Setting ourselves up for success is a step by step process...

Making connections with the learning is the key to genuinely deepening understanding. By tapping into the knowledge gained across multiple learning areas we can encourage our learners to merge these various knowledge bites of independent information. Our task today was to do exactly that. Earlier in the year we explored the ways personification and the 5 senses can help us see things from a different perspective (-the original task link is on slide 2 of the teaching DLO below). This term our inquiry focus has been Olympic based. Over the last five weeks we have looked closely at how elements of Hauora, Diet and Training can affect an athlete's performance. By viewing the 2016 Olympic games through the eyes of an athlete standing on the medal dias, I hoped that my learner's would make stronger and deeper connections to our topic.

The images below show the process we went through to help us retell an event through someone else's eyes.

Merging images to make personal connections had everyone hooked. As a class that lives and breathes the ethos of collaboration, I noticed at least half of my learners chose to 'stand on the podium' with a buddy. Another interesting observation is that the colour of the medal was invisible. National and personal pride completely overshadowed the gold, silver, bronze hues.

With the imaginary eyes of the world on us we now needed to fill our knowledge 'ketes'. After all you can't describe something you have never seen if you don't have the tools to grow and foster an imagination. Our tool for this was 'Sketchnote'. I had read Karen Ferguson's post about her own experience of picking out the main ideas and focusing on them by 'sketchnoting', and decided to afford my learners the same opportunity. The image below reflects the way one of my learners added to her own 'kete' using this method. 

Sketchnoting allows us to record information using our own words or pictures. This learning tool is helping my learners make notes that make sense to them rather than simply copying what someone else has written in their own handwriting. Being able to retell their very personal 'sketchnote' stories to a friend underpinned the understanding and allowed those strong connections to be made.

Where did this information come from? The answer, multiple sources. I provided links to online newspaper articles and challenged my learners to use their smart searching skills to find supporting information that they read, watched and listened to. It is very rewarding to watch the seamless interchanging of their subject specific 'thinking hats' as knowledge gained during these lessons was synthesised and recalled to meet the learning needs of this lesson. 

Being given the choice of selecting the way they want to approach the 'create' aspect of this learning has both engaged and empowered my learners. Some chose to show their understanding through interviews or conversations using ifaketext.com; others have opted to write narratives; one learner has decided to write an email home to their family and two groups are in the beginning stages of storyboarding their movies. 

Were connections made today? The simple answer is yes! 

7 Phases of Behaviour Infographic

This afternoon Jo Turner led our staff meeting to help us identify the 7 Phases of Behaviour. using Geoff Colvin's escalator graphs to help us make a visual connection. In keeping with the sketchnote and infographic professional development highlighted on the Manaiakalni google + page I decided to have a go at creating an infographic to represent the main ideas and my notes from the session.  I found this a lot easier than I thought once I had established  what I felt were the main points. It is interesting to think about what triggers negative behaviours in a classroom. Much of this being triggers that we don't see - reference here is to the iceberg. It's important to remind ourselves to look below the surface and think carefully about how we as teachers can defuse a situation to help our learners de-escalate towards a continued calm phase.

Movie Making Hints Toolkit

Earlier this week I went to one of the seven toolkits offered by the Manaiakalani cluster. These toolkits are a fabulous initiative that give us the opportunity to tap into the expertise of our colleagues. I went to the Movie Making Hints toolkit offered by Greg Wong. Although I have been making movies with my classes for a number of years now it is always a bonus to be able to revisit my own learning as I know I come away with a useful takeaway each time. My takeaway this time was storyboarding, which I put into use two days later with a group of students who asked if they could make a movie to show their learning. My refreshed knowledge gave me increased confidence when guiding them in the planning stages. 

The boys came to me with the plan on the left and after co-constructing the storyboard, the image on the right shows our rough outline that they have gone away to put together in more detail.

The link to the notes I took is here. 

#SparkshopAKL

Had a fantastic day at #SparkshopAKL. As a first time attendee of this type of training I have come away inspired, informed and ready to share at the next event. Thank you to everyone who shared and to Fiona Grant and Justine Driver for their organisation.

Session #1

Lead by Kat Gilbert-Tunny @TopKat76. This was a fantastic session that walked us through a wide variety of google extensions. I realised I have many of these extensions on my device but was reminded to take the time to think about using them. My takeaway 

Send from Gmail (by Google)

 allows you to compose a Gmail message quickly and share a link via email

Session #2:

Lead by Lenva Shearing @lenva. An excellent session on google extensions and add ons. Lenva kindly shared a DLO for reference. http://bit.ly/10appsext My takeaway

 

 Draftback

allows you to see a 'video' version of of text edits/revision history. I am looking forward to 

seeing how I can use this to help my learners make stronger connections to their learning.

Session #3:

Lead by Karen Ferguson @Karen968. A brilliant hands on session that walked us through the Tinkercad program. My takeaway is knowing how to make use of the features of this program and a huge feeling of accomplishment having created my own 3d design.

1:1 Conferencing

Working with Paige today gave me the opportunity to reflect on how powerful 1:1 conferencing in a digital learning environment is when helping our learners make connections. We were looking at how noun referencing could enhance her writing. Paige was editing her work on my device, therefore taking ownership, and by projecting it onto the apple TV we were both able to clearly see what her thinking.

Speed Dating at PBS

Last week I saw a teaching idea shared by the Year 7/8 teachers at Stanhope Road School. They used 'speed dating' to get to know new vocabulary needed to help their learners make connections to their new inquiry. I adapted this idea to our inquiry getting me learners to share their knowledge of two components of our learning. My learners had a lot of fun and made strong connections to both topics through lots of rich discussion. 

Google Educator Level 1

I passed the Level 1 Google Educator exam! Revisiting the fundamentals was interesting. I was equally surprised at what I already knew as I was of what was completely new to me. Will definitely be making use of my new learning in Term 2!