PLG - Digital CV

Today was our last ever Digital Immersion Day - hard to believe that it is been a year already into our practice and the MDTA.

We started down at Point England Beach, getting a few new team shots as this would be one of the last times we were together as a group.

The remainder of the day was dedicated to creating a digital CV that showcases the skills that we have developed over the course of the year.  I have made a start and gathered a lot of the examples of resources we have created.  It was pretty cool to go back and look at some of the work I had created during the beginning of the year and assess how I have developed in my practice as well as my digital skills.

Here is a look at my first start of my site - I have yet to add into some of the more aesthetics of the site which might need to wait until the holidays.  Any feedback is welcome and appreciated at this stage of the process!

My Own Class On Air - Mr Lewzey and the Champions

Following on from a blog post earlier, I filmed myself teaching.  This was very daunting as I did not want to "see" myself teaching but reflecting on the process, I am glad that I got the experience to do so.

This task was a taste of what the Google Class on Air teachers do in their roles and I can see how hard they work at producing at least 20 lessons a year to share with the wider community.  Click on the image below to see a weekly reading session with one of my groups.

This was a project that I was hesitant to take part in as it is putting you out there.  I realise that I work in an ILE and my peers see my practice everyday however to film and share your teaching online takes a lot of courage.

I realise from this process that I have a lot more to learn in my practice however what stood out for me was my rapport with the kids and how they were really keen to learn.  They were extremely brave to agree to take part and are keen to see the finished product so we will watch towards the end of this term.

I experimented with the shots and where I should position myself in relation to the camera - I was glad that I decided to sit in front of the camera with the kids as it gave me insight into how I am giving instructions and allowed me some steps to work on for the remainder of the term and next year.  One thing I will try for next time is making sure I have adequate recording for both myself and the learners as I feel a lot of some learning was missed due to this not being up to standard.

Look forward to any feedback you have on this lesson.

First Year Reflection

Todays session was about reflecting on the year and how I have grown not only in the pedagogy of "Learn, Create, Share" but also in my own practice as a first year teacher.

I chose to go back and watch my mid year reflection and felt that I was somewhat robotic and not reflective of my true self in that first video so aimed to make sure that my personality came through in this presentation.

Watching through this one, I had to smile at myself at the amount of times I used the word "amazing" (still better than awesome!).

I am looking forward to moving into next year - I have a great foundation year to base my practice on and feel more confident to keep exploring the pedagogy with my new cohort of learners.

Impact Stories

Today I got to share this impact story at our school's Professional Development session where all the staff got to share their Teaching as Inquiry goals and the impact that the inquiry had on our learners.

As a PRT, I do not have a teaching as inquiry goal as I am currently doing a professional goal each term so I shared my Term 3 goal where I investigated the "Learn, Create, Share" pedagogy over different learning areas.

I chose to share this as a personal narrative as I had alluded to my reluctance as a writer when I was the same age as my learners and some strategies we had used throughout the year to help motivate and help learners shift in their writing.

I also decided to have a bit of fun with the presentation and tried out my love for Stopmotion to help illustrate the story from a different perspective.

Manaiakalani Film Festival

Such an air of excitement at school today with the students looking forward to seeing not only our school's entries into the Manaiakalani Film Festival, but other schools from around our cluster.

The MDTA cohort switched days to be at the Film Festival for the entire day and I was fortunate to watch both my entry and others from the cohort and Stonefields.  What a fantastic array of films that were on display!

This was the first time that the film that I had been creating with a group from my hub was going to be shared with others.  I was extremely proud of two of my learners who had created the story from an idea that they had for our break through exhibition as they presented their film today.  They spoke with such confidence and passion and their film was a hit with the audience from both the sessions it screened at.

You can watch Rubbish Busters in its entirety here and if you could, please leave a comment for the group as they would love some feedback from their audience!

PLG - Practising Teacher Criteria and Google Sites

As I am in my first year of teaching, it is a requirement for me to collect evidence so I can use towards gaining full registration as a practising teacher.  The Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC's) describe the essential knowledge and capabilities required for quality teaching in New Zealand.  These apply to all teachers in their everyday professional practice who are seeking to be issued with a full practising certificate or renewing full certification.

To aid us in this requirement, our cohort all created google sites to help us collect and manage all the resources throughout this year.  I have been maintaining evidence and artefacts so far, however, I was really looking forward to this day as it was the intention for us to spend some quality time on the site.  I had been putting off spending some time working on the design and layout as while the template was effective in showing us what information we were required to show evidence for, I wanted to have the site reflect me as an individual and as a teacher.

I have chosen to go with the jigsaw theme in my access points as this is reflects what teaching means to me - my practice revolves around the relationships I have with my students, their families, the community and my colleagues.  It also ties in nicely with the collection of artefacts and how I am piecing them together to show my practice as a whole.

While I was appreciative of the time that I got to spend working on my site design, I was more grateful for the support from both Anne and my peers as we discussed our journeys this year and how the skills we have developed can be attributed to the criteria.  I can now spend the time I was going to use on site design to reflect on the year and add more evidence!