Adding to the site Creating Writers

Here we go again... Lockdown 2021 August

Teaching always has challenges. This is especially so in a new school. This time allowed me to get to know the community differently. Yes, from a distance. 

It even provided the opportunity to add to my site Creating Writers. (Click image below to visit) 

One of the teachers at school was encouraging students to use and understand idioms, which I really enjoy due to their playful nature with words. That set me to thinking why are there no activities for students on the site for this to help hold the reader's attention?

Thinking about I get it, in New Zealand we teach a range of cultures with a range of languages and the ability to understand English, so as I always do I  explain what an idiom is. The great thing is they are used in all languages, but the slides focus on idioms used in English. 

Here are the new activities I have added and modified to create a follow on. 

Each set of slides uses a different range of idioms and explains a range of idioms we often use in everyday life without thinking about them.

I even had time to make a second simile set. 

Hope you enjoy using them as much as I enjoy making them.

Passing Google Level 2

I did it!

Yeah okay, it was the second time I passed. Yes, I have been using the various parts from the google suite but, that didn't mean I studied for it. But something I need to remember is Pivot Tables! 

Once again, we are in lockdown. The email reminders saying I was needed to resit Google Level 2 kept coming and I thought it was a good time to do it. I didn't know there would be a week to finish the exam after enrolling (last time, I could pick a day and time to take the exam). My last day for the exam was approaching, so I decided to wake up early. Before having to teach online or my teenagers needed me (not usually at 5 am).

Pivot Tables stumped me the first time doing the exam, and it got me this time too. So, this post is more about reminding me than helping you. The last time I managed to work it out, this time I ran out of time and then found it in the last second Blah!!!!

Pivot Tables

This is a feature to help make long tables with a mountain of information on them easier to read by refining what will end up on the table. 

Of course, the feature can be found under the data tab. (I need to remember that!)

Then you need it to be on a new sheet (don't want to lose any data). Refer back to the question in the exam to set the filters. - When you think about it, it's not really hard at all. 

Just don't Panic!!!

What's new in Hapara?

 

With Lockdown, I had time today to view a Hapara Update session. It was interesting although there was no video, there were screenshots help us to understand some of the new features or the features that were already there we might not know about.

Some features have not been rolled out here in New Zealand yet, like the Digital Backpack. This means students could access Hapara from any device it doesn't have to be a Chromebook. For me, this brought up the question, "Do students have access to Hapara or just teachers through the Teacher Dashboard?"

A great feature that I believe I have seen but ignore is the '?' where you can access tutorials. Located at the bottom of the screen.

In Hapara, you can set the landing page to Highlights, but this has to be done for an area. It is not a personal preference or setting. Which I thought was sad as everyone has their own preferences.                                                                                                I have noticed students offline on Hapara, but they are logged into their Chromebook. I have been told this is because they are using a leaf browser which is an experimental browser (but don't ask me what that means). This will be a good way to try to problem solve myself.                                                                                                                                                    I don't often see students logged in through 2 devices as I usually have devices allocated. Having said that, I have seen it, and it was helpful to know I can rectify it.                                                                                                                                            Viewing the highlights through either the 'open tabs' feature or 'current screen', I like the idea of being able to shut them down (which I have never tried). I usually just ask a student, "Are you in the right place?" and they move. The ability to explain why I closed 'a tab' means it can be done in a less invasive manner. That informs the student about their behaviour.

Looking forward to trying some of these ideas out when we return after lockdown.

Manaiakalani - Shared Discussion

The shared discussion was a new idea for me. A Staff Meeting with people around New Zealand with similar concerns or wonderings.

Our focus was on Maths we had a few questions to get the discussion underway 

Knowing our Learners:

1. Describe what is happening for the group of learners you selected, their strengths and weakness. Discuss evidence e.g. anecdotal, blogs, observation, data ...

2. Summarise the learning challenges you plan to focus on in class. Why is this important to your class, your school? What difference will it make for your learners/school?

Changes:

3. Your hunch - Describe what you can change or do differently to improve learning experiences and outcomes for students. 

4. Learning - Describe how you have acquired new knowledge and skills to make changes in your practice e.g. PLD, readings/research, ideas from your own colleagues

Taking Action: 

5. Describe what you are planning to do (or have done) differently. Have you planned to regularly monitor the impact of what you are doing differently? e.g. surveys, smiley face charts from e-asttle...

Changes for my class -

I was focusing on my lower group and wondering how I can help them move, one is ESL and the others seem to have a problem with focusing.

We talked about structuring a lesson in small parts 

    Warm-up - 10minutes

    Problem Solving (Thinking) - 20 minutes, moving around and talking with other students to help them

The use of speaking frames to help students phrase what they are thinking was a thoughtful idea.

    Exposing them to vocabulary that is particular to Mathematics - inverse, operations, multiple...

    Using vocabulary with prompts and visual aids to help remind students of meaning.

    Say and show 

    Explain to a friend

    Regularly asking them to THINK PEER SHARE

    How can you prove that to me?

    Find, Explain and Fix the Error (teacher made)

At the end of the lesson, I want to use these phrases more...

What did you learn today?

What did you struggle with today?

What do you need more help with?

Ideas to help with Math learning in class ...

Kahoot - A great way to check student understanding or do basic facts

Topmarks and IXL, are two of my favourites

Maths Time

Transum Maths Games

AAAmath.com

App - Mathlearningcentre

So I am going to get the students in my class in a few of these,

 we already use Mathletics and E-ako Maths, 

I do like E-ako maths as it is New Zealand based and free.

MASLOW

As part of looking at our struggling students, we need to understand what might be causing their learning struggles.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted within a pyramid.

The bottom two lines of the pyramid are the foundation of a person needs, their basic needs.  These need to be met to a satisfactory level for the person to achieve their psychological needs.

These five levels can be divided into deficiency needs and growth needs. The first four levels are often referred to as deficiency needs (D-needs), and the top-level is known as growth or being needs (B-needs).

Deficiency needs arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are unmet. Also, the motivation to fulfil such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food, the more hungry they will become.

Our communication with families and the more information we have about students, the more effectively we can develop their psychological needs and help students achieve their basic needs.

MIT - Presenting in Cook Island - Creating Writers

We were all arriving at different times. Finally Tuesday I landed in the beautiful Rarotonga. We gathered for a quick debrief about what could be happening - don't forget we are in Raro and wonderful things can happen and do when like-minded people gather.

Wednesday morning we were up and at it. Arriving at school we were welcomed like treasured guests. It was a privilege to be receiving such a formal welcome. As you can see in my previous post, MIT - Workshops in the Cook Islands.

After the welcome and workshops, it was time to return to the resort and prepare for the evening presentations. We had a small quick bite to eat due to the large morning tea provided after the welcome and knowing snacks were available at the presentations. This is the order we were to run through:

My presentation was similar to that I had done and prepared for the Principal's Wānanga in October 2020, with a few small tweaks, due to the change of audience and developments with the tool.

Please visit the site Creating Writers and use or modify to use in your teaching.

School Visits

The following day we had the pleasure of visiting 6 schools to see how they work and integrate technology.

It was very interesting as 20 years ago I visited schools in Fiji (it was their school holidays) and there was a few single-cell classrooms that catered for multiple school years, old textbooks and furniture, it was an eye-opener. 

And although this is a different island in the pacific I kind of expected something similar, so was very pleasantly surprised how adding students and their work brightened the learning spaces. Each school we visited even though in their own village had many multiple rooms to cater for the different levels and a wealth of books and resources, with teachers modifying their practice to include digital technology where they could. 

We visited Tereora College that is well set up with dedicated teachers who were willing to embrace the development of technology. St Joseph's was next and we enjoyed joining in with their singing, it was peace filling and inspiring.

