DFI week 9 - Revision and reflection

This week was the final week of the Digital Fluency Intensive. I sat the Google Educator Level 1 exam and feel so proud of myself for doing it. We don't receive our results for a little while, however I'm not so worried about the result, as participating in the DFI course in itself taught me useful skills that I can use with my class. The exam had many scenarios that I needed to complete which required knowledge of all areas of the Google Suite - it made me realise how much more confident I am now with using all of the tools in Google Suite. 

Upon reflection of DFI, I am very happy about how confident I am at not only using the tools in Google Suite for teaching, but I am also now more aware of how to use G Suite the most effectively and efficiently for lesson planning and teaching lessons. I feel like I am able to be more creative with the way that I plan, present material and teach lessons since I have been given the time to be exposed to the ways that other teachers use G Suite. For example, I wasn't making us of Google Forms before because I wasn't aware of all of the different purposes it can serve as I didn't know about all of it's functions. I feel like I can be a bit more creative and use it as a tool in every day lessons like reading and maths - not just as a way to take surveys.

Something else that I liked about this course was the time that we were given to explore and to be exposed to other teachers' work. I liked having the time to explore other class sites and to watch Class OnAir episodes. There are always endless ways that we can be inspired by other teachers to improve our own creativity, but it's just having the time to see their work that is tricky! I appreciated having time set aside just to do that. I also appreciated being given the time to practice using the new skills that we learnt and having the support from our facilitators. Thank you Amie!

In light of lockdown..

I am proud of our year 3 class site and how easy it was for students to navigate it for home learning. I have my colleague Clarelle to thank for the way that it was set up and organised! We had a Google Meet with our students every school day for both lockdowns. There were times that we felt discouraged when holding the Meets as there were days that not many students showed up, however I am proud that we didn't give up.

The one thing that I regret about my teaching during lockdown is that I could have done more lessons that were topic or needs specific. There were a few days where I had a one on one Meet with a student and his parent when I got to listen to him read to me while I presented his book onscreen. It was awesome because we don't usually have that quiet, uninterrupted time in the classroom, so I'm glad I made use of that opportunity. I did a reading lesson with a small group of students that were all reading the same level on day as well. We had a good group discussion about the book and students took turns to read aloud for me through the Meet. I do wish that I made better use of the opportunity to listen to students read aloud and have group discussion about our stories. If we have another lockdown, I will organise times each day for levelled group reading and maths lessons. We have the digital technology to do this and I just need to make it happen!

Something that I will take forward into this new 'era' of teaching is rewindable learning. During the first lockdown, I created and shared maths videos each day that taught a certain strategy. Students were able to play these videos over and over at home while they completed their task. During DFI I was challenged to make my learning on the site more rewindable. I plan to share more videos on my learning pages so that students can have a better understanding of strategies and concepts whether they have been absent from school, late for a lesson or need to hear the same lesson again to understand it. I am looking forward to becoming more creative and efficient in the way that I use technology to teach!

DFI - Computational Thinking

 

The focus of DFI week 8 was computational thinking. We learnt about the new Digital Technologies Curriculum and the Manaiakalani principle of empowerment. My favourite part of week 8 was having the opportunity to explore different coding apps and sites that students can use. The websites/apps that I enjoyed learning about the most were Lightbot, the MineCraft Hour Of Code Tutorials and Scratch Junior.

I also enjoyed having the opportunity to look into a couple of teacher's Class OnAir sites to see how they have been teaching computational thinking with devices. I looked into my colleague Clarelle Carruthers' Class OnAir site and found it useful seeing how she has used Scratch Junior in class with students of the same age. It was also useful to watch her teach the class how to code using the Codey Robots as I would like to teach my class how to use these as well! 

 

Above are photos of my students beginning to learn how to use Scratch Jr as well as the Scratch Jr activities site that we have been following.

During DFI week 8, we were given the opportunity to choose a break out group based on the coding programme we were interested in learning more about. I chose to learn about Scratch Jr as I have wanted to use this in class however wasn't confident with it. We were introduced to the activities section on the Scratch Junior site, which not only helped me to learn how to use the basics of Scratch Jr, but were also so helpful to use in class with my students! Over the course of the week, I went through the activities with my class. Although many have had practice on Scratch before, it was a great way for them to learn a lot of functions they hadn't used before!

After going through several activities as a class, I planned a lesson for my students to create an animation of their own. I read them a story called Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road by Jim Dewar and Simon Williams. As a follow up activity, I asked them to choose to characters from the story and animate one part of the story. It was a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to getting creative and using Scratch for future follow up activities or as a fun whole class activity.

