CV Page

Creating a page with all I have learnt this year has made me even more grateful for the opportunities I have had as an MDTA Beginning Teacher. I feel so privileged to have had so much support from the program, my school and the other BTs. The learning I have had this year has allowed me to be a teacher who is confident working in a 1-1 classroom. 

Please take a look at all I have achieved this year.

Click here to view site

Thank you so much to all those who has supported me this year to learn and grow. 

One Year!

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of the year. In many ways I feel like I have learnt far more than I even imagined learning in my first year of teaching. By stepping back and reflecting on the year I have become more aware of my growth in confidence, the digital knowledge I have gain and the understandings I have developed about teaching and learning.

This year I have used the Manaiakalani Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. This pedagogy is so open and invites creative and teacher and student input. I have really enjoyed being a part of the creative classroom and seeing the connections that come from active sharing.

I Hope you enjoy my video about all I have learnt this year.

Teaching and using Scratch

This week we have been teaching the kids about the basics of coding using scratch. Scratch is a great starting place for coding as it allows for children to be creative by creating their own background and
characater.

A Film Festival Movie: Go For Gold!!

Here is my finished film festival movie. I was a privilege watching in on the extreme screen at Sylvia Park movie theatre. The hard work first my amazing learner made me so proud. I hope you enjoy the movie.

In Term three the Pavilion children learnt about the Olympics. We enjoyed learning about sport and it got us thinking about working hard so one day we can go for gold at the Olympics.

Our Presented introduced the movie like this:

Kia ora Pisirina
Kia ora Levonah
Remember how we learnt about the Olympics last term.
Yes. Why?
Well, I have decided I’m going to be an Olympian.
Really? What kind of Olympian?
I’m not sure yet, but whatever I do I’m going to work hard and Go for Gold!

Miss Davis Class Onair

This is my first ever episode of class onair. I used the Manaiakalani Google class on air as a model and created my own short video to show the snapshot of a measurement lesson. I choose to use measurement as it uses both digital and non-digital resources and shows learners exploring a new concept. I hope you enjoy my lesson. 

Link to Lesson

PRT sites

In New Zealand beginning teacher in there first two years of teaching have provisional registration. Part of the process of working through provisional registration is check a record of learning that aligns with the practicing registered teacher criteria. You need to be able to effectively explain and provide evidence to show that you meet these criteria to become full register.

Some teachers see this can be a challenge but it doesn't have to be. Just like we get our learners to keep a record on their teaching through google drive and blogging our PRT criteria are a record of our learning as teachers. I keep my PRT information on a google site and use embedded google docs to make work flow easier.  This not only helps me to meet the legal requires but it is a record I can add to forever and refer back to when ever I need to.

I have also started labelling posts on my blog which specific teaching criteria to help me collect my evidence more effectively. This is something you need to keep on top of as most blog post about teaching and learning will link with a criteria.

The best thing about my PRT site is it is special and specific to me. It all make it easy for my mentor to see how I believe I meet each criteria and see which areas I still need help in. Below is a screenshot of how I have personalised my PRT site so that it is mine and I am proud of it.

I highly recommend using a google site as a home for your PRT information as it is practice and easy to share.

Sharing my practice

This year I have been lucky to work closely with Karen Belt this year and watch her sharing her practice on Google Class OnAir. This week we been planning how we will create our very own Class OnAir lesson.

Thinking about how I will do this today have been a challenging and exciting experience. I want my lesson to be exciting for the learner and of course use the digital affordance effectively to support critical thinking and learning.

Today my focus was getting my site ready for my context and beginning to plan the writing lesson that I will teach next week. Diving back into HTML and site had it challenges but borrowing Karen's HTML. I also found that I could draw on past design ideas to build my site. Also having the past Google Class OnAir lessons to explore has supported me to think about which elements are important to capture and share in my video.

I am excited film this lesson and share it for other teachers to see and for me to see and reflect on as my practice continues to develop.

Connecting at digital immersion

This year we have connected with other beginning teachers each term. Today was our last digital immersion meeting with other beginning teachers.

Our focus today is around Visibility enables accelerated shift, this is important for our priority learners. For priority learners one years progress in a year is just getting older not moving forward.

We need to engage learners in the learners process is central acceleration. Hooking learners into learning, so that they are engaged with the curriculum. Engagement supports learners and teachers to have a productive and supportive learning experience.

How do our learners connect with their learning?
Everyone in the world is an individual. We all have a way that we learn new information. It might be that we learn best by talking to others, by listening, by exploring, by watching and so much more. This is why it is so important to provide multimodal learning experiences so that all learner can connect in a way that works for them.

