Amplifying our Practise - Giving to others

Continuing on from my previous post about getting from others - here is the second part about giving to others.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give - Maya Angelou

So my question is - how do you give to others? And for that matter - how do I give to others?

Lots of share in our own settings with colleagues. I know that once we became a Google Domain at my previous job that we were able to create and file and share easily. We did not have to re-invent the wheel and that made us really efficient in the admin side of our job which hopefully, left us time and energy for the real part of the job - teaching! Because we all understood each other and knew the context of your teaching we also had the confidence to share with each other. So sharing is easy in our own settings.

Sharing outside our own settings is enabled by the ubiquitousness of digital technologies. We have platforms that we can share and once we are active on these platforms we can get from others. 

Locally we have a Facebook group to share stuff that we find useful. Join us and share the good stuff you have. We also have a Google + community for out Tairāwhiti cluster to share good stuff.

Are you on Twitter? If you are pop your Twitter handle in the comments so I can follow you. You can find me on Twitter @GigagalGizzy.

Is there anything holding you back from sharing which could include documenting your learning? I sense a real lack of confidence and purpose in teachers when talking to them about sharing on a professional learning blog. This could be for many reasons including  a lack of time or technology. Self-confidence can also be a limiting factor and/or worrying about bragging, judgement, or not feeling worthy enough etc. If we lived in USA we would probably be shouting it from the rooftops - or form the laptop screen. IS this a cultural thing? Or is it something else? I need to ask teachers directly instead of making assumptions.   

My job as a facilitator is about giving to others. And yes - I get paid for it, but I believe the work of The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach has meant that more teachers have access to quality PLD in digital fluency that will mean better outcomes for the learners in our local schools. Apart for that I am able to immerse myself in my technology and use Chromebooks and iPads with learners all day, every day. 

Amplifying our Practice - Getting from others

As we plan for our term 1 staff meetings with a Learn | Ako focus, I am reflecting on offerings from  other educators on the WWW as they amplify their practice.

We live in a digital landscape which makes sharing and requesting very easy. With digital resources we can share and help each other.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give - Maya Angelou

There is a plethora of sites with digital offerings right across the curriculum spectrum. Buy oh! how do you sift through offerings such as "50 of the Best Chrome Extensions for Teachers". I really don't have time to sift through these.

I do like lists like this on in a Sheet from Eric Curts where you can use the control + F  function to search the Sheet and get to what you want.

Locally we have a Facebook group to share stuff that we find useful. Join us and share the good stuff you have. We also have a Google + community for out Tairāwhiti cluster to share good stuff.

I have a long list of educators around the world that I glean all kinds of information from. This ranges from global education issues to specific Google sites that provide information about Google Apps. I subscribe to their blogs, follow them on Twitter and listen to podcasts and ma thankful for the material they provide for us all to use. Who do you follow or subscribe to?

Once you tame your twitter feed this is a a place to go to. Hashtags help sort the material. List of edu #hashtags are available as a place to start. I use TweetDeck to help organise Twitter Feeds. I would be lost with out this.

Once we discover a source of material we then need to Cybersmart and use our critical thinking and literacies to determine whether the material is useful, reliable and/or applicable to our context.

One found you will then need a curation tool so you can find it when you need it. I use Google Keep, OneTab Chrome extension, Toby Mini Chrome extension and Bookmarks in Chrome mainly.

In our term 1 staff meetings we have been exploring Manaiakalani Class on Air episodes. If you want to see real teachers in action in real classrooms then this is the pace for you to go. The teachers document an extended plan which allows you to get inside their head and see how they have planned and reflected on lessons they teach and video for us to watch and learn from. This Sheet lists all episodes. Hint: use the tabs at the bottom to explore categories and cntrl+F to find specific search terms. This shared resource really does amplify teaching practice.

iPads & New Entrants

iPads with New Entrants and the old, ex-DP. What a mixture!
CR and I have worked in her class this year with her learners and new iPads. We have worked with the Explain Everything (EE) app and managed to get to the stage where the projects are accessed from the class site then saved onto the iPad so they can work with them.

We have made projects for word work with the word of the week, learning to use the tools in EE and with the big book for the week. At times it was like herding cats.

The biggest challenge has been mastering the iPad/EE workflow for making projects , saving it to our Drive then embedding them on the class site for learner access. It has been a huge learning curve for CR and I.

I am looking forward to extending my work in this area next year with more classes in the cluster. We have 7 classes in total across Tairāwhiti signing up for in-class support with 1:1 iPads and that is very exciting for us all.

 
via GIPHY


Now we are like...


via GIPHY

Capturing those Voices & Moments

As we have held our staff meetings this term and used Screencastify and Flipgrid to capture and share teacher's instructions on video, it is amazing how anxious and reluctant teachers are in making a video using their voice to give instructions. Teachers need to get used to using their voice outside the classroom walls. AI and voice recognition is a growing area of technology. Here is a blog post about voice recognition with summaries from a variety of experts.

