Session Five: Collaborate - Sites

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

Today Dorothy discussed visible teaching and learning - either you can see learning or you can't. Part of visibility is removing barriers. Dorothy mentioned some schools who sent pages of passwords home for lockdown which made things tricky for parents home schooling. We are very fortunate under the Manaiakalani umbrella to use blogging as it makes learning visible. Using our learning sites also makes learning accessible and visible.

I have created and use learning sites for many years, and I even have my curriculum vitae on a Google Site. This is our current learning site for our Year 5-6 space. This is our team blog. In my new role as Assistant Principal this year I am not responsible for a team so I am in more of an advisory role to other team leaders in regards to their learning sites and blogs. Compared to many of my friends who teach at other schools around Christchurch, we were in a perfect position to seamlessly transition to home learning in the Covid-19 lockdown. I was really thankful that our low decile school came up trumps compared to their Decile 9 and 10 schools (secretly smiling on the inside!)

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

Although I knew a little about multi modal learning, the session with Kerry was a great refresher for me, especially now that I am teaching Year 5-6 students (coming from 5 years in Year 0-1).

I loved the YouTube clip relating window dressing to the home page of your learning site (like it is a shop window). It needs to entice the learners in like a shop window. If we can hook the learner in, draw the student into learning and make it exciting, it makes the task of teaching them easier.

The key aspects are - engagement, personalised learning, accelleration and empowerment.

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

I have a lot of experience creating and using Google Sites but I didn't know about hidden pages - this will be great to hide future planning from my eager beavers who rush ahead!

I had seen the multi modal spreadsheet before when I was teaching Year 0-1 students so it was good to revisit this now I am teaching older children, and this will be something I will definitely be using in my Reading programme moving forward. Although, I will admit that I would use Google Slides (embedded in our learning site) to organise the learning rather than a learning site just for this.

In my small group session with Mark on Hoaxes I created a learning site on Hoaxes. Mark showed me how to voice record (myself reading a text) and embed in the learning site. I will use (and share) this with my team. I am interested to see the reactions about Italy's secret pasta gardens!

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

Anything that is going to make the process of planning less time consuming and easier is going to be beneficial to me. Teachers need to do more sharing rather than recreating the wheel each time themselves. Plan smarter - not harder!

When I have spare time I need to refresh my curriculum vitae Google Site and make sure I remember the shop window analogy and hook any prospective employer (not that I am looking at the moment).

I am also keen to try out Paul's suggestion that you can solve a maze by keeping your left hand on the wall the whole way through!