do you want the world to see about you? 

Useful hints

• Use an incognito window for testing website and also for when you are sharing your computer in the classroom situation
• Need to be practising google meets at school
• Use the digital dig at the beginning of the year.

Overall a great learning day, I was pleased I did not get distracted by having to deal with school things, but unfortunately the internet connection was a bit patchy. Thanks to all the facilitators.

This is my workspace about  being cybersmart

Cybersmart for the Taranaki Cluster

We had a great session with Merryn and Fiona where our staff was introduced to the principles of Manaiakalani Cybersmart and the Cybersmart website. My only regret was that we missed the Secondary Connect. Why does the Manaiakalani curriculum focus on being cybersmart? 

• Motivate our learners to engage with the curriculum 
• Provide a model for 21st century teaching and learning 
• Work with learners to establish an authentic audience for their learning outcomes 
• Empower our students with an evidence-based belief that their personal voice is valuable and powerful 
• Raise student achievement outcomes 

Now I have more clarity about the preference for cybersmart compared to cybersafe, encouraging our learners to make good choices to enable engagement in learning. We then took to opportunity to do Cybersmart Challenge 16.

Day 6 - Enabling Access - Sites

Today has really gone fast - unfortunately I lost a chunk of my learning this morning due to admin commitment at school. I tried for sometime to dual connect but was unable to keep this up! I found today a wonderful opportunity to work on my site. Earlier in the day my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy was strengthen with the continual referral back the image of the whare and the words associated.  With 'connected' the default is visible and the digital world has enabled us to keep in touch. Connectivity is a way of life for our students. If we don't connect with our students they will not connect with their learning. As educators we can stayed connected to our Manaiakalani cohort by using the same language - to stay connected both parties need to share. The five affordances of Learn, Create, Share in a digital environment - engagement, teaching conversations, cognitive challenge, visibility, scaffolding are becoming more familiar.

I learnt many things to today to improve my confidence, capability/workflow as a professional.  Rewindable content is very powerful in a classroom environment. Great for students away on school events and missing class for whatever reason. The site is a one stop hub for learning - learning is all in one place and easy to find. This was visible for schools using sites during lockdowns - it was one space for students and their whānau to find their learning. Some things I need to do

• practice google meets
• make a new site each year - don't override existing content
• learn how to use the hapara interface on a cellphone and share with learners
• plan sites to make sure learner can navigate to learn in three clicks 
• plan the navigation of the sites - with buttons, menus - get students to check it

I can see that Google sites enables connections and meets all aspects of the Manaiakalani pedagogy. 

For my personal use I would like to set up a site with our family history one day. Also I like the idea that was shared to have a site to have links to resources to be accessed easily. Overall a really great day, thanks to the Manaiakalani team.

My site so far:

Day 5 - Collaborate Sites

Today was a beautiful sunny day, compared to the wind and lack of electricity last week. Tragically we were greeted with the news of the death of our DFI colleague and other two other staff members from Devon Intermediate through a car accident. Makaore shared karakia and through this we were able to begin our day as the Term 4 cohort.

My understanding of the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy continues to deepen and as I listened to Dorothy I realised that I have developed as a teacher in knowing the importance of being visible.  Points I noted were - the learner is at the centre; whānau need to be able to access learning quickly. The learning journey has been hidden in the past; for many the learning was like wandering through a maze - for many unable to navigate. If the learning intentions/WALTS are displayed visibly it contributes to a successful learning journey.  The learning process needs to be visible - the planning, the process, the outcomes. The last thing I took from this session was the analogy about passwords being like a wire fence or bubble wrap on a building - can see but can't reach your learning.

Our deep dive this morning with Kerry was based on multi modal - an inclusive, differentiated approach to teaching in a digital learning environment. A multi-text database was shared which included themes and links to resources of various text types. This database was later used as a basis to the site building activity.

Certainly the time spent learning google sites was extremely valuable and will improve my confidence and capability as a professional at Coastal Taranaki School. From what I viewed I could see that these sites are a turbocharge of the visible classroom. Learners and whānau don't want surprises, they want to know what's ahead - accessible, available and advance. Visible teaching through sites leads to effective teaching and accelerated learning. Efficiencies of the class site to free up the teacher to work with learners who are more challenged. Student become self-regulated and self-motivated learners.

Sites certainly can be used with my learners - some key things to remember - my home page needs to be fresh and encouraging. It needs to inspire the learner to go in. Think of it like a shop front window. Successful sites include short videos about the learning by the teacher.

I could see the use of jamboard as a wonderful planning tool for teaching, learning and personal life. All these new digital tools and the time to explore features in more familiar apps is certainly improving my confidence and capability in this digital space.

I discovered during the day, that for the past two weeks I had made a copy of the agenda and was wondering why my www's were not visible when Vicki was sharing agenda on the meet! My entries were on the copy on my drive - another learning moment. 

Day 4 - Dealing with Data

Today has been rather frustrating, with high winds in the area, we lost power at home early this morning. I travelled to school to get started with DFI, then returned home about an hour later when the power returned. However about 30 mins after returning home the power went out again! I joined the sessions using my phone - I’m not good at this, as I prefer to use a larger device! Unfortunately I missed the pedagogy session sharing and will attempt to look at that later. I liked the idea My Maps to use for classes and personal use. I like the way it can be personalised or localised. Great idea for cross-country. I tried to do some exploring but will attempt some more later. The spreadsheet session was useful and I can certainly use it in my teaching and admin work. I finally learnt how to freeze columns/rows in spreadsheets; filters, conditional formatting, checkbox function, Data validation - what an easy way to limit the data input. Great for shared spreadsheets. I have used forms before, but did manage to complete one I can use with students from our school to gather data about PBL this year. Today was a good opportunity to sort out my blog - I had done posts and created new pages but now with Vicki's help I have it sorted. Below, I have embedded two of my tasks attempted today. Despite the frustrations of earlier today I have found this session very useful.