The Rookie Teacher

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:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. 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.

• Andrew: n/a
• Natasha: Classroom Organizer (www & app)
• Chantal: Teamwork & Teamplay ($46.03) by Jim Cain (www)

Like what you’ve heard? Have more questions? Contact us:

• Chantal: Email match@ilovecamp.org or chantalcjackson@gmail.com
• Andrew: I blog at TheRookieTeacher.ca, or email me Andrew@TheRookieTeacher.ca, I am currently focusing on pinterest as my social media project
• Natasha: I blog at TheRookieTeacher.ca, follow me on twitter @yoMsDunn, or email me Natasha@TheRookieTeacher.ca

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.

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We’re back with another great episode of The Lounge Podcast.  We were extremely lucky to have Lisa Dabbs from Edutopia.org and Edutopia’s New Teacher Connections Group Facilitator Skype in for the show.  She was able to enrich our conversation, give us lots of great tips and web 2.0 tools, and advise us where to start when it comes to Long Range Planning.

photo by: Your Secret Admiral

I think it’s safe to say that this topic is very important to think about at this time of year (and as the school year goes on…after all, we consider plans to be working documents).  We all agreed how valuable and powerful the act of collaborating with a grade/division team plays in the process of long range planning and how successful backwards design/mapping can be when creating strong plans.

Listen in to hear our conversations about long range plans, curriculum, split/combination classes, backwards design/mapping, web 2.0 tools, staying organized, Post-It Notes, Pinterest, Evernote, Twitter, Live Binder, and more!

Find Lisa on twitter, Wednesday nights at 8:00pm EST for the New Teacher Chat (#ntchat).

This is by far one of my personal favourite podcasts yet! Huge thank you again to Lisa Dabbs for joining us…it was a pleasure to have you on, and we hope you’ll come back to continue the discussion another time.  Andrew and I really appreciate all that you are doing for new teachers.

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Long Range Planning

photo by: Pedro Vezini

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: About Me heads
• Natasha: SMARTboard attendance
• Lisa: One Little Word (http://goo.gl/NbNHO)

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!

Thanks for listening. Join us for our Summer Podcast Series. Topics included will be: More about AQs, Classroom set up, the first day of school, Applying for Jobs, Setting up your Day Book, Developing classroom routines for your first month of school.

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Welcome back to The Lounge – we know it’s been a while, but that is the price we pay for being rookies.  Now that the summer is here, it will be our goal to deliver more content, including blogs, podcasts, and interactions on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

For those of you who are reading or listening for the first time…The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

Welcome to our Lounge Summer Series.  On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss Summer Break and Pinterest.com. We wanted to take a moment to recognize the benefits or summer break and talk about the variety of things teachers (new and experienced) do over the summer months.  It was clear that many teachers rest, relax, rejuvenate, plan, organize, read, spend time with loved ones, take AQ courses, collaborate, and prepare for September.

This week we were happy to hear from our readers and followers of twitter.  We asked: “What do you do with your summer break?” Thank you to all of you who answered – listen in to hear what everyone had to say.

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Summer Break & Pinterest.com

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.  This episode we are focusing on what we do for ourselves, how we prepare for back to school (yes, even in the second week of July).

• Andrew: Picture note frame (via Pinterest)
• Natasha: No Name Clips: non-verbal way to get names on those no-name papers (via Pinterest)

• Andrew: Pinterest.com (and find our Rookie Teacher Board – bit.ly/rookiepins)
• Natasha: A Person/Your Person - find them + cling on for dear life (could be your NTIP or another mentor/friend)

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!

Thanks for listening. Join us for our Summer Podcast Series. Topics included will be: More about AQs, Classroom set up, the first day of school, Long Range/Annual Plans, Applying for Jobs, Setting up your Day Book, Developing classroom routines for your first month of school.

