DFI - Day 9 The Final Chapter

 So it all comes to an end. Today was the day of the three-hour exam and I can't say I enjoyed any of it. It was a lot harder than I expected and felt more like a comprehension exercise at times - so many words! 

I have learned so much over the past nine weeks. The thing I am most proud of is how far I have come and I feel so much more confident using the tools which we have looked at.  In some ways it all worked together with the lockdown of Covid - I feel that I have built on what some of the learning which I did over this time. 

At times the content has been overwhelming and I have struggled to keep up. As I reflect on this, it has given me a reminder of how it is to be a student again and how hard it is to listen to so much content.  When it has come time for the 'doing' I've forgotten where to start...just what some of my students encounter. 

I missed the start of today's session due to school photos. Looking over the content tonight I reflected on the staff meeting which I attended after today's DFI. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was discussed and I couldn't help but make the link to the slides presented about Ubiquitous learning. I thought this slide really showed the connection.

So, I finish this DFI with more confidence and a lot more tools in my kete. One of the many things I love about being a teacher is the opportunities that I am given to continue to learn and grow. 

DFI Day 8 - Computational Thinking

 It's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone as this is the last full day of learning...  I have enjoyed the course so much more than I expected and it has been a big learning curve. 

We meet with Dorothy and looked at connecting with Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa - empowered learners and teachers.  It can look so different for different communities. As a single parent, I felt a real connection to the clip of the working poor 

Dorothy shared a scary statistic - decile 10 chid has heard 32 000 000 more spoken words than a child from a decile 1 school.  We can make progress by increasing our conversations with our learners - think of table tennis - 5+ backward and forwards. Many of our learners haven't had that. Blogging is another opportunity to practice this within writing. 

Kerry Boyde-Preece then took over the role of presenting about how to empower our learners.

We unpacked the progress outcomes with various examples. We unpacked Computational Thinking and it was a lot to take on. It was a familiar concept as Mel had unpacked computational thinking at a previous staff meeting. 

We looked at the future of technology and some moral dilemmas on this site.  This site created some interesting discussion about how we can view some lives as more valued than others. For me, the thought of so much artificial intelligence is scary and I worry somewhat for the future... 

We registered for the exam and that was really stressful - changes have been made to the registration and it wasn't an easy process...but we got there in the end.

We spent the time after lunch to look at coding and I became more familiar with Scratch and created a short story. I really enjoy the 'play' component and find I learn best this way. Another day of learning which went so fast. Time certainly does fly when you are having fun!

DFI Day 7 - Devices

 It is a cold and wet day so the hot cheese scone and coffee seemed like a great idea (plus the usual ginger crunch). We started the day with a discussion of what we have been doing since last week. It's always interesting and inspiring to listen to others' ideas and what has been working well for them.

Google Meet with Fiona looking at Cybersmart. There was a lot to think about here and as Fiona was talking I reflected on the online activities some students take part in at home and how the safety measures we put in place in our classrooms can differ to those in our students' homes. Some parents allow their children access to digital platforms which they shouldn't be on given the age restriction and some parents have the attitude that it's ok and I'm fine with it. As a teacher, I need to be careful that I'm not intruding but on the other hand, I feel a moral responsibility to 'remind' the parent of the restrictions and also that we all need to be aware of what our children are accessing online, no matter how much we trust them...Empowering our students and modeling the behaviour in the digital world which we expect is a powerful approach. Fiona made the interesting point, which I hadn't really thought about, that we need to take a more positive approach - there are lots of don't do this or that, we need to focus on the do and remember families/whānau have an important role to play with our students' online learning.

We looked at Hapara with Lenva. I don't use Hapara and am not really familiar with it. However, it looks user friendly and it was interesting to have a deeper look.

There were plenty of opportunities to play and we played with chromebooks. I have never used a chromebook before and enjoyed finding out the different features. They are easy to use and I could see how great these would be to use in the classroom with the simplicity of its features.

I love ipads, and we had a play with Explain Everything and I created a couple of things. This part of the day was a lot of fun and I reflected on the amount of time I need to give students to just 'play' and 'discover' using Explain Everything rather than completing work. I discover more during 'play' than being shown. My students know that I attend this course each week and I'm looking forward to sharing this part of my reflection with them to see what they think.

All in all another great day of learning and lots to think about moving forward next term and into 2021. My confidence is growing and being around others that are also learning has helped - no question is too dumb and actually I want to learn and if I can't remember it's ok. It's reaching the end of the course and the exam is looming!

Day 6 - Enabling Access - Sites

 Our day started with sharing what we have used from our last session. Moving on we had a Google Meet with Dorothy about being 'connected.' This was so relevant given how 2020 is panning out.

"Most of us are at our best when we are connected with other people" - Dorothy Burt. What true words! I have always been a 'people person' but never realised how much until lockdown earlier in the year. 

Moving on we looked at the importance of Blogger to help our students connect in a safe place with support.

 We then looked at some school sites and evaluated the sites. We looked at the visual appeal and user experience. As much as I love colour I found the work with a lot of white space easier to read and more appealing. The overuse of colour was too distracting. Interestingly, one of my work buddies liked the colour and found the work on the site way more appealing than I did. This lead on to an interesting discussion about knowing our learners and what works best for them rather than what we find attractive. 

Following on we then worked with different buddies looking at their sites to give and receive feedback. It was great to connect with different teachers and look at their sites - I took away some great ideas and need to go back and look at their sites again for ideas. 

It was great to have time to discuss our own work and look at others. I came away with so many ideas and am looking forward to implementing them. The most exciting part of the day was learning how to add my voice recording to a google slide - a rather long process but I'll get quicker at it the more I do it.

All in all another great day of learning, sharing and time to 'play.'

Day 5 - Collaborate Sites

 The day started with sharing what has gone well. It's always interesting listening to others' thoughts and ideas.

We had our weekly presentation by Dorothy - looked at making teaching and learning visible. It was an interesting and thought-provoking presentation. We need to make sure that accessibility is easy for our families and students to navigate - everything should only be three clicks away. In the 'old days' it may have been easier for parents to access their child's learning by looking through their books...that is if they could find them. In a nutshell, nothing should be hidden.

Nothing is hidden, everything is open for others to see.

Moving on we then looked at multi-modal learning and investigated some sites to look at what others have done. This made me think about the way I deliver reading to my students and what I can do better - how can I dress the 'window' to make learning more appealing and hook the student.

We had a lot of time to 'play' today and I worked on creating my own site and completing a DFI Google Sites Challenge which was prep for the exam... I have a lot to learn.  However, using our own site during lockdown has certainly helped and I did bring some previous knowledge to the table so to speak.

My Site

It was another really busy day with lots to think about.

DFI Day 4 - Dealing with Data

Today has been another day of thinking until my brain was throbbing. Thank goodness I upped the ginger crunch and coffee order to include a freshly baked scone. 

The day started with a review of what went well and what we need further support with. This is always a good time to realise how many others on the course are learning just as much as I am - which is heaps.  

Dorothy Burt's presentation this week was looking at the Share pedagogy. The biggest take-home message for me was the remark Dorothy made about the importance of students finishing their work to ensure the work is shared. Many students may never finish anything, so the need to complete work to share may motivate the reluctant student to complete work. Completing a job is a life skill that we need to help students with. 

We created our own Google form which was heaps of fun and then completed a colleague's. I have created a form in the past but now have the skills to make it look more attractive.

I love Google Maps for helping me find my way but now have a deeper understanding of the different features which are available. I created a map showing a few vegan cafes to go to.

Moving on we looked at Google Sheets and after a 'play' we created our own using blog data.

I can't believe how much learning is packed into a day. There are so many little tips I take away from each session. 

DFI Day 3 - Media

Today was another big day of learning...ginger crunch and coffee helped a lot.

We started with what's going well and what we need support with. This is always a good time to hear how things are going for others and what other teachers have tried in their classrooms since last week.

Then it was onto looking at Manaiakalani's pedagogy of create. Dorothy led this and I always feel inspired by her positivity and energy. The quote below really resonated with me and I thought it would be good to share...

I love Youtube and this relationship is now even stronger now I know how to make a playlist. I created a playlist and added a story about kindness to it (see below).  I used Youtube a lot over lockdown, many authors read their stories and shared their work through Youtube, I used many of these as part of the literacy activities on our site. If only I had known how to make a playlist my life would have been so much easier. Better late than never!

I was so grateful for the sugar from the ginger crunch as the day progressed with more learning as we looked at various features of google draw and google slides. Google drawing was a new tool for me and it was a lot of fun to use. I created a pick a path story using google slides. The best part of the day was having the time to play and create with these tools and the time certainly flew. I have learned so much in such a short time and look forward to learning more next week.