Multiple texts
Learners can access text written for adults, written or for scientists. This takes away the ceiling for learners, they link these difficult texts to easier text and use their search knowledge to unpack ideas. They can build a wider understanding of a topic and see an idea from a range of perspectives. When teaching learners to do engage with multiple texts, start with a scaffolded text (one learners can connect with), then complimentary  text to build knowledge and tension texts, then learner can self select texts to continue to build knowledge.

Here are some examples of multimodal  and multi textual ideas.
Click the image to view the presentation to see some amazing multimodal resources.

Today we created a multimodal site to promote critical thinking and engaging with a range of texts. For this task I focused on extending the science learning of one of my top reading group. The focus of this site is DNA and how DNA is used to solve crimes. 

This was and interesting topic to find resources for and I am still looking for the best materials. 

Here is am image of how far my site has gotten so far. 

As I continue to develop my skills in teaching multi textually my aim is to provided more options and opportunities to explorations. This will support learners to extend their ideas have ownership.  

Sketch-noting Toolkit

Sketch-noting is something I have come to very much enjoy and have found beneficial to making the learning process visible. This made it the perfect thing to share with other teachers in the cluster. The great thing about sketch-noting is that it is flexible and n be done in multiple ways from paper, to google draw, to buying and using specific iPad apps. Presenting this toolkit with Danni was a great way to share these ideas with other teachers.

Hour of Code

Coding is another language. It is a way of telling a computer what to do, say and create. Earlier in the year we explored basic HTML coding in google site. I really enjoyed this coding and at the time became to question more and more how I could make this a part of my classroom program.

Hour of Code
Today we explored the hour of code a world wide movement to promote the learning of coding. Each of the sessions uses simple building builds and you code the program to do certain actions.

Behind each block is the Java coding script which you can look at. You can also choose to code in this Java script. 

Today I coded with MineCraft on the hour of code using the blocks. It took me a while to get use to it but once I did it was lots of fun. 

I also choose to do try doing using Java script this was a whole new challenge as if the script isn't right it won't work. I do however find that once I was use to it coding in script was just as straight forward in this program as coding with the blocks, this was help by the drop downs when writing. 

Here is an example or my Java script writing to complete tasks. 

I am excited to do more coding and introduce coding to my learners as I believe it is a great skill and can be intergraded with maths and literacy. 

Future focused Eduaction

What will the future hold?
This is a question that is always at the front of our minds as educators. The best things we can do is know as much as we can about the changes that are occurring in education and the world.

In New Zealand there are plan for future focused education and we as educators need to consider.
Some of these ideas of how the digital nature of these changes are outlined within the Towards Digital Fluency document published by the Ministry of Education.

Link

These educational ideas focus on supporting all learners to be at home in a digital world. 

Link

The document of the right is the education plan for 2025. This discusses learners choosing their path and connecting digitally. 

So what will a digital world look like in in the future. Today at our digital immersion day we discuss some of the new ideas in education. We talked about how fast the world is changing and the role that digital technologies play.

If I think back to my school the technology we used may have been computer that was very slow that we used for research or to create spreadsheets or type up stories. When I wanted to used the internet at home I had to use dial up and no one else could use the phone or internet. The first cell phone was a block had buttons you had to press multiple times.

BUT now you can program robots, enter a virtual relativity, be driven by a self driving car and so much more. Even with all these exciting things happening now the world continues to change and new things are entering our everyday lives all the time.

What will happen next?
We as teacher do not know exactly what the next 'Thing' will be however we do know that digital fluency will continue to be important. We can also know that jobs in technology are on the raise and that coding skills are value for our learners future.

As I think about my future as a teacher I think about how I will teach in a future focused way, always looking forward and staying current in my knowledge of the world, technology and teaching.

There is no point in teaching for the past when our learners will only see the future.

Ignite presentation

Ignite presentations are not easy. They involve creating a presentation then sharing it in 5mins, However each slide plays for exactly 15seconds and if you time it wrong you can't turn back the clock. 

One thing in particular that I learnt from doing an ignite presentation is that 15 second can either feel like a life time or be gone in the blind of an eye. I found it extremely hard to know how much information I should have to present on each slide. 

The great thing about these presentation is that a picture tells 1000 word, so careful picture selection and use of short but snappy words is the key to an effective presentation. If you can say it without words do, If you can say it in one word do. 

When I next do an ignite presentation they key thing I will remember are: 

-Be well prepared and remember that creating 20 good slides takes time. 

-Practice making every 15 seconds count is the key to success. 

-Relax it's not the end of the world if the small point misses out no one else know that you were going to say it. 

