Week 8 - Computational Thinking

Today is about putting it together; understanding our new Digital Curriculum so to implement digital technologies to empower our students' learning.

I have always understood the kaupapa around Learn-Create-Share and it annoys me, when I say to Principals of other school, 'Tautoro School is part of the Manaikalani Outreach Cluster.' ... and their response "Ohhhh, you're a chromebook school."

Pleeeaasssse GIVE ME STRENGTH, not to wrap my ##### chromebook around your #####    #####.

Know matter how I talk about the other kaupapa surrounding Manaiakalani e.g. pedagogy, building teacher capabilities, research based, student and whanau empowerment...(the list is endless), I know I've lost them when I see their eyes cloud over. BUT what erks me the most, the conversation always turns to their students' disengagement and absenteeism. DOH!!!

So we are here, sitting in the beautiful but cold (as the air conditioning unit has a mind of it's own) Waitangi, being exposed to digital technologies that will transform student learning journey's

Ok not quite the Russian artist that I found on YouTube but this is my first virtual masterpiece 'Flowers in a Blue Vase' Just imagine, where you can head with this, in Visual Arts... art history, paint techniques, art comparisons.

What have I learned today...? 'Don't limit a student's learning path, just because your path is shorter.'

Week 7 - DFI Media

Love working with Youtube!

Today I learned how to live stream and add to my blog and google site. Here is my first attempt using my phone and then downloading it into my youtube calendar.



If you look to your right I added an image using Google Draw, it's just another way to present mahi. Really good to do, as it helped me to remember how to crop a photo to the shape wanted. Hence the to extra images beside my photo.

The next learning was to create an animated google slide. On the last slide, I was able to embed an audio clip, which is pretty neat. I can see the students use their problem-solving skills for that task. By the way, not all of the DFI teachers could insert a sound bite, so I was a bit happy that I got to tutu around with this new feature on google slides.


Today I had a wee conversation with Zorina, about how my teaching pedagogy improved with the introduction of using digital tools and programs in my planning, under the protection of the Manaiakalani kaupapa.

If I had this knowledge and technology 20 years ago, man.... I would have been the BOMB teacher. Now I have my old students enrolling their precious tamariki and as a leader, I will make sure Tautoro School teachers, staff and students get the best learning from this way of delivering knowledge and skills.

WEEK 6

In week 6, I attended the Manaikalani Wananga in Auckland with our school Deputy Principal Mattie Paraha, so I missed out on attending DFI#6 at Paparore School. So this week I will share what I learnt at this hui as well as what I introduced to the senior classes when I was relieving.

On Friday 18th Oct I designed a unit that focused on quick fact and resource gathering using a google doc and my google map. But the main purpose was... completing work to a deadline.

Week 5 - Visible Learning

When Learning is Visible, our students experience success as they can see their learning journey.

Issues
What should be visible or not visible?

Visible - Making Connections	Not Visible
Google Learning Sites - Lesson Plans,	Bio data
Digital Learning Objects	Assessments
Rich Feedback and Feed Forwards
Blogs - Student learning.

This week we focused on Google Learning Site - a tool that supports student learning.
When analyzing several class google sites as a parent, I found quite a few sites had presentations that needed requesting to open and quite a few sites just consisted of DLOs.

Without the lesson plan, the students and parent would find the learning pathway confusing.

I am totally biased in this opinion but I thought Tautoro School Yr 7 and 8 Google site showed the learning pathway clearly. Great presentation Gaylene.

Our School Pedagogy Site, I created this site to hold important presentations and resources that would form decisions when teachers created google learning sites.

Week 4 - Collaborate Sites

A beautiful day in Paihia School today, thanks to Jane and her staff for providing a great setting for our Week 4 DFI.

So our mahi today was to create a multi-model document and create a google site in 5 mins.
Yeah... Right!

Hahaha this site took me 3 hours to get to this point - Title page, 4 subpages and 4 partially created multi-model pages.

I think I'm a bit rusty.

A Little bit of Homework

Well, Mattie and I practiced, videoing a Google Hangout. I still find this difficult to know which button to click, so to video the Hangout. Here is the second attempt of our video, as the first attempt wasn't recorded......Hmmmmm.

Third Week - Dealing With Data

My Google Maps

GOOGLE FORMS

My google Form

USING GOOGLE SHEETS TO HELP ANALYSE DATA

Well, I feel quite successful this week, as I have completed a few tasks.

I've been pondering on the word 'creative' and providing opportunities for our students to become creative when they present their work.

Before this is to happen, we the educators have to be creative. Our students must be in front of educators who can model creativity, provide resources/notes/DLOs where our students can feel supported when they are creating a presentation of their knowledge and skills.

School Principals must also provide opportunities for their staff to observe creative teachers, attend PD, PLG, toolkits and develop teaching networks; and BOT must do likewise for their Principals.

I truly believe that the kaupapa and pedagogy of Manaikalani learn-create-share, provide our educators with these solutions, through the sharing of blogs, websites, google sites, PLG, toolkits, staffmeetings, Woolf Fisher Research papers and area principal networks.

Second Week - The Power of a Hangout.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani’s Learn kaupapa and pedagogy?

The humble Google Hangout - I usually use this App when I am contacting our school contractors. The last time I used this hangout was last Friday; when I needed support from the Solar Power Provider to help me navigate our wordy 'Contract.' Today I discovered that hangout is more than a on-line telephone.

Today I saw the potential on how to incorporate this tool into our students' learning, with the right task, groups of students can get together to evaluate and analyze pieces of work or debate about an issue. Below is an example of a group of discussing the learning that took place in the set task and the benefits of sharing the work on his blog.

Understandably, our movie is a bit long due to not knowing how to use hangout confidently... but the potential is there.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Ok, the first this I really changed to suit my needs as a Principal, was to rearrange my email system.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

This week, I quickly whipped up a unit of work, for our Year 7 students as I found myself relieving.
I decided to base the finished product to be presented on a linked google doc. Something we
learned last week.



What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I'm not sure I have an issue with confidence or capability because I always give it a go. I try
different things and if I see the benefits for our students, then we introduce the digital tool, app or
program in their learning. As for improving my personal workflow, most of the google apps I'm
using, however, I am looking forward to my 101 lessons on google sheets and forms.

First Week Down - OMG Baptism of Fire

I came out the class like a stunned Mullet... happy but stunned. I think the fast pace of the day is what took me aback. Thank goodness for Kerri and Vanessa's notes, I say. A bit of homework will help me to finish all my requirement for DFI, and I think I will have to do a bit of work in the holidays.

I was actually surprised about how much I knew, and how much I could accomplish using Doc and Blogging.

Because I don't teach, I found myself falling behind in the digital world, especially now that we have Google Teachers in Tautoro. So enrolling in DFI will help me to catch up with my teacher's lingo as well as support me with Governance and Management decisions that will help to Future Focus our school.

As for learning and understanding Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy, I am totally into it.

When I first visited Point England School in 2013, I knew I wanted in. I wanted to be an innovative teacher for my students. I wanted to be less of a micromanager and more of a facilitator, who could create a learning environment where students could take more risks with their learning and where students would enjoy learning and wanted more of it. I wanted to bring back passion to all of my students' eyes.

Now I'm a Principal, I am creating a school, where all of its teachers have that same understanding - "use your passion to light the eyes up."

My learners are slightly different as I have our BOT and teachers/staff with the students. My learners are the school leaders - Senior and Middle Management. I think if I use these google tools more, I will gain more confidence which will rub off onto the staff and especially the teaching staff. This knowledge will eventually trickle down to our students.