Session 9 - Digital Fluency Intensive "Revision"

 Oh my, what an experience sitting the Google exam was this morning!!  It was not the content that seemed to be the issue, which was pleasing to note, but rather the admin at the start and the end of the exam that caused me a headache.  Firstly I had trouble getting my camera and microphone to work and then at the end when I submitted the exam I was not able to reload the page to get to the survey they wanted us to complete at the end.  Hopefully my exam results are saved in there somewhere?

I did not find the actual tasks in the exam too bad.  All of the scenarios really just required following my nose to do what they were asking me to do.  The only thing I was unsure of was the questions around Youtube as I did this in my own account, the other people around me who signed in under Proctor U got kicked out and were unable to complete that part of the exam.

Looking back over the past nine weeks I have learned so much and now feel much more confident in using Google both professionally and personally.  

One of my regrets while completing the course is that I am no longer working with a class all of the time.  In fact none of the time really as I spend my time with individual students or small groups of children.  The ideas and the activities shared made me want to have a class again so that I could try out some of them.  This does motivate me to think outside of the box to how I can best use the new skills I have acquired on a whole school level or with our school community.

One idea I have had is to start a site which has solely activities and information around decodeable texts which can be shared with all of our teachers to use with groups of learners.  I am also thinking of having links on my site especially for the children that I am working with to work through when I can't be with them during the school day.  My aim would be to not only help the learners but to lessen the workload for the teachers in my school.

I am proud of the new learning that I have acquired and that I did not find the content in the exam too challenging.  This gives me confidence that I will be able to give other things a go in the future and understand what  am doing.  This confidence is something that I can take forward with me into the future along with making sure that I am making use of my skill as much as possible.  If we do happen to have to learn online again I will feel much better prepared to teach the children that I work with on an online environment.

Session 8 - Digital Fluency Intensive "Computational Thinking"

 As with other weeks, week 8 was full of information and I have come away from the day feeling slightly overwhelmed.  This is not helped by the ever-looming Google Educator's exam that we are sitting next week.  I have set aside some time in my calendar this coming week to go over the information we have learned and to run through some of the practice exercises to make sure that I am as ready as I can be.

I found Dorothy's talk in 'Connecting with Manaiakalani" very thought provoking this week.  As I work in a lower decile school I could definitely relate what she was talking about to many of the children and families that I work with on a daily basis.  Working in learning support it is becoming more and more apparent that children are not entering school with the skills that we assume they will have or that children had in the past.  The statistic that children from lower economic backgrounds are hearing fewer words than other children definitely confirms what we are seeing at our school.  I have been looking at oral language programmes to use with some of our children.  I have decided on using the CAOS programme and a team of our teachers are going to be teaming up with an SLT and special needs advisors from the MoE to look at making oral language and social skills the main teaching programme for some of our children.  Being able to integrate technology to this programme will be a key way that we can get engagement from these children.  

Looking at the new technologies curriculum was reassuring for me.  When I looked through at the website Computer Science without a computer it showed me what this was all about without having to worry about the technical jargon.  Some of it is skills that teachers would have been teaching children anyway without technology, eg. coordinates and plotting on graphs,  so is not entirely new. It was good to have the time to go through and have a look at what children have to learn and achieve at each level and it was clear how each level build on the one before it.

The ethics and moral questions that occur with the advancement of technology is something that I often try not to think about.  For me, it is a scary thing to think that one day computers could take the place of people in many areas.  The Moral Machine activity was interesting and I did struggle to answer some of the questions.  My results showed that I tended to favour fat people......... maybe because I can empathise!!!

I have had experience with simple coding before at school.  I have run a coding club with groups of children before but found that very quickly the children's ability was far superior to mine and meant that I had to leave them to it.  At school, Minecraft and coding with Beebots and Spheros are really popular and we are lucky to have access to the equipment to enable the children to do this.  

I spent my create time today completing a simple Scratch conversation between two characters.  It is very simple and feel I need more time to have an explore of exactly what is available in the programme.  As with anything if I am not using it regularly I lose my knowledge and skill quickly so will have to ensure that I come up with ways that I can include coding into the work that I do with the children in my groups.

