Day 9: Revision. Google Exam!! and a reflection of the journey

There you go, day 9 of DFi course complete. Exam done. I am so proud of myself for keeping up.
I didn’t feel lost and when I did, I sought guidance from my facilitator Kerry who has been so supportive through this whole process. 

I regret not using more of what I learnt in the classroom with my students. As a beginner teacher I am

not trained to notice the tasks that can be translated to a digital forum just yet. But that is something

I will definitely work on and Term 3 will be using a lot more of what I have learnt. The ‘new’ era of
teaching, well now that I have a better understanding of how things can be, I can build by students’
confidence in the online world as well. If we were back to distance learning again they will know what
to do and how to navigate their learning. Todays Manaiakalani kaupapa focus is on
ubiquitous; learning anytime, anywhere, any place and by anyone.

Rewindable learning is something that resonates with me as I often miss a detail and wish I had taken
a note of that, but as a teacher I need to make sure my instructions, the learning is something the
students can revisit when they need to. Technology has removed the barriers, created new solutions
and new opportunities for learning. I wasn’t in class during this course but I knew the students had
access to the learning and the support they needed both in the class and online. How awesome is that 

I would recommend this course a thousand times, its fast paced, covers a range of topics but the
feeling of accomplishment from trying something new is so satisfying. Plus you realise the areas you
want to
focus
your next learning on and that Mount Everest doesn’t seem quite as high.

Day 8 Computational thiking. Beep beep boo bop

It is inspirational that the adults that conceived the Manaiakalani concept. They saw the need in the community and did not step aside to how things are but rather worked towards how things could be. Empowering students and teachers “...take back control of their lives.” Information technology shouldn’t just be a took to do their learning but rather creating new ways of learning, and that is definitely something I have learned in class. It is a privilege to be part of this kaupapa and have a hand in empowering the students. The activities today opened me to world of coding, the computational thinking behind the buttons and actions we see on screen and definitely take for granted. I attempted using Scratch and Minecraft and its so simple to use and so simple to understand, why was I avoiding this? I am definitely going to include this in my programme for the students to have a clear, logical process of doing things. Plus they get to create something digitally just like their computer games. We had an opportunity to look at the Technology curriculum as well, which truth be told I haven’t included much of in my planning but now that I have a better understanding of it I am way more confident. Transferable skills is something I love. Applying learned skills to other situations and contexts and seeing as by the time our students are ready for work the jobs they will be doing have not yet been created. Mind blown!! So as teachers we are trying our hardest to anticipate it, which by the way is impossible. But equipping the students with transferable skills, which they can adapt to their circumstances is a gift that will keep on giving. Look a teacher selfie, hard at work. Haha

Day 7: Devices. A student's view

Today we looked at being cybersmart, ensuring our learners are connected and making good choices.
Using positive Cybersmart language is the shift in the digital teaching tide, and that is across the
curriculum, its no longer mistakes, its learning opportunities, no longer don’t do that rather do this in
terms of behaviour. So using positive cybersmart language sounds like a good idea. 

We looked at Hapara today, a fantastic piece of software that enables the teachers to see what the
students are doing in their digital spaces at school, this is important i think in seeing where more
attention is needed for their learning and where their documents are which believe me can be
frustrating.

I can also see if the students are actually reading my emails, which is great feedback if it is perhaps
not the best way to communicate. Part of the Manaiakalani journey was very much recognising Te
tiriti O Waitangi article showing partnership in the schools by creating a programme for those students
disempowered by their socio-economic status to have the opportunity to have a 1:1 device through
their school. It is a equity focussed process not BYOD. A programme that has taken the safety
procedures to have safe products and teaching the students to be smart online. 

We also looked at Explain Everything, which is so straightforward and I can see how effective it is
with the younger students. So I created a little slide and used screencastify to record it.

Lots of learning happening in this space, and I am finding the opportunity to use more in my teaching
program. 

