DFI // Core Business - Day 1

Today was the first day of the DFI. First of all, I was nervous and a little excited about how it was going to go and what I was going to be doing. I found some of the content in Core Business today was helpful and interesting. New learning for myself and how I can use my new learning within my classroom.



Learn, create, share is the pedagogy we follow as part of the Manaiakalani cluster so it is important that as teachers we not only model this process, but also remember to give our learners time to share their work.


With the orgin of Manaiakalani having a in-deepth meaning within my own culture, I found to be connected to the story and was engaged in how Manaiakalani was set up.


Personally, I found that with the word 'Manaiakalani' and the meaning of it being a Hawaiian word and how it talks about Navigating through learning to support our learners. (Our tipuna used the stars to Navigate.)









The four aspects above are explained below;

Equity - for all New Zealanders - Everyone will have the opportunity to learn just like everyone else.

Achievement - for our young people to achieve their full potential, academically as well as in multiple aspects of their life

21st century skills- our young people should be learning with 21st century tools, fluent in digital technology and using them to achieve their goals and dreams

Hope - for our community and our individual young people - to be able to dream and know they are totally capable of achieving those dreams.

I have increased my understanding of Manaiakalani Kaupapa and Pedagogy by gainning new knowledge about what the orgin of Manaiakalani and what it was all about. In class, I will try some of the new learning out by use of a choice board with my Literacy Centers. Instead of having a paper copy.

With all the new shortcuts, how to's and the extendstions I will be using the model of the Sandpit Folder that we did today with my students next week. As my students use their chromebooks to publish their writing and other mahi. It will be easier to find, locate and print if needed.

Below the shortcuts/tools I found helpful:


Comments tool/Assign to: A great tool for encouraging student led reading comprehension by assigning questions and responding to assigned questions.


Voice Typing: A great tool to help learners of all ability levels.


Scavenger Hunt: A fun way to practise skills.


Explore Tool: Enables web, image and drive access within Google docs.


Table of Contents: Provides visual links to headings and subtitles in a doc.


Overview: Save page 'real estate' by adding links to headings and subtitles on the side of the doc.

Shortcuts: Time savers... command + shift + B (opens bookmarks bar), command + shift + T (opens a new tab), command + Z (adds a doc to your Drive without making a copy), command + shift + v (pastes without formatting). Command for Mac/Control for Chromebooks.

Below is my infographic choice board of my interests in my peronal life.





I have learnt how to work a little smarter and how I can use online tools in my work flow to make working from home easier.


I look forward to the second day of DFI next week.