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

Welcome to our Occasional Teacher Mini Series.  On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss The Supply Teacher. It’s no secret that as rookies, most of us will begin our careers as a supply teacher, long term occasional teacher, 0.## contracts, planning, rotary, etc. That’s why Natasha and Andrew discuss supply teaching tips, routines, and networking, we look into the classroom teacher’s perspective, and finish off with a bag ‘o tricks for the occasional teacher.

photo: zoomer, flickrcc.net

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Occasional Teacher Mini Series: The Supply Teacher

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: Conferencing Notes (Supply): Create a sheet that works for you that shows the classroom teacher who you helped, gave advice to etc.
• Natasha: Mix up seating arrangements with colour strips

• Andrew: Centralized Digitized Media Services from your school board
• Natasha: iTunes playlist

photo: suneko, flickrcc.net

Quick Shout Outs

1. Any feedback you can give us for TheRookieTeacher.ca or The Lounge Podcast would be greatly appreciated > it’s as simple as commenting on the blog, sending us a tweet, posting to the FB page, or emailing us
2. #ntchat on Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST on twitter > Natasha recommends using twebevent.com/ntchat
3. Also check out our friends at CampHacker.org and the CampHacker podcast – camp directors are a lot like 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!

Thanks for listening. Join us for our next episode when we discuss Life as Rotary (Planning) Teacher: When you only have 40 minutes…

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

On this episode, four RookieTeachers discuss Bachelor of Education Alternatives: How are you using your BEd outside the classroom? With special guests Rebecca Jess and Rob Kempson, Natasha and Andrew investigate how Bachelor of Education graduates spend their time working outside of the classroom.  Listen in to learn how Rob manages his time between Occasional Teaching and working in the drama communities in Toronto and how Rebecca’s interest in the arts and summer camping has led her to a full time job as a Summer Camp Director.

Guest: Rob Kempson and Rebecca Jess

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Bachelor of Education Alternatives: How are you using your BEd outside 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: Procedural Writing using Origami
• Rob: Super Sonic Simon Says
• Rebecca: Grabbing Attention with Jingles (i.e., Sleep Country; Justin Bieber’s song Baby)
• Natasha: WallWisher.com

• Andrew: “Comprehensive Literacy Resource for Grades 3-6 Teachers” By Miriam Trehearne
• Rob: Study Guides
• Rebecca: Book of Awesome – Neil Pasricha
• Natasha: Canadian Wildlife Federation’s Project Wild Training & Activity Guide

Thanks again so much to our guests:

• Find Rob: RobKempson.com; PasseMuraille.on.ca; PaprikaFestival.com
• Find Rebecca: www.ilovecamp.org; @RebeccaJess

Thanks for listening. Join us for our next episode when we discuss Life as a Prep/Rotary/”drop in” Teacher: When you only have 40-60 minutes.

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

photo: N.Dunn

On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss professional development. Being a Rookie is exactly what it sounds like – being new – meaning we have lots of energy, fresh ideas, and looking forward to hit a homerun!  Sometimes it helps to put a name or philosophy behind our ideas to help explain ourselves in interviews or during collaboration projects (so that we are using common language), or to provide a foundation/research for what we are doing in the classroom.  After the overwhelming response we had to Marsha’s previous post about AQs, we knew that this topic had to be discussed on The Lounge.

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Professional Development

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.

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss resumés and interviews.  Being a Rookie means starting from square one.  It’s never a bad time to update your professional resume (in fact, it may not be a bad idea to constantly be keeping a record of your experience, accomplishments, and certifications).

photo: N.Dunn

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Resumés and Interviews (& a bit about portfolios too)

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: A Story Line (Art Lesson)
• Natasha: “To Be Successful Today…” (routine, success criteria)

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

Avoid getting sick. photo: N.Dunn

On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss how to survive and to thrive.  From communication to collaboration to organization, Natasha and Andrew explain how taking the time to develop a routine that works for you will go a long way.

As we hit the November crunch (or slump) progress reports, paper work, and interviews are coming to an end and it’s important for us to remember to stay healthy and avoid coasting until the holidays.  As teachers, we need to keep our energy up and keep the energy of our students up as well.

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: To Survive and To Thrive (communication, collaboration, and organization)

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: Re-Tell Glove (Setting, Character(s), Beginning-Middle-End, Palm Connection)
• Natasha: Exit Tweets (PDF found here)

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The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.

On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss how their #summercamp training and experience has affected their teaching practices. From building community to classroom management techniques, Natasha and Andrew explain how they bring camp to the classroom and the how their experience as summer camp staff has had a positive impact on their work as teachers.

photo: N.Dunn

SHOW NOTES

Each episode features three segments:

1. Topic Discussion
2. Quick Tip for Tomorrow
3. The Rookie Resource Bank

Topic: Teaching and Summer Camp

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: Thumb Ball (more: read his blog post)
• Natasha: Attention Getters and Back Pocket Games (more: It’s all about Classroom Management)

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