DFI Session 4: Dealing with Data

Today as we (the Manaiakalani facilitators) support the cohort participants to analyse data using google sheets, I took some time to reflect on my own blog and the picture is presents.

Dorothy shared that we can always learn from a person based on what and how often they share on their blog.  I have always tried to be reflective, and often write a whole blog post (in my head), and then never find the time to publish it. Today I have taken that time to share what I see happening on my blog, and to ensure I share it on here.

I most certainly need to be posting to my blog more regularly. This will be a goal for myself, to try and post atleast once a week. It would be a great habit to get in to.

Below is my analysis of my blog data.

I have also used Google My Maps to map where all my 'viewers' are from. Quite interesting to see that I have viewers from all over the world, not just from New Zealand.

Visible Learning

Today during our DFI online hangout, Dorothy shared her positive experiences with visible teaching and learning.

This is something that I have always felt strongly about, ensuring that students are always able to see what they are learning, how they are going to be learning, etc.

During Term 1, I relieved at Paparore School. I had ensured that I had my relievers plan and all activities on a site, which I share with the students at the start of the day. The students knew already how to access learning via a site, and straight away they were able to engage with their learning. At the end of the day, a student came up to me and said, "I'm going to complete my reading activity when I get home tonight". Now that would not have been possible if I didn't provide them with all the materials/resources they needed.

The country's sudden Lockdown also provided evidence of the importance of using a class site to support students and their whanau. Those teachers who already had all their learning available on their site, just continued life as normal, with a few minor changes. Others who have relied on paper activities found it a little more challenging. They either had to provide parents with a 'kit' that included all their learning or had to start using class sites. 

Moving forward - I think there is still lots of work to be done to ensure online learning is successful, I do think visible learning and teaching should be the first step.  For my future practise, I will ensure that my site is always up to date, students have access to all learning resources needed and that parents are well informed of what is happening within the classroom.

Manaiakalani Film Festival

This year was our very first Manaiakalani Film Festival. It was a huge success. So much organinsing and planning went into this event, from behind the scene planning with the Manaiakalani facilitators, Te Ahu, Harley Alexandra, but also at the school level. Buying equipment, planning the movies, organising groups to film, etc, etc.

I would like to thank all those that made this possible!

The students had a fabulous time and felt like celebs walking along the red carpet, entering to view their film on the big screen.

Please view the film's that my class made to be shown at Te Ahu on our class blog.

Design Thinking

For the first part of our Manaiakalani Hui, we engaged in a team-building exercise.

The first fun activity was to play a variation of rock, paper, scissors called Ninja, Tiger, Granny.  Played like rock, paper, scissors; whoever wins goes ahead to the next person, and the losing person becomes the support person and creates a chain. A great ice-breaker.

The focus of the day was around design thinking. Design thinking has a human-centred core. The important message here was not to get stuck on your own ideas, to be critical and accept feedback. You need to be willing to let go of ideas that perhaps didn't meet the requirements of the customer.

To prepare ourselves for design thinking, we were asked to draw a buddy in a short space of time. This was to promote the idea that you shouldn't apologise for our ideas and designs, instead take on feedback instead.

Learning about the design thinking process, we worked in groups and completed practical, hands-on activities.  The first stage of design thinking is to empathise with the consumer/customer. We were asked to go into a cafe, order a coffee, and empathise with a customer around their cafe experience.  From that, we came back with some issues that may arise for our customer. This is the "define" in the process.

In our group, we made up our own customer, based on our own experiences and anxieties we face when going to a cafe. We came up with Danvery. Brilliant drawing, thanks Anne.

Ideate is the next step in the process, and we thought about so many different ways that we could solve the issues our customer faced/faces. We had so many ideas, some doable, others were very out there. We marked our ideas using the following scale.

The fun had only just begun! We had to prototype our solution. I think we were a bit ambitious with our solution. We designed edible coffee cups, and you could choose out of five cups - sweet, bitter, salty, sour and umami.

Our idea:  A garden wall, ambience music, hologram at each table which can state where all the ingredient came from, and edible coffee cups. So fun to act out and test our prototype with a customer. 

Manaiakalani Share Staff Meeting

Today's staff meeting was about the Share component of "Learn, Create, Share". We discussed the different ways in which we share on a daily basis, and that this is part of our daily lives. We share without even thinking about it. Share can happen with individuals, small groups, large crowds or to the whole world. Sometimes what we share can be personal or professional, and this would look different depending on where you are, and who you might be sharing with.

We also discussed how sharing can significantly increase the student's writing ability.

Here are we sharing ways we share:

On a side note, I love the idea of the e-mail that can be sent straight to your blog. I have set this up ready for my class. I'm hoping that amazing work can be shared directly onto our class blog by the students. I'm really excited about this.

My First Toolkit

Done I ran my first online Toolkit. This was nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time. Here is my slideshow I created to share with my participants.


I was a bit nervous knowing I was going to be recorded. ☹️😞

Accelerated learning in Literacy (Writing)

Over the last three weeks, I have been working with a small group of writers. These writers have identified themselves as struggling to generate ideas, add elaboration and choosing quality vocab to improve their writing.

The students were given this picture and had to label it using descriptive language.

From their labelled picture, there were able to write a short descriptive.  Here are their descriptions.

Wet slippery wood hits my feet as I step foot onto the bridge. Underneath the yuck mossy bridge, there is a crystal clear, calm river. The thick hard rope bounces as I jump. The beefy hard rope is so hard to get my hand around. The glossy wet metal shows the reflection of the sun.
Student 1

On the bashing bridge, the salty smell shattered boulders, making a bashing song. The old river is as clear as a diamond. The swaying trees that make the fresh air are whistling up the side of the mountain.
Student 2

The sound of the raging river smashing against the firm rocks. The bridge was made out of solid metal, strong wood and firm ropes. Behind it, the mountain as tall as a skyscraper. Swaying trees smashing against the rocks.
Student 3

At the strong bridge, there is a lot of huge trees and humongous rocks, that if you fall you can die. On the humongous rocks, there are lots of huge trees to climb up. If you jump off the sturdy bridge, you will get hurt because the river is shallow.
Student 4

There is a creaky bridge handing above the deadly hardcore rocks. The water is smashing up against them which is allowing an avalanche to explode causing the bridge the break in half.
Student 5

Reflection

The students have enjoyed writing lists to plan for writing. They have shown an increased motivation to participate in our group sessions, and two of the six students have shown increased confidence to participate and take risks with their learning.

My next step is to find out how I can extend their planning from creating lists to adding details to their plan.