To be included in this PLD programme is the highlight of my job. I have been looking forward to this with much anticipation. I am always learning and view this opportunity to extend myself as well as support teachers. As a facilitator my Friday's have been up until now in schools providing in-school support for teachers as an Outreach Facilitator. For this term my Friday's are gong to be full-on days attending the DFI with this band of committed professionals. I am going to buckle in and enjoy the ride of Learn, Create, Share.
What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
Everytime I listen to Dorothy Burt talk about The Manaiakalani Programme I find out more about this highly effective programme. This time I concentrated on the building of partnerships with whānau. This is critical to having whānau fully engaged as partners in their child's education and to students' success. I have been involved in many whānau hui in my current role and the school's are always disappointed with the small turnout they have and the focus some parents have on homework, neatness of printing or screentime. These topics overtake the hui and the main reason for the hui gets lost in the hype around these issues. Schools are asking how they can engage whānau in hui that is learner and learning focussed. I can hear another blog post coming up.
What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Workflow is so important in my role. Anything that improves or makes for speedy execution is welcome. Today I brushed up on Table of Contents in Google Docs, voice typing (with hands cupped around the microphone) and unique URLs for headings within Google Docs.
The new learning for me was the power of Comments in Google Docs and using it with students to reverse roles by getting them to read text and assign questions via Comments.
What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
The Google Doc section today was full of content that allowed me to review some of the features I was aware of and extend my knowledge of Docs. Today we were given applications in the class e.g. use of Comments to get the students to do all the work while working with texts.
The voice typing with hands cupped around the microphone is definitely going to be a game-changer in a class of 31 very vocal students. I think I remember seeing somewhere the use of paper cups with the bottoms cut out for this purpose too. I'll try the hand
I am a Google Drawing fan and it is my default app for anything to do with images. I used Google Docs today to create a poster that highlights the use of shortcuts. Shortcuts should be the way students do stuff. I am currently in a year 2/3/4 class where lots of them have difficulty using click+drag. Shortcuts eliminate the barrier of not being dexterous and needing to control via a trackpad. Maybe I need to review the pinkness of it. What do you think?
What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
Getting in and Kondo-ising my Drive is a must. My personal Drive is a schmozzle and my work one is a mass of folders. I need to get in and cluster folders together and bring joy to my Drive.