A tool that I learnt about from my fellow teacher Clarelle last week was the Classroom app for Apple. During DFI we have been learning many handy tips on Hapara (Teacher Dashboard) for example, how to view students work. I realised that not all functions on Hapara work the same on iPads as it does for Chromebooks - for example, viewing students current screens. I connected all of my students iPads to the Classroom app on my iPad  last week and it has been incredibly useful! I would highly recommend it to any teachers whose students are on iPads.

DFI - Devices

 

Screenshots from the Digital Dig on a Chromebook

This week for DFI we had some hands on practice with iPads, Chromebooks, Explain Everything and Screencastify. 

Although I don't teach with Chromebooks as my class is a 1:1 iPad class, it was useful to learn tips for Chromebooks as I may teach with them again in the future. In previous years, I taught older students using Chromebooks and wasn't always confident with some of the questions students asked when they were stuck on their device, so today was handy! I liked doing the Digital Dig as the keyboard shortcuts were useful and learning about how to magnify the screen was helpful- I've specifically had issues with the zoom function in the past on Chromebooks.

The above Screencastify video was made using the Manaiakalani Cybersmart site. I practiced using Screencastify by choosing one Cybersmart area that I would like to work on with my class - and that is quality blog comments. I haven't personally used Screencastify before and realised how easy it is to use when explaining how to do something on screen. I loved how quick it was to save and upload the video. I will definitely be using Screencastify with my class! In the past, I've had children use it to record themselves reading a story and uploading it to their blog, but I would like to personally use it now. 

DFI Day 6 - Sites (Enabling Access)

 This week for DFI we learnt how to enable access on our class sites.

It was such an interesting day as we explored other class sites of all different year levels and evaluated them with our group. It was a good opportunity to reflect on the class site that my hub uses as we spoke about what makes a great site and what is not useful to students. We learnt about the two main criteria that makes a site successful - visual appeal and functionality. In terms of visual appeal, I learnt how important it is that the site connects to the learner with relatable and fun images, that it is simple (not overcrowded with information) and that it is bright and bold. In terms of functionality, the key points that I learnt were that learning should be easy to access within just a few clicks and that the site should be easy to navigate for anyone. That is, a parent should be able to find their child's learning, timetable, teacher information etc without someone needing to guide them through it. These are criteria that I feel really proud about when it comes to our year 3 and 4 class site which my colleague Clarelle Carruthers created this year. There are 3 teachers in our hub and we all contribute individually on our levelled learning pages. Next year, I would love to contribute more to the creation of our class site to put what I have been learning into action!

Upon reflection of our site, I didn't want to change anything on the home page or main skeleton of the site as that is not a decision that I can make on my own and I am happy with how it looks. Instead I found something to change on my own learning pages. Each week, I put all of my planning on slides for maths, reading and writing. Usually, it is one slide per week. Dorothy reminded us that the learning on the site should be rewindable and it should be easy for anyone to understand (eg parents). I realised that my maths slides were not rewindable and need an explanation from a teacher as to what each activity is for and what order to do them in. When I say rewindable, I mean that it is not easy to flick back to a specific maths slide several weeks, months or years later and understand what to do with it. Today, I clicked on one maths slide and couldn't even remember what each activity link was for and what the main learning intention was behind those! So I changed the way I do my maths slides so that there are titles, images, videos and explanations (if needed) so that anyone can look at the slide and find it not only more visually appealing but easier to understand. I plan to also make my reading slides more multimodal by adding more videos and images to them as this is something that I haven't done in a while.

Below are screenshots of what my maths slides looked like before and after.

Below are screenshots of our class site for our year 3/4 hub which is called The Block.  These screenshots are of 2 things that I like about our site. The first screenshot shows the home page where the main learning buttons are bold and easy to find at the top of the page. The second screenshot is the page that you land on after clicking the writing button. What I like about this is that the children's names are under each button so they know which group to click on. This makes is really easy at the beginning of the year when children are learning how to navigate the site or later in the year when their levelled learning groups are changed. Learning from previous terms are also linked at the bottom of the page.

DFI Day 5 - Collaborative Teaching and Learning

 

Click here to see the Google Site that I created today.

Today we learnt about collaborative teaching and learning through the use of multi-modal texts on Google Sites. Dorothy reminded us of how important it is to keep learning visible - and a great way to do this is by moving teaching online. Digital learning gives students more choice, engages them and opens up new ways for students to collaborate. One way that we can make great use of digital learning is by creating multimodal Google Sites. Dorothy explained that multimodal learning is when teachers provide several different types of resources to enhance a lesson. For example, instead of just providing one book about a topic, we can provide videos, images and supporting texts from a variety of books and websites to support the main text.

