DFI 2021 Week 7

Today reminded me about how good I am at putting things into or considering things in silos. It was also about applying my new learning to what is relevant for me. It was great to build on the knowledge that I've learned in previous weeks and being able to apply it in an authentic context.

Using the iPad reinforced how frustrated I get when I 'don't know what I don't know'.

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

Our students love using the term 'ubiquitous'. It reminds me that kids love language and love using 'big words'. I had a class that loved using 'metacognition' and would throw it into a sentence whenever they could.

Ubiquitous learning helps students to have ownership of their learning; being empowered to continue or extend their learning outside of school at a time that works for them is so important.

It astounded me that children in low decile schools arrive at school at 5yo having heard 30 000 000 less words than children in high decile schools, and that it is the same no matter what the language is. Is it the same across the world? Is it linked to poverty in general, as it appears to be? Is it the same for the dominant culture in countries?

I was also surprised that the 'summer dip' isn't just a New Zealand problem. I knew that in the US they have 'summer school', but I never thought about it in terms of their student achievement after their long holiday (which is much longer than ours). I'm really good at 'siloing'! The Summer Learning Journey is fabulous!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I have so much more to learn, but I feel much more confident having had a second session thinking about sites and our website. I have started a slide deck with photos that I will add a Screencastify voiceover to. I'm wanting to use it for students to introduce our school.

The Cybersmart curriculum is definitely embedded in how we work. Having the 10 categories with lessons, LOs, etc is such a great resource!

This whakatauki sums up our students so well - 'at home in a digital world', 'kua tangata whenua ki te ao matihiko'. As our students get older they understand being Cybersmart is something they will take with them through life, not just use at school and that it will help them when navigating through social media.

I really like how LCS is weaved into the Cybersmart curriculum as well. It is another opportunity for us to reflect on how we use LCS, maybe without even realising it. We've found using LCS is a great tool for inquiring into our practice!

I liked that the Treaty principles of partnership, participation and protection are focussed on in the iceberg analogy. I believe they make a strong foundation for a school curriculum.  

The digital dig using a Chromebook was good because I realised I know quite a few shortcuts. Even though I use a Mac, the shortcuts are basically the same. 

Questions I have:

We all know about positive, helpful, thoughtful comments, but are the posters up on the walls in classes? Would the students like the posters to be up there to refer to?

Do our classes do the digital dig?

What are the key messages on our website? What is being highlighted that isn't intentional?

How can I utilise Screencastify?

Is it time we discuss having 1:1 iPads from our NE-Y1 class? Cybersmart and iPads are integrated in this class. I think we keep it 1:1 from Y2, but I'm keen to hear what the staff think.

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

We are looking at how the principles of partnership, participation and protection underpin our school curriculum and how important these principles are as foundations.

As part of our school curriculum review we will look at our Cybersmart overview with the one on slide 9.

I have staff who love using Explain Everything. I need to talk to them and find out why.

The leadership team have discussed how we can use Screencastify to communicate our graduate profiles - from the junior school and from the senior school. I'm quite excited about that. It also links to one of our Kāhui Ako goals.

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

I want to talk the students about what they think this means: 'whenever we share online it's personal, it's visible and it's amplified'. I'm also going to ask our seniors if they know what A4 is, then we will discuss it further.

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

I didn't know about the Chrome tab shortcuts and I know I will find them very useful.

I'm also really pleased that I've managed to have all the text on the blog the same size. Even though I chose the same font and small in previous weeks, some parts are larger than others. Not being able to fix it is quite frustrating.

A huge thanks to Makaore for his patience and his resilience working with me this week, particularly when I got frustrated with trying to make Explain Everything work on the iPad 😀