DMIC Teacher Only Day

Here are some of the notes taken from a really full and informative PD session.

Teaching Knowledge

Knowledge still needs to be taught and planned for.  Shared an example of plan for juniors that had 20 minutes of knowledge broken up into different sessions.  

Here are some zoom sessions for juniors that are valuable 

Junior Zoom Part 1: https://youtu.be/qFCUJJRGl6s

Junior Zoom Part 2: https://youtu.be/FczqqaOvdfY

Key Ideas Link: https://nzmaths.co.nz/key-mathematical-ideas

Example of Choral Counting.  I keep forgetting how great this is and how many different patterns you can get with it and how much discussion there can be.  Will have to look up videos about this.

Number of the day can be done with decimals or whole numbers

Knowledge time can also be used for maintenance of previous taught topics or as a lead in new topics

Check out site http://wodb.ca/numbers.html for odd number out ideas - these look really good.

Number Strings - making connections and strings about known facts.  I should look at the Pam Harris video work on number strings.  Also does "I have", "You need" to get to target number.

1+2=3

4+5+6=7+8

9+10+11+12=13+14+15

True or False statements are great for clarifying misunderstanding eg many don't see that 10=7+3 is true as it isn't how they've normally seen it.  or don't believe that 7+3=

Decide/Decode/Defend where they have to decide on what they think is true and then justify why they believe they are correct.  They move around to different spots in the room and then try to convince others why they believe they are correct.

Images - "What maths can you see in this picture?" http:/ntimages.weebly.com 

Need to focus on strengths not deficits of learners - don't make excuses.

Make sure that norms are part of sessions - might be something that you noticed yesterday eg share with buddies.  Don't have to read through list everyday.  Norms change and grow throughout the year.

Basic Facts are still important!

Mathematical Practices 

When a student gives you a reason push them for more to extend depth of understanding - how do you know?  make them use because.  

Talk Turns is different from Talk Moves to support mathematical practices and make these practices explicit without turning them into being prescriptive

Initiating

Sustaining

reprising (naming, highlighting, evaluating, explaining, connecting, framing)

It was great to get the chance to plan for our first unit for the term.  So good to discuss ideas and levels with other people.

Final Day - Congratulations or Commiserations, only time will tell!

The nerves of the whole group appear quite high as we head towards the exam.  It was great to see that I'm not the only one that is worried about the outcome.  Thank you so much Maria for answering all our questions and the time that you spent answering what you must think are fairly random queries.

Where to From Here

What opportunities are available through Manaiakalani?

DFI Alumni Group

Keep blog going - Share your ideas, gather evidence

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers - by application

Manaiakalani Google Class on Air - 

DFI Coaches - Online Bubble Coaches

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu - Write to me, Write to others - connect with other classes

Online Toolkits

Learn from the Research/Contribute to the research (eg observations eek)

Online Practicum Associate Teacher

Manaiakalani Employment Opportunities

PLN (Professional Learning Networks) on Social Media

Get more qualifications with Google, Hapara, Apple education programmes.

Exam Time

In some ways the exam was easier than I thought but in other places the questions appeared very random and there was little distinction between some of the answers.  I admit I had to google a few things and still wasn't sure of the answer.  I am really glad I did a little work on Google Classrooms yesterday as this was something we hadn't really covered in the course.

Blogging Badges

We were shown how to add badges to our blogs.  This is done through the layout menu, adding a gadget then adding an image.

Demo Slam

So This is the final blog related to this course.  I am looking forward to the Demo Slam that we are going to see to finish off the day.  I am sure there will be some innovative ideas come out of this.  Here is the slideshow of what will be shared.

Once again a huge thank you to all the people involved in this course.  It has been great to learn from experts and to make connections.  To all in my 'bubble group' it has been amazing to listen to your advice and tips and to learn from you all.

Final Session Before the Exam!

If only I could get my brain into gear today.  

Firstly I would like to thank all the presenters that have shared their knowledge with us over the course of the programme.  It has been great to learn new skills and extend on the skills we already have.  You are truly all talented, skilled, patient and giving people.

