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It’s always good staring off with more information into what Manaiakalani is and hearing Dorothy share more about the humble beginnings of the 5 cluster connections back in 2015 now 10 clusters from throughout the motu. Kei whea mai, how awesome. It’s awesome how Manaiakalani provide those opportunities for a range of educators to connect with similar levelled schools to share.

As always DFI providing the whole HĀKARI feast for the brain today with Enabling Access Sites. I thought my site was pretty awesome prior to today’s session, was I humbled, hahaha. In a positive way of course.

I enjoyed the opportunity to explore a range of junior sites to which it highlighted that my site was made more for teachers to use, rather than for my aakonga and whaanau to use and understand. It was also good to look through and see how user-friendly other sites were (or not), the aesthetics of the sites, and using the feedback provided to look critically at my site.

So, I am currently working on making my site more user friendly for my aakonga and whaanau to access both at kura and at home and will continue to use the class sites we looked at today as reference to ensure I achiever my goal of making my class site more user friendly.

The first photo was prior to making any changes and the latter shows buttons that are easily recognisable through the picture prompts for aakonga with written words for whaanau below if need be. Definitely a work in progress and will be keeping me busy over the holiday period.

Feel free to have a nohi at my class site here.

Hopefully you’ll see the changes throughout the holidays.

Today’s session focussed on YouTube, Google Drawing and Google Slides. Great tips and tricks to utilise these resources to enhance learning and creating which in turn welcomes engagement through purposeful and thoughtful use of the media apps.

I was able to create a YouTube channel where I have created a playlist that I will be using for our phonics practice in our akomanga. I’ll be using this to create a personal playlist for music. I love that it removes having to search for waiata I’d like to listen to and holds those all in one playlist.

Google Drawing was very interesting. By scanning through the examples of things that have been designed in Google Drawing I thought this would be a great way to create individual posters for each of my tamariki that provides a snapshot of what they can do, what they are learning to do, and how whaanau can help at home. We have our student led whaanau conferences next week and I think this would be a great take away for our whaanau as a reminder of the things they can do to help their child at home. Tirohia tōku whakatakinga

Google Slides. Man, I’ve been using it like the dinosaurs lol. I learned so much about the simple yet effective tools that are available there to change the appearance of the slide show. Something as simple as changing the shape of an image can give clarity to the viewer. For example, in my digital pepeha I have changed the shape of the two photos of my maunga to a triangle to mimic the shape of a maunga, the awa, I shaped in a wave type shape to emphasis these are rivers and so on.

Tirohia ki ōku tatai whenua

Kia ora anō koutou,

Ko Camille tōku ingoa. Nau mai, hoki mai ki taku huarahi ako.

“Dealing with Data” was the objective with two main takeaway learnings being Google Forms and Google Sheets.

Although I have used Google Forms before for quick and easy surveys, I found enjoyment in “prettying” my form up. During this part of the task I was able to think of ways I could make forms and quizzes for my new entrant class. With the use of visuals these types of interactive tasks will support my aakonga in their learning.

Having has past experience in using Microsoft Exel, the transition to Google Sheets has been an easy one. I often use sheets when collecting and storing the data I collect from my aakonga. Today’s refresh was nice to revisit some of those filing cabinets that haven’t been opened for a while. Always appreciate revision. The filters and customisation are awesome for quick reference and I shall be using those shortcuts from now on, especially for quick reference.

For our Google Sheets activity we had to collect, display, and analyse the data. Below are my findings.

This is Hēmi’s blogging data. He attends Te Kura Amorangi o Whakawātea.

I have looked at the range of Hēmi’s blogging between 2022 – 2026. I noticed that the initial years (2022-2023) display a maximum of 2 blogs per month, however, in the years 2024-2025 there have been significant increases in the number of blogs per month, albeit inconsistent. There are many possible factors that could explain why Hēmi’s blog posts were fewer from 2022-2023, however, my hypothesis is that blogging for Hēmi may have been introduced around 2022. The likelihood of not understanding what blogging was and its use is increased and with the further development of skills and understanding so has Hēmi’s blogging posts.

As we can see already, Hēmi has increased his March blogging from 2 to 3 blogs which indicates that it is highly likely that Hēmi will continue to increase his blog posts. It would be good to return to Hēmi’s blog in December to see if my prediction is correct.

For myself, the continued emphasis on collaborative learning is paramount for the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy which aligns with my personal pedegogy. Creating safe, caring, and trusting environments for all aakonga to have the ability to take risks, share their thinking and learning and have pride in all they do. I love that the Manaiakalani kaupapa aligns with me as a person.

Kei whea mai koutou ngaa kaiwhakahaere o DFI.

Thank you all DFI coaches

Day 2 of DFI, I have a clear understanding of why its INTENSIVE now because today has my brain all over the place with lots of new learning.
Understanding how important it is to know and understand the importance of further developing my own confidence and skillset to use digital technologies effectively and efficiently.
Through the attached Meet recording, I was able to see how I can implement the use of Meets and the recordings as professional evidence as well as a portal to revisit past learnings that we have recorded.

I have a lot of practice to do in order build my own confidence in using Google (and all apps within) in my teaching practice.
Grateful for DFI and all the facilitators supporting us on our digital journey.