Critical Thinking in Our Classroom

The aim is for our students to be learners who can identify and solve  problems, think critically about information, work effectively in teams and communicate clearly about their thinking.  

Professional Inquiry #5 - Checking!

What effect did my changed teaching have on outcomes for my learners?

• 7 students were part of my target group. Each of the students improved at least 2 stanine levels in their STAR test from Term 1 to Term 4. 
• 3 students increased by 3 STAR stanines.
• Each of the students made progress during the 14 weeks according to their STAR and PM results.
• Three of the  students are at. 
• Two of the students are on a trajectory to be AT the standard before the end of next year.

How did this new practice impact on my effectiveness as a teacher?

• DFI/ Learn - Create - Share has improved my effectiveness as a teacher as really understand how technology can be used to enhance learner agency and increase student outcomes.

What can I do to improve even further? 

• Ask for individual feedback from students on a more regular basis, allowing them to have more input into the next learning steps.
• Record myself teaching to analyse and critique practice further, share this ‘teaching video’ with colleagues for feedback/ feed forward.
• Arrange for other staff to observe in class.

Professional Inquiry #5 - Taking Action - DFI!

Participation in Digital Fluency Intensive across Terms 2-3.

These blog posts highlight what I have learnt about ubiquitous learning and how it empowers our learners and puts them at the centre of their learning especially when Dorothy pointed out that there is a clear link between visibility and acceleration.

https://whaeadebt.blogspot.com/2019/07/digital-fluency-intensive-cohort-2-2019_30.html

and

https://whaeadebt.blogspot.com/2019/08/digital-fluency-intensive-cohort-2-2019_20.html

DFI has certainly shaped my understanding of how much power the students have in their learning when they access our class site. They are no longer passive learners who are waiting for direction, instead they enjoy knowing exactly what to do next and the choices in their learning that it offers. This professional learning has helped me to understand that digital technology can and will extend and enhance learning when the student has learner agency and there is high-quality, learner-focused teaching happening in the classroom.

What did I do to integrate my new learning into my practice?

• All learning accessible on the class site, no longer shared via Hapara.
• Must do’s and choices for follow up across the literacy and numeracy areas.
• Providing more opportunities for students to make learning videos, google slides, google drawings to explain their learning to show understanding.
• Focussing on explicit teaching at all times and using relevant contexts for the students (making connections).
• Questioning to elicit connections - Prove it, justify your thinking, extend thinking, developing understanding, apply learning to other situations.
• Modelling Exemplars online – Used every chance to show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do. 
• Rewindable learning.
• Giving feedback - positive and encouraging to encourage reflective thinking - great you’ve shown you understand by …, you proved it!
• Using plenary sessions with individual students to understand student’s thinking around where they are at and what they need to do to move to the next level.

Te Hiku - Connected Learners: SHARE 2019 Staff Meeting Term 3 - G Suite Training

Positive Thoughtful Helpful

The Term 3 staff meeting is looking at Connected Learners and discussing the different ways that we communicate with each other. 

We discussed the following questions:How do you prefer to SHARE?

• Does it make a difference whether the content you are sharing is happy or sad, positive or negative? 
• Does it make a difference whether it is personal or professional, whether it includes others or only yourself?
• Has this changed in recent years? If so, how? 
• If not, why do you think that is? 

Jorja and I discussed the fact that we would be more likely to share negative information face to face or via a phone call rather than email as text can be taken out of context.

Professionally, I would be more likely to share electronically than through a conversation unless it was a sit down meeting.

The introduction of technology has changed things hugely. You can attend meetings without being in the same physical space, you can speak to family overseas without it costing $1.99 per minute.

Different Ways to Share and Communicate Manaiakalani Document

The Summer Learning Journey is an opportunity for students to avoid the summer slump and they can hit the ground running at the beginning of the year. It is away for students to accelerate in their learning in an authentic context using their blog as a vehicle.

Hannah & Kelsey - T3 - Tips and Tricks for Google Sites

Today I took part in a google hangout with Hannah and Kelsey from Pt England School all about tips and tricks from Google Site.

One thing that I think that I will use from this tool kit is showing the students how to add a link on their blog to the task on our class site by getting the 'TITLE' link. This is called an anchor point.

Planning pages in edit mode - Creates a clear navigation system (through navigation bar)
and allows ease of workflow/editing. Its useful to have a planning page so you can plan your site in advance.


Opening an embedded google slide:
- positives - students can look at the google slide on the site and it looks nice
- negatives - students have to click to open it up then click again to make a copy

Making Buttons:
Its a good idea to add all details of what you used to make buttons to make it easier to make future buttons with the same parameters.

Hannah and Kelsey's - Tips and Tricks for Google Sites 

I am off to try out a few of these tips and tricks!

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Nine

Ubiquitous Learning - Learning can happen anywhere!

Dorothy joined us today via Google Hangouts to talk to us about ubiquitous learning.
Ubiquitous Learning Slide Deck I love ubiquitous learning, The concept of 'Anytime, Anywhere, Any Pace From Anyone' has definitely increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy. The school day can extend well beyond the 8.30am and 2.30pm bells.

Students can remotely take part in the classroom program as long as they are connected. I have had examples of this in the past few weeks as I have had a number of students away from school yet they have felt well enough to access their learning on the class site. We have home learning each week but I have noticed that some of the students have begun to finish off learning in their own time at home which has been amazing.

The idea of learning ;Anytime, Anywhere at Any Pace' has improved my capability as a professional as I have begun to record my lessons to enable students to re-visit them in their own time. One of my maths groups were struggling with their place value learning so I recorded our group session and uploaded this to the class site so they could watch it to reinforce their learning. This is something that I know I should be doing more often but have not liked recording myslef. DFI has given me the confidence to get over it and JUST DO IT! 

Today I sat the google Google Certified Educator Level 1 and passed. I found it tricky in places and was quite relieved that I passed in the end. 

This DFI course has been the best PD that I have been part of in the last 5 years. I have new found confidence in my teaching using technology as a tool and feel that my digital world is far better managed both at school and home. I feel that the Manaiakalani pedagogy is going to accelerate the learning of my students. I have made my own class site adjusting up my class site to suit the needs of my class and it has increased the agency in my class. Rewindable learning videos made by my students and I has meant that the students are now able to learn wherever they are able to access the class site. It felt like students previously said my name many times a day and now it’s hardly heard. This has been a significant shift in mindset for my students and I. Thank you Venessa and Kerry, you have both been magnificent.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Eight

Today we had two visitors to our DFI session; Dave Winter and Dorothy Burt. Dave is the Manaiakalani Education Leader and it was great to have him here today sharing his vast knowledge with us. Dorothy came to korero with a focus on being connected and sharing. It is always very interesting to listen to Dorothy and these sessions allow me to understand just a little more about the Manaiakalani pedagogy.

We started our session with Venessa (Creating Google Forms with Venessa) introducing us to Google Forms. I have only used forms in a limited capacity but after today's session I realised that there are so many other uses.  A few ways that I will use google forms in my class with my learners is to get feedback from them on various aspects of our classroom, for eg, relections, engagement, class site etc. There are also many other ways that I can now see myself using google forms with my students and whanau.

Dorothy spoke to us about sharing and making connections. There are many ways to make connections but the best connections come with sharing. She listed a number of things that need to be taken into consideration when the students are learning to make connections digitally such as; being cybersmart, being part of a supportive environment, leaving comments that are 'Positive Thoughtful and Helpful'. 

My understanding of connectedness within the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy increased as I have a clearer understanding on how Manaiakalani enables kids in Northland to connect with others in a kind way. WWhat did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?e are helping to create a generation of students who can be kind online - helping kids to be internet awesome! Online toolkits and Tuhu Mai Tuhu Atu are just some ways that connections can be made. 

Kerry introduced us to 'Google My Maps'. This is the first time I have ever used this google app and I was really impressed with the possibilities that it could offer my students. They love google earth and I know that they will really enjoy having a tutu with this app too.

One of the key concepts today was dealing with data which is something I feel confident about as I have used Microsoft Excel for years to manage my class data. I have been comfortable using excel but this year I have moved across to Google Sheets with a lot of trial and error. It was great to get a few tips and tricks today.

These tips and tricks have definitely improved my capability as a professional. Looking closer at data today, creating a graph, putting it into a poster and publishing on my blog showed me how easy it is to do. I am going to do this for my recent inquiry data.

In my personal life I know I could use google sheets for organising aspects of my husband's business and also financial monthly reporting for our local basketball association. This is going to be a 'work in progress!'

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Seven

Introduction into Computational Thinking

It’s not about teaching students how to use digital devices, it’s about giving them an understanding of the computer science principles and programmes that drive digital technologies. The aim is to enable them to learn how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies.

The Digital Curriculum  aims for students to become creators and innovators of digital technologies, not just users.

Dorothy's korero was all about EMPOWERING our students and whanau. Technology is NOT just a tool! 

There are so many opportunities for our students to create a pathway in life by accessing technology that is available to them. There are many examples of how 'everyday' people have used YouTube as a vehicle to make a living for eg. Stay at Home Dad and make up tutorials. Technology is empowering students and their whanau to have access to opportunities that have never been possible before!

An example that I have seen where a student has been empowered and harnessed the power on technology to create opportunities is the business Potiki, Georgia used Kickstarter to get her project off the ground - Georgia's Kick Starter Page. This young 12 year old business entrepreneur has created an opportunity by making quality poi and offering videos for users on how to use them. She has a facebook presence, a media following and she sells a quality product.





The digital curriculum reminds us to keep in mind that many jobs available now for our students were not available last decade.

Whaea Monika spoke to our group about the Raranga Matihiko programme which aims to deliver innovative digital technologies while increasing access to national and local exhibitions and collections. Students take part in many unplugged activities including logistical thinking, spacial awareness, communication and lots of team work. The then learn to use digital technology to enhance their learning. Monika took us through an unplugged activity and gave us time to work on coding using Scratch. She encouraged us to think about coding as logical thinking and students can use coding for digital story telling.

How could you use computational thinking to allow your students to explore digital storytelling? There are so many ways that computational thinking can be used to explore digital story telling. Animations like Scratch are engaging and motivating to use and being able to watch something that you have created from SCRATCH is quite empowering. Check out my Scratch project from today. 

We also had an opportunity to use the VR goggles, Stop Motion and Dashbots too. This has been something that I have been keen to try for awhile and I finally got the opportunity and loved it!

Today I felt empowered as we were introduced and given time to practice new technologies at Waitangi. I feel like this has improved my confidence when coding using Scratch especially and I see a number of ways that Scratch will engage and motivation my students to explore digital storytelling. I am looking forward to using Scratch with my students during Maori Language Week, to explain the water cycle (one of our topics at the moment), for our Free Writing Friday, explaining math strategies, there are so many ways that this could be incorporated into our classroom!

There are always things that I take from DFI that I think would improve my workflow. Patsy shared a site that she had made for their school trip to China and it made me think about the basketball association that I am part of. I think that a google site would make everything for the association more visible for our members and ease of use would improve for our committee members too. This will be my next work in progress.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Six

Our day began with a beautiful welcome from the students at Tautoro School. The waiata that they sang was sung beautifully and it was an awesome start to the day.

We then moved onto our 'Visibility' focus with a Google Hang Out with Dorothy. Dorothy spoke to us about making the learning visible, ensuring that our students learning is not a secret to them or their whanau. We want our students to have opportunities to be successful, we want learning to be VISIBLE for them! If learning is accessible and available then students will advance! Dorothy pointed out that there is a clear link between visibility and acceleration. Hapara has made the learning visible to us as teachers, our google sites has made learning visible for our learners and their whanau. 

The success of visible learning was highlighted when Wil I Am visited NZ and wanted to support rangatahi from a low decile area. The visible learning on blogs from the Manaiakalani schools was evident to Wil I Am and his entourage and thus received his generous $100,000 donation!

The next part of our learning came from Whaea Gaylene - Tautoro School.

One of the things that she said that has resonated with me was 'Is my learning site something that kids would want to go into from home?'. The answer to that question for my site is NO. The site works and the students can follow what they need to do but it isn't really visually engaging for the students. I realised I have a lot of work to do on my class site to make it a place that students would want to go to after school. The other thing I need to do is to make sure all of my student's learning visible. This is a goal to work towards over the next 2 weeks.

I learnt a lot today with regards to what a successful site needs to look like and how it is operational. The two important criteria are: the visual appeal i.e. shop window and  the users experience - easy to locate ‘stuff’ (2/3 clicks). I have lots of ideas to use from the exemplars that we viewed. 

Organising my files and documents continues to be something that I am taking over into my home life. My digital school life is becoming more organised which means I have more time for my whanau life which is the most important!

