Support your learners to create original content for their blog posts

Today the Summer Learning Journey Teaser (SLJ) activities go live. This is open to any of our learners with individual blogs regardless of whether they have registered for the Summer Learning Journey. The teaser activities are an opportunity for your learners to familiarise themselves with the SLJ activities.

Plus we have created a page on the Cybersmart site sharing ideas to help learners use what they have learnt to create a Digital Learning Object for their blog post. Please support your learners to create original content for their blog post rather than copying and pasting the SLJ activity content.

Open page link

Each DLO includes a link to an example on a learner’s blog. Thank you to teachers and learners from Panmure Bridge School, Ruapotaka School, Glen Innes School and St Bernadette's School in Christchurch whose blogs we have referenced.

The Summer Learning Journey activities will be available to download to enable offline access. Take time during the Teaser Week to ensure your learners can confidently access and manage their learning both offline and online. See Google Drive Offline

The SLJ Teaser week is also another awesome opportunity to connect with your Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu buddies from 2019 and comment.

2019 Participation Badge for your blogs

Let's go to the Movies!

Look out for Film Festivals in Manaiakalani and Toki Pounamu this week!
Participating and contributing to annual Film Festivals is a highlight of the year in a number of our clusters. In addition to celebrating together on the day, all films are shared on our blogs. Viewing and responding to festival films is another opportunity for our young people to connect with an authentic audience.
Take some time to focus on the elements of a film to emphasise key vocabulary for commenting.

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Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips

Creating and sharing their own media empowers learners to be media literate

This week's blogging tip focuses on Being Cybersmart: Smart Media

Engaging all learners in conversations about media and the construction of media enables valuable opportunities to understand why it is important to recognise who the creator is.
Identify opportunities to start this conversation with your learners early.
In Years 1-3 creating and sharing their own media via the class blog enables learners to connect with and respond to each others' learning as creators of media.

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Attributing Images is especially important if your learners have their own blog. Take time to empower your learners to select and attribute images if they are not creating their own.

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Creating Collages with Textured Images

This week's awesome tip comes to us via Uru Mānuka and St Bernadette's School, thanks to Kelsey Morgan and Grace @ St Bernadette's School.

Grace has created a collage using images of textures and included Kelsey's helpful instructional slide deck. 

Plus Cybersmart tips for Smart Learners and Smart Media.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips

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Ko te tū atamai i te ipurangi ki te ao ako, hanga, tohatoha

The Manaiakalani Education Programme's theme for Term 4 2019 is "Being Cybersmart in a Learn Create Share World". 

Ko te tū atamai i te ipurangi ki te ao ako, hanga, tohatoha, empowers our learners to make smart decisions and understand that every time they connect, collaborate and share online it combines to create their digital footprint.
This is timely as our government launches a nationwide focus with a Cyber Smart Week to coincide with Digital Citizenship Week from the 14-18 October.

Please continue to harness your blogs and participation in Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu to engage learners in Being Cybersmart. While we have focused on our three key cybersmart categories throughout the year - Smart Learners, Smart Footprint and Smart Relationships - continuing to  identify opportunities for learners to practise being cybersmart as they Learn Create and Share is critical.
As you plan, try to identify opportunities to include Being Cybersmart starting with any of our Weekly Tips over the past three terms. Also if your learners have individual blogs take some time to ensure they are confident with navigating, posting and commenting. Plus identify opportunities within your exisiting learning programmes to connect with the elements of a quality blog post and additional Cybersmart categories.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips

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Learning Anytime and Any Place

Empower your learners to continue learning, creating and sharing with their blog throughout the school break. If you're taking some time away from your device schedule posts for the class blog too.  

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips 

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Why copy and paste from a Google Doc to Blogger?

There are advantages to using a Google Doc to prepare text for a blog post.

Crafting or composing a text in a Google Doc creates a saved copy for both the learner and teacher.

This copy is a record of what has been written and provides access to the Version History of the document.

Viewing a document's history provides valuable information about how the learner has edited their writing and supports reflecting on and editing text.

Scaffolds can be included in the document for learners e.g. voice typing, writing prompts

Commenting in Google Docs can also be harnessed for feedback and feedforward to support the learner as they write.

If there are any internet issues when publishing in blogger a copy is saved in Google Drive.

