Pecha Kucha - Autodraw

Today we worked on a Pecha Kucha style presentation to share a tool. I have shared Google's AutoDraw. It has turned me into an artist!
I found it really hard to talk for 15 seconds. I thought I was a talker...but this was difficult. I do admit to doing it off-the-cuff.
If I did it again I would definitely have to write the script and time it.
I love Screencastify. I use it lots to make tutorials. I am using it in my classes to introduce teachers to the power of "vlogging".
I will let my passion for Autodraw speak for itself in my Pecha Kucha.

Educational Platforms - Beliefs and Values

We are all products of our upbringing and experiences. Everything that has happened to us shapes our beliefs and values.

Recently I listened to a school leader talking about what has shaped him and his leadership. He spoke of personal experiences and how that influences the way he interacts with his school community. This established his priorities and drove him to his desired outcomes. As I listened and realised that he only referred to research and theorists to make connections to his current practice. It was inspirational!

It got me thinking about my educational platform and what it is that shapes my beliefs and values in education.

My favourite teacher was Miss Takarua. She taught us at Tolaga Bay School in the 60's. We all loved her! Why? Because she believed in us all. She encouraged everyone. Now this is a class of kids that moved through the school together each year to another teacher. Only new enrollments were the the change. So as a class we had been together since we were 5.  There was a stark contrast with Miss Takarua to the teacher we had the year before who berated the kids who couldn't get the maths, or couldn't read. They were constantly put down. It was a ghastly year.

One thing that Miss Takarua did everyday was to ask us about the happenings in our life. She would ask about what happened on the marae in the weekend, who went fishing, who jumped off the wharf in the holidays, who helped with docking or shearing on the farm. She was genuinely interested in all of us. So in a way as Form 2 (Year 9) kids, we didn't have "morning talks" as such, but we shared what was important for us, what was fun and community events. Everyone was included.

And there's the start and finish of all -  the word included. She got us to work a lot in pairs and small groups and made sure no one was left out - especially new kids. When I look back on it now as an educator I reckon she could have written a lot of the educational textbooks we read nowadays.

What we did at school when we were kids...

Only the Teacher Talks to Me

As part of my inquiry this year I have been thinking about inclusion and how this manifests itself in our classes. It became glaringly obvious one day in a Cybersmart session that we can unintentionally exclude students, rather than provide an inclusive environment for them.

In most of the classes I work in the teacher's use a prompt of "turn and talk" to get students to talk in pairs or small groups. When this prompt was given one day, I noticed some students on the fringes of the mat area alone with no one to talk to. The teacher quickly intervened and guided these 5 students to make a pair and a threesome. In subsequent lessons, one of the boys often ended up alone and so the teacher took on the role of being his partner to share ideas. In most classes when students are bought together on the mat, friends sit with friends and only interact with their chosen few. 

You might ask - is this a problem? I think it is. One of the big points of moving to flexible spaces is to provide the opportunities and conditions for students to collaborate. And wouldn't you like your students to collaborate with more than just their friends? Or in the case of the lonely boy who only talks to his teacher, to widen his world and have him included in the learning in the class with his peers. 

This got me thinking about my cooperative learning training many years ago with RTLB and how the philosophical approach to cooperative learning can raise social and academic learning. Our whakatauākī was "a rising tide lifts all boats" - J. F. Kennedy

Now lets jump along to the Cybersmart lesson on "Collaborating Online". I asked the teachers to pair the students prior to the lesson and to use the tuakana/teina principles. That is, to be paired with a buddy that is closely matched in ability. In these pairings there needs to be opportunities for reciprocity. At the beginning of the lesson, we sat the students in pairs and moved on to the thinking and talking part before their digital work. 

This proved to be a good way to work but there was still something missing...what was it?

Cohesion - that was what was missing. In all the classes I facilitated the collaborating online lesson, there was the uncomfortable stage at the beginning of having to talk to the partner assigned to you. I know now that in the pressure of only having an hour to deliver the lesson, there was a negligible amount of time given to building cohesion in these pairs. 

So - how can I rectify this? I would like to use CyberBuddies in my Cybersmart lessons next year and have partners that stay together and work together over time. In this way, I can build cohesion so that they build trust and are able to work together. This is also a way to model to teachers how to work students in collaborative spaces and build resilience in the ability to work with a range of people.

In this way, the socially isolated students will be talking and interacting with their peers, and not be the person that only the teacher talks to. 

Apple Teacher Certification

Another wet weekend so got stuck in and did the iPad Badges which resulted in gaining Apple Teacher status. While doing this realised the power of an iPad and will revisit these apps and extend my use of them, especially iMovie and Garageband.

