Upcoming Manaiakalani Film Festival

In our Manaiakalani Cluster which, consists of 13 different schools we were (not a must) to make a 3 minute or less movie and submit to Dorothy as she is in charge of movies. The sole reason behind movie making is so that the learners and teachers get the enjoyment of teamwork using various devices, story writing, costume designing, acting, editing and so on and come to the end product which, is the best movies possible. 

This gives children some ownership, responsibility helps build confidence and it also involves the whanau to some extent as well.

This year we in Room 5 made a movie which is titled - Respecting Dogs. There were few challenges we had to tackle as a class before we ended up producing our video. Some of the challenges were:

1. Finding the big plush dog and we were fortunate enough to get one from one of the teachers.  

2. The green screen room was kind of small and there were only two angles we were able to shoot from. The green screen room also had lots of light from the windows. We then decided to take the big piece of green cloth and pinned it on our classroom wall and did some shooting. 

3. Another one was getting the song from Youtube, putting on garage band and sorting the music bit with words and the children's recorded voice line. It took quite some time for me to sort them out before I could export to iMovie and then start putting the clips.

4. Plus putting the clips on green screen with the suitable pictures was challenging as it took lots of time.

The best part was that I was successful in submitting my movie to Manaiakalanai and I involved almost all of my learners.

Digital Intensive Week 9: Pedagogy and Kaupapa ..... More Opportunities

This morning we had the opportunity to go over some of the opportunities Manaiakalani teachers have to sign up for in 2018. I am thrilled to learn the various opportunities we educators have got in this cluster.

 Below is the slideshow which shows the huge number of opportunities:
  After going through the slides we all sat for the Google Exam. Apart from that today is the last day for our Digital Fluency Intensive program. I personally have learnt a lot and have also used most of the things I have learnt in my classroom. There is always more to do and build on. A special thank you goes to Dorothy, Gerhard and Matt and as for my Professional Blog I will continue posting!

Digital Intensive Week 8: New Google Sites

Another amazing thing we learnt today is about New Google Sites which, is way easier to create and organise. Below you can see where New Google Sites is written, just need to click on it and then create a site by going onto Google Drawing - to name your site, import the name as a png and then uploading the image from the downloads folder. Then choose an image which you like or you can even insert an image.

This New Google Site is way easier compared to what we were creating before where we had to play around with the HTML codes so that it's user-friendly. 

Below is a snap shot of how we went about creating our classic sites.

Anyway, the exciting part is that before I left this afternoon I was successfully able to create my own New Google Site as you can see below. 

I even was able to link each Site so that it's easier for me when I am here on this landing page. See below as an example...

Also, I was able to finish take a snap shot of each of my colleagues Class Site, upload the image, write their names and insert the link. As you can see below:

By doing all this on one page/ site it's going to be helpful in my appraisal so that everything is on one page and I do not have to search whole my computer for important bits and pieces. 

Digital Intensive Week 8: Empowering Teachers and Learners

James Hopkins from CORE Education was with us whole day today. He took a session about various ways how we teachers can be connected to teaching and learners can be connected to learning. The key word he focused on was EMPOWERING. 

Empowering will lead to greater achievement. This is because the learners and teachers will feel connected and will learn better and faster from each other. 

There has been a huge shift in overall learning and achievement provided the teachers keep their work visible to everybody.

As a group, we gathered Learner & Teacher Voice and Learner & Teacher Choice. 

Refer to slide 21 for more Learner Voice & Learner Choice.

Refer to slide 22 for more Teacher Voice & Teacher Choice.

Below is the slide we used:

Staff Meeting - eTAP - Electronic Teaching Assessment Planning

This afternoon we had Philip from eTAP who came to our school to give some guidance to us teachers about how many different ways we can use eTAP. 

Once logged in it will successfully bring us to this page:

Where we can enter results, Create Reports, mark attendance etc.
Also if we click on the Learner Hub on the top right corner then:

On this page, there are heaps of different kinds of functions as well which we just need to use and get familiar with.

Digital Intensive Week 7: Google Keep

Google Keep is the way to keep all the important photos, notes, reminders etc.

Today I added the extension Google Keep onto my Google account. It's quite handy to have Google Keep on all the gadgets so that it's easier to manage life whether it's work related or personal from any of the devices.

I was successful at downloading the app on my iphone, take a photo on my camera and then upload it to Google Keep.

I also learnt that I can take a picture from a written text and just by using the picture I can retrieve whole text on Google Keep. 

Google Keep is just so amazing.

Digital Intensive Week 7: Connected Learners - Large and Small

It was reiterated again today that keeping the blog posts clear and visible to the audience is very crucial. By doing this we are opening doors for the family, learners, other educators and anyone around the world to access, see and leave a comment. It is one of the ways we connect to a powerful network. 

Below is a slide show which will provide more details.

