On today’s show, Andrew and Natasha join up for the long awaited return of The Lounge Podcast. It has been a while, but as many of you know, life as a teacher is hard work…and can be quite busy too! This episode features conversations about life as a combination/split grade teacher. Listen in to hear about tips, tricks, must-do activities, and more! Read the show notes below and don’t forget to download & subscribe to the podcast on iTunes today!
Quick Tip for Tomorrow: Something you could do the next day in class with little or no prep and is applicable to most grade levels.
Andrew: Inside/Outside Circles or Concentric Circles
Natasha: Food Bin
The Rookie Resource Bank:
Any electronic, print, or event resource that we found helpful in our first few years of teaching. Of course, these are all applicable to all teachers.
We are also spending time gathering some great ideas for the classroom on Pinterest (http://bit.ly/rookiepins) – we are up to 2742 followers on our collab board – let us know if you’d like to contribute.
If you believe in what we’re doing & want to support our team, we have buttons available – send us a FB message, tweet, or email and we will get one out to you ASAP!
Watch for our Lounge Express Series – starting soon!
Like what you’ve heard? Have more questions? Contact us:
Andrew: I blog at TheRookieTeacher.ca, or email me Andrew@TheRookieTeacher.ca, I am currently focusing on pinterest as my social media project
RookieTeacher Online We are always looking for ideas, feedback, tips and tricks of the trade. Find us on Twitter @RookieTeacherCA, Facebook.com /TheRookieTeacher. If you are looking to get involved with our team, please contact us!
Recently, I was contacted by Erika Phyall, a member of community relations at USC, who was able to pass along some great research and fantastic #infographic called How to Save Our Educators: The Teacher Turnover Problem. Here’s what she had to say:
We offer teachers and aspiring educators the opportunity to earn an online Master’s degree in Teaching or Education. My team and I recently launched an infographic, How To Save Our Educators, which gives an overview of the teacher attrition rate problem and possible solutions that can be explored. We understand that having great teachers in the classroom is as much about retaining them as it is about hiring and training them.
What I particularly liked about this was:
1) It was an infographic! [I really need to get the kids making these - what an informative and visually appealing way to share research!]
2) It provides teachers with *solutions* – something that is often missed in research.
Besides the obvious solution….funding…collaboration, mentoring, and professional development are all viable solutions on this list. If you’re reading this blog, you’re already participating in all three! The Rookie Team is always here for you. We will try our best to answer your questions or connect you with the right folks to help. I also encourage you to continue building your PLN. It’s so easy to do online (Pinterest, TeachersPayTeachers, Facebook, and more!) Above all, I would recommend checking out the New Teacher Chat (#ntchat) that happens every Wednesday night between 8:00-9:00pm EST. You can follow this chat two ways: (1) join twitter and the discussion by following the hashtag #ntchat, (2) point your browser to Twitter Chat’s #ntchat feed and read along (this option restricts you from commenting live).
If you would like to get in touch with Erika – visit her blog post and watch for her on #edchat on Twitter.
Natasha Dunn, OCT [@yoMsDunn] The Rookie Teacher, co-founder
Special thanks to our friend & mentor Lisa Dabbs for connecting Erika with the Rookie Team.
This past Saturday (April 13/13), Natasha [@yoMsDunn] joined New Teacher Chat (#ntchat) founder Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwthsoul), and co-moderators Jamie Vandergrift (@JamieVanderG) & Dean Mantz (@dmantz7) to discuss the benefits of building a PLN and participating in Twitter chats (like the ever popular, #ntchat).
If you missed joining us on Saturday, you can listen to iTunes Audio ow.ly/k5J9j & watch iTunes Video ow.ly/k5JaV.
Thanks to Classroom 2.0 Live for allowing us to participate.
From Classroom 2.0 Live‘s website:
Join us for this show where Lisa Dabbs and a couple of teachers from her New Teacher Team will share their experiences mentoring new teachers in the New Teacher Community and weekly Twitter Chat (#ntchat). About Lisa: Lisa is an Education Consultant, Speaker, Presenter, Resident Blogger/Social Media Marketing Support/Group Moderator for Edutopia.org. ( Also a wife and a mom.) She was a former Elementary School Principal with a B.A. in Child Development and a M.Ed in Educational Administration. She started her career as a Kindergarten teacher then was promoted to Project Director of a Language and Literacy program. She served as an elementary school principal for 14 years…a challenging position that she really loved! During that time she recruited, hired, trained and mentored over 200 new and veteran teachers at her school sites where she observed the power of mentorship in teaching success. She is a recent employee for Kaplan K-12 Educational Corporation as a Middle School Instructional Literacy Coach in Los Angeles Unified and was newly appointed as Vice President for Literacy on her local non-profit board. Lisa blogs at http://teachingwithsoul.com She founded (and moderates) a chat for New and Pre-Service Teachers on Twitter: #ntchat. The chat occurs every Wednesday at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. It’s supportive and practitioner-focused with discussions that resonate with new teachers in the field. Classroom 2.0 LIVE is an opportunity to gather with other member of the community in regular “live” web meetings. Special thanks for this go to our sponsor, Blackboard Collaborate, for providing the service that allows us to do this! Details to join the webinar: http://live.classroom20.com Follow us on Twitter: #liveclass20 Thanks so much for being a part of this community!
