DFI day 4

Today was a challenging day. I felt overwhelmed by the technical information, and at times it moved very quickly. I felt silly to ask questions, as I felt that everyone else looked like they knew what was happening and could follow it confidently. HOWEVER, as the day has progressed, and although my confidence is still shakey, I have completed the following examples of my learning. 

1. Google Sheets

I want to be able to create and format a sheet that will record each child's results for learning in the areas that are important to the school and myself.  I picked up some of the learning as I went along but it was not until I had a chance to create that I could work my way through and try to solidify my new knowledge. 

The student blog information showed that 2017 was the best year of blogging, in that this was the year that the student produced the most posts. In the first year, 2014, the student data showed a part-year, due to the introduction of blogging so it shows the early learning of the student.  Overall the years, the end of the year did not produce as many posts as the beginning and middle.  Was this because of student interest and engagement of topics offered or another reason? 

2. My Maps

A great tool to use in class to support students learning about measurement, exploring local sites of importance, sharing information, favorite countries, etc. 

3. Google Forms 

I can see the potential for these to be used when needing to gather information from individual learners in the class, small groups of students, and from a cross-section of the school. For example when looking at a particular topic or focus (environment) students could create and use forms as a way to gather data from the school community, which would better inform their learning and their place-based responses to issues and solutions. 

Another way could be that a class could complete a form that tells of where their family comes from and other details that could then be imported onto a My Map to visually represent the class or school students who attend from across NZ and the world. 

DFI Day 3

CREATE

Today sparked reflection and thought around how it is important to 'hook' students into the learning through 'being creative in the way we share the learning with others.

Questions to ponder:

• How important is this for students? 
• What benefits does it offer?
• How do I do this in the classroom? 
• What does 'create' look like in my classroom now? 
• Can it be better?
• Is it different depending on the curriculum being covered? 
• How does time, schedule, and routine play a part?
• How much of the creation should I be offering? 
• Does it need to be for all areas or just a few?
• How do students decide what is important to share and not share?
• How often does technology become part of the Year 1 students' way of creating? 
• Do parents understand what learning looks like now in the 21st century?

Leading NZ Research in Student Success and Learning ------->  Woolfe Fisher Research in Auckland

Sir Ken Robinson - TED talk link 

MEDIA

This was interesting and I could see the application of these ideas within the school and in particular in engaging students in my class.

GOOGLE DRAWING

Website buttons - shape, fill colour, size, resizing canvas size (file page set up and adjust for printing), get embed code to use in the blog under HTML, insert images, cropping, mask button

FURTHER EXPLORATION
Editing and resizing photos
Word Banks
Learning Menus

ANIMATION WITH GOOGLE SLIDES

UPDATE from last week

WWW - Accelerated Learning 
Last week we looked at how teachers can be effective. I continually reflect and consider how I could do an activity or learning experience better. Since then, I have been looking at ways that I can help my Year 1 students to become more independent in their learning through the use of the pads in the classroom. I gave thought to what the successful result would look like and then backtracked to break down the steps to introduce and support individual learning for each student in the class. I have started by learning the basics of an Ipad - turning in, where it is charged, using the headphone jack, and looking at Seesaw as a way to introduce the class blog. All the pads have been updated to only have the minimal buttons students need to access also.

The Lockdown

Lockdown came swiftly with an instant change of how I am to 'teach' my year one class. With trepidation, I wondered 'How do I do it?'. How do I create a class atmosphere and learning without physically coming together? Can I do it? Am I capable? OH MY ..... where do I start?

To find a beginning place in an attempt to answer these thoughts, I had to deeply reflect on what being a teacher means for me, in today's world, and decide what is important to keep, and what to let go of through the transition into home learning online.

What was important to me 

• students to engage with online learning
• trying to make it independent for the learners so that parents didn't have to be there all the time
• make it easy for parents to support child/ren
• make it interesting
• for students not to spend all day in front of a screen - need to be active and explorers
• make it easy to move around
• try to keep what happens in the classroom with learning similar to online

How am I going to do this?

• content to resemble what students know
• content to spark interest based on what I know of students interests outside of school
• apps - Reading eggs, Maths Buddy, Steps Web, Epic Reading,
• using my skills and knowledge of online tools to set up and create learning on the class site

How has this been? 

Sadly not all students have engaged with all the work on offer. However, there have been consistent learners sharing their learning and joining with the Goggle meetings. 

There have been around 6-8 students who have not engaged with anything available to them online. This could be due to home situations, internet access, time and parent educational skills, or other issues that I am not aware of. 

Students who have engaged in online learning topics have progressed in their skills, knowledge, and ability while away from school. Their maths, writing, and technology skills have grown, and I can see self-confidence with sharing what they can do, as being the most afforded learning. 

Time spent online at Goggle meets has been beneficial for smaller group learning, where the focus is on maths or writing times. 

Parents who have given feedback, have said positive things about the learning opportunities, and students have also remarked positively. 

The lockdown has been a positive growth and learning opportunity for me as a teacher. Although it has been hard ensuring that I take breaks and only work one day of the weekend, I have grown in confidence towards my ability to judge overall learning of students, think about and create learning opportunities online, and look outside the box when it comes to how I can be an effective teacher.

Here is the link to my class site ---------> Bethlehem Class Site   

DFI Day 2

WOW, today was another full-on day. There was a lot of information to take in from the practical and functional ideas around being a more effective teacher.

Today as we talked about the Effective Tacher: Accelerated Learning, I realized that turbocharging the way I teach is an important aspect of what I want to achieve in the classroom. I came to understand that I want to foster and support independence in my students and allow them to really take control of their own learning within the expectations and school vision.

Playing around with the Google Meet app was really great. Being able to show just o be screen tab and be able to work behind it is great. It creates flexibility and allows me to look at other work and help others while still keeping a focus on the screen.

Google Keep is another functional app that I already use. It is especially good for the middle of the night ideas, as I can jot them down. It is also good to note ideas and planning when you are out and about and a learning idea pops into mind. However, from today I discovered more functions that I could use - inserting a photo while at a PD session that allows me then to write underneath, makes it so much quicker than taking notes. I think that I will show this app to my team at school as part of my sharing.

I was so excited to learn about One Tab... I have far too many tabs open and often lose myself amongst them all. This is a definite tool that I will use.

Finally the practice recording of a Goggle Meet today. I found this difficult because I could not see the viewers. Therefore I was unable to assess and gauge interest in what was being shared. I think next time I will try using a split-screen option so that I can see the watchers.

Here is my recording.

DFI Blog Number One

Today I was unsure of what to expect with this course, other than it would be full with information and learning. It was interesting to hear about the Manaiakalani program and how it started. In its early stages of my daughter's education I was sceptical of the purpose and vision of technology in the classroom. However as a Primary teacher now, I have developed a strong interest in, and eagerness for the practical implementation of such technology in the classroom. 

Today I was surprised at all the hidden (only from me) tools in Goggle docs that could improve and enhance students learning. I am keen to explore these tools further and look at the use of the voice tool with my Year ones alongside their reading and writing oppotunties. 

Today's course was very practical and I found that having time in smaller groups and opportunties to test out the learning foci at each stage, was good for my learning.

My creative google doc