DFI Session 3 Media

"Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results."

John Dewey

Todays DFI focus was on creating. The quote above had me thinking about how it is often in doing and muddling your way through something that learning occurs. I think as an educator teaching students to think for themselves and not repeat other peoples ideas is important for enabling their ability to engage and participate in the world. As an educator I need to think about how I am providing opportunities in the classroom for students to spend time creating. How does my practice demonstrate that I value creating in the classroom?

I think showing my value in creating begins with me showing the students that I am creator too. It was exciting to learn how to use Google draw and slides to create art and professional images. Below is my 'All About Me sidebar image'

Creating an image to introduce myself to the world on blog has always been a daunting prospect for me, I do not like putting myself out there for others to see nor do I feel confident sharing my creations and reflections with the world.  It is something I would like to gain more confidence with and do more often because I always appreciate what others have created and shared with the world. It is an important part of our professionalism to share with other educators and to collaborate. I think it is a great way to help others by sharing your learning journey and what you do with your students in the classroom. So here's to step one of the process in creating a more professional profile online.

I found it beneficial looking at youtube today, especially with creating and collaborating on playlists. It is something I would like to use more with my inquiry and reading teaching, in order to enable students to watch a variety of videos on a subject at their own pace and to review the learning at anytime. Already today the DRS of my school and I have collaborated on playlists that link to our religious education programme. I am excited to see how we can connect our knowledge, use it to share it with our students and engage them in their personal relationship with God.

Above is the slideshow I created to practice the skill of making a GIF and using a slideshow to create digital art. I would love to use this in the classroom to explore visual language more, perhaps teaching students about figurative language and creating a GIF to give an example. Using google slides was a simple way of showing how to model art in a step by step way and why it is important to keep it simple. 

In the future I want to consider how much content is on the slides that I present and if it is communicating the learning that I want it to. I also want to consider the needs of my students and if my slides are able to enabling them to become independent learners. I found today's session inspired me to be more creative with the learning I design and to be more creative as a person.