2020: Pandemic Planning

Pandemic

Adjective:

 (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

synonyms:

widespread, prevalent, pervasive, rife, rampant, epidemic;

Noun:

an outbreak of a pandemic disease.

"the results may have been skewed by an influenza pandemic"

I really didn't think we'd be getting right into Pandemic Planning at kura so early. I thought maybe we'd hit global Zombie Apocalypse first... but no. This is real.

I was in a state of panic yesterday.

I spent a lot of time in bed - worried, concerned. Sleepy.

Today, I got back into action mode. Lots of things were completed at school but there is still this overarching sense of impending doom to calculate and maneuver around.

My current thoughts are a resounding: We got this! But my internal conflict says... Do we? Like actually, do we?

It makes me think about how lucky we are here in New Zealand. We'd heard about it late last year, on into the beginning of this year.

One of my Y12 students even did her speech on this subject. Only slightly ironic that we'd then have a global pandemic on our hands...

Still, all the planning in the world couldn't prepare us for this. At present we have sixty-six confirmed cases of Coronavirus. This man in the video below is so clearly spoken, so relaxed and calm in this growing sense of panic that the rest of us are feeling. People are panic buying toilet paper. TOILET PAPER. Yes.... And not just here, either. All over. Sure, hand sanitiser and bleach sold out quickly too. They've only recently put a limit on how many loaves of bread you're allowed to buy. My friends are having trouble buying bags of flour. It makes me a tiny bit more appreciative of being gluten free.

Underneath all this bravado and my own sense of supposed calm. There is an overwhelming worry and concern for the people I love and care for. My immune-compromised colleagues are allowed to work from home this week according to Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health guidelines.

We're at Pandemic Alert Level 2 here in NZ. Our schools won't close until we are at Level 4. This is in itself quite a stressful time. We are on the frontline: teachers, nurses, doctors.

What are the symptoms again?

Coronavirus has spread fast. From Wuhan, China and then on throughout the rest of the world. We closed our borders relatively quickly. Thankful to have the cousin Jacinda as Prime Minister. She has truly helped keep the virus at bay. People traveling were meant to self-isolate. I'm guessing the 66 cases are people who did the travelling.

We are yet to move to community transfer. When that happens... I guess we'll be rising to the next Alert Level.

Italy has become the new epicentre of the virus. It is awful to think of the beautiful places I travelled to and visited in 2018 having their beautiful people getting sick and dying from this disease. Apparently the canal waters are clear. The sediment has not been disturbed. Fish and swans can be seen in and on the canal waters. Even dolphins have returned.

Some are saying that this is Mother Nature's way of putting us all into a time-out. Perhaps this is true. We were going to end up this way at some point, why not now?

It's hard to say what might happen next.

All I do know is that I have to keep a calm face and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

We're all in this together. Solidarity. Sick?

Whatever it means - we have to keep moving.

It is scary though to think of my students getting sick and coming to school, sick and then that virus transferring to others.

Usually when I start thinking of next possible situations, the worst possible situations, I feel a sense of dread, panic and fear.

At least with this pandemic of Coronavirus... I know the realities. Everyone I know and love could die. This might be a really morbid thing to say - sure. But I've actually never felt more calm. Because this is literally the worst thing that could happen.

And yet, I think the panic lies in what to sort out first. Which priority is more important?

Which task on my to-do list needs to be actioned first?

To Do...

• Ensure all classes in my department have Google Classroom set up
• Ensure that all students have access to wifi, data or other means to complete their work
• Check in with the immune-compromised teachers in my department. Are they okay? Will they be working at home this week? 
• Talk with immune-compromised students via email. Check that they are ready, and set up for learning at home
• Reassure students and teachers that it will be okay... 
• Find out more information of how dogs can get sick from the virus... 
• Buy more echinacea tablets ---- don't be overwhelmed if you can't find any...
• Try not to panic buy....
• Talk to Nan often and see how she's doing
• Create Zoom lessons and use Screencastify
• Prep resources that can be used online and offline
• Talk with students and check they're prepped at home with food and safe places
• Carry out duty at school -- enforce 2 metre separation where needed
• 
  

Using SAMR, CoWs and MindLab Assessment

Since last week at the MindLab I've been thinking about how I use SAMR as a basis for my student's and my own learning. More critically for me is the fact that at the moment it's difficult to teach students the basic digi tech stuff without fulltime access to devices.

