To see the effect of taking part in a TweetMeet, click here. To find out about how I feel about the opportunity to take part in the biggest TweetMeet so far, read on…
I have been using Twitter fairly regularly for over a year, now, and thought I had a pretty good handle on promoting ideas and involving communities of learners. I do have a good handle on it but still have a bit to go to reach the mastery that the team at TweetMeet carry out oh, so naturally.
This December 17th, the team are organising almost 300 hosts to collaborate on the topic of 2019 and what was great about it for you: what did you manage to create, what did you learn that was new and where are you going next?
For me, the TweetMeet experience was definitely a highlight! Not only did it involve me in a wonderful group experience, it showed me: the way to progress in terms of planning for virtual events; how to set better milestones and expand on messages I was sending; the impact that coordinated teams can have in concentrated times.
For my next year of learning, I will be taking this forward with Connected Educator Appreciation Day’s Monthly Meetups to increase our impact with forward thinking people with new and fresh ideas.
If you would like to see one of the TweetMeet’s organisers on camera, check out the 2nd session of our 2nd annual Connected Educator Appreciation Day session on Enquiry and Collaboration. We at CEduAD hope to have more TweetMeet hosts on our upcoming Connected Educator Monthly Meetups (CEMM).
Lean on me. That’s what the CEduAD team is all about: we lean on each other, not because any of us are in need but because we want to make each other stronger.
When I first received my invite to join a TweetMeet with #MSFTEduChat and @MicrosoftEdu, I was excited. The excitement only seemed to grow as time passed and I engaged with the other co-hosts and learned how to best organise and run an event like this.
The images below are a good outline of what was organised for us. The team at #MSFTEduChat really know their stuff and if you ever have an opportunity to work with them, they will help you be your best self for the event.
The goal of the event was engagement, not self-promotion, not corporate promotion, but engagement: get educators sharing; highlight wonderful ideas; encourage conversations; follow people who are interesting, to encourage their PLN to grow! Our job was not to say how great Microsoft is (though it’s pretty good for teachers and learners) or to wax lyrical about any one product that is offered by a company (though plenty of that occurred naturally too: I am still partial to OneNote), our job was to get others to talk, and talk they did.
By the tallies we received, there were over 2 600 comments that featured in the TweetMeet and over 300 participants, both are increases on last month! What an amazing crowd to bring together and nurture. I can’t wait to see and hear about what some of the participants get up to, in the coming school year.
Holidays can be a godsend after a long year of work. Escaping the routine of coffee, breakfast, work, coffee, home, coffee, sleep can be an invigorating and sometimes necessary event. But when the holidays are complete, where do you start?
Your classroom is empty;
the walls are bare;
you have your class list and details from last year;
you have the curriculum guidance and a list of texts;
the staff room is stocked with coffee, never forget the coffee.
Do you start with the physical environment: make it engaging and bright, friendly and exciting? Do you start with the organisation of the learners: who is in what group; who will sit where; which books do you want? Do you start with the planning, ensuring that the first days back are full of engaging activities? Do you plan with another teacher? Do you plan with classroom assistants or visiting specialists? Do you reach out to parents before planning? Do you wait until the learners arrive and begin the year together?
So many questions, so little time?
On the 20th of August, I have the distinct pleasure of sharing ideas about the transition between break-time, the holiday, and learning. I will be co-hosting Microsoft Edu’s TweetMeet, with 15 other international educators. We look forward to discussing, with you, ideas about what we do when preparing for this new beginning with a new group of learners.
The format will be a question and answer session that you can follow on Twitter, with the hashtag #MSFTEduChat or #backtoshool. Drop by at 6pm BST, click the link to convert to your time zone, and jump in. The goal is to have a cooperative session where all answers can be read, shared and explored.
For more information, check out our Super Sway! For links about the resources some of the co-hosts use, check out our Super Wakelet. For other information from Microsoft, about this event, check out their Super Education Blog.
We would all love to have you because if you don’t show up and share, we won’t be able to learn from you. I know one of my favourite things to do in all the world is learn.
I have had the pleasure of working with Tim McDonald for some time now, and we have explored many ideas with regard to connections. Lately, Tim has begun writing about fear and is developing a book, “Creating a Healthy Relationship with Fear”.
Tim has taken an interesting approach to this by reaching out to his contacts, and asking for their input, in order to build a grand idea of what fear means to different people and how we each deal with or relate to our fears.
I had the pleasure to talk with Tim on this point and shared my experience of living in fear as a child growing up in the school system. I continued with this, to discuss how I broke the bonds that held me in place, when I was a young adult.
In addition to this opportunity to share, Tim co-hosted, with Ayelet Baron, a thought-provoking conversation on fear on a platform called Connectle. The focus of the talk was about how the participants had positively engaged with fear and how they support others to do so. It was interesting in the way that it clearly highlighted fear as a fabcrication of the mind and that it is something that the mind can engage with and relate to. A key take away was that fear can be a roadblock to progress or a boost to fire our actions. Click here to check out Connectle and view the conversation when it is shared, on the 9th of August.
One perspective that was not discussed by the panel was that of a child. All of the participants had the adult perspective locked and confidently shared what, as adults, we can do to come to terms with fears that are part of our lives, but children do not have some of the luxuries or tools at their disposal that adults do. I offered some ideas to think about, in the text chat, and was invited to appear on camera.
I asked about the following situations:
the child who is forced to go to a place of fear 5 days a week for 7 hours a day;
the child who lives in that fear and does not change or challenge it because of the possibility of it worsening should they speak out;
the child who knows things will get worse if they challenge the current circumstance
the child who does not have a voice because of physical or mental limitations, so the adults and peers do not know their thoughts and feelings.
These situations are harrowing, and adults have the responsibility to step in and support. This responsibility does not fall only to adults who work regularly with children but could be something as innocuous as a smile to a child as they get on the bus; a question of support when a child walks with head down and shoulders slumped, or another acknowledgement of some kind. Children have not had the range of experiences adults have and therefore have, generally, not been able to develop the skills and experiences adults have to relate to fear. So, help them to develop.
Be a positive influence to othetrs around you by being open to change; show that change need not be such a major source of fear. Be the person who listens to enable and encourage others, who are stuck, to find their path rather than being the one who has all the answers and will solve all the problems. Model relating to fear, model it in your day to day life and in your interactions with others, regardless of status or age.
I enjoyed talking with Tim and the others on the panel and look forward to opportunities to talk and share ideas, in the future.
I recently had the great privilege of interacting with a group of young women in a school in Nigeria. This was part of the Inspire a Child event with Flip Learn Kids, (@fliplearnkids). The event brought a wide range of speakers involved and interested in education:
I had the distinct pleasure of speaking alongside Olawunmi Brigue, where we shared our journey through education to reach the point where we now are. We also discussed ideas related to how to:
set goals and plan for success;
react to difficulties as part of the learning journey;
stay positive on the learning journey.
One of the best ideas that Olawunmi shared was, “When you hit a bump on the road, don’t pitch your tent there.” This resonated strongly with me because the easy option in life is often to stay the same. Even when you know that you are meant for more.
As a follow-up, I have been asked to offer my suggestions to a new group of questions, which I will do one at a time:
My brother wants to join the military and I want to sing but our parents are against us. What do you advise?
I think it is important to honour your parents’ wishes but it is also important to be who you are and express yourself. I suppose my advice would be to first sit down with your parents so that you can get their perspective on the situation; it may be that they have some life experiences that you do not have that may encourage you and your brother to change your mind. Additionally, taking the time to talk to your parents about your passion and talents may encourage them to see that their goals for you may not be the same as your goals for yourself and a compromise may be possible.
What if my health doesn’t allow me to chase my big dream. Should I abandon it?
Here is a video of a Canadian I met once, who did not let his health stop his dream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbSxUPoIIqM This is not your example, so I am not sure of the extent of your challenges. If you have a dream and have a strong passion for it, take small steps. It may be that over time you find that the health challenges are not such a big thing when you look back at all you have accomplished.
If, however, you find that the health challenges are too great to achieve your goal, it is more than likely that you will have found a plethora of different pursuits on your journey that can inspire new dreams. This doesn’t mean that you have given up, rather that you have changed and so have your dreams. This is an OK thing.
Sometimes in class, I feel that my teacher is wrong but I cannot do anything because he will be angry. Should I feel sorry for everybody so that they will not call me a wicked girl?
First of all, if you are afraid of correcting your teacher because of their reaction, I feel sorry for your teacher. I believe that any teacher who thinks they are always correct and who is not open to learning with the students in a classroom is in the wrong profession. If you do not wish to publicly point out flaws in your teacher’s thinking, that is admirable, but if the teacher is wrong and you know it, you are doing a disservice to your teacher and your peers. One idea might be to speak with your teacher after a lesson, this will allow you to share your thoughts privately and, hopefully, your teacher will respond more sensibly. Additionally, you could write your teacher a note asking them to explain the answer or reason for what they taught: “Dear sir, in today’s lesson you taught us that (insert content here) could you explain why this is so for our next lesson? I did not fully understand it.” This is called tact, or diplomacy. It does not say that you think the teacher is wrong but it will encourage your teacher to think about what they have done. If they were correct, they can maybe teach it differently, if they were incorrect, they will hopefully share their error and thank the anonymous student. Win, win!
I have many dreams. Can I achieve all of them? What if my friend has the same?
My dad once said something to me in my younger years, that has stuck with me: ‘If you believe you will succeed or you believe you will fail, you’re right.’ It’s not his quote, but the idea is a good one to hold onto. Many dreams, all at once, is a lot to ask. Why not focus on one and then focus on the second… you might find that many of your dreams are related and that working on one supports the fulfillment of another.
As for your friend, there’s another saying, that comes from Scotland, ‘Twa heids are better than yin,” which means two heads are better than one.
I work with a team of amazing people just now and our goal is to make a difference in education. The amazing thing is that none of us seeks to be more amazing than the other. It is through our cooperation and collaboration that we truly shine. Not to say that we are not great individually, we really are, but our collective awesomeness if what makes the team so fantastic.
I want to say thank you for the opportunity to continue this relationship. I hope that some of my ideas help and work with what you are thinking. I will be creating a poster for the next phase in Inspire a Child’s work, this time in partnership with Ishk Skills Hub. I would welcome any other roles where I could support with this.
If you are an educator working with Flip Learn Kids or Inspire a Child, please take some time to check out Connected Educator Appreciation Day’s website, this organisation has monthly meetups where a panel discusses issues that are relevant to educators, no matter where you are based. The organisation is open to new members, writers and speakers. Funnily enough, I will be speaking at next week’s session.
Lastly, there is another event later this month, called EdChange Global. This event really got the ball rolling for me and I strongly recommend all in education take the time to check it out. The range of speakers and topics, over this 24-hour event, is truly hard to beat.
As always, feel free to submit a comment or click the links below to visit my other spaces on social media.
I would never have thought this time, last year, that I would be where I am today.
In January, 2018, I was working away as an employee with Sumdog. We were working to extend the sales per district and I was designing the curricular documents to evidence the coverage we properly claimed we achieved.
Fast forward to May and I am met with company restructuring and family tragedy. Rather than wallowing in self-pity, I got back on the horse and started Fill the Gap Learning. I have had one heck of a ride working with a number of organisations and a number of stellar people!
First up was EdChange Global. This was my first mega-conference. It spanned 24 hours of expert educators sharing their learning journey and skills. It was like no PD experience I had ever known. I thought I might check out an hour, or maybe 2. I stayed for 15 sessions and hosted 1. This was a real turning point here because it was when I met Cassie Reeder and Vlatka Butkovic! These two forces of education invited me to the party, and I just haven’t left yet.
Through William Jenkins, I met Tim Macdonald and Andrea Tolley. It was at this point that things started to really heat up. Andrea and William were floating the idea of a virual / Skype EdCamp. For those of you who don’t know what an EdCamp is, I recommend you check it out.
Through no fault of their own, William and Andrea were not able to continue with the concept, despite months of planning, so Tim, Cassie, Vlatka and I ran with the idea.
It might not have been the initial vision of the virtual EdCamp, but we built a 8, 1- hour session that brought educators together from 6 continents. We titled it Connected Educator Appreciation Day, or #CEduAD for Twitter.
Team Connected are still together and going strong, and so am I! I have worked with 5 organisations, since leaving Sumdog, and have my sights on 3 others, for Fill the Gap Learning’s near future.
It is amazing what is possible once you take that first step. It is a scary first step, I know all too well, but the second step is much less so!
I wish you all the best in your 2019 adventures. The sky is the limit, as far as I am concerned.
Connections, they are probably one of the strongest forces for change in a community or career: knowing someone who does something differently and has had great success with it is a strong catalyst for you to try it. Word of mouth from a friend or colleague can resonate more strongly that research alone, when referring to new strategies, practices or resources.
I have had the great pleasure of being an organiser of the first annual connected educator appreciation day. The day has been a few years old as a concept and finally took form and gained momentum this past summer time with a team of 4 exceptional leaders of change:
Tim MacDonald, a community manager extraordinaire (hailing from the USA) @tamcdonald;
Cassie Reeder, former teacher turned education consultant and co-organiser of EdChange Global (also from the USA) @cassiereederedu;
Vlatka Butkovic, school director and web designer (from Croatia) @Butkovicedu;
and me, Michael Sinclair, also a former educator turned education consultant (from Scotland).
We are the team who took an idea of connecting educators, much like a community manager would, and sharing experiences and skill sets with anyone wanting to learn. The initial idea came from William Jenkins and Andrea Tolley, who sadly were not able to join us on the breakneck speed process of planning a global professional development event; one that was by, for and about educators.
