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