DFI Week 5: Hour of Code

I completed The Hour of Code. What an awesome way for my students (and myself) to better understand and experiment with coding.

I discovered the importance of giving clearly thought out step-by-step instructions, and especially giving a starting point. I plan on using this in my class linked to Procedural Writing.

DFI week 4: Creating infographics

Some of the things I learned today were creating Infographics, and when sharing a YouTube video, how you can set it up NOT to play suggested videos at the end. This in particular appealed to me, as I use YouTube videos in my planning all the time, and find it frustrating when they play inappropriate videos at the end.

This DLO is an Infographic linking to the YouTube video on how to share without the suggested videos at the end.
Unfortunately it is not currently working interactively through Blogger, but you can have a look on my class site for week 5. 

Digital Dig

To better understand how the students Chromebooks work, and how to teach them to use their devices more efficiently, I took part in the Manaiakalani Digital Dig. It was really helpful, and easy to use. I can see this will be a very beneficial lesson for my students. I had my students do the Digital Dig before, but not with them. This time in class I will do it with them. I think this will be a good way to model and scaffold for their learning.

DFI week 3: How to make groups in Hapara

This is a brief rewindable learning I created using the Screencastify tool.

The video shows how to make groups within Hapara Dashboard. This is handy for grouping students according to reading, writing, maths levels and stages, or any other reasons you need to group students.

Even though I use Hapara regularly, I had not used this function before. I also have used Screencastify several times in the past, and find it a very valuable tool for modelling to students.

DFI week 1: DFI Reflections

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?   I learned about some new handy Google Add-ons that I can implement within my class, and also within my professional life. Some of these were fun tools that would be great for students to use, and some were tools which would help myself in the day-to-day running of my teaching program.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?