DFI Day 6 - Enabling Access - Sites

 Kia ora everyone,

Today was a great day!  Enabling access was the theme.  With our digital platform we are able to connect, create and share in a way that was not possible in the days gone by.  By enabling access we are able to strengthen outside connections, and learn from others perspectives.

Our explore today was to check out some of our colleagues Sites along with our own, and discuss visual appeal and user experience.  It was also quite handy as I found out which slides/tasks could not be accessed, which I could then change.  I found this highly engaging and have made several changes to the layout and look of my Literacy and Math pages.  Being able to discuss ideas with colleagues - what works for them, or what doesn't, or what their students enjoy was very valuable.

I was very impressed that I remembered how to make a button, and admit I spent a fair amount of time playing around with ideas... I am quite excited to start my Term 4 planning which I think I will take next level by making my own sites, then linking to my main page.

Here are some of my new buttons...

Day 5 - Collaborate/Sites

 Kia ora everyone,

Well I was pretty excited about today because we got to delve into Sites!  While I work on our Hub site and my pages everyday and try to make it pretty, today was cool because I learned a few new tricks about adding buttons and pages.  Also had a wee play with record to slides to put on my new fancy (trial for fun) site.  I am considering adding new pages to my existing Literacy page - to perhaps make it easier and more engaging for my my students.  Here is the beginnings of my trial site...

So to back track a little, we began our day with our Google Meet with Dorothy.  Today we discussed the Kaupapa - Visible.  Making our teaching and learning visible for everyone who wants or needs to - obviously especially our students and their whanau - who can become genuine participants.

Our Deep Dive today centered around Multi Modal - using a variety of resources to extend and deepen learning.  It is reflective of effective teaching practice for a digital learning environment, based on knowing our learners, it can show different perspectives and points of view, and uses different ‘types’ of texts - written, audio, visual, symbolic, etc.  I like to think that my pages on our Korimako site are beginning to reflect the use of Multi Modal learning.  I think Literacy is easier to use this, so my next goal is to work on my Math page...

See you next week!

DFI Day 4 - Dealing with Data

Kia ora Bloggers,

Well here we are at Day 4, Week 4!  Today we have be looking and learning about Google Forms, Spreadsheets and Maps.

Our session began with our regular Google Meet with Dorothy.  Today we discussed the Share aspect of Manaiakalani. Sharing with others can mean many things - share a book, a laugh, an idea. Digital technologies has just added an extra element to sharing for our learners. By sharing digitally our students are now able to communicate with not only their whanau and friends, but the wider community and beyond.  We hope that this type of sharing gives a sense of purpose, and helps make connections with others.

So I haven't created a Google Form for ages, was good to get back in to play around with the settings.  My next goal is to teach my writers to create a Pick A Path story...  And well, Spreadsheets is a whole other story for me.  I'm a proper newbie so it seems. My big moment was figuring out how to 'freeze' sections so I can still see the bits I need! I did manage to organise an assessment tracker sheet for maths, and put together this little beauty:

Who knew about Google My Maps!  A pretty cool tool that could be used in Math to Inquiry.  You can even get data from a Form - say where people have been around the world, and import it to your map.  I think the students will really enjoy using this. Check out this one:

See you next week!

DFI Day Three - Media

Kia ora Bloggers,

So today we started off with a Google Meet with Dorothy, delving into the Create - Hanga in Manaiakalani.  Big takeaway from the session is that we want our young people to be thinkers and creators.  As teachers we need to design engaging programs, in which our students can create stuff!  Creating can give purpose to learning.  Teachers can empower students through choice, information and building of skills through scaffolding.

Our Deep Dive was around the use of Media such as movie making, T.V, podcasts.  Lots of the apps are somewhat familiar to me, once again just need to have a go at them!  We have a new school build coming up in the near future, I can already envision a built in 'green screen' wall ready to go.  I've also requested a school drone...  Also love the idea of using old pizza boxes as back drops to stop motions.

Today I also made a channel on YouTube, pretty sure I will just be using it to make music playlists :-)

Google Slides and Draw are my new jam.  Had a great time setting up a new blog profile, which I will attempt to put on.  Today I also realised why my students love creating animations, I am rather invested in my Maui and the Sun animation which you can see below.  It is unfinished at the moment, but I am quite proud of it!