Day 6: Enabling Access

This weeks pedagogy topic is connected. This new phase the world went through at the end of February showed
us how important connecting is and the many different ways to connect with the students. Just being available and
touching base with the students on a daily basis strengthened the relationships already made and connected them
to their learning and classmates. For a connection to happen both parties need to share, this is an important
distinguishment between just sharing what you have learnt. 

Therefore for all those that have given me feedback and comments, thank you!

The four elements of the kaupapa visible, ubiquitous, connected and empowered do not stand alone but
complement each other. This is how I want to set up my class site. 

Today we focused on our class learning sites, which was great as it was time carved out of our busy schedules
to do much needed tweaks. I focused on the “shop window” of my class site, ensuring that the learning is visible
and easy to get to. Ensuring there is connection as well; connection with the teacher and what I am about;
connection to the tasks and assignments and connection to the school site and learners blogs. Also incorporating
the multi-modal learning we looked at last week.

My fellow DFI participants had the opportunity to look at my site and give me much valued feedback which I will
take on board and continue to work and improve on my class site.

https://sites.google.com/ruapotaka.school.nz/mrscardozaroom72020t1/home

Day 5: Collaborate

This week the focus was on the Manaiakalani kaupapa: Visible.

Can you see it? Is your teaching visible to not only students but whanau as well. I have found with the students
when they know the purpose of the tasks they have to do, they take ownership of their learning. Success need
no longer be a learner’s ability to read the teacher’s mind and answer the questions just right. It's about showing
your understanding and there are so many ways this can be presented. 

And as with sharing, there shouldn’t be a need to reinvent the wheel in education, there are so many resources,
and activities that are visible creating opportunities to collaborate.

With the big move to the digital world, information needs to be accessible, available and advance. Students have
opportunities to see the learning journey the teacher has set and then can take it further with additional resources
and activities that are available.

Today we looked at How blogging and blog comments are making the student’s learning journey visible and creates
the opportunity to get feedback and feed forward not only from the teacher but also from their peers and the public
in general. 

The modes we have explored so far allow us to create and share in whichever medium we feel brings our point
across. This for students is a big shift to the traditional book and pen and teaching them which mode suits the
situation best. 

How do we engage the students to stay focused on learning when there are so many distractions online? Indeed,
Well today we had a go at making google sites with the idea of Engage in mind - how does the shop window
dressing lock us in? Our sites need to reflect what we are about, the class culture and be to the point.

My site is still a working progress but I have considered how to hook the students from the “window” and how to
focus their learning by directing the content they will be in contact with. 

This was also an opportunity for me to collaborate with other teachers, sharing the resources we have found to
make the process much more streamlined. 

Have a look at the site. Feedback is most welcome.

Day 4: Digital Fluency Intensive - Dealing with Data

Kia Ora,
 So this week we looked at what Share is and what does it look like in a Manaiakalani school. Sharing is not a new concept, it goes back probably to the beginning of time, mans need to share and communicate, to show and to learn. So for our students today are faced with so many ways to share. Blogger was chosen as the platform to do so because it resembles the media world the students live in but is restricted and controlled for their safety. I learnt this week some neat tricks with sheets like the use of add-ons for one. Conditional formatting is definitely something I will be using especially with the thousands of assesments to keep track of. What I was most surprised about is CSV!! Just the other day I had trouble with downloading some test results that was in csv form and I had no idea why or how to access it. I tried opening it with Google Chrome, but thats just a browser. Then I uploaded it to google drive to then open with Google Sheets. Aces!!! now I won't have to manually type in the results, I can just copy and paste. Time that I definitely need.

 Another activity we did, was using Mymaps, I had not seen this before and definitely did not think I would be using it. We mapped out our ideal holiday destinations as seen below.

 I will be using this with my students to turbocharge their learning and not just talking about the places we read about but to pin them on a map to go on a journey together. How awesome would that be.


We also created Google forms which I will be using with my students in our statistical investigation and getting feedback from my students who may be too shy to put up their hand.

 Thanks for reading next our topic will be Collaborate.
 Until next time!

