C21 Teaching
  • Home
  • 100 miles for Beyond Blue
  • FTPL Videos
  • Blog
  • List of Blog Series
  • Education Resources
  • Starting with Flipped Learning
  • Friday Freebie
  • About Me
  • Contact

I’m hosting @EduTweetOz

24/9/2016

0 Comments

 
For the next week I will be running the Australian @EduTweetOz account, a RoCur (rotating curation) account featuring a different educator each week. Each week the EduTweetOz blog posts an introductory interview to allow users to get to know the new host. Rather then simply re-post it, I thought I would add in some links to various resources.

​
Introducing this week’s @EduTweetOz host, Brendan Mitchell
  • jenglish2013  
Please tell us a little about your background in education. Why did you decide to become involved in education? What are some of the roles you’ve had and what does your current role involve?
I am a new graduate teacher in my first year out from university. I completed a B. Teach (Primary) / B. Arts with Hons Class I in Teaching through the University of Newcastle’s Ourimbah (Central Coast) campus in 2014. I did the rounds of visiting schools to drop off my resume and meet the casual teacher coordinator at the start of the year and was picking up four to five days a week work spread across three predominant schools, with the occasional day at other schools. Whilst I was at Future Schools in March I received a call from the Deputy Principal at one of my schools, offering me a temporary position for one term, which I naturally jumped on, with the remit to teach computer and research skills. The contract was eventually extended through to the end of 2015, and I am absolutely loving it.
​
The position is technically that of Teacher-Librarian, however due to a large-scale building project at the school (all eleven demountable buildings will be gone by the end of it! Yay!) The library, though still there, is not operational for borrowing purposes. My position is an RFF position, and is Monday to Thursday, and I see all classes from K-6 in the school, barring those classes with their library sessions scheduled on Friday (those sessions are handled by the other RFF teachers). I am at various points in my program, and a long way behind where I wanted to be (being fresh and naive I had planned about a years worth of learning for three terms), but am happy with my students progress. With Stage Three, I am just beginning research skills, starting with note-taking; with Stage Two I am beginning to teach them about the internet and how to use it and what different things are called in an effort to clear up a lot of misconceptions they seem to hold; while with Early Stage One and Stage One, I am working on improving their ability to type and understand how to use features like spell check, how to save/open/close files and programs.
As to why I became involved in education, I have written a blog article on that topic, and to quote from that article:

“I teach for two reasons. I had two amazing male teachers in my own primary education. Both were strong men whom I looked up to, as both had a strong presence, as they were encouraging of my strengths and chiding of my weaknesses, pushing me to work on them. They were men who were able to work with all of my peers, challenging each of us at our own academic level.

My three younger siblings on the other hand, across their combined eighteen years of primary education, had a total of one year with a male teacher, and the difference that that year of a strong male influence every day at school made on my sister and her self-confidence in dealing with her brothers and in talking to other male, non-immediate family members, was tremendous.

My youngest brother needed a strong male role-model as a steadying influence and to provide guidance on interpersonal skills in the day-to-day situations at school that a father does not have access to. I teach because I want to be the positive male role model for those students who otherwise may not have one.
​

The second reason that I teach is due to a love of learning and discovery, a love that was instilled by my family, but nurtured by my primary school teachers. It is that love of learning, the desire to know more about areas of interest, and the excitement of the moment when the dots are joined between prior knowledge and new understanding that provides the second reason why I teach.”
​And though it wasn’t intentionally written that way, upon watching a recording of my delivery of the Graduate Address at my Graduation in July, I realised that it articulates, slightly differently, why I teach.

Who or what keeps you inspired and motivated in your work?
Given where I am in my career trajectory, I am still fresh-faced, keen, naive, and excited to be earning a living for doing something that I enjoy. I have also been told in no uncertain terms that after four years of not having an income that I will be enjoying the education system for a few years to come! That aside, it’s seeing the look on a students face when the dots connect, of seeing those students who struggle with the little things have success, of being able to get kids excited about learning. I am blessed to have some highly experienced, and still engaged and passionate teachers in my school whom I look to as mentors and their passion and willingness to try new things is something that I find motivating and inspirational. There are also a handful of younger teachers who went into teaching straight out of high school, and I find their experience and energy infectious and motivating. I also enjoy watching Kid President’s Pep Talk on those days when I feel tired and lethargic as there is something quietly motivating about him.

What do you see as some of the biggest rewards and challenges for people working in education today?
The biggest reward is seeing a student move from saying “I have no idea”through to being able to show others how to do something, or confidently explain it to you. The feeling of pride at seeing the growth is almost intoxicating when it happens. The biggest challenge I think is time. There is so little time and so much to do. More and more social and moral responsibility seems to be pushed onto teachers as being our job when much of it should be the responsibility of parents. The other challenge I see is inequity and that is a societal issue that needs greater focus.

