Nearly the end!

My goodness what a year! Stay posted, last blog post of the year coming soon... exciting things ahead!

MIT - My Journey

Wow, what an amazing experience being a Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher has been!

It all started with an application to a nerve racking interview to being offered a position, it all happened very quickly.

We were off to Kuaotuno to the Burt's batch.  It was really awesome to spend a few days together as the little family that we have become, when you are living with people you get to know everyone pretty quickly.  We shared our inquiries and the same question was popping up... WHY? WHY? WHY?  We were questioned for everything, and I thought to myself, I'm not to sure, it made me really think about my inquiry and why I wanted to do it.

I went back to the drawing board and thought to myself - Why do I want to make movies?  I went back to the data and the the student voice that I had created.  My learners weren't enjoying writing and they weren't cognitively engaged in the learning.

I then started looking at Storyboards and movie making, this instantly helped with the structure in my learners' writing, my learners became a lot more cognitively engaged in the learning that was happening.  My learners' started asking lots of questions and were really intrigued about making movies.  I realised that they were hooked and it was working.

I then was given one of the biggest opportunities in my life and was put on a plane and flew to Sydney to present at the EdTech Summit 2018.  I was incredibly nervous and had to present to other educators for an hour, was very stressful!  Although what an incredible experience learning from so many educators from around the world, can't say you get the opportunity to do that everyday!

We were able to present at the annual Manaiakalani Annual Principals' Hui.  Personally I find public speaking quite a frightening thing, having all these opportunities to speak this year has really helped me feel a bit more confident about public speaking.

The biggest thing about being a MIT teacher for me this year is not only have I created a really cool tool for educators to use around New Zealand but I have a new whanau that helps, challenges, looks after and supports each other.  We have critiqued each others work intensely and have constantly supported everyone through the ups and downs.  Massive thank you to Aunty Anne (Anne Sinclair) and Aunty Dorothy (Dorothy Burt) for making this opportunity so amazing for us we are truly blessed.

Data and results are on the way!


 

Annual Manaiakalani Hui

I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to speak at the annual Manaiakalani hui this year.  I spoke about my inquiry and what I had done this year.  If you have time have a watch, I'm quite nervous during the presentation, not much of a public speaker! Haha

Learning Steps

Today we went through and showed the direct steps that we takes as teachers to engage and inspire our learners.  This was a lesson that I taught last term showing learn, create, share.  My learners were able to get outside and change a tyre on my car.  This is a link to my planning and reflections.

Building Huts

We decided as a group that the huts we built were kind of 'average', so we decided we could build one.  The rules stay the same - it is a hut where you work in and don't talk to anyone and just get your work done, not even Mr Moran is allowed to interupt.

I also linked this with my Manaiakalani Google ClassOnAir, so you're able to see the process that we took.  The project took us about a month all up to be completed.

The 1st lesson was based around letter writing, it was asking for help.  We wrote letters and emailed a staff member asking for materials and instructions.  This was the lesson here.

The 2nd lesson was based on the design process where we used google drawing to design what we wanted the hut to look like, this was really fun doing this as the boys were super eager and keen to get started.  We spent a lot of time measuring out exactly how long the hut needed to be.  This was the lesson here.

The 3rd lesson was getting hands on and into the shed and building the hut.  This was such an amazing experience where the boys were able to use lots of different tools and get their hands dirty.  Click here to see the full lesson.

Massive thank you to Garth Jacobsen for making this experience possible for the boys, they had such an amazing time and learned so much!

Keep an eye out for our next post to see what happens next, painting and where it will be put!

MIT Feedback

This is a post that my colleague has done about my tool.

Movie Making

Zac presented his Tool on our MIT day out at KPMG. Zac's tool is an interactive website that is all about 'movie making' as a means to improve student achievement in writing.  Zac's site has four main sections; How to videos, Film techniques, Teaching strategies, Graphics & Images. Each section has examples and videos made by the learners in his class. Zac's site has a great flow- making it easy for teachers and students to use.

