This week leading up to the DFI I have loved Google Keep. I am trying my best to use Google Calendar and book things into it for either personal, work- myself and my team. My OCD is thriving with sorted folders on my email, tool bar etc. I'm loving all of the learning and having time to think and be creative. I have done some research on Jim Collins' work and having my time to think creatively and expand my ideas rather than the mouse wheel of day to day work. The DFI is certainly been a great outlet to push pause on the day to day and expand my professional knowledge on an area that had been laying dormant for a "little" while.
Here's today's thoughts....
Hanga- The Hook- Dorothy Burt- Connecting with Manaiakalani
The question that I asked myself was how can I amplify the creativity in my New Entrant class. We are Play Based classroom and I want to send some time refocusing open ended opportunity by having choice. I'd like to spend some time working with my co-teacher to ask how can we embed this in our programme during the week. How can we embed creativity through our integrated planning into our weekly programme.
You Tube
It was great to check the settings of the YouTube channels that I have. I have been using one channel for a really long time so it was good to get some clarification around channels and playlists. I am pleased I have change my settings and have a little bit of a deeper understanding of how things work. It will be good to spend some sorting out old play lists and thinking about new playlists for my class. I will share with my team the idea of us subscribing to each others channels so we can share playlists. Its always great to be a magpie and see what others have.
Media
It was interesting to see how far teachers can go with their creativity and the joy it must bring students to make green screen videos, be on TV channels and how video can be used in interesting ways.
Draw
I really took on board how limitless this tool can be. I'm going to really try to explore this with my class. It will be a really helpful tool to make quick resources for the children and for a great tool for the children to use for drawing. I'd like to do this in Guided Writing and I have been thinking of ways we can story writing digitally using draw and voice to text particularly for those Oral Language Writing lessons.
So tips to remember-
This is one I can never remember:
- when I want to change the shape of an image or a photo click on the image so the outline is blue, go to the cropping tool, then click on the downward arrow and then choose the shape. This is gold!!!
- remember to either save the image as an PNG or as html into the blog or slide etc
Google Slides
Hints to use- two fonts on each slide, consistent colour. Important things to consider is who is the intended audience and ensure that some thought has been put into the planning.
I would love to look ways I can use Slides for planning and to also link to our Ako Torowhanui & Literacy themes. Emily and I discussed how these could be created and shared amongst the team. I love the concept of building a google slide that has resources and links available that is an interface for the children. We use our drives effectively to share resources and planning so this would be an extension can be shared with other team members and their classes so they can collaborate and grow the resource for children. As Emily and I both agreed this will be working a lot smarter and more efficient. The slides could include videos, music, links to websites, learning intentions, links to activities. So this will be my next challenge with my class practice.
We made a pick a path slide- I have always wanted to know how to do this and it was fantastic- it was such an easy way to link slides to each. So many little tips that I learnt on how to link slides to each other when you use control k- and to also overlay shapes over the buttons that need to be selected to help create bigger buttons. The other little trick was that I didn't know to use the arrow keys when a menu bar comes down and I am near the bottom of my screen.
This one needs a little tweaking but I am getting there...
Today our session was online and it was nice to be at home- especially when the weather wasn't the best first thing. The day seemed to go even faster than normal. I think I prefer face to face as it is easier to brainstorm/problem solve with others. The session feels more intense online and I felt I really had to concentrate alongside doing technical things while managing the Google Meet. Though it was nice though having a cup of tea and the odd thing out of the pantry- plus my old dog enjoyed being inside for the day.
Kia ora Ilisa
ReplyDeleteI see, that like many of us on previous DFIs, having the time to step out and focus on this new learning is proving to be valuable for you too. Google Keep seems to be something we have all found to be super useful. I use this now collaboratively with my family for any event and it has transformed our organisation, as well as for keeping track of frequently referred to sites, recipes, and school info like term dates, alarm codes and the calendar. Saves me so much time. My advice is to use it often so that it becomes habitual. It is so worth it. I can sense your enthusiasm for all the new learning and having the time to be creative. With Google everything evolves continuously so there may be something new you can pass onto our leadership team.