Accelerated Literacy Learning

This year offered Emma and I the opportunity to review our entry to school literacy programme and the effectiveness of it in preparation for moving into Year 2. 

This has been a valuable experience as it supported us in developing our online planning so that we could better meet the needs of our shared learners.

Together we have built our skills and capacity to do this and are now transferring these skills across our HUB. 

We are now asking questions about the most effective way to track assessment using Google Tools and this is a next step for 2020. 
Manaiakalani have provided me with the skills and knowledge to carryout some of the development and the knowledge and ability to discover how to do what I don't know.

               It is all about efficiency for time and effectiveness for progress!

Manaiakalani Wananga -2019

A two day journey through the impact that Manaiakalani has in education.

'The Manaiakalani Programme'

Digital Fluency / Accelerated Outcomes

An intentional, focused, evidence-based programme to support your community of learning move from the analogue world to the digital world 

Increasing teacher effectiveness and accelerating learning outcomes in this digital environment.

Day One ... we visited two schools on the Manaiakalani Journey ... seeing children in action.

"Desperation into Admiration" - the future for our children

This is the difference that comes for Manaiakalani being involved in our community, our learning, our education!

How fortunate are we to be a part of this outreach programme that is changing lives, adding value and making the world a better place for all learners.

Through Manaiakalani we not only make the future for our learners brighter yet ours also! 

Young people who are:

“confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners”

NZC 2017

Who are instructional Leaders?

'All who exercise influence to make a positive difference'

Vivianne Robinson 2011

'Learn, Create, Share'

Our mantra that is the focus of our delivery in the class to make learning for the children more authentic and to increase student agency!

It is through this model that my own learning and skill in ICT for the betterment of my teaching world, my learning world and my personal world is developing!

SHMOOSHED - A new word that means just as it sounds.

With the support of the partnership between Manaiakalani and Wolf Fisher we have the benefit of gather, sharing and analysing data in such a way that we can build on and improve the learning outcomes for all students. Together we can learn to make the most of all learning opportunities.

From the data gathered overtime the investigation into BEST practice is now benefiting us all! The breakdown of the data- the findings have assisted us in identification of these elements that make the difference to not just learning yet acceleration.

Just as we set deliberate acts of learning for our students we can also foster this for our teachers in order to make change and to increase acceleration and achievement for our students. Manaiakalani and Wolf Fisher have identified the strengths and weaknesses across our cluster and it now our responsibility to respond to this proactively and to change our practice. Robust discussions in our schools and across our cluster will support this change.

This statement may seem logical yet is it intentionally part of my daily teaching? If not it soon will be!!

Collaboration ... must be part of the reading process and reading is a language based activity and discussion will strengthen the outcomes! 

Student Agency- learners selecting the text to read and the way they will share their findings increases engagement which will increase ability.

A HUGE bonus today was our opportunities to talk in groups across not only clusters yet also the regions ... this has been very powerful to bring to light where we are at in our clusters and that we share the same challenges and having them openly discussed and solutions offered has been so valuable ... learning from clusters that a five years down the track is brilliant

As in writing ... when our focus moved from teaching surface features to focusing on the deep features acceleration occurred ... we now need to shift our teaching focus in reading the same way. Is this the time to increase mine and other teachers understanding of  Reading ... to unpack it just as we did for writing, to develop the language of reading ... to move away from teaching to the level to teaching to the need ... to also ignite our own passion for reading.

T-Shaped Reading is a researched initiative that is well supported as BEST practice by Manaiakalani and supported by Wolf Fisher research data.

Thank goodness Manaiakalani is rewindable as we were given the privileged of listening to innovative teachers that are excelling in their delivery! Each delivery ... 6 minutes long!

MIT- Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers

What do I feel has possibly been lost over time that supports learning and acceleration?

• The Tuakana-Teina philosophy - the planned and formal inclusion of this has faded in our school yet can it be just as powerful when we foster and encourage it as a way of being in our school and for us to encourage the philosophy across the school in order to build relationships, develop confidence and mana within all our students across the curriculum.
• Ubiquitous - "presence everywhere or in many places simultaneously."
• Provocation - 'something that stimulates' ... excitement, instigation, incitement

Investigate ... 

SOLO - 

DIMIC - Developing the Mathematics Inquiry Community ... NZMATHS

Let's celebrate brave and committed leadership

We are not here to keep you happy in your misery

Pat Snedden

Instructional Leadership

What am I going to do as a leader to make shifts happen?

How am I going to lead our teachers to make the change to accelerate achievement?

