Delving into the Depths of the Pit

I've spent the last two days in the depths of the learning pit... being the learner.

CORE Education have collaborated with Gamefroot, to deliver a workshop designed to get teachers taking Gaming into the classroom.
We collaborated to thrash around a wealth of ideas around ways in which coding could be accessible to the various curriculum levels.
PDF's of code blocks could be using in conjunction with developing oral language in the junior school. The positional language transfers between math and the fundamentals of oral language.
If our akonga were beginning to use this language, in conjunction with coding bricks, in the classroom, at such a young age, they would be able to apply it onscreen later on. The beginnings on programmers in the making!

Over the first two days, I developed my first game from the ground up. I admit, it is not the game to end all games, however there is a huge amount of learning, mistake making and frustration that went into it. I am pleased to say that both the laptop and all concerned survived the ordeal!

Here is the game I created:



On the last day, I had the privilege of taking 3 akonga with me, to the workshop. They had a play with the games that we teachers created, exploring what they liked and what they would change about them.
They then had the opportunity to learn to create their own game FROM SCRATCH!, exploring their errors and fixing them as they went.

We've been learning to:

• collaborate...
• use digital co-ordinates 
• use x and y axis

"It could help you with your future jobs that will need computer programming."
"We've been learning something new and how to be the teacher to our friends."

Overall, I am super excited to get kids gaming in the classroom.

The plan for 2017 is:

• to begin a coding club.
• dust the mothballs off the robotics and get them back in use, within the classrooms, as opposed to separate use for just a few select students.
• Share innovative ways for getting the coding basics into the classroom, such as PDF's of code blocks, that can be used from the juniors up, to develop visual awareness as well as oral language and coding vocabulary.

Overall it's all very exciting!

Toolkits - Sharpening the Pencil

Often a feeling of disillusionment and frustration can prevail as you are closer to the lead end of the pencil.

Whether it be a feeling of disempowerment... ideas/input ignored or dismissed. A feeling as though you are being sent upriver with a couple of spoons acting as paddles... and that maybe that message that was voiced loud and clear a while back, has faded into the ether and left you you wondering whether you're out on your own...

The cure, if you find yourself wallowing in the depths of this drudgery... The Toolkit.

Many are nervous about putting their hand up to run/host/lead a toolkit. Let's be honest - usually it involves a shoulder tap! I was more than happy to host one, however I had no idea what, of my practice, would be of value to others. (I'm certainly not feeling as though my practice is being celebrated in house at present.

The Toolkit.

Attendees fall into a few loose categories.

Those nearer the sharp end:

Confident in trying new things. Keen to touch base on what others are doing, discussion around practice and picking the brains of others in order to pick up new ideas to incorporate in their own practice. 

Paddlers:

Keen to put their bare feet in the water for a taster, with the support and scaffolding of others, they take a look while developing the confidence to think about trying.

Alongside, there are those who go to be seen to be "on board". Hopefully these transform into paddlers... The hope is that these will gain some confidence in having a crack a t something new.

There are also the notably absent. Those who you never see.

Today's Toolkit:

Teacher Dashboard and New Analytics in Highlights

Come along to find out how to use Teacher Dashboard more effectively and even see how much collaboration each of your students is doing. Some really cool new features have been added to Teacher Dashboard.

I covered the transformation of the way I have used Hapara over the course of the last 2 years, from Interact... The Dashboard... and more recently the Activity Viewer.

I had taken a few screenshots throughout the day, as well as some "snaps" so that I could explain what it looks like in action. (After school, no activity shows so it is virtually impossible to describe it to anyone.) We discussed when we might use it, not only for watching 'big brother' style, but also for spotting positives, like searches being made or students utilising sites, such as thesaurus.com, to support their writing.

A great question posed was "What are my perceived limitations?" - In truth, I don't feel I have been using it long enough to have come up with any yet. AN interesting discussion evolved around how it would be good to be able to get an individual student report, along the same lines, showing which sites they visited etc, over a period of time.