I'm maintaining positivity and patience, but am finding it difficult to try new things without being able to test it out with students.

Doing this with my Y10 social studies class recently has been an absolute godsend. Would like to thank the Maths dept immensely for welcoming us in as we've been relocated from our English classes while the exams are on.

Part of the awesomeness of this is being able to use the Maths CoWs. Still think that the term CoWs is highly funny having grown up on a farm. But like any good cowshed the Maths dept have got the most onto it system and damn it works pretty good too.

At first I was quite a bit nervous about using their sets of CoWs but decided to keep on prodding and going along with the system - which obviously works for them and they've had no issues - though one laptop is missing - not sure why. But that's pretty awesome by all accounts really to have such a solid system in place that there seem to be no issues!

Anyway - as I said - like any good cowshed there are systems in place to ensure that things run smoothly. With the Maths CoWs it's a matter of ensuring that they're in numerical order. At first I found this a pain as I'm not a numbers person and thought it was tedious - but there is brilliance in this - because straight away you can see when they're in numerical order whether one is missing or not. The only thing I could think of that would make this process go faster would be little numbered stickers on the metal above each of the CoWs ports.

As with the cords - one of the CoWs has a pretty simple but again brilliant idea with using some boards from one of their Maths exhibits as dividers for the cords - mainly so that the cords aren't in a jumbled mess on top and so that they're easy to find by quadrant to replug into each laptop.

Both sets of keys have a different keyring so you quickly become used to knowing which one goes to which padlock and again the system for this is easy and no issues.

I spent a good ten minutes with the last session getting a few students just to double check both sets of CoWs as three laptops were left on top because students had been lazy. Another really awesome thing that the Maths dept have in their CoWs usage system is the log book where students need to log in and out which computer they've used. This system made it super easy to call out the laptop number and check who had used it that period. A really simple way of catching out students who aren't being accountable for their actions.

That student, a couple of others who were being inapppropriate talking to other students in other classes or calling out the windows stayed behind to fix up the CoWs.

Absolutely think that this system needs to be implemented throughout the school because the Key Competencies are fully met:

Relating to Others: CoWs are plugged back in and recharged for the next use of students. Any issues are logged in the book.
Managing Self: Students log their laptops in and out of the system by using the booking sheets in the CoW booklets. They also return the CoW into the right place, numerically and in the right CoW (Stars and Non-Stars).
Participating and Contributing: Because the other two KCs are being accounted for - each student is able to use a laptop each.
Thinking: Students are learning about the different workarounds like issues with No Logon Servers Currently Available, or a low battery and getting a cord rather than a new laptop each time it goes flat.
Using SLT: Ensuring that the CoWs are back in numerical order helps improve the system overall for everyone's use of the resources.

What started out as a SAMR post has become a very geeky techy post - no apologies. You all probably enjoyed reading it as much as I loved sharing how awesome their CoW system is.

Anyway - the SAMR task list I've begun to collate and create is here.

Will add links to this as well with the different processes and focal points needed to understand SAMR in more depth.

A friend of mine recently reminded me about RAT. A more simplified version of SAMR that was being floated around different educamps last year. While I like it's simplicity - I still struggle with identifying the different levels and moving deeper into more redefined learning. I think I may already do some learning myself like this but identifying when and where I do this is my issue at the moment.

To fully convey the SAMR process - we need to actually get ontop of some of these things. And while I'm definitely not the fount of all knowledge, I can at least upskill myself for the benefit of myself and my students and can help my colleagues when and if they ask for help.

Probably one of the things that keep coming up in the MindLab is this assessment due next week - a video about our plan for something that will benefit student learning.

As my Y10 social studies students will mostly be doing their careers booklets now - they won't need as much focus on the CoWs or the Google Apps learning we'd been doing. Wish we could have started ages ago so that we would have more time to tutu, make mistakes, take risks in our learning and learn from them. But as it is we've got about a week or so to go and need to get these careers booklets and goal setting in place.

Because of this my plan for the assessment is to focus on the learning I'm planning for the staff with these workshops - because ultimately it will hugely affect student learning across the school and that will be my intended impact.

Regardless - I think that there are definitely some things we could all be doing at the moment - even if it's just using the CoWs more effectively, teaching digital citizenship and gaining a stronger idea of where students are at with their device use.

It would be cool if we all used the GAFE platform more often as a school as there are just so many different apps and programmes we could use as a staff to enhance focus and pride as well as organisation - like using Google Keep, Calendar, Slides for Notices maybe.. or even Sites for class portal pages for their learning.

Maybe even a schoolwide Google Classroom where students and staff post ideas and information. It would get pretty full on though with everyone posting. But I guess that comes into Digi cit too - learning how we use tech effectively and appropriately.

The stress and anxiety with report season is still upon us all and I really need to get out of this funk I've been in since Thursday night when I got THAT news... which I'm sure will be in the news soon enough. Am not even going to bother eliciting it with any response here. Not my story to tell - even though it generally makes me pretty sick physically to think about...

Am looking forward to the MindLab session this week and the Cyclone workshop at Mokoia this week too. Busy busy!! :)

Had NPeW elearning interviews today. Was absolutely awesome to be a part of this and hope I can go into more detail in the next couple of days.

Should probably finish writing reports for the night and get some sleep. :)

BYOD Journey at Waitakere College - Breakout 6 - Lee Devenish, Shona Smith and Catalina Espinoza - #ULearn15

Really enjoyed this session! Came in a little bit late but had just finished a really cool conversation with the Canvas LMS exhibitor. Will blog about that soon too!

Super impressed with the quick turnaround of the journey to BYOD for the whanau at Waitakere College. It gives me hope that we can do it at Heights too!!

Overall Site info: https://sites.google.com/a/waitakerecollege.school.nz/professional-learning/ulearn-2016

Presentation Slides: https://goo.gl/g7W0km


Storified Tweets:

Collaborative Notes:



They shared this too:

The most amazing Google Form that was used to collate data from staff in order to upskill them and to see how well they have changed their practices over a year of BYOD implementation.

This is embedded so that I can create a modified copy for our own school. 

Please do not fill this in as it will skew the Waitakere data.

Overall Takeaways:
Sincerly impressed by the efforts of Lee in his role as e-learning facilitator. Really need to talk to him more about how he's done it.

Love that he broke the session down into categories:
- Strategic Overview
- Growing the Leadership
- Infrastructure/Hardware
- Growing the Teachers
- Growing Digital Citizens
- Equity Issues
- Platforms, tools and software - what they used to support the learning
- Practicalities

Grant Lichtman - Keynote 1

Absolutely brilliant idea to start with this keynote for ULearn! What an inspirational guy :) I very quickly became a fan girl!!

I really really want to buy his book too. EdJourney. Because it is a journey. Creating a ubiquitous learning opportunity that is equitable is difficult - but our students need it.

Grant's TedTalk:
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/What-60-Schools-Can-Tell-Us-Abo

Collaborative Notes for Grant's keynote:

Storified Tweets:

Overall takeaways:

Heights Teacher Only Day - Navigating Towards Relevant Schooling - 29th August 2014

I am going to attempt to explain how absolutely transformative and revolutionary today's professional development was.

Heights have significantly raised the bar for future professional development because the keynote that was given by Maurie Abraham (@maurieabraham), the Principal from Hobsonville Point Secondary School, was seriously that awesome.

I thank the Board of Trustees immensely for allowing that day to happen - for the organisation and the delicious kai at the Novotel and also for the bus journey into town as a Heights whanau which was as equally empowering.

Maurie - you have sparked that little revolution we have been having at our school - hopefully enough that there are some serious changes. Am not sure whether we would change into having 100 minute blocks, but the possibility that people may have heard your messages is even more important.

The revolutionists were spread throughout the room as were those who choose to stay as they are. I myself was sitting by our fabulous admin and teacher aides who are a mixture of change and tradition.

The minute I heard that Maurie was coming to talk to us I knew that there was going to be some inspired people. It was the reason I had nervous butterflies the night before and why I was walking around school with a bounce in my step that morning and why I kept saying 'Kia ora' in response to what Maurie was saying throughout his keynote.

