Week 32: Reflect on your learning journey

Teaching as Inquiry has been an integral part of my teaching since I graduated in 2011. The problem is that I started to see this process as another thing to do on top of everything else I need to do as a classroom teacher. At my school, we are required to inquire into accelerating our target students for Reading, Writing and Maths and also conduct another inquiry to achieve a personal teaching goal. My argument has been that teachers are naturally reflective and having to constantly write everything down is time-consuming and mostly pointless. I think the main thing underpinning this attitude was the misconception that an inquiry must produce positive results quickly every time. Also, I thought admitting that I was struggling with an aspect of teaching could be seen as incompetence (Ostermann & Kottkamp, 2015). 

So the main change for me has been the freedom to conduct an inquiry without fear of failure. In the Spiral Playbook, the authors discuss the importance of being able to reflect and try again without fear of judgement (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). I know that the spiral of inquiry is about my learning as well as positive outcomes for students. The teaching standard for Professional Learning requires us to continually inquire into our practice and reflect on its effectiveness (Ministry of Education, 2017).

Before writing my Action Plan, I used the four key questions from the Spiral Playbook to survey my students about their te reo Māori learning. This showed me that they could not identify or explain why learning te reo Māori was important. This gave me a problem to solve for my inquiry and I will use these questions before undertaking future inquiries so I know what is really going on for my learners.

The ability to genuinely reflect on my practice rather than just trying to achieve a result has reignited my passion and drive to be honest and keep students at the centre of my inquiries. I am prepared to try new things, using research to guide my thinking. I would not have normally chosen the inquiry that I did for this course as I was not confident it would be successful. The positive outcomes from my inquiry have given me confidence. I now think that focussing on reflection and learning rather than just trying to show success eliminates some of the stress and makes me a more honest teacher. I am more willing to take risks and try new teaching strategies. I recognise the importance of including whanau and seeking student voice throughout the process.

Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Week 31: Evaluate your impact

The actual impact of my inquiry has been an increase of vocabulary knowledge in my classroom. I was surprised at the result when I retested them. They now recognise 14 of the 24 words in the vocabulary assessment. At the beginning of the inquiry they only recognised 3! I must admit that this was engineered a little as I focused on those words during our reo sessions. There has also been a slight increase in self-efficacy. Survey results showed an increase from 48% to 56% of students who feel confident about speaking te reo Māori exclusively for 15 minutes.

Impacts not supported by data are things I have noticed in class. Students are showing a greater awareness and acknowledging the use of te reo Māori by others. This awareness has increased their use of the language, but there is still a high level of consciousness, it is not a natural flow. They are proud of their learning and keen to share it in the classroom.

My anticipated impact was that te reo Māori would become a natural way of communicating in class, so students move easily between languages. This has happened on a word level but not on a sentence level i.e. they will substitute te reo Māori for some English words in sentences but they are not using complete sentences. This is mostly because we are still developing our sentence structure so there is a limited number of sentences they can use.

As the inquiry progressed I made changes to my original plan. I soon realised that we needed more structure, rather than free conversation. Once I started using shared books to begin our sessions we had a framework for our discussion. We could then use sentences from the book, changing some words to make it relevant to the class.

The other main difference was that I realised I needed some expert help. It was surprisingly difficult to quickly find phrases that I needed to use in class online. I was also determined to use the local Ngapuhi dialect at all times so I relied on experts at school to make sure I was on the right path.

The main change I would make for my next inquiry would be to involve whanau more. A dialogic relationship allows students, teachers and whanau to share their expertise (Charteris & Trafford, 2010). I would start the inquiry with a letter home outlining what we are trying to achieve and inviting them to participate either at home or by coming in to class. I would also keep them informed of any progress we are making and share resources we are using with them via my class blog.

Charteris, J., & Trafford, R. (2010). Speaking Plainly: Student Led Reporting in Relation to the New Zealand Curriculum Standards. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 7(1), 38–46. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=54312933&site=ehost-live

Week 30: Reflect on your evidence

In my action plan I planned to use both qualitative and quantitative data in my inquiry. My qualitative data was to be collected through observations and I had a simple questionnaire and assessment sheet to collect some quantitative data. So far, my data collection has been a little ad hoc. For the 4 weeks of my inquiry so far I have been in class for 15 days and out of class for 5, with a 2 week school holiday in the middle. This has made it difficult to establish a routine.

