Does the idea of creating your evidence practice leave you feeling overwhelmed and anxious?

My goodness! Me too! Or at least I used to feel this way.  I’d take one look at the 148 little statements that I swear were put there just to JUDGE me and I’d want to run in the opposite direction! What on earth was the purpose of creating evidence of practice anyway and how was it going to help my students? That’s what I wanted to know.  

I’m a bit stubborn rebellious like that.  Do you get like that sometimes too? Well, let me share a little known method, that’s easier than you think to put in place, that’s going to move those grey, stressful clouds out of the way.

Let me share a process to get that evidence flowing!

In this podcast I’m going to talk about how you write about your practice. Specifically, I’m going to share a technique or process that I have learned through my own journey of reflective practice.  I AM going to ask you to shift your thinking a little though… so be ready for that!  We’re going to cover:

Your mindset around writing about your practice and why it might be holding you back
Why you should NEVER start with those standards… ever.
Why you need to write to a mentor (real or imagined)
What voice you should use so you can be authentic.
All of these little pieces of the puzzle join together so that any barrier you had to starting is quickly removed and you are well on your way to reflective greatness!  

That PL was AWESOME! If only there were time to share...

Have you ever attended an amazing Professional learning session? Come back buzzing with awesome ideas that you can’t wait to try? You get back to school, new ideas in hand and then…LIFE?

Maybe you got to give it a go… yay! Did you get to share what you learnt with others and help them develop into their practice too? Was their time?

In this episode I want to talk about how, as educators, we have amazing capacity to learn and teach. That we are, in fact a bunch of amazing super heroes with amazing super powers. But, as you know, with great power comes a great deal of responsibility. Not just towards are students, but to each other as professionals.

It's time to acknowledge our responsibility to lift each other up!

In this podcast I talk about my own experiences with attending professional learning and development sessions and how the learning doesn’t stop when we leave the conference… ever! We explore. how the teaching standards can help us to make sure that the new learning we have acquired… which, by the way, can only be at the graduate level until we’ve applied it in practice.. can have a massive impact on our colleagues and our wider community. If we choose to, we can use what we learnt in that professional learning session to help lift up our colleagues and grow our own skills set at the same time! Perhaps, even more importantly, we also talk about how you can increase your impact by writing and sharing what you’re learning in a truly authentic way.

Join us in episode 21 to talk about your authentic voice as a professional learner. The voice that will empower not only your students, but an entire generation of educators… too super heroey.?? 🦸 I don’t think so! 😉

I have to make a graduate teacher portfolio and I have NO idea what I need to do!

Right now, thousands and thousands of pre-service teachers up and down the country are getting to close to their final semester.  A semester in which they may well have been asked to suddenly complete a graduate teacher portfolio of practice.  Did you hear about that in first year and never again till now? For some reason that seems to be the norm in many universities.

If you’re lucky enough to be at a uni that has Edufolios as its tool of choice, then you’re going to at least have the framework and support you need to organise your content.  If not, there’s nothing stopping you grabbing one right now – seriously.. it currently costs a dollar a week! Get in quick!

Even with this awesome tool behind you though, what might be missing is the answers to some burning questions such as:

• What on earth should a graduate teacher portfolio look like? Can I see one?
• How do I do my GTPA in it?
• Can I put my assignments in it?
• What does a good evidence post look like?
• How many do I need?
• How do I know I’ve done this right?
• Is anyone going to look at this after my assignment anyway?

Let’s get that sorted right now!

If you’re a mentor teacher, uni lecturer or a uni student (no matter what year level) then tune in.  This one’s for you!

“…develop teaching programs that support the participation and learning of students with disability” 1.6

This can be super tricky can’t it.  Especially if you don’t have access to the right tools and expertise.  Areas such as literacy and numeracy (2.5) can seriously be impacted by learning disability and all of us strive, everyday to create a learning environment that meets a range of needs.(1.1).