The tool is a one-stop site for everything movie making- from storyboarding, to editing using iMovie. It is a great place to learn more or to start out!!

Next Steps:
- State on the site that the students have created the videos.
- Give more information on how he manages the students and what he does as the teacher when they are filming.

MIT Tool Feedback - Clarelle

Today we got the opportunity to give Feedback to one of our colleagues tools that they have created.  Clarelle has created a site that is still in progress but nearly finished, this site is for learners and teachers to help build vocabulary in mathematics.

Clarelle has worked really hard over the last 6 months creating a tool that can be used to help learners build vocabulary in mathematics.  Not only will this help learners in mathematics but will go across the curriculum and help build vocabulary in so many different areas.

Clarelle has placed laminated cards around her classroom so her learners are able to go to them when they need help.  These cards have a QR code on them where learners are able to use their iPad to take them to her site where her learners have made short videos explaining what these words mean and how to use these different prompts.

The only problem that she is facing is that the videos don't open on phones via Google Drive, but her learners are using iPads so that won't be a problem.

This site will bless so many people and is extremely helpful with our new DMIC approach to mathematics this year.

Movie Making Site - It is live!

This year I have been really lucky to have the opportunity to spend a lot of time working on my inquiry thanks to Manaiakalani, I have been able to create a website that will help other teachers and our learners with movie making.

This site here is to help teachers and learners to make movies in their classrooms.

This site has 5 different areas.

How To Videos - These are some simple videos on how to do different things from holding the iPad to step by step instructions of editing on iMovie.

Film Techniques - These explain the different shots that can be used during your movie.

Graphics & Images - I will add animations and back drops that learners will use for green screen animations.

Teaching Strategies - It sounds easy making a movie, but how do you actually teach it?  This shows lessons of me teaching storyboarding, editing and different shots when filming.

Examples - These are movies that my learners have made, some are 10 seconds long and some are 2 minutes long.  We will continue to add movies to this as the year goes on.

This site is still being constantly edited and updated.  If there is anything in particular that is really helpful or something you would like to see in particular please leave me a comment or send me an email.  I hope this can be of some use to people, please share it with your colleagues!

Day 2 EdTech Summit Conference Sydney

Woke up this morning feeling slightly nervous, today was my turn to present.  We were very lucky the conference catered food so we were able to have beautiful meals at the venue.

The conference started with our Keynote speaker, Lindsay Wenser, she was very inspirational and motivating, she motivated me to make a difference with my learners.  She talked about making mistakes in front of our learners so they're able to see that it's okay to take risks and fail.  I think this is so important as our learners look up to us as teachers and if they can see that it's okay to make mistakes this will create a culture in our schools where learners can take risks and can fail.
With technology we're able to engage our learners in so many different ways, we can help our learners find problems that they're interested in and give them the tools to solve these problems, empowering our learners.  Lindsay spoke about time being our enemy, we never have enough time in the day to get things done, she then said that you'll always make time to get everything done.

I then had my presentation, I was quite nervous starting but once I started to calm down I was sweet.  I spoke about my inquiry, making movies with children and how to engage our learners to write.  We ended up making our own mini movies with other educators, just to get them more confident so they would be able to go and have a go with their learners.

I was extremely excited to see Anne Sinclair present about the Paideia Approach.  She spoke about how it is based around student led discussions and getting our students to think deeper about certain subjects and form their own opinions.  We then were able to have a discussion as a group and build on each others opinions and question each other.  This has been working really well in my classroom with our new discussion approach to mathematics, seeing the children talk and question each other I can see multiple learners cognitively engaged in their learning.  I will definitely be using this approach more in my classroom during literacy.

