9 Weeks Done

Day 9 of DFI: Computational Thinking

Today was really interesting we thought ahead today about where we would be in 10-15 years from now- we talked about the ethics of driverless vehicles. It was good to have the outside coaches come in and gave us an idea of what is expected from a teacher now- that Technology is part of the curriculum. Here is a link to the slideshow the presenters shared. Here is the link to the Digital Workbook. Code Studio is great to get children learning to give specific instructions or coding.

Here is the link to the agenda for today.

 Great little activity below to do with children- to get them to understand how computers work. Even number -half the number of rows and tapers off.

Like A Boss!

Day 8 of DFI: Revision Day

Today is Exam day where we have been given the option to sit the level 1 exam- I have decided on catching up on DFI Professional Blog postings instead and will aim on doing the test in the weekend or after school some time.

Day 7 of DFI: Learners' Devices: Putting ourselves in their shoes

Today we used ipads and chromebooks to complete a set of tasks to get an idea of what it feels like to be a child in our class using the device to complete set tasks given by the teacher.

Using the chromebook was interesting as some of the buttons and shortcuts I take for granted on a mac are not available or transferrable to a chromebook. We had the task of completing a Digital Dig- there were a lot of shortcuts that I knew I wouldn't remember so it was good to have a place to write them all down.

Overall an interesting experience that has gotten me empathising with my learners when on their devices more!

Here's the link to my DIGITAL DIG.

Day 6 of DFI: Class Sites

Today we learnt about creating class sites so that it becomes an effective tool empowering students. I have a Room 10s' class site already. Today was a review of making sure children's learning is no more then 3 clicks away, how to make your sites look appealing (buttons/images) and something children can relate to, and a reminder that class sites are an effective way of making teaching rewindable. I have found class sites effective in class especially with children who have missed a day or so of school. I direct them to the class site to a particular subject area/video/set of question etc so that children can go back and revisit what they missed out on. This is very time saving for me as well as less teacher heavy as the child can go away and work by themselves or with a buddy to figure out what they need to do to catch up. 

While the opinion being spread was that buttons and tabs for subjects along the top of your website was a big no-no, I feel like for my class site pictured below- it works. Children know where the subjects are and how to get to them and find what they/their group is meant to be doing. I personally did not like the buttons as I find getting a uniform look tricky. However, I have seen teachers at GTS who have used buttons quite effectively. 

The SAMR model below is one I have come across before and it is a good reminder to try and move beyond the substitution and augmentation stage to modification and redefinition. 

Day 5 of DFI: 05/04/19: Google Sites

Today was all about google sites, hooking our learners and sharing.

Here is the Agenda.

It was good to have the time to explore google sites and create a "sandpit slide" to play around with. Here is a link to my Garden To Table site for learners. It was good advise to plan our site out first because I very soon discovered that things got out of control quickly with ideas and related topics popping in every second.

Because I have created my class site and I am currently using it to enable children/whanau to access my plan for the week and various subjects- I knew how to create a site. However it has been good learning to create a site to motivate and facilitate childrens' learning.

Here is my plan- and you can see I had to merge pages to stop getting my audience overwhelmed.

Planning for the site