Raise teacher understanding so that they rekindle their passion for doing what we love ... increase our pedagogy. 

Today has inspired me to believe more in what we can do as a teaching profession through collaboration with our colleagues.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller

Visible Learning ... Mind Frames

Improving Practice through Mind-Frames

John Hattie's mind frames have supported me in unpacking my beliefs I hold as a teacher and a leader.

John Hattie believes “that teachers and school leaders who develop these ways of thinking are more likely to have major impacts on student learning.”

The presentation below is how I see myself as a teacher, leader and coach.

To Blog or Not Blog ... in school

To Blog or Not Blog ... in school!

This is a thought that I am exploring currently as a leader of learning in our school.

We currently have a variety of platforms that our staff, students and families are accessing, commenting on, posting and viewing.

1. School Facebook
2. Class Facebooks
3. School Website
4. Class Websites
5. Seesaw

We are currently 2/3 of the way through Manaiakalani Facilitation in our school and so most of the students and teachers have had teaching and learning skills shared in BLOGGING.

The big question is why are we BLOGGING and what does it mean for our children to BLOG?

One of my thoughts is that it provides an authentic purpose for students to write ... they are able to connect with an audience that is unlimited.

Why Your Students Should Blog: 6 Powerful Benefits ...  

 

Understanding BETTER ... THE New Zealand Curriculum

Today we are presented with a dynamic day full of unpacking the NZ Technology Curriculum. TeAhua has flown in to facilitate our day of learning.
Kahoot is a great way to upskill us all and to put in competition and challenge to drive our deep dive into the curriculum.

New Zealand Technology Curriculum

A supportive site ... code.org is a site to promote the coding concept without the involvement of technology. (CODING UNPLUGGED)

Prototypes ... children developing their own. The steps before this is to learn to create by following a step of instructions. In our New Entrant room we have a variety of resources that can teach and reinforce these skills. Through google we can access Duplo Pictures  for the children to copy.

A key concept for the early years in Technology is learning and understanding the language, the concepts. 

A great watch for why we are developing and implementing the Technology curriculum is Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner.

Computational thinking is in our everyday lives and already a part of our classroom. the shift will be to make the links for the children when they are thinking in a computational way. Teaching and using the language.

It is now back to the classroom to implement what I have learnt today.

The class loved the added challenge of creating from a model! There was lots of rewinding and having another go ... looking closely at the plan and then recreating the model was a real skill that took time and trial.

Getting UP-TO-DATE with Technology

Getting UP-TO-DATE with Technology for me ... for my STUDENTS!

I am fortunate enough to be a part of Professional Development supported by TeAuha from Cognition. This is giving me the opportunity to explore the Technology Curriculum and to be be able to make informed decisions for our teachers, students, their Whanau and our school around the delivery of the Technology Curriculum. 

This is some of the areas covered today ... tomorrow it's team time with the HUBS.

                                                               

 This is where the government would like our students to be heading in education for the learners in our rooms ... 

   Check out the pathways ...

Relationships remain an integral part of our learners lives. It is important for them to think critically, self management, creativity, engagement and communication are all valuable skills for our learners to develop. 

This clip supports us to ... CHANGE OUR MINDS ... CHANGE OUR THINKING! Learning to use the tools available to support them in their learning is important. Knowing if the tools are not required put them away. Learning to be creators is what is wanted ... not consumers of technology yet designers, builders and developers.

Ten years ago this was the research that created the why for TODAY!!  

              An interesting read Up-Date 26 - this share about how knowledge is constructed and what we know about learners.

Promoting the 'Connected World' is a huge part of the WHY! Teaching the skills of collaboration, team work and co-construction MUST be a deliberate aspect to our classrooms to ready our learners for the future.

Teaching the 21st Century Learners are who we are teaching. Transforming our teaching in an important focus in our practice!

                                    

The SAMR Model is a framework created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura that categorizes four different degrees of classroom technology integration. The letters "SAMR" stand for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition

As New Zealand teachers we are very strong in planning for individual needs in our rooms ... all children have individual needs of some kind! Creating 'Inclusive Classrooms' is a very important aspect of practice ... knowing our learners, their whanau and their special characters is a powerful aspect to meeting the needs of ALL!!

The 'Nature of Learning' is a great read to support us into developing our Inquiry into integrating technology into our everyday classroom. 

DFI- Google Exam ACHIEVED!

Google Exam Achieved!!

The tension was real ... 2nd time round and panic had set in!!

