Playing in the Sandpit

On Friday I attended Connected Rotorua's session on Google Classroom along with with staff from nine out of the twenty Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru schools. We explored how others have been using Google Classroom and for me is was also about comparing Google Classroom with Hapara. Hapara is a paid LMS for GAFE schools that we currently use, however I am questioning which would be more suitable for our school. My first thoughts are that they do have some similar functions yet also mange bulk student work in different ways. I suspect Google Classroom is better suited to one-on-one digital classrooms which is my personal ideal, but as it is not a reality in my school I have a plan to test Google Classroom. Through Microsoft and Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru I am borrowing 30 laptops for a period in term 3 or 4 to run my class one-to-one and plan to use Google Classroom to facilitate this. Watch this space.

What do you use, or prefer?

Using Minecraft to Develop Writing

​ This term I was asked by the Waiariki Literacy Association to present a workshop on using ICT to enhance literacy (see the flyer below).
Waiariki Literacy Association presents “Using ICT to Enhance Literacy Learning”.

I decided to share a small part of one of my units on using Minecraft to engage students in reading and writing using Minecraft. You can see my presentation below. I have removed the free lesson plan, but you can buy it on TeachersPayTeachers. I always reassure teachers that they do not need to know the game to get quality learning from it; use your students enthusiasm and knowledge, but challenge what they tell you.

We explored how to use one small part of Minecraft (animals) for reading and writing. We used our note taking and key ideas to create trading cards, with the intention of moving towards report writing. It was only a short workshop so I was just able to give the teachers attending a few ideas to get started, plus resources to scaffold the learning and at least give it a go on their own.

Reading to Learn PD

Educamp Rotovegas 2016

Educamps are a wonderful free PD opportunity for teachers who like to manage their own PD, as well as sharing their own skills. Everyone shares their ideas and resources. We started with the Smackdown (see slides below) and due to interest I took a small workshop on using Class Dojo. Like all the best PD there was lots of back channel chatting and sharing on Twitter using the hashtag #educamprotovegas

 

Change Page Size in Google Docs and Slides

As a regular user of Google Docs and Slides for teaching I often find I need their page sizes to be A4 to make printing easier. In this video I show you how to do this and also why I think Google Slides is a more versatile program to use than Google Docs.

eTap Smartphone App for Teachers

 Are you an eTap school? eTap is a popular student management system in New Zealand schools. You must have a personal eTap teacher login to access this app.

Recently while preparing to start the new school year I thought about how often I had logged into eTap on my iPhone browser to find contact details or do the afternoon roll on the run. So I searched and found this free eTap app here; there is also an Android app here (I haven't tried it but assuming it is the same). Additionally, they have a @school Mobile app for parents to get information.

 Notices is the first screen you see after downloading and signing into the app. There are three tabs: My Pupils, Notices, Calendar.

Pro
I like this because we use them regularly and it's the first thing I'll always see.

Con
I can't add notices and that would be helpful.

 Calendar should be useful if your school uses the eTap calander, many use a Google shared calander.

Pro
I can see the whole month and less like to miss those meetings...

Con
I can't add to it.

 The My Pupil tabs brings up a list of all the student lists you have set up in your school system. I can see mine as well the rest of my teams students by room. When I click on my room a list of my students pops up with: profile photo, full name, and an arrow to access more information.

Pro
I can learn new students name by using their photos, unless none are loaded or the photo is really old.
Easy to scroll through your list.

Con
I can't add photos but I think that should be controlled by admin anway.
I can't adjust the student list by first and surname.

  

 Pupil
The pupil page has a profile photo, full name, year level, and room number as a header with three tabs: General, Contact, Medical. You can see the range of information they provide from the screenshots.

Pro
I can see the medical information on a student quickly.
All contact information is easily available and phone and email links are clickable.

Con
I can't take attendance on the app.
I can't make changes but I think that should be controlled by admin anway.

Overall I'm quite excited about this app and it's potential for me to quickly and easily access information from our eTap accounts. Now to actually see it in action ...

Hour of Code

 

The Hour of Code is an international event aimed at introducing students and teachers to coding while demystifying the concept of coding and teaching them some basics. The idea is to expose students to at least one hour of coding which many consider a new literacy and an essential skill for the future. 

I'm a strong supporter of coding as a literacy, maths and thinking tool; so I organised an 'Hour of Code' for all the classes at my school. As we have a computer suite next to the library I arranged for every class to be booked in the computer suite in their library time and had the student led puzzles shown above loaded, as most teachers had no idea about coding. The three puzzles were based on popular games and movies and guided students to code using the Scratch block format.

The interesting part was not only did more students have fun learning to code for the first time but I spotted many teachers engrossed in the coding puzzles too. Now that's what I call success; planting the seeds of coding curiosity. Below is some of the student's feedback.