1 - Open the Google Sheet

2 - Click on Format > Conditional Formatting > Add the 'Rules'

3 - Enter Grades into Workspace, or into the Google Sheet

4 - Click on Assessed with the Workspace

5 - Grades turn 'Green' for Assessed work

6 - View 'Started' to see which students have started the task

7 - Enter 'Started' into the Google Sheet

Scratching the surface of capabilities

Cultivating Growth Mindset

One of the sessions that really stretched my thinking, was the session run by Lindsay Wesner, Deep Dive : The Power of Possibility - Cultivating Growth Mindset in Your Classroom.

As well as Lindsay sharing her experiences as a classroom teacher, and her extensive range of resources with those of us who attended who session, the activity that had a lasting impact for me, was the bingo activity.  This activity required attendees to work in small groups of 2-3, to identify various tasks that we undertake as teaching practitioners, to enable our learners to develop a growth mindset.

Getting Creative with Google Sheets

The most constructive workshop that I attended that impacts directly on some of my current practices, was the workshop run by one of my colleagues Gerhard Vermeulen entitled Getting Creative with Google Sheets.  There are so many different functions within Google Sheets that I was unaware of.  One of those functions is the formula that allows the colours of individual cells within a worksheet to change, depending on the entry within the cell.  This is particularly useful with the VTaL Tracking Sheets that I use to enable students to track their own progress.  I am unsure whether the formula can be integrated into Hapara Gradesheets, which I'm also using as VTaL Tracking Sheets within Workspaces; however, it will just be a case of experimenting to see what works.

Who does this Moonshot project involve?

Purpose: to identify my tribe/team/collaborators

• Who am I collaborating with on this project?
• Who are my team?
• Who has a voice in this project?

Who are the Who?

• Learners: exactly who
• Colleagues: co-designers, collaborators, sounding boards etc
• Experts: who is being invited to add expert opinion

Original Stakeholders

The original stakeholders (previously blogged) are outlined below:

• Ann/Dorothy - Meet with at PD, gained feedback about tool design
• App Developers - Meet with Dave/Korene Letele, and gained feedback about tool design
• Financiers - No longer relevant as I don't need financial backing to develop the tool
• Sue/Fusion - Not directly relevant to the development of this particular VTaL tool which is targeted towards Teachers and Teaching Practitioners
• CORE Middle Leaders - Need to consult
• SLT - Yet to have discussions
• Teachers - Yet to have specific discussions
• Families - Not directly relevant to the development of this particular VTaL took which is targeted towards Teachers and Teaching Practitioners

NEW Stakeholders

• NEW stakeholders to the mix include:
• NEW - Jim Sill, EdTech, referred me to Kimberley who has shown interest in attending my Sydney GAFE session
• NEW - Wayne Poncia, Hapara
• NEW - Andrew Corney SCT Tauranga Boys College
• NEW - Kalisha Paketama, Frances Kolo, Tamaki College First Year Teachers

Content for the Tool - Stakeholder Feedback

What are the right questions to ask in order to determine appropriate content for the tool?  
How do I ask the questions, in a way that will get me the answers?

I think the scope for identifying appropriate questions can and will be determined from a number of sources.  I gained feedback from a Toolkit Session I ran on VTaL at the beginning of 2017 with staff either new to Tamaki College, or staff who were generally interested in VTaL.  It also makes sense to me to touch base with our newer staff, to find out from them what would be useful as beginning teachers.  Not to say that the feedback should be limited to these sources, but would hopefully help focus the next tier of stakeholder conversations.

Tool Design

Developing the tool itself isn't that difficult for me.  What I do need to consider carefully though is design features (colour schemes, functionality, aesthetics, layout etc).  There is no point in having robust content within the tool, if the way the tool functions and looks is terrible for the end users.  Ironically, this is a conversation I constantly have with my students as a Technology teacher.

There's also the fact that I quickly threw together an original prototype of the tool eg. an original VTaL Google site, when I first launched the VTaL Google+ community.  It dawned on me that the Google+ community was intended to enable users to share and communicate, which is vastly different to a site (even though there may be similar features).  Stakeholder feedback on the design of the original site would also be invaluable, in order to move forward.

