Jacob Walker Professional Blog

Creating media with kids is always super fun. It also provides the students an opportunity to learn some great skills that can be applied in real life. Building them up to be graphic designers in a world that is always wanting new graphic designs. One of the things I often use is google draw. This tool is great for making some SVG artwork that looks great in websites, posters and other types of media. Recently however I came across this thing in maths called Parallax. " Parallax is the apparent displacement of an object because of a change in the observer's point of view." Google. This triggered an Idea to see if I could make something in scratch that would mimic this idea. So I did a bit of research and found the code is very simple. Along with this using SVG images allows us to import all the different layers in an image which we can then add parallax to to create a sort of 3D movement. It's really cool and can add that little bit of Computational thinking into th...

 I am currently watching and participating in the Google for education product Training series and wow there are some cool updates coming. Certainly things I would recommend to others and schools to use. Some top of my list currently are Chromeboook app hub Breakout rooms coming to Google Meet The chromebook app hub is great for educators as it provides apps that have been vetted and are made for use in education settings.  This is really cool as it can be a way to explore different apps that may add to your learning without having to go through the privacy and policy notes to see if it is available for kids under 18. This will save a lot of time for educators.

 I am currently reworking some of the cybersmart challenge content to develop student and teacher capacity to use scratch as a DLO tool. Below are some of the few I have started with. The focus is around adding sounds and buttons to a scratch project to share information. Students can complete the task, and then record themselves saying the Kawa of care. This could be done as groups or individual, with specific tutoring on the process of adding sound and uploading an image. You could use Remove.bg to get a nice Sprite of the student. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/552480263 https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/552494638 https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/552746609

  This post is about coming in as a new facilitator for Manaiakalani and looking and how my experience can fit into what is already happening. Recently I have been shadowing two of our other excellent Facilitators learning the ropes for in class support, along with attending the DFI's in Northland and Auckland. One thing I have found is that the cybersmart programme has many wonderful aspects that can be reframed through alternative tools, this helps provide a new way to create something that may have been done in years prior. A great example of this is creating an about me poster. Usually we would start this in google drawings and use it as a way to learn the tool. Keeping with this same mentality I looked at extending it into computational thinking, by using scratch. Check my demo scratch project and keep updated for some student models. This is ideal for older students who have been working through the cybersmart programme. Also check out some of the other teachers who had a go ...

 Is what in my mind must go through every parents head at this time after lock down. With a large majority of students at home potentially "wasting" hours on fortnite videos or rewatching quick laughs like "I like your cut G!" I decided to try and refocus my sessions to be a little more broader in terms of how learning is applied. For my school this year we have a goal of integrating all our math strands into project based learning which will happen all through the year. So gone are my days of happiness and joy at providing only one area of maths learning per term......not! The curtains have finally opened to my dreams of project based math activities that rely on hooking students in with some sort of hands on fun activity that takes weeks/months and encompasses maths in a real setting. I have always stated that maths is my worst area and yet I am being held up as an example for what could be achieved. Look at me now NCEA UNIT STANDARDS MATHS!!!!! Jokes aside here a...

 I have recently come across and article shared by my colleague which talks about how we have so much access to new learning opportunities via the internet. I for one have always pushed this with my kids because that is exactly how I have managed to build up my content knowledge in a range of areas that were needed at my school. My university education underpins this though and without my actual qualification I would probably not be in the position I am in. Along with this I have to admit being a teacher does give rise to the opportunity to learn the basics of a range of new skills due to having to give your students the opportunity to learn these. An example of this is me taking over the robotics programme for my school. I had no training in robotics or STEM education before I was given the opportunity to run  a whole programme around this area. I had done some basic coding back in College but let's be honest it was more about playing Counterstrike with the boys on the school...