Site seeing - Pt 2

This is my 3rd year in a 1:1 digital chromebook classroom and it is the 3rd year with a class site. I am always up for trying new things. Usually I have my timetable written up on the whiteboard, but this year I have been trying to get my tamariki used to referring back to the timetable on the class site.

So nowadays, I just print off the class site for the week and stick it up on the whiteboard. I do this for 2 reasons: Firstly, at the end of the week I write reflections, scribble down what had to be adjusted and why, what's really not working in the timetable and so on. Secondly, when my newbies are stuck and are not sure where to go or what's happening, I can just point out on the timetable what I am referring to.

Below is a screenshot of my timetable all up until this week. It was way easier for my tamariki to just have the timetable up on the home page, so we got rid of the button that used to be above them. Now I just link all the pages and work I am expecting them to do for the day. No hassle, no beating around the bush - it's just one click and they're where they're supposed to be.



The timetable looks kind of weird doesn't it? with all the colour - I originally did this because I wanted to see visually if I was giving enough time to all my curriculum areas. purple is reo-a-waha, blue is reading, yellow is maths, pink is writing and white is topic, cybersmart, P.E, art, etc.

I tried something different this week. I got rid of the colour (ask anyone of Whaea Sally's student  - they will tell you that Whaea just LOVES colour.) I figured if I wanted my tamariki to refer to the timetable I had to do it in a way that is super easy for them to follow. And so came the new mahere ako...





So I didn't entirely lose the colour - I still find it very easy to see my coverage. I rolled it out today and because I had literally everything linked to the day the tamariki were in their seats following the timetable as we went along.  One of my students asked me at 10.15am "Whaea, can we have milk and fruit?", I replied "no" and when he asked "why?" another student told him that it wasn't time for fruit - he had to wait for 10:45am.

Another thing that went well was the morning - usually Te ara panui and Taumata gets a little crazy with the management but today it was pretty settled, we got on with the mahi and finished on time. Hopefully this is us for the rest of the year.

Mini lessons with GIFS - Prt 2

I was supposed to try taking a toolkit for the KEN col this term. My toolkit was about creating GIFS and how we can use them in the classroom. Unfortunately, we cancelled them and opted for online toolkits instead. 

I didn't want to waste a perfectly good toolkit so this past week I have showed my class how to create their own GIFS. Just for practise we decided to create our very own profile pics for our individual blog pages.

I ran the lesson just like I would have if it had been a toolkit with teachers. The kids laughed when they saw the GIFS I used for the instructions. Some of my student worked completely on their using the slide as a guide and didn't even need my help. Maybe 4 or 5 out of my 20 students needed guidance.

Now that we've made our own GIFS for profile pics, the tamariki want to make their own online ebook using GIFS instead of pictures (not to myself - add that to the GIF slide under "ideas for students")

Another thing I am hoping is for some of my students to create some more mini-lessons for google basics instead of me (note to self again - add that to the the GIF slide under "ideas for teachers")

Mini lessons with GIFS - Prt 1

So one of the biggest issues in my year level is having new students in our chromebook classroom and getting them up to speed on the basics. In our writing programme, we have been encouraged to teach mini-lessons instead so I am thinking about doing the same for Cybersmart.

I have created a folder that is named "Google Basics" and it contains slides that cover all the basics of Google drive e.g. Moving work out of drive and into folders, renaming your work, etc. All my slides will follow the same basic layout, WALT, Good example, Bad example, and a GIF showing you how to perform each task.

This is how I made the GIF - seems like a lot of steps when you read it but it only took about 3 minutes to make:

1. Screencastify yourself performing the task (use Browser tab only, don't embed the webcam, don't bother with the microphone)
2. Convert your screencastify to a MP4 - use online-convert.com because it converts files from your drive.
3. Create a GIF on gify.com- I just added a caption with the keys that are used.

Alternatively, you could make a video, however I have found that a lot of students in my class miss the key instructions whenever I share a video with them. GIFS are straight to the point. Anyway, I plan to use these slides this week so I'll update on here how it went.

Tuakana Literacy - Pt 3

What I have tried since the last meeting?

Spelling

I have asked the tamariki for words that they may need help spelling with. Now I have to write these words on coloured strips of paper. We had a big korero about the words we are using for spelling, one next step we are planning to implement are topic words as well as words from the essential list.

Writing

I have been doing 3 tier in class and blocking off writing time, I am glad to say that I finally have work from my class. Dana and Jess shared their R.W.L site for writing which I would like to do for my own class.

Next steps:

1. Word wall up in class.✔️
2. Start a topic word wall.
3. Spelling words - 5 x topic words + 5 x words from the list.
   5 x Maori kupu.
4. Sharing mahi - not whole writing, just 2 sentences.
5. Re-do my writing site.