Orientation Ako Hiko 2024

Kia Ora 

I have now had two wonderful groups of teachers who are new to digital immersion teaching or have changed levels and are either using Chromebooks for the first time or iPads.

The beginning of the day starts out explaining to new staff the who what how and why of the Ako Hiko story and the joining with Maniakalani.

The Middle Section was on how facilitation works in our Cluster.

As our parents get caught up in device time, we must know the purpose for which we are teaching students to use their devices. In the workforce, we don't work in isolation; we still talk, receive advice, and feedback on what we are doing or work collaboratively.

As a facilitator, I am teaching teachers by modelling with a class. The benefit of this is that students get to learn alongside their teachers, showing that learning never stops. So the importance of communication is key.

After lunch, we focused on creating our class site for learning. We looked at how to make our site most effective, so students can find their learning in less than 3 clicks. This helps them to stay on task and find their learning easier.

This session utilised my toolkit from Term 4 on creating buttons and headers.

 

Toolkit - Google Draw Buttons and Headings

 With my focus on Google Sites this term I also noticed that some teachers were unsure how to create interesting Buttons and Headers. Included in the slides are templates and examples for both. 

I also found templates for Google Draw which included a range of graphic organisers I included the link for check out the image to see a few.

LCS - Making Sites and Media Work

 Earlier in the Term, Principals and Lead Teachers had looked at Class Sites and what makes them easy to navigate, as part of the Data Research discussions. Schools are busy and time to share is hard to come by, so I thought rather than having another meeting we could look at this for the Term 4 Staff Meeting and a few schools were very appreciative of this. We also looked at what is the focus for Cybersmart this term and how AI can affect Media.

I was happy for teachers who are not using Class Sites to participate in a different meeting. This meeting gave many an opportunity to investigate other class sites that they may not have the time to do at other times and everyone took something away.

LCS - Sharing the Knowledge

The Term 3 Staff Meeting has come around rather fast. I am glad I started preparing for the Staff Meeting during the holidays after discussions with the Principals during one of our catch-ups. Additionally, as I've been reviewing class and student blogs, I've noticed that when they share photos, they often end up in a list form. As a teacher and blogger, I know there are better ways to present photos. Whether they use Google Draw to create their own collage for sharing or explore other available resources, there are more visually appealing options.

For one school, I was aware that they had been working in Canva, so we explored that and allowed teachers to create so they could share. We also explored alternatives, such as audio recordings and screencasts, as some other schools wanted to adopt a style more akin to podcast or TikTok ideas.

My takeaway from this Staff Meeting was ensuring that there are various options available, and recognising that different people are willing to try different ideas. With less confident teachers, I needed to take a more step-by-step approach.

I also participated in the Manaiakalani Share Online Meeting. This occurs across the network where teachers can discuss an area they have been specializing in or working on as part of an inquiry. Our focus was on writing; thanks to Jacob for leading.

Making the Most of Mentoring

 As Mentors in Education, we always want to know if we are doing a quality job and how to do it better. 

Teachers are constantly reflecting, so as a Teacher of Teachers that doesn't stop. 

Through Manaiakalani we have the challenge to monitor what we do and measure the difference we make. 

As a Mentor / Education Programme Leader, I modelled lessons using think-aloud so the teacher I am modelling for understands what I am doing and why.

An example of this is I asked students to discuss the meaning of share, copied and permanent. They turned to the person next to them about these words. At the end of the student discussion and subsequent sharing time. I explained to the teacher and students what a wonderful extended discussion they had participated in, and then explained how 'Extended Discussion' is different from other discussions.

But what more can I do...

The Education Hub has the above article - 

Talks about GROW

Goals

Reality

Option

Way Forward

This process enables powerful questions to help reflect on the situation
and set goals in order to develop solutions giving ownership back to those involved rather than being told what to do. I was given this card a few years ago when we looked at setting GROW Goals.

It is a great card to carry with me to remind me of questions I can ask to help grow my mentorees.

Through the Manaiakalani Programme the BIG aim to empower teachers to use a range of Google Apps to help empower student and learning that is ubiquitous, connected and visible.

I have picked a couple of teachers I am working with to do my class study they are both eager to learn they have different experiences and work with different age groups.

Toolkit - Digging into Mood

Term Two - Digging into Mood

This term the toolkit I am running follows up on PD I did last year with Dr Aaron Wilson and Selena Meiklejohn-Whiu for Year 7 and 8 Teachers. We looked into how authors create Mood and Atmosphere and then applied this knowledge to writing. 

At this stage, I have 16 people excited about being Moody. I look forward to seeing them all.

LCS - Create can Happen Anywhere

 Learn, Create, Share Staff Meetings were organised into 2 groups (depending on when schools could attend).  By having only two meetings I believed it would provide opportunities for schools to work with others in the cluster building relationships. 

This was the first Staff Meeting I was running with Ako Hiko and I thought it was important to reiterate the meaning of Create and where it fits in the Pedagogy of Learn, Create, Share. When I was first starting on this journey it took me a few times to understand the three parts and schools have a staff turnover.

One highlight I thought was where teachers were able to create and then explore. The create task was so tables had treats easily accessible in front of them.

then we looked at where they can find 'Create' resources through the Manaiakalani Online Toolkits Archive and Google Arts. I learnt about Google Arts at the end of 2022 through Summer Learning Journey and thought it was a great resource that needed to be shared.

Research Reflections - Where to from here?

 

Kia Ora Koutou,

Graphs like these want us to be teaching to the North East. So our data is in the top right quadrant.

So when I found out that was a focus for one of my schools Reading the Book 'Teaching to the North East', I wanted to know more. 

Check out My Posts to see how I implement these ideas as a Mentor and Teacher helping to build the digital capacity in classrooms.

Orientation 2023

The January Orientation was completed through a tag team effort this year. Phil led, preparing the slides, while I added tidbits, ideas, and thoughts as they arose. It was a great experience, serving as preparation before taking the lead starting in April, where I conducted the orientation again due to staff changes.

 

My biggest takeaway from participating in the orientation was to ensure a thorough understanding of the speaker notes. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that the slides are relevant, showcasing the latest events and learning opportunities within the Ako Hiko Clusters.

The second part of the day focused on in-class facilitation. I found this set of slides important, as the teachers with whom Phil and I will be working need to understand the different roles.

The afternoon session focused on creating a class site, and I'm glad there were two of us available to assist the teachers and address their questions. One key takeaway is to remember to duplicate a site you've created to start the following year if you're satisfied with your previous work. This link can then be shared with students, enabling them to access their learning materials quickly. If you make changes each term, it can become confusing for students to locate the information they need.

Ako Hiko LCS Hui

 Celebrating How Far Have We Come

With Phil moving on, we looked at what the Cluster has been doing and achieved over the last 3 years.

We started by giving ourselves a superhero. I gave myself courage. Then we gave one to a colleague. Which would you pick for yourself?

Insights in the Staffroom - Sharing the Light in the Dark

There are many things Ako Hiko Cluster, do that my previous Cluster doesn't, and many that the Manaiakalani Cluster do.

I found this activity interesting as I look to take over the Facilitator Role, what will change in 3-5 years when I think about my next step?

Create - Staff Meeting

We joined Wesley Primary and May Road School to investigate the Create part of the Manaiakalani Pedagogy LEARN CREATE SHARE. 

I found this session informative and something I could take back to class and use. As we are constantly trying to get student to create their own way of sharing their learning, but are focussed on the get it done. This chart gives students and teachers alike the chance to pick how they present their learning.

Many of these activities student can do, and we can always give them the links and mini lessons to work out how to create it. 

As we had been doing mood in class I tried the incredibox, I do remember looking at this once before but could figure it out. Today I did it. 

I can't wait to encourage students to create a piece of writing and then setting the mood with incredibox.

Hapara Champ - Student Dashboard

 Welcome back,

Student Dashboard is our focus this week with Hapara Champions, something I have never used before, so for me, there was lots of learning and adjusting to make it work for me and my students.

It is a platform to share tasks, resources, expectations and more with students. Similar to how I share learning through my class site.  The one huge advantage I can see is that students can modify and adjust work before clicking submit. Once submitted or a task is closed off they can no longer submit their work, but they know it is handed in to be marked. Giving them a sense of accomplishment. 

The menu of the left again helps students find the tasks they need to start and do to the files link that shows students tasks they have started and need to finish.

Hapara Champ - Workspace

This is a new feature in Hapara for me. It was an interesting learning curve. But once I got the basics it seemed easy. 

It is set up like a task board and you can create 4 heading 

e.g. 1. Learning Intentions

2. Readings

3. Tasks, To Do

4. Expectations Rubric

The menu of the left indicate where the workspace comes from, just like other google apps. Owned by me, shared with me, My labels and the last one is for your professional learning. The last one is where you go to do the Hapara Course.

The more I use it the easier it seems to get.

Blogging for Students

 Malo le lei

This week my focus for Class on Air was getting students to share their learning on their new blog in Edublog. Although this was done earlier in the term we revisited it due to students returning after covid isolation periods. Click on the images to learn more.

We talked about the purpose of sharing our work, who wants to see it and why.

Enrich Maths - Decimals

 Talofa

This week's session for Class on Air was in Maths, one of my favourite subjects. The fact we can give students real-world problems and then dive into the patterns and understanding behind in through maths is inspiring and a lot of fun. Click on either image to find out more.

Using Dialogue

 Welcome,

My second session with Class on Air for Term 1 is about using dialogue in writing to help students grab the reader's attention. What I like about using dialogue is that we need to create paragraphs each time a new person speaks and we can use a range of punctuation. Click on either image to learn more.