Originally, I decided to complete an observation sheet as I thought making a video would be too distracting for the students. However, the 15 minute conversations each morning have been heavily dependent on my input, making it difficult to record observations at the same time. My school is implementing Iris Connect, PLD software where teachers record themselves teaching as a way to reflect on their practice. As a result, I will start recording next week rather than completing the written observations.

Some of the things I have noticed so far:

• Most students are engaged.
• We all need to increase our vocabulary.
• One of my students is an expert who models risk-taking and keeps the conversation active. When this student is absent the session is much more arduous.

One surprising result is that when there is a fluent adult speaker in the room the students revert back to english more often. However, having the support of a fluent adult in the room to help with sentence structure and pronunciation is a huge benefit for me.

Babione (2014) describes coding as an interpretive technique to sort data into categories as an aid to finding patterns. I did not have any predetermined codes for analysing data when I developed my plan but the emerging categories I have identified so far are:

• The impact of a student who is able to lead the session.
• The impact of a fluent adult speaker.
• Scaffolding the conversation with a shared book at the start of the session.

As I follow these patterns I need to develop a holistic understanding rather than getting lost in details (Efron & Ravid, 2013). It is important to keep referring back to my inquiry focus.

I was able to chart my survey results. The pie chart shows the students’ vocabulary knowledge at the beginning of the inquiry. 8 of my 25 students were absent for the survey so their results are not shown.

Words known in te reo Māori:



I then created a bar graph to show the students’ ability to create simple sentences. 4 of the 17 students present chose not to respond.


For my final survey question, 11 of 25 students (48%) felt confident that we could speak te reo Māori exclusively for 15 minutes.

The evidence I have collected so far has provided some baseline data which I can use to compare with data I will collect at the end of the inquiry period. This will show whether my students’ knowledge of te reo Māori has increased. As my inquiry is into the use of conversational te reo Māori, can it only really be answered through qualitative data in the form of observation. In the future I will record our “korero anake te reo Māori” sessions and fill in the observation sheet from the video as this will give a more accurate representation of what is happening in class.

References:

Babione, C. (2014). Practitioner teacher inquiry and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2014). Action research in education : a practical guide. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Week 29: Consider Ethical Issues

When I was making my Action plan for this teacher inquiry I had to consider ethical implications and explain how I would address them when I collected data. The ethical issue I identified from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) Ethical Guidelines was the principle relating to harmful effects and unintended consequences for  research participants.

I was concerned that the inquiry may cause anxiety for my students who have limited knowledge of conversational te reo Māori. From the beginning I was careful to ensure my students knew that this would be challenging for all of us and I was learning alongside them. Although we are speaking 15 minutes of te reo Māori each day with no English, there is no expectation that students will have a conversation during this time. Other than responding to greetings and simple questions, which they have been doing all year, they have the option to just listen. As my inquiry continues, I am hoping my students will understand it is safe to take risks. The learning focused culture standard in the Standards for the Teaching Profession requires me to develop a culture characterised by respect, empathy and safety (Education Council, 2017). This is something I strive to achieve each day.

At the moment, about 30% of the class are attempting to communicate using the vocabulary they have. The others are passive during this time, but I am hoping that just hearing the language being spoken will build their knowledge and confidence and, eventually, they will begin to participate.

Bigdeli and Bai (2009) discuss the negative impact anxiety can have on teaching and learning. They argue that learning environments are often saturated with anxiety. Cabrera-Solano, Gonzalez-Torres, Solano, Castillo-Cuesta & Jiménez (2019) found that anxiety can be reduced by designing activities based on group work, pair work and games. I have already decided to add more structure to my 15 minutes each day, using a shared book as a model, and incorporating more sharing in small groups or pairs.

As I reflect on the way I implemented my inquiry I can see ways to improve in the future. Next time, I will spend longer explaining what we were trying to achieve and why it is important. Since we started, a couple of students have expressed some negativity which has given me the opportunity to talk about the importance of preserving te reo Māori. They were more invested once I compared the language to the endemic species of New Zealand (a topic we have been studying in class). They began to understand that we need to preserve the language as no other country in the world is going to do it for us.

Another way I would improve the implementation is to make more of an attempt to engage whanau by sending home some information about what we are doing, and inviting them in so they can participate and contribute.


References:

Cabrera-Solano, P., Gonzalez-Torres, P., Solano, L., Castillo-Cuesta, L., & Jiménez, J. (2019). Perceptions on the Internal Factors Influencing EFL Learning: A Case of Ecuadorian Children. International Journal of Instruction, 12(4), 365–380. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12424a

Bigdeli, S., & Heesoon Bai. (2009). The Triunal Model of Anxiety and its Application to Anxiety Reduction in Learning and Teaching Environments. TESL Canada Journal, 27(1), 103–114. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v27i1.1029

New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE). (2010). NZARE Ethical Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.nzare.org.nz/portals/306/images/Files/NZARE%20EthicalGuidelines2010.pdf

Week 28: Reflect on your inquiry so far

I have chosen Rolfe’s model of reflection to reflect on my inquiry this week.



Rolfe’s Model of Reflection (Otago Polytechnic, n.d. )

This model is simple to follow and could easily be used by my students to reflect on their own learning. I like the fact that there are three main questions with supplementary questions to guide my thinking.

What?

I introduced the 15 minutes of speaking te reo Māori only to my class in Week 1 after completing a whole class survey and oral assessment. I have been timetabling this from 9.15 - 9.30am each day to coincide with our morning mihi.

So what?

Although my class are not confident speakers most of them have embraced the challenge of attempting to communicate in te reo Māori for 15 minutes each day. The most relevant aspect of the inquiry so far is that students are interacting almost exclusively with me and not amongst themselves. Since the idea was to encourage everyday conversation I need students to be actively communicating with each other. Much of the research cited in Enhancing Student Interaction in the Language Classroom shows findings that peer interaction is integral to language learning (Adams, 2018). One of the benefits discussed in the article is that students are less anxious when communicating with each other, they can be more playful and relaxed without the pressure of being assessed.

In my class, I don’t think anxiety is the issue. As I am also learning the language and making plenty of mistakes I am modelling to my students that it is safe to take risks. I think the situation has come about because I have directed students to talk without a clear agenda. It would probably have been more successful if I had asked them to pair up and provided a topic for discussion. This could be based on what we are currently learning in our scheduled te reo Māori lesson e.g. descriptions of people. Ernst and Richard (1994) recommend books as a way to provide a shared experience, basic words and phrases, and the opportunity to hear and process language. Repeated readings of the book will increase competence and the desire to communicate. Fortunately, my school is well resourced for big shared books in te reo Māori so I can choose one each week and incorporate it in my shared reading programme.

Now What?

When I started this inquiry I was unsure about my own abilities to use te reo Māori exclusively in class. Starting in an unstructured way has given me confidence and allowed me to identify the experts in my class and the vocabulary we need for our morning routine. Although I have not made any real progress towards achieving my goal yet I have no regrets about starting the way I did.
When we return to school for Term 4 I will use a more structured approach by reading a shared book to the class and then pairing students up to talk about the book together, using vocabulary and sentence structures modelled in the text. This will move the conversation away from me and I will be able to take on the role of facilitator. As the students’ vocabulary increases they will be able to converse about a range of topics.


References: Ernst, G., & Richard, K. J. (1994). Reading and writing pathways in the ESL classroom. Reading Teacher, 48(4), 320. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=9412222461&site=ehost-live

Week 27: Examine your Cultural Context (Take Action)

Blog 3: Examine your Cultural Context (Take Action)

In my class of 25 students, 22 students identify as New Zealand Māori, 1 as Cook Island Māori and 2 as New Zealand European. 23 students list Ngāpuhi as their iwi affiliation on the enrolment form. There is a strong cultural identity across the school with tikanga Māori at the forefront.

The aim of my teaching inquiry is to normalise the use of te reo Māori as a conversational language in class and out in the playground. Currently, te reo is predominantly spoken during our morning mihi and for simple commands or questions during class time. My inquiry is strongly linked to cultural responsiveness as language is a keystone of culture (Wang, 2011).

Indigenous knowledge is the unique knowledge belonging to a culture or society (Senanayake, 2006).  At the heart of Māori culture is te Ao Māori, the Māori world view (Education Review Office, 2016). It is important that te Ao Māori is acknowledged in the classroom as this will enable students to achieve as Māori. Russell Bishop supports this view when he talks about the importance of allowing Māori students to bring their experiences to learning conversations (Edtalks, 2012). According to Bishop, agentic teachers are the key to  raising achievement. An agentic teacher has a positive, non-deficit view of their students. They also need support from the school to be effective. At my school we are supported by the Māori Achievement Collaborative.

