Digital Leadership - Feedback Term 1 in Harakeke

 Today I did a quick reflection with the Harakeke Team in order to determine if I am on the right track with my digital teaching in class. Feedback from teachers are as follow: 

What worked well: 
Starting from the start (how to log into Seesaw).

Reflecting quickly after the first few lessons (and adjusting).

Learning was spot on. 

Teachers were available to manage and support students while Alida teaches. 

Having the time during the week to practice what we learned on Monday.

Lessons were the right amount of time (30min), students were able to maintain what they learned. 

Students were able to teach each other later in the week. 

Shifts happened after each lesson.

Were the lessons helpful to the teachers? Yes, especially learning how to use captions to voice record, and creating slides with recordings. 

What did not work well?

In the last lesson (when Alida came in late) the speed of the lesson was too fast. Students could not keep up. 

(Teachers would like to have a redo on this lesson)

What could I do better? 

Extension for early finishers. 

What would you like to learn? 

Creating open-ended activities on Seesaw. 

Having rewindable videos to explain what we learned e.g how to log on, or how to create a slide.

We then spend a bit of time refreshing our memories on what we need to remember to keep our Seesaw professional:

Approve posts within 24hours

Comments or captions linked to the LI

Photos of students to be uploaded. 

Check that there are posts for all students. 

Check which parents are not connected, especially new students. 

Use folders to organise work.

This feedback was very helpful for me especially the last conversation we had around how we could use Seesaw to share our work. We scanned through some functions of Seesaw e.g. the highlighter, voice recording on a label and creating frames. This made me think of whether there is a need to look into different ways of sharing work on Seesaw. Now that everybody has a good idea of HOW to create on Seesaw, we might look into WHAT to create. 

So what?

I realise that there is value in these lessons. That I should never be late, not even 5 minutes. 

Next steps: 

Create rewindable videos on lessons already done. 

Come up with a bank of ideas on how we can share on Seesaw. How can we utilise Seesaw to make our sharing interesting. (Perhaps create a site)

Continue with lessons in class, our next focus will be on how to build digital learning into their construction inquiry. 

Digital Leadership

 As one of my goals, this term I organised an open afternoon for whanau to come and familiarise themselves with how our students find and share their work on their devices. The main reason for this was because we realised during lockdown how hard it was for parents to support their children with their work. Not all parents are confident in using digital technology. 

Michelle helped me to create a pamphlet to send home to encourage parents to come. 

We arranged it for a Friday afternoon. I thought nobody would come as it was the Friday after our whanau conferences on Wednesday but was surprised that 4 parents came. (I know some people will say, only 4? But I'm a half-full glass type of person).

It was such a successful afternoon that I am excited to have another one in term 2. 

This was our little programme: 

Students created a little Seesaw post with their parents to see how easy it is to do. 

It was great to see how engaged the students and parents were. Feedback from the parents was: 

"This was really good, thank you for inviting us"

"It was good to see how she access her work as she usually just do it on her own"

"This was very helpful, thank you". 

Things that I can do better next time: 

Make a bigger effort with promoting the afternoon. 

Share our experience with other students and encourage them to invite their parents. 

Have a little prepared activity on Seesaw available, so that they can see how they can access the video clips and templates. 

Sharp Reading

 Yesterday I had the privilege of doing a Sharp Reading lesson for Hilton. He supported me where needed and modelled how it should be done. 

I got confused during the "Convince Me" phase. He ironed out how I should not get confused between an instructional lesson and a guided lesson. 

My goals for the next few weeks are to practice clearing the roadblocks and smoothing out the convince me phase. 

Digital Development Green Screen

I had another go at creating a Pepeha on Green Screen. My previous attempt was not great. So what did I do different this time? 

1. I introduced Green Screen on its own. Students had to add a photo of their favourite animal and say something about it. So just speaking on the Green Screen. 

2. Secondly, we did not waste time writing our Pepeha's in our books. I printed the ones that used the Papakura Pepeha and wrote the ones that had their own Pepeha in large writing using a different colour for each line. Which helped to prompt them to stop and watch if the next background photo is on the screen. We practice reading our Pepeha a few times with a buddy, creating a doughnut and sharing with a different person each time. 

