DFI - Day One - Core Business, cause it's your business

What a day!

Well, what can I say? It was such a mind blowing, intense and vigorous first day. Now, I consider myself to be a very tech savvy person, but today I was in for a ride, learning all these neat little tricks that I'm never ever going to forget. Look out Google, here I come!

The day started out a little uncertain, with those first day butterflies. I felt like it was my first day of school and I was extremely nervous meeting new people for the first time. I was tempted to not click that "join" button.

 

I have learnt more about how Manaiakalani began and how they have improved over the years to keep up with the ever learning cycle we call education, or life, (whichever you prefer). Manaiakalani have really built on and strengthened their overarching concept, and I think it's pretty impressive how far they have come since they first set out. They have made such a huge break through over these last few years in producing and maintaining such effective practices in the digital learning world. I take my hat off to those that sat down and came up with this eccentric plan!

Something interesting that stuck out for me was the housekeeping rules on google. As this task is so easy and simple to grasp, I instantly thought, "YES! I do this all the time!" Then this made me think about whether these simple rules were being reinforced and practiced with the students that I work alongside. (I shall have to check their profiles when I get back to school!) Even though they are such simple basic house keeping rules, they are quite easy to overlook, just like putting on a hat. From now on, I will try to reinforce and ensure that the students I work alongside are aware and following these rules like I do.

Now, who would have thought that boring old Google Docs had some really cool tips and tricks up it's sleeve. There were two things that stood out for me, they were the voice typing tool and the use of the table. I was pretty impressed with the voice typing tool because of the great learning benefits you could get from it, not to mention the fact it could help reduce the amount of time it takes to types things. For example, it can assist the students in my classroom who are really struggling to record their sentences and allow them to learn how to spell difficult words that they know how to say. I can also see myself using it assist me in do my planning and making task sheets. Why type when you can speak?! Am I right? Might as well use this tool to help us out too! 

Using the table to get creative with Google Docs caught my attention because I wasn't aware on how useful it was to be more creative in Google Docs. I am very keen on going back to using Google Docs for creative things like my class newsletters and crafty wall displays.

Check out the Library poster I made with Google Docs:

Side note: If you have noticed that the words Google Docs, voice typing tool and table are blue, bold and in italics, it's because I'm hoping to get stuck in your head too! Hopefully you will be intrigued to have a go at using them yourself!

If you have reached this point, you are a legend! And thanks reading!

Stay tuned for the next post!