Empowered

Agency is Ministry speak, but Manaiakalani uses Empowered instead of the word agency. Agency can have negative connotations with people that have had negative dealings with different agencies.  Empowered is still about agency and Rangatiratanga.

Pg 36 of The NZ Curriculum mentions exploring new learning environments, overcoming barriers of distance and time - Technology does this.

There is a documentary Series by Nigel Latta - looking into the things that are barriers that prevent people from feeling empowered.

Some other factors that stop people feeling empowered in the Manaiakalani cluster is that $19000 pa is the mean income, this takes away choice and opportunity.  Therefore people are not empowered.

The working poor - working only pays for the basics for many earners.  The stress and pressure of finances take a toll on relationships and learners.

There are many other factors working against communities and not making them empowered.  eg lack of insulations, lack of chances to remove rubbish, rip off artists in the community.

School entry testing shows that kids entering school in the Manaiakalani cluster have mean academic age of a 3 year old, they are generally a transient community, this means people are missing out, with up to 1/3 of children moving during the rear.

Manaiakalani is believes in Empowering people through access - to devices, to internet etc.

The Future of Technology

There are so many things in development now that were inconceivable not that long ago (or only in the realm of SciFi or cartoons like The Jetsons).  Examples of this are flying cars in development, self flying drones, self actualised robots.   Here are some of the biggest advances in recent years.

Over the years there has been a change in the focus of technological advances to making life/world better rather than just making you live longer

Introduction to Computation Thinking

Digital fluency vs digital technologies

Fluency is when you can use and choose when to use digital technologies. You are capable to create with digital technology.

We need to provide opportunities for students to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions.  The NZ curriculum mentions about students being creators not just consumers.

Both teachers and students need to be fluent

In the traditional Technology Curriculum there are 3 strands - practice, knowledge and nature of

digital curriculum these areas weave into Digital Technology Curriculum.  In this new curriculum there are 8 learning outcomes relating to computational thinking and 6 learning outcomes relating to developing digital outcomes.

Computation thinking is about learning to think like a computer scientist not to think like a computer.  A good matrix for the Digital Technology Curriculum is the Raranga Matihiko kids speak levels that are decoded for learners . 

code.org is another tool for coding.  I will explore this further as I have only really had experience with Scratch.

Google certified exam arrgh this is scary

arrrggghhh this is scary.  

I have registered for this and will need to do a lot of revision before next Wednesday.  I have also learnt not to allow auto fill to fill in your forms, or if you do at least double check it.  I now have the registration name of Hornby Primary Hornby.  I've emailed the help desk to see how to change it with no response yet!

Create time 

I found the create time frustrating today.  I am one of those people who like to have time to explore and try things.  It was great learning for me to be in the place of a pupil who was struggling.  I know I need to allow more time and not talk over people while they are trying to create new things.  I found if I ignored the background chatter I missed important information and if I flicked between tabs to see the demonstrations I lost my flow.

Anyway after a lot of playing around I have created an animation of my name that uses different movements, changes in colours, changes in effects, changes in size etc.  It's not that flash but in the limited time it was all I had time for.

To activate it you need to type each letter that you want to see move.  

Using Different Devices

It's fantastic to start the morning with a chance to catch up with people in the group even if the conversation isn't all about digital its great to make connections.

Ubiquitous Learning 

Anytime, Anywhere, Any pace and from anyone

It is great that having 1:1 devices is a way of removing barriers so learning can take place in a ubiquitous way.  I'm seeing this with sick children still accessing the work from home or choosing to complete tasks at home so they can be more social in the class.  I like the idea of kids accessing other teacher's sites to get a different POV on the teaching, but it is important to ensure that all teachers are covering the same material.  This would possibly more appropriate for high school

I personally find having a site makes it much easier for relievers, and planning for relievers, as learners can carry on with normal programme as can access the learning.

It was interesting to hear that lower decile learners arrive at school hearing 30 000 000 less spoken words than high decile counterparts.

