Tract App: Peer-to-peer Education

This year the facilitators have introduced teachers to the Tract App.

Tract is a platform where learners can follow their passions and interests, learn more then create and share their understandings and knowledge. 

The vision is to empower "learners to think critically and independently and to solve the world's problems" by providing "On-demand, project-based classes and clubs designed to spark creativity and empower learners to develop the critical thinking skills they need to succeed as successful young adults."

We have some school locally using Tract with students highly engaged in creating and sharing their interests.

Gisborne Intermediate won a global challenge for October and recently were awarded a pizza party to celebrate this achievement. What a fabulous way to start our local use of Tract. 

You can read more about tract on their newsletter here.

Learn Create Share Term 4 Staff Hui

 This term we bring it all together in one hui. Teachers will Learn about Canva. They will Create with Canva and then Share in their school as well as in the presentation below.

Canva is a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. The app includes templates for users to use. 

View the creativity of our kaiako in the presentation below. 
Please leave a comment.

Scratch - Coding & Mathematics

 I have been attending webinars with Raranga Matihiko on Coding Across the Curriculum. 

This week's webinar included a section about Scratch and using it in Mathematics. Scratch was used to draw shapes initially and then to add a repeating pattern to make spirograph type patterns. Mathematics knowledge of 2 D shapes and measurement of corners and angles are all used in this coding exercise. 

I worked through drawing shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles and pentagons. I didn't have much success with the pentagon but I will work on that.

Then I put the code together to create the spirographs in succession.  I also worked out how to make the background change colours randomly to make it a bit more interesting. My next job is to see if I can speed up the circle code! 

DFI / Share with Blogs

This week in DFI we were working in our Digital Bubbles to explore blogs and build an infographic about one student's blog.

The class that Manvi is in blog regularly now that they have been set up last year as new bloggers. An infographic about Manvi's blog is below

So why do we get students to blog? 

Blogging is a great way for student's to share their learning. Blogs can be used to teach, inform and/or reflect. 

Students can develop unique and creative content all the while connecting with others. We always talk about writing and having authentic audiences - well here is a way to provide that audience. 

Students can practice their communication and conversation skills when they comment on others' postings or reply to others' feedback on their blogs. Blogging can also help students be positive, thoughtful and helpful when commenting and provide feedback for others.

I have always liked this image from Langwitches. Silvia Rosenthal-Tolisano is a strong advocate of blogging and writes a lot about blogging and the advantages of blogging.

Google Certified Educator - Level 2 (recert)

So in my inbox was the notification that I needed to re-certify my Google Level 2. That email arrived way back in Term 1. Shades of college days and leaving it to the last moment, I sat it last weekend 2 days before it expired.

The bit I do want to reflect on is about the way Learn can be amplified and how the use of digital technologies supports us as learners.  Quite timely given that this week in Digital Fluency Intensive the focus is on Learn.

The Google Educator communities are worldwide. This Bootcamp was held by the Global Google Educator Group - Global GEG. And it is as part of this community that I hooked into to swat up for Level 2. I follow the Global GEG on Twitter, @GlobalGEG, and on Facebook. It was in July on Twitter that I saw their post about the up coming Bootcamp for Level 2. Perfect timing!

The Bootcamp was based in the USA so the live event was not a good time for New Zealand but they recorded the Meet and posted it on their Bootcamp Google Site. The site is a "one stop shop". It houses all the resources for Level 1 and Level 2. Because the Meet was recorded I was able to watch it later and not in the middle of the night. The ultimate in rewindable learning - another part of our Manaiakalani kaupapa. 

I actually preferred the rewindable aspect because each recording is just over 3 hours long and there is Day 1 and Day 2 recordings. I watched the Bootcamp recordings on YouTube and was able to fast forward using the arrow keys to the bits I knew I needed to brush up on. A set of slides accompanied the session so it was pretty easy to work out what I needed to do.

