Data Science is a great way to engage students in learning by giving them a chance to solve problems that matter to them. Get our students to look at data in meaningful ways is the message Dr Linda McIver wants to share with the world. Linda is the founder of Australian Data Science Education Institute (ADSEI). For more information about ADSEI and ways to be involved, go to www.adsei.org. Follow Linda on Twitter @LindaMcIver and ADSEI @DataSciAu.
Two days into the new year, I was overcome with a desire to start a podcast. I'd talked about it a little bit over the past few years but with no real direction and then, BAM! I needed to do it NOW.
It's funny how our mind works with these things and I can't tell you why the sudden desire to get it started. Perhaps I had one of my most restful, recharging school breaks in years and I was flooded with passion for my career. Perhaps it was that I suddenly realised I don't really have a hobby combined with my passion for talking about my job and how excited I have been for the year ahead. Whatever it was, it's started and I'm so pumped for what I've already acheived and what I've got to look forward to.
Getting started was easy in my mind but in practice was much harder. Not so hard that I wanted to quit already but hard enough that I felt suitably challenged (I was well and truly in my favourite place; the learning pit). I read countless guides, tossed up many different podcast web hosts and contacted many people that might be able to help me get started.
I settled for Podbean as my podcast host. They had some pretty good guides, a decent free service (that I could use until I decided I wanted to pay for more) and after contacting them for help a couple of times, realised they were very customer focused. I needed to know if I ran into trouble I could get a reasonably fast reply from a support team.
I also found some really useful guides on what you need to consider when starting a podcast. This guide from Podcast Insights became my beginners bible. I got so much useful information from this and I owe much of my beginnings to their words of wisdom. Given that I decided to use Garageband on my Mac to do my recordings, I found this guide from macworld.com especially useful.
Chris Woods from The STEM Everyday Podcast was really forthcoming with advice when I first announced I was starting. Best of all, he reached out to me to offer help which I truly appreciated. In fact, I was so grateful for the support of my online community in helping me get started. At writing this post, I have already interviewed some brilliant educators from around the world with a stack more lined up. I am loving the engaging conversations I've been part of and am so happy I am now sharing them with the world.
Special thanks to the following people that have been part of the podcast so far (follow them on Twitter):
Bec Spink (@becspink), Mazz Ellery (@lv2teachntravel), Kim Martin (@kimnitram), Stephanie Kriewaldt (@stephkrie), Sally Lowe (@sallylowe17), Karen Caswell (@kcasw1), Dr Linda McIver (@lindamciver), Jody Unterrheiner (@readforlifeug), Christina Polatajko (@cpola17), Tanya LeClair (@TanyaLeClair) and Dr Matthew X. Joseph (@MatthewXJoseph)
I'm in the phase of growing the podcast now and trying to find new listeners. If you could take a few minutes to listen, share and rate the podcast it will really help it grow. You can find The PonderingDan Podcast on most podcast players (Apple, Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Podbean). I have also just begun sharing the episodes on YouTube (PonderingDan).
On
Today's show I'll be talking with Primary Teacher, Collegial Coach and Beginning Teacher Mentor Karen Caswell about Authenticity in
Education, what that means and why it's important to us as educators.
Follow Karen on Twitter @kcasw1 and on her website, www.karencaswell.com.
If you want to join in the Teach Like a Pirate Down Under conversations on Twitter, search #TLAPDownUnder and tune in each Sunday night7pm AEST / 8pm AEDT/ 6pm AWST. Finally, if you're new to Twitter chats, here is a great guide to help you (courtesy of @mrkempnz) http://mrkempnz.com/2018/02/6-easy-steps-to-join-a-twitter-chat.html.
If you or someone you know is suffering from mental health issues, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit beyondblue.org.au. For those outside Australia, local information can be found by visiting www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/.
In this episode of The PonderingDan Podcast, I speak with Steph Kriewaldt, Kim Martin and Sally Lowe all about becoming an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE). What's so good about it? Why should teachers aspire to become an ADE?
I am really lucky to know some amazing educators from around the world. One of those that has had a huge impact on my teaching career is Bec Spink. Bec is an award winning teacher and leader and is Principal of Spensley Street Primary School in inner city Melbourne.
Bec has always been great at challenging my thinking about education and pedagogy and it's something that has stuck with me throughout my career which is why I wanted her to be my first guest on The PonderingDan Podcast. We talk all about why it's important to think deeply about education and to challenge yourself to always ask why.
You can follow Bec on Twitter @becspink.
If you enjoy this podcast, please help me to grow and create great conversations by rating, subscribing and sharing it with your peers. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter where I am always sharing the great learning that's happening in my school.
I was recently asked by @autismplusmath (go follow him if you don't already) through Twitter to contribute a discussion post about math education in my context. Go to https://www.cake.co/conversations/2dswhvg/where-s-the-math-in-coding to join in the discussions about this post.
When I was first asked, I wasn't really sure what I would write about. I'm not exclusively a Maths teacher and to be honest, I don't really
iPads come with so much free stuff that there is barely a need to go and spend a small fortune on apps. Over the next few posts, I'll highlight the best of each of Apple's apps; Keynote, Notes, Garage Band, Numbers, Pages, Clips, iMovie and Classroom. Keynote
Keynote is probably my favourite Apple app. Similar to Power Point for Windows users, Keynote is a powerful tool with features and capabilities that are far under utilised. I've used Keynote to create presentations, animations for videos, tutorials for 'flipped learning' and for modelling tasks. One great way to use Keynote is to
The last twelve months have been a brilliant time for me professionally. I got invited to present at EduTech Asia in Singapore at the end of last year; I was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) and got to spend four days with other ADEs on the Gold Coast; I was invited to present at the iOntheFuture6 conference in Sydney and the Gold Coast and I also got to judge this years EduTech Asia awards. This has all been on top of the work I've been doing at my school teaching STEAM and leading Innovations and our Specialists team, being active with my Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter and studying my Masters of Education.
