New Website

All new and future blog posts can be found at www.ponderingdan.com. 

Making a Difference! Read for Life Uganda with Jody Unterrheiner

In this episode of The PonderingDan Podcast I have the pleasure of speaking with Jody Unterrheiner, the founder and director of Read For Life Uganda. Here, we talk about the great work Read For Life does for education but also the highlights and challenges of working as an international education charity. 

For more information about the amazing work Read For Life does and ways you can support them, visit www.readforlifeug.org. 

Game On! Esports in Education with Dan Martinez from The FUSE Cup

In this episode, Dan Martinez talks about how Esports in education works. From his experience running Esports in schools to starting The FUSE Cup, Dan has a wealth of knowledge about how it can be run effectively and dispels the myth that it plays no educational role in schools. In particular, Dan answers the questions of; what role does Esports play in mental health? how can we encourage design through Esports? How do you manage screen time through Esports? Is Esports even a sport?

Check out The FUSE Cup on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook @thefusecup and at www.thefusecup.com.au. You can also follow Dan on Twitter @martinezgeek. 

COVID-19 School Closures - Special Episode (part 4) with Brian Host

In this episode, I speak with Sydney based educator, Brian Host about the preparations teachers have been making in his school as well as the general thoughts and feelings of his school community in regards to school closures as a result of COVID-19. 

Follow Brian on Twitter @HostBrian and check out his site, www.brianhost.blogspot.com.

COVID-19 School Closures - Special Episode (part 3) with Natasha Feghali

In this next part on the COVID-19 school closures, I speak with Canadian educator Natasha Feghali. We discuss the situation in Windsor, Ontario and discuss the impact socio-economics play with remote learning. 

Follow Natasha on Twitter @NEFeghali and check out her website www.natashafeghali.com.

The PonderingDan Podcast - COVID-19 School Closures - Special Episode with Troy Harkin and Rosita Darden

Rosita Darden

In this episode I have been lucky enough to speak with two educators, Troy Harkin from the Shanghai American School in China and Rosita Darden from Grandview Prepatory School in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. 

The three of us have varying degrees of interruptions because of COVID-19. Troy has been teaching remotely for seven weeks, Rosita is in to her second day of school closure and my school has been preparing for possible closure. Three different context from three different countries. 

Troy Harkin

Follow Troy on Twitter @harkinworld and Rosita @teacherdarden.

Check out the Facebook group Troy mentions in the chat - Educator Temporary School Closure for Online Learning. 

The PonderingDan Podcast - Crazy Times in Education - Simple Advice for Teachers

With so much happening in the world right now it didn't feel right to release my planned episodes of The PonderingDan Podcast. Instead, you will find some useful advice if you are preparing to teach remotely.

Check out Kathleen Morris' Resources for Teaching Online Due to School Closures. You can follow Kathleen on Twitter @kathleen_morris.

The PonderingDan Podcast - Technology in PhysEd? Is That Even a Thing? with Christina Polatajko

Christina Polatajko has made a name for herself over the past few years as an innovative Physical Education teacher. She has found ways to link technology in different ways with her primary PE classes, even linking coding.

In this episode, self proclaimed 'Miss Physical Education' shares her story in the hope of inspiring others to give tech a go in their PhysEd classrooms. Follow Christina on Twitter @cpola17, Facebook - Miss Physical Education and www.missphysicaleducation.com.

The PonderingDan Podcast - Engaging Students with Data. Why Data Science in Education Matters. With Dr Linda McIver

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.

Argh! I've Never Done This Before. Creating a Podcast for Educators

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).