GAFE 2017 - Opening Keynote

Once again I'm lucky to be attending the GAFE Summit in Auckland, this time representing Lynmore School.  This blog post will document my thoughts and findings throughout the session.

Opening Keynote:  Iteration and Innovation in Education
- Jaime Casap

Why do we care so much about Education?  Education is what changes a family's destiny! Education disrupts poverty!  If you work hard, get a good education, anything is possible.  No matter how many years you teach, the impact you have on students goes on for generations.  It is possible to have an impact on students for years to come, on students that you possibly won't even meet!

We need to take the best of what education is and take it to the next level.  How can we do that using technology?  Our job is to prepare kids for the future.  We need to remember that the 21st century is already here!  Computer science in NZ is a huge part of this future.  Out of the top seven jobs in this country, six are information technology positions.  This is true throughout the world and why it is important to have computer science as a part of education.

We know what good learning looks like compared to the past.  Things such as personalisation, modern, motivating and engaging  are common place in the classroom today, allowing us to deliver education in different ways - thanks to technology!  Given where technology is today, how can we take the best ideas and bring it to life.

Do you remember when we had to call the internet, and the internet was busy!  What was your reward when you got online?  Today - how do our expectations differ?  Generation z learners are global, social, visual and technological.  How children today think about learning is different given the world they are born into.  Children today learn by exploring whereas we waited for someone to teach us.  We need to pay attention to that.  What is generation z facing?  The technology of today isn't close to what is coming.  They are able to visit places virtually that we never dreamt possible in the past.  Today we can merge the real world with the virtual world.

Skills that are needed in the workplace, in a technology world (as per big companies employing technology specialists):

• problem solving 
• team-working
• communications
• critical thinking
• collaboration
• creativity
• literacy
• digital literacy
• leadership
• foreign language
• emotional intelligence

The process of problem solving is what kids need to do as through this they will develop the learning they need to solve the problem.

Iteration is the result of critical thinking - feedback to take learners to the next level is more important than a grade.

Collaboration is how problems are solved - one of the things that Google looks for is collaboration skills.  The ability to listen, the ability to reach consensus, and to take a step back and let someone else lead.

We need digital leaders - if students don't learn how to be strong digital leaders in schools, they won't learn it anywhere else.  Can they tell the difference between a news site and a sponsored site?

There is therefore a need for a culture shift.  How do we bring education to the next level?  Converting information into intelligence is important.  There will always be a need to memorise but at some point information becomes a commodity with no value.  How do we ask questions that you can't look up on Google?  That is the challenge for us and our learners.  Student centered learning models give the learner the opportunity to explore their own learning.  A great teacher helps these students strive, with the use of technology, maker models and forward thinking.  

Iteration and innovation drive transformation!  Think how Google has changed.  It can happen anywhere!  It takes time and problem solving to make progress.  The future classroom starts on Monday - experiment, try new things, we are just getting started!  We are not behind, we are in the middle of change.  Only 40% of the world are online!  This is the most exciting time in Education.  To a 5 year old, the latest and greatest phone today is the worst piece of technology they will see in their life - it is their Commodore 64!  Do we have the right processes in place that they are going to need to thrive and build the skills to solve the problems of their world!

Exploring Seesaw

As part of my involvement with the Towards Transformation program, over the last few weeks I've been using the app Seesaw with my learners.  Seesaw is an app on my learners iPads and I use a web browser to access the material they have uploaded.   Because my class is not quite 1:1 with iPads yet, learners scan a QR code each time they want to upload some work and then select their name.

Initially we had a few small teething problems as learners forgot to log out and the next learner scanned the work without checking but I turned this into a teachable moment and explained the importance of always logging out.  The learners are enjoying being able to review their work so far this year as well as read the comments that I leave for them after each piece of work.

I have moderation set for each piece of work - this is great as I know which pieces I haven't looked at and can immediately see the next steps for learners that haven't quite mastered a strategy or concept that I have been teaching.  Seesaw also has the ability to share students works with their parents also, something we will be doing in Room 30 very shortly - they will also be able to leave comments as well as see what we are doing in class each day.

For me, there are some real benefits with using Seesaw.  These include:

• Notifications if I forget to approve work
• The ability for learners to record their voice from within the program - we have been publishing writing but learners also read their story too
• The ability to add video as well as images.  We have been sharing to the camera roll and then uploading from there.
• Being able to comment on my learners work and my learners receive a notification when they log in that they have new comments.
• The ability to share work with each learners parents.
• The ease with which learners can login and publish their work - we went over this in class a few times and all learners were confident within days.

I'm really looking forward to exploring Seesaw further over the coming weeks and sharing the learning that we are doing in class with our parents/whanau.

iPad Tools

Recently in my classroom I've been using a terrific Accessibility feature on the iPad, to help those learners who are lower in reading.  Often I include extensive instructions on particularly my Explain Everything activities to ensure learners remember what they are suppose to do after when they are working independently.  I have in the past used soundbites (using an app called Quickvoice) but I was reminded recently about the "speak" function where learners are able to highlight a piece of text and the iPad will read it to them.

To enable this function on the iPad, go to your Settings.  Under the 'General' option, choose Accessibility.  At the bottom of the first box, select "Speech" and enable the top option "Speak Selection".

My learners used this function within Explain Everything.  They simply highlight the piece of text they are unsure of and select "speak".  The text will be read to them and they know exactly what my instructions said.  NB:  In Explain Everything, the text cannot be locked down if you are wanting to use the speak function - I do occasionally forget this but my learners know to just unlock the text to use this function.

New Challenges ... Towards Transformation

This year I'm lucky enough to be part of a group of five teachers at Lynmore School receiving professional development as part of Apple's Towards Transformation project.

Last week we had our first session and as always its great to be shown different things and also reminded of tools and different ways these tools can be used.  As always, this blog post documents my learning from the session but also includes things I was already aware of but that my readers may benefit from.

Some of the iPad tools that were discussed during our session:

• Speech - accessed by going to the Settings, General, Accessibility and turning on "Speak Select" which is under Speech.  You are able to adjust the speaking rate - I have moved mine more towards the turtle so the speech is slower for my learners.  This allows you to highlight a word or piece of text on the iPad and select "speak" and the word/text will be read to you.  Great for learners who struggle to read your instructions in Explain Everything!
• Slide over - use this to move between two different apps - slide from the right of the screen and select the second app you'd like to have appear
• Edit photos on your iPad by selecting "Edit" and "Markup" allows you to add text to your photos, highlight or notate or even add drawings to emphasise a point - this is great to allow learners to photograph some materials and then document what they are doing (particularly in maths).

Some of the iPad apps which were discussed during our first session:

• Seesaw - a digital portfolio which integrates well with the iPads.  This allows students to share work with the teacher, allows parent access as well as for the teacher to send work to a group/individual student.  For me personally, I have found that I'm not able to send my Explain Everything projects via this portal at this stage, however its great for learners to screenshot or upload a video of their work and I get a feed of which work needs checking (and approving). Learners in my space scan a QR code (all catered for within the app) and select their name to sign in to send me their work.  I'm excited to try this out, particularly given the parent access that is available for each child.
• Grafio 3 Lite - a great brainstorming app which allows for the import of pictures.  Learners are easily able to draw shapes and add words as they brainstorm their ideas.  Importantly, they are able to export their brainstorm as an image which can be inserted into other apps if required.  They are also able to send me their brainstorm via the Seesaw portfolio so I can provide feedback to them.

To finish our first session with our Apple facilitator, we discussed how a writing lesson could be progressed, from the brainstorm (using Grafio 3 Lite, through to the writing (using Pages or Google Docs) and into publishing/presenting (using a suggested app called Over).  I really liked this idea and intend to implement the process this week, using Explain Everything (rather than Over) for the publishing stage - this is because my learners are still exploring Explain Everything and I want to give them as many opportunities to do this before introducing many other apps to them.  Watch this space to see the results of these lessons!

I really was inspired by the first session and can't wait for our second session next week.  It is great to be given new ideas (and reminded of tools) and to think about the ways I can explore these in my classroom.  As always, I use iPads in my classroom to make learning engaging and inspire the best from my learners.  Just as my learners are always learning, so am I - I'm excited to continue to evolve my pedagogy and can't wait to continue my own learning journey!

