I managed to update my website this morning - added a few more articles to read and things to do. It's been good to have somewhere to keep everything easily accessible.
I read two articles today that really resonated with me.
The difference between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning and This is the Time. I loved the question posed in this second article:
“If you were told that you didn’t have a curriculum, what would you teach?"It's such a good question and has me thinking about what is really important for our ākonga right now. Relationships are really the key and if I can keep in contact with my mentor group I will be really happy. Checking in has never been more important I think. I also like the questions Will Richardson asks in his blog - The parent opportunity. These will be questions I want to ask when I call and touch base around learning.
- When is your child most engaged with their online school experience? Why? What drives that engagement?
- When is your child bored or disengaged? Why?
- When do your children feel joy in learning? What circumstances lead to that?
- What are you learning about your children during this experience? How does that learning happen?
- How are your children’s learning skills improving during this time? What’s changing about them as learners?
I ordered a few things from my online pharmacy today. It makes you wonder how shopping will happen after all of this. I do find it much easier to go online and have things delivered! Will we continue to do this after lockdown? Who knows. I know we have been moving towards more online shopping anyway, but I never even thought to go to some of these online shops until now. At the moment many online stores are just not coping with the influx of orders but many are embracing this change and working hard to make things work efficiently. I think there will be an increase in sales online, even after lockdown as we all find it's easier than going out. I wonder who has been doing the online shop thing for ages - I'm probably just old fashioned and thought I had to go to a shop to get things. Change is on it's way, in so many aspects of our lives. I read this article also today - Four Possible Futures and found it quite thought-provoking. I must say I am enjoying the time to read and reflect more!
Had a good discussion with my son about what is learning, and what education could look like. We talked about how learning to learn is the key thing that schools need to get through to their students. But how do you teach people to learn? We came up with 3 main strands that are needed - Hauora, Literacies and Motivation. I think that this also answers some of the questions above. You need motivation to learn, so what is that motivation for each individual. It is going to be individual, as is the wellbeing/hauora side of things. How can we learn more from this experience to help us lead learning in a more individual personalised way? So many things going through my head right now!!
Another sunny day so spent some time in the garden which was good. I chatted with a few people online, keeping up my contact for the day and managed to lose a couple of hours in my genealogy research - the time flies when I am doing that!
Friday 3 Apr
A busy day today. I spent a lot of time doing school work today. We needed to get a good handle on whether our whanau had internet connection and a device to work on, knowing that many of them don't. We are so lucky to have access to all of this online where some people don't have the access. This is not an equitable time at all and I feel that we will fall short for many of our ākonga during this time. But we can only do what we can do. Hopefully the Ministry of Education will come to the party and help out for some of them.
I made kasundi today - it's a spicy green tomato chutney that is absolutely stunning with chicken! Decided to pick the green tomatoes and tidy up the vege garden a bit before planting some more seeds. Nice to be out in the garden! I also picked a ton of lemons today - I do miss not being able to give out fruit and veg to neighbours and colleagues, having to make things with them instead. I'll just have to hand out frozen and bottled fruit and veg when we finally get to go out again. Not sure what I'll do with the lemons yet, that's tomorrow's job.
Quite a few chats with people today, good to catch up with whanau of my ākonga. Many of them doing fine but a few struggling, especially with having everyone in close quarters. I know I enjoy getting out for a walk each day and spending time in the garden when I can. One parent was really enjoying getting her tamariki out in the garden sowing seeds and measuring out distance between seeds when planting. Such a great learning moment, we should be encouraging more of this.
I have read a few more articles today, mainly around online learning and the difference between what happens normally and what happens in a crisis situation like this. I did like this article - just getting us to realise this is not normal. It does concern me that some schools are just doing exactly what they would do normally but putting it all online. It's not the same and we need to think about this in a different way.
I think I stuck my head in the sand a bit as I have 147 emails in my inbox for home. I've been avoiding using a computer where possible but maybe I should clear these - I normally do it every day but been a bit slack lately. Lots of genealogy emails and lots of Covid19 ones as well. Maybe tomorrow...
Saturday 4 Apr
I had a pretty relaxed day today. Managed to get through a large chunk of those lemons - making lemon juice ice blocks, lemon syrup and 2 lemon cakes for my lovely children! I also managed to make cookies and cook a roast - been a busy cooking day.
My emails have gone up to 157 - I really need to get onto those tomorrow but stuck my head in the sand today. I kept off any device until this evening when I really felt I needed to complete this blog.
I had a good day today playing Talisman with my children. It's an amazing game that I really enjoy but it takes a lots of brain power. I feel that I am a step behind my children at all times an I struggle to keep up with the play sometimes. I enjoy the game though and it's well worth playing if you can. My son has every expansion in the world I think - it was his birthday and Christmas presents for years. But it was nice to play the game for the day - keen to have another session tomorrow.
It was nice to catch up with my brother tonight. He lives in Golden Bay and I was considering going up there soon to say hi but that idea is down the track now. Good to have a chat about life, the universe and everything.
I'm thinking every few days is a good time to post these, so here it is. Haven't finished the latest jigsaw, maybe tomorrow.
Don't forget to put your clocks back tonight!!!
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