Lockdown learnings about ubiquitous learning

Things I am proud of - learners accessing site, rewindable with videos, multimodal, time management from kids

Things I regret -not more learners engaged, not doing fun themes for meetings, not insisting that some learners talk - they all ended up just typing responses in chat, some video links didn't work but I now know how to change sharing settings.

Things I Taken forward - more multimodal, greater knowledge of the learners and where they come from, importance of practicing how to get on google meets.

Being Cybersmart

Digital citizenship is critical so Manaiakalani had to find a curriculum to support Cybersmart, but there wan't much around so had to create their own. 

Key Messages about Cybersmart

Consistent with modelled appropriate and positive language and use.

A lot of tools are happening behind the scenes to ensure the learners can use their devices in a way they can be Cybersmart.

Google - Be internet awesome is a tool to explore

Use of positive language is important - Talking about what you do, not what you shouldn't do

Cybersmart curriculum can be tailored to our school from 10 different topics

Primary schools look at some of the same topics:

Smart learners - in this topic they understand and demonstrate smart use of device and looking after it like in the Kawa of Care, 

Smart footprint and Smart relationships this is about being kind, positive and helpful, making most of opportunities for learning, making whānau proud by being responsible learners, pass word safety and being aware of what is shared online.

The Cybersmart curriculum fits in with learn, create, share pedagogy.

Manaiakalani Journey

Partnership - with whānau and community, teachers to teachers, learners to teacher, learners to learners, knowing it is important and that the child is going to use it - it is a huge investment.  Kawa of Care needs to be a living document

Participation - so every learner is able to participate, all devices are the same and the teachers are empowered as well

Protection - lots happen behind the scene, teacher dashboard it a layer of this protection, protections also comes from n4l and linewize filtering

Digital fluency is about learners, teacher and whānau being able to use the device. digital dig helps with this.

Recording your Screen

Using Screencastify

This is a tool I have used a lot.  Some things to increase the usability of Screencastify are

pause button (really useful)

you can restart recording

you can change mouse pointer

you can draw and erase 

you can turn the webcam on and off throughout the recording using the camera icon on the toolbar.

make sure you name your screencast will save into google drive

you can get shareable link to send it

you can get embed code 

there is a 5 minute limit on the free version

You can record screen on i-pad - 

There is a video from Kelsey.  While the initial information that was shared said it would only record sound coming from the i-pad there is a way you can enable this.  To enable screen recording go through the control centre of the i-pad and press the green plus. Then it is available in the pull down menu from the top. You can turn microphone on by holding down the record screen icon and turning microphone on.

Using Learner Devices - I-pads

Manaiakalani has trialled other tablets, they are not just jumping on the apple bandwagon.

Before the Year Begins

-Have all i-pads set up the same at beginning of the year.  

-Sign in all accounts so the kids don't have to worry about knowing login, email address and password 

-Name i-pads and stylus.  

-Have thought through systems for getting, storing etc

With learners 

- start with Kawa of Care and safety video 

- teach whole class for a few weeks

- create explain everything on i-pad and upload it to drive then can use it on your slides and sites

- there is an i-pad support system set up on Manaiakalani site

- explain everything is what you use all the time and there is an Explain Everything Whiteboard available

Hāpara Hot Tips

Workspaces

You can see workspaces that have been made public by using discover

You can search for NZ curriculum and year/grade level.  

If you find a workspace you want you can copy the entire workspace

Using workspaces is an area I am not very familiar with I will have to look at the toolkit from earlier this term.

Create Time

We have now had the chance to create using the tools discussed to.  The first we used was Explain everything where we had set tasks to do.  Explain everything still isn't my favourite but it was less scary this time to use.

After that we could choose a create tool to talk through a lesson related to Cybersmart using Screencastify or Explain Everything.  I chose Screencastify and here are my results.

Blogger tips

I already have blog lists running in my class

Like the idea of putting in other Links list with class site and school site onto my class blog.

Once again another day of great learning.

Time to Improve

Connected - visible is the default

Having learning that is digitally connected is a way of empowering ourselves and our learners.  I had not known that so many schools were connected through Manaiakalani and the outreach. This means there is so much more potential for power and efficiency.

