3 hour exam ... are you for real?

Today is the day where we complete our 9 week Digital Fluency Intensive. Intense it has been, challenging, stretching, even easy at times but most importantly lots of fun. I have loved getting to know other teachers, networking, sharing ideas, hearing the struggles and hearing the celebrations. It has truly been the best PD I've ever had. 

But first, the exam. We knew coming into the Intensive that we would finish with a Google Educator Exam. It is a 3 hour exam, practising the skills learnt on the course. 

Many people were feeling really nervous, and even though I had decided not to stress about it as the time approached to begin I started to get nervous energy coursing through my body. It is amazing how we feel as adults before something like this. How do our students feel before they sit down for a PAT Test or E-Asttle? But it is good to be in the Learning Pit and it is good to have these feelings. Getting in the arena is the big battle! And here I am, in the arena. 

I, of course, panicked as soon as I saw the first question. In fairness, it was on Google Classroom and we don't use that. Thankfully we could use the 'Review Later' button and I moved on and felt calmer as I hit questions I was confident in. 

The exam is split into two parts; multi-choice and practical scenarios. The practical scenarios were much easier as they were doing activities and once you got into the swing of things it felt just like what we normally do every day. I finished with just an hour to spare and only three questions to review. The hardest part was pushing the submit button. But submit I did and then the nervous wait ...

Whew ... 

So, the end is here. I have learnt so much and strengthened my own knowledge of what I can do. I have been reminded of the WHY of why we are doing this. Having the input around the pedagogy has been the standout me. Dorothy's wisdom has allowed me to engage again with the WHY again and given me the words to be able to explain this learning to others. I really don't understand why people feel so resistant to it. Learn Create Share is so powerful and it truly changes the students learn as well as the way I teach. I see the benefits of this, not just because the data tell us it works but because I can see the engagement in my own students. 

Sometimes it can feel like adults don't understand this process but it isn't about them, it is about the students. The evidence is in the classroom though. I received an email from a colleague who worked in our school a few years ago and they left because they couldn't see how it would work in a digital environment. They said this:

"By the way. What a stunning programme you are running in Rimu. I have had a glimpse of what you have been talking about all along but did not have the vision to understand."

It was so gratifying but humbling to receive this email. We run a good programme. Our students are happy and engaged. They are learning. The use of digital is enhancing and engaging them in ways a worksheet never could. Learning is interesting and exciting and they want to be at school. 

TURBOCHARGE! 

That is what this DFI has helped me to do; personally, in my teaching, in my role as School Leader, in my next steps as a teacher and as a Learn Create Share advocate. It is exciting and I can't wait to see what the next steps look like. 

Empowering our learning ... with maps, sheets and forms.

Empower!

Empowered                  

Used to use an agency but now use empowered. Empowered means to empower our learners… shock horror.

80% of the community in Manaiakalani live with an income of $19,000 per annum. And they make it work, but they are the working poor. We are not just talking about whanau on benefits these families are working and trying to juggle childcare, bills and life. However, it is quite disempowering.

5+ a day back and forth conversations make a difference to the oral language and blogging also strengthens this (5+ a blogasation).

If you want to EMPOWER our children then you can’t cherry-pick which you do. All of the following need to be part of the journey:

It has been really great having Dorothy Burt with us in person. She has a wealth of knowledge and she was able to download some of it to us. It was especially helpful in having the tips and tricks for our exam next week. Some people are feeling pretty worried about it but I am going into it with a positive attitude (assuming I can get on because I did have some technical difficulties with signing up today).

The rest of the day was exploring My Maps, Forms and Sheets. On the surface, these don't sound too thrilling but in actual fact we had a number of 'WOW' moments. There are a number of ways to use all of them, in life and in the classroom (which is also life but you know what I mean). 

For My Maps, I've started creating a My Map of our trip to Wellington for our Year 7/8 Camp. This I'll be able to share with whanau so they can see what we are doing (and how much walking they will be doing).

We did create this one with data from a Google Form.

In Forms, we created something for people to fill in. It was pretty fun. I had a go creating something for students to give feedback. This is the table that all the DFI team shared their Forms, you could always have a play if you wanted. The Block NZ is an important social question at present. 

