On Friday the 21st of August Tamaki Primary School had a Teachers only day. As part of the Teachers only day all of the Tamaki Primary teachers attended the Annual Manaiakalani Hui which was held at the Pamnure Yacht clubs. It was a great atmosphere to be surrounded by our neighbouring schools whom are also part of the Manaiakalani cluster.
The session began with students from various schools sharing their learning and how they chose to digitally present their learning in various ways. I found this very beneficial.Being a new digital immersion teacher and a beginning teacher it was great to see the different app's that the children used to present their information and learning to the world.
Secondly, we had presentations from different Innovative teachers from a range of schools in the cluster. These are teachers that focus on an Inquiry topic in regards to learning in a digital environment.
Some of the aspects of the Hui that caught my attention was the range of app's that can be used in the classroom to meet the needs of children as well as engage the children in their learning. Some of these App's were:
- Explain everything-Where children record themselves explaining how they go about doing something. For example if they were doing Maths word problems in the classroom they woulc be able to use explain everything to be able explain their thinking and how they solved the problem and what strategy they used.
- Video Screen casts-Where you can talk in the background but demonstrate how to use an app etc.
- Go Animate
- Google draw-To draw characters from a book if they are doing a character study etc.
- Rainbow tools
- imovie- To create movies, presentations.
- Padlet- in a group setting where even though children are on different devices they can still onn contribute their ideas to one big central idea.
In our table group we reflected on how we felt about the range of digital learning happening and this is what we discussed and came up with as a group:
· REFLECTION: We can see the
change that is happening from books to Learn, Create Share. Sharing: This gave us an opportunity to see a range of different apps that the other cluster schools are using and gives us a goal to use variety of apps and implement them into our own classrooms. Its great to see what the other
schools are doing and this is how they go about doing it. It opened the space for learning not
only from classroom but also from the cluster of schools. We as a school have
been sharing our strategies with other schools and visiting schools but we also
need an opportunity to have a look at what the neighbouring schools are doing.
One particular presentation from Jason Borland, Physical Education Teacher from Tamaki Collage was his theory that" You can't help yourself until you see yourself". I was amazed and fascinated as to the way that used Video as a form of vital feedback to assist in skills development and performance. I loved the way he used the app- which I am not familiar with but willing to learn more about was Vidalyze- Which is a cloud based app where children can draw lines, angels etc on the video and point out the areas which need development. I was also amazed at how he used Video Delay software on an Ipad which is set up on the gym to record the children and the image is projected using apply TV. This gave the children an opportunity to watch their movement in an instant reply situation. This he used as part of his teaching pedagogy.
At the Hui they also talked about Talking points: Used to push the learning forward. Below I have included a description from the notes that I took.
Talking points: Use to push the learning forward.
Engagement
Conversations
Tasks
Support
Connections
Pockets or promise: Learning
at home
How is what they are learning
at school helping at home
1.
Engagement:
Engaging at home/learning based activities at home.
2.
Above the line tasks- Extension, invention, explanation, interaction, researching,
exploration, re-imaging, sharing, catching up, finishing off. (Things they were
asked to do that were above and beyond)
3.
INDEPENDENT LEARNING STRATEGIES: Able to manage themselves where time was used well
for learning: self management skills,connective skills, time management, ability
to collaborate well with others. How to push themselves.
4.
Parental support: Talking, commenting, asking,
teaching, sharing, dialogue, reviewing, comparing, explaining , expert.Child
teaches parent what they learnt in the classroom. Being asked to explain their
thinking to their parents and teaching their parents how things went in the
classroom
5.
Disposition: Students
at home were creative curious enthusiastic, ability to read the world through what they were learning (independent pursuit)
Sustaining the process:
Ongoing analysis of data
Ongoing processes of self
improvement
Shared goals
Collective problem solving
Understanding variation.
Embedding and sustaining the processes: Using the groundwork,
foundations, hypothesis, writing promise and learning at home.
That is what makes
Maniakalani a learning cluster.
What I have taken from the Hui:
- A variety of Apps that I could use in my classroom.
-
With the engagement comes the learning and
application of the knowledge learnt- To create DLO's that engage children in their learning as well as extend their thinking, problem solving skills.
-
Leaning with others and thinking about how I can
make learning/teaching more innovative
- Continue
adapting how we are using those apps pedagogically. Having more learning conversations-Across the School. Learning with our children and alongside our children.
Overall, the Hui was very informative. It gave me a great opportunity to be able to conserve with other teachers and learners from around the clusters and see what they are doing in their classrooms.
