22 May--Session #9--Revision (the tension mounts...)

Revision today and I am finding that I am not tracking with any of this initial conversation.  Nerves are surprisingly up for me.

So sad to hear again that kids at the end of the achievement tail have heard 30,000,000 fewer words in their lives than higher achieving students.  Years ago in the US, there was an extensive study conducted on variables that influenced good readers and poor readers, entitled "Becoming a Nation of Readers." Becoming a Nation of Readers Research 

After decades of study, their conclusions were the same as they are today:  interacting with language matters for kids.  Reading, responding, speaking, listening, all have a profound effect on the learning of the child.  I finally made the link today (thanks, Kerry!) between students blogging to any kind of audience and their own language development.  As was pointed out in earlier sessions, the publishing can act as the "hook"  to get them writing--to get them to regularly interact with language.  Like any skill, it all improves with practice.

10:30 Test start...Yahoo!

Well, what a surprise--I fully expected to study up after this round and take the test again.  Lo and behold, I seem to know enough now (and have enough knowledge to intuit the rest) to satisfy Mr and Miz Google.  

So, where do I go from here?  Continuing on from our discussion this morning about addressing multiple abilities in one classroom...I have been informally polling my students after a surprisng comment I received a few months ago...

 "You're my favorite teacher, Miss,"  and the student beside her, "Same."

When I asked them why, they had clear and specific feedback for me--telling me that I was the only teacher who "taught." According to many students I subsequently asked, many other classrooms just have them  sitting in front of a screen while the teacher wanders around the classroom.  What they told me  they enjoy in our room is how the resources are first unpacked for students before they went up on our website for them to look at later.  They valued the opportunity to ask questions in real time, not only about the content presented but also about other questions they had when their curiosity was piqued.  They enjoyed that human interaction factor, and the rewind-ability and extra resources on the website allowed students to move themselves through the material at their own rate.

This and the kaupapa that I learned here at DFI reinforces that digital enhances instruction but still does not replace it--and it shouldn't replace it.  Teaching is the art; part acting, part innovation, part resilience.   Kids need all of that and more from me, and now I have a whole new arsenal of tactics to engage and inspire my students to become lifelong learners.

Many thanks for this journey Kerry and Vanessa!

15 May--Session #8 Computational Thinking...

I enjoyed the Waitangi Treaty Grounds venue today and by the time the afternoon rolled around, I was so cold I struggled to concentrate!  Couple that with some fast a furious technology rolling at me today and it was one overwhelming day in DFI...

During each of these DFI sessions, I keep a running reflection on a Google doc where I jot down things that pop into my head that I want to remember, pursue, ask about later, consider incorporating into my practice, do further research on.  Today I will unpack some of this.  My reflection here will be much more disjointed than usual as I felt completely flooded with new learning today--now I know how my students must feel when I introduce something new!

Empowerment instead of Student Agency--interesting to think that empowered is a more accessible term.  I like thinking of empowering students as it feels like this is what they need more in their own lifetime of learning.  Earlier in my career we focused on students "learning to learn" as that seemed to be what would serve them best in their future.  Empowerment takes this a step farther now as my students today enter a world that they will have to learn to navigate in new ways.  Gone are the days when we teach facts; truth is rapidly becoming relative.  I love the concept that we and our students are creators not just users of digital technology.

The data from Tamaki College that Kerry showed today was just a slide on the screen.  I would have liked to have looked more closely at this slide as the key was not visible and the graph labels were blurry.  It was part of a slides presentation that we only had part of.  I need to range around our resources and find some of this data that I can look at more closely.  I want to see what discreet areas of improving achievement this kaupapa is resulting in.  Where is this generating the strongest achievement for our students?

Although it all went too fast for me today, I loved Monika's presentation that began with "computational thinking starts unplugged."  It unwrapped the technology in a whole new way for me and I appreciated the initial hands-on code writing activity.   Scratch looked like a great tool but for my old brain the presentation just went too fast.  I wrapped up that session by spending 30 minutes fiddling with an idea that was too ambitious and got tangled up in the commands.  Noted for the future...start simple.  I will do as Kerry suggested and use an already crafted presentation and modify it.
Here is the project number for my attempt--please don't judge...
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/309680104/editor/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/309680104/editor/

Monika also had lots of other toys out to try but in the end I just decided that for today that was just a bridge too far.  The green screen looked amazing and my Primary-trained sensibility went off the charts with the potential with that tool for kids.  The robots were just intimidating to me for now.  Sometimes you just need to know your limits...the good news is that there is plenty for me to start with next time.  Today I just needed to manage my overwhelmed-ness.  :)

May 8--Session #7 Dealing with Data...