Boy ... success tastes sweet!

Teaching and Learning ... Am I Going the Right Way?

What Matters Most in Learning, Teaching and Leading

Andrew (Andy) Jones / Facilitator  

https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1320&context=research_conference 

Learning Science:

Context is key ... professional practice, colleagues and community in our setting is pivotal when looking at development and change.

Sharing a short story with a beginning, middle and end (2 minutes) about someone in our community that we have made a difference for is very powerful in summing up what we are in education for ... acknowledging that we have and do make a difference. This would be a very valuable activity to carry out with staff and teams to keep us in the positives!! 

Episodes for Learning

1. What are we talking about here? School improvement research and practice
2. What makes you say that? Leading evidence-informed teaching practices across the school
3. Teachers make the Difference: Teacher learning and the science of professional learning
4. Team work makes the Dream Work: Enhancing teacher collaboration
5. Being Clear: Coherent and Intelligible
6. Are you paying Attention: Mindful Leadership

Mindfulness is the new BLACK!!

Why the School as a Learning Organisation?

• Who Killed Nokia? They were big and now almost extinct! Why? The leaders weren't listening to change ... APPLE arrived on the scene .... Apple leaders were programmers ... involved in how the systems work. In Nokia the leaders were removed from the systems. In school we need to make the decisions as we know education, we are at the front of change, we are an integral aspect of the puzzle ... we make the difference to the future here and now ... we are part of the change. We also have an interest and investment ... we are connected.

Just because you sit on a toilet does not make you a plumber!

  What do we as architects of learning want for our learners?

• To keep the wonderment of learning alive ... intellectual and emotional ability to engage on society... 
• Connectivity, with each other, their community and beyond.
• Creative, Curious and Innovative
• To keep the love of learning alive ... confident, connected, active learners.
• Happy ... knowing where to go when the going isn't going right.
• To have choices.
• To be resilient, ... This is a direct correlation to mental health. 
• To be good humans ... to add value to their community! This is what creates self esteem, self worth 
• To know who they are!! To feel valued, listened to and that they matter
• Passionate and kind.

Within the Room these are the qualities that we wish for our students in Gisborne.

Leading International Trends in School Improvement

1. Teacher level leadership
2. Networked Improvement Communities 

"Communities of Learning are struggling to find the leaders and teachers to lead these. Failing as they have been imposed from Top Down" ... These are Andrew's thoughts.

In Medicine ... the leaders growing the concept are in medicine ... In education it is the Ministry telling us how to run these, they are not teachers, principals or leaders in education.

How do schools Improve?

1. High quality teaching practice
2. Powerful Home / School Partnerships
3. Educational Leadership
4. Professional Development
5. Teacher Teams

Teacher-Level or Middle- level School Leadership

'Teachers who maintain classroom-based teaching responsibilities, while also taking on leadership responsibilities outside that of the classroom.'

Leading Ideas

Most systems that invest in their school invest in principal leadership ... 

The STRENGTH of the Middle Leaders

• Managing the stresses/difficulties - wellbeing/impact
• Changing relationships with peers and administration-identity
• opportunity for increased positive feelings and professional growth
• Harnessing the potential of an untapped resource- career teachers

ALL / MST support the development of teacher leaders, leading from the classroom empowers the teachers.

The classroom teacher has the integrity among their colleagues as they are doing the 'mahi' ... a leader that leads from the classroom are facing the challenges in the room alongside their colleagues, they are in the reality of today's classroom. 

Teachers as Leaders / Collaborative leadership for Communities of Learning / Vincent Anfara.

                                                                                                                 
  

 The Stresses of Leading is REAL

What is Mindfulness?

• Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and without judgement.
• Present in your body
• Paying attention
• Building a positive culture with deliberate actions, acknowledging the importance of all in the team, the community and the class.

It's not whale music, caftans and candles ... 

Smiling Mind 

This app is a possibility for the school to follow. There is a free education programme for the whole school to follow.

Is there merit in providing our students with this tool? ... Nathan Wallis believes that teaching our students the practice of mindfulness is the best gift we can give them for their future!!

Acknowledge our feelings as feelings and not out reality!

Sharing this app with families to support them and their children at home is also a worthwhile practice.

4. Teamwork makes the Dream Work

Children grow into the intellect that is around them ... the teacher has a significant impact on this in their modelling and the values that they engage in and give students exposure to.

Teacher Collaboration

• Connections
• Inclusiveness
• Collective Conversations
• Collective Ownership / efficacy 
• Improvement
• More than cooperation
• the union of ideas
• SHARING
• Respectful nature of the relationship
• Interdependence- creating new knowledge - valuing others
• Relational trust 
• Synergy - connections
• 'We'
• Goal directedness / purpose / focus
• Collective understanding
• Bringing it together!

Lyn Sharratt ... 

Collaboration is ... goal-directed action that empowers teachers and leaders to construct new knowledge together, that builds and shares understanding about practice and most importantly, that outlines specific strategies for improving the quality of students lives.

What is the nature of teacher collaboration in our schools?

I am noticing...

I am wondering ... A way to share thoughts and ideas to encourage growth ... prompting conversation ... thoughts on a topic.

I am noticing ... stronger teacher relationships in our HUBs and am wondering is this a reason for the shared consistency across the school not being as strong?

I am noticing that we are very predictable in our school for children and wonder if this is a barrier to them learning to adapt to change.

Collective Efficacy is the most powerful aspect to improvement across the school ... the leaders and teachers in the school have a shared understanding of what we all believe!!

Peter Senge: Mindfulness as Key for Personal & Organisational Learning (Chap 3) 

The health of the community is reliant on the whole community ... if one aspect is not strong the other areas are affected. 

Peer Observation...

We often watch the teacher during an observations ... learning is invisible, observing the learners is key to knowing what is being taught and how effective the teacher is. 

Ask the learners the questions... 

• What are you learning?
• Why are you learning this?
• How will it help you in the future?

A wondering I have after my time with Andrew is why am I in education? 

What difference am I making or wanting to make?

What do I believe and want to see for my school, my students, my team?

DFI- The Data Deal

The Data Deal

The Manaiakalani ethos ...

 of connecting all to enable strength through collaboration is reflected in the power of blogging! A successful example of this is our DFI groups weekly reflections through our blogs ... this enables us to share our weekly creations. thinking ans skills for others to return to to deepen our thinking and skill!

Google Maps ...

 is an underutilised tool in our classrooms and one that can bring the world, our place and our country into the classroom.
This is the beginning of My Digital Pepeha supported by Google Maps.

Google forms ...

 are an easy and effective way to gather information for a class, school or community. Quick to make and information being easily gathered, aggregated and shared makes this a valuable tool for me as a teacher and leader in our school. Here is a quick sample of a Google Form I have made to gather student information for my class. 

Google Sheets ...

Google Sheets is an area that at this stage I have not used or had the need to use. I have however discovered Steve Dotto from dottotech on youtube. I have the confidence through DFI to know that if I was required to create a google sheet for a task that I would be able to locate the information I require. In fact ...  I have such confidence in Steve that with the skills I have learnt through DFI that I have made a youtube playlist of the relevant clips I require to make the learning more accessible!

This is all part of the Manaiakalani philosophy that supports learning being accessible to ...

... Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere!

I have been mindful of the rewindable learning for my students and their families through the use of our class Google Site! I ensure that I share the learning for all to revisit so that they can deepen their understanding, share their learning and show their families their thinking!

DFI- Collaborative Sites ... Collaborating Life!

Working Smarter / Living Smarter

Using digital technologies to smarten up the way I live and interact with teaching and learning will not only make my life smarter yet the learning more real and connected for the learners and their families.

The class web-page is the beginning of this for my new entrant room as it is a way of sharing the learning for home and school, making it visible for the families and rewindable for the learners. I have created for the first time an assembly page under Term 1 to make the running of the presentation to the school smoother yet sharing it with families earlier would mean the children can practice at home during the week so they are better prepared!

Multi-modal Literacy's - Design ... window dressing ... making the learning inviting ... with the support of Hapara you can give the children focused browsing time where their screens are locked for a selected amount of time so they can only work with the desired work.

 There are so many supports to keep our students safe and to make learning achievable and connectable. The focus on Ipads today introduced the many ways for new learners to record, review and share their thinking with others. 

Explain Everything is the next new skill for our classroom. I look forward to introducing this to our class as I feel it will add value to their thinking and learning and is very shareable for our families. 

We are currently accessing apps on our IPads to support us with letter formation, numeral recognition, subertising and now we will use the Makaiakalani philosophy of CREATE and SHARE.
It is a fabulous feeling to be at a place where technology is supporting me!!

DFI - The Final Frontier - Week Nine

Revision

Today was all about reviewing the distance traveled after Nine INTENSIVE weeks of ICT learning. The Manaiakalani kaupapa of making learning visible, rewindable and equitable has certainly been reflected for me in the past few weeks as I have built up to taking on an exam.

I was able to use the skills that this DFI has taught me to view youtube, rewind skills taught in prior focuses and to save information all in readiness to sit the Google Level One exam! While not achieving the exam this time I am certainly close enough to had a resit in 14 days time. The challenge was real and my efforts stellar!!

I have learnt that learning is never ending and with the support of GOOGLE and a network of colleagues every challenge is achievable ... if not at first most certainly soon after!!

I learnt that the struggle is where the learning takes place and it is through the struggle that we achieve. It has been too long since I was last challenged in the way that I expect my learners to be challenged and this was a good feeling and a timely reminder how good ... no great ... achieving feels after the struggle!!

The skills I have learnt in applying the different tools and apps to assist me in keeping order in a busy life have been invaluable. Thanks to a fantastic SMART phone support, advice, planning, assessment and lists is never far away. Sharing across many devices and with teaching colleagues life is certainly much SMARTER!
 These pictures are a reflection from last weeks learning where I introduced my class of 5 year olds to CODING UNPLUGGED! Such fun ... I could see so many curriculum skills being covered as well as collaboration and communication. The list of learning skills was endless!!

A HUGE thank you to our fabulously patient and knowledgeable facilitators Maria, Amie, Step and Herman. Meeting new faces and learning partners has also been a highlight of the DFI experience!!

Computational Thinking ... Where will it take ME?

My Digital Journey

Magic Moments at 

Gisborne Mindlab

Getting my head around the new 'Digital Technology Curriculum' for me is a NOW step. Fortunately we have supported PLD through Cognition. 

Listening to Dorothy share with us today of the challenges of equity across our communities is such an eye opener every time. The positives today is thanks to being able to connect digitally we are able to keep our communities connected no matter where they be!

Digital devices are so much more than a tool! They are windows to the world!! Keyboards to collaboration and connection!

The Mindlab

What a fabulous space The Mindlab is to work in. Great to revisit and reconnect. This time round I feel much more digitally proficient and the new learning shared made so much more sense!! I was able to listen to and learn new skills and then adapt them to suit my age group so look our Room 7 Makauri School ... we will be learning to code!!

Playing KAHOOT! was a real heart pounder ... not a good thought when the Google Level One exam is 3 hours of STRESS!!!

Practicing Coding with real live ROBOTS. To achieve this successfully with 5yr olds I would tape the grid on the floor, provide left and right arrows to assist with not knowing left and right while they are learning this. We will explore coding using our Duplo blocks too.

'Lightbot' is an app for the ipad to teach children the beginning of programming. Great for covering the Mathematical terms for left,  right, 1/4 turn and 1/2 turn.

Such fun collaborating with a friend ... risk taking and applying new skills is so much easier!!

My first steps to begin the learning of coding is introduce the concept through materials in our room. Creating a grid on the carpet and one on the wall are places I am going to start ... watch this space as I will post pictures of our progress!!

Booking times with The Mindlab for our class is the plan for Term 3 !!

A great step to wean me from Manaiakalani and to keep my skills rolling!!

Next Week ... Google Level One Certification time!!

DFI - Being View-able ... Enabling Access

Being View-able ... Enabling Access 

Why connect through 'Digital Devices'? 

Today through a Google Hangout session, I gained a deeper understanding about the Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy from Dorothy Burt that while Face to Face is always the preferred and BEST way to connect ... when there are barriers to this through time and distance, why miss out on the experience ... connect online and enjoy the experience! This way we are far from support and growth through the power of many!

What works on a Google Site? (For Me!!)

Clear, simple, bright ... colour coordinated, theme based, one click are all aspects of sites that I am attracted to. Exploring other web-pages today provided me with an opportunity to gain knowledge on the set up and presentation of a variety webpages to give me ideas of how to improve my page. A valuable tip was learning about incognito and ensuring that it is turned on is an important aspect so that I can be assured that when my students and their families go on to view, explore and enjoy my web-page they are able to to have access. This skill will ensure that as a professional I have confidence in my capability to build a high quality page! 

Consistency of Branding!

Developing a theme to run through all professional digital platforms is a fabulous way to ensure that people are following the right ME! I, alongside a colleague today learnt the skill of adding Favicons!! Such fun!

The Greedy Cat Favicon shown above takes you to my class-webpage. 

