Session 4: IPads and Chromebooks

I was absent from this session. I was especially looking forward to this week's session to present my Pepeha as I had been working hard to perfect my Te Reo pronunciation, and I wanted feedback from Ngaire on this. Never mind.

Despite my absence, I was able to catch up on my missed learning by going on my colleagues' blogsite. Through this I know the course covered the following content: learn, create and share with the emphasis on sharing, pepeha presentation and using screecastify, ipads and Chromebooks.

Reflection
What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy?
I found being able to refer to my colleagues blog posts - as a result of Manaiakalani's pedagogy of Learn, Create and Share - was very helpful in growing my understanding and covering anything I had missed. The posts also gave me comfort because I learned I was not the only one feeling anxious about presenting their Pepeha in Te Reo. I also learned the iPad's Explain Everything app existed and can be used by the Juniors to learn about Maths and Reading,  and that screencastify is great as a rewindable learning tool that my colleagues will use more often. The importance of Sharing allows learners to continue learning during illness and it helps learners to create their own thinking about what others have written and to learn new things.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Having access to my colleagues blog posts helped reduce my stress and anxiety levels when I was sick. That means I can feel more confident that my students, and even I, can continue with our learning journey through shared blogposts and  screencastify.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
My learners can create their own screencastify about their learning, and they can go back to it at a later date to review or practise for an upcoming test, or simply remind them of what they forgot.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
Sharing (helpfulness, emotional support, communication flows etc) can be applied to my own personal situation. It's important to maintain good family relationships by connecting and sharing ourselves with not only my immediate family but also with relatives whom I haven't seen for a while.

Session 3: Toku Pepeha

This week's task was to create a google slide as well as using screencastify on my Toku Pepeha (Family Tree).

I'm a little anxious about this task because it requires me to talk about myself in Maori. I'm hoping that I can do the Maori language justice by being as accurate as possible in my pronunciation.

I think it's a great task, one that my students would love to do - in Maori, Samoan, Tongan, English, or their own language.

Each year I begin with a piece of writing about "Who Am I?" In the past, the students complete this task using a tree which they use as an organiser to plan their writing about themselves, then transfer their brainstorm ideas onto a document.

I'm going to use this alternative where not only will the students engage in passive writing, but they will also use their voices to express themselves. Moreover, it requires them to speak clearly, an important feature in Oral Language, and it is my school's professional learning focus.

Session 2: Google Sheet: SUM and AVERAGE

DFI: Session 2

I am so pleased to have just learnt how to get the sum and average of all data on google sheet. In the past I have totaled all the scores of every individual student using the online calculator. It was a very long and laborious process. Thanks to google sheet, I can now get the computer to do it for me instantly, by highlighting the row and clicking on Function: SUM. Magic!

Professionally this function is important and makes me more efficient as a teacher as well as a digital user. This knowledge now leaves me with more time to do other tasks. No more wasted time.

I can use this function with my students. It can be used in Maths, particularly Statistics. I get my students to use google sheets and the accompanying charts to record their Maths score. They can see through their chart how well they are doing. Now they can get the SUM and AVERAGE of their scores on a weekly/monthly basis.

I can use this function in my personal life especially in budgeting and household expenditure.


This image shows the data I created on google sheets.

Session 2: Mymaps and Voice Typing

This week's task was to create a Mymaps using the statistical data from a survey we completed this morning.  
The map shows the best international holiday destination in blue and the two destinations for our next
holiday in red.

The line that stretches from New Zealand to Indiana shows my longest journey I have ever taken.

This blog post used Voice Typing from Google Docs then the text was copied and pasted on this blog.

Session 1: Google Save and Explore: Digital Fluency Intensive

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

As a teacher, knowledge in using Doc is important. Some of the issues have been addressed in today's DFI workshop. More digital knowledge makes me a better digital teacher as it creates more teaching time for my students. I won't be wasting time searching in google HELP/youtube or asking my students how to perform a particular function on the Doc. I am doing my children a disservice when I lack this knowledge and it does not reflect well on me as a professional. I'm pleased to have been chosen to do this course.

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

I learnt to use various functions on Doc. I knew about them, but didn't know how to use them nor know their purpose, also I lacked confidence.

Particularly useful for my teaching are table of contents, bookmark, back to top, outline, explore and pasting without formatting from a website.

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

When my students are collaborating on a Doc, the Table of Contents, Title and Headings, Bookmark and Back to Top are functions that I will teach asap.

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

I would probably use google save as I am slowly running out of google data space on my personal drive.

Effective Teaching

Thinking back on 2017 identify something that YOU did that made a difference for a child’s learning?

I consciously made an effort to use Talk Moves, a pedagogy that my school focused on for two years but was specific to Maths only. Last year I decided that I would include this in all learning areas and this became my professional goal.

I noticed after 6 months, after every question, one particular student automatically turned and started talking to her peers. She questioned her classmates about their understanding and then made them repeat and rephrase their learning.

It would be great if all students could perform this task with ease.

How might this impact your practice... or someone else's practice... in 2018?

I am continuing with the Talk Moves as the learning skill the student has developed is benefiting not only herself but her classmates. This positive shift has made me realise that Talk Moves is an important pedagogy that needs to be repeated again for the class of 2018. In addition it will be practised along with explicit Vocabulary teaching through the Oral Language which my school is focusing on this year.

I'm looking forward to the professional development on Oral Language as I feel that too many of our students are not talking enough at home with their family but instead focusing too much on playing games on their digital devices..

My 2018 Teaching as Inquiry

“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning.

In 2018 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge 

#5. Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and texts

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2018 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,

 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,

SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect