Tohatoha

This week we turbocharged our Share | Tohotoha pedagogy and invited educators from across The Manaiakalani Network to connect and share in our Term 3 Manaiakalani Staff Meeting. With registrations upwards of 500,  harnessing the affordances of technology and our network of connected learning communities across Aotearoa resulted in an awesome display of connected learners sharing.

He aha te kai o te Rangatira, He kōreo, he kōrero, he kōrero

The session was designed to be conversational with small groups formed in response to curriculum level and Teaching as Inquiry topics. This was an opportunity to connect and share strategies with educators who have been focussing on similar achievement challenges. We shared conversation starters and each group met online for 45 min.

We believe sharing is fundamentally about people making connections. Early feedback - the opportunities to connect with teachers and school leaders, specifically to hear how schools are approaching their unique contexts, was valued.

This week's DFI also focused on share and how our young people are harnessing their class and individual blogs to connect with an authentic audience across our network of schools. We were reminded that sharing is also an opportunity to understand the importance of completing a task... an important life skill...

PLUS seek feedback on progress (being ready to share at any stage of the learning process) and the opportunities this can attract when sharing online... (versus cultivating celebrity status in a social media soaked world. I've written about this in the past...

How are you "harnessing your ecosystems?" How are you scaling up your connectivity and attracting the people and resources you need to find your potential?

Enjoyed the Dealing with Data sessions which provided inspiration for stepping up my sheets game with Data Validation and Conditional formatting to manage our Summer Learning Journey project. Learning how to harness the extension Autocrat has definitely been a bonus (thanks Dave Winter).

Using Google Forms as a Writing Frame has been a great place to start and further conversations in our DFI bubble today helped me to think about further opportunities to personalise learning (thanks Herman and Lars)

Google Maps have always been a favourite. If you're new to using Maps with your learners start here with one of our Summer Learning Journey activities.

Hanga

Thinking about creativity today and reminded how being creative also encourages collaboration and problem solving. 

I have shared on the Blogger platform for many years. In 2022 our young people moved to edublogs to share their learning. 

Creating a media gallery is a smart, image formatting feature in edublogs and a time saver. 

I was able to set this up while editing, however the formatting would not save when published. 

A problem shared and thanks to Lars from my DFI Bubble a solution!

This requires activating the CSS plugin and updating with the following:

.gallery > figure { width: auto; }

Getting creative with Google Slides and Drawing

I demonstrated today how to create an interactive poster to share in a blog post.

While Google Drawing is a great go to App to create a poster or graphic any hyperlinked content will not be clickable in a blog post.  Google Drawing Resources

An option is to create an interactive poster using a Google Slide.

Example: Using a Google Slide, embedded in a blog post, enables hyperlinks to remain active.

This option includes removing the Google Slide navigation bar.

Examples and instruction links here

Note to self:

Read: Elwyn Richardson and the early world of creative education in New Zealand' by Margaret MacDonald. Recommended Robin Sutton What a gift - being creative in selling the 'creativity' message

Rent: The HeART of the Matter

Ako

The Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy recognises effective practice in any learning environment AND the digital learning environment.  Why is this important?

The last two years have highlighted how critical this has been for learning and effective practice in any context.

We know for learning to accelerate, our learners need to be able to access learning beyond a physical location and time (McNaughton 2018). This has meant new tools for learning and a new pedagogy to support learning outside of school.

In Term 1 this year we were challenged again with schools open and learners either onsite or learning from home.  Listening to a podcast earlier this year, and the following from Derek Wenmoth resonated for me...

"All schools are now being challenged to consider -  “What happens when we need to think about learners/teachers and the learning/teaching independent of the location/place? How do we make participation in learning accessible when not determined by physical location”  

For our schools the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy (Learn, Create Share) is how this happens. 

For teaching and learning beyond the physical classroom and traditional school day, including harnessing tools for ubiquitous learning e.g.  Sites, Hāpara Workspace, Blogs, Being Cybersmart.

We have over many years harnessed our kaupapa to understand and explore how to harness the affordances of technology.  Our Learn pedagogy prioritises recognising effective practice in any learning environment PLUS the digital learning environment to amplify and turbo charge learning.

Our Learn pedagogy prioritises recognising effective practice 

Existing practices enabled us to move to distance learning and during this time our focus on Limit the Links - Kia iti ngā kuputoro has served us well. 

 

Decision making and actions were guided by our existing practices as a learning community. This includes, pedagogy, workflow and our understanding of how we design learning that is visible, accessible and rewindable.

If you can search for your school website … one link to rule them all!

Our kaupapa and pedagogy continues to provide a common understanding for learning design. There is value in thinking about this strategically -  as a school and a learning community. This enables coherence and consistency for learners and whānau to navigate and access learning.  For teachers it offers opportunities to transform the way our young people learn.

I valued the opportunity to share with Jemma today in our online DFI. We used Google Meet to create a screen recording of our conversation about a learner blog post and how the technology has been harnessed to both amplify and turbo charge learning. 

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

"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)

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

Mind of a creator...

Creativity Empowers Learning...our professional learning focus for Term 2.
Planning for our PLGs and I have been comparing and contrasting Edward Lee's thoughts on being adventurers with opportunities to create to learn. Taking risks, trying new things, messing around and not always having a solution or answer immediately.



 "There's a lot of visual literature, there's a lot of written literature, about pretty much any topic in the world. So as a culture and a society we've stopped being adventurers and we've started to be scholars and by not doing that we lose a lot..."  Edward Lee, Mind of a Chef