Category: Connected Learning
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Noticing with Intention
Noticing. We do it endlessly, as we move around our daily lives we observe, we notice, we cast a fleeting thought towards something, and then, generally, we move on. These are small, fleeting, moments. More often than not we think we will remember what we noticed. We have the intention to hold onto our noticing…
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Learning from Learners
Elevating Student Leadership What a privilege it is to be a teacher and school leader. For me, at the heart of this is empowering and enabling students to see themselves as leaders. When I started out teaching I realised pretty quickly that I found my happy place in those moments when you observe others finding…
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Finding Inspiration…
“Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you.” Michelle Obama The quote above prompted me to think about how, when we are faced with difficult circumstances, we continue to have choices in terms of how we respond to these ‘hardships and failures’. It made me wonder –where do…
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Reflections on Intercultural Understanding
I recently concluded two days of listening, exploring and learning about developing intercultural understanding within our school communities. As someone who signed up to participate in the course, I am already committed to the critical nature with which we must address promoting intercultural understanding. Evidence is all around us signalling the need for us to…
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Literature Circles: A Powerful Practice to Support Differentiation
Literature Circles. Of all of the practices I introduced as a teacher in the Primary Classroom, I believe this to have been the most powerful. For me, literature has the power to connect us all beyond age, nationality, language, culture, religion or gender and also has the power to provoke thoughts and opinions that lay…
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The True Value of Student-led Portfolio Conferencing
I was first introduced to the concept of a student-led portfolio conference many years ago, and quickly became a strong advocate for their use as part of any effective reporting and assessment practice within a school. For further information about student-led portfolio conferences please have a look at the links below: Student-led Portfolio Conference prezi…
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The Power of Blogging & Twitter for Teachers
The Power of Blogging & Twitter Prezi At our recent #ISMTeachMeet, I shared the prezi above outlining the value of blogging and twitter as valuable tools for personal professional learning and growth. The power of both these tools combined has enabled me to truly ‘make learning connections’ and develop as a leader and learner. Here…
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Focus & Re-Focus Again
So often we remind ourselves and our students about focusing; whether it be upon learning, focusing upon a task, focusing on what needs to be done, focusing on what needs to be achieved, but often, should we not take a step back and focus upon the big picture, the big question: What do we desire…
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Appreciation
Handing yourself over to be a student in a completely new discipline or unfamiliar territory can be daunting and this was where I found myself this summer during my Yoga Teacher Training at YogaWorks in Soho, NYC. The whole experience has taught me such a lot as both an educator and as a learner, and…
Jenny O'Fee 