It is difficult to untangle connected and share - to make a connection both parties need to share.  Manaiakalani focus on 1:1 devices as trying to do both 1:1 and analogue means juggling between two different types of teaching - we are time poor enough without this.  It is very hard to switch all the time between online and analogue learning.

RSS - Real Simple Syndication gathers stuff online together.  In this case it gathers all the blog posts together with most recent one first.  It is a great way to connect for learners and to get ideas from other teachers

I need to look at  the slides about how to build an audience.  By having a wider audience the students will get more feedback.

Currents is live a new version of G+

Leading Learning using Google Sites

My students do access learning from the class site.  It may not be perfect but it works for me and my class.  My site has too many clicks and I will look to remedy this.

I enjoyed looking through different sites to see what I like and didn't like.  It is great to see that all the sites were so different.  Not being an 'arty' person I find it really difficult (read pointless) to spend hours making my site look pretty, too me many sites look overcrowded and busy.

I found this slide very informative.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE TIME!  I really appreciated the feedback about my site and the time to try to improve it.  This has been very valuable.  Here is my site so far - there is still work to do on it.  Some of the feedback I was given (that I haven't address yet) is adding audio for instructions.  This is something I will look at in future.

My site

Hāpara Hot Tip

Student dashboard, found at mystudentdashboard.com, gives the students an overview of stuff shared via Hāpara workspaces  I have never really used student dashboard or workspaces maybe yet another thing to check out! My initial thoughts are it looks more important for secondary.

Removing spam from blogs 

When talking about removing spam we are talking about comments generated by AI - automated spam.

If you think you have a spam comment go into the editing section of the blog 

then click on comments, 

then click on all to see what comments are published,  

it you see spam mark it as spam, 

go to spam and delete it from there

If you just delete it then the spammers know it is a live account and will keep hitting that account with spam.

Hāpara is your friend when talking about blogging, comments will stand out in red if they have not come through the school 

Watch for blog comments that look genuine that may be spam try not to confuse them with genuine comments

If things get really bad then you can turn on moderation for older posts.

Don't go to delete - mark it as spam, send it to spam, think about it while it is not on the kids site, then you have option of deleting spam or reinstating it.

Once again a very valuable learning time. I keep picking up new tips and tricks each week. The thing I appreciated most this week was the time to fix up my site. Thanks.

Finding My Feet Again.

Visible Learning Dorothy

There is a difference between visible teaching and learning.  We are used to having visible learning (classroom displays, newsletters etc) but this is adding teaching element.

There are 4 elements of visibility

visible to learner

visible to whanau

visible teacher

visible to colleagues

Learning is no longer about students trying to read teacher's mind because they can access success criteria, WALTS, rewindable learning.  This has opened up the learning journey for some people.

Technology makes teaching and learning visible.  People can see the whole learning journey as it is visible.  It should  include planning, process, outcomes and assessment.  There should be no surprises as teaching and learning should be accessible, available and ready in advance.  This makes me think I shoul look at adding my Long Term Plan to my class site. 

Hapara designed specifically for manaiakalani.  to makes learning visible.  Sites is the main tool that makes teaching visible.  The entire Manaiakalani project has changed who we are teaching and learning.

Multi Modal

We have the ability to deliver communications to others in a way that reaches them, suits them and engages them.  In history there have been many different modes of communication.  Every learner has their own preference for communication and by having a multi modal site there is the opportunity to be inclusive for all learners and to differentiate learning.

The priority goals for multi modal are- engagement, personalised learning, accelerated achievement, and empowerment

The homepage of your site needs to entice people to go in.  It needs a 'Wow factor' that reflects what is currently happening in class. Ask yourself is the content engaging?  Will it hook learners in?  When considering my own blog - maybe I need to find time to add current pics of the kids working and examples of current work they are doing.

What makes a multimodal site? 

Personalised learning, on task behaviours and cognitive engagement

Multi-textural

Accelerated achievement is shown when teachers use multiple texts and modes

It's a journey - it won't happen overnight!

Hapara hot tip

New learning from the hot tip -  when using sharing tab can search for files, Give time for kids to organise their drive throughout the term - don't wait until the end of the year, Google will empty bin after 30 days.

