Explain Everything 101

Today I attended an Explain Everything workshop presented by Khismira Lal, a year 1 teacher from Pt. England School.

The workshop PD was initiated for the Te Hiku and Kaikohekohe Clusters to support teachers who are new to using Explain Everything.

I have been using EE a lot this year, and supporting teachers and students within the classes I facilitate in with using it. It would have to be one of my favourite applications for Learn Create Share due to its interactive nature which enables both "the teacher and learner to create and share learning artefacts"

I am really enjoying being able to take part in this PD, and especially supporting my teachers on their journey into implementing EE within their teacher practice.

Up-skilling with DLO's

I have been taking some time lately to up-skill and teach myself different types of DLO's (Digital Learning Objects). The reason I did this was because I had reflected on my own practice and realised I was lacking in this area. I felt quite behind in comparison to the other Manaiakalani facilitators and decided I needed to act on it. I made contact with some facilitators who happily shared their planning with me.
Today I decided I would teach the collage making using Google Draw. I really enjoyed learning it and teaching it. All of the students and teachers I worked with enjoyed it too.
I even came home and taught my son, practice, practice, practice!

Below is one of my completed pieces, Tui.

Design Thinking

During the 2019 Term 3 Manaiakalani Facilitators hui we took part in some Design Thinking activities run by KPMG. 
"Design thinking is a problem solving approach that focuses on users and their emotional needs while experiencing products and services". It is a structured process to find solutions to complex human problems.

This was a foreign concept to me, and was interesting to look into. There was an aspect of stepping outside of my comfort zone, but it was not as daunting as I initially thought. I was interested in the focus on empathy, and it made me think about how this can be incorporated within a teaching practice.

Toolkit Te Hiku: Term 2

Te Hiku cluster held their toolkit sessions and I was asked if I would like to run one. So going with something I was comfortable teaching I ran a GIF making session. I have been teaching this in several classes and felt this was something I could deliver without fumbling. Although only 2 people signed up for the toolkit, the session went really well. The teachers who attended said they really enjoyed it and thought it was something they could use in several different ways within their teaching practice.

As a little side note, I wrote this post using the Manaiakalani Blogger App on my iPad. It was the first time I had used the App, and I found it was so straight forward and user friendly. I have emailed the lead teachers at my schools recommending for them to try using the app.

Manaiakalani Online Tool-kits Term 1, 2019.

Each term we have the opportunity to do online tool kits for PD. This term for the Manaiakalani online tool kits I chose to do the Fun With GIF tool kit, presented by Herman Fourie.
I learned how to create GIF using slides and tall-tweets. I thought the session was very informative, and simple to do. It would appeal to students of all ages and abilities. It is a great way to engage students in digital learning, especially through Learn Create Share.
I plan to pass on this new skill to other teachers in a workshop at school. I will also be implementing it within my classes for students.

Below is the GIF I created, which only took a few minutes to make.

I also chose to do the Google Goodies toolkit presented by Dorothy Burt.
This toolkit taught us about all the recent and upcoming updates and announcements from Google. One of the things which interested me the most was the upcoming changes to New Sites. Especially the ability to have a variety of fonts, themes, colours, and creating templates. 
I really enjoyed both tool kits, and look forward to the next sessions, and possibly presenting a session myself.

Student Agency in the Makerspace

I have been inquiring into and reflecting on the effectiveness of Student Agency within a Makerspace environment.
In 2019 I started running a Makerspace at Kaikohe West School. The space is called the Innovation Station ~ Wāhi Auaha. 
Students from each class come to me on their teachers release day and they get to learn, create, share, make, explore and collaborate in a S.T.E.A.M based environment. STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking (Enabling E-Learning, TKI). The tamariki partake in hands on learning, which helps their critical thinking skills and can enhance their self-confidence and resilience. It's ok to try, and it's ok to fail, that's how we learn. Student Agency is a major component within the Innovation Station. Student Agency is "learning through activities that are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated with appropriate guidance from teachers"(KEN: Student Agency Slide).