#satchatoc

Today I was lucky enough to take part in a conversation on Twitter with educators from around the world. The theme for the chat was supporting new teachers.  Every few minutes one of the moderators would post a new question that everyone would answer.

Not only did I make quite a few new connections, I also learnt that there are many teachers out there who are willing to help new or early career teachers. 

One of the questions asked during the chat was how could universities equip new teachers better for their career?  This struck a chord with me as throughout my degree I have been disappointed by the number of lecturers who are not connected via social media.  So many still warn us about the dangers we may face.  Also not that many of my colleagues are active on twitter, nor do they understand the support and learning that can happen in 140 characters.  

From what I can see and from what I have experienced, social media can be so helpful, not only in answering the many questions new teachers can have but by providing a network of like-minded people who are passionate about their profession.  These are the people I want to work with, collaborate with, learn from.  

So if you are a new career teacher or a teacher who is new to social media, get involved, join the conversation. You will be pleased you did :)

Thanks to @stringer_andrea @mrshollyenglish @pjfairbrother for today's #satchatoc  

Morning Mashup

While thinking about ways to connect with the students in my class I came up with the idea of having a morning mash up. A 5 minute brainstorm session on things that are of interest to the students and to me. It could be something we heard on the news or radio, a question, a concern, a high five moment. Anything that we would like to share that would be of interest to the rest of the class.

I started to do this in the week during my practicum when I only had the Year 5 students (Year 6 were on camp). They loved it! We had all sorts of items mentioned.  One item that led to a further discussion was the news of a 100 car pile up in the UK.  The questions the children had about this one ranged from which car in the 100 would be most damaged to how could that many cars not see what was happening in front of them?  We then spent a few minutes trying to figure out the answers.

I guess that it may not always be practical to do this each day. However, these sessions told me a lot about my students.  It taught me that one boy was obsessed with cricket as he wanted to relay the Australian team's current standing, and that an Australian cricketer had broken the record of the highest score in a Twenty20 match.  It taught me that one of the girls in the class was interested in sharing her own achievements, did this mean recognition was one of her love languages and/or that she was not getting that recognition elsewhere?

Once the Year 6 students returned from camp they enjoyed this time as well. It actually took away some of the time spent each day with disruptive questions to the class as they had already had some voice time. One morning I shared a video I had found with them, called Little Video, Big Messages, I think, I hope it had some impact on them.

I will definitely be using this with my class the next time I am teaching. Why not give it a try?

Approved!

So today after almost 4 years of study and practical experience I received my interim approval to casual teach in NSW public schools. 

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! 

I have loved every minute of my pracs and just about every minute of my time at uni. I have learnt so much from everyone; my university colleagues, my supervising teachers, tertiary advisors, lecturers, students and of course my fabulous PLN on Twitter.

It has all been worth it and as I thanked my boys this morning for all their help during this final internship it occurred to me that I have changed all of our lives for the better by taking this risk, this leap of faith to a new career path.

I will spend my working life teaching and learning and I hope I don't have to wait too long to before I find a school and a class of my own.

So thanks to all those who have helped, supported and encouraged along the way.

This is the wonderful card I received from my class - they are a stellar bunch of children!

Time to get serious...about blogging!

It has occurred to me a few times during this final year of university, my final year of being a pre-service teacher, and while following so many dedicated and inspiring teachers, that I should revisit my blog and contribute to the ongoing conversations about education. Conversations that I listen to and at times take part in, not only in the blogosphere but in the Twitterverse as well.

Source

This blog was started as a requirement of my first ICT subject in the 2nd year of my degree. I revisited it, oh so briefly, during another specialist ICT subject earlier this year, but for the most part it has sat dormant.

Some of the most inspiring bloggers I follow and read on a regular basis are teachers.  Teachers who are actively learning while teaching. Teachers who are willing to share their story, their knowledge and their time to help other teachers.

This is the kind of teacher I want to be.

During my internship (one week to go!) I have had the privilege of working with a wonderful teacher who is all these things and has been so willing to share his knowledge with me. He has taught me how to simplify my approaches to behaviour management, he has taught me that even on days when you are interrupted 50,000 times the students can still be engaged and learning. My supervising teacher, like me, came late to this career, but he is one of the most respected and loved teachers in the school. To me one of his greatest attributes is his willingness to learn.

Source

So, I will endeavour to update this blog once a week, I hope to share snapshots from my own learning as well as articles, stories, information and links. It will be a place for me to do more than just retweet, although I will continue to do that as well. 

Flipped!

Ash, K. (2012). Educators evaluate'flipped classrooms'. Education Week, 32, s6-8. 
Berrett, D. (2012). How ‘flipping’the classroom can improve the traditional lecture. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 
Brunsell, E., & Horejsi, M. (2013). Flipping your classroom in one "take". Science Teacher, 80(3), 8-8. Fulton, K. (2012). Upside down and inside out: Flip your classroom to improve student learning. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(8), 12-17.
MacMeekin, M. (2013, April 13). Flipping the classroom. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/flipping-the-classroom/ 
Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15(2), 171-193. 
Tucker, B. (2012). The flipped classroom. Education Next, 12(1), 82-83.

Say no to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and...social networks?

It is interesting to me as a parent to see the change in the dangers we need to warn our children about.  When I was at school it was all about drugs, then it was smoking and more recently the ads on TV about alcohol and not introducing it to kids too early.  


I now have a teenager in the house and a pre teen, and the one thing that I am being told to talk to my children about...the danger of social networks and cyber bullying. 


The experts are right, we need to talk to our children about this, in fact all the above mentioned dangers need to be openly discussed, but how do we go about it? How do we prevent our children from falling prey to any of these dangers without sounding like over protective, boring parents?


I say go where the kids go - YouTube! There is a wealth of videos out there aiding parents to deal with these issues. Many produced by government bodies designed specifically for parents and teachers.


Here is one that has caught my eye a couple of times, for some reason I can't seem to embed it but click on the link and that should work.


How Cybersmart are you?

Google + what's the fuss?

I have been caught up in the wave of Google +, after my friend John mentioned he received an invite (after pestering many people), I couldn't help but get one too.  The fact that he was promoting this on Facebook had us all giggling a bit.

What is Google Plus? Well, Google + is Google's version of Facebook.  Yes, another social media tool for us to follow, join, tweet about and endure.  But I like it! It seems that those in education, who are into such tools, are happy about the fact that it offers more privacy and security and therefore may be more suitable for a school environment.  One aspect of t Google + is the ability to categorise people into different circles and thus not sharing everything with everyone.

Doug Peterson talks more about it here and it's implications for education.  There are many people tweeting about this and the reviews are positive for the most part. I have been enjoying having a look see but Jeff Gibbard's article Google Plus (Google +): The Painful Realization highlights to me some issues I had yet to realise.

I can see that if my friends and family made the move, that Facebook may play second fiddle to Google Plus but as Jeff points out that requires their family and friends to move as well.  

We will have to wait and see...in the meantime watch the promo video from Google.