Gaylene Young Professional Blog

It is awe inspiring the digital technologies that are available to transform learning - opening up a whole new world of learning opportunities.  Students now have the opportunity to participate, create and thrive in this ever evolving digital world. It was a lot of fun to experience 360 virtual learning.  There is also Paint 3D, TinkerCad, SculptGL, Google Sketchup, Clapmotion, Clapmotion....I started thinking about how I can use these tools to support their computational thinking and to ensure that they are able to design and develop digital outcomes that will solve authentic problems or issues that are important to them. Below you will see my 3D image using Paint 3D.

Digital Fluency Session 5 Today we have been familiarising ourselves with google sites and reflecting on how we can make learning more visible for our learners, whanau, parents and the wider teaching profession.  It definitely makes you more conscious of the content you teach.  What are we learning?  Why are we learning it?  Where do we want to go? Similarly, is my learning site interesting and engaging? Are my learners 'hooked in' and keen to be part of the learning environment i've created.  Thoughts of whether or not the multi-modal learning pathways created are generating innovation, creativity, critical thinking.  Will they become better communicators?  Which leads me to consider the nature of the assigned tasks and whether or not student agency is evident....(so much to think about when making learning visible). Below is a link to the sites that the teachers in our cluster developed. I like the idea of having the whole learning process visible - planning

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? Today we delved deeper into the meaning of 'share' as related to the Manaiakalani kaupapa. What resonated was the accelerated learning achievements in reading and writing from students who are actively blogging and sharing their learning. Students are motivated and inspired to share with an authentic audience - people (within the classroom, school, locally, nationally, even globally) who choose to click on their blog; people who choose to listen to what they have to say. NOTE TO SELF: Get Blogging! What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? It's funny, I have these expectations of my students to be able to use screencastify to demonstrate their learning or capability in a certain area or to create a rewindable resource for themselves and others. What I didn't think about and was reminded of today is that it is really

Digital Fluency Session 3 Today's session had me thinking about the different ways in which we can utilise the tools in google slides to develop and enhance student creativity.  Many examples were shown, such as A nimations, Pick a path stories, Visual Narratives, Presentations, Teaching concepts, quizzes…. I decided to have a go at creating an animation based on the inquiry project my class is currently focusing on - 'Drowning in Plastic'. Here is what I was able to create. "Creativity Empowers Learning Digital Technologies Empower Creativity". Manaiakalani When children are given the opportunity to create, they are engaged, exploring, communicating.  They're inventing new possibilities, imagining, coming up with innovative ideas.  Student autonomy is evident in the work that they produce, as it's their voice, a window into their thinking that we see. This session has really made me mindful of ensuring that my students are giv

Every teacher can appreciate the importance of utilising every second we have efficiently to fit in and achieve as many tasks as possible.  I will wholeheartedly jump on any quick tips or apps that will help me manage my workflow, my life, my sanity really. Thankfully, Kerry & Michael (two really great tutors) had handy hints and tips to allow me to manage myself more efficiently.  This included: Taming your tabs. Organising your gmail account. (Did you even know there was a new gmail version?) Managing multiple calenders. How to use Hangouts or Hangout Meet. Using blogger labels. I personally really appreciated being taught how to filter emails, create labels and forward emails (such as electricity bills to the husband) automatically.  This is something that needs to be taught, particularly if you're receiving hundreds of emails daily. Creating events, sharing calenders, and discovering ways that you can organise your life may take time to set up, but in the lon

Just when you feel like you're pretty confident in your digital skills, you become immediately humbled by learning something new from the very programmes you use almost daily. I'm currently sounding like a broken record when i'm intrinsically chanting, 'Gaylene, work smarter, not harder'!   As a teacher, you can easily become overwhelmed with the pressures of teaching in a digital classroom.  The students are super clever, and pick up concepts quickly.  It's vital we stay ahead of the game. Google Keep  is now become my best friend.  It is going to help me manage both my home and work commitments.  I've already downloaded it into both my husband's and my own iphone. Did you know that if you set a reminder to buy something from the store, you'll receive alerts so you don't forget.  It's great for lists, information, recordings, planning collaboratively as you can take images, texts, voice recordings... it has sharing capabilities that

One of the new skills I have learnt while attending the Digital Fluency Intensive programme here in Taipa is creating an infographic through google doc's.  I never realised how more visually eye catching it is to read as opposed to the normal boring word document.  They can be used for posters, newsletters, visual aides....actually if you can think it, you can no doubt make it.  I've discovered you just have to jump in and give things a go. Here is an example of my first attempt. Nga mihi to Dorothy Burt and Kerry Boyde-Preece. Looking forward to next week's session.