Next Steps

It is clear to me that my team of collaborators and original stakeholders has evolved from the beginning of the this year, or even last year when I first started promoting VTaL.  Stakeholder feedback from my current and new stakeholder base on content for the tool, and tool design are what I need to focus on next.  This is likely to include not just the content of the tool eg. the site, but the templates of various VTaL components that I am likely to embed into the site.  A timely process, but also an important and necessary process, if the tool is to be effective for users!

VTaL - NEW Students Navigating in Learning Information in my DigiTech Site

Links to Student Blogs within our NEW Google Sites

Google Calendars embedded within our NEW Google Sites

Step 1 : Students navigated to the main Tamaki College Site

Step 2 : Students clicked on Technology > Ms Anderson

Step 3 : Students navigated to Ms Anderson

Step 4 : Students navigated to my subject site Digital Technologies with Ms Anderson

Step 5 : Students navigated to Year 9 > Year 9 Calendar

I had the privilege of presenting at the EdTech Team Auckland GAFE Summit held at Aorere College.  The focus of my session was VTaL - Tracking Student Progress.    In 2017, I delivered a session entitled VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning in a Secondary School Context.  This year's session was an opportunity to focus in on one of the VTaL tools, Tool 03 : Class Project Task Lists, and provide examples of how I have used the tracking sheets to inform my practice, and accelerate student achievement.

I always find it greatly satisfying having the opportunity to share my experiences, the trials, tribulations and everything in between, with fellow teaching practitioners, if it is going to enable them to learn from both my success moments as well as my mistakes.



Tracking sheets and monitoring systems are certainly not a new concept.  They've been around as far back as assessment has ever existed.  However, tracking sheets, marking sheets, checklists etc are completely pointless if they are not going to be used to Inform Teacher Practice, and, Accelerate Student Achievement.  It doesn't matter how many bells, whistles, colours, links, gifs or emojis can be dropped into tracking sheets.  If the tracking sheet isn't used to Inform Teacher Practice, and Accelerate Student Achievement, then as a tool, the tracking sheet is pointless.

Was the presentation useful?

Of the many people who attended the presentation, the following is a snapshot of feedback from some of the attendees:

Connecting

Sharing the progress in my thinking with my fellow MIT peers since our first MIT weekend together, meant focusing on the 'problem' as well as the 'opportunity', as outlined in the image below.

The shifts in the usage of various VTaL tools from early in 2017 through to later in the year, showed that the Tracking Sheets was the tool that resonated most clearly with in terms of accelerating and shifting student achievement.  Therefore, I have decided to focus on this particular tool as the main driver of the entire VTaL framework ... well, at least for the time being anyway.  Connecting the focus to the problem, meant that every class (or class site) should have the tracking sheets visible and embedded into their sites for students, teachers and parents to view.

Design Thinking- Experimentation

This session involved prototyping and sharing our ideas in small groups to gain feedback.  This was a particularly useful exercise which has in actual fact, lead to a re-design of my initial outcome idea, as well as my inquiry.

Pitching the idea gave some clarity on how I envisaged the digital tool could work and would work, in relation to (based on peer feedback) how the digital tool should work, and therefore be developed.  The idea of needing to produce a mobile app wouldn't necessarily meet the needs of the intended user of the app, being teachers.  Feedback suggested that a site would allow for more scope and depth of VTaL as an overall resource.

When I discussed the motivation and intent behind the idea of the app in more detail, it became clear that the responsive design of Google Sites, would enable the VTaL framework to sit nicely in a NEW Google Site for desktop-friendly use, as well as mobile-friendly use.  So, the outcome design has essentially changed.  This in turn, has huge implications on the development process, as there is no longer the need to focus on app development.  This is a game-changer!



The first three images show what a NEW Google Site looks like on a desktop as well as on a mobile device.  The last image shows the existing VTaL website, which I don't believe is particularly effective in it's current form.

Ed Tech Summit

The session about preparing for the Ed Tech Summit in Sydney later this year, provides a great platform to present and gain feedback from an audience who I am unlikely to have spoken to or with about VTaL.  Hence, they will be a set of fresh eyes and ears with new perspectives and views on the tool.  A great resource for stakeholder feedback.

As I am also presenting at the Auckland Ed Tech Summit in the April School Holidays, this will give me an opportunity to trial the resources and presentation that I intend delivering in Sydney.  The presentation details are as follows:

Name : Hinerau Anderson

Connecting with Inquiry Frameworks

The changes in the development process, have also meant that I will be tweaking my original inquiry idea.  This is what it looks like now ...

