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