Day 9: External Recognition

We made it 🥳

I have really enjoyed the last 9 weeks of learning. It was a very intense and tedious at times however, I feel highly accomplished and proud that I can go in a class and physically support my students digitally or at least find quality resources for them to use. Our Northland Cohort have been a fabulous and enthusiastic team to work with, constantly motivating each other to try new things and give the challenges ago. They have also been amazing a providing the yummiest kai during shared lunches 😋

Our day at Waitangi was beautiful and a highlight. We are so lucky to have facilitates and educators around to teach current and future technologies as well as sharing cultural and historical knowledge of New Zealand.  My favourite tips and tricks from the DFI workflow would be pinning tabs, making bookmark groups and Google Keep. I also love using slides, youtube playlist and drawings to make my learning and teaching visible on my class site. Since starting DFI, my class probably uses their Chromebooks 95% of the time to complete assignments collaboratively and individually.

I have always wanted to be in career field that supports tamariki to be confident, engaged learners and leaders of tomorrow. Being on the DFI course and with Manaiakalani, I feel positive that I am  surrounded by like minded individuals who are all on the same waka to support each other as educators and our tamariki to be better. Which is a really nice feeling. Although, our time on DFI has ended I am excited about what the future could hold.

Below I created a comparison slide to show how my digital skills have grown over my learning experience at DFI. 

Lastly, I passed the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam. Now I can tell people am officially 'Googly Certified' haha 🎓

Day 8: Devices and Rewindable Learning

 

"If it's worth teaching or learning, It's worth capturing" -Manaiakalani (DFI) 

Rewindable learning means learners have access to re-watch their learning over and over again. This empowers students to take control of their learning. Today, I was reminded that students who arrive at school with 30, 000, 000 words (no matter which language) by the age of 5 are more advantageous than those who come with less as use of language outside of school links with learning possibilities. Students who do not have as much language being used outside of school can be supported by providing them with access to ubiquitous learning through harnessing technology. It allows us to reduce barriers of learning for students. 

Upon reflection, I haven't created much ubiquitous learning because of my limited skills and knowledge on how to share teaching and learning within the classroom. Developing my skills in DFI I have been able to create some ubiquitous learning on the site and implement routines to make students utilise these resources. However, I do find them time consuming for both myself uploading content and students uploading their own rewindable resources. My goal this term was to make our DMIC learning more visible and rewindable which I felt I accomplished but I would like to apply these skills to other aspects of learning and have the teaching and learning visible in a more effective and efficient way. 

As a learner of the CyberSmart program it was good to understand the two components of being Smart and Secure. Smart is the component that I am responsible for as a teacher creating learners to be confident, connected, actively involved, life-long learners. We are working with learners who are known as  'Generation Alpha' because they are immersed into the digital world from an incredibly young age since the gross innovation of technology and therefore, as teachers and adults we have a responsibility to make all learners Cybersmart. 

This afternoon I created my first Harpara workspace. It was really simple to use and will make students more accountable on managing their time to finish work. It is a lot easier for myself to keep track on their documents.  My activity was about linking Smartvalues and digital footprints  - ideally my next lesson would be following on with the topic to focus on how to be positive online learner.  This is re-constructed from a previous Cybersmart lesson. I'm looking forward to trying out my activity next term.  

Working on Ipads: 

Day 7: New Digital Technologies

 The New Digital Technologies 

This week we were enlightened with new digital resources and information about future technologies which can empower learners and their whanau on taking control of their lives. Technology is not a tool for learners to become a consumers it is a platform that allows learners to become creative directors in sharing their knowledge.

One way we can amplify students creativity and learning is through computational thinking. This teaches students to understand the 6 fundament stages of programming which can be adapted in many areas of knowledge and workspaces. Students become efficient decision makers through practising and following these stages in multitude of ways.

Today we practised programming through using Scratch and StopMotion. My creations are shared below. Programming on Scratch was a challenge as I could not get the backgrounds to change once I incorporated a song. I had to keep checking my sequence and iteration codes to allow the program to flow.

Media - Day 3

Digital Age: Modern Technology Sparks and Shares Creativity

"Digital technology engages learners because of the sight, sound and motion. They inspire creative ideas and allow students to record their learning."

It was refreshing to listen to how modern technology is seen as a creative tool in a variety of ways. Everyone recognises that technological devices are important tools to use in schools because it expands classroom learning far beyond school grounds. In a world that is constantly changing or advancing digitally, it can be hard to keep up with rapid innovation of new technologies/ apps/ tools/ sites. In my personal time I will play around on different apps and sites that I hear about. Depending on their safety and accessibility I may share videos with my class or use different tools for students to share their learning. After today, I feel excited about using more platforms for learning and addition keeping students up to date with digital skills.

I think todays sessions has supported my confidence in using sites that i would usually say "are recreational and should be used at home" because of the content is usually spoken about does not seem to fit into education. However, exposure to others classrooms and their use of news reports, podcasts, TikToks, etc.. has sparked my creativity for new reading and writing activities for students to be creative and engaged learners. In addition, this will increase student autonomy and I'm looking forward to see what happens next week.

Slides improving Room 11's workflow

Unless necessary, I always allow students to choose how they want to present their work digitally and majority of students will resort to slides. I never understood why because I grew up using Powerpoints and as much as Powerpoints are fun to use depending on the purpose, I found scratch, docs or drawing more creative. However, after being taught how to make digital worksheets and interactive timetables/task boards, I have been convinced on giving slides ago. The skills I have learnt on slides will help with managing students work as well as creating differentiated work within one place.

Below I am beginning to create my immersion task for Fractions: