Day 9-Becoming a Google Certified Educator- YESSSSS!!!!

17.9.2019- Session Nine

Focus: Revision

Today was my ninth session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes (at the top) and reflection from today (at the bottom).

Connecting with Manaiakalani- Ubiquitous Learning

Presentation

The students can do the learning at anytime. At home, at school, whenever suits them. Learning is rewindable and can be reviewed again at a later date. Learning can happen outside the school day of 9:00-3:00.
It also includes school holidays. Generally children would drop in their writing and reading after the summer holidays. By being ubiquitous and using the 'Summer Learning Journey' children do not drop off in learning, they continue to progress as they are continuing to learning even when that are not at school.

Children who were successful blogged more than twice a week. Through the research it has suggested that using blogging practices over the summer has positive gains in student learning, even with no teacher present.
Blogging Supports Writing Outcomes The Summer Reading Slide
The Summer Learning Journey had positive results in student spelling, word sequences, punctuation and sentences that are complete and accurate.
Using technology is making thins possible that have not been possible in the past.

By making it rewindable children who are away don't need to be caught up. As a teacher there is a lot to do already without having to catch children up on previous learning, hooks, videos etc. Why might they be absent? It may be sickness, caring for others, sports events etc and things that are out of their control. Why would you want to disadvantage their learning because of this. Some children may also need extra support for a variety of reasons so having the ability to rewind and revise is helpful for them.
REMINDER: it does not need to be me as a teacher making the videos. The kids can make the videos to share. It can reinforce the learning for them and they are always willing to share their work.

Opportunities for Teachers

Stay Connected to Social Media (PLN)

CoL Teachers: Collaborative Inquiries
We Share on our Google+ Community here
#gafesummit
#edchat
#edchatnz
@teachinquire
@teacherslcs

Other resources:

teachertools.co.nz - models all of the strategies

Reflection:

Today we reflected on our learning from the past 8 weeks and sat our Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. I must admit the nerves were racing and I didn't know how I would go, but...... I passed! With plenty of time to spare. YAY!!!!
The stress I was feeling was for nothing and I am relieved. I have not done an exam since I was at Uni which was 11 years ago. I have been reminded and can better relate to how some of our children feel leading up to exams and assessments. Phew!

I have had a great 9 weeks being a part of the DFI. I have learnt a lot. I feel I better understand the Manaiakalani pedagogy. In the past I was more aware of "Learn, Create, Share" and I did not know about "Connected, Ubiquitous, Visible, Empowered". This has increased my confidence working within a Manaiakalani cluster. 

I am also aware that I know more than many others at my school and other schools. I have been able to share some of the things I learnt back at my school in full staff morning slam dunks and with my syndicate. Everyone I have shared with has been very appreciative of what I have shown them. I have been able to learn ways to work more efficiently and conserve my time. 

I have come to be more confident with many digital technologies. I was previously quite overwhelmed by the idea of 'Coding'. I have, since starting this course, used Coding apps with my Year 1-2 students and they have loved it. Alongside this course I have also been doing a course on 'Developing our School Library Services". We have very short opening hours so I have been able to develop a School Library Site with the skills I have learnt on this course. 

I have used Multi-Modal resources to engage my learners in further learning from their reading books and as part of Pirate Week. I look forward to further develop these skills.

Overall I am really happy with how this course has gone. The trainers have been very supportive and I have been able to learn a lot of practical skills I can use both at work and in my personal life. This is a course I would highly recommend for other teachers.

Data, numbers and analysing - Session eight

10.9.2019- Session Eight

Focus: Dealing with Data

Today was my Eighth session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes (at the top) and reflection from today (at the bottom).

Connecting with Manaiakalani

"Empowered"

It is expensive but it is not just a tool. It gives opportunities for students and transforms learning and experiences for children.

The tools and skills we provide these children help to empower them.

A lot of the Manaiakalani families survive on $19,000. They are very clever in the way they use this money. The "Working Poor" are the families in our first Manaiakalani Cluster. It is very dis empowering for our people living in state houses when they cannot control their living. They cannot afford to dispose of rubbish, go to the Doctor.

Children in these areas start with the same learning as the average 3 year old. They have been exposed to 32 million less words. Pasifika families, in particular, use a lot of non verbal communication.

Due to low Oral Language the Manaiakalani Schools right from New Entrants are having "5+aDay" conversations. A conversation that goes back and forward, like a ping pong game, 5 or more times.

Google Forms

URL-Forms.google.com.

We got to create a form. This is something I have not created for but I know a lot of others on this course have.  There are a range of question types you can add. Using the "Required" option is a good option to select so the answer has to be filled in.  A form has to be useful. There is no point doing a form if you cannot do anything with the data. You may need to identify participants to be able to follow up. Be careful to share it properly by clicking the link. Do not copy the URL as it will take people to the editable version. Unless it is personal stuff, the spreadsheet next to the form is really powerful. Using a drop down menu will keep the data tight and more accurate as people can write the same thing in multiple ways which can provide inaccurate data.

Change the settings in "tools" change "notification settings" so that you are only notified when changes are made or a new form is submitted. 

Google My Maps

This is different to 'Google Maps'. Sharing is handy to see how far people are from you house or how far they are to the place you are picking them up. This would mean a lot of trust between the person you are sharing with.  You can customise your own maps, add markers to create a walk or play to go etc. Picture books that go on a journey, school holiday destinations, history lessons etc this could make the lessons more interesting. You could give out different research or journey sections for each child. You can import data from a google spreadsheet to add pins for a range of locations, which is what we did. This is my map.

Google Sheets

We got a chance to play with the spreadsheets. We learnt to hide protect sheets, order data, make graphs etc.

Analysing Data

 

At the start of the year one teacher gets her students to make a data story with hypotheses about their own blogs blogging history. As a teacher you can view the pages views etc from the statistics section of blogs which you can show to your students as you are 'admin'. 

Make out own analysis from the list.

Blog List Sidebar Gadget 

Reflection

It was fascinating hearing just how bad the situation for some Manaiakalani students really is. It was good to hear how Manaiakalani can empower some of our students to take back some control. I hadn't thought about the power these kids are given through the programme before.

I found looking at the data today was interesting. I have learnt a bit about spreadsheets today which will come in handy. I mainly use spreadsheets currently for my planning. I was advised that I could use spreadsheets for making student lists and making analysis of assessment data. I was also suggested that to make my Jump Jam team list with class details, year level etc that I could get the children/families to fill out a google form. This way all the info would be collated into a google spreadsheet that I can manipulate however I want which would save me typing names and details out at the start of the year. This I thought was a great idea as it can take me some time to add all these details. 

I liked going through some example of exam questions for next week. This made me less worried about what next week's exam would entail which was good. I will attempt to do some study for this on my CRT day tomorrow. 

Another great day with more great learning. I am looking forward to putting all of what I have learnt to action, particularly next year. 

Day 7- Media

3.9.2019- Session Seven

Focus: Media

Today was my Seventh session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes and reflection from today.

Deep Dive- Live Streaming

With Kent Sommerville from Pt England School

Live Streaming -Link

Live Stream link added to the school webpage-Extended whanau in other areas can view which is a great benefit to the families and really embodies the Manaiakalani "Share:. E.g children can perform a Tongan dance and their family in Tonga can watch, or the Cross Country etc.


Using You Tube is the easiest way to Live Stream. You set up an event well in advance.
Check out the viewpoints and best spots prior to sharing the link and going live.
On Youtube under live streaming you can stream from your laptop camera.
You don't have to be 'Live'. You can choose to make it public later. It gets saved into your You Tube account.
Drones also work well. (DJI brand for the staff drones work well) These work with your phones.
This could be cool to use to share many of our school events with families. E.g Poetry and Speech competitions, Belfast Got Talent finals, Cross Country, Athletics Day, Sports events, Jump Jam dress rehearsals etc.

Connected/Kaupapa

With Dorothy Burt- Slides

The Manaiakalani schools in Auckland formed a connected network way back in 2006. Primary, ECE, Catholic Schools, Special Schools and High Schools working together.
Now there are several more clusters that have come together to create a very powerful connected network with a shared language (Learn, Create, Share, Connected, Ubiquitous, Visible, Empowered). On this course we cover all areas of these languages.

We bring these languages together with the children. This is a programme that goes through the terms.

If we are able to connect out students, connect to our cluster and connect through the clusters around NZ then the students are able to "Share". It is not just about the digital share, we embrace the face to face connection as well. The digital just turbocharges the sharing. As does face time with families, Skype with people overseas etc.

The cluster webpages, Twitter and online tool kits connect Manaiakalani Teachers even further.
It's all well and good to be connected but if people don't know it is there, then how connected are you. There is a need to educate students and families about how to connect to the resources and sites.

You Tube- Chalk 'n Talk

Creating your own channel and a playlist as a teacher, not as a child. This does not work as they are too young. As a teacher you are sharing your channels and playlists.
You can share a playlist with others to collaborate but the playlist needs to be public.
You can get an embed code for your playlist- go to edit, when in the playlist option.
This is the playlist I created.

To set up Live streaming you need to access "Creator Studio" accessible through the profile icon.

Google Drawing
Anything with the grid background in drawing will be transparent when you use it on a site etc if you download it as a 'PNG' file.
Tips and Tricks
About me

Google Slides

Presentation
If you are doing a mini animation (embed code- delay is set to 1000, take out a zero. Embed start=true start straight away)
Teacher planning- is all done once on the slideshows not a slideshow for the kids and then planning separately for teacher use in a google doc.
If you have the item in "view only" comments will not be seen. Only editors can see the comments. This is how to can comment on planning but not have parents and students see the comments.
Put all instructions for children down the side of the slides in the "background" in a text box or audio instructions as they will not show in the presentation or when they embed on their sites. Audio is particularly good for the younger students. Unfortunately you cannot record in slides you need to have it pre recorded. (Heaps of free recording apps through chrome store)
Unsure if this is in google docs as well or not. Check in "Incognito".
Examples of slides

Pick a Path

My Racing Car Animation

Junior Planning

Senior Planning

Senior Planning - Maths (DMIC)

Planning can also be viewed on previous teachers sites e.g. through Pt England

Create: Making Meaning

Time to get creative.
I made an animation for Talk like a Pirate Day.Use ctrl+d to duplicate slides.
Teach the kids to move 4 arrow directions at a time.

This could be an awsome thing to make for "Storytelling" in Writing time with speech bubbles etc. To Embed on the blog you go to file-publish to web-select size- Auto change slide timing to 1 second-copy embed code- paste into the html- change the "delayms=1000" to "delayms=100"

Blogger Settings for Kids Blogs. How they are set up and why.

Today's Reflections:

I have felt that I already knew how to do the You Tube Playlist as this is something I have used a lot in the past including making my own videos to share. I just have not thought about the embed code to share. This is something I will use going forward on blogs and the webpage I have set up for my class.
Live streaming from You Tube is however new to me. I had never thought about the possibilities of live streaming before but there are so many opportunities for us to live stream. Getting a drone in to do some of these events would be a fantastic way to share learning and school events, particularly because we have such a high diverse range of cultures and families from other countries at our school. It would be very cool to be able to share events and connect with families abroad.
I enjoyed getting the chance to have a play around with Google Slides today. I think there could be many opportunities for kids to use slides in an animation for something. Storytelling would be great as would any kind of writing. Being able to animate a story, add sound effects, speech bubbles etc would really enhance the learning and sharing of our students. I think our older kids would benefit from this a little more than our younger ones as they may find it a struggle. Adobe Spark is a site that does a Image Carousal that you can embed into your google site which may work better than the image carousal in the sites. This is something I found challenging from setting up sites after last week. I will need to explore this app.

27.8.19- Being Visible

27.8.2019- Session Six

Focus: Enabling Access

Today was my sixth session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes and at the bottom is my reflection from today.

Connecting with Manaiakalani

Visible Teaching and Learning
Can you see it or can you not. Perfect vision. Can you see it.
Some students struggle to learn as learning has been hidden from them. We share the WALT or LI with children. This can be taken even further with technology by making learning an teaching visible. The WHOLE learning journey being visible and the students to be at the heart of learning. By showing;

• planning
• process
• outcomes
• assessment

If we are being visible, what needs to be private? e.g DOB, address, health concern, behaviour data etc should obviously be private.
We should have conversations more openly about where they sit with their learning, e.g. the colour wheel in reading and making it visible to students. They may have a fair idea of the top groups etc already or they may be completely wrong. Be transparent with them.
When everything is on the class site students can access their own learning e.g planning, groups etc. People can deal with anything if there are no surprises.
Hapara gives us visibility of our young people. Now going forward with digital learning ti is essentially a look in their 'desks'. There is also the ability for parents to login to Hapara.
Google Class on air- a webcam in the class to record lessons.
In Manaiakalani teachers are sharing their Teacher as Inquiry for the year.
It further breaks down walls and means colleagues can share their learning.
Blogger makes students learning visible.
The research has shown that being visible has a great result in student achievement.
When schools go digital parents can be locked out of the learning process due to the need of passwords to locate what children are doing and where to click etc. In the past parents could go to school and ask to see workbooks. By making everything visible and not having passwords this removes this barrier.

Deep Dive- Evaluating Class Sites

That the site is visually appealing and interesting. You need to think of the audience the site is for. Can you get to everything within 2-3 clicks (User Access).

Using the examples we did a review of the sites for what works and what doesn't which has been great as I am about to set up a site for the School Library. This was very timely for us to look at when this is my goal over the next few weeks.

Why Google Sites?

Having class sites that are a continuation from previous years learning or the future years. Have consistency through the school. It will help the learners.
Have clear and easy to access buttons and links.
Plan your site before you start. Is it for an Ipad, Chromebook etc. Will the little fingers on an Ipad be able to access the little buttons or drop down menu? If it is for Ipads have links that push out to slides.
Think about colours and fonts. Remember you are the role model for children. Try keep the same colour theme and 1-2 fonts throughout.

Putting your timetable on your site. It may be useful to make this in spreadsheeds.
Sites of use for inspiration- Clarelle’s Class site

Links from Today

Year 1 iPads for first time class onair

1-1 iPad site

Manaiakalani Google Class Onair

My Google Sites

My Class Site I have worked on today.
Belfast Library Site I have worked on today.

Reflection;

Today I have been able to make a Class Site to begin to make Room 4's learning and teaching visible. Today's session was all around being "Visible" and this being a Manaiakalani key principal. I have been able to set up several buttons up using google drawing. I had to play around a little bit to figure out how to add a new page or a new sub page as this did not seem to work for me. I also began to create a school web page for the Library. I hope to launch this site in Term 4 with the Syndicate Inquiry Topics available. This will be a place for students to gather digital resources for Inquiry and for other researching purposes.
Making these two sites has really helped to increase my understanding of Google Sites. It was brilliant to have a chance to get to play around and discover new things. I found I was able to get a lot of work done which will help as I will have less to do in my own time.
I have figured out how I can adapt some areas of a site to best suit my learners. We were shown a lot of class sites from people from this course. I found most of these were aimed at higher ability students so I had to get my head around a site for younger learners. Google Slides is going to be the best way to help my students.
By doing this my students, and their families will be able to access learning and their learning will be made 'rewindable' so they can access it again in the future.
Something to look up-
Sunshine books- Find out if we can get free access to the digital version through Manaiakalani. We have access to 6 free copies of all sunshine titles. This is something I found interesting and I assume we have received the physical books as there are many new Sunshine books in our guided reading collection.

Day 5- Lights, Camera, Action

20.8.2019- Session Five

Focus: Devices

Today was my fifth session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes and reflection from today.

Cybersmart and being a Digital Citizen
-Showing yourself in the best light. Don't put negative things on there. This is how we train our students. If they are googled when looking for a career nothing negative will come up.

The three categories that we teach are listed at the top. One per term.
Lessons are available through this link.

This programme should run alongside your regular lessons and needs to be taught every year.
Smart Learners- How to use devices.
Smart Footprint- Teaching children to ask themselves- What do I want people to see about me in my future?
As a parent will you children want pictures of them online in the future. It may affect their digital footprint.
Smart Relationships- how to interact with others online. Ensuring children are being positive, thoughtful and helpful.

