Let the Creative Juices Flow

Today's session delved into Hanga (Create) and how we can use different media to do so. It was a very full on day and I definitely felt I needed some more bubble time before we went our seperate ways. I've learnt something about myself these last 3 sessions - I'm fast becoming the girl in everyones fifth form history class who won't stop asking annoying questions. Yep, and I'm fine with that!   

Prior to jumping on board the Manaiakalani waka I'd always kind of viewed my role as a Year 9 teacher as the one who imparts the knowledge. This is not to say I thought I was the 'expert' by any means, but I definitely thought it was my job to 'fill' my 29 wee 'vessels' with as much knowledge as I could in 1 year. Enough that could set them up nicely for secondary programmes and NCEA. Tick those boxes, Miss Jackson, and if you ignite some creativity and passion, then bonus point I suppose. I remember watching Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk - "Do Schools kill Creativity?" and thinking I got it. I thought I understood the importance and place of creativity in the classroom. Not really. Today's intro got me thinking about that clip once more, and how much deeper now my understanding is. I know that creators are not merely consumers and my role is to support creative thinking. I really like this statement Dorothy shared with us ~ creating is a purpose for learning. Not a by-product, not a 'if we have time' kinda deal.

Early in the morning Dorothy also shared with us a blog post by Robin Sutton (Principal of Hornby High School) and his reference to Alan November and the $1000 pencil. This means applying new tools to old ways of doing things. What a fantastic analogy. It's a little bit cringe-worthy to admit that 10 years ago I employed many $1000 pencils in my own classroom! I remember being really excited about the 2 ipads and mac-book that suddenly appeared in my room. What did we do with them? Typed stories and looked at augmented reality sites on rainy day lunch times. How engaging. Face palm.

The rest of the Day 3 was an absolute brain-frying experience. It was a little overwhelming as there was a lot of content that really appealed to me. 

Here are my key takings from the day...

Youtube

Make sure what I upload is Unlisted, and make sure the commenting is turned off.

Head to 'Studio Youtube' to change settings/content and comments/listing etc...

To make it a kids channel ~ Go to 'Channel' then 'Advanced Settings'.

To turn off commenting and make videos unlisted ~ 'Upload defaults'

One thing I never understood - The Channel is where you are uploading content to!

If I want to share a playlist - click in to the playlist, click on the 3 dots, then 'Playlist settings', 'Allow embedding', close the box, 'Share' playlist, grab the code. Easy.

One of our Deep Dives today was on Media

Satchi & Satchi advertising came up with SiSiMo - sight, sound, and motion. This concept is just as reevant in learning as it is in advertising. You have the be entertained at the same time as you're being informed!

By the way... When videoing - footage should aways be landscape.

Google Draw ~ Tanga Kūkara

To set page size ~ 'File', then 'Page set up' or 'customise'.

Use 'View' ~ Guides to add lines, quadrants etc for spacing.

You can crop to a shape! Use the drop down arrow next to crop tool.

Shift+click and drag - will ensure the shape stays perfect - use this in Slides too!

Download as a 'png'. This allows the background to be transparent!

Always stick to size small when embedding/publishing to the web.

Ata Kūkara ~ Google Slides

Use tweet length talk

A picture really is worth 1000 words! Use pictures!

Ditch the defaults, stop using the fancy formats and themes. K.I.S.S!

Keep fonts to a minimum

My WOW moment today was using Google Slides to make awesome animations/DLO's for kids to share. 

Slides

When we want to publish to the Web, Click on 'Embed', change slide size to small, auto-advance every 1 second, publish, ctrl+c, embed to site!   

From Seesaw you have to click on 'View Google Doc'. Then click 'Present'. This is a bit of a pain and won't look as cool as on blogger.

Using the 'Explore' function gives other template options!

Use the + on the left hand side to add slides instead of going to 'Slide'

For transitions - Click on the text box so that it is a 4 point arrow. Use left/right arrows to move in a straight line. I'll need to investigate how this looks on an ipad. 

If I want tamariki to watch a portion of a video I've inserted  - 'Insert', 'Video', choose where you will inset from. On the right hand side - select when you want the clip to begin and end. If the box disappears, click on 'Format option'

We had 30 minutes to 'Level up' and hone in on one of the areas we had looked at up until this point. I choose Slides, and got to play round with creating an animation. This will fit perfectly with our Kaupapa Māori at the moment - Ko Maui me te Rā ~ Maui and the Sun. I know the boys particularly will be really excited and I can't wait to show them some of the work from other tamariki in the cluster.

After lunch we carried on with Slides. We looked at how to use Slides to create numeracy DLO's. Our task was to create a town following set guidelines. We've been investigating 2D shapes at kura, so I can't wait to try this with them too - I know they will love it! 

Here's my play-time creation.