DFI Reflection - Day 2 - Workflow

Another great week of learning. This time we looked more closely at the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy as it related to the LEARN/AKO pillar. It is all about student relationships, deliberate and reflective teaching that uses evidence and data to create an effective teaching practice.

Looking at Learn, we went through:

R - recognise - the ability to know what IS effective practice

A - amplify - how we can harness technologies to making teaching and learning opportunities that are empowering, connected, visible and ubiquitous.

T - turbocharge - doing the previously inconceivable by using technology and taking it to the next level, not just substituting or augmenting their learning with devices, but modifying and redefining them. (SAMR model developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura). It is about transforming their learning with new opportunities and experiences to learn.

E - effective practice - this doesn't mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are practices that have been around for many years, this doesn't mean they are not usable. They may be effective (look at the data!) as they are, or may need a tweak to bring it into the digital age.

The Woolf Fisher Research Centre at Auckland University says the key leverage practices we should be using in our schools are:

• Use authentic texts. Not teacher generated ones, but ones from the real world. Articles, School Journals, newspapers for example
• Discussion. This is student discussion, not teacher led discussion. Sharing ideas with each other.
• Think critically. Akonga need to learn how to do this and what strategies to use.
• Collaborating. With other akonga and making choices in their learning, creating and sharing.

At Waitara East Learn currently looks like:

• Play based in our junior rooms
• We use SOLO taxonomy
• PB4L across the school
• We have just started using DMIC maths in our younger syndicates
• Our school values are explicitly taught every day
• Te Atiawatanga - our school is 85% Māori. Most are Te Atiawa iwi members and we use their kaupapa to underpin our learning
• We have just started the Best Start Structured Literacy programme in our NE class and moving it through the juniors.

There are probably more things we do that I can't think of or don't know about. I will post further updates as I take the time to dig into this area further.

I have always been a reasonably "tidy" person using digital tools. I worked in an IT environment for 20 years and had to deal with demanding customers from CEOs to Store people. I was trained to deal with things once and once only, to keep inboxes tidy and to file carefully. If things went wrong, it could end up with our client on the news!  I did enjoy Google Keep which was great and I will use this. I can see that the notes I make won't end up being impossible to find again.

I feel that I will be more confident with Google Meet also. It did feel strange and it is funny how when we were chatting about the task before hand, we all felt comfortable, but as soon as we had to run the meet we felt awkward!  Here's the recording of my meeting. Forgive my voice, just getting over a sore throat.

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This is the beginning of my Manaiakalani journey, I feel that everything I am learning will be used with my learners. The tamariki are getting used to the new chromebooks very quickly and every day we've been teaching them new digital skills. One particular organisation skill I will be implementing on Monday morning is about their tabs. Jeremy's idea about getting them to close all tabs as soon as they start is awesome! I will be reminding them about slowing their devices down with too many tabs open at the same time too. 

Honestly, just a lot of small tidbits that I am going to try to use. I will introduce one at a time and make sure I use it constantly so I don't forget about it!