Blog comment power

We are learning what makes a quality blog comment. I have made a comic strip showing how a comment can affect a person’s feelings when they read it.

Reflecting on the 'magic' of Covid-19

 My shared thoughts of how Hokitika Hub shared their magic during Covid-19 and my thoughts as to where we go to next ...

Lockdown Learning

Today will be another momentous day in history as we learn at 4pm whether we will move out of Stage 4. What will the next stage even look like? So many questions and way too many people's views and opinions.

I've found the 28 days have actually gone very quickly. I still haven't managed to get through all those wonderful housekeeping jobs I had planned to do, We have managed to celebrate 3 family birthdays via a Hangout and despite being squashed into our little house, it's been a lovely time of sharing, 80% of caring for each other, and enjoying those daily walks for exercise.

The 'two weeks of Clayton's' holidays were anything but a holiday. What an amazing time of learning I had. The teachers I hung out with had so many inspiring ideas to share and I was almost envious that I hadn't had this opportunity to learn online when I was at school.

As I said in a previous post, as a Manaiakalani Cluster, we were ready for this and the majority of teachers jumped at the opportunity and became so inventive. Fortunately Google Hangout Meet decided to come up with a grid extension and that just make leaning so much more enjoyable, being able to see the whole class looking like a scene from The Brady Bunch!

I've lost count of the number of Hangouts I've attended, but am pleased to say that by the time Friday comes round, they become a little more social with the microphones turned on.

So, what have I learned through this new way of teaching ... well when I trained in the 80's this would have been seen as a scene from The Jetsons! However, I am now drawing on the initial three P's from my reading recovery training; Pause, Prompt, Praise and I'm going to add Patience in there too. Kids are all too happy to click things and have a go, but as adults we are a bit more cautious. Screen sharing has become my new go-to. Those four P's then take over because we all know how important it is to learn by doing. However, I must say that by 3pm I start to get a little tongue tied with my instructions and on Friday at 5pm my family confiscate my laptop to ensure my square eyes go back to normal. I am however really enjoying this new way of teaching. I love being invited into the classes to work with the students and I really enjoy hearing all these new inventive ways of teaching. I'd be quite happy to keep teaching this way and when we are back to face-to-face learning I think this online way should be included in the daily program, because these students are so clever about using it now.

I keep wondering if this could be the new way of working in the future and how lucky our kids are that they got to learning like this. Until the PM's talk this afternoon, I believe we should be patting ourselves on the back for how smoothly this has all gone. 

Kia Kaha New Zealand

The new 'normal'

It seems that the offerings of Manaiakalani are very valuable and the realisation of their potential as we learn online are becoming very obvious. With a house full of internet users and people needing their own space, I have taken myself to our laundry/sleepout area. While not the prettiest room, it's certainly quiet and remarkably the cups of coffee and home baking still arrive!

What I have noticed however, is that we seem to be reverting to habits that were exciting in my childhood and I'm quite liking this trend. My 83 year old mother is missing us terribly and I can't say that the Facetime calls are totally successful. Once we realised that her comments of "you're not making eye contact with me" was due to us looking at her rather than up at the camera, hence the missing eye contact, we all had a bit of a laugh.

But when you have a  bit of spare time, what can you do with it?

Well, my three girls got out the arts and crafts (one of the benefits of having a mother for a teacher) and decided to write letters to their nearest and dearest. This was most exciting for the 11 year old, who had received birthday cards and gifts in the letter box, but the concept of writing a letter was something totally out of this world. Even the envelopes were handmade (something I could still remember the template for) and decorated to match the person who would be receiving it. They couldn't believe they had so many things to share even though they had been stuck at home and the letters were looking pretty awesome before being put in the envelopes.

Of course, you then have to go out for that exercise walk and buy some stamps ... who would have thought sticking on stamps could be so much fun - I'm sure the postie's had a laugh at the weird places they got put, after all who new they were supposed to be on the top right!

Then they go into this box, but Miss 11 couldn't for the life of her see that this box would get them to the people, when we're all on lock down. Well hats off to the posties, because just three days later she received a phone call from my mother to share her delight in receiving mail. In her words "It was just like the old days, and such a lovely surprise."

The conversation was so surreal, I almost wished I still had a video on to record the contents of the phone call about what would have happened to the letter, because Miss 11 had absolutely no idea of the places her letter had been.

Today was just as magical, when she went to grab in the paper and low and behold there was a letter for her in the mailbox. The excitement, of finding it, the rush to get it open and the sheer joy of reading the letter ... I think it's time we all spent some of that spare time we now have to write a letter to someone ... it could become the new (old) trend.