Session Seven - Digital Fluency Intensive "Devices"

 Today was a rather frustrating day due to having many technical difficulties during the day.  It started with being kicked out of all of the Meets which meant that I did not get to hear all of the morning's information.  As we were working on Chromebooks and iPad I also had to familiarise myself with how they worked and what the passwords were for each device.  However, I managed to get to the end of the day and I am still standing!!  It was a very busy day where I did learn many new things.

We started the day looking at the meaning of 'Cybersmart' and how Manaiakalani has incorporated this theme across all of the work that they are doing with children around New Zealand.  It is so important for us to be teaching children about their digital footprints and to really think about what information is appropriate for them to share.  For most teachers, this will also be a new concept as we did not have these worries when we were children or teenagers and it is important to keep this at the forefront of everyone's minds.  Having a clear plan around cyber safety is really important to share with parents as, like teachers, they will not have been exposed to being online as kids.  This is something that scares a lot of people and can make a parent anxious about their child publishing online.  Getting the children to realise that every time that they present something online it is personal and to empower parents and families by making them feel included were key messages I took from Fiona's presentation.

Today I spent some time having a play with Explain Everything and Screencastify.  I have had a try with both of these tools in the past when I was a classroom teacher.  I used Explain Everything a lot for my children to explain how they could solve particular maths equations to prove they were using a particular strategy.  I would get them to write the equation and their strategy on the whiteboard as well as recording them explaining what they have completed.  

I did get some further ideas by looking at some of the shared children's blogs that we were able to access.  This has given me some ideas of things that I can do with my literacy learners and also when I am releasing other teachers.  With my junior learners, I will be able to use Explain Everything to either explain something to them or I could get them to show me that they have attained the knowledge and/or skills that we have been working on.

I find Screencastify a bit more tricky in that it seems that you have to be ready to record all in one go.  This can get difficult if you are a perfectionist, like me, as it means that I spend a lot of time ensuring that I get the perfect take.  I do like being able to use tools such as the pointer and the pencil though.

One thing I have been struggling with during the DFI sessions is that it takes me quite a while to see what the purpose is of some of the things that we are being shown.  As I don't have a class of students and a class website that I can directly relate back to I sometimes feel that I am missing out.  This is motivating me to get a learning site up and running for my special needs learners.  I also know that if I am not using the information that I have learned about then I will not know how to do it in the future.

         

Session Six - Digital Fluency Intensive "Enabling Access - Sites"

 Another busy session today.  I am definitely ready for the breaks when they come around as it gives me a good chance to stretch.  I can see how you could easily become so engrossed in what you are doing that you could forget to take breaks and this would not be healthy.  If I put myself into the shoes of a child that is having to do their learning remotely I can see positives and negatives to learning online.  For me, the ability to work in a totally quiet space helps but on the other hand when I need to ask a question or if I miss an important piece of information it is a much more drawn-out process than just asking a question of the teacher or quickly checking with the person who is working next to you.  It also doesn't seem to matter where you are the opportunities for distractions are great!!

Today I worked with Liz on a site related to our whole school learning celebration based on our learning theme for 2020 which has been growing.  Due to COVID Christchurch is unable to have the annual A&P show that usually occurs during Show week so Rāwhiti School is going to have its own show instead.  The site we worked on will be for whanau to have a look at what competition and/or tasks they could complete as a family at home prior to the day and then also include entry forms for what they are wanting to enter into.  As the time draws closer, we will be able to include information about what can be expected on the day to build some enthusiasm.

This has been my first time being part of creating a Google Site as I do not have a class that I am working with.  It has been a steep learning curve but I can see areas where I could set up other sites to assist some of my learners across the school to accelerate some of their learning.  I have been working a lot around teaching using decodable texts with groups of children and I have been spreading the message amongst the staff about the benefits of teaching struggling readers using this method. I am thinking that I could set up a Decodeable reading site that will be accessible to all of our teachers and learners.  This way it will save teachers time as the same information will not need to be made a number of times.  This could also be handy as our collection of hard copy texts is minimal so could look at sourcing some of the free online readers for the children to use and link these to the site.  Within this work, I have been looking at the importance of phonological awareness when teaching the kids reading and this could also be a link on a site for children to go to practice rhyming, sounding out words, videos of nursery rhymes, etc.  This will hopefully help to cut down the workload of others and will mean that the children that require this assistance will be getting a consistent message from anywhere within the school.

