Week 8 - Computational thinking

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

Computational thinking - is about building the confidence of teachers to be able to use technology and teach it to accelerate learning of students. I agree with the tutors today who said that it is about EMPOWERING learners to take a hold of their own learning thereby providing opportunities to be critical thinkers, innovators and digital designers.

Today we were given the opportunity to view a number of computational thinking models/examples which I enjoyed. Another statement shared by a tutor was that DIGITAL FLUENT TEACHERS equates to DIGITAL FLUENT STUDENTS and this statement resonated with my wairua. This reminded me of a whakatauaki:

Ko au Ko koe, Ko au Ko koe - I am you and you are me - This means we are connected and what we do affects and impacts each other. This can be applied to teaching and learning digital technology and computational thinking in that, we as teachers are preparing our students for the future and as we know technology is an area that will continue to grown, develop and it will require our students to have the skills and knowledge to be prepared. To teach this, teaches are upskilling and changing classroom interactions/learning to engage and power students today.

We learnt about coding and I really appreciated the time we were given to look through a number of apps we could use in class and to watch videos of teachers, teaching computational thinking from juniors to seniors. I found these models to be very helpful so thank you to these teachers.

Nga mihi

Week 7 - DFI

Reflecting on the Kaupapa of the Manaiakalani Programme in light of COVID 19 , whether you did Lockdown: Season 1 or Seasons 2/3/4, and YOUR readiness for ubiquitous learning...

• What are you proud of? I am very proud that all staff my kura banned together with our tamariki and community to awhi through lockdown. All teachers jumped into unknown waters without life jackets and we navigated ourselves through unchartered waters to finally reach calmer seas. In essence, we all had a crash course on online learning with the key focus on setting up our class sites to begin to engage our learners online and via google meet. Thank you to our awesome Manaiakalani facilitators

• What do you regret? - If only I knew then what I know now!!

• What have you taken forward into the ‘new’ era of schooling? This experience confirmed the value and importance of online learning, not as a tool but as a way of learning that meets the needs of the 21st century learner in a 21st century pandemic. It completely shifted my mindset and my teaching and learning practice and as result I have grown as a practitioner and I am very fortunately to be part of the exciting learning opportunities Manaiakalani provides.

Week 6 - DFI - Sites

 Week 6, Today we were given a great opportunity to view other Leading Teachers class sites across a range of year levels and schools.   We were able to see visible teaching and learning at it's best and we could see evidence of this across the sites.  In addition, we were able to give feedback and feedback to our colleagues on our individual class sites which in my view is invaluable and helps us grow as teachers. Again this activity allowed us to see how other teachers learn, create, share using sites for their teaching and learning with their students. 

When giving feedback we were asked to select one or more of the following options when evaluating other teachers sites.  I thought this would be a great tool to use for myself as a self check tool when evaluating and reflecting on my class site to ensure it provides a variety of learning tools, visibility, access and relevance to the curriculum. 

We also spent sometime working on our own sites and I have enclosed a link to my class site however it is still a work in progress.  Thank you to those brave and courageous teachers who make their site visible to us so that we can see and use the ideas that are great for learning.   

https://sites.google.com/riverdalegis.school.nz/waihirere2021/home

Nga mihi

Week 5 - DFL

 Kia ora koutou!

 Yes, its week 5 and I have so much to share today about what I have learnt at DFI.  As usual, the learning was challenging in terms of my knowledge, understanding and practice, engaging and thought provoking. 

The learning that has increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy are:

1. Visible Learning - Dorothy spoke about the importance of visible learning for the 21st century learner and teacher.  What I enjoyed about this discussion was how it challenged my understanding of teaching and learning and that it shifted my mindset about Manaiakalani tools and pedagogy.  I realise that through Manaiakalani we as teachers can engage and sustain student engagement because the tools are INCLUSIVE of all learners.  We are able to differentiate the learning quite easily to engage our learners.  Last year I created a site specifically for an ORR's student and both the Teacher aide and I were able to use Learn, Create, Share to engage him and share his learning with whanau. In addition, I used the site as a discussion point when completing an individual learning plan and parent/teacher discussions.  

2. Multimodal, 3. Multimodal sites, 4. Multitext Database

The above multimodal learning pedagogy and concepts are where teachers can differentiate the learning using multiple modes of communication such as written, audio, visual and symbolic. We viewed some amazing sites and a multitext database that has some amazing resources for all. 

From this we were given a task to create a multi modal site which I am still working up but will share for the purpose of learning.   I will be incorporating this more in class as I see so many benefits for my students and today I was given the opportunity to practice to build my confidence. 

Nga mihi

Multi modal-site-karla/home

Week 4 - Dealing with Data

 Week 4 - DFI - Dealing with Data

The session today was about Dealing with Data and I was happy to participate in this session to improve my knowledge of how to use Google sheets more effectively.  Thank you Manaiakalani!  

Google sheets is a gem and it has some great features that I didn't realise existed until today.  Learning how to use different functions made me realise I had under utilised Google sheets and heavily relied on Google docs and Google slides.   There are so many advantages and benefits for teachers and students alike. I particularly enjoyed working on the raw data and applying the knowledge I had gained from these sessions.  Some of the features I learnt about today include:

My capability, understanding and awareness of how to use Google sheets and how to apply this across the variety of activities we teachers are involved at school has greatly improved my confidence. As I reflect on today I am eager to apply this newly learnt knowledge with  how I present, analysis data for both class and school wide purposes.  I feel more confident to share this knowledge with my students and empower them during our teaching and learning experiences. 

Here are some features I have learnt today and I have also included some examples of my learning today.