Looking Forward to #RSCON3

Six months ago, I’d never heard of the Reform Symposium Virtual Conference; the fantastic, FREE, online global education conference presented by teachers for teachers.

That all changed when I attended #RSCON11 in January this year; an event which attracted 4 100 global participants, and marked the birth of my Twitter PLN.

And, now to my amazement, I find myself presenting alongside some world-leading global educators at the next Reform Symposium (#RSCON3) in late July 2011.

So, what’s it all about?

The Reform Symposium e-Conference is about sharing, learning, and connecting with inspiring educators around the world. You don’t need to pack a bag, catch a plane, or pay a cent. You can even attend in your pyjamas! All you need is an Internet connection.

To find out more, visit the Reform Symposium website; where you can:

• Find the official #RSCON3 schedule for your time-zone
• Meet the presenters, and
• Download the flyer to share with your colleagues and staff.

My #RSCON3 Presentation:

“What the heck is a PLN?” - Personal Learning Networks for Educators

• Are you a new teacher, feeling isolated and alone?
• Are you an experienced teacher looking for new ideas and inspiration?
• Are you interested in sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers on global projects?
• Are you tired of falling asleep in boring professional learning seminars?
• Have you heard about Personal Learning Networks or PLNs? Feeling lost, confused, wondering where to start?

Then please, join me at #RSCON3, as I

• Share my ‘new teacher’ PLN story, and explain “What the heck is a PLN?”
• Explore the technologies which underpin my global connections
• Explore some of the global projects and learning made possible by my PLN; and
• Facilitate a global discussion about how PLNs have influenced teachers’ professional practice around the world.

This is an opportunity for new and experienced teachers alike to learn, share, and connect.

I’d love to see you there!

When?

For Australian teachers, Reform Symposium 3 runs from July 30 - August 1, 2011.

I will be presenting on Day 1 (just before the closing Keynote) at 8.30AM – Saturday, July 30 (GMT/UTC+8). 

This time and date will VARY depending on your time-zone. Please click here to find out what time this is for you.

Where?

I will be presenting virtually in an Elluminate Conference Room. To participate, you’ll need to click on the (soon-to-be-published) “Webinar Links” in the RSCON Schedule.

In the meantime, I urge you to check out the Reform Symposium website, follow the #rscon3 hashtag on Twitter, and share the official Conference flyer with your Principal and colleagues.

Please, spread the word! This is the only serious professional learning which you attend in bed! And it’s worth it!

I’ll be attending #RSCON3. Will you?

Why I Connect

I’M A TEACHER

I was once an idealist. Now I’m more of a realist.

I once believed that our political leaders could positively change the face of education in my country. No longer.

I have dreams. They’ve been shattered – twice.

My first year of teaching left me feeling alone and disillusioned.

BUT, 2 YEARS ON …

I once believed I could make a difference. I still do.

I’ve rediscovered my passion for teaching.

I believe that effective literacy teaching and ICT integration is critical to prepare my students to communicate and interact on a global stage.

I’ve finally had the opportunity to practice what I preach

I’m a blogger, with a supportive global audience.

I’m becoming a more competent and effective teacher.

My teaching and learning is changing because of my global connections.


MY FUTURE

Is unclear.

I’ve yet to have a class of my own.

I’ve got a lot to learn.

I’m not an expert teacher … yet.

That’s why I connect, learn, share, and collaborate with experienced, expert teachers around the world.

My PLN has reawakened my passion for teaching

For this, I thank you.

What the heck is a PLN?

I’m a new teacher, returning to relief / substitute teaching after 3 months in (several) classrooms.

My PLN has changed the way I learn, and the way I teach, for the better. Yet, I am still to meet a new teacher in my part of the world who’s ever heard of, or has a PLN.

Perhaps this post will help to change that.

Why you should begin your own PLN —Ashley Azzopardi (@ashleyazzopardi)

“Connecting Globally” (@clivesir)

Casting an eye over my Twitter feeds this morning, I was mightily pleased to see an old ‘PLN friend’ and mentor back online.

Clive Elsmore, or @clivesir as I’ve come to know him, has spent the past few years working in India and Sri Lanka as a volunteer teacher, training local teachers in the use of ICT technologies and Web 2.0 tools like Skype. (He’s now back in the United Kingdom.)

As a very special member of my PLN, and someone with whom I have many educational interests in common, I wanted to take a moment to share @clivesir’s thoughts on how global connections impact on teaching and learning in today’s world.