The beauty of these toolkits is the tangents. Any one who knows me, knows I tend towards going off on tangents as one thought or idea spurs another and another. I think those at the sharper end possibly tend towards these, as they often question both their own practice and that of others, as they seek and thirst for more.

Our tangents covered assessment practice at a classroom level. What do we use in place of pretests for strands etc? - We have trialled Kahoot, utilising the ability to save the results to your Drive, recording the assessment results. I talked about how easy this is. Taking the place of the post test, The create aspect demonstrates the students ability to share their understanding of the concept.

I shared our IKAN DLO. We discussed Adding it to our developing Cluster Shared Folder, in the form of a shared database, which can be collaboratively added to to share the load for all.

IKAN DLO

All in all... After a "Blah day", I walked away from the toolkit feeling more positive again, reaffirmed in where I'm at with my current practice and keen to continue the collaboration within our cluster.

The Toolkit. The most accessible yet under-utilised resource going!

PLG Meeting Term 2

I love these sessions! They serve as a reboot of the system.

Sometimes it feels as though you are constantly hitting a brick wall within your own surroundings. These PLG sessions are a chance for all of The Sharp Ones in our Learning Cluster to get together. We talk about what is happening in our schools. What's working... What's not... What we'd like to know more about... It's essentially a think tank in our own wider community.

Walking out of these sessions, I always feel reinvigorated with ideas and things I want to try and push in our environments. It gets the juices flowing again and I'm excited about what I'm doing even more.

The Invisible Classroom Book was discussed and is now top of my holiday reading list!

• sight sound motion -videos interactive
• 
  
• Linked Ed (West Rolleston) - Paul Gibson - Ex Fendalton Principal
• Be Funky tool
• Voki - For teacher avatars on our site.
• Yaldhurst Rimu Unit - optimising spaces.
• Pat Sneddon uLearn - transformational journey improve student achievement
• Thingaverse… 3D printer
• 
  

Ideas?:

• Writing/Mark segment… what if the class used what they had learned in the segment with Mark, to develop some writing around that in the other half with Cara and I. It could be as simple as blogging about it for some things; writing based on it; etc… It exposes Cara and I to the tools and learning that has taken place, whereas at the moment we aren’t aware of what the kids are doing.
• • Mindmup to summarise Reading activity.
  • Using the Go Pro
  • https://www.befunky.com/create/designer/
  • Create a Google Doc of links for Maths number knowledge to share among cluster. (collaborative Doc)
  • Assessment Folder on Drive - Will archiving effect this? Best way to share data? Idea of having individual IKAN sheet showing progress, however is this manageable? Is there a way to have this transposed from a main sheet onto the students?
  
  
  Building Blogs for under 13 years
  
  PLG Jun T2 Slides

It's about time we burst the bubble

On the Eve of Term three getting underway, I can't help but think about bursting the bubble. We all know what it's like to be in a bubble. Sometimes the bubble is our classroom... our syndicate... or even our school. In order to improve our practice, we really need to step out of our comfort zone, just as we ask our learners to.

This term a co-teacher & I are sharing the load a little, by collaborating in literacy. We will combine our two literacy classes, then each take either reading or writing for the week. We intend to swap each week so that we are both teaching each curriculum area, however we will focus on teaching one area to the equivalent of two classes.

We came to this idea after discussing our collaborative four. We are questioning whether dividing the learners into four sub-classes and then taking them away to teach them is the best collaborative practice we can come up with. So for this term, we are going back into two's for literacy (as we did last year for all learning). The benefits are that the learners have more students to collaborate with... Learners can be more specifically catered for by merging groups and pulling out sub-groups as needed. 

This term, I am also going to Share a bit more, of what we are doing, with the outside world.

  Putting it out there to our Learning Community

Sometimes a bubble needs to be burst by using sharp objects from the inside!

Befunky.com IS funky!

Here's a new tool for the toolbox!

Be Funky

It only took about 5-10 minutes to create this, from the free templates available.

I see the possibilities for students using this in their learning:

- Step by Step processes

- posters

-infographics

The students are already beginning to use the ability to embellish photo's for their reading activities.

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog