Wins from the week

If you'd told me a few years ago that in 2020 I'd be working from home due to a global pandemic, supporting teachers in becoming proficient in designing engaging, visible, empowering, ubiquitous, connected learning for their kids... I would have laughed you off the face of this earth!  Yet here we are.







In my work as a Manaiakalani outreach facilitator and education programme leader, we usually spend most of our time supporting teachers in learning about learning that is visible and rewindable in the context of their classroom, amplifying their great practice and implementation of their wonderful, creative local curriculums and designing Cybersmart lessons to teach in the classes we support in.  

But not right now!

We are in a privileged position, being able to witness the development of some exponential learning all and I find myself feeling very grateful, very often. We received some wonderful feedback on the Top Tips site - I'm pleased it was helpful. We were certainly grateful to be able to support so many people at such a challenging and uncertain time. I definitely think that clear and concise is the way to go. I love that the tools we chose were also the very same tools that allowed teachers to do what they do best: teach! Not load learners and whānau up with apps and passwords that 'teach them'. Our teachers have wonderful knowledge of their tamariki and rich local curriculums to engage their kids through; it would have been such a shame for that to be abdicated to a platform. 

Today, having been part of a Tairāwhiti Slam session where some teachers shared with us what has been working well for them, I was rewarded again, watching many of our teachers share and show leadership by amplifying their practice, sharing with others.  What a great waka we're on when we all paddle together.  





I just know that together next week, heading into level 2, that our nation will continue to do great things by our tamariki, and now that we have begun to address some of the inequities that occur in our communities, we will be better able to be of benefit to more learners, heading forward.

Connecting with Learners using Screencastify

During our time of working from home, it can be more important than ever to support our learners with instructions for their learning, connecting with them to their teachers and classrooms and provide targeted support and feedback on the tasks they are undertaking.

One tool I've found to be invaluable over the past year is Screencastify.  Screencastify allows you to record video just of yourself, video of your screen and now also to create audio files which can be added to your Google Slides to support instructions and feedback. With Screencastify, learning is visible, rewindable and personalised.

While I've used Screencastify for a number of years now, undertaking the Screencastify Certified Genius study uncovered for me a whole range of ways to maximise this tool, which I've not been making the most of!  

I've been using Screencastify for recording welcome videos and instructional videos for learners for a long time and more recently, I've really seen the power of these embedded in a Google Site, next to the students' learning tasks.  I've also added them as a link to my teaching tracking sheets, to support learners with a variety of tasks they must complete.  I've also used them to send video to teachers to support them in their learning as we explore more about how to use technology purposefully in effective Learn, Create, Share pedagogy in our local classrooms.   However, there are many more ways I could be utilising this great tool.

Two goals I have for using Screencastify in the future is embedding it in Google Forms that lead learners through their learning journeys.

As a bit of fun, Screencastify also award a badge that can be uploaded to share with others how much I love Screencastify.

Here's mine:

To earn yours, head to this link today.