Reading Profile Survey Results

RPI - Day 1 (Friday 13th Feb 2026)

Todays session was base around Reading is Core.

There was lots of sharing and reflecting on what a good reader looks like which lead nicely into the 5 pillars of reading and how this can support us as teachers to create an effective reading programme. It was re-affirming actually that many of the things I use to do at this Year 4-8 level are still the basis for effective reading programmes and ways to effectively accelerate literacy learning in our tamariki.

One of the interesting points that was brought up was that reading itself leads not only to better educational and job opportunities for our tamariki, but it also supports their mental and physical well bring and that the effects of being a reader (regardless of reading ability) is likely to have many other knock on effects to an individuals development.

For me it was about seeing the links between what I had already put into practice this year as well as seeing the relevance of what I had implemented in previous classrooms to still support the structured literacy drive with the new phases 2 curriculum.

I will be interested to see the results of the students reading survey as it links well to a tracking sheet I have already started, related to individuals use of the library use at our school, but also support the discussion on why this as a resource is so important.  WE LOVE OUR LIBRARY AND OUR LIBRARIAN!  It is such a great space to be. 

I also have been trying to get my head around the new structure of our reading program (which has a large whole class focus) which for me hasn't sat well and I have been working out ways to tweek this to reflect the 30-31 amazing learners and their specific needs. I also like the idea of the 'taskboards' (AKA - Presentations) which are similar to junior versions I have used previously.

Blake Foundation

 

Following on from Cluster PD on the 28th of Jan this year the Blake Foundation were invited to our school.  This was such a magic opportunity for our students to see technology in action and using it to experience being totally immersed in a new and meaningful learning environment they would have never been able to experience before.

Today students were able to view and learn about what makes a healthy and unhealthy marine environment.

Technology opens the eyes and the hearts of our students so they can experience and learn both in and about environments that are important to us now and in the future.  Sustainable change must come from the heart.

Thinking ahead to the future:  Blake offers an opportunity for teachers to become more immersed in inspiring environmental leadership.

Kids Tryathlon 2021

This year's group of Weetbix Try-athletes was much smaller than previously.  It was magic to continue to offer weekly training sessions at school to help them all to prepare.  We also had a trial run triathlon prior to the day so students felt prepared for the distances they would need to complete on the day, and to experience the jelly legs as students at Ohaeawai School like to call it.

On the 10th of April, we all received the bad news that although the triathlon would continue the swim leg was being swapped out for an additional run (due to the water at Waitangi being unsafe to swim in).  On the 11th of April Nakita (my daughter) and I got up super early to head to Waitangi to set up our school area.

The kids did themselves proud and all completed the course and had such amazing smiles when they returned to our school area with their medals.  They all did us their teachers and parents proud with their manners and their encouragement towards each other and other students from different schools.  

Seeing students grow in areas outside the traditional learning areas is one thing that makes teaching magic, especially in the areas of values, perseverance, and relationships with others.

Teaching and learning goes beyond what is seen to that which is unseen.  It is not just about what students can read, write and calculate, but also about how they view success, themselves, and the world around them.

 

Weclome to Class on Air

Yesterday a package arrived at school.  Receiving this package was both very exciting as well as extremely scary as it makes this year's professional journey seem even more real.  

Late last year I applied and was successful in being offered the opportunity to be a Manaiakalani Class on Air teacher for 2021.  I am looking forward to sharing what learning looks like in Rural New Zealand schools and within our Kaikohekohe cluster.

As we did not have 1:1 devices in Team Maunga to make Class on Air happen it also meant that I had to change year groups and move to a 1:1 Chromebook learning space.  So this year's professional learning journey is massive, but also very motivating.

These are some areas I will be growing in:

Class on Air - Recording and critiquing practice

New collaborative teaching buddy

New Teaching Level

Using 1:1 devices

Students using blogs to share their learning.

Like my principal has said these are all areas I have strengths and passions in already so this is not a daunting thing but more a natural progression and bringing all these points together to maximize growth in both myself as well as my students.