Hapara

"Making Learning Visible"
Teachers insight into you class. Nothing you as a teacher cannot see.
Students still own their drives. They are the only ones who can move things around etc. You can just 'see' what they're doing. Not do it for them.
"Dashboard" tab -shows what the students are doing in their g suite.
"Sharing" tab-automatically has everything shared with you as a teacher.
"All Docs"- shows all docs for children and will search their entire drive.
You can also see the student blogs and posts they have made from the dashboard. Hovering over will show a preview and clicking will take you to the post. You cannot see it until it has been published.
You can also view emails students have been sent.
Students must be using the "Chrome" app for this to work. This is a requirement for having a personal device at school.
This is not a monitoring and filtering tool It is to support learning. Children should be in the right place doing the right thing and it is a matter of teaching them this.
**Keep the screen up on the projector-this will keep the kids on task.


Manaiakalani 1:1 Journey
Partnership, Participation, Protection
Having a partnership with home/whanau, community, teacher and students. Having engagement.
Everyone can participate if all students have a device. Devices with Manaiakalani are required to be a Chromebook. (The best device for learning year 4 up) Having the same makes it easier for everyone.
Protection by using Hapara and making learning visible. It should be seamless and you should be able to see all students and all work.
Manaiakalani tested and trialed a lot of different devices and they do this each year to update the best device for our learners.

Digital Dig- Link to my dig with a Chromebook
We were asked to follow some instructions to find shortcuts etc on a chrome to experience how things were for the children in our classes.

1:1 Ipad Workflow
1:1 iPad Support Page
Explain Everything How to
All Ipads need to be set up the same.
We really rely on "Explain Everything"
All children use the same Ipad each time they use the ipads. Name with a label on the back. Ipad should be signed into individual learners accounts (drive, chrome and explain everything) if 1:1.

**Can work on a class drive and all children have their own folder on the drive.

"Explain Everything" - An app that all Ipads should have. There is a bank of resources already created for all ready to reads.

http://bit.ly/dfiexplain - on an Ipad type in. It will take you to a website. When you click on the activity it well say the file is not supported, or there has been an error. Click the 3 dots at the top, click the 4 arrows out "open in" and open in Explain Everything.

To add an "Explain Everything" activity to a class site you can create a slideshow and put in a link to the explain everything you want children to access hyperlinked in to a picture.

As we do not have the "Explain Everything" app on our iPads an quick alternative for sharing is on "Seasaw". If sharing the child's story, take a photo, then do a voice recording of the child reading their story and share on their Seasaw.

Some great resources for the iPads

Maths

Reading

Writing

Written instructions for Explain Everything

EE iPad Reading

EE iPad Maths


Lights, Camera, Action

How we all became filmstars for the day... Screencastify!

Screencastify How to guide
A video tool that records your screen that can insert a video of yourself or a voice recording.
Creating my own Screencastify -my video
Explaining how to create a slideshow -Video 2






A reading activity idea I found while exploring...

Reflection

Hapara is not something I have used as my students are too young to have their own google drives and accounts. I could see how this would be valuable for the older classes with one to one.

Today we got to have a play on some devices. I had a look at a Chromebook for the first time. This is not a device my students use, due to their age, but was good to see what our older students are capable of. Playing on the Ipads and seeing "Explain Everything" was really great. There are already some great resources made for reading books and numeracy that we can use. This will be a great app to get on our iPads, particularly for the lower end of the school. This is something I am going to look into getting to trial and hopefully get for next year. The only thing that would make management hard is not having many devices as I only have 4, which isn't enough for a group. 

With using Screencastify I found that I did not enjoy hearing myself recorded however I realise that this could be a great tool to use to demonstrate how to do things online or to model numeracy strategies etc. I chose to do my Screencastify on how to make a google slide to share with my team back at school as this is something I have been meaning to share with them. It would be a great way to save time instead of finding a time you are both free to show someone something. 


Today has been a great chance to have an explore of some new apps and tools. Each week I have been coming to the DFI I have become more and more excited about what I could do with my class. I have made more multi-modal slide shows and I have shared these as well as google keep to my staff in our Monday Morning meeting. It was great getting to share more of what I have learnt with the staff at school. I received some great comments following this, particularly about google keep.

I have also realised upon doing this course how much quicker I am becoming with some of my shortcuts which saves me a lot of time when creating resources. I am all for saving time and becoming more efficient! Through looking at other people's learning sites I am finding some great ideas I can use with my kids of things I have never thought of or things that remind me of things I have done in the past. I need to make more time to explore sites of others and leave some blog posts.

Looking forward to what I may learn next week. Bring it on!