AirPods, Pumpkins, and the Gift of Connection

From Awkwardness to Awareness

Lately, I have been leaning into the ideas and work of Vanessa Van Edwards. She was recommended to me by a friend when I shared a personal challenge: feeling unsure about how to confidently share my ideas. We talked about how frustrating it is can be when people with great ideas are overlooked, while those with more charisma (or Woo, as Gallup StrengthsFinder puts it) seem to rise to the top. Enter Vanessa Van Edwards. I think this is part of her life's mission! 

As a self-described "recovering awkward person" Vanessa has so many inspirational ideas to share - from understanding the cues that we use, to gifting others with feel-good hormones through our interactions. I can listen to her book (yes, I'm an audiobook person) or watch her Diary of a CEO appearances over and over, and still find a gem to take away.

An AirPods Experiment

One of her recent comments was about how AirPods impact our connection with others. This prompted me to consider whether wearing my AirPods (which I often do) could be getting in the way of meaningful interactions. I decided to put it to the test.

Today, while doing the grocery shopping, I left my AirPods at home and opened myself up to interaction. It didn't take long. 

As I reached for a pumpkin, I heard someone talking beside me. I looked up to see a woman, slightly embarrassed at being caught talking to herself. 

"You feel a bit crazy when you realise you're saying things out loud," she said. 

I chuckled and told her about the AirPods theory - and we shared a moment of laughter. A moment of connection. 

That moment became even more special when we both turned up at the same register, and she said, "You look familiar." Turns out I taught her son six years ago, back when he was in Year 5. She filled me in on how he's doing, which was genuinely lovely to hear.

What I Would Have Missed

I think we both walked away from that exchange with a bounce in our step. It was a moment of recognition and warmth that could otherwise have been missed, drowned out by a podcast or shielded behind the comfort of headphones. It reminded me that there are opportunities like this all around us, but we have to make ourselves reachable to find them. 

Vanessa's work is helping me think differently about how I show up in the world - how I communicate and how I connect. There are so many small changes I’ve been making lately — and they’re adding up. I’m starting to feel more confident, more open, even a little more charismatic.

Who knows… maybe I’m catching a little Woo after all.

Back to the Blog!

It’s been a while. 

Not because I stopped thinking, or learning, or questioning — but because life filled up in other ways. Teaching, family, reflection… all still here, just lived more privately for a while. 

But lately, I’ve felt the urge to write again. Not to declare expertise, but to share thoughts in progress. To raise some questions. To stay connected to the part of me that makes meaning through words. 

If you’ve found your way here, welcome. There’s no big campaign or relaunch — just me, returning to this space when I can, to capture what I’m learning, noticing, and wondering about. 

I'm sure there are some things that need revamping and cleaning up on this site, and hopefully I will get to those. But for now, I am here sharing what it is to be me.

 

Mentoring University Students

This term I have a university student with me for her Professional Experience. She is completing two of her pracs back to back and will be finished her degree on completion. We have just completed the first prac and now head into the final prac. This is not the first time I have had a student, but I have been very aware of my style this time. I thought I would share a few of the things that have made it work for me.

Put Yourself In Their Shoes
I clearly remember how difficult it was to start out a new prac - particularly those first few lessons, when you are trying to juggle behaviour management, effective communication, interesting lesson, monitoring students, and keeping an eye on the time. That's not to mention the nervousness you feel to have all those little eyes watching and judging AND your mentor teacher watching and judging! Of course, when you finish the lesson, all you can think about is all the things you either did wrong, or forgot to do!

As a mentor teacher, it is important to appreciate the difficulty of that juggle and to be supportive and encouraging. Of course the student is not going to get it all right the first time. They haven't been in a classroom practising every day. That's why they're here! Notice the things they are doing well, and pick just one thing to work on at a time.

Encourage Reflection
Even as experienced teachers, we don't always perfect a lesson the first time we try something new. The reflective process is very important for improvement, and for acknowledging the things that have and have not worked.

I admit that I have a tendency to share what I have thought of a lesson, before asking my student what he/she thinks. This is a no-no as it may prevent the student from reflecting and sharing their own thoughts! If you allow the student to share their thoughts first, you can gain a greater understanding of the things they feel they are struggling with and help them to work through those issues first. This year I have been trying a "Professional Conversations" format provided by the University. This has a list of questions for both mentors and students.