Change is a catalyst for growth, and if we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always got.

 

Maths PD with Diane

Last week we had Diane Ogle visit again (CORE EDUCATION).  Something that was very clear from this visit is how far we have come from the beginning of our Maths PD Journey.  It will be interesting to review our school wide data to see how this PD has impacted our student's achievement as a whole.  

The 'Maths Journey' began in January 2019 with a TOD focused on teaching maths to mixed ability groups using rich maths tasks.  This was something Maunga Team had at times trialed and tried to make work within our classes in 2018.  We had seen how mixed ability groups worked well within writing and I had heard about 'Bobby Maths' or 'DMIC' so we had done a little research together.  We were all excited and nervous about this journey.  A key phrase that Diane kept telling us on the day was "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon... You will get there in the end".  Speaking to Diane on her last 2 visits it has become apparent that we have reached this point.  

In the past 2 sessions she has been in Maunga she has recorded the teaching session and then snippets of what the children have been doing in their groups.  After the 1st recorded session, we sat down together to go through the recording to analyze the teaching sequence.  Although we didn't get to analyze all (due to technical software issues Diane was having) the message was clear that what we were doing was working from her maths consultant point of view.  This was great as it supported our observations and data to date as well.

Following this recorded observation, SJ and I then presented at the NMA maths conference in Whangarei based on our maths experiences and tasks this year especially.  This went well and Diane also informed us that she was bringing teachers to observe our teaching on her next visit.  When she arrives for this visit she also asks if she can record the session again.  On this particular day, we do not have time to be released to discuss the recordings.  After school, I was able to catch up, as I wanted to discuss the next steps and her recordings (I am keen to be able to review these myself).  She has promised to send these through, and just discussed keeping on with what we are currently doing as it is working.

She also turned the conversation quickly to the next NMA conference and how we should present something around what our next maths tasks are e.g maps and coding.  This is where our learning is going over the next few weeks, so will be interesting and exciting to see how this goes.  This week we will be re-introducing BeeBots but with the focus on Maths Learning, and getting Student to find different things in the class that can represent the same distance as a Beebot moves.  We will also be re-introducing the language of directions.  This is important for us as SJ has many new Students and many of my students have either moved up from Iti (NE room) or moved into Maunga Nui (Y2-3 space).  We are also planning to make our little maths groups a bit bigger to trial running this maths learning as a collaborative Maunga/Iti learning experience.  Especially in the first few sessions when we do more of the unplugged learning.  We will be very interested to see how this goes... I know Diane is waiting to hear as well, so fingers crossed.

AutoDraw - create your own icons

Thanks, Cheryl Torrie for taking this online workshop.  Was a cool tool to play around with.  

Auto Draw 

Today's workshop was all about Auto Draw and turning scribbles into interesting and engaging icons.  There are lots of ways that this could be used in the classroom both by teachers and students.  

One way is for a visual timetable for students, as well as making icons for sites and slide presentations.

I found that you could also use it on the iPad just as easily.  You could also download the drawings to the camera roll and then by opening another chrome tab you could also remove the background.

It will be interesting to see if this can be incorporated into 'explain everything' and other apps that we use in class. - But that will be another day's task.

 Link to Slide deck

Link to Remove Background

Incredibox - Workshop by Phil Margetts

Thanks, Phil for taking this workshop to share with us all another tool to fill our Kete.  

Today's workshop was on a tool called Incredibox.  This is a quick and easy way to mix music to create and record a sound that can then be used as part of a video (as a backing track).  The examples that were shared of this in use were screencastify's that had this pre-setup incredibox sound playing in the background (e.g. in another tab).  This then became part of the screencastify recording.  This is a fantastic idea and so easy to just add a little extra pizazz to a recording.  Loved the workshop.

Link to first trial of this tool

Link to presentation

This was a great tool for Chromebook users as a free "web version", however was not so great for iPad users.  I couldn't find a way to use the web version on the iPad and it kept prompting me to download and use the paid version.  

Still think Garage Band is a fantastic tool for creating music on the iPad - and the kids like to create using it.  Key point to take away ... CREATE MORE!

Nortland Maths and Stats day 2020

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.

Level 1 Educator Certiicate

 Late last week I received confirmation of successfully passing my Level 1 Educators Exam.  Another successful outcome of Northland Term 3 DFI 2020.

DFI - Day 9 - Revision

Exam day

Here we go ready for the 3-hour exam for Google educator level 1.  Fingers crossed.  :-)

Ubiquitous Learning

Ubiquitous learning is all about A3 - Anytime, Anywhere, Any pace (from anyone) - All student-driven and centered.  This is what makes learning now and in the future more engaging, rewindable, and focused shifting students to a higher level of student achievement.  

This year has definitely been the year of ubiquitous learning coming into its own with the need to do distance learning with COVID19. 

High-quality learning is the ultimate goal - where learners are experiencing high-quality learning experiences right now (and all the time) while we are not with them.  This is great for relievers as they are able to just pop in and carry on without us - e.g. the learning is online and accessible and so the learning carries on regardless of the teacher.

School days are no longer 9-3 - Learning carries on outside of these hours.  Rewindable learning is such an important part of this outside of 9-3 hours but it is also a fantastic way to reinforce learning at home and for parents to see what it is we are focusing on.

"Technology enables removal of barriers, previously inconceivable solutions to problems, opportunities for new ways of learning - It's not just a tool" - A quote from the slide deck.

Rewindable learning

Today we were reminded of Rewindable learning.  This is something that has become a guiding principle in what we do in our classroom.  "If it's worth teaching, it's worth capturing" & "if it's worth learning, it's worth capturing" - Rewindable learning makes learning accessible to more learners and not just in class but when-ever, where-ever, and how-ever they learn best.

Completion of DFI

It has been fantastic to learn more about the background of the Manaiakalani pedagogy.  Completing DFI has also given me the time to implement and refine lots of strategies and skills, and actually come up with more inviting and engaging resources for children in my learning space. It also gave me time to streamline other elements e.g. emails.  Many of these things I knew, and have done many of these things YEARS ago but never get around to updating - So DFI has been about reconnecting/reflecting and revising these things. 

DFI - Day 8 - Computational Thinking

 Empowered - Learners and Teachers

“The Manaiakalani kaupapa of empowerment is about the advancing of 

Rangatiratanga; taking back control of their own lives”

Pat Snedden

Choice of words - Manaiakalani point of view

Agency versus Empower

Agency - sounds flasher to an educator but can be confusing and also scare our whanau

Empower is a word that parents/whanau can associate with.

Like always the choice of words we use as educators needs to reflect the audience we have whether it be parents and whanau or students. If we are aiming our talk at teachers then we have a common language but often this shared language base is not the same for whanau and students

Dorothy shared with us a quote about devices

Devices: it's NOT 'just a tool'...

if it's just a tool then it's way too expensive... and we should go back to a cheaper option.

I can wholeheartedly agree with this, as the expense of a device needs to result in a substantial increase in learning opportunities and outcomes that it can deliver (and this is her point)

However ... it is WAY bigger than that.

If we look at devices from the point of view of it being NOT 'just a tool' then the device itself is what is going to improve learning which we all know is not the case.  However, if we look at it from the point of view that 'it is just a tool' then the ownership for transforming educational outcomes is placed on the teacher and indirectly on individual students.  This means that as educators we need to be looking/making opportunities students work on them in ways that do redefine education and learning.  It reminded me of the SAMR model of digital learning.  Devices themselves are useless without a purpose and a direction and although all levels of the SAMR model are important the transformational part of their use happens when students have to grapple with what they are learning, creating, and sharing it in different ways and acting on feedback and feedforward.

So merging Dorothy's quote with my rambling.  The device is what makes a difference, if and when the teacher/educator is looking for ways to transform learning in the classroom. 

AND THIS IS WHAT THE DFI IS ALL ABOUT DOING! - creating, motivating connecting, and reconnecting teachers with the transformative practice that inspires and moves teaching and learning practices in ways that capture, engage and empowers learners to 'be the best that they can be'.   '

The device alone does not do this... It is a big part of the kete that we carry around with us as we work in classrooms.  Just like technology is now integral in our society so too is technology in our educational system.  Without technology assisting learning in the classroom, teachers can not access or make the same shifts as the same opportunities are not available.  The Device and the pedagogy need to go hand in hand TPACK

In addition to this ... 

Devices... "assist the making of connections by enabling students to enter and explore new learning environments, overcoming barriers of distance and time..."

P36 NZ Curriculum (2007)

Devices ..." when it transforms the way we learn, offers us new uncharted experiences and opportunities..."

Dean Shareski (2011)

Empowerment

One of the first things that empower you is having money or access to money, and in reverse, a very powerful disempowerment is not having access to money. This is because many of the choices we have are determined by this. And therefore money gives us the power to choose and not having money locks us into a very narrow set of options (where often there really is no real choice at all).

In addition to this other things either empower or disempower us along the way and for many of our youngsters, their options are limited and or non-existent. Many of our students suffer;

• Disempowerment of community
• Disempowerment through medical
• Disempowerment in Education

We as educators may not have any power over the first 2, and we don't have any power over how students begin in education but we do how the power to make the difference in the third.

Key facts to remember looking forward

• Our kids are arriving so far behind in all areas fine motor, academic ... (close to half a lifetime behind e.g. coming in around 2.5 years to 3 years).
• 32 million words less - in any language - the conversations ... that an adult and a child has.
• Many students we come across are Transient.

Video to watch

The New Technologies curriculum - Computational thinking

Our students need to be active participants in an online world so they can feel apart of a larger community. This is the community that they will need to eventually need to be apart of - e.g. a wider world. They also need to be confident and creative users.

Digitally fluent means that students/teachers decide when and why to use different technologies and tools to complete their work or complete tasks and solve problems. - It means you are able to create their own solutions using digital technologies.

This Create element to learning is becoming more and more important as we think of a thing like a maker movement. This movement looks at the need to develop a mindset of creativity in our students rather than maintaining a consumer's approach.

"Students with this creative capacity and technical literacy will hold the power in the future. They are the next generation of entrepreneurs, and, as some teenagers and younger students have shown us, they are already the entrepreneurs of today".  https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/12/future-made-by-creators-not-consumers/

“The digital curriculum is about teaching children how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies, to prepare them for the modern workforce."

Chris Hipkins, 2018

Digitally fluent students is a natural progression if you have digitally fluent teachers - This is where we are at. As educators, we need to adopt an Agile pedagogy - where it can change and adapt quickly for teachers and for students.

It starts at school with students being empowered and learning in a digital environment.

Digital Curriculum

Today we spent some time unpacking the digital curriculum again, its always a great to be reminded of this and to think of the strand and AO's form a student's point of view. This is also something we have been reflecting on and working on as part of our Digital team meetings at Ohaeawai so was a lovely reminder to keep going.

Technology strands include; Technology Practice, Technology knowledge, and the nature of technology

Technological practice

Planning for practice

Brief development

Outcome development and evaluation

Technological knowledge

Technological modeling

Technological products

Technological systems

Nature of Technology

Characteristics of technology

Characteristics of technology outcomes.

Then there are the Thinking about how technology can be used across the different learning areas and across outcomes.

Computational thinking

Programming (input, output, sequence, iteration, selections, variable)

Unplugged activities

Algorithms

Understanding human behavior

Understanding binary

Robotics

Sphero, Arduino lego, makeymakey

Scratch coding

App development: Code.org

Design and development 

woven every part of the technology curriculum into these progress outcomes. 

Create part of the day

Today the group that I was working in decided to work from scratch.  Most used the scratch on the Chromebook/computer.  As I was the only one teaching juniors I decided to do mine on Scratch Jnr - as this is the medium that my students use.  It was both exciting and frustrating.  I decided to try making a game using Scratch Jnr.  Our facilitator thought this was a good idea and we had a quick look at ones online and decided to go for it. 

The game I created was based around the maths context of chickens and rooster.  This project worked well and this was quickly finished.  

A question I had along the way included can you copy an entire page with all the sprites and coding associated with it and then just manipulate the code.  Short answer ... NO.

Another question I had at the end was now can I share it.  This was the part that was VERY frustrating as the only way the facilitator and I found to share it was merely recording the scratch project (which we had already been doing).  This of course defeats the purpose of having it as a game because the only way it can be shared is as a video file.  I really like the project I had created but have now challenged my daughter to recreate it using scratch on a computer so it can be embedded into our learning site. 

Here is the video of the scratch I had created.

DFI - Day 7 - Devices

Being Cyber Smart - Fiona Grant

Being cyber smart is embedded in our Maniakalani (and Kaikohekohe) pedagogy and we need to empower our students and whanau in this.  Being committed to using powerful positive and language in comments is an important part of this.

Why Cyber Smart - If we want our students to be students who are connected and actively involved in their learning then this is essential as we want to encourage students to be "at home in a digital world" - Kua tangata whenua ki te ao matihiko.

Cyber smart is about being empowered, it is about being proactive and positive online. To create this our Cyber smart teaching program needs to be a purposeful and intentional program.

The goal is about; Creating positive and successful citizens.

Security on devices is like an iceberg - so much is under the surface that BOT is responsible for ... e.g. This is the SECURE part - e.g. Hapara, N4L, Google console, fusion, blogger ... but the bit that sits above is the SMART part - which is where classroom teachers have an important role to play.  The devices are way more powerful and the internet is way more accessible but we need to make sure that our learners are accessing a lot more both inside and outside of school as well.

We need to focus on both parts of this iceberg - Being secure is not enough we need them to learn to be smart - That is where students learn to be connected and a positive digital citizen.  Both are important.

This takes practice - it isn't something that just happens we need to be very conscious about what we are supporting students and how we are using language and content with regards to this. - If both aren't working hand in hand then our students don't have the opportunity to put their cyber smart learning into practice.

Cybersmart is a whole school focus - the talk needs to be the same and consistent throughout the school. - it also needs to be a priority.  Cybersmart values are similar across year levels but the approach and content delivered as part of this program would vary depending on year level.

"Being cyber smart empowers learners to connect with their learning is visible and ubiquitous".

Empowering - Kawa of care - needs to be a lived document (how are we connecting learners with this element of care). - highlight these elements.

"Confidence, connected, actively involved lifelong learners" - NZ curriculum ???

Ubiquitous - Looking after device and keeping it safe because this is their device - them taking responsibility for how they are connecting online. 

Connected - empower our young people to engage in online behavior and thinking that ... elevates positive actions. - learning how to create and maintain a positive 

If they don't have an opportunity to connect online they don thave the authentic context to learn this. 

Visible - "Whenever and wherever we hare online... it's personal!"   - By default what we share is personal - we have to teach them to learn about what is something personal that we can share and something that is not. - not only is id linked to our digital footprint but it is also linked to my personal thoughts as well. - When learning is shared it is personal  - Need to teach them about what is public and private.

New part for me...

Smart Parent - a really important part of our Digital cyber smart program. - Common language - Based around Positive, helpful, and thoughtful - similar throughout school and fo parents too.

Empower our students in this common language so they can have these conversations with their peers and with their parents.

Google sites to empower parents - "Cybersmart learning is at its best when embedded into an existing educational programme."

Hapara - Lenva Shearing

Started off as a little NZ company to fill a gap in what was needed. - all new releases are released to Manaialaki schools to test - so they have huge control over what is happening. - This is good for us because our pedagogy aligns.

Click on the blue star to bring it into your 'my class tab' . - So you can control what you see in this area.

Dashboard - (Dashboard, Gmail, and Sharing) - the first 3 tabs is our access into their Gsuite themselves.

Dashboard - only shows current class folders (the ones that were created at the beginning of the year) and where we get students to file their work - An idea for next year is to check that an extra 'personal' folder is added.

Sharing tab - allows us to see all the things that have not been put in the class folders.

(all docs button - shows all files - those in the folders and those that aren't in the right) - where you can search the ENTIRE drive).

Class groups can easily creatable and visible through Hapara - they will stay the same no matter where you are in Hapara.

Access to Blog and Comments  - Under the More option for primary students - hover if you need to.

Smart share - also found on the dashboard page - able to share and file things correctly. This is better than sharing via google drive or emailing - place them directly into the drive, this will ensure that they are in the right folder and that the students copy is created in the right place and then they can access - Simple Simple way to do it.  As long as its a file (PDF, JPEG Doc ...) in your drive you can share it in this way- doesn't have to be google.

Gmail - clicking on the subject line allows you to check it quickly and not have to download - allows you to see all mail received and all mail deleted/draft/received.

Class info - this is where you can find emails, their ID. Also where you can change your password.

Create workspace through Hapara - Might be a good place to look at - (slide deck on this to review) 

Hapara Highlights - All about visibility and knowing if they are actively engaged or not.

This module is controlled by 2 things - School hours e.g between 8 and 4 - Limited visibility, and the second parameter is the location - e.g. IP location. 

Can pause tabs, close tabs, send messages for why a tab is being closed. and send messages to student devices - can remotely open URLs' for students and have it sent out.

You can block specific sites on this part too!  Highlights also allows you to see the different places your students have been in.

Hapara also has lots of PLD and courses.  We can access and self learn or can have PLD webinars - Just contact Lenva - via email.

Manaiakalani 1:1 Journey

Partnership, Participation, and protection.

Partnership in the learning process

• Teachers with teachers
• learners with teachers
• learners with learners
• families with families.

Participation

• All Learners can participate
• All teachers are supported to become digitally fluent when all devices are the same.
• Engagement through device ownership.

Protection

This happens behind the scenes and incorporates things like teacher dashboard and Hapara, N4L ...

Children's default if they don't know what to do or when the learning is to hard is to default to Utube and games.

Digital Fluency starts with the ability to use the device!

We had lots of time today to play around on Chrome books which was actually quite neat as I have never really used one.  Great to learn so many short cuts and many of them are useable on a normal computer too.

We completed a digital dig slide presentation based on this.  This was a series of slides in a slide deck asking you to do a range of things using the Chromebook shortcuts.

Afterward, we also had time to look into Explain everything.  One really cool thing I learned was that there is a computer version and although it is not as functional as the iPad version it is a great resource to create EE's for children to use.

During this time I also spent time with another educator troubleshooting a few issues we had both had with EE.  This was beyond the task that we were asked to complete but for us was far more worthwhile. It also left me feeling very motivated, and also made me realize I know and do more with EE than I sometimes let myself take credit for.

In the afternoon we also were given a task of ether creating a movie or Hapara workspace to support an aspect of SMART learners.  This was a great opportunity to play with Hapara workspace as this was something I had NEVER done before.  I really enjoyed using this and am looking forward to trialing this out next week when I am on Digital Support Release - as we wanted to do a teacher revisit for Smart Learners (based around KAWA of care) - due to a high level of insurance claims post COVID Lockdown.

CONNECTING

During the morning break I connected with another Year 0-1 teacher and we discussed our sites and changes we have been making to them.  This was great to hear how some of what we had on our site was useful to her (as I had been feeling very ho-hum about ours - due to its teacher like focus).  I also shared what I was working on to change this and also she shared a site she was developing for possible COVID-19 Level 3 Lockdown.  This was HIGHLY valuable, affirming, and inspiring. - This connecting is possibly one of my main reasons to be apart of this course.  So thanks, everyone.  This teacher was also able to share a bank of Explain Everything resources she had been given by a Maniakalani facilitator.  This will be very useful in again affirming or inspiring further EE resource creation and link to my site pages that are being updated.