Even though I do not have a class site it has been good for me to look at what goes into creating and maintaining a site.  Over lockdown, I was amazed at what our teachers produced for our kids but all their talk about the sites seemed like a foreign language to me.  Now I can understand what they are talking about and feel more knowledgable and able to offer my thoughts and suggestions when it is required for some special needs children.

I still have a lot to learn but feel that I will gain a lot more knowledge by working on sites often.  It is nice to know that many of the staff that I work with are very skilled and familiar with having their own sites so there will be a lot of others that I can ask for assistance if I get stuck.  Liz and I are sharing our A&P show site at a staff meeting on Tuesday so it will be interesting to get feedback and some suggestions.  The fact that the site has a real purpose will ensure that I continue working away on it and therefore upskilling myself further.

Session Five - Digital Fluency Intensive "Collaborate - Sites"

Today was a day of new learning for me.  Up until now, I have been somewhat familiar with what we have been learning about as I have been using them professionally to some extent.  I have not made a Google site before today as I do not have a class that needs to access their learning through one and anything that I have wanted to share with children has been uploaded to other class sites which have been done for me.  I do feel quite overwhelmed today and will need to spend time this week revisiting Sites and having another go.

Listening to Dorothy talking about making learning visible I found the concept of "Cultural Capital" interesting.  Now that we can share learning with our children and their whanau through the use of the Internet so many more children will be given the chance to succeed.  Also making what the teacher expects visible made me think back to when I was a student particularly at high school.  I can remember finding it difficult to know what the teacher wanted us to do unless it was clearly spelled out.  In fact, when I was at Teacher's College I can remember that we were given rubrics that told you what you needed to do to get a 'b grade', 'a grade' etc.  This took all of the guesswork out of completing assignments and made getting acceptable grades much easier for me.

I will need to have a think about how best to build a special needs website and what the purpose of it will be.  Our school website has a lot of information on it around the systems we use for special needs and information for our parent community.  I would prefer to make a site that the children could use and am thinking that I may make a site around reading using decodable texts and phonological awareness for some of the children who struggle with literacy.  This site could be available to the children who are in the reading groups that I take but also made available for other learners within the school that may need further practice and resources.

The learning celebration in term 4 is going to involve the whole school and their whanau and needs a site so may work on this.  As the annual Canterbury A & P show is canceled for this year we are going to hold our own version of this (name to be decided!).  This links really well into our overall theme of growing that the children have been learning about this year.  There will be opportunities for families to create, grow, bake, make, and enter their hard work into a variety of categories for judging.  Having a site that will have the enrolment forms, guidelines, and information about the day itself would be a useful tool as families will be able to find out all that they need in one space.  As this is the whole school I won't need to be creating the website on my own I can enlist the help of more experienced users to work with me and learn further from their knowledge.

Last Tuesday our staff met with Mark and Sharon from Manaiakalani and spent time looking through some of the learning sites that some of our staff have created.  I was blown away by all of the amazing stuff that was on many of them.  The fact that the children can interact with the site and the opportunities for rewindable learning I found very valuable.  I know that if I get stuck creating a site that many experienced colleagues can give me a hand.

Session Four - Digital Fluency Intensive "Dealing With Data"

Whew!!  I found this week very full-on.  I am definitely not a numbers person so working with data in spreadsheets is not something that comes naturally to me.  I did manage to make it to the end with everything (I think) completed and added to this blog post.

I really enjoy listening to Dorothy speak about the Manaiakalani as I always learn something new and get my assumptions tested.  I did not know that blogging and sharing learning was used as a vehicle to teach children about cybersafety.  You do not have to be working in a school long before you are aware of how much time children are spending on devices, often unsupervised, and how vulnerable they could be without the correct information and teaching.  The expectation of children continually blogging what they have been learning means that the safety messages are being reinforced constantly rather than just in one-off sessions.  

Finding out about all that was produced in 2005 was very interesting and it feels hard to believe that we have only been able to dive into a deep rabbit hole of cat videos on Youtube for fifteen years.  It is amazing how quickly we have accepted Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc into our lives and now can't imagine not being able to share or view what is going on in our own and others worlds.  I do not tend to share much myself on these platforms but am an avid viewer of other peoples lives from afar.

