Manaiakalani Staff Meeting - SHARE

Today all the Manaiakalani Schools got together at Tamaki College for Manaiakalani Staff Meeting. It was from 3.30-5pm. 

The purpose of this staff meeting is for our people to:

• understand the impact of Share for our learners and their achievement
• connect with the valued elements of sharing, in the world we live in

Teachers were organised into groups and the conversation were planned and guided by one of the Manaiakalani Team or a CoL Teacher. We were divided into groups - Groups are listed here.

Once Dorothy gave a briefing about sharing our learning to school then we dispersed into our groups.

We were asked to stand in a Doughnut and share:

• one of the strategies (anything) which is not working in our classrooms. We rotated and shared with other teachers.
• Then discuss why do we think that strategy is not successful.
• What I as a teacher doing to work on that strategy - could be anything. 

We heard some great things from other teachers.

Few of the strategies take home was:

• using Bouncy Ball site to monitor/ sense the noise level in class
• Use an app for maths to engage maths low learners
• make the learners talk loud. One of the teachers used car park so kids can yell and talk to boost their confidence.
• My one was if the book bag system is not successful in class, forget about using the book bag just give the books to kids to read. 

It was an awesome afternoon with great Sharing from most of the teachers across the cohort.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Day 9 Revision

Today is the last day of Digital Fluency Intensive. Had an awesome experience sharing, learning and growing with Manaiakalani. 

We also looked at: 

Ubiquitous Learning
The learning is different from how it used to be in the past. That is where more learning happened at school.

Nowadays the learning is rewindable however we need to keep in mind that 30,000,000 words are missing when kids start school at the beginning of the year.

Over school term the learning accelerates but over summer break it drops.

Manaiakalani has given opportunity to children to learn even over summer and this keeps the journey going enabling them to engage in various learning even during school holidays.

Thanking Gerhard and Dorothy for taking us through this journey and not forgetting teachers from other school who made it fun.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES - INTRODUCTION

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES - INTRODUCTION

This afternoon for staff meeting at school Victor and Chelsea took the meeting which was about Digital Technologies - Introduction.

Digital Technologies  

Introduction to Computational Thinking

Computational Thinking Progress Outcomes

1. In authentic contexts and taking account of end-users, students use their decomposition skills to break down simple non-computerised tasks into precise, unambiguous, step-by-step instructions (algorithmic thinking). They give these instructions, identify any errors in them as they are followed, and correct them (simple debugging). EXEMPLARS.
2. In authentic contexts and taking account of end-users, students give, follow and debug simple algorithms in computerised and non-computerised contexts. They use these algorithms to create simple programs involving outputs and sequencing (putting instructions one after the other) in age-appropriate programming environments. EXEMPLARS.
3. In authentic contexts and taking account of end-users, students decompose problems into step-by-step instructions to create algorithms for computer programs. They use logical thinking to predict the behaviour of the programs, and they understand that there can be more than one algorithm for the same problem. They develop and debug simple programs that use inputs, outputs, sequence and iteration (repeating part of the algorithm with a loop). They understand that digital devices store data using just two states represented by binary digits (bits). EXEMPLARS.

      Code.org Resources

• Course catalog (Explanation of how the courses are structured and how to align correctly to your students)
• SUGGESTED TEACHER COURSE 
• ADVANCED TEACHER COURSE 
• Hour of CODE (Extra activities that reinforce and extend students - designed for students to complete at their own pace)
• UNPLUGGED Activities only.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Day 8 - Devices Agenda

Devices:  Today we focused on the devices our young people use and we had some experience - Learn Create Share using Chromebooks and iPads.

We used both devices today to:

• See what it is like for our learners
• Learn tips and tricks to support our learners

Being Cybersmart

Where we empower our learners as connected and confident decision makers.

As educators we need to make sure that learners are at home in a digital world.

The language we use needs to be positive and so on.

Teaching them to be proactive and productive.

Teaching them about digital footprint.

And for all this there needs to be nicely implemented:

The whole school needs to be focused with collaborative planning

Look for the priorities for your/ our school

There needs to be deliberate acts of teaching

As a school/ cluster there should be evidence of teacher shift and student learning.

3 categories that are fundamental to the daily digital lives every year.

Term 1: Smart Learners (Our LEARN term)

Term 2: Smart Footprint (Our CREATE term)

Term 3: Smart Relationships (Our SHARE term)

Being cybersmart empowers learners to connect when their learning is visible and ubiquitous.

