Session 9: Last Seesion

Today was our last DFI session. I came into the course with some digital knowledge and skills. Today, I feel I have gained more in these areas and am more confident in using a variety of google apps.

I am pleased that I sat the exam, because now I have a good idea of what I need to do better next time.

• Work and think faster. 
• Don't dwell on things you don't know and move on - you can always go back to the question later.
• don't waste time googling information - just do the clicks and eventually you click the right one.

I have forgotten what it's like to sit an exam but today I got a first-hand taste of what my students are going through when they are sitting their e-asttle and PAT tests: stressed, awful, memory block. etc.

In future I am going to be a bit more sympathetic towards my students. 

Session 8: 3-D Pen

This afternoon, I had a fun day.
I spent time using a 3-d pen. It was a little bit difficult as I had to learn to control the flow of the filament coming out of the pen. Initially I was a bit wobbly, then realised that in order to be successful I had to learn to control my thumb (which was controlling the button flow), slow down and to do it in small amounts.
I created a bow and I am proud of it. Here it is.

 Then I became a bit more confident and decided to make something a little bit bigger. It was a butterfly, but it was not too successful because I took a bigger step than I should have. Had I made the butterfly smaller, or made something bigger than a bow, but smaller than a butterfly (example: a stylish ring), I may have had more success. Actually, it was a good learning experience that can be transferred to my students to take smaller steps than I might have initially.

Reflection
What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy?
It's important to slow down and take small steps especially with learners who have difficulty with controlling their fine motor skills and co-ordinating their hand and eye movements.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Using the electronic pen was a skill I had to develop first. It was not an immediate success. It took some time before I could control the pen as I had to train my brain to control my thumb which I found rather difficult to do. And I realise that there will be learners who will go through the same experience as me (slow) and of course there will be other learners who will take this exercise like a duck to water. So it's important to always cater your programme to all styles of learners.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
An important strategy to use with students who have problems with picking things up quickly is to take small steps and to do it slowly. Once this has been achieved, then move onto a bigger step to achieve a bigger goal. If that big step is too much to handle then take it slowly again.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
Life has its many challenges and maybe if I slowed down and take small steps things may not look so burdensome after all.

Session 7: Google Hnagout

I haven't done a video call since my daughter graduated and came back from Purdue University, USA. She was a young 17 year old on a 4-year full tennis scholarship. During her years there,  I skyped her on every available weekend to talk about her educational progress, watch her sporting achievements, give motherly advice and just to have a natter so that she could feel secure in the knowledge that I was only a video call away if she needed me.

So today's session was familiar but different. It was different in that I had a conversation with all my DFI colleagues and our  course leaders in google Hangout. I haven't done a video call with so many people in one place simultaneously. It's an online open forum where we can talk,  see each other and the  work (document / map) we were talking about through screen-sharing.

The whole conversation can also be recorded.

Reflection
What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy?
I can see that this would work well in the classroom. It would encourage students to take turns, listen carefully, speak clearly, and be coherent. They would also use key competencies skills such as Managing self, Relating to others, Participating and contributing, and many more other skills required to undertake any activity where a lot of people communicate at the same time such as in the Hangout.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
It would be a useful tool to use in my school. The senior block is located a fair distance from some of the teachers in the junior school. It's now clear to me that Hangout will be much easier, faster and efficient to communicate with a teacher from a classroom that's at least 200m from my classroom, rather than emailing, or physically meet. It's a much more effective method to achieve more in less time.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
It's great for group conferencing, oral language, group work, one-to-one conferencing, research, feedback, monitoring and many more.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
I can connect and Hangout with my husband and adult children in one place at the same time.

Session 7: Google Calendar

Today, we learnt how to use google calendar, this has now been bookmarked.

I discovered that I have a calendar linked to my school account, and that I can share my events and activities with my colleagues, as well as see other colleagues' shared calendar. Through this I can see their schedule by day, week or month.

I created my own event and timetabled my hangout with Dorothy next week in my calendar. I can see on my calendar that she has accepted my invitation ('Yes', in blue on the bottom right).

Reflection
What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy?
It's a great way to record your meetings, events and activities. My colleagues and I can see what is happening in our professional life, and they can see where each of us is in school.. There have been times when I needed to see my colleagues after school but only to find out that they are in another meeting which I didn't know about or there has been a clash or someone was double booked.  How frustrating!
 
What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Just creating my own event and timetabling it in the calendar has helped me understand better the purpose of the calendar.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
The calendar would be a useful tool in timetabling my one-to-one-conferencing with each student every day after lunch. Students can see when they will see me.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
I can see the usefulness of this calendar such as sharing it with my family so that everyone knows where and what I'm doing on the weekend especially and we can organise our family get-togethers through this.

Learn, Create and Share my Learning at DFI with my Students

Last term, I learnt how to use and create google Forms through the DFI course. I showed some of my students this new learning this week and, as part of their Inquiry Learning, one of my students , Pupuke conducted a Road Safety survey amongst his siblings. I was very pleased with his efforts and I am expecting more surveys coming next week.

Here is his survey.

This is Pupuke's survey form. 

He asked his brothers and sisters the following questions:

1. Do you put your seat belt on every car trip?
2. Do your parents use their phones while driving?
3. Do you or your younger siblings sit inside a booster seat?
4. How do you think we can reduce risk of a car crash?

 

 These are the responses Pupuke received.

 

This is Pupuke's survey chart created through the spreadsheet of google Forms.

Session 6: Feedback from DFI

The above is a feedback from my colleagues at the DFI course today. This feedback tells me that my viewers find my site limited in its multimodal features and disengaging to my students and their whanau. I have set out a couple of goals to remedy this situation this term. They are:

• Multi-modal
• make it more engaging to my learners and whanau by including more colour, videos, images, screencastify and slide presentation.

Right now I need to fix the following problems:

• organise the site’s navigation and buttons 
• school name 
• have one link to the site and keep that link for the whole year. 

Reflection:

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

I need to make my site more visible and user-friendly to my learners. At the moment it looks disorganised and unprofessional.

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

I learnt a few more skills in using the new google site and feel that I can make some of the changes to improve the ease in which my learners can navigate the site

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

I've noticed that my learners hardly use their class site to access the resources, documents and any other tasks I have shared with them. Instead they either go straight to their gmail or drive search. This is not good. So I need to reorganise the site and make it more easily accessible and navigable.

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

I know that if I don't organise my day well, things can fall apart, such as, being late for a party because the

cake wasn't ready to be taken out of the oven, because I started late, because I hadn't organised my day better, because it all starts with me.