Learning about how to create forms was a tool that I found really useful today.  I am often the person who is tasked with coordinating meetings among many staff, families, or professionals.  Usually, I have been sending multiple emails or making many phone calls trying to find a time that suits all parties.  I realised that I could create one form that gets emailed out and that all the information I need can come back to me through this.  The form that is on this blog post is one solution to this problem.  This could be sent out when a child's I.E.P. is due to be updated to assist me in finding a suitable time.  By doing it this way it gives me time to get all of the information in and to plan my time to ensure that I don't double book myself also as I often have many special needs meetings to attend.

While I have used Spreadsheets often when looking at children's data and progress it was good to have time to try things again and refamiliarise with getting averages.  I picked up some tips that I did not already know, such as how you can continue on a repeating pattern and quickly get days of the week or months of the year.  Being able to filter our data will save me a lot of time.  In the past, I have had to go in and change the background colour of our target learners.  I no longer need to do that as I now know how to use conditional formatting to get all of the children below or above a certain level to automatically be colour coded.  

I had time to have a quick look at some of the add ons that go alongside Sheets and I would like to spend more time having a look in the Flippity link that was suggested.  It appears that you can use Sheets for a lot more than I am currently using it for so this will be something for me to explore in the near future.

I appreciated the information about what to expect in the exam around Sheets.  I was able to complete the tasks asked of me which gave me some small shred of confidence about what it will be like.  I will have another go during the week with the other staff members at my school who are also doing DFI as we have set up a regular meeting time each week to go over what we have learned.  This time is proving valuable as the other staff members share some of the tips they have learned while in their small groups which I was not present at and we can help each other with any problems we have encountered since the last Friday intensive.

Session Three - Digital Fluency Intensive "Media"

Today was a very 'full-on' session where I learned many things that I had not used or learned about previously. Many of the skills that I learned about today I will need to go back to over the week and have a play around with them to ensure that I fully grasp what they are capable of and how I can use them.  Some of what was shared today I am not sure if I will use in my current role as SENCO.

I enjoyed listening to Dorothy talking about 'Create' today and how through the learners creating something it gives their learning purpose.  The quote that Dorothy mentioned from John Dewey resonated with me "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking: learning naturally results." John Dewey.  This made me think of a lesson that I took last week while I was doing come CRT release and I realise now that I needed to give the children more time to create on their own to make it more purposeful for them.  I may have known what the purpose of the lesson was but it did not seem to mean much to the learners that I had in front of me.  I will now go back to my planning for these sessions to ensure that the children are given many more chances to create to ensure that their learning means more to them and this will also engage them better.   The survey of all the different ways that we can get learners to create in different subject areas and using different mediums will be handy to refer back to in the future as creating does not just mean working with digital technologies.

I enjoyed learning more about Google Slides today as this is a tool that I think will help me both professionally and with the learners.  Every second Wednesday afternoon at school I try to run a drop-in session for the teachers around an aspect of special needs.  I usually try and have slides to accompany what I am going to be talking about.  Sometimes this has gone well other times not so much!!  Having more knowledge around what is effective in setting out my slides is useful knowledge for me that I can take away to ensure I use a viewer-friendly format in any future slides I create.

With the learners that I work with, they often need repetition of the concepts that we are learning about, and also due to slow processing speeds having the learning rewindable is a bonus as well.  Today I worked on making some slides for some of the children that I work with for literacy.  Each session that they are with me we look at some phonological awareness activities.  Today I put some of the activities that we do together onto slides for the children to go back to and practice their skills.  I am sure that they will also find using a device much more engaging than working with me.  I learned how to use Slides to create a game/quiz where the learners know if they have made a correct or incorrect selection.  I also found out how to insert a recording of my voice into the slides so that the children can hear the rhyming words and syllables etc.  Inserting my voice is something that I had not been able to figure out before in slides but was a feature that I used to use a lot when making Powerpoints so am glad I am now able to insert this to assist my learners.

Personally, I am not sure how much of what I learned about today I will use.  Unfortunately, my settings for Youtube did not allow me to create Playlists so will need to talk to our school administrator about that.  Playlists may be something that I would use personally but am not sure that I would use Youtube enough  for this to be needed.  I can definitely see how I could use this with learners however so need to get my settings sorted once I get back to school next week.