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. 

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 4)

Nei rā anō te mihi ki a mātou nei kaimahi kua whakawhanake ake i mātou. Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōnā te ngāhere, ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga nōnā te ao. Tō mātou waimārie.

I've just realised how much I enjoy online learning as opposed to face to face interaction. Yes yes I know, there are myriads of posts out there highlighting the importance of physical interaction and sharing your space with others 'in person', but honestly, I don't mind meeting and learning from this side of my screen. I don't know how delivering content  online all day would go though. A very intensive session indeed. 

On Google Sheets. I remember the first time I used Microsoft  spreadsheets a thousand years ago - having to analyse our personal family savings over years wasn't so tedious compared to recording dates and totals in a ledger book.  Today we have super smart functions eg: 'insert chart' which has a range of speedy organisational tools and quick enhancing features.  I never really used Google Sheets for much other than financial related data - until I saw a friend using it to create tukutuku patterns for a korowai.  Tukutuku using Google Docs (by Cher Pahi)

Although I think I am pretty much up to play with Google Sheets, but it's always good to have a refresher. 

The functions available are incredible. I absolutely love the sharing ability that GSuite tools and apps have.  

On Blogger: 

Never thought to have my students create and analysis chart about their blog posts data using Google Sheets. Great activity.  Why Blogger? Functional and effective... 

• no distractions on the interface for students
• hassle free sign in because it's all connected to G suite, 
• can check up, check in and check over all student posts.
• a roll down feature down the side - reaches a wide audience. 
• supports a Cybersmart Curriculum, to make smart sharers, and learn to behave in real time.

On Forms: 

We use forms for all sorts of learning, and my students have created lots of forms for each other. We've had discussions around how our forms should be filed. Some liked to file in topic folders, others collated all forms together and all docs. Off topic - I'm still learning to keep my own filing system in order.  

What I came away with:  Sharing power has the power to open doors beyond doors and don' t forget to enable 'share.' so others can access your resources.

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 3)

 

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani pedagogy?

• On create - Enjoyed Dorothy Burt's kōrero. The learning space needs to have readily available and accessible tools and resources to enable students to BE and GET creative and that it's in the 'creating' processes that the knowledge is embedded. Reflecting on myself as a learner - I need my hands to be building, making and doing as much as my brain is thinking and visualising.

• On Google Draw - What a great creative tool. I can imagine how advanced and complex learner's creations can be once they've mastered how to use the drawing tools, and where to access what they need. I'm wondering if my arty boys would swap out a pen and pad for a keyboard and screen. I checked out the fantastic Google Draw art ideas, by Nyjah, Jack and Alex of Panmure. Very inspiring indeed. Thank you Dave for your presentation. I'll get my students to do some drawing and I might even try those templates that Floyd Pahi suggested.

• On Youtube - Student's should NOT have youtube channels. Roughly 6 years ago (when I was none the wiser and was exploring everything and anything alongside my 7&8s, I had them create a gmail. I only had 11 students at the time so I took the opportunity given my numbers were next to nil compared to my colleagues. I liked the idea of a channel, because I wanted them to share creations with their families and the rest of the school. I hadn't realised that my access and and monitoring power was zero, I let them upload recordings of all types of curriculum learning, and it wasn't until one of my students received her first dislike, that I'd realised, there's a whole layer of teaching and learning around those 'what if someone gives me a thumbs down?' type questions, and the nasty or disheartening type threads that pop up.

• On Google Slides - G-Slides we call them in our class. We love them. We really only use G-docs for word-processing as Dian mentioned in our little bubble. We've not quite moved on from making our slides all pretty as my students like to do. I don't mind so long as I'm not bombarded with text and the message can be punched out by the title a few bullets points. The bonus is obviously when students can elaborate on content closed their presentations feeling proud they've their purpose was achieved. I love tabs that say 'insert.' And yes Dorothy Burt, so much more that just a slide show.