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Five

Being Cybersmart is all about empowering our learners as connected and confident decision makers where they have the confidence to share their learning on a platform that is theirs. We need to encourage our students and reinforce to them that they have something to share and it is important. We are empowering the students as learners! Tell the students 'their blog belongs to them, be PROUD.'

How do we phrase our learning related to cybersafety? What do we say? How do we say it? Does it have negative connotations? How can we make the outcomes positive? Looking at cybersafety from a positive point of view will ensure that the connections made elevate positive actions from our learners. 

Are you in the right place at the right time? 

This was a fabulous light bulb moment for me, instead of saying to students, "you shouldn't be in there' instead say, 'Are you in the right place? Is this the right time for that?'

I created a DLO Screencastify to highlight this lesson on the Manaiakalani Cybersafety site.

I had quite a few moments during today's session that I thought, 'ohhhhhhhhhh .... that makes sense!" Today I realised that my digital work flow is not efficient. Fiona reminded the group that 'If you share a file on smart share (via Hapara) you should share it on your site first.' I do not do this. This has made be rethink how I have set up my reading in my class site. There are too many clicks at the moment and I can reduce this by setting my reading up directly on the class site. I am really excited about re-jigging my class site to make the work flow more efficient and effective for my learners.

The Digital Dig is an excellent resource for learners and I know my students would benefit from working their way through these slides. This would be an excellent way for the students to teach their whanau about what they actually can do when they use their chromebooks. I am going to break the Digital Dig down and the students will work through these over the first 5 weeks of term, posting their learning on their blogs at each step.

Screencastify is an awesome classroom tool which my students have really enjoyed using to record their maths learning. I need to use Screencastify more often as a learning tool for myself and my students.

Our Ipad learning was a reminder to me that 'chromebooks' are not the only technology available to our students. My knowledge of Ipads is quite limited and it was great to have an insight into what is actually available to our students when they use different technology. I look forward to using this new knowledge when I use the Ipads back in my classroom. I enjoyed each of the aspects that we focused in on today and especially enjoyed Fiona Grant sharing her digital expertise with us.

Professional Inquiry #4 - Taking Action - Expected Outcomes?

Inquiry Question - How will the  Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Learn, Create, Share increase the agency of my students and accelerate their learning in literacy.

Students need to know where they are at in their learning, what they should learn next, how they could learn this best and how to reach beyond what they think they can do.

The focus needs to be on setting up systems and processes to release control from teacher to student and to use digital technology as a tool to engage and accelerate learning.

The ideal outcome is to set clear pathways that students can follow that are guided by the teacher and monitored by students and teachers and shared with whanau by the students. 

The class site will giving students a multimodal learning experience that they can access at their own pace with clear learning steps. 

TOD - 22.07.19 - Christine Rubie-Davies - High Teacher Expectation

Christine Rubie-Davies

• High expectation teacher - improved and better outcomes for students

• Mixed ability grouping is proven to improve the outcomes for students (Pisa Research).

• Stereotyping becomes bias when there is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.

• Research show that teachers have lower expectations for minority students across the world.

• High Expectation 
• Teachers have the biggest effect on outcomes for students
• Mixed Ability Grouping
• Self-managing students
• Positive, well managed classroom
• Effective teaching, valuing background, promoting student autonomy
• 
  
• Positive Class Climate
• Whanaungatanga
• Kotahitanga
• Manaakitanga

• Goal Setting
• Rangatiratanga - responsibility for learning
• Wananga - joint goal setting, encouraging questions
• Mana Motuhake - teachers care, clear feedback, goal focused, perseverance and resilience

How can goal setting enhance student learning?

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Reward Systems

Extrinsic rewards tend to lessen intrinsic motivation. The effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation is related to 'the recipient's perception of their own competence and capacity for self-determination'. (Deci, Koestner & Ryan)

Benefits of intrinsic motivation

• Persistence
• Creativity
• Conceptual understanding
• Optimal functioning and well being

Goal Setting

• Teaching students how to goal set

Mastery and performance goals

Classroom Climate

• Student engagement and class climate are linked
• Building relationships with students is a key to a successful classroom climate
• Consider your students world
• Think about verbal and non verbal communication with students

Planning for Change

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Four

Unfortunately I was unable to attend Day 4 of DFI due to illness but I did enjoy going through the agenda items later in the week when I was feeling better.

