DFI Day Three

Online Learning

I enjoyed working online from home for our third session of DFI. I found it easy to join the Googlemeets and swap between them for whole class and bubble group meetings. When I had an issue that I needed help with I let Sharon know and presented my screen on the Googlemeet so she could see what I was doing. Sharon then talked me through the steps to fix my problem as she watched me manoeuvre my way around my site. I found this very helpful. Me and a couple of others troubleshooted our problems together on the Googlemeet as well which was great to be able to help others and get advice. I liked seeing everyones ideas when we took turns presenting our screens. It was a very positive experience. 

I experienced online learning for the first time during Lockdown and it was very different from being in the classroom. I thought I would be too isolated from everyone at work and find it hard to get help when I needed with the new technology skills we were learning. I also thought it was lots of new learning for technology and was pondering whether or not I would be able to put it all into practise over the next few days before seeing the children online. All my worries were put to rest as I made Googlemeets with technology experts from school who talked me through any problems online. We had Googlemeets with the staff, then syndicate ones and one to one meetings which I organised with teachers to discuss our planning online. Our community were also learning and upskilling with technology as we found out from our online connections. So it felt great to all be learning together! The more I did Googlemeets with my peers and the children the more I enjoyed it and embraced the new way to connect. Practice makes perfect!

Googlemeet with Dorothy

I enjoyed connecting with Dorothy for the Googlemeet on Create. There were so many quotes that I liked. Here are a few:

-we want a world full of playful creative people”

-“Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery”

-“Creativity empowers learners”

-“Get hooked into learning through creativity”

-“When it comes to learning if the hands are involved the head really gets going”  

-“We want to be creators of content, not merely consumers”  “

-“Creating is a real purpose for learning”

It really made me think about how important creativity is and what opportunities we are providing for the children. I thought it all related very well to our Learning Through Play philosophy and the environment that we want to create in our classrooms. 

“In the 6 C’s of Education Creativity is acknowledged as an important part of the curriculum.” We have been moving more and more towards this as we move away from templates and let the children have more voice and choice in their learning. PBL is a good example about how we are doing tasters to inform the children of the topics available and they choose which one they want to be involved with. The children also think about how they want to present their final product to show the learning they have achieved. Creativity comes into play here as well. 

Sisomo = sight, sound, motion. This is a name I haven’t heard before. 

“Creating emotional connections in the market” We looked at how clever some advertisements are on t.v that use sight, sound and motion to create emotional connections. These make us more likely to purchase the product as it builds a connection with the audience. 

Sisomo made me think of our five senses. We have been introducing these in the classroom to explain our experiences lately. E.g swimming lessons. This has allowed us to tap into some rich language (Jane Considine) and make a deeper connection with our audience through our writing. 

Youtube

I had a Youtube channel already set up but I hadn’t made any playlists. I enjoyed searching and creating a playlist for fun songs with lyrics from disney for the children.  I learnt how to save the videos if they were greyed out under the clips. I think this will be very useful in the future as I am always collecting links on topics and this will be a better way to store my information. 

Media Deep Dive

When we had the Media Deep Dive I was exposed to lots of different apps for people to be creative and make films. There were only a couple I have heard of. Looking forward to being able to pick a few and explore in the future. 

Google Drawing

I was impressed by all the things you could do on Google Draw. I enjoyed making a Matariki page that I hope to share with the children during Project Based Learning. I learnt how to link sites to the pictures. See below, click on the stars to find out information about Matariki!

I also made an All About Me Profile that sits to the side of my Professional Blog posts. Can you see it? 

Google Slides

I enjoyed creating interesting backgrounds that I could put information on for the children. They click on the pictures to access their learning. These were fun ways to present work to the children that would engage them in their learning. I found my bimoji that we created at the start of the year and could place the image into the backgrounds. I have recently added mote and I am looking forward to trying it out with my slides.