DFI Day 6

Kia Ora 

Dorothy explained how we must connect to technologies to harness connections and build stronger communities. It is great to be able to connect with others who do similar things to you and to share ideas.

With sites today I realised it was not user friendly. When showing my bubble, I realised I had not done a few things and I had made it just links. Now, there are buttons, links and pictures.

It feels it is now more user friendly and not as cluttered. 

I was reminded how to make buttons, how to use canvas for this, to use AI generated pictures and also bitmoji stickers. 

I am looking forward to adapting my site to make learning more accessible with groups, follow ups and other activities.

Below is what my site looked like before. Looking at it now, it is not clear and confusing.

 

 

Now my site looks like this

 

I am very happy with this and it looks so much nicer!

DFI Day 5 2026

Kira Ora!

Today with Dorothy we looked at Visible teaching and visible learning. This is a great reminder to make sure everything you do in the classroom is right there, visible and anyone can walk in to see what you are doing and how you are doing it. Can see the students learning and each student knows what their learning is straight away. This reinforces the key concepts we are going through at work at the moment. 

Multimodel site- This concept is amazing. It is a one stop shop for things to use. Instead of searching for things yourself, you can use this. I am going to find this to be great to use since next term I am doing a novel study. It will be great to gather videos, text and other things about the story. 

With the multimodel site I created today, I created my site for Matariki. This term we are doing matariki and space. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make a site that I can use straight away. This will help having all my thoughts and ideas for this theme in one spot ready to give to the students or to present when the time is right. 

Matariki Multimodel 

I also started to make a site for my novel study this term. We are doing Narnia, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe novel study. Having a dedicated website for this will make the term go smoothly, since I will be able to upload everything I have been working on during the holidays. This will help me and the learners. They can access the whole class learning and look back when they want to / need to. If students are not able to concentrate on the whole class big screen, they will be able to use their little screens to help them better. This will also help my top group of readers who are doing a deep dive into this story for their small group reading. 

In my personal life I have been wanting to make a website for my small business, but was not sure where to start. With today’s lesson it has shown me how to create the website and how to be multimodal about it. Adding videos, links, photos, other websites and order forms. 

 

Ka Kete! See you in July.

DFI Day 4 2026

Kia Ora 

Today I learned more about where Manaiakalani came from. It started with the beginnings of social media. Sharing started all the way back in 2005 with Youtube, where their tagline was “Broadcast Yourself.” Ever since then, sharing has been refined to become safe for all students to share their learning. 

Using Google forms, being more creative. I learned about adding themes, colours,  photos and fonts. 

My maps will be an exciting thing to use with the students. Next term we are doing measurement. Using my maps for measurement will come in handy and be good to use. I am looking into going to places in the town and seeing how long it will take to get there. 

I learned more about google sheets. I will need to go back to this and try again. This is heaps of new learning for me. 

Using sheets has been helpful for my personal life. I do 3D printing and to work out the cost and tax of the items I input the data into google sheets to give me the price and if it is worth printing.

This is my data here from analysing my data for how many blogs I have done with my class over the year. I learned I blogged the most in 2023 and I blog more in September.

I am still learning how to do some of these activites. I am looking forward to learning how to use these and teach them to my students.

 

DFI Day 3 2026

Kia Ora 

Today, yet again I was reminded about things I knew but also added some more details to what I already knew. Today’s main idea from Dorothy was “It’s all about the hook that will get the students engaged in their learning. The more engaging, the more learning they will do.” 

Explore google draw. This google piece I am very used to but today I learned about gradients which I have never heard of or looked at before. This was exciting to learn about.

Another aspect of google draw I learned was how to use the same colours as the pictures you have chosen. This was really nice to know about. With the About Me google draw I enjoyed having the same orange colour as the background. 

The last idea I looked at was google slides. I have done animations before but today I learned how to make the page a different size as you can see below. This was cool to know about. The line “death by slides” spoke to me, so why not make the sizes different. 

All of these tips and tricks I will be adding to my kete of knowledge as I already do these things in the classroom. To add these extra details will make the students stand out more. I have some of the same students as last year so it will be great to level them up as I have been levelled up. 

Until next time!

DFI Day 2 2026

Kia Ora

Today I have increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and pedagogy by knowing more about the RAT acronym. Recognise effective practise, amplify teaching and turbocharge teaching. The website “curriculumdesign.nz” is an incredible resource to use and I look forward to diving into it. 

“If it is worth teaching, it’s worth capturing,” is a quote I highly enjoyed today. 

For my workflow, getting google keep to work better for me is going to be an amazing thing. Making things connect and being able to find things easily is going to be a huge thing for me. I lose things easily and if I have one place to have things like google keep, I feel this is going to be a good thing for me. 

My gmail. I know I am slack with filing and having my inbox full of emails. Today I have learned where the unsubscribe tool is  and how to archive emails in a fast, easy way. I started with 8000 emails. I am down to 2000 emails to put into the right places. This I feel will be an incredible start to the year. And learning how to keep things clean and tidy. 

Split view on my browser with the right click, add tab to new split screen is going to be a lifesaver. I was previously pulling things apart to make a split screen. This way stays in the browser which is going to be much better! 

With my learners, I will be able to show them how to unsubscribe. I know some of my students are on Pinterest and get daily emails. I will show them how to change this. 

Also with my learners, knowing the “control, shift, T” is going to be a good thing to use. I liked how Stacey explained how to use it in the classroom. 

Grouping bookmarks, pin tabs, tasks, google keep, archiving, filing and all of these workflow things are what I will try to use this year to keep things organized and look appealing and trying to stay organized for the year. 

This I know will be a challenge.

On a side note, making the video was fun, getting the video was easy, but, somehow my google drive did not make the folder for the video to go into. This was very strange! 

Here is my video from playing round with google meets! Enjoy.

DFI Day 1 2026

Kia Ora! 

Today I learned more about the Manaiakalani Kaupapa. I learned that Manaiakalani has been around for a number of years. It started in 2006 with Bebo! I remember using Bebo as a kid and it feels like it has come round as a full circle now. It is really cool to see how technology has come and what platforms people have used in the past. Realising that a device is not replacing the book but it is replacing the pencil was a different kind of way of thinking of it. It is a tool for learning and another way of presenting and receiving content. 

Making sure there is hope for the community and talking to the community about their needs part of the Kaupapa of Manaiakalani. Which is the same reason why Google was chosen since it is good way to collab and it is free. 

There are a number of things I learned / revisited this time round. Reminding myself to folder documents properly and label them properly too. Reminding myself to do this with the akonga from the start of the year and not bringing it in throughout the year like I  have in the past. But not in the last few years. There are a number of new things such as the parent folders and limit access folder. This was some new ideas which I didnt know before and I am glad that I do now so am able to help myself more through these ideas. 

Complete new learning for me has been the document tabs and how they work. I will endevour to use these more and teach my students how to use them. Smart clips was another new thing that came up for me especially translation. 

With having a big class and all needing to voice type, finding out about different ways to manage this has been a highlight for me. In the past I taught students how to use their hands. Today it was meantioned about coffee cups. I feel this is a better idea so will be looking into how to do that in the next term.     

Things I can use with my learners is using google docs for creative tasks. Usually I use slides or draw. Today reminded me to use docs and how to use it and decorate it. 

In my personal life I was reminded how to book mark, make folders, being in the right profile, personal vs professional, and making use of the smart chips.

With create today, I made some posters I will be using in the classroom in the coming year. The culutre/langauge poster I still need to finish but the other two are done. I am super excited for how different and pretty they look.

 

        

 

 

 

 

Term 2 Week 5

Kia Ora

 

So many things have happened tech wise recently it has been hard to keep up.

One of the teachers is doing DFI currently and she is asking lots of questions that I am able to help and support her with which is brilliant. Her main question this week was, where is a central place to put students work? Then it was Google Sites week so she found out that way. I have told her I can show her my previous site to help her navigate her way round sites. She asked about how to keep students safe online when sharing site and other documents like that. I explained about changing the restrictions to only Taitoko School emails. She was happy that there was an option for that to happen as she was rather worried about privacy for our students and for herself.

We are currently working on ShowQuest and have been making a background video for the dance. This has pushed me out of my elements for what I know. I had to do a lot of research to make a video that was perfect for our show. There was lots of learning for myself involved but now I have learned how to use these new apps I feel it will be easy to teach the class how to make their own videos. In class we are working on report writing. I would love to see each student create a video about their chosen space topic.

At the beginning of the term we were working on ANZAC silloetes. Students had to use a picture from google search. Then get a picture of a soilder. Remove the background and insert it into the picture. We ended up having a soilder with a background of the sunset / sunrise. it was like our soldiers going off to war at the beach of anzac cove.

Questions that I have been asking myself:

How do we stay connected to our community? How does this help with attendance?

 

How can I help all staff in the school?

 

What is the next step in teaching for the teachers?

 

What would the next step for teacher aids be? – Maybe ask for time with them during class to support with the computers in the moment

Week 2 Term 2

What have I been doing for WST?

I have been supporting teachers with their DFI and if they have any questions for technology I am able to answer ad support teachers where needed.

For Showquest, the set is digital. Through using my Manaiakalani DFI knowledge I have started to create the digital set. I have been keeping in mind about the use of coms free images and how to create your own images through draw.

Inside the classroom, we have been using google draw to create ANZAC images. The skills used for this are transferable from one activity to another. Inserting images (coms free), remove b.g., partial screenshot with the device, and filing.

In the office, I have been asked to provide a digital screen for the office TV for families who come in. I am working on making a slide show that is able to be edited frequently.

I have noticed that office staff and teacher aides need to be unskilled in certain areas of the digital world. Next step here is to see if I can run a workshop for these people to find out their next steps.

Week 7 Update

Over the last few week, a lot of tech things have been happening. It has made me so excited to say that things are going well.

I have made more posters to explain how to look after the devices.

Since screencastify have changed their rules and settings, I set out to look for another way to record the screen. Turns out on a windows device windows + alt + r, lets you record your screen and if you click the microphone lets you record your voice too. It saves on your device too. This made me super happy since now I do not need to use screencastify. 

With the students a lot of work has been done. Taught them how to use Kami and they sent me their Kami uploads folder so now we can edit PDFs through Hapara and I always have access.

This week, the middle/senior team had a swap. One group went swimming, one went to sport and I had a few students for tech work. Since I had already loaded Hapara with Pixel Art, all I had to do was drag the other classes on for them to watch the videos to do the art. This I felt worked really well since the students were able to work in their own time, at their own page. A lot managed to get it done and finish the same day too.

 

2023 Week 2 Term 1

This year has gone off with a hit with my new class! Started with new ideas.

For my new class we have started with getting to know one another with about me pictures on slides.

I have created a class newsletter using canva.

For the school, I have created a Kawa of Care poster with my students demonstrating how to use devices and with new terms to use. Next step here is to train the staff in the terms to use to gain student attention.

For the school, we are pushing Facebook more than before. We are trying to make our school more visible for our whanau. We are posting more often with more things. Putting notices up and reminders. with celebrating what our school has been doing and what it looks like daily

With the Facebook page, we have also created a shared messenger page. anyone can take photos and post them so we are able to see different aspects of the school, not just through one lens.

https://www.facebook.com/taitokoschool

For the school, I have made email addresses and passwords for the students more accessible. We have a google sheets with all emails and passwords in it. when it is updated I send a reminder email to that teacher to let them know to check.

For the school, I have created an admin calendar and set up the calendar for the staff.