Collecting my toys back into the crib.

Well Boom, suddenly I have to suck it up and re publish my site to the web. The frustration and anger I felt earlier this term when I found myself with a good quality site that the kids were engaging with daily during lockdown to having limited devices to use back at school has finally subsided. 

Today I have enjoyed opening up my site and having it critically viewed by my bubble peers. They had some real useful suggestions to move forward and make my site more engaging and encouraging creativity with my students. I have learned so many great ideas from having a look around other's sites and feel inspired to try new things. My biggest challenge today was adding audio to my site. 

I feel more confident to share my planning and make the learning in my class more visible after seeing what others share on their sites. I have a bit of work to do updating everything and changing some things. Next steps in the classroom is for me to organise what devices we do have available and start encouraging my students to use the site. 

This is me after a day in front of the computer. 👀

Getting creative with Google Sites

Today's DFI session was a good one for me as it gave me time to practice some of the skills we have been learning over the past few weeks. I enjoyed the multi-modal task of creating a site for a literacy inquiry for students that encourages them to explore different types of texts and information sources. I will definitely be trialling this out with my top reading group and could even use the one I created today. Here is the work in progress.

Seeing a range of different Google Sites actually gave me encouragement that the site I created for Lockdown was actually quite effective. The extra time I took to making navigation simple and the information I presented for my students clear paid off when I looked at it compared to a range of sites. I feel a bit disappointed that I no longer have access to enough Chromebooks to keep my site updated and in use by my students.

I am finishing this Friday with renewed vigour and appreciation for Google Sites.

Nga Mihi

Making data fun

Today surprised me. Dealing with data is definitely not the most favourite aspect of my job but I found that the tutorials today are going to be useful and fun to use in the classroom setting. I especially liked the work we did with google maps.   My students love it when I bring up google maps and google Earth on the big screen to show them where different places are and to find their homes or favourite spots. Now I have the tools to create special maps with them. I think our first project will be to make a map of a shared class pepeha. 

Here is a map I created of my favourite jog around town. 

Media Mayhem

Today definitely challenged me on a whole new level. I am finding the amount of information given to us during the lecture-type whole DFI meet unhelpful and to be frank time-wasting. I appreciate my tutor Kelsey immensely as she is able to guide me without making me feel overwhelmed or zone out. I am so glad I was put in her group.

I feel I understand the pedagogy or Manaiakalani and don't need another massive talk about it next week. Let's get into more create!

I loved the google draw tutorial with Kelsey and am definitely going to have some fun with the students who have Chromebooks. I am really excited about making our Vision map digital with our Taiao warriors. I think if I spend some time looking back at the slides from this session I will be able to pick up some more useful tips.

There was some good information about the visual aspect of slides that I can take into my own presentations. I am a little confused as to what media to use- Slides or Google Draw? but I think after some playtime I will discover my favourite.

A colleague today suggested I invest in some blue filter glasses as I have been experiencing headaches after this Friday in front of a screen. I think I will try that next week.

Here are some cute dogs for you. Nga mihi.