Distance Learning - Term 2 - Week 1

What a fantastic turn out it was from the class at today's hangouts. I was so impressed with the effort that the students put into their learning today. We had a whole class catch up, 2 math groups and then 4 small hangouts throughout the afternoon for those who needed some help to sort out technical issues.

Some of the students have learnt to add extensions to their chromebooks, namely the grid view for google hangouts and Screencastify and are becoming more confident when presenting their screens to share learning or troubleshoot any tech problems.

One of my students wanted to share a few chords he has been learning on his guitar. It was so great to see his confidence in terms of sharing his screen and playing for us. 

Reflections on Week 1:

Positives: 

• Most students connected to at least one of our google meets each day.
• Students were very enthusiastic and positive about what they were going to do each day.
• Overall connection for most students was good and they had a positive experience during the hangouts.
• Group sessions - at least half of the group joined each session.
• A few students have started to share their learning on their blog without prompting.

Challenges: 

• Students can join the hangout when I am not in it which has been discouraged by myself and school. I'm going to add a code to our sessions
• Some students are taking longer to navigate the class site than others during groups sessions. Next week I will try to have a few 1:1 sessions with a few students if they are able to to. This will help them to feel more confident.
• Some students are not prepared to take part in learning during group sessions and think they are just there to say hello. I need to be clear with the group session expectations as I am with the whole class sessions.
• Each student has quite different expectations of what home learning looks like in their homes. 
• I have listened to and read a lot about the expectations on teachers, students and whanau during this unusual time. The most important thing to consider is is everyone okay? Being encouraging and kind is the first and foremost thought for our me in our class. I have realised quickly that I can encourage, engage and try to motivate the students using the class site and our google hangouts however it comes down to their whanau as to what they will actually do each week. Adding pressure and anxiety during an already stressful situation is not what the students or their families need. For this reason, I will continue to run a full learning programme via our class site and hangout. I will encourage, support and suggest but not pressure the students in the learning that they do.
• Very few students are using their blogs. I will use at least one group hangout to focus on blogging. For those who need help I will have 1:1 sessions. I will also make learning videos for our class site. Check these out on our cybersmart page - Click here

Something else to think about:

I wonder if some of the students will want to share more often online compared to in class as they feel very comfortable and more confident in front of a group within their own homes. It's something I will be mindful of moving forward.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Teacher Connect

I took part in my first Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu teacher connect today which was fantastic. It was great to hear from other teachers about their blogging experience and I appreciated seeing some excellent blog exemplars. 

I learnt quite a lot about how to use google hangouts successfully during this catch up and managed to add 'grid view' which made the meeting experience better. 

I made a video using screen castify to teach my class how to add grid view. Most have used it to add this extension to their own chromebooks which is great.