 

I marvel at two things from having completed the Bootcamp. One is the generosity of educators who take the time to plan and host something like this Bootcamp which amplifies their learning for the benefit of others. The sharing of knowledge is immense. The other is how technology supports learners in any place, at any time and at any pace. 

I know I passed immediately after the exam which was really speedy, and now all I am waiting for is the official certificate. Good for another 3 years! 

Gamefroot & Coding Clubs

Here is the revised version below for you to try out. Today we worked with the Gamefroot peeps Dave and Dan. It was great to meet Dave in the flesh as I have followed his "Gamefroot Dave" tutorials on YouTube.

I managed to add music, text boxes, a points system and a non-playing character. My next job is to make the kiwi react if the player lands on its head, and to make the text box transparent.

Teachers from Ilminster Intermediate School and Gisborne Intermediate School have attended these game dev sessions as they are starting Coding Clubs after school this term at their schools. This is an exciting project for these two schools and one that we are looking forward to supporting. I'm sure the students whoa re keen to join this club will be zooming ahead faster than I have been able.

I wrote previously about gaming and my lack of it so I am unsure of what makes a great game and what appeals to kids. I recently came across this blog post Game Design in the classroom - 8 steps to get started. The thing that caught my eye was that step #1 is to play list of games and there is a PDF with links to online games in categories.  This would be great way to get going. Now all I need is the time!

Kumara to the Marae by Cheryl Torrie / Remix in Gamefroot

Coding - Why Teach It?

So why teach coding?  Coding is a word we hear lots in schools and is one part of the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). When using the term "coding" teachers are referring to computational thinking (CT) and designing and developing digital outcomes (DDDO).

The NZC says " It's important that students have opportunities to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions – moving beyond solely being users and consumers of digital technologies." NZC

Here is my take on why we should teach these...

1. Coding is another language. Language is about communication. Giving and receiving directions teaches communication and logical thinking. Students have to plan and organise thought then communicate them.

2. Coding teaches problem solving. This is where they go into the learning pit and not only are debugging or solving a myriad of problems, they are also learning to be resilient and to be persistent in their endeavours - see #7!

3. Coding fosters creativity. This is the gold! Students are not following a formula. They have opportunities to experiment, make mistakes, remake, add on to an original idea. 

4. Coding and maths go hand in hand. Think of Scratch and the x and y axis. Think of Scratch Jnr and using the grid to code precise movements for sprites. Think about abstract ideas and visualising. 

5. Coding assists academic performance. Students have to plan and organise their thoughts

6. It's in the New Zealand Curriculum. Was meant to be incorporated into the school's curriculum in 2020. So we should see it happening now.

7. Teachers can't smooth the path to success! Many times in classes I have seen students having to problem solve and debug, and because the teachers have very few skills if any in this area and are not able to code, teachers cannot jump in and do it for their students. I think that sometimes when coding this is the first really hard task students have had to do without teacher intervention or over-scaffolding. 

Research & Development - is it meant to be fun?

 I have been developing my Gamefroot game and aiming to be one page ahead of the students. I am still in the learning pit and have been fortunate to have some students teach me how to extend my coding. And what fun it has been!

Here it is...>

Kumara to the Marae by Cheryl Torrie / Full screen / Remix in Gamefroot

Gamefroot and Game Dev

 Today I attended a day's training with Dan from Gamefroot. Locally, there is interest in establishing a Game Dev Club/Coding Club. What a neat opportunity this would be for our tamariki. 

Our first activity was part one of game development - the "Wall o' Games". Lots of fun and a strategy to get creative juices and collaboration going. 

 

Then onto coding in Gamefroot with a blank canvas. I really was in the learning pit! Not only with the coding aspect but the whole gaming thing as well. I do not play online games and never have so felt at a bit of a loss as to what the elements of a game are and what they do, how you win/lose, and what is a spike?  Along with spike there was a whole lot of other gaming lingo I did not understand. 

My limited experience in Scratch Jnr on iPads and Scratch on Chromebooks helped a wee bit in terms of me knowing what coding blocks are, but as to what they did - that's a whole new world. And then I scrolled down some of the lists of coding block as and see the millions I didn't use and wonder - what are they for? 

