Day Six DFI

Google meet with Dorothy: Connected

I learnt about the close relationship between visibility and connection during the Googlemeet with Dorothy. “To embrace visibility it is essential to be connected.” If our learning is visible on our sites then we can connect with our learners and community. 

I thought about the powerful networks that I am connected to at the moment including my professional colleagues, the school community, Alpha Course (teachers and parish community) and our Manaiakalani cluster to name a few. I thought about how powerful the face to face connections are that I have especially for sharing professional conversations. I have enjoyed being on the DFI course and connecting with other people in our cluster. It is a great chance to build relationships, develop our digital technologies together and share our professional practise. 

I always take the opportunities to be connected and participate in Toolkits where teachers share their digital knowledge. I have made my professional blog public and are now working on making comments on other people’s blogs with the positive, thoughtful helpful framework. I want to check out the newsletters of the schools during Lockdown to see how they were connecting over this time.  

I learnt about the connections that Manaiakalani are making through their website, Blogger, RSS, Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu-’Write to me, write to others,’ Secondary Connects each term, Newsletters, Toolkits, Google Currents, Cluster Meetings and the full time Māori specialist who is available to help in schools. 

The four elements that need to be occurring in our classrooms are; Connected, Ubiquitous, Empowered and Visible learning and teaching. I feel I have a better understanding of all four of these elements through this course. When sharing our professional learning, blogs etc there are opportunities for us to provide feedback in a positive, thoughtful, helpful manner. 

Google Learning Sites

It was great to hear that accelerated learning happens from the Learn, Create, Share framework, digital learning (this turbocharges what we normally do in the classroom), visible learning/teaching, blogging, Google Sites and Manaiakalani support. Our school has all these things in place. 

The children did a great job with their blogs from the Lockdown in Kākano. The children sent their work to an email that was then uploaded to the site by a teacher. It would be great if we could see rewindable learning and engagement in the Learn, Create, Shares again on our hub blog. I wonder if we could teach the children how to upload their work to the blog and get a post from them each week. I enjoyed writing comments on their blog posts using the positive, thoughtful, helpful framework. The children were very proud of their work and it was great seeing the community commenting too. This would be a good connection with visible learning to promote again. 

I enjoyed looking at a range of Google Sites which gave me a good idea of what is engaging and examples of rich experiences. Through analysing other Google Sites through the Google Form I have a much better idea of what a Google Site needs to have to be successful. 

I liked working on my Google Site copy today. I learnt about the recipe for success with Google Sites including visual appeal and site functionality.  From looking at other sites I decided to include a Google Form that the children/community could Ask the Teacher a question on the home page. I also added Meet the Teacher links with their photo buttons. I looked at my Maths Learn, Create, Shares and decided to work on improving these to make them more child friendly and simplified. As I simplified a Learn, Create, Share I knew they were becoming very focused on the specific goals that I wanted the children to learn. I used images with clickable links. I set up a template to use again next time if I proceed with these plans. I liked the way it was more engaging for the children and clearly set out. 

I learnt how to go incognito to browse sites privately and how to make buttons for your sites. I also learnt how to hide pages on your site from navigation and how to link a Google form to my site. All skills which will be very useful going forward. We discussed how important it is to record your voice for young children to get instructions across on the Learn, Create, Shares as well as the text so everyone can participate independently. 

I learnt about the SAMR model today. “The SAMR Model is a framework created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura that categorises four different degrees of classroom technology integration. The letters "SAMR" stand for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.” We are aiming for transformation use of technology. I will be thinking about this as we use technology in the classroom. 

Day Four: DFI

Connecting with Dorothy-Share

I really enjoyed listening to Dorothy today and learning all about Share. I agreed with the sharing explosion during lockdown. Our technology skills increased and everyone was sharing what they were doing online. We got the children in our hub to share their learning via the Kākano Hub Blog site. It was fantastic to see what they had been learning about and creating at home from our Learn, Create, Shares and Googlemeets.

I enjoyed commenting on the children’s blogs using the positive, thoughtful, helpful structure. We also included a question so the children would write another post back to us to answer it. Some children/adults commented on other children’s blog posts. 

I liked the quotes “connected learners share” and “sharing has been part of human nature since time began.” These quotes got me thinking of all the ways we share and how sharing online has evolved and exploded recently during Lockdown e.g via facebook, apps like tick tock etc. It made me also think about how we share in the classroom especially through our Learn, Create, Shares. Are we making the most of the sharing time and sharing activities in the classroom. Are they hooking the learner in?

I thought about how important purposeful and authentic audiences are. At the end of the term we are going to have a showcase about our Matariki learning for Project Based Learning. Our purpose and authentic audience relates back to our driving question: “How can we uplift and empower our Whānau to celebrate Matariki as part of our identity in the future?” Sharing in real time is very important, which will be happening for our PBL straight after all the learning done in the term. 