Don't forget to Paste and Match Style. Once the text has been pasted into the Blogger post editor, use the Blogger editing tools to format text.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips 

Viewing Student Blog Activity in Hāpara Dashboard

Using Hāpara’s Teacher Dashboard to view learners' blog posts and monitor comments from Blogger, enables teachers, as blog administrators, to access and view all blog posts and comments in one place.

This article from Hāpara includes screenshots and brief explanations of what you are able to view, including useful features teachers can harness to support Cybersmart learning e.g.

• Published posts and drafts with dates. Display Dashboard on the big screen to draw learners attention to when they last published a post. Our goal is to share three posts a week.
• Draft posts display with a green pencil next to the last update. Remind learners that posts should be published regularly and set expectations for draft posts to be published.
• Posts without titles.  Support learners to edit posts and include a title. 
• Blog titles create a unique URL for the specific blog post. Include keywords that explain what the post is about
• Keep titles short and concise, this will be more readable for users and won’t get cut off in feeds.
• Anonymous comments highlighted in red as an alert. Sometimes parents will post as anonymous if they don’t have a Google account. 

We highlighted Monitoring Blog Comments in a previous tip. As admin of learners’ blogs teachers should be receiving email notifications when comments are posted on your learners’ blogs. If not please subscribe to blog notifications for all learners’ blogs. 

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips 

Viewing Student Blog Activity in Hapara Dashboard

Tohatoha - Connected Learners Share

A valued element of sharing - kanohi ki te kanohi

It was all about the impact of sharing at our Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako, Connected Learners Share Staff meeting this week. 

The purpose of this hui was for our people to:

• understand the impact of Share/Tohatoha for our learners and their wellbeing and achievement
• connect with the valued elements of sharing, in the world we live in

"It is a basic human instinct to want to share. Sharing connects us to others both emotionally and practically" (Connected Learners Share)

As a Kahui Ako we acknowledge the valued elements of sharing identified by our educators. We also know sharing positively, makes a positive difference for our young people, their wellbeing and achievement. 

Summer Learning Journey Milestone Report 

Additionally by recognising and embracing the increased options we have to share in today's world our young people are empowered to harness the digital to connect and share in ways that elevate the positive. 

Content and feedback from participants for our Connected Learners Share staff meeting:

• Keynote (Dorothy Burt)
• Breakout Session: The valued elements of sharing  
• Connected Learners Share  1:World 

Speed Dating

Google Drive and Blogger

Even if you have been blogging for a while please take a few minutes to browse through the Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu blogger tips to date.

Are you confident that both you and your learners, who have individual blogs, are familiar with these processes and recommendations?

A common problem we see on some learners' blogs is  text in a published blog post overlapping into the sidebar of the blog. 

This happens when content is copied and pasted from a Google Doc to the blog.

Support your learners to use Ctrl - Shift - V when pasting or if the post has been published clear formatting to rectify.  Recommend having a student cast to your screen and demonstrate this process for others to follow. 

Some learners may need to scroll back through their blog and check published posts. If they notice a post that needs to have the formatting cleared, I recommend clicking the small pencil at the end of their post to edit.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips 

By crafting in Google Docs first, both the learner and teacher, have a record of what has been written. Not only is the content saved but also access to view the Version History is available in Docs.

The value of this is teachers are able to view the document history plus leave feedback/feedforward to support  learners via comments in Google Docs, as they are crafting their writing.

Also if there any issues with blogger publishing content will not be lost as it is saved in Google Drive.

Inserting hyperlinks in a blog comment can be helpful

When writing a blog comment consider sharing a recommended online resource or example from another blog that may be helpful. This could include a specific post on your blog where you have shared something similar. 

This is a powerful strategy for engaging with your audience and communicating a sense of connection.

Model how to do this with your learners on either a class blog or an individual blog to help them identify when inserting a hyperlink, might be helpful e.g. can I add more information or make a connection by sharing a link to something similar.

Rather than copying and pasting the URL, which is not clickable,  use html to turn text in a blog comment into a hyperlink.

Share the html code below on your learning site so it is easily accessible by your learners

<a href="insert URL here">Insert display text here</a>

• Copy and paste the html code into the comment field and replace the highlighted text.
• Copy and paste the URL you want to share and insert the text that will display when your comment is published
• When the comment is published the display text will be a hyperlink

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips 

ISTE 2019

#missioncreativity my first attempt @ Keynote iOS 😅Postcard from #ISTE19 Day 5 🙏 @CVeitcher @TechCoachNinja @kristenlajeune1 ...how’d I do? pic.twitter.com/GvjkPrSvuR

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 27, 2019

🙌Uplifting to see themes & actions that reflect ❤️of our Cybersmart learning #Manaiakalani elevating the positive #digcitcommit "focuses on the do's of digital citizenship" @rec54 #ISTE19 #GoogleEdu #passionforkindness #beinternetawesome pic.twitter.com/xa83QQfw87

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) July 2, 2019

Coding Kindness wands via @teambond #iste19 Battle of the Edtech Stars #awesome 🙏❤️ #TheLoveUGive pic.twitter.com/t5y6n3qI3g

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 24, 2019

Because of our lived experiences #digcit is better when it’s a shared conversation 🙏 @DrKMattson #ISTE19 #DigCitCommit pic.twitter.com/Q9WQHZjK0T

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 26, 2019

Powerful perspectives... “Growing up Global: How performing for a worldwide audience gave me a voice” via @Glitcher1313 important voices we all need to listen 🙏 Ethan #ISTE19 pic.twitter.com/QU8k2dLTK3

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 24, 2019

Note to self... “Understanding someone requires creativity ...we can’t always measure impact but we can feel it” @manoushz #iste19 #CreateToLearn #manaiakalani pic.twitter.com/1pMyiaAqkO

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 25, 2019

Awesome week #iste19 thanks to all I connected with & learnt from, generosity of spirit & energy inspiring 🙏 #DigCitCommit #GoogleEI #Phil19 #PassionForKindness pic.twitter.com/PShGOXYxb7

— Fiona Grant (@FionaGrant) June 29, 2019

Manaiakalani Being Cybersmart - Smart Relationships

... and suddenly it was Term 3


We enjoy welcoming new teams from Manaiakalani Outreach who have joined Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu this term.
Often at this time of the year we have learners in 1:1 classes who have recently had individual blogs rolled out. If this is your learners, please take some time to ensure your blog list gadget is updated with links to your learners’ blogs so visitors to your class blog are able to locate your learners' individual blogs. Adding a Blog List Gadget to your Blog
Also email teacher/s in your Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Team to let them know, so learners can start to connect via their individual blogs as well as the class blog.

If you are new to Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu please check out the recommendations for Preparing Your Blog. Hopefully you have been inspired by some of the sample posts classes have created and shared to introduce themselves to their Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Team.

Last term Te Whare Waipaoa @ Riverdale School and Room 5 @ Tamaki Primary School used Google Hangouts to introduce themselves. 

Te Whare Waipoa @ Riverdale School

They have shared their Digital Pōwhiri experience on their blogs and would be very happy to answer questions if you are considering harnessing Google Hangouts to  connect with your Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu team... leave them a comment!

If you have participated in the Digital Fluency Intensive in your region, this is an awesome opportunity to apply what you learnt about Google Hangouts. If you are new to Google Hangouts, your facilitator also will be able to assist.

The Manaiakalani Education Programme's theme for Term 3, Connected Learners Share, is at the heart of Cybersmart Learning: Smart Relationships. 

Participating and contributing to Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu supports our young people to make smart decisions about how they share online and experience positive, healthy, online interactions. 

If you have actively participated and contributed to Tuhi Mai Tui Atu in the past two terms, teaching and learning will already have empowered your learners to connect with an authentic audience and begin to learn how to maintain positive and supportive online relationships. 

If you are new to Tuhi Mai Tui Atu the programme is designed to empower both you and your learners to be Cybersmart through leaving quality blog comments and engaging in online behaviour and thinking that elevates positive actions.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Weekly Tips

A4

Empowering our young people to:

• confidently navigate and harness their device and learning applications 
• make the most of this opportunity to learn lots of new things and to share these with others (Manaiakalani Kawa of Care)

...can be significantly impacted by their ability to access learning anytime, anyplace, anywhere and from anyone.

One of the  reasons Manaiakalani has chosen to use GSuite and Chromebooks is that learners are still able to view and edit files offline, including: Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides.

In support of  the Manaiakalani kaupapa,  Connected, Ubiquitous, Empowered and Visible it is critical that all our learners can confidently access and manage their learning both offline and online.

Save and open Google Docs, Sheets & Slides offline

Empower Learners to take responsibility for their Digital Footprint

Creating a blog profile is an opportunity for learners to connect with and understand that every time they share online it is contributing to creating their digital footprint. They need to make smart decisions about what personal information they share when creating their blog profile.

