It is hard to believe that it is week 5 and I am halfway through my DFI journey. 

Todays lessons allowed me  to embed some knowledge and refine some of the skills I have been using within my classroom program. 

Again It was great to listen to Dorothy explain the pedagogy behind the Manaiakalani especially as it was about a theory that I had begun to do within my own teaching practice. 

Visual Teaching and Learning

You can see it or you cannot - there is no grey area. 

Who do we need make our teaching visible to?

* Learners - not all children can read the teachers mind, having the ability to succeed needs to be made available to everyone. 

* Whanau - there should be a transparent partnership with the whanau of the children in your class this aligns with the Treaty of Waitangi. 

* Colleagues - By sharing ideas we are not re inventing the wheel and other teachers have some amazing ideas, why don't we share and celebrate these talents. 

* Wider Community - having accountability of what you are teaching.

When we make the learning visible it makes it easier for the learner, they know what they are doing, how they are doing it and when they are doing it. It allows those children with additional needs feel supported as there is a visual structure that they can follow. They know what is coming up and there is no surprises. .

I have begun to put my planning onto my class site. as I have a child in my class who has additional needs. This child's whanau is able to see what we are focusing through the week and follow up the learning at home. If there is something that is out of routine she is able to prepare her child, this saves meltdowns and frustrations. 

I also have my planning on the class tv screen while I am giving the children instructions on what they are doing for the day. I have begun to see them look back at the screen to read what there task is, therefore less interruptions while I am working with a guided group. 

Multi Modal

Learning from Sites for children has to be: Engaging - there needs to be excitement from the children , they want to be on the site.

                                                     Empowering - they need to be learning at their ability and a have the opportunity to take their learning to the next level. 

                                                     Be personal to them - all children learn in different ways and have differing abilities. 

                                                     Accelerated achievement - the children need to be achieving at a faster rate than they would be if they were only using non digital technologies. 

Multi modal uses a range of communication types to get the learning across e.g Videos, articles, differing ability texts, audio, web sites. This allows all learners to access the learning. 

The Hook 

The first page of the site that the children are working from needs to be like the shop window. Would they want to come in? Are the children excited about the learning that is displayed on the front page? 

If you have the right hook and the children know what they are to do, they become empowered and then want to take responsibility for their own learning. 

Having learning on Sites means that is available 24/7. It should be able to stand up on its own, the children know where to go and what to do without assistance from the teacher. 

After this presentation I was able to participate in the collaborative bubble and create a Site that could be used as part of my classroom program. We all had similar ideas and could find texts, activities that can be added to make a multi modal site about Matariki. 

Matariki

I definitely will be using this approach within my classroom program and am looking forward to making some sites to share with my learners in the future.