Plan Their Learning Experiences
As the student is there to learn, it is important to plan the experiences that will help them to demonstrate the skills they are required to practise. I go through the report format with my student and we discuss possibilities for meeting the requirements. I also encourage the student to look at what they will be asked at interview so that we can include those aspects as well.
We try to include:

• a variety of curriculum areas
• a sequence of lessons, including assessment of the concepts
• extra curricular activities
• meetings
• article for the newsletter/or other parent communication
• visits with other specialist teachers in the school
• integration of ICT
• differentiation 
• transitions between activities
• behaviour management strategies/resolving conflict
• duties
• team planning, assessment and moderation 
• grading/reporting

How about you?
If you've mentored university students, what things do you find are helpful for making a successful learning experience for them? Please leave a comment.

The Year That Was - 2012

Waiting for a train

I realise I've missed the boat a little on this one, but I had it half-written at the end of the year and just needed to return to it to add the finishing touches (photos, links etc)

January - Enjoyed the summer holidays and my flourishing veggie patch. Had a great bunch of basil, sweet juicy corn and more beans than I could keep up with. My tomatoes struggled because we had too much rain and the plants were infected with fungal disease. Took a simple family trip to Sydney to show the little guy some new sights and experiences!


Term One - Returned to work for a new school year teaching a Year 4 class three days a week and Preschool one day a week. Revisited the Rowan of Rin unit of work I taught previously and enjoyed the greater availability of both video cameras and laptop computers this time around. Also began using CARS for assessing and teaching comprehension strategies.

Struggled a little initially as I tried to determine what "Penny the preschool teacher" entailed. As it turned out, I was trying to squeeze too much into the day and over thinking things. Came up with a plan to simplify in Term 2.

My professional development focus was on the Quality Teaching model. I was a little disappointed to miss out on some other PD opportunities due to working part time or lack of available time in the evenings due to being a mum of a toddler. I have the passion and desire, but no time!

Holidays - prepped my veggie patch for my first winter crop which resulted in great garlic and onions come summer - but spinach and Asian greens were unsuccessful. It felt like the garden just froze until spring! Enjoyed Easter and had our first egg hunt with the little guy in the backyard.

Term 2 - Taught a Year 4 geology unit of work and, towards the end of term, started an Australian History unit. As we were using the new Australian curriculum, much of the content was new to me and I needed to do a bit of research in order to understand and explain how volcanoes/mountains etc are formed. In ICT lessons we began to explore responsible digital citizenship within our system's online learning community. Students began designing their homepage and wrote a blog entry.

At the Preschool I taught fundamental motor skills - catching, kicking, balancing, running, jumping. This meant I no longer had to organize table activities for the students and gather the materials. It made for a more relaxed day. The morning group also partnered up with their Year 4 buddies for activities on a fortnightly basis.

Holidays - Spent time preparing for our big trip to the USA.

Term 3 - We finished the Australian History unit and began a Technology unit involving textiles - my favourite Year 4 unit. Students learned new skills in sewing, knitting, crochet, macrame etc. For their main assessment task, they designed and made a gardening pouch.

The Preschool fundamental motor skills program continued as did the buddies program.

Holidays - I took long service leave for the last week of term and my family travelled to the USA to see friends on the West Coast. During this time we visited San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma, Portland, and Seattle.

Term 4 - This term got a little messed around with sickness. There were some weeks where we bounced from Matthew being sick, to me being sick, and back to Matthew being sick again. Despite being vaccinated, he managed to catch a mild dose of chicken pox, during which time I decided to toilet train him! It was time well spent!

When I did manage to get back to class, we were very focused on getting assessment and moderation completed and reports written. We finished off our Technology unit and saw the year out with a range of craft activities.

At the Preschool, I ran an ICT program to introduce students to the basics of using the computer lab. They logged onto the network and brought up the Maths Circus program from a Maths Activities folder. The key fine motor skills they learnt were coordinating ctrl + alt + del and double-clicking with a mouse. They enjoyed playing the Maths Circus games, modifying the difficulty level and sharing their achievements with their friends. At the end of the lesson they closed down the program and logged off the computer. Basic skills - but essential. I was really proud to see how far they came over the term and to know that their Kindergarten teacher has no excuse for not taking them to the lab now!

