DFI day five - Visibility

Last week I felt really empowered that I was able to use so much more of Google Sheets to see how a selected learner was tracking with writing mileage. One of the things I am enjoying is that the way we are progressing through the DFI has allowed me to reflect on my role as an e-learning leader just as much as a classroom practitioner. Most sessions whatever I learn or make can be used straight away within my roles back at kura.

Today's focus being on visibility, tools wise, we had a lot of time with google sites.

Notes from Dorothy's Session:

Visible is the theme today - this is from our kaupapa. Can you see it or can you not? At school and in the home. Visibility between colleagues is just as important. Passing and failing has been the way we have done thing previously. Fail dominates some whānau because we have kept most of the learning journey hidden for so long. There can also be that cyclical nature of schooling - if older whānau struggled, the mindset could be repeated in future generations without an awareness of how that is impacting success in other areas of life. The education sector needs to shoulder this. The learner who has the ability to read the teachers mind is the learner that succeeds with ease - is that fair? So, when a child has cultural capital they are likely to succeed. What about when the child doesn't have this background of success?

Visible learning is the whole learning process - planning, process, outcomes and assessment.

This point comes back to when you set up your teaching folder in google drive for the year - setting the default to visible. There is very little that needs to be private. Dorothy dares us to change our settings so that we change files to private, only when you need to. Our teaching and learning process becomes highly visible to anyone who bothers to look at this point. It is not advocacy for making private student notes and records visible, it is advocacy for a change in mindset as to how we allow others into our practice.

Removing password barriers is worth a further discussion in areas where these could inhibit cultural capital developing. What actually needs a password? 

If a child's education is wrapped in the bubble wrap of passwords and different apps and nothing clear, then when the child goes through those difficult moments and shuts down, whānau is truly shut out in an even more profound manner than when everything was on paper with a pen. Dorothy used the example of when her own son went through that stage of responding to everything with a grunt. She could still always go through his backpack and books and see what he was learning at school as a way of remaining connected to it and monitoring his own cultural capital development. what happens to our digital learners when this happens and our kaiako have put up so many barriers and passwords for safety? Whānau have no way in. 

There is a parent portal into Hapara and a student app. We are not using it. This is a big gap in my knowledge. Both tools would provide visibility potentially, but we may be bound to kamar as the parent portal is something that we push out. How much more one is effective over the other is something I don't have knowledge over. A quick google search suggests that its use is quite different to the Kamar app and to me it seems a shame that both cannot be one. 

Kamar allows a parent to keep updated with absences, notices, NCEA credits. However, Hapara is about seeing the actual work a child is doing in class. I would like to know more about what it looks like when it is working effectively in a school. 

Manaiakalani google class OnAir is another way our practice can be made visible and shared with other kaiako. Towards the end of this year, start of next year, Manaiakalani will be sending out a pānui for teachers who want to participate in being a class OnAir. There is a full te reo Māori kura class in Ōtaki is happening through this as well. This is all around sharing good practice and making good practice also visible. It is another opportunity worth promoting to our kura as both viewers and participants. 


Hapara hot tips - in Dashboard<Sharing

When you think that a doc is gone for good, you can usually find it here under sharing. deleted docs allows you to see when a child has removed a doc from their drive. you can also see docs that the child has forgotten to put into your subject folder in the first place under 'unshared'. 

Treat students filing their documents as a routine part of tidying up. just the same as tidying the desk. Lots of their stuff just ends up in the front of their drive - we shouldn't be accepting that just the same as we wouldn't be accepting them keeping a physical workstation a mess. make it routine, part of our tīkanga. 

Multi modal deep dive:

This is the ability to transfer information in a variety of ways. Kids have so many highly interactive spaces and information transfers going on. Are we competing? Are we inspiring? Do we want to compete or just engage? I think its something of a balance and again we are providing some training wheels, not unlike our use of blogger over something too cool and likely out of date in 6 months time anyway. Multi-modal should be present within all teaching sequences at our kura; for example:

Our Level one 1.1 programme is taught in a multi modal manner:

The standard as the main text:

The theme for us is Developing a kaupapa level one art, this is something we have set as our purpose to all learning for the year in senior art - develop your kaupapa before you start your practical work for any standard. The research standard here is a good way to start this and keep the purpose in the research as well. 

