20 Slides in 5 Minutes - Ignite Talks

On the last day of term 3 the MDTA had a go at making and presenting our first ignite talk.  The first time I had seen one was during the Manaiakalani Annual Hui.  The MIT teachers presented their inquiries through 20 sleek but punchy slides.  I was impressed with how well they did, as it does not look easy!

Ignite talks are presentations which use 20 slides that are displayed for 15 seconds.  Therefore, it is really important to ensure the slides are simple, as the 15 seconds flies by.  It is also important to consider what you will say when each slide is displayed.  I have noticed that some people rush through because they had too much planned on each slide.  Basically, simplicity is key and it is important to keep words and content minimal.

I was absent during the presentation of the ignite talks, however Georgia's ignite talk is an excellent example.  Her slides are simple but effective, and she only covers one idea per slide. She also speaks slowly and clearly.

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.

When the Learning Keeps Going: Ubiquitous Learning

The 'learn' component of this weeks digital immersion was all about ubiquitous learning. This is about ensuring that our students can access their learning anytime, anywhere and any place.  E-Learning and the use of Google Sites (that are open to anyone) allows for extended learning times. 

How learning is ubiquitous for my students

Class Site

As we are a part of the Manaiakalani cluster, all schools and classrooms are required to have a Google Site, which is accessible to all. In Manaiakalani schools the expectation is that learning is visible.  This means that every link needs to have the sharing permissions as "anyone with the link can view".  To make this easier we create a main folder in our Google drive that has the permission "anyone with the link".  This means that

Screencasts

I have recently created a Google site for reading and writing. To help ensure my students understand everything, I have included a range of screencasts.  The screencasts help to the explain tasks and reading comprehension strategies

Teaching DLOs 

I always ensure my teaching DLOs are linked into our class site.  These DLOs are quite comprehensive and cover everything I am planning to teach. This enables my learners to revisit the learning anytime they need.

'Modelling Books'

They are not quite modelling books, but they are my take on it.  Whenever we are learning something, I take photos of the students work.  This is then uploaded onto a shared folder onto Google drive, which the students have full access to.  A next step would be for me to add these folders to the 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