-Enjoy the moment because if you enjoy it your audience are more likely to as well.  

Below is my presentation on one laptop per child. This is the topic I was given on the day and I only had a few hours to create my presentation ready to present. 

I am lucky that this topic links to my own practice and that I have my own experience to draw on. I truely believe that with any presentation when you are connect to the content and passionate about it, IT SHOWS! 

I really enjoyed giving an ignite presentation a go and hope to present another one in the future. 

I really enjoyed giving an ignite presentation a go and hope to present another one in the future. 

Inquiry update term 3

I have also create a short video about what we have been doing with word endings. 

Keynote: more than just a presentation tool

Google slides is a great tool for making presentations and collaborating however it can be limiting with the things it is able to do.

Keynote allows you to add more detail to presentations, be creative and do more. It can also be used to create animations or images, backgrounds and headers for sites or blogs.

As with any product it is good to make sure that the program will do what you want. This means going into preferences and make sure the program does what you want, in here you can set font size or the theme that opens when you open keynote, I suggest white as then you can be creative and do things your way.

One of the great things I learnt way about how to add a magic move to a keynote.

This video explains the process really well. This move is very effective with images and I am excited to see how I can use it in the future with words.

I also created a short animation with keynote for my inquiry presentation on Monday. I did this by duplicating slides and moving images to create moving images. I will share this on my blog with my inquiry post on Monday.

Keynote is a great presentation skill which I hope to use more. 

 

Critical Friends

As teachers we always need critical friends. Other teachers to provide honest feedback that pushes you to do more. To ask questions that helps us to rethink ideas and build on them.


I'm am extremely lucky that I have so many kind, supportive and critical teaching friend who always help me to be the best I can be.


This week I have been very busy editing my film festival movie. This has been a big challenge for me as I want it to be perfect but I know that perfect is not a kind or fair expectation to set. With the help and support of my critical friend my movie has evolved over the week into something that shows the best in my learners. It is a movie that is for them and that I am excited for them to share next term.




At our MDTA day today we learnt more about ubiquitous learning. Learning that can happen anywhere, anytime, at anypace and from anyone.

This week I have been a ubiquitous learner, often coming up with the best ideas outside of the 9-3 classroom hours. Gaining learning from my teaching colleagues, my learner, my family and friends. Working at school, at home, in the library or even as a passenger in the car. Somethings took me a long time to work out while other were in the moment decisions.

Editing this film has really made me think about the way learning is continuous and that when you think about things in different places and at different time you have different ideas. As I consider my own learning it makes me think of my learners. How can I provide more support for them to become ubiquitous learners?

My ideas:
Access: making sure my learner all know how to access their Google account at know and that this is a great thing to do.
Support: you can comment and ask for help at home. I may not respond straight away but I will respond.
Site: remind the learners that all there work is on the site if they miss a day they can catch up at home, encourage this.
Family: provide family with these same messages and encourage them to comment on blogs and support their child.

Filming madness

This Friday our MDTA day was spent filming for our Manaiakalani film festival movies for 2016. I had a fantastic day working with many amazing and talented learners to get some interesting shots.

One challenge we faced was the weather. Early on in the day we had a moment of rain that made filming difficult. We got a few shots of the bright yellow umbrella instead of the children.

I also had some great moment with learners sharing my passion for dancing with learners. One of the best things about this day was working with small groups, getting their input and ideas and seeing their passions and ideas.

I am excited to start editing and see what our wonderful movie will become.

Manaiakalani Outreach

Manaiakalani is more than just us!

There are many outreach clusters that follow the Manaiakalani pedagogy throughout New Zealand.

The outreach cluster provide us the a wider network of people facing the same challenges, ideas and pedagogy. There are 5 outreach clusters with the outreach there are 50+ school 10,000+ learners and a huge community of whaunu.

These clusters knew they wanted to be involved they just wanted A Recipe to do this....
They see these as the Outreach actions outlined at joining Manaiakalani outreach. The Manaiakalani outreach PLD the support people and the resource they provide to the schools and clusters over there three year PLD. They also look to the Manaiakalani website and the Manaiakalani schools what are the schools and the teachers doing, exploring the learners blogs and professional blogs.

In the outreach the first year is about having pilot teacher who are excited volunteers who want to try new things. In year two all teachers move into a 1:1 environment and learn from the things learnt in the pilot. Year 3 is a time to continue growing and help new teachers to gain the skills they need.

There is also a blog that is used to collect examples of effective teaching that outreach clusters can explore. Check it out Sharing the Hook.

It is exciting that these communities are out there and I look forward to connecting more with them more.

Have a core purpose that is shared draws us together.

The Holiday Blogging Program

Rachel Williamson is a researcher with the Wolf Fisher research centre, she leads the summer learning journey to engage learners in continuing learning over the holiday period.

The Summer learning journey runs over two year. At this stage two pilots have been run, the summer and winter learning journey programs.

A key part of these programs was that learners received comments from Rachel as well as in the summer learning journey they also received comments from learners in the countries they were studying.  At the end of January there were over 600 post and comments. Learner who engaged in the program saw a much smaller drop in writing scores compared to the a match sample who did not take part.

The Winter learning journey saw more learners from more schools engaging over the holiday period. In this journey the total activity blog posts and comments of 2651.

Rachel shared her excitement and enjoyment in engaging with this program. Learners who join in were celebrated received certificates, badges on their blogs and the top bloggers from each school received prizes.

What next:
Rachel wants to get into every school and class to build relationships with the children.
Giving learners choose in the programs, they have shown that they enjoy rating thing and sharing their option.
Who to we engage more people in commenting and engaging with learners.
How can we make sure there is access and learners who don't have devices at home they can use the library.

Next summer holiday, Summer learning Journey 2.0 is coming. It will have a similar topic of travel and culture. Learners will again be connected with Rachel this time over 4 weeks. Rachel, to University students as well as past summer learning blogs will engage in commenting.

Innovative Teacher at the Manaiakalani Hui

The Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers are teachers who are focusing on in-depth innovative inquiries  aiming to engage learners and community in learning.

They are using one idea to spark more and more ideas that lead to change. 

Meet the Teacher and explore their inquiry focuses...

Sandy

Is a Pt England Teacher who teachers ICT to learners of all ages. Her inquiry is focused on Extension Learners who are learners identified as achieving above that of their peers. She identified that these learners were not achieve as well as they could in writing. She is using film with these learners to gain more depth in their writing. She used short films to support learners to develop knowledge of Character setting and plot. One of the things she noticed was that learners struggled with the structure of a narrative.

Here is a link to Sandy's blog so you can see more about her innovative inquiry.

Nicola

Is a Biology teacher at Tamaki College. She is noticing that year 13 learners are not achieving the grades needed to get into university.
She found last year that when she provided all resources learners found this overwhelming.
Nicola's inquiry is focusing on making her planning visible to the learners. She uses Solo taxonomy in her planning which allows her to plan to extend learners thinking. She want all learners to have the ability and desire to catch up using planning and blog posts for other learners.

To see what else Nicola is doing check out her blog.

Karen

Found that the learners in her class felt that they couldn't write and had no reason to do so. Her aim was to help learners to gain an audience that mattered to the learners, their family.
She started by giving learner family access to the blog by sending home a bookmark. Some family did comment but this stopped quickly and didn't motivate learner to write more.
She then provided the learners family with a more detailed poster about how to comment and a link again. Then she implemented a challenge for learners to get the most comments making them encouraged the their family to comment. This has changed the attitude of the learner who now want to write and enjoy.

Check out Karen's blog and you may want to provide some comments for her learners.

Matt

This inquiry is around the boys not achieving in writing. When Matt asked the boys what they needed they said peace and quiet he provided headphones which learners use when they need them. He also used timers to break the writing in to parts and put on the pressure a bit. He also thought about the SHARE part of our pedagogy, stating that the way we share writing can be boring so he found way to share that are different.

To see what else Matt is doing check out his blog.

Maryanne

Is focusing on partnering with learners and their family to strength the CyberSmart curriculum. She found the learners in year 8 had forgotten most of the key points in CyberSmart. So learners needed ownership so they felt connected to these ideas. When learners had an understand they had created they decided to share this through movies so their families and community could connect with these ideas as well. This class decided what was important to share from the CyberSmart curriculum, these videos also help new learner to catch up on the skills they need.

To see what else Maryanne is doing check out her blog.

Jackie

This focusing on rising read achievement using the digital affordances. She is engaging family through a family blog that supports family to understand the benefits using their chromebooks at home. They also had a Hui for learners to share more with their family. Student ownership has increased when learners can take up their devices, sharing for home and engaging with reading.


To see what else Jackie is doing check out her blog.

Cognitive and social skills

Wolf Fisher are not only looking at solely the academic needs of the learners to considering the develop of learners cognitive and social skills.

Consider if you will how we develop these skills?
The cognitive skills of critical literacy, argumentation and so on.
The social skills, such as self control, consider other perspective, communication and so on.

It was suggest that these skills can and have been mapped to achievement.

These skills can be taught in a specific outside of context program or within an authentic task, this may look like reflective prompts and school values that learners are taught to use and value.

