Wednesday, June 9, 2021

DFI Week 6




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

Today really made me think about what's coming NEXT week in terms of getting to know the devices that our learners use. 

Connectedness is something that we are striving for down here on the West Coast. Greymouth High School is the largest school on the West Coast. We have some kind of intake from almost every primary school in Greymouth, so we really need to be familiar with what the schools are doing with their learners, in terms of using blogs, using class sites, using different devices and apps. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing 'Explain Everything' in action next week, as this is an app that a lot of my learners are familiar with. Particularly my stronger achieving learners, who frequently used it for extension of learning in primary school. 

It does seem to be a shame that we don't always have that continuity for the learners, so that we can use the apps and programmes that they are familiar with. It would be great to see them teaching their peers and us about this rather than us having to run and catch up all the time, but part of the issue with digital teaching is that you don't know what you don't know, and the students also don't know what you don't know - they assume that you have all the knowledge that they do, and then some, about things to do with school. 

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

Oh my word I love Google Sites...

It has taken two days for me to get to grips with it properly (rather than feeling like I'm just tipping a lot of stuff into the screen at random) but I am now confident that I can make a slick, consistent and useful website for my work as a teacher. 

I've started by creating a landing site, which can remain in place indefinitely. 

MRS HALLS LANDING SITE

Useful things I learned:

  • How to put headings in and make links to sections of websites
  • How to insert images and videos in standardised sizes
  • How to put external links into the side bar (and make them open into the same tab)
I also learned how to make Screencastify videos! So have a look at my screencastify to show you around my blog


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

I would now feel more confident teaching my students how to make a website with links, multiple pages and images. This gives me enormous scope for getting learners to share their work digitally when working collaboratively.

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

Having used wordpress for years, it has taken some time for me to make friends with google sites, but now that I'm getting the hang of it I can see me using this a lot personally as well as professionally. 

1 comment:

  1. Hello Kate,
    Fabulous that learning us coming together and you are seeing the potential in sites.
    As you know we recommend a learner blog as a portfolio of learning. That said, learners creating a site for a specific project and linking from their blog is ideal.
    Ngā mihi,
    Maria

    ReplyDelete

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