Establishing the foundations to go forward with formal learning.

Student engagement by establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning was chosen as our whole school inquiry at our TOD in February. During our syndicate meeting our COL teacher Robyn Anderson asked us questions regarding how it was for us as teachers and our students coming back to school and establishing our class routines after being out of the classroom for an extended period of time.

Going back into the classroom after the Covid-19 lockdowns was like walking into the unknown, not only did we have to wear masks all day but everyday we didn't know how many of our students were going to come, if the same students would come each day. Our attendance was very erratic, but we were determined to give the students present the opportunity to learn. Right away Robyn and I decided we had to just do what we know to do best and that is teach the students that are there and meeting their needs.

Establishing connections with the students which in turn increases engagement was a priority. We did this by starting formal learning from day 1. Ensuring there was a familiar routine and structure seemed to work well for the students that were present. Having face to face interactions with classmates was important. Robyn and I continued with what was working for our class pre lockdowns, which was pair/group discussions. At first there was a bit of apprehension, the reality was that many of the students had not engaged with online learning since August 2021. We scaffolded them through formal learning conversations, which in turn lent to them forming bonds with each other then passing that knowledge on to students that joined at a later time. Working collaboratively gave the learners a sense of belonging.

Our class mantra whether attending lessons in the classroom or online is to 'keep our learning going'. Establishing foundations by sharing our expectations as well as ensuring the learners knew the purpose of the tasks, rather than doing work for the sake of working, kept the students engaged and focused. Robyn and I began Hybrid teaching - in class teaching and online learners in the class interacting with not only the teachers but working collaboratively in groups for example by having Google meets with breakout rooms with their reading groups.

Keeping to our timetable no matter where the learning was has meant that everyone knew the expectations to have their work finished and placed on the finished worksheet. This way the online learner still had visible work in the classroom. One change that Robyn and I made was to ensure our DLOs aligned so that they all looked the same but more importantly had the same message no matter what level they were targeted at. A change that proved to be a game changer when I was forced to isolate and Robyn needed to keep the learning going in the room.

In these uncertain times we have to be more flexible with how we are teaching aka hybrid and an unpredictable roll. Robyn and I are continually reflecting and having professional and informal conversations about student engagement by establishing foundations and continuing to go forward with formal learning to 'keep our learning going' no matter where that learning is done, as long as the students are engaged and working with a purpose.

To view Robyn Anderson's blog Powerful Peers.

Extended Learning Conversations Observation

Today I had the opportunity to sit and observe my teaching partner Robyn Anderson. Even though I teach with her every day I wanted to observe her reading lesson with extended conversation to explicitly notice what techniques she uses so I could incorporate them into my reading program to enhance the extended learning conversations within my groups.

Initially the groups decide a leader who starts the first discussion which is about prediction. After the reading group has looked at the text the leader then asks "What do you predict this text will be about?". One by one they have a learning conversation which is recorded saying what their predictions are and they reason they have predicted that. This ensues a rich learning conversation which at times can produce differing opinions.

We then look at inference. The group looks at the pictures in the text and then discuss what they can see by verbalising it in a concise way - I can see ... so I can infer that ... this could also be making connections with their predictions.

Understanding new words is a crucial in reading a text to give a clear understanding of the meaning of what they are reading. This is where the definitions come into play, making sure that the definition of the word they are looking up aligns with the text with

Reading the text. As a group they discuss how they want to read the text. Do they read this text alone, with a buddy or reciprocal reading? While reading the text, if there are any words that are interesting, important or unusual, write those words on your Vocabulary/Questions sheet. The whole group has access to this sheet.



After reading the text the group then answer the question that are on the working sheet. The leader reads the first question to the group then they record their responses in the comments tool. Leader then starts the learning conversation by asking group members "What was your answer?" then asks another member of the group if they agree with the previous person. They need to respond with yes/no because ...



From walking around different reading groups and watching their interactions, I observed students that wouldn't usually engage with reading being totally immersed in the text and actively participating in the learning conversations. The depth of the conversation was evident in the discussions.


Even though I have been using this process in reading, observing Robyn practicing extended conversations has really shown me how I can increase the connections my reading groups when reading a text.

To view Robyn Anderson's blog Powerful Peers

DFI - 9

Lots of short cuts and new areas to enhance teaching.

Yay today is the day we sat our exam to see if what we had learnt has made an impact - very nervous for this but I have just got my results and I passed Yay

 

DFI - Day 8

 

Day 8

Chalk 'n Talk - Kerry (via Meet)

Computational Thinking

Digital fluent - comfortable and confident teaching online and taking it to another level - to know what to use and how to use it. Delivering effective teaching - When and why we use digital 

Digital Technology - can create new digital solutions.

• Teaching with digit is a collaborative environment with you as the teacher and the students.

• Programming so the students are designers.

• Rather than calling it coding change the word to programming - it widens the expectation of what the student thinks they can do or are capable of doing.
  
  
  

Empowered - Dorothy

• Money doesn't buy you happiness but it does buy you power
• The average wage for our local area is $19,000 p/a
• Technology is a tool BUT not just a tool - this is where the empowerment come from.
• Reflection is key when ensuring the work shared with the students is not only entertaining to keep their attention but also empowers them - this in return empowers you the teacher digitally.
• 5+ backwards and forwards conversation teaching the framework to increase their oral language - this also works in blogging (writing) to support them by harnessing the conversation in blogging. 