Twitter™ – What a Wonderful (Wired) World! (Challenge #8)

Well, here’s my final post in the best professional learning experience I’ve ever undertaken – my reflections on using Twitter™ to build blog readership in response to the final Edublogs™ Kick Start Your Blogging Challenge.

Flickr CC Image: 'Yahoo Censorship Still Sucks, Part Four'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/420604426

Prezi – Writing Effective Blog Posts (Challenge 2)

Blogging. What a word ...

We blog for different purposes and audiences. Yet, to be truly effective, bloggers need to ensure that their posts are relevant, informative; and perhaps inspiring, motivating, or informative for their intended audience.

After reflecting on the Probloggers “Nine Signs of an Effective Blog Post, and examining several Edublog™ Award exemplars, I created a Prezi presentation on the topic. 

Check it out!

Tips for Writing Effective Blog Posts on Prezi

Reflecting on my own blogging practice

As I recently wrote in I’m Not Talking To Myself Anymore!, A Relief Teacher’s Journey is starting to attract significant international readership; and this is having a fundamental impact on my writing process and online professional interactions.

As my Twitter™ conversations and recent blog comments may suggest, I’m moving away from blogging at my audience, towards interacting with and learning from them. This openness and mutual sharing of ideas will, no doubt, take time to develop; however, it marks an important evolution in my blogging journey.

For this evolution to occur; however, I’m going to need some help. I don’t have much experience with meaningfully inviting readers’ suggestions and constructive feedback; and I’d like to move away from the repetitive line: “Your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated”.

I look forward to reading your suggestions and advice below, as I continue my participation in the 2011 Edublogs™ Teacher Blogging Challenge. Thankyou.

I’m Not Talking to Myself Anymore!

When I started A Relief Teacher’s Journey, I was literally talking to myself; however, as reflected in my revised landing page above, my blogging journey has helped me break out of the lonely, isolated experience typical of so many graduate / newly qualified teachers.

As I have started to expand my Personal Learning Network through Twitter™, I have been overwhelmed by the recent traffic on my blog; after my recent posts were retweeted and read by hundreds of teachers around the world. My readers’ support and comments have been a wonderful boost for a first year blogger.

Now, shortly after participating in my first international Reform Symposium eConference, I am excited to announce my participation in the 2011 Edublogs™ Teacher Blogging Challenge.

I hope you will join me on my learning journey over the next 30 days, as I refine my blogging skills and build my audience through my participation in the Advanced Blogging Challenges. I look forward to reading your comments and feedback. Your support, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Image – Flickr CC: 'Bloggeur, after Cassandre'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2258650778

Twitter™ for Teachers

A very informative video for Twitter™ newbies like myself – I wish I’d found this earlier, as I contains many of the lessons I learnt by trial and error … as usual …

 

Twitter for Teachers

My First #EdChat

Today marked an important milestone in my ongoing efforts to build a Personal Learning Network via my blog & Twitter™. At 8AM Perth time, I joined in an international #edchat conversation on the topic of participatory / inquiry learning.

Following the conversation via Tweetdeck™ (for Google Chrome™), I started out by retweeting other teachers’ ideas, and throwing my own experiences / questions into the mix. I soon found myself conversing with several teachers (including a fellow Aussie in the US!) about rubric assessment, science teaching, and curriculum differentiation for seriously at-risk students.

I was really surprised with the intensity and quality of the Twitter™ #edchat conversation, and marvelled at teachers’ willingness to share their ideas, resources, and insights via their Personal Learning Networks.

Twitter as a Professional Networking Tool

I’ve been using Twitter™ for less than a month, yet it has already started to transform aspects of my professional knowledge and practice. Aside from collating an incredible range of educational weblinks, I have found an empowering medium for sharing my ideas, and learning from experienced educators around the world. 

Twitter™ has made me a more collaborative teacher. I have always been happy to share my teaching resources & relief teaching materials with other teachers; which are generally ‘borrowed’ from, or politely shared by the amazing colleagues I meet on my relief teaching travels (See Learn to Steal on the Success in the Classroom Blog). Today, I had the opportunity to share my recent differentiated science project – Energy Sources Investigation (Year 6) with several teachers on the other side of the world … in America!

stumpteacher blog–Twitter Tutorial

Twitter™ & Me – Read, Learn, Reflect & Share

I have often said that relief / substitute teaching is an amazing professional development experience, as it enables me to explore & learn from other teachers’ practice. I now know, that when I eventually have my own class, I won’t lose the learning experiences and networking opportunities my day job provides.