Exploring Multi Modal Sites

some use slides or add to one page - i have used slides for last 6 years on my site

interesting lack of learning outcomes or learn create share references inreading page

must be easy to nabigate around not too busy

overdrive an online library that I will have to check out

Google sites

When setting up a folder for a site set permissions for the entire folder.  Plan your site.  I must check out Jam Board to see if it is something I want to use.

The site header is the first thing your visitors will see so should draw them in.  I might try to add the school logo to my banner.

I had new learning today about creating buttons.  This will be a time saver for me as I have designed buttons on Google Drawings in the past and then linked them the hard way.  

In the past I have used the insert menu on the side of the screen rather than just double clicking where I want to add things.  It is so much easier to do it with the double click.

It was good to see how to group text boxes and uploads and how to turn text boxes into headings

Important to remember to publish after making changes.  I am usually fairly good with this.

More new learning - adding an announcement banner - this will put an announcement across the top of the page.

When everyone was looking through the multi text database I went and reread about T shaped literacy.  I have used the multi modal database in the pas. 

Making a Site

It was great to use jam board (like a digital sticky notesI To start with I put all my info on the wrong page - skipped a step. then couldn't copy it to add it to right page.  I must listen to instructions better.  Practicing with Jam Board is important so I feel more confident with it before using it with my class.

For today's create session we had to make a site- good way to practice making site and I was able to try out some of the new learning I had found out about today.  As I already have a class site I prefer using slides or drawings to add to my already created site.

Here is a link to the site I began today.  I don't think I will finish it as I have to think about how much value it will add.

Site Link

To finish off the day we were given tips such as  installing the Manaiakalani theme to have the same widgets etc that the facilitators use.

We were also given instructions on using labels.  I have been doing with class for ages.  At times getting kids to do it is a chore.  You can change the layout of labels in configure labels.

Last thoughts

I will continue to add the shortcuts and tips (that I remember) to my daily teaching and learning to make my life easier. Where appropriate I will share new ideas with pupils - eg Jam Board.

The Day I Felt Out of My Depth!

To share is innate in human nature,  to share is instinctual.  The impact of Social Media/technology has influenced this and we can share instantly and to a wider audience

In 2005 world changed when in April YouTube started.  This meant people could harness technology to establish authentic audiences for LEARNING - but face to face still vital.  Audience is essential - must be authentic, how can you ask writers to write for an audience when you don't provide the audience. authentic audiences are the ones who choose to 'listen' to you

Blogger has functionally similar to spaces kids want to be on -  Manaiakalani uses it with the purpose is to learn to use it not to be on the latest app.  Pupils learn to connect on line, functionally without distractions.

There are different types of share - finish learning (end product), share to learn -  learning more from comments etc opening new things to think about, share to teach.  Sharing is not linear

Google forms

I have used this in the past for a variety of purposes and will look into using for quizzes.  When using it for quizzes it is important to have it in locked mode so pupils can't open any other tabs while taking quiz.

There is the ability to share forms across the whole school - could be good for school wide testing and may be something I look into in my role of leading mathematics

Hapara Hot Tip

I already use Hapara to look at comments and who has blogged.

Chalk and talk - Google My Maps

In this session we learnt to create a map, including:-

titling a map, adding layers, using a polygon to get the area, a line gives distance, you can get directions, to get a temporary measure use the ruler, you can change view for satellite, terrain etc. You can share map, the preview of a map looks a little different from when you are making it.  You can add or delete text photos etc for markers.  You can import data from spreadsheets, you can change icons and colour of pins .  to share on site use the embed code

While it looks good it is quite time consuming and I would need a lot more time to play with it to figure out how to use it properly.  I can't really see me using it at this stage.  After plotting the points I couldn't get back to put in the route so just got frustrated and gave up! I also dislike it plots only has driving route rather than sailing route! Here is my poor attempt at a map.

 

Google Sheets

In tis session we were told how to resize columns.  I learnt a new shortcut - click first column, hold down shift click last column then resize them.

