Wow, what a ride! It has been a fabulous journey with both ups and downs, but what a privilege to be able to have this opportunity. There has been a lot of new learning for me throughout the term, some that has stuck, some that I need to go over again in the holidays to refresh. I’m really looking forward to implementing this with our akonga and continue to grow and learn alongside them.

The care and passion that Manaiakalni has for tamariki and their whānau is so inspiring. I know all teachers adore their students, but to create such an amazing system to ensure all learners are getting an equitable education is something to be proud of. My eyes have been opened to how valuable rewindable and accessible learning is.

A few highlights for me over the nine weeks were

• The Bubble Group – I really enjoyed being a part of a smaller group where you could easily chat, ask dumb questions, and build relationships. Rebecca was a great leader and very approachable.
• Explain Everything – I cannot wait to get stuck into this as a teaching and learning tool. I am very excited to start on this.
• Sheets – I’m still at a very basic level with Sheets but I am looking forward to delving deeper into this resource.
• Bitmoji – I love that I have a bitmoji now! It seems ridiculous, but this was a huge highlight for me! Who doesn’t want a cartoon version of themselves?!
• Slides – although I have been using slides, they’re continually getting more interesting to the viewer!
• Manaiakalani History and Pedagogy – Like I said above, what a privilege. I really enjoyed listening to Dorothy share her knowledge and the pedagogy behind Manaiakalani as well as seeing the videos, photos, and learning journeys of tamariki and kaiako from Manaikalni schools.

I like to think that I will continue to use this blog in a professional capacity. We do our PD reflections in Hero but there’s no harm in copying and pasting into here. Firstly I need to catch up on my class blogs though!

It was relief to get the exam over and done with. I must admit, I was pretty stressed this past week whenever I thought about it. And being an over thinking during it made it a bit more difficult than it actually was. But, boom, there it is, done and dusted.

Thanks to all the leaders in the Manaikalani Programme and to the other teachers who have walked this road with me. Your continued support, knowledge, and kindness is appreciated! I look forward to the journey ahead.

It feels like the end of week eight, my brain has officially hit the wall.

Manaiakalani – Empowered
It’s interesting to hear about how others interpret the word agency. It’s great that Manaiakalani listened to their community and changed it to empowered. It’s so important to know where our school communities come from to ensure we’re making them feel safe. It’s vital we have an understanding about our whānau and the lack of choices they have. Comments from those who have no idea about financial struggles think they’re making bad choices when they literally don’t have any choices.
Knowing students are arriving at school with the academic age of a three year old is really sad, but again, choice. When parents are working 60 hour per week at jobs paying minimum wage, of course they can’t spend the same amount of time with their tamariki. Parents are exhausted. How can they feel empowered? How can tamariki feel empowered? Which is why schools need to be their safe spaces. Not judged, feel empowered. Be respected.
I have noticed myself the big drop in children’s oral language. Before I had my own children I was teaching new entrants and then came back full time around ten years later. There was a huge drop in oral language, fine motor skills, social skills and play skills. It was a real shock to me when I re-entered the classroom. It’s a difficult world out there.

It was interesting to listen to the korero around the disadvantages and equity with technology. As hard as Manaiakalani tries, there will always be inequality within our communities. It’s great to see EDOS there. One of our issues in our community is we have those who live further in the country, it’s not just a cost it’s also the access to decent wifi. We also have families that won’t take any type of help. I think it could be pride but it is affecting the learning and empowerment of tamariki.

When it comes to blogs, I myself have made the comment about parents not reading them. We currently have a class blog that nobody is commenting on apart from staff. Next week I’ll get a reading group comment on the blog each day at the end of our reading session. This way every child gets a chance to comment on the blog each week. This might then encourage them to share it with their parents as not only do they have the blog to share, but also their own comment.

The future of tech
It’s so hard to get my head around the idea that jobs that our students will be employed in when they leave school don’t exist. Even though so many jobs now didn’t exist ten years ago, so I’ve seen it with my own eyes and yet it still blows my mind!

Personally, I have such a love hate relationship with the new technologies, such as youtube, gaming, and social media. I know there are so many positives but when you have four young children it is also scary. Trying to find that balance of safety, time, and what is helpful and what is trash is an interesting journey. I feel like an old person from when TVs first came out and thought it was going to rot their children’s brains! 😂

As a school we have looked at the digital technologies curriculum. It is something that I am still working on.
I like the idea that students are creators and not consumers. I guess that idea helps to balance my thoughts above about balancing screen time for my own tamariki. Knowing that they are learning skills to be creators is great.

I looked at this site when exploring technology in the classroom. I thought I could use this in my current unit. We are looking at ANZH and how early settlers lived in NZ. This could be a good focus for comparisons and how technology has changed and how much we take what we have now for granted.

Computational thinking is a big idea for me. My brain isn’t a computational thinking brain. Therefore, this learning, for me, takes a lot more brain power and understanding to teach it to my students. I like that I can start basic with being unplugged. Using grids outside and speaking the language they need to know for when they are plugged in. I’m looking forward to exploring this resource with its many unplugged activities.

I really enjoyed having a play on Minecraft and Flapper. Now I see why my kids get hooked on Minecraft! I hadn’t let them use Minecraft and once they reached intermediate it was a part of their curriculum. So I had to change my attitude on that! I see know that it is a beneficial learning tool. Here is the link to the game I made on Flapper, or scan the QR code. (Fingers crossed they work!)

Create

I went into the Scratch create group but sadly we had some technical issues where only one of us could save our mahi. Like Aimee said, a great opportunity to model resilience to our learners. So here is a screen shot. I enjoyed this mahi and can see why learners don’t want to stop! Once you’re in, you’re hooked and you want to get it finished!

It was a tiring day but an enjoyable day and look forward to being able to share this knowledge with my learners.

Good luck to everyone for the exam next week!! good-luck

Manaiakalani – Connected

Extending beyond the individual to the world. Connections enable us to enjoy the expertise of others within the Manaiakalani programme. I’m looking forward to looking at some of the teacher inquiry blogs. Having access to all of this professional information through Manaiakalani is fabulous PD that can be done in our own time. All of this rewindable learning is amazing and I see how much it must help with students learning. I know for myself having all of this new learning as rewindable learning is amazing. I am really enjoying being a learner.

The idea of joining a blog group excites me but on the other hand, it scares me! I’m very new to class blogs so my insecurities are sitting near the top. But it is definitely something to think about and I know I should just join so I can also use it as a learning tool. And do I do the Google exam? The fear of failure is real . . . watch this space.

Class Sites

The more I learn about sites and work on my site the more excited I get about it. I have a student who has gone to Canada for her dad’s work for three weeks. She is able to access her learning from our website while away which feels great for her parents and I, knowing that she can still follow on with what we are doing in the classroom.

I’m really thankful that our sites were set up by management so the basics were done for us. I’m slowly getting there and adding more content. Certain things take time but I know in the long run many of the resources put onto the slide will be used multiple times, saving time in the long run. I still need to add my class blog link to my site. It is on our school homepage but some parents may have saved the link to my page to get there directly.

I really enjoyed looking at other people’s sites. It’s so good to get knew ideas, and also know I’m heading in the right direction with my site. There is so much more I want to do on my site but time is always the biggest hinderance. It was so helpful having time to work on our sites today. It doesn’t look like I have done a lot, but some things do take a lot of time! Today I managed to make a new maths rotation with some links to some online games. I still need to link Prodigy and I’d also like to video some children playing some group math games, or myself explaining the rules to the games so they have reminders if they forget. I also added some extra youtube videos.

Here is the link for my site.

I really struggled today, maybe it’s mid-term-itis? I enjoyed the day but felt anxious here and there while exploring and creating. But, I got there in the end!

Manaiakalani

I really enjoyed this talk, as a parent and a teacher – Making teaching and learning visible to the learner, the whānau, the teacher, the colleagues. Talking about whether learning has been hidden from students and how this has affected students learning and if it has caused our learners to fail. I know as a parent, it is much easier to help my struggling child when I know what is happening in the classroom, what they’re looking at in maths, writing etc. It means we can give them extra support at home. When you’re in the dark as a parent, we can’t support them at home. We’ve often asked teachers what area they are focussing on in curriculum areas to help support our child at home. Not all parents are comfortable doing this so to have learning available to all parents means they can access it without feeling uncomfortable about asking. Equitable learning at its best.

The intentional use of technology to display the learning is important – the whole learning journey being visible, every part of the learning process – planning, outcomes, the process, WALTs, reflections, and assessment process’. I believe it is very important for there not to be any surprises in learning, that it be accessible, available and there in advance will help many learners.

Sites

This is the first year we have been doing sites. My original slides were very boring but just this last week the slides I have been making have been much more visibly appealing due to the learning I have had on DFI; changing backgrounds to images, using bitmoji etc. I’m much more excited about making slides now. My biggest hinderance is time, as it is for all teachers. I enjoyed creating the site today with Phil and look forward to continuing to up my game with making my site engaging and exciting for my learners. Here is the link to what I created today, keep in mind it is a work in progress!

I loved the multi-text database and I am looking forward to accessing this and adding to it over time. I want to create one for our inquiry (early settlers to NZ) to begin with and then go from there.

Learning about SISOMO was great. We know that music and images can ignite emotions as this happens often to us as adults. Using these to help students to extend their learning is awesome. You can see the engagement and the learning when sharing through media. I think it is important for students to be able to present their learning in a range of contexts as not all students are good with pen and paper. They may write a bad essay, but this only tells us they’re not great writers; it doesn’t tell us all the learning that has happened. Using video to present learning means students can use their strengths to show what they have learnt. I am going to purchase a couple of green sheets so we can delve into creating short films using green screens. I think the tamariki will have a fabulous time with this.

The creative opportunities through using video, google draw, and slides are amazing. I really enjoyed looking at students creations. Some are so simple, yet so creative. Some had a lot going on and the time and energy put into these shows students are engaged with their learning and enjoying what they are creating.

I did the google draw with Robin and I was all ready to stop using pic collage and start the students on google draw but then was told that it doesn’t work well all on ipads so I was a bit disappointed about this. I will continue creating resources for myself though. Here is the google draw I created today. I inserted images through ‘search the web’ and resized these, inserted call outs and added text.

I have been using Google Slide sall year but they have been very basic and what I have achieved has mostly been self taught. It was great learning how to make them more exciting to the learner. I like that you can download templates to use as slides. They have grids etc for you already there, no more wasting my own time! And I finally have a Bitmoji! I’m very excited about this!

I am looking forward to creating my playlists on Youtube. One of the reasons I have so many tabs open is because I don’t like looking for videos when I need them again tomorrow, next week, next term, next year etc. multiple. Knowing I can just go to my playlist each time will be great. This means all my favs will be right there for me. I am not yet at the stage of putting myself on my youtube channel, but hey, never say never.

I have not thought about Podcasts as a sharing tool. I’m going to have a listen to some existing class podcasts, such as Pt England School, and see what they entail and make a plan from there.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

I enjoyed listening to the Manaikalani talk today. It was a good time to reflect on how our school delivers it’s curriculum. We have a very well run localised curriculum, especially in the senior school. We are very whānau and community focused with our school community being consulted with many steps of our decision making. Our School w’akatauki is; Mā te whānau te tamaiti e puawai – Through collaboration our learners will thrive. Learners includes teachers, support staff, community members, whanau, as well as our tamariki. We are all learners and we are all able to learn from one another.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

A big takeaway for me today was the Google Keep Deep Dive. I am one of those people with notes on pieces of paper, random Mac pages, random google docs etc. So I never know where I have written that key information when I need it. This will definitely help with my organisation! I enjoyed having a play around with it as the presenter was presenting. I liked that I could copy and paste my notes from Notes on my iphone into google keep on my phone and it updated on my laptop straight away.

I like that you can link notes from google docs to keep with the links you need.
I like the search option where it comes up as images, like the knife and fork for food, to find things quickly and easily. It’s an easy set up to follow.
Knowing you can take photos of text and have Google Keep transfer it to text is great as I often take photos of slides at conferences. A great way to have transferred for a document.
While the speaker was speaking I was able to create a list and share it with my husband to be a collaborator, do a drawing, create notes, add a photo. I really like this app and think I will use it often

.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I’d like to get my head around the google keep and google doc combination and use this in the classroom. We are focusing on capital letters and full stops at the moment so this is a great resource where they can read and notice where full stops and capital letters should be and edit it accordingly. They can also use voice on notes which is great for this age.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I have now bookmarked my school calendar! I am one of those people that never seem to look at the school calendar. Today I learnt how to only look at what I need to look at by clicking the skinny snowman. I think one of the reasons I don’t look at it is because there is so much information on it that my brain shuts down. Now that I know I can look at only certain parts of the calendar, I think I will use it a lot more as there isn’t so much to look at. I’ve added a personal calendar to it so all my info is in one place so whether someone asks about dates and times I can see all of my activities. Now that I’ve bookmarked it, there are no excuses!

Other Learning I found helpful

There has been so much new learning for me today and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s great to have done the adding video onto blogs today as I wanted to upload a video yesterday and was unsure how. With the help of colleagues, I got there but it wasn’t the way we were taught today. Now I know what to do I will go back and fix up yesterday’s videos on my class blog.

I also managed to create a signature on my email. I’ve always wondered how to do this! I now have my name and team, as well as our school logo with a link to the school sight, an image of my site banner linked to my class site, and an edublogs image linked to my class blog.

Bookmark folders that tabs can be dropped into – Very helpful!
Pin tabs – this will make me find the tab I use most often much easier to find!
Group tabs – I do like that you can group tabs as I often have multiple tabs in one or two curriculum areas open while planning etc. This will make it a lot easier to find all the math resources, reading resources etc.
One tab – I have this but my brain still has 100 tabs open. I will get better!
Tips
Two finger click on a tab to see what’s on there, pin, add tabs to left and right etc.
Shortcut – Control shift t to reopen closed tabs

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