The above image is a screenshot taken from the Google Site that I created today. We were given a topic in small groups and shared resources with each other online through a Jamboard. Jamboard reminded me of Padlet. As I have had experience creating Google Sites before, I felt pretty familiar with the basic set up of the site. However, my main take away from today was how to create a site button through Google Drawings. I haven't made buttons before as I wasn't completely confident in making them, so today was really useful to have a good amount of time to practice creating them. I found it a bit tricky at first so I was glad I had the time to play around and work it out. On the 'read' page, I shared several reading resources which are both online and offline. I used the 'watch' page for Youtube videos to support the main texts (Katie's Butterfly and The Classroom Caterpillars). I also created a 'create' page where I could add several activities to the Google Slides deck on that page.

Overall, today was a good reminder for me to make learning multimodal so students have wider and deeper learning opportunities. 

DFI - Day 4: Data

This week for DFI we learnt how to deal with data.

The main tools that we learnt how to use were My Maps, Google Forms and Google Sheets.  

I found it really useful learning how to use forms today. I appreciated the time we were given to practice creating our own form as I had never created a form before! To be honest, I'd never used forms with my class because I wasn't sure how to create one. I feel so much more confident at creating a form now and am looking forward to creating quizzes for class with forms. I enjoyed learning all of the extra tips and tricks with the settings in forms too. I also learnt how to embed a form on my site, which is something that I will put to use! Learning how to use forms has come in good timing - I'd like to create some forms for my students to fill in during lockdown to jazz up their online learning.

We learnt how to create our own personal map on Google Maps today. I always wondered how people personalised their own map. I had a lot of fun creating a map of my favourite places in America and added personal photos to the places that I pinned, along with icons. I think it's awesome that you can also link data from a form to the map - I'm keen to try this out. I think I could get a lot of personal enjoyment out of creating my own maps!

As seen in the slide deck above, we learnt how to use Google Sheets. This section of today's DFI was definitely the most useful to me. I do all of my planning/reflections and keep all of my data on sheets and have only known the basics of how to organise data. I really enjoyed learning all of the tips and tricks, for example shortcuts to save time and ways to make the sheet easier to read with colours and filters to sort it. I also created a chart from sheets for the first time today - something that I also have never done before! Please see the above slides to see screenshots of my main takeaways from Google Sheets lesson. 

DFI Day 3 - Media

If you can't travel, why not create a scene and imagine you're there!

Today our focus for the Digital Fluency Intensive was Media. 

When Dorothy was speaking about the 'Create' part of the 'Learn, Create, Share' pedagogy, I was reminded of how important it is to get creative with my planning and provide students with the opportunity to either create with physical materials or with digital technology. In my year 3 and 4 class, my students all use iPads and I want to get better at making use of this technology to make learning more fun.

Today I learnt how to create a 'scene' (seen above) using Google Slides and Remove.bg. I already have experience using Google Slides, however found it useful learning extra tricks and enjoyed practicing how to arrange images on the slide. I am really enjoying learning how to use Remove.bg. I would have never thought of creating an animation on Slides using an image of myself because the thought of getting rid of a background seemed too difficult, but Remove.bg is super easy! 

This term, Pt England School is learning all about the world - my class is specifically learning about famous landmarks. Since my year 3/4 class is using iPads, I am going to work out how to do the above activity on Slides on iPads or adapt it to be done on Explain Everything. Either way, I'm excited for my class to use Remove.bg and create a scene of themselves at landmark that we learn about this week!

Today we also learnt about how to use a YouTube account and how to use Google Drawings. I have had experience using Google Drawings, however it is useful learning more tricks on it so that I can become more confident to create good buttons for my class site. It was also great learning that I can use Remove.bg paired with the shaped cropping tool to create a profile picture on Drawings. 

I will share a students blogpost of their own 'scene' once completed - fingers crossed it is successful!

DFI Day 3 - Google Drawings

Today we have been learning how to use Google Drawings as part of the Media segment of DFI. Here is a profile of myself that I created on Google Draw. I will add this to the 'About Me' pane on my blog.