Learners with a new Blog

• Have learners connected with the Kawa of Care and elements of the  Responsible Use Agreement? e.g. Exploring Blogs, Exploring Online Profiles,
• Have learners created a blog profile?
• Have learners prepared to share The First Post?
• Identify multiple opportunities for learners to post existing DLOs from their Drive, with your support, to build confidence with the components of a blog post and the process of posting.

Lydia @ Tamaki Primary School

Learners with exisiting blogs

• Have learners updated their profile for 2019?

• Would it be helpful for learners to Explore examples of online profiles and consider different formats for creating a profile e.g. webpage, screencast, short video

• Use the featured post gadget in the blog layout to display a link to their blog profile. For example

• Profile post labels: If learners have profiles from previous year include the same labels. This creates a single link to all profiles to compare and contrast e.g. empower learners to understand they are responsible for their digital footprint.

For more blogging tips: Tuhi Mai Tui Atu

Celebrating Being Us

Heart warming to see our young people responding to the theme for #PinkShirtDayNZ on Friday... "Celebrating Being Us". Lots of awesome connections with our Manaiaklani Cybersmart kaupapa.  All about elevating the positive and empowering our learners to connect with what they can do to share aroha, kindness and kaitiakitanga... The Love You Give.

Ruma Kea @ Kokatahi School using cybersmart language positive, thoughtful and helpful to design their own pink shirts. Ngā Whai @ Taipa Area School created kindness chains for their classmates and student leaders at Pt England "Love the Difference", celebrating our uniqueness.

He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata

Empower your chrome-bookers, to amplify and turbo charge their learning.

Screencastify for Chromebooks
Lots of options for learners to record sound and action when creating and sharing Digital Learning Objects + a versatile tool for peer and self reflection.

If you are new to using Screencastify see the Cybersmart site for setup plus recommendations and support for the following...

• Scaffold learners to be confident with workflow and plan for opportunities to Create to Learn
• Screencastify 2D Digital Learning Objects e.g. Creating Learning Stories
• Practise and self assess reading and oral language e.g. Build Reading Mileage 
• Share screencasts on blogs + peer feedback via blog commenting
• Record demonstrations and explanations, with narration e.g. Create a screencast
• Collaborate to create e.g. record a conversation, interview

For more blogging tips: Tuhi Mai Tui Atu

"Give them something to do..."

From Rockets to Rock Stars ... 170+ Manaiakalani Teachers Create to Learn 

This quote from John Dewey incapsulates the theme of our Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako, Create to Learn Staff meeting this week. Our goal was to focus our thinking on what we can learn by having an opportunity to create.

Through creating we want to remind ourselves of the origins of Learn Create Share and Creativity Empowering Learning. Opportunities to create, hook our young people into learning.... to create engagement and awaken curiosity, excitement and passion (Create to Learn Dorothy Burt).

When we approach Learn Create Share in a linear fashion, the opportunity to Create is often the culmination of extensive learning and teaching e.g. Our Manaiakalani Film Festival, Annual Fia Fia, and Art Fair.

Lots of awesome learning opportunities here! However, if we recognise the cognitive engagement that ensues when young people are creating to learn, this staff meeting's focus was advocating for increased opportunities to Create to Learn.

Ideally when we identify and plan for opportunities to Create to Learn, creating does not need to be a Peter Jackson production.

It can be quick and scheduled at a stage of the learning where it will have the most impact.


"Creating provides students with an opportunity to reflect on, synthesize, and come to a deeper understanding of what they read and know – or think they know" (Dr Rebecca Jessen)

The Love You Give ♥️

Message for our Manaiakalani Schools
This week, 13 May - 17 May, sees a nationwide event that at its heart aims to celebrate who we are and spread aroha, kindness and kaitiakitanga.

Our young people will be seeing and hearing messages in support of these events via the media and online and you also may be considering supporting Pink Shirt Day on Friday 17th in your school.

Please take some time to consider the principles of the Manaiakalani Programme's Being Cybersmart, when engaging our young people with these themes.

Especially if your learners are creating and sharing content online, in response to next week’s events.

Words, images and actions have power. The more we hear them, see them and use them the more we elevate them. This includes on our screens.

If we are “speaking up and standing together”, what will we see and hear people doing? What will we be doing to celebrate being us?  Whakanuia Tōu Āhua Ake! 

Focus on those actions and imagery that empower our young people to elevate the positive:

• Often learners will respond to the the negative with a negative. In conversations, acknowledge their contribution, then immediately follow up by encouraging them to connect with and describe or model actions they will see and hear if your school is spreading aroha, kindness and kaitiakitanga.