Microsoft works really hard in this space. Recently, they were the very first tech company to sign the Made by Dyslexia pledge “to give the 700 million people with dyslexia around the world access to technology that empowers them to excel in their academic journey, and in life.” So, when it comes to focus area 1.6 who better to reach out to then our pals in the Microsoft Education team.

Microsoft’s Troy Waller shares the secrets to empowering students using Office 365.

Troy, is Microsoft’s expert in all things accessibility and so, I’ve asked him to join us in today’s episode.  He’s going to share some amazing tools that you can access with and for your students.  Tools that most of us have access to already, for free in our classrooms. I can’t wait for you to tune in and learn some of his very simple ways to make life much easier for everyone in your learning environment. After that, you can use the links at the bottom of this post to access Microsoft’s free online professional learning courses.  There are a couple of hours work there!

So, tune in to learn:

1.  All about Immersive Readers’ ability to save you time and give your students independence and agency
2.  How Immersive Reader can help your neuro-diverse learners access any text, any time without any extra support or preparation
3.  How Microsoft Translate is helping those who can’t sign, communicate with the deaf
4.  How Translate can send live captions to everyone in your classroom in which ever language they need – in real time
5.  How Immersive Reader does maths too!  Use it to support maths skills and help students apply their numeracy skills
6.  How to use all these tools to save yourself time too.  Emails read to you? Dictate your reports and have them typed by word?

Don’t forget to write about what you’ve learnt in your Edufolios. Whether it’s new learning your yet to try (grad) or something practical you’re taking away and putting into place (prof – lead).  Make sure to measure the impact of what you’re doing and let us know how it goes!

As a reliever it’s just too hard to gather evidence. 

You’re in different classrooms everyday. These are not your lesson plans. You haven’t run a parents evening… ever.  On top of that, you don’t get release time as a new teacher and, often, no one’s given you a formal mentor to learn from either.  As a result, you might feel all alone, overwhelmed and you’re left feeling like there’s no way you can pass proficiency or get full registration. But…

You have super powers that most full time teachers would envy!

It’s time to shift your perspective! Great relief teachers have amazing skillsets that will easily nail full rego and proficiency and don’t you forget it! You are a amazing and you just need to know how to see what you do. All that you do.  Above all, I want you to be able to re-frame your thinking and find your impact too! It’s time to move forward and get that registration paperwork sorted!

When I chatted to 20 Edufolios users recently, I bumped into a few who were working as relief teachers.  One had totally rocked the accreditation thing whilst working in a number of different schools.  Most had decided that they didn’t even come close to meeting the requirements or the standards.

This week’s podcast is a pep talk to those who are relieving and a reminder, to those of us who rely on these highly skilled individuals, to really appreciate all that they do!

Comment below.  Are you a TRT or relief teacher who’s earned your days and gone through proficiency?

Do artefacts fit into evidence posts?  How much do I need to write? Is this a good one?

Ah Artefacts! Those mysterious, important and (possibly) confusing little pieces of the evidence pie. If you’ve got a box somewhere filled with potential evidence and you’re not sure what to do with it, then this episode is for you my friend.

Let’s talk annotating artefacts and how to organise them inside an evidence piece.

•  When does an Artefact become evidence?
•  What does an annotated artefact look like?
•  What else do I need beside ‘things’ that show ‘stuff’?
•  How can I connect it all back to the teaching standards?

Join me in episode seventeen for the answers to these questions and more!

Not sure what proving your impact looks like?

You know by now that your portfolio is all about showing the wonderful work you do with your students.  It’s all about showcasing the powerful work that you do to help young people. With it’s artefacts and stories of  practice, it documents and showcases your practice.  Revealing the evidence of the impact you’ve had over your career.

How on earth do you measure or show that impact in a Teacher Portfolio?

In this week’s podcast we tackle this head on.  With my step-by-step guide you will walk away with a clear understanding and a handy process for making sure that you have exactly the evidence of impact that you need to grow your practice and meet the requirements of your accreditation processes.

