Day Two DFI

Day Two: DFI

Topics: Googlemeet, Effective Teaching: Learn/Amplify/Turbocharge, Google Keep, Gmail, Google Calendar, Taming tabs, Embedding videos into your blog post 

Googlemeet: 

We started using Googlemeet when we began Distance Learning teaching online during the Lockdown. In a very short amount of time we had to learn quickly how to use it. I enjoyed meeting the children online and started explaining the Learn, Create Shares for our planning with them. These included mainly Literacy and Maths. We made our Google Site visible to the public and I got used to changing my share settings to anyone on the internet with this link can view. It was scary at first doing Googlemeets from your home and inviting everyone in but we soon got used to it. Today was a revision session for me. I was happy that I could join the googlemeet and share my interesting place and favourite song from youtube by presenting my screen. I have joined Googlemeets for staff meetings during Lockdown, one on one technology advice with teachers, teaching Learn, Create, Shares with the children and Toolkits online. It was new to me to record the Googlemeet so I enjoyed practising. Below is a recording I did with Michelle talking about a child’s blog post from another school. I learnt that you can only record if you are the creator of the Googlemeet.

Googlemeet about a Children's Blog Post

Effective Teaching: Learn/Amplify/Turbocharge:

It was good revision for me to look at Learn, Amplify and Turbocharge lessons for Effective Practice. We have staff meetings that have covered these ideas. I started thinking about the Effective Practice we do in our school e.g Learning Through Play based on Longworth Education, Gold Standard Project Based Learning, Manaiakalani:Learn, Create, Share planning- all backed by research (evidence based). We are currently looking at Muhammad Ali as one of the World’s Greatest Athletes for us to be ‘The World’s Greatest Teachers.’ We are looking at effective practice from the Teachers Professional Standards. Each week we have a standard that we focus on and put into practice in the classroom. Our Performance Growth Cycle is based on these standards too. Our inquiry is looking at High Level Practices and how we can implement effective teaching of these in Critical Thinking. So we as a school team and individually are constantly working on and reflecting on our practice. Some quotes that stuck with me: 

“Effective teacher implementing effective practice.” -Dorothy Burt

“Worth teaching/learning = worth capturing = rewindable learning!”

“Every child, every day should learn in engaging ways.”

Google Keep:

I have used Google Keep before on my phone for mainly creating lists. Today I made sure I have a school and personal account that I can use. I learnt how to easily swap between accounts. I have always enjoyed using Google Keep but now I am exposed to so much more that the app can do. I can see it will be very useful in the future. 

Gmail:

I learnt how to undo send with emails and reset for 30 seconds which is very helpful. I find that my emails can add up very quickly in my inbox. Sharon has worked with me before and we have set up three choices: Primary, Social and Promotions. I learnt how to teach the computer to put the emails into the right tabs by doing it yourself the first time and then the computer automatically remembers. 

Calendar:

I have the calendar for school on my computer and phone. I use it more on my phone for quick, easy access. It is great to see the month at a glance. I know how to create an event and add a googlemeet but it is always good for revision. We had to learn during lockdown so we could book in times for googlemeets via the calendar. A positive from the whole Lockdown experience was my upskilling with technology, as I keep mentioning in what I have learnt already in my blog posts. It was a good opportunity to explore and practise with technology. 

Taming Tabs: 

I love to pin the documents I am working on during the day for work for quick easy access between them all. I like the shortcut keys you can use to swap between them I will just have to remember them. I like the idea of pinning a set/topic together and will try creating some of these. 

Embedding videos into your blog post: 

I have my hub blog and my professional blog. I am used to embedding pictures and powerpoints of pictures into my blog posts but not videos. Go to the Kākano Hub Blog and check out some posts by Miss Bailey!  At the moment I am working on this,  I created a recording video from a Googlemeet and am trying to put it into this post. I have it in my drive in Meet Recordings. So if you see it above I’ve succeeded otherwise first question on Tuesday!