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.

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.

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.