Last holidays, I completely switched off from anything work related. I got sucked into binging on the show the 100 (which is awesome!) & didn’t go anywhere near Twitter. I had entered full SLOTH MODE. Steve the teacher was someone who existed in another reality and was the furthest thing from my mind. Then an unknown number called my phone on the last Thursday night of holidays. Holidays were suddenly over. It was a big shock to hear a message from Cameron Hocking from DLTV. The guts of it was something like this: “We have you down to do a SPARK Talk but realised we forgot to tell you.” Intrigued but suddenly anxious, I called back wondering - What did I write down I’d like to do again? Cameron’s reply was “It’s titled, Why More Time Won’t Fix anything”, which is kind of ironic seeing as though Digicon is two weeks away.” I remember laughing with him about it. But in my head, my first instinct was to feel terribly sick. Not a chance I’m doing a Spark Talk. There’s no time to prepare. Hopefully I’m at a PD or have a meeting I can’t get out of. During her keynote at Digicon, Holly Ransom discussed how every person has a comfort zone. And that everything within the comfort zone is not what we should be doing if we wish to better ourselves. The decision to either do it or not do it fell heavily one way or the other within these categories. Upon reflection, it’s interesting how whenever I feel a sense of getting out of my comfort zone, my first instinct is to react with feelings of scurrying in the opposite direction. .So, despite my feelings of apprehension, my second thought was, What a hypocrite! You wanted to do a Spark Talk about Time! You actually can’t say no. You have to do it! Before Presenting with Andrell Education, I would have definitely taken the easy way out. But saying no would be staying in that bubble of the comfort zone and a huge opportunity missed. Not just for sharing my ideas but my own professional and personal development. However, the simple acknowledgement and mindset of giving this a crack left me with a serious problem. I was actually really afraid and unsure if I could work my thoughts into a 12 minute talk in time. Or, more likely, that it would form into something meaningful or worthy of others investing 12 minutes of their time into. As I was already presenting at Digicon, I was prepared for my session on the Thursday. Luckily. Because for those next two weeks I smashed out a presentation. (After buying TED TALK book) I pieced together the bones of a narrative about something I am REALLY passionate about. Then I practised and practised and practised. Before my son woke up, while he was eating breakfast & after work every single night for two weeks. I practised in front of a camera. Recorded the talk on my phone, timed it, and started listening to it on the way to work or while I was out for a run. One thing I remember clearly before my time as a Presenter for Andrell, is that you can’t practise enough. I can’t profess to subscribe to old mantra of practise makes perfect. Because it doesn’t make it perfect, but it makes a bloody huge difference. I reckon I practised to the point of being over the whole thing. When Friday arrived I felt really positive, if not mentally drained from thinking about it so much. I rolled into the first session of SPARK talks. Having never done one before, I was intrigued by the whole concept. 12 minute talks that could be about anything related to teaching. Would people be reading from notes? Or would it be more Ted style? Was I mixing with experienced campaigners or first timers? To my relief, it was a mixture of everything. There weren’t as many people there as I’d expected either. And it comforted me. See, you can do this. My confidence sunk like a sinking ship around midday when DLTV started handing out awards after the last keynote. When I heard Narissa Leung receive her award my stomach twisted. My hands shook as I took out the Digicon timetable, confirming the sudden anxiety climbing up my throat. Holy s#%^! The teacher who just won teacher of the year is doing a SPARK talk after me. What if like 50 people come in to listen to her & have to listen to me first? OMG! I hurried out, seriously considering fleeing. What if I just keep walking passed the lecture theatre and jump on the train? No one will miss me right? Reaching the lecture theatre, I held firm and entered, feeling suddenly as nervous as my first interview as a graduate teacher. John Pearce was up first. I liked the tone and enjoyed the content of his talk. But honestly, I can’t remember much of it. Despite how engaged I would have normally been, I was feeling so sick. There were some people I recognised from Twitter in the room, including Bec Spink. Again, the voice in my head. Man, she just smashed a whole room with a keynote yesterday and now she’s got to put up with you? When John finished, I got up, fumbling around with the microphone, hoping my ancient computer would work. In my head, I replayed the positive mindset mantra I’d often say in the early days of Presenting for Andrell. You’re going to smash this! You’re going to smash this! The only difference was this time I had no colleague up there with me. The lecture theatre suddenly felt massive as I placed my drink bottle on the table. Despite there being maybe 10-20 people in the room, it felt jam packed. I made sure my iPad with my dot pointed script was on hand just in case, grabbed my clicker, looked up, tried to smile and realised there were no more reasons to delay the inevitable. And began. It literally was over before I knew it. Everything flowed as I knew it would. Partly on the back of practising it so much. I made a conscious effort to fill the presentation with as little text as possible, using Gifs and images as checkpoints to navigate and clarify my thinking throughout the talk. The script kind of warped and adjusted as I went. As it always seems to when presenting. And I think it went okay. I felt like it resonated with some people and got some kind comments from some of the people nearby. I enjoyed being able to sit back, relax and be enthralled by Narissa Leung's talk, which particularly resonated with me. But the funny thing was, especially looking back at it now, I didn’t really mind if my Spark talk was totally crap and wasted everyone’s time. The sense of achievement, of actually completing something, particularly something I’d invested so much time into, was enormous. I was just pumped to have given it a go. And I strongly encourage you should give it a go too. Why you should apply to do a SPARK TALK. 1. Getting out of your comfort zone.