The times, they are a changing ...

Apologies that my blog posts haven't been happening. I know I'm supposed to lead by example, but I'm human just like you and there are no excuses except that time has moved quicker than I have managed to keep up with.

In the last 7 months, my world has changed in so many ways. I'm ever so grateful to have a reliable car, because I have lost count of the kilometers I have travelled during this time. Connecting with such motivated people, who want to share the Manaiakalani pedagogy with their learners always makes my facilitating in schools so enjoyable. To watch these teachers blossom in their delivery has this amazing flow on effect to their learners, and little did we know that this would be a necessity in 2020. 

I've also learned just how precious family time is. Despite it being an eight hour trip each way to see my father, we had some very precious times together in the last weeks of his life. While I miss him terribly, I am so eternally grateful that he passed before Covid-19 became the new norm, because we would not have been able to have those special times together.

Ah yes, Covid-19 has certainly turned the world as we knew it, upside down. As a vunerable couple, my husband and I have taken the lockdown very seriously. I was however happily amused to receive a call from my three children (all in their 20's) to say they were coming home to be in our 'family bubble'. While all families have their moments, so far (okay, it's only been a week) we have had some real bonding moments and I can feel the pressures of everyday life lifting, as we learn to enjoy a more relaxed time and share some quality family bonding. I'm still working online from home and my three daughters are also onine with school & uni, so there have been some wifi sharing moments that have been a little difficult, however they've been the perfect opportunity to make a family timetable. We take turns to choose a family movie at night and that has been interesting, but we're learning respect as we all share our different interests. Luckily the weather has been fantastic, so we've been exercising around our little village where even the beach is within the two kilometer limit. Little jobs are getting done around the house, and when I relax after my day's work, I'm liking what we are becoming.

I thought I'd share a poem that I wrote to sum up life over the last week, and while I won't promise, I'll try to blog more often, cos there is so much new learning happening in my life...

On Tuesday 24th March Covid-19 lockdown started

The kids arrived home, no longer wanting to be parted.

The house quickly filledwith 6 people and 2 cats

And yes you guessed it, on day 1 they had a spat!

Under the kitchen went the kitten called Venus, 

Taking the cupboards apart was really quite henus.

But, family bonding, laughter and love

Brought us together like a hand in a glove.

Day 2 was uneventful, thank goodness I thought.

But Day 3 sent us a challenge of the medical sort.

It's amazing how a community comes together under stress

And the required medications arrived at our address.

Day 4 & 5 saw lots of family fun

Bike rides, walking, board games and a run.

Down to the beach (it's only 2 k's)

Marshmellows on a fire and a rig caught by Craig.

Then Day 6 came and all was sound

3 of us working and 3 pottering around.

The deck got varnished and the trees got pruned

Time fow a walk I said, feeling marooned.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the phone

Bad news came through and I could only groan!

A nosy kereru, in our cherry tree

Decided inside was where it wanted to be

At the window it flew shattering glass all through

Of course we're in lockdown, so what do you do?

A board replaced the window, the view no longer there

The kids decorated it using their creative flair.

The scariest part is that we're still in week 1

With 3 weeks to go, I'm thinking Hmmm, this could be fun!

Learning to use Screencastify

This week we have been learning to use Screencastify and publish our work on our blogs. The hardest part I found was trying to find somewhere quiet to do my video. How do you think I have gone?

Am I showing my age???

Over the holidays, i was asked by one of my fabulous teachers to take a lesson on transformation, in particular enlarging a drawing using a grid.

'Really, on a digital platform?' was my first thought as I vividly remembered how I used to love making enlargements of pictures in my childhood. I remember getting the activity colouring book in my stocking as a child and using it as we traveled to our holiday destination.

So I set to making a slide show with tasks for the students and enjoyed reliving one of my passions but on a new platform. I personally thought it was quite fiddly using the polyline tool to draw the object, but with lots of concentration, I managed to complete the task and have to admit to enjoying the challenge.

I found the students reactions to the task so interesting. This was something so completely new and challenging to them and even the 'tricky' students were totally on task. They were so keen to share their efforts with their classmates and are looking forward to blogging about their learning at our next session.

That night I was sharing the days events with my family and I suddenly remembered the amazing 'Pantograph' that I had received as a gift. It brought back fond memories to both my husband and I, however while I knew the students would laugh at this device, I never expected their teachers to have no idea what I was talking about. It seems I really am showing my age, but in my day it was so cool to have one of these ... yet another extinct tool!