I then went to listen to Jesse Lubinsky talk about various Google resources that were available to us.  He created a website to show us all the different things we could be doing in our classrooms with our learners.  Did you know that on Google Maps if you go into street view and drop the man on the street you can go back in time and see that exact spot 2-10 years ago!  Earth engine is pretty amazing too, you can see a location/country from a satellite view and see how much it has developed over as much as 30 years, Dubai is an amazing example, would create great discussion with our learners.  Have a play around on the site above and I guarantee you'll learn something new, if not email me and I'll try help!

This conference was amazing, I took so many amazing ideas and learned so much that I can incorporate in my classroom.
The two biggest things that I got from this conference was

• Connecting with educators from all over the world and finding out what they're doing in their classrooms and what is working and what isn't.
• Being able to reflect.  Take time to think about what is happening in my classroom and what is working and what isn't.  Hearing all of these new ideas gave me the chance to think about how I can shake things up in my classroom a little bit.

Thank you so much to the Manaiakalani Education Trust once again for giving me this opportunity.  This was such an amazing experience, I was able to gain so much confidence and learn so much that I can take back to New Zealand and share with my colleagues.  Also massive thanks to Dorothy Burt and Anne Sinclair for being amazing Aunties and looking after all of us while we were away!

Day 1 EdTech Summit Conference Sydney

I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to travel to Sydney and attend the 2 day EdTech Summit conference.  Thank you to the Manaiakalani Education Trust for giving me this opportunity. What an amazing day full of new ideas and connecting with educators all over the world.

Today was started with Jesse Lubinsky all the way from New York a very inspirational passionate man.  He spoke about children being superheroes in disguise, as educators it's our job to bring out the super power in each child and to see them shine in different ways in their lives.  Our job is to make every student in our class super while creating an environment where they feel safe to take risks and make mistakes.  When students are able to take risks in the classroom they will see failure but the joy that comes after failure is even greater.  

This really made me reflect on my own teaching and the learners in my classroom; am I giving them an opportunity to be super heroes?  Are my learners comfortable with taking risks in my classroom?

I then went to a session about using Lego in Literacy using doing stop go animations.  This is all about letting learners be creative and have conversations about making stories.  Giving learners this time is important to be creative and have fun in the classroom.  This is the animation I made below.

We finished with the Demo slam where presenters were able to give a 3 minute presentation about a tool or tip.  We had multiple speakers.  Our own Dorothy Burt spoke about creating a Google Keep app for your doc that's very simple and easy to use.

Today was full on, we learned so much but now I have to spend time thinking about how I'm going to incorporate all of these amazing ideas into my teaching practise.

What's going on? Testing and Reports are all done!

The ball is rolling..  I took the 'Writing Hut' idea from Chris Marks' Blog  I spoke with my students about the idea and they were all on board and we designed this...

We then realised that the cardboard fell over and it wasn't working as you could still look out of it and got just as distracted.. 

So we went back to the drawing board, I then talked to a colleague and he had a heap of old election voting boxes that were being unused so the kids and I went and picked them up.  I gave the kids freedom of how they would like them to be designed.  They came up with this, and this is still working!

            

          

These 'Writing Huts' are amazing in our class and once the kids are in the Huts, no one is allowed to distract them, not even the teacher (rule they made)!  They love sitting there and getting stuck into their work.  They normally wear headphones to block out any noise around them as well.

The problem I've found is that the cardboard is slowly starting to wear out, so next term we will go back to the drawing board and have a go at creating something similar.

The Movie Making is happening!  

After a lot of teaching around how to film, what angles to use, how to hold the camera, how to use iMovie effectively.  My learners have started to understand how to make movies, they are taking baby steps but they're loving it.  It's made me understand how much the little things really matter.

                

             

The editing is what I've found the trickiest, everyone wants to have a turn and everyone needs to learn how to edit properly.  We are all having turns at learning how to edit on the iMacs and everyone is starting to get a lot better.  Some of my learners are now able to help other learners in our class.

