MIT - Covid 19 Hiccups

I was supposed to have 'Classroom Release Time' last week. However, that was cancelled when Auckland went back into Lockdown. 

So the getting the videos updated and slides finished to add to the site went on the back burner. I did manage to schedule and pass my Google Level 1 Exam for the second time. Yeah.

However, I have come to the conclusion the purpose of my site is for teachers. If I was making it for students to use independently, it would need to be more of a game or set of challenges. The current format of the site shows teachers the journey I take when teaching writing. Helping them to follow the ideas so they can pull items that would fit into their current teaching program or help a group of students with a particular need.

So here is what I did get up to during the Second Lockdown.

We had 5 students who were at school during this time. We had a list of tasks the teachers were expected to achieve. It was excellent to know what was expected of us during these unsettling times, just like students like to know what is expected of them. 

The students ranged from Year 2 to Year 6. Three of them I am currently teaching in class and their siblings. (Two families). The older one I have taught previously. I knew most of the students before the first Lockdown. This time, around I was the one to teach them again as I taught them last time. 

As many of our student families do not have internet access, so we made paper learning packs for all students and provided G-meets to help support those who could come online. We ended up making learning packs 3 times. The first pack lasted a week.

Realizing lockdown would continue, we made another individualized pack for students. Thinking ahead, some of us put 2 weeks' worth of learning in. Preparing for the worst-case, a third pack was created, and now these packs are in storage. Yes, the school received the government learning packs. But, we found many of the texts were aimed too high. We thought parents and students would struggle without direction. These are also in storage and will be handed out appropriately if needed.

It was quiet on the streets hand delivery the packs. Showing we valued the community and their children. (I participated in the first drop as that day we had no students).

During the 12 days of lockdown, we had Professional Learning Development, which I attended if it was appropriate for the students or via a G-meet if not. One day we learnt about languages that included 3 mini-workshops, 1 of which I lead. The first was around teaching and learning languages and what it means to be bi or multilingual. You need to be able to speak, read, and write in those languages.

The second was on South African Languages, and we learnt a few phrases in one of our teacher's home language.

We were supposed to have around 20 minutes each, we didn't finish these two until during morning tea. So I took the students back to class without sharing my session. (I did get the opportunity to teach my hands-on session on NZSL the following day.)

      

We practised Born to Move as a staff. Providing us with the opportunity to laugh with each other. We looked at the Arts Curriculum and how we can build reading and writing from there. (Born to Move was the dance aspect). Visual arts included beautification of the school gardens and grounds, painting a large terracotta pot for an indoor plant. The terracotta pots were filled and a 'Mother in law's Tongue' added to help purify the air in each class. The students also painted a small pot. After adding 3 succulents, and they took them home.

The students and I dug out the worm farm providing fertilizer for the new gardens, we could believe how much was in there. (It may not have been utilized previously.)

I nearly forgot the Music aspect. We made a recording of us singing in pairs and individuals, the song 'Here Comes the Sun by the Beetles'. Our resident Musician put all the videos together. Initially, the thought was daunting. But I decided to just get on with it and managed to get the students to help me.

We also had a wearable art competition with the students being our models, using a range of materials that could be found in our classes.

Many of the tasks, helping to bring the teaching team together through a variety of co-operative activities.

Remember, I was still teaching during this time. We read about making paper, and then followed up making our own blue and green recycled paper. We wrote instructions on how to make our own paper. We worked out how much paper we needed to rip and how much water to add to turn it into pulp. Finally, we worked out how much room we need to store the paper to allow it to dry.

 

 We also had a birthday to celebrate.

We made cards and wrote messages. 

MIT - Checking In thought Google Meet

As you can see from previous posts, I have been busy updating the site. Now, with the website up and ready for people to use the BIG question today is - 

How do we get this site out for teachers to be aware of teachers and to use?

During our discussion in Google Meet, we discussed three main issues: 

1. Positive Self Promoting Talk

I realise I can be self sacrificing at times by saying things like - This is how I do it, you might like to have a go. Or, On this page you will find ... you could try them.

 

2. Using the navigation bar at the top of the site, not just links on the journey image. 

This was an easy fix, I just had to come up with short snapy ways to label each page. Then I had check the links on the picture to make sure they were still valid as previously pages were hidden in nagivation now they were accessible. (I noticed this the following day when sharing with the Student Teachers in our Hub. Opps!)

I came up with S1, S2.., for Step 1, Step 2..., and then added the main theme of the page.

 

3. Ways this site can go out to the teaching community and how to track who is visiting it. 

There is the presentation to Principals later in the year, sharing with our own staff and of course the Conference in October where we share with other teachers. Manaiakalani Online Workshops and in my case our cluster - Kootuitui Online Workshops. And as I mentioned earlier we have 2 students in our Hub and 5 in our school currently.

One of the main ideas is to reach teachers not part of Manaiakalani or the outreaches, so how can we do this? Facebook and Pinterest were the first 2 ideas.

As part of the process, we can now include is analysis who visits and where they are from. So before adding links to places for teachers to view and be informed about my site, I set up Google Analytics.

Setting up Analytics remember to add the tracking code to your site before advertising/releasing the site on a public forum. Google Analytics starts tracking the moment the site has a tracking ID. Watching the trending, nothing was happening. Then I realized my mistake. Luckily, it was only a few minutes into the analysis and an easy thing to rectify.

Once I had everything set up correctly, I was spellbound and humbled by the teachers visiting and the comments.

After posting this on the Teachers Page on Facebook and fixing my analytics, this is what I saw ...

The comments were helpful and supportive too.

I could even check where people were viewing the site from. Yes, many were from Auckland, and all were from New Zealand. But, this was just the beginning.