Connected - Rangitāmiro what brings us together? Connected learners share. Digital has enabled us to keep in touch with others. Shared language enables us to make connections. Connections happen as a network when there are structures in place.
Teach, Motivate, Inspire
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Thursday, 1 June 2023
DFI Day 6 Reflection
Connected - Rangitāmiro what brings us together? Connected learners share. Digital has enabled us to keep in touch with others. Shared language enables us to make connections. Connections happen as a network when there are structures in place.
Thursday, 25 May 2023
DFI Day 5 Reflection
Visible Learning. Making Teaching and Learning Visible.
People may have a mindset of not wanting others to see what they have planned or made online. However, since my teaching career started at Point England School, I've been very open with what I have planned and shared with others. I admit, not everything is perfect but I do look back and reflect to see what I need to change for next time. I welcome positive feedback and I don't mind others using what I've created. However, it would be nice for people to acknowledge others on their work.
What do I do to hook and engage my learners?
I remember when teaching at Point England School at the beginning of every term we would have our Immersion Assemblies. This would be a chance for teachers to share what the inquiry is through a short play, quiz, skit, dance, drama etc to hook learners into the topic. It was also a lot of fun for teachers but also great to see our learners faces light up!
Watching the Universal Design for Learning reminded me of trying to do things differently with my learners to capture engagement. For example: homework and how one sheet just doesn't cut the mustard. The video talked about how learners need lots of different modes to engage in learning. What works for one learner, doesn't always work for others. This has challenged me today. Can we change what we do to help engage our learners? Yes.
Creating a site for our learners. We were given a chance to look at some other examples of sites. I liked this one here. It had both English and Samoan activities on there. Here is another example for Matariki.
CyberSmart with Vicki reminded us about Smart Parents. Do parents know about their child's individual blogs? Do they know how to leave them a comment on their posts? I created a QR code for my learners blogs and shared this with parents.
Thursday, 18 May 2023
DFI: Day 4 Reflection
Dorothy Burt spoke to us about "Sharing" today. Sharing has been done since the beginning of time. It's also about building relationships with others and getting to know people. The only thing that has changed is how it has been done as time has passed. Social media has heightened a form of sharing. Sharing requires an authentic audience.
When I taught at Point England School, I'll always remember Mr Russell Burt (our tumuaki - principal) and how he encouraged the positive rather than the negative. Instead of anti-bullying (using the word bullying) as a school we encouraged the behaviour we wanted like: Kindness etc. I remember Max Jacobsen writing songs about kindness and how we sung them in our school assemblies.
There had to be a space for our learners to share. Manaiakalani went with blogging. I've been privileged to have been part of the blogging journey since the beginning when I taught at Point England School.
Thursday, 11 May 2023
DFI Day 3: Media Reflection
Our 30 minutes session with Dorothy this morning was about Create - Hanga. This was about the concept of using Create to hook our learners into learning. It has challenged me to think about how I have planned for my learners in the classroom to create, to be curious and explore to create. I liked the following quotes:
Thursday, 4 May 2023
DFI Day 2 Workflow Reflection
Another day of learning. We use Hapara at Weymouth Primary School to help us as educators with our learners and their devices 1:1. I remember during our in-class Facilitator Support with Jeremy Ferguson last year and how he encouraged us as educators to use Hapara as a tool to support learners instead of a watchdog type application. I am quite confident using Hapara.
Here is my screen recording from today:
Thursday, 27 April 2023
DFI Core Business Day 1 Reflection
It is great to have been part of the Manaiakalani kaupapa from the beginning. When sharing, Dorothy reminded me of the origins and how far the project has come.
A few things that I have learned from the session today are:
* Google Groups and an opportunity of how to use this in the classroom. This is new learning. I didn't realise that it was in the Google suite. The nine dots in the right hand corner that accesses the Google apps, I call the chocolate box with my learners. I am curious to find out how different is Google Groups to Spaces.
* Google Drive: the preview eye icon had disappeared from the top table. But after today, I had to change the grid layout to see it. We also had time to tidy up our Drive. Using the preview buttons helps to view docs in the drive without having to open them. I spent some time tidying up my Drive today. I need to keep on top of this. I also get my learners to tidy up their Google Drive at the end of every time.
* Google Docs: using docs to create posters. This was new learning for me. During the session one of our tasks was to create a poster using google docs. I liked how you could use a table to help keep all your work (writing, images) tidy and how you can hide the table lines. I will definitely be using (teaching) this with my learners. Here is my example that I am really proud of.
Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Pacific Project 2023
It's been a few years since I've posted to my professional blog. Today I feel inspired to do so with purpose and from a professional aspect.
I had the pleasure of participating in a Professional Development for Pacific Project Manurewa Wayfinders. It was held at the Nathan Homestead in Manurewa and led by our Pacific RTLB cluster. Side note: I am now an educator of Year 6 at Weymouth Primary School and I am very grateful to be part of this initiative.
The Fono started with prayer and a hymn. There was lots of discussion about: Pacific Engagement Strategies and how to come alongside other educators of non-Pacific descent and support them with some understanding of our Pacific culture. Discussion around: Le Vā (the space between us) and Fofola le Fala (unfurl the mat, so we may speak as equals). Some statistics from today and how the Pacific demographics in Auckland and New Zealand shows that the population is projected to grow quite significantly. The three aims of this project is: Effective Pedagogy, Strategies to engage with parents and to have access to more Pacific resources.
We talked about the Action Plan for Pacific Education (2020-2030). We shared about how we encourage and implement Pacific education in our schools. At Weymouth Primary School all cultures are valued and celebrated. During Pacific Language Weeks, teachers implement cultural activities in the classroom that integrate into all curriculum areas. For example, a literacy activity is to retell a legend from the Pacific Island. We also have special assemblies which our children perform in, speak, sing and share items with the whole school. Parents and families are also invited to come along and help celebrate too.
The discussion led into Tapasā. We talked with a buddy about where we were from and how our family came here to Aōtearoa, New Zealand. Our presenter talked about the Tapasā - Turu. Turu 1: Identities, language and culture. Turu 2: Collaborative and respectful relationships and professional behaviours and Turu 3: Effective Pedagogies for Pacific learners. The question was asked: How do you implement Tapasā in your school?
We talked about our values and for us Pacific people, values are very important. In the book Pacific educators speak: Valuing our values, there are nine. They are: service, respect, leadership, family, belonging, love, inclusion, reciprocal relationships and spirituality. At the end of the book there were four more values included. Our focus today was around 'Belonging'.
It was great to be there, learn alongside and connect with other Pacific Educators from the Manurewa area. From the discussion and activities, it has given me a lot to think about in terms of my own practice, regularly reflect on: how I can help my Pacific learners in the classroom and make better connections and build relationships with Pacific families.