Dorothy also talked about the importance of feedback and feedforward. This made me think of my student who has received constant feedback/feedforward from me in her placement this term. I have also received feedback/feedforward from an observation in Structured Language last week. We also as a staff have been discussing this in regards to our Professional Teaching observations that are coming up. I’m happy to receive feedback, I reflect on my practice often and want to action any advice to develop as a teacher.

I really like the idea of changing from “I’m finished” which I hear often in the classroom to “I’m ready to share.” A different mindset to put emphasis on how important it is to share, learn from others, receive feedback/feedforward to reflect on and take action to be the best you can be. 

Google Forms

I really enjoyed making a Google Form, I have made one before. I learnt how to incorporate an image or video, change the theme and change the settings of the general form. I’m looking forward to making some in real life contexts at school.

Google My Maps

I haven’t been on Google My Maps before. I enjoyed experimenting and am starting to think of ways I could incorporate this into the classroom. I like the idea of seeing where the children have all been on holiday during term breaks for a start. 

Google Sheets 101

I have experience with Google Sheets for work, we use them for our Literacy and Maths groups and the childrens progressions for Maths and Literacy. I learnt some great tips like how to freeze and unfreeze a column, how to make basic calculations for sums and averages, how to automatically fill rows with things like days, months, translate into different languages, sort data from A to Z and make graphs from the data. I enjoyed entering data from our Kākano Hub blog posts to create different types of graphs. 

Added extras this week:

I learnt that Google Drawing is not always compatible with Blogger but I finally got my Matariki Google Drawing up on our Hub site/PBL: Matariki.

I put up my Creative Slide background with links to Storyline Online on our Hub site, Independent Reading.

I learnt to view the Hub site via the phone, tablet/ipad, chrome icon to see what the audience sees.

I finally found where to add a new playlist on my Youtube Channel through the studio which I couldn’t find. 

Student Teacher Term One

My student started on the 17th of February and finished early on the 23rd March. This was due to Covid-19 and the teachers moving towards online teaching. It was great to have her in the hub with three other students. It is a great opportunity for us as well as them as we can learn from each other. This was my student's first posting. I was excited to share the way we do things and get her involved in the daily operation of the hub. I found through informing my student I reflected on my own practices. My student had only been at college for a short amount of time before coming on her first posting. I've had a few students now and enjoy giving back and passing on my teaching knowledge. I am always interested in new practices and teachings that the students can share with us. 

Learning Through Play-Suzi Gould

I attended a GoogleMeet about Learning Through Play run by Suzi Gould. She had us remember a Learning Through Play experience that we cherished when we were a child. She talked about the joy of play that children have and how this is a powerful mode of learning. Through listening to Suzi it confirmed for us the value of play and why we are doing it at St Francis of Assisi School. I particularly liked how she said teacher's superpower was observing. This has been a challenge at the start as we wanted to intervene and fix the children's problems in Learning Through Play but we have learnt that is not always the best learning opportunity for the child. I was interested in her 7 principles that she taught the older children in game-like learning:1 Everyone participate 2 Failure is reframed as iteration 3 Learning feels like play 4 Learning happens by doing 5 Feedback immediate/on going
6 Challenge is constant 7 Everything is interconnected. Number two I would word differently without including the word failure. I also liked how the children came and filled out a sheet for what they would like help with. The teachers didn't go around the children and interupt their play to find this out. I liked her approach to Learning Through Play: Pause=Describe what you see.... Notice=what are the child's interests (acknowledge), Sensemaking=Trial and error, wonder, questioning, reflection. Sometimes we forget to stand back and pause, observe the children, they don't always need us to intervene in their play. I will continue to extend my knowledge in Learning Through Play.

Getting Connected Interviews 2020

Kakano Hub had Getting Connected Interviews with parents on the 3rd and 4th of February this year. I think these interviews are a fantastic idea. It is a great way to get connected with children and parents before school starts. I find out lots of important background information about the child including their talents, interests, hopes and goals for the year. They get to explore the hub and get familiar with their surroundings. This helps the child to feel less anxious on the first day of school. It is a great chance for the parents to voice any concerns on a one to one basis and let us know about any issues, requirements, medical information etc for the child. On the first day of school the children were very happy coming in to Learning Through Play. They happily greeted their teachers and were content having had the opportunity to ask their questions beforehand and put their mind at ease. The parents had more time to spend with their child and other parents before they left their child for the first time. It made for a smooth transition to school for the beginning of the year. I find these Connected Interviews very valuable and would like to see more of them throughout the year. I think these kinds of interviews will keep the parents informed with up to date knowledge of their child's learning and well being and keep the connections to our community close.

