Using Social Media - Student Voice and Feedback

 I have been trying Social Media as a method of engaging the students with the work for about a term now and need some student feedback as to how they think it is going. I decided not to send them a Google form as that takes too much nagging to get them to do it, so I have just been talking to them face to face and asking them questions in person.

The links to each of them are on the front of my class site - link here

Student Feedback

Student 1 - Y13

She has followed the TikTok account and is asking me if I have done any new ones. She watched the latest one about rendering. She is one of the students who helped me learn how to do the basics on TikTok so she was quite keen to see how I did with it.

Student 2 - Y13

Not very good at reading his emails so does not get the notifications about new videos being up. He hasn't really engaged with the content because of this. 

Student 3 - Y13

She has watched the videos on TikTok. (especially the cookies one ... they all love the cookie recipe !!). She seems to use a "just in time" method with her watching. When she needed to know something about 3D, she went specifically to that video to watch it and when she wanted to know about rendering, she went to that one. 

Student 4 - Y13

Her attendance has not been great so this is exactly the kind of student I was hoping to help with the trial, but she does not open her emails so knew nothing about it.

Student 5 - Y12 (not taught by me)

He watched the video the first time I sent them round but has not engaged with them since then. He is the type of student who does read his emails but he has not watched any more of the videos. He is unsure if this is to do with him not being taught by me but it is me that is sending the links through.

Student 6 - Y11

Watched the first ones and found one of them useful - the perspective one. Saw the emails for the latest ones but did not look at the videos they were busy and "forgot". They don't use either TikTok or Instagram so can not give an opinion as to whether they are useful on there. They watch on YouTube when they do watch.

Student - 7 - Y11

Has not seen any of them as he does not look at emails that are past the top. He has watched the one I sent last week. He thinks that adding spoken instructions would be more helpful. Watched it on TikTok last week.

Student 8 - Y11

Does not check his emails. If he did watch them, they would watch them on TikTok.

Student 9 - Y13

Does not read her emails.

Thoughts :-

• The HUGE stumbling block with this plan is relying on the emails to notify the students that a new video has been uploaded. How do I get them to follow on one of the three social media that I have been putting the videos on?
• Should I put posters up in the room with the social media logos and the handle of the account? This would only work if they are in the room but at least it isn't relying on them opening their emails!!
• Links directly to the videos on the class site and the workspace as I at least know they are going there. (I tried this with the Y9 food class - class site example here)
• QR codes posted up on the wall - made into stickers etc.

Using Workspaces

 The school has been using Hapara workspaces for a few years now. Our DP in charge of curriculum has been pushing for all staff to have the work for the students to complete on a workspace so there is a consistent approach. Also, when you make the workspace public, you can embed it onto your class website so the planning and set work can be seen publicly.

To be completely honest, I was not the fastest convert to working this way. I already had all my work on my class site where my students made copies of the docs and I kept track via a spreadsheet. I made the workspaces as I had been asked to, put them on my site with some work on them, but didn't really engage after that. Bit of a "box tick", compliance thing.

Since going in and out of lockdowns over the last two and a half years and the students not having a lot of consistency, I decided to give it a better try. 

I am a definite convert now. As I already had all the resources on my class site, it did not take a lot of time to set up the cards on the workspaces for all the activities. Yes, it is putting the same stuff in two different places but this has proved to be a positive thing as it gives the students the ability to start the work from where ever they are accessing it. Blog post here.

I got some students voice last year about how they liked to be presented with the work. A lot of the things that I do came out - like making examples and making step. by steps / how to's - blog post here, so I wanted to make sure the students still had access to these things if the only place they were going to for the work when not in the classroom was the workspace. I have been putting my examples and step by step documents and how to videos all on the workspaces so they are easy to find. There is also a link to where everything is on the class site so they can see it there too. 

