Week 5 DFI - Thinking Tools

Week 5 - A day with lots of thinking and a chance to have a go with a number of resources and tools.

Today we jumped right into looking at Code, Makey Makey and Scratch. I enjoyed Code because it was familiar to me. Our group of DFI teachers were totally engaged and you could hear a pin drop. I had seen Makey Makey roughly 3 weeks ago but hadn't tried it out myself, so it was cool to have a chance to experiment with the Makey Makey kit and resources. This is something I feel like I could implement into my classes especially as a presenting option for students and a Sharing tool for what they have learnt. Scratch on the other hand I am yet to find a purpose/way that I might implement this into my class.

Where to next? I am going to see if Makey Makey will be useful for our Music Teachers who have limited resources.

Week 4 DFI - Whats behind the drawing/photo

This week has been quite an eye opener. Google Drawing and Slides are amazing...there are so many things you can create.  I can see I will have to spend some time having a good play with these apps and revisiting the resources shared with us this week.

I decided to quickly create an  info-graphic (using a photograph from our DFI group - hopefully it works) to practice some ideas from todays session .  Going forward I want to make resources that are relevant to my current learning and teaching and therefore my students needs.
Oh I think I will have to go back at fix this......watch this space....possibly downloaded the wrong image file.

Also I was initially a little apprehensive about why and how I might use YouTube in the class setting.  I can now see that at the very least it is a great place to build a library of resources for either my reference and/or for later including in my class site/s.  Is anyone willing to to share how and why you use YouTube for learning with students please?

SHARE - and Rewindable Learning

Week 3 - DFI has been jammed packed with lots of tips around using Cybersmart tools, Digital Dig, Hapara Teacher Dashboard, using apps and extensions - Explain Everything and Screencastify.

I'm feeling very excited about using the various skills I have learnt today and can't wait to share with others.  In particular after being quite reluctant to cast myself via Screencastify, I think this would be a great way to run PLD with staff at our school and with students in class for their rewindable learning. This allows for the teacher/facilitator to be available to move around to assist learners and therefore learners can work at their own pace.

Check out my first ever Screencast
(Editing Column titles in Hapara Workspace)

DFI Week 2 - Fun with Google Forms, Maps and Sheets

Another week with great company and plenty of content to LEARN, CREATE and SHARE.

This week Dave Winter lead a session looking at Google Sheets (and maps).  This was very timely as I was already looking for a way to improve my use of google sheets for managing a student list that needs to be updated on a weekly basis here at NC. I was fairly familiar with some of the filter and/or sorting features and have now learnt some additional features such as QUERY.  I am looking forward to sharing this with my colleagues who also collaborate towards the on-going google sheet I have previously mentioned. No more copy and paste! Thank you both Dave and Kerry.

I am also very keen to share with our Social Sciences staff who will find the Google Maps (and using sheets) features an exciting addition to class planning, teaching and learning. As a math teacher this could be an awesome feature for our measurement unit topic.

Follow the blue marker road....follow follow 

Digital Fluency Week 1 - Term 2

I am very pleased to be participating in the Northland Digital Fluency Intensive for Term 2 , 2018.

Todays session has provided some good reminders about the kaupapa and pedagogy that underpin Manaiakalani. I have learnt some valuable information around some of the funding and logistics involved with both the schools in Auckland and for our particular Kaikohekohe cluster.

During the LEARN session I have learnt a number of Google skills that will help me in my personal teaching and learning journey and also in my role as a Middle and Senior Leader at school. The word processing features within google are going to help me work more efficiently and I look forward to sharing this with my colleagues and students. For example;

- Heading 1 (etc). Use the headings and urls for the headings so that you can instantly ping to this part of a document.

- Insert, Bookmark. Back to the top by putting in the link and selecting ‘bookmark’

- Insert images with the source

- Insert images. Use the camera and set time limits to get the image.

- Tools. Voice typing.

It was good to put some theory to practice to CREATE a poster using Google docs rather than Google drawing or another app. A works in progress (as I would like to make this an interactive poster) is below;