Week 9 FINAL REFLECTION!!

WOW! What an awesome journey it has been doing the DFI course. Looking back on the past 9 weeks, I have learnt so much more than I could have expected. Something as simple as creating a group email that includes all teaching staff has been a life saver (soooo much easier than adding a person one by one). 

I have taken away so much learning after every lesson as you can see by the weekly reflections. There honestly is not a lot else I could have asked for! I am feeling super positive with how the Google exam went, I did however, finish with lots of spare time so I am hoping everything I did was correct....I know there was nothing else I could have done or would have changed so I am happy with what was submitted. I even managed to learn about Google Classrooms during the exam. This is something that I had not used before nor was it covered in the course. I spent and extra 5 minutes playing around and working out how to use it which was actually super simple! 

Overall, I am beyond happy that I was able to do this course (even if that meant a day away from my lovely superstars!). Below is me reflecting on the course through Google Forms. For now, I will continue to use everything I have learnt from this course and use it in my work and personal life. I am also hoping crossing all my fingers and toes for a big PASS of the exam. Wish me luck.

Week 8 Reflection

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Today's session has definitely helped me feel more at ease for our exam next week (eeeek!). For the last session I chose to do the Scratch 10 Block Challenge with Jeremy. I would have preferred to join the Scratch Jnr but, I didn't have my iPad with me! (Sorry Kelsey!). However, it was very beneficial but also very much an activity that is trail and error.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I got very caught up in one of the coding games earlier in the day. Kodable I think it was called. It had many fuzzy characters and it was super fun - I felt like a kid again! This is something that my Year 3's could use. I will try get Scratch Jnr on the iPads so the students cane have a go at that too.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Once again, everything I have learnt over the course of these 8 weeks has extended my knowledge of everything Google. This has built my confidence in not only my work but my personal life too. Especially being a beginning teacher and getting assigned head of technology I was concerned I didn't have enough knowledge. However, now is a different story! Big thank you to you, Kelsey, for helping!

Here is a photo of my 10 Block Challenge Scratch!

Week 7 Reflection

 What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I loved todays session! It was super cool being able to look more into Explain Everything on the iPad. It has been really good finding out NOW (before the students are actively using it) that Google accounts have not been set yup on each iPad. Once this is sorted it will make my life much easier being able to see all their work through Hapara (which I also was unaware I could do - but makes sense now!).
Check out the activity we did today! (no sound though - sorry!)

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Having a better understanding of EE has helped me gain more knowledge of the tools that I can pass on to my learners. I know they will have a lot of fun creating things on here and doing learning.

In the afternoon we have been making a lesson overview for our students of one of the cybersmart lessons. I will attach mine under this so you can check it out!

Reflecting on the Kaupapa of the Manaiakalani Programme in light of COVID 19 , whether you did Lockdown: Season 1 or Seasons 2/3/4, and YOUR readiness for ubiquitous learning...

I was only relieving at the time of Lockdown #1. Therefore I can't really reflect on these questions as such. However, I am grateful as my student's are more technologically skilled and can work independently.

Week 6 Reflection

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Being able to have some time to focus on my site has been amazing. I feel like I have been able to have time to get some slide decks sorted and ready to put on my site. This is going to help with my teaching and planning and make life easier for not only me but my students! As they have FINALLY got their iPads it will be great to have a routine during math's and reading that the children can use our class site to go to when they are unsure what they are doing, rather than interrupt me during group teaching time.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Fixing up and improving my classroom site means the students are one step closer to being able to access the site from their iPads! This will mean the the students can learn to be independent learners and not have to be guided all the time. This will be super beneficial to my group of student's as they are very needy! I am looking forward to watching their independence grow!

HANDY TIP

 When commenting on someone elses blog if you want to link something (website, video etc) use this code.

<a href="insert URL here">Insert display text here</a>

eg. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tM10pA9rcStm6OFUw6vSO0NhO6YGjwhy3GH1WkQJqX8/edit#">Click here to see this</a>

W4 Reflection

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Using sheets has allowed me to become more confident when inputting data of my students work now. Knowing how to make graphs is something that will help show my data in a different way. Sheets have so much things that it can do, I just didn't even realise.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners, how could they use it?

Something that they can use would be filling out a form that I make. As I have young learners this will be great for me to use this in seeking their prior knowledge and pre, post tests. It could easily be used for a simple quiz that I wanted to have my students do e.g. an all about me quiz.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I have never used or knew My Maps existed. This is something super cool that I can use to show the class where our classmates are from. I have a very culturally diverse classroom so this is great for that. For my personal life this is going to be amazing to help plan trips like Vicki said she used for hers.

Creating a Graph from Data W4

 

My Map Practice W4

 

Week 3 Reflection

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

This session was a very big one! so much new learning for myself which has been wonderful! I had never been one to start a YouTube channel so was super interesting learning about how to do that and super useful to be able to make a playlist which make it great for our Hymn's we listen to during Religious Education.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

I chose the Drag and Drop learning on slides. This is so great. I can make some awesome slideshow activities where my junior learners will be able to do once I put it on my class site. See slideshow below of my nearly completed work. Something so simple and easy can be such a great fun, easy activity for my learners! Also learning how to get rid of an images background using 'remove.bg'.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Google Draw is something I haven't used yet as I simply did not understand what it was or how to properly use it. This was something I think I will use for both work and personal life. Also practice of embedding a slideshow into my blog was super helpful (more practice the better!).

Week 2 Reflection

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Learning how to use Google Keep has been awesome. I hadn't learnt anything about it until today this will be an everyday use for me now. I am always jotting down notes and then finding I end up leaving them at school (or home) which is not useful whatsoever! This is going to be a great way I can have my notes all in one place when I'm on the go.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

Not directly use with my learners but now I know how to embed a video in my blog, I can use this for my classes blog. Any videos that the student may make on the iPads etc. Can be uploaded straight to Blogger. This will ensure all parents get to see it.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I had some knowledge around taming my tabs but todays session gave me even more insight. Knowing I can now have folders for my billions of tabs is fabulous! This will also decrease the overwhelming stress caused by looking at all the tabs that I need to come back too eventually. At least now it looks like less!

Google Meet Recording W2

 

Week 1 Reflection

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

The whole course is a great way to help all educators be up to date with the technology side of teaching. This is SO important in this day ad age when technology is growing in schools at a tremendous rate.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

This knowledge off all of todays course has helped my professional workflow as everything can be done without having a million tabs open! Such as copy and pasting (text to type - you can just read this out loud, YAY!) Also being able to search google through the explore button - saves me switching through 500 tabs open to search something!

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

If I had learners that were older I would most definitely use the explore function as when it comes to inserting pictures this would be an easy, quick way for them to add pictures from Google or search information fast. As my students are still little darlings, I wouldn't want them searching google (especially on Ipads as I can't see them through Hapara - but text to type could be beneficial depending if they could be understood.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Todays session has built my confidence in working google docs. I thought I had a good understanding of everything on it but there was much more to it than first thought. All that was learnt is beneficial to my work and personal life.