I'm on the bandwagon. I got on promptly with my hands holding on tight at the start of the year in March when my eyes were opened by Steve Mouldey's (@GeoMouldey) presentation at the PPTA Issues and Organising conference on Hobsonville Point Secondary school and the way that their students are learning. Because it isn't about the flash technology or the beautiful new school. It is simply (and I thought quite obviously) about the way students are learning.

The way students should be learning today - as inquisitive, curious, problem-solving and collaborative young 21st century learners.

Maurie made some serious points today. I particularly liked the comments about how schools still don't allow cellphones to be used at school or how schools still enforced other archaic methods. The laughing from the staff saddened me because he had phrased the comment in a way where he wasn't targeting us at all - he had said something along the lines of - isn't it crazy that there are schools that ban cellphones at school? It was sad because that's what we do. And we haven't moved with the times or seen the value of our students having their own devices that they can use.

Maurie's style of keynote was great too - his panda birth and baby clip at the start made those who weren't sitting up and paying attention - pay attention. It was shockingly brilliant. I need to find it for my class. Haha. He had videos throughout his presentation which spoke to us - well to me anyway - and they helped break up what may have sounded to some as trying to push us into the 21st century.

The point is that we're already here. Been here for a while actually. For those resistant to change this may have sparked some questions about the way that they teach or their thinking around 21st century learning and teaching.

Maurie's keynote reflected thoughts I had from when I first watched Sir Ken Robinson's 'How Schools Kill Creativity' TedTalk at Waikato University during a session while training as a new teacher. That was back in 2010.

Maurie talked about how we continue to expect our students to sit down and pay attention - still teaching like we're in the 18th century within the industrial age. How teachers say that kids are naughtier now - are they? Or as Maurie said, have they just stopped accepting so much?

He made a very valid point about the fact that students live in an 18th century world at school, with bells and people to report to and people who are on their case about needing to learn more and better - and then when they leave the gates they're back in the 21st century world.

How are we teaching our students to be reflective, self-regulated learners if they are not given the chance to do so. They leave at 18, as Maurie said and don't know how to learn for themselves. They have to learn those skills later on.

Why aren't we teaching them those transferable skills now? The importance of being a motivated self-regulated learner, someone who will work well with a range of different people, someone who can collaborate, multitask and problem-solve.

You may say we are - but are we really? We enforce deadlines and give punishments when it hasn't been completed to satisfaction or on time.  We expect them all to be ready to be assessed at the same time. We expect that they will pay attention no matter how we are teaching them.

The overall point that Maurie was trying to make I think was that we need to be more aware of how our students are learning and prepare them for life - not just outside of school, but within it too. Enable our students to become self-regulating, inquisitive and collaborative learners by allowing that environment in our classrooms. Enable ourselves to be inquiring learners too. Never stop learning in fact.

We put too many roadblocks in front of our students. Why not take many of them away and allow them to create, evolve and grow?

Teach different. Don't allow the way you used to teach to become the norm. Adapt to new situations. Be comfortable and love that others are succeeding. Be encouraged by your failures because you will just try another way around it. Have goals and think about what you want to do to develop your teaching style to enable 21st century learners to learn. Be agentic. Be aware of a changing world around you. Focus of the many positives, and ignore the negatives. Find relevant professional development that will help in succeeding and achieving your goals. Develop a growth mindset. Challenge your way of thinking - that you've always done it that way - so why change? Challenge the way school is run - it doesn't have to be like that. Challenge yourself to think outside of the box. Be inquisitive. Be curious about the world around you. Learn with the students. Learn from the students. Share the 'power'. Teach students to be free-thinkers - constantly able to adapt to new situations, problem solve, collaborate and challenge resistance.

For pictures and tweets of the keynote - check out my Storify I collated of our #HeightsTOD discussion and note-taking: https://storify.com/ariaporo22/western-heights-high-school-teacher-only-day-29th

I just want to say again - the hugest of thanks. Truly. Nga mihi nunui ki a koe e matakite. We appreciate all that you have said and done for us. It's up to us now to do something about changing our school for the better.

Implementing Google Drive with Y12 Class

Wow. It worked.

