Creating my Digital CV

For our last (ever!) digital immersion day we created an online CV.  It was a great opportunity to use our digital skills to showcase our learning journey, teaching pedagogies and digital capabilities.  

I had a look at my 'digital CV' I created last year when I applied for jobs and I couldn't help but cringe a little! I had just been introduced to Google sites and I created my first ever site as my Digital CV. I used the drop down menu function and choose a template.  It was a pretty good effort for a first timer, but it shows just how much I have learnt.  

My 2015 digital CV

My 2016 digital CV

For my 2016 digital CV I wanted everything to be on the same page.  I wanted it to look as simplistic as possible, so used HTML to create tables for each of aspects I wanted to include in my CV.  I  wanted to use more images and less text.  I used Google Draw to turn my images into links.

With the help of Dorothy, I created an album of photos to provide a snapshot of my teaching.  I did this by creating a Google Presentations and inserting photos onto each slide.  Also, on each slide I included left and right arrows, which were hyperlinked to the previous or next slide.  You need to publish it to the web and make sure the auto advance settings are on. Once you have created your Presentation, you add it as a Gadget on your Google site.  The Gadget you use is 'Slideshow Maker'.  Then you follow the steps to add in the slideshow and specify the height and width.

Make your site pretty

I use a few websites to help make my website look good.  I like to choose fonts that look interesting and compliment each other.  I will always use different fonts for titles and normal text.  It can be hard choosing from such a large range of fonts, so I always use 100daysoffonts to help me.  Note that this probably shouldn't be shared with students as some of the text used is not appropriate for kids.

I also like to choose colour schemes and use a few different sites to help me. Color-hex and coolors are my go to.  My favourite is coolors because a) you can adjust the shades b) you can save your colour palette by exporting it and c) you can upload an image and use the colour picker to find the hex-codes for the colours you want!

Creating Presentations Like a Pro - Keynote

Unfortunately I was absent when the MDTA learnt about Keynote, so I did some exploring on my own.  It can be a little daunting using a new tool with lots of different features, so I watched a few clips on the basics to get me started.  I found this YouTube clip to be the most helpful! 

Keynote is a very versatile app. It can be used to create banners, logos and animations, edit images as well as a creating slick presentations.  Keynote allows for more customisation.

To see an awesome example of an animation created on Keynote, check out Steph's blog post.  In the post she explains the steps she took to create the animation and shares the finished product.

I am looking forward to experimenting with Keynote when creating content for my 2017 class site.

Editing day for the Manaiakalani Film Festival

Today we were able to put all our footage together and edit our films.  As I began filming I realised that I needed more footage to complete the film.  Luckily it was another sunny day so I was able to quickly head to school to get the extra footage.

We decided that we wanted our film to follow a storyline, from what the students do when they wake up to the end of the day.  The learners came up with some great ideas so I am glad that we had extra time to film. We also decided that we needed to include more sports in our film, and not just include training.  We added in netball and rugby.

The editing process was time consuming but addicting. Because the class decided to use a song to go with our movie, we had to make sure the film and time of each part matched up with the beat of the song.  This was a challenge but I am glad that I stuck with it. I also had to think carefully about our subtitles.  

Filming for Manaiakalani Film Festival

Today we got to spend the whole day in our schools filming for our Manaiakalani Film Festival movie.

In room 8, we are creating a movie based on our learning about the Olympic values.  The three olympic values are respect, friendship and excellence. We chose to create our film on excellence.

Leading up to our filming day the class collaboratively planned our movie. This was important as I wanted my learners to have ownership of the film.  We watched some inspirational movies to help us get started.  Then we worked on a Google Doc to record what we liked and disliked from the examples.  Then we brainstormed ways we could show excellence in our film.

Then came the filming.  Thank goodness the sun decided to come out! It was great to see a lot of my learners stepping up and taking charge of the day.  I had a great director/producer who helped guide the actors.  I am very proud of my learners and what they have achieved so far.  They came up with some great ways to show excellence and were very creative with their shots.

We still have a bit more filming to do but I am pleased with what we were able to accomplish in one day.  Stay tuned to find out more

Digital Immersion: Creating Multimedia - Still Images

“Learn the rules like a pro, 

so you can break them like an artist.”  

- Picasso

Today we learnt how to take still images like a pro! We learnt about the rule of thirds, lighting and composition. With our newly acquired knowledge we set off for a little field trip. I had a look around Glenn Innes and got inspired to take photographs of street art in the community.  