Another thing that I wanted to try this year was to use workspaces as the evidence "dump" for the drawn work that the students produce as well as the written work. I have only just started trying this, but it is going ok so I will be continuing this next year. The Year 13 student who has been trying this out for me has been taking here own pictures of the work so it hasn't created extra work for me really. I wrote a blog post about this thinking earlier this year.

Here are links to some of my workspaces embedded on my class site.

• Year 9 Food Tech
• Y11 DVC - Architect Information
• Y11 DVC Design Brief
• Y13 DVC Initiate Design Ideas - This was my first attempts at getting the students to put their drawn work on a workspace.
• Y13 DVC Product Design - This one includes blank templates to add design concepts that the students have drawn and photographed.

Here are a couple of examples of one students design and concepts and concept developments that they put onto the workspace (I have made copies of them so their names do not appear as the owner)

• Concepts
• Concept Development

This has definitely made it easier to have all of the work referenced in one place. This is really useful for marking and moderating. The original drawings will still need to be posted to Wellington for external marking. I actually agree with them seeing the originals to be honest as it is difficult to get a consistently clear image from scanning or photographing and you don't want to risk any details being lost.

I am a definite convert to this, but I still have to make my workspaces look pretty!!! - Blog post here

Reading - Information Transfer

 As part of our Technology PD on Literacy, our literacy coordinator, Marc Milford, has been taking us through some reading strategies. This is a key part of the inquiry focus and goals for the school and cluster which is around reading. 

Marc shared a template that he has been using in the maths department where they took the problems apart and transferred the information into a grid. He wanted us to have a go at using this method with our subjects. As my Year 11 and Year 13 students are mostly at a point in their project work where they have to find information about different materials that they could use in their designs, this was a perfect topic to use.

As I have previously done a lot of work involving SOLO Taxonomy and writing, I decided to structure my reading exercise around SOLO too. 

Link to previous SOLO work

Link to SOLO resources

Link to document - the last page was added in response to feedback from Marc as he wanted links to key words and visuals. The Y13 class did this exercise today without the last page and it was added for the Year 11 group later in the day.

Here is some of the work completed today by the students. There is only one completed one from the Year 11 class as we only had a single period right at the end of the day.

Year 11	Year 13
Student 1	Student 1
	Student 2
	Student 3
	Student 4

Some feedback that I received from one of the Year 13 students was that i need to improve the last two columns so the instructions are clearer. (the purple columns). This is where I am wanting them to apply what they have been reading to their own design ideas. She was correct. I do need to structure and support those two parts better with more and clearer steps / questions.

Inquiry - Utilising Social Media to Advertise the DVC Course

 In a previous blog post, I have discussed my reasoning for using social media to reach the students. This year, the DVC course does not have any Year 10 students on the Technology rotations so we decided to do a bit of advertising. This was to coincide with this weeks Careers expo. We filmed students working and some student work and put it together in a. short movie and shared it with the Y10, Y11 and Y12 students as these are the ones who will be making their option decisions soon. These links were emailed round to them. We also made another one during the expo and shared that with them too. I am hoping this has done two main things. Advertised the course for next year and made them aware of the content on social media so they will maybe check back.

    Promo Links

• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube

    Expo Links

• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube

Inquiry - Student Feedback - Small Steps

 I received some unasked for feedback from my Year 9 students today as they were coming into their cooking lesson. Read the blog post here explaining how I am experimenting with using social media.

They came in today and quite a few were saying " I watched the video Miss" .... " I know what to do Miss". One boy had even watched the video on all three places it was hosted! This makes a very pleasant change from them not even opening the email with the link to the class site and having no idea what they were doing when they got to the lesson.

Small steps but it made me smile.

Inquiry - Can Social Media be an Option?

My inquiry this year is about motivation and engagement. I have outlined in this blog post how I feel that this is going so far this year and how i feel it is time to have a new direction for this. I have also thought about questions to move me forward.

My main thoughts are, can I utilise social media as a tool for engagement and motivation?

This brought with it a lot of soul searching as to whether I should. I have bemoaned the constant use of mobile phones by students along with everyone else and their dwindling attention spans due to short, sharp inputs of information from their little hand held buddies. But then I started thinking, is this going to change? No. It isn't. So can I use it? 

After getting feedback from one of my most unmotivated students that he learned stuff from TikTok, I decided to have a look. Like the rest of the internet, it is a combination of interesting stuff, fun stuff and total piffle. I started an account and had a go at making some Lego movies myself. It was fun. I wasn't great at using the app so decided before going further I would engage the help of the experts. Over the last 2 weeks, I have been getting some pretty intensive training from my lovely Year 13 girls, who are finding it amusing to be training me and are exited when I show them my new videos. 

After talking my plan over the DP in charge of curriculum and Fiona from Manaiakalani, I decided to load the videos up to three places, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. This was not arduous, as when you make a video on TikTok, it is downloaded to your phone. This just means uploading it to the other two spaces and copying and pasting the written stuff.

The reason i have decided to include my Year 9 Food Tech class in this experiment is that they are driving me TOTALLY CRAZY!!! I put a load of effort into the site pages for each recipe, with videos to watch, links to check out etc. Example here. I email this to them directly and they don't check their emails. When it comes to cooking day, I ask if they have looked at the resources I have sent them. No, comes the reply. I have been printing out the recipes so they have them available to follow on the day. I have to remind them they are there. Since making a few examples on TikTok, I have been getting some promising feedback from them. 

There is still the hitch that I have to email the link to the video directly to them so they know that it is there, but small steps.

Here is where I am up to with this experiment as of writing this blog post.

Year 13 - AS91627	TikTok	Instagram	YouTube
Observational Drawing	Link	Link	Link
Observational Drawing Tracing Technique	Link	Link	Link
Media	Link	Link	Link
Form	Link	Link	Link
Pattern	Link	Link	Link
Concept Ideas	Link	Link	Link

Year 9 Food Tech	TikTok	Instagram	YouTube
Dumplings	Link	Link	Link
Cookies	Link	Link	Link
Chocolate Muffins	Link	Link	Link

Coding	TikTok	Instagram	YouTube
Microbit Flashing Heart	Link	Link	Link

Link to spreadsheet as this will be kept up to date so I can find things easily.

I will get some feedback from my Year 13 and Year 9 students and then start making some for my Year 11 class. I am hoping I can send links to the Year 10 students to use them as advertising for the course for next year as DVC isn't offered to Year 10 this year.

PD - Building and Strengthening our Local Curriculum

 

Inquiry - Update and questions to move forward

 

Link to document

Inquiry - Causal chain

"A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect
A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action."

Link to original drawing

Inquiry - Restating the Problem

 "How can I use and expand on existing platforms that the students are familiar with, to motivate them to be more engaged with their work."

At the start of the year, I had decided to focus on motivation and engagement for my inquiry problem. I have been making help videos and support material for all the activities that they have been asked to do so far this year. I have been putting this help on the class site and on the student workspaces, so it is all really easy to find. I have been emailing the direct links to this to the students. 

So far this year, this has been ok for those students who are engaging with communications from school (emails etc) but hopeless for those students who don't. If they don't check their emails, go on the class site or the workspaces, they are not engaging with the work at all. The videos and help have been really helpful for those students who are working form home for any period of time and for those in the class while I work one to one with others.

During some PD this week, I was listening to Subash Chander K from Ormiston Junior College
Youtube - infinityplusone
Twitter - @elsubash

He was talking about how he started a YouTube channel for Maths and the really positive affect it has had on students. This really clicked with me as I had already been ticking an idea over in my head about trying to reach the students in a different way, especially those who don't connect with the traditional channels. A really interesting question that he raised was, can education be on demand.

This links nicely with the Manaiakalani kaupapa of ubiquitous learning, anytime and any place. Also, after the last CoL meeting, where we were talking about how to use technology to support what we need to do, this seemed to fit really well. 

