Getting comfortable building sites

 Day 6 of the DFI was all about google sites. 

The underpinning idea of the Manaiakalani kaupapa is the concept of Rangitamiro - being connected. The Manaiakalani Kahui Ako is a connection of different schools, primary, secondary, catholic, Kura Kaupapa and special schools. Since 2015 Manaiakalanai has expanded to involve schools from all around New Zealand. This collaberation allows for streamlineing of things like PLD. Manaiakalani runs a number of PLD connecting schools together - an example of which is the Secondary Connects that run once a term. 

Sites allow for Visible teaching. Dr Rebecca Jesson notes that if learning is visible, learning can be enhanced. There are 5 affordances of the Learn Create Share pedagogy in a digital learning environment. 1) Engagement. 2) Teaching conversations 3) Cognitive challenge. 4) Visibility and 5) Scaffolding.

There are a number of purposes of the learning site. It is a one stop hub for learning. It makes learning ubiquitous. It allows for rewindable learning. It personalises learning. It provides for visible planning and teaching. It allows parents and whanau to engage with the learning of students. It provides an overview of the learning ahead and it also, obviously, allows for distance learning while needed. Google sites allow for consistency across learning levels in schools. It is important that the sites being created have visual appeal and functionality to both engage and make it simple for students to engage with their learning tasks. 

We were given the time to explore a number of learning sites. It was good to experiance sites as a visitor and think about what works and what doesnt. This is useful for planning my site with a view to the user experiance. Following this, we shared our sites and got feedback.

We were then given the rest of the day to work on our own subject sites   

Collaboration

 Day 5 of the DFI begun with a focus on visibility. Can the learning been seen or not? Visibility for the learners is crucial, particularly in a post-Covid environment. Visibility for whanau is crucial. But also visibility to other teachers to allow for collaboration and the sharing of ideas. Teachers should consider the default setting of their learning to be "visible to anyone with the link"

We then turned our focus to Multi Modal modes of learning. The purpose of this is to engage learners in a variety of different ways, harnessing technology. Our class sites needs to be both differentiated and inclusive for our learners. This can help with diversification. A useful site can help with the engagement of our learners. Our sites need to be created in such a way so as to entise learners into their learning. It should reflect the current learning in the classroom. It is, essentially, the shop front window to the learning. 

A multi modal site should have personalised learning using the UDL framework. What engages one learner may not necessarily engage another learner. This will help with cognitive engagement of students. Designing Learning with the end in mind to get accerlated achievement. Site design needs to be framed from a pedagogical perspective.

We were given the opportunity to browse some learning sites that are examples of best practice. For me I like sites where the learning is clear and there is more than one way of the information being displayed. Following this we started to create our own site, and learnt how to create links and use the button feature on google sites.

For the afternoon session we spend the afternoon creating a multi modal site based on critical reading skills. Click here to view the result   

Dealing with Data

 Day four of the Digital Fluency Intensive kicked off with reflections on what is working well and what people need more help with. It does seem as though people are embracing the learning into their classroom practice and their daily lives.

From that we focused on the third element of the Manaiakalani pedagogy - Share. Share has become an integral part of our lives and sites such as youtube have allowed Share to occur on a wide scale. Social Media apps such as Facebook and Twitter have enabled (and commercialised) the human compulsion to share. Share is not constrained to online however, students will always look for opportunities for the human connection and using the ability to share.

Underpinning the idea of share is the concept of Audience. Students can share with each other, the school, the local community of even globally. Authentic audiences are audiences who make the choice to actively chose to view the content that is being created. Blogging is a great way for students to share their content with the globe. John Hattie notes that the feedback ability of blogging is a powerful enabler of learning for students.

Moving on to our focus for the day of Data, we looked at Google Forms. Forms are a great way of collating data, with a number of different question formats. We were given the opportunity to create our own forms. 

Google My Maps (as opposed to Google Maps) is a really cool new app that I was introduced to. I can see a lot of applications for my class - and I have created my own map (see below). Check out the cities I have been lucky to visit with my wife. 

From here we moved onto google sheets. I feel pretty comfortable with sheets but did learn about options to filter options. This tool enables data to be accessed by the users to be specific to their needs. For example if you had a class set of data and wanted to view boys reading levels, you would be able to do this automatically. There is so much functionality within Google Sheets including the ability to lock data inputting, viewing edit history and the ability to Split Data to columns.

For our afternoon session we took our learnings on google sheets to analyse a students blog. See below the chart that was created based on the analysis of a students blog at Point England School. It is clear that this student likes to blog a lot in the middle of the year, and that 2020 (COVID!) had a massive increase in blogging.

