Learn, Create, Share

I missed yesterday's Lockdown post, but in my defence I've been feeling a bit poorly as I've had a head cold.  I spent most of yesterday working my way through a Neon (TV) series I've had my eye on.  But here I am today... back into it!  

I've just been in commenting on our Senior/Matamua class blogs, and I'm super impressed with Room 21's - Learn, Create, Share.  I was also really inspired by Chloe and her bravery to give the Toolkit on Minecraft a go (Learn) and to share it on her blog.  So here I am sharing the story on what, I've been giving a go! 

Second confession.  I'm a terrible cook. I also have a woeful oven (does that sound like an excuse) at the moment while we are waiting to move and renovate our cottage... but that's another story, for another blog post.  I digress...  What I was going to say was that I have been inspired to try and learn a new skill a day over Lockdown.  Now I decided baking isn't my 'thang' and in fact, my family would thank me for not trying out any new recipes (mean aren't they).  I did however decide that I wanted to learn how to 'braid'.  As in hair braiding.  I love watching Youtube videos of amazing hairstyles... and I often think, I'd love to do that on my girls.  

I'm quite late on arriving at hair braiding (and fancy stylz), as my girls are 11 and 14 and I'm not sure the 14 year old will actually agree to me doing it any longer.  But hey, as the saying goes... never too late!  

So for the last two days, I've committed time each day to find some new YouTube clips and to practise new hair braiding techniques.  Rewindable learning is the best.  The ability to stop and watch something over and again is super helpful - I LOVE it.  

So I'm going to be as brave as Chloe is and I've posted a pic of my 'Dutch Braid' - first night attempt, on my model (Lily).  

Thanks Chloe.  Learn, Create, Share!  

Here is a link to Chloe's Minecraft post

Feedback welcome on techniques to make the braid tighter?  Or any Youtubers that you think I have to check out!

* I also think that if I do this everyday for the entire Lockdown that I'm bound to get better :-)

 Lockdown - Alert Level 4.  Here We Go (Again)

So much can change in the blink of an eye!   Today marks the third day of Alert Level 4 Lockdown for Auckland.  

I am going to use this "opportunity" to get up to date with my blogging and to commit to a daily blog.  Let's see how I go with that! 

Reflections... What a week! In the words of Ron Burgundy, "That escalated quickly." But there is a #winoftheweek to be found everywhere.

My wins of the week are:

* Family time - you can't beat it.

* Sunshine (18 month old puppy) is enjoying having us at home, and over the past two days we've been out for 2x, 2 hour walks.   * Photo credit to Lily, who took this picture of Sunshine for one of her Distance Learning tasks.  

* The amazing responsiveness from our school community to adapt to the sudden changes.  

* Our teaching team has have 'pivoted' so quickly to move to online connection and learning.  

* The NWS Senior Leadership Team - who get on and do their thing.  Everyone doing their bit for the collective good

* Catching up on some admin that I've been remiss with over the past few weeks.  

* Sean is back into the swing of yummy lockdown dinners.  Tacos tonight.  

Look after yourselves,  I special thought to our Lynfield College Community at the moment who are right in the middle of the COVID-19 hotspot!

Be kind, be strong, be you.  

Google Accreditation - Week 9 DFI.... survived....

 

Google Accreditation - Week 9 DFI... Survived...

Completely fried! That's how I feel as I sit to complete my final blog post for D.F.I.  Today was 'External Recognition' day and this was an opportunity for the participants of the 9 week Digital Fluency Initiative to complete the Google Level 1 Education Accreditation certificate.   

... I passed!

...Relief

The exam is a mixture of multichoice and scenario (using the Google Suite) based questions. The test was as intense as the course for me (not helped by having a head cold and feeling a bit flat at the end of a long term)!  It starts with the multichoice questions and I had to be careful not to overthink those and to follow good exam technique...

1) Which are the two obvious choices you can rule out

2) Read the question carefully - consider how many choices it is asking you for...

3) Select the 'review question' button and take the opporting to go back and check the answers (if time allows).  

Tip - Ignore the countdown timer for each question.  You have enough time to complete the exam with plenty of time to check and recheck your answers... if you aren't over it by then :-)

Once you are through the multichoice questions you are into the scenario or practical application questions

• Google Docs
• Spreadsheets
• Classroom
• Calendar 
• Sites
• Bookmarks
• Forms 

There were ten scenario questions with a number of requirements to complete in each question.  I felt I made a solid start in the google docs/forms and calendar sections but I did need to take some time in the Bookmark section. I haven't previously set up a bookmark folder and added pages in, so I needed to take my time in this part of the test and step myself through this process logically.  