• If learners are creating and sharing, both offline and online, do their words, images and actions elevate the positive? Empower learners to create DLOs that represent themselves and their actions as positive, thoughtful and helpful. This is particularly powerful when creating a positive digital footprint and developing smart relationships online. (Being Cybersmart)

For Example: Do actions, words and imagery empower learners to connect with positive, thoughtful, helpful?

The walls of your schools and kura….

What and how we share online and kanohi ki te kanohi...

Our young people on the big screen... confident, connected, life long learners. 

Note the themes and imagery in these films. 

A final word resonates because of its strong connection with the principles of Being Cybersmart...

"But with that memory comes a responsibility. A responsibility to be the place that we wish to be. A place that is diverse, that is welcoming, that is kind and compassionate. Those values represent the very best of us… 

...We each hold the power, in our words and in our actions, in our daily acts of kindness. Let that be the legacy of the 15th of March. To be the nation we believe ourselves to be"

(Jacinda Ardern, Christchurch memorial)

Image Source

Manaiakalani May Toolkits: Harnessing video to tell and share stories

Participating and contributing to the annual Manaiakalani Film Festival is a highlight of our year. Films are premiered at Hoyts Sylvia Park in November and need to be submitted by the end of Term 3.  To prepare your learners to participate and contribute in the Manaiakalani Film Festival it is essential to identify opportunities to Learn, Create, Share  throughout the year. From planning and presenting to storyboarding, editing and filming, identify opportunities for your learners to harness video to tell and share their stories as soon as you can. Increased opportunities to take ownership of the process early in the year will empower our young people and build their confidence to participate and contribute to the film festival.

Our May Toolkits included strategies and recommendations for teachers and opportunities to learn the skills our young people will utilise when creating their film for the festival including Creating a Learning Story, Creating a Short Film and Create a One Shot Film

Manaiakalani Being Cybersmart - Smart Footprint

We are currently updating and transferring Cybersmart Learning content to new Google Sites. The content on the classic site will remain available, however will not be updated. Any new content can be accessed from our new Cybersmart site.


We begin Term 2 with a focus on our Cybersmart Learning: Smart Footprint. Central to this is empowering our learners to understand the difference between private and public information and creating a positive digital footprint.

Whenever and wherever we share online it's personal, visible and amplified. It is personal because we are sharing information about ourselves.  Creating a positive digital footprint means learning to make smart decisions about what personal information we share and what personal information we keep private.

Blogging enables our young people to connect with an authentic audience and provides a rich and engaging platform for learning to create a positive digital footprint.  Making connections and sharing via the class blog, school blogs and blogs across our clusters enables learners to begin engaging with creating a Smart Footprint whether they are blogging individually or currently sharing via their class blog.

Teachers who are receiving in class support from Manaiakalani facilitators  are also participating in Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu which is enabling us to harness blogging for Cybersmart Learning.

Recommendations and resources have been shared to support teachers to identify and design cybersmart learning in response to the strengths and interests of their learners.

Monitoring Blog Comments

All blogs in Manaiakalani are set to anyone can comment.
As the administrator teachers are sent an email notification when a learner posts or a comment is left on their blog. The easiest way to monitor interactions on learners’ blogs is through the Teacher Dashboard. As blog admin our teachers are responsible for moderating comments and spam.

How to delete comments
Log into your blogger dashboard and select the blog you want to monitor comments for.
Click comments then delete comments or mark as spam if the comment looks like spam.
This will delete the comment and also, over time, blogger will recognise spam comments and automatically move them to spam.

For more blogging tips: Tuhi Mai Tui Atu

Manaiakalani Cybersmart

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu

We are very excited to begin this year with over 50 class blogs registered for Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu our Manaiakalani Outreach Blogging programme. Literally translated, Write to me, write to others, we are using our class blogging platform to build powerful connections across our clusters. 

Similar to Quadblogging Aotearoa, but with our own Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy Learn Create Share, Tui Mai Tuhi Atu empowers our young people to learn to be Cybersmart through leaving quality blog comments and engaging in online behaviour and thinking that elevates positive actions.

Teachers new to Manaiakalani will also be receiving support from their facilitator for Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu as they build confidence with blogging and Learn Create Share.




Each week we will share blogging tips to support both blog administration and Learn Create Share.
Find our more about Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu, connect with blogging teams and explore tips on the website.