Don't kill creativity

 Well, here we are in lockdown level 4. It's a great opportunity to trial some of the digital platforms with my rangatahi. I've checked various fun webpages where studs can complete challenges and fun tasks.  I've found that most activities have prebuilt coding systems so students really only have to move and connect objects to create something. I'd much rather they start with a blank canvas and build or draw their own creations or games.  

I don't mind online gaming with them, as it's an awesome outcome if they're able to converse verbally online with peers, so that the oral language gets used more, rather than typed and read. So I'm going on the hunt to see what's out there. 

We Bare Bears | Dance Lessons (Māori) | Cartoon Network

I think cartoons can bring a really rich conversation to the classroom discussions. There's something about cartoons that draws in the eyes. Maybe it's the power of animation and effects, or colour, light and sound. Maybe it's the nature and personalities of the characters or the dynamics and relationships between the characters. Maybe it's a well built story line or plot or could it be the voices. Whatever it is that grabs all attention in the first 30 seconds, I need to harness it and hinge it onto my teaching tool belt. 

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 9) Wrapping up DFI

 This is a late post which was due over a week ago.  

On Scratch:

One of the best things of seen for my ākonga is that they feel confident when they are creating and programming interactive stories and games. They're thinking creatively, reasoning systematically and although they're not yet working collaboratively, I'm looking forward to seeing them work on projects together. I've had a go at Scratch Jnr alongside a group, and was just amazed to see how quickly they learned to navigate and create. 

On Pepeha

Few gliches along the way that frustrated me, hence why I never completed the task for the day. I will go back in later and have another go later, as I'd love for my class to create their own. I like showing off my creations and watch them take their learning to levels beyond. 

On Blogging

At the moment we have a class blog and when my students create a file and save it to their folders in drive, I need to open the file publish to web and copy and paste the embedding code to the html format in our blog. While I'm getting better at that, I'd like for my own students to learn the process, and take on that role. Not only will it make things easier for me, but it will definitely give me back some time, and give them a little mana.  

Blogging is an awesome platform to reflect, record and share all teaching and learning. I'm excited about my students having their own blogs and being able to connect to other students of similar interests around the motu. 

One downer: I wish it was easy to locate anyone's blog via the omnibox.

Mauri ora Manaiakalani (wiki 8)

 On Connection

It's been a fabulous and intense journey. I've just watched Russel Burt on 'the principles of equity and access' Thank you for aligning this whole kaupapa with the principles upon which the Te Tiriti o Waitangi is founded on. Equality/equity... it all falls under the right for 'all' learners to being able to access quality content, information and learning - without prejudices, disadvantages and other burdensome barriers. Ngā mihi nui e te rangatira, nā tō whakaaro rangatira ka tūwhera whānui ake te tatau o te ao hangarau matihiko mō ā tātou tamariki. Tēna koe.

One slide that resonates with me is slide 6. I too, and I'm sure thousands of other teachers have the problem of competing against fortnite and instagram for the attention of our students. But I'm sure I have a better chance winning them over and keeping them engaged, with a chromebook and sites than I would with pen and pad. 

... post to be continued...

... Wow, today my ākonga followed one of the cybersmart activities under Tū Atamira in our Sites. I've never heard such wonderful silence. The whole room completely still and all eyes fixated. If I can get this intensity of engagement for every topic across the curriculum, I'll have a class of digital māori speaking Einsteins. 

Each time we look at other class blogs across the Manaiakalani cluster, my ākonga are inspired to comment, inspired to learn, inspired to create and 'somewhat' inspired to share... yes to the power of connectedness. 

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (wiki 7)

On Ubiquitous:

I must admit, I've never even heard of this term, but what I understand now is that it is about making learning available "24/7." I've always envisioned my learners continuing their learning outside of 9 and 3. When you attend university, learning doesn't stop after the day's tutorial. When completing my creative writing degree, our lectures provided a constant stream of hard text and online resources, as well as touch-base and group chat opportunities. The power of connecting with my writing colleagues and sharing our creations beyond our homes and the lecture room was just incredible. Why can't we enable ubiquitous realm for our students? It just makes sense if we want to catapult empowerment. 

