The Independent Variable

Our STEM Journey

6/12/2017

In 2016 our principal informed the Science, TAS and Maths coordinators that he wanted an integrated STEM project to run for Year 8 in 2017. This began an 8 month long journey through brainstorming, planning and then implementing our project.

Our first step was to determine what kind of project we wanted to run. The coordinators and assistants from the three departments sat together with our scope and sequence documents to brainstorm when and where we could incorporate an integrated project. A number of ideas were slated, however, we decided to go with the Ecosystems topic from Science that could be combined with a selection of Maths outcomes. TAS already has 3 projects that they complete in a year, so they decided to make the project work, time would be taken from each one to allow students to complete a shorter, fourth project.

Next came planning and creating resources for the project. Myself, the assistant Maths coordinator and the TAS coordinator took on this role and it was great working with two other passionate educators who were willing to give anything a go. We didn't get much release time from school, so a lot of work was completed outside of school hours.

We started with the end point in mind - what did we want the students to achieve from doing this project? The students were going to design a new and improved zoo enclosure for an endangered animal that met it's needs in regards to adaptations, feeding relationships and its natural habitat. When we took last year's Year 8 cohort to the zoo, a few of us spent time brainstorming and talking to staff about how we could work towards our project. The day was very productive and helped us to really cement where we wanted the project to go.

The project kicked off on day one of Term 2 with all of Year 8 assembling in the hall. I spoke to the whole cohort about the project and what they would be doing over the term. We spoke about the excursion to the zoo being an opportunity for the students to see what the animals already have and how their work in each of their three subjects would help them towards creating their final zoo enclosures.

In Science, students completed a series of self-paced modules using a range of GSuite tools to learn about ecosystems and how animals interact with these ecosystems. These lessons helped the students to create a Google Site about the particular endangered animal that their group was assigned. The students had to research the animal's habitat and identify abiotic and biotic factors from these habitats that impact on the animals, find out about the feeding relationships the animals are involved in and create a public service campaign to help to convince the public to protect the animals. The quality of the websites the students produced was amazing. The use of Google Sites meant that the students could easily incorporate their creations in Google Drive into the site.

During weeks 5-7, students were given time in all three subjects to physically create their 3D enclosure model. Students were provided with a range of materials and were able to bring their own to help them to make their enclosures as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Students used the 3D printer to print a range of elements for their enclosures from seats for visitors to bird baths and feeding troughs. Students could also use the laser cutter to create other elements. Students used this to make trees or interestingly shaped 'glass' for the surrounding of their enclosures.

On Wednesday of Week 7 we held a STEM Showcase where parents were able to come and see what their students had been creating in these three subjects. Despite the shocking weather, we had approximately 150 parents come through and find out about our project from almost 200 excited Year 8 students. A range of staff members also spent time talking to students and the buzz across the 9 classrooms was palpable.

Feedback from parents and staff was that the students were able to articulate what they had produced and the process they had taken to complete their task. The students were able to take ownership and discuss their enclosures in detail as they had been the facilitators of their learning across all facets of the project. The students were passionate about what they had achieved and the general consensus from the night was that they would love to complete the same kind of project again in the future.

Our next step in our project is to gather feedback from staff and students and to work out where we want to take STEM in the future.

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Super Simple STEM

2/17/2017

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Today I am presenting a workshop titled 'Super Simple STEM' at the NSW Science Teachers Association Annual Conference (ACSTA2017). During this session we will be exploring a range of simple activities that you can do in your classroom with resources that are very cheap and apps that have free versions.

Please find the resources that I will be referring to in my presentation below:

Models of Ionic Compounds
The Heart & Exercise
Catapults
Reaction Powered Boats
My presentation

For each of these activities we will be breaking them down to ensure that there components that match all of the aspects of STEM - ensuring that we have Science, the effective integration of Technology, some element of Engineering and Maths :)

I am hoping that each attendee will walk away with a solid STEM activity that they feel comfortable to take back to their classroom next week that won't cost a fortune to implement and also covers all 4 aspects rather than leaning too much towards one of the 4 components (especially Science!!)

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20 Digital Resources to Assist with ICT Capabilities

2/3/2017

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I have just submitted my final assessment for subject 6 of my Masters - Classroom Technologies. This has been one of the craziest subjects to date, especially doing it over the Christmas break. We had 10 modules that consisted of numerous blog posts, each that required references beyond the reading to support out writing. We also had to comment on other student's blogs, again with resources. Lastly, we had to create a website that is a portfolio of 20 digital resources that would help teach students skills around the ICT Capabilities outlined by the Australian Curriculum.

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't as 'regular' with my blogging as I should be. Christmas and New Year got in the way, as did my enjoyment of my holidays! I got all written, but a huge chunk of them were written in the span of a week. My regularity of commenting on other people's blogs was even less regular. I have only done 10. This probably is no where near what the lecturer is hoping for - but we weren't given a benchmark. The portfolio I spent quite a bit of time on - researching, evaluating and then creating my website. I am quite happy with the quality of my blog and portfolio, so hopefully the two of those will outweigh the fact I sucked at 'contributing to the learning of my peers'.

I used the new Google Sites to create my website and WOW!!! Sooooo much easier than the old version. I have decided that our research task in term 2 as part of our Year 8 STEM program is going to involve the students creating a website using Sites to share their findings about the animal they are creating their zoo enclosure for!

If anyone is interested in looking at my blog, you can find the posts that relate to this subject here:
http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/theindependentvariable/category/esc515/

And if you would like to check out my website, you can find that here:
Kelly Hollis ESC515 - Classroom Technologies

Feel free to share either resource with anyone who you think would benefit from them :)

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Social Networking Report – NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

1/11/2017

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Introduction
Social networking sites allow individuals to use technology to connect, collaborate and share over a variety of platforms. Although social networking is not a new form of communication, a rise in the use of these platforms by educators in recent times has been observed. Social networking sites are used to find people with similar interests and build relationships with them through discussions around these interests (King, 2015a).

The justification behind the use of social networks as a tool for communication and professional learning includes the idea that many educators will use popular media such as Facebook (Pilgrim & Bledsloe, 2011).

Upon determining that there was a lack of social networking support for New South Wales Biology teachers, a Facebook group was developed with the aim to provide these educators with a place to communicate, collaborate and learn from one another. A Facebook group was chosen as this allows the development of relationships between users (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2011) which will help to open the lines of communication between newly appointed Biology teachers and those with more experience

Over time, the group will be monitored to determine how it is being used and by who. This will be done through the use of a survey created with Google Forms and the use of online analytics software that monitors the Facebook Group’s usage.

The Nature of the Project - NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

The New South Wales Biology syllabus is about to be overhauled with a number of changes to be made. Although content is not going to be overly different to the current syllabus, the way that it is packaged and expected to be taught may be very different for some. This social networking group was created to help Biology teachers across New South Wales connect with each other to share ideas as well as collaborate on teaching and learning programmes and resources.

The introduction of a depth study to the Stage 6 Biology syllabus will require students to complete projects that are of interest to them and possibly different to those undertaken by other students in their class. The creation of this Facebook group will also help to connect classes so that students who are conducting similar depth studies can communicate and collaborate with each other, as well as providing students with an authentic audience beyond the students within their own classroom.

This social network would also be helpful for beginning teachers to connect with more experienced teachers to find a mentor to help them through those first few months/years of teaching Biology in New South Wales. The social networking group will also provide information for all teachers in regards to opportunities for professional learning/development that are advertised by local providers for teachers of Biology.

A Facebook group was chosen over the use of any other social media outlet as Facebook allows for teachers across all of New South Wales to develop relationships, which is one of the things that technology makes possible (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2011). Twitter simply allows for microblogging, where individuals can post a short message of up to 140 characters that allows users to be in constant contact, however, does not allow these messages to remain static as they continue through the Twitter ‘feed’ (Tang & Hew, 2016).

The justification behind the use of social networks as a tool for professional learning includes the idea that many educators will use popular social media outlets such as Facebook for the purpose of communication and collaboration. Facebook provides one tool where educators can access multiple organisations at the one time. Educators can follow the Facebook group’s feed to find information regarding their profession and group members may respond and interact with other members, just as they can interact socially with their friends on Facebook. As educators, one goal is to develop a love of learning in students that is lifelong. The use of Facebook helps educators to continue their own learning, at their own convenience, by joining groups that they are interested in through their own personal Facebook page (Pilgrim & Bledsloe, 2011).

The familiarity of the Facebook platform for many people is another factor that helped to finalise the choice to go with this platform as opposed to any other social networking site. The self-contained community that has been created will allow for asynchronous and eventually synchronous interactions between educators while also allowing users to share information, documents, pictures and links to outside websites with other members. The open nature of a Facebook group also provides a convenient platform for collaborative and/or cooperative learning (Miron & Ravid, 2015).

Asynchronous interactions involve those where educators are able to access the Facebook group at any time from anywhere (Aggarwal, Turoff, Legon, Hackbarth & Fowler, 2008). This mode of delivery helps to supplement the discussions and learning that the educators take part in within their everyday lives, with colleagues at school.

The Process Involved in the Creation of NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

Before deciding upon the social networking group to create, an search of both Twitter and Facebook was carried out to ensure that a similar group had not already been created. It was found that a number of generic science teacher social networking groups already exist, however, none exist that specifically cater for teachers of stage 6 Biology in New South Wales.

After establishing that the need was evident, the Facebook group was created and the name 'NSW Biology Teachers' was assigned (Appendix 1). This name was chosen as it was short and to the point, ensuring that there was no confusion about who the group was intended to be for.

The group was created in Facebook, rather than Twitter, as one of the main objectives of the group is to allow educators to share resources as the new syllabus approaches. Facebook groups engage users and allow for files to be uploaded and links to be shared in a location that remain static (Wankel, 2011), unlike Twitter, where users would need to be searching for hashtags or other users to be able to find what they are looking for. Facebook also allows for the creation of polls and an easier means of developing relationships between members.

The cover photo for the group was created using Canva, a free online graphic design program that is easy to use to create eye catching designs for a range of applications (Appendix 2). Canva has templates available that allow users to create a range of images for a number social networking sites including cover images for Facebook profiles and group images. A simple and clean design was created that was visually appealing and added as the group’s cover image.

Once the group was created it was advertised firstly on Twitter using the hashtag #aussieED. This hashtag was used as it is associated with one of the largest Australian professional learning communities on Twitter. The tweet that was created on December 10 has been retweeted a number of times with almost 1000 impressions. This has allowed the information regarding the Facebook group to reach a wide range of educators throughout not only NSW but the whole of Australia. Other hashtags were also used including #HSCBiology and #NSWBiology in an attempt to target those specific educators who use Twitter (Appendix 3).

The group was also advertised in another Facebook group titled 'Awesome Science Teachers', which caters for 1277 science teachers in Australia and around the world (Appendix 4) along with 'The Australian Flipped Learning Network' Facebook group. This group has 106 of members from a range of key learning areas and was created during September of 2016 (Appendix 5).

The use of these two platforms to advertise the group led to the membership growing to 189 educators within twelve days of its conception (Appendix 6). The number of participants rose very quickly within the first few days, reaching ninety-six members in the first twenty-four hours. Requests to add members then began to plateau as the end of the New South Wales school term approached. When school returns in 2017, the group will be advertised again with the hope of continuing its growth as teachers return to school.

Before the end of the term, a number of polls were created to begin to get members to interact with one another. These polls helped to create some discussion around class sizes, the use of textbooks and patterns of study. Each of the polls have had a fairly good rate of response, however, the number of people adding further discussion has decreased as the date has moved closer to Christmas (Appendix 7).

On December 19th, a survey was created to gauge how users were finding the Facebook group and what it had to offer them (Appendix 8). This survey was created using Google Forms and consisted of eight general questions to gather information regarding the demographics of the Facebook group members as well as nine questions that ask about their general social networking site use, both professionally and personally. The survey then concluded with six questions that were specifically about the ‘NSW Biology Teachers’ Facebook group including whether or not members were finding the group to be beneficial and whether they would be interested in continuing their interaction with the group in 2017. One question was also included to determine whether members had any specific feedback for the group and how it may further benefit them as Biology teachers in the future.

On December 24th, group analytics were investigated using sociograph.io and gyrtics.com. Sociograph provides basic data with no cost on a range of features that the Facebook group provides including the number of members who have joined each day, the type and range of posts that have been made and the types of interactions that have been carried out by members. Gyrtics provides much more detailed analytics on the group’s usage, however, there is a minimum cost of $12/month to use this services. Thankfully, a free-trial is provided for users to explore what the website has to offer before committing to this cost. The information extracted from both of these services will provide data on how the group has been used since its development on December 10th.

