DFI 2020 Day One

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

I have heard Dorothy, Russell and Pat Sneddon speak about the Manaiakalani  journey and each  time pick up more details. It is important to understand the origins and the struggles that were part of a programme’s evolution and acknowledge the pioneers; those people who believed in a vision and worked towards achieving it. We were fortunate to have been invited to join when KET was already well developed. We just jumped onto a fast-moving train and we've never looked back. We enjoy it especially now with the covid-19 and working online from home. Our staff are not having the struggles that other schools have had to face. We are familiar with online learning and now it's probably just trying to make sure that the staff manage the work that they are producing and the students are completing so that when they return on site, that the marking and the assessing or evidence is collected already. If they can manage to put routines and practices into place now, the return to school will not seem such an insurmountable task. There is no reason why we cannot continue to work develop independent programmes online once we return to school for students that we can already identify have found that this to be their preferred learning style.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I need to organise myself right at the start like putting work in the correct folders or naming them clearly or even using an asterisk so that a folder in my Google Drive pops up first. Those little key factors can reduce the amount of frustration I find sometimes because I don't label things properly or I leave things and think I'll get around to it pretty much like this post, thinking if I go off now I'll come back later and do this blog but the reality is if I click out of here right now there’s going to be a 27 other things I need to do. Because of what I have learned today I better understand how some of the documents could be more user friendly and how my workload could be easier eg.  having the contents and linked to headings so that it is easier to find something or direct readers to a specific place. 

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Doing some whole class online activities with everyone doing what you say and following your instructions means that you are asking everybody to start at the same point. This acknowledges that for some students there are parts of digital learning where they will be learning from scratch and others will be at various stages but if we go through the basics, there’s always little important pieces of information, like pasting without formatting that some students may have missed. In class with our students there is a mix with many of them coming from Manaiakalani schools but some are not. Going through some basic stuff really helps the students so they are not overwhelmed and feel that any movement forward is a step in the right direction. It that doesn't rely on you already knowing everything.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I think I need to balance the time I spend on my computer. Even though I haven't been on the DFI course before I have picked up a lot of things from our regional KET Coordinator and every time I see or hear something I want to try it and see how much I can incorporate that new learning to do everything I do. Rather than simplifying the work for me this course will probably end up making me amplify everything. I do need to manage myself and my time online better and I have enjoyed picking up on all the little snippets today that will help me.   I enjoy creating and I like sharing. It would have been my dream 40 years ago to have been a student in today's world because I liked to read and listen and watch so I could have taught myself from Google and Youtube. Also my teachers were not very good. We are fortunate that our staff are very responsive and have good relationships with our students because that is the element that the students who need it, are finding difficult with the online learning. As one student said to me last week, “ I  miss you giving me grief about being out of uniform or late to class,I even miss you roasting me!’