It was a good year all 'round, and I'm looking forward to what the next one has in store. Happy New Year all!

Back to Teaching

I've been back at work a little over a week now and my world hasn't fallen apart. My little one hasn't cried as I've left to go to work, and while he is happy to see me when I get home he doesn't seem to be concerned that I wasn't there all day.

I've been enjoying the company of my colleagues and given the collaborative nature of my school, I haven't actually had to do much planning yet. I've been surprised by how many things are second nature to me. It felt almost as though I walked out of the classroom on Friday and back in on Monday.

Just a short post today as it is my day with bub and it's time to get him up from his morning nap!

Tech Tips Tuesday

This Week's Tip: Integrate ICT into Staff PD

Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in expecting teachers to integrate ICT in their teaching, but failing to integrate ICT into staff meetings and staff PD?

Last week I pulled some strings to have the staff meeting in my classroom so that we could use the Smart Board. As part of my Microsoft Peer Coaching role I created some Interactive Whiteboard pages that teachers can use in day-to-day teaching. I also wanted to show teachers how they can access our My Classes Peer Coaching page.

On Wednesday I ran the Junior Professional Learning Team (PLT) meeting in the computer lab. I wanted team members to reflect on their learning from our recent First Steps Writing PD and determine where to take it next. We started with a public pad in EtherPad, where staff could write their comments on what they found beneficial in the PD. I had wanted to use Wall Wisher, but the lab computers didn't have the necessary requirements in web browser.

It was a fun introductory activity, but it wasn't long before discussion got off track! That always happens the first time you introduce something. EtherPad was a great tool to use because I didn't need to sign up for an account or anything. It was ready to go and easy to export to Word when we were finished. My only pointer with it would be to create a custom tiny url for your page so that you can give something easy to people to type into the URL bar.

Teachers then reflected on their current practice when teaching writing and considered how they will implement the ideas from the First Steps Writing PD. They filled out this form that I created. Under the heading "What's Hot?" teachers wrote the things they are currently doing that they are happy with and that tie in with the philosophy of First Steps. Under the heading "What's Not?" teachers wrote the things they are currently doing that they are not happy with or that don't tie in with the philosophy of First Steps. Under the heading "What's Next?" teachers wrote the things they would like to try doing next as they implement First Steps. And in the big arrow, they wrote the steps they need to take in order to do the things in "What's Next?"

Reflective Planning Tool 2009

View more presentations from pennyryder.

When it was time for team members to report back to the group, I used the Random Name Generator tool from Super Teacher Tools. Prior to the session I created a class list with team members' names and then used this list in the session to choose who would contribute their ideas. Teachers seemed to enjoy using this and jotted down the details to use with their own classes.

The session went well and I enjoyed being able to expose teachers to new ICT strategies whilst fulfilling the other requirements of my role as the team leader.

7th Teaching K-6 Carnival

Welcome to the July edition of the Teaching K-6 Carnival. This month I've had a number of posts relating to professional development for teachers - with plenty of opportunities to expand your skill base during the Northern Hemisphere summer months. Because of this, I've included a "Reflect and Rejuvenate" category this month. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, you might find something here to inspire you to keep on powering through those wintery blues!

Reflect and Rejuvenate

Not yet a teacher? Considering it as a career option? Alvina Lopez shares Where Can I Find Teacher Scholarships? posted at Smart Teaching. Want to explore the world while studying? Anne Simone presents 100 Free and Useful Web Tools for Students Abroad posted at Best Universities.

If you're yet to discover the wonders of TED Talks, don't wait any longer. There's so much great material here that's easy to watch and very informative. Emma Taylor has sifted through these and offers 25 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life posted at Online Degree Hub.

If you're up for a bit of self-reflection, Susan White has the place for you at 100 Free Quizzes for Your Self-Improvement and Awareness posted at Online College Reviews - College Ratings. Take it a bit further to improve your health with Pankaj Gupta's 10 Little Known Ways to Improve Your Health posted at Best ultrasound technician schools.

Brain Strain

There are many differing opinions on the way that we coax certain behaviours from children. This month Keith Tusing shares his views on Rewards & Bribes posted at CM Buzz. Be sure to share your opinion and keep the discussion rolling. While you're over there, also check out Who is Your Target? to read how Keith is keeping children K-6 engaged in his Sunday School program.

