Key Note Speaker - Subash Chander K
Site - https://sites.google.com/view/infinityplusone/
subash@ojc.school.nz
Relationships matter - There are no limits
Come, listen, trial, share, and be challenged by the feedback you get - this will move teaching practice.
Don't be afraid to share. If we are trying something different in our classrooms we should be sharing it back into our communities. "The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you can become." Eric Thomas / Charles dickens.
In life, things nowadays are all online and can be accessed whenever, wherever... so why is education not following this same trend. Currently we have online food, movies, music but often learning is still locked into this notion that physically being with learners is the only way for us to teach. When we think about how technology can be harness this online element so that learning can also be whenever and wherever. This is very much along the lines of our Manaiakalani Pedagogy.
Subash also shared how he created a uTube channel that did exactly this, and how through this process not only did his teaching grow but also students were able to access it a key moments in time when it is of most use to them. He also shared how this also helped grow others around him as they also began recording videos so that they could also help the students in their classes.
"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" - Jim Rohn
Workshop one - Tech tools for teaching
Flip Grid - A quick video tool that shares videos in one place. Great for collecting pre or post-unit understandings.
Tinkercad - A 3D construction tool where students can use this to create using different shapes. It also looks at perspectives and puts into place the 3D element - Blockscad is another version that may be simpler for younger children.
Desmos - Cool graphing tool - can also be used for art creating.
Lots of other sites/tools were shared but most of these were aimed at secondary school students (so emailed these off to by sons so they can look over and see what they think.
Workshop Two - Mathematical Minds in Year One
This was fantastic - Really enjoyed sharing our Mathematical minds in year one presentation. It was a shame that numbers at the conference were so low but it did enable lots of discussion and questioning as we ran our workshop. As a result, we didn't get through all of our slides but due to the ongoing discussion and questioning, this was not a problem. Diane Ogle is also planning to bring people up to visit us in class to see this in action so that should be fun too. At the end, we also got a lovely thank you card and gift voucher. Totally unexpected but much appreciated as well as the presentation had taken us lots of time to prepare. The bonus however is that much of our teaching by inquiry for the year has been summarised within this presentation.
Workshop Three- Cuisenaire and Creativity
This was a great workshop and something that SJ and I had been looking forward to since we signed up. We have heard all about Ali and her Cuisenaire workshops and it was a definite highlight for the day.
The workshop not only confirmed and affirmed our approach to introducing Cuisenaire rods in our classrooms but also gave us LOTS of ideas on how and what we could include next. We are currently waiting for a few more Cuisenaire rods to arrive (as we were needing to restock our white, red, and pink (1, 2, and 4) blocks. We also got very excited about the possibility of using these rods to coincide with our topic of local and national landmarks and how we could also use Cuisenaire rods to represent these places as well as using them to read maps (at a very junior level of course) and to integrate with the use of our Beebots. Can't wait to get back to school to try some of this stuff out.
Cool phrase - "Park your thinking on the table".
SJ and I also got quite interested in the history of Cuisenaire rods and started doing a little digging - So much more we could learn.
