New Challenges...back in the classroom.

I have been out of the classroom for almost 5 years now. That is a long time to be out of the system in South Africa where our curriculum changes so regularly.

CAPS came in when I was leaving and has brought with it a bigger workload for the teachers, more admin, and the kids seem to be learning less and less.

I was employed at the Technology Integration Specialist at my school in 2013. The aim was to help the teachers improve their general tech skills as well as to give them the confidence to use tech in the classroom to support teaching and learning.

This was obviously a challenge as many teachers like the "chalk & talk" fashion of teaching and found it hard to change the way they teach. Some teachers grabbed this and took it by the horns and ran with it. In the time under this portfolio, I have learnt a lot and extended my knowledge in many fields.

I returned to school from maternity leave and took on an entirely new portfolio. MAKERSPACE TEACHER!

We started implementing STEAM (Science, Technolgy, English/Engineering, Arts and Maths) in 2015. This is a very new concept to us in South Africa and not many schools were doing it. I have spent much time researching, following blogs and reading up as much as I can to make sense of this as well as how to implement this in the classrooms.

With having spent plenty of time researching and extending my knowledge I felt like I could make a go of this! I was so excited and nervous!

I ran a Makerspace Class for grades 1 - 7 (7-year-olds - 13-year-olds) for a full term and then took on a maternity post in the Computer Class in the third term.

We do not have a curriculum or Standards or any form of guidance in what needs to be taught in the Computer Lab and so it has pretty much been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of classes. I have run to my favourite blogs and Facebook groups and scoured the internet for lessons and ideas to implement in my classroom.

The integration of Makerspace and Computer lab has gone so well the past two terms that we have decided to run it as a full Innovation Lab next year!

We will be converting the Computer lab and the next door classroom into one big classroom and I will have two teachers to team teach with me! I am so excited! Demolition and renovations start on the 14 November 2018 - Just before the end of year assessments.

My biggest challenge at this point is trying to plan a curriculum for each grade that will progress yearly and will also enrich and run alongside their current classroom learning.

I am looking forward to the new challenges ahead.
I will be posting as we go along as well as some of the lessons I have been doing!

The Instant Gratification students! - Tech can make a difference

 Today I was chatting to one of my colleagues about the kids in the classroom and she made a statement: "The kids are bored with the regular teaching style, I feel like I am not reaching them anymore."

This is TRUE!!

The current generation of kids is the "Instant Gratification" generation. They are growing up with regular technology use and interaction. We, the teachers are competing with this and that is why the boring old "chalk and talk" is not working anymore! We need to excite them again, engage them in their lessons and make school challenging in a playful and interesting way!

At my school, one of our focuses is Inquiry Based Learning and STEAM. Many of us already naturally do this in many of our subjects without even realizing it. However, this needs to become a more regular and planned integration so as to make the learning deeper and more quality rich.

Technology is a fantastic way to enrich your teaching as well as to make your life in the classroom easier!

A few of my colleagues were mentioning how difficult they are finding it to explain worksheets to the kids and to get them to understand how to complete them and to engage them in it.

We are very lucky at my school to have an Eduboard (interactive whiteboard) in every classroom. Many of my teachers are still very nervous of them and of how to use them. So the best way to overcome this fear is to start off slowly and simply! Which is exactly what we are doing!

I have included a basic How To for this part. I am encouraging our teachers to upload a copy of their worksheet onto their Google Drive into the Google photos section and to then display it onto the Eduboard for the students to see and work on. This allows the teacher to explain on the board step by step what needs to be done on the worksheet. As many of our kids are second language speakers in English this helps with the understanding of what needs to be done as well as further language development. 

Although this may not be true integration for the learners it is a start in getting everyone, especially the teacher comfortable and familiar with technology in the classroom.

What is great about using Google Photos is that your phone is automatically backing up your photos every day, as long as there is WiFi connectivity and it is relatively fast, plus you can create albums to sort your work into terms, subjects and weeks.

We use android devices so my instructions will be primarily for Android.

HOW TO: Take a photo & upload it to your drive and to project it.

Our teachers do not have their cell phones or devices connected to the projectors so they need to access the photos on their laptop.