After our flying visits, we were able to freshen up back at the resort before heading back to

 Te Uki Ou School for a lovely feast and final gifts.

MIT - Workshops in the Cook Islands

We were to offer workshops that were unrelated to our presentations as a thank you to the staff of the school hosting us.  I planned and took with me 3 Spheros (robotic balls) and two i-pads, so the teachers could work with the Spheros. I thought it was a great idea, even if the internet didn't work as they worked with a Bluetooth connection.

Welcome

Our day started beautifully with a traditional welcome and dancing. The students performed wonderfully, the drummers an intricate part.

Workshops

When we landed we found out they had organised for us to do workshops with them. So we made a sarong or as they called a 'pareu'. We printed the sarong using fabric paint, a roller and a large white piece of material laid over the board. The plywood was layered with patterns that could be printed. 

The next workshop was coconut husking and peeling to get the coconut and juice out for dinner. Demonstrated to us by a group of boys who were patient and encouraging.

The third workshop was weaving. 

This one I was really interested in as I enjoy weaving with flax, this time I learnt to weave with the leaf of a coconut tree. First, we were encouraged to weave our plate for tomorrows umu. There were students weaving the base and top for the umu basket, bowls and baskets for the food to be put in to cook. After completing my plate I have to try weaving a bowl, it was great fun.

It was then back to the resort for a cool swim, relaxing in the air conditioning or a mocktail poolside before a quick practise for the main event. The presentations.

PB4L - Matrix

The School has a detailed Positive Behaviour Matrix for the whole school with headings on how to respect yourself, others and the environment. There is a range of contexts or scenarios that help to break down this matrix. 

We discussed how in class we all have rules and how we have acted them out to help students to understand expectations. Have we considered creating a matrix with the students in our class to help break the rules further so they know what it looks like, or is there a reminder of what it should look like?

We looked at a few samples from other places and with a range of focuses.

First thing back in after the holiday that was where I started new term fresh start, especially having just taken over a class mid-way through a term. Now was a good time to re-establish expectations and rules that all could aspire to, even in the Robotics Room.

MIT - Preparing to Share in the Cook Islands

In a few weeks, I am heading to Rarotonga to share my presentation and learning from 2020. Having recently changed school I feel like I am drowning, but I want to do this I love what I created with my learning site and what to share with the world.

   

Of course, there were some criteria that need to be fulfilled. 

1. Working in a Manaiakalani Outreach School

2. Keeping my site and posts up to date

3. Permission from the Principal and School (In the case of in-school PD, ours was the first week of the holidays.)

4. Can't forget a current passport

5. Update presentation

Tick, will be a tick soon, Tick, Tick and that should be easy.

I just forgot about how much time a new class takes and missed a couple of emails. So I updated the site with Similes and Storyboards, which I had been working on to help students create more ideas and keep them in order. The blog posts with examples of storyboards and a post about the new features on the site.  Tick!

Just to organise my presentation. Then pack a bag, what do I take?

Looking through my presentation there were only a few changes I needed to make, as the results were still relevant, the purpose and reasoning behind my idea were still solid. Updating what I still hoped to achieve with the site and altering some of the features that were no longer available such as google expeditions is now google cardboard. And of course, organising my google cardboard to take with me to show the teachers. Now to find time to practise my speech for the presentation. And learn some local phrases.

Using Storyboards with Room 9 at WI

 Changing schools is a big enough challenge especially trying to slip into teaching their already planned inquiries. However, with the study of war, it opened right up to using storyboards. 

Students were asked to write about the day in the life of a soldier. They had watched many clips from youtube about a range of sides from WW1. Here are some of the storyboards they came up with and part of their stories.