Maybe I need to sit with the mokopuna when they are here in the July holidays and get them to talk me through their favourite games and why they like them.

Anyway...here is what I managed to do today which is basically the first half of 8 weeks of Dev Club mahi. Not bad for a newbie!

Click here  to play the first 2 levels of my game. Let me know in the comments what my game needs. 

Create Empowers Learners

 

 This term our staff meeting is based on "Create Empowers Learners".  

In this term's staff meetings the teachers are involved in using Google Apps and third party apps to create. Their creativity is shared below on the slides.

Reading Across the Curriculum

At the end of term 1 we attended the Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day at Glen Taylor School.  The day was about exploring the topic of effective reading practice. The facilitators presented a workshop during the day and our Tairāwhiti team's work was about reading across the curriculum.

T-Shaped literacy is an "emerging research-practice hypothesis for literacy instruction" from the Woolf Fisher research team. This work has come from their many years of research on the Manaiakalani Programme. 

We wanted the participants to develop text sets for a topic or inquiry they will be doing in term 2, or to develop a text set for a resource they have already used. This was so they could use resources they have already at their finger tips and extend the text set to include multi-modal texts in a T-shaped literacy framework.

Getting the Talk Going in Reading

At the Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day at Glen Taylor School I participated in Robyn Anderson and Chantal Millward's workshop on "Getting the Talk Going in Reading". Robyn teaches year 7&8 and Chantal teaches New Entrants at Panmure Bridge School.

Their workshop was around the notion of how can we provide opportunities for our students to talk with each other while they are completing reading activities which helps them unpack the text by sharing their thinking and listening to the thoughts of others.

Over the years the Woolf Fisher team have presented provocations to us that emerge from data. One of them has been to generate collaboration and discussion between students rather than just between teacher and student as is usually observed in classes. 

Chantal asked how can we provide more talk in the junior school? She acknowledged that talk is prominent in junior classes but how could they emphasise and build on the talk they already do within the 4 elements of reading to, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.

She did this by using 3 scaffold questions based around

• Opinion

• Comparison

• Identify

You will find links to her blog posts and class site about these in the presentation below.

Senior reading with Robyn Anderson covered adding modal verbs to the question stem to encourage deeper thinking. She uses dialogic conversations to dig into the more challenging texts that this age group read.

Of particular interest to me in among all this gold was the summarising exercise Robyn uses. Students have to negotiate in this task to use fewer words to co-construct a summary.

Manaiakalani Cluster Teacher Only Day

On the last day of term 1 we participated in the Manaiakalani Cluster Teacher Only Day held at Glen Taylor School.  

The keynote speaker was Dr Rae Si’ilata. She is the Associate Dean of Pasifika at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work. Her presentation had strong provocations around upholding the development of languages remembering that we have diverse cultures in our classrooms. She spoke about bringing their world into the classroom and allowing them to be them, to be successful as them. 

points of note...

• Biliteracy - we should be adding English not replacing student's heritage language
• build from oracy to literacy to open up the linguistic space - Education Gazette article here
• power sharing in the classroom critical - students have rich heritages and cultural capital that can enrich our classes - allow them to bring them into the class so we can learn from them which shows we value them

"The culture of the child cannot enter the classroom

until it has first entered the consciousness of the teacher."

The presentation is full of thought provoking material for us as teachers when teaching literacy. Here is a  link to Dr Rae Si’ilata's presentation. There is a lot to digest in this presentation and I liked the way she connected to the High Leverage Practises from Woolf Fisher's research for The Manaiakalani Programme.

Her is an article with a bio of Dr Rae Si’ilata in this Education Central article.

Decodable Texts

Recently I was invited to go to Sunshine Publications for a day to meet with editors with the view of making decodable texts available online.  We heard how the books are structured and about the deliberate choices of illustrations. The publication team wanted to listen to teachers and practitioners about what would be helpful in the digital versions. We had lots of time to talk and make suggestions so I hope they were helpful. Charlotte Gaston from Pt England School attended and will trial the digital versions with her class. 