The complementary texts provided to the students are the word banks and vocab lists presented with these resources:

The scaffolding text is a series of slideshows that illustrate significant teaching points for the selection of 'must do' artist studies:

Our challenging text is a stepped up version of how we can analyse art works, that goes beyond the tasks set out in the instructions for the standard

Learner Selected text starts to spell out how this work is formational for the year's body of work. Students have choice, but it is curated; another example of digital training wheels. 

Additional texts for students to examine are the checklist for the standard and screen-castify videos made to help students see their assessment in parts, over lock-down in April, in order to complete the work away from kura. 

I strongly feel that if a Visual Arts teacher can curate a multimodal exemplar of a teaching and learning resource, then it is something all areas and levels can come up with, as it represents good teaching practice. there are a range of modes involved, the information is presented more than once and reliable supporting and student selected resources accompany the sequence. 

It is a way to capture as many learners as possible, without pigeonholing anyone as a specific 'type' of learner. it means our learners get the opportunity to digest learning in a variety of ways, which has to be broadening their educational experiences, is no-judgement when we present it for rewindable learning 

Te Ara Tuhura cluster data suggests that multimodal works for engagement.

CHRISSIE BUTLER from core ed, UDL. all about avoiding the idea that one size fits all. We often revert to this when time is stretched. Acknowledge from the outset that there are multiple ways of understanding and perceiving information before the learning cycle starts. Presenting it in a range of ways. We often start with learning in mind for ourselves - the default is 'me', yet that is not our classroom default setting or at least it should not be.

Some learnings I can take and apply/extend: 

• Adding audio files that read the site out is helpful. Online voice recorder and a chrome extension specifically for slides.
• With the high engagement using multi modal, conversation and discursive practice cannot be left behind. That is another balance point. 
• How can we use the Hapara parent portal effectively? Added to agenda for our elearning meeting
• Challenging how visible we are as a kura, digitally
• Promoting google class OnAir to staff as a resource
• Can each of our learning experiences be slotted into the multi-modal text database format? Should this be something of a requirement for any major teaching sequences? It certainly helps strongly address high leverage practices put forward by Woolf Fisher. Again, that is something our e-learning team need to take to the table and extrapolate out for staff as a model of practice (we have no staff meeting slots this term... that's a possibility to be changed). 

Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive Day One

Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) is a one day a week for nine weeks, a course intended to deepen understanding and application of a digital learning environment for practitioners. As an e-Learning leader already I wasn't sure what I would be getting out of this and did wonder if I was taking up a place that someone else could have used.  Fortunately, there is differentiation and depth within the basic skills that mean it is easily accessible for beginners and experienced practitioners.

Ako - Learn - to know

What did I already know that helped my understanding moving forwards today? What made it possible for me to gain momentum today?

My interpretation of LCS is as activation (to know), developing and refining (to act), followed by valuing the learning experience (to value) (Heick, T. 2017)  based on foundational, meta and humanistic knowledge bases. 

The first part of our day has been based upon what we know and if not, what we ought to know about the kaupapa of Manaiakalani. Making connections with those around us provides a relational base for what we will continue to do over the following eight weeks. 

Fluency in how tools work for learners is as important as fluency in how to use them in delivery, which is as important as evidence that they work and likewise leads back to how the Manaiakalani pedagogy is intended to gain positive momentum in a changing and now digital world. 

Foundational, meta and humanistic knowledge bases should not necessarily be an 'order' to learn in, rather they are interlinked and cyclical, not often strictly linear. That is how I see Learn, Create Share. It will be digital when it needs to be, and can and was analogue long before that. My classes are often inter-relating and back and forth combinations of LCS, which is like the balanced diet version of a good education as I see it. 

