The Energetic Teacher: Recent Episodes
Mark O'Connor
An exploration of how to use positive energy to engage your students and reinvigorate your passion for teaching. We will connect with educators that have specific expertise in different areas to develop our skillset to become the most effective teachers we can be. I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions about any of the episodes. We can connect through twitter; @MarkOconnor1976 or email; mrmarkoconnor@gmail.com. Whether you agree or disagree with any of the ideas in the podcast, I welcome discourse as a way of further expanding learning.
In the first of two episodes this week we speak with Lisa who as well as completing her role as a teacher works to implement whole school practices around literacy. This first episode is focused on reading strategies with the discussion exploring the idea of text complexity and differentiating texts as well as how to effectively use 'think alouds' to engage students in how to be critical readers.
In this episode I speak with my brother, Steve who has taught for a slightly longer period of time than I have (mainly because he is a bit older than I am). We've obviously had many conversations over the years and the focus has always been on how to be better. After last week's discussion with Mark about instructional coaching it seemed timely to speak with my brother about how he reflects on his own practice and how he continues to grow as a teacher.
It was a great opportunity to speak with Mark Bennett who is a Kindergarten teacher and an instructional coach. Mark shares idea of what it is like to work with a co-teacher and his role in helping his team become even better teachers than what they currently are. The idea of instructional coaching is relatively new but is more than likely an iteration of things that have come before it. What I really enjoyed about the conversation was the power of collaboration and the idea that we can always improve elements of our teaching that are within our control.
It has been a while since our last podcast. The realities of teaching hit us all and equally I had to take some time to prioritise work. Having said that I've really missed sharing ideas with you all so I'm hoping to get back to more episodes where we can learn from teachers about the work they are currently doing. This episode is focused on a reboot and I hope in some way it helps you get some energy for the next section of your work year but I also know that it has helped me re-focus my energy towards what is important to me and what I value. I hope it proves to do the same for you.
It is always a pleasure to spend some time talking about education with my good friend, Melinda. This episode creates a segue from the unique perspectives we've been focused on to wellbeing. Melinda gives us both a unique role that she is currently undertaking in wellbeing and a reflection on the changes in wellbeing that have taken place since she was a Year Coordinator in the early part of this century.
It was a great pleasure to interview Anna as she shares the influence of her business career on her current teaching role and mainly because she is my wife. Anna's role is a unique one in that her position of study coach requires her to work with key stakeholders in each individual students' learning journey. I loved exploring the expertise of her former career in operations and how this has enhanced the way she strategises about her job.
Our guest for this episode, Rachel works in a Year 11 and 12 school in the south of Sydney. Her unique perspective is that she started as a primary school teacher and has taught the full gamut from Kindergarten to Year 12. Rachel also grew up in a country town and has now had her own sons and daughters at her current school. We will explore what she has learnt from these unique experiences and I know you will find some ideas that will remind us that teaching and engaging with students, no matter their age, has some fundamentals that never change.
Having finished the individual episodes it is exciting to move into the interview component of the podcast. Over the next few weeks we will talk to guests who have a specific perspective on teaching. Our first guest is Tara who started her teaching journey this year as a full-time member of the English department at my own school. I'm always interested to learn from our young teachers and I'm sure you will agree that Tara's energy and passion is quite infectious. she shares some perspectives that will serve as a reminder to why we all love this job and connect us back to what it is like to be a beginning teacher.
This week's episode explores our relationship with parents. As teachers we want and desire the support of our students' parents to promote a learning culture with each child. When parents work with us on this journey they are absolutely an asset that we can utilise to improve learning. Too often though we find ourselves in a conflict situations with parents despite a shared desire. We will look at different ways we can ensure that parents are an asset to us rather than a critic and thus become a part of the learning environment within our classrooms.
Everyday we walk into a classroom and have to command the room. Our ownership of that space is essential to ensuring that learning can occur. Eliminating that feeling that we are 'imposters' is possible and important to our confidence in the classroom. This episode will go through some ideas that will help us tackle this syndrome that impacts us all at different points in our career.
In this week's episode we explore the challenges we face ensuring that we meet compliance requirements set by governments and educational bodies whilst still staying true to what we know is of value. The conundrum is that often what we are mandated to do doesn't serve our students. We will attempt to find some ways of doing what we know is best for the students in our class whilst staying true to what we are required to do in terms of compliance.
As teachers we all know the reality of marking on a Saturday night. Whilst we might like to party we often sacrifice our own time to complete school work. This week's episode will focus on marking, feedback and what we can do to be more effective and efficient in this area of our work.
In this week's episode we examine the often spoken about yet very difficult to achieve aspect of teaching, differentiation. Whilst all teachers know the importance of differentiation it is one of the most challenging aspects of our work to achieve. We explore some options we can take that won't take a lot of time but will make a difference to our confidence in meeting the needs of all students in our classes.
This week's episode allows us to explore the impact of technology on our teaching. It has been an absolute game changer in education; yet it is a challenge to ensure that it does more for us than what we already had. We will explore how to use technology to alter student learning and to engage students more deeply.
This week's episode builds on the energy we have created in our classrooms to assess which pedagogical strategies are the best to meet the needs of our students. There are trends in education that we invest heavily in and in this episode we examine how to evaluate which trends or which strategies are the most effective. To assist with this we must consider how the strategy increases both student engagement and student learning. In addition we must always consider the context of the students in our class.
This week's episode is a confronting one as it made me and hopefully you too to reflect on your attitude to learning. We exist in a profession that prides itself on the importance of learning as a concept that can be life-changing yet what is our actual attitude to learning.
By shifting our mindset to being students in everything we do we may provide ourselves with an opportunity to re-engage with learning.
In Episode 4 we talk about the tricky balance between creating both a respectful classroom environment where students understand that you are the teacher whilst also connecting with students to ensure that they know how important they are to us in our teaching. When we establish this environment it creates a rich learning atmosphere where students trust their teacher and growth can occur.
In this episode we delve into and remember the reasons, 'Why?' we were attracted to the profession of teaching. We then explore some specific strategies we can employ to help us regain energy when we feel the need to connect back to our 'Why'.
The episode predominantly focuses on our relationship with students and the energy they can provide us with and the importance of remembering the stories of the students we have taught or are currently teaching.
If anything resonates or conflicts with your thoughts don't hesitate to make contact through twitter @MarkOConnor76 or through email; mrmarkoconnor@gmail.com
In this episode we will explore some of the aspects that negate our energy. We will identify the impact of these and then look at strategies to avoid these aspects and examine ways of generating energy.
The first episode starts with a small introduction about me, your host before exploring the importance of your energy in the classroom. This is the essence of everything that we will explore in our endeavour to create learning environments fuelled with passion and excitement.