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.

Taking animation to the next level

For both term 1 & 2, I have been trying to find ways to encourage collaboration within my class.  So far the best way I have been able to achieve this is in reading groups.  The Maihi reading group absolutely loved Maui and the Sun and asked if they could create an animation from the story.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for them to work together and take their animation to the next level.

It was manageable because it was such a small group (only 4), had it been a bigger group I would have had to split them into 2 groups.  They had to rewrite the story in their own words, draw up a storyboard, choose the most appropriate music and using audacity we recorded them telling the story and edited the whole animation.

What was easy?
Hooking them into the activity, they were keen and loved the idea of creating it, at first they weren't able to visualise the finished product as I had no examples to show them, but as we worked on it together, the group grew more excited the more they saw the animation unfold.

What was hard?

There was a lot of scaffolding that had to happen during the process, I was able to use my teacher aide but on the digital side, there was a lot of explicit teaching that had to be done. I left notes and comments, and continuously gave feedback and feedforward which they appreciated.

Where do I go next?
Now that I have a student example as above - I will use this for our narrative unit, I do have some idea on what to anticipate and what would need to be scaffolded and taught.  Looking forward to rolling this out again.

Session eight continued - Hanging out with Google Hangouts

For the second half of our day - we were asked to explore Google Hangouts in small groups.  This was perfect as Toni, her team teacher Verbina and I are all planning to connect with a school in Auckland through google hangouts.  There were a lot of technical difficulties, the entire cohort was exploring hangouts so the bandwidth could have been affected, the microphones were picking up a lot of "noise" etc.  After speaking with Gerhard, he said that we shouldn't experience this issue when we connect with Tamaki Makaurau. I will upload a reflective blog after next week giving everyone an update on how the google hangout went.
Tips for teacher's planning to use Google hangouts:

• Practise with your class first, it is pretty hectic and pretty crazy - teach them how to mute their mikes, take turns, etc - let your tamariki go crazy on it under your watchful eye, then after the craziness settles, connect with others.
• Headphones make the difference - make sure everyone has headphones.
• No glass or windows behind the speaker - this creates a glare and your face is not clearly seen.
• Make sure the students on the hangout are not close by unless you are keen to hear a very annoying screeching sound.

Below is a screencasting of Toni, Dwayne and myself, as you will notice there is no sound, not sure why (could possibly be the muted microphone? I have no idea) and underneath the video is, of course, some funny photos we managed to capture during this exploration.

Above is a picture of Dwayne's screen whilst presenting his screen with everyone.



And this is Dwayne's Korero - Take one lol

Session eight - Making our work flow

Today we met  Gerhard Vermeulen from Ako Hiko, Auckland. His keyword for the day was Empowerment and his aim for the first half of the day was to give us the tips and tricks for improving our workflow. I was really happy that he mentioned this as I have been looking for ways to work smarter online, not harder.

Some of the tips/apps that I found useful were:

• One tab - a chrome extension that takes all of the tabs that you have open and puts them all into one space. First of all, this frees up your memory on your laptop but you don't lose that quick access to the page you are looking at.

• Organising your Gmail account - while I know about some of these settings, this was a good reminder that it might be time to check the organisation in my Gmail. Oh, and today I decided to "star" my Principal and create a filter so that I don't miss those important emails that she sends me.

• Making the most of your google calendar - I used to use Google Calendar a lot with my planning, appointments, etc but this year I have gone back using my Diary just because I still prefer having things on paper. But I have added the KEN's calendar to mine so now I'll know when all our PLG's + Toolkits are coming up.

Where to next with my workflow?

• I plan to organise my folders in my Gmail and create filters.

• Have a tutu with one tab.

Session six - Making our learning visible

Today the keyword was "Visible", and we had the lovely Danni Stone from Point England School in today to talk to us about the power of visible learning.  I really enjoyed listening to Danni as she shared her story with us, a lot of what she had shared reminded me of my first year in class.  A lot of what I have picked up from google sites I owe to my colleagues and some of the other wonderful schools in the Kaikohekohe network - shout out to Ohaeawai Primary School & Paihia School.