3. Thirdly, we typed up our Pepeha on Seesaw, adding photos/drawing to demonstrate the meaning e.g. Maunga (mountain). Then students recorded themselves reading their Pepeha. They only had a photo of their faces on, so the pressure was a little less as they could still read from their book. 

e.g. Laweneta's Pepeha on Seesaw

Paul's Pepeha on Seesaw

4. Lastly, we started working on our Green Screens. First, we downloaded the photos that are linked to our Pepeha. We set the photos to show for only 5 seconds. We then had somebody hold the books up so that we could still refer back to them while creating the Green Screen. 

The Results: 

 

So this session went a lot better than the first time. It still took a lot of individual support when doing the Green Screens. So what can I do differently? 

- I am going to create a visual board with the steps of what needs to be done to create the Green Screen. 

- I will ask Te Roopu Kaiako to allow my group to take turns and recite their Pepeha's in front of their Te Roopu after we said the Karakia. 

- Set up the portable Green Screen so that students can record without moving out of the class. 

Digital Development Green Screening

 So I gave creating a digital Pepeha through Greenscreening a go. It was much harder than I anticipated. The challenge was not as much the digital, but more the Pepeha. 

Here are some of the videos we made.

Challenges I faced.

We were limited to time due to the rotation we have in our studio and because of COVID lockdown interruptions. What I realised was that it was a bit unfair to expect students to learn their pepeha and learn how to Green Screen at the same time. Some students didn't even want to try while reading their pepeha as they said they couldn't read it. Problem-solving or debugging was a major issue. There was no time to take them through possible solutions. 

So what am I going to do differently with my second group. 

I am going to start introducing Greenscreen from session 1, but use an easy topic such as talk about our favourite animal. Then send the pepeha home and creating space in class time for students to learn their pepeha. And then by session 3 start their Greenscren pepeha, which will give them enough time to trial and error. 

Sharp Reading

 Our PLD this year is a Reading focus. We've been introduced to Sharp Reading, a programme developed by Hilton Ayrey and Brian Parker. Both highly experienced ex-teachers. The programme is focussed on making teaching manageable for teachers, maintaining the correct level of challenge for the students and ensuring success for each student in EVERY lesson. I really like the idea of getting the maximum out of each lesson. 

We've complete Unit 1 on a callback day with Hilton. 

Today I started my online course, Unit 2, and completed tasks 1 - 3. Thank you, Simon, for being my online peer practice buddy. 

Things we noticed was to remind students to start with "I think it means" (ITTM). 

Also to focus carefully on what the students are saying in order to not get your mind distracted. 

It is important to have a copy of the guide sheets next to you and familiarise yourself with it before you start. 

And I need to be a little clearer when I am explaining the 1,2 or 3, linking it to "How convincing am I?"

My next step is to practice 2 - 3 lessons with some students in the class. A small group of 3-4 students. 

Digital Development

One of my focusses this year is to upskill on my own knowledge of digital activities in the classroom, based on our Learn Create Share model. One of the first challenges I took on was how to create a green screen video. Although there is an app on the iPads, it took a bit of research and trial error to get it right. Thank you, Justine, for your support being a model etc, while I was trying and testing. 

I'm hoping to support our students in creating their own digital Pepeha during term 1. My possible challenges are: 

1. Students not having the information they need to create a Pepeha

2. Students that don't want to do it because they are not Te Reo speakers.

3. We only have a short time to create the Pepeha, and it does take a bit of time. So students will need to know what to do as soon as possible so that they don't waste time waiting for me to show them what to do. 

How am I going to approach this?

Now that I have created my own, and know exactly what to do, I believe the students will be able to follow my modelling and instructions quickly. Parents have already been notified that we will be doing a Pepeha, and a letter will be going home as soon as we are back at school to gather the needed information. If any students show hesitation on doing a Pepeha, I will bring the topic up in circle time and discuss how we can be culturally responsive to each other. 

Here is my example video. Please note, my focus was on how to a green screen, not on my Pepeha. So please forgive me if it is not done correctly.