DFI Day 6 - Enabling Access

Hapara - Student dashboard

Great for students above Year 7. - Mobile friendly.

Connected - The default is visible

Visibility is what empowers this connection.  We have the connectivity to make 'visible' work.

The ability to Connect through lockdown has been about both the learning connection as well as the physical connection.   It's not the same as being in the same room but it is VERY powerful!  Talk to students about turning cameras on and practice practice practice having hangouts. ... so they know how and what to do.

Emphasis on Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga and Rangitamiro.

Network - Connecting us to a powerful network of people. (individual schools coming together to make our students successful - previously students had only come together to compete and now we come together to share and learn and make changes for our tamariki.  The learning we have from each other is enormous and the connections are essential.  What we also have in common is our shared language.

Manaiakalani Pedagogy Programme Design - a term by term program - purposely structured to focus on Learning in term 1, term 2 create, term 3 share, and term 4 to bring it all together. - It is this way so students and staff all feel comfortable with how we can move together.

You can't pull apart connected and share.  - You need both!  You need someone to connect with to make sharing something that is worthwhile.

If you want to grow empowered students then we need to grow our connected learners that share.  They are Connected, Ubiquitous, Visible and empowered.

"The important thing is living together, making friends and exchanging ideas" - "Te mea nui rawa ia ko te noho tahi, ko te whakawhanaunga, ko te whakawhitiwhiti whakaaro".

Why Google Sites?

Google sites make learning accessible all the time - anyone can pick up and see what is being taught in school.  Kids can even learn at home - any reading/resources/videos they are able to take home and continue learning - it's all rewindable.

extend the learning through collaboration - both within the class (student to students) but also between teacher to teacher... - Look at what they are doing and incorporate.  It is also a collaboration with our whanau. - Extends beyond the 4 walls of the classroom.

Google accounts right from Year 1 would mean that learning would move through with students.  All their learning is also shared into their drive and then is also visible on their blogs.  This means that students can log on at home and continue right from year 1.  It is my belief that we are moving in the right direction with our digital portfolio's this year, and feedback feedforward from parents supports this too, but we have a long way to still go.

Sites make learning all collaborative.

Today we also looked at our own sites and got feedback/feedforward on these.  Here are some points we looked into as we were undergoing this process.  At the end of it we came up with goals of what we wanted to achieve/change on our sites.

When thinking of site creation..,,

- THE PURPOSE!

• Who is the learner?
• What is your theme?
• How are they accessing the site?
• Why are they using the site?

- PLANNING YOUR CLASS SITE

• How many pages do you need?
• What will be linked to your home page?
• What is the layout of each page?

- THEME AND DESIGN

• Colour - Pick your main colour and stick with it - No rainbow spew
• Layout - keep it consistent
• Font - keep to a minimum

- 3 CLICK RULE

Keeps kids focused and minimizes how many kids get lost.

-CREATING BUTTONS

use google draw. - But templates are easy

- USING A LAYOUT TO MAKE BUTTONS

- CREATING AN IMAGE CAROUSEL

Ideas for blog

Main goal will be to make it more child friendly

Other ideas:

Question form embedded

FAQ slide deck

Twitter feed

Home button at the bottom of each page?

Picture carousels

Goal : Investigate parent portal???

Limit the links.

DFI - Day 5 - Collaborate

Visible - Making teaching and learning Visible.

Today's korero from Dorothy was all about Visible teaching and learning.  emphasizing the 4 key aspects of it as being ...

• Visibility to the learning, 
• visibility to the whanau, 
• visibility to the teacher,
• visibility to our colleges.

Visible teaching is ultimately about "Can you see it or can you not? It's actually that simple.

Dorothy reminded us that succuss use to be for those students that could read the teacher's mind, and know what the teacher actually wanted, how they wanted it to be presented, and so on.  Visible learning in essence is about making this thinking accessible to all so that ALL students know what we want and how to achieve an end goal.  The introduction of WALTS and Learning intentions being made clear to students was a step forward, but even so, the intentional use of technology to create visible learning is a GAME CHANGER.