Prior to going I spent some time researching decodable texts and how they fit into a reading programme. I was opened to the world of Structured Literacy, The Science of Reading and the battle between 3-cue reading, Reading Recovery and Structured Literacy. 

In my research I found Lifting Literacy Aotearoa and dived into this as it is in a New Zealand setting. Their manifesto made for interesting reading and has links to research. 

I had to get my head around a different way of teaching that would be needed with decodable texts. A phonics or code-based approach is used in the early years with the decodable books supporting the practice and generalisation of concepts and elements taught so they can experience success.

This is such a change to using natural language texts and the 3-cue approach that professional learning would be necessary to affect change in schools. It is also a decision that would need to be made school-wide and not done in isolated pockets. 

The Ministry of education have been rolling out Ready to Read Phonics Plus books to school since the end of March this year. Support resources are available for these series.

The Ministry of education has also been reviewing the Reading Recovery Programme. It is now known as Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Support. 

So from being invited to spend time at Sunshine Publications came a pathway of learning that I am still trying to make sense of and to understand what this means to teachers and learners. 

Ubiquitous Learning is Rewindable

 

Our Whakatauākī for the term 1 staff meeting is about making learning accessible for every learner any where, any time and at any pace.

Teachers can harness the affordances of technology and provide instructional material that is rewindable, visible and audible. In our term 1 staff meetings, teachers are coached to adapt material from their class site and make it rewindable.

   

We have many tools on hand to enable us to do this. Check out what has been used in the slide deck below where we have curated "before & after" samples of the content in this slide deck. 

Orientation 2021

This year we held our Orientation day with teachers who are new to our cluster. The Manaiakalani Orientation contributes to a programme of professional learning that supports our people to confidently connect with the goals of our education programme, including raising educational outcomes for our young people through effective teaching in future focused communities of learning.

Today's participants worked within the Learn Create Share pedagogy to connect with the kaupapa of The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach.

 

To experience the Learn Create Share pedagogy our participants explored online profiles and the Cybersmart thinking of how to advertise ourselves positively online. 

 

 They created their own online profile using a range of tools. Here are their profiles shared in a slide deck. Take a peek and please leave a comment. 

Summer Learning Journey

 The Summer Learning Journey (SLJ) is a programme run in all Manakaiakalani clusters in response to the summer slump which sees the achievement levels of students plummet over the long summer break. Students are given daily tasks to do then share them on their blog. This integration of literacy and other curriculum areas keeps them engaged in reading and writing in particular.

Every blog post is read and commented on my a team of commenters. Points are awarded and when school returns in February we will have prizes to present.

Many students in our cluster registered and have been blogging through the summer break. Below is Kylah's blog post that earned her bonus points. If you want to leave a comment about the post below you will find it here.

Gravity Defying Bucket and Cup Trick 

Today for summer learning journey Nanogirl task I made a gravity defying bucket and did a cup trick that meant I could turn the cup over and the water didn't escape!

I decided to make and edit a video on how to make the bucket. I really enjoyed making the first video about Tolaga Bay, I decided to try editing another video using Movavi.
Both tasks were nice and simple to follow. My favourite of the two was the cup flip trick. I thought I was going to make a mess all over the table! The cup and card trick is pretty cool! I wanted to know why it worked. It's to do with air pressure! With the card there is no air being pushed into the water so the water stays in the cup upside down! pretty cool huh! I have sort of discovered the bucket trick before by accident once when I spun my drink bottle in a circle and no water came out.

I'm getting better at editing my videos and it was easier to work out what to do. I didn't even need my Mum to guide me this time! I had to split the audio to the video lots of times to make the volume higher when it was going into time lapses and lower when I was talking so you could still hear me over the music. Next time if I was do do this task again I would make the string slightly shorter because I had to have it wrapped around my hand lots of times because I had made it too long. I would also make sure I was doing a task when my little brother wasn't around. He tried to grab the scissors!

 

Here are my videos.