9 DFI 29/06/21

Day 9: Last Day

Today was the last day of our course. I spent a lot of the morning updating my class website. I have reflected on the feedback that was given to me a few weeks ago and I have included lots more pictures and buttons. I have re-formatted my reading response sheets and added them up onto my class website as well. I watched Dr Rebecca Jesson present a talk on T-Shaped literacy. It was very informative. I loved the 5 plus a day concept (where there are 5 opportunities given to children each day to read) during the day.

Slideshow from the T-Literacy Dr Rebecca Jesson talk

Where to next: Teach more chrome shortcuts to my children. Make some multi-modal resources for different topics. Continue to update my website with content. Continue to get children to show their learning on their blogs. 

Being on this course has allowed me to streamline some of my planning. It has increased my confidence with all of the associated Google Applications that we currently use. I have become far more aware how the digital world is currently impacting technology through the Trailblazers Digital Technology Workshop. It is both scary and exciting at the same time.

8 DFI 22/06/2020 -Empowerment- Money - Financial literacy

Empowerment 

Part of feeling empowered is being able to have choice. If you have enough money to meet your basic needs then you have choice. Therefore, financial literacy is so so so important. 

Financial Literacy Resources

-Mr Money Mustache - This blog absolutely changed my life. Read all the posts since the beginning

of time.(American based-very applicable for NZ)

-Mary Holm (One of NZ’s greatest finance commenters, has lots of free content with Radio NZ)

-The Happy Saver - Great down to earth NZ based Website and Podcast with content about how

the everyday NZer deals with money. Lots of great personal money stories.

-The Barefoot Investor Book (Adults) -Australian focus but if you go to the Happy Saver - Website,

Ruth the author of the website has made all the resources NZ applicable.

This book should be available to loan at your local library but be aware it is very popular. 

-The Barefoot Investor for Families Book (Children)-Great resource to use for adults to teach children

about money. This book should be available to loan at your local library but be aware it is very popular. 

-Sorted NZ -Sorted offers New Zealanders free, impartial information & calculators to help manage

money throughout life. 

 - Money Hub - A journalistic online resource with the aim of providing New Zealanders with the best

money guides, tips and tools.

-Kiwi Mustachians - NZ Facebook Group who share a wealth of information regards to

budgeting/investing/cheap companies (power/internet), long lasting product recommendations 

-The Simple Path to Wealth (J L Collins Stock Series) -Everything you need to know

about how a stock market works and what to invest in.  

-Deep dish -Financial literacy retire early blog website. Good website about how to be frugal

and save money. 

-Power Switch - Compare NZ power companies

-Dave Ramsey Podcasts - American based financial commentator

(Agency: Manaikalani ran into trouble when they talked about agency, especially with the general public as they had a really negative view on the word agency. Eg. Social Services Agency ect. Agency the word has now been exchanged with empowerment. Empowerment means choice).  

We completed a Trailblazers Digital Technology Workshop today. We learnt a lot about what some emerging companies are doing around the world with technology. We also unpacked the concept of 'Computational thinking'  (Coding information) Making processes to understand problems and formulate solutions. 

Wisk's Cora -Autonomous flying plane that carries passengers -Air NZ has won the rights to it. The fight to the ownership rights to this plane was apparently between Air NZ and Uber. 

Starlink (Internet) - Space - Nobody owns it and if you pretty much have lots of money you can send things into space. This is an initiative by Elon Musk to spread cheap internet throughout the world.

Soul (NZ company)- Made a robotic baby that learns though AI.

Waikato University - Have been researching AI for years. Great hub in NZ. NZ great facility to test AI because of size of country and population. 

Dorothy talked about the 'living/working poor'. House prices in the main cities of NZ are too expensive. Rents are increasing. Paying for power is extremely expensive. Rubbish (Auckland City Council allegedly charge around $100 per trailer load of rubbish).

Twinery.org : Great resource for making 'Pick a path stories'.

7 DFI 15/06/21

 Learning:

Rewindable learning- Removing the traditional 9.00am till 3.00pm model and allowing learners to access their learning anywhere and anytime. One great aspect is that it allows learners to progress through learning activities at their own pace. As was evident in 2020, having access to technology has the influence to positively change circumstances. It is more than 'just' a tool.

Below are some apps to help you create rewindable learning:

  Chromebooks Apps

• Screencastify

• WeVideo

• Pixiclip

• Explain Everything

• Movenote

• FlipGrid

• We video

• Spark Adobe

Mobile phones / iPads Apps

• Showme

• Explain Everything

• Quicktime - make a movie on Mac

Although I was not at the course today, I found out by reading a number of Blogs that Chromebooks tolerate lots more abuse than an Ipad.

Cybersmart Curriculum-extremely valuable and needs to be at the foundation of all schools teaching practices if digital technology is being used in the classroom. I think children like Ilisa said, need to be really aware of the content they upload online. In todays world, the digital footprint that you leave is a very powerful tool (both good and bad).

Manaiakalani 1:1 Journey -Great to make sure that all students in NZ have access to learning - leveling up the playing field.

Most of the rewindable learning that I have conducted at Belfast has been done via Screencastify.

-Great for teaching a particular math's strategy. Over lockdown, I developed videos modelling particular strategies and sent them out to my class.

-I have narrated a storytelling story and had it uploaded to a class website.

-I have supported students to make their own 'Weather news story' based on a storytelling story we did.

Had I been able to attend todays session, I would have really loved having a play around with the apps mentioned on the Ipad. At year 5/6 at Belfast we predominately use Chromebooks.

6 DFI 8/06/21

 Learning: 

Connected - Very difficult if we do not embrace visibility.  We all have our own networks, some online and some not. It's great when connections are systematically organised from a work perspective. The most powerful connections occur when both sides of the connection open up and share some of themselves. School wide links are shared for each schools specific website to help teachers and educators connect with one another. 

Our role and supporting children online - make it positive (Eg. Remember the old drink driving adds that were on TV- They showed people doing the wrong thing then ending up in a crash (apparently drink driving stats went up) - Recently they have flipped drink driving adds around and they now focus on the positives eg. Showing someone drinking then making good a choice to sleep at their mates house instead of driving home. 

Leading learning using Google Sites : 

SAMR (model) - Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition

The affordances of learn/create/share (engagement, teaching conversations, cognitive challenge, visibility and scaffolding). 

Websites: What audience is the site directed at? Is it for the students or the parents or both. 

How not to reinvent the wheel- Today, I decided I would like to update my the reading portion of my website. I wanted to look for more independent activities/follow up activities that the children could work on after they go through a guided reading lesson with the teacher. I had a research around and I came across Team 4's website at Point England School in Auckland. I really enjoyed the detail and the look of their reading activities. I made contact with one of the teachers their to see I could make a copy of these resources and upload them to my class website. Sarah one of the teachers replied very quickly and said she was more than happy for me to use these as resources for my classroom. 

Team 4 at Point England School are legends. Ka pai to mahi. 

The resources can be viewed here on my class website: R16 Class Website (Reading activities)