Digital Intensive Week 7: Teaching As Inquiry - What should Kiwi Teachers be doing?

While going through the resources section this week - Teaching As Inquiry - What should Kiwi Teachers be doing? I realized that how important this site is so decided to make some notes to keep myself on toes all the time.

Link on TKI site.

Main page with lots of links:

As I scrolled down I saw :

When I clicked on Teaching as Inquiry:

And when I clicked on Spiral of Inquiry PDF, I located the spiral which, looks like this: 

And then the SAMR Model.

All these models are so significant in our day to day teaching we educators need to constantly monitor ourselves and our teaching practice via the Teaching As Inquiry. This is to empower and enhance teaching and learning. 

Digital Intensive Week 7: Blog Post Rubric/ Manaiakalani Outreach Quality Blog Post Rubric.

The Blog Post Rubric is designed for teachers as a guide to assist learners so that they can connect with other learners/ bloggers and share their learning.

This rubric is designed for learners as a checklist to monitor themselves and their learning and creating a quality blog post.

Both of these rubrics are very handy as its going to assist both teachers and learners at the same time.

Digital Intensive Week 7: What Does A Quality Blog Post Look Like?

It is very important that we teachers always check ourselves against the standard of the quality blog post. This is because we are connecting with our audience in a kind, positive and helpful way. We should create the atmosphere for the audience to always return to our post and also to follow the blog(s). The slides show some of the helpful ways we teachers can leave smart and positive footprints.

 

Digital Intensive Week 7: How to Sign Up and Use Google Analytics

As a manager of the Google Analytics, individual can sign up and track all the people who view the account. Below is the slideshow to show us how to:

Digital Intensive Week 7: Sites (Standard for the Teaching Profession)

The last thing I learned today was about Sites. Over here I created my Standards for the Teaching Profession Site with Matt's assistance (one of the instructors). We were to create the Site in our school site. This is how it looks like in our school site.

Below is a slide to show the steps we took to create a site successfully. 




This is the main page which, I was able to create with Matt for my Standards for Teaching Profession site however, our school is going to start utilizing this Site from next year.

The subpages looks like this: 

Digital Intensive Week 7: Developing Criteria for an Effective Site

We also learnt some of the ways how we can make our site look more appealing and user friendly to the whanau, kids, other educators, us and for anybody who utilises our teaching site. 

Below are some of the points we put together as a group:

We also looked at how our Ako Hiko Education, what do they suggests so that we can do the best for everyone.

Click on the link to read more.

Digital Intensive Week 7: Google Slideshow Header

Today I did not create the Google Slideshow Header, however, I have attached the link so that just in case if I am interested to create and use one in future then it should be easier.

Google Slideshow Header

Example of Google Slideshow Header:

I would also keep the link for Fiona Grant's template for making a slider header in Sites just in case if I am stuck in future. 

Digital Intensive Week 7: Google Sites - HTML Reference Site

Every Manaiakalani teacher is expected to maintain and engaging and effective site to lead learning.

Click on the link below to see whole lot of different ways we can manage our site via HTML.
This was and is quite tricky however the link should guide us if we are stuck.

Google Sites - HTML Reference Site

Click on the menu bar such as the Home button - will take you to the slide presentation.
Other options available are Tables, Images, Anchor Points, Images As Backgrounds, Handy Points and Play Space.

Home screen which, should guide you via the slides.

Staff Meeting: Teaching as Inquiry (TAI)

Today's staff meeting was taken by Viena from our school. This is because she is one of our CoL teacher's. CoL stands for Community of Learning, which is governed by Manaiakalani Trust. 

For our meeting, each teacher was to share what our Teaching as Inquiry (TAI) has been or is. Also whether are we looking at changing our TAI or continue working on it. It was very rewarding listening to each others TAI. After the shared discussion, Viena asked us if we can relate our inquiry to one of the CoL Teacher's Achievement Challenge and then fill out slide 6 of - CoL Teachers Staff Meeting Term 3 2017 by duplicating it. 

As for my TAI - it's about using multi-modal texts in reading lessons to raise student understanding of the text to raise student achievement. So I found Rebecca Rowe's CoL Inquiry, which closely relates to what I am trying to achieve. 

I am really excited that at least I found someone who is actually doing something similar to what I am doing. I will always refer to her CoL blog to get some ideas or approaches towards using multi-modal texts in class. 

Digital Intensive Week 6: Standards for the Teaching Profession

This afternoon I was able to create the main page of the Standards for the Teaching Profession. Using the Matrix from MoE website and Quality Practice Template from MoE website I was able to use Style template: Standards for the Teaching Profession and create a header using google drawing. Example for the whole class is attached Image folder for reference. Our group decided to choose red color for the Standards rather than what's available which is green.