The trickiest part for me was the spreadsheet and initially I got myself all confused and in a tizzy.  It was the to the point where I had to stop, have a biscuit, a quick break and some very firm self talk that I needed to calm myself down and go slowly.  Once I had my 'head' under control, it was fairly easy to step myself through the requirements. 

I thought there was some interesting 'language' choices in what the questions asked you to do, which I felt could be a bit of a trip up if you weren't reading the questions properly.  Jeremey described the test as a 'logical' exam... and upon reflection I think that's also a good way to describe what it is asking you to demonstrate.

My exam technique clearly is a little rusty and it was good (if painful) to put myself back in a 3 hour test space.  It was a reminder to me about what my own children are going through weekly at College.  I am going to be a lot more supportive and sympathetic when they are complaining about testing week at school!

D.F.I has been an incredible experience for me and I've thoroughly enjoyed the past 9 weeks.  It's certainly taken me outside of my comfort zone as all good PLD does, and I've learnt so much.  A big thank you to Jeremy, Dorothy, Vicki and Jakub for their support along the way.  NWS gave Jeremy/Dorothy a box of chocolates each and explained that each chocolate was for a question asked.  Jeremy cheekily suggested that each chocolate was for one of my tabs that is open!

...maybe when I am feeling brave, I'll give Level 2 Accreditation a whirl :-)  not today though...  

   

Week 8 - Digital Technologies Curriculum

 

Week 8 - Digital Technologies Curriculum

Computational Thinking sounds like a very high falutin title doesn't it!   Week 8 for the Digital Fluency Initiative (D.F.I) was a deep dive into the 'new' Digital Technologies curriculum.  Which brings me to my first point... when is this not 'new'?  How many years do we say this is 'new' before we consider this to be an expectation for 'normal practice'.  Secondly, when you go through many of the achievement objectives of the 'new' curriculum, many of us 'old timers' would say... oh -  it's just that with a new title :-)  Not so scary after all. 

Dorothy, always gives us plenty of food for thought in her sessions.  Today's Connecting with Manaiakalani Pedagogy" was a look into 'Empowerment'. Increasingly, I understand and appreciate the power of language with not only the New Windsor staff but also across a community.  Language gives us the words and ways to share our thoughts and ideas, desires and wishes.  Language becomes more powerful when understood by a wider community that those just closest to you.  Power grows when you can communicate for more reasons to more people.  Simple ideas ar ethe best - always.  The more powerful your language, the more independent you become, and the more you contribute to the community.  It was good to discuss the language choice of 'Empowerment' over 'Agency'.  I've used 'agency' many times in my vernacular over the last couple of years and it gave me pause to think about educational jargon and also the rationale on why Manaiakalani had opted for the later. 

I also had some deep reflection on the statistic of the average income in a Decile 1 community - $19,000 per annum.  When you take a second to really think of what that looks like for a family and the choices (sacrifices) that a whanau would need to make to survive on that you get a real sense of the daily struggle.  Dorothy was so correct when she said - how clever are those families to live on that!  Absolutely - making that dollar stretch across all the needs of a family would involve incredible creativity, resilience, and fortitude.   In addition, I have a renewed passion for the importance of equity and removing barriers!

I loved the Future of Tech session - I am a total Sci Fi geek and I get excited at the prospect of the future.  I remember being completely blown away by the film the Minority Report when it first hits our screens and I consider myself to be one of the early adopters to any new tech going!  I love the latest gadget and I'm usually at the front of the line for any new releases.  Driverless cars can't come fast enough for me.  I do understand the displacement of jobs and industry but I am aspirational  and optimistic that humans are clever and we MUST evolve and adapt.  I for one am not scared of change.  

Arghhh the angst of the Moral Machine activity.  Can I just let you know Dorothy, Jeremy/Jacob this raised some very contentious dinner conversation on Saturday night.  Choosing between whether the dog or cat would live....  wow - the volume got loud :-) No spoilers on the rest of my decisions!  By the way....I would choose the dog! I also realised I'm one of those annoying people that simply can't make a straightforward decision. I was looking for loopholes in every scenario, so that I would not need to commit to a decision and how I could give everyone a chance to survive (face palm).  

Check it out and see what I mean... link

Thank you for your ongoing patience with supporting us towards the Google Accreditation process in Week 9.  On Friday night I started one of the tutorials and I am going to dedicate some time over the next couple of days to prepare for both the 'Classroom' and 'Sheets' component of the exam.  