           

How to Movies:

• How to hold the iPad/Camera.
• Different angles you can use.
• How to use the basics of iMovie

These are a few movies my learners and I will be making for my site for everyone to be able to use.

KPMG - Day 2

It's always so nice to be able to sit down and listen and share how everything is going and where we are all at.  I've been so busy with reports I haven't focused on my inquiry much lately, but as soon as testing and reports are out of the way we will be all guns blazing!  My kids have started to really enjoy learning the basics and have starting making little 'how to' movies on how use different skills, For eg. how to hold an iPad, how to upload your footage to a computer.  We haven't done much much filming yet because there are so many things that they need to learn first.

The site is up and running, it still has a few changes that have to be made because as my inquiry grows I'm realizing some things are more important then others.  I've spent a lot of time making how to movies for kids and teachers about how to film and how to edit.  I've tried getting my learners to create them so that other learners around the world will be able to understand and can listen to learners there own age.

What are you struggling with? (A question I was asked).
Time is probably my biggest struggle at the moment, with everything going on having time to do this in class has become more difficult than I thought it would be. 

Being able to see where everyone is and help each other is great.  Having that time to connect and reflect and think about our next steps is great.

What are your views on teaching?  What motivates you?

Relationships - understanding the child - where they come from and the child knowing who you are and where you come from as well. Expectations and respect are both massive in the culture of your classroom, you don't just get given respect you have to earn it, just like the children.  My mum has always said to me "if the child in the class is not happy and enjoying being there, they're not going to learn as much as they would if they loved school" I'm also a firm believer of this, and have remembered this since I began my journey as a teacher.

We played a game where everyone had a role and they had to question and critique your inquiry and your idea that you have created. I talked with the group and we had a scribe who recorded the whole conversation, it's really interesting!

TEAM MEMBER:  Zac - increasing achievement in writing via engagement.

Starting at new learning - Lots of talking to others (woolf fisher case studies included) and experts and engagements..

Made me understand that most of my kids were behaviourally engaged and that it was the cognitive engagement that i needed to work on. -

Started making videos - This had made me then branch out into other areas.  Working on google expeditions - struggling to get phones to make this happen. - This would increase engagement and broaden horizons.  Utube 360 videos as a tool in the meantime. (Jacob shared another Google doodle?). - great way to engage with descriptive writing. - hoping to do something similar for classroom on air.

Spoke to another colleague - Story book creating.  Create and share (including illustrations) with another junior classroom - These were paper books (but could be digital as well). - This pulled in the boys in their class that were least engaged traditionally but were the most engaged in this task as they knew who they were going to gift it to and they wanted to help them.

Re-thinking the who - realised I hadn’t used all of the people listed but needed refocusing on this.  - so many experts that are amazing at it.

Questions

Is this tool going to be the process or something they can use - Kid friendly so they can use, but also for teachers so they can use it as well. - If I wasn’t part of a digital school I wouldn’t understand half of what I do now. - Main site and 5 different things and link to classroom on air. - there will also be resources on how to make the different movies.

What are our goals now (and next steps) - talking with people (who?) Sandy, Andrea, Helen Squires) - Dorothy said ”REMEMBER OUTSIDE YOUR ECO CHAMBERS” - I want to tell them my idea and ask them their ideas and what they think will work.

Goal is to keep workin on building up the resource bank so it is useful.

What might this offer from the perspective of the students - it will be usable.  They can use animation, audio clips and increase their engagement and achievement altogether - And have fun - and engage in writing.

What research has been used - Dorothy’s daughter sent lots of links, read lots of blog posts about what can behaviorally engage students - alo of this come back to quietness and less distractions.  - Looking at previous inquiries and what worked and what didn’t.

Chris Marks - want to reach out to him - as you have read a whole lot of his posts - he had lots of stuff on engagement. - Lots of out of the box stuff - he was really good at inventing stuff to help.

