Term 4 Manaiakalani Hui

On Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Manaiakalani Hui at the National Library. Above all else I really appreciated the chance to connect face to face with the extraordinary team of leaders and facilitators from around the country. On Tuesday we each had five minutes to reflect on our journey over the past three years. Further down this post I've included my reflection slides, but I also wanted to document and share some of the gems I picked up from other people during the day...

Amie @ Tairāwhiti

Amie reminded me that I should be blogging more (other than what I'm doing right now obviously).

She also mentioned meeting weekly with principals. This is something I'd love to do as I've gained so much insight and so many ideas from brief five minute chats with principals this year.

Cam @ Kootuitui ki Papakura

Cam simplified her main goal for next year as getting her schools to work together. This is very much on my radar for Ako Hiko and it's been great to see people working together in our T-shaped literacy PLGs and to hear of teachers wanting to visit other schools next year. 

Cheryl @ Tairāwhiti

Cheryl mentioned talking to individual teachers: What's your data? What's your starting point? What do you want out of this? This is a great reminder for when I start off with the new teachers I'll be working with in 2021.

She also talked about an unrelenting focus on reading which has come up a lot this year and is worth keeping at the forefront of my mind.

Dave @ Manaiakalani

'He aha te rākau hei whakatō mā tāua?' (What tree shall we plant?) This is a great reminder when thinking about what new opportunities we can offer in 2021. I need to remember to talk with teachers, leaders and principals to make sure their needs are being met in order for them to fully invest in new ideas.

Another great quote from Dave, "It's not what you do, it's what they do when you're not there." This got me thinking about sustainability. How will I support the teachers I've been working with in 2020 to make sure the great progress continues? And how can I work with lead teachers to make sure there is consistency across (and between) schools?

Fiona @ Manaiakalani

'Leadership empowers strong teams.' I'm lucky to have an amazing group of lead teachers and am looking forward to working with them next year. I'm also mindful of making sure I give them opportunities to develop and grow their leadership.

Herman @ Tairāwhiti

Herman discussed 'community feels' which reinforced what Cam talked about. He also talked about rewindable learning and what that looks like. Another timely reminder for orientation 2021.

Nicola @ Hokitika

Nicola fed back how people felt overwhelmed with lots of information at orientation days and suggested that it might be worth chunking this information. This is something I will definitely have in mind as I prepare the orientation and site building days for 2021.

Sharon @ Te Ara Tūhura

Sharon emphasised how important listening is (luckily I was listening to her). Especially in terms of listening to teachers and where they are at. You can then use this as a starting point to know what to work on with them next.

As promised here are my slides. My reflection on the last three years was slightly different in that I spent 2018 as classroom teacher and AP at Wesley Primary, 2019 travelling in Europe and Canada while trying lots of part time and voluntary jobs, and then 2020 taking on the EPL role at Ako Hiko.

 

A common theme that came through most reflections was the importance of relationships. I can't wait to meet the teachers I'll be working with next year and start building those relationships.

Another key point I will keep in mind while facilitating is making it explicit what strategies I am using with the class. There was an interesting discussion about our role as facilitators and I think if we are trying to promote effective practices then these need to be pointed out to the teachers we are supporting.

I hope this is helpful to others. Thanks to everyone in the team for sharing their reflections. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

Happy holidays everyone! 

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which is the most effective and engaging Cybersmart lesson of them all?

Well hopefully you've got beyond the huge title and realised it a weak attempt at linking the end of term reflection (hence the mirror) to a more exciting title.

As I've mentioned on a previous bog post I spent around half of this term teaching Cybersmart sessions from home, as Auckland moved into another lockdown and cases continued to emerge in close proximity to some of my schools. I'll try not to repeat myself but you can see that blog post here.