The topics that were discussed were:
Encouraging Change in the Classroom: Planning and Practice
Using Technology to Connect Outside the Classroom
The Role of a Technology Ambassador
Gamification in the Classroom
Promoting your Skill Set
Using New Technology Effectively in the Classroom
STEAM for the Classroom
Training Teachers in Schools
Each session lasted about 55 minutes and had hosts, panellists and attendees engaged with a range of relevant questions for teachers, now, in the classroom. The educators who were present were a diverse group from locations around the world: India, United States, Argentina, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden, Croatia, Kuwait, Romania, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, Yemen, Tunisia, Spain, Nigeria, Jordan, Germany, Colombia. I cannot truly express the wonder and excitement I felt when I could see and hear of the experiences and ideas that were expressed about the important of relationships for learners and educators; the importance of mutual trust when building the relationships and the importance of using technology as a tool to support learning not the focus of the learning.
We are slowly polishing the videos from the event and will release them weekly with the end goal of hosting shorter, hour, sessions once a month to maintain connections and build new ones. You can check them out on our YouTube Channel. If you were a participant or attendee, we would love you thoughts on our blog, if you aren’t a member of the site yet, sign up and we’ll give you access. Search for our tweets at #CEduAD on Twitter, or follow us at @ConEduAD. Additionally, you can like our Facebook page.
I hope you will join us again, or for the first time, for one of our future events.
For the past few months, I have found myself part of an amazing team that has brought together educators from 6 of the 7 continents in the world, unfortunately everyone in Antarctica was busy.
Tomorrow the 20th of October, is when we, Tim McDonald, Vlatka Butkovic, Cassie Reeder and myself will see the fruits of our labour. Connected Educator Appreciation Day sees its first annual event launched tomorrow, starting at 10am EST (with a 30 minute warm-up at 9:30).
We have designed 8 sessions, each with 2 hosts, all around the theme of connected educators and learning. The goal of this 8 hour event is to learn and share:
what have we done to connect that has been successful, what did we do to nurture and grow that success, how we encouraged others to experience their own success or share in ours;
what challenges have we faced, if we overcame them and how, if we didn’t, what steps did we take;
who have we met, what impact they had, what they shared, how they shared it – to encourage us to experience something similar to them;
what’s next?
There are no salespeople talking, though we might share what we have used and there are no experts professing to have all the answers despite a few people having a wealth of success and experience. We are all learners and we, the connected ones, have no desire to stop learning.
Come join us at Connected Educator Awareness Day, you just might have the experience or knowledge to share, which someone else is looking for to take the next step on their learning journey. Come listen, because someone else might have exactly what you need. Come experience, to help the learners under your care engage in the 21st century learning they need for our current fast paced, high tech world.
It’s a pretty standard worksheet, no bells or whistles, just practice of arithmetic*. What I would like you to think about is what you do with it. Of course, you mark it as it has been marked, or something similar, and probably record the results. Maybe you don’t mark them wrong the same way, make your ticks are different. The question is, then what? Does it go back to the learner to correct? Does it get filed into a binder or glued into a notebook? Do you take a digital image of it and store it on the cloud? Do you file it away in a folder for reports or consultation evenings / afternoons? Maybe you think this is a starting point and they will get better with more exposure to teaching or practice in your class.
But maybe, you could use it to inform the learner’s next steps and yours!
Come again? You may say, this is one sheet in a two week plan that I have. This is only one of many pieces of practice that I have planned for addition within 20. How on earth do you expect me to change my plan now? I have deadlines, and targets, and 29 other learners in the class.
Let’s look at the page again, with some annotations this time.
The annotations, when brought together, might inform you of the following:
Addition up to 10 seems OK.
Doubles seem to be known but perhaps not understood.
’10’ does not seem to be counted for sums more than 10.
I need to talk with the learner about 10 and beyond
Would this be cause to begin your plan again? Well, no, but I hope it would encourage you to look at your next steps to see how you can incorporate a way of showcasing misconceptions like the ones on the worksheet in future lessons. You might miss your deadline, you might, but think about the positive benefits for the learners in your care; think about the positive benefits for you, when you go on to explore subtraction, or other ideas, and you needn’t worry (as much) about similar misconceptions occurring again? Is that worth an extra day or two? I hope so. And, who knows, you might even be able to incorporate exploring the misconceptions within your initial plan without missing a beat.
By approaching practice as more than an exercise in displaying understanding but also a way to gather information for future learning, you can improve both your experience in the classroom, as a guide, and that of the learners with whom you work.
A wise lecturer in math once asked my first year class a great question: what is mathematics? After a number of attempts, the response that came closest, in her mind, was, the study of patterns. As an educator, I feel it is my job to find patterns in learning, which often come from patterns in mistakes. As an educator in math, I feel it is one of my main goals to encourage an awareness of patterns in a) the larger world and b) in the abstract world of forms and figures.
Take the time to do more than mark correct or incorrect! Look for the patterns! Be a mathematician!
*The worksheet was made and shared on OneNote so as to not waste paper and allow me to keep all learner efforts organised and shareable with the home. All feedback here is available to learners and their families wherever they have an internet connection.