Accreditation Application

One of the uncharted territories of my new role is to go through the application process to be an accredited PLD facilitator with the MoE. Once accredited, facilitators can then tout their wares and be contracted by schools under the centrally funded PLD scheme. Being a Manaiakalani facilitator means that CFPLD can be used as we work in schools in our cluster.

Under the professional supervision of Anne, she has cajoled and encouraged me to complete this process. Being the queen of procrastination I found many excuses to not get going like being "busy". Being busy is a good smokescreen that many of us cough and splutter behind. But Anne kept it on the front burner and finally, a wet weekend forced me to confront this herculean task.

The first words that jumped off the application form were "No more than 10 pages in size 10 font".  I have never written 10 pages about myself or my work. How would I fill 10 pages...and in such a small font?

Anne's prompt of looking in our Drive and at the work we have done was my starting point. I looked a the big picture stuff first and summarised what it is that our work as Manaiakalani facilitators is all about.

I remembered one of the first days at our orientation with The Manaiakalani Programme in January and we had to write in tweet format what we thought Manaiakalani is. Good way to start. With that I got going...and once I got going there was no stopping. Anne - you were right, I had plenty to write about.

Three examples of practice were asked for so I chose the Manaiakalani Outreach programme and all that it stands for as #1. #2 was about collaborating online. #3 was about using assistive technologies to support diverse learners in accessing the curriculum. Phew! And those 3 examples are each a blog post in themselves. Watch this space.

Wow - thank goodness for 10 pages and size 10 font or else this would have turned into a textbook. Can see why the limit is put in place because I'm sure some would write a textbook. Now the waiting game for the result.

Google Certification

Having just completed the Google Level 2 certification exam (yes, its called an exam), I was thinking about how stressful exams are. I haven't sat an exam for many, many years. Even when upgrading my TTC to Bachelor of Teaching & Learning way back in 2003, there were no exams. That qualification was based on assignments.

Once again, to be put into the place some of our learners are in is good for us to understand what it feels like.  There was a mixture of emotions leading up to taking the exam - anxiety, fear of failure to say the least. Why is this so? Even having been well prepared by going through the training material diligently - even if I thought I was au fait with the content, I was still quite nervous going into the exam.

Adult training or Andragogy, is well documented and I was aware of this as I prepared and went through the training material and considered my experience and knowledge as I did them.

I considered the assumptions of andragogy [1][2]  following this exam to see if there was something in here to explain the nerves...   Need to know: I knew the reason why I was learning this. 

• Foundation: I was using experience as the basis for learning
• Self-concept: self-concept was not a tick - I wasn't involved in the planning or evaluation of this instruction
• Readiness: this had immediate relevance to my work 
• Orientation: this learning was mostly problem-centered, scenarios were included, and there was some content-oriented material.
• Motivation: and the motivation for me was internal rather than external as I knew I needed to dig deeper into the Google Suite. External motivation was also a factor as it is an expectation of our employment. 

No real clue in there either as all but one was a tick. Maybe I am just an over-achiever? And it just goes to show - you're never too old to learn. 

Upshot of it all is that I now have Google Educator Level 1 & Level 2 and ready to take on the Google Certified Trainer next - but first Apple Teacher.

1. Instructional Design: Theories - Andragogy M. Knowles Encyclopedia of  Psychology. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy/  Retrieved 2018/08/12

2. Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction, and andragogy. 

http://infed.org/mobi/malcolm-knowles-informal-adult-education-self-direction-and-andragogy/ Retrieved 2018/08/12

How Did I Miss This?

We all know how important feedback is. We all know how important learning intentions and their associated success criteria are. So how did I miss putting these elements into my Cybersmart lessons? No excuses except to say that lessons are an hour long and time pressure is huge- just as all teachers experience all day - every day.
I had to get back to what I know works and have inserted these 2 elements into the Cybersmart lessons.
Learning intentions and success criteria really should be co-constructed - but there is that "time" word again.
Feedback and feedforward go hand in hand. For the purposes of the Cybersmart lessons, I am using Sheena Cameron's 2 medals and a mission, or 2 stars and wish for younger students.

Incorporating this feedback into each Cybersmart lesson will lead into quality commenting on blogs when students need to comment in a positive, thoughtful, helpful way.
The format for blog comments are...
Positive - something done well.
Thoughtful - a sentence to let us know you actually read/watched or listened to what they had to say.
Helpful - give some ideas for next time or ask a question you want to know more about.

Created in Google Drawings

A Cybersmart lesson for Smart Footprint