PLG - iMovie Rookie

Today we got to spend more time learning about iMovie.  Last week the cohort were set with a task to gather raw footage in relation to learning with the goal to create a video from today's session.

I have surprised myself with how quickly I picked up some of the skills required to edit and create films.  I have a lot more to learn but think I have made a great start into my budding side career of becoming a film maker!  Here is the video that I created from today:

I can not wait to use this tool for the design of future learning!

PLG - Explainer Videos

It was back into Friday PLG's for Term Two today and we were fortunate enough to join other teachers in the cluster for a digital immersion day at Panmure Bridge Primary School.

The focus around this day was building our understanding of the create element of our pedagogy in order to help develop this skill for our learners with their learning.

We were challenged with the following:

"How often are you including opportunities for learners to CREATE to learn?"
"Where and how could you include increased opportunities to CREATE to learn?"

For me, I want to learn more about what my learners think about what it means to them to create something and how they could learn from this.  I feel getting this insight first would really help we as a hub team think about our design of learning and how we could look to promote this more within our planning.

The remainder of the day was spent on learning to create an explainer video around our inquiries.  Please note, I am a complete rookie to movie making so the below is a great benchmark for me to explore this area of learning more and it is very timely that we are having a iMovie 101 session next week!

On reflection, here are some notes for development:

• I need to lift my game from stick figures!
• I should look into building my recording skills - both presenting and the audio management!

Apart from that, I am stoked to have given this a go and am looking forward to building my skills!  Great connections with how my learners may feel at times when they are challenged in their learnings.  Bring on next week!

Graduation

Today I graduated and it was great to stop and reflect about the whole experience as well as celebrate the milestone itself!  I have not yet told my story about how I came to change careers to come back into teaching - I often forget that I taught English for three years and it was that experience which sparked the passion to make the decision to become a teacher again.

I enjoyed this graduation more than my previous one as I felt more connected with my cohort and it was awesome to see members of both my school and MDTA community graduate at the same ceremony.

I was fortunate enough to share the occasion with both my colleagues and my learners - I received a cake from the staff congratulating me on the achievement but what was more humbling was to have the recognition noticed by my learners who decided to make me a card and share it with me.  Very cool Hub One, you guys rock!  This gesture made me think about how I have built relationships with my learners and it made me think about how these words from Rita Pierson resonate within my personal teaching practice.

Term 2 - Looking Ahead!

"Change is inevitable, progress is optional" - Tony Robbins.

As I sit here, doing my final checks for next week, I made a note of some of the things that I am looking forward to coming this term:

Team-Teaching: my mentor and I have decided to move into a teaching partnership where we will be responsible for the design of learning and implementation together.  We are both very motivated by this change and are willing to give the unknown a go to see what we can make of it.

Term 2 Goal: I am looking to build my confidence in teaching numeracy in order to pass that confidence onto my learners.  One thing I noticed last term was that I was quite hesitant when teaching numeracy and I was not able to get into the learning pit with my learners as often as I wanted to.  Hopefully by concentrating and pushing myself to enjoy maths more, it will have the flow on effect.

Being comfortable, being uncomfortable: I laughed to myself when I heard my principal say this for the first time as this was something one of my previous leaders would say to me numerous times that I needed to find comfort in being uncomfortable.  I tend to be very task orientated and this can often be perceived as being rigid and inflexible.  What I am learning about my current teaching role is that collaboration does need to be fluid and this lends itself to having more of a growth mindset.

I have seen this video being presented a couple of times now and think it sums up how I should be approaching next term.

Term 1 - Looking Back

One term down - this week at our PRT meeting, we were congratulated on surviving an eleven week term as it is somewhat of a rarity.  The time has gone fast however I must make an effort to stop and reflect before moving onto Term 2.

This has been a fantastic start to my teaching career - I am in a position where I am very fortunate to have so much support and guidance from both my school and the MDTA cohort.  I will continue to develop these relationships as I move forward as I am learning more about the power of collaboration.

I have started to make some great connections with both my learners and their families and this is another set of relationships that I intend to continue to build as I move into Term 2.

I have made an effort to continue to challenge myself in my role as a teacher - it has been a daunting time over the last 11 weeks however I feel that I must continue to have an open mindset about every opportunity that I am presented with and how I can develop myself as a learner.  The amount of things I have learned so far has been incredible and I need to remind myself to stop and take stock of how and when I can utilise this newfound knowledge.

Term 2 is approaching so read here to see what is on the horizon - I am pretty excited!

I am a reluctant writer.

I shudder when I hear "sharing's caring", mainly because out of ignorance as I have not really thought about the meaning by the saying.

Manaiakalani's pedagogy is centred on learn, create and share and as I near the end of my first term of teaching, it is only now where I am starting to really see the links with how I am designing learning for my learners and why we share our learning.

With my literacy groups, I am really hitting a wall when we discuss our audience for our writing.  They have a love of writing but this is very intrinsic and focused on their sphere of influence.  In other words, they love to free write for themselves, but the reluctance comes when we discuss sharing our work with others.  I have only begun to scratch the surface with the reasons why this exists and it will be a focus for me as I move into the next term and working with them.

Upon reflection, I find that I am suffering from similar issues as the learners.  I do enjoy writing and have written as a hobby for a number of years now, however, there would be only a handful of people that know this as I do not share my writing with others.  My own reluctance comes from the fear of being seen as a "poor" writer and the feedback that I would receive.

Add this to this that I am now seeing real shift in my own practice by being more open and authentic with both my colleagues and learners.  How can I continue this trajectory moving into next term?

PLG - HTML and being in the Learning Pit!

Last week the MDTA cohort got stuck into developing our Google Site for Current Events around the world.  This was the task which Caleb came to speak to us about a few weeks back, which the aim to develop both our own critical thinking skills along with those of our learners.

I chose to concentrate on creating a page for my higher level readers where they could develop their own skills in thinking based on the Christchurch Earthquake and more particularly, the debate about whether or not to close Redcliffs School.  I felt that my learners would be able to connect with this as they would be able to empathise with other learners facing challenges and thought that by scaffolding the lessons and using a multi-modal approach, the concept would be achievable.

With that in mind, today was an intense day and I found myself in the learning pit!

The Learning Pit is a metaphor we use at school to help learners feel comfortable with being uncomfortable when faced with challenges.  It is an incredible feeling to celebrate when we are being challenged and how we can use both collaboration and the learner qualities to help us achieve our goals.

With this project, I was in the pit for the majority of time while creating the page.  At first I began to feel frustrated with the project, but with the end goal in sight, I was determined to keep going.  My cohort are amazing and very patient individuals and I am very lucky to be in a team where collaboration is natural and becoming second-nature.  By being self-aware of my learning style, I was able to ask for help and had some great discussions with the others to find out answers to some of my problems.  I thought a lot about how I wanted the site to look and was able to make connections with previous sessions where we had been taught some amazing skills in how to design a Google Site.  I had to leave early to fly home, but found myself reflecting on the work I had done so far and wondered what else I could do to make sure that I would be able to complete this by the end of the week.  While I have spent a lot of time with this, I know that I can do a lot more in this space and am now inspired to take risks and try more with Google Sites.

Please check out our site as I think everyone has done an amazing job!  Each cohort member has created a separate page with a different context and focus to develop a series of lessons to help build learners confidence in aspects such as literacy, critical thinking and Social Studies.