Tips and Tricks:

After a few weeks of teaching in this way (again) I realised that without much explicit planning or conscious effort, my classroom (or Meetroom) management had adapted to suit the new circumstances. Some examples off the top of my head are:

-using a lot of thumbs up and thumbs down to judge understanding

-students showing on their hands (out of five) how confident they were to start an activity

-students choosing one key idea to put in the chat after watching a video or reading a text

-following up a student sharing by letting them pick a number, then counting on Gridview to see who that student is to give them the opportunity to share next

-encouraging students to hop back into the Meet if they were stuck and want to ask a question without having the rest of the class present

Positives:

Because the teacher was in the room but I wasn't during these sessions there was a shift in roles and responsibilities. Teachers were called upon to roam and support students more as I was not able to do so. At first this often meant that we did not have time to catch up and discuss any challenges or goals. I soon realised that it was vital to build this time in. So the teacher and I would stay on the Google Meet once the students had left to catch up for ten minutes or so. As well as the obvious benefits for the teacher this also forced students to be more independent as they started their activities. By using Hāpara Teacher Dashboard we were also able to share examples where students had used this time constructively.

Another benefit is that students won't have had a huge gap between Google Meet experiences if  we were to go into another distance learning situation in Term 4 (here's hoping we don't though). I like the idea of having Meet drills just as you would have fire drills (to help prepare for any future distance learning scenarios) but for the classes I've been working with in this way they would be less of a necessity.

Challenges:

Lights, camera, camera, camera? - I noticed the older the students got the more reluctant they were to have their cameras on or the more easily distracted they got by being able to see each other. My general tactic was to normalise being able to see your face e.g. People see your face all day, on the playground, during lunch...

Who wants to share? Who else wants to share? - Encouraging a range of students to share their work rather than always using the couple of super keen sharers has always been a challenge. Being confident to share in front of your peers relies on having a strong and positive classroom culture. However, I think having lessons via Google Meet amplified the difference between those wanting to share and those not wanting to. I wonder what percentage of the unmuting, chat use and screen-sharing was accounted for by just a couple of individuals in each class.

Timing is everything - Students love creating DLOs but this takes time. Often the class would be incredibly engaged with creating a Screencastify, pick-a-path story or animation, only for the time to run out. I don't like leaving work to finish off for classes as I'm supposed to be taking things off teacher's plate not adding more! 

Some classes continued with Cybersmart when I left so that they could finish and others had time blocked off later in the week for 'finishing off' which seemed to work quite well. After a great discussion with other facilitators I'm also thinking of running multiple sessions with the learn content then blocking off the next session purely for the create part.

Moving Forwards:

As I plan Term 4's Cybersmart sessions I will be keeping in mind the fact that they may be delivered face to face or they may be delivered online. I hope to create sessions that will work equally well in person and over Google Meet. I'm also excited about collaborating more with facilitators from around the country to provide the best learning experiences for our students and teachers.

Happy holidays / non-contact time everyone!

Cybersmart at level 2.5

Kia ora koutou,

I simply had to post today as yesterday I had two of my most successful and inspiring Cybersmart sessions ever.

The success of these sessions is a tip of the cap to the huge amount of hard work that teachers, leaders and principals have put in over the last few months. And let's not forgot the students and the epic stint they have put in!

I've been facilitating from home this week due to the current situation in Auckland. Around two thirds of the classes I was working with were in class and socially distanced. There were also some learners who were at home but joined via Google Meet.

 

 The biggest bonus for me was being able to facilitate lessons as I did during distance learning but having the teacher in the classroom to roam and trouble shoot any problems that arose. I think this was also good learning for the teachers as they could see what the learning looks like from a student's perspective.

I realise there are still huge challenges around equitable access but yesterday gave me so much hope with teachers and learners showing they are flexible, resilient and willing to learn. It also reinforced what I already knew about the technology we use empowering learners and making the learning visible and ubiquitous.

The lessons were around quality blog commenting. Once students had learnt what quality blog comments look like and demonstrated their confidence they moved onto creating DLOs to teach others. The choices included Scratch, Canva and Screencastify. Here is an example of each:

Screencastify - Asfan 

Canva - Mehmet 

Scratch - me (no one chose to do Scratch so I did one)

                             

If anyone is interested here is the link to the lesson on the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site. On reflection there is a lot in this lesson and I might split the create part into two and move the actual commenting half into the learn section and scrap what's there already.

And if you're looking for a chance to practise your quality blog commenting yourself, why not leave me a comment or check out the Ako Hiko bloggers of the week and give them some well deserved feedback.

Ngā mihi

Cybersmart Planning

Another term lies ahead and after my first full term of facilitating I had a lot to reflect on. Here is my list of things that I tried to keep in mind while planning sessions and resources for Term 3.

keep it simple!

less talking by me - use Screencastify videos more for rewindable content

make sure resources are visually engaging on the site

offer different levels of choice for learners e.g. beginner, getting going and smart learner

make sure the create tasks are genuinely creative and that they allow students to demonstrate that they have learnt the 'learn section'

how do these activities reflect the Key Competencies?

more modes of text on the site, especially audio

plan opportunities for students to provide feedback

This seemed like a daunting task and the list seemed to make the very first bullet point impossible. In Term 2 I think I was guilty of trying to fit too much into a session. This meant that sessions were often left unfinished or ran over two weeks and lost some momentum.

I've realised that I can not possibly fit everything I'd like to into each session and still deliver a clear and effective Cybersmart programme. However, I still believe that all aspects of a successful Cybersmart session are visible at some point in the term. From giving students choice over what they create, to challenging and supporting learners with different levels of scaffolding. I haven't forced these features into each lesson but they are there throughout the term.

If you have time to look at some of the lessons I've prepared I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Term 3 Site:

And here's a link to the Term 2 resources if you wanted to compare:

Reflecting on the Magic

At our Manaiakalani end of term hui each facilitator created a slide deck to show how the Manaiakalani kaupapa of connected, ubiquitous, visible and empowered shone through during (and after) distance learning.

I thought I'd share my thoughts on here. What were your successes in these areas? And what could be your next steps to amplify these successes and lift the lid on the potential awesomeness?

Reach For Greatness - Yong Zhao

"We are obsessed with what children do not know or are unable to do. In a new world where smart technology has replaced and will continue to replace humans in routine tasks, we need humans to be creative, unique and entrepreneurial."

This book reinforced a lot of the thinking I have been doing about education recently. As we moved out of distance learning and went back into classrooms one of my focuses has been on how we keep the creativity that flourished during lockdown now that we are back at school. Yong Zhao talks about how much effort is put into fixing students deficits and not enough focus is put on helping them develop their strengths and passions.


Everyone is above Average

Yong Zhao suggests that everyone can be above average, especially when you look at average as a median value. For example the test mean score of a class might be 70% but the median could be 85% if only a few low scores pull the mean downwards. Therefore, by some definitions, the whole class bar a couple of low scorers could be considered above average. Maybe it's time we ditched the word average?

"And even the achievements of those above average students are not great compared to what they could achieve. There is no end to the need for greatness, the more we learn the more we want to learn." Are we pushing those above average students enough to really meet their potential?

One of the biggest take aways for me from this book was that everyone is above average in some aspects of their lives. In previous classes I've taught, students would start and end each term reviewing their jagged profiles. Students put themselves on a linear scale for qualities such as leadership, collaboration and resilience. It was incredibly empowering for students to know that they were experts in one of these areas, even though they didn't view themselves as one of the 'smart kids.'

Passions

I don't think we have to look far to find areas where students are above average. Distance learning brought a lot of these strengths to the foreground, from delicious baking to beautiful poetry, from inspiring art to persistent coding.

"Everyone has potential even though that potential may be overlooked undervalued or even judged is abnormal by society." Are we giving students (and adults for that matter) enough opportunities to follow their passions and build on their strengths?

I was fortunate to have some time out away from education last year to explore some of my other passions. From being involved in wetland restoration projects to completing a book of poetry and from working on the Tread Lightly caravan to helping build a house made from tyres in Canada. I was very privileged to be in a position to do exactly what Yong Zhao said is necessary for our students: to use their passions, strengths and efforts to serve the world beyond themselves.

Personalised Learning vs Personalisable Education

"Personalised education is about fixing students' deficits and assumes that all students should learn same thing, even if they need to learn at different speeds and in different ways." Yong Zhao makes the point that in this situation someone else (the teacher) has done the personalising for the student.

In contrast personalisable education is about enhancing strengths and supporting passions. It assumes that everyone has the potential and need to become great (not average, great!). As I write this paragraph I realise that the word personalisable is made up of personal, is and able which sums it up really don't you think? 

