GAFE Summit - Day 1

Outline of the Day:

• Keynote - Falling in Love with the Future
• Breakout 1 - Genius Hour
• Breakout 2 - Google Classroom Introduction and Best Practice
• Breakout 3 - Assessment in the Digital Age
• Breakout 4 - Creative Agency
• Demo Slam

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Highlights:

• Took a tour of Hobsonville Point Secondary School at 7:30am when it was very quiet and empty
• Was able to take some awesome pictures, check out the learning that is happening in the spaces and think about how we can transfer what is happening here to our ILC space.
• The food and service of staff/helpers was phenomenal
• Especially because I forgot my water bottle
• Every session I went to was amazing - Which very rarely happens, normally I find some stuff it aimed to low and other stuff I am always using
• I learnt lots of new tools, had time to play and explore, made new connections and reconnected with people I know from twitter and I consolidated lots of stuff that I am currently doing

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Reflective Thinking

Google Classroom

• Talk with Toni about using this for our ‘Chapter Chat’ group
• Would be great to use this smaller number of students as a trial group
• We can also use it to gain assessment and bring our option to the next level providing the teachers of the students with some quality feedback
• Once we get the hang of using it with our Chapter Chat group we can begin to use this with our class
• Setting assignments, using it as exit slips and entry slips
• Can we link it into Evernote?

Genius Hour

• Use the design thinking model as the beginning of this session (Ideation)

Assessment in the Digital Age

• Flubaroo
• Doctopus
• Edpuzzle
• Google Feud
• Quizizz
• Love this one - so much quieter and more engaging than Kahoot. Want to try this out
• Pear Deck
• Docentedu

Creative Agency

• An insane amount of tools shared - very exciting!
• Looking forward to having some play time to check these out.
• Give students time to explore chrome extensions and see what they find

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To Do:

• Flick through the Genius Hour resources
• Might be able to find a quality model to share with students
• Make a resource about the 4 main ideas/thinkings for a successful Genius Hour session
• Create a Quizizz
• Create a peardeck
• Both of these could be used during an E-Learning workshop on exit slips/assessment
• Add all today’s tools to Only 2 Clicks  

Developing the capabilities to interact with science (24.08.15)

Developing the capabilities to interact with 

science

Paul Ashman

Nature of Science Capabilities

-          Gather and interpret data

-          Use evidence

-          Critique evidence

-          Interpret representations

-          Engage with science

When does a simple task become science?

-          Investigating

-          Questioning

-          Evaluating

-          Reasoning

-          Thinking

-          Curiosity

-          Wondering

-          Observations

-          Making connections

Nature of Science

-          Observe scientists

-          Science of self

-          Science is constantly being re-evaluated in light of new evidence

-          How to carry out a scientific investigation

-          Understanding how science works

-          Make connections between science knowledge and everyday decisions and actions

-          This is a compulsory strand – the other strands provide context for learning

-          Assessment should be based on the nature of science understanding (capabilities)

The difference between observations and inferences

-          Weta

o    That is an inference

o    What If there was an insect that looked just like a weta?

o    Prove it

o    What can you see about them

o    Insect = 6 legs

o    Link observations to what you think

- I see long spindly legs coming out the front, I think they are antennae

-          Bird

o    I can see claws with webbing that I think is its foot

o    Feathers

-          Grass, leaves, green vegetation

Things we can’t tell but that we infer:

-          If the bird is dead

-          If the weta are eating the bird

-          That this is a bird

-          Where the photo takes place 

What can we see?

-          Circles

-          Spikes

-          Perception varies – are the circles at the back in or out

-          Wonderings – If this is an eyeball then how do they blink? Why does it have so many bits?

-          As soon as students know what it is, they will stop thinking

-          Try and find images that don’t give away what ‘it’ is

Observations                                                                                                                                              

                                                     

Lit candle (What can you see, what do you notice)

Record = draw or write

Observation types – visual, tactile sense, what isn’t happening, changes

-          Noticing = engaged other senses

-          Feel the heat

-          The closer my hand got to the flame the hotter it got

-          Yellow and orange at the top

-          Blue flame at the base

-          End of the wick glows with an orange ember

-          There is an aura around the flame, it looks like a lighter flame

-          Some of the candle is melting

-          The wick is charred black where the flame is touching

-          Wick has woven pattern

-          The wick has a hook shape

-          The flame has different tones

-          The flame changes height – why?