Critical Evaluation of NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

The use of group analytics has helped to gather an understanding of the peak times of when the group was used by educators. In particular, engagement metrics provide the developers of social networking sites with valuable information about what group members are actually doing with the site to ensure that the user’s needs are being met (King, 2015.b).

From the analytics provided by grytics.com it was noted that out of 189 members, only 50 of these have been active (Appendix 9) with majority of the interactions (85% of posts) on the site being the creation of status-like posts (Appendix 10). This data is understandable considering the group has only been in existence for two weeks and members are still simply introducing themselves to others and getting a feel for the group. This low level of engagement could also be attributed to the fact that the New South Wales school term was wrapping up and educators were less likely to be engaging in school-related activities on social networking sites as noted by the decline in activity in the group shown by analytics provided by Sociograph (Appendix 11).

In order to gather feedback from educators who have signed up to the group a survey was created using Google Forms (Appendix 8). The survey questions asked users about their usual social media use to connect with educators as well as their feelings about how the group is travelling. Other questions also asked users for suggestions for how the group may better suit their needs in the future and whether or not they would be interested in attending a face to face meet up with other members of the group.

On surveying the members of the Facebook group, it was interesting to note that out of the 32 respondents, 24.2% of them stated that they usually do not use Facebook as a means to communicate with other educators (Appendix 12). They stated that they would prefer to use Twitter or LinkedIn for this and save Facebook for more personal use (Appendix 13). This difference in percentage may be due to the fact that more educators believe that Facebook is better suited for students rather than teachers and that Facebook is quite an informal social networking tool (Wankel, 2011).

Twitter is ranked within the top two social networking tools that teachers would be willing to use in their classrooms, ranking higher than Facebook (Tang & Hew, 2016). A number of educators find it much easier to create a professional learning community using Twitter than they do Facebook as it does not require as much investment of time as Facebook to create the short posts of only 140 characters (Tang & Hew, 2016).

Although almost 50% of the respondents feel that they have not found the group to be overly helpful as yet (Appendix 14), 100% of educators who took the survey plan to continue to interact with the group in 2017 (Appendix 15).

When asking for specific feedback in regards to what the users would like to see from the group in the future the three most consistent responses included:

Sharing of resources
Forum discussions on the upcoming new syllabus documents
Information on professional learning/development opportunities

This feedback will allow for the continual growth of the group moving forward. In response to the request for a place to share resources, a Google Drive folder will be created to allow group members to upload their resources as well as allowing others to search these resources for anything they may require.

Once the 2017 school year has started, there will be posts that are created that specifically relate to the new syllabus so that group members can discuss their queries and concerns prior to the implementation of the syllabus. This will also allow those teachers who are designing programs and learning resources for the new syllabus to collaborate as well as to share ideas and resources.

Lastly, information on professional learning/development can be advertised through the use of the events feature in Facebook. This will allow members to keep up to date with upcoming events that will allow educators to access these professional learning/development experiences.

Conclusion

Overall, the creation of the ‘NSW Biology Teachers’ group has provided Biology educators with a means to communicate and collaborate effectively through the use of the social networking site, Facebook. The group will continue to grow in size and engagement once the 2017 school year commences with members being able to share ideas and resources to help others with their understanding and teaching of the Stage 6 Biology syllabus.

References

Aggarwal, A., Turoff, M., Legon, R., Hackbarth, G., & Fowler, D. (2008). Asynchronous Learning: Emerging Issues for the 21st Century. In L. Esnault (Ed.), Web-Based Education and Pedagogical Technologies: Solutions for Learning Applications (pp. 206-225). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-59904-525-2.ch011

King, D. (2015)a. Why Use Social Media. Managing Your Library’S Social Media Channels, 51(1), 6-9. http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/ltr.51n1

King, D. (2015) b. Analytics, Goals and Strategy for Social Media. Managing Your Library’S Social Media Channels, 51(1), 26-32. http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/ltr.51n1

Miron, E., & Ravid, G. (2015). Facebook groups as an academic teaching aid: Case study and recommendations for educators. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(4), 371-384. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1736895969?accountid=10344

Nussbaum-Beach, S. & Hall, L. (2011). The Connected Educator (1st ed.). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Pilgrim, J., & Bledsoe, C. (2011). Learning through facebook: A potential tool for educators. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 78(1), 38-42. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/905840093?accountid=10344

Tang, Y. & Hew, K. (2016). Using Twitter for education: Beneficial or simply a waste of time?. Computers & Education, 106, 97-118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.004

Wankel, C. (2011). Educating Educators with Social Media. : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au

Appendix:
Appendix 1 – Image – Creation of NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

Appendix 2 – Image – NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group Cover Photo

Appendix 3 – Image – Initial Tweet used to advertise NSW Biology Teachers

Appendix 4 – Image – ‘Awesome Science Teachers’ Facebook Group

Appendix 5 – Image – ‘Australian Flipped Learning Network’ Facebook Group

Appendix 6 – Image – NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group

Appendix 7 – Image – Example of poll created in NSW Biology Facebook Group

Appendix 8 – URL – Link to Google Forms Survey https://goo.gl/forms/cUWsyBzOFeHxI5712

Appendix 9 – Image – Analytics summary provided by grytics.com including total known and active members

Appendix 10 – Image – Analytics provided by grytics.com in regards to post type

Appendix 11 – Image – Graph showing activity in NSW Biology Teachers Facebook Group by date provided by sociograph.io

Appendix 12 – Image – Survey Responses to question ‘Do you normally use Facebook to connect with other educators?’

Appendix 13 – Survey Responses to question ‘If you don’t usually use Facebook to connect with educators, please name which networking site you use for this.’

Appendix 14 – Survey Responses to question ‘Have you found the ‘NSW Biology Teachers’ Facebook group to be helpful?’

Appendix 15 – Survey Responses to question ‘Do you plan on continuing to interact with the other educators on the ‘NSW Biology Teachers’ Facebook group in 2017?

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My #teacher5aday Pledge for 2017!

1/7/2017

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I was recently contacted by Martyn from the UK to see whether I would be interested in creating a vlog to talk about something I have been doing to improve my wellbeing. I was the first person from the southern hemisphere to be approached by Martyn & the team so I was very chuffed. Because of this I wanted to make sure my video had a true Aussie flavour, so waited until I was in the city to film it so I could include shots of the Harbour Bridge & the Opera House. I filmed my video last Wednesday and have uploaded it to Youtube, but here is it in all it's glory!

I'm not usually a fan of having my face in my videos (if you follow my YouTube channel you will see that I appear in NONE of the videos I have created apart from my voice!), but this was a bit of fun and quite liberating! I do plan on trying to make some more in the future - but need to wait until I have something exciting to share.

Now some of you are probably wondering what #teacher5ada y is. It was started by a number of teachers in the UK - Martyn being one of them. The idea behind it is that teachers focus on 5 different areas to help them improve their wellbeing, with ideally the goal of doing each of those five things every day. Obviously, this can sometimes be a challenge, so teachers are inspired to spend at least some time each month to invest more time into the five areas.

The five areas are:

connect
notice
learn
volunteer
exercise

So here is my pledge for each of the five areas:
1. Connect :

to actively work on maintaining friendships this year, not just those online
work towards building my PLN through attending #TeachMeets & conferences in areas that interest me

2. Notice:

take part in the 'Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day' challenge
make an effort to compliment people or congratulate them when they do amazing things
each day, create an image with a motivational quote that gets posted to my social media accounts. When school goes back, print one off each week and give them to students in my homeroom to put in their diaries so they have a positive thing to focus on each week

3. Learn:

complete my Masters
if I don't get accepted as a Google Trainer this round, work on improving my application and resubmit in the next round
continue to submit proposals to present at conferences & learn from others through networking

4. Volunteer:

donate blood - for the first time... I am a needlephobe so it's a big thing for me!
next Christmas I wish to spend the day helping with a charity
help at least one local charity in some way every few months

5. Exercise:

meet my 'Move' and 'Activity' goals on my my Apple Watch at least 5 days a week
go to the gym and do a solid workout at least twice a week
allow myself one cheat meal a week to ensure that I am eating healthy & providing my body with the best that I can

So as you can see, it's pretty easy to make a pledge... like any resolution, the hardest thing is maintaining it! I think that my pledges are quite realistic this year. I have looked back on my resolutions for 2016 and think I went a bit too big too fast. There's not point in setting unrealistic goals and then being disappointed when you don't reach them.

So, set realisitc goals, smash them & then set more!