Storyboard 1 - The Soldier Sleep in the damp, wet environment, with bombs raining along the borders of foreign lands. The flock of men, scared to death as explosions run at them. The crisp cold morning air fogging the view of our enemies. The filthy trench boards creaking foot by foot. Mud smothering each man in a thick brown coat of dirt. Rats make their home in your ditch, feasting on your fellow buddies. Soldiers on the bare minimum of sleep.

Puff, your Captain prepares to announce the time to charge. He presents his supposed final speech as returning is unlikely. "Men of Britain may the best of luck be brought upon us soldiers."

The whistle blows, MEN SCRAMBLE OVER THE TRENCH & SHOW NO MERCY!

Storyboard 2 -  The soldiers awoke at 6:30 am being grateful that they were still alive. They gathered all their gear and left for their areas. Pushing past each other, shoving and having a joke trying to get their minds of where they were for a moment, boots soaking wet and uniforms covered in mud. 

Waiting in silence for a gunshot. Looking left and right, waiting for the orders to 'fire'. Silence in the air for 2 hours, when finally the order came. "Fire!" the Commander shouted across the trenches.

Heavy thumps hitting the ground, bullets flying through the air, body parts splitting the trench walls. The soldiers were once again at war. Smoke in the air and bullets on the ground. 

 

Storyboard 3 - Soldiers wake up for their four-hour uncomfortable sleep ready for war with their rifles in their hands. They start marching scanning the area looking for enemies. As they march you hear rats scuttling around in the muddy steep trenches.

Carefully looking through periscopes to find troops marching straight for them, so they opened fired, killing many of the opposition. But when they put their heads up to aim, they got shot in the head, with their last words nothing but screams. All their minds thinking today would be their last day living in this world.  

I was blown away by the detail and feeling their stories started to provoke.

Tala noa - Cultural Responsiveness

Cultural Responsiveness has been a priority for all teachers, no matter what school I have been in. This session was discussed through a Tala noa, which under this name I hadn't attended before. 

Tala noa a discussion based around an objective with NO judgement. Despite the fact that this is not a new concept when I heard this first I was relieved because I have been in discussions where you could feel the look when you had your say. Personally, you can't change your thinking if you can't share it.

We looked at the Pasifika Success Compass, showing the student/learner in the middle and the way people, families, communities and series wrap around them. All with the purpose of Achievement, Engagement and Participation for the student at the forefront.

Students don't care what we know until they know that we care!

We looked at a video with the pleas of Pasifika students for the education system to catch up with the innovative practices of our Pacific communities.

"Enable me, enable us, my community, all our communities, my family, your family - so we can grow our potential."

When Pacific learners and their families all across Aotearoa feel safe, valued and equipped to achieve their educational aspirations, we know we have made the system shift in the right direction.

5 Main Ideas to Supporting Pasifika Learners (from TKI)

1. Know your Learner
• Build Relationship
• Ask Students what will help 
2. Establish Reciprocal Relationships with Families
• Partner with Parents
• Create Welcoming environment
• Discuss Learning
• Support Families
3. Build Community Networks
• Value Parents and Community Expertise
• Strengthen Pasifika Community Engagement
4. Build cultural Responsive Environment
• Integrate Languages
• Provide Leadership Opportunities
• Support English Language Learner
• Use Technology
5. Explore Pasifika Perspective on Inclusion
• Explore Family Beliefs, Values and Expectations
• Review Research

What am I doing and What do I need to do more?

1. I love getting to know my students and sharing myself with them. I use the scrapbooks of family albums to show my own family and my life. We create a profile about ourselves for the class wall, I even did this in Term 2 this year when I started a new class because I believe relationships are so important.

2. Create a welcoming environment, with their work on the walls to help develop pride and a sense of belonging. Talk about learning with students and parents not just at interviews.

3. I have just moved into a new community so I am working on this one.

4. Each term I try to encourage different students to try different responsibilities. I love using technology to help explain learning and love how student blogs can be used to rewind learning.

