DFI Week 9- He Mātai Whakamuri

 Today we had our final session for DFI. This involved completing our Level 1 Google Educator exam. I was extremely nervous to do this but I ended up passing. 

He Mātai Whakamuri- Look back at the last nine weeks.

The biggest learning for me has been reflecting on my own teaching practice. During practicums and whilst being a beginning teacher we reflect a lot in order to develop as teachers. I noticed during these 9 weeks how I have not been reflecting as much since I became fully registered. It has been great to be able to restart this. Most of my reflections over this course were based around the morning korero as I started to think about how I can use digital technology more in my hub. 

Along the way, I have learnt many helpful tips and tricks which have supported me greatly- especially in Google Sheets and Google Forms. These little tricks really help with the functionality of the apps but are also great time savers.

Using Google sites is definitely the highlight for me as I had been previously using it for my hub website but not to its full extent. I like that you can set up google sites for different subjects or activities then just link them that way. 

Today I also completed the Master Screencastify course. This was a good way to find out how else I can use screencastify in my classroom. 

I am looking forward to continuing my digital journey as it is something that will never end!

DFI Week 8- He Mātai Whakamuri

This morning we talked about students being Empowered in their learning. During this korero, I realised how lucky my students and I are to have one-to-one devices. Half of my hub have their own devices and the other half use classroom chromebooks. It makes it so much easier for them to use a digital device if they are not having to share like students had to in my first year of teaching. A big part of my classroom culture is empowering my students. Many of them come into intermediate believing they have no strengths. Using digital devices enables the students to recognise their strengths. Especially if they are considered an 'expert' in a particular field. Working online also means my students can easily work at their own levels across the curriculum. In most scenarios, the students are not aware of what level everyone is working at so there is little to no discrimination there. 

I am currently wondering about what I can do in my classroom programme to help my students with their digital technology journey. It's difficult to do this myself as I am not very comfortable with digital aspects. I can use basic google apps for example but not so much with the coding and creative aspect of things. I also want to work on incorporating the technology project-based process into our learning as well. Using scratch will be a great start and I can definitely learn alongside my students. Today was a great opportunity to test out my own skills on scratch and other coding websites. 

At the moment we are preparing our students for the ever-changing digital world. There will be many different digital careers in the future and hopefully, our students will be prepared for that. My students are currently learning about creating online content and having a safe online presence. It will interesting to see how we can incorporate more coding and other creative aspects into our programme. We have done a little bit of mahi in our hub around Gamefroot. Some students loved using this platform but others were understandably confused and got frustrated. I am going to trial using Scratch in our hub to see if this will help their understanding of coding. This is turn should help with using Gamefroot. Below is a task that we did with Kerry in which we had to rearrange her code. I can see how I could use this to set my students up for scratch. They can learn how to create code with pieces that are already there. This will also be setting my students up for success as they won't have to try and reinvent the wheel. 

The greatest joy comes from empowering students to believe in their own abilities.

DFI Week 7- He Mātai Whakamuri

This morning we learned about ubiquitous learning. I liked the idea that learning can continue especially if I had a reliever in my hub they could follow on with the same learning programme. It definitely makes it easier when we go into lockdown. Students are able to use our class site outside of the normal classroom. I am currently working on this site so that we can use it more. At the moment I try to use Screencastify to record tutorials for my students. This works really well as it has many great features. My students have also learned to use this tool through Manaiakalani and also recording assembly videos after lockdown last year. I have also noticed that many of the students I get in my hub each year have lower reading and writing levels than the previous year. It would be great to see how the summer blogging programme makes a difference to this summer slump. 

Today I have been reflecting on how many opportunities I have for my students to rewind their learning. At the moment they don't have a lot of ways to do this. I use screencastify to explain how to use certain tools but that is the extent of it. It will be interesting to see what else I can create using this extension to benefit my student's independent learning. I should also be able to achieve this through multi-modal learning on google sites. This is due to the fact that they will have access to resources such as videos and images at the touch of a button. A site I am creating at moment is the next terms inquiry on financial literacy. We will be looking at Banqer as well as other online resources. I found a Manaiakalani resource on buying online which will be great for my students as they will start to shop online soon. Below is a screencastify of what I could use on my site.

It was great for me to use and work on a chromebook. This means that I can better support my learners on their chromebook. Doing the DFI dig on a hub chromebook was a good way to see how to use a chromebook as I have never really used one myself. I also want to get my students to have a go next week as I imagine there will be a few things they may not know how to do yet. 

During this lockdown, I felt better prepared to work with my students. I had a task check-in sheet so both my students and I knew what learning had been completed. I was able to use google forms to successfully collect information from whānau about internet and device access etc. I want to use my class site more in our classroom learning so that my students are better equipped if we do have to lockdown again. This is one area I would say some of my students struggled with. Using it during class time means they will already know how to use it to its full extent. 

Screencastufy of Smart Money- Buying Online below:

DFI Week 6- He Mātai Whakamuri

 During our korero this morning we learned about the connected kaupapa of Manaiakalani. It was interesting to see how many schools are a part of Manaiakalani and how they are all connected through this. One way I see this already is when a student from another school comments on one of my student's blog posts. I enjoy seeing them react to someone commenting on their mahi. My students were involved in creating graphs for a local primary school which showed who had the most views on their blogs. It was interesting for my students to see how their blogs can be viewed around the world. We also heard about Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu during this session so I have registered my interest. If we participate in this, it would be great for my students t connect with classes around New Zealand, not just Tairawhiti. 

The biggest thing for me was reflecting on my own practice. Getting feedback about my hub google site then making changes on it. Being able to look at other class sites was great as I could see how I could develop my own site. We set some goals about what we wanted to achieve throughout the day. I managed to add a header to my site, as well as startng to add multimodal learning to my hub site. There were a few parts that I found difficult but I managed to sort it out in the end. I look forward to using my site more as we move back into the classroom. 

I am also looking forward to seeing how my students adapt to using our class site more in our normal day to day learning. I don't think they will have any issues with it as long as I keep my site simple and don't overload them with too much information. 

These are some images that show the before and after of my hub site which I was working on today. The third image is the start of a multimodal site. The bottom image is what my site looked like before.