Another great day on the DFI course, once again at the coolest school in the far north, Aparore primary.
Focus of the day was on class sites .
There was the customary Karakia/waiata then first up another presentation from Dorothy Burt. It seems I may have been a bit ahead of myself, almost a bit of deja vu for me as she spoke about making connections and empowerment of learners through the use of digital technology. This is something I wrote about on my ptrvious weeks blog, so it was kind of gratifying to have what I was thinking verified this week by her korero, but it doesn't leave me a whole lot to write about because I think I said it alot about this last week.
Dorothy spoke about connecting with learners and forging relationships, she mentioned this empowerment has enabled connections to the world and that the possibilities are endless.
Dorothy spoke about meetung people face to face and how it can sometimes be a bit awkward , I commented how I use the phrase "where are you from" which I beleive is an absolutely well proven icebreaker and method to become engaged in conversation and finding something in common. Several years ago, by saying this to someone at a gathering I was able to recently reconnect my Father with someone he hadn't seen in 60 years. It is a question I have used quite often and can lead to a very postive rapport with students. Dorothy said she liked the idea and said she might try it the next time the opportunity arises. Intersting to see if she does and how it works out for her. (Learnt this from Maori, as this is very often a question I hear asked).
Not surprisingly by now, a continous theme for this course is that the kaupapa of create, learn, share and visibility are keystone to the ideolgy of Manaiakilani and completing, and implementing this kaupapa has led to a sense of belonging to its members, starting to feel a bit that way myself , as though I am part of a grand plan perhaps. Does that sound far fetched? It really does feel like I am coming out of the dark ages.
As previously stated the focus of the day was producing a web site and Vickys chalk n talk was on the button. No pum inrended.
There was some great tips about setting up a site, again using create, learn, share, visibilty, framework.to facilitae effective teaching practice. Slide deck will have to be revisited I think.
We were able to look at some class sites , ranging from primary to secondary schools. then we went on to have some more practice producing our own site. While I am still not that happy with some of the graphics I used. Can't seem to find something that leaps out at me and says "yes I am the one." I do however have more understanding how to go about setting up a site, i'e adding images, pages, subpages, carousel and buttons, though I want to go over how to customise a button which I thought was quite cool. I think this could be one of the many things that would make a site more visibly appealing. As kerry says "treat it like a shop window", enticing the the viewer to enter and venture further.
We had a shared morning tea/lunch, Alisons seafood chowder was superbly delicous and Lee-Anne's (my wife) corzini fritters were well appreciated. Also like to mention what a great cohort of learners from the other schools, every week we get to know one another a bit better, you are all fanastic and I like sharing the learning journey with you all. The drive home with my workmates Kirsty and Dj was great fun too with some stimulating conversation and best of all plenty of laughs.
Ahhh once again surprsed myself, it seems I did have a bit to ramble about.
Looking forward to week 7, learning, creating, sharing and visibility with everyone at The Waitangi Treaty grounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment