DFI_Computational Thinking

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

Today our focus word was empowerment. I liked the explanation that the word 'agency' caused

learners and whanau to get upset by their experience with agencies. So they just changed the word.

Great idea. Giving students equity through having the same device, same low price, regardless of

where they live - it all makes sense.

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

I gained a lot of confidence with understanding the digital technologies curriculum today. It was then

great to try out the coding programmes to have a go at computational thinking. It was quite challenging

and I didn't enjoy using scratch. However, I can see how students would enjoy coding.

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

I would like to use the coding programmes that are age appropriate for Year with my learners.

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

My personal life could benefit from learning what all of these coding programmes are for when I talk to my nieces and nephews.

Here is my scratch project. I look forward to trying scratch junior with my class.

DFI_Devices

Another busy schedule for DFI today. This afternoon I have created a video for Smart Values. I used our school values with the focus on responsible to align with the kawa of care for ipad use in Kowhai class. As I was making the video I was considering my learning intention and I was able to type this in at the end of the video to be explicit. I personalised it for my learners with a familiar puppet I have used before. I also uploaded it to my cybersmart page on our class site for access and visibility. I could have adapted this to be part of a guided reading lesson but I think being short and sweet on its own is helpful for my learners. I will definitely think of ways to incorporate these cybersmart concepts into other lessons in the future.

Earlier today we had a deeper look at the Hapara Teacher dashboard. We also had a task to complete to use a chromebook. Although I didn't complete it I think it was my favourite task during DFI because I could figure most of it myself and had a real sense of learning and achievement. I liked going to the tips, following the instructions and then showing I had found that information.

Everytime I use Explain Everything I learn something new. This is particularly useful for me and something I will continue to use with my new entrant and Year 1 learners. I did want to share my video link for my task today but I didn't quite understand where the link went to.

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

Fiona Grant presented slides about cybersmart and this helped me understand more about this part of the Manaiakalanin kaupapa. I particularly liked what Fiona said about changing our dialogue to be positive and discuss our digital expectations rather than highlight what we don't want students to be doing.
Dorothy also shared more about being cybersmart. The slide discussing the three principles of the Treaty of Waitangi stood out to me today with her comments about parents being in partnership with the school for using digital devices.

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

I think using more screen castify for lessons will be helpful for workflow. Because the lessons can be rewindable and therefore once I have made them I can use them again, particularly as my new entrant class keeps growing.

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

I learnt more about Explain Everything which will be helpful to use with my learners who love using this app. I will also show them the videos that students made to show them how to upload it to their drive.

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

This week I have read a few blogs. These have been through google searches. What I have discovered is that people enjoy synthesizing their ideas and posting blogs about it. This is great for my personal life, because they are generally easy to understand and short. Win, win.

Learning Intentions and Success criteria

I have just watched this video. The takeaway question I have here is "What does success look like for students in my classroom?"

Here is what I am going to try for reading...

• Make a video of reading strategies and what success looks like. Then I will put these on my class site to show each group.
• For some other reading strategies I will use exemplars.
• I am going to start asking students to watch each other during reading and comment to each other if they were successfully using these strategies. 

DFI_Enabling Access

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

Today we had a closer look at the pedagogy of connected. During distance learning I found that 

connecting with my students via google meet was wonderful for continuing to establish a class culture. Some students really looked forward to seeing each other. This combined with our class site really connected students and their whanau to learning at home. It was interesting to hear 

some of the history related to Manaiakalani in their journey with being connected. It was especially interesting to hear the planning the Manaiakalani team did for distance learning prior to the lock-down. As I established goals in my own distance learning planning I realised I needed help that was timely given by our school liaison Donna via e-mails. 

This is my new look class site homepage where I am trying to maximise my realestate or shop window. There are two chances to click from my homepage to the curriculum areas. Whanau, school leadership and relievers can also easily see my weekly planning. I included a link to our class blog and a picture of me to connect learners with the site through a familiar face. I still want to work a bit on my footer, but just using it was a good start for me.

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

I had the opportunity to change my class site which is good timing with our current school goals. I was quite attached to my class site layout during distance learning but did know that I needed to adapt it for the classroom now. I enjoyed looking at some good junior school examples. I gained confidence in choosing a colour palette. Knowing how to use a hex number will improve my workflow for using colours in all of the google suite.

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

The ultimate goal for changing my class site was to benefit my learners. I think using the class site more is extremely beneficial as they are beginning to learn to read and need a lot of visual aids. Putting parts of their learning in specific pages will help them with being independent. My biggest goal was to get my planning onto my reading page.

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

I think anything that I can simplify and set up to save me time, such as planning in my class site, allows me to have more personal time.

DFI_Collaborate Sites

Today I collaborated with other junior teachers finding resources to use in a new class site for our
T-Shaped literacy task. Here is my seeds example.

I have included text box labels to specify which is the main text, supporting texts, complimentary text and the challenging text. The youtube video of "The tiny seed" being read aloud is my hook in. These labels are more for my benefit than the students.

I am not sure that I would go for this layout the next time I try. However, it was great to practise using google drawings to help understand how to make links that can be viewed on the class site. It helped to learn more about cropping and now I think I am capable of making buttons by using this process. I also think it is nice to see all of the texts at a glance.

I am definitely more confident to trial T-shaped literacy after planning and practising today. What was hugely beneficial was the spreadsheet layout for the types of texts that I stated above. Following our sense making session on Tuesday it was good to think about authentic texts and what the implications are for a junior classroom.

Further Reflection...

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

Today we had an in depth look at the kaupapa of being visible. I have heard teachers from other schools talk about google classroom and I wasn't sure why we don't use it. The points in favour with Google sites were good ones, I thought: No passwords to put off whanau, visible to everyone.

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

Having the template for organising the various texts for the T-shaped literacy was definitely the big takeaway for me today for improving workflow. I just didn't know how to go about organising it. Having the time to spend putting this onto a class site also meant I will know what might save me time in the future.

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

My learners will benefit from the seeds planning I did on a class site today. I will do other literacy plans similar to this for my learners. In fact, I am planning in my head how to take our teddy bear's picnic tomorrow and use bears as a theme for some T-shaped literacy.

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

I still don't know all the terminology for things that I am learning. But the more I see the facilitators click here and click there the more I learn. Then I feel more inclined to tutu in my personal life. I had never used the google suite on my phone before this DFI course as I only thought it had relevance for school.