DFI - Session Three

We started today with looking at create. The main points I took away from Dorothy were that for creativity to be successful you need to hook the learners in. This means giving them something to do rather than something to learn as this is where most learning naturally happens.

 "Creators of content, not merely consumers" (Pt England School) 

Next, we explored YouTube and how to set up a channel and playlist. I use YouTube as a tool to support my teaching. I am really looking forward to saving the videos we watch daily to a playlist that I can share with my students. 

Google Drawing is something I have never really explored. I can now see that it is going to be very beneficial for making my class site easy to use. I loved all the features that it has to offer and I will defiantly be exploring Google Drawings more. Here is a drawing I made today.   

Finally we looked at Google Slides. One thing to remember when making a presentation is use consistent formatting, this then won't take the audience away from what you are saying. I am going to explore more with Google Slides and see how this can help my planning. A tip from Mark was using audio recordings within my learn, create, shares. I have year 1 students so this will be really helpful for them. I am going to try this out next week! 

Here is my Digital Pepeha that I made on Google Slides. 

What have you read that you might want to learn more about from me? 

DFI - Session Two

After todays DFI session it is fair to say that my brain is fried. There was a-lot new learning today! 

Who knew that Google had so many useful apps to help manage workflow. 

First we explored Google Meet. I feel pretty confident with Google Meet as I have been using this to teach my students online with distance learning. One of the features I learnt was to share a video with sound. You need to share the tab not the entire screen. If you play the video through sharing your entire screen there will be no sound. Another thing I learnt was how to record a Google Meet. You can only record the meet if you are the organiser and it asks everyone for permission. Once the Google Meet was finished it uploaded to my drive and I was able to share it with others. Here is a screenshot of the video I made with Helena from my Digital Bubble Group. 

Google Keep is an online checklist that can be shared with other people. This is something I am going to explore more and see what it has to offer. I currently use the app Stickies. I like that with Google Keep I can also have the checklist on my phone and update in both places. You can also import tasks from Google Keep into your calendar! 




My Gmail has never looked so pretty or been so organised!
 I use Gmail everyday but I wasn't using it to its full potential. I learnt that on the right hand side you can quickly access your calendar and Google Keep. Snoozing emails, this is a life saver to ensuring you reply to all emails and don't forget about them. I also never knew all the different settings Gmail has like filters and schedule send for example. 

The only time I ever used Google Calendar was to check the school calendar. Since distance learning I have used Google Calendar to create Google Meets. This has been great to plan out my days and lessons. My biggest take away from learning about Google Calendar was the shortcuts. Who doesn't love shortcuts! 
All you do is simply push one letter to see your calendar in different views. 

• w = week view 
• t = view today
• m = month view
• c = create a new event or task

Mark finished the day off with reminding us on how to comment on blogs. 'Positive, Thoughtful, Helpful'. I have been using the prompts when I have been commenting on my hub blog. This is something I want to work more on with the students when we are commenting on a blog. 

I am very thankful for being able to take part in DFI. I know that all of these Google apps are really going to help organise my workflow in a positive way. 

Have you learnt something new from reading my blog? 

DFI - Day One

Today was the first day of the DFI course. DFI stands for Digital Fluency Intensive. I was asked if I would like to complete the DFI course online due to Covid-19. I was a little apprehensive as it was going to be totally online. One thing I had more confidence in due to distance learning at home was navigating my way around Google Meets, this was very helpful as DFI uses Google Meets.
I learnt about the Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy. Little did I know that MK actually started many years ago beginning with 13 schools all with close proximity to each other. Manaiakalani has been designed to motivate learners to engage with the curriculum and become 21 C Learners. 

A few things that stood out for me today:
Voice typing in Google docs - this is a life changer not only for myself but also my learners who have trouble typing things quickly. It will allow them to focus on their writing and ideas rather than the typing side. 
Another top tip was (Shift Z) this makes a copy of the document but also moves it into your drive. This is a great way to get documents without making a copy as the document will still continue to be updated with any changes. 
The website remove.bg is also a life changer in making documents look more professional as it removes the white background from an image. 



Inserting a table in Google docs - In the past I have spent ages arranging images on the page and getting them to stay there. Using tables allows you to do this so quickly and nothing moves, bonus! Check out my learn, create, share that I made on docs! I usually make them in Google drawings. Bring on DFI week 2.

Bee-Bots in the Classroom

Bee-Bots I had seen them in our resource room but didn't know how to work them or know how I could use them with the children. Know I feel confident to use them and am very excited that they can be used in so many different ways! 

Today I was lucky enough to attend a workshop at the Turanga Library with Emma Planicka exploring Bee-Bots in the Classroom. 

Why Bee-Bots?

• Directionality
• Making shapes
• Debugging
• Building algorithms
• Storytelling - comprehension and retelling
• counting, number before and after
• Visual art
• Collaboration
• Phonics and much more!

Bee-Bots expose children to the opportunity to explore curriculum areas in creative and fun ways while also covering elements of the digital curriculum. I had no idea they could be used in so many different ways!