Our Rookie Teacher Buttons and business cards have arrived!
Because I’m a sucker for humour…share a funny story from your first few years of teaching and WIN a Rookie Teacher Pin! Comment below, on our Facebook Page, or send us an @RookieTeacherCA message on Twitter.
Winners will be announced on Monday, March 25, 2013!
Yesterday – Rookie co-founder Natasha posted our very first PDF on TeachersPayTeachers. We are going to give TPT a shot in the hopes to bring collaboration to the next level.
Have you downloaded any good freebies lately? Or have you made a purchase you are proud of?
Post a comment below and share your TPT site, one you follow, or just a great tidbit!
We would like to take this time to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. For some this is known as ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’ Last week on #ntchat with Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwthsoul), we spoke about what it meant to be #grateful at this time of year (archives). The Rookie Team would like to take this time to thank everyone for reading the blog, listening to The Lounge Podcast, joining the discussion on Twitter & Facebook, and Following our Pins on Pinterest.
Our readers have made 2012 a great year!
Thank you, we are humbled and grateful for your support.
We couldn’t leave you without some food for thought over the break…here are 3 Quick Tips for rookies and veteran teachers alike:
Rest up & Rejuvenate: you don’t have to pay big money to rest & relax…have a nap, find a good book, sleep in, spend time with family and friends, have another nap, catch up over a beverage or two, sleep, nap, sleep, and nap
Recharge: this may seem a lot like #1…but it is so critical for new teachers to keep up the energy we give off at school. Sleep, rest, and gather new energy to make 2013 the best it can be!
On today’s show, Andrew and Natasha are up at their home away from home…Glen Mhor, their old #summercamp. We were happy to have Chantal Jackson, one of the camp’s co-directors, join us today to speak about how she keeps her staff and her campers engaged during training, playing, and day-to-day life at camp. These techniques can also be used in the classroom. Listen in for some tips, tricks, and the value of multiple intelligences and differentiating instruction.
Many thanks to Chantal “Match” Jackson! A true gem in summer camping.
Summer Camp By Hunter-Desportes, flickrcc.net
SHOW NOTES
Each episode features three segments:
Topic Discussion
Quick Tip for Tomorrow
The Rookie Resource Bank
Topic: Engage Students in the Classroom
Quick Tip for Tomorrow: Something you could do the next day in class with little or no prep and is applicable to most grade levels.
Andrew: Milling to Music
Natasha: Drink Water!
Chantal: Strategy – WIBYT (Write It Before You Talk) <Michael Brandwein>
Nalgene {flickrcc.net, by: By Chealion}
The Rookie Resource Bank: any electronic, print, or event resource that we found helpful in our first few years of teaching. Of course, these are all applicable to all teachers.
Rookie Teacher Online We are always looking for ideas, feedback, tips and tricks of the trade. Find us on Twitter @RookieTeacherCA, Facebook.com /TheRookieTeacher. If you are looking to get involved with our team, please contact us!
Early apologies for the audio on this episode, it is not as clean as usual, we were working with a different mic.
Okay, maybe the title is a bit ambitious haha. But I would very much appreciate you taking the time to listen to a radio program I made in my Popular Culture, Media & Education course this term at OISE.
The course examined what messages are embedded in our media that maintain power structures and marginalize the voices of many. Our assignment was to create a 10 minute radio segment voicing a story that isn’t covered in mainstream media. We must ensure that definitions of cultures are being defined by themselves and not a dominant narrative, often times the privileged white male.
This is a great exercise to bring into the classroom. Let your students tell their stories and create alternative media, whether a magazine, a video, a website, music or radio. Radio has an interesting way of telling stories allowing many people to hear it at the same time and teaming up with a community radio station is a great learning experience for students. Help them examine the messages that are being sent, why they are being sent in that way and empower them through highlighting choice. We are active recipients of media and if we don’t voice our opinions the capitalist-agenda will continue to manipulate and distort our reality.
Audacity is a great free program available for download that you can use but I made this program with Garage Band.
Please don’t hestiate to ask questions if you have any!
“Can a stable, fair, and peaceful world be created in practice — and in time? Can people change their thinking and behavior from today’s selfish and self-centered material-gain and power-oriented wats to cooperative and sustainable ways? The answer is yes: through conscious change by a critical mass. But can conscious change be embraced by a critical mass before current trends and problems become intractable? The answer is still yes: by accelerating the spread of the consciousness that’s already emerging at society’s creative edge. The rapid spread of an evolved consciousness is a basic precondition of moving toward and effective and timely WorldShift.”
Ervin Laszlo, WorldShift 2012, p.71
“A handbook for conscious change that could transform the current world crisis into planetary renewal.”
The Rookie Teacher is committed to facilitating new teacher collaboration, offering ideas, information, and resources, and inspiring a future of life long learners. A wise educator once said, “Take Chances, Make Mistakes and Get Messy.” Thank you for visiting our blog and joining in on the discussion. Please take a moment to listen to The Lounge podcast.
Quick Tip for Tomorrow:
Like what you’ve heard? Have more questions? Contact us:
