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Year 7 to Year 13 Learners

Covid19 flipped our world upside down.  When we went into Lockdown, it meant that teaching and learning would have to take place remotely.  This meant that Technology Subject Sites needed to be up to specification for Students to access the learning while off site.  Within a very short time frame, the Tech sites were transformed to be vibrant, accessible, visible and moving towards being consistent.

Technology Department Class Websites

Everyone in one week was successfully using calendar posts with instructions, links, and hangout meets in their calendar posts.  This is how, Ozzie, Lyle, Meryl, and Anita all managed to enter Carol's classroom.  It was via a calendar event in her site which is completely visible, and then they attended Carol's cooking class.


Screen Shot 2020-04-24 at 9.36.18 AM.png

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Developing Decision Making Skills

My hunch is that students using Calendars within Subject Sites to access learning, is helping learners to develop decision making skills.  

If decision making is scaffolded up to enable students to make choices, in this case, navigating steps to access learning eg. Site > Year Level > Calendar > Instructions, this enables learners to have the opportunity to understand how and why content has been set out in the way that it has.  

For example:

Q: Why would a learner have to click on Year Level?
A: Oh, because it is relevant to the Year Level that they're in for a particular year at school.  That will change from one year to the next until they leave high school

Q: Why would a learner have to click on a Calendar?

A: The calendar includes times that align with the number of periods in a day.  So long as the calendar includes calendar events for each lesson, the student will be able to access the learning for a particular lesson within a specific subject, that took place on a particular day.  This can assist with absenteeism, lateness etc.

Q: Why would you find Instructions within Calendar events, and how is this useful?

A: Pretty much the same as the previous answer.  So long as the calendar includes calendar events for each lesson, the student will be able to access the learning for a particular lesson within a specific subject, that took place on a particular day.  This can assist with absenteeism, lateness etc.  The other thing to mention is that links can be included in the instructions that will direct learners to particular parts of the Subject Site, another site, or any resource that is available online and is intended to assist in the learning process


Year 7 and 8 Learners

It has been a couple of years since I have taught Year 7 and 8 Technology myself.  However, I dug up through my archives some examples of how far back Year 7 and 8 students have been receiving lesson instructions from myself using Calendar invites, as well as using their email accounts to share or access work.
The screenshots from 2012/2013 and the adhoc/on-the-spot video that I captured in 2016 shows how familiar Year 7 and 8 learners are with instructions via calendars and email, once the process had been introduced to the learners and they became familiar with the process of accessing their learning in this way.
The following link is an video example of Year 8 Students from Glenbrae Students in 2016, explaining how they are accessing learning through the use of calendars, sites, and tracking sheets.  

The video demonstrates how empowered the learners were in terms of knowledge about their learning, accessing their learning, and having knowledge about how to access up to date feedback on where they were at in their learning journey. Not only where they were at, but also, how that enabled the learners to make decisions about how to progress with their learning.

VTaL Student Voice - Visible Teaching and Learning for Year 8 Students

I have examples in my Calendar from 2012 of learners from Tamaki Primary and Glen Innes School, of using Calendars to access learning.
I have examples in my Calendar from 2013 of learners from Ruapotaka School, St Pius X School, Panmure Bridge School, Glenbrae School, of using Calendars to access learning.



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Begin to collect evidence and data  and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence

My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 will be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I intend inquiring into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.



Evidence from Teaching Strategies

The following is a slide deck of teaching strategies that I applied with those in my target who attended class online in a particular lesson last week.  I have gained feedback in a hangout session with Technology teachers about the strategies that I applied to that session.  I need to reflect back on the feedback, and that particular teaching segment, to help identify preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge.





Evidence from Kamar


In order to track the formative feedback of where each of our learners is tracking 'within' standards, I have established a DGT - Student Standard Data Update 2020 Sheet.  The sheet includes information about the learner including gender, ethnicity etc.  It often enables me to conduct discussions with students relating to career interests and pathways, as well as where they have come from if they are new to the school.  The sheet shows the standards that a student is entered into.  The main difference being that colour codes can be applied to the sheet to indicate which standard is being work on, and where about in the standard that the student is at.











EDIT: During the lockdown period, I had planned an activity for my Year 11 students, to comment on how they felt about me inquiring into their learning.  The activity involved the students reading through the above blog post, and answering the following question, and publish the response as a blog comment.

How do you feel, as a learner, that I am inquiring into your class, to help you and your class to achieve?

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Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 will be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I intend inquiring into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.


The following are tools, measures and approaches I plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students' learning in relation to the challenge:

Student Voice - I've already undertaken one survey specifically to do with workflow using VTaL Sites, Calendars, Workspaces, Google+, and how easy/hard it is for the students to access learning in my subject.  I also sat and asked the students to drop emojis onto a doc, to demonstrate how they felt about the work they will be undertaking, that specifically relates to this challenge.  I will look at obtaining other forms of student voice throughout the inquiry process to gain feedback from the learners.




Hangout Recordings - Conversations with students help to demonstrate their understanding of what is required to progress forward with learning and task completion.  I will be, and have already started, reflecting back on some of the hangout recordings to understand what has worked for the learners and what hasn't.  The Hangout Recordings, also enables me to see how effective or ineffective some of the strategies and learning tools have been that I've integrated into the learning process relating to my Inquiry.

Screencastify - I often ask students to create short screencastify recordings to demonstrate to me their understanding of segments of tasks that they have to complete.  In particular, I ask the students to do this, so that they can (a) use it as a rewindable resource for skills that they've learnt, and also (b) to demonstrate to themselves as well as me, that they can actually undertake a particular skill.  The screencastify can be used for me to see how effective or ineffective some of the strategies and learning tools have been that I've integrated into the learning process relating to my Inquiry.

Evidence of Student Work - NCEA requires that students have to provide evidence of their work to demonstrate understanding and that they have also met the required standard.  I can also use this to see how effective or ineffective some of the strategies and learning tools have been that I've integrated into the learning process relating to my Inquiry.

Tracking Sheets - I've used the tracking sheets in the format that I do (green, orange, red) for many, many years.  The tracking sheets are purely used to demonstrate completion of a particular task.  However, that in itself will enable me and the learners to see how effective or ineffective some of the strategies and learning tools have been that I've integrated into the learning process relating to my Inquiry.


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Today my Year 9 students and I had a go at Quad Blogging.  This was our approach ...


  1. I used the chat function to "chunk" instructions, and asked students to demonstrate their understanding of the instructions that I was giving relating to Quad Blogging.  This included determining their understanding of Quad Blogging.
  2. Next I used the Hangout function to demonstrate the steps required to undertake Quad Blogging, including writing the blog post, and asking for feedback.  The setup of each of the students blogs are generic as they were following my example.  In this instance, that is irrelevant, as the purpose of this exercise was to teach the students how to Quad Blog.
  3. The students used the chat function to share access to their published blog posts.  At this point, we (myself and students) determined that at least one of the students didn't have access to their blog.  So, during the hangout, they sent an email asking that access to their blog be fixed.  This student continued the Quad Blog process in a Google doc.
  4. The students accessed each other's blogs, read each others blog posts, and attempted to provide feedback to others and gain feedback from others.  There was a huge gap in the lesson where the comments were not coming through and I needed to provide guidance to enable students to provide meaningful feedback to each other's work.  The students really struggled with this part.  I used the Hangout function to demonstrate blog comments coming through from learners and to guide the learners on appropriate ways to provide feedback.  [At this stage, the students underwent many edits to their comments that they were writing for others].
  5. The students then wrote at least one comment on another learners' blog post.
  6. We ended the lesson, with me explaining what our next steps would be for tomorrow's class.  The next step being for students to reflect on the blog comments, think about what their next steps will be based on the comments, reply to the comments explaining what their next steps will be, and then making the changes to their designs.


Here is a link to a couple of the students' blog posts:

School Stuff Website - Feedback on my Home Page Design - Student 1
School Stuff Website - Feedback on my Home Page Design - Student 2

The following are a series of screenshots that shows different parts of our process.  I hope to edit this post in the not too distant future to make these screenshots more user friendly to navigate.  However, in the meantime, hopefully they will be easy enough to follow.




















EDIT:  The follow up in today's lesson (Wednesday 22 April) is that one of the student's went through the process of replying to the initial blog comment feedback on their design layout, with constructive ideas of what they were going to do next.  The following is a screenshot that shows the changes that the student is in the process of making.



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I've just created a Screen Recording, using Google Hangouts Meet, to show how to check your Subject Site Incognito, that all of the work in your site is Visible, and also that your lessons are set up to run Google Hangout Meets with your learners.

The purpose of this Screen Recording, using Google Hangouts Meet, is to model the following:
  1. what your calendar would look like for the week, in terms of including the work, instructions and links for all lessons
  2. ensuring that your calendar events are set up to run Google hangout meets
  3. inviting guests to your Google hangout meets, including both your students and any other guests
  4. viewing your site Incognito, and navigating to each of the lessons for the week for each year level to ensure that the instructions and the work is visible








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 1101DT Lesson 25 March 2020

Google Hangout Video Link

Lesson Sequence in the Google Hangout

The lesson sequence in the Google Hangout accessible through the video link, includes the following:
  1. Teacher (myself) - Instructing and demonstrating
  2. Learner - Following instructions
  3. Learner - Completing a task
  4. Learner - Capturing evidence of the task
  5. Learner - Submitting the task
  6. Teacher - Checking work and marking
  7. Learner - Sharing work in the Year 11 DigiTech Google+ Community
  8. Teacher - Asking for feedback of the lesson


Teacher Reflection

After undertaking the lesson with this learner, I understood that this particular learner's progress would accelerate (which is excellent for Olever!) and that other learners in the class may not progress at the same stage as Olever in their learning journey.  Therefore, I need to investigate ways to address the staggered progress by looking into Differentiation and seeing how I can adapt that to suit Remote Learning.

