OOO the JOY of teaching SENIORS

For everyone of you guys who are teaching....the Juniors tend to "suck up" all my energy in the period that I spend with them...in a NICE way (I am sure you understand!!!) They truly keep me on my toes, and make me give my 5 cents -worth back to the school every minute. They each assume I am only there for them, and want their questions answered immediately...even if I am already busy assisting someone else. They are super excited, to have my individual attention most of the time, and the coolest thing is, waiting for them after morning tea or lunch, and they come running up to class with all of that exuberence....READY 2 LEARN..

Unlike the seniors, no running to class...a senior  will first listen to the video of me teaching the day's topic, and then only ask for support, if they can't figure it out on their own, and after having a korero with their classmates.These moment I treasure like gold nuggets, to see how they support each other, I find myself "eavesdropping" just to make sure that the "correct" information is shared, and that the person who asked the question, understands the solution/or the help.

They (the seniors) support you (the teacher) in whatever you want to try, new teaching ideas, new ways of learning, and they will give you valued feedback.  As I often tell my seniors:  "see this is why I teach, I learn something new from you guys, every day".

As a teacher it is so important for me, to find a few minutes a day, where I talk to each of my seniors, making eye contact to see how they are and how they are with the new learning for the day. So, to have my year 13's being excited about sharing their learning through making videos, were absolutely "mind-blowing-ly" COOL.  What they did, each of them chose a different part of the topic for the external, then they made videos of them talking through all the different examples.  They then shared it with each other and me, sharing their learning with all of us. They were so excited to plan, make the videos and then to share it with each other, and to compliment each other on it.
I am so blessed to be a teacher, and to have the opportunity to learn, create and share with my students.

The video that started it ALL

I have always been a bit of a rebel.  So when people challenge me, I usually "fall" for it, as I constantly like a challenge to push me that bit further towards EXCELLENCE. That is why I signed up for the Digitally Fluency course last term, after watching this video, thinking I need something more than just google classroom for my teaching practice. Something that will make my life easier and also make my students' life easier....

 So what is EXCELLENCE in teaching then?

"You can not change the hand you are dealt , but you can change how you play the hand."  As teachers, our hand, are the students and we need to change the way that we "play our hand". I am sure that all of us teachers, have walked away, after a lesson with the feeling: "aaaaw this did not work, this did not turn out the way I anticipated"...that is when we need to change the way that we play our hand. Working with a new hand daily or sometimes per period, as different students have different learning needs, we need to UP or game, and be on TOP of the changing needs in front of us. 

So to answer the question:  What is excellence in teaching then? According to me: It is the adaptability of the teacher and to change your teaching style, to suit the "hand" in front of you...I hope this makes SENSE?? (off course ALL the other important stuff, like knowing your topic, and all the other things need to be in place...I am just talking IN CLASS, the "how" )

An example of this is:

I have given my seniors a choice about their mathematical learning pathway forward, from the start of this term.  I've put up on my website: 4 different topics. They had to watch a few videos at the start, had to work through the slideshow, and had to look at the assessment, and then had to make an informed decision about their path forward.  I've put all of this up on our class site, and they go on at their own pace.  This has freed me up, to support them individually, some great learning conversations are happening not only with me, but also with each other. Some of them, still need me to be their on the white board, every now and then, and then we move out of the computer room to the class, but mostly the "machine" is humming away smoothly, with them driving their own learning, and me putting up the work at night. If they miss a day or two, they just continue where they were before they missed school. I've made videos of myself talking through the slide shows, doing the homework, and they love being responsible for their own learning.  They can rewind their learning, and at their own pace.  They can listen to me doing the same lesson over and over, if they want to. At this stage, it means I am working much harder , as I have 8 topics (4 year 12 and 4 year 13 topics) to do each night, but I know once everything is in place I can just make minor tweaks next year.  I've also added teaching videos of other teaching explaining the same work, and different methods explaining the same work.

It is so cool to see them working so hard, and taking responsibility for their own learning in stead of me doing it all on the white board, or by their desks and them copying.  Today in class, I had the year 12's in the last period, I took them to class and tested them with a few algebra questions on the white board that we worked through together as a group. It was the BEST feeling ever when one of the boys started RAPPING...'top stays top, outside goes bottom"...the rap that I use for explaining the rule in algebra when there is a surd (he watched a video of me doing the rap on our class site)...that showed me that this method works for them...I've changed the way that I played the hand, and for today: I can go home, exhausted BUT happy!

yay!! I love my job (even after 33 years)

Tuesday PD in Kawakawa end of July 2018

What a JOY to start our day with:
the video

Lots of learning has happened today with some sharing perhaps?

This term our focus is:  SHARING

SO, we will use sharing to finish our learning.

Our focus is therefore to do most of the sharing of their learning through their

Blogs. Whaea Kerry will be available to support all teachers and students to

Set up their blogs and to start sharing our learning.
So how do I blog...where to start?

WHY EDUCATORS USE BLOGS

The main reasons why educators use blogs include:

• To share information and class news with parents, family, and caregivers.
• To provide students with a way to access assignments, homework, resources, and information about their class online.
• For global collaboration and authentic audiences.
• To inspire and motivate students.

The benefits of class blogging include:

• Having an authentic audience
• Covering new and traditional literacies
• Forming home-school connections
• Covering digital citizenship authentically
• Providing an online home for digital and analog creations
• Developing thinking and reflection
• Building a classroom community
• Developing essential ICT skills

Who, who , who is this person?

Who am I...

I am Whaea Mina,Mrs Voigt or as a lot of students in New Zealand call me:  Mama Afrika.

The students who are not in my class sometimes ask me:  Whaea, why do they call you Mama Africa?...this is why:

 In my country, Africa (and I am from the southern part:  South Africa) , this is a "respect - thing".  If you have respect for an older lady (one who is not so young any more😜) you will greet her with:  Good day Mama... and because I am from Africa...students call me : Mama Afrika.  I have a heart the size of Africa, and I love my job and every student in my class, I see as my child. At a previous school my nickname was DAISY, but my real name is HERMIEN, my family calls me MIEN (pronounced mean) or MINA.

I was born during a cold, rainy winter storm, in a clinic just outside Cape Town in 1963.  I was the youngest of the family, and my sister believes the most spoiled one. My mom says I was born with a smile on my face, and have always been a happy person.  I decided to study to become a Math teacher after I realized that I have the ability to teach my fellow students (at school) Math when  our teacher resigned in year 12 and we had to get through the struggle with a relief teacher, who could not help us with our maths.

I lived with my husband and our 4 children in South Africa until 2011.  We , my husband and myself, then immigrated to New Zealand.  This was the hardest decision EVER, as I had to leave EVERYTHING that I know, my roots, my children, my pets, my friends, my country, my house, behind and START something new, with the faith and dream that it will all work out, and that they will be able to join us in New Zealand at some time.

 I love life and believe that Math is a performing art.  I live my life with the 4 L's:  live, laugh, love and leave a legacy.  I am probably the most positive person that you will ever meet.

My favourite mathematical quote is:

click here for the video
Cape Town video

The end of the course, but the start of more great learning

So this is the END...but what a brilliant start to my learning journey.  It was a HUGE disappointment as I did not get to finish the exam.  There were two parts of the exam, and I did not plan my time wisely, as I did not know what to expect.  There were 11 scenarios and I only got to do 4 of them.  If I attempt the exam again, I would first finish the things I am confident in doing, try to do the scenarios first and the the last 40 minutes on the multiple choice part.  So this day in itself was a huge learning curve for me:  The feeling of extreme stress and feeling of time is running out during the exam, made me realize that every time students are being assessed in my class there will be some of them that have a similar experience, like I've had today.  Also I had this feeling of I am not ready for this exam, and I hope that students don't feel like that when they enter my room for an assessment.

It was absolutely brilliant to work with this amazing room of such positive people who were all learning with me. It was good to learn about Manaiakalani and the hook of learning, and why we are doing what we are doing, and making this digital journey a "united journey" and that we are not alone on an island, but all together on this island.

Need more:
focus on google exam, as I opted out of using some things which did not apply to my everyday life when we were learning, not realizing that I would be asked to do this during the google exam.

Today I've learnt:  how to embed my own screencastify video on my blog:



Need to know more about:
1. spread sheets
2. calendar sharing a doc
3. email notifications
4. subscribe to a youtube channel

My learning as shared with our staff at staff meeting on Tuesday 26 June:

Rainy days in Kaikohe

Wednesday 20 June:

Gerhard Vermeulen from Ako Hiko  Education Programme Lead introduces himself….another South African living the dream in our beautiful Aotearoa.