I would place myself between the blue and green boxes in this action continuum (Milne, 2017).

Our class routines are strongly based on tikanga Māori. We always start the day with himene, karakia, mihi and waiata tautoko. Karakia mō te kai is recited before all meals including our fruit at morning tea. Te reo Māori is used for classroom management throughout the day. As a school, our report to parents includes self-assessment and teacher assessment of the key competencies. Being grounded in Te Reo me ngā tikanga o Ngāpuhi is valued at school. However, many of our assessment tools still support a colonial view of success. For my inquiry, assessment will be based on observations, surveys and an oral assessment.

To move to the red box I need to develop my own knowledge and become more confident in my use of te reo Māori. Part of my inquiry includes 15 minutes of every day when the whole class communicate exclusively in te reo. This has given me an insight into the gaps in my vocabulary and sentence construction. I am learning alongside my students using the concept of ako, where the educator is also learning from the student (Ka Hikitia, 2013). Learning alongside my students, and giving them the opportunity to be the experts will acknowledge the skills and experience they bring to the classroom.

Week 26: Discuss laws, regulations or policies

As teachers we are responsible for the success and well-being of the students in our class. We make a commitment to learners, families and whānau, the teaching profession and society. We are expected to apply high professional standards and make sound ethical decisions in all of our work.

The Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (previously the Education Council) have combined the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession into one document, Our Code, Our Standards (Education Council, 2017). This code of conduct is binding on all teachers who hold a practicing certificate under The Education Act (1989) Section 387: Code of Conduct (New Zealand Government, accessed 1 October 2019).

The main purpose of Our Code Our Standards is to set standards of  behaviour and expectations for teachers. The document is used to establish and maintain teacher certifications, and can be used to evaluate a teacher’s professional conduct if a complaint is made. In relation to teacher inquiry, Standard 2 Professional Learning is most pertinent. This standard states that teachers are expected to inquire into their practice to make sure their teaching is effective.

In the 2012 Education Review Office report Teaching as Inquiry: Responding to learners (Education Evaluation Reports, 2012), ERO stated that when inquiry is implemented well there are clear benefits for students. Teachers build on their practice to better meet the needs of all learners, but in particular priority learners. This has recently been evident at my school.

Teaching as inquiry was introduced to our school in July 2014, based on the framework in the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). However, when ERO visited in 2016 they noted in their Kaikohe West School Report that this was one of the many initiatives which were not working effectively. None of our school policies referred to teaching as inquiry.

Following this ERO report, a Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) and Student Achievement Function (SAF) practitioner were assigned to our school. In Term 2 2017 a Teacher Appraisal policy was reviewed at school. This policy states that teaching inquiry is a requirement of our teacher appraisal (Kaikohe West School, 2017).

We now have regular Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings where we share challenges and successes related to our inquiries. When ERO revisited in 2019 they noticed a significant improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. They attributed this to the ‘teaching as inquiry’ model. Teachers now regularly evaluate the effectiveness of their practise using achievement data.

Teachers in New Zealand are well supported to use teaching as inquiry through the New Zealand Curriculum and Our Code, Our Standards. Having a school appraisal policy which requires all teachers use teaching as inquiry has improved practice across my school.

Kaikohe West School (2017), Appraisal of Teaching Staff. Schooldocs Policies and Procedures.

Week 25: Consider your audiences

This is the first of 8 weekly blog posts reflecting on my inquiry, "How do I encourage my students to use te reo Māori when they interact socially?” This inquiry is relevant to the interests of local, national, and international audiences. 

The most obvious audience for my inquiry is the students themselves. I am hoping my students will take the learning home and increase the amount of te reo  Māori spoken in their household. In this way, whanau will also be part of the inquiry and many will be able to support me with their knowledge.  My school has been collecting student and whanau voice on a regular basis and one of the most pertinent comments for my inquiry from whanau has been that our school provides many opportunities for te reo, however it is not heard around the school as much as expected. Leadership and my colleagues at school will therefore also be interested in the outcomes of this inquiry.