What did I learn that increased my understanding of being connected with Manaiakalani’s kaupapa and pedagogy? I am regularly struck by how unprepared our school was going in to Chrome Books. The more I learn about this kaupapa, the more frustrated I become that our staff and most of all our students were not trained properly to use these tools effectively. Now that I see all of the resources for learning--particularly with my rural, under-resourced students--it just breaks my heart that we will be spending so much time unlearning some bad habits.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional and what did I learn that could be used with my learners?  Today was an intense day of learning Sheets and Forms and the timing could not have been better.  I am the Specialist Classroom Teacher at my school and I work with a number of provisionally registered teachers and I currently have a student teacher in my classroom.  We have been having conversations recently about collecting student voice for assessment and appraisal and to inform our practice.  We currently have a generic student feedback form that we use at our school but it does not exactly fit any of our needs and Google Forms will be perfect for this; I was struck by how easy it is to make them!  Immediate learning that I can use tomorrow with students--yahoo!

Sheets was not quite as simple and I have decided that is because I previously used MS Excel there are things that I am accustoned to doing that do not appear as obvious in sheets.  I suspect with all of the possibilities and uses (attached to forms!), I will become more fluent with all of these applications.

Es' Chart on Sheets: Amelia's Blog Posts

1 May 2019--Session #6 New Strategies, Shifting Perceptions...

This session shifted my perception about  something that has been on my mind for years.  Now that the "Tomorrow's Schools" review has come out, I am hopeful that some of the issues regarding this initiative can finally be addressed.  One of the things that has always frustrated me was the lack of subject area resources to New Zealand teachers, particularly teachers in isolated rural areas.  I come from a much larger system in the US, where resource materials are published and purchased for us and where I was contracted and paid to develop resources for my school district as well.  I am the only Geography teacher at my school and I started my department from scratch, writing my own resources and borrowing from anyone and anywhere I could.  Every other Geography teacher around the New Zealand is doing the same thing.  The networks that share some resources are informal--many teachers are reluctant to share because they created these materials--and there are not always funds to purchase the few resources that are available for sale.

I am explaining all of this because the light went on for me today--technology solves this.  In the past six sessions I have discovered, borrowed, and modified more learning material than I have been able to develop for myself since I started the BOIC Geo Department.  I have always been inspired working with excellent teachers and have had the good fortune to work with extraordinary professionals over the years; now the whole world of excellent teachers is suddenly available to me and I am inspired.

I also am noticing that my beliefs around technology in the classroom have shifted as well.  I thought that putting students who learn best collaboratively alone in front of a screen would isolate and alienate them, causing them to withdraw into their own cyber world of music videos and social media sites and not engage in a real world of learning at all.  I am finding now that there are unlimited possibilities for my students to engage with their peers in their community and around the globe.  Their world is the whole wide world now, and my job is to frame the learning for them so that they can effectively engage and make meaning around what they discover.  Visual appeal and variety is my next step.  I am just keeping my head above water by adding simple content to my site right now--videos and podcasts????  Watch this space... :)

And finally, it was wonderful to hear feedback today on my class website from course colleagues.  I am still quite new at all of this and it was heartening to learn that I seem to be on the right track!

Feedback on my website:
Feedback for Esther on my Geography Website

3 April 2019--Devices and Safety and Castify, oh my!--Part Two of my ramblings...

A word today about the Manaiakalani presenters.  These folks are so knowledgeable and have clearly had experience in the classroom that informs their presentations for us.  Their patience is unlimited and I love the way they stick to the time frame presented on the agenda.

Cyber safe and cyber smart is a whole new thought process.  Brings immediately to my mind: how sophisticated are my students in terms of being safe, sharing and creating online?

I am observing myself moving from jaded skepticism to being smitten with elements of this and the potential for my students. The more I hear about the Maniakalani Kopapa, the more grumpy I become that our school had nothing about this presented to us in a comprehensive, professional way.  One more example today was learning that the Chrome Books offered by Maniakalani are not the same as those offered at Noel Leeming (a frequent complaint that I heard from our parents), that they have more features, and that this is the reasoning behind offering this particular device at this price.

Hapara! The teachers of juniors at my school use workspace in dashboard for topics. Wow, I sure need to explore this one.  I see HUGE potential for this with my seniors.  An effective way to personalise learning and actually monitor their progress in an authentic and respectful way.  Amazing potential for individual scaffolding for all students.

In the morning presentation we heard that"partnership through owning the device is powerful and often overlooked by schools." Why? What is the evidence for this?  How are poor students' needs' addressed?  Coming from a decile two school and having directly experienced the critical budget shortfall that our Chromebooks initiative caused, I am concerned about the impact that this kind of investment makes on a poor community.  This is the future, is there not some way we as a nation can invest in these resources so that diverse socio-economic communities are not affected differently?  I am seeing a bit of a chasm forming here between well-funded, well-resourced schools and schools in less affluent areas.  Is this another example of privilege and the message we are sending?

And finally, it occurs to me that the time poor aspect of this technology shift in teaching and learning is a temporary situation.  What I am noticing is that like most of teaching, careful front loading results in better outcomes for students and an easier path to managing your workload. I am beginning to understand now that in the long run this technology will not only enhance my students' learning (Castify!), it will also allow me to easily manipulate and customise resources to fit my programme year after year.  Although I am still taking baby steps with these skills, I keep coming back to the realisation that it is worth it for my students.  It boggles the mind, really.

27 March 2019 Notes to Myself

I am going off script this week and putting my own stream of consciousness in my blog.  It feels like I am double-tracking with this course; learning technology as a second language on the one track and rolling along the other track with all the different ways that I can use these things for students pinging at me.  I have taken to jotting all of the new learning that could work for me down, so here it is for you...this is what it looks like when an old teacher finally sees the value of technology for her twenty-first century learners.

I am thinking about using blogs in my Year 10 English.  I know that I am late to arrive at this, but I am getting my head around how this would enhance learning.  I love Dorothy's suggestion this morning of using the share stuff as a hook to finish.  This gives them a purpose for writing and I really see the potential motivation here with the Year 10s.  Publishing will require a re-defining for students in class.  How do I integrate the publishing share aspect of their writing into my "writing is never finished" credo that my students hear from me every day.  Time to rethink my own definitions to make sure they are still relevant for my students.

I also take Dorothy's point of "don't stop" when DFI is over. At this point, this course is a safe place with some time to play with this stuff, but ultimately I go back to what I know works and what is familiar.  I am sure that I am not alone in this.  The challenge is to sift through all of the new bits that we have been exposed to here, decide what could be useful, become fluent with those elements, and move on to a new element that could work with my students.

I love the idea of the video making and was overwhelmed by all of the beautiful websites we looked at today, but again I am up against the too-much-work barrier and I immediately think of how long it took to make something like that.  Was it worth the time (enough bang for my buck)?  Can I put it into my resources or will it need to be refreshed every year?  I am noticing some clip links are no longer live.  Is there a way to permanently insert clips into websites so that great bits that fit well into your website do not go dead and become irreplaceable?

I also love the idea of creating a new site for your classes every year-- it contributes to your inquiry cycle to show where you were, where you are next and also archives old resources for my own use in the future.  And finally,  I am noticing that these websites seem to be made for each unit schemes, not a huge class subject websites--is that correct?  Is there a way to link all of these unit plans into a subject site or are individual ones websites better?

Thank you, Ben, for patiently sitting next to me and helping me, and for sharing "Just Dance" and  "Go Noodle" Youtube videos for class dancing--one never knows when these will come in handy!

Well Folks, that's the end of Day Four of DFI and my brain is quite full.  I will be percolating all week as usual.

March 20 Creating!

This is the beginning of my exploration of the slides function of the Google suite and how I can use the different functions.  There are so many and I only had a play with a few of them!