Weekly Reflection 4

 DFI Week 4

Reflection 4

Sometimes we have to sit back and think about the importance of sharing our work.  At times we all want to show someone else what we have done and maybe get some acknowledgment from others for our efforts.  Our students are no different.  Even a simple photo taken of a student holding up their work showcases the effort they have put into their learning.  You see, to me when I take that photo of them and their finished, or even attempted completion of that work, it's the proudness in that smile they give that shows me they enjoyed their learning and they were engaged in what they had accomplished.  This gives them confidence to keep accomplishing over and over again and not being afraid to ask for help to achieve it.  

Who hasn't seen a child drag someone by the hand into their class and say, look at my work, this one's mine.  Imagine them now being able to put that work onto their own blog for the world to see.  To have a collection of your learning in a space that is your own but it can be reached by many beyond the classroom walls and workbooks, opening up a broader audience.  For them this is definitely look at my learning, look at what I created and now I'm sharing it with you so you can SEE what I learnt and how I learnt it and that I finished it, or tried to. This gives students a voice in their learning.  I believe sharing student voice and teachers voice through sharing our learning gives us and them a platform to build engagement and motivation. This flows over into sense of belonging, positive relationships, greater self esteem and in turn higher academic achievement,  all any teacher wants for their students.  Well that's what I want for mine and after learning more about the manaiakalani programme, I'm a fan on finding out how to accomplish this and learning what I can to make this happen for my tamariki. I'm really proud of what I'm learning at the moment, so that's why I like to share with you..... on my blog.

So, each week there are more wonderful things to learn and hot tips to help us out.  This week it was learning about SHARE and what this means in the manaiakalani programme, google forms, my maps, google sheets, and blog comments.  I'm still a little like a fish out of water with these things but hey, I know stuff I didn't know before or would not  have even attempted to play around with.  You know what though, attempting these things has given me confidence, greater self esteem, engagement and motivation to learn, not to mention wanting share with my colleagues what I am learning .. go figure.

It's safe to say all of the above for me rolls into confidence, capability, workflow, professional and personal life improvements.  I have to admit my biggest take away was the importance of sharing for our tamariki.  Share, finish, learning or is it learning, finish, share, or finish, learning share?  If it was a multiple choice on a google form, I'd pick all 'of the above'.

Google Maps

 

Favourite Holiday Destinations of DFI Cohort

These are some of the favourite holiday destinations around the world of everybody in our DFI cohort in Term 3 2021.

The red star is my own dstination which is Upper Captiva Island, Florida.

Weekly Reflection 3

DFI Week 3

Reflection 3

This weeks session was based around 'create' and this is an important part of the learning for us as kaiako, especially for our tamariki.  To use the quote by Dorothy Burt "Creativity Empowers Learners" as a compacted explanation pretty much sums up the importance of create in three words.  This is what we are aiming to acheive with our learners by teaching them the skills to accomplish just that, we want their creativity to empower them in their learning and we want them to recognize they have the power to achieve their goals on their learning journey.  

Everything we are doing in this DFI course is improving my confidence, being given the chance to be scaffolded through an unfamiliar and sometimes scary digital world has been a blessing.  The benefits this course creates for kaiako like myself, who are a bit technologically challenged is a gift, it's a gift that will get payed forward to our tamariki.  

Manaiakalani have opened up a whole new world of learning for us and they have given us the respect and knowledge to benefit in our learning which in turn benefits our students learning.  This is something to be grateful for and I am excited albeit nervous still at times, to embrace the learning challenges myself before I expect my students to.  My students are so awesome though and even though they are just starting their digital learning journey, they definitely show me a thing or two, which they love to do by the way.

Personally, whatever is improving my confidence in my professional capability and workflow influences the same things in my personal life, so it's a win, win for me.

I'm definitely into taking the deep dive with Kerry about media into my classroom for my learners.  Setting up a media kit for my learners is going to be great and so much fun for my tamariki.  I'm already looking into trying to get some old phones off friends to start making up the kits.

My takeaway for my learners this week is as above, media kits but I am also looking forward to using google draw with my learners.  The google slides session was very helpful as this will benefit the move into digital learning for my tamariki when they are fully digital.  I hope to give them a start on using the slides to access mahi in their group work etc.

I am going to attempt to embed a video I watched with Dorothy Burt talking about the Manaiakalani Programme.  I found it after writing my blog, funnily enough, she talks about the importance of  the learning journey not only for our tamariki but for our kaiako.

 

DFI Create Wk 3

I decided to create an app in our session today that can be used by Whānau to see what is happening in our Akomanga.  It is a work in progress but the idea behind it is that Whānau can access the things that are relevant to our akomanga all in one place. Although this maybe done through our class site, other things can be linked that may not otherwise be on the site.  It was suggested that it may be an easier way for Whānau to download it to their phone to use.  

Weekly Reflection 2

 DFI - Week 2 

Reflection 2

My View

Today I  have come to understood a much more in depth view to the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy.  Being able to relate digital learning to effective teaching and accelerated learning in this  digital world of learners, is a learning curve for myself as a kaiako but one that I am excited and willing to achieve, not only for my own gain but for that of my students.  The pedagogy of Manaiakalani opens up a whole new world of experiences for our tamariki, starting with the three simple words of 'Learn, Create, Share'.  Learning needs to be engaging and something our tamariki can get excited about, creating gives our tamariki a tool to express themselves and demonstrate the depth of their learning and sharing gives them an opportunity to showcase that learning and give them a sense of importance and pride.  These things can get lost in the pages of exercise books that stay in the classroom all year.  

The learning in our school looks like PB4L, restorative practice, wellbeing, our school values of Aroha, Manaakitanga and Rangatiratanga.  We teach our tamariki to Stand Tall, Stand Proud, Stand Strong.  

Our learning journey follows the Te Marautanga O Aotearoa, founded on the ambition to develop successful, confident, competent learners while nurturing a healthy mind, body and giving them a sense of belonging, value and being proud of their identity.  It's about working together and giving our learners the same opportunities.  This is where we notice the difference between Equality and Equity.  The Manaiakalani Programme is that equity; giving opportunities to students to gain the essential skills, knowledge and sense of self that may have otherwise, sadly, been just out of reach for some.

My Learning

My confidence was a little shaky last week and I'm not going to lie, I was a tad nervous this week to start with.  I imagine that's what our tamariki go through with new learning at times.  Anyway, shaking that off, I found this week to be, dare I say it, easier.  Not easier in the sense of knowing what I'm doing, (she laughs) but easier in a way that I was able to regroup my thoughts, take a breath and say "I got this".  Well, I can try my best, that's all I ask of my students, so that's what I'm asking of myself.  My confidence has come about today by a simple listening task.  Listening to how we use this knowledge, listening to how we can use all these engaging tools to our advantage, which filters down to our students.  Google Meet, Google Calendars, Google Keep, Tabs, Apps, & as simple as learning more about our G-mail. These are all things I was still a bit worried about mucking around with but after today I feel I would be more confident to utilize these to my advantage, instead of being scared of them.  These things are going to help me manage myself at work and at home once I use them more often and become more familiar with their benefits.  I am especially excited about Google Keep as I'll be able to use this during group work.  I can take a photo of my groups work they have done on the whiteboard table, make a quick note or voice recording to text, then use this to put into my modelling books.  My learners are going to love being able to set up a Google Meet and I can see this being a challenging, fun interaction for them. I'll be sure to remember the tip to make a habit of getting the students to close tabs they are not using as well.

All in all, it was a successful day today, the collaboration task just confirmed how when one of us is unsure the others are willing to put their hand out and help you up.  A true enactment of the life skills we are trying to instill in our teaching.