Write down everything you are comfortable with & start doing things outside it. I loved Holly Ransoms idea of her and her friend doing things out of their comfort zone. It was a huge takeaway for me. Doing a Spark Talk is a fantastic vehicle for getting out of your comfort zone. 2. The vibe of Spark Talks. I felt as if there was a very supportive atmosphere in the room. It was nice to chat with some people afterwards. I felt this sense of unity between us all. Like we are all in this together. That there was a mutual support of presenter and attendee. I wanted to hear something good from the presenters & wanted them to succeed. As a Presenter, I wanted to ensure it wasn’t a waste of someone's time. We were all there seeking something in a way I think that differs from other sessions throughout the two days. It was unique. 3. Because your ideas matter. I remember a teacher at a VCOP & Big Write PD saying, “This is probably a crap idea…” and after explaining it, everyone in the room thought it was the complete opposite. It was such a good idea we pinched it and published it on facebook that week. It perfectly illustrates that teachers have incredible ideas. That includes you. When people don’t speak up in staff meetings it is to the detriment of everyone in that room. Your ideas matter. Let them out!
0 Comments
Towards the end of Term 4 2016, after two unsuccessful attempts to sign up to Google Classroom, I was almost ready to give up. But after chatting to an old uni friend Jo Crowther I learnt some important information about how to get started. Information EVERYONE should know about.
But so far, it’s been 100% worth it! Background Our Grade 5s are fully 1:1 with iPads with only about 8 students out of 100 not having their own device from home. Nevertheless, all are able to access an iPad. This makes it really easy to run lessons using any space within the school. Each Class can be accessed by me (ICT teacher) & students Classroom Teacher. And although we are still really only in the trial phase of introducing Google Apps across the Grade 4s-6s, there’s been a lot of success already. We have 3 teachers teaching specialist ICT, which in a way has worked out well as one of us is teaching one of the year levels of 4,5 &6. It’s been great to try it together, and now our enthusiasm is catching as some of the classroom teachers are beginning to use it also. Here’s 5 reasons why you should consider doing it.
Here's an example.
2. Student Engagement Enabling students to have a direct line of communication to a teacher presented heaps of possibilities. I could also hear some of my colleagues voicing their concerns about being able to be contacted. But when my iPad goes off with a notification on classroom of a student asking a question, I think it is the best thing ever. Imagine a student, keen to continue learning at home but hits a roadblock and can’t find the answer. Before, that student would need to wait all night and hope to catch me during the day to find the answer. Their interest levels might even disappear in that time. Now, all they need to do is ask a question on the task & I will be notified. If I see it, I can answer it right away. 3. Students not missing out! Yesterday, team teaching with a Grade 5 teacher, he showed me his laptop and said ‘check this out.’ A student from his grade who was away had sent him evidence of completing the Maths task set during the day. She even emailed it to him! It was such a powerful moment for me & some reassurance that the point of setting up Google Apps (enabling flipped learning) is slowly starting to work! 4. More time Furthermore, I have set a goal to be able to create every lesson for Term 3 ahead of time. The ability to schedule assignments in Google Classroom will mean that I can push out each new lessons the night before the lesson. Although it will take time to create the lessons, in the long run I’m investing in my work life balance for Term 3. I will have no planning as such as the lessons will already be ready to go out ahead of time. For the Grade 5 & 6 team, one teacher could also push out learning materials for everyone else in the team, thus saving time for others. 5. Collaboration We have a Grade 6 Tech Team at school, who are helping develop some initiatives at school. One of which is to create a QR Code “Hunt” for our Special Friends Day. Watching them create the Slide Deck together is really cool. How they’re problem solving, discussing and questioning each other on a task they are all engaged in is really interesting. Having students work on a shared slide deck, where they can comment on each others work is encouraging positive Digital Citizenship and reinforcing positive online interactions. 