Waihanga - Create - to act

What specifically did I learn and create? 
How did I best retain the information? How can I use it in my practice forwards?

Here is a good example of where those delineations between Learn and Create cease to be, or at least are flicking back and forth consistently; time is given for exploring content, levelling up on what we may not have known, while others did, diving deeper into a tool, and gaining resources and skills that are adaptable to a range of subjects and levels with a bit of thought. 

Having prior knowledge whether it was provided today for the first time, or from where I already was at, was key to not becoming lost in the 'tips and tricks'. PLD provided as a bunch of how-to's without this would be difficult to retain and even harder to apply in my practice. It would lack the context. 

Aspects that I would want to extend on with peers and learners

Systematic understanding of the affordances of Google docs

Most of us in teaching now started out using products such as Microsoft word. Docs is the 'online' version. So when I approached it, I just looked for how it did what word had done. Possibly if I had begun using it as a product quite separate from word, I would have learned to use it very systematically and picked up some of this already. What I liked about this part of today was that I came into it thinking I wouldn't learn much and finished up with 'wow, I didn't know I could do that!'. 

Being coached through making a document that explores the tools specific to the product while acknowledging to us that 'yes you likely do know lots of this stuff' was aa good technique and meant that we finished up with a concrete piece of evidence as a reminder of how and what it does.  This translates well into other adult learning scenarios as well as in my classroom. I can see many applications for how I would approach teaching peers and students alike from this and emulating the approach at the beginning of a unit/topic/year would be a preferable way of managing digital assessments for me in the future, as it would allow more time for students to practice their skills with a purpose. 

Google groups

I am a part of a group through leaders of Learning, however, I just saw it as an email chain.

I also didn't really see any benefits to using groups as an end-user in this way as I didn't understand the affordances it provided. There are significant benefits; its something of a cross between google plus and email - to work from groups means that all of your topics and correspondence in regards to the one particular set of colleagues, such as a department are rewindable and stored on the one location online. when you go back to them it looks like a list of blog posts. when you are interacting with them it is no more difficult than responding to emails. It eliminates the fuss of having to search your emails for specific topics and/or contacts, if you are organised in the first place. Understanding this concept is far easier with prior knowledge of how email works, and how google+ aspired to work. I do wonder how easy this concept is to pick up and run with for someone new to a digital learning environment. I am possibly overthinking that. 

A Google-based scavenger hunt 

Such a simple concept, yet when presented like this, so hard to argue not to do this when you want that immersion into these digital tools for students, and so easily adaptable to a different subject or level. In order for me to adapt this, I would have to have a reason to use it fairly soon or it will be one of those things I never look at again as it fades from my poor memory.

A broad-brush look at a range of add-ons and extensions that improve workflow on google.

This is stuff I loved, but again, unless I actively figure out how to employ them within the week, I fear they will fade from memory. 

The tools I will be attempting to work into my own practice this coming week are:

TLDR (Too long, didnt read!) 

doc to form

eZnotifications

Docutube 

MindMeister

Tohatoha - Share - to value

Why does it work? Why should I? What do I envisage happening with learners in my class if I apply specific elements? 

The value of completing a course like this is that I am constantly reflecting on how I could use this information in my classroom and practice. I enjoyed taking a day out of classroom practice to focus on this, rather than troping over to a staff meeting following a day in the classroom to try and absorb some information, knowing that all the while I was forcing my eyelids open, and deliberating over whether I would eat the last of the lollies/slice/nibbles on the table there to share.  

My fear still remains that I may not apply what I have learnt due to time, good intentions and all. 

The two I am confident I will apply are google groups, which may be because we used that tool for the delving deeper section, so I know more about it and stronger structure in how I set up using google drive and docs with my two new junior classes this term. I will be integrating the scavenger hunt into this. 

Our weekly department meeting for Visual Arts would be a great place to pick out apps and extensions and teach to the department, challenging them to use these tools meaningfully over the next week. 

TEACHER ONLY DAY 28th June 2019 notes

John Quinn - Well being specialist

Social worker/counselor, education and sport as a background. 

