DFI Session Two

Today we got to experience Google Hangouts/Meet. I had already used it many times but today I became familiar with some other features such as turning on captions and sharing my screen with others. I became more confident with creating Hangouts via Google Calendar. It made me think about the possibilities of teaching without necessarily being in the same room as students. I might have a play with this in the coming weeks. 

Google Keep is another app that I have used for years but have never dug deeper enough to find features such as labels and reminders. This should help me organise my many lists and remind me to return my library books on time. I will definitely use the audio feature (after clicking the + button) to record thoughts as I rush between classes. Photo to text (click photo - more actions - grab image text) looks like an amazing feature when looking for resources!


And there's always more to learn about Gmail. From now on I will archive all emails (rather than deleting them or letting them sit in my inbox). I've already archived hundreds of old emails and set up 'reply and archive'. I will also experiment with scheduled send (so that people receive emails when they are fresh in the morning) and I have set up a filter so that all emails from blogger go straight to me 'everything else' folder (settings - filters and blocked addresses - create new filter).

Away from the tech and tools side of things, I found myself again reflecting on the RATE acronym (recognise, amplify, turbocharge, effective practice). I want to encourage more teachers in the cluster to amplify their practice but also need to ensure I am modelling this in my cybersmart sessions in class.

DFI Session One

Kia ora. Today I was privileged to hear Dorothy Burt speak about the history of Manaiakalani and how the learn, create, share pedagogy was founded and has developed over the years. 

I will continue to use voice typing with my students and explore different ways to maximise this tool such as making sure students change the language settings. I may also try using Google Docs with headers set up so that students can use the same doc over multiple sessions.
Today I learnt more about Google Groups and will definitely use the tags and topic features to help find past communication more efficiency. Personally I will use the omnibox to find equivalent measures when cooking and definitions of words when reading. I'm excited to see how these saved seconds will add up over time.

Also I used Google Docs to make this poster to help me learn the Ako Hiko and Manaiakalani karakia.

Reciprocal Reading

Had real success with this in Week 1 with both Kea classes. Great to see students supporting each other and using these prompts and scaffolds. Students were in groups of four and changed roles throughout the week.

Jagged Smackdowns

Everyone is different. In Room 3 we make jagged profiles to show what we're good at and what we need to work on next. This week we researched our goals (e.g. leadership) using YouTube videos but interestingly students got more useful advice from each other. They then shared their tips in a smackdown where they all presented for a minute. A genuine collaborative process.

epro8

Taking the Wesley Wizards to the epro8 (engineering, problem solving, innovation) taught me a lot about collaboration. It was really challenging to sit back and NOT help. But I was proud that they were the only team to take the time to draw a plan before they started building. Good communication and collaboration all round. We ended up coming 7th out of 12 teams with 160 points.