6. Powering up Gamification Coinciding with all my Classes, I’ve trialed running a Fictional Game behind the learning via the idea of Gamification. Long story short, if students choose to play they enter the Academy of Creativity & Imagination. Here, they are striving to become Agents who will fight against a group of Creatures hell bent on hijacking students creativity skills. Students can move through the ranks of the Academy to become Agents by finishing class work. When they do, they earn XP. The more XP they earn, the higher they move in rank. To try and encourage more students to participate, this term I decided to post a series of Puzzles online. If students can crack the code, they earn extra XP but also unlock a part of my Gamified Website called a Side Mission. Students can then carry out a Creative task that gives them more XP. For the first Puzzle, I asked students to Crack a Secret Code. The first 13 students who did are now Secret Agents. They’ve been told to keep their identities hidden from the other students, which has created this really cool interest in the other students to try and find out who they are. At the moment, students are trying to figure out who they are to unlock the next Side Mission. Classroom has really enhanced this because students can ask me questions online or submit the answer they think is right. I’ve been able to give them instant feedback and clues that continues to hook them into the Game, and therefore the learning that takes place in lessons. Since 2015, I have been convinced that technology is the answer to making teachers lives easier. There is so much talk of not enough time & being overworked! I'm not arguing that it's not true. My gripe with this talk of no time and workload is that not enough of us actually do anything about it other than complain about it. Last year, my argument within my ACHPER presentation about the challenge of creating a culture within a school that has an embedded whole school approach to health PE is that it is near on impossible to create one because of the workload of a classroom teacher. And whilst we can champion it and recruit others to the cause will help create this culture, the real answer is using technological tools to better manage our time more effectively.
"Great idea Crowy!" some will see. "But when will I get the time to do be able to learn how to use these tools?" #SIGH We have to make time. We have to invest it out of hours. Just like we invest money into a savings account. The pay off won't be instantaneous. But in the future, that small time investment of our time will open up hours and hours of time in the future. Yesterday, a friend of mine showed how powerful investing time to explore technology can be. And it is an absolute game changer. It is why I'm writing this at 6am on a Saturday morning. Our whole staff is going to benefit from this enormously. Before I explain how, let me give you some back story. I am probably lucky that in my first year of teaching, our Leadership Team decided to become a pilot school in this new thing called a PLC (Professional Learning Community). It was huge in America, but new in Australia. That was nearly 7 years ago we started doing it. And 5 years down the track we were the 2nd school in Australia to be recognised as a PLC. Pretty cool, considering how many schools in Victoria are becoming PLC's now. A big part of PLC is collaboration. And one thing we have been doing for three years is use Google Docs for planning. Every Year Level Team has time set aside within the timetable to plan for next weeks lessons together. Each teacher is able to write into the same document at the same time. This is fantastic, as all the resources are in the one spot with any links and information we will need. However, for all its benefits, we have noticed that it has inadvertently caused a few productivity issues.
There is just TOO many documents! Over the course of 18 months, I can remember 3 clear instances where I have shown staff examples of how powerful docs, slides, forms and sheets can be. In hindsight, they probably weren't presented clearly. And I should have known from my writing about a whole school approach to PE, people have so many other things happening that it's hard to get excited about something you don't know about, or don't initially see the benefit of. And again, many peoples answer to these suggestions of the best way to learn how to use them is to play around themselves is: “I don’t have the time to figure that out or do it because I’m so busy”. Until yesterday, when someone did it! A friend of mine had been playing around with putting the planner into a Google Sheet. Having looked over it yesterday, a number of things struck me that were better than what we are doing currently.
I hope from this now other staff members will see how beneficial investing time into technology will reap rewards for them in the future. Those few nights my colleague put into developing this new document will save her hours every week. Add that up over the year and that’s huge. All it took was a bit of work in the beginning. And it clearly illustrates that complaining about our workload gets us nowhere. Being proactive about finding ways to save us time on administrative tasks through technology is going to help solve the problem of teacher workload.
|
AboutThis blog has been created to share my thoughts on Teaching. It uses my experiences, thoughts and ideas about a whole range of things related to education. Archives
August 2017
Categories
All
|