Understanding and managing children's anxiety

Catherine Gallagher: Clinical Psychologist 22nd May I went to this free course run by NZEI. I have always found it very interesting how the body works and wanted to know more about what is happening to a child when they are anxious. Notes: -Anxiety is normal and healthy -Anxiety is experience of fear in absence of threat -Anxiety comes out in bad behaviour -We need to be the frontal lobe for the children and provide regulation when they can't -Adults needed to scaffold and help children manage their anxiety -We need to help children build up their resources -The brain loves plans -We need to acknowledge the feelings the child is having -We need to support them through their distress to come through the other side. They need to feel it to move through it and develop resilence so they can learn to regulate themselves. -We need to model it to the children -In the classroom when a child is in a flight or fight response this needs to be regulated first before learning can happen -Can define it as the worry brain or a problem that needs to be addressed. Write it down, sit with it, regulate. Write down top five worries for two minutes. Decide if it is the worry brain or a problem. Reassurance then move on. -Basic skills to help anxiety: breathing, mindfulness, imagery, self talk and exercise. The course gave us some good tips for dealing with anxiety that I will take back to the classroom. The basic skills are things we have brought into the classroom through Dojo videos, growth mindset, daily fitness already but we can expand our resources. We have plans inplace for earthquakes, fire drills etc that the children know already (the brain loves plans). We can develop a plan for emotions too and how to deal with them. Our term 4 P.B.L about emotions will fit in with these ideas well.

Longworth Course

31st May The main thing this course got me thinking about was changes we could make to our daily programme? I was excited about how we could deliver it differently and more effectively. Questions I put forth to the team: -What about starting earlier (Katie?) and factoring in spending some more time with the students in the learning through play room? -Could we have rolling bread snack? -Could children go to what prayers they like? eg. singing, child’s intentions, prayer,or bible story, all in different places, shorter all up (10 mins). Teachers take an option each week -Can children opt in to fitness options, each teacher doing an activity? (news options?) -Exploration activity in learning through play then moves to provocation question? -Do we need to tidy the learning through play area in the morning? Once at end of day? (Katie’s children going back to room throughout day) -Coaching video reflections: could we share once a week in team meetings, each teacher takes turns? We have taken actions on most of these things. The children have times when the bread snack song is on if they want to eat on the lino. We have tried out prayer choices. We would cast the choices on the t.v. Most went to singing so we changed this to Friday prayers as a group. We changed the Gospel to have it as Monday prayer time instead of later in the day to free up some afternoon time. I have looked at exploration in the Learning Through Play room with musical instruments. Then moved to learning songs on the glockenspiels. This has gone very well some children will be sharing in our Space Expo. The coaching videos were great, they helped us identify when we need to step into play and when we need to observe. Our aim is to take videos and share at our syndicate meetings. We also decided during this time that we would change the Provocation room to the Challenge room which is more child friendly speak. We decided on sign in photos in the mornings that the children would put in their homebase houses on the wall. This would cut down roll time in the mornings. We learnt about identifying and understanding our emotions, that they are the beginnings of empathy for children. If you can recognise your own, you can recognise it in others. Linking colours with emotions (movie - Inside Out). This relates well to our Term 4 P.B.L on emotions. We discussed childrens interactions in Learning Through Play/conflict resolution/building resilience and decided this is what the children need to work on. We discussed observations and data collection. We were told to only collect data that will inform your next steps. This is how Maire's template came about for the coach. We fill in our observations of urges, 6 C's, literacy/maths progressions, general observations. I think we need to be more careful of the activities we choose so they can be ticked off for the literacy/maths progressions. This course was very beneficial it made us reflect on our practices and decide to try some changes in our hub. It gave me a deeper understanding of Learning Through Play.

Research

Research Article 5: 25 Quotes about the importance of play -Teachers with apps “Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought” Summary of reading: -Imaginative free play has been getting the short end of the stick for some time -Play is the essence of learning, we have research to back it up -Play is the highest form of learning Googled quotes of play and learning that are my favourite: -Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity -It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them -Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning -Almost all creativity involves purposeful play -Play is so integral to childhood that a child who does not have the opportunities to play is cut off from a major portion of childhood -Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold -Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning -Whoever wants to understand much must play much -The true object of all human life is play -The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct -Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn -Play should be spontaneous and chosen by the child My Thoughts: I really enjoyed reading the many quotes about the importance of play, they really get the message across. I thought we could choose a quote and add it to our blog posts with pictures of the children in Learning Through Play? There are so many great ways to say how important play is, not only in the classroom for children, but in the world for adults. I think my favourite two quotes are: “play is our brain’s favourite way of learning” and “children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” I think the first one would be great to share with the children!