I won’t feel so isolated, shut away … too busy to talk about teaching with my colleagues. I’ll have my PLN, which continues to grow day by day. For a graduate teacher, this is empowering and really exciting!

A big thankyou goes to @clivesir, @enrichingkids, @Edu_Traveler, @nykat, and @franklin_h, amongst others, who have actively supported my tentative forays into the online educator community.

Why not join me as I continue to read, learn, reflect and share via my online PLN?

Recommended Weblinks

Twitter for Teachers: A Guide for Beginners (Creative Education Blog)

Do Something: Twitter 101 (Stumpteacher Blog)

Connect to the World Through Twitter (Teacher Reboot Camp Blog)

Twitter as a Professional Development Tool (Social Media for Working & Learning Blog)

2010 - My Journey So Far

Well, 2010 has been an incredible year. It was a year in which I passed some significant milestones in my fledgling teaching career, and it was a year of immense, transformational change in my personal and professional life.

As my year draws to a close, I am finally starting to realise my aspiration to become a knowledgeable, connected, and reflective 21st Century educator.

Looking Back

I’ve learnt some valuable lessons this year - 

• Relief Teaching is a professionally and personally rewarding career option.
  • I have the freedom to experiment, develop a collegial network, collect resources, learn from my mistakes, and celebrate my successes. 
  • I am now able to teach K-7, and work in a variety of Government, Independent, and Religious schools. 
    
    
• In my line of work, experience & a positive reputation mean a lot.
  • As I became a more experienced, and I hope, well-regarded relief (substitute) teacher, I noticed a dramatic increase in my work bookings over the course of the year.
  • This enabled me to actively experiment and improve my teaching practice, as I moved away from my relief ‘time-fillers’ to actually teaching and assessing students’ learning.
  • I am extremely grateful to those relief coordinators; (Hans, Deb, Sue, Jane, Cathy, amongst others), whose long-term support helped facilitate this empowering evolution in my teaching practice. 
    
    
• Writing merit-select job applications is an incredibly useful way to reflect upon and share your teaching practice with prospective employers.
  • On a personal note, I realised that while I can clearly articulate my practice through written mediums, such as my blog, I need to work on my ability to ‘sell’ myself in interview situations. Practice makes perfect, and I’ll have another go next year.
    
    
• The Personal Learning Network (PLN) – Every teacher should have one
  • I believe the PLN is one of my greatest discoveries of my (short) career. I am an increasingly active member of the OzTeachers network, and have more recently realised the value of educational blogging and Twitter™ as professional learning tools.
  • My forays into this ‘connected’ world of global educators are still in their early days, and I will blog more extensively about this topic in 2011. 

Image: 'Arrival on my Way'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16230215@N08/4722297430

And Looking Forward …

While I don’t really know what 2011 will bring, I hope it will be a better, more productive year.

I enjoy my job. It is a wonderful feeling to walk into a school in the morning, and have students (and staff) greet you by name (or in my case, various derivations of it!). I hope I will have the opportunity to build upon the personal and professional relationships which I have worked so hard to foster during my relief travels in 2010.

I will also be working towards several important professional learning goals, which I have decided to share here -

1. To continue to build my instructional toolkit; learning how to apply teaching and learning strategies, and reflecting upon my performance.
2. To further investigate, and hopefully experiment with, the practical implementations of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.
3. To build and contribute to my Personal Learning Network through my blog, Twitter interactions, and the “Blogs I Follow” via my RSS Reader.
4. To revisit my First Steps™ informed literacy and numeracy planning approach, seeking feedback from experienced educators on my planned literacy block organisation model.
5. To familiarise myself with the new Australian Curriculum, and rearrange my Curriculum Resource Bank (now containing over 4000 documents!) to reflect its’ structure and organisation
6. To begin working towards my Accreditation to Teach Religious Education.

A New Year Begins …

Well, that’s it for A Relief Teacher’s Journey in 2010. I have quite a few posts in the pipeline, and I’ll be back to my regular blogging endeavours in January 2011.

I wish to thank all of my readers, around the world, for your readership & support over the past six months. A big thankyou goes to Veronica Chase (Substitutes FTW!) who made the first (and to date, only) comment on A Relief Teacher’s Journey. Also, thankyou to all my new Twitter™ followers – I look forward to talking to you next year.

I’ll be participating in the 2011 Edublogs™ Teacher Challenge, starting on Jan 10.

Happy New Year!

Image: 'Happy New Year !!!'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22017189@N00/341866875