Empowering - "confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners"

Ubiquitous -  when learning is accessible A4 being cybersmart empowers our learners to harness technology in smart and clever ways.

Connected - empower our young people to engage in online behaviour and thinking that...elevates positive actions.

Visible - "whenever and wherever we share online...it;s personal!"

Empower parents and caregivers by partnering with whanau and aiga to confidently connect with their children's learning.

Quality Blog Comments - it needs to be positive, helpful and thoughtful.

Being Cybersmart also increases opportunities for learners to engage in cybersmart conversations and decision making with peers, whanau and teachers.

Cybersmart learning is at its best when embedded into an existing educational programme.

Young people learn that everytime they connect, collaborate and share online combines to create their digital footprint. Using Ipads and chromebooks learners learn faster to create and share.

Hapara Teacher Dashboard

Hapara is a powerful tool as it enables teachers to track children's learning via their drive. All learning should be visible provided the learners share on their drive. 

Introduction to Devices

Future focused learning in connected communities depends on:

Partnership

Participation

Protection

Digital Dig

Activity we individually had to do in regards to the use of shortcut keys which learners basically use while using their Chromebook.

Ipad Presentation

Explain Everything is the main app which learners are taught to use in early years of school.

Another day with loads of learning took place for me. 

Such as the folders on Hapara - is same as the folders set up on children's drive.

Everything should be visible on Hapara.
Learners have to put/ save the work on drive so it's visible.

Comments folder on Hapara means - the comments received by kids.

Comment (red) - anonymous user left comment eg. aunty, uncle etc who don't have google account.

Green pencil - means draft on posts.

Gmail -  is there for care and protection. 

Treaty (protection, partnership...

Any emails children have deleted / received, it stays on gmail.

Put screen up - don't have to tell children, let them figure it out.

Sharing - if not shared on drive it appears on sharing bit.

Highlights - purpose to be not in authority and knocking kids off.

Main points to consider:

*If children sit and work on their computer however the teacher can not see any work being done on drive then it could be that the learner is on their own gmail account.

*New Zealand - 18 is the universal age for kids to have google account.

* After 3pm we can not see what kids are doing at home. However if we do see then as a class teacher we need to send Hapara a message alerting them so that can turn it off. Email can be sent by scrolling down and typing a message.

Class Information - can be used to reset passwords

Check children's box.

+ add new child/ ren - teacher can add a new child but when Hapara update the new child/ ren misses out. The office need to add the new child/ ren fast so they don't miss out. 

Child/ ren gone we can click and remove ie. if the office has not removed them but then when the update takes place vis Hapara then happens the child/ ren will show up again.

Student Dashboard - learners get their own work to see in files Year 7 & 8 or high school. Any work on any google product, can star doc, annignments, document.

Ipad - I did use ipads few years ago but the updates I need to get familiar with. Having a lite ipad session was fun with Sushmita.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 7 - Computational Thinking

Topic : Computational Thinking

Our day started with the discussion about - EMPOWERMENT/ EMPOWERED

* If we don't want children to be disempowered then the work should be there before and should be rewindable. 

* Chromebook use empowers learners.

* We can't just say that tech is just a tool. It needs to transform the peoples lives.

Then the second session was followed by OMGTech! Trialblazers. 

Vivian Chandra and Simon took the session.

The session was to help teachers to gain confidence in teaching digital technology and computer science. Digital technology is going to be critical to every aspect of life in the future - be it robots, AI, Flying cars, Augmented Reality, 3D printing and so much more….

To recognise this the Government has made in part of the curriculum in schools. Which means teachers are now the key to ensuring all children learn digital technology! This workshop was a great first step to prepare teachers for this awesome responsibility. OMGTech! is committed to supporting teachers on their journey with digital technologies.

While diving into Curriculum Deep Dive we learnt the difference between:
Digital Fluency - such as we can take photos, filter and post it such as on Instagram.
Digital Technology - can be I don't like deer ears but like bunny ears so I can do photoshop and then post it.
So Digital Technology is one step ahead Digital Fluency.

We also experienced doing some of the activities such as - Binary Maths, Art & Algorithms, 10 Block Challenge and so on.

Art & Algorithms Game - we went online and found out how many kilometres far is our birth country and then 6 people were selected to stand on the 6 starting arrows. Once asked then 2 people moved into one box and there were 3 boxes only. We said our distances in kilometres and the one who had the highest moved towards right and lower distance person moved towards left. Outcome was we were all lined up from the lowest to the highest in kilometres.
Binary - it was the first time I heard about this but it was pretty fun as I enjoyed it a lot.