On Blogging:

Although they're still flying off the shelves at the beginning of each year, the good ole 1B5 will be a thing of the past. I gave my students the option to choose to write their pieces in a 7mm ruled book or on a wifi-disconnected chromebook. Penmanship was once regarded as artistic and masterful skill. I have colleagues and family members who believe there is a place for handwriting (as preschoolers and juniors) but for how long I wonder. Are we wasting time on teaching handwriting lessons to get the motorskills and carpals flexing and consolidating alphabetical letters? How soon should they learn type so they can just get onto the writing content? My 7&8's handwriting is atrocious. I've interviewed friends and family who work in places like Griffins Foods, Frucor, Tiptop and Cerebos. When asked if they used to pen or a touchpad/keyboard to record and collect data - all of them responded with something along the lines of "most of the time we use the computer."   Anyway I've just realised I've gone on a tangent (oh dear, off task)...

... blogs are generally interesting, can be cosmetically cool and interface friendly. Blogs allow the writer to share layers of information through linking and embedding. I love that themes can be changed, widgets can be add and EVERYTHING is editable, rearrangeable, and shareable - these are all attributes or functions that does not exist with the once favourite 7mm ruled 1B5.  

I'm positive reading and writing shifts will increase and I can't wait for my students to enter the blogging world. One question: Where is writing edited before it is published?

He mihi tēnei ki taku mirumiru (bubble) me aku hoa kei rō. Ko Amy Tofu he manu kōtuku. Tēnā rawa atu e te māreikura. 

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 6)

This session has probably been the deepest dive I've done yet. One thing I've forgotten to mention in previous posts is that I like that the agenda for DFI delivers the content through various types of sessions- levelling up, chalk n talk, explore etc. Certainly keeps me on my digital toes.

On Sites

I'm so thankful to those teachers and schools who've opened up their learning sites for the world to see. The cosmetics, aesthetics and content is awesome - a massive contribution. New learning for me was knowing the difference between embedding and linking. 

Some of my students were restricted from viewing our new site... a little frustrating. At first I thought it was a problem with my settings in sites - all but 8 students can view it with no problems. I'm thankful for the support (Maria K) 

Anyway, loved adding backgrounds and playing around with buttons. I'm happy with the layout, but the "content" needs to be sorted. I need to load up on snacks in this weeks shopping - I'm predicting some late nights over the next two weeks. 

On sites evaluation: 

What a helpful tool. It's great seeing all the ideas and critiques pooled into one handy doc. This allowed me to look carefully at my own site, and target some very specific goals. I liked looking at my own bubble's sites, especially since we're all teaching different year groups. You can see the difference in the way sites tend to look for primaries, as opposed to secondaries. 

On multimodal:  I need to refer to the rewindables to grab some ideas. Now, time to nab some time.

He mihi kau ana ki te paepae o Manaiakalani. Rū ana te roro.  Mihi atu ki te mirumiru miharo o Amy Tofu. Nā te mirumiru nai au i tiaki. Tēnā koutou katoa. 

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Week 5)

 He rawe rawa atu tēnei akoranga mō te wā. He maha ngā pūkenga hei mau me ngā mātauranga e hāngai ana ki te ao matihiko. Kua kii taku roro (phew) ā tino miharo te ao hangarau. 

Thanks for another intense session of learning how to create online spaces that are functional accessible and available for our learners. Enjoyed Dorothy Burt's mātauranga around visibility. As teacher's we know the frustration of having to get access to knowledge that you know is there, you know you need it, but you need a code or password from the tech guy or girl whose next visit is scheduled for next week. One week in teacher time in the digital world is equivalent to one term. 

On Sites: Quite interesting to compare Hapara and Sites - one is appropriate and suitable for sharing and viewing 'learner's learning, whilst the other is equipped for sharing and viewing the 'teacher's' teaching.  Very handy indeed

Had fun navigating around in Sites. I've seen a shift from the x gen to z gen in the way those older sites function and look cosmetically. Who would have thought reading, writing and maths would ever be featured as buttons on a website.

On Jamboard: I've seen the jamboard logo in the drive grid. Now I know how I might use it. If there was just one upgrade for google to consider - it would be to add a link function, otherwise - yes, I like. 

On labels: Another really cool little quick access tool. I kind of got lost in the sharing part because I was busy trying to build my site. 

We are certainly competing for our learner's attention, against gaming, social media, etc, so I guess the more engaging (pretty and cool) and interactive we can make online learning spaces look, then we have a shot. 

Tēnā koe e Amy mō tō kaha ki te manaaki i a mātou bubble.