To get a sum click the sum icon and then highlight the cells, you can use auto fill that will transfer the equation either across rows or down columns.  You can also do this to get the average.  There were reminders about how to change the format for dates etc.

The filter function looks like a little funnel, you can filter groups and then saved filtered data.

When you have many tabs across bottom - look at three lines and you can see the names of all tabs.

Spark line does little graph in cell so you can see trends - this add on looks really cool

You can change format for colours - this will save me time.

Conditional format rules can highlight those that are low or high this is also a time saver.

I really liked that Vicki said she is still learning (it shows we don't need to know it all yet). She found recently how to split text to columns.  I think this will be a tool I will use a lot.

By using concatonate you can join cells together in a string

Beyond text wrapping - type on 1 line the press alt+enter and this takes you to new line but in the same cell

It was great to have a tutorial on how to move data across tabs/sheets and it is something I will have to practice.

You can add ons things like cropping sheets, might also save on toner when printing out, when copying to another document if you paste linked then the data will update on the doc you have pasted it to when you update the original sheet.

The explore function at the bottom right of the sheet will help tell you what data is available

Analysing blogs

We spent time analysing a blog on sheets.  Unfortunately embedding the chart was too small to see properly so I have also included a screenshot or my chart.

Blog commenting from Kelsey  

Kelsey has shared this with us in staff meetings. I have all the comment notification settings done for me and my class.

I learnt that you can insert links into comments by using using html code  <a href="insert URL here">Insert display text here</a>.

It's all about the Hook

Another great day of learning.  

The point was made about hooking learners in to get them engaged and how being creative is a real key to doing this. Many different skills for the 21st Century models have creativity in them.  Two things I want to follow up from this was reading some work by Holt and also watching the documentary 'The heART of the matter'.  It is sad that the opportunities to create drop more and more the higher up the school system that people go.

We want our learners to be creators not just consumers of content.  When pupils are creating they should have agency over the creative tools they use.  Problem solving, communicating and collaborating is developed through creative skills.

Creating is such a huge part of learning.  Dorothy said "It is in creating that knowledge is embedded."  I believe this to be a really important thought as too many times content is just a tick that it is covered without it truly being embedded.

I had never realised that when using Hapara I could drag the learners tiles to different places and this makes them easier to monitor.  In the past I have used groupings but I haven't done this recently and will get back to using it where appropriate.

You Tube

Learners should not have Youtube channels.  Things they want to share should be created through their Google Drive.  If the learners have Media folders in Hapara they can save videos etc there.  Mine don't at present and I will have to get admin to make these or otherwise use another folder they already have called 'Learning Stuff'.

It is great that I could change the setting properly on my Youtube account and now my content is safer. It is recommended that we add Google Certified Education to our playlists and I will do this later.

(Right about now I feel I should be making a Google Keep list of all the things I should be doing as follow up.)

Play lists look very cool.  You can make different playlists for different topics.  You can share playlists onto a blog, site, doc, slides etc so the pupils have the ability to watch multiple things about a topic.  You can collaborate on playlists with staff - that way you can all add interesting ideas about a topic you are working on.  You can save other people's playlists (but you can't add or remove items if it is not your own).  This is something that I need to start using more to make learning more rewindable.

Media deep dive with Dorothy

media or multimedia creates emotional connections and should be multi sensory.  It sould include sight sound and motion (sisomo).  We are all creators and consumers of multimedia.

When making videos it's not about how much it costs it's about what you do with it -  having a steady camera will improve quality of video so much (get a tripod). Video taken on a phone should be landscape. It is essential to be careful about lighting so you can actually see the subject of the video.  It can also be important to do voice overs if the sound quality is not good.

Green Screen is the name for chroma key and can be green or blue.  When using a green screen you will need to use editing software such as remove.bg, keynote, use instant alpha?  If going to the expense of getting a green screen then also cover the flooring as many kids will do things on the floor in their presentations and it is hard to remove the carpet from the background.

I like the idea about creating a pod cast and will look through other classes and schools to see what they are doing.  I may look at this being a task for a group in class later this year.

Google Drawings

Yay, a reminder about how to use the masking tool in Google Drawings.  Last week I had to put circles around all the images I wanted to cut out.  If I had used the Mask tool it would have been so much easier! 

After years of changing the background colour I have now found out that when you download as .png it will remove tiled background - this will be a time saver.

I must get my class to use the explore tool more as everything is under creative commons.  It is a really good tool as you don't have to go onto another tab

Google Slides 

Some hints for using slides:  Before beginning to make a slide for a presentation you need to ask yourself, "What is story you are going to tell? what is message?" Refine it down so it is specific then plan your slide show.  make your content before worrying about colour, start from blank slide, pictures are worth 1000 words, when presenting don't just read the slide, use consistent formatting, use sisomo, a big font is essential if it is for presenting to a large group, don't use too many words per slide.

You can add extra functionality to Slides and Docs by using add ons, this can be found in toolbar at the top of the document.

Some add ons that were show: Icons -  for slides can customise items free, the noun project - similar functionality but there is a cost associated.  With both these add ons you can change colour on both using colour picker.  The 'maths type' add on gives you all of the maths symbols in one place rather than having to insert special character.   Drawp has some good graphic organisers.  The add on's have icons under them that show what they documents they are for.  Scratch blocks generator is a good add on for students to practice writing code.  The blocks come up looking like Scratch blocks but cannot be transferred across to Scratch.

If you are wanting to use an add on with students they will need to have the add on.  These can be pushed out by the admin which saves the risk of students getting too many/inappropriate for purpose add ons.  Add on's don't travel across google slides to google docs so you will need to add them to each application.

The last teaching part of the day gave me some good tips

1. check the time zones on blogs

2. add me as an admin to my professional blog so I will not loose it if I change school. 

(more to add to my Google Keep)

install disabled by admin

For the create section I chose to use the add on drawp.  Unfortunately when I began this I was locked out of getting add-on's (Thank's Kelsey for remedying this). So my create was made by copying Kerry's slide of the organiser.  

Calendar, Keep, Mail, Meet and More...

If it's worth teaching it's worth capturing - make learning rewindable.  

This was a key take away for me in relation to the Manaiakalani pedagogy.  When we were learning about RATE I could see the links to the SAMR model.  I know I need to work on the Turbocharging part of this by bringing in more element of the Digital Technologies Curriculum.  One question I did have is where can I get ideas for coding with kids - coding club?  I have a child in my class who is very interested in coding and I would love to help him build on his interest.

Google Meet

It was great to get a refresher on Google Meet.  While I felt confident with working in meet there was new learning for me here too.  I learnt about blurring the background (yes I understand it isn't recommended due to the drain on bandwidth).  I still have more learning to do around blocking people and using the whiteboard function.  I will experiment with this in time to come.

I really like the idea of using the Meet Attendance extension as this would give a record of who was involved in the Meet, and I like that only the Meet organiser needs to have it.  I had never realised that there was one sharing screen that was better for when you want to share sound so will use this in future when sharing videos etc.

Google Keep

Google Keep was relatively new to me.  I tended to use Sticky Notes in the past but Keep has so much more functionality.  You can colour code nots, share them, add check boxes, set times, set reminders, draw on them, change the background, upload screen shots, copy them to Docs.  By using the extension you can automatically save sites then add notes to them or add it to a Doc that you have open.

Grab image text - looks really good to use.  You put a photo in Keep and then click grab image text - this will extrapolate all the text for you and turn it to editable text.  The only downside to it is that it doesn't keep the original formatting

Voice memo - only available on phone

Google Keep can be shared so multiple people can have access to it and if it involves tasks they can be checked of by whoever completes it.  If you share to group, but don't want them to check off items, then get them to make a copy so you're not all ticking off the same sheet.

Google Keep can be good for insert generic comments when marking.  Simply save a comment in your keep and add it to the relevant Doc you are marking

You can also add locations, time and date to get reminders for.  This could be great for both professional and personal organisation.