So... I'm wondering did Austin go back to Pt England talk about the teachers that he taught Scratch to?  After a short demo and trial using Scratch I had an appreciation of how invested Austin was in the games he had developed and the level of sophistication in his coding - mind blown!

Roll on Week 9... I'll be sad when D.F.I is over!  I'm also well into the flow of my weekly Blog post now and like everything it's a discipline that you work on with practice!  Now to keep it up.    

    

DFI - Looking at Devices

 

DFI - Looking at Devices

I am well and truly into the Digital Fluency Initiative (DFI) 'swing of it' now.  We are 7 weeks into the programme and I'm picking up skills left right and centre. I've been chatting with people who have finished this programme and it's been great sharing our learning(s) and take-aways - fantastic learning in itself.  For example Sheree, the Tumuaki from Hay Park showed me her toolbar at our Kahui Ako meeting and that was another lightbulb of how I can not only have individual pages across this toolbar but also folders.  A no brainer... and one of those examples, where you think - of course! 

The focus of today's session was an opportunity to learn about Chromebooks and iPads and the devices that our young people are using everyday.   Jeremy's Digital Dig showcased some keyboard shortcuts for Chrome.   It took me a second to realise that these shortcuts were for Chrome (while you are using that browser) and in which case i could still use them on my Macbook (facepalm).  Picking up and using a few new shortcuts each week will positively impact on my workflow and I'm keen to incorporate these into my practice.  

Being on the Chromebook in itself was interesting.  Although I'm not face to face with learners I took the point of Dorothy's suggestion about encouraging teachers to put their laptops away over the Christmas break and to spend some time on the device.  It took me a while to adjust to the keyboard size and the mousepad (good to feel that frustration, I think) but I think it's important to practice in this space when you will need to support learners with troubleshooting issues etc...

Thinking about Workspaces, Explain Everything and Screencastify(the apps that were showcased this week) I'll definitely be looking for opportunities to use Screencastify to support navigating our school sites e.g Staff Intranet, Local Curriculum site.  Fiona demonstrated that it's really powerful for teachers to have the students showcasing their classroom sites using this tool in their own voices. 

Back to the prompts for today's reflection process and a think back to Distance Learning 2020/beginning of 2021, I am keen to look for opportunities to make the learning rewindable.  For example an action we can take immediately is to start recording our staff meetings.  Dorothy explained that at Pt England School this is a delegated staff members task.  I think we could look at getting a team set up around this for our PLD on DMIC, Spiral of Inquiry etc... Great for a variety of different purposes

• Inducting new staff members
• Making the learning rewindable - checking understanding 
• A good support for people who are absent from the PLD session

I think we could trial a few different platforms for this recording, but I am thinking we try Google Meet in the first instance, and potentially record this on an iPad with a tripod.  

I am also pondering the concept of asking the Team Leaders to record their team meetings and to reflect on - engagement, contribution, collaboration, their ability to support an evaluation and monitoring process with staff.  Great for personal insight in to developing Leadership Capability.  

Focus in the coming weeks:

• Looking at the ICT budgets for the ICT expenditure of iPads.  Our digital strategy to get more devices into the hands of our Year 1 - 3 students
• Explain everything - PLD support with Phil, using this App in our Junior School
• How can we make the learning rewindable for our teachers

I am also going to commit to repeating DFI in another couple of years because one thing we know is that technology moves on and keeping up is a personal responsibility.  

Enabling Access - Topic of the day

 

Enabling Access

Super timely for me was the publishing of the Puaotanga Review report (in my inbox) with my participation in Week 6's Digital Fluency (DFI).  - Enabling Access was the topic of the day.  Lot's of thinking and reflecting as I engaged in my sixth DFI day and also read the 78 page independent review of staffing in our Kura's!  

What we do know....Schools, teachers and principals know that in the 21st century (and let's face it, we've been in this century for 21 years now) that every learner must acquire the knowledge, skills and dispositions they will need for life-long learning in a rapidly changing knowledge-based society. In order for that to happen, schools must be fit for purpose.   Questions:  So what is fit for purpose, what does this look like in OUR context....

You can probably smell the brain cells burning...

The connecting session with Dorothy was another deep dive into the Manaiakalani pedagogy and an opportunity to link/make connections back to New Windsor Schools Local Curriculum development and emerging curriculum.  I love the metaphor of the 'house' - the roof, the joists, the foundations as different components of the whare and components of the kaupapa and their importance and how they all work in together. 