There was a moment halfway through the lesson where I just had a WOW moment. That it was working. That 98% of the kids were engaged and that the other 2% were still engaged in the actual work but for some reason or another - have a problem with engaging online collaboratively. One had a hotmail account and didn't want to create a Gmail account. That's fine I suppose except she will have issues accessing the info on Google Drive. While the other is still resisting - but have yet to have a discussion with him about why. And that's okay too. Three of the students who initially either didn't have an email or didn't want to do what we were doing via Drive... quickly set up an account and gave me their addresses so I could add them to the group.

The majority of the class left having not only learnt how to use Google Drive - but felt like it was "the new Facebook" and that it was fun. Why? Because it's a new way of learning, collaborating and developing their ideas.

Am currently in the process of creating a Google Form for this class to assess their first time using it.

Background:

We're currently doing the note-taking and analysis for the Close Viewing assessment at the moment (AS...) and they're watching their individual driving ads. Most students are working in pairs looking at a single video. Most students are working collaboratively already, discussing their shared video, collecting information together. I've taken this approach because it's working well with my Y13's at the moment - the collaboration and information gathering. Perhaps I'll also have these students do their presentation on the driving ad in pairs as well - seems like a simple collaboration and segway into the next assessment - as most are already working in this way.

The Lesson

Collected laptops (COW's) from the trolley and distributed to students. 

Discussed with them about the lesson observation yesterday and thanked them for their awesomeness as always - and how they and I work together - just that synergy and the collaboration is absolutely awesome and somehow works despite the often crazy aspect of class... 

More on that observation later from BOS. Can't discuss feedback properly until next term. Hopefully I get my observation info back as well. :) 

Students got back into their docs and videos via Youtube or NZTA and re-analysed. 

They were all quietly working for ages when I thought it was probably about time that I introduced them to Google Drive and Google Docs - mainly because two students sitting at the table I was at were discussing the fact that one was going to log in to the others' email account so that another could write the notes and that they could watch the video on the other and then swap again to work on the same document. 

Simplify the situation: girls agreed - as I was showing them - I had the rest of the class get into their gmail accounts so that I could email them the link for the Y12 folder I've created for them to access at home and at school. 

Once I'd sent out the email to those who had originally given me their addresses - they had to click the link and then add the folder to their Drive. Then they needed to open their Drive and then they could see the same screen as I had displayed on the projector. 

At this point I showed them how to create their own folders within the Y12 folder on Drive. Some needed help at this stage so quickly went to each to help and get them started. 

I then got an influx of a few more students who told me they now had an address too.. and so had to send these new students the same email as before and continued that process... perhaps now not wanting to miss out on this sharing of resources. Of course I'll be allowing students to email and bring in their usb's to get resources if that's easier - or even by paper if necessary... because the one/two students who are having issues at the moment need to be included in this collaborative process too.

Once everyone had created their folders they created their Google Docs in that folder for their notes on the ad - shared them with me if they wanted to - and shared them with their mate who was doing the same ad as them so that the could collaborate and develop their notes on the same document. 

While this is still fresh in my memory  - with using Google apps collaboratively myself - I too had to remember each step while telling them. Eventually I'll create a quick instruction sheet so that this process can be slightly simplified. Perhaps emailing them a link to an instruction Document and then getting them to go through the process.

By this stage the class were all back onto their ad watching and creating notes - one of my more precocious students chose to share his notes with me - all finished apparently - so I copied the first sentence at the bottom of his so-called report - and put it into Google to search. It came up with the NZTA link and the words I'd copied were bolded from the document he'd plagiarised. A teachable moment about plagiarising information and making sure to reference information to use for notes RATHER than outright pretending it's yours.... I should also note that this student did it as a joke and so in essence - yet again provided the source for learning for the rest of the class. 

By this stage of the lesson I was checking over people's folders that had been created. I absolutely love that now that I've shared the doc there is a side stream of activity that is being had on the side of the drive page. Awesome. Easy to check on issues and that students are doing their work at home. 

Also began the form - which I'd planned on having ready for them to do before the bell rang... but took too long - need to find a quicker way to do it. Though while we packed up the laptops - I asked students to check their emails to survey the lesson for me. Quite a few students remarked on how good the lesson was and how much they learnt - gaining comments that it was awesome, fun and useful and how much it was like Facebook... still trying to figure out what they meant by that... perhaps they've found Google+ already - which would be the next step for me too except that at the moment our school can't access Google+ - I think it has something to do with admin settings. Have asked but haven't got a reply yet - we're all busy!  :)

And that was the lesson! :)

END

Sent an email to our DP in charge of IT about Google Classroom launching in September. And sent through the links - Might send this post link as well.