I think that I am beginning to really understand and appreciate the 'SHARE' part of Manaiakalani. When the students share learning on their blogs, it creates an opportunity for whanau to make a connection with their child in their learning environment. The majority of our students arrive at school on the bus so their whanau very rarely come to school unless we have assemblies, sports days or student conferences. This could be only 5 times per year. The student blogs enable parents to be part of their child's learning, anywhere, anytime, any day! They are also a way to connect with whanau who can not be there everyday for eg. grandparents who live overseas. The 'Connected Learners SHARE' slides are an excellent resource for anyone who does not understand the reason why our students have blogs. 



It's always very informative reading others blogs. The following example of an introduction to a students blog is something that we could use at our school. We have a similiar introduction on our student blogs but going further to say that the work may include spelling mistakes etc will let whanau know what the learning process really looks like.

I have a class site up and operational thanks to Venessa however I have not created a site from scratch so the DFI Intro to Sites slide deck was very useful for my learning. I have made a few changes to my site with what I have learnt and am very pleased with the results. I think the students will find it an easier site to navigate.

The multi modal slide deck gave me lots to think about in terms of engagement for students. I have used the following literacy type activities for the past 6 years and feel that technology has certainly enhanced and engaged the learners. The students enjoy working through the activities as they have choice in what they do and when they do it but I know there are so many more options that I could include to 'provoke interest and expand thinking and wonderings'.



I really enjoyed using the different resources to create a google site about Science and Gardening. I realise just how easy it is and how interesting it is for the students to have such a selection of learning material. I like the activities being accessible directly from the site and can see myself adding more pages to my site as opposed to slide decks. 

Click to view my 'Science in the Garden' Site

I am definitely becoming more familiar with google and what it can offer my learners and I. I have been pleased to share my new knowledge with my own boys and they have already put this into practice in their own learning which has been great to see.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Three

I have had another great day being part of the DFI. Matt Goodwin from Point England School was our special visitor. Matt has been part of Manaiakalani since he started teaching so was a wealth of information and very enthusiastic in his korero around Manaiakalani pedagogy. 

DFI - Cohort#2 2019 - Day 3 Agenda

Ruth and Patsy were fabulous in teaching us the Manaiakalani waiata. These two teachers were so positive and engaging, I think the students at Bay of Islands College are very lucky to have these two kaiako.

My understanding of Create within the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy was definitely extended today. Learn, Create, Share is not linear, as educators we should  start at Create more often as the students learn throughout the process and the results can be initiated by the student rather than an end product designed by the teacher.

I realised that at times I think through the learning process so closely in class that I am limiting the creativity of the students. I need to step back and let the students have a go for longer before stepping in. Not all of the students will be successful every time, but if I try to direct the outcomes then student engagement and ownership in the learning could be lost.

I learnt that using my You Tube channel is a possible way of managing my focus on rewindable learning. Matt taught us how to make playlists and recommended how to use these at different levels, I have had a light bulb moment in my digital classroom around the impact that rewindable learning has on the students. I have added a 'maths strategy' video to my class site with positive results from the students (especially the student whose video it was). I have more confidence in using You Tube videos now that I understand how to change the settings and make a play list.

There are many things that I will use with my students back in the classroom. At the top of the list is the website remove.bg, I know that my students will love to create with this clever tool. I also learnt how to use google drawing to create portrait drawings with the clever add on called colour picker eye dropper. I was absolutely amazed at the art work that could be created on google drawing. Click on this link to view the portraits that the clever students at Panmure Bridge School have created. Click here

We had a great session on google slides with Kerry. I learnt how to do so many things and we were some great examples to get started. I decided to create my digital pepeha as we will be working on our pepeha as a class next term. Check it out!

Another interesting piece of learning that I took away from today was live streaming school events. I think that there are plenty of live streaming possibilities at our school that would benefit students, teachers and whanau. This is something that we need to look into, class assemblies spring to mind.

The DFI is helping me to organise my digital world. Having a more organised digital environment, home and school, has meant that I am becoming more efficient in my time management thus creating more time for me to spend with my family. I am becoming more focused on the time I spend on tasks and enjoying the extra quality time I'm getting with my family!

