Gretchen's learning

Drama NZ webinar with Dr Viv Aitken As some know, I'm a bit of a true fan of Viv's and of  Mantle of the Expert .  I learn from her, get all inspired and enthused then these treasures fade to the background as day to day life tasks seem to takes over my time and energy.  It was great to have the opportunity to connect with her again at this time, revisit this amazing learning and spark some thinking - and action! Viv has been working with teachers from Hillcrest Normal School.  Questions they have asked themselves during this period of home learning: What are our new assumptions? -'at home' means something different for every child -we're creating IEPs for every child -we are trying to be equitable -Learning from home is already happening (with whānau etc.) -we need to be flexible - moving from Level 4 to Level 3...how long? then what? What do children need in times of uncertainty? -we need to learn from whānau -connection to natural world -creativit...

This prompted much thought and I look forward to further conversations with others - webinar will be available via NZEI - well worth a look. My random notes from webinar: Relationships and Commonsense We're at home doing crisis (we're not at home doing work).  Many of us are spread out from our families. Welby spoke about his mother during polio epidemic - no school for 4 months.  His mum learned to ride horse, trapeze, can fruit... School is not the god of learning.  Most kids do most learning outside of school. On average day outside of Covid - 6 hours at school, 8 hours learning out of school. What's happening now - consider it a contribution. Teachers - may be feeling overworked, anxious, vulnerable. Anxiety we might be being measured. This is tough. Answer may be in collective ideas.  Talk and listen to the ideas of others, people we like and respect.  Multiple lenses - one lens is never as good. Look away from screen to what's around us, our hom...

Raranga Matihiko  is offering webinars to support teachers with creating authentic and challenging experiences for our  ākonga using digital technologies.  The one I attended this morning was on Game Based Learning - using Scratch . If you haven't used Scratch you'll need to create an account - it's free. Alisha Spekking (educator/webinar host) suggested these Scratch introductory videos:  https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NTY7jAODNqM&t=16s  (or  https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=A78BfUkRgRw&t=4s  for Te Reo Māori. Raranga Matihiko created 'Decoded for Learners'  tool which puts the two new technological areas from the NZ curriculum (progressions of computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes) into kids speak (MoE have approved these).  They emphasise that these are progressions, not a checklist. Much info about this curriculum area is on TKI  and well worth a look. Alisha shared this video - 7 Reason...