Morning Greeting Video Bloopers

Oh my goodness!!!
As I start to clean up my drive of the many videos and images I have taken for teaching online, I thought I would share some on my bloopers. I know there are a few teachers in the same situation. 

 Instead of the students seeing the wall in my dining room all the time, I walked and filmed me in different locations. We talked about autumn, so I went out to find autumn leaves and trees changing colour. We talked about Volcanoes, so I walked to Maungarei Mountain (Mt Wellington) and filmed the writing lesson for the day.

It's been a huge learning experience, I am not one for photos let alone having to video myself creating a learning lesson for students online. I  think, am I making sense? have I made myself clear? have I said enough? have I said too much? the list went on. I begin deleting the many images and videos and reflect on the situation and how I've done during this time. I think I've done alright (no complaints from the kids at this stage) given that this part of the learning was not planned and we all relied heavily on communicating online. 

What a journey it's been. 

Our Google Hangout.

Our Google Hangouts are a lot more structured, which is great. Now that the students understand the expectations of being in a Hangout with their teachers and friends. The schoolwide Korero is GM4GM, which means Good Manners for Google meets. Most students are showing GM4GM some still need reminding to stay on the screen and no moving around, kind of like reminding them how to sit on the mat. Taking turns to talk by muting/unmuting the microphone when we (teachers) say when it's their turn. Reminding them to be on time for the meetings, appropriately dressed, washed and smiling. Our number of students joining the Hangouts is climbing, which is great. 

As we go into Level 3, two of our teachers have volunteered to return to school as we have a small number of families who need to return to school as their whanau prepare to return to work. Another colleague and I from this team will be amongst the many staff who will prepare for the students first day back.

The Korero from our Prefects.

Our prefects and Ranagtahi put this video together. This video helps students understand the expectations while they are in a google hangout with their teachers and classmates.

I'm happy to say that most of our students who have managed to Hangout with us are doing really well. Remembering to mute and unmute whenever they are asked.  Some are using the chat icon to say good morning to their friends. We have had up to 14 students join us in our hangout which is great and so awesome to see their happy faces all looking very well.

What does online learning look like?

So what does online learning look like on our site?

We each chose a part of the curriculum to focus learning on. I chose writing, with a focus of Narrative writing. I thought that given our situation, it might be good to find out how creative they would be writing about, what life is like in their bubble. 

       

We video ourselves explaining what we would like students to do today for writing. We also remind the students about setting up their books with the date and title of their story. We also encourage them to try their best. We write the learning intension as evidence of what the learning is for the day. Making videos of myself does not come naturally to me and I was very anxious and worried that I was talking too much or the students and parents wouldn't understand the learning focus as I'm sure a lot of teachers all over New Zealand were feeling the same way.
This is just a snapshot of Wednesdays Focus. Click the link below to check out our site.
https://sites.google.com/ptengland.school.nz/theblockyear342020/home
Here are 2 writing examples of the days' activity. A clear indication of how 2 students processed the information from the video. Teaching from home has had its challenges. In class, I would have taken the bottom student and any other students with a similar idea, to the side and worked with them. This can't happen for obvious reasons and so reading some of the student's blogs have been both, hair pulling and teeth clenching as I can't physically be with them. So, I will use this to reflect on my teaching, and use evidence from the student's blogs as the next steps in my teaching, when we all get back to normal school life and routines. I'm sure many teachers across New Zealand will be feeling the same way, remember, we are all in this together.

  

hi today i'm writing a narrative this narrative is going to be about living in the bubble. It look normal, beautiful, giant, different. It feels strong, hard, like stone. It also sounds loud and noisy

First Google Hangout with the Students.

Our first Hangout with the students. This was really exciting it was great to see them online. I'm proud of how versatile the students have become given the situation we are in at the moment. I'd like to give a special shout out to Mrs Currathers who has worked extremely hard to prepare our site for online learning.  Thank you Clarelle. 

This is the edited version of our first hangout with the kids.