So how do we enable our learners... How do we look for our akonga to be connected - within the school, community, nation and world.  Action:  Looking at this with our staff will be an excellent 'work on' as we continue to develop our curriculum.  

I can't remember what part of the day this was mentioned, but I am keen to plan for regular whole school sharing of Learn, Create, Share examples.   The professional discourse amongst teachers and collaboration of this sharing will be an excellent way to make the learning visible, connect, empower our teachers!  I LOVE this!

As the staffing review has demonstrated. Teachers are time poor (increasingly everyone is time poor).  We need to be strategic, we need to think how we will get the most bang for the buck with our high leverage practices.  I am relating this across the professional learning I have engaged with recently.... Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC), Relationships First - Teaching to the North-East, I am making connections to the key themes in what effective practice is and the strategies that have the most significant impact on teaching and learning.  

All educators love the time to work on a project they are personally engaged in.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to make a start on New Windsor Schools Local Curriculum google site.  I am planning for this site to be:  Connection to the story of New Zealand/History,  learning about New Windsor Schools story/history, connection to our local Iwi.  I valued the time to look at examples of other teachers google site, and the chance to ask questions and be supported in my digital bubble.  Thanks team - I LOVED the day!

My big commitment over the next couple of months is to keep looping back to grow this site with our team as we walk our Local Curriculum project together.  

Thank you Vicki for accomodating our team back into the online cohort for another Thursday. We are back to our Friday Face to Face group next week and finishing off the last couple of sessions of this amazing PLD.  

Week 5 Digital Fluency Initiative - Collaboration/Google Sites

 

Week 5 Digital Fluency Initiative - Collaboration/Google Sites

A return to the online format for DFI for Maria and I yesterday.  This saw a change of cohort and day to make up the lesson that we were going to miss through our Accord Day, Kahui Ako professional learning.  I don't know what it was, but yesterday, was considerably easier for me. Wendy (the Assistant Principal at New Windsor) has given me a good name for this - I'm developing 'match fitness'.   I felt more confident in the online space and am finding it easier to attend throughout the days as my skills develop, and I get used to the speed of the facilitation. 

I was a fairly early adopter to google sites and have operated both personal sites (for a variety of reasons) and professional school sites (staff intranets) at three of schools.  I even remember the original google sites - classic, which I think makes me sound a little long in the tooth.  I think the refresh has been incredible and it's links seamlessly to google drive, the full suite and as always it's ease of use making it incredible for collaboration.  I often use the metaphor of a 'filing cabinet' for google sites, but yesterday's professional learning gave me some great insights into the power of the 'look and feel'.  "Multi-modal" was probably my buzz word from yesterday and it's given me a fresh perspective on the power of the hook for engaging the audience.  

The notion and importance of the landing or home page as the window or hook into the content for the learner made me think that I need to spend some time looking at the NWS site and planning for:

• Refresh/tidy up
• Hook/engagement
• SiSoMO - Sight, Sound, Motion
• Ease of use

I love to come away and think of an opportunity to use my new found skills and tips in an authentic task/opportunity and I have decided to commit to moving one of my google slide presentations on the school Local Curriculum development/school history into a 'site'.  I think there is more opportunity in this app to share the resources using the SiSoMo philosophy of * Sight * Sound * Motion.  With some time over the long weekend, I'm going to make a start!  

I really enjoyed the opportunity to have a look at the T-shaped Literacy database created by one of the wonderful contributors to the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers.  I'm going to follow up with Paulette, Maria and Phil next week on how we plan to introduce this into our teaching and learning programmes.  I am mindful of the number of initiatives we have on the go and how full everyone's plate is, but I think it is worthwhile putting this pedagogy on the table for discussion and seeing where it fits in the 'grand plan'.  

Insights

* The Hapara Hot tips are always a really interesting and valuable 15 minutes in the programme and as New Windsor School gets up and running with our individual student blogs this will be very helpful in being able to contribute and make the learning 'visible'.  

* Some new tips and reminders in Google Site and considerably more understanding on the importance of layout

* In the busyness of a working week it's not very often that I get an opportunity to check out teacher websites and it was great to see some high quality examples of multi-modal sites, and also T-Shaped Literacy.  I really appreciated this opportunity.  

* The importance of the notion of visibility in the learning and removing barriers - e.g locking parents/whanau out through passwords!  Visibility is essentially set as the default mindset.

A big thank you to Vicki, Phil and the wider team for being so welcoming and accomodating in facilitating our request to move days. 

Note to myself that I need to go back and ensure I can 'present' with the new update to Google Meet.... I think I need to set up a system preference in my Mac to enable this....