Day 3: Digital Fluency Intensive - Workflow

Creativity empowers learning, that is what we learnt about the Manaiakalani Create Kaupapa. And this is true at
any stage of your life, being able to invent new possibilities. Then why not use the digital tools to our disposal for
our students to create. 

Today we had a look at Media, I have my own Youtube channel, can you believe it and this will be used to create
purposeful playlists for my students as Youtube can pose a lot of distractions to learning.Google Draw is another
tool we had a look at today, I will be using this with my students to create whatever they can think of but I suspect
this will need practice. 

I spent some time learning about how to create a digital Pepeha, this is such a beautiful way to make connections
with people. I am very new to this cultural way of connecting and feel very privileged to be able to share in this way.

Please have a look at my pepeha below. 

Also note the About me image I made using Google Draw, TOP RIGHT.

Until next time

Day 2 of Digital Fluency Intensive: Workflow

At times I have found myself saying if only there was an easier way of doing that. Well I wasn’t the only one thinking that. Today’s topic is Workflow, and as the title suggests it is about creating procedures and using the appropriate digital tools to create that flow in our work day. We looked at Google Keep for creating notes, drawings, taking pictures and creating lists. I had been using Keep for my shopping lists as I can check and uncheck an item depending on the week but what I learnt today is how I can use keep to connect with the other Google applications which will streamline that flow. We looked at our Google Calendars and some of the features which I wasn’t aware of like creating Google meets and RSVPing to events. Colour coding is also something I will get into to prioritise appointments and making it more visible at a single glance. Tabs was another topic we looked at, and I do find myself with many tabs open, but I could group them together depending on their relation to eachother so that when I need to look at a certain topic for instance, reading, they all can be saved together. What I have done already is look at changing my bookmarks on the bar to only show the icons and no text. I initiated a Google meet for the first time today, I experienced some technical difficulties, where my computer froze; probably because I had so many tabs open, but powered through and with the help of my Facilitator I was successful. The recording shows the meet we had to discuss the learner blog I had reviewed, and I must say the student really impressed me with his creativity.Take a look at my response below.





This is definitive something I would open up to my learners, that it doesn’t have to be basic typing or static images, but they can be creative and use the digital tools available to them. All these tips and tricks I will be using to make my day flow better and especially streamline my gmail account so that I do not feel so overwhelmed with the amount of emails I get. Thank you for reading my blog.

Day 1 of Digital Fluency Intensive course

Kia Ora

Today the first day of the Digital fluency course started, and it couldn't have come sooner. As you may or may not know with the Covid-19 Pandemic the emphasis for education has been Distance learning.
As a first year teacher, whose first term was abruptly cut short I can tell you it has been no easy feat. So after day 1, I am feeling much more confident in the possibilities of my new teaching environment.

The Manaiakalani programme has greatly influenced how important it is to prepare the your people for the future and how to approach it.14 years ago, the forward thinking individuals who started the Manaiakalani programme had great intentions but could not have imagined how important it would've been due to recent events.

We learnt about how to use the chrome browser and organize our drives to our advantage and create a workflow using bookmarks; we looked at why creating google groups may suit organisations better than just relying on your contact list, and then explore what google docs can do other than just creating texts.

In light of our nation progressing to Alert Level 2 and having the students return to the classroom I created a poster using Google docs.

The learning I will be taking with to class, is to definitely review the skills I may assume my students have when it comes to docs and teach them the new tricks that I learnt today. Voice typing, is definitely a technique I will be practicing with my students too.

I can't wait for the next session, watch this space to see more of what I am learning.

Until next time. Bye!

About me/ Ko Wai Ahau?

Hi there
I am Shiree-Loren Cardoza, a first year teacher at Ruapotaka School in Panmure Auckland.
I am a classroom teacher for Year 7 and 8 students.
This is the beginning of my Digital Fluency professional learning course and I am excited to learn how I can take my online teaching skills to the next level.
Join me on my journey.