Differentiation

The following is a blog post about Differentiation that I came across quite a few years back, which I think will be really useful https://stivodifferentiation.wordpress.com/differentiation-tips/.  

In particular, the section on Differentiation by task would be particularly useful.  I find within the classroom setting that students would complete tasks at a different pace to each other, and therefore achievement would occur at a different pace for different learners.  

My experience of remote teaching in Week 1 of Lockdown, showed that students who joined the hangout for their session, often completed tasks quickly, enabling me to turn over formative feedback quickly for the student, who after making changes would achieve that particular aspect of the task.

Tracking Student Progress

The following is an example of work completed by a student during Week 1 of Lockdown in relation to the other students in their class who were not able to join the hangouts that week.


My students are used to tracking sheets in our classes.  Usually I use a traffic light system of Green to show that aspect of the task meets the criteria, Orange to show that the task is either work in progress, or that I have sent the work back to the student with formative feedback for changes to be made, and Red to show that the task hasn't been started.  In this particular case, the tasks are not directly related to assessment criteria, and therefore I opted to go for a different colour scheme, so as to not confuse the students about the summative feedback that they were being provided with.

Differentiation 

to Address Gaps in Student Progress Across a Class

Group Work and Collaboration: One of the teaching strategies that I am going to trial in the remote learning setting is group work and collaboration.  

Tracking Sheets: I am going to use the tracking sheets, to enable myself and my learners to identify who is working on the same tasks and then I will group the students accordingly.

Year Level Google+ Community: I intend referencing the Year Level Google+ community, so that students can refer to each others (completed and assessed) work, as guidelines of the expectations for completing tasks.  

Chat Function in the Hangout: I think I'll aim to have the students within a particular group, talk to each other via the chat function in the hangout, to share ideas with each other.  The group may be pairs or threes, I'll try to keep this small.  While small groups are working together, I am going to interact with a small group of learners at one time, or that is the intention anyway.

Wish me luck!


Google Hangouts - Tips and Tricks


  • If neither you or your student or students are interacting in the hangout, ask one of the students to go into presentation mode, otherwise the recording will show yourself (as the hangout owner) for long chunks of time in the recording
  • Stay in the hangout and let the students know that you're still there.  That way they can complete the work that you've set for them, but they also know that they can ask you for help.











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The following is an activity that the Techies participated in relating to Teaching and Learning in Google Hangouts on Monday 6 April 2020.
The activity includes the Session Instructions, a video of the Activity (as Learners), and Reflections within the video (as Learners and Teachers).
It’s got a little bit of everything:
  • Learners who are absent
  • Learners who arrive late
  • Learners who leave class early
  • Learners who need help following or understanding instructions
  • Learners who play up
  • Learners experiencing technical issues
  • And also … Learners cyber bullying classmates in the hangout
  • The Teacher who talks too fast
  • The Teacher who doesn’t give learners all of the instructions
  • And also … the Teacher who doesn’t have all of the resources ready for the lesson
__________________________________________________
Session One [30 minutes] - Sending Love outside of your Bubble 
PLEASE DON'T START SESSION ONE UNTIL OUR MEETING
This is a fun activity for us to do using Google Hangouts.  Please make sure that you have a square piece of paper or card for this session.
I'm going to run this session as a Google Hangout Meet lesson.  At the conclusion, we will reflect on and discuss the session
  1. Log into the DigiTech with Ms Anderson Google Site http://bit.ly/2TMuF3V
  2. Navigate to the Techies tab
  3. Navigate to the Calendar for Techies
  4. Click on the Class Hyperlink for today's date (Monday 6 April 2020 when the session took place)
  5. Click on More details
  6. Locate the work for today's Learning Activities


__________________________________________________

Google Hangouts Tips and Tricks

If anyone is feeling nervous about using hangouts to teach your lessons, or if you haven’t run a hangout before, consider running a hangout with someone outside of your bubble, and teach them how to make breakfast, or something relatively simple.  Hopefully that will give you a bit of confidence before using hangouts to teach your students.
Video Link

Teaching and Learning in Google Hangouts

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About Me

Kia ora! I am the Head of Technology at Tāmaki College and also teach Digital Technologies.


My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2021 will be my Year 12 NCEA Level 2 class. This group of learners were my target group from my 2020 Inquiry. I would like to inquire into whether Academic Writing exemplars specific to Digital Technologies, in conjunction with the 'Explanation Writing' classroom display resources for Digital Technologies, based on SOLO taxonomy, could accelerate achievement in literacy in my subject.


My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 were my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I inquired into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.


In 2019, my inquiry is to maximise pedagogical practices (relating to integrated education, and collaborative teaching and learning), to effectively shift student achievement, supported by digital platforms connected to visible teaching and learning.


My Inquiry in 2018, was to develop a VTaL Purpose-Built Innovative Tool, to enable all elements of the VTaL Framework to be accessible to teachers, in order to accelerate student achievement.


In 2017, my inquiry was based on raising student achievement and shifting teacher practice around effective pedagogical practices including Learn, Create and Share. This will be achieved through the development, implementation and monitoring of the Visible Teaching and Learning Framework.

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