Google Mail

My main learnings were you can put filters on emails so they go straight to a selected folder.  I had never known about the confidential mode which means a Doc you have shared can't be edited, printed or forwarded - this is really good for dealing with sensitive situations.  I hadn't realised you could have multiple signatures to emails but I will explore this as I am still not sure how to change between the different signatures you have set up.  I do use smart compose on my emails and it does make things more efficient

In the past I have been told how to schedule emails.  To do this you use arrow next to the send button to schedule when you want it to go.  This would stop colleagues from asking why I was sending emails late at night!

Google Calendar

I already felt confident in using Calendar as it is something my school does.  Over the last six months I have been better at adding things to my Calendar and it means I no longer have to have a diary.  I like the functionality of using Calendar to set up a Meet.

Tabs

As a person who has multiple tabs open all the time I can see the need for using One Tab.  One tab combines all tabs into one location eg having all the kids blogs into one tab - I could also name have multiple One Tabs open at once, so I could have all kids versions of a doc open in one tab and all versions of another doc in another tab etc.  This would save having to open on the kids Docs one at a time on Hapara when marking.

Toby mini is similar to one tab.  I think I will get confident with One Tab first before exploring other similar extensions.

Tab snooze will close a tab and bring it back at a set time.  You can check to see what is open but snoozed and when it is due to open again.  This is great if you have home based tabs that you don't want open at school.

The short cut to close tabs to the right looks good, for someone like me though it would take a little bit of learning as I always confuse my left and right.  I blame this on being left handed!  I could share this with my learners so they can shut unnecessary tabs to the right quickly.

Group tabs may have similar functionality to One Tab and Toby Mini does not save the groups when you close the browser.  It would be good to use if you have multiple tabs needed for one lesson.  You can colour code them depending on the group they are in.

You can put your bookmarks into folders to make easier to find and then can have the folders on the tool bar rather than in big list in bookmarks manager. A good idea is to get students to tidy their bookmarks at the start of the year.  If you have sync turned on for bookmarks sync they will sync across devices.  This was a good reminder for me to tidy my bookmarks and I will spend time with my class ensuring they tidy their's.

The last part of the day was creating a meeting with someone, recording it and then sharing it by using the embed code.  Here is the video of meeting with Raewyn.  It's not great but it fulfils the purpose of the activity.  

I found to do this I had to make sure I opened it in a new window so I got the embed option.

Well that it for this week.  More learning to come next week.

Who Say's You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

 I began the day with some trepidation - not sure if I would find this course too hard or too easy. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  While I did know a lot of the content there are always new tips and tricks that you can pick up to make your life easier.

I already had quite a good understanding of the Manaiakalani Story as my school has been involved in the Outreach Programme for a number of years.  I really like how the use of technology is removing barriers to learning and is making sure that everyone has an 'even playing field' when it comes to accessing learning.

I have picked up a number of tips and tricks today that I will use in my future teaching and with my class.  I has never seen the use of Table Of Contents in Google Docs and I can see many uses for this.  I like the way that the table of contents links back to the headings that were used.

It was also great to get a refresher on using different types of headings and titles in Google Docs.  I usually just changed the size of the headings manually rather than using the shortcut in the tool bar.  This will save me so much time in future!  Also the not so gentle reminder to not underline title - as kids think it is a link, was great.

One of my key learnings from today was that you can change the accent for voice typing.  I have used voice typing a lot with different classes but had never known about changing the accent.  I was so impressed with it that I made my 'Create' poster about voice typing. 

Google Docs is something that in the past I have used for typing - preferring things like Google Drawing, Piktochart, Venngage etc to make presentations on.  It was a fantastic reminder about the adaptability of this tool and the way it can be used in different ways.

There is so much valuable learning from a day like today.  Whether it be thinking through how you can use Google Groups in your personal life or ways to streamline your professional life.  I love getting different short cuts to use so things like shift+z to add shortcuts of files to other folders are brilliant.  Another shortcut I'll use is command shift < or > to change font size.

It was interesting that we were asked to put initials at the start of document names - I have got into the habit of sharing Docs through Hāpara and appending the students name to them.  This way I can ensure the docs are in the correct folder and are named correctly.

Over all I have taken a lot from today and am really looking forward to continuing my learning next week.