Reaching out into the wider community, my school is part of a community of learning. The vision statement of this COL is “to create a community of learning where all students are understood, acknowledged and supported as unique, culturally confident, Ngāpuhi centered learners”. (Te Arahua Community of Learning, 2019). Language is acknowledged as an important part of achieving this vision. 

On a national level, the Ministry of Education campaign, Mōu Te Reo, is promoting the benefits of learning te reo Māori as a way of deepening the knowledge and understanding of Māori culture (Ministry of Education, 2019). They are aiming for all children and young people to be learning in and through te reo Māori by 2025.

On an international platform, 2019 is the Year of International Indigenous Languages, so  my audience could include educators and indigenous language speakers from around the world. There are 7000 different languages spoken throughout the world and 2680 of these languages are currently in danger. The United Nations declared the Year of International Indigenous languages to raise awareness of the valuable contributions languages make to our world’s rich cultural diversity (UNESCO, 2018).

With regard to future-oriented learning and teaching, the views of equity, diversity and inclusivity have changed greatly from the days of colonisation. According to the research project, Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective, the key idea in 21st century learning is that we need to take more account of our learners - who they are, where they are, and their connections with people and places (Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). 

The common perspective of my audiences is that indigenous languages should be preserved and valued. My inquiry acknowledges this and my aim is that te reo Māori is used in my classroom, in the school playground and in my students’ homes as a natural way of communication.

Google Certified Educator Level 1!

We did our exam today and I passed!

We just had a share celebratory lunch and it is almost time to say goodbye to all the awesome educators I have got to know over the last 9 weeks.
This course has been most enjoyable. It is nice to work with a group of like-minded people all keen to learn new skills and improve teaching practice. I would thoroughly recommend Digital Fluency Intensive to anybody who is given the opportunity to do it.

Computational thinking and Scratch

We have been investigating computational thinking today and had the opportunity to investigate different programmes and resources.  One of our shared activities was to write instructions for a partner to follow. It was interesting trying to break a simple activity down into individual steps.

I had lots of fun working with Michelle to create our Scratch project about Manaiakalani kaupapa. Next time I would like to use actual speech rather than text.

I have been empowered by the Digital Fluency course to try new things. We are given time to play and investigate collaboratively. Networking across the cluster has improved my teaching practice and confidence.

My first map, some blog analysis and being connected

This is my first map created from a spreadsheet. My Digital Fluency class all chose from a list of places they would like to visit. I chose San Francisco, home of my favourite author, Christopher Moore. 

We learned how to analyse the statistics on student blogs. I chose Kohl-lee's blog because I taught her as a new entrant. She is now in Year 7 at Tautoro School and has had over 2000 visitors to her blog. Click on this link to have a look.



Today we talked about the value of being connected educators. I am lucky to be part of a Manaiakalani cluster as we are given many opportunities and ways to connect with each other. Connecting with each other is a great way to share resources and ideas. It gives me the opportunity to identify new strategies and refine my practice.
I also stay connected globally through Twitter. My twitter handle is @AmandaBingham4.

Enabling access with Google Sites

This week at Digital Fluency we worked on our Class Sites. I am trying to make my site more visually appealing and easy to use. 
We had an opportunity to present our site to the class and receive feedback so I took that opportunity.

We use a "Must do, Can do" programme in Room 3 so I have added some buttons to my site so students can easily access their "Can do" activities.

Constructionism, Constructivism and Collaboration

Our flipped task this week was to: Consider the differences between constructivism and constructionism and how collaboration relates to both. Create a diagram that captures your ideas on a single slide, then record a screencast of you explaining your diagram.

Here is my attempt (including a Coggle!)

In class we used Makey Makey to make a musical instrument. We then reflected on our  group's collaboration and made another screencast.

Relationship based learning

Kaikohe West School have regular Professional Learning meetings where staff have a chance to reflect on their pedagogy and share their thoughts with others. This week we watched a video about Community Responsiveness. 

Here are some reflections I shared at our staff meeting:
To be agentic teachers we need to understand ourselves and create a learning context which allows students to bring their knowledge to the classroom. For relationship centred education we need to be responsive to the students and let them know we care about their learning.
Agentic teachers reject deficit theorising and have high expectations of all students. They are able to use a range of teaching strategies effectively and manage the classroom so pedagogy includes co-construction of learning. They use evidence and formative assessment  to guide next steps. They can modify the curriculum so it is responsive to the community.

