Hello World,
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share five inspiring web resources from the education sector that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox.
I just finished two months in the classroom as a Grade 5 Homeroom Teacher. It has been challenging and eye opening for me as a a new teacher. Here are a few more lessons and notes from the classroom.
In the first first month of teaching I often caught myself taking work home in a physical and mental sense. I would be correcting essays and math tests late into the evening or thinking about a student interaction right before bed. It soon got to me and I noticed that I was feeling stressed and anxious about work most of the time. Fortunately I had the support of my peers and the wonderful teacher community online. I looked up stories of teacher burnout and researched strategies to avoid getting to that point. The strategy I finally adopted was to try my best to not take any work home after school. I would spend an additional half hour after school planning for the next day and do most of my weekly planning on Sunday evening. This way I had the evenings to myself to be a friend, brother, son, reader, movie watcher, chef and evening walk person. In addition to being a teacher I also wanted to give these other identities of my life their rightful place.
Joe Mullikan does a great job using the analogy of a glass cup, a plastic cup and ghosts to talk about teacher work life balance in this article on Edutopia titled, ‘A New Way to Think About Work-Life Balance’.
2) You do not have to say yes to everything.
This was a hard nut to crack. As a new teacher you are always trying to make a good impression and that often means taking up additional responsibilities. This is a good practice but it can also get out of hand very easily. Your priority is to teach between 8 am to 4 pm everyday. Your first responsibility is to do this job really well. All the additional tasks come in later which include curricular activities and school clubs. Before you commit to something ensure that it does not take away from your leisure time in the evenings after work. That time is essential for you to re charge your batteries and come in fresh to work next day. It is okay to say no to a club or activity if you are unable to do it now. Rawan Hesham explains why saying no allows you to honour the commitments you are already working on and also allows you to feel calm and peaceful. Teachers can learn a lot from this teenager in her TED talk titled, “The art of saying NO”.
Observe what other teachers in your building do in the classroom. Ask them about how they manage their classrooms, teach subjects and build relationships with their students. You may find some nuggets of wisdom in the most unexpected places at absolutely no cost through these professional conversations in your building.
I think an UnConferene is an interesting idea for teachers to learn from other teachers in the building. You can read more about it in this article by Cheryl Tansey on Linkedin titled, “unConference: Why this new approach to learning is gaining momentum”.
Use the internet creatively to learn about how other teachers around the world teach the same concept. There is so much to explore on sites like Youtube, Edutopia and Teachers pay Teachers. It is a very cozy and supportive online community. It may seem overwhelming at the start as there are a lot of online websites. Start with one website or one video channel. Find one strategy online that you can implement in your setting. Maybe start an online store and share lessons you create in your off time with other teachers on a website like Teachers Pay Teacher. Here is an interesting article on We Are Teachers by Meghan Mathis about starting and running an online teacher store on TpT titled, ‘7 Tips for Opening a Teachers Pay Teachers Store—From a Veteran Seller.’
5) Learning Stories Episode 9 - Sandesh Kini
I started a YouTube Channel called ‘Learning Stories’. This is a show where we interview a diverse set of learners from the 21st century. Each guest profiled here has a unique story to share about how they acquired a set of valuable skills and knowledge in a creative and innovative manner. In the process, we hope to uncover a new understanding of learning as conceptualized, imagined, and narrated in these learning stories.
On Episode 9 we chat with Sandesh Kini. Sandesh Kini is a computer engineer by training who wants to use his skillset and knowledge to solve interesting real-world problems. He is currently a senior product manager at Shopify and is based out of Toronto, Canada. He was born and brought up in Bahrain and then completed a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the Manipal Institute of Technology. He then acquired 7 years of experience in the software and product development space at companies like Shopify, ZipGo, Just Code, Jobspire (co-founded) and 622 Solutions (co-founded). As an entrepreneur he co-founded and sold Jobspire and Invoice Falcon (through 622 Solutions). Jobspire is a visual and experiential job search platform. He created Invoice Falcon at 622 Solutions which is an automated and customised invoice generating service for the Shopify Platform. In the past 5 years he scaled Jobspire to 1000+ clients, led product development for India’s biggest office commute platform, built one of Shopify’s best invoicing apps and is now solving interesting challenges at Shopify. On the creative side he has directed and acted in plays, produced short films and started a Youtube Channel focused on sketches and tech review that reached 1.5 million views in 6 months. Outside of work he spends his time training and following up on competitive building. Since 2013, he has undergone a major body transformation and dropped from 110 kgs to 72 kgs. He values solving interesting problems, unique life experiences and being the strongest best version of himself. You can find him on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeshkini/. You can listen to this episode at this link - Sandesh Kini Learning Stories Interview.
Abhishek
14/11/2021