What protective clothing do you need when you are in the eye of the storm? Being in the centre of the
storm is not good well being. It's ok not to be positive all of the time. You can't always be strong all of the time ‘kia kaha’ for instance, sometimes it is ok to be vulnerable. Can't always ‘leave it at the door’. As adults we don't always leave it at the door, so why are we expecting it consistently from our young people who are growing and changing? “Learn how to dance in the storm”. When things are tough do we have the tools to manage it?

Managing your reactions rather than your circumstances.

If we don't look after ourselves generally our reaction is not what it should be. We become the storm
rather than just being inside the eye of the storm. 

It’s not about being happy all of the time, but it's about having the tools to deal with things when its not. 

Ratio of positive vs negative emotions

Engaged and focused

Strong positive relationships - not over the internet - we are feeding the beast at the moment. 

A sense of meaning and life purpose - why do you teach? If you don't love it anymore do something else. Sense of accomplishment

Eat, sleep, move. 

PERMA - Seligman's theory of wellbeing

What determines happiness - 50% genetics/nurture, 10% external circumstances, 40% actions and
thoughts. 

18-month window - lose a limb, win the lotto - you will go back to your prior state of being within 18
months regardless of the change. We chase the wrong stuff.

There is not a bad or good emotion, there are just emotions but how do you bring the top ten positive
emotions into our lives? (Fredrickson, 2009).

If you have had that day that has really challenged you, how do you remember gratitude when you go
home? 

The negative stuff is always going to be there - we all have a negative bias. Combatting this. Kids are
great observers, but terrible interpreters. If you feel safe, you engage. Same with students. 

• 3 a day, 3 times a week, 3 a month, 1 a year. Well-being. 

What gives you: 

Joy

Gratitude

Serenity

Inspiration

Hope

Love

Awe

Amusement

Interest 

pride

Praise and critique the process not the outcome. If grades were the most important thing, there would
be no such thing as job interviews. Reward the stuff we want from our young people.

We have got to stop educating kids to do jobs that robots can do. The airy fairy stuff is what we need to
look at. 

The average time a father communicates with his child is 4 and a half minutes! If that is the average,
there are 50% kids who are not getting even that. Devices get in the way, adults are often distracted.

Have a goal, a five-year plan. Even if you don't get to it apparently research is that planning around it
will improve your well being.

Intentional activities are the key to happiness. Playtime and downtime - both are intentional activities.
Downtime should be ‘nothing’ time. Legitimately so.

“Time in” as opposed to time out. Mindfulness being aware. Being present. Paying attention. Gratitude
and compassion. Non-judgemental. It's impossible to be present all the time but we need to be aware
of where we are - focussed on the past anxious about the future, or in the present? Making sure it's not
too far either way. But focus on making the NOW part bigger. It is usually very small. 

The more awareness one can bring to bear on any action, the more feedback one gets from the
experience. And the more naturally one learns and is able to respond. 

“Flip your lid” visual metaphor for when you are in red brain mode (flight, fight, freeze). Bring the lid
back down is green brain mode (logic and reasoning). 

What allows us to focus? Quiet? Order? Often disconnecting does allow us to focus. We cannot
multitask properly, even when we think we can. Making lists helps. Having an ordered space helps.

You have got to treat technology like any other drug; have rules around it. What are your rules around
it around your kids? What are they seeing you doing? There is no research that says using your phone
improves your brain.

We get 1/24th of the relational time that we used to as hunter-gatherer societies. 

Loneliness is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 

We teach perfection and we create anxiety in doing so. We ignore real engagement. 

Every day make a choice to create some positive emotions.

New PTC's in NZ Teaching; how I see the relationship to TAI and Appraisal

Simplified version of our RTC's now called PTC's. The language seems more modern and there is a clear, concise e-learning version of how they could be applied here too. The first thing I thought was 'great, my labels all need to be remade on my blog... thanks EDUCANZ', more work on top of TAI for appraisal, actually teaching my students, the leadership and pastoral roles I already hold and the new staff member we will have in the Art department next week (yay :-) ). But in reading them, the language is better, the concepts are modernised and there is the e-learning study that CORE ED have done here too. 