These prompts might be:
Why do you think your friend thinks that way?
How can you judge the best evidence?
What can you do to make sure you don't get distracted?

There is evidence that these skill develop over time and online communication can support this.

Argumentation and taking a point of view is one key way to develop learners critical thinking and empathy.

A recent piece of research asked learners to take a position an article about the Taylor Swift coming to NZ and what effect that this might have had on the native birds.

Here are some examples of there answers:

What was learnt is that learners arguments are more emotive than anything else. There is skill a long way to go but we can develop these skills within our classroom program.

Building a Professional Learning Network

Today at our digital immersion day we discussed how we can extend our professional learning network beyond the people we see everyday.

Why have a PLN?
Today the world is extremely connected through the internet. As educators we have the ability to connect with educations all a round the world to build knowledge and share ideas. By connecting with ours you make your own learning visible and you have people to ask when you are unsure.


The Power of Social Media
We were extremely lucky to hear from James Hopkins.

Click here to see James' presentation 

He explained his learning journey, the idea that at the start he was planning alone and as he started his journey on Twitter he gained more learning through exploring blogs and engaging in Twitter Chats. He explained that when you are tweeting you can explore who you are by finding like minded people and be challenges by those with different opinions. He also suggested that your PLN gives you critical friends, people who don't know you, your context, your kids who can be much more critical and provide the ideas you are yet to think about.

Building a PLN online gives you the opportunity to really grow through sharing!

Twitter is about sharing your pedagogy and wider thinking rather than sharing resources.

Well good professional development costs a lot of money making online connection to other educators in FREE!!

What is a Hashtag? 
A hashtag is like a label on a blog it allows you to find the Tweets about an idea. The biggest difference is that it is not just post by on one persons blog but all the Tweets from everyone who has used that Hashtag. You can try it, have a look at #EdchatNZ

Education Chats
These chats are a great way to share you ideas, refine your ideas and gain an external view on the things you keep saying. There are are lots of good people out there that you just haven't met yet.

You don't know what you don't know and if you share a spark of an idea it can build through the ideas of your PLN.

I am excited to keep Tweeting and be the best Tweetcher I can be! @MissDavisNZ


MDTAchat
Today as part of becoming better Tweetchers the MDTA teachers took part in the MDTA Chat. This was a provocative chat considering New Pedagogies.

Taking part in this chat was a really great way to think about and express my ideas in short soundbites. It was also really interesting engaging with other peoples Tweets.

Here is a link to our Twitter discussion #MDTAchat:

Getting creative with maths

This week I wanted to do something different for maths. Something that would really excite my learners and encourage them so share their mathematical thinking. While talking to my friend Miss Stone I decided to do an open-end problem to get my learner applying the strategies we had learnt. Miss Stone said she had just the problem so she allowed me to take her problem and adapt it for my learner.

This is the problem:

Because the problem is so open children came up with different answers and the lessons focus sifted from working out and answer to what am I doing when I am working out this answer. Learners also worked in small groups and were encouraged to discuss their thinking throughout the process and make decision together. It was interest that at first learners struggled to follow each others thinking but as they discussed more with each other and me talk their thinking became visible. For me as a teacher the excite and engagement of all learner made this a really successful lesson.

From there working I asked each learner to create a sketch its of their thinking so that their process is not just visible to them but to others on their blogs. I introduced this by showing them an example I had created and together we talk through my process.



I also outlined the requirement of a sketchnote that:
- it uses to containers to spectate information
-it uses arrows to link ideas ( show the process)
- it uses words, numbers and picture to show the thinking.
The. I provided learners with a google draw template that had containers and arrows around the outsides for them to copy and use.

It is interesting that one teacher commented to me that the learner were so excited and engaged they didn't even think it was math. I think this is because they were making their thinking visible. They weren't just sharing maths they were sharing their though process.

Please check out their blogs and leave a comment on their finished work.
Zaeeda
Caleb
AJ

More blogs links will be added as they are complete.

Inquiry: What am I doing differently

My Inquiry has really made me think about my actions as a teacher.
What I have been doing for my struggling readers:
-We have been discussing what a good reader does. Moving  into term 3 I don't need to remind my learners of these ideas every time.
- I have been modelling fluency, I have moved to doing this in the group rather that in the follow up as learners were not using this.
-I continue to write up words on the board and have in-depth discussion around these words to develop a deeper understanding.

As I continue to think about my group, their needs and my actions, I have developed my next steps for my teaching and my learner.
So what next:
- I will  support the  learners to develop a deeper understand word ending, what they mean and the importance of reading the whole word. I will do this through  writing up words, playing word games and adding word ending to the follow up.
- I will give learners high frequency words to practice and use to to support their reading.

Using GarageBand

Today we were extremely lucky to have Rob come and support us in learning how to use GarageBand effectively to create voice clips and Music. This is an important skill especially as the Manaiakalani Film Festival coming up next term and this is the term for filming.


GarageBand can be used for something as simple as recording yourself reading a book or as complexed as making a movie or music track.

The Basics

When you open GarageBand you version 10 you will come to this page. There are a lot of options. We choose Empty Script, by choosing this option you can create different type of audio files depending on your needs.

Selecting the type of project.
Today we choose audio for recording and this worked for both recording simple audio and making movie tracks.

Once you have selected audio click create.




Getting the audio right:
When recording in GarageBand it is important to use an external microphone if at all possible. Different microphones have different levels of sensitivity.

You will need to go into preferences and choose that microphone that you are using then test it. If it is not working close the project by selecting the project then pressing delete. Then the microphone should show up.


When recording you want the sound bar to be in the the yellow or green, not the red.

For recording simple audio like reading a book or instruction for learners. Simply press the record button and read or talk. If you make a mistake it is not the end of the world as you can edit it out.

Editing audio:
To cut bit out of your audio move the playhead (the arrow with a line) to where you want to cut. Then Press command T or go to edit and click spilt regions at playhead. Do this at both sides of the mistake then delete this select. You will then have a gap you can drag your audio over the fill the gap. You can zoom in and out to see your audio better by using two fingers to pinch on the Macs trackpad.

Editing the sound

You can get to this by pressing B. Here you can add reverb and ambience to add some brightness or depth you can adjust the low, mid and high to level out the voice. 

You can also add automatic effects by going to voice on the side and select the type of voice you want:

Different voice effects change the whole voice track and could be used for different reasons. There are some very funny voices in there including a Robot under experimental.








Creating a music track:
In GarageBand you can import your movie so that you can watch it and match your backing music to your movie.
You do this by going to track and show movie track.

Then click on movie, open movie and selecting a movie that is on your Mac.

Create a sound Track for your movie:

Press the loop button in the top right corner. You can then choose instruments and select from the many pre-made tracks. You can layer these tracks to create your own sound and the best part is you don't have to be an amazing musician to create a your own sound track.





Mix down Process
This is went you mix the different musical tracks down to create on song. It is about changing the level of the different sound to make different parts the main focus.

Connecting Movie and Audio

File movie,  Export audio to movie.


Film Festival Tips:
When choosing the volume for your music in your movie think about what audio is most important. Is it the Music or the Talking. Then make sure that audio is match support the most important part. Make your music volume is low enough that you can clearly hear the voices.

When you are creating voice overs for your movie set the mic up and then move the children not the mic. Make sure little hands are not touching the mic during recording as this will effect sound quality.

Check your Camera setting, record audio in mono.

Being well prepared for filming and recording will make your movie the very best it can be!!!

Enjoy using GarageBand to create your sound.

Sharing learning and creating infographics

Today we had the opportunity to meet up with other teacher from around the cluster and think, talk and share the importance of sharing in our school, classes and professional development. We explored the importance of blogging to our learner. Below is an infographic that I created to show the data from my blog. 

I created this infographic in Canva which is a web based program that provides templates and examples. For my in my own classroom I would probably use google draw as the learner are familiar with it and it would be an easier starting place for them. Using Canva was a create experience I can see how infographics can make learning visible and ideas easy to explore in seconds. 

Toolkit Digital Modelling books

Manaiakalani runs toolkits to support teachers to gain digital skill from other teachers with the cluster. After all our wonderful learning at MDTA it was time for me and Hannah to share with other teachers. We ran our toolkit of Digital modelling books and it went really well. 

Sketchnoting

Sketchnoting is an exciting way of taking notes that involves using images, words and some from of structure to create graphic notes.

Here is a Sketchnote I created about what Sketchnoting is...


Here is a useful video that explains a bit more about Sketchnoting



I believe that Sketchnoting could be a exciting and creative way of taking notes, expressing ideas and sharing learning for learners of all ages.

In the future I would like to try:
-Sketchnoting our mathematical thinking.
-Sketchnoting to retell a story.
-Sketchnoting as a reading follow up.

Sharing with an Authentic Audience

This term our MDTA digital immersion days are focused on the Share. An important part of Share in Manaiakalani school is the importance of an Authentic Audience (People who choose to listen to you). In digital world people have choice they can click there mouse or swipe their screen or even change the TV channel. SO if they are choosing to read your blog post, watch your sports game, production or TV News.

