Reflection

Reflection Week 6
Cohort 2
Today we again focused on developing our own Google Sites. I share a Google Site (Class Site) with my principal's release and we have developed the site over just more than three years. We redesigned it a few times for new groups and new levels of students but kept a lot of the previous planning and resources. One of my goals is to archive these resources and planning and to tidy up the site. We will also try to look at making it easier for the students to navigate their way around the site and maybe to personalised it more for the group we are currently teaching. One of the people in my group suggested that we use the students to design the icons we use as links instead of downloading clipart for this purpose. I think that is a great idea.
I will need to revisit Gerhard's session from this morning and make further adjustments to our site.
It was also great to look at examples of class sites from other schools. Also very beneficial to critique them and decide how I would like to adjust my own site. There are some great examples within the Manaiakalani cluster of schools as well as the Outreach schools.
Dorothy talked this morning about the (Manaiakalani) kaupapa of being "Connected". Manaiakalani and Manaiakalani Outreach schools are already well connected at so many different levels and this is especially the case for our students.
Dorothy also emphasised the fact that you can't "Connect" if you don't "Share". In fact, all 4 elements of the kaupapa (connected, empowered, visible, ubiquitous) are important. They are all interconnected and can't exist without each other. 
I'm looking forward to next week's session on using "Explain Everything" in the Junior classes (Years 1-3). At our school, this is an important area to develop further.
Nga mihi
Casper