He mihi mahana anō tēnei ki ngā amokura kua whakaaweawe i a mātou i tēnei kaupapa rawe rawa atu. Ko te tumanako kia mau ai au i ngā mōhiotanga matihiko. Kia ora anō koutou katoa

Okay Dealing with Data...

Mauri ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 2)

A great session today building confidence and capability around improving workflow.
Did not realise how unruly my Gmail window was.  I like the 'super-handy' confidential icon. A few times I've sent an email and typed in the word confidential or private, in brackets. I've always wondered where 'archived' emails got archived to. Now that I know how to create, colour, name and edit labels - I'm certain my Gmail experience is going to be much better. 

I'm always looking for ways streamline data and increase workflow. Looking forward to exploring Google Keep a little more. Seemingly one of the simplest productivity tools I've seen for creating task-lists / reminders etc. I'm sure my students will have fun with this one. The icons are friendly on the eyes and clicking from one option to the next is easy and obvious.  I also like the location feature that allows you to put in a destination with your reminder note - and when you're near that area, it pings you a reminder. Great for students who may want to organise their own interests/learning, or set up reminders for practices, meetups and posting timelines.  Excellent resource :-)

Lost my way with the Tab taming session. Although I will go back and have a go at some of the tab management extensions. I did catch the comment at the end, about how to reopen a tab you've accidentally closed (something I'm guilty of a lot of the time) The amount of stress that could have been prevented had I known about 'command+shift+T.'   

I do use Calendar with my students already, but I'm thinking we could refer to it a lot more often and not rely on my 'sometimes failing memory' to remind us about what's coming up. 

Did not get an opportunity to record and upload a google meet discussion of myself and my google bubble colleague, however I can see huge potential for such an awesome capability. I did manage to read the blog of a young las from Matawaia School - Gisborne, who during the lockdown, made a table from some recycled materials for his motorcross gears. I sensed how pleased he was with his creation and loved his little product - purpose brief.  

https://matawaiduncanc.blogspot.com/2020/04/making-table-in-lock-down.html

He mihi nunui anō ki a koutou ngā pou rangatira mō ō koutou kaha ki te manaaki i a mātou ngā ākonga. Tēnā āno hoki koe e te amokura a Amy Tofu me aku hoa i roto i taku mirumiru kukara (google bubble friends)

Darn Shame

 that voice typing doesn't yet recognise the first language of Aotearoa - but what a powerful literacy tool. Oral language, reading mileage and self editing skills practice all rolled into one. Fabulous!

Mauri Ora Manaiakalani (Wiki 1)

 

Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy

He mihi tuatahi tēnei ki ngā pouārahi o tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira te DFI. Nā koutou i whakawhanake ake i te ao matihiko hāngarau, nō reira tēnā koutou katoa. Tuarua ki tōku kaiārahi a Amy Tofa. Tēnā rawa atu koe e te māreikura mō tō mōhiotanga me tō patience lol.

Absolutely loved all the wananga facilitated by our Manaiakalani leaders today.

I'm looking foward to exploring the new digital features - although I've no idea where I'll start yet. I've used google groups in the past but for some reason I resorted back to using emails to hui and share with colleagues. Points I will remember... -(1) it's not pretty with all the fancy frills, but it’s functional and efficient. (2) Click that blue button - which I've always ignored, (3) all replies save to the thread, (4) Leave Hapara to set up groups for kids, (5) Check with leadership before naming your group.

Still so much to learn and explore... just need "tutu time"

Teaching a swipe generation

 I have a classroom full of gamers - 'online' gamers. They have their own unique gaming language, and many words and sentences are pronounced as abbreviated sounds.  "Tbh, Idk wth they're talking about half the time." However, it's all so interesting. Street jargon of the day (way back when) - was limited to "sweet as" 

I'm so old :-)

Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei taonga

 Welcome to my professional learning blog.

This is a place where I can reflect on my teaching in relation to my

Professional Growth Cycle

and how they link to the Education Council's

Standards for the Teaching Profession