This got me reflecting on how many students I've deprived of opportunities to become great because I focused too much on their weaknesses and the gaps I needed to fill. As a facilitator I now have the capacity to offer some new experiences to leaners in the Ako Hiko cluster. Maybe this will help some students find new passions and give them opportunities to be great!

"Musicians must make music and writers must write."

What are your passions? And how do they come across in your teaching practice?
What successes have you had with finding the strengths and passions of students? And how could this be amplified?

https://twitter.com/YongZhaoEd

Poetry Slam!

Last week we had our first ever Ako Hiko poetry slam. We had around 30 entries and while I don't want to pick any winners, I thought I'd share some of the poems here. The highlights for me were seeing students work their way through the resources to have a go at new forms of poems independently and seeing students commenting on each other's poems. This included across school commenting and some comments from Kaitaia!

Thank you to all the teachers who supported their students. I think it is so important to keep providing new opportunities like this for our learners. And what an amazing way to get creative! The slide deck will stay on the Ako Hiko site over the holidays if you have students looking for something to do (or if you want to have a go yourself).

Richard @ WIS

Franny @ ODS

Siaki @ CTK

Multipliers

Kia ora!
I've just finishing re-reading Multipliers by Liz Wiseman (technically I finished a while ago and this has been sitting as a draft since then). It wasn't my first choice of books to read but due to libraries being shut and having re-read all my Terry Pratchett books I decided to get stuck in. And I'm really glad I did. As I devoured the chapters I stumbled upon many timely reminders as I start my journey as Education Programme Leader for Ako Hiko.

My primary objective for my first term was not to drop the ball on anything. However, a global pandemic somewhat changed the term for everyone involved. Because of the the circumstances, I started seeing innovative ideas everywhere. Something I've been guilty of in the past is rushing into projects on my own, devoting time and resources to them, only for them to receive very little engagement and traction. Re-reading multipliers has reminded me of the importance of the whole team at Ako Hiko. If ideas are going to get traction people need to have ownership of them. And if and when I step away from the cluster the processes put in place need to stay standing without me there.

Some other key aspects of the text for me:

My role is to invest, teach and coach. The book gave the example of a soccer (American book!) coach and how they don't run on the pitch to score a crucial goal in the last minute of a game, even though they have the ability to do so. 

Diminishers (the opposite of multipliers) tell people what they know whereas multipliers help people learn what they need to know.

Multipliers don't set the direction - they make sure the direction is set.

Multipliers look for native genius in people. What spikes their enthusiasm? They then tell the person about this genus to unlock their potential.

Multipliers never do anything for people that they can do for themselves.

It is this last quote that stuck out the most for me but it's also the one I'm battling with the most. On one hand I want to help (and multiply) the school leaders by making sure they have opportunities to grow and learn new skills. The example that comes to mind is blog building. On the other hand I am fully aware of how busy teachers are and I don't want to be adding to their workload unnecessarily.

After talking with colleagues about this balancing act I believe that there is no hard and fast rule. It will very much be a case by case judgement call on whether a task is something I can support leaders to achieve or whether at that moment of time it's a job I can just get done for them.

During distance learning most teachers showed immense creativity and flexibility. It was also noticeable that their own passions and interests were coming through in their teaching. I'm now on the lookout for these gems of native genius and thinking about how I can use them to multiply others.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on multiplying others. Have you found the native genius in someone? How have you resisted taking the reins and doing things for people? What are your tips for making sure a direction is set?

Ngā mihi

Back In Class - Week One

What a fabulous feeling it was to walk into a school again this week. I realised it was the simple things that I'd taken for granted, like chatting with the office staff, having a rugby ball fly past your face on the way to class and of course actually having face to face conversations with our learners.

Delivering Cybersmart sessions during distance learning was an interesting experience. One of the biggest challenges was not being able to easily judge how the lesson was going by doing a lap of the room and seeing students' screens (although Hapara Teacher Dashboard made this a whole lot more manageable than it could have been). So back in class this week it was an opportune moment in time to reflect on the Cybersmart sessions I had planned for this term (it seems like a lifetime ago that I did this planning).

