DFI - Week 4

Welcome to week 4 - our focus this week was dealing with data!

The focus of my blog post today is Google Sheets. 

Google Sheets is a tool that I find I am using more and more often in my teaching life. I started diving deeper into sheets last term as I was handed a piece of PAPER to track student attendance in a literacy programme I am implementing in my classroom. The stress of not losing the attendance sheet each week and then having to go back and count all the ticks made me think... in 2022 there must be a more effective way to do this!

I've decided to use Google Sheets as a way of recording this data for myself and my colleagues. All our data is now visible and easy to manage. Wooo! 

I learned a little about Google Sheets as I problem solved my way through trying to make the Google Sheet work in the way that I wanted. 

I found today's session was very helpful as I picked up a few tips and tricks that I've now used to tidy up this Google Sheet and make it more effective. Here are the three things I found most helpful:

• freezing the first column/rows (so that the children's names or the categories are always visible wherever you are working on the Google Sheet). 
• protecting sections of the spreadsheet (permissions can be given to particular tabs etc.) 
• grouping data (so that it can be hidden or viewed in groups e.g. classes, year level, gender) 

I have recently started using Google Sheets for my classroom planning. I find it very helpful to have all my planning in one place. It is so easy to flick between the tabs for each curriculum area. I pin this sheet to my top toolbar so that it is easy to find and refer to during my teaching day.  I also like how I can add a comment to a cell if I have something to reflect on from that particular lesson/small group. 

I'd love to know how other teachers are using Google Sheets for their planning... do you have any tips and tricks to make using sheets for planning more effective?

Photo of the DFI Term 2 Cohort. 

DFI - Week 3

This week was an online week for DFI. We worked on Google Meet for the day! 

The theme of today's session was Media. We learned about many different types of media, within Google and beyond. 

Here are my three takeaways for the day: 

Youtube Playlists:

My class enjoys singing and dancing along to YouTube videos. They are such a handy tool to have as a teacher. 

I've now created a playlist that includes many of our classroom favourties. If you are a junior school teacher and you haven't heard of Loopy Tunes Music, go and check them out. They are always a winner in my class! 

Google Draw: 

We made a slide for our blogs or class sites today called "All About Me". 

A trick I learnt that I didn't know before was just the masking tool to turn an image into a shape and the use of the shift key to keep the image or shape correctly proportioned. 

Creating a personal slide theme:

We learnt how to create a personal slide theme in Slides. Creating a personal theme was a simple as opening a blank google slide, clicking on slide and then "Edit Theme". 

I can now use these slides for my lessons as the slide theme includes all the templates that I think I will need for the lessons in my classroom (and if I change my mind or think of a new idea I can always edit the theme later on once I have used it in practice). 

As a side note, something that I always find challenging as a junior school teacher is finding a good font for my children. Very few fonts are simple enough and with the letter correctly formed (no added flicks or "funny" letter a's or g's). Any suggestions would be much appreciated? 

Kia kaha!

DFI - Week 2

Workflow 

In this blog post I am focusing on three different aspects of today's learning. 

1.  The "Learn" phase of Manaiakalani's Learn, Create and Share cycle. 
2. Google Meet
3. Google Keep. 

Learn

Today we focused on the Learn phase of  Manaiakalani's Learn, Create, Share cycle. We learned about the acronym R.A.T  as you can see in the image below.  R.A.T. describes effective practice in the digital world.  I think an important point to remember was that what learning looks like is different in each school but effective practice will be underpinned by these principles. 

R is for recognizing effective practice. Examples of effective practice in my classroom are my implementation of the  Better Start Literacy Approach (structured literacy) and Heggarty (phonemic awareness). 

A is for Amplify. We can ask ourselves,  how could these effective practices be amplified with the use of digital technologies? Examples of this in practice in my context are the BSLA Facebook group, taking part in Zoom calls with teachers from across the country to learn how to effectively implement BSLA  or the sharing of resources on TKI (phonics plus books and teachers guides) or on websites like teachers pay teachers. I am interested to discover how technology could be or is being used by teachers with their tamariki in this BSLA context. 