Another place where this fits well is from student feedback when i was talking to them about what they thought motivation was. - blog post here. One particular comment stuck with me from an especially unmotivated student. He said that he uses social media to learn new things. I had not looked at it this way before and it started a little kernel of thought at the back of my head. This came to the surface again this week while listening to the teacher talking about using YouTube channels.

So, I have a slightly different direction to go in now. It is still firmly based in student motivation and engagement but with a twist.

 

PD - Beyond the Code

 https://events.humanitix.com/ytech-beyond-the-code

Edwina

You don't need maths and science for every tech role. Tech is part of every job and career.

@ytechnz

Keynote - Dan Te Whenua Walker - Microsoft

Indigenous at Microsoft

A platform to do good in the community.

<2% M and P in tech industry

Cultural tax / low trust / lack of role models

Indigenous @microsoft launched august 2020

aka.ms/indigenous

#10kwahine

Tupu Toa - skills training

Maori AI and neural machine learning

Microsoft translator - creating access to the language for more people

Holo lens - builds the space around you in VR

Tupu.nz

Maori minecraft universe

Wrapped xbox

id@xbox - game developers

Xbox cloud gaming - play on other devices

Subash Chander K - Ormiston Junior College

Slido - 20207

Youtube - infinityplusone

Twitter - @elsubash

Flipped learning - creating videos for the students to access their learning

Project AA - sphero robots

Live streaming resulted in lots of feedback and questions from the students. Much more than the online lessons.

Can education be on demand?

When, as adults we need to know something or learn how to do something, we go online. Watch a video / read some info. We learn what to do when we need to know it.

Can you sometimes be guilty of forcing “the fancy stuff” on the kids where they want a more basic approach.

Passion projects can ignite a different side to the kids interests.

Adobe creative educator

Teachers need to be -

Master of adaptability, how fast cab you change to meet the needs of the time?

30 Women And Gender Diverse Folks Tell Us How They Got Into Tech? (School Student Friendly)

Whitney Steel - Xero

Not all jobs in tech need tech experience. Don't need coding or science and maths

@whitneysee - -tictok

Tech - be aware of what is the here and now - to be disruptive , you have to know what is now in order to change it. Keeping an eye on the future and what is changing in order to be able to do this.

Starting to code with Python

 My Year 8 coding class came back to me today after their two week break. Last term we were working with the mBots, looking and binary and using the sensors on the mBot. Link to the mBot planning on my class site.

Today, we started playing with the Microbits - link to planning. The online app for using the microbits is great, as there is a simulator to test the code before you put it onto the actual microbit. You can code in either the blocks or python / java script. It takes you through activities with tutorials, step by step, to build your skills and confidence.

What we did today was to start with the block coding, as they were comfortable with that as they have done a lot of it with the mBots. We then did the same activities using Python and put screen shots of both side by side so they can compare and see what each part means. This was good as they could then change parts of one and see what what happened with the other. Being able to click back and forth between blocks and Python on the screen was really useful for this today. They could also see what rules were needed when writing the simple lines of code (like indenting).

This was all written up on a presentation by the students with examples of what they have been looking at and changing in the code.

Link to my example

Moving from AS91627 to AS91630

 My Year 13 class have to put up with their standards for DVC looking bad for a while as we work on the external first - AS91627

This then feeds through to the product design standard - AS91630

To help with this, last week we had a talk about convergent and divergent thinking and designing. Link to information on the class site.

We also talked about Biomimicry, and how it is applied to design.

This has led onto working on their first design ideas. So far they have done observational drawings of their chosen starting points and looked at the design elements of form and pattern. This now needs to feed into their first thoughts. We have got half way through the design brief, so they have interviewed their client and have an idea of what they are going to be designing. They have also started thinking about the functional, social and physical elements.

I want them to start their first thoughts / concepts before they write the specification in the design brief. This is because we talked about designing in a convergent way and I feel the specification will hold them in too much. This was a hard point to get to as they have to draw ideas without focussing too hard on the outcome. They have to show the influence of their starting points / form / pattern but not have it just look like a copy.

My examples of where they are up to are on the workspace for AS91627

This is my example of what I wanted them to try for this next step.

Here are examples form some of the girls who have got to this step first. I am really pleased with how they have managed this activity as it is a hard one.

Inquiry 2022 - Year 9 Food Tech - Trying to get engagement - Take 2

 At the beginning of the month, I started trying to get more engagement from my Year 9 Food Tech class by giving them choice of what to cook. Blog post here

To be honest, this did not really work very well.  They were still floating around the kitchen being annoying and generally getting in trouble.

The next thing that I have tried is making laminated recipe cards for each kitchen so they don't have to have their chrome books in the kitchen to be able to see the recipe. So far I have made ones for burgers where I included pictures of the equipment on the back and Mac n Cheese, with the method on the back.

This week, I tried to get the students to make them selves job lists using the method. They have three people in their teams on the kitchen so they had to write three lists of jobs on Friday ready for the practical lesson making brownies today. This was not much of a success. There was not enough detail in their lists as they did not break down the method into small enough steps. I decided to make their recipe cards for this week with an example job list on the back so they can see how much detail is needed.

What I also did differently today was show them the WHOLE process at the start instead of calling them back for each step. When I have done it step by step previously, this class has been difficult to focus on what I was telling them and not all of them could come round as they were in the middle of something. It caused more trouble than it solved to be honest.  Today, I had them all together focussing on the whole process and they then went away with their job lists and got on with it. The talk was really good, very work related and the team work in the kitchen was MUCH better. They all knew what to do and what each team member needed to do while other things were going on.

We shall see if this continues to work as a process with this class but I was very pleased with them today.

PD - Sesame Seared Tuna

 Today we made sesame seared tuna. This was sliced thinly and put on top of baked wonton wrappers cut into triangles. A salad was served with it with wasabi mayonnaise.

Link to sesame seared tuna recipe.

PD - Thai Chicken Peanut Cakes and Crispy Fried Tofu with Spicy Curry Sauce

 I had a great week with Mrs Heka's Year 13 catering class this week. They let me come and learn along with them while Mrs Heka is taking tham through some finger food ideas fo a function they are catering for later in the year.

On Tuesday I made Thai Chicken Peanut Cakes

On Thursday, the theme was bao buns, with the students making a variety of flavoured fillings. The filling I was in charge of today was tofu with a spicy curry sauce. Here is the link to the recipe that was used, with tofu replacing the pork.

Manaiakalani CLuster Create Workshop

 We got together as a whole cluster at Glen Taylor school for our Cluster Create Workshops

Here is the presentation that I presented with Robyn Anderson, where we were playing with the microbits.

Inquiry 2022 - Year 9 Food Tech - Trying to get engagement

 I have Year 9 Food Tech classes again this year. This means that I see 3 Year 9 classes over the year in a rotation. I personally find the. change over between rotations part way through the year difficult as I have just got to know one set of students for 12 weeks then it changes to another group. If I find it difficult as an adult, the students must find it even more so.

We are two weeks into our new rotation and the first practical cooking lesson on Wednesday did not go so well. They were not listening to me trying to explain the techniques they need to use and I was getting extremely frustrated with them. I did warn them in advance that I am a little more strict in the kitchen for two reasons, safety and the fact that it is not my room so I feel especially conscious of how we treat it. Luckily on Wednesday, the HOD Technology, the lovely Mrs Heka, came through just as I was at the point of glueing them to the ceiling. We settled and got on and completed our practical session. 

This needs to improve, so on our single period on Friday, where we would normally do the theory work for the practical use (recipe evaluation etc), I decided to focus on mindset and buy in instead,

I showed the students the list of practicals that we were going to do during the whole rotation and I got them to vote on what they wanted to make next Wednesday. Burgers came out on top by a MILE. We then looked at the recipe and talked about what all the codes for the measurements meant and what tools and equipment they would need to use. I am hoping that this will give them a little more confidence going into the kitchen next week, they know what they are going to make and what all the recipe elements are. I also found a Gordon Ramsay video of him making burgers and a video on how to make the burger sauce we are going to make. Watching the videos was great as they were commenting on things that they liked and wanted to include in theirs next week,

Here is the class website with all the overall planning  and here is the planning for burgers in particular.

I am hoping this gives them some buy in and engagement for the next practical session as they will be going in having made choices and have prior knowledge they can refer back to.

Planning for AS91068 - Undertake development of design ideas through graphics practice

 Planning for AS91068 - Undertake development of design ideas through graphics practice.

The whole project is broken down using the explanations on the standard. This ensures that i am planning for the highest levels. This is also useful for the students to know what they have to do for each level.

Link to doc here

This then gets laid out onto the class website, with links through to all the tasks, the standard, NZQA exemplars and the clarification. Each task page has instructions, reading and examples to support them through what they have to do.

Link to class site

The students work on Hapara Workspaces, so the templates and help are also put onto a workspace that we use to hand in the work.

Link to the workspace is here. - (as of writing this, this workspace is a definite "under construction" )

The good thing about this standard is that I can attach another couple of standards to the project - the Design Brief standard (AS91044) - link to work for that here. I can also do the rendering standard (AS91066) with this project too, when they are showing form, texture and materials on their design ideas. (another pile of "in process" planning here )

The external that i enter the students into for this course is AS91063. It is all about their freehand sketching through the design process.

I make sure I build in lots of opportunities for doing this. Here is the examples that I make to guide them. The designs are leading out from AS91067, so really all this work is one massive project.

As you can see, this planning was built around one standard but includes a lot of other elements that means the students can pick up more credits for the work that they do.One extended project that has 5 standards attached to it.

PD - Laser Cutter Presentation

 

Inquiry 2022 - What is Motivation

 My inquiry this year is about motivation. I have been round the school with a note pad asking staff and students what they think motivation is, how they motivate themselves and how they motivate other people.

Staff

• Something that makes me want to do something. The will to do something and the enthusiasm. When you reach the point of success or whatever your goal is.

• Be encouraging and positive towards other people. Thinking about my why and mainly my who. Being thankful and grateful.

• Impetus and having a reason to do something. It depends on what the end result is and if it is needed. Getting something going, pushing.

• Have a reason to get up in the morning. Family.

• Providing structure, day to day and big picture. Enjoying what you do even if it turns to custard occasionally.

• Taking on passion projects. Focus on things that I am passionate about. The ongoing success of these helps me to stay motivated.

• The burst of energy to do something but you need discipline to keep it consistent. Talk to the students about their interests to establish a connection. Are they in the mood to motivate themselves? Asking how the teacher can support them. Getting them to reflect on themselves with goal setting - what motivates them? Ask them about their why.

• Motivation can be cultivated with a classroom culture of hard work and excitement. 65% of it has to come from the students themselves with their buy in to what you are doing. Curiosity and wonder is the place where you need to start. Get them excited to learn and use this to get them to a place where they get to make what they want. Student agency - your planning needs to be flexible to incorporate their interests.

Students

• Inspiring - both the environment and someone's energy. Having a challenge.

• Consistently striving to do something that you desire. I remember situations where I felt helpless and weak and strive to be better than that. I try to be encouraging. I get them to seek help and guide them to places where they can grow further.

• It is difficult for me to get motivated. When I am on my phone I am on Youtube and TikTok. These keep my attention as they have interesting stuff. I learn things from them that I did not know before.

• I think about the past and how I was last year and I want to be better. Teacher nagging helps me a lot. I don't like it at the time but I know it helps me.

• My dreams for the future. I want to keep doing things that I enjoy and use them for a future career. I think back to the small version of me from the past who liked drawing and making things and I don't want to let that version of me down by not doing my best with it.