#9 Meet May 7th- what impact did this have on my thinking or planning?

On May 7th we were to have our first hangout since lockdown happened. It was really great to see everyone and hear how they had all fared during lockdown. It become apparent to us all that due to being in a Manaiakalani school, we were on a better footing than most for providing a digital programme for our students.
We all admitted that our projects had taken a back seat due to the overwhelming demands of building, providing and teaching and online programme. I felt like I was attached to my laptop, and I missed my students. I had a fairly successful attendance rating though, for my Google Meets (18/25) and great engagement with the programme I delivered.

Coming up with new ideas for the meets was fun, we did funky hats, quizzes, kahoots, guess the baby photos, guess the object, NZ trivia, build a fort, bingo and teacher reads. The students were really excited to logon and see their friends. We had whole syndicate meets on Fridays to award certificates. We even had a guest speaker from the Warriors camp in Australia, Chanel Harris-Tavita.

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1cWnnQYVwGkhbb3tQGTnU436zytBj0TriZOKgs5iyFYI/edit

We also found that when we gave the students choice boards to work from for Reading and Maths, we got even more engagement. We made the tasks varied and fun based. The students added their slides to a lockdown creation slideshow for us to mark. For writing they completed a Lockdown Diary. We filled our site with other activities for Science, The Arts, PE, Kindness and Cybersmart. This was so successful that we have taken it back to the class post lockdown. They are really enjoying the independence and choice. Below are an example of one of my students diary and slideshow.

While I have become far more competent at teaching and meeting online, I am relieved to be back in the classroom. Although this experience has heightened and honed my digital capabilities. It has also made me realise how significant our digital projects are in this strange new world we find ourselves in.