Lots of consulting - .is it connecting to pedagogy and is it going to progress towards the tool - This is something that Zac is grappling with at the moment. - Are you trialling them out as you are going? - Yes…

Danny - asked if the site will also include not just the videos of what you do but how does this relate to learning - why have you chosen this technique going deeper in one idea?.

Focusing on - writing style, or the tool use or the moving making (narrative).  - Also how they will film and work together with others to make this more successful.  - Also the scaffolding from iPads to Chrome books. - Accessing prior knowledge (comparisons made to make the transition easy).

Wheels Day - Class On Air

#ClassOnAir

Throughout the year I will be updating my Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir site with links to my planning, resources, reflections, videos of my teaching, and links to the learners work on their blogs. There are 10 Manaiakalani teachers from various schools and levels for you to check out. It's 21st century window into our classrooms. 
Check out the whole ClassOnAir site here.

Here's  a preview of my latest lesson.

Direct Instruction

The learning intention for this lesson was to write a recount about our Pt England School Wheels day (all of the kids are able to bring a set of wheels from home for the day eg. bike, skateboard etc.) We focused on using the 5 W's when writing our introduction. The video shows a writing lesson focused on the discussion before writing their recounts.

See the full episode here.

Air Pt England - Class On Air

#ClassOnAir

Throughout the year I will be updating my Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir site with links to my planning, resources, reflections, videos of my teaching, and links to the learners work on their blogs. There are 10 Manaiakalani teachers from various schools and levels for you to check out. It's 21st century window into our classrooms. 
Check out the whole ClassOnAir site here.

Here's  a preview of my latest lesson.

Direct Instruction

The learning intention for this lesson was for the children to work collaboratively to understand what a flight attendant was. They would then create a movie as if they were flight attendants on their very own 'Pt England Airways'. The video shows a reading lesson where the learners are focusing on the discussion before creating a movie.

See the full episode here.

MIT - KPMG

We were very lucky to spend a day at KPMG in Auckland and break down, un pack and really look closely into our moonshot proposals.  We were given the opportunity to share our ideas with not only our own colleagues but KPMG employees as well, it was awesome to get ideas from someone that doesn't work in education as well.

A really inspiring idea that I got from one of my colleagues was talking about a year 7&8 teacher at Tamaki primary and what she did one year for her inquiry.  From my understanding she got her students teaching their little siblings at home by taking home word blends, books, and basic word games.  Not only did this help for their younger siblings but it also consolidated their own understanding.

We had a chance to sit down and share where we are all at, being able to reconnect with people that have similar moonshot ideas.  This was really awesome and inspiring.  We then split into small groups and shared our ideas and talked to each other about what we want to do and were able to give each other feedback.  I did a very rough (as you'll see) design on the whiteboard and was helped by both Dorothy and Hinerau of my Google Site that I'll be designing and creating.

I then went to my computer and thought I would have a play and see what it would look like.. very roughly.  I now will take the template below away and design the colour scheme and the rest of the site.  Learners and teachers will be able to use this site for resources of making movies and learning how to teach effectively via movie making.

If you have any ideas or feedback please leave me a comment or send me an email.

Where's my head at, what is engagement?

Lately I've been doing some thinking and questioning my own thinking.  I was asked how I will measure my learners engagement and I was stuck, I think I threw the word engagement around to easily. 

Are these kids engaged? 

How do I engage these kids?

Why is engagement so important?

How do I measure engagement?

What does engagement really mean?

I then did some research and have realised that there are many different types of engagement, two that I will be focusing on will be these two:

• Behavioural Engagement
• Cognitive Engagement

For my learners to be behaviourally engaged I have the understanding that they need to be focused and completing their work.  I am going to video my students and see if they are behaviourally engaged in their learning.  Cognitive engagement is a bit more tricky i've found.  I'm still researching and learning to understand what 'Cognitive Engagement' really is and how I will be able to measure this in my classroom.