-          Hotter above the flame than the sides

-          Wax doesn’t catch burn

-          Rapid air movement causes the candle to smoke

-          Air movement – concave/convex shape flame

Progress:

-          What do students notice?

o    Things

o    Attribute

o    Change

-          What senses do they use?

-          What language do they use?

o    Descriptive language

o    Topic specific words

o    Scientific words

Do students make inferences without attempting to explain why they think something?

-          “I think it’s hot”

Do they make an inference and attempt to explain their thinking?

-          “I think it might get a little air in it so it lightens up a little bit”

What links do they make?

-          To previous experience?

-          To scientific ideas?

Notice > Think > Wonder > Predict > Observe > Explain

-          I see/I notice

-          I think

-          I wonder

I notice = engaging more of the senses

-          I notice with my hand

-          I notice with my nose

Get students to justify what they are seeing and justify what they think

Informed Questions

-          Is there evidence backing up this claim?

-          Is the argument logical?

-          Was the testing robust?

-          Are the findings represented in a fair way?

What information can we get from this?

-          By doing this we are starting to critique it

o    Lot of rats

o    Both graphs have rats and birds

o    How many cats were interviewed?

o    What was the time frame for the data collection?

o    What time of day is the data collected?

o    Is this in a rural or town setting?

Critiquing Evidence

Design an experiment to test which tissue is stronger.

Representing Ideas

-          Farming and global warming

-          Comparing pictures

-          Reading graphs, tables etc…

-          Using scientific language

Resources

-          Making better sense books

-          Building science concept books

-          The arbs

-          Connected journals

-          TKI

TKI Website

-          Introducing science capabilities

o    Information about each

o    Resources that link directly into the capabilities

   -  Resources broken up into levels

Resources:

The Dancing Raisins Experiment 
Science Capabilities - Questions to prompt thinking 

#DojochatANZ

Last night I took part in the #DojochatANZ

The chat was all about Creativity! This is something I have been putting a lot of thought into since reading 'Creativity Inc' by Ed Cutmall and attending various workshops at ULearn last year that were driving home the importance of creativity in the classroom. 

I am a huge fan of Class Dojo and have been a Class Dojo mentor for the last year. I use it daily with my students and like finding new ways to make it fun and teach my students to be accountable for their actions.

I am looking forward to taking part in future #DojochatANZ chats. They are currently every Wednesday @ 8:30pm NZDT 

Tweets from the chat:

If you want to learn more about Class Dojo click here.



“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” 
                                                             – Leo Burnett

Teach Meet NZ Presentation

Teach Meet NZ for Connected Educators Month

I was asked by the lovely Sonya (@vanschaijik) to be a presenter for Teach Meet NZ in October because it is connected educators month.

I was a little apprehensive at first because I had never watched or been part of an online presentation and didn't know what to expect. I decided that I had to just jump in head first and give it a go.

What's the big deal about Minecraft?

Teach meet NZ presentation from kasseylee11

Sonya was lovely and helpful during the practice sessions and she taught me a few tips and tricks with using Google Hangout. Such as using the toolbox to add your twitter feed, how to screenshare and how to use the Q & A.

In the practice sessions my presentation was timed at 6 minutes (double the allowed time). I had to spend some time rearranging my speech to still be able to say what I wanted to say in way less words. This was great for keeping my thinking succinct.

On the day I was ridiculously nervous. I practiced my presentation at least ten times to make sure my time wasn't over three minutes. I had managed to get it down to 2:58. That right there is success!

I loved being a part of #CENZ14 and the Teach Meet NZ crew. All the educators who presented were fantastic!

As I was listening to these great educators I was tweeting out all the great content that was being presented.

TeachMeetNZ was an awesome way to network with other educators. At Ulearn I was able to meet some of the other presenters and discuss our experiences. 

Overall my experience was fantastic. I recommend it to everyone and anyone who gets the opportunity to participate in one of these, even if it is just watching the broadcast.

Transcript for my presentation:

What is the big deal about Minecraft?

It is incredibly simplistic

Appropriate for all ages

There is no goal or end, basically the game is a giant sandbox encouraging construction, creativity, exploration and survival

Minecraft is a basically an online version of Lego and it is a fantastic learning tool

So why do kids love it?