Hour of Code - we played Minecraft, Kodables and Code Combat. For me these were quite challenging but I understand my learners will love it.
Another challenging game we played was Scratch.
Scratch Junior is available on Ipad and Androids as well.
There were few other games as well.
So to make learning fun for learners we educators need to upskill our teaching so we can transform the lives of our learners.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 6 - Enabling Access

Today's learning focus was about Connecting with each other.

Leading learning with Class Sites

After looking at various sites, giving and receiving feedbacks, actually I knew but I think I wasn't thinking much about leaving learners reading levels on the site. My site was liked by my colleagues since I received lots of positive comments such as the pictures, layout was nice and simple, used slides thoroughly into my planning etc.

The only thing I needed to fix was to remove the learners reading levels and so I did.

For my reference:
Presentation
Get feedback on your Site
this Form Responses Spreadsheet
record them here

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 5 - Collaboration with Sites

Day 5 - Collaboration with Sites

Today focuses on supporting visible teaching and learning through building collaborative, multimodal Google Sites.

Multi Modal

An inclusive, differentiated approach to teaching in a digital learning environment.

We created two Multimodal sites in pairs using Google sites. Below are the links:

Life Processes

Cinderella

By creating the Multi Modal sites it stretches the teachers and the learners thinking and makes teaching and learning more fun at the same time. 

For that we looked at Introduction to Sites.

We also looked at - Check out Angela’s Blog post reflecting on her MIT innovation of the Multitext database.

Reference of Multi Text Data Base

Today's session was fun as it put me into the thinking position. It allowed me to stretch my brain and really think and plan for the learners using multi modal text. This kind of planning encourages the learners to think outside the box.

Google Drawing

Rose Drawing

I have learnt how to get rid of the background. It's just that I have to have the border blue by clicking on the frame and click delete. I can get rid of any marks by choosing pencil to colour white. Use shift and arrow keys to arrange the pieces so there is no white space between the pieces.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 4 - Dealing With Data

Day 4 - Dealing with Data

We started by talking about:

Sharing

That connected learners share their work. Post 2005, that's when Youtube was born nobody ever imagined that it's going to grow so far.

We need to keep in mind that sharing needs to have a purpose. 

Blogger is the main online sharing space for our learners. 

By using gadgets and analytical tools on blogger we can also track  and gather data. 

Google Forms

That it's one of the easier ways to collect information either from parents or organisations. It's easier to start from blank form when creating one. We can add questions and arrange the settings as suited. As for sharing and sending there are 3 ways - email, link and embed. Viewing for the response data is also made easy by using google forms.

My Google Form - General Knowledge

Good example of Pick A Path Google Form. It's always a good idea to PLAN your Pick A Path.

This is my Google Form which I created - New Zealand - General Knowledge.

Google My Maps

Customizable collaborative allowing us to track or plan journeys, measure distances, add place markers.

Using Google Maps is another way we can make learning fun for learners in the classroom as there are so many various ways..

Google Sheets

This is so helpful in so many different ways mainly for the teachers to collect data, do calculations, show or lock what they don't want to show etc.

Sheets on Speed

Is another way of calculating averages, sorting averages, creating and selecting charts.

I created this Google Sheet and then analysed it using Google Drawing.

Today I learnt that there are so many smart ways of collecting, comparing and sharing data and then analysing it which can make teaching easier. Using tools such as Google forms, Google Sheets and Google Maps confidently can make whole lot of life easier for teachers and learners.  

  

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 3 - Media

We started the day by talking about what went well for this week and what we needed some help with. 

As for me: 

I tried Google Docs with my learners since I wasn't able to do so earlier. I gave a go at Connect the Docs where I can successfully give the heading and link subheadings. I tried using One Tab to tame my tabs. 

I needed help with my Google Hangouts as I was not able to make a call. Only reason was that the domain has been blocked. Fusion has been looking into this for me.

Day 3

As for today's DFI learning we looked at How to Live Stream:

1. Using a Full HD Camera - Full HD Camera: Canon LEGRIA HF G40, Teradek: VidiU Pro, YouTube Live, YouTube Live: Create an Event, Stream Via:VidiU Pro.

2. Using a Laptop Webcam - Laptop Webcam: Using YouTube.

3. Using a Drone - Drone: DJI Spark. Kent Sommerville from Point England School gave more insight into this.

ksommerville@ptengland.school.nz

www.ptengland.school.nz

Then we looked at:

Youtube Channels - learnt that teachers are to save the youtube videos in to the Drive and then share with the learners. This means that we take videos from youtube and share via drive/ give ti drive. This way it will allows learners to only watch videos they are suppose to.

