Digital Fluency Day 9 - External Recognition !

 Wohooo its a PASS for me! 

So thrilled to pass my Google Certified Trainer Level 1 exam today 👏

I have been so INSPIRED and REFRESHED through doing the DFI course, I feel like I have a renewed passion for teaching. I could do DFI every term, loved it. I thrive in an environment when I am learning, and creating so this has been my best term in a long time. My brain is bursting with all the amazing new learning happening in my classroom. A big impact on my teaching has been the introduction of T-shaped literacy pedagogy.

As mentioned above ! I have really been inspired and equipped to work more effectively especially with the use of Google forms. WOW. I am using them to administer snapshot test for my GAP spelling tests. My students are benefitting so much because they are seeing their results instantaneously instead of waiting for me to mark them and return the tests.

COLLABORATING WITH COLLEAGUES

As always we are better together and I have really loved being with amazing bubble team. Here is a link to our blogs for future reference and some screenshots of a couple comments I have made. 

https://www.gettoby.com/p/pwfv2h72ff3q

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

He aha te mea nui o te ao

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

Maori proverb

I think there is great power when we realise that people hold so many valuable skills and that we are much stronger and more effective when we use our strengths to benefit each other. Dr Deana McDonagh (2011), says that "not being an expert is an advantage". I think this is such an important attitude to have, and could enable us to value the skills that we bring to the table.  Joyce Thomas (2011) add that interdisciplinary collaboration brings people in and allows for previously unconnected connections to be made.


What does this all mean?

Staff  (2012) says that to foster interdisciplinary education it is to  take a "holistic approach to education and requires the close collaboration of multiple teachers to create an more integrated, enhanced learning experience for students". So as I reflect on this I have that there are many teachers, experts, students and valuable people that I can and do collaborate with the enhance the learning experiences of my own students.

One recent area of focus for me has been seeking collaboration from colleagues with more experience and knowledge of Te Reo Māori to enhance my students learning. This has worked really well this past term, as I have offered to support a colleague in an area of my strength being Digital Technologies. This term we have swopped classes on a Wednesday afternoon to support the current learning in the classrooms in these areas. This has been a new initiative in our school, so we decided to give it some time to decide if there were benefits to learning this way. 

I am happy to report that the benefits have far exceeded our expectations. Firstly as classroom teachers we have been able to build relationships with 28 other students in the school. New connections have been made. For both classes we have seen increased engagement in these learning areas and the skills they have been learning have been transferred to the relevant classrooms. Therefore the learning has definitely been enhanced.

What next? 

Well I am looking forward to Term 3 as we continue to build this close collaborative approach to learning. In doing so two other teachers in the school have decided to try what we have been doing, which is exciting to see. 

References:
Staff R. (2012). Fostering Interdisciplinary Skill Sets. Retrieved from https://rossieronline.usc.edu/fostering-interdisciplinary-skill-sets/

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

Deep Learning Tasks

As part of our Teacher Call Back day for 2017 we were required to complete a reading by Fullan & Langworthy (2014) entitled A Rich Seam: Chapter 3: New Pedagogies : Deep Learning Tasks. Further to this we were asked to run a market space during our call back day on an area of the reading that had impacted us personally.

I chose to lead my market space on "Collaboration vs Co-Operation" - This came from some wonderings I had been having about my own understanding of collaboration. We explored this further during our market space.

21st Century Learning Design explains that collaboration is more than one person telling others what to do and they do it ... but true collaboration in when students work together, this requires shared responsibility, making decisions, and their work being interdependent of each others.

My colleagues explaining their new knowledge of collaboration

I created these QR codes to help us understand these terms and how they related to collaboration

 

3D Design

Tonight we explored 3D design and we looked closely at Kidesign. Which is 

allowing students to creating virtual 3D buildings and towns. Collaboratively we made the following table recording our understandings of how 3D design can encourage collaboration, design skills, innovation and self-regulation.

21st Century Learner - Colloboration

Tonight at our MindLab course we explored and discussed Collaboration vs Co-operation. I had never thought about the distinction between the two activities. So I engaged in some reading to support my understanding further.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

I have learnt that Collaboration is so much more than just students completing a task together.  Students working collaboratively will be

• Working together
• Share Responsibility fairly
• make substantive decisions together
• work is interdependent

I look forward to thinking about this more over the next few weeks, about how I can change my pedagogy and classroom teaching activities to be more collaborative.

Deci-pipes

Literacy Circles

Today we had the pleasure of a visit from some amazing students in Room 8. They came to show us the different roles of Literacy Circles. We look forward to putting these new skills into practise tomorrow.

I was able to observe students and a colleague teaching/modelling the Literacy Circles. Thereby actively engaging in respectful relationships with students, peers and colleagues.  At the same time initiating learning opportunities to advance my professional knowledge and skills. 

The Illustrator draws their own interpretation of a section of the text.

Students commented that the enjoyed working with their peers and learning from each other.

The Word Master selects key vocabulary from the text.