NIce rainy wintersday to stay indoors and to learn.

Your chromebook ....

Otherwise it is ONE expensive tool.  These 4 words should be interlinked..part of the Kaupapa.

Deep dive...to help you engage in your professional flow..to be efficient and effective in your workflow.

Tools to help your manage multiple windows and tabs:

Chrome extension:  "one tab lives" up in the top of your screen. How to get one tab: google one tab extension

Reminder: the url bar is now called the omni-box

Another extension is: Toby for chrome...can drag and drop any open tabs in here even gmail, hangouts and google drive...you call it workflow, make a new one for your class, with hapara, blogging, etc...make multiple collections for your different parts of the day/life. Recommend toby mini extension, otherwise it opens every time you log on, and can be “irritating”. To remove it from you bookmarks right click on it and remove.

Managing your extensions:  Extensity lives in your omnibox (url bar) add to chrome to manage all your extensions.

How to organise the emails:  archive emails don’t delete them (communications)

Archive =hide, mute emails from your inbox

Labels = use to organise your mails

Filter = automate your emails to save time

Starring = star emails as important, like a reminder

Conversation view:  groups conversations together

Settings

Share part of today:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CHTdQnoeFu0oCXPcVBte0nhzknPehMHW2s0iyKVAckE/edit?usp=sharing
here is our hangout group:

how to put a photo on your blog .  Register for the exam before next Wednesday and bring a shared lunch. Brilliant day of learning, thanks to everyone!

Taipa Wednesday!!

What a blessing to finally admit that I feel more digitally empowered, and more positive about my digital abilities than 6 weeks ago.  To have one of your difficult teenage students tell you:  "mama Afrika, you are my hero" because you've posted a video of you doing the homework problem, and they could  relate and understand after listening to the video, pausing and trying it...YAY!

Wednesday 13 June:

Learning for the day:

School connected because we all belong together...schools are standing together with this common goal. Lots of opportunities to “belong” together and to share with each other because of this common goal. 22 000 plus learners...all with this common goal. Have a shared language and we all paddle in the same direction. Impact on learning, and we all know what it is that we focus on….why and how. The visible nature of learning keeps us connected. We are all talking about the same “things”...share about being cybersmart, support and connections!!

Focus for the term:

Term 1:  earn

Term 2:  create

Term 3: share

Term 4:  learn, create and share

Toolkit: Face to face opportunity, to “learn” from others. Engage with Manaiakalani Site. At a cluster level, connect with others. We will soon have a cluster Up North.


Sites: If you want to “take” something from another teacher’s site, it is nice to send an email when you want to “borrow” something ...It opens a conversation, and a network connection. Usually when it is there, you may use it, but it is polite to just communicate with the “owner” of the site.

Tweet and Blogs: Tweeting and blogging are ways to connect with each other and to share learning.

Quad connecting: 4 classes connect to each other to comments on blogs, and blogging on other school’s blogs. Build helpful and postive comments on the class blog or learners’ blogs.

Tweeter for educational tweets:  Ed chat...worthwhile looking at :  http://www.edchatnz.com/

Google Plus community:

Learning and sharing is supported by the community.

Talk and chalk part of the morning:

Learning about google sites.

All of this helps you to put it out there for your students , for sharing their learning with them.

Why: visible and accessible learning 24/7. They can get onto their learning at any time...even when they are


bored. Rewindable learning, they can go back and watch it again, or try it again or get better at it. Each learner must have their own device. Teacher dashboard. Visible to whanau. Visible planning. Have students put goals up there as well. Who are your learners? Ask them: What is going to hook you in?

What is it going to look like?

Remember the shop window!! It is what is in the window, that will draw you into the shop. Simple is best. Keep fonts consistents...no more than two fonts.

Otherwise students will get disengaged. No more than 3 clicks to get to what they need to click on for their learning.


Buttons:

High school teachers sites:

https://sites.google.com/a/manaiakalani.org/learning-site-secondary/

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MyaI08-CQmECRAamd4oB3409si2ajXIF7nLHKSf3gJ4/edit#slide=id.g39f0f8b93c_0_268


I made a maths site for all my students not only year 9’s...how cool is this. I am so extremely excited and so blessed to have Kerry in my life teaching me such cool things;

https://sites.google.com/boic.school.nz/sumfun-mama-afrika/home