Day 2 DFI - Workflow

Today was the second day of the Digital Fluency Intensive.
We began by learning more about Manaiakalani Kaupapa and Pedagogy. Dorothy explained to us how digital technology accelerates learning through the acronym RATE (recognise, amplify, turbocharge: effective practice). Recognise - meaning that teachers recognise effective practice and teacher actions promote student learning. Amplify - meaning that technology amplifies teaching and learning opportunities by making it connected, visible, ubiquitous and empowering. Turbocharge - meaning that technology transforms the way we teach and learn by making experiences more creative.

Today I learnt how to organise my Gmail better as well as my tabs. I'm not an overly organised person so this was very useful. I have now pinned a lot of my important tabs and have some useful tab tips up my sleeve to make my workflow smoother. I now have a list of the chrome extensions for tab organisation and will try these out over the week to see which one works best for me.
I also found it useful learning how to use Google Keep more effectively - for example how to use the recording tool and the location tool. The location tool will definitely come in handy as I am a forgetful person! Google Keep will be useful in my own every day life.

The main Google Suite tools that we learnt about today were Google Meet and Calendars. I learnt how to create a Google event or Meet and how to invite students/colleagues to it. I also learnt how to RSVP with a note. We had plenty of hands on time learning how to present our screen on Meet and record the meet whilst discussing a student's blog post. During lockdown, I had Google Meet videos with my class every day so already had practice doing this but it was still useful having more time to play around with it to be 100% confident in case we need to do distance learning again!

Below is a video of today's task:

Day 1 DFI - Core Business

Today was our first day of the Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive. We are doing this online using Google Meet over the next 9 weeks.

Today we learned about the origins of the Manaiakalani story and how the use of technology in Manaiakalani schools has benefited our children. I enjoyed learning new the tips and tricks that help us to be more efficient on Google Suites for example keyboard shortcuts, how to pin a tab and how to use Google Groups. These tricks are going to improve my workflow a lot. We were also reminded to organise our Google Drive - which is what I need to do!

Today we spent a lot of time learning how to use Google Docs more efficiently. As I am teaching with iPads this year, I found it a bit tricky at first to think of how to apply what we learnt to my own teaching (I mostly use Explain Everything on the iPads as it is easier for the year 3's to navigate). However I thought that the 'Eyes On Text' activity was a great idea and I am going to adapt it a bit so that it can be used on Explain Everything. This will be an awesome independent reading task to increase mileage and I'm looking forward to starting this with my class. 

We also learnt how to create an infographic using Google Docs. I usually use Google Slides or Canva to create posters as I don't find Google Docs as appealing on the eye when doing this but we learnt some great tips that made them look better than I expected. I especially enjoyed learning how to use remove.bg to remove the background from an image because I've tried other websites and photoshop to do this before but remove.bg was so easy to use. Our facilitators recommended that we create an infographic that we can use in class. My students have been learning a new morning routine and this visual is going to help them a lot. I will stick it to the front door for when they arrive at class in the morning.

My Inquiry for 2020

This year I am teaching in an ILE which we have named 'The Block' alongside two other teachers. We have 76 children in our space.

My inquiry question this year is:

How can play based maths increase maths knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts?

Here are some of the strategies that I will try:

-DMIC style lessons with half the class at a time, working in groups with materials like toys and fun maths resources. I will question them and we will have discussions which will give them time to show their thinking by moving materials and talking about them.
-Free play with maths games like snakes and ladders, dice games, cards, mathematical card games.
-Planned play with lego, toys etc in small groups to teach strategy and concepts - eg multiplication ‘show me 5 groups of dinosaurs… how many in each group?’
-I want to get creative and make new maths games so that I have a large range of resources.

I am excited to see what happens when I teach children how to use materials when solving problems and my goal for them by the end of 2020 is that they can get to the point where they will know when to use materials and where to get them from without my prompting.

I am also excited to use games and create a lot of fun, hands on resources for my class to use this year. I believe that a lot of learning happens when playing games and I haven't done enough of this in previous years! As amazing as digital technology is, I believe hands on learning activities/games are also crucial for children to engage in maths.

Maths has already been such a positive experience for the children and I'm having a lot more fun teaching it this way! They have been having a lot of fun and haven't realised that they are actually learning through the games. They're playing games that relate to the area of learning that I am currently teaching them as well as games that give them time to practice basic maths knowledge like bonds to 10 and counting on. I will keep creating new games and resources as the year goes on.

It has been awesome to hear the conversations and see how children are helping each other in their learning. They have been playing games in mixed ability grouping and naturally those that are challenged are being helped by their friends! It's also great to hear them practice counting aloud whist playing together and learn how to use materials to problem solve.


Here are some photos of what we have been doing so far.