Step 1: Download Google Photos from your App Store
Step 2: Open the Google Photos app on your mobile device
Step 3: At the top left, tap Menu 
Step 4: Select Settings > Backup & Sync
Step 5: Switch Backup on
Step 6: Take a photo of your worksheet
Step 7: Allow for it to backup - try plan ahead :)
Step 8: Access your Google Photos on your computer/laptop
Step 9: Search for your photo and open it
Step 10: Zoom in if necessary
Step 11. If using Eduboard (smartboard) ensure that the correct apps are open - Free Class is the one that makes our smart board interactive
Step 12: You are now able to write on your worksheet and explain it to your kids.

Our journey with Maggie Verster and ICT4Red concludes in June and we thought this would be an awesome platform to share our favourite strategies as well as our least favourite strategies.
So here goes...

Since we are administrators and not full time teachers, we used the various strategies to spice up our professional development sessions and also to assist teachers who did not attend the ICT4Red training to implement the strategies.  To say there has been a tech enthusiasm explosion in our school is an understatement!  Our teachers are bravely integrating technology and strategies in an innovative way.


Here is a list of my favourites (in no particular order):

1.  JIGSAW

     This stragey is of extreme benefit if you are wanting to cover a
     large amount of work in a short period of time.  Basically,
     students are given a number 1-4 or 1-6 (whatever works for your
     class).  All students with the same number form a home group
     where they are given a section of the work to read/practise/study.
     They become the experts in that section of the work.  The
     experts return to their home groups and take turns sharing their
     area of expertise with their group members.
     This is a great strategy to ensure total engagement of all students and I'd suggest you put a time
     limit to the activity to ensure that students remain on task.

     As an administrator, I used the jigsaw strategy to review policies with teachers.  This worked well      for keeping the teachers motivated.  No-one wants to review 4 complete policies on a Friday  
     afternoon at 12:30!  For the next review session, I'd ensure that teachers worked in their phases
     so that there'd be various policy experts per phase.  I'd also have them make a PowerPoint
     presentation so that we have a digital record of the policy review.

2.  LEARNING STATIONS


The Learning Stations strategy allows you to teach several lessons at one time.  The students move from one station to the next, within a specific time frame, to engage in all activities.

For the practical implemetation of this strategy, I took the Grade 4 and 5 extra maths students for their afternoon lesson.  The activities varied from scanning QR Codes and watching YouTube clips to completing worksheets.  The students loved it.
The next time I use this strategy, I'd ensure that the activities were self explanatory so that I could circulate between the students in more of a facilitator role.  Time keeping is also very important and I'd display a countdown timer on the board.





3.  ROLE PLAY

Role play is a great strategy for engaging even the shyest of student.  It is also a valuable strategy for helping adults see how they treat people in a non embarassing or confrontational manner.

This strategy worked well when training our admin ladies on service delivery.  They took turns role playing the parent, the bursar and the secretary and were given different topics to cover e.g. overdue payment of fees, fetching a child from school without prior request, etc.  

As this was a new way of "doing things", we did not record the admin ladies performing their role play activity.  However, they were able to see the impact that body language and an impatient tone of voice had which had a much better effect than if I had just spoken to them about it.

4.  FIELD TRIP

This was by far the nicest strategy to implement.  I mean, who doesn't like going on a field trip?

Actually, it was more of a scavenger hunt than a field trip, but the students got to leave the class and wander around the school.  When you're in Grade 4, that is a big deal!

Students were equipped with tablets and note pads and sent off into the playground in their groups to find QR codes.  These QR codes would present them with different activities that they had to complete - from Maths sums, to working out and recording a times table rap, to singing to various members of staff.  This was an awesome activity and the students really enjoyed themselves.

However, it is important to remember that we do not have to do everything in groups of 4 or more. This often leads to confusion or one member of the group being disengaged.  On reflection, I think pairs would most probably have worked better.  I'd also integrate other subjects and end with a fun art activity.  (This scavenger hunt was Maths based).  A reward for the pair that finishes first might also be a great incentive and something that I would do next time.  Scavenger hunts take time to prepare, but once the basics are in place you can easily modify the content.  Really worth the time and energy!



And now for the strategy that didn't blow my hair back...  this is a personal opinion and this strategy may work very well for you.  If it does, please leave a comment.

STORYTELLING
Once again, I used this strategy with my teachers in a professional development session.  I shared a bit of my life story with them.  The purpose of this was to display vulnerability and authenticity.  I asked the teachers to share some of their life stories if they were comfortable to share.  The stories were touching and we were able to celebrate that we felt safe enough to be vulnerable with each other.  I think the reason I did not fully enjoy this strategy, is because it is hard to get people to open up and share their story.  Adults have more inhibitions than students.  I spent the most time milling over this strategy.  I knew that it could be a powerful strategy but just did not "gel" with it very well.


