Over the last week it has been really exciting to see so much going on in my teams' classrooms. Given that I don't have a lot of opportunity to put my new learning into real life situations, the next best thing is to see others doing it.
I spent some time in Nik's room where she was voicing the animations the kids had done. i went to support one of the kids who i expected to be struggling but he was all over it and offering help yo others. I saw awesome maths in Ang's room, using maps, where the kids were doing scale, distances between houses, planning routes etc. One of Kahura's boys who has never engaged with writing has been using Google Read and Write and has just taken off, with smiles and pride like we have never seen before.
It was great having a look at how other schools work their sites

August 16

I could see that I would have to focus on the Youtube Playlist!!   I can see that will be something that would be really useful for my reading and writing kids…some shark websites for Zahn and snakes for Reeve. 

The Youtube channel that I have created for Reeve will  be a huge bonus when he is "off on one" and being obsessive and needing distraction. 

I can also see that as a starter for Blaize when he returns next week, so he has instant access to topics he is interested in for writing motivation.  Added to the voice to text / Google write and the Google Keep technology of photographing text so he can listen to it being read, I can see  huge potential for him.

I was ahead of my game for Google Drawing - briefly - but managed to put a profile picture onto my blog. Next challenge is to be able to find my draft blogs without it taking 20 minutes!
Shift and tab arrow to do nudging of an image is a great find!!


Denise and I collaborated to do the Google Slide animation. I was pretty excited that with my previous experience of Powerpoint  there was a huge amount of transferable knowledge.Good to know that while it still needs some editing, I could embed it almost independently, knowing I can finish it off at any stage and it will update.

August 9

What a difference a week makes!
 Today has been great. It was not as manic in terms of pace and I can see that there is huge potential in honing my skills around forms and sheets. Even being able to change the date format on the Manaiakalani data spreadsheets will be life changing. Part of my "issue" is finding authentic opportunities to practise these new skills as I am not in a classroom.
Forms was good information and  I can see some uses for that. I have learned to embed docs into my blog and have actually surprised my self with my 'en pointe' intuition.
pretty excited about the snipping tool.

I missed last weeks session so was a bit behind the 8 ball this week. I have heard Dorothy speak about the Manaiakalani journey before, so I am in that loop, however everything else was full on.
At the moment the things that stand out for me from the learnings of today are the handy hints around gmail and the calendar.
There was lots of talk about Google Keep and it's potential to be life changing. I have downloaded the app to my phone and have committed to spending some time this week exploring its potential.