Session 3 DFI Reflection and Learning

What's on top? 
Today's session was online, from the warmth and comfort of my kitchen - I loved it. My week has included horrendous Auckland traffic, early morning starts, late finishes and a busy (but highly rewarding!) interschool soccer tournament. 

For today's DFI session, I liked how we were still able to stay connected via Google Meet. Considering the worldly events of the last year and a half, it is important for us as educators to maintain our roles in a manner that serves our students to be digitally and technologically capable. So for my own professional development, online sessions like today are highly relevant, convenient and beneficial. 

In some situations though, there's nothing like the bond and connection you get around an actual coffee table. Plus, I'm feeling a bit mentally fatigued from being in front of a screen all day. Whanaungatanga is at it's best when we are face to face with the people we collaborate with. I empathise with and applaud those who did their best today to complete the workshop tasks. We're blessed to have great leaders and tutors as part of this DFI. You can see they are all doing their best to help each of us succeed in our roles through this series of workshops. Huge thank you to the 2021 DFI Team! 

I enjoyed the learning from today's session. I picked up a few new tips and tricks, and consolidated some things I've learned before. Next goal is to consider how I use this new 'creating' experience to support my class learning, my teaching and my colleagues. Looking forward to next week's session at Papakura Central School and making some new friends from Whakawatea, Hamilton. 

Session Takeaways 
Hapara Hot Tips #2: A highly useful resource and online management system. A lot of similarities to Google Classroom, which I have a lot more experience with. I'm looking forward to having more time and guidance using this programme to support my teaching and student learning. Matt and Jeremy have been really great at sharing their knowledge with me so far. I really like the 'current tabs' and 'current screen' options, as well as being able to pause screens and send quick messages to my students. 

Hanga = Create: The takeaway I have from Dorothy's discussion Learn, Create Share is "how do I allow creativity to take place in my teaching programme?". This term my class will be creating a spoken word, systems for sustaining human life on Mars and creating a new garden space outside our classroom. These are just some pre-planned outlets for learning but I'm always open and looking for what else they are interested in; given the chance, what would they be interested in pursuing, so something possibly like a passion project would be really awesome to pursue. 

This lesson confirmed for me how to use the mask function when you create customisable icons in Google Drawings. I was able to create the sidebar picture you see to the right. At some point, I would like to revisit my class learning site and edit my icons. 

  • When presenting, what’s the story? What do they want to know? What does your audience want to know? Should be able to write it on a post it - do the same for your own presentations! 

  • Avoid using the defaults - embrace blank slides 

  • Use pics to assist your message 

  • Consistent formatting (fonts, colour schemes, etc) 

  • Make key words stand out 

  • Slides are the support cast of your talk 

  • Make the slide a running doc and embed in site 


  • Creating your own themes is a good method for personalising the slides you use for your own presentation.

  • Set up blank slides > delete the text boxes > insert new text box and format it to how you want the reset of your slides from there > duplicate






Comments

  1. sschuster@mayroad.school.nz23 May 2021 at 01:16

    I absolutely agree with you, Jono. While it was wonderful to be in the comfort of our homes for this session, I do enjoy the face to face sessions for the connections it affords us with colleagues, the opportunities for banter, laughter and getting to expand our network of people. And also, if you're sitting at the same table as New Windsor School, there's always lots of snacks to munch on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr N28 May 2021 at 01:35

      Thank you for your comments, Sophia. Unfortunately for me, I kept snacking because I was at home.

      Delete
  2. Jeremy Ferguson24 May 2021 at 14:19

    Kia ora Jono, thanks for your thoughtful reflections here. Great that you were able to manage the transition onto Online for DFI last week with little disruption. I can totally understand the feeling of being fatigued at the end of a fully online session, as this is what I do at least once a week at the moment. Having said that, and as you have reflected on above, this is now a necessary skill for being a teacher in these post-Covid times. Your "TED Talk" was great, too! haha

    Have a great week,
    Jeremy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr N28 May 2021 at 01:37

      Hi Jeremy
      Thank you for your comment. The session reminded me what it was like working/teaching from home during lockdowns. I'd be very happy to avoid any more. Glad you enjoyed the TED Talk lol!
      Regards
      Jono

      Delete
  3. Anonymous25 May 2021 at 17:10

    I thoroughly enjoyed reading your reflections Jono. It was a nice to be a part of the conversations from the comfort of home. As always, I enjoyed the learning but like you, I was pretty tired at the end of the day. Enjoyed your TED Talk too lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr N28 May 2021 at 01:43

      Kia ora, Paulette
      Thanks for your comment and for reading my reflections - I'm glad you enjoyed the TED Talk lol!
      Have a great weekend
      Jono

      Delete
  4. Mr O'Brien27 May 2021 at 16:01

    Totally agree with you Jono, I was great to be at home but their is nothing like being with the people and having the connection.
    I really enjoyed your flash talk. You did a great job with the pictures on the slides and telling the story.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr N28 May 2021 at 01:45

      Hi James
      Thanks for your comment and your help during today's DFI session. I'm glad you enjoyed my TED Talk :)
      Regards
      Jono

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MIT-22 Project: Effective Practise and Algebro's

Image
Image attribution Algebro's progress So Far ... Algebro’s is getting that much closer to being a final product. The focus has been on recording enough videos per Transum Algebra Level. Student’s are getting more confident in their explanations and conversations with each other when solving algebraic equations. They have surpassed Level 1 (e.g. 2x=10) and more likely to start at Level 2 (2x + 3 = 13). Possibly the greatest learning has been recognising letters as variables. Students seem to be more likely to identify and use more of what they know vs not knowing where to start (“I dunno”).  Applying integers has tripped us up a handful of times in our problem solving. We’ve been doing enough algebra practise combined with integers to make sense of what we’re doing. I feel like we need more time teaching and practising before making tutorials for this section.  I’ve shared Algebro’s with the teachers at my school. They seem to like what I’ve created so far and that I’ve include...
Read more

MIT-22: Project Wrap Up for Algebro's

Image
I started on my Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher's (MIT) project knowing that maths was a problem area for achievement in my school, especially with our Year 7&8 students. This was confirmed with our school midyear data from 2021 and 2022.  I knew I had to find a solution but there is so much to cover in just one curriculum area. My discussions and connections with school colleagues and this year's MIT-2022 crew, I investigated the following statement:   How might we improve student achievement in, and basic understanding of, algebra?   At this point in a student's education, I'm trying to consolidate and extend student knowledge before they head on to high school.  However, with so many students behind their expected level of achievement it becomes even more important to give ākonga the tools, strategies and learning experiences they're going to need to confidently:  1) Solve simple and complex mathematical problems, and    2) Participat...
Read more

Room 1 Leads Amazing Whole School Assembly

Image
Room 1 were lead by Ray and Sefo in hosting the Week 5 Whole School Assembly. They showed a bit of nerves but spoke clearly in all of their parts to lead the acts, karakia and waiata. Room 1's class item was sharing their "wins" from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. I found it particularly interesting learning about the South Pacific Islands. Room 1 presented their learning on colourful A3 posters about New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and a few other places.  My class did an awesome job to prepare and present. Everyone showed great leadership, teamwork and played their part in contributing to the assembly. Foli and I'Ola were great directors in the lead up, while many others stepped up to present, write a script or refine what it was they wanted to share.  Ka rawe, Room 1! 
Read more