And the bigger question is why should teachers?

Minecraft covers the key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum

Thinking – Students have to think constantly about what they are building and what their next steps are

Using Language, Symbols and Texts – Students are using rich language to discuss their projects. They are using words like mods, spawning, griefing and crafting to communicate with their peers

 Managing self – students set their own time frames alongside setting their own agenda and goals and they manage themselves to ensure they meet them

Relating to others – Teamwork and collaboration happens within the game and outside the game to support the learning

Participating and contributing – Students participate and contribute to the Minecraft community when they build amazing creations and share them with their peers

The simplistic graphics allow anything to be possible. They can build on a small scale such as building their dream classroom or on a large scale replicating an Ancient Egyptian city.

They dream it up and then they build it

 Students work together to create complex and elaborate structures. Often this will involve a planning process where a committee of students get together to develop a plan. While in the planning process students engage in rich discussion to bring their vision to life.

Minecraft experts step forward and become the leaders in the classroom

The game has built in social structures with LAN worlds and a chat function.

Players have access to Wikis, blogs, websites and message boards. They share tips and upload elaborate videos detailing the amazing things they've learned to build.

 Students are constantly reflecting on their creations.

They are willing to take risks, make mistakes, fix them and continue this forward thinking process.

It is important for students to be able to identify the learning when using Minecraft

I encourage my students to use their blogs to reflect on projects and share their designs

These are just some of the values that Minecraft can teach students

Minecraft is fun – Students don’t even realize all the values and skills they are learning. However they are engaged and contributing positively to the learning and classroom environment.

The following are all successful ways I have been able to use Minecraft in the classroom.

My most successful Minecraft project has been the recent fictional setting of Coconut Cove from the Novel Hoot. Students created maps, models and worked in teams to create a detailed replica of this city to scale using the setting description from the text.

I encourage you to allow your students to be the experts. Open the door and allow students to co-construct the path alongside you.

Minecraft and gaming is taking over the classroom. So come and join the movement!

#Ulearn14

Ulearn 2014

What an amazing conference!

It always is... but to have it in my own city just made it that much more special.

This was my third Ulearn conference and I can easily say it was the best one yet!

We were privileged enough to have our school Kapa Haka group preform on the Thursday morning to 1600+ attendees.

I was able to see and talk to ex students who were working at the conference and was even lucky enough to have one of my own students come and help our with our workshop.

I tried to summarise my experience in a tweet:

We were lucky enough to have 6 of our staff attend the three day conference. This meant when we saw something amazing we were able to discuss and reflect on how we could introduce that into our own classrooms and teams when we get back to school.

Highlights:

- Presenting on Minecraft - Sharing my passion with other educators and helping them on their journey

- Connecting, networking (Face to face and on Twitter)

- Talking and talking and talking about everything and anything with like minded educators

- Hearing the Poutama teams journey (Breakout 5)

- Steve Mouldey's creativity is not just for the arts

- Stephen Lethbridge's session on making way towards a maker culture

- Having so many of our staff attend!

- Sharing my love of Twitter with my staff & teaching them how to use it

- I won a t-shirt

Lowlights:

- Super tired now at the end of the week

- I don't have enough money to get all the amazing things I saw

- I never wanted it to end! 

Tweets from the last three days

Day One:

Day Two:

Day Three:

Goals

- To use some of the tools and models I saw during the breakouts to develop my students thinking and questioning skills

- Let my students have more choices - let them choose who to work with, how many they need in a group etc...

- I want to try use Trailblazer with my class for evidence of research in their inquiries

- Buy some robotics/electronics kits, get stuff from junk yards for student to have a maker session - get parents involved to

- Help change my staffs mindsets!

- Are our learning spaces being used effectively?

- Read the books Steve mentioned in his session 

My takeaway tips/lesson ideas/websites

-  The notion of creating problem finders

- What if statements - start engaging discussions and questioning activities 

- Creativity challenges

- Trailblazer

- New Twitter friends!

- Kahoot 

Our Minecraft Slides (Breakout 4)

Now I just need to find the time to sit down with my other staff and do our team reflection together.

This is my initial basic reflection.

As I go over my notes and resources I will continue to update this blog with how my goals are going. 

If I saw you at Ulearn or we tweeted then thank you!

Loved the connections and learning.