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day Two

I learnt that the LEARN component of the 'Learn, Create, Share' pedagogy relies on effective teaching matched with increased digital capability to really accelerate the outcomes for our learners. It is not about handing students digital devices and letting them go for it. There are definitely positive learning outcomes involved when students have time to try things out however effective teaching ensures the the learning is successful and acceleration will occur.

I have heard of SAMR before and have previously been at the first two levels in my teaching programme. I feel like I am designing tasks  that focuses on 'Modification' rather than 'Substitution'. My class has been learning about the longfin eel as our inquiry topic. The students had to create something that would share their learning about the life cycle of the longfin eel. Most of the students chose to create a google drawing but some wanted to use Scratch with positive results.

Today I learnt how to manage my gmail using labels and filters. I know that this will have a positive influence on my workflow as a professional because my email is so much more organised and I feel like I will be in control of what comes into my inbox from this day forward. I have always had reservations about using gmail until today. Thank you DFI!

Using google hangouts was challenging. I had issues with connection and with my microphone. However I persevered alongside Dave and Ruth with success and what a great feeling it was to have our first successful google hangout that we started! Edwina and I decided that we will have a google hangout for our next senior syndicate meeting and we can create this via our google calendar.

Link to Google Chat Video

Looking forward to DFI Day 3 at Taipa next week!

Professional Inquiry #3

12.06.19 - Inquiry Question - How will the Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Learn, Create, Share increase the agency of my students and accelerate their learning in literacy.

Taking Action - What can I do to learn more about what to do?

Development Goals for STUDENTS to gain AGENCY

Choice

To provide students with opportunities to make choices about the content and process of their work.

Group Work

To provide students with opportunities to work in groups to learn and practice agency necessary for group success.

Student Reflections

To provide students with opportunities to self-reflect using their blogs.

Student-Led Instruction.

To provide students with opportunities to demonstrate agency by leading instruction on a particular skill or concept - rewindable learning

Professional Inquiry #2

05.06.19

Upon  starting the Manaiakalani DFI Course I realised that I needed to ‘dig deeper’ to find out how the Manaiakalani Pedagogy of Learn, Create, Share could increase the agency of my students whilst also looking at student reflections. My inquiry focus has now changed to a Manaiakalani focus.

Inquiry Question - How will the  Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Learn, Create, Share increase the agency of my students and accelerate their learning in literacy.

I think that CREATE will be a key to increasing student agency in my classroom.

Learning

“Better outcomes for learners are a direct result of teachers acquiring new knowledge and skills.” Stewart 2017

“Understanding the need and being open to new ways of doing things.” Reid 2018 

Taking Action - What can I do to learn more about what to do?

• Connecting with students experiential knowledge, their prior knowledge
• Finding out what students know, what they want to know, how they want to learn and let it influence classroom opportunities
• Giving students more choices in their learning - what choices?

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cohort #2 2019 - Day One

Today was the first day of the 9 week Digital Fluency Intensive at Taipa Area School.

It started with a very warm welcome from Taipa Area School's DP and the junior kura class, followed by introductions from Dorothy, Kerry, Venessa and the rest of the group.

Dorothy's korero on the origins of Manaiakalani gave me an excellent insight into Manaiakalani's kaupapa and pedagogy. It is important for me to gain an understanding of the research that stands behind the success of Manaiakalani.

Once we got started we were inundated with tips and tricks. I learnt that you can organise the information in a google doc using the headings tool to create a table of contents to make it easier to find information in your documents. I also learnt that 'Google Docs' is a useful option when wanting to create an engaging document. I had always thought that the best option would be to use Google Drawings and was surprised by what can be achieved using docs instead. I was quite pleased with my google docs effort - see below.  I know that the students in my class will also find this useful.

I learnt how to organise my bookmark bar and the folders in My Drive to improve my organisation and work flow. It felt great to be sure of where my most used files can now be accessed from. It has certainly motivated me to run a lesson on file organisation with my class as I realise it is never too late to get things sorted in all our Google Drives.

I think Google Groups is something that will really benefit me outside the classroom. I am a member of many messenger groups and facebook pages related to my boys sports teams. I think a few google groups could easily take the place of these communication lines and would be far more effective and efficient.

I also learnt a few things that I think I should've already known:

• The URL browser is called the OMNIBOX
• When pasting always used SHIFT, CTRL and V 
• VOICE TYPING is a very useful tool to engage all writers.

I am really looking forward to our next DFI at Bay of Islands College next week.