I read an extremely interesting blog post by Mark Maddren, a facilitator in Christchurch, which got me thinking about how I could differentiate sessions. I find planning Cybersmart lessons a challenging juggling act: trying to make learn, create, share visible while also offering multiple texts for students to engage and provide activities that offer choices. When trying to tick so many boxes it was often the differentiation that got left behind. I'm inspired by Mark's idea of having beginners, stepping up and confident sections for each lesson.

As a facilitator this also hammers home how important it is to develop relationships. By getting to know the learners as well as possible during the one hour a week I spend with them, I am more likely to know which learners will pick which option. And at the end of the day I will also have modelled how sessions can be differentiated for the class teacher who knows the learners far better than I do.

Another of Mark's ideas was including a learning pathway for each lesson. My first thought was that this isn't necessary but then I realised that I was thinking of the lesson from my perspective. Of course I understood the flow of the lesson, I'm the one who created it! It made me wonder what else works for me but isn't working for the students.

It was timely that I came across this article on Virtual White Spaces by Ann Milne. This got me reflecting on my Cybersmart resources more deeply. Milne quotes George Dei as saying:

“Today, Indigenous knowledge is about the struggle to retain one’s identity in the call for a global sameness.”

Milne also quotes the host of a webinar, who when discussing how schools are preparing for distance learning said :

"...(it's like) having these jig saw pieces, but suddenly this pandemic has removed the picture from the box."

She adds her own thoughts to this:

"That’s a really apt analogy, but even when we thought we did have the ‘picture’ in our learning environments prior to COVID-19, the truth is that many children—Māori, indigenous, and minoritised children world-wide were always absent from that picture and their pieces never did fit."

I'm now contemplating whether my Cybersmart sessions are just replicating practice which hasn't worked for many of our learners in the past. Is my planning culturally sustaining or is it culture-erasing (one size fits all)? I was already reflecting on whether I need to get feedback from students each session. Now I realise this is a necessity not an option. Why have I been asking for feedback about each session from the class teacher but not the learners? They are the people the sessions are aimed at after all.

One of the goals for the Ako Hiko cluster this year is to get whānau workshops up and running. I believe this is the ideal moment to collect voice from our communities. Coming out of distance learning I think we must be there to support families so that they in turn can support our learners. We must do this without making assumptions about what they already know or what their capacity to help at home is. This is why we are currently surveying our communities to see what they would like from these sessions.

Hopefully the more we listen to whānau the greater their capacity to support our learners will be while also providing an opportunity for educators to better understand the culture and context of our learners. This in turn enables learners and whānau to see their culture (and therefore themselves) in the curriculum.

I'd like to finish (thanks for reading this far) with a quote from Lessons From Lockdown. In this article Dr Nina Hood states that we should:

"...meet children where they are and give them what they need, both inside and outside of school, in order for all of them to have a genuine opportunity to be successful.”

To me this is super simple summary of what education should be. But are we currently putting enough effort into knowing where children are? And if we are not, how can we possibly be giving them what they need?

Moving forward I hope to stretch myself in these areas by:

• Differentiating Cybersmart sessions
• Trialing a learning pathway for sessions
• Collect more student voice and feedback about sessions
• Get whānau workshops up and running as soon as possible

Ngā mihi

DFI Session Nine (last one!)

Today, before we took the Google exam, we heard Dorothy speak about the term ubiquitous. It was a great reminder that learning should be available:

Anytime 

Anywhere 

At any pace

(and from) anyone

This made me reflect on distance learning and whether we have achieved these goals. I agree with Dorothy that the dream of having rewindable learning available regardless of time or place has become a reality in the last few months. It's a credit to our teachers and leaders that students are coping with this way of working. But I'm also very aware that not all are students are engaged at this time. So what are the barriers that we still need to address moving forward?

Reflecting on the DFI on the whole I feel very privileged to have shared this experience with an amazing team of educators. I've learnt so much and feel so much more confident supporting other teachers with the content we have covered.

As a facilitator and now Education Programme Leader, I've also been able to up skill myself and start to be able to trouble shoot and help other people through their challenges.

Thanks to Gerhard, Dorothy and all the other facilitators and participants of this cohort. And good luck with the rest of the term and year!