Our learners having an Authentic Audience is an important part of our learning.

Teaching Reflection

I am now half way through my first year of teaching. Looking back and where I came from and forward to the the future I am reminded that I have had a great start to my journey but still have much to learn. Today we reflected and you can see a picture of my reflection below to see the reflection of all MDTA's click here.

Inquiry Update

A visit to Glenbrae school: A little school with a HUGE heart

Visit Glenbrae School, I felt at home in the school and saw a community of learners, who were positive, inquisitive and engaged.

Our first visit was to Danni's class a year 7/8 class with very diverse learners. Watching the learners explore their own ideas and questions was awesome. I also found they were all willing to discuss what they were doing and engage with me in forming new questions.

We then moved into a year 5/6 class. It was amazing to see an experienced teacher bring her skills and her wide range of knowledge to the technology to engage and accelerate her learners. She has done an amazing job implementing the digital and was asking us for ideas and feedback. Her openness, calmness, energy and hard work was really great to see.

Thank you so much to Glenbrae School for having us to visit. I have learnt so much and loved visit this beautiful small school and seeing the love of learning.

Learning from others: A visit to Tamaki primary

Today we had the amazing opportunity to visit other schools and learn new and different ways of engaging and support learners.

Our first visit was to Tamaki Primary. We were very lucky to be able to visit Ashley's wonderful year 3/4 class. On this class learns were given an open end problem which in encouraged thinking about mathematical ideas. Today they focused on equal sharing. They were given an open ended problems,

A gang of cunning cats came across  an abandoned cat food truck. They made off with 48 tins of cat food. We don’t know how many cats there are , but we know that they  share their loot equally.   

How many tins might each cat have?

Learners worked mixed ability groups and used had material, paper and pens. There was a lot of discussion and some great ideas being shared including the the idea that if 2 cats get 24 tins each then 24 cats get 2 tins. It was really great seeing year 3/4 learners engaging with maths in such a detailed way.

I really enjoyed seeing this engagement and discussion around maths. I want to encourage more of this mathematical thinking by giving my learner open end problems.

During the visit we also went to some year 5/6 classes, it was lovely seeing the next step for my Learners. I saw some great example of building a positive classroom environment.

-With a class treaty

-Using story to discuss positive relationships

-Learner sharing who they are through art.

Thank you so much to Tamaki Primary for hosting us and allowing us to see there wonderful school in action.

MTDA Reflection

When I began the filming process for this video I really wasn't sure what I would end up with. During the creation of this video I learnt a lot about filming, choosing good locations and editing. Most importantly I created an honest reflection on my teaching and learning over the last six months.

Filming troubles

This week we set out to start filming an interview describing our experience so far as part of the MDTA program.  Danni and I decided to film outside at the university campus. At first we thought this was a great Idea. We set up in an area with a table to sit at and trees as a backdrop.

But the disaster stuck... Maybe that is a little over dramatic. As we were filming sorts of things started happening around us, Vans, cars and even trucks pulled into to a near by parking lot. Birds screeched as loud as they possible could and people can by talking.  And with all the noisy and disruption the sound from our video was ruined.

We ended up calling it a practice and re-filming in a quite class after the children had left.

So now that we have our footage it is time to edit out the funny moments like this one.....

Check back next week for my interview movie.

Using a classroom site

This week we created a screencast to show how learning can be accessed through our class site. My video explains how learners access their reading learning. The group that I have used in the screencast used both digital tools and creation using physical materials. They were developing the skills to work together to create their bridge and share their ideas for their report. Through this video you will see how learners in our class learn, create and share.

Note that this lesson is achieved under term one on the Batman page.

Our Class Site

The class site makes learning public, anyone can access our site and see the learning the occurs in our classroom. The learners blogs are also public so anyone from anywhere in the world can see their learning and provide positive, thoughtful and helpful comments.

Here is a link to Ben's blog.

Google Class OnAir

This week at our MDTA day we learnt about Manaiakalani Google class On Air. We looked at how these are records. I continue to be amazed by the way that these teachers are making learning visible and sharing good practice. It is awesome watching teachers share what they are doing to engage and inspire learners.

If you haven't check out google class On Air yet you really should: Here is a link

As I think about how this apply to my own practice I realise more and more that this practice is good for the teacher, their learners and the profession. For teachers the ability to put out their what they are doing, get feedback is powerful. As learners in these classes traffic is directed to their blogs so they get more of an authentic audience.  This also helps the profession because it puts out a positive image of teachers, it allows for sharing of ideas and an example for teachers in training to watch and reflect on.

Sparkshop Auckland

This weekend I attend the SparkShop conferences  (un-coferences) held in Auckland. The day began with a Smorgasbord session in which we could vote for the presenters that we most wanted to hear. This was awesome because it meant that we were involved in shaping the event.

The first session I attended was all able chrome add-ons. There were some interesting add-ons shared and I came away with a mini me in the form of a Bitmoji.

The second session I attended was about Maker Spaces. In this season we tinkered with swishy circuits and played with robot. It was so much fun and now I really want a Robot!!!!! For my kids mostly but also because they are Amazing. It was great fun programming it say and do different things. 

The third an final session I went to was about mystery hangouts. This is when your classes calls another class somewhere in the world and the learners have to ask yes or no questions to figure out where the other class are. During this session we had a test run with two teams, each team was assigned a school somewhere else in the world and we had to figure out the other teams location. WE WON!!!! This session really made me think about the connects our learners can make and how this can support them to develop questioning skills. 

I had an awesome day at Sparkshop, met some awesome educators and learned about new way to use technology in the classroom. I am excited to keep connecting online and at more events. 

Building with the Force: A StopMotion Animation

At our amazing MDTA Day today we learnt about StopMotion animation using lot of pictures to create an animation. This was a fun process and although my characters kept falling over I think my movie still turned out alright.

Our movie focus was to create an animation to motivate or inspire our learners. I choose to use the Star Wars characters that I had on hand to create an animation with a building and collaboration focus. I will use to animation at the beginning of an up and coming collaborative creative art lesson to remind learners what they can achieve when they work together. I hope you enjoy the movie.

  

StopMotion animation is an awesome skill and would be really fun to do with my learners. It would be great to create some StopMotion animations of the creation of buildings to link in with our art theme or Architecture.

Creating with iMovie

This weeks Digital immersion day focused on creating movies using iMovie. We learnt the basics of iMovie and then created our own movie to show a day or week of learning in our classroom. My video is an example of a day in the Pavilion and some of the amazing ways that our learners learn.

It was exciting using iMovie and I have learnt a lot about iMovie but I still have lots more to learn.

Explainer Video- Building Word Knoweldge

This is an Explainer Video I have created to explain part of my Inquiry around building word knowledge and fluency for struggling readers.

I hope you enjoyed my video. I learnt news skills around using pictures created on a whiteboard to create an animation. This is a great way for learners to share what they have learnt and their process of learning. I wonder if this type of animation could be used effectively to show mathematical thinking? Or the process of creating a piece of art? I would love to try getting learners to take photos of their art at different stages and turn this into an animation of the process. 

I also think this is something I could share with other teachers that they might want to use with their learners or to demonstrate their own learning. I also learnt that you do not have to be a great artist to animate your learning. 

Photo Shoot

Being a photographer is exciting, challenging and most definitely a useful skill for a teacher to have. Today at our MDTA digital immersion day we explored a theme (my theme was builds) within our local community. The photos that I took today will support our art theme within the classroom this term.

We have also learnt to create online tools. This is exciting because my learners can use these tools to create graphics for their blogs using pictures they have taken. 

We also create slide shows using youtube. I the future I hope to use these slide shows as motivations for writing and records of learning. 

Creating a site for learning

A recent focus of MDTA digital immersion day has been about creating sites. After creating a collaborative, we created a site for our own site designed to support a learning focus for our learners. My site is designed to support our school wide inquiry focus "as i see  it" which is an art focus. During this focus our team is focusing on the art and design  around buildings and architecture.

The site is designed to support this focus. It is divided up into three sections an architecture focus that looks at styles of buildings and styles of architecture, A geometry sections which looks at shapes and what we can do with them and an art section which outline the hyper studio task and the trip we will be taking later in the term.

Thank you to the amazing member of my team and the MDTA team for there support.
Please note this site will develop as the unit goes on.

Please feel free to check out the site and its links.

Graduation

On Friday the 29th of April I Graduated from my undergraduate degree. It was a wonderful day. Standing on the stage I felt proud of my self and my achievement. It was also a time to remember all the people who have supported me on my journey to becoming a teacher and all those who continue to support me as I grow as a teaching professional.

A huge thank you to my mentor teacher, the children who have inspired and challenged me and most of all my wonderful and amazing Family. 

Inquiry reflection term 1 2016

After One term focusing on my teaching inquiry in vocabulary development I have more questions then answers. It has been interesting this term to see the different vocabulary needs of different groups. I will continue to look into this next term and see if I can engage learners in a wider range of vocabulary development activities.

Below is my inquiry presentation with what I have found out so far and some questions and ideas for what next.