Tuakana - Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy

Step 1 : What are students learning today?

1. Students navigate to the DigiTech with Ms Anderson Google Site > Year 10 >  Year 10 Overview and Calendar.  
2. Once in the calendar, students locate the link for their class in today's date.  
3. Students can also add the class calendar to show in their own calendar (as shown in the image below).
4. The calendar post includes details of today's lesson instructions.

Step 2 : What are the instructions for the task?

1. The instructions refer students to a Workspace in the Student Dashboard of the learning activities and evidence required for each task.  The Workspace also includes resources that might help the students to complete each task.  NB:  Students who (for whatever reason) cannot access the work in the Workspace, can also locate the same learning information directly from my site.
2. Students are able to submit completed tasks for marking.
3. Work that students complete and submit, that satisfies the requirements of the task, is marked and returned to students (as marked).  Work that needs changes applied, will have comments added by myself, giving students feedback on what else needs to be done (as shown in the image below)

Step 3 : How do students know if they are on track?

1. Students are able to access information on tasks that they have completed in the Workspace Grade Sheet, which has been adapted into a Class Project Task List - Tracking Sheet (as shown in the images below). 
2. Green indicates that the task is complete.  Orange indicates that the task is incomplete.  Red indicates that the task has not been started.

Overview

A lot of this process of work flow, impacts on students having access to their learning information, as well as up to date information on their progress.

Connecting with Learners with the use of Emojis

Deadlines in Workspace

One of the major issues that I have had with my Senior DigiTech class, was for students to meet deadlines.  In order to flip this around, I decided to start using Workspace and the Activity Status (Started, Submitted, Assessed) functions.

I had trialled the use of Workspace with my JumpStart class at the end of 2017, and could see the potential to use the Workspace to monitor task completion.

Workspace Grade Sheets - VTaL Task Lists

The VTaL Tools and Processes Used

The following are the VTaL Tools that have been used in this process:

• Google Sites - Workspace [published] embedded into the Subject Google Site, enables stakeholders (other than students) to view the learning information within the Workspace.  Students access the learning within the Workspace through the Student Dashboard.
• Google Sites - Class Project Task Lists can be embedded into Google Sites to reflect progress throughout a project.  Care needs to be considered so that individual students are not identified.  I have used ID Numbers in the past.
• SOLO Learning Activities - these can be linked into the Resources section of the Workspace, to help guide student learning.  I also have the links to the learning activities embedded in other sections of my Google Site, outside of Workspace, for those students who are either new to the school, or do not have access to a particular Workspace for a range of different reasons
• Class Project Task Lists - once generated from students submitted work, I will link this into the Rubrics section of a Workspace.  As shown in the example above, I will also embed the Task List directly into the Google Site (outside of Workspace).
• Student Project Checklists - these can be linked into the the Evidence section of the Workspace.  Once students have had their assessed tasks returned, they can link their evidence to their Project Checklist, which helps the students to track the big picture of where they are at in terms of satisfying all of the criteria within a project or assessment.  In addition, the Checklists with evidence linked, may also be used for moderation purposes.
• Workspace [published] - The Workspace needs to be published and embedded into a Google Site in order to be 'Visible'
• Subject Google+ Communities - these can be linked into the Resources section of the Workspace, to enable students to access exemplars relevant to the project

Embedding Workspaces into Google Sites

Workspaces can be embedded into traditional Google Sites, as well as the NEW Google Sites.  Click on the following two images to navigate to examples in both versions of the Google Sites.

NEW Google Site - Workspace Embedded

Traditional Google Site - Workspace Embedded

Streamlining NCEA Data Updates to reflect Formative Feedback from VTaL Task Lists

The following blog post VTaL : Aligning Assessment Deadlines with NCEA Data Updates, demonstrates how the VTaL Task Lists have been linked and integrated into NCEA Data Updates.

Streamlining NCEA Data Updates to reflect Formative Feedback from VTaL Task Lists

• Monitoring of progress within a topic, unit of work or project - Formative Feedback
• A snapshot of student progress within units of work - Formative Feedback leading to feedback and feedback for students
• A snapshot of student progress within units of work - Identification of effective interventions or strategies that are working, or, an opportunity to try different strategies if required
• A snapshot of the credit value for individual standards
• An overview of cumulative credits gained throughout the year