5. Through meetings and reading I am coming to understand more about the way families are and how important RESPECT is! 

If I am honest, this helps not just our Pasifika Students. 

It helps everyone to feel valued! Making Society a Better Place for Everyone!

AFL - Assessment for Learning

Formative and summative are the two main types of assessment. Students complete assessments for many reasons including, informing parents, the board, or the government about achievement.  

Formative assessment is a tool for teachers as it informs them about the next steps for students.

Assessment for Learning helps us with this process, creating Learning Intentions to focus on and a list of the Success Criteria for the students to help them achieve each step toward the Learning Intention. 

Today's session was about:

How Confident are we in Writing Success Criteria

I thought I was confident in writing Success Criteria. As I have been part of Assessment for Learning schools for years. What I hadn't thought about was making the Success Criteria challenging yet understandable for Years 7 and 8 students. (This didn't register until I was doing planning for Term 3).

We discussed the importance of Success Criteria: 

•     Learning Intentions without Success Criteria is hopeless
•     Success Criteria without Learning Intention is not bad

It's about what we are learning not just what we are to do.

What is often found in Year 7 and 8 classes are Success Criteria are based more on performance and students can parrot it but that doesn't help them understand the learning.

Our expectations should be high but always reflect back to the Success Criteria, especially in what we say, well done I can see you are able to make groups of ten and add them together. Next, let's see if you can make groups of 100 and add them together.

Our Focus was on Reading which ties in well with our other Curriculum Focus on T-shaped Literacy.

For the last, while I have been focused on teaching Questioning and Answering Skills for Literal, Re-organisation, Inference, Evaluative, Vocabulary and Reaction. I can see the reaction and evaluative questions being useful to help develop a deeper understanding through T-shaped Literacy but I feel I need more direction and support with this.

What I do like about AFL is it gives control to students about how fast and how far they take their learning and helps to get rid of the stuff that doesn't matter.

If learning isn't secret and students have the keys they can continue to break down learning into steps and hold the keys for lifelong learning.

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.

Manaiakalani Toolkits - Coding and Ban the Boring

 Coding  

Ever since I learnt about scratch and coding at DFI, I have wanted to share a forgotten passion. Forgotten because I last used it in Sixth Form/Year 12 many years ago when they first introduced coding and robotics. Back then, it was just basic javascript. 

Malcolm Bignell had a wealth of knowledge of all things electronic and code-related. 

However, Malcolm let us navigate around his teaching and learning site. The activities and challenges for the high school students were amazing and easy to follow sequentially. Something I hope to inspire too, but more at an intermediate level.

I found it reassuring was even though he was showing us what Year 10 are doing, the code and systems are familiar. My students who are learning coding through Scratch and Edu-Sphero are not at a disadvantage because the coding blocks have similar headings, E.g. Event, Control, Sound, Looks...

Ban Boring

This is looking at creating slides that inspire and encourage students to interact with the learning. Once you have created a set of backgrounds, you can reuse them. This will be really helpful during lockdown times when you are trying to get students to engage in learning, as you can make the class slides more relevant. 

We looked at a range of slides and how interactive, exciting or inspiring they were. Were they overpacked and distracting? We had the opportunity to look at other sites offering slides templates and how to make the bitmoji. Now to create my bitmoji. 

Sharon, thank you for your inspiring toolkit.

Toolkits - Students teaching Teachers

 We were at a Staff Meeting run by the local Ako Hiko Facilitator. The Focus was on creating and with the work I have been doing with writing and reading over the last few years this toolkit was awesome. 

We as teachers and students can create a range of styles of music using Incredibox. This music can play in the background while students read aloud a passage they have written. If they have an image or recording/screencast of their reading or the work they have accomplished they have created a multimedia. 

The slides the students created to teach other students. It was wonderful when I thanked them for teaching me, initially they were confused as I was new to the area. - Rewindable learning at its best!

 

 Thanks Boys!!😁👌