Implementation of changed practices and intervention

As discussed in our CoL meeting, it is really important that we have it clear in our heads as to what we have changed or done as the TEACHER to support the learning challenge. I will collect information about the implementation of my changed practices and intervention in a number of ways.

1. Record of prior planning (see 2017/2018 cybersmart planning and experiences).

- 2017 team site + class planning

- 2018 team site + class planning

2. "Repeated measure" of teaching over time:

- Planning notes and reflections detailing my lessons/ the learning experiences planned for cybersmart since implementation of the changed practices and intervention.

- Evidence through: Teacher planning doc, children's collaborative brainstorming/ planning docs, movies created (recorded on this website).

Restating my theory of action

The valued learning outcomes I want to improve for my students in this inquiry are …. 

Development of interpersonal skills and critical thinking, which are required when learning in a digital environment.

The changes I am making to my teaching to improve these outcomes are …..

Changes to the way I teach cybersmart. Each new piece of cybersmart learning is followed up by the children working in groups to participate in a collaborative and creative movie-making challenge where they have to share their new learning in a short 30 second to 1 minute long movie. I am also including the google site, Interland and the Be Internet Awesome Curriculum as well as the Manaiakalani Cybersmart curriculum in my teaching of new concepts. Through my explicit teaching, the focus is on the connection between interpersonal skills and critical thinking which are necessary when working in a digital environment. The movies which the children make will then become a resource which can continue to be used by the class as well as other children in future cybersmart learning.

The reasons why I think these changes in my teaching will be effective for my learners are …..

Engagement. Already, altering my teaching to including the movie-making challenges has made the children in my class excited to participate in cybersmart learning.

Rewindable/visible learning. The children are the creators - they are creating movies which are reinforcing and enhancing their learning and in the process, they are becoming the teachers for future lessons. This follows the Tataiako competency of Ako (reciprocal teaching/learning).

Deep learning. To challenge these children to extend their cybersmart learning, they need to be given opportunities to think critically and deeply about content online. This will come from having opportunities to create quality blog comments (currently, they can create positive comments, however being helpful and thoughtful as well is more of a challenge) and by critiquing what they read or see online.

Term 3: Where I am up to and where I will go next

Kāhui Ako Achievement Challenge 5: Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/ key competency using symbols, languages and texts.

My Inquiry Challenge (updated): Children living in a digital world, where interpersonal skills and critical thinking are essential, require ubiquitous access to cybersmart scaffolds and resources which are not currently available.

This term is going to be all about implementing my tool to support cybersmart learning. The website is up and running and ready for movies to be added in as they are created by the children. Once this starts happening, they can begin to be shared with other children.

What will this look like?

- Explicit teaching of each of the cybersmart topics we are focusing on.

- Time each week for cybersmart learning and movie making.

- Term  4 - retesting on cybersmart quiz which was undertaken at the start of the year.

Sydney EdTech Summit 2019: Presentations

Kelsey Parrant and I were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to present at the EdTech Summit in Sydney this year along with our MIT (Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher) colleagues. Kelsey and I presented the following two workshops:

Setting up a Google Site for learning

Outline:

In this workshop we will focus on how Google Sites can be created to lead learning in a primary school context.

This workshop is targeted at teachers who have a basic understanding of Google Sites. It would be suited for teachers who are wanting ideas as well as support in beginning to create a Google Site for teaching and learning.

Tips and Tricks with Google Sites

Outline:

In this workshop we will focus on a number of tips and tricks which can be used within google sites to make it more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing. 

Some tips and tricks that may be covered:

- Using anchor points

- Creating buttons outside of google sites

- Automatically opening a page in a new tab

- Making the logo a home button

- Correctly layering pages within sites

- Embedding vs. Hyperlinks

Apps and Tools for Making thinking visible

Today at the Edtech team summit in Sydney, I went to a workshop presented by Kimberly Hall and Lorinda Ferry. Below are some of the visible thinking tools that we explored.

Answer Garden

This could be a great way to do a collaborative brainstorm at the start of a new topic or before a writing task. We could then discuss the vocabulary that came up the most (bigger words) and extend vocabulary knowledge around these words.

Visible Thinking

Kimberly and Lorinda drew our attention to this site which is full of ideas and suggestions for how learning can be made visible. This will be an interesting site to explore as visible thinking comes into the Manaiakalani Kaupapa.

FlipGrid

This was an interesting app which actually confused me a bit. There seemed to be quite the hype about it however, I felt that through Learn-Create-Share, we are already achieving a lot of what can be achieved on FlipGrid. I would need to explore this a bit more to see if there is any value in it (over and above what our children can already do using their google drives, webcam on their chromebooks and blogs).

Talk&Comment

This was a really good take-away from this session. This chrome extension would allow myself as the teacher as well as other children in the class to leave audio comments on collaborative docs, rather than just written comments. Through the extension you can insert an audio file easily into the comments session on google docs, google slides etc.

Pear Deck

This is another great take-away from this session. It is also a chrome extension for google slides and allows you to create really interactive slides which the children can access. The only problem with this extension would be the inability to rewind in its interactive form. I still need to look into it a bit more to see whether this would be possible or not.

Overall, I got a lot out of this session. I left with some great new ideas to try out in the classroom.

Cybersmart planning for learning

Kāhui Ako Achievement Challenge 5: Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/ key competency using symbols, languages and texts.

My Inquiry Challenge (updated): Children living in a digital world, where interpersonal skills and critical thinking are essential, require ubiquitous access to cybersmart scaffolds and resources which are not currently available.

I have spent time beginning to plan the explicit teaching and learning experiences which will take place prior to the creation of 30 second to 1 minute cybersmart clips. I have begun planning the explicit teaching and learning under each of the subtopics. During the explicit teaching, I will incorporate resources and ideas from the Be Internet Awesome curriculum and the Manaiakalani Cybersmart Curriculum.

Here is the website which I will begin populating with the children's cybsermart clips as they are created and as learning occurs. Look at the Passwords page for some completed 'trial' movies (see previous blog post for more information about this).