Have taken a bit of a precocious approach myself - partly because I'm seeing different things - getting emails and if I can help - I will :) Don't know whether my emails are useful and hope they're not seen as anything other than trying to assist. 

Reflections on lesson:

WOW. It worked. Still stoked. :)

Issues arising:

Equity. At home. At school. 

Computer skills. Encountered this today. Need to take things a bit slower for some - and faster for others... differentiate the lesson for students - and use that tuakana/teina approach with my students and allow them to take over the lesson to go for it and get started and help each other. 

Willingness to use Drive. Still need to figure that out and why...

Being proactive about the networking and using google docs myself to role model (like how I've used Slides for the first time with my Twitter workshop presentation)  - making sure that any docs I create are on Docs or can be found in the folder for that class - for work at home/school...

 Making sure docs are ready and available - and keeping in mind that if we aren't a GAFE school (though I'm pretty sure we are... because teachers use gmail for their email - and the little school logo is at the top - and as teachers we can use google drive...) we might not be able to download Drive onto the COW's and thereby couldn't access their work if the network was down. Plus - we don't have multiple LAN cords for use or plugs in class if the wireless goes down... contingency plans needed...

Communication with Home - despite the form I sent home - I still haven't had time to contact all families about how students are going. Email is WAY easier for me. I should be doing that right now - but this is kind of more pressing and needed to reflect while it was still fresh... 

That's all I can think of for now. Stoked. 

Attempted a similar thing with my Y9's the period after but they take a lot more time to get ready because it's setting them up with Gmail accounts etc and the verification and the not listening and the playing games despite how much we've discussed becoming digital citizens... when they're meant to be on task. I had two students successfully share their Docs with me... At least 8 students email me and so now I can set up their folder and add the others later when they've verified their info. Majority of students completed their work - either on paper or on Docs or Word. 

When one of the two gave me his report card at the end of the lesson - there wasn't enough space to write how impressed I was with him. Part of this is because he was in the digital class last year and is like a duck on water with this stuff. So have asked if he can be a tuakana in the class to help the others. He's got leadership potential fit to bursting - and perhaps this is one way he can show this. 

Yay. Happy :)

#TechThursday - Integrating Technology

UPDATE - 7th May 2015: A year on from this post below - check out where we are heading now! http://evolutionandimagination.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/heights-elearning-committee.html

Have been slowly gaining more interest from others for #TechThursday where I help my colleagues develop or integrate technology into their practice.

For teachers who already do this and who are au fait with the process, it can be intimidating for others.

So far I've targeted specific people on staff who seem interested, willing and again... interested. At the moment I'm doing it on a very casual basis and hopefully in the future will create a specific PLC on it with a broader range of staff - not just the basics but also where to next. Kind of like an educamp or eduignite for school where they can leave somewhat overwhelmed but mostly inspired and keen to get started.

Have helped one colleague with her KAMAR printing and finding students.

Have just finished helping another who I do duty with (K House all day!) and we looked at a surprising number of things. I'd asked him what he'd like to learn more about originally and again today so that we could make his learning as relevant as possible.

1.  Searched for mathematics resources - TKI for starters and the Maths community
2. Figured out how to copy and paste using ctrl + C and ctrl + V
3. Copied a table of information about area and measurement from Word to Powerpoint
4. Created a hyperlink on PPT from a different url of a different website
5. Copied the embed link from a video
6. Inserted embed link into PPT to show Youtube Vid
7. Created a Maths community on Google+
8. Added links and videos onto the community page

HUGE lots of learning done. Proud as.

Hopefully he'll share that with the rest of his Maths dept now :) Yay! Success!! :)

Oh and this new link I just found: http://www.vln.school.nz/groups/profile/74810/home-school-partnerships/

Digital Literacy - Digital Citizenship

Thanks to Mrs Orman there was a link to Tom Whitby's blog post on Endemic. 

Have recently been working on creating a student photo use agreement form so that I'm able to send photos to the Daily Post as a follow up from the Pasifika Competition.

We went through our enrolment forms yesterday to check that there wasn't that type of clause in there so will definitely have to get some signatures in order to release the photos.

Earlier yesterday on Twitter I asked whether others had used a similar form and found these links from Netsafe and their kit for schools:

Netsafe Kit for Schools

How to Use the Netsafe Kit - Including the Required Steps

Digital Citizenship in New Zealand Schools - A quick overview

Just got an email back from Netsafe with the form for using photography of students in schools - which I've saved into this Google Drive folder - Digital Citizenship. Will be updating it to work within our own school setting and think that it would be better having both parent and student signatures for permission rather than just the parents permission. 

Back to Tom's blog post though- really like the thinking around whether students being digital natives meant that they would instantly be seen as digitally aware or whether perhaps as a result were in essence unaware of the dangers and risks. 

Which is why teaching and becoming a digital citizenship is important.  

Found this blog on C21 Reading as well... Hoping to jump onto this bandwagon to help my students learn how to use formal language in a more 21st Century setting/focal point rather than the traditional way of teaching letters etc. Plus it will improve my students' reading if they are given deadlines for posting reviews on a chapter/book/author etc. Love that there are awesome initiatives already going that I can just get involved with :)

We talked last night on #edchatnz about teaching students how to problem-solve and also how to question our students. Was a great topic!! Check the hashtag out to see this conversation - unfortunately I had to leave the discussion by question six because my phone battery was dying out from taking too many pictures of the Rotaract Membership Drive at the same time. Knew I should have brought my charger!

Am hooking into the SOLO docs at the moment - they're awesome. 

Just trying to do everything at once but need a full week to get on top of everything or maybe longer. Would love to be all PLD'd up on how to use SOLO and PBL and how to incorporate digital citizenry into my classes but need to focus on one thing at a time. At the end of the day I need to remember my mantra - think smarter, not harder.

And... then of course I forgot I'd decided on heading with Rotorua teachers to go to Educamp in the Hawkes Bay back when I went to EduIgnite Rotovegas! So am now looking very much forward to the Educamp at Richmond School tomorrow :) Thanks to Annemarie Hyde for reminding me last night!

Love my #PLN. Love my school. Love that I'm starting to get my head around the increase to five classes I'm teaching and also that I'm starting to make way into making policies - or at the very beginning making a solid piece of agreement between the school and whanau in regards to using students photos in school and in media such as our local paper... and perhaps the Google Site I still need to find time to finish!

ALSO:

When I eventually get the courage to discuss the thoughts that have been circulating my head for a while about the need for a BYOD policy at our school with the board and,

When I finally make a policy in collaboration with the Board and Staff and SMT etc and,

When I finally get up the courage to speak in front of the staff with our team of highly effective and focussed members of staff who have been educated in digital citizenship with me

We will use this to help discuss with staff how we will teach digital citizenship:

Learn Guide Protect: Netsafe
Professional and Private Lives
Combat Cyberbullying
Playing and Staying Safe Online
Citizenship in Blogging

PLN: Twitter

I am particularly blessed with the people I've networked with on Twitter. They continue to uplift me and support my thinking towards the importance of 'blended learning' and the need for more relevant Professional Learning in our lives as teachers. My colleagues at school are amazing. They too inspire me and give me ways to think about things in which I hadn't been able to do so before. They provide me with strategies to console my thoughts and feelings towards solving problems in class and in life. I thank each and every one of you... whether you read my blog or not! :)

It doesn't matter whether your Professional Learning Network begins with someone across the hallway or whether it begins with meeting a fellow educator at a conference. What matters is the learning involved. If you're not learning... what's the point? Find better people to surround yourself with!

In fact - as I'm learning - I'm seeing the different ways other people learn and respond to each other. There are the people who are resistant - but are still hesitantly willing to have a go. Then there are the ones who are so full on and involved (or not as the case may be) that you feel your head may spin. I've been both of these people at certain times of my (very short) teaching career.

Talkin' bout a Revolution...

It starts with a whisper. A mere suggestion of a question, asked frankly, yet in an open space for plenty of discussion if need be.

Today I posed the question to three of my colleagues. At different times and in slightly differing ways according to the person.

My aim: to create a self-sourcing professional learning network among our staff.