SPARK AKO A Teacher's Learning Journey: March 2019

Friday 29 March 2019

Tairawhiti DFI Day 5

Kia Ora all. Today's DFI session was focusing on Devices. We were looking at the backstory of how we at Manaiakalani have come to use 1:1 devices, and most importantly how to use said devices. As teachers it's so important to be able to put ourselves in our learners shoes and practice using the same tools that they do (as usually as teachers we're equipped with macbooks or hp laptops, rather than chromebooks). However we need to know what functionality their devices have (AND don't have!) if we're to be setting learning activities for them.
The other key component of today was looking at the Manaiakalani Cybersmart curriculum.
This is and should be such an integral part of our teaching programme. If we're going to be giving learners access to the world with a device, it's crucial that they're given the tools through an intentional cybersmart curriculum to become smart learners, building smart relationships and creating a smart digital footprint. This links with not only the NZ Curriculum vision, but also Manaiakalani pedagogy of Learn Create Share being connected confident and empowered lifelong learners.

Three key takeaways are:

Cybersmart is about creating positive language. SMART - rather than SAFE (which implies danger and has negative connotations)
Learners need opportunities to develop Cybersmart relationships. This is where blogging and commenting on blogs is useful.
Explicit teaching of the Cybersmart curriculum (within contexts) is necessary, and the smart learners, smart footprints, and smart relationships components should be addressed at the beginning of every year.

Our Tairawhiti DFI cohort today were asked to create a screencastify of one of the cybersmart lessons. As always I ask you check out their blogs and leave a quality blog comment.

Friday 22 March 2019

Tairawhiti DFI Day 4

I've talked about the concept of ako several times, and today was certainly a day of that. As we were exploring blogs, google forms, my maps, and google sheets we were finding all sorts of tips and tricks and insights. As the confidence of the group progresses and the willingness to share grows we're finding that we're all able to contribute to the group.
For example when using mymaps I was looking for the share button in the top right corner, as is with most google suite (forms, sheets, docs etc). Of course I couldn't find it there, meanwhile one of the group was busy sharing and showed me it's actually positioned on the left under the title of the map.

Another tip I learned today was about embedding a chart from googlesheets, rather than going into File--> publish to web and then selecting the sheet, and subsequent chart, you can instead select the three dots in the top right of the chart and select publish chart. This is a much faster and easier way to embed the particular chart you want. Also by selecting 'interactive' rather than image, it becomes an interactive chart which when you hover over a bar the data appears, and if you were to update the google sheet, the embedded graph would also update.

Today's learning also looked at google forms, and the ability to import data from a sheet, into mymaps. As always check our cohorts blogs and see what we've all been learn, create and sharing.

Friday 15 March 2019

Tairawhiti DFI Day 3

Another jam packed day at the Gisborne Tairawhiti Cohort 1 2019 DFI. Today we focused on Media and CREATE. Running workshops on YouTube videos and live streaming, Google Slides & Google Draw. There is so much possibility within the classroom with these tools, so it was a whirlwind whizzing through it all. However because of our rewindable learning (and teaching) style - we can go back to the deep dives when we need the content in more detail.

Knowing my learning style - I am definitely a doer when it comes to learning new skills. Fortunately the rewindable learning of slide decks and how to videos mean that you don't need to remember everything, as is with the technology era that we live in. You just need to remember how to find the content or information that you need. Being digitally literate is so important. Gone are the days when you needed to be able to recite the textbook, these days you need to be able to ctrl F to find the info you want fast. It's about knowing how, rather than the what.

When the class goes silent because they’re all on task! 🤞🏼😄 #DFI #manaiakalani #professionallearning #tairawhitioutreach pic.twitter.com/ZG80LpVohi
— Stephanie Parker (@Sparketter) March 14, 2019

Because we following the Manaiakalani pedagogy of Learn Create Share we all had time this afternoon to create something in slides and draw to cement our new learning from this morning, and then share these creations on our blogs. In doing so we're able to cement and put into practice our learning from the day. It's this kaupapa that we want to see for our tamariki too, allowing them opportunities to authentically create to demonstrate their learning of a new skill or topic. And what is the point of creating something without an authentic audience to share it with? Anyway - I don't want to preach to the converted.

Have a look at our digital creations and reflections from today

Sherryl Gomm - Professional Blog

Jo's Professional Learning Blog

EEEE's Adventures!

Robyn's Professional Learning Blog

Susanne's Professional Blog

Allie's Professional Blog

Learning adventures with Jo

Musings of a Gizzy Sensei

Jazz's Professional Blog

David's Professional Blog

Friday 8 March 2019

DFI 2 Workflow

One of the components of the DFI was that participants submit a reflective blogpost at the end of each session, documenting what they have learned. This acts as a journal for them to go back to, and a tool to support others. Being one that likes to practice what I preach, I also have been submitting a blogpost each week. However I was away one of the weeks, and never did the blog for Week 2: Workflow. As one of the Manaiakalani principles is ubiquitous rewindable learning, I am able to access the learning and catch up on what I missed for the day.

So DFI day two, I recapped the Learn part of the Manaiakalani Learn Create Share Pedagogy. The learn component is at the heart of it all. How can we amplify and turbocharge learning opportunities using the SAMR model and visible, ubiquitous, multimodal learning opportunities.
The day also looked at Gmail, GoogleKeep and Calendar. Google Keep is one of my greatest apps for my personal and work life. I'm a huge list maker and the fact that I can share a list with someone in realtime and we can both add and check off items is great for improving efficiencies. More so being able to have multiple calendars overlapped is great. Creating calendar invites and hangouts. And organising my multiple gmail accounts with labels to find information quickly.

Using the google suite efficiently will most definitely optimise workflow in home and work life to save precious time.

Friday 1 March 2019

Manaiakalani DFI Tairawhiti 2019

Today was the first day of the Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive [DFI] in Tairawhiti (a.k.a Gizzy - also my hometown). It was awesome to be back in my old stomping ground of Riverdale School where many many moons ago I was a J 1 & 2 Learner (back when it was still called J1!). This time however, I was co-facilitating the DFI for a group of brilliant local educational professionals from the Tairawhiti Cluster of Manaiakalani Outreach.

The 9 week programme has been designed to meet these four key goals within a professional learning group.

Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools our young people use for learning
Our teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools required for effective teaching, planning, assessment and professional learning
Our teachers are supported to understand how digital technologies used effectively can have a significant impact on accelerating achievement outcomes
Our teachers are supported to understand how the Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa has been co-constructed over more than a decade to maximise the impact of effective teaching and learning in a digital learning environment.

Each week participants are asked to complete a blogpost to reflect on and share what they have learned that day. Have a look at our Tairawhiti Team's blogs below, follow our journey, and be sure to leave a comment!