ITL Research

This week at my DCL course we investigated the 21st Century learning design rubrics designed by Microsoft in Education. You can find them here: ITL Research

Tracey and I worked together to make a video about how these rubrics can help us in our teaching practice. We used an iMovie trailer format as we had a very short amount of time to complete the project.

Screencastify, Chromebooks and iPads

This is my first attempt using Screencastify. It is a bit clunky but I can see it will be a useful tool in the classroom and I'm sure I will get better with some practice. I think my students will enjoy using this tool to explain their learning.

We worked through the Digital Dig which I talk about in my video and I learned some useful new keyboard shortcuts for the Chromebooks.  There is even a shortcut for seeing all shortcuts! 
Try it - ctrl + alt + /.

Khismira Lal, a year 1 teacher from Point England School was our guest speaker at the Digital Fluency Intensive Course today. She works in a 1:1 iPad class and gave us lots of new ideas to use in class. The best tip for me was to save everything as a video rather than a project so it can be saved to and used in Google Drive.

What is knowledge?

This year I am completing a Post-Graduate Certificate in Digital and Collaborative Learning through Mindlab. Our first task was to share our reasons for doing this course and to then choose a response we connected with. This was the one I chose:

We then discussed the concept of knowledge. It is surprisingly difficult to define as it is such an abstract concept.
First we brainstormed in pairs:

Next we made a 3-d model to represent our thoughts and teamed up with another group to combine our ideas and make a video:

We also learned about the importance of followership. Here are some qualities of an effective follower:

• Think for themselves and evaluate the leader's decision before accepting it
• Are active
• Have positive energy
• Give full support if they agree with the leader
• Challenge the leader and offer constructive alternatives if they disagree

Sharing and Google sites

Dorothy Burt joined us via Google Hangout to talk about Learn, Create, Share.

Sharing has been happening since the beginning of time - think cave paintings. Technology has allow students to have an authentic audience in class rather than just a compulsory audience. The audience is now global.
As a teacher, it is important to hook students into the learning because the thrill of a new device does not keep them engaged in the long-term. This can be achieved through the use of multi-modal teaching materials.

We practised creating a new Google site incorporating multi-modal material. Here is my gardening site:

I am planning to update my class Google site before the start of Term 2 to make it more engaging for students and whanau.

Digital pepeha and Youtube playlists

We spent the day in beautiful Taipa today with a guest speaker from Point England School, Kent Sommerville.

I used Google slides to create a digital pepeha: 

I learned to create a playlist on Youtube which I can them embed into my class site for students to access.

My first playlist is focused on swimming strokes so we can learn from some experts before we head to the pool.

I can now confidently use the snipping tool to take screenshots and share them with others.

Google Keep and Toby

I was unable to attend the session this week as I was visiting the Gold Coast to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. I missed the interaction with other learners, however, it was easy to follow the agenda and work through the slides independently. 

The most exciting discovery for me was how to 'tame my tabs'. I have added the Toby mini Chrome extension and set up a Morning collection:

This means when I get to work in the morning I can quickly open all of the tabs I need.

I have been using Google Keep on my phone for a long time (mostly for shopping lists!) but never really considered it for my laptop. I have now added the extension and I think it will be very useful and, once again, the collaborative nature of the tool is appealing to me.

We had School camp last week and I have been on leave this week so I have not yet had an opportunity to implement my new learning in the classroom. I am looking forward to using the voice typing next week in my reading rotation.

Learn, Create, Share

This was my first Digital Fluency Intensive Workshop with Manaiakalani. Kaikohe West School has been part of the Outreach Programme for over 3 years. The big kaupapa of Manaiakalani is the concept of Learn, Create, Share and this is easy to implement with the use of technology.

I was introduced to Google groups as an alternative to Contacts lists in Gmail. Google groups has many advantages, the main one being that it is collaborative. It turns out I am in a number of Google groups already including Global Read Aloud which includes teachers from around the world.

As my class are just starting out with Chromebooks for the first time I have learned a few tips and habits to make our learning easier. Including their initials at the start of a document name so it is easy to identify the owner, and having just one document for writing in Term 1 using the table of contents are ideas I will implement immediately.


Understanding how to copy and paste information without all of the irritating formatting (use ctrl, shift, V instead of ctrl V) will make my life easier!