Blog Posts
Recently I have been posting a bunch of notes on books that I have been reading, whether or not they have had an impact on my life! I am a little obsessed with reading, something that I blame the pandemic for starting; it was either read or play Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. I occasionally share my thoughts on ed-tech and coaching, which should probably happen more often give the name of this website.
Books
Ed-Tech
Reflections
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Cache and Carry – My Week In International Education – Entry 14 – Drinking Through The Firehose
I just started a new teaching position at a large school in Indonesia. And for the first time, I am teaching DP Design Technology! As with any new position, the amount of information that a teacher has to digest is crazy - it is like drinking through a fire hose....
Concept Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI) – My Notes
Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom - by Erickson, Lanning & French 2017. I read this booking after ripping through some MYP material. Erickson, Lanning and French came up a lot in the text, so rather than take the IB's word, I...
Ultralearning – Scott Young – My Notes
Directness is the process of learning which involves you doing the thing that you want to learn. You need to practice - this then leads to skill development. There are 9 principles of ultralearning. Principal 1: Meta-learning: first draw a map. Before beginning an...
Turn the Ship Around! – David Marquet – My Notes
This is a book on leadership. By giving someone the opportunity to own a problem and their solution to it, they will consider themselves as vital to its success. As a leader, it is your mission to get your people to see their own worth and potential. The old...
The Inevitable – Kevin Kelly – My Notes
My favourite futurist...Kevin Kelly. Opening Quotes Our ability to invent new things outpaces the rate we can civilise them. Often people push back against new technology, as it brings something that's outside of our control. Technology is at the centre of every...
Skills We Will Need in 2030
As I prepare for interviews at international schools, I reflect on my practice from an existential perspective. For example, a few weeks ago I was contemplating why does a Grade 5 student learn? I had a bunch of thoughts about this, but the one that mattered most was...
Teachers and Time
I just completed a mammoth dissertation for a master's program. The topic I chose was to explicate collaboration at an international school, including highlighting barriers to collaboration. And you know, the biggest barrier that I found in the literature review, and...
Bytes by the Bubbler
After some mindless scrolling of X, I came across the most memorable infographic that I have seen in a long time. It was absolutely not memorable for its amazing design, although it is quite funky. The graphic stuck in my mind purely through the seemingly effortless...
Google Analytics – My First Impressions
After two and a bit years, I have submitted my master's dissertation. I am finally free of the shackles of citations, synthesis and epistemology. But free to do what? Free to watch YouTube shorts? Free to comment on the international teachers' subreddit? Free to take...
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership – Dethmer, Chapman, Klemp – My Notes
Responsibility is something you take for yourself, not something that is assigned to you As a leader, you are either above (conscious) or below (unconscious) the line. Above - open and curious. You are committed to learning. Below - closed and defensive. You are...
Rapt – Winifred Gallagher – My Notes
Life is fashioned from what you pay attention to and what you haven't. Or better still, your life is the sum of what you focus on. Ergo, focus on the upside. Take control of your attention. Bottom-up attention is bright-coloured things that we immediately pay...
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living – Dale Carnegie – My Notes
The opening quote of what changed Sir William Osieris "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but do what lies clearly at hand." In other words, like said by so many authors, go out and do today's work superbly, because this is the best way to...
Cache and Carry – My Week In International Education – Entry 13 – Goal Setting
Ed Tech I’m Using Storybird is a unique online platform that allows students to create their own beautiful stories using captivating artwork as inspiration. Teachers can use Storybird in their elementary classes to ignite their students' creativity and love for...
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethu – My Thoughts
Lots and lots of practical financial advice from "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethu. Having said that, I skipped around 75% of the content of the book, as my main interest was to develop a conscious spending plan, using 4 buckets of spending; similar to...
Cache and Carry – My Week In International Education – Entry 12 – Easy Choices = Hard Life
Ed Tech I’m Using I came across Twine, a classic story editor after asking Bard to suggest some web apps for a literacy lesson that I wanted to SAMRise. Twine is an open-source tool for creating interactive, non-linear stories and games. It allows users to easily...
Purple Cow – Seth Godin
The Purple Cow and the Wild Geese: Lessons in Creating Remarkable Products. A note to readers is that this was published in 2005. I find most of the book relevant today. You need to have a remarkable product in a remarkable market. Today's potential consumers are too...
Cache and Carry – My Week In International Education – Entry 11 – The Sun is Setting on Inertia
Ed Tech I’m Using This week a bunch of people posted some SAMR posters that have been online for a while. Having some free time on my hands as it is the summer vacation, and feeling the need to do something other than procrastinate, I give the SAMR model a little...
So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport
Four rules to finding a meaningful and engaging work-life. Move from the right work to working right - the big idea of the book. Rule 1 Newport challenges the so-called passion hypothesis which is the key to occupational happiness first figure out what you're...
Cache and Carry – My Week In International Education – Entry 10 – Motivation
Ed Tech I’m Using Busy shapes - I was checking out for my brother's kid, who is 3 years old. The point of the app is to teach about shapes. You click and drag on different shapes and then drop them on top of the same shaped hole. If you get it right, it says the name...
My Educational Philosophy
I believe that learning is a lifelong journey and that our learners, educators, classrooms and learning material are constantly present all around us, in many different shapes and forms. Everyone is an expert in something and when we take a moment to listen, we open...