In our staff meetings we have got teachers to make a Screencastify tutorial on how to use Google Voice Search. They then shared their tutorial on a Flipgrid (embedded below).

Screencastify is an efficient tool that teachers should be harnessing to use in their class. Teachers can quickly make tutorials to support student learning. Students can use Screencastify to record proof of their learning. More junior classes can use it to read and check for fluency.

There are many sites that give teachers ideas on how to use Screencastify. Here is a starter list from Matt Miller of "Ditch That textbook" fame.

Flipgrid is a tool that can capture voices in the classroom quickly and efficiently. It also enables replying. This badge popped up in my email today. Love the gamification aspect as well. This would hook students in.

Flipgrid Frenzy

This term we have used Flipgrid again to collect teacher work in a staff meeting.

I have also used it in classes to further model for teachers the power of this online tool. The younger learners loved being a "vlogger". By using the post-it to prepare their response it certainly meant the videos were better than talking off the cuff.

The older students in year 7&8 were able to navigate the tool very quickly and just like the younger students got distracted by the selfie camouflage area.

We were able to respond to some videos in later classes. This is all part of the "positive, thoughtful, helpful" mantra that we use in blog commenting. Its so good to have this common language across schools and across tools.

So much activity was recorded on our "Would you rather" Flipgrid yesterday that I was awarded this badge. So exciting! It just goes to show that we are never too old for gamification to appeal.

See our Flipgrid below.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 9 - Revision

The big day for the DFI'ers to sit the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam. Preparation for the exam was the theme of the past week with people watching tutorials and practising the bits they thought they would need to swot up on.

Tim came prepared...and he did share. 

Willy baked a delicious banana/chocolate loaf which was shared at morning tea. 

Maybe he will post the recipe in his blog for us.

And Raquel baked this yummy slice.

There was plenty of sugar to keep us going for the 3 hour exam.

That recipe would be a good blog post too Raquel - hint.

thanks to the other offerings of lollies, grapes, chocolates and nuts

Because my Level 1 & 2 Google Certified Educator are current and I didn't need to sit the exam, I used the 3 hours for my own leanring with iPads and Explain Everything. Now that Cathy's NE class are moving along nicely I wanted to set up some projects for the start of term 4 to get them to animate and record their screens. In doing this I have become proficient in the use of the the Inspector tool to lock images as backgrounds, delete images and arrange images to the back. I also got really good at using the lasso tool then adding the images to my clip art library. I love the versatility of Explain Everything and have got the workflow in my head now as well to get the EE projects onto Cathy's class site.

Today's theme was Ubiquitous. We explored ideas about access to learning 24 hours, anywhere, anytime, anyplace and from anyone. Ideas that came up for us to discuss were around accessing learning through the class site for a range of reasons: absences, lateness, teacher absence etc. 

One facet of Ubiquitous that I am right into is rewindable learning. I have made tutorials for classes I work in about embedding Google slides, drawings, docs and videos into Blogs. I found that this is the best way rather than rely on YouTube clips. The tutorials I have made are linked on the class sites and available for learners and teachers whenever needed. They are short and to the point. 

In reflection this DFI has been a most amazing opportunity to get my head right into Google Goodies, the Manaiakalani kaupapa and to work alongside a group of dedicated professionals. Lots of learning and lots of networking. I have to thank the Manaiakalani team for allowing me to participate in the DFI and have these 9 days out of my facilitators role. 

Thank you fellow DFI'ers for your participation over the last 9 Fridays. My Fridays are never going to be the same again. And whether or not you passed the Google exam I'm sure you leave this last sessions with more Googley-goodness than you had before, just as I do.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 8 - Media

Matt joined us from Auckland and led us through a day of learn create share with media.

Kent beamed in from Pt England School and gave us his dreamscape about live streaming. It blew my socks off! What a great way to connect school with whānau as events happen. The possibilities are endless. Whoever is selling drones in Gizzy might have a wee surge in sales following Kent's session.

I am a Google Drawings evangelist and use this app constantly with learners in the classes I am in. We do everything we can in Google Drawings from simple drawing & publishing, shape-o-grams, drag & drop activities, blog profiles, vector drawings, fridge magnets, posters of all sorts and infographics to name a few. The links go to some learners blogs as examples of the ways Google Drawings can be used.

And as for Google Slides - well, this is the Swiss army knife of the Google Suite and can be used widely in all learning areas.  We had a play with animation today. Learners in classes love this and it captivates them. I gave a year 3 class a wero this week to animate in Google Slides. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing each other's work.  Some of the older students have been creating a maths quiz in Google Slides. Click here to see Riley's maths quiz.

Create: my efforts today went into creating my pepeha on Google Tour Builder. One thing I can't do is embed it so the link to view my pepeha is here.

Then I discovered "view in Google Earth" so the link for that is here.

Still lots of clicks involved to move locations and view photos. So...next job was to Screencastify it. Here it is...



Next week is Google Certification exam time. Phew - mine are still current. Good luck everyone else!