Also youtube is not the place for children to put their videos. Learners are not to set up youtube channels as we as a teacher won't be able to go in their youtube account.

Youtube Playlists - this is used to curate playlists. We learnt how to create playlists using various headings and save as many videos as we can. We can also embed so it's easy for the learners to access.

Create - Hanga (Maori word) was significantly about 'Hook'. It helps kids to become better problem solvers, communicators and collaborators. It helps to swap things around (eg. create to learn - chocolate chip baking). Learners can start by baking, expand their learning by researching, writing and then bake again. It can go in this order as well : create, share and learn.

Slides - we are the star, slides is/ are just supporting our story. Consistency in message/ story is important. Use colour, bolding rather then different fonts.

Colours - uniform spews (not too many colours, difficult to see)

White space is your friend - light background, dark text to contrast.

Dark background - light text to enhance.

Map story - Plan, plan, plan.

Google Drawing - is tool for any tasks such as word banking, infographics, learning menus, Digital art and many more. Using Google Drawing I got the picture of a rose and then used Google Drawing and did the art. I was able to come up to this for far but I haven't been able to remove the background successfully. I need to find as easier way to remove background. I tried remove.bg and pixlr.com but was not successful.

For levelling up here are some important Slides  - Working with Shapes and images (Working with Shapes, Texts and Images in Google Slides)

For Making Meaning of Content I made a slideshow of My Pepeha.

As for Blogging Tips we mainly looked at the settings and the Youtube settings.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 2 - Workflow

Another productive Digital Fluency Intensive day we had...

Day 1

We delve into:

WWW

• What has worked for you since the last time we met?

• What hasn’t worked (or made sense)?

• What do you need help with?

Then facilitators shared that Google Docs has go a new feature where we can highlight a paragraph and then move it either up or down.

For Learn / Ako

Ako means learn. What it means in the digital environment. 2 things runs parallel:

1. effective teaching and learning

2. digital at the same time.

We as educators need to engage and excite kids to learn by:

1. recognising

2. amplifying

3. turbo-charging

Great teaching + Digital Affordances = Acceleration

Our own blogs - is rewindable learning

- worth learning then worth capturing teaching

- can always go back and use / ahaa moment.

2. Create: Making meaning of content

Deep Dived into:

Google Keep (keep.google.com) Its an integrated tool. It comes with lots of inbuilt features.

Google Keep is a nice way to:

• Jot the thoughts 
• Take notes 
• Relax and listen to Key Notes, Lectures and Presentations.
• Voice Memos
• Take 30 seconds to revolutionise our work like (record while u take a walk to your car)
• Google Docs and Google Keep
• Search: Types, People, Labels and Colours (Video 1, Video 2, Video 3).
• Using Google Keep with Inbox by Gmail

For managing our workflow we looked at :

Gmail - (mail.google.com)

Calendar - (calendar.google.com) where I learnt how to block my calendar and make appointments

Hangouts/ Meet - (hangouts.google.com) we made calls, received calls etc.

* It's wise to achieve rather than delete

* lots of extensions can be used to simplify g-mail

Taming your Tabs - was another extension we can utilise to manage all our tabs. Google Toby Mini is another extension I can utilise to tame my tabs.

3. Share: Embed and Rewind Content 

Use Google Hangouts to connect with a small group - was another interesting activities we did in a group of 3. Over here we were to look at the Summer Learning Journey and answer questions after studying one of the learner's post. Below are the questions:

Questions and thoughts to drive your conversation:

• What was the teaching design behind this post?
• What was the learner’s response ie the post content
• Who responded to the post and how did this support the learning experience or contribute more to the learning of the child?

I worked with Andy and Sushmita. Sadly in our little group only Sushmita had the Apple laptop and she had to manage the Quicktime for screencasting and recording. I had to use Donna's laptop and make a call since for my HP the hangout domain was disabled.

Everything went well while we did the recording but when we played to ourselves then we realised that the microphone on Quicktime player was disabled. 

Out recording:

We have learnt to:

• make sure to check the microphone option on Quicktime that it's enabled and on high volume.

Other important things learnt when using Hangout is:

• to turn your microphone off so that we can hear the person talking clearly otherwise there will be feedback noise.
• make sure the background is presentable and there should be enough sunlight on the person talking but no sunlight behind you as it will reflect on the computer screen.
• show that you are present by displaying your video.