Next we uploaded them to our Google Drive. I had always thought that uploading photos was a hassle as I didn't know of a quick way to transfer them my phone, to my computer and to my site. Using the Google Photos app on your phone is a super quick way to transfer photographs. We also discussed how to embed folders on Google Sites, which got me thinking about how I could use this in my class. During mathematics I take lots of photographs of the learners. I had intended to create a digital modelling book to keep a record of what we were learning, but I had completely forgotten to do this. Now I know of a fast way to get my photographs onto my computer I will add a modelling book onto my mathematics page.

Lastly we used Pic Monkey to create a collage, and YouTube to create a collage to share our photographs. Some of my photographs needed cropping, so I used iPhoto to do this. It was fun playing around with the slideshow options on YouTube. I like how you can choose from a wide range of royalty-free songs and change the transitions to suit the style of the photographs.

Digital Immersion: Creating a Site Using HTML

Today we consolidated our learning and understanding of Google Sites, HTML and critical thinking in current events through the creation of a current events page.  The 2016 MDTA cohort was set with the challenge of each creating a multi-modal page on Google Sites about a current event.  In previous weeks we discussed critical thinking in social studies and reading, and chose current event topics.  We then had a week to come up with the content of the lesson.  

I found creating my change challenging but very addicting!  After plenty of trials and errors, it was a great feeling to correctly fix something using HTML.  A challenge I had was that I wanted to unmerge cells that had previously been merged together.  This was tricky as when you merge cells you need to delete another.  Merging cells  shifts the one cell to take up the space of two cells,  therefore you are left with an odd cell that is to the right of your table.

Merging Cells using HTML 

Merge rows by adding the code rowspan="(number)" inside the <tb> code of the cell you want to merge

This shifts the cell to the right of the table.  You then need to delete that entire cell.

Unmerging and Adding Cells

When you want to unmerge and add a row back in again you are left with a gap where it should have been.  After some thinking and reading of the HTML I had, I figured how to add a cell back in by writing the codes <td> and </td> below the code for the previous cell.

You can unmerge cells by changing the rowspan code to rowspan"1".  However this leaves you with a blank space where the previous cell was deleted.

Place some x's in the column next to the blank space. This shows where you want to create a new column.

Find the x's to locate where you need to add in a column.  Insert <td> and </td> underneath the previous </td> for the xxxx column

Whilst this may have been very simple problem to solve for HTML savvy people, it was quite the accomplishment for someone who had no idea about HTML two weeks ago!

My Current Events Page

Here is the page I created using HTML.  Please note that it is not entirely finished.  I would like to increase the white cell padding and change the vertical alignment within each cell to be centered.  I am still on my HTML learning journey and will fix it when I figure out how to. Click on the screenshot below to explore my page :) .

I will be using my multi-modal current events page with my learners next week. 

Digital Immersion: Day Two

Our second Digital Immersion day started with a little learning about the origins of Manaiakalani.  Dorothy talked us through Manaiakalani's conception,  beginning days and where the cluster is at now.  Once again I was reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of an innovative cluster that is making a real difference to the lives of our learners. 


Today's digital learning was about Google Forms and Google Sheets.  Again this week I was surprised at how little I knew about these apps.  Dorothy talked us through the Self-Paced Check with Dave Winter. Dave's Google Sheet was really useful as we could go through the YouTube clips at our own pace (as the name suggests) and fill in any knowledge gaps we had about Google Spreadsheets.


Next up we learnt about Google Forms. We learnt by doing as Dorothy guided us through the process of creating our own Google Form. I created mine on Sentence Structures, as this is a lesson which I enjoy and am passionate about teaching. We also learnt about the Google Sheet's add-on Flubaroo. This add-on enables you to transfer your responses from your Google Form onto a Google Spreadsheet. You can then grade your responses. Here is a Google Draw I created about my learning:

Digital Immersion: Day One

Today marked the beginning of my MDTA Digital Immersion days in the MDTA.  These professional meetings are a chance for the MDTA BTs to share their experiences, as well as immerse ourselves in the digital world so we can use technology effectively in the classroom.  

The day started off with a discussion on how the MDTA BTs are settling into our classrooms. It is very reassuring to know that the MDTA BTs and Leaders are all in this journey together.  I feel very lucky to be a part of a Professional Learning Group (PLG) that shares their experiences, as it allows us to learn with and from each other.

Our digital learning of today was about Google Docs.  One thing I learnt was to use the 'Styles' section to create headings and subheadings.  Gone are the days of creating headings by changing the font!  This is very useful as you can then create a Table of Contents so you can click on a heading and find it instantly.  We also explored Add-ons for Google Docs and shared them in a Google Presentation.  I chose to share Lucidchart, as it is a great way to organise your thinking in a visual form. 

Our last task was to create a Digital Learning Object (DLO) to show what has resonated with us today.  Here is my Google Draw:

I am looking forward to continuing to learn, create and share my learning on this blog.