Share your name and link your form below! Have a go at completing each other’s forms
Dorothy
Mel Raisin	Would you rather
Kelsey	Do You Wanna Taco 'bout It?
Alethea D	The Call of the Wilderness
Kathy L	Weekends
Rebecca	How do you take your coffee?
Melissa	All about me sandpit student form
Paula	Finding out about you
Helen	PBL choice for my hub student form
Angela	The Block NZ
Harry Romana	DFI Practice Form
Jess	Animals
Angela	Pets
Kellen	Softball form (students)
Nicole	Colours
Sharon	Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
Bernard Adams	Inquiry Term 4:  Student form
Kimberley	Genius Hour
Sharon T	Personal reading
Lucy	Breakfast eating habits
Tracey	Which Gymnastics leotard do you prefer for our Belfast Gym Team?

Finally, we spent some time pulling data out of our student blogs. I'm not entirely convinced I've harnessed the power of the data yet. I pulled all the date from our Year 7&8 students blogs. Below you can see the data that I have to work with. I have managed to use Sparkline to create the little graphs so you can see the tracking of their blog posting. I have also worked out the averages across the years, they are at the bottom of each column. 

I made this graph to show the totals for each student. It is quite visual and shows the tracking for each individual student.

Do you have any suggestions for what I could do with the data? Ideally, I want it to motivate the students. I know that Angela was looking at individual blogs for data, which is also a powerful motivator. You could check out her blog .

It is sad to think that next week is our last week. I have loved this learning and networking. What a shame it will all be over next week. 

Drones, hand held cameras, live YouTube and Me!

Today started with Kent from Point England introducing us to some pretty cool tech. Drones, handheld cameras and VidiUPro, all to be able to Live Stream. You can check out the presentation here: Presentation

Point England use Live Streaming to be able to include family members who are working, unable to attend or live overseas in the events and school life. They stream sports, performances, class items and other school events. Whanau simply join the link and watch what is happening live. St Francis of Assisi senior class has also used it to share learning one day. They didn't have the same equipment, they used teacher MacBooks to stream.

We had our own experience of failure today with Dorothy's link to us suffering from the dropouts and then having an alarm. Ironically it was about Connection ... but next week will be Connecting in person with Dorothy, as she is coming down to Christchurch.

Some notes from her chat with us:

• Being connected digitally is a way of empowering the learners and we can do it because the learning is shared and visible. It extends from the individual, potentially to the world.
• This is an inclusive model and again, taps into the human instinct to SHARE and to be connected with other human beings.
• Diversity is celebrated - what ties us together is the language of Learn Create Share
• Digital turbo-charges but face to face is also just as important. Digital allows us to do more or include those that can’t be there.

“If you are all paddling in the same direction, you have greater power, you are more efficient. There is an impact on the nature of teaching and learning because if the teacher and student each know what it is you’re meant to be focusing on you are more likely to reach your goals.” - Dorothy Burt

You will often find the words connected and share tied together in Manaiakalani resources and events- it is impossible to have one without the other. Because connection is a two way, two-person action. You have to give to get. If you want others to share with you, then you need to be a sharing kinda person.

Powerful learning, creating and sharing comes into it's own supporting a Connected network when teaching and learning is visible. Connectedness is powerful when teaching and learning is visible, learners (and teachers) have been empowered (have agency), and ubiquity is supported.

The rest of the time was spent exploring YouTube, Google Drawings & Google Slides. We saw some pretty great examples of Pick a Path and Animations made on Google Slides. Examples of planning in the Juniors and the Seniors done on slides. Comments can be kept private so that only those that have editing rights can see them. This can be powerful so you don't need to keep separate planning and teacher notes. 

I had a good play on Google Drawing and created myself. I've seen a number of my students do this and I have wondered if I could do it too. I don't think it is that amazing but I'm proud of myself. 

I think it can be challenging for our students to learn how to use a tool like Google Drawing. Even learning to manipulate the tools to create the shapes is hard. But it is important to learn, because 'we don't Learn Google Share, we Learn Create Share'. I think we as teachers need to model this more than we currently do, or at least I do. 

- quote, Mark Maddren.

So my aim this week is to try and show my students more examples of me being in the learning pit.