What are you waiting for? Let’s get you shinning like a S.T.A.R!

 

The Standards Got you Down?

I hear you! In fact I hear thousands of you! Most of us are introduced to the Australian Teaching Standards through some kind of assessment of our practice.  A uni assignment, a registration process, a certification process.  If we’re honest, for some of us in fact, that’s the only time we EVER connect with them.

The teaching standards equate to frustration, to confusion and tension.  Why do we even have to prove ourselves? We’re busy doing other things.  We’re busy changing lives and helping young people all over the country learn how to move to the future. We don’t even know what that future looks like, but watch us go! We’re here to make an impact on each and every child who crosses our path not to prove ourselves against some teaching standard or other!

Who knew that in doing all of that great work, whilst you’re helping young people grow, having a real impact,  you’re already working with and inside those standards. Every day, every lesson.  The impact you’re trying to create is exactly what the  teaching standards are trying to encourage and help you to improve.

What if the standards are secretly a pathway to build your skills to create powerful impact?

In this week’s podcast we’re going to get real about the 148 focus areas that define our career from teaching training to Lead.  We’re going to explore why they’re here and how we choose to frame them.   Let’s talk about:

• Why we’re here as teachers
• How the standards move through an extended sequence of impact
• What ripples grow and how they get stronger and reach further with every career stage
• How you can use the focus areas to help you increase that impact and connect with the fantastic practice around you (and documented online)

These standards are not about you proving yourself.  They’re a guide to how you can develop your impact.  Let’s see how far your impact can grow.

 

How much are you learning from your Mentee?

Yes. Read that sentence up there again… slowly.  The last word says “mentee” not mentor… curious!

This week I want us to get real about the mentoring relationship.  There are thousands upon thousands of pre-service teachers out there right now working with in-service teachers to learn their trade. Mentoring doesn’t stop there though does it?  We should all have a mentor – no matter what stage of our career we’re in and we should ALL aim to mentor at least one person.

Mentoring is a two way street.

Why? Because as Chief Learner, you’ll know that when you’re teaching someone and helping them to develop their skills, you’re also developing yourself.

In this week’s podcast I want to ask you about the way in which you think about that mentoring relationship.   I want you to consider how you can work a little differently so that everyone gets a chance to grow – together.

Pre-service teachers… that includes you.  In my career I have learnt so much from working along side the newly trained, super enthusiastic soon-to-be-educators who grace my classroom.  You are an asset and you have a lot to give!

Tune in now to hear how one Graduate can provide HA evidence to their mentor.  How mentoring can happen via collaboration online and how Learning goals – for both parties are an absolute must have!

Where are you keeping all your evidence and reflections right now?

Do you have one of those boxes, shoved in a cupboard? You know, the one full of things that one day MIGHT be artefacts you COULD use?  A ring binder?

A website somewhere? An Edufolio?

I know that lots of you are on the cusp of starting something great! Some of you have already stepped up and have started organising and collating your reflections and evidence. Well done you!

What should we consider when choosing a home for all of our evidence?

In this podcast episode I am going to talk about what to consider as you make a choice about where and how to store and share your evidence.  The answer to the question of “where” and “What” will depend largely on your goal for your portfolio and we’ll delve into that a little.

Let’s make sure your online teacher portfolio is working harder than you!

If you’re feeding something information then you want it to be able to work with that information and spit out something helpful.  Technology is designed to solve a problem.  Whether you’ve chosen the technology of a ring binder or an online space like Edufolios, let’s see how many problems that technology can really solve for you.

Obviously, there will be a natural bias here from me but, I want you to consider all the options and to have a good understanding of what your expectations should be from your portfolio.

Let’s move you towards a better understanding of:

• What your goal is for your portfolio
• What data technology can use to support you
• Whether you’re cool with building your own site
• What “Free” really means