 

Reconnecting with the DFI

 It was great to reconnect for week 3 of the DFI this week. I had done the first two weeks of the DFI in term 1 in Papakura, and today was a change to restart this journey. The learnings that I took from the previous DFIs made me excited to restart.

The focus of the day was on Create. Dorothy remarked early in the day that creativity seems to be dying in the New Zealand education space. She referred to Robin Sutton, Principal of Hornby High who said that "If we are serious about the 'create' component of our 'Learn Create Share' pedagogy, then as individual teachers we also need to be serious about our own creativity, We need to nurture it, to not be afraid of it, to invest in it, to invest in ourselves". He is certainly correct, and so today we learnt about some tools to help foster creativity

Google Draw

Google Draw is a fantastic tool for creating content for students and allowing students to create.  The possibilities are endless. Students can create images, bubbles, and can manipulate them into a number of different shapes

Harpara Teacherdashboard

We have been using Hapara at Tamaki for a long time and so I feel very comfortable with its use

Youtube

Youtube has such a vast array of teaching resources. Too many in fact. Today we learned how to create playlists which is a great benefit to any teachers workflow.

Google Slides

Google slides are becoming more and more useful and can be used for more than just presentations. The use of hyperlinks and buttons can create interactive teaching resources for learners. Below is a very simple example that I will continue to develop.

Building my inquiry

As I begin the journey as a CoL Teacher in the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako I am beginning to think about Inquiry. My context is development of the NZ/Aotearoa History Curriculum - and my goal is to identify areas where my inquiry will make a powerful contribution to wider school and cluster goals.

• At this stage of My inquiry the focus is to:

• identify valued learning outcomes which include but are not limited to achievement outcomes

• Profile: Investigate the nature of the students’ strengths and gaps in relation to valued learning outcomes in detail 

• Focus on the issue of student learning

What are the key learning objectives that teachers see in respect to Aotearoa New Zealand History? How does the new Curriculum fit with the learning that has already taken place?

I am really keen to connect with teachers from across the Kahui Ako to understand what the reality is for their learners.

First I need to understand before I can create and test my hypothesis in regards to the teaching and Learning of Aotearoa History

Embracing Local Histories

 Last Friday I had the privledge of facilitating a tour of Tamaki, led by Matua Wade Harley from Ngāti Pāoa, for a Year 9 class at Tamaki College.

We travelled to five locations, Maungarei, Mokoia Pa (Panmure Bridge), Mauinaina Pa (Marist Rugby Club), Te Whanake (Point England Reserve) and Wai-o-rohe (Karaka Bay).

We learned the stories of the land, of arrival, of battles fought, the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we looked to the future with the up coming construction of a new Marae for Ngāti Pāoa. This was the first time that Matua had taken a group of students out on such a Hikoi.

I had two main objectives of the tour. Firstly it was to listen and learn the stories of Ngāti Pāoa and the Tamaki Area. The second was to observe how learners engaged with the local histories. Can Trips to local historical sites provide valuable learning opportunities by increasing student engagement?

I have to say that the engagement levels for this class were outstanding. There were moments where the students sat silently and were moved by the stories being told. It was clear that the students enjoyed themselves.

I plan with the support of SLT to take more of these tours hopefully getting every year 9 student to attend at some point. 

 

Histories at Tamaki College

 It was great to catch up with Mr Russel Dunn, Deputy Principal of teaching and learning at Tamaki College, to discuss his vision for the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum (ANZHC) at Tamaki College.

Currently there is no seperate ANZHC at Tamaki College. History is taught within the social studies programme in years 9 and 10 and then becomes an option for NCEA at Years 11, 12 and 13.  However the introduction of this new curriculum does provide an opportunity for colleges such as Tamaki to engage with and critically evaluate stories of our past, particually in a local context. 

Russel was clear that the new ANZHC "Must be given the mana it deserves". This, from my perspective, was great to hear!. Russel was especially excited about the opportunity to embrace the new curriculum with the front half of the NZC. Relating to others, critical thinking and collaberating are all Key Competencies that can be explicitly taught using the contexts within the ANZHC.  

Russel cautioned that as we embark on the journey of embracing the ANZHC we must be mindful of the lense that we are using.  We have to be mindful for instance of the Treaty of Waitangi not just in a historical context but how it remains relevant to all New Zealanders today. 

Thank you Russel for your time - I am excited to see how we can incorporate the new ANZHC into both Tamaki College and the Manaiakalani cluster.