Day 8-DFI-Computational thinking

Our focus for DAY 8 was computational thinking. We talked about the empowerment of our children and how we are shifting from Passive consumers to be the creators of our stories, music and films. We do more than just interact with our devices we are actually involved in the process. We become the innovators, the designers and the creators. We also got to look at the different elements that made up Computational thinking

I actually found a lot of this language helpful for myself in regards to making sense of things I use or do sometimes everyday.

We want to get to a point where the Digitally Fluent student is working alongside of the Digitally Fluent Teacher. We got the opportunity to explore different coding apps that students could use.

I wanted to focus more on Scratch Junior as this is an app that my class tend to use on a weekly basis. I must admit I always say to my class if I have given them free choice that that does not mean they can go on Scratch Junior (as I do think to myself that its not productive and they are not learning anything.) Yet when I was given the opportunity to investigate various sites under Scratch Junior I was v impressed.

So the above is a screenshot of the different tools the user has available to them to help them create and code. But I have attached a link for you to look at that tells you all about this amazing app for children.

I actually love what MIT Media lab (Creators of this app) have to say about Scratch. They state how young children get to express and create with their computers. How being involved in the "process" helps them solve problems, design projects. It also exposes them at a young age to math and language that is meaningful. This idea or concept is very impressive and it has changed my whole outlook to scratch and how I will use it in the future.

T2 PENN Movie Room 26

Day 7-DFI-Devices

 Today Dorothy spoke about Ubiquitous learning. Removing Barriers: having young people expand opportunities. Back in the day school was between 9-3 but now thanks to rewindable learning and choice people can learn anytime, any pace and anywhere.

This learning worked well when covid hit us and everyone had to work from home. Today we focused on other children's devices with Ipads, Chromebooks,  Explain everything and Screencastify (Which I enjoyed) Although I use Ipads in my Year 2  class I did enjoy having the opportunity having a play with Chromebooks and I did enjoy the Digital Dig and keyboard shortcuts were really useful.

We also looked at Cybersmart. The importance of it in the classroom. Our brief for the afternoon was to CREATE a screen recording talking through a lesson. This was just a snapshot. I covered Smart relationships/ Quality blogging comments. As I was wanting my learners to become more engaged with this process.

I really enjoyed the session today as I got to try Screencastify- I chose not to turn my camera on, I just recorded my voice. Below is what I managed to record,

Day 6-DFI-Enabling Access, Sites Agenda

We had the opportunity to look at other teachers class sites from all different year levels and got to evaluate them with our Bubble groups. We got to look at the great things we could take away from these sites and notice the things that perhaps would not work with our year groups.

We learnt about 2 main criteria that make a google site successful-visual appeal and functionality. Thanks to Makaore who was quick to point out a few things that one needs to consider when building a site for your learners. He started the discussion by paying tribute to a wonderful quote by Stuart McNaughton who heads the Woolf fisher department and after analysing a lot of data, had the following to say........

Makaore points out that the purpose of a Google Learning Site is  to empower all learners in a digital environment. So when you are building a your class site you should keep in mind that learning is accessible anywhere, anytime, anyspace, it is rewindable (so you have the opportunity at anytime to view it) your planning and teaching is visible. There are weekly overviews and timetables. You can access your learning during lockdown. Your site should become a hub of information about events, groupings, and events and progressions for both learners and parents.

I am very happy with Team 2 site. This is a collaboration of 4 teachers (as we work in a ILE) Below are screenshots of our site for/our space

We have created big colourful buttons for these year 2's to access their work.

Then under every heading for reading, writing, and maths the children are in groups with group names, they push their group name and it will lead them to their activities for the day.

We have created a Home learning button where they can access videos, hangman, puzzles

The site is very compatible with the needs of our learners in this space and it is very easy to navigate. But this is T2 and any site is always a work in progress (as things are constantly changing) and as educators we are constantly evolving reflecting these changes in our sites.