For high shift teaching that engages students to become kaitiaki of their own learning, this visible learning needs to also allow for discussions to be had between teachers and learners about what the end goal is and what it should look like.

Dorothy also used the analogy of walking through a maze - if you struggle with your directionality and maps/maize you really struggle with this journey.  The power of visible teaching is like leaving breadcrumbs behind for our students to follow.  In saying this it means that the entire learning journey needs to be visible.  This means not just the LO's and AO"s but all the progress markers and assessment process.

Therefore as teachers, we need to have our teaching pedagogy, ideals and practice DEFAULT set to VISIBLE.  For some teachers it is about changing their teaching mindset, for others, it is a very exciting and empowering step forward.  However, the question still needs to be asked constantly ... What genuinely needs to be private (hidden or limited to only a few), and why. 

There is 2 levels of visibility.  e.g. Visibile to learners (e.g. sites ...) and Visible to teachers (e.g. via blogs and Hapara).  Hapara was designed specifically for us - to create visibility and make the process more accessible for teachers.   (Parents app coming - didn't know parents could access it through Hapara, - and a student app too???)

The digital environment can erect barriers between a child and their learning, a child and their parents and not accomplish what we set out what we wanted them to do. - PASSWORDs are a key part of this. - What genuinely needs to be private. - if it needs a password is it necessary. - Emphasis needs to be on being brave and taking off the blindfold and make learning visible through visible teaching.

In short ...

Visible teaching is ... Accessible, Available and Advance  (No surprises)

Hapara Hot tips - Sharing

The sharing tab shows the documents that students haven't filed into the right folders - this should be empty if they have been filed correctly.

Don't let children make your own folders - Can create an extra folder in Hapara that children can file things in but not creating them themselves - do it through the Hapara management.

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Deep dive

Priority goals 

• Engagement
• Personalized learning, 
• Acceleration
• Visibility
• Empowerment

As educators, we need to rely on more than our personality to hook students in.  Students have had access to digital technology right from the time they are born, therefore we are competing with things like Youtube, TicTok which capture our students' attention and motivation.  Therefore we need to ensure that when we are creating our class and learning sites we need to capture this attention back.

Increased visibility in the teaching and learning process enables accelerated shifts in student learning.  By creating Multimodel sites we can hook in the behavior engagement and design for increasing cognitive engagement that can be achieved by providing access to multiple texts.  T shaped literacy is one approach to increasing cognitive engagement while still providing self scaffolding and enable students to become independent learners.

As always effective teaching practice with technology is vital.  One way to look at this is that eventually, the novelty of a device or app will wear off, and when this happens we need good pedagogy to back up and continue to enable continued learning.

New sites enable us to quickly and efficiently create engaging sites that are only limited by its content.

UDL - Universal design for learning - design to hook students into learning a range of ways (behavioral)

Google Site creation to support T-Shaped Literacy

Here is a link to a site I created during the day.  It is designed to be used with Year 2+ readers.  It is based on a topic that we have recently covered in class.  My main issue with this creation was structuring the site to work and be easily accessible for this younger group.  I also needed this site to be compatible with iPad use.  Although many of the sites that were shared for us to look at, were aimed at a higher age bracket, one site gave me the idea behind how to structure this.  Although we were asked to only use the information on a spreadsheet we were given I have included other resources that we have recently used in class and other links that would support the create section of this site.

I also shared this with Year 3/4 teachers at school for further feedback/feedforward and they too liked the structure and how the butterfly resources were collated were very useful.  They sounded keen to trial it when they had finished with their current T-shaped literacy work.  Am actually pretty happy with what it turned out like.  

My next step is to create another T-shaped literacy site, that SJ (Teaching Buddy) and I can use.  It would also link well to our Play Make Create units that we have been running on a range of topics.

Monarch Website