Open Door

Throughout the month of July, Apple Distinguished Educators from around the globe took part in the ADE Festival of Learning. This four-week event  focussed on professional learning, wellness, and community through ADE-hosted sessions, Apple product spotlights, and creativity and wellness challenges. 

In this episode, Chris shares his experiences and reflections from the festival with Lee and we are joined by three special guests: Eoin Hughes, Kurt Klynen, and Alicia Bankhofer, who all share their perspectives from the festival.

How can we re-imagine the future of education through the teaching of Black British history? 

Chris and Lee are joined by Lavinya Stennett, the CEO of the Black Curriculum, The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise founded in 2019 by young people to address the lack of Black British history in the Curriculum. The Black Curriculum’s mission is to facilitate social change by delivering arts-focused Black history programmes, providing teacher training and campaigning through mobilising young people.  

In this conversation, Lavinya shares about the inspiration behind the project, how the work they are doing with schools, and how teachers and schools can work towards creating a more diverse curriculum. 

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Chris and Lee are joined educator, podcaster and nature enthusiast, Kevin O'Shea. This week's show is all about teaching outdoors. Kevin shares his experience and knowledge of working in different environments and with different leaders with varied emphasis on outdoors learning. Kevin tells us about the importance of getting outdoors, gives suggestions for how we can get our classes outside more often and tells us about some of his own extraordinary work to promote learning about the great outdoors. About Kevin A proud Canadian, Kevin has lived and worked in Japan, Korea and more recently China. He currently works in Shenzen, China where he leads the Shenzen Nature Group. He leads nature walks in the hope of encouraging students and parents to get involved in getting outside.  As an IB/PYP educator Kevin started the Making Better Teachers Podcast to share ideas around good pedagogical practice. He is also the host of the long-running Just Japan Podcast. 

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How can students be empowered to have voice, choice, and ownership of their learning? 

In this special roundtable debate, Chris and Lee are joined by Karen Irwin and Marc Fauldner to discuss the idea of student voice within the context of online learning and in the classroom. 

Karen is a foundation stage teacher and ICT coordinator from Northern Ireland. In her role as an Apple Distinguished Educator, Karen is involved in the Ignite Edu newsletter and her latest project, Blend Ed, supporting teachers in Northern Ireland in implementing a blended learning approach. 

Marc is a reception teacher based in Nottingham, England. Marc is a prolific creator of inspiring content for EYFS teachers. His latest projects include The Rainbox Project, Monkeycow, and his Stories of a Lifetime global collaboration project.

Chris and Lee welcome Graham Andre as this week's guest for a show that explores the role of gender in education.

Graham Andre is a primary school teacher working on the Isle of Wight. He is currently a Year 4 teacher and phase leader at Lanesend Primary School. Graham is a patron of the Gender Equality Charter, a not-for-profit organisation that hopes to promote gender equality in schools, homes and businesses. In 2017, he was part of the BAFTA-nominated documentary, No More Boys and Girls. In 2019, he co-authored The Equal Classroom, exploring life-changing thinking on the role of gender in education.  

Chris and Lee are joined by their first guest from South America, Mark Webber. This week's show is all about international teaching. Mark shares his experience and knowledge in working in four different continents as a teacher and recruiter. He talks about the benefits and challenges of international teaching, creating a teacher brand, and shares some of his top interview tips. Mark is also a passionate debate coach and he discusses why debate is a valuable skill. 

About Mark 

Mark Webber is originally from Texas, where he began his 23-year career teaching Theatre, Debate and Public Speaking. Mark has since worked in Venezuela, Malaysia, Sudan and Mexico as an international teacher and Fine Arts Administrator. He has founded and supported debating leagues in each of those countries as coaching international debate is his passion. His accomplishments include leading Team Sudan (2010) and Team Mexico (2011-2017) to the World Schools Debating Championships where his debaters have won many top accolades. He has also served on the board for English Speaking Union (ESU) - Mexico from 2010 to 2017, as well as currently serving as a founding Board Member for Asociación Mexicana de Debate AC. Mark is currently living in Barranquilla, Colombia, from where he can easily visit client schools and oversee the day to day operations of Webber's Ed - Teacher Talent and Consulting. Mark's passion continues to be all things education. 

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Chris and Lee reflect on another two weeks of online learning and discuss the tools they have been using to ensure teaching and learning continue effectively. An international panel of callers share their own experiences and tools for assessment, feedback,  instruction, and keeping in contact with students.

Callers

Lee and Chris are back for the second part of the Online Learning Rollercoaster trilogy. This week, we start by reflecting on the beginning of our own online learning journeys. The topic for this week is well-being and balance. How can you maintain your welfare when your home becomes your classroom? What can teachers do to support their students? We also share a number of listener messages from around the world.  

