Manaiakalani Film Festival 2016

Earlier this month I once again contributed a movie to the annual Manaiakalani Film Festival.   With slightly older learners this year I asked for their ideas and tried to incorporate them all into the movie - no mean feat given they had SO many ideas.

Over the last few years I have come to realise it is really important to do three things:

• Plan REALLY well, including a full list of all screen shots (really handy as you can film out of order)
• Always film MORE footage than you think you will need - definitely the case this year but that way there is little need to refilm (and try to get things exactly as they were on the day)
• Allow more TIME than you think you need for editing - it always takes longer!  Movies this year were due in week 8 and I organised to film in week 2, which was way earlier than most.  This gave me six weeks to work on editing (and it took nearly that long)

The opportunity of the Film Festival for my learners is amazing.  I have some learners that I taught back in Year 1 so they knew that they would have the opportunity to dress up and get into their roles.  For me, I try to make the experience enjoyable and different for my learners.  They all get the opportunity to dress up and become the character.  I also try to add the fantasy and "wow" moments by using the green screen room.  This ensures that learners (who don't see the movie until it is on the big screen) don't really know what to expect.  

So, without further ado, my Manaiakalani Film Festival entry for 2016 ... see what happens when its not "Just Another Day!"

Writing with Google Docs

One of the challenges I have as a teacher this year is adapting to the new year level (Year 3 after teaching Year 1 for two years) and using technology to extend learners in my classroom.

My inquiry for 2016 into my own practice is with writing and I have many learners in my classroom that are unable to complete even one sentence without support.  Many of my lessons to date have been whole class based, all writing about the same topic.  This is because I quickly discovered, in my first weeks this year, that unless I took this approach, my whole writing lesson turned to noisy chaos within five minutes.

When I took the lessons right back to basics of just writing one GREAT sentence, I was able to circulate and provide support to all those that need it, and this enabled all learners in my classroom to experience success and they were keen to share their sentences via their blogs.  Initially we are focusing on just a few things - capital letters, full stops and adding "juicy vocabulary" to make the sentence interesting.  In order for the learners to have a library of ideas to draw from, we discuss the motivation for writing before we start (usually an image) and brainstorm some vocabulary as a whole class.

While this has worked well for those learners that struggle to write, other learners are of course ready to move onto additional sentences and need an additional challenge.  Last week I introduced using Google Docs with these learners (some had been using them last year already), being sure to carefully scaffold how I want them used in my classroom (naming conventions, where to save etc).  These learners are willing and able to write more than one sentence, and the use of Google Docs keeps them challenged as well as making it easier for me to provide comments and ongoing support to them.  This week that will be particularly important as I plan to build a story over several days in a carefully scaffolded structure - the use of Google Docs will allow me to provide comments to the learners each night that they can review before moving onto the next step of their writing.

New Year .. New Level ... New Challenges

Just a week into the 2016 school year and I'm excited about the new challenges this year will present.  After two years at Year 0/1, this year I'm again teaching with iPads, but in a Year 3 classroom.  Over the holidays I've put some time into adapting some of my resources for this new level as well as having an in depth look at the curriculum at this new level.

School returned at Pt England on Tuesday, and it was great to meet the learners I'd be teaching this year - some of them I have in fact taught before, in my first year of teaching so it was doubly great to see how far these learners had come!

Week 1 in my classroom was all about setting up routines and getting to know the uniqueness of each learner!  I'm looking forward to using my Class Room Site more this year as these learners have had 1 - 2 years with an iPad to assist their learning already, and are more confident at navigating the site to access their learning!  Additionally, these learners are able to share their learning with the world in a much more independent way than my previous class was able to, via their blogs and I'm looking forward to having them engaged and motivated by comments I hope they will receive through this medium.

As has been the case for the last two years, all my planning and is available on my site (visible learning) and this year my activities are also accessible as this is where my learners will be accessing them directly.  Our Year 3/4 team at Pt England has a "superhero" theme for Term 1, which was the inspiration for my Site header and Class Blog - celebrating the heroes in Room 15!  I'm looking forward to sharing the successes and challenges throughout the year as well as documenting some unique opportunities that I'm lucky enough to be part of this year.