What I like:

• The overarching statements cover everything nicely and the criteria and indicators are nice clear guides:

Overarching statements

1. Teachers play a critical role in enabling the educational achievement of all ākonga/ learners 1.
2. The Treaty of Waitangi extends equal status and rights to Māori and Pākehā. This places a particular responsibility on all teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand to promote equitable learning outcomes.
3. In an increasingly multi-cultural Aotearoa New Zealand, teachers need to be aware of and respect the languages, heritages and cultures of all ākonga.
4. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Code of Ethics / Ngā Tikanga Matatika commits certificated teachers to the highest standards of professional service in promoting the learning of those they teach.

• You can approach it from a place  like this blog, where you detail the why, how and what of what you are doing and detail that with evidence, labelling statements and/or criteria and/or indicators appropriately

What I don't like about it:

• Even though it says these are interdependent and overlapping, you could still turn it into a checklist for teachers to tick off. Defeating the purpose of them being interdependent and overlapping. 
• I don't see how a teacher can construct one single TAI that is used for appraisal purposes as well as meeting these all at once and I think it is worth debating whether we should be trying to do this.

What I find interesting:

• I'm just not convinced you need to apply one massive big TAI to the whole year to meet these, nor the old ones for that matter, and I recently had a discussion with a colleague about whether TAI should be used to demonstrate these over the course of a year long focus inquiry, or whether it should be a process that happens naturally and repeatedly because of your continual reflection on your own practise. I cannot remember who the colleague was or how the conversation came about, but my brain kept reverting back to 'but this is the direction the ministry and our school is wanting us to develop - TAI integrating with PTC's to test appraisal'. That is such a weak argument. It should not be why we do anything, because the ministry says so... (don't sack me).

So could I say no I'm not doing A TAI, to prove I meet these overarching statements, any of the criteria or key indicators, because I could probably prove every single one if I continue on like I am; posting up evidence of mini TAI's happening naturally, within the course of my teaching and leadership roles, and clearly identifying how they answer these a bit at a time. Could anyone at my school say 'you are doing that wrong, you are not competent'? Could I even be accused of failing to meet the first criterion? I wonder if your whole appraisal is based on a major TAI as we are being directed towards, we cannot manage this lofty goal?

The last time I applied for my registration, I sent the URL's for my teaching site and for this blog. All I was asked for that was extra, was a birth certificate from this millenium (why do you need to keep providing a birth certificate every three years?). Cool, much less work than jumping fences with unknown heights through the TAI system of appraisal I was initially involved in creating at my school (and I enjoyed the academic work of doing it too) .

In any case, my own TAI that I started 2017 is no longer relevant. However, several off-shoots of the TAI I started with SPARK - MIT have developed since then, that easily meet the PTC's.  The whole 'thing' has become so much bigger, but also so many more that are smaller, easier to document, more relevant to the on-ground job at hand and less 'constructed' to fit other peoples boxes, that I think we ought to be rethinking how we 'test' appraisal. One major TAI that has to be forced along and ignores the fact that TAI exists all over the place in all sorts of ways in your practice doesn't do it. But, it becomes a monstrosity or it becomes lip service. In my opinion. Having being trying to push myself through this exact concept for 2 years now. 

So for however long I can get away with it, I will not be doing a major TAI. That is my TAI. Can I document my natural processes as a teacher, leader and learner through the lens of TAI, as it happens, remain competent and still be steadily working towards our school vision of Learn, Create, Share; Actively involved learners? I would happily challenge any other professional or academic to prove that I do my students, colleagues and community a disservice by doing so.  I am also happy to be appraised separately. Any one can come in and see my teaching, go through our planning, collaboration, offer advice, make up check lists that address an appraisal of sorts. I just don't want us to be calling it a day after one major TAI for the year being constructed and isolated to do that for us.