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Celebrating the end of the Academic Year

12/9/2016

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Today we celebrated our last day of the academic year. In order to look back on my year as an educator, I created a Flipagram of the things that happened both in my class and my life as an educator at conferences and other PD! Enjoy :)

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A Year of Personal Achievements

12/5/2016

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As we come to the end of another academic year, I thought I'd look back over the last 12 months and the things I have been able to achieve. Each of these achievements have involved hard work, determination and lots of hours behind the scenes outside of school.

Firstly, this year I completed my Level 1 and 2 Google Educator Certificates. Both of these required me to spend quite a few hours working through modules based on the Google Apps for Education Suite and then pass a series of exam like questions and complete a number of skills-based scenario activities.

My passion for the Google Apps for Education suite stems from my work at my previous school where I was selected as a 'Google Guide' in 2012. During this time I attended a Google Boot Camp facilitated by Sydney Catholic Schools where a group of us learnt the basics of how to use each tool so we could help to help staff to implement them when the tools were rolled out to all staff. After this, I spent a lot of time doing my own investigation into how the tools can be used in my classroom by completing the Sydney Catholic Schools Web 2.0 course and attending (and also presenting at) the 2014 and 2015 Sydney GAFE Summits.

Although my current school does not explicitly use the Google Apps for Education suite, I have continued to use the tools in my classroom, sharing my knowledge with staff and students. In a recent lesson with my Year 12 students, one girl said 'I didn't even know about Google Drive at the beginning of the year, now it's my life!'.

In September of this year I received an email to say that I have been included on the 'Flipped Learning Global Initiatives Top 100' educators leading flipped learning worldwide. This inclusion has stemmed from the traction that my YouTube channel is gaining with biology teachers and students across New South Wales and the sharing of my experiences on social media, at conferences and also in print.

Along with this, I have been approached by ClickView to host my Biology videos on their server so that they are easily accessible by schools around NSW and Australia. I am still in the process of uploading my videos ready to launch, but I am getting there!

Last month I also found out I was included on 'The Educator' magazine's 2016 Hot List. Again, this is something that shocked me and also made me extremely proud of the things that I am doing both in and out of the classroom. My inclusion on this list was put down to my goal of changing the face of Science education to one that allows students to develop STEM skills by exploring and inquiry-based learning as well as my work in flipped learning and my contribution to #aussieED.

When the hard copy of the magazine arrived last week it was very exciting to see my photo on the front cover as well as being only one of few practicing teachers amongst a list of executive members and principals.

Now that 2016 is coming to a close, it is time for me to look forward to 2017 and start to plan on a new set of goals - the first of which is to complete my Masters (only 2 subjects left after I finish the 2 I am currently enrolled in - YAY!).

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Practical Pedagogies - Take Away 1

11/6/2016

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I'm currently sitting in the airport in Paris waiting to board the first of two flights home to Sydney. I have decided that there will be a series of blog posts about what I took away from Practical Pedagogies because there is simply too much to put into one blog post!

My first take away, however, isn't from any of the sessions or keynotes that I attended at the conference, but simply just the venue. The conference was held at the International School of Toulouse (IST). Toulouse is about 680km from Paris and is the home to 'Air Bus', the company that makes the A380 that I'm about to board!

The IST is an international school that caters for students from kindergarten all the way through to senior secondary. They offer the (I)GSCE as well as IB to their high school students and there is also a German school on site.

My #1 take-away from the school was the vast amount of student work on display. Every corridor and wall was adorned with amazing examples of what goes on in the classrooms at IST. There were displays of posters, artwork, books, models - you name it, it was there. It really made me realise how ineffective our corridors are being used at my current school. We have walls and walls of space that could be being used to showcase students achievements in the classroom, but they have nothing - just blank!

The second part of my first take away is that each teacher had their own room. This is something that I dream of in Australia. Each classroom had it's own style, with amazing displays that were created for each particular subject area that was being taught in there. Some of the displays looked like they belonged in museums they were so engaging and detailed.

When teachers have ownership of their rooms they are able to make them an extension of the lessons that they are teaching. Students are able to look around and be inspired by what they see and use these extra pieces of information to help them to delve deeper into what they are learning. Word walls, shelves with copious amounts of books for extra research and posters are just a few of the things I saw while visiting IST.

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Why do we sell ourselves short?

