Beyond a Blackboard

I have written before about my admiration for the teachers who participate in Manaiakalani Google Class on Air.  At the beginning of the year I found it intimidating simply to publish my lessons online, so it seems incredibly brave to film a live lesson! However, this is what we have been planning in todays PLG (although ours won't be published on the Class OnAir site).                 For my Class OnAir style lesson, I have decided to try a teaching strategy that I have been planning for some time. I have noticed that a few of my learners still need support in developing detailed ideas in writing and that working collaboratively has provided some support. I have also been looking at bringing gaming into my lessons as this is something that my learners are interested in. So, I introduced the idea of playing Dungeons and Dragons with them. Unfortunately we experienced several technical issues when filming this video, so I have incl...

Are you teaching to accommodate you students learning preferences or simply teaching with your learning style in mind? This was a point of discussion in todays Manaiakalani digital immersion PLD which focussed on the notion that visible teaching and learning enables accelerated shift. We looked at this in the context of creating visible learning through our class sites, which must be both behaviourally engaging or interesting, and cognitively engaging which could be achieved through multi-modal activities. I believe that while my learners have learning preferences, they learn best when offered the opportunity to access information in a number of modes. While I have been successful at introducing topics in multiple modes and using a variety of multi-modal create activities, much of my teaching in reading has focussed on my learners first responding to a text orally and in written form.  However, our class site and 1:1 classroom environment allow me to go further than this an...

This afternoon I presented my first ever toolkit, alongside fellow MDTA Clarelle Davis This had been something I was a little nervous about, despite being so used to speaking in front of my class, I still find the prospect of speaking at assembly and in front of a group of adults a bit daunting!                However, as we had a small audience, I quickly got over my nerves and became quite comfortable discussing sketchnoting with our guests, as this was the topic of the toolkit. I think it definitely helped that we had planned out the toolkit in advance, and followed the structure of our slideshow throughout. My Sketchnote In the end we sat with the other teachers and we all created a Sketchnote regarding something we had taught that week. This provided us with a wonderful opportunity to connect with other educators and we discussed how sketchnoting could be used in different contexts and year levels. I now feel I have the confiden...

If you asked me during my high school ICT classes if I saw myself coding in the future, I would have laughed.  I felt overwhelmed and slightly uninspired when I was given the task to write a few commands in Javascript. However, when I encountered the Hour of Code last summer, I discovered coding in a new light and completed the 20 hour Accelerated Intro to CS course  out of interest! I also realised that this would be valuable knowledge to possess as a teacher, as coding is a skill that could benefit my learners in the future. In fact, thanks to their Computer Technology classes and previous teachers, many of my students are already competent coders. A proud moment for me this year was taking them to OMG Tech , and watching them create their own games through scratch, with little support from the facilitators. As we discussed future focussed learning in our PLG today, I was reminded of the importance of this skill and will definitely consider using the code.org and o...

Ignite presentations are efficient and ensure that the speaker uses their allocated five minutes wisely (and do not run over time). I had first experienced ignite talks at the Manaiakalani Hui, where teachers presented about their inquiries and found the concept impressive but daunting. The concept is simple, you have 20 slides which run for 15 seconds each,  adding up to a five minute presentation. From Try it Tuesdays! Blog In our PLG, we were given the task of creating an ignite talk on a topic that we pulled out of a hat. In my case, I was given the reading "Policies of Distraction" by John Hattie.  We were given three hours to learn about our topic and create our slides. These presentations were created through Keynote , which meant that we would be able to animate and time or slides simply. My slides became simpler as time went on! My topic was concerned with the policies that we create and follow, which do not accelerate learners. Hattie noted things li...

After discussing the use of Garageband a few years ago, I have found a new appreciation for Apple software. This weeks PLG on Keynote only affirmed this feeling, as I discovered how effective it can be, despite being a real fan of Google slides. Keynote Keynote contains more advanced features than I had experienced with Google Slides. It is possible to animate different elements of a slide (or the entirety of the slide if you were extra keen) and alter your images. Not only would these features be useful when creating interesting presentations, but they could be used to insert images into a movie or to create Stop Motion. As you can also edit the settings of the slideshow - e.g. to loop it or to vary the length of the slides, it is a great tool to use when presenting Ignite talks.  It can also run straight off your device, which could save you a lot of stress if you were presenting with a dodgy internet connection! I decided to manipulate my presentations to creat...

As I have been focussing on movie making for the last few weeks (and struggling) I have had to become quite resourceful in fixing some of the problems that we have encountered. I have discovered a few tricks that can save you in an emergency! Equipment A decent camera and tripod are essential for movie making, and having a microphone doesn't hurt either. As the teachers at my school shared one camera, I decided to use my one from home but I also experimented with my phone camera which I discovered could capture great video and audio. Shooting some test footage was really helpful as I uploaded it to iMovie to check the quality. I didn't quite have the budget to afford a proper tripod, but found that a phone tripod fit both my phone and camera and worked effectively. I purchased both a table top and full length phone tripod which was really helpful and kept my footage steady. I purchased these on sale at Typo Angles It was really easy to focus on the action live rath...