Collaborate – Sites – Day 5

Another really interesting day today using Google Sites. I have been fortunate enough to use Google Sites a lot in the past, but I haven’t been using it so much with my year 2 and 3 class this year. When I taught Year 7 and 8, each child made sites for passion projects so basic skills such as adding pages, adding images, videos etc were taught to these students. Today I learnt some even handier tricks – such as creating my own theme so I don’t have to constantly change the font and colour of pages.

During Covid times, I used Sites a lot to share links with other teachers as I was the Digital Technology Specialist Teacher at the time, and when I was a PRT the school I was at, had us using Google Sites for our Appraisal information.

I have never really thought to use it as a link to Inquiry or Topic learning, it has mainly been just a place that my students can create their own learning or simply click to take to a specific website or app. So today’s learning was a fantastic way to share resources and then start creating my site for the Solar System/Matariki Inquiry unit of Term 2.

Here is a link to my Google Site below

Dealing with Data – DFI Day 4

Today was a very interesting day and I got a lot of learning that I hope to use more in my planning and with students (when possible).

I have used Google Sheets quite a bit in the past but I was shown today some handy tips to use when in Sheets. I was really impressed with its ability to make QR codes – this is a lot faster than trying to find a QR creator website to use. Over the holidays I will make some QR codes of websites that my students can use easily next term during independent work times. Using Google translate was also a very cool trick.

I was also really impressed with Google My Maps – last term we had a ‘meet the teacher’ evening and I asked whānau to add on a map of the world where some of the children’s ancestors came from. It would have been really cool if we could have used My Maps to do this digitally – something for the future.

Google Forms is also something that I love to use – mostly when I taught older students. Here is a link to the Google Form I created today.
https://forms.gle/DH8sEvKbJ8hZdq3X9

I am not using blogs with my students as they are only just learning to read and write but it was really handy to know a bit more about making charts and analysing data. See the image below of my analysis of Tahlia’s blog data from Wigram Primary School.

 

Media – DFI Day 3

Today was Day 3 – Media. It was really interesting and I have learnt so much. Dorothy’s presentation on CREATE this morning really sparked my interest. I completely agree with her that as children move through the year levels the opportunities to create seem to wane. As I teach younger students I try my very best to allow students to create as often as possible in a variety of ways. I also try to limit the perimeters around what they are creating – for example we made volcanoes in my class last year after learning about volcanoes and earthquakes. All they needed to do was make a volcano with a vent, the differences in their creations was so awesome to see. We then made them ERUPT using different chemical reactions that they could choose from. Dorothy also shared some quotes that really resonated with me – such as; ‘Students need to be creators of content, not merely consumers.

I really enjoyed learning more about Google Drawing, YouTube and some extra tips and tricks with Google Slides. I am still thinking of how I can use all these tools best in my class this year. Overall, today was really engaging and I have taken a lot of fantastic ideas away with me.

Below is the animation I made using Google Slides.

 

Workflow – DFI Day 2

Today was day 2 of our DFI course – Workflow. There was quite a bit of new learning especially around using Google Meet – sharing screens, recording etc.

Dorothy’s presentation on Manaiakalani was very interesting – I liked the visual of the railway line (effective teaching runs alongside our digital world). She kept stressing the importance of effective teaching practise – having all the fancy digital tech gadgets etc won’t alone improve student achievement. This resonates as I am moving from a school that was stepping back from using digital technology into a school that appears to use it more.

Links that were shared today will be very helpful as I begin to navigate my way around a new school and age level. Teaching year 2 and 3s won’t probably mean I will be using Google Meet with students but it is still really helpful to add this to my teaching kete.

I think I will begin to use Google Keep more often – I have been a fan of just using digital sticky notes in the past, but of course these are restricted to just the computer.

Learning more about all the tips and tricks of Google products will certainly help my day to day life in the classroom – I will continue to take what I can to apply into my way of teaching and learning.

Core Business – DFI Day 1

Prior to starting today I did not really know anything about Manaiakalani as this is not a programme that has been offered to me previously in other schools. I really enjoyed listening to Dorothy today when she spoke about the purpose and story behind Manaiakalani. When she spoke of how digital devices have changed over the last 20 years, particularly in the classroom this resonated with me, as in my 11 years of teaching I have seen the changes within digital technologies used. My previous school was stepping back from using digital technology so this year will be a lot of relearning for me this year.

I particularly enjoyed Vicki’s session on using Google Docs as I did not know how to do a number of the features discussed. I tend to use Google Slides more as I find this easier – for example adding videos. However, the tips shared today will be very helpful if I do choose to use Google Docs. Adding a timer, translating documents, and other smart chips.

I am only just starting at Taitoko School this year so I am unsure of what is expected with my students in terms of using digital technologies. I know that I have 20 ipads to use in the classroom but have not looked at these yet. I do all my planning on digital technologies already so I am sure I will continue to do this as well as using the tips and tricks that I will be learning from this professional development.

I am pretty familiar with using Google products already and am often found on my computer or cell phone so I am sure I will continue to build that confidence – although I am not sure how this may happen yet.

Takeaways for today include:

  • Learn    Create    Share
  • Think of the device as the pencil NOT the BOOK!
  • Paste without formatting – this will save me SO MUCH TIME!
  • Translating google docs into other languages – what a game changer!

Below is the image I created using Google Docs – Show me 5! was something that I learned while doing The Incredible Years course in 2024.

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