DAY 2-DFI-Workflow Agenda

Today in DFI we began our morning journey with Dorothy telling us more about the Maniakalani pedagogy and Kaupapa. Dorothy explained to us how digital technology accelerates learning through the acronym RATE (recognise, amplify, turbocharge, effective practice) 

I think with my teaching practice integrating digital technologies has increased my effectiveness as a teacher.

Today I learnt how to organise my gmail better as well as my tabs. i was able to pin many of the main or important tabs. I also obtained some really hot tips with my organisation of files to make my workflow easier & smoother.

The main tools that we focused on today were Google meets and calendar. We learnt how to create a google event or meet and we learnt how to invite colleagues to it. We had a lot of time today to present our screens and collaborate and troubleshoot with people in our bubble.

The video above is one of my colleagues who has recorded the meeting between her and I earlier this afternoon commenting on one of the students blogs. It gave us the opportunity to practice on google meets what we had learnt & how to set a google meets up.

Day 1 DFI-Core Business

Today was our first day of DFI- We are doing this course over 9 weeks online using the platform Google Meets. Today was a day that gave us insight of the Manaiakalani origins. Dorothy outlined the development of our pedagogy and Kaupapa. She stated how throughout the years that the Maniakalani has been about people who have had aspirations, they have innovated, they have collaborated, and provided evidence to form partnerships.

Although I had heard bits of the story once before, it just made me realise how immensely blessed and grateful I was to be a part of this experience. We were reminded as teachers that having access to these different digital tools is a positive thing but to really experience how awesome they are it is a necessity that we are aware of how they work to get the most out of them. 

The PURPOSE of DFI, is that it is a course that offers teachers digital support so we can become more creative, effective and efficient facilitators in the classroom. Today we spent some time learning how to use google docs more efficiently. I did find using Google Docs a bit difficult at first as my class are year 2 therefore I use explain everything on a daily basis.

However these google tools are very handy to have in your kete. We did learn about a tool that we can use in google docs under tools called voice typing. This tool could be very handy in your reading mileage with your children. This is a great idea, perhaps one that can be explored more with explain everything.

I really enjoyed how to use the tool "remove bg" this is a tool I could see myself using quite a bit.

 

I have created a infographic that I can use with my year 2's in class to prompt their writing ideas and  descriptive language and oral language.

Progress after Term 1........

 Progress is not as fast as I would like. You as the teacher can see what Reading Level the child could make it to if the child did not have,

1. Poor school attendance 
2. Poor group attendance because of: sport, other events,
3. Difficult behaviour

Of course there are other factors involved but the above are the main three. When you are faced with these issues (as I have been- with many of my Magenta readers) I then need to look at what else I could possibly do, with these students in a school day -that I may have not thought of.

I then decided to organise a reading pack for the families concerned. The packs consisted of sight words, alphabet cards (for letter and sound knowledge) and I explained to the Mum, Dad or Auntie what the cards were for. (I must admit though that the parent/teacher interviews allowed me to introduce the idea of these at home support cards for their tamariki) especially the children that I observed with "high absenteeism".

I now tend to start my school day at 8.30, with getting these children to read in the mornings to me and go through their alphabet letters and sounds After the morning roll I play an engage game focusing on oral language or play "other" games that have a emphasis on oral language. I tend to do this in the mornings and afternoons. I have altered my class timetable to my children's needs.

There has been movement of 14 of my children. These children have moved up at least one Reading level and at least 5 of the 14 have moved significantly. But the idea is that we want momentum and we can only get this through routine.

So what are the next steps for my Inquiry?

 In my last message I noted that there would be a significant impact on my teaching practice in regards to what I taught, when I taught and how I taught. On the balance of evidence collated and on reflection of what was being taught, I needed to introduce a few activities in my daily timetable. Some old and some new.

I will address this issue through explicit instruction. With the old activities I just need to consistently use them during reading time. The Gwyneth Phillips prompts will draw the children's attention and make them more aware of the language they need to be using. ie "You said.......what would you expect to see for.........."  focusing on oral language at the end of a reading the text ie (conversations with the group/comprehension questions about the text), word families, magnetic letters that can be manipulated and the good old whiteboard and whiteboard marker/for the writing out of words, especially HFW . In the mornings before school starts at 9am this time can be utilised and I can introduce alphabet sounds by way of alphabet cards.

What is my focus for 2021? The problem.....

 

In 2021 I have decided to focus my attention on reading, primarily with the intention of lifting the reading level not only of my priority learners but also for my other low readers.

This year I have 9 people reading at Magenta, 2 people at Level 3 Red, and 1 on Level 6, 3 more on blue, and 5 students on Green, totalling 20 students. Evidence taken through testing and observations indicated that half my class (below Level 6)  all had very low letter/sound knowledge. 

Target Group -Half my class are at the early stages of language development. Therefore it is important that in ones progression of reading that the children are able to hear sounds and patterns used to make up a word. It also requires children to notice how letters represent sound.  "If children can understand that words can be divided into individual phonemes and that phonemes can be blended into words, they are able to use letter-sound knowledge to read and build words." Wise R (Teach phonemic awareness: An Early Reading Skill, with these 5 fun strategies)

How do I correct this? I realised that I would need to implement various activities to address this issue over my teaching day. In essence this would have an effect on my teaching practice because it will alter what I teach, when I teach and how I teach.

Room 26 T1 PENN 2021 World of movement.

 

End of year reflection.

 Looking back on 2020, it has been difficult school year to consistently give my priority learners the guidance and apply any deliberate and explicit acts of teaching .

This just meant that when the children did come to school, I spent the mornings reading with my priority learners as well as our nominated time for reading everyday. I was very happy to see that by the end of the year there was some "movement" or "progress" with all 6 of my children. 

Sia went to Level 8, Harmeny went to level 7, Amelia went to level 7 and Malakai went to level 9. One thing I have observed throughout this year is the fact that support from Home goes a long way this adds to the individual child's learning and progress. But it is now so pleasing to see the individual child put the very strategies I consistently portrayed when I was with them, into play. You see them asking themslves and each other does it sound right? does it make sense? They are breaking words down they are looking to the picture for clues and they are sounding that initial letter out.