Along with being amazed with all the wonderful learning experiences you can use Bee-Bots for, the one thing that I walked away with was realising that you cant just give children the Bee-Bots, explain the task and off they go. Children need to be exposed the the language and vocab before even touching a Bee-Bot as this helps them to develop an understanding and hearing the language being repeatedly used in a range on contexts. 

Some key questions to ask students:

• Are robots smart? Do they have a brain?
• What are some robots you would find in your home?
• Discuss algorithmic thinking - link to daily routines 

Learning experiences for children before using the Bee-Bots:

• Rubber Mats/PE Dots (direction, forward, back, left, right) 
• Grids
• Maps 

I can not wait to give Bee-Bots ago as well as teaching and encourage my other colleagues to use them! 

Maths with Jo Boaler - Limitless: Learn, Lead and Live without Barriers

Last week I travelled to Hamilton with my teaching colleagues to see Jo Boaler, an educator in Maths teaching. Jo has done lots of work with Stanford University including creating a website called Youcubed which focuses on reducing anxiety around maths. 

Jo Boaler started her presentation talking about anxiety around maths. Maths anxiety affects around 30-50% of children. To be honest as a child maths wasn't my favourite part of school and looking back now, I myself had anxiety around maths. Jo stated the importance of having a good understanding of growth mindset before getting into maths knowledge and strategies. 

Below are the six main areas that Jo believes need to be considered when teaching maths; 
Brain Growth & Change 
Students need to be exposed to how they learn and what is happening in their brains. 

• New brain pathways are created 
• Strengthen pathway 
• Connections are made between pathways.  

Mindsets 
It is important to understand that what children believe effects their learning. Teachers and students need a growth mindset, using fixed language (If you tell a child they are smart and then they got something wrong, the child then evaluates themselves thinking they aren’t so smart (Carol Dweck)

Struggle & Mistakes 
The best time for our brains is when we are pushing at the edge of our understanding and making mistakes and correcting them. The steps of struggle, The learning pit (Jennifer Schaefer) Value children saying they are in the pit. Teachers shouldn’t jump in and help straight away tell children its good to struggle for the brain. Explore the learning pit with children so they understand it's a good thing if they get in the 'pit'. 

Engage with content with a lens of multiplicity  
This is about thinking of maths in a creative way using numbers, words, pictures ect. Approaching math’s with creativity and knowing that there are lots of answers and different ways to solve a problem. 

Flexibility & Depth – over speed
Maths is not about speed. When children are anxious their working brain shuts down. Engaging in math’s facts visually and in different ways connecting things all together means  higher achievement and flexible thinking

Connections & Collaboration – Connecting with other peoples ideas creates understanding and deeper thinking.

• Math’s is about ideas and creativity not right and wrong answers
• Best time to teach a method is after they need to encounter the method.

    What next in Kakano?

•     Flexible groupings to attend the needs of children and to fill up gaps
•     Problem solving problems to be put in the challenge room 
•     Strand to taught through problem solving 
•     Exploring the learning pit 
•     Use growth mindset language 
•     Make maths more creative 

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Nathan Wallis - When should a child learn to write?

Its a couch kind of day today in Christchurch and what else do you do, other than sit on your phone on Facebook, scrolling over and over the same boring content thinking to yourself 'I should really get off this now'. I thought this to myself until I came over a video of Nathan Wallis talking about how children in a structured preschool setting have a higher chance of ending up in prison, than children in a free play structured preschool. The video was only 30 seconds long but he inspired me to go and read something useful and interesting written by him.

I found an article called  "When should a child learn to write" (Wallis). This article challenged my thinking right from the heading. In my mind as a primary school teacher, I have been taught that children start to write when they start school along with reading and counting. Research on brain development states that “the part of the brain that likes repetitive pattern, the formal cortex, is associated with numeracy and literacy” (Wallis). This part of the brain isn't fully active until children reach the age of seven. Wallis states that a solid basis to writing is a good understanding of oral language. As a teacher I know that children need to have some basic letter recognise and sounds before they can start to write. This has challenged my thinking of the expectations I set. I now see that I need to lower my expectations and encourage the children more to enjoy writing. At five a child should not be stressing out about their learning, they have a lot going on with developing their emotions and attitude towards themselves as a learner. Going forward I am going to ensure that the children are writing about topics they enjoy and ensure that none of my students are under stress. To ensure my students don't experience stress while writing I need to make sure that I have well established relationships with my children, so I am aware of how they think and work. Wallis suggested that children under stress are basically learning they are a bit stupid.  This article fits great within my practice as Wallis also believes that schools should move towards in Learning through Play. “Along with two and a half hours a day with teacher-led instruction, free play and creativity will make for an intelligent child”.

Go and research Nathan Wallis I am sure you will find something well worth reading!    

Nathan Wallis - When should a child learn to write?    

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Digital Passport

This month I completed my digital passport. I throughly enjoyed working through the four workshop modules online and learning about the new digital curriculum. I now feel more confident about my responsibility as a teacher and how I need to incorporate the new curriculum within my practice.
Digital Passport Certificates