In a knowledge society, lifelong learning is more important than ever. Brooklyn White presents 9 Tips for Being a Lifelong Learner posted at Accredited Online Universities. Reflect on how you're going with this, and consider how you can support the children in your class to become lifelong learners.

At times we all struggle with time management. But how do students learn this all important skill? This month Meaghan Montrose shares Effective Learning Strategies and Study Skills- Part 4 posted at TutorFi.com.

In the News

Mathew Needleman has written some informative posts about our roles as educators at Open Court Resources.com Blog. In It’s Not the Curriculum, It’s Us he reminds us to quit shifting blame, and to take responsibility for creating engaging learning experiences. In Copyright for Teachers: Persistent Myths he gives a few tips on what we should and should not be doing in terms of copyright in the classroom.

Innovate - Beyond the Slate

Skype has opened up numerous options for communicating across the globe. This month Emma Taylor presents 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom posted at Teaching Degree.org. This is a comprehensive resource for teachers who have access to Skype in their classrooms.

Innovation is not just about technology. In creating an engaging and dynamic learning environment for our students, we should be drawing on a range of resources and learning experiences. Wendy Piersall shares Plant Life: How Do Plants Grow? posted at Craft Jr., which provides hands-on activities for students to explore the life cycle of plants.

Over at Teaching Degree.org Anne Simone shares 100 Terrific Cheat Sheets for K-12 Teachers.

Look No Further

Here are a couple of iPhone related posts that might be useful for educators with iPhones:

Alvina Lopez presents iKnow: 100 Best Reference Tools for Your iPhone posted at Online Degree Hub.

Emma Taylor presents 100 Awesome iPhone Apps to Work and Study from the Beach posted at Online College Reviews - College Ratings.

Why not submit your post for the next carnival?

The Teaching K-6 Carnival is posted monthly on the 7th. I am collecting submissions throughout the month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch. For full details, please read my call for submissions.

If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of teaching k-6 carnival use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Support this Carnival

If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!

Tech Tips Tuesday

This week's tip: Take time out for reflection

I'm on holidays at the moment and so have had the luxury of time for reflection. While I painted the window frames and walked the dog I listened to some podcasts and pondered my current teaching practices when it comes to the integration of technology.

A lot of people in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) seem to be doing this at the moment, and I think a recurring theme is: Yes, we have a lot of cool tools, but WHY are we using them? How are we improving student learning outcomes through their use? Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't be using ICT, I'm just saying we should be able to give a reason for why.

Here is an overview of the resources and what that helped me to think through.

It's Elementary #33 - Interactive Whiteboards
This podcast helped me to realise that in my classroom most of the Smart Board touches are actually mine. I use the Smart Board predominantly as a teaching tool and don't give my students enough time to interact with it. I'd like to think of some new ways to ensure that my students are touching it more throughout the day.
One thing that urks me about interactive whiteboards is that only one person can be manipulating it at a time - be that me or one of the students. When we use it for games, we have to pass the keyboard around the classroom, and the other kids get bored. I try to beat this by getting the rest of the class to write the answer with their finger on the carpet, but by the end everyone has had enough! Maybe we need to rotate through groups while the other students are doing book work or other activities.
On the positive side, I also realised that my students learn a lot through my use of the Smart Board as a tool throughout the normal school day. I teach basic computer skills through modeling as I use it and troubleshoot. I would be lost without it at this point because I use it for so much of my teaching. I use it to show pictures, use graphic organisers, search for information online, brainstorm, show videos, present written instructions, do quizzes, play games, display a scanned worksheet for explanation, and with my 'document camera' to model Maths concepts.

Using Technology for Higher-Level Thinking - Am I?
This blog post, by J. Mendel made me think some more about how I am using technology to develop higher-level thinking. One of the many jobs on my "Things to Do List" is to develop a resource that demonstrates how technology can be tied with the Quality Teaching Model. I'm just not sure when I'll have time to get to this!
The videos students created for our Rowan of Rin unit really challenged student thinking. They collaborated with others to search through the text to determine how their characters may have been feeling at different points in the story. They then conducted video interviews (news broadcast style) to present this information. By the end of the unit, students were creating their own questions for characters to respond to, and were throwing in some dramatic flair! The part of this project that I'm disappointed with is that I'm sitting in my own home editing the videos with fade in/fade out, text slides etc all without the input of students. Next time I want to find a way for them to take part in the whole production.