Web-Page Reflection and Review

My class web-page was peer reviewed today to give me feedback on its workability for students and whanau. We kept in mind the fact that it is for New Entrants and that I have not at this stage been a part of the Manaiakalani         'In-Class Facilitation' Programme. For my learners benefit I now know how to view my web-page from my laptop in Ipad view so that I can see how it will look for them on an Ipad. I have adapted the set up of my webpage to include the use of headings and subheadings so that there is a link provided to make connecting the page and our Facebook page smoother. Hermon and I discussed the possibility of teaching the children how to indicate how they are feeling each day. We have come up with the Minion theme of happy and sad icons that the children can put their names under. Over time as we explore feelings we can add onto our choices. This can be photocopied 

Personally Enhanced

The digital skills I am learning through the DFI are helping me to be more efficient across so many platforms. I feel that I am questioning what I do and ask myself is this the best way to do this? I use the beauty of google to explore the possibilities of what can add value and time to my life.

DFI - Daring to Dabble with Devices

Digitally Smart- Cyber Smart ... skills for life!

The Cyber Smart curriculum enables us to learn the skills to keep ourselves. When we teach learners to be Cyber Smart it takes away the opportunity to be UNKIND to others.
Using the Cyber Smart slides we explored the importance of Being Cyber Smart. Using Screencastify I created a video to share the learning around our 'Digital Footprint'.
Thanks to my new learning skills becoming part of who I am I now as I am more confident with HTML i have embedded my video, moved it around and added breaks.

Our online footprint ... what is my profile like? Watch this clip below to see how we would explore this with our students at school.

Hapara

A fabulous way to ease the monitoring and managing of students on devices. I can see current work, shared work, stored work and where the children have been on devices both at home and school Emails can be seen, passwords reset for the children and group emails sent to the children. This is a service that will support me once I have moved into 1-1 Devices with my class on ipads. This is tool I can see will enable me as a teacher to ensure that my students are being Cyber Smart! I will also be able to see all the children' ipads at once on my screen so at a glance can see where they are all working. I will be able to see their folders also to ensure that they have saved their work accurately.
The image below is a little something to think about and reinforces the purpose behind all our students using Chrome Books and encouraged by Manaiakalani. Manaiakalani carry out trials in classroom to ensure that we are using the best and most up-to-date devices! 

Explain Everything

This is an app for our ipads that I have been wanting to become more familiar with as it is highly recommended by Manaiakalani as a tool for Years 1-3 to use to share their thinking. I believe as I become more confident in this app that I will be able to create activities for the children to work with during learning time.

In my personal life gaining the knowledge and supporting information provided by Manaiakalani in SLIDES around Cyber Smart will help me to check my digital footprint and ensure that I am portrayed in a professional manner. 
I am also very excited about the fact that I am gaining the skills and practices of the Learn, Create, Share with Manaiakalani ahead of time before 2020 when my students and I will be supported in the 1-1 Device Programme.

Taming the RAT ...

Recognise, Amplify and Turbocharge ...
My teaching buddy and I have redesigned our 'Big Book' planning so that we are able to support each other in the planning and teaching. We are finding that through this plan we are able to collaborate through the google doc, make adaptions to suit the needs of the day as they unfold and keep an electronic trail of the developments and achievements of our students through the process. All these links are shared through our drives and so we can access this at anytime. We are also sharing our electronic plans across our HUB so that we can support each other.

DFI - Connecting with Each Other

Connecting with Each Other

Today my skills with google drawings increased as has my understanding of and ability ... you will notice this wee gem I created on google drawings has been added to this blog. Manaiakalani's kaupapa is all about empowering, challenging and added value to our personal and professional lives digitally and now after 3 sessions I am beginning to feel a little more accomplished!

Thanks to the assistance of a passionate blogging colleague I am also acquiring the skills to begin personalising my blog which I am now becoming more connected to.

I am beginning to add to my google slides skills in which I am creating my digital pepeha. I have added this below so you can see I am very basic at this stage. The great thing about everything connecting is that as I work on impact for my Digital Pepeha in drive it will also update here ... now isn't that clever!!



My challenge that I am continuing to solve is how best to communicate with my families and the purpose of BLOGGING!!
Til next week team...

DFI - My Inbox is Clean!

My Inbox is Clean!!

Done and dusted thanks to GOOGLE! I have finally cleared my inbox and my gmail is as fresh as a daisy!

Photo Credit: Joanne Mador 2014

DFI - Poster Design

Designing Posters - Using Black

Loving putting the new skills into practice that Manaiakalani are teaching me on the 'Intensive Course' ... 

Black fill in the table and selecting a bright page colour make all the difference!

As Robert Browning said ...  "Less is more".