The main thing which, we looked in Matt's (one of the instructors) group was creating coordinates using https://pixlr.com/editor/

and then linking to each subpage. It was quite tricky as we played with numbers and codes a lot. 

The outcome is shown below where each section links to a subpage.

Digital Intensive Week 6: Visible Learning and Teaching

Falling in one of the Manaiakalani schools where teaching and learning mainly happen on devices has taught me how to be visible to the wider audience. No matter how much effort the learner/ teacher has put in giving and getting feedback from others is going to make the learning happen and at the same time make more sense as well. Below is a slideshow which shows how some of the ways the Manaiakalani schools - teachers and learners are making learning visible to the wider audience.

Digital Intensive Week 5: Creating a Multi Modal Site

Today I was successful at creating a simple site. We chose a text for the junior class - The Lion and the Mouse. After going through the text we got in small groups and used Padlet to plan how we can implement multi modal/ multi text approach to make our teaching and learners understanding easier. This was so that we can plan, share ideas or resources. 

We used the multi-text (Complementary Text, Scaffolding Text and Challenging Text) approach to meet the diverse literacy needs to meet learners learning style, interest and readiness. From there we created our own sites individually. 

Some of the multi modal modes we looked at were -

• Explain Everything - create or questions to answer
• Writing/ Books.
• Videos
• Photos/ images
• News articles
• Blogs
• Audio
• Podcasts
• Animations
• Gifs
• Physical experiences
• Recordings or
• Poems
• Other school blogs ...

The option given was either to focus on New Zealand Curriculum or Themes/ values such as:

• Being Helpful
• Size Doesn't Matter
• Everyone has different skills
• A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
• One Good Turn Deserves Another

Below is snapshot of the site I created considering Year 2/3 level.

Click on the link and see creative I was - The Lion and the Mouse.

Digital Intensive Week 5: Padlet

When we got in our groups where we had to plan using the multi modal approach for The Lion and the Mouse, padlet became really handy. This is because I was able to quickly create the account and then just add others e-mail to start sharing. By doing this we all were able to access the plan at the same time and add on different ways we can teach the story. 

Below is an example of our group padlet which, we created. 

   

Digital Intensive Week 5: Share to Learn

In today's session, we learnt that its vital for the learning to be shared to be successful. This will allow greater audience who will not only assist but will enable all the learners and teachers to grow together. 

Below is a slideshow prepared by Manaiakalani - Dorothy Burt which quite clearly shows the power of sharing and various ways we can share. 



This link will show some of the ways learners have been sharing their learning with others.

Blogging: Connecting with an Audience

It was great learning that as professionals we need to constantly blog and on top of that we need to raise traffic for our blog so that people can come and utilise our blog the best possible way and then leave "Positive, Thoughtful and Helpful" comments. Keeping the threaded conversations going is one of the ways to connect with the wider audience as well.

Below is a slide show which gives more ideas how to can share and connect with other audience. 

Digital Intensive Week 4: What does a quality Blog post look like?

Another great session made it clear that we are learning to create a positive digital footprint.

When we share on our blog we are trying to connect with our audience in a kind, positive and helpful way. 

Creating a quality blog post requires us to consider each of the components and what we need to include to connect with our audience e.g. attract the interest of our audience, encourage return visits and commenting, readers share and recommend blog posts.

Digital Intensive Week 4: How to make and post a video using Explain Everything

Our task was to share our learning using an Explain Everything (EE) Activity by

• Selecting an Explain Everything (EE) Project and downloading it on our iPad.

(Our learners download EE files from their class site using hyperlinked buttons. We have added a button on the Digital Fluency Website.)

• As we worked through the EE slides we were to use the voice recording tool to explain how to use the EE tools and activities to support the learning.
• Save our edited copy of the EE project and include our name in the title
• Upload to our shared Google Drive folder as a video
• Open the video file on our laptop and copy the embed code
• Share our video on our blog.

How might we utilise an iPad and a recording App to rewind learning?

To view EE projects on your laptop you will need the EE player.

Below is an Explain Everything, which I did.

Digital Intensive Week 4: Digital Dig - Chrome Book

Today we spent some time familiarising ourselves about how to go about using Chrome Book. We were also to experience how the learners feel while using their Chrome Books. It has got a whole lot of different key functions which, is different from our laptops. Below is a Digital Dig slide show which, will show what we were expected to finish as an activity just to increase our understanding.

These are my answers to the given questions:
 

Digital Intensive Week 4: Chrome Book Academy and Ninja Course

While going through the resources I found Chromebook Academy - where a USA teacher has created a site to share resources with kids about using their Chromebooks. It has got very useful information which, we can use in our classroom to make teaching more easier and fun at the same time.

Link

Ninja Doc training is for teachers to upskill themselves by sitting the short exam. It is a Refresher on Docs and Spreadsheets? Try this Google Apps Ninja course

Link