Catch up from Digital Fluency Intensive Week 4

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Thank you Kerry, Dorothy and Dave for having this session and for recording it. I have used sheets before for collecting data but learned today how to freeze rows and columns, use the function key to analyze, and, to make, share and put charts onto a separate sheet. I will definitely use what I learned today to analyze and sort student achievement data. Creating charts from student data will visually support reports made to the B.o.T on student achievement and progress.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

I would like to use forms to gather feedback from whanau instead of paper forms. It will make data analyzing a lot easier and the whole process more manageable.  

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Using forms to collect data and then simply turning it into a sheet will make data collecting and analyzing a much quicker and more enjoyable process especially on a school wide basis. 

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 9

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

Ubiquitous Learning can occur any time, any place, anywhere, from anyone. Learning can happen outside school hours because content is accessible through the class website. Students who are away from school for whatever reason are able to review content and supporting resources [Rewindable Learning].

How has the Manaiakalani kaupapa EMPOWERED me professionally with my teaching practice?

Through the Digital Fluency Intensive I have learned to navigate my way through a variety of Google apps and apply these to organising, planning and collaborating with colleagues. I am able to design a site with linked sub-pages and make it accessible to my students, embed slides, videos, images, google docs and drawings into a site to support student learning. I have blogged for the first time in my life and feel more comfortable about sharing thoughts and ideas publicly. I have made connections with other teachers in the Te Hiku cluster who are also on the Manaiakalani journey and will continue sharing and collaborating with them through Google Groups, email and other professional networks. I am also more equipped to explain the Manaiakalani pedagogy to whanau and the wider school community. I have really appreciated that teachers who have experience working in Manaiakalani schools have shared with us their knowledge, skills and resources.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

Because I am more confident using Google apps I will be able to implement these when designing learning projects for the students, making learning visible, rewindable, appealing and accessible on their iPads. I will also be able to teach students how to share and organise their learning on the iPad as a record of their learning journeys.

Staff Meeting Connected Learners Share

This timeline activity that I completed in our Staff Meeting facilitated by Donna Yates from Manaiakalani, presents a clear overview of how social media and digital technologies have dramatically increased the opportunity to be connected worldwide. I think that advancements and opportunities will increase at fast rates with continuing improvements to make access easier.

Digital Fluency Week 8

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

Empowerment gives people control or agency over their own lives.
As teachers we should first identify what disempowers the students and their whanau in our communities. 50% of those living in the Far North represent the 5th most deprived people in NZ. As educators we must consider the impact  of poverty on our students and what we can do to change this.   

Manaiakalani pedagogy aligns with the NZ Curriculum in the firm belief that students must be given opportunities to develop 'capabilities for growing, working and participating in their communities.' Students need to feel comfortable in the digital world because this the future. They can not be empowered unless they have agency/choice in their learning and are able to create their own digital footprint in a digital world - VISIBLITY.  They will not be empowered until they can learn globally, at anytime, anywhere - UBIQUITY. Student learning will not be visible or ubiquitous unless they are CONNECTED and are able to share and collaborate.

Manaiakalani pedagogy aims to empower students, their whanau and teachers through digital technology capability. Digital technology should NOT be understood as just a tool but instead as the means to empower our lives. Class sites and Blogs therefore need to be visible and accessible to whanau which will support families to be more connected to schools and to discuss and understand the learning of their children. 

How has the Manaiakalani kaupapa EMPOWERED you professionally with your teaching practice?

Today in the beautiful setting at the Waitangi Museum we had the opportunity to develop our understanding of  Hangarau Matihiko, the new Digital Technologies Curriculum which has two strands:
1. Computational Thinking for Digital Technologies
2. Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes

Monika and Kerry from the Raranga Matihiko programme gave us the wonderful opportunity to inquire into computational thinking and design by experimenting with a variety of amazing resources. 

I had fun discovering with Esther Dickenson as we created the following video using the 'Green Screen', and adding photos to the background. Our 'bloopers' were not arranging/inserting objects in the right order and that is why the whare, which should have been in the foreground, is imposed on the photo of trees and sky in the background. The outcome is still pretty cool.  What a great activity for using and developing the imagination and creativity. I would love to set up a 'Green Screen' booth or corner in the play room next year.

How has the Manaiakalani kaupapa EMPOWERED  you with new skills to use with your learners?  

Computational Thinking is a task broken down into little parts i.e. coding. Decomposition skills can be taught/practised without devices. This is coding 'unplugged' which I loved the idea of and can see this working really well in the junior classroom to develop computational skills, thinking and the key directional vocabulary in a collaborative and fun way. The coding app/programme 'SCRATCH' developed by Mitchel Resnick provides printable coding tiles to be used in this way. I will certainly take advantage of this. I've also ordered his book 'Lifelong Kindergarten - Cultivating Creativity' to help give some inspiration as I work towards establishing play-based learning at our school. Blending the 'Manaiakalani' and 'Learning through Play' pedagogies will be my focus.

How has the Manaiakalani kaupapa EMPOWERED  you personally?                    

My learning today has given me a clearer perspective of the Manaiakalani kaupapa and the necessity of preparing our students for the future. This pedagogy links to The Digital Technologies Curriculum perfectly.  Both have their roots in creativity and diversity, teaching and using the skills that will be required for productivity and input to better our communities and personal wellbeing and accomplishments.
Computational thinking can be applied to any activity [waiata ringa ringa; poi, rakau, tukutuku panels]. It is about applying rules, patterning and relationships, and can be intergrated into any classroom focus to make the learning authentic. Good pedagogy dictates that we do this anyway. It is the scaffolding that gives structure and embeds the learning.  . 

Digital Fluency Week 7

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

Today's focus was 'Being Connected.' Being connected empowers students. It takes their learning beyond themselves Being connected online means 'being visible' and involves being connected to whanau, to other schools, the local community, the nation and the wider world.

Manaikalani currently has 22,000 learners in it's network who are connected by a shared language and pedagogy. The programme design focuses on a different aspect of the Manaiakalani pedagogy each term. 

Term 1: Learn - setting up systems   Term 2: Create   Term 3: Share   Term 4: Learn, Create, Share 

Programme Design

A school's kaupapa, the year level of students and the teacher may influence this guideline but across the network each school will focus on the same design aspect

What did I learn that will increase my confidence, capability or work flow as a professional?

Being connected empowers teachers. Clarelle Carruthers encouraged us to take opportunities to learn from others i.e. 'Toolbox' sessions where we can discuss ideas, share and learn from each other. This can be done by developing a cluster website, a Twitter feed [students don't twitter], link to Twitter feeds from other Manaiakalani clusters and the Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Blog which connects to other classes.

I also came away from today's session feeling a lot more confident that I will be able to have visible, connected learning in my own classroom. I changed and earlier attempt at a class site applying the tips from Clarelle and Kerry about colour schemes and targeting the main users [my students]. I am so much happier with the look now. We also gave feedback via a Goggle Form to others on their website designs. I gathered tips from all of the sites and was so impressed with what my colleagues have designed and implemented.

What did I learn that I could use with my learners?

I have started designing Google Slides and projects using 'Explain Everything' for 'Letter Sounds' and 'Handwriting.' I intend to get this up and running and iron out any wrinkles before attempting another curriculum area. So the letter Zz project looks like this. I have not got everything up and connected yet but am happy that I am out of the starter blocks. The Zebra will connect to the letter z in the Letter Land programme which we have not purchased for the iPads yet. The E button will take students to letter-sound and handwriting activities. In EE I used the recording tool to say the W.A.L.T, the letter-sound, and word associated with pictures. This is a great tool to use for New Entrants that can't read. It was very easy to use.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability and workflow in my personal life?

I know that I have the responsibility to introduce the use of Explain Everything to the other Junior Class teachers at my school. I need to be confident in the use of it myself. I've started the journey and have a plan. I have designed a site that will be used by both classes in our syndicate. I am confident that step-by-step, with time, experimenting, calling on help from the experts and having a bank of appropriate learning resources, digital learning will give me more time in my personal life.

Standards for the Teaching Profession STP1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership STP2 Professional Learning STP3 Professional Relationships STP4 Learning-focused Culture STP5 Design for Learning STP6 Teaching Link to standards

Manaiakalani Teaching as Inquiry labels

Digital Fluency Week 6

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

Being Cybersmart was the initial focus for the day. A Cybersmart Curriculum supports the Manaikalani pedagogy. It needs to be specifically taught and revisited to enable students to be safe on on the internet. 

The categories are: Smart Learners, Smart Footprint and Smart Relationships, which link to the Learn, Create, Share philosophy of Manaiakalani.

Being Cybersmart empowers our learners as connected citizens. When their learning is visible and accessible, anytime, any place, at any pace, our young people learn to make smart decisions and understand that every time  they connect, collaborate and share online it combines to create their digital footprint.

Cybersmart clarity: Each component in the table above is broken down into key indicators. 

What did I learn that will increase my confidence, capability or work flow as a professional?

The focus today on Explain Everything for iPads was presented by Khismara Lal from Pt England school. Her extensive knowledge at using this app for 'Learn, Create, Share' for Yrs1-3 was obvious and I now have a clearer picture of how EE is used by the teacher and students. Her slide presentation is a helpful  introduction to using ipads in a junior class.


I will be referring back to this during the next months. Students access the class site on their ipads, click on the visible learning area buttons to access  their learning for the day. Further buttons lead the students to learning activities for the day/week. They use the different features of  EE to complete these activities. Here is the link to Khasmira's Class Site. Actually visiting the site and following the links helped me to see how my class site could function. I think once it is set up and streamlined to fit each group/individual, EE will make preparing for learning and teaching less time consuming and more manageable. Learning will be visible to students and activity instructions clearly explained within each project. EE has an easy voice recording system which can be used when setting up projects [perfect for New Entrants], and by the students to complete activities. There are lots of resources that other Manaiakalani teachers have created and shared. I will look at these once I can access them through an ipad as 'Explain Everything Reader is only available on Mac devices. Next step: to get New Era to make my google account accessible on one of the new ipads which I will keep for myself. I will also ask for a mac laptop from Tela next time I am eligible for a replacement. This should make the whole planing/creating/filing and sharing process more maneagable. 
My goals are: 

1. create my class site
2. learn how to create learning projects in EE
3. learn what parts of a project is created in google slides and what is created in EE
4. set up all iPads  the same - icons in the same folders, lock screen
5. set up indivdual students' Google Accounts
6. sign all iPads into individual learners’ Google Accounts (Google Drive, Chrome & Explain Everything)
7. label iPads on the outside with learners’ name [will have to be inventive because adhesive stickers/tape etc won't stick]
8. label individual Styluses with learner's names [styluses have been ordered]

Explain Everything downloads link

What did I learn that I could use with my learners?

I will need to continue using a structured approach to the 'Kawa of Care' of the ipad and using the various features of Explain Everything. This will involve the use of a stylus which we don't yet posses and also accessing the class website which is still in the design process.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability and workflow in my personal life?

Knowing that I can access already completed resources rather than starting from scratch is a bonus that will be such a time saver. Working collaboratively and sharing resources within our school, Ka hui ako and wider afield will help strengthen networking and our profession. Working collaboratively within our local area will mean growing a bank of resources that are the authentic to our students. Having accessibility to a range of existing resources will also give me ideas for creating my own.