DFI 2021 Week 3

Today seemed to be much more 'tekkie' for me. I never thought I would want/have/need a YouTube channel. Who knew I would find it useful to save and share clips I've come across?! There's a clip I like to share with my staff about language and clarity of language.

I've learned lots of things I'm keen to use, but it's unfortunately been a week since I've come back to this.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Creativity

This really resonated with me!

I haven't answered the Q above, but here are the key ideas from my notes:

PBL is creative learning experiences.

Kohl (2008) states "Creativity focusses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery."

Time again to focus on teacher creativity. Some questions:

• How are our teachers being creative?
• Do they think they are? Do they know they are?
• How do we hook our chn into learning?
• What opportunities are we giving our chn to be creative?
• Do/how do we intentionally use modern technologies to enable creativity?
• How many opportunities do we give our chn to be creators of content, not just consumers?

Michael Fullen - "It is in creating that the individual gains purpose."

The Manaiakalani blog post about creativity from 2015 is so relevant today.
The Heart of the Matter - Creativity in NZ schools. Elwyn Richardson was Hay Park School’s first principal. We do try and give our teachers opportunities to ‘play’ and follow the interests of their students.

The ideas from Sir Ken Robinson (in a BBC interview) about creative schools give pause to all of us about ‘what matters’ in our schools - ‘creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status’. He goes on to say how much influence teachers have over children - his example was being reluctant to sing after being told he was flat - ‘when you’re that young it doesn’t take a lot to be encouraged or discouraged to do something. If someone says you can do something it lifts your whole expectation of yourself. You think maybe, maybe I can do that.’ Do we do that for our students?

He is asked about what would be seen in his school. He says there would be a whole range of activities, a lot of collaboration between children and collaboration between teachers, a great deal of activity - practical projects and inquiry projects - across age groups and adults from the community also working with the children.

In my experience creativity changed in education in NZ when the emphasis changed to being assessment focussed, which (I think) happened alongside the introduction of the coloured curriculum books with all the AOs that needed to be assessed.
In 1990 I worked at an intermediate in South Auckland. I spent a term on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with some maths and PE thrown in. We created a big book of the story, a wall story which we had on the ceiling, we chose pieces of Shakespearean poetry to display and found out he has his own number in the Dewey Decimal System. I condensed the play to 20 pages, my students auditioned for roles and we put on the play for other classes up at a local park that had a natural amphitheatre with woods. Why did we do this? I wanted to take my class to the Summer Shakespeare and that year it was A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sadly it was rained out, so we never got to see the play at the University of Auckland, but we did some great learning.
When I went back into the classroom, in 1995 after university, the emphasis was on evidence and assessment.

Each time I'm reminded it's about helping kids learn in 'engaging ways that simply weren't possible in the past' - from a pedagogical standpoint as well as a technological one.

We can't forget the fun!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
I've started making YouTube playlists. What a great tool!

I've added the mote extension, but I'm yet to use it.

Questions I have:

Is there a better time to embed a YouTube video or to have a link to a YouTube video?

Is it possible to see the Manaiakalani slides in normal mode not only in presentation mode?

What did I learn that could be used with my staff?

I look forward to selecting YouTube clips from my playlists to share at staff only days and/or staff meetings. I will also use the post-it note size info on slides for staff PLD.

I will ask them if they want the green screen (and carpet) and DIY film-making set.

Often poor sound is what lets our students' videos down. The tip about sound when filming will be very important when students do their Ako Hiko films.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

I've started making a maths multichoice game. I want to do another one using the Mote extension so the students can hear the numbers. That's a longer term goal.

I've never thought of blogging as an EOTC experience.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I've created an About Me slide, but I haven't added a photo yet.

I look forward to trialling png and svg images.

There was a lot of new content for me this week and I needed more processing time, so I felt quite rushed during some of the sessions. I'm looking forward to taking some time and going through the resources.

Onwards and upwards 😀