Congratulations .... You're an Apple Teacher!

Earlier today I completed the iPad requirements to become an Apple Teacher.  Having used iPads in my classroom for over three years now, it was great to cement the knowledge I have acquired.  As always, in working through the requirements I picked up more tips for using the iPads and got some great ideas for use in my own classroom.

I'd encourage others to undertake the Apple Teacher program and I definitely intend to further my education by completing the Mac requirements shortly.

New Year .... New Challenges

2017 marks a new challenge in my teaching career!  It was extremely hard to say farewell to Pt England School, having had such an amazing start to my teaching career, but the need to move away from Auckland, to more affordable housing (and less traffic) was strong.  In less than a week, school will start in my new classroom, at Lynmore School in the beautiful city of Rotorua.

I'll again be working with iPads and I look forward to using the teaching pedagogies that I have developed over the last three years in my new classroom as well as continue to innovate and try out new things in order to make learning exciting and engaging for my learners.

Over the last few weeks I've been transforming my teaching space and moving into my new classroom.  It is exciting to take a blank canvas and transform it into a learning space that will inspire and motivate my learners (although time consuming too!)   Here is just a small snapshot into my classroom - I can't wait to add to the 'blank walls' as my learners start creating!

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!"

My Spark Manaiakalani Inquiry Review

Its hard to believe its been a year since I began my inquiry but today was our last meeting at Spark HQ to reflect on the progress we have made.  As part of this, we recorded our presentation, with additional commentary on our overall thoughts on learner shift as well as personal learning.

The "Thinglink" below provides links to all aspects on my inquiry:



The opportunity to be a Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher for 2016 was amazing and I've grown professionally as a result.  Its been a privilege to join the other teachers involved this year (particularly given the Manaiakalani Outreach teachers were also involved) and I've thoroughly enjoyed following their inquiry progress and presenting with them all this year.

I look forward to continuing my inquiry journey into 2017 and have shared all my resources publicly so that other teachers (and learners) are able to also benefit.

Finally, a huge thanks to the Spark Foundation and Manaiakalani Trust for the opportunity.  Their generous support continues to open up opportunities for both learners, teachers and the wider community.

Presenting at ULearn 2016

Sharing gems and collaborating on the problem solving

Today in our inquiry groups we had an opportunity to share some gems from our inquiry as well as discuss things we might be struggling with and brainstorm some ideas.  It was an amazing session and we had teachers from different areas and year levels to contribute to the discussion.  Some of the things we discussed and shared included:

• Samoan Proverb: ‘Ia teu le Vå’ Va is the space between, the between-ness, not empty space, not space that separates but space that relates, that holds separate entities and things together in the unity-in all, the space that is context, giving meaning to things. A well known Samoan expression is ‘Ia teu le va’, cherish/nurse/care for the va, the relationships. This is crucial in communal cultures that value group, unity, and more than the individual person/creature/ thing in terms of group, in terms of va, relationships.” Albert Wendt - respecting the same between us and the learner or group of learners and keeping this at the forefront of our practice, particularly when dealing with difficult situations
• creating a culture for your space - as well as creating this culture, make sure the learners feel ownership of the culture and also you, as the teacher, take ownership of the culture also.  Reaffirm the culture frequently
• ensure the learners know why they are doing an activity/task a certain way - at times you need to explicitly teach it, or teach the 'why' behind it
• feedback is important but needs to be manageable and sustainable - one suggestion was to give written feedback fortnightly on a cycle, to support the verbal/oral feedback in the classroom
• understand your learners and use extrinsic motivators (eg Class Dojo) to achieve desired behaviours - where possible make these visible but as unobtrusive as possible

While some of the things we discussed today seem "obvious" its great to hear other teachers' opinions  and hear some new ways of doing things to try in my own classroom.  Its great to have an opportunity to discuss things openly, particularly at a time of the year which can be more difficult and time pressures continue to intrude.

ULearn Opening Showcase

It was great to present with my fellow Class OnAir teachers Matt Goodwin and Nicola Wells, sharing about Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir.  It was somewhat nerve-wracking that the slides for our presentation automatically advanced every 20 seconds, so timing was definitely everything!