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 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.

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.