T is for Turbocharge.  This means that technology is being used to create learning that was not possible in an old-school paper-based classroom context. This links in with the S.A.M.R model. Learning that is turbocharged charged fits within the Modification and Redefintion phases (or above the line) in this model. An example of this would be meeting with lecturers from the University of Canterbury online alongside other teachers from across the country. Something not possible in a paper-based or face to face context (especially in a pandemic). A question I have for my own classroom practice is, how can I better use technology in my classroom to modify and redefine learning for my tamariki? 

Google Meet

I found that the learning and exploration that we did today with Google Meet was most helpful as this was an area of Google that I haven't had much experience with. It is surprising that I have made it this far in a pandemic without running a Google Meet, but here I am!  I have only ever participated in other people's Google Meets, but today we were set the challenge set to run our own Google Meet. We had to create a meeting, use our Google calendar to invite the attendees, share our screen, and run the meeting. 

Google Keep

We were introduced to Google Keep. I am planning on using Google Keep to manage my workflow by keeping things organized and in a place where I can find them. I have added Google Keep to my bookmarks so that it is easy to find. I like that it is integrated across Google (Mail, Docs, Sheets... everywhere!). I have begun to collect all the website links and documents I use for my planning each week and organize them using Google Keep. Fingers crossed this makes my planning life just that little bit more streamlined and gives me back a little bit more time.  

Kia kaha! 

DFI - Week 1

Manaiaklani Digital Fluency Intensive  

Over the next 9 weeks, I am taking part in the Manaiaklani Digital Fluency Intensive, aka DFI. It is aimed at increasing teachers' digital fluency and confidence. 

We opened with the story of Maniaklani. It is a story that I have heard told many times over my years teaching at Glen Innes School, which is a part of the Manaiakalani cluster of schools in Tamaki.  It was refreshing to be reminded of the journey other educators have traveled before us and the "why" that collectively drives us all to support our tamariki to be the best they can be. Manaiakalani was the word gifted to this kaupapa. It means a hook from heaven. A hook to engage our learners. Digital technology is our hook. It brings a sparkle to our children's eyes and engages them in learning. 

Throughout the day we learned many tips and tricks to use  Google Apps (Drive and Docs) and Chrome to use ourselves and pass on to our learners back in the classroom. 

Organizing my Google Drive (a Marie Kondo moment!)

I've used folders and colour coding to organise and easily identify my files. 

I aim to name my files with many key words so that they are easily found using the search tool. 

I have used numbers/letters in a strategic way to get the folders into a sensible order.

 Voice typing in Google Docs rather than typing. 

For someone like me, that isn't the fastest typer or the best at spelling this will help save me valuable time. 

Just open a google doc, click on tools, voice typing and then select the New Zealand English option. 

The voice typing tool could be used in a classroom context to support children in their writing or to create more opportunities for children to increase their reading milage. 

Google Docs to collaboratively write and send emails.  

This is a building block new to docs in the last few weeks. Simply open a doc, go to insert, building blocks and then click on email draft.

 

It will open something that looks like this in your Google doc. It is then able to be shared and edited like a Google doc and when it is ready to be sent simply click the mail icon and it will open and send through your Google Mail. 

I am looking forward to learning more over the next 9 weeks of the DFI course and taking this learning with me back to my school to share with my colleagues and my learners.


Nga Mihi Nui

Better Start Literacy Approach - Maternity Leave PD!

Scrolling on my phone while on maternity leave with my second baby I discovered the Better Start Literacy Approach. 

Junior school literacy was on my mind as my oldest child was due to turn five in the new year and she was very keen to get started with learning to read and write. 

The Better Start Literacy Free Short Course presented early literacy in a way that is very different to how I was taught at University and from my own learning as a child. I am really interested to see how this might be able to be applied to my own five year old learning and that of my new entrant class back at school! 

Here is a link to the free short course offered by the University of Canterbury. 

Nga mihi! 

The Mind Lab: Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning)

 In 2018, I took part in The Mind Lab by Unitec's post graduate programme, and gained a Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning). To see my learning journey throughout my time at The Mind Lab look through my blog posts from 2018. In the course where grades didn't matter I am still proud of the grades I did achieve but more importantly I am proud of the journey I went on, and will continue to be on thought my teaching life as a life long learner! 

A key change in my professional practice!

In this reflection, I will be using 'Rolfe's model of reflection' to reflect on my Mind Lab journey over the past 32 weeks and critically evaluate one key change in my practice.

What?

The changes that I have begun to make for the last 32 weeks of my Mind Lab adventures are around my teaching pedagogy.  The explicit teaching of  21st century skills (or key competencies), and more specially using growth mindset (follow this link to view my teacher inquiry) teaching to raise achievement.  

These changes relate to my requirements at a teacher to meet the “Standards in the Teaching Profession” and in particular, standard 6 - Teaching;

Use an increasing repertoire of teaching strategies, approaches, learning activities, technologies and assessment for learning strategies and modify these in response to the needs of individuals and groups of learners. 

Provide opportunities and support for learners to engage with, practise and apply learning to different contexts and make connections with prior learning. 

Teach in ways that enable learners to learn from one another, to collaborate, to self-regulate and to develop agency over their learning.

So what?

I have used the "Reflective Practice Cycle for Educators" to critically evaluate this change in my practice.

Stage 1: Problem identification

I was driven to these changes by a desire to provide a learning for my year 1 and 2 learner that meet their needs, as learners from low socio-economic whanau. I believe it is important to teach our learners how to learn, to best support them to be successful, in life and in school.

In my teaching inquiry I wrote; 

Children from low socioeconomic families, like the learners I teach, are exposed to prolonged stress. Thompson writes, “the biological effects of stress undermine the ability of children to focus on their own thinking” (p. 44). When they are faced with challenges in their learning, they become disengaged, as they are unable to identify the strategies needed to continue learning. This adaptive response serves them poorly in school, where they much concentrate and cooperate to do well. However, the plasticity of child’s developing brain is an opportunity for these ways of thinking to be buffered or reversed when intervention happens early in a child’s development. 

Stage 2: Observation and analysis

Throughout this year I observed: 

Some learners (year 1 and 2)… 

• Become actively disengaged when faced with challenging learning (disruptive behaviours, avoidance strategies) 
• Are unable to select appropriate strategies to solve learning problems independently
• According to the ITL learning rubrics my learners mostly play alongside each other, sometimes cooperatively and they rarely play collaboratively (Microsoft, 2015)
• Come from low socio economic families

Some whanau… 

• Engaged positively with the implementation of Class Dojo with an uptake of (80% in the junior school)
• Would like their heritage languages and cultures to be acknowledged in the classroom
• Welcomed the introduction of play-based learning (evidenced by their positive verbal comments)

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualisation

The learning theory that I found useful was the work of growth mindset guru, Carol Dewek. The core belief of Carol Dweck’s growth mindset, that a person who holds a growth mindset sees intelligence as changeable, that through hard work, dedication and time, new talents can be learnt and intellect can be expanded. 

Stage 4: Active experimentation

A new strategy that I have experimented with in my classroom this term is the use of picture books and videos to begin classroom discussion about growth mindset thinking. This has begun to create a shared language in our class about how we learn. 

We began our learning journey as a class this term by reading "My Fantastic Elastic Brain" by JoAnne Deak. This picture book teaches children that they have the ability to stretch and grow their own brains.

Now what?

Next year, I am going on an adventure with play-based learning in a new entrant class. Seagal Education shares that through play children are better able to understand abstract concepts, like growth mindset. The teacher plays a vital role in facilitating play that instills a growth mindset. I am looking forward to continuing my inquiry into teaching 21st century skills, like growth mindset thinking through play! 

Kia Kaha!