Moderation

It is that time of year again when the moderation is returning.
I had to send a Level 1 standard and a Level 2 standard this year, and I was pleased with the summary that came back.
In an effort to move foreword with it all being online and "out there", I have made a moderation page on my DVC site. Most of the links to PDF documents are open to the world. The only one only viewable in the school domain is the cover sheet as it has the students full names on it.
I had fun using my new A3 scanner today, and I scanned in the Level 1 samples. I ran out of time to scan the Level 2 samples today, so that is a job for next week.
It will be good to get to a point where NZQA will accept submissions in this format instead of posting everything to them in HUGE envelopes, both for the external marking at the end of the year and the yearly internal moderation round.

Link to the moderation page here...

Year 9 Cyber Smart Training

I have got a busy week planned, with the whole of Year 9 coming to me for the Cyber Smart course. I have timetabled them in one tutor class at a time in the library, so that is 6 double sessions.
So far I have done two of them. I started yesterday with my tutor class, so I could be more comfortable as this is all new to me!! It wasn't the "smoothest" thing you have ever seen, but they were very forgiving. ( They probably knew what I would do to them if they weren't !! ).
Lessons learned :-

• have the videos ready to play on the laptop, don't rely on YouTube streaming 
• break it up into easier chunks
• let them do more
• don't let myself waffle on so much.

I shared a Google form with my tutor class at the end of the day to get them to tell me how it went, so I could pick up my game for the rest of the year group. Their feedback is here if you are interested, but take no notice of the top two. They were grovelling!
Today I had 9PTd, and it went much better. Here they are watching one of the cyber smart videos.

I tried something new with this group when we were talking about cyber bullying and I got them to put what they were telling me onto a couple of shared Google drawings.

Their responses are here....

What is bullying?

What should you do if cyber bullying starts happening to you?

I have got another four sessions to go over this week and two days next week. I hope they continue to improve as I get more confident and add more things to do.

Link to cyber smart site - Digital Footprints

Wednesday 10th April

I had 9RGf today and I now know a new word....

Keyboard Warrior.

This is when someone is feeling brave behind the keyboard and saying things they wouldn't say to your face.

Here is their feedback on cyber bullying...

Staff Online Support using Google Plus

This is my second year as one of the Manaiakalani facilitators at school. I have come to realise over this time that the staff are WAY more difficult to help than the students. It is pretty obvious when a student is needing your help, even when they don't really tell you, but the staff are a whole different thing.
Communication last year was a mixture of emails, filling in a spreadsheet for bookings and verbal (the latter happening the most often in corridors).
I have started a "How To" site this year, with the most often asked things making their way onto there. I recently branched into making a screencast for this site for the first time, which will be ok as it is not me having to listen to a recording of my own voice!!!
Verbal communication / questions / step by steps have been a lot more popular this year, with staff not being so shy to ask for help ( no one is judging!! ).
So, over this long weekend, I joined a Doctor Who community on Google Plus, and a lot of fun it is! This got me to thinking about a community set up to support staff, where they can ask questions and help others with what they already know. I get round to a LOT of classrooms doing this job and I realise that this is not available to other staff due to lack of time, so sharing seems to be just on a departmental level. We have been doing slam sessions in morning staff briefings with different staff members, but these are not recorded.

I set up the community over the long weekend, and have it set to invite only. I have currently invited all the staff that are on Google Plus, so the next job is to email all staff to let them know, so that those who have not yet started their plus account know what is happening.
I am finding the categories interesting and I have started one so far about internet safety. The sharing has started already as the first post in there is information from another staff member.