Cindy Wihongi - Professional Blog

It was really good today to 'wrap' up the complete pedagogy with the SHARE part of this being covered. This is such an important part of the kaupapa and it was great to see the blogs that people are using to do this. I feel that personally, being aware of blogs and the purpose for this along with the audience will increase the quality of my own blogs as well as supporting my learners with theres. It is a piece of writing and we do this naturally when teaching 'writing' but I feel that when teaching blogs I don't tend to be as explicit in my instructions. I also have had the chance to reflect on my own feedback to learners with their blogs and don't believe that I always give them the feedback that they need/deserve. Like Dorothy raised today, this is such an effective and authentic context for the learners along with being immediate. Therefore I should be making the most of this opportunity and using this platform to provide them with feedback/feed forward....

Another day where I have been fortunate enough to particpate in the DFI and learn lots more about both the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy and also google tools to help in personal and profesional life! It was great to have Dorothy articulate the create aspect today. I do beleive that we do tend to stiffle students creativity and certainly not deliberatly. Sometimes the pressures of the classroom seem to have us spending the bulk of our times on the traditional subjects, rather than allowing students time to experiment with who they are in a creative context. I personally think that with the 'create' aspect of Manaiakalani, it allows us time to be delivberate in actually providing opporutnities for our learners to be creative. I learnt a number of ways in which I could do this today using Google. I think I overthibnk things so when planning for create time, I try and find a range of websites and 'fandangle' apps for them to do this in. To discover today, that ...

 

Today was an interesting day, although a little frustrating at times with my technology not doing what it should!!   I do feel however, at the end of the day, that I have lots to take away and put into practice - so many things that can be used in Google to make my life easier.  In terms of what I have learnt to increase my understanding regarding the kaupapa and pedagogy of Manaiakalani just continued from the previous weeks learning.  The reality of every student having access to digital learning, in an environment where it is deliberate and authentic is a huge advantage growing up in a digital era.  The research to support what this looks like has been strongly embedded in the Manaiakalani pedagogy, allowing our learners the best opportunities.  There was a lot of learning today around how to use Google apps to make my teaching life (and personal life) much more organised.  These functions are so available and it is a matter of me becoming more fami...

Today was the first day of DFI and I was a little unsure what to expect.  I had attended the beginning of the year day for new staff to Manaiakalani and had a little understanding of the kaupapa but really enjoyed hearing some of this again, along with new information.  I guess my first (beginning of year intro) was a little overwhelming with the shift north and not knowing anyone at the course, as well as having little knowledge of Manaiakalani.  To have had a term in the classroom and the support of our local facilitator, things just made more sense today.  I enjoyed finding out about the set up and the involvement of whanau voice in this.  The ability to have technology accessible to all enables all our learners to equity and the opportunity for better outcomes.  I also had not considered a device the way it was compared to a pencil today and this allowed me a better understanding of the choice of devices being different for the junior and senior student...