Research

Research Article 4: Self-Directed Play inspires rich learning - Education Gazette Children are in the driver’s seat at St Paul’s Junior School in Nelson, where student agency through self-directed, open-ended inquiry play is given full rein. Summary of reading: -Everything they see is an invitation to play -Open ended play nurtures so much more of a child’s holistic learning than instructional, teacher driven activity at this age -3 to 7 years you want to create confident, inquiring, open thinkers with high level thinking skills -Child led play engages complex thinking, expression, exploration, supports their transition to school -Engaging in a combination of self directed and intentional teaching using invitation to play, children develop skills in persevering, concentrating, problem solving, qualities which are considered strong predictors of academic success. All areas of the curriculum are woven through play in a cross-curricular, integrated approach -We learn by doing -Provide an environment where everyone is responsive to the children’s creativity, interests and passions -We coach, guide, comment rather than instruct in play, alongside discreet intentional teaching and build on the learning experiences the child brings with them -We teach daily, small group literacy/maths but not at the expense of creative inquiry play -Children have phenomenal learning abilities at this age and we need them to believe that -Narrative assessment/learning stories track learning in relation to National Curriculum -Seesaw used to share achievement with parents -St Paul’s Junior School approach is guided by international literature on the importance of learning/teaching through play, constructivist education theory, developmentally appropriate practices, understanding the role of anxiety in limiting learning (Nathan Wallis’ research), working with Sarah Aiono: Longworth Education Tips for teachers: -Value play-based learning for ages 3-7years, it nurtures strong academic success in later years -Utilise natural resources to support children’s play experiences -Look at international research, provides evidence for this approach/good ideas -Implement changes in teaching approaches/environment gradually, in order to sustain the changes over time. -Communicate/share evidence for why play is important with parent community, educate whanau on benefits for children in learning through play My Thoughts: I really like the idea/language of an invitation of play. I am excited about the invitations to play I can now create as we can add to the new planning sheets any activity that we wish, the possibilities are endless. I am always thinking about the things the children could explore in the Learning Through Play room and how I can then move these to activities in the Challenge room. I now feel I am asking myself is this activity open ended? Is Linc Ed evidence that I am collecting open ended, are we showing all what the child knows and has learnt in this area? How can they prove what they have learnt? How would they like to showcase their learning? I am thinking of how the children can have more ownership of their learning. I am also thinking of my role as a coach and how I can get the children to think deeper about their learning, specific questions/comments that inspire the children on. I know myself, I learn better by doing and so do the children. Learning stories might be a next step for us in Learning Through Play. We have been on a Longworth course and been to a talk by Nathan Wallis who both have great ideas that we are following along with. I think we are on the right track ticking off most of the teachers tips. Could we share a reading (research) each week in the newsletter on Learning Through Play? Or put one up on our blog? Another next step for us I think is to incorporate more natural resources.

Digital Passport

Workshop 3 Years 6-7

This workshop got me thinking about the transitions we have already made in our lifetimes and how the future will be so different for our children. We have changed to mobile phones, using apps daily, skyping friends and family overseas and using wearable devices to track our health to name a few. Not to mention drones, augmented and virtual realities which are all going to be developed more in the future.
I learnt about sequence, iteration and selection in Scratch, different search and sort functions using algorithms, error detection, evolution of technology and software testing. I also looked at the additional learning for Augmented and Virtual Reality, Networks and Internet and Spreadsheets. Every workshop and additional learning video has been beneficial, increasing my knowledge in technology and giving me the motivation to try different things with the children in class. I feel I keep getting extended in my knowledge with Scratch and are eager to try out what I have learnt on Scratch myself.

Network Meeting: Showcasing our Learning

Louise organised a Network Meeting with the Preschools that was held at our school on the 27th September. The focus this time was Showcasing your Learning. All the Preschools talked about their Learning Stories. I like the idea of Learning Stories for the children, I think we are using Linc Ed well to report on snapshots of learning at the moment. One of the Preschools mentioned they used an Ipad that the parents could access and look at what their children had been learning about that day. I thought this would be a good idea or even if we had a tv going every morning with a slideshow on it of what our children have been learning. This would be a good conversation starter with the parents and the children are so proud of their work and always want to share. Louise shared how we use Linc Ed to Showcase our learning and talked about our Maori Legend Production Showcase. She also summarised our Learning through Play Journey. As she was talking it dawned on me how far we have come and how many schools are at their beginning stages of Learning through Play like we were. We have had many visits from other schools to see our Learning through Play in action and I feel proud of what we have achieved. I realise this is a long journey but I am happy to be on this ride! I have learnt so much already and am looking forward to the next stage of the process.