Danni touched on the Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu blogging programme that some Manaiakalani schools are currently involved in - this is a platform where 3 schools connect with one another through their classroom blogs - In 2016 & 2017 my class participated in this programme and my tamariki absolutely loved it.  I am definitely signing up for TMTA Term 3 now that my students have their blogs ready to go (Thank you, Tania Coutts & Mrs Henare).

Danni also shared a tip on how to get increase traffic on your blog.  She mentioned another teacher who posted prompts on her blog page and encouraged children to share their ideas in the comments.  This is something that I am definitely going to explore.

We explored multimodal sites and had a go at making one ourselves in groups.  I was grouped with Shelly and Deborah and together we started planning and looking into a multimodal site based on "The science of gardening."  I managed to finish the homepage, but there are 3 other pages that have been created, maybe we bit off more than we could chew? - so I guess the best tip I could give someone who is creating their site (especially with a time frame of fewer than 2 hours) is KISS (keep it simple, sweetheart).  

 

To have a look at the site click here

Some things that I will definitely try in the next week:

• Post a Prompt onto our class blog, to encourage more writing in my classroom, and maybe get more traffic.
• Post a reflection giving an update on student agency forms and voice typing.

One last thing - something else I have been doing is visiting other blogs from our Taitokerau DFI members - and tonight I visited Vanessa's blog, I was so happy to read that she completed her google educator level 1 exam.  You can read about it here

Session five continued - Scratching the surface with scratch

In all honesty - I absolutely love anything code, last year I went nuts playing around with the HTML code on my class site (a lot of trials, and A LOT of errors), and this year I have been making an effort to show my class scratch so they would have another way to present their mahi. 

To wrap up our day at DFI, we were asked to create something from scratch for our blogs. I made a quick scratch project below by using the tutorials that you can find on scratch, the tutorial is called hide and seek and very easy to follow along with. 

Next is another scratch project that I started in Taipa but finished off at home.  Since discovering scratch, I have always wanted to animate my name (my reason is ...just because).  Quite a fidgety task if you ask me, and I had to watch about 3 tutorials to achieve what I did - and it is not quite what I had envisioned - but wallah, here it is.

Session five - Coding Crazy and Makey Makey Madness

Today we explored coding through code.org and Makey Makey. First, we looked into coding through a website called Code.org.  I really enjoyed this website because it was straightforward with teaching how coding works.  My tamariki have recently been looking into coding through the CSFirst website, but I feel that my students are quite lost when it comes to this website, maybe this is a more simplified website for them to explore.

Next, we were given a quick tutorial of Makey Makey.  This was a very hands-on activity which I also enjoyed.

Makey Makey important tips:

• If you don't connect to "Earth" - nothing will happen.
• You can connect your Makey Makey to anything that is conductive.
• Can be connected with scratch, code.org

Below is a screencast of me having a little tutu with Makey Makey.  Putting it all together was a little tricky but, once everything was hooked up it was very fun.  I could imagine my class creating their own game with code.org or scratch, and then using Makey Makey as a way to create a joystick of some sort.  I may revisit code.org later after I receive more feedback from my students about how they would feel about this.

Session four - Drones, Drawings and Animated slides

Today we had Kent Sommerville from Point England school to talk to us about Youtube and amazing ways to connect and share your classes learning with whanau and people around the world.

I learnt more about my Youtube channel, I was aware of my channel and use it to post some of my classes work as well as my own.  Kent showed us two ideas we can think about (playlists and live stream).

We also had a chance to explore Google drawings and Google Slides.  I have made a couple of google drawings for my class and below is my animation I had little tutu with.  It made me a lot more aware of the time and effort my tamariki put into creating an animation and I'm looking forward to showing them what I have learnt.

Things I m going to try this week

• Embed my Youtube playlists on my class site.
• Post a reflective blog giving an update about the soundboxes in class.
• Set aside some time to look back into the resources given today.

Beginning my digital fluency journey

This morning we began our digital fluency course with introductions at the beautiful Taipa Area School.  I am really looking forward to working with the Northland Cohort as we grow together in Gsuite and all the other amazing things that technology has to offer.  I am also looking forward to travelling back to my old Kura - Northland College every second week.

Check out my introduction on slide 16 and click on some of the images.  It takes you to my class site, this blog page and other things my class and I do

Here are the Label's that I will be using while I have this Professional Blog.