What I like about using these slides is that students can see dialogue broken down and have the opportunity to create dialogue multiple times.

Reciprocal Reading

 Hello, 

This year I am part of the Class on Air Team for Manaiakalani.

My first Session is on Reciprocal Reading. I enjoy using this process for reading as students learn to dig deeper themselves regardless of what type of text they are reading. Click on an image to learn more.

In Reflection: I would like to have students taking more initiative to help drive the discussion about the learning. It was great to hear students reading aloud fluently. I can see I need to give more opportunities for students to run the reciprocal reading process.

Teacher Tool Kits Term 4

 Another two excellent toolkits I attended this week. 

SketchUp

The first one is about SKETCHUP - a dimensional site that helps you create just about anything in 3D with the ability to view from all sides. We logged in using our google accounts. Take measurements, add sides, create poles, supports, patterns to help make it more realistic. We had the opportunity to make a matchbox. Mine ended up being a giant matchbox.

Once I finished creating my matchbox, I used their viewing tool to look at the object from different angles and rotate it to a new view.

Google Sites - Updates

Google Sites has so many exciting new features. I can't wait to create next year's site to try them out.

I am looking forward to creating my own template using specific colours. The layout options are useful to help prepare pages for upcoming content and quick editing maintaining size and shape.

Ako Hiko Demo Slam

Professional Development

Completing Professional Development at home will always be interesting. Are there going to be any interruptions (who's going to need 'Mum' first)?

Starting with a Demo Slam, a quick 30-second demo or a brief from teachers on a tool they find helpful. I like this idea.

There were 10 different ideas. Some were informative, as the Twitter feed from student's blog posts.

Five I want to try:

Mote - is an extension to create recordings for slides. However, my version has a trial period.

Talk and Comment - recordings for anywhere, another extension and possibly a better one without a limit.

Natural Reader - this is a way for students who are ESL/NESB to listen to a text. It is an extension that can be pushed out onto Chromebooks.

We were reminded to look inside Hapara at documents shared and unshared. As students may be working from home and their work may not appear in the learning log or on their blogs.

My favourite, as I am always taking screenshots a way to take them and have them on the clipboard (not on the desktop) for a quick paste into whatever I am creating. See the image for the buttons.

We then took a quick look at the observation results for Ako Hiko around T shaped Literacy. I feel I am behind with this as I have struggled to access this information previously. I am thankful for the Literacy Exemplars that are available from various Manaiakalani Outreach Schools and teachers. I am also grateful for the Multi-text Database available to use to help build T Shaped Literacy. 

What is T- Shaped Literacy? It is the opportunity to read a breadth of texts, articles on a similar topic and compare through discussion and deeper questioning to build understanding. 

Today we were breaking into discussion groups to share how we as teachers do that part. There were four discussions:

1. How do we create/design opportunities for students to create?
2. How do we create/design opportunities for students to share their learning?
3. How do we encourage students to led discussions?
4. How do we encourage students to think critically?

I was part of the first group, after completing the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher Course last year, I felt I could offer students and teachers a variety of opportunities for a range of learning. E.g. through google cardboard, virtual trips through zoos, museums that we can't access due to lockdown...

We are not just providing learning opportunities for students, we are giving students the chance to record their learning in a way that is relevant to them. E.g. At University, we all took notes differently. 

Students all learn in different ways. Some retell the meaning through action or dance, others' would prefer to write about it or just talk about it. As teachers' we have to allow for these differences.

Ako Hiko T shaped Literacy

 The focus of today's workshops is to 

'Teach Learners to Think and Question".

We need to encourage students to learn by participating in deeper discussions, thinking critically and developing strategies to develop in-depth comprehension.

Teachers often use open-ended questions for students to work independently or in small groups. However, without formal discussions and a chance to justify or explain their thinking with continued probing, they don't have the opportunity to question their own understanding or hear others' points of view. 

We were gifted through the Ako Hiko Portal - T-shaped Literacy resources, lots available for Years 4-6. We also received a checklist from Selena, helping teachers to reflect on lessons and the construction of T-shaped Literacy Plans.

The workshops had a large focus on Reading for Year 1-3 with a few that were applicable to Year 7 and 8. Reciprocal Reading is a tool I use, but I wondered how does it work with T-shaped Literacy. 

It was interesting to see this teacher using T-shaped literacy alongside guided reading groups. The skills groups were ability-based and the discussion groups were mixed abilities. I understood the reasoning behind this, not everyone needs the same skills to be taught or retaught. Discussion groups need a range of thinkers and talkers to help generate discussion and to help spark ideas and thinking. 

But my issue or problem remains how to generate the questions or activities to create the discussion. I will keep reading to learning how to phrase these questions.