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• We all have a different ending to what empowering students is.

A recent example of empowerment is of a year 8 student in my maths group who came up to me when she had finished her work and said "thank you for making me smart Mrs Fisi'iahi".  She had been working on multiplication and understood the strategies she had been learning.  This had empowered her to the point where she was helping her peers with their learning of the strategies, therefore she in turn was empowering others.

Deep Dive - The Future of Tech - Jacob

• Will robots replace jobs or will they enable more creativity?
• We as educators are preparing our students for future jobs that don't currently exist yet.
• preparing students for a constantly changing future
• the need to upskill and become lifelong learners
• Moral dilemmas are might be a large challenge for future technology practices

Scratch 

• All jumping around characters are called sprites
• backgrounds are called stage
• movement is called motion
• game needs to start this is called an event
• operators are when we join things together eg do this and that will happen
• variables are something that holds numbers - things that can change

Teacher Inquiry 2021: Introduction

This year I have moved from NE to Y7/8 and to say it's a huge change is an understatement.

I share a class with Robyn Anderson this year we have decided to carry out the same teacher inquiry, just with different students. This means we have a wider net thrown and are on a learning journey together. Something that teachers who share a class should do. The detailed information about our inquiry can be found on Robyn’s blog as she is the in-school COL teacher for PBS. 

After this introductory post I will be reflecting on my own teaching practice and whilst our inquiry focus is the same, I fully expect the changes and adaptations in teacher practice to be quite different.

Below I have captured my time point 1 data of my focus students. By asking the question Will a focus on oral language in maths accelerate student confidence and capability to use spoken and written maths vocabulary and language? I will be analysing the data going forward compared to previous data captured.

    

DFI - Day 7

 

Day 7 

Devices

Being Cybersmart - Vicki

• A4 - any time, any where, any pace, any one
• Visible - personal and amplified

Ubiquitous - Dorothy

• most of the academic learning is done throughout the school day
• cultural and informal learning outside of the school day
• learning can be done all day
• rewindable learning - capturing what is the learner is learning so they can go back to it when they need to review their thinking
• paired shared thinking and castafy to utilise rewindable learning - if the learning experience isn't what you required for rewindable - delete it

• it's not ok to share one to one devices - every student must be able to use their own device
• 1-1 means every student has their own ipad with their name on it - not sharing

Ipads

• as a teacher you start using your computer to make the learning - do the work required on slides on your laptop then download the EE on your ipad - look that the slides can be seen on ipad.
• make your own video that shows students how to look after their ipad - kawa of care
• once a file has been saved on EE and goes to the cloud it has to be downloaded again to be repurposed - or it can be uploaded as a video.
• desktop version of Blogger does not look good on Ipads - blogger app has been designed to aid this

EE - is just an online whiteboard 

• you have to remember to tap what you want done - eg if you want part of a picture coloured in
• you can record your voice with the insert new and leave instructions next to something
• works like a slide dec - can add slide - tap the numbers and it gives you a preview and navigate between slides
• share as an image file if there is no movement or sound on it - or if there is more than one slide or sound/movement it must be shared as a video file

Reflecting on the Kaupapa of the Manaiakalani Programme in light of COVID 19 , and my readiness for ubiquitous learning...

• What are you proud of? That we had such an amazing online presence from our students and the amount and quality of work they produced was outstanding.

• What do you regret? That we didn't have multiple Google meet practices pre Covid.

DFI - Day 6

 

Leading learning using Google Sites - Vicki

Five affordances causing accelerate shift

• engagement
• teaching conversations
• cognitive challenge
• visibility
• scaffolding

Why are we creating a site?  

• one stop shop to access all the learning
• able to learn anywhere, anytime, any place
• rewindable learning - go back and revisit the learning - can continuously add to it.
• personalise content 
• visible teaching and planning
• one place for all the information - learning, reminders eg togs etc
• consistency - for all year groups

Visual appeal and functionality

• pick a theme eg pick a colour and use those shades or complementary colours
• layout consistent - plan your content before you plan your pages
• 2 x heading font and main text font
• learning no more than 3 clicks away
• check that content is visible - you can check on a incognito window
• links to class blog and student blogs

Evaluating Class Sites

What works well - Visual appearance

• hooking people in - visual engagement
• visual experience - can you find the stuff you need.
• complimenting colours
• clear site fonts/buttons

What dosen't work well - Visual appearance

• too much colour
• too cluttered
• white writing on a light background

What works well - User experience

• able to be easily accessed by learners and whanau
• a few clicks to where the learning is

What dosen't work well - User experience

What is the first thing we are looking at? 

• Banger needs to be visually appealing and user friendly
• Have a good site plan before you start

Site buttons 

• make them personal to your class
• use photos of the students 
• use free picture site eg pixabay 
• put in what size you want in draw - eg banner in cm will be different than buttons in cm
• download draw image with 'png'
• once a button has been done - a set template eg circle, size etc then you can go to replace image and it keeps the same dimensions. 
• you can replace the shape keeping the same format - eg change circle to triangle
• use 'color pick eye color' to help with colour combinations.

Icons

• The following links are for icons that will not pixelate when enlarged. 
• Awesome icons

• Feather icons