I started my inquiry thinking that I was going to be making a whole lot of movies and have turned away from that idea since.  The reason I turned away was because I realised that my inquiry needed to based upon a problem that I have identified with my learners and that was engagement.  

I then have gone back and thought more critically about my inquiry and have come to think that making movies and looking at creating scripts could cognitively engage my learners.  I will still be looking at multiple ways of engaging my learners to write.  Any ideas please let me know!

Obstacle Course Writing Lesson - Class On Air

#ClassOnAir

Throughout the year I will be updating my Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir site with links to my planning, resources, reflections, videos of my teaching, and links to the learners work on their blogs. There are 10 Manaiakalani teachers from various schools and levels for you to check out. It's 21st century window into our classrooms. 
Check out the whole ClassOnAir site here.

Here's  a preview of my latest lesson.

Direct Instruction -
The learning intention for this lesson was for the children to blindfold there friends and lead them around our home made obstacle course.  We then focused heavily on the 5 W's in their recount.
The video shows a writing lesson where the learners are focusing on the discussion before writing a recount.

See the full episode here.

Zoo Reading Lesson - Class On Air

#ClassOnAir

Throughout the year I will be updating my Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir site with links to my planning, resources, reflections, videos of my teaching, and links to the learners work on their blogs. There are 10 Manaiakalani teachers from various schools and levels for you to check out. It's 21st century window into our classrooms. 
Check out the whole ClassOnAir site here.

Here's  a preview of my latest lesson.

Direct Instruction

The learning intention for this lesson was to make connections with prior knowledge and share our own opinions. The video shows a reading lesson where the learners are focusing on whether animals should be in zoos or not. We then are lucky enough to speak to a zoo keeper and ask him some questions.

See the full episode here.

Weekend away in Kuatonu - My Inquiry

This weekend we were extremely luck to go away for a few nights and look in depth into our inquiries and realise exactly what we're doing.  I went into this weekend with a few ideas on what I wanted to do for my inquiry and now I have so many different ideas thanks to the MIT crew.

We arrived late Thursday night where we were able to have a nice relaxing evening getting to know each other, followed by a few very funny team building activities on Friday morning.

We were then able to get stuck in, my goodness I didn't realise how much my inquiry was going to change!  We did an activity where we put everyone who we thought would support us in our inquiry down on an A3 piece of paper, and my goodness there are a lot!  I'm incredibly blessed to have such an amazing team around me who will be able to help me take on this inquiry.

We then looked at the big 'WHY', why choose this inquiry, why will this help our children.  Our original inquiry idea was challenged.  This was incredibly helpful as it got us looking into the 'nitty gritty' of our inquiry.  I ended up turning my inquiry question around as I found it was only focusing on one way that I could engage students in writing.  My question has now become 'How can I engage and give learners ownership of their writing to increase achievement?'

We then critiqued each others inquiries and gave ideas on where we think we need to improve (seen above).  I needed more hard evidence/data supporting my ideas.  So I need to go back to the drawing board, and get the data and the evidence of why I decided to inquire into this part of my practise after all.

This was an amazing weekend away just focusing on my inquiry, I learned lots and was able to apply my new learning to my inquiry that I have decided to take on this year.

'How can I engage and give learners ownership of their writing to increase achievement?'

Thanks heaps to Dorothy, Anne, Jenny and Russell for making this weekend happen!

2018 - What's happening? What's new?

This year I've been extremely lucky and have landed 2 extra positions, one being Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir, and Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers (MIT).  This year I will be inquiring into my writing practise and will be looking into how making movies can engage children in writing.  I will get students to write the scripts and to film the movies themselves I hope by doing this students will be more engaged and will have more ownership over there writing.

I'm very luck to be teaching in a shared space with 2 amazing teachers, we are teaching collaboratively and between us we have 79 year 3&4 children.  I'm extremely excited to learn and teach alongside these 2 amazing teachers.

This year I will be sharing my journey on my blog, so please comment and give me feedback, or ask any questions.