Reading Practice Intensive - Day 2

Titled "Know Your Learner" this day extends on the day 1 theme of knowing our students as readers and learners.

I am a data nerd and marvel at how digital technologies have put data at our fingertips. A school's SMS system is paramount to getting information in and out so that it can be used. From today it sounds like some SMS are not as easy to use as they should be - not that I would name them here. It is so hard for schools to cope with this as they have to pay for the service and then to trun around and change systems means more change etc etc etc.

Getting data out of a SMS or from online testing portals such as NZCER or e-asTTle and putting it in a Sheet is a great way for teachers to store multiple types of info about their class and have it all in one place without having to click away and try to remember where on earth some thing is or have to log on and go through the process of finding a test, finding the students, then copying the data. 

I have visions of the old type "assessment" log in a folder or pre-manufactured book and shudder! The pre-manufactured books were a nightmare with teachers having to hand-write everything in there. Ugh! Using a Sheet means you can fashion it to the needs of the learners and add any requirements that the school makes. 

Teaching students to use a Sheet is a great skill to develop in a class. Teachers can use this to track mahi. I have seen great examples of this in classes. It builds in personal accountability as well as the public sharing of what is done or not done as the case may be. This extrinsic motivation can aid a teacher lots as well as motivate a student to stay on task or complete and be recognised for their efforts.

Effect sizes were talked about today. This research of John Hatttie has become something that NZ educational leaders use lots to explain to teachers which facets of what they do are effective. 

Today I picked Reflection as the aspect Assessment Capable Learners (ACL) to work on. This link is not one that is used in RPI but embodies the aspects of ACL. ACL is bandied around lots and there has been a lot of PLD provided in schools about this. I'm not sure how schools view this work or how successful they have been with it as I am not privy to that sort of information. 

Today I only just managed to get my teacher exemplar done in the time allocated. Even though this RPI is focused on Reading, because I am not teaching a class full time, I have adapted what I have done today in the context of Quality Blog Posts. Students reflect on their learning in a blog post. I shall use it with a couple of my classes and see how it goes. My teacher exemplar is here.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 7 - Dealing with Data

Another full on day. Forms, sheets, My Maps, data, data and more data.

My Maps was fun. And what a range of destinations we have in our sights. Ahhhhh! to have the holiday time (and money) to go to them all. In one of the classes I am facilitating in they are right into the Rugby World Cup. I already have in my mind a My Maps tasks to do with this hub of learners.



Sheets are such a versatile app. We use them for everything in our role as facilitators. My next learning is to link data from another sheet into a new tab I already have a target sheet in mind.

Forms are another versatile app and we use them lots for students to turn in links to work completed e.g. comments made on other student's blogs. Yes, we can see comments on our student's blogs by using Hapara, but once they comment on another student's blogs at another school and click Publish, as we do in Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu, we have no way of moderating the comments from our end. So a Form is a great tool to use for this. I have the Form embedded in the class site so it is accessible for classes. An example is here. An if you embed the Response sheet as well then the 2 parts are together.

Analysing blogs stats is a great way to get student's into ownership of their blogs and to use Sheets as a visual representation of their blog stats.
I looked at Quasia's blog. Here is the number of blog posts over 7 years - the first year being the setting up of the blog ready for the following year.

Just found out I could embed the graph. So here it is embedded...

Thinking about Sheets, statistics and graphing the hub I am working is that is right into the Rugby World Cup could be using Sheets as the competition begins. They are in teams so a collaborative tasks would be a great way to explore Sheets and graphing.
When I did the stats for the number of visitors form countries I copied and pasted the data from the blog page of stats and then deleted the columns I didn't need. Much quicker way of getting the larger numbers into the Sheet rather than trying to remember and type in separately.