Keep checking in on this blog - Sarah-Lee will be sharing her ICT4Red journey with you as well.

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We had a teambuilding session last week where we signed a pledge of our commitment to our school and our students.  We had a brain storming session to list everything we were pledging to.  We then took all the words and made a word cloud which we printed out and displayed in our staffroom.

A word cloud is a wonderful way of presenting vocabulary relating to specific topics in a subject. There are many free online programmes that you can use to design your word cloud.  Ours was made on www.tagul.com - go on, give it a try.  Banish boring spelling lists!!

Just because it is on the internet, doesn't make it true!

How often do you read something online, or on social media or even receive something via text message or Whatsapp and wonder if it is true?

Recently with the passing of a famous South Africa Rugby player, Joost van der Westhuizen, this debate came up on the radio and on other social media platforms.

The question was, how do I know if this is true?

Joost had been battling with motor neuron disease for many years and on the 4th February 2017 he was admitted to hospital. Facebook lit up with posts of his passing and their condolences. People were reading the posts and sharing and sharing and sharing them. However, Joost had not passed away yet and people were sharing this information falsely.

This is just one example of many where people blindly believe and share posts without checking their facts. The internet and Social Media has developed at a dramatic rate and with that, people have unfortunately not developed their knowledge or awareness of online phishing and spam.

It is important that we as social media followers are aware of what we share and or post online. I often receive whatsapp chain messages from friends that say "forward this messages to 10 of your friends to keep getting whatsapp for free".

Another regular scam is similar to the image below.













It often amazes me how intelligent and intellectual people still forward and share these messages. Are people so gullible. When I asked a friend recently as to why she shared the above image, her response  was "I was hoping it was true!"

Sharing of this type of nonsense leads to viruses, spam and phishing online. You as a digital user are opening your self up to being taken advantage of.

SO, how do I know if this is true or not? Well, use your internet and Google it! It is as simple as typing in the beginning of the sentence of the post or message and seeing what the internet says.

Be conscious, be aware and always check your facts before you share.

What you can do to stop sharing fake news.

• Report it. If it is on Facebook, use the Facebook tools to alert Facebook to spam or fake news. Comment that it is a fake story so that other people who see it can see your correction. Try including a link to a fact-checking source so people can believe you.
• Educate your friends and family. Talk about it with them, share tips and ask them what fake news they have seen or heard.
• Be a critical thinker. If it looks like it might not be true, google it, research it. Do not just share it!
• Be aware of photos and not just text.  Photos can be manipulated.
• Look at the date.  Look at the date the post was created, look at the date it was shared.

The understanding and the responsibility of being able to identify the real news from the fake stories is something we as educators need to teach our students in and out of the classroom. Our students are growing up in a Social Media rich world and this is an important 21st century skill they will need to learn.

Below is a link to a Teacher Pay Teacher lesson created by Ms Furnas at Chubby Buns Ink. 

Fake news - How do you detect real news from Fake stories

Page Orientation the Flipped Class way!

We have recently completed a workshop on Flipped Classroom presented by ICT4Red. The principal idea of flipped classroom is being able to send a recording or short video "lecture" home that your students can watch and then prepare themselves for their next lesson. This will then free up class time to do exercises, projects and more in depth learning as they already have the background knowledge necessary for the lesson.

This is a great idea for High schools, and students that have internet and devices that allow for this pedagogy to work! However, how would one use this for younger learners and in schools where students are limited! We will chat about this later as we blog more ideas and lessons.

Thinking out of the box when using TECHNOLOGY in your classroom in KEY! Teachers need to step out of their comfort zone and embrace it!

So this is how I used the concept of flipped classroom recently as a Technology Integration Specialist.

The other day I was asked if it was possible to have both Landscape and Portrait page orientation in one document. YES, YOU CAN!

This is great to have in Microsoft Word when you are doing a presentation and you need to add a large graph that needs to be landscape but, all your other information needs to be in Portrait.

Using a FREE software called Screencast-O-Matic  I recorded the instructions as well as a visual instruction of how to change the orientation. I then saved the video and Skyped it to my colleague.



* Click on the image to watch the video.
* I have included the link to download the free software as well as a link to ICT4Red