Callers 

Lee and Chris are joined by a worldwide panel of guests for an online learning Open Door Debate. In this first of a two-part show, we discuss the evolving situation with school closures around the world and the impact of this for teachers, parents, and students. We take a deep dive into how to keep contact with students, maintain relationships, and ways to provide equity and differentiation in an online learning model.

Guests and Links

Chris and Lee are joined by Shane Lawrence, high school art, computing, film studies, and drama teacher at Elk Island Public School in Edmonton, Canada. Shane is a prolific podcaster, releasing over 130 episodes to date. Shane is passionate about film studies and film production. This week's show is all about getting started in podcasting and Shane's experience in teaching Film Studies.

Chris and Lee are joined by Jon Coward, Deputy Head at The English Montesorri School in Madrid, Spain. Jon is an experienced international teacher, having worked in Canada, the Czech Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Spain. Jon is a passionate advocate of empowering student voice and the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

This week's topic is resilience - a topic dear to Jon's heart after studying his master's degree specialising on the topic. We discuss what resilience is, why it's integral in education, and how it can be developed through support from peers, teachers, and parents.

Chris and Lee reflect on their past decade of teaching, the achievements and challenges in 2019, and set some resolutions for 2020.

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Chris is joined by Claire Jones. Claire is the Deputy Headteacher at Layton Primary School, Blackpool in the North of England. Claire is also an Apple Distinguished Educator from the class of 2017 and she’s a passionate advocate for the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

Claire shares her experience integrating digital learning and coding across the curriculum at Layton. How does the school sustain its innovative practice and engage all members of its community? Claire also discusses how the school leverages students as Digital Leaders to support their peers and staff in integrating technology in the classroom.

Lee and Chris literally open the doors to their school and classrooms and welcome Jakob Esben Hansen to sit down for a chat on disrupting education, the challenges faced by the British education system, differences between Scandinavian and British education, and what 21st-century skills are and how we can develop them.

Lee and Chris are joined by Beth Kerr, Global Director for Well-Being for Cognita. Beth discusses the importance of well-being for both teachers and students and shares some useful tips for educators to maintain a balanced workload. She also shares the plans for this year’s Cognita Global Be Well Day taking place on Friday 27 September 2019.  

Chris and Lee sit down (in person!) with Emma Sheppard, founder of the MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project and English teacher based in London. Emma shares her inspiration and experience in founding the MTPT project. She discusses some of the challenges faced by parents who take parental leave and how her project helps accredit parents' continuing professional development projects. 

Lee and Chris are joined by Jon Neale, Digital Learning Leader at Halcyon International School in London. This week's topic is school culture and innovation.

Chris joins Lee from the other side of the mic to share his reflections from the Apole Distinguished Educator Institute.

Lee and Chris are joined by Mary Kemper to discuss maths education, ISTE, and ADE 2019.

Mary is the K-12 director of mathematics in Coppell Independent School District in Texas  She is also President of the Texas Association of Mathematics, supporting district maths leaders across the Lone Star State  As an Apple Distinguished Educator, Mary is an advocate for the innovative use of technology in teaching and learning. She has published many books on Apple Books and frequently shares her content on Twitter. Mary recently launched her own podcast, A Greater Impact, interviewing teachers from across her school district.

Chris and Lee are joined by Sunil Singh. Sunil was a high school maths and physics teacher for nineteen years. During that time, he astonishingly taught every grade level and in many different contexts. He is a passionate author, Keynote speaker, and advocate for transforming maths education. 

In his latest book, Math Recess, Sunil and his co-author, Dr Christopher Brownell, aim to put the play and wonder back into mathematics. They share their passion for maths education that sparks curiosity and enjoyment for learners of all ages.

Chris and Lee are joined by Craig Kemp. Craig is a New Zealand born educator with over 14 years experience both in the classroom, in leadership and in consulting.  Craig is based in Singapore and is Head of Digital Learning and Innovation (N-12) at Stamford American International School.  Craig shares his experience in building a professional learning network (PLN) and how educators can leverage the power of social media networks to build connections, develop their skills, and share their own expertise.   

Lee and Chris are joined by Rob Houben, managing director of the Agora School in Roermond, Netherlands. Agora is a school with no curriculum, classes, or classrooms. The school's revolutionary approach puts learning, not teaching, at the centre of its programmes for 12 - 18 year olds.  

Chris is joined by Tim Evans, educational technology coordinator at Stamford Hong Kong, to discuss the Apple Distinguished Educator Programme. Tim was recently accepted as a member of the ADE 2019 cohort. 

in this episode, they discuss how Tim supports students, staff, and parents to authentically integrate technology in the classroom.

Lee and Chris are joined by Cindy Kaardal from International School of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Cindy shares her experience running her PYP studios and discusses how she helps develop learner agency.

In this pilot episode, Lee and Chris share their journey into education and discuss what inspires them as educators.