COVID-19 and Lockdown

It has been an interesting experience teaching students online throughout the lock down and at alert level 3. On the whole the majority of us teachers at Bay College were well prepared to do this; due to the many PLD sessions we have had through: the DFI courses, the Manaiakalani Teacher Only days the online toolkits and  Kaikohekohe Cluster professional learning group sessions.

Thanks to the Kerry and team who have helped us along the way -these last three years or so. ✨💥

Session 9 DFI Course

Went into my blog site today to check on all the kids posts and realised I had not written up the last blog from our DFI session last year. This was because I missed this session due to taking our Yr 9 &10 students to the Film Festival in November, 2019. A lovely time was had by all at this sharing of students 'films' last year.

I also enjoyed catching up with my 10M class blogs during this lock down as they wrote up what they had covered in Science since the start of school this term, 2020.

Session 8- DFI Course

Today I have learnt how to code. I had always been a little worried about coding, because of the patience required to cover every little step and go back and change if necessary. I'm not really a patient methodical person.

Below is the Cat and the Jelly fish story created today.
Next session is our last session.

Session 7 -DFI Course

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

Heard from Dorothy about the amazing numbers of levels of connectedness, Manaiakalani has across the sector they serve. We do know that connections and relationships are so important for students in their learning, and in this case increasing 'visible learning'.

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

Creating a 'button' of a school photo with colleagues at s senior ball- along information about myself as a professional was a positive learning experience today. I have added to my blog posts- and gained confidence in blogging. Blogging was not an area I was greatly confident in.

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

Learning more about creating google slides and animations to help show/teach my students in class. In this way, we will have a new tool whereby we can 'create' and show off our new learning in Science. See example below of my animation.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
I almost feel confident enough to consider creating a personal blog post- regarding my personal interests as compared with a blog on my professional life only. This way can communicate with friends and family at a more personal level.

Session 6- Course

Missed this session. Again tried to catch up by going over the sessions programme but not the same.

Will try and catch up next round of DFI if possible.

Session 5 DFI Course

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

Today the focus on websites was all about rewindable and visible learning. It was about supporting the learner to know what was in the teacher's head using a websites- so is so clear and visible.

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

As a lead teacher with KET I thought that I could create a website for our staff to show visible learning re Digital Technologies. I saw an example today from Tautoro School Principal- which was really confirming of my idea.

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

I wanted to create a website for our staff where as Lead Teacher for KET and also as TIC of PLD at the school this website would be a one stop shop for all these areas of PLD related to Digital Technologies. It is appropriate timing at the moment, as we have been with Manaiakalani /KET for nearly three years so there is a lot of information that needs organising for staff. Also next year we will have 4 year levels of students at the College using CBs as well as that the new Digital Technologies curriculum comes into force in 2020.

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

I believe it will make my role easier in terms of communicating with our staff. Especially seeing the website created for Tautoro School- it certainly helped their staff. That's what I want to do here.

Session 4- DFI Course

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
This session was about collaborative sites. Missed this lesson- but catching up. Used googles forms as part of my Inquiry as appraisal- sent to five classes & teachers involved from our last session three. Following up this week to ensure students and staff; respond. Aiming for 80-90 %  responses.
I understand the importance of sites in teaching a class for rewindable learning.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  
Going back over setting up websites- even though I have had some PLD on this already through Mananaikalani beginning of the year PLD it was good to go over the presentations to refresh my memory once more. Will catch up in Session five also.