DFI Session Eight

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Today we heard Dorothy talk about the term empowered. It was a good reminder around why we use this term rather than agency, which has so many negative connotations with some members of our communities. Every time I see this puzzle graphic I'm reminded how interlinked and co-dependant the terms empowered, visible, connected and ubiquitous are. One way of empowering our learners and our communities is by ensuring the other three parts of the puzzle are happening.

The fact that one third of learners in decile one communities are transient is something that I was very aware of while teaching at my previous school. Hearing this again today made me think about the Ako Hiko story and how important it is to capture this so that we can share it to new learners and whānau so that they can gain a deeper understanding of what the cluster is all about.

Kerry's section on the Digital Technology Curriculum was very interesting and informative. We were gifted time to explore a plethora of resources. As Kerry said it is important that we are using a consistent language and teaching programming skills and fundamentals rather than individual coding platforms. The apps and sites will change over time but the language remains the same. A good glossary for me today includes:

Input
Output
Sequence
Iteration
Selection
Variables

How confident are you with these terms? And not just confident in your own understanding but with your ability to use them with students?

These are all resources I found useful. CS Unplugged for the activities that might be perfect for distance learning and for students with limited internet access and Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko for the self-assessment tool that helped me see where I am at on my journey into the new curriculum.

Exemplars

CSUnplugged

Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko

In terms of my workflow as a professional, I've spent some time in the last few weeks trying to create engaging, creative and fairly independent activities for students. Exploring these sites today helped me realise that there are already a vast array of resources out there and that maybe some of my time is better spent elsewhere (warning some of these sites are very, VERY addictive).

Minecraft

Flappy Bird

Toxicode

In the afternoon I had an awesome time creating a game with Scratch. By going through the process from start to finish I was able to appreciate the debugging process. Mistakes and failures are all part of learning and students need to be encouraged and support while solving problems and getting over these hurdles. Enjoy!

DFI Session Seven

Today we heard Fiona share her expertise on all things Cybersmart. It was a good reminder to delve into the Cybersmart resources beyond smart learner, smart footprint and smart relationships (luckily I got a chance to do so on this very afternoon). 

I realised that in the last month or so I've focused a lot on the visible aspect of the Manaiakalani kaupapa, especially in terms of class sites and school websites. Fiona's session made me reflect more on the ubiquitous aspect. If the visibility is there and students have access to their learning (I realise some do not), what other barriers are there that might be preventing them from engaging in distance learning?

It was a timely reminder to check in with leaders around whether Cybersmart is being taught in all classes and how teachers are embedding Cybersmart learning into their existing programmes.

...

Gerhard's session on Chromebooks was really interesting. I've been using a Chromebook as my primary device through necessity but now I can see how valuable it has been as I am fluent and comfortable with the device. Having said that, I still learnt a lot of new shortcuts during the Digital Dig. For example:

• search-l to lock my screen 
• ctrl-l to copy the contents of the omnibox.

In the afternoon we were able to make a Screencastify based on the content of one of the Cybersmart areas. I chose Smart Surfing and created this summary.





Ngā mihi

Distance Learning Week Two

Today I meet with the leaders of the seven schools in the Ako Hiko cluster. I'm excited to hear about the success stories that I'm sure they will have to share. We have been discussing two main areas:

• supporting and encouraging blogging
• keeping engagement up in Google Meets

Again, this week I've been fortunate enough to be involved in meetings with teachers from all over the country sharing their expertise and resources. Some of my favourite ideas have been:

Amy @ Glenbrae School and her spreadsheet to challenge bloggers to comment on other people's blogs. It looked like a huge success!

Kiriwai @ PT England School and her student set Taha Challenges. This definitely inspired me to think about other ways we can empower our students and give the more ownership over blogging.

And students continue to pump out the work on their blogs. I've been so impressed with the content and quality of the posts, even from relatively new bloggers. It has also been amazing to take the time to leave comments and make connections with these learners. Here's a couple to have a look at:

Angelina @ Waikowhai Primay

I love this post because of it's multi-modality (is that a word?). Instructions, images, quotes and video!

Mahrosh @ Hay Park School

This post blew me away because Mahrosh has only completed a handful of blogposts yet he has the courage and foresight to share different stages of his work, not just the finished product.

