Brian's Blog

It has now been a week that I have been working in this new paradigm of remote teaching and learning. I wanted to think of creative ways I could support, engage and encourage my students. One of the ways that I have been reading a lot about from those who have been remote teaching longer than what I have is taking my students on a Virtual Excursion. I have done this previously with my class but not with us all being in distant locations.  The following are a list of some that members of my professional learning network have suggested. This will be updated; however, if you have others please leave the information in the comment section below. Boeing Boston Museum Eagle Cam Experience Polar Bears Food Farm Georgia Aquarium Live Feeds Great Wall of China Google Arts and Culture Google Expeditions Google sheets list of webcams...HUGE list Live cams of almost anything from Explore Louvre Mars Melbourne Zoo Monterey Bay live feeds NASA National P...

As the Covid-19 crisis grows, schools are facing the potential of mass shutdowns across the globe. Students and teachers have been struggling to process what education will look like from a virtual context through remote connections. To make this slightly easier, I thought I would compile a list of edtech companies who have shown generosity and provision during this time of trial. My list has been generated by drawing together many other’s posts and suggestions. I do not claim to have tried all of the following; however, at publishing the links were live to their offerings. Can I also thank all of the people who have been reaching out to me for support and training, it has been a privilege to help you during this transition time. Whatever the outcome, my hope is we will continue to support our students navigate this uncharted territory. If you find others please add them as comments at the bottom. 2Simple   3PLearning ABCMouse/Adventure Academy AdmitHub Adobe ...

Have you ever had one of those experiences that you walk away from knowing it was breathtaking, knowing that the meal you just ate, the view you just saw, the activity you just did, the interaction you just had or the music you just heard was something else? Just thinking about this, my mind takes me back to the moment and I can feel as if I was there again. I can feel just from the thought of that meal the saliva in my mouth watering! Each day we have moments like this, they may not be to the extent of my list but they are glimpses of this encounter. I find often though in my own life I am too busy to stop and be present in that moment and as a result I skim over what could have been. Something that I have noticed is all around us there is beauty, moments of inspiration just waiting to be experienced if I am willing to pause and look. In photography there is a term called "the Golden Hour", this is the hour right before sunset or the hour after sunrise. The sun is low...

Over the last four years, my intentional focus has been the completion of my Masters of Educational Leadership whilst not dropping the ball on either my teaching career or my family life. Now to do this, it has not been easy and slack had to be taken up in other areas of my life. One of these areas that has been affected is my regular reflections I previously made on my blog. This happened because my cognitive load was being diverted into productive academic study rather than systematic reflection. Don't hear me wrong, the reflections I did throughout my course were benefital and job appropriate, though they were a requirement rather than coming from personal searching and an inquisitive nature.  If you are like me and have found it hard to really get into 2020 because of the devastating fires happening around me in Australia or because of a myriad of other reasons, choose to do something that will help you reflect. This could be camping, walking, spending ...

As I write, I am blessed to be sitting back and watch a magnificent sunset over the waters of the NSW South Coast. This is a place that holds a lot of meaning for me as this was the place of my birth, the place of my family for generations and the place that I feel truly connected to myself. Sadly though, for many educator's, we rush and rush throughout the year not taking stock because of the pace of life. As a result, we miss the moments like these. The moments to breathe and reflect on where we have come from and where we are going. In moments we take to breathe, we give ourselves permission to be honest, allowing us clearly to see what is important and experience the joy that this gives us. An example of this happened this morning when I took my daughter's out for their first dive of the season. For my youngest this was her first ever so for her it was a mix of excitement and fear. As I was coaching her my biggest piece of advice was about the importance of breathing. Th...

With 2018 closing and the early days of 2019 on us, I wanted to pen down some thoughts on my journey recently. Coined by one of my colleague I could normally be described as an educational dreamer. An optimist who sees the positive in the educational landscape as well as the trends on the horizon. However; while there were many professional achievements, I found this year one of the most challenging in my career. For so many years, I have been challenged by those around me and the research to push myself to embed the highest quality pedagogies and learning experiences I could, although, this changed in 2018. During this time, one of my esteemed colleagues said to me "you need to step back from pushing so hard and let others catch up. You work so hard at supporting people at the shoulder, yet they need to discover and do it themselves". It was suggest that this would allow me the time I needed to complete my higher levels of teacher accreditation showing my proficiency aga...

Section 1 - Context It should be a reasonable expectation that all children would have equal opportunity for educational success which will be reflected through equivalent outcomes of assessment irrespective of class, ethnicity or gender. This paper examines the interplay between curriculum, instruction, feedback and focuses on assessment and has been the provocation for the development of my google innovators project where my inquiry question was how can personalised learning be facilitated to ensure deep engagement and meaningful learning. The context for this task is a Stage 3 mixed ability, mixed gender classroom of 114 students. There are 5 teachers collaboratively co-teaching and planning the differentiated program which is taught through a blended personalised approach. This method includes face to face whole home class (28 students) explicit teaching (Mini-Lessons), flipped videos, self-paced learning contracts and matrix's, small group clustering and personali...