The Technology Specialist as Teacher Leader (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Patrick Ledesma talks about the right way to get people on board with ICT. He talks about getting the infrastructure working well, making the links to the curriculum etc and THEN having fun with it. He warns us not to just be seen as Tech Geeks enjoying all the fun toys!

Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Derek Wenmoth talks about the value of reflecting on our practices. He shares a tool that was developed to help teachers to self-reflect on how they are using ICT in the classroom.
I tested out the Educational Positioning System for ICT and found it quite useful. While it only gives back the information you give to it, the process aids your reflection and the information comes back to you as a visual representation in the form of a map. It helps you to clarify your philosophy and you can easily see your areas of strength and weakness.
From using this tool, I realised that an area for my own further development is using ICT to explore student creativity. I'm thinking now of new ways to allow students to access technology to get creative.

And one last one, more for fun, Kerrie Smith wrote Are You a Digital Collaborator? about recent research into Internet Typology and the use of mobile devices. There is a quiz you can take to determine where you fit into the mobile technology typology. (Wow, lots of 'ology' words!) This is more about your personal use of ICT than your classroom use of it, but I found it interesting all the same.

If you liked these, here are some more Tech Tips.

Friday Fun - 14/2/09

Olympic Visitor
We had Beijing 1500m runner, Lisa Corrigan visit our school on Monday to talk to the students about her experiences as a runner and to promote the Kids' Marathon in April. She taught us some pre-run exercises and stretches. Fran, who is involved with our local marathon showed us an Olympic Torch from the Sydney Olympics when she was selected to be part of the torch relay. Then we all went out on the school oval to run a lap behind Lisa. A number of kids have taken applications for the Kids' Marathon, demonstrating an interest in participating in this event.

Come Back Gizmo
We have been reading Paul Jennings' Come Back Gizmo. We finished it on Monday afternoon and then did a related creative writing task on Tuesday. Together we created a mind map in Kidspiration to consider ideas for writing.

Cricket
Jonathan and I split the group into a girls group and a boys group for cricket games. The girls played French Cricket with me and the boys played 3-wicket cricket with Jonathan.

Spelling
We started our spelling groups this week. We used a Spelling Inventory to determine word families/patterns that students need to learn. Jonno worked out list words for each of these groups and activities for students to work on to practice their spelling further. I set up the list words in Spelling City for my early finishers to work with. This was recommended to us on Mr Hancock's Class Blog.

Maths
I am trying out Smart Kiddies for interactive whiteboard activities to supplement my lessons. So far it seems to be working well. Teachers can register for free and use the resources in the classroom. This week we used activities from the Place Value and Number Patterns sections. We also used Molecule Maths from Fiery Ideas to practise ordering numbers from lowest to highest. Early finishers then used these chains to practise adding.

Newspapers
In Australia we are going through the aftermath of some terrible fires. This week we looked at newspaper articles about the fires. We looked at keywords in these articles and sought out the who, what, when and where of the stories before writing a summary sentence. We looked at what came up when the text was inserted into Wordle.
We read a Daily Telegraph feature about newspapers, then watched a video about the process behind making a newspaper. Students then found an article in the paper and labelled the headline, picture, caption, first paragraph (including who, what, when and where), quotes, writer and photographer (if given). Early finishers then wrote a summary sentence about the article they chose.

Singing
The jump from Year 1 to Year 4 has been tricky for me in terms of attention gaining tools and transition activities. In the past I clapped rhythms to get students to stop work and look my way. I'm not sure if it's too babyish for Year 4s! I also sang with students during transition time to avoid chaos, but all my songs were for younger children.
This week I borrowed a Sing CD from the library and started teaching the kids some new songs. We are really enjoying the Shoo Fly/ Get that fly! Medley. I can't seem to get it out of my head!

Reflective Journals
On Fridays students write an entry in their reflective journals. They consider their challenges and successes during the week and write their plans for the next week. We are really encouraging our students to be more reflective and to take charge of their own learning and growth.