10/25/2016

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Today I ran a 25 minute workshop on flipping the classroom with half of my colleagues. I have only been at the school since the beginning of this year and still really only know a number of people by name and from conversations around the staff room. So, to start off my presentation I gave them a bit of a background as to why I was there, presenting to them. When I started talking about myself I automatically began to feel awkward. I love doing what I do and who it has helped me become, but sometimes I worry that people will think I'm trying to be an overachiever or even that I inflate the things I've done to try to make myself sound better.

Because I started feeling uncomfortable 'going on' about myself, I actually gave a watered down version of the achievements I have made and the things I am still doing. I don't do any of this for recognition from others... I simply do it because I love it and hope that it all helps to improve outcomes for my students.

I love sharing what I do on social media - through Twitter, Instagram and of course, this blog and it is this sharing that has helped me to build my PLN and my confidence. Both of these things have made me branch out and present at as many TeachMeets and conferences that I can.

It's this sharing that has also helped me achieve the awesome status of being included in the Flipped Learning Global Initiative's Top 100 educators leading flipped learning worldwide. I haven't specifically mentioned this on my blog, however, I have included the digital badge for people to see. I am still a little in shock about my inclusion on the list and now want to do everything I can in order to make sure I live up to the expectations of being included on the list amongst some amazing educators from around the world.

Another conversation along these lines I've had with colleagues around the same age as me recently is the number of younger teachers who are moving into leadership roles. Please, do not take this as a negative, it's more a reflection on myself that when I was their age (man I sound old!) I didn't have the guts to be applying for leadership positions because I didn't think I had the skills/expertise/age to take on such roles. Sometimes I still find myself talking myself out of particular things for the same reasons... but obviously this isn't the case anymore. I give props to these younger educators taking leaps in their careers... I just hope I haven't missed the boat!!!

Writing this blog post has been quite therapeutic to get a few of these things off my chest. But now, time for a new mantra... let this be it...

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Sketchnoting

10/22/2016

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Although I am not so great at art, I have always been a visual learner. During my Higher School Certificate each of my subjects had a particular colour that I created my notes on. During my exams, this helped me recall information as I could associate the subject with the colour. I also created lots of post-it notes that had key facts, usually in some kind of visual representation, that were located around my bedroom where I would always be able to see them.

Over the last few years, sketchnoting has become much more popular in educational circles. I have been to conferences where people create sketchnotes instead of making bullet points of the key things that they are hearing. I have tried to do it this way, but find that I need to hear everything first before I can turn it into a visual representation.

So, what is a sketchnote?

A sketcnote is a visual representation of any kind of information that you want to convey. Think of it like a mind-map but much more colourful with icons and little drawings to represent key concepts rather than just words. Also with sketchnotes, the use of different styles and sizes of fonts helps to emphasise certain things that need emphasising!

If you aren't sure where to start with sketchnoting, check out Sylvia Duckworth. She has created many amazing sketchnotes for a variety of topics. Sylvia creates a lot of sketchnotes for various educational authors to showcase the ideas that are represented in their books.

Sylvia creates her sketchnotes digitally, but there is no set rule for how you should create yours. I have tried both, but at the moment I am finding the old school pen & paper to be my weapon of choice. Perhaps as my skills improve I may move to create more digital sketchnotes! This great sketchnote shows that you can do it however you like!

To help my students revise the topics we have done in Science, I created a sketchnote for them of the key concepts that they needed to know. I had only done this at the beginning of the year because time got away from me after we finished our other topics and I never got around to it. My Year 8 students have their final exam on Friday and they asked me whether I could make them one for their 2nd and 3rd topics to help them revise as they liked the first one so much... so I got back into it this week - hence the inspiration for this blog!

Here are the sketchnotes I have made for my students this year:

My goal for next year though is to get my students to create their own sketchnotes. They are a great way to put your ideas and thoughts into another format to really help to consolidate ideas.

Remember that you don't need to follow any rules when sketchnoting, but if you'd like some tips on how to start... this is a great sketchnote (again by Sylvia Duckworth) with lots of ideas...

References:

Duckworth, S. (2016). Sketchnoting (or visual notetaking). Retrieved from http://mmeduckworth.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/sketchnoting-or-visual-note-taking.html
Henry, T. (2013). Four Reasons Why You Should Sketch Your Notes. Retrieved from http://www.accidentalcreative.com/creating/four-reasons-you-should-sketch-your-notes/
My very first sketchnote. Retrieved from http://studyforwhatmatters.tumblr.com/post/97552467943/my-very-first-sketchnote

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Kelly Hollis

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