I can't wait to use these bloggers as role models in Term 2 Cybersmart sessions!

I'd love to hear other people's thinking around encouraging and supporting blogging as well as keeping engagement up in Google Meet sessions and distance learning in general.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Ngā mihi

Distance Learning Week One

Well, what a week! I feel exhausted from just a couple of days of distance learning and I don't even have my own class to teach! But my overwhelming feeling is of pride in the wonderful teachers and leaders in the Ako Hiko cluster (and all over the country) for the amazing effort they have put into making the transition to distance learning as smooth as possible.

I'm extremely grateful for the collaboration and support the lead teachers of schools have been giving each other, the enthusiasm with which teachers with differing levels of experience have adapted their sites and set up Google Meets with their classes and with the gusto with with students have been posting on their blogs. This post is really to share and celebrate the awesome successes I have seen already.

I've been really impressed with the class sites I've seen with teachers considering how to make them visually appealing to students while keeping them simple and easy to navigate. This is true from new entrant classes up to Year 7 and 8 and also from beginning teachers through to more experienced staff. Here are a few examples:

I've also been inspired and enthused by students posting on their blogs and seeing teachers and support staff leaving positive, thoughtful and helpful comments.

Zara @ Waikowhai Primary

Gaylene @ Hay Park School

Floyd @ Owairaka District School

And I also need to acknowledge the vast raft of support that has come from the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme and from facilitators around the country. I couldn't imagine being in the role I am in without the advice and expertise that is oozing from such an amazing group of professionals. Thanks team!

Moving forward my efforts with the cluster will channelled into blogging and engagement. I'm asking myself (and others) how we can best support students to blog independently and effectively, especially those who haven't had any practice at this (check out some 'how to' videos o the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site). In terms of of engagement, students seemed engaged by the Google Meet sessions. Our challenge may be how to keep the enthusiasm and engagement up as the days and Meets go on.

Ngā mihi.

DFI Session Six

Kia ora. Today we focused on 'Connected.' Dorothy made an excellent point about how hard it is to connect with someone who doesn't share. My thoughts immediately jumped to the Ako Hiko Google+ Community and the Ako Hiko Blog, both of which need a bit of an update and a push.

Gerhard's slides around Google Sites had some great reminders. I like this quote by Rebecca Jessen:

And this slide is a great visual for explaining the two main aspects of an effective site:

We were able to get feedback on our class sites (or for me the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site) and were then gifted time to work on them. Based on Rebecca Jessen's quote and on feedback from my peers I decided to focus on making sure the site:

• Had multiple texts to support each lesson
• Used multimodal texts to engage students
• Had a choice of different create tasks for learners

Here is the Cybersmart page. As ever it is a work in progress.

Ngā mihi

DFI Session Five

Hump day of the DFI course already! Today we kicked off with Dorothy talking about visibility. I enjoyed the explanation of it being as simple as 

'Can you see it?' 

This means can students, whanau and colleagues all see content easily? It reminded me of another quote that went something like: 'It's not ok to keep doing something wrong if someone next door is doing it right.' Now with sites and blogs the 'next door' isn't limited to our physical buildings. So how can we make sure all teachers are 'getting it right!'

The WillIAm story is inspirational and also a perfect example of how important visibility is. If Manaiakalani was not as visible as it is think of what they would have missed out on. I will definitely be checking the Ako Hiko school and class sites to make sure they're are visible as possible. And what other ways are there for us to increase our visibility in the community, the country and the world?

Additionally we looked at multiple texts and multi-modal texts. A great reminder that...

 there is no one size fits all.

This got me thinking, how do I reflect this in Cybersmart sessions? Especially when I don't know the learners as well as the classroom teacher. Can I always offer an option to shift up or down? 

Creating these multi-modal resources using Google Sites will be invaluable during distance learning. One thing I will be bearing in mind is...

can this resource stand on its own? 

I created this site with the big question of 'What would we need to take to Mars with us? I tried to refine my site so that there was lots of engaging content but not too much scrolling to do.

My Site

And my last takeaway was to click the box to receive replies on comments that I leave on blogs. I can't believe I've never noticed this button! #lifelonglearner