DAY 5-DFI-Collaborative Teaching and Learning.

 

Click on the picture to see the google site I created today.

Dorothy reminded us how important it is to keep learning visible not only to us but to all whanau. This concept makes us fall in line with the Treaty of Waitangi, the participation component.

She stated that success had always been  measured upon the learners being able to jump into the teacher's head and be on "the same page" but she did counteract that "idea" further reinforcing "success" needing to be equitable and therefore accessible to everyone. 

Kerry Boyde-Preece mentioned that our class sites should be "Multi modal" for our learners. Multi modal learning is when teachers provide several different types of resources to enhance a lesson. By creating Multi modal google sites we basically  have the understanding that with learning it is not a 1 size fits all philosophy but  we are able to provide a number of different options to cater  for a range of abilities. 

This has other benefits as well, our learners are engaged, motivated and really excited about their learning.  The power that you have as a teacher in using this platform enables you to plant seeds to produce life long learners.

Kerry Boyde-Preece made a really cool analogy she stated that not only is your Class site an extension of your classroom but its very similar to a shop window-in the same way they are selling to the consumer -we too are selling what we have to our learners- it is our site that is our hook. 

DAY 4-DFI-Dealing with Data.

 Today Dorothy spoke about the Share aspect of the Manaiakalani "Learn, create and share" pedagogy.

She introduced the topic with such a cool analogy, she commented that "we have been sharing since time began" food, stories, our visions. To think through social media platforms, facebook, twitter, you tube these platforms empower us to communicate to the rest of the world our very own thoughts, ideas, learnings, and also being able to create collections of feedback and feedforward..Powerful stuff. Sharing is part of our DNA our social fabric.

Dorothy mentioned 'sharing with Purpose" allowing our learners to have an authentic audience, whether that be one another, the local community or beyond.

We use the platform blogger which allows our learners to connect with others which was not available before the digital age.

Today was a good day. I had a great opportunity to delve further into google maps. I saw how useful this tool would become with learners, if you simply wanted to show them their surroundings (like a geography lesson or a history lesson) it would be great to just be able to show my children around their community. Below is a google map showing all my favourite beaches in my community.

We also got to create a graph in google sheets. I have always wondered how people have been able to visually represent trends through graphs on their blogs. Well now I know! This is a tool I will be able to use in my teaching practise. Below is an example of how I was able to pull information from my google sheet and display the same information in a visual way.

Reading Inquiry.

 Now that I have been taking my reading groups on a regular basis and I have done a few running records (not an expert, by any stretch of the imagination)  I have got a better gauge of where my children are at, and where they need to be. But in essence I guess this whole journey has given me an indication of what strategies I need to implement to get them to where they need to be.

I was initially interested in letter-sound relationships to help my kids accurately decode words, but now  I have included more "word work" topics which have not only benefited my priority group but all of my readers, therefore I plan on lifting  the reading level not only of my priority learners but also for my other low readers in my class.

I have been able to identify through running records  the importance of vocabulary building for every child in my reading class. I have tailored what goes into my word work sessions depending on the particular needs of that reading group. This is a work in progress and is changing all the time. The challenge for me is that I have 6  reading groups and need to get through at least 3-4 per day.

There are many ways of building up ones vocabulary. But I simply want to be consistent with the rest of the school and use strategies and ideas that have been used on our kids before and have been successful in the past and that are going to be of benefit to our kids.

With my lower groups I focus on 1:1 finger pointing, DOS, and the making of a high frequency words from the text (made from magnetic letters) for the week. With my Higher reading groups I focus on Sight words, 1-2 comprehension questions, and Word families taken from the text. made from magnetic letters. Whenever the group reads the text I reinforce the Gwenneth Phillips prompts, I do believe that the progress I have made to date just confirms that my teaching practice is commendable as my reading results reflect this so far.

But it is important to realise that as stated before this is indeed a work in progress and as different people observe -my practice is constantly tweaked and improved.