If you had the ability to make changes to the education system in Australia, what would you do?
I think I would ensure that those making the decisions had current teachers giving the advice. A panel of teachers, nominated by teachers as being experts in the various education sectors, providing advice for a (two/three/four) year period before returning to the classroom and making way for the next rotation. I can’t take seriously the comments of Mr Pyne or Mr Donnelly when they either ignore or cherry-pick research to suit their agenda.

What role do you see EduTweetOz playing on the education scene in Australia and what are your hopes for the account this week?
A very interesting question given some of the conversations that happened during the #satchatoc chat on Saturday (5th Sept) morning. @EduTweetOz provides an opportunity for someone like me, fresh out of university, keen and bright-eyed and naive to the politics of funding and professional development hierachies an opportunity connect with other teachers, both like-minded and not, and learn from their experiences, their ideas, their mistakes. The phrase learning any time, anywhere very much comes to mind, and I see EduTweetOz as a focal point for new Tweachers to join the online PLN.

This week, I would like to explore the topic of Flipped Learning, hear what peoples conceptions, fears, thoughts, ideas and experiences are about the topic. It is a pedagogical practice I only learned about last year and have been keen to follow up on. I attended a Flipped Learning master class with pioneer Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) at the FutureSchools Conference, and am attending #FlipConAus15 on the Gold Coast in October and am excited to hear and learn from those who are putting it into practice.

I would also appreciate hearing from anyone who has or is teaching digital literacy and digital citizenship concepts and skills to students and the pedagogical practices and tools used to do that, particularly the incredibly complex concept of copyright/piracy.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
​If you want to connect with my in the classroom, I utilise @MrEmsClass to tweet with my various classes and connect with other classrooms, whilst I use my @C21_Teaching account for personal/professional Tweeting. I’m looking forward to an exciting week and lots of learning.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @C21_Teaching

    Categories

    All
    21st Century Learning
    3D Printing
    Aaron Sams
    Abdul Chohan
    Aboriginal Culture
    Aboriginal Education
    Academia
    ACARA
    Accreditation
    ACER
    Action Research
    ADE
    Aimmee Shattock
    AirSquirrels
    AITSL
    Alex Smith
    Alfie Kohn
    Alfina Jackson
    Alice Keeler
    Alice Leung
    AM Hon DLitt
    And Clark
    And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
    Anne Van Der Graaf
    Announcement
    ANZAC Day
    Apple Distinguished Educator
    App Speed Dating
    Artificial Intelligence
    Ashanti Branch
    Assessment
    Augmented Reality
    AussieEd
    Australian Curriculum
    Awards
    Awesome
    Baby
    Behaviour
    BetterU
    Blake Seufert
    Blogging
    Bloom's Taxonomy
    Books
    Book Study
    Bradley Loiselle
    Brad Loiselle
    Branching
    Break
    Brett Salakas
    Brett Wood
    Brighton Secondary School
    Bron Stuckey
    BYO
    BYOD
    BYODD
    BYOT
    Cameron Malcher
    Camtasia
    Cara Johnson
    Career Change
    Carol Dweck
    Carolina Buitrago & Martha Ramirez
    Casual Teaching
    Catherine Ford
    Cathie Howe
    Change
    Charles Fadel
    Charles Leadbeater
    Chelsea Wright
    Chris McNamara
    Christopher Pyne
    Chromakey
    Chromebooks
    Clarification
    Class Notebook
    Classroom Economy
    Classroom Management
    ClassTech
    Class Tools
    ClickView
    CLT
    Coding
    Coercion
    Cognitive Load Theory
    Collaboration
    Collegiality
    Community Engagement
    Computer Skills
    Conference Expo
    Conference Review
    Confidence
    Connected Classroom
    Consequences
    Constantin Lomaca
    Constructivism
    Contemporary Pedagogy
    Cooinda AECG
    Copyright
    Corinne Campbell
    Cornell Notetaking
    Creative Writing
    Creativity
    Critical Thinking
    Crystal Caton
    Cultures Of Thinking
    Curiosity
    Cyberbullying
    Cyber Security
    Daily Summary
    Dan Haesler
    Dan Jones
    Data
    David Jakes
    Deborah Nicholson
    Democracy
    Digital Citizenship
    Digital Curriculum
    Digital Learner
    Digital Literacies
    Digital Literacy
    Digital Natives
    Digital Pedagogy
    Digital Pedgogy
    #DigLit
    Discipline
    DocHub
    Domains Of Knowledge
    Dominic Hearne
    Drama
    Dr. Britta Jensen
    Dr Caroline West
    Dr. David Zyngier
    Dr. Jane Kise
    Dr. Janelle Wills
    Dr Janine Beekhuyzen
    Dr Jill Margerison
    Dr. Kevin Donnelly
    Dr. Milton Chen
    Dr. Nerida McCredie
    Drones
    Dr. Rachel Wilson
    Dr. Robert Talbert
    Dr. Ruben Puentedura
    Duolingo
    Dyslexia
    Dyslexie
    Early Years Learning
    Earth Engine Time-Lapse
    Easter
    Ed Cuthbertson
    EdTech
    Education
    Educational Technology
    Education Funding
    Education Nation
    Education Policy
    Education Portfolio
    Education Vendor
    Education Week
    EduChange
    EduMedia
    #EduNationAu
    EduTech
    @EduTweetOz
    Edward DeBono
    Elder Gavi
    ELearning
    Elizabeth Amvrazis
    Employment
    English
    Eric Bogle
    Eric Mazur
    Errol St Clair Smith
    Esafety
    ESafety Commissioner
    Eureka
    Evidence Based Practice
    Experienced Teachers
    Family
    Feedback
    Film
    Flexibility
    #FlipConAdl
    FlipConAus
    FlipConNZ
    FlipLearnCon
    Flipped Learning
    Football
    Foundation For Young Australians
    Friday Freebie
    Frozen
    FTPL
    Fun
    Fundamental Movement Skills
    Furniture
    FutureSchools Expo
    GAFE
    Game Based Learning
    Game-Based Learning
    Gamification
    Gaming
    Gary Stager
    Gavin Hays
    GDocs
    GDrive
    Genius Hour
    Geography
    Gert Biesta
    GForms
    Glenn Carmichael
    Glenunga International HS
    Gonski
    Google
    Google Apps For Education
    Google Classroom
    Google Docs
    Google Drive
    Google Forms
    Google Lines
    Google Maps
    Google Slides
    Google Suite
    Graduation
    Gratefulness
    Green Screen
    Greg Ashman
    Greg Whitby
    Group Work
    Growth Mindset
    GSheets
    Heather Davis
    Heath Wild
    Higher Education
    History
    Hogan Assessments
    Holidays
    Homework
    Honours
    Hopscotch
    Horizon Report
    HSC
    Ian Jukes
    Ian Thomson
    ICT
    Ideology
    Indigenous Culture
    Initial Teacher Education
    Inquiry Based Learning
    Interland
    International Baccalaureate
    Internet Skills
    Invent To Learn
    IPad
    IPads
    ITE
    Iteration
    IWBNet
    #IWishMyTeacherKnew
    Iyah Rahwan
    Jack Hyland
    Jack Hylands
    Jacqui Murray
    James Meijboom
    Jamie Dorrington
    Jane Caro
    Jan Owen
    Jared Cooney Horvath
    Jean Piaget
    Jennie Magiera
    Jenny Magiera
    Jeremy Cumming
    Jeremy LeCornu
    Jim Sill
    Joel Speranza
    John Bergmann
    John Burfoot
    John Catterson
    John Dewey
    John Goh
    John Hattie
    Jon Bergmann
    Josh Aghion
    Kahoot
    Kanga Cup
    Kate Lanier
    Katharine Birbalsingh
    Katie Jackson
    Kaye North
    Keith Crawford
    Ken Bauer
    Kid President
    Kim Maksimovic
    Kindergarten
    Kirschner
    Kirsty Tonks
    Kirsty Watts
    Language
    Leadership
    Leanne Steed
    Learning
    Learning Spaces
    Library
    Lifelong Learners
    Life Maths
    Lila Mularczyk
    Lily Young
    Linda Ray
    Lindy West
    Lip Sync Battle
    Lisa Rodgers
    Literacy
    Louann Brizendine
    MacICT
    Makerspace
    Marc Prensky
    Margaret Merga
    Marissa Peters
    Mark Gungor
    Mark Liddel
    Mary Lousie Ryan
    Masterclass
    Mastery
    Mathematics
    Mathletics
    Matt Burns
    Matt Noffs
    Matt Richards
    Matt Scadding
    Media
    Melbourne Declaration
    Melbourne Girls Grammar
    Melinda Cashen
    Mental Health
    Merrylands East PS
    Metacognition
    Michaela Community School
    Michael Aulden
    Michael Beilharz
    Michael Ha
    Michael O'Leary
    Microsoft
    Milton Chen PhD
    Minecraft
    Mistakes
    Monique Dali
    Moral Machine
    Morals And Ethics
    Motivational
    Movie Making
    Murat Dizdar
    Music
    MyEd
    NAO Robotos
    NAPLAN
    Netiquette
    New Beginnings
    Newspapers
    New Teachers
    NMC Horizon Report
    No Excuses
    Note Taking
    Numeracy
    Oakhill College
    Office365
    Offline Access
    Old School Teachers
    Olivia-oneill
    Onedrive
    Onenote
    Organisation
    Padlet
    Panel Discussion
    Parent Communication
    Paul Hamilton
    PBL
    PCPS
    PD
    PDHPE
    PDP
    Pedagogy
    Pedro Negouera
    Peer Instruction
    Peggy Sheehy
    Penny Bentley
    Personal Characteristics
    Peter Adams
    Peter Ellis
    Peter Hutton
    Peter Mader
    Peter Paccone
    Peter Whiting
    Phillip Cooke
    Phillip Heath
    Philosophy
    Phonics
    Physical Education
    PISA
    Place Based Learning
    Planning And Programming
    PLN
    Politics
    Prakash Nair
    Pranav Mistry
    Pre-Learning
    Presenting
    Primary Classroom
    Privacy
    Private Education
    Problem Solving
    Productivity
    Professional Associations
    Professional Development
    Professional Learning
    Professor Barry McGraw
    Professor Geoff Masters
    Professor Jane Burns
    Professor Ken Wiltshire
    Professor Richard Buckland
    Professor Richard Telford
    Project Based Learning
    Prue Gill
    Public Education
    Public Vs Private
    Punishment
    QR Codes
    Questioning
    Rainy Mood
    Ralph Pirozzo
    Reading
    Recycling
    Referee
    Reflection
    Reflector
    Reggio Emilia Approach
    Relationships
    Reports
    Research
    Research Skills
    Resilience
    Resources
    Respect
    Rewards
    RFF
    Richard Byrne
    Robert Livingstone
    Robotics
    Roundtables
    Rupert Denton
    Ryan Gill
    Ryan Hull
    Sally Wood
    SAMR
    Santa
    Sarah Asome
    School Culture
    School Policy
    School Tour
    Science
    ScopeIT
    Self-Branding
    Seymour Papert
    Shane Hancock
    Shireen Winrow
    Silence
    Simon Birmingham
    Simon Breakspear
    Simon Brooks
    Simon Crook
    Simone Segat
    Simon McKenzie
    Simon Sinek
    Sir Ken Robinson
    Sixth Sense Technology
    Social Media
    Socratic Seminars
    Solar System
    Special Needs
    SponeBob Squarepants
    Sport
    Spreadsheet
    Staff Development Day
    Stage One
    Stage Three
    Standardised Testing
    Star Wars
    STEM
    Stephanie Kriewaldt
    Stephen Lethbridge
    STM Bags
    Stories
    Storify
    Stress
    Student Mobility
    Student Wellbeing
    Sue Waters
    Sugata Mitra
    Sunk Cost
    Super Awesome Sylvia
    Susan Bowler
    Sweller
    Sylvia Libow Martinez
    Teacher Education
    Teacher Fever
    Teacher Life
    Teachers Talking Teaching Podcast
    Teacher Value
    Teacher Wellbeing
    #TeachforThink
    Teaching
    Teaching Boys
    Teaching Philosophy
    TeachMeet
    Team Teaching
    TED Talk
    Temporary Contract
    Teresa Deshon
    TER Podcast
    The Arts
    The Eddies
    The Four Cs
    The Hewes Family
    Thinking Skills
    Think Pair Share
    Thomas William Nielsen
    THRASS
    Times Tables
    TMCoast
    #TMSpaces
    Topic Tags
    Tour Builder
    TPCK
    TPL
    Transmedia Storytelling
    Trial And Error
    Troy Faulkner
    Trust
    Tweetdeck
    Twenty-First Century Skills
    Twitter
    University
    URL Shorteners
    Vale
    Value
    Video
    Virtual Reality
    Visual Art
    VR
    Warren McMahon
    Winning
    Word Online
    Work Life Balance
    Worklife-balance
    Writing
    Youngling
    Youtube

Support

Contact
About
Flipped Teacher Professional Learning Videos
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Photo used under Creative Commons from brianc
  • Home
  • 100 miles for Beyond Blue
  • FTPL Videos
  • Blog
  • List of Blog Series
  • Education Resources
  • Starting with Flipped Learning
  • Friday Freebie
  • About Me
  • Contact