Googley Googley Stuff - PLD Session at Mokoia Intermediate

Had the most fabulous session last night at Mokoia Intermediate. Massive thanks to Annemarie Hyde (@mrs_hyde) for hosting it and sharing about it to me - so that I could share it with our staff at Heights. Equally massive thanks to the SIX kaiako that came from Heights as well. Felt honestly so so supported and I really hope each one of them got something out of it.

Was totally inspired by both Greg Reynolds and Saunil Hagler from Cyclone. Greg gave us a huge run down without missing anyone out in his scope. That is a true skill and I want to learn how he did that. He catered for everyone's understanding - truly differentiated discussion points. Saunil had some really cool new tidbits to share - I love geeky things - particularly the different add-ons and extensions. I loved that he pushed Blogger as a portfolio tool, Classroom as the learning space and Sites as a collaborative tool that could also be used for PL Communities.

My notes are below: (will be embedded if you're seeing this before it's been embedded...lol)

Key takeaways:

Overwhelmingly stoked that so many of our Heights whanau came. Two of our teacher aides were buzzing afterwards. My awesome colleague I wrote about the other day talked about just how critical Twitter is - so so cool seeing this massive transformation in her and so much more confidence. :) A few other colleagues who are part of our eLearning team too. Was just so cool to have them there sharing this learning with me. Usually it's just me at those things and I try to soak all the learning up by myself and hopefully find the right time and place to then regurgitate the info and share it when necessary. To have others there was equally cool because maybe now we'll have some more people on the uptake with it and keep moving forward.

Thanks to the Linewize guy - sorry didn't catch your name - who shared with us his programme and how truly cleverly designed it is. Putting the focus on digital citizenship, ensuring teachers still have an element of control with safety settings online and making sure that students are safe. Really enjoyed talking to your mum too! :)

There are literally endless possibilities. We just need to figure out what works best for us. What works best for our students. What works best for our learning and our purpose.

The GAFE suite as a creativity suite rather than productivity suite.

I'm rethinking my position and thoughts around Chromebooks. I always fall for salespitches. I need to think it through a bit more because there are definite pluses to Chromebooks. There's also the possibility of upgrading old comps to Chromium OS which I'd never heard of before. I think we just need to think about the purpose of the task and how tech will enhance the learning. Or redefine it perhaps...

The Chasm. The Laggards. Need to find and read that book.

The fact that info about Connected Rotorua is still needing to be spread more widely to ensure everyone knows and comes along to these kinds of things. Because it empowers them to develop and keep learning and pushes them forward in a safe and empowering way because we've all started somewhere.

That maybe I'm an innovater and not just an early adopter. I'm constantly chomping at the bit and even though I'm trying to be patient - I'm constantly frustrated but my mind is racing with possibilities and ideas and thinking forward - 3, 5, 10, 25 years down the track. Because I'm a goal setter from way back. And I have to be positive and aspirational so that I can look forward and know that one day - we will be where I'd like us to be.

Also - massive thanks to Cyclone for the 2.0 Google Cardboard. Can't wait to start playing with it tomorrow :)

Ngā mihi koutou :)

Have decided my words for next year. Inspiration and Aspiration.

#ConnectedRotorua - 20th March 2015

Yesterday I opened the session for the first time. Was pretty cool actually.

It was even cooler to see real collaboration happening in real time. People were sharing, learning and teaching each other skills and concepts within areas they wanted to focus on.

For me, I helped Vicki Needham start up her blog: vickisteachingreflections.blogspot.co.nz and helped to redesign, change the layout, add widgets etc.

I think the best thing about last night's session is that we were able to have a play and have some time to ourselves to try new things, create and collaborate - which we don't often have the time to do.

I added and continued to update my Badges page on my digital portfolio. There is just so much more to do with both it and my class page that I actually have accepted the fact that it is constantly going to be a working document. It can't be completely finished or perfect because then it wouldn't show my learning and understanding as time progresses. Sure it will become better as time goes on - but there will just always be something else to add. Eventually my portfolio will have a huge selection of my years and years of teaching practice on it.

What I'd like to do is spend time adding RTCs to my blog as tags and as a page with links to my blog posts on my portfolio site.

What I actually need to do this weekend is different - watch my mate and our Heights students participate in the Longest Day where they essentially have their longest day and pull a fire engine down the length of Fenton street. I also would like to spend some time at school marking and finalising changes and adaptations to my classroom and making more resources and stapling short stories etc. I'd also like to go back to Morrinville and spend some time with my nan too - looking at the range of possible housing choices in Rotorua for her.

Am so happy we had such a good session last night. I wonder though whether we can begin learning new things ourselves too rather than being the teachers and supporters to everyone else. I think the discussion we had last night around the need to bring everyone up to where we are and move together is important. However, doing those side courses on GAFE has been helping hone my understanding. Perhaps my next step is to push myself into doing GTA (Google Teacher Academy)... I need a serious amount of time to get to where I want to be with my digital skillset.

I need to carve some more time out... somewhere.

Maybe if we had a day doing it rather than a few hours it would be less stressed and more focussed? Though I'd probably end up procrastinating anyway.... like right now when I could be doing that stuff!

Keeping my blog up to date is important... but I wonder where all these site hits are coming from... 200 yesterday? Where from? And at what posts? Blogger analytics aren't specific enough to show the details for what I think I want to see and analyse. Maybe it's just not important? Maybe the writing is.

Anyway - thanks again to everyone who came last night and hope you all come again with more people too :) Spread the word!! :) #ConnectedRotorua

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa

Connected Rotorua - Cross-Curricular Collaboration

This Friday we are embarking on a massive collaborative approach in terms of creating a discussion around cross-curricular collaboration.

For those of you who already come to Connected Rotorua - this type of collaboration is old hat. For the new teachers and those we have been working on bringing to join our roopu - collaboration can sometimes be a scary thing.

The idea for Connected Rotorua this time around - to have a Twitter chat - run by me in where we copy our number one It Girl's Face2Face Twitter chat model from the #edchatnz conference.

I don't think I sold it very well at school - but I'm hoping a few people will come along.

My questions so far:

1) Name, school, reason for coming to Connected Rotorua this arvo.
2) What does collaboration look like?
3) How can we create collaboration throughout a school setting - often when we are in our own small areas?
4) What would cross-curricular collaboration look like?
5) How have you collaborated with someone or a different department / age group in the school?
6) How does cross curricular collaboration benefit our students?
7) What other ways could you see cross-curricular collaboration working throughout the school?
8) What do we need to do to ensure we are making constructive progress with collaborating with our colleagues in our schools, nationally and globally?
Final Question: How have you taken part in Connected Educator Month?

In the primary and intermediate school sectors - there is a tonne of cross-curricular collaboration - however the  same issues around sharing resources and being connected seem to permeate - as it does in the high school sector.

It's unfortunate that there are a tonne of kids falling through the system because the dramatic change in teaching style and schooling style changes as they grow up. Perhaps having a more inter-related and cross-curricular perspective when it comes to their studies and their new learning could help aide this growing issue.

For teachers - being collaborative should come second nature - however we are time poor. We don't have the time to create amazing resources or be up to date with best practice all the time. But what we do need to invest time in - is collaborating with others to enable closer connections, positive sharing and giving and taking, building trust and friendship, hopefully further ensuring a wider knowledge base from which to teach our students.

For students - collaboration is what they do best. They love working in groups. They share and feel comfortable pushing out their ideas with those closest to them.

Why do we as adults move away from that? We become scared of being told our ideas are stupid or that they would take too much effort. We feel as if there just isn't enough time, yet try and invent the wheel again anyway. Those of us more seasoned teachers feel that we know a substantial amount of knowledge already and know that what works for us - is already working.

The problem is - our world is changing dramatically - and we need to create learners who love learning, who strive to solve problems, who work in teams to pursue an issue and challenge each other to find the best possible outcome in a difficult situation. We need learners who will not be scared of creating change and learners that will fight for their ideas to succeed because they have overwhelming growth mindsets and believe anything is possible if they just keep trying.

It may sound silly - but I think collaboration is the way to do it. Cross-curricularly as well. Let's break down those silos, those walls to our classrooms. Let's make use of the tuakana/teina relationships we have in our classroom, school, staffroom. Let's share the power - give and take ideas and all be listened to.

Want to come to Connected Rotorua now? This Friday night from 4.30 at Western Heights High School. Nibbles and drinks provided :) Just bring your thoughts and enthusiasm :)