DFI Managing Workflow

Tuesday 11 May DFI

Another day of inspiration and motivation.
Today there was a lot of information about how to manage yourself not just professionally but on a personal level also. There are extensions, new Google programs and little tricks that are going to make life more manageable while at work and also at home. Plus also ways these ideas can be used by the learners.

Manaiakalani

We started today with some more learning on Manaiakalani (just so you know I used the extension Test Blaze to write Manaiakalani so that it is quicker and I get it correct each time, proud of myself for that one).

The focus today was Ako. The learn part was the RATE idea. 

R=Recongnise 

Great teaching and Great practice + Digital Affordances = AccelerationThis was a wee bit of a moment for me as in the past few years I have been apart of ALiM and ALL.(Accelerating learning in maths and literacy)But there was never a focus of using technology as a way to accelerate learning for the children. But now it makes so much sense that it is a huge and powerful tool. 

A= Amplify

Using the power of technology to Amplify learning. This is where you are getting ideas from other places and resources that are creative and will enhance you teaching and practice. Then also giving, where we are sharing with the children and also other staff e.g. through blogging.

T=Turbocharge

Technology is the tool to do things that have never been able to be done before.It can transform the way we learn and offer new experiences and opportunities to all learners.It is so important to have Rewindable learning - where learners can go back to everything that has been shared to go at the learners pace. 



E=Effective practiceThe final letter bringing all of the above together.

Google Meet

The next part was having a run down on tips and tricks for Google Meets. 
With children going to learning from home Google Meets become essential not just for meeting with our learners but also for staff meetings and ways to participate in this and other PLD.We had a PLD session with Cam to introduce how to use Google Meets and I am so pleased I had this first so that all of this has been manageable and I feel like I know what I am doing.

Google Keep

This was a huge eye opener for me and I am so pleased we learnt about this. 
I make lots of lists and keep lots of notes - all hand written, in note books, on paper, in many places. Now I can use this program to keep notes from staff meetings in one place and be able to link minutes and sites that we have watched or looked at etc in one place. 
Also making lists that will then pop up on my phone as well is just going to be magic. 
I am looking forward to the next time I have a meeting so that I can be all techy and record my notes on my laptop.It also made me think about my mum. She is forever taking pictures of recipes and recording recipes on her phone and then they are all over the place when she wants to go back and find something. So I will be able to pass this idea on to her so that she can organise her recipes all in one place. 
The Grabbing tool will be so helpful too as then pictures of texts like recipes will then change to text on the screen. 
There is just so much this wee program can do and I am really looking forward to utilising it to work for me.

Gmail

I have always disliked going to my inbox and seeing so many emails that I need to reread or remember information from or reply to. 
Having a lesson on how to manage filters and the way your inbox is presented was great. I now have my email set up in a way that certain emails will go to folders and others will be in an order of importance etc. So much easier to look at and use. Very grateful for this lesson.

Taming your tabs

What a great session this was. 
I always seem to have many tabs open at the top and then sometimes the same tab opened more than once and it is just a mess and confusing. 
Learning that there are some extensions that can be used to manage this was very helpful. I have added the One Tab extension now and it was so tidy to see all the open tabs disappear in to one place that could be accessed so easy. I will be using this regularly now. 
I was already using bookmarks on my window of things that I use regularly. I have literacy and maths folders and daily folders so am always bookmarking pages in these folders. I like the idea of using the extension Toby so that I can make a place for these certain pages and keep track of them. I will see how that goes.

Creating a Video

The final part of a day was looking at how to use google meet to share your screen and then record it to have as rewindable learning for the learners. I have created the video below as an example of how this looks and works. 
I also learnt that embedding the video is better then inserting it to the blog so that it looks and works better.

I can see that this will be a fun a useful way of allowing children to share their learning in a different way, instead of just writing or sharing a picture.

And most importantly the power of commenting on Blogs.

Blog commenting

This is a great way of breaking down what a blog comment should have and I will definitely be using it for my own comments and doing some teaching to children on how to make an effective comment when they have their blogs set up.

Summary

Another powerful day of learning and sharing. I am feeling like I might be a little more organised now in many aspects of my work life and can see the ways I can use it in my personal life now to.
My brain is bursting and I am so pleased I can put it all down on this blog to keep it in one place. Again, I am looking forward to next weeks session.