DFI: Week 7 Reflection

Today I really enjoyed using "Google Hangouts" at the beginning of our session as we teamed up with another Manaiakalani cluster from Gisborne. I met a lovely teacher called Sheryl and we had a professional and personal discussion about our teaching and learning experiences over the past week. We also found out that we have a family/friend/colleague contact who we both know well. This just proves that it is such a small world and you can bump into people you know online from all around this beautiful country! The Manaiakalani pedagogy continues with a focus on teaching students to be Cybersmart and use the technology to be "at home in a digital world". Digital devices have been used since 2011 within Manaiakalani. 1:1 learning with iPads for Years 1-3 and then Chromebooks for Years 4-8 in a primary school. This means that by the time a student starts college they have had 8 years of being digital natives using technology in all areas of their learning. Values based learning continues in the digital world. A students' digital citizenship skills begin with learning "Kawa of Care" with their device in regards to Smart Footprints, Relationships, Accessing Class sites. All these skills and more are learnt through the implementation of a robust program which is lead by the classroom teacher. Within a school year the following areas are covered; Term 1 (Learn), Term 2 (Create), Term 3 (Share) and in Term 4 a culmination of a student's learning is brought together. By the end of the year teachers are able to identify progress achieved in student confidence levels and their ability to use the tools effectively. Children also learn that learning is global and by no means limited to the classroom. Whanau involvement is also an integral part of their child's education and it is important to help family feel empowered about their child's learning. Giving and receiving positive feedback from a range of family members encourages student's learning through participation and also motivates them. So keeping this in mind I aim to focus on the "Create" part of this kaupapa during this term and encourage my Year 2 students to be able to complete Explain Everything activities on their iPads. Then after they have put them into the correct folders into their Drive, they can upload their mahi (work) onto their blogs. Teachers can then access this on Hapara Teacher Dashboard which shows their whole classes learning within curriculum areas; Reading, Writing, Maths and Inquiry.