DFI Day 5: Reflection

 1. What I learned that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy:

I liked Dorothy's analogy of trimming the maze to waist height so you can see where it goes and the steps you would have to take to get through it:

• more fun for those who get anxious in a maze
• clearer for those who don't know where to start
• shows the big picture for those who need that
• NO SURPRISES

This is equity in action. It is also social justice: when I was a student I could read the teacher's mind quite well (hence my educational success) - it feels like this mind-reading idea could easily be part of the discussion of middle-class pakeha privilege in the education system... and the mistaken idea that the teacher's world is the world.... (although for teachers' kids like me it was). It seems crazy that we are only recently honouring the diversity among our learners, making them partners in the process.

I am interested in the guts of marrying the imperative to support reading development with providing learning-access points via other forms of texts ... how much should we mind if kids don't access learning through the written word and reading skills?

2. What I learned that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional:

I really liked the different headings for multi-modal text - it seems that this could be a good checklist for UDL and differentiated resources on our department site ...which, when I can get to giving it some more attention, will be useful. 

There are some decisions to make as my school becomes a Manaiakalani school: about sites (or site pages) that will be bespoke for each class/teacher and which will be for the whole department to use ... and how we go between (I am thinking buttons).

I am looking forward to increased visibility for whanau and among colleagues too - too many places in our staff drive with restricted access etc. 

3. What I learned that could be used with my learners (and how):

I am looking forward to developing a class site in consultation with my learners ... they have all made graduate portfolio sites (which they are adding evidence to throughout the year) -this is a new thing for the school....so we (and they) are seeing what works and is easy to navigate and what is confusing.

Since we all have some prior knowledge to offer up but have not had a class site before we can make decisions together about navigation, what needs to be added/removed, what kind of instructions and supports would be useful etc.

4. What I learned that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life:

As usual, a bit more confidence (keyboard commands are cool)

Today's practice site: 

 https://sites.google.com/waitarahs.school.nz/artificialintelligence/home?authuser=0