Category: Teaching

I am a Limitless Educator

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Teaching

Limitless Space Institute is a non-profit corporation with the vision of advancing human space flight beyond our solar system. This year, they developed the Limitless Educator program to inspire educators to teach beyond the general curriculum. I applied to be part of the program, and I found out towards the end of October that I was accepted into the inaugural class of Limitless Educators!

Over the course of this year, we will work together to develop new lessons focusing on interstellar travel as well as have the opportunity to meet with industry experts. As part of the program, we also have the opportunity to attend SEEC (Space Exploration Educators Conference) at Space Center Houston in February. I am so looking forward to attending SEEC, as it is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. As I live in England now, I really didn’t think I would ever have the chance. However, this opportunity has provided the assistance I needed to get there, and my school has been amazing in supporting me to attend. 

Meet our Limitless Space Educator cohort. 

Look forward to more information here as I delve into this experience and share!

Let the Light In 2022-2023 FREE OneNote Teacher Planner

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About, Creating, Teaching
Let the Light In 2022-2023 FREE OneNote Teacher Planner

With school in England starting back soon, I am finally releasing this year’s OneNote Teacher Planner, which I’ve called Let the Light In.

This year’s planner is a bit different. I’ve made it specifically for me and my school calendar. I’ve decided to try a vertical layout this year as it matches my Outlook calendar. I’ve also broken down the sections by term instead of by month.

I found I rarely used the monthly overviews, so those have been deleted this year. I also tended to not use the stickers, so I have not included any stickers this year.

I have however provided the artwork files so that you can customise and create your own planner based on the artwork that would work for you best. I used Affinity Designer on my iPad, but I’ve provided some alternative files that should work in Photoshop or vector based programs.

Downloading the Planner

I am only providing the OneNote Package file this year. 

You will need OneNote 2016 on your computer to import and open this file. If you do not have OneNote2016, you can download it for free here.

  1. Download the Let the Light In 2022-2023 Teacher Planner. 
  2. Open OneNote 2016 desktop app.
  3. Find the location of the planner package file and click to open it.
  4. When prompted in OneNote 2016, make sure you save the planner file to your OneDrive and not your local hard drive. This is what will allow it to sync across all of your devices
  5. Save the planner, and it will start loading. You should be good to go.

Unfortunately from what I have read, OneNote package files don’t play well with Macs. If you are using a Mac, you might not be able to open the file initially. You might try the steps above on a PC. Once you have your planner saved to your OneDrive, you will then be able to open it on any device, including your Mac.

Feedback or Questions?

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to offer feedback about the planner. You can post a comment here or me an email. I hope you love this year’s planner and enjoy using it!

2022_2023 Planner Cover small
Overview 1
Overview 2
Design Elements

Even Brighter Future 2021-2022 FREE OneNote Teacher Planner

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson 1 Comment on Even Brighter Future 2021-2022 FREE OneNote Teacher Planner
Creating, Teaching
Even Brighter Future 2021-2022 FREE OneNote Teacher Planner

It’s finally here: the 2021-2022 Even Brighter Future Teacher Planner. This year’s planner is new and improved with features that will (hopefully) make digital planning easier and more streamlined for you. After using the 2020-2021 version all year, I learned what worked well and not so well, and I’ve used this to make this year’s planner even better! You’ll find a similar graphical theme with new colours and fonts, so the planner feels both new and familiar at the same time. 

Watch the video below for some additional information and a walk through, and keep scrolling down to download your own copy of the Even Brighter Future planner!

Planner Walk Through

What does it look like?

For each month, there is a monthly overview calendar and weekly planning pages. The main part of the planning pages have a horizontal weekly layout. This year, you should fill in your timetable/schedule on the Timetable Templates page. You will then copy and paste the appropriate table to each week. This should save you hours of time manually filling in your timetable!

This year, I have not created a vertical layout or a Sunday-Thursday option. However, I have included the tools you can use to customise you planner if you’d like these layouts. You find the monthly page templates and day stickers in the Templates and Stickers section of the notebook.

Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of content and design. To see the full planner, please click here to see a preview.

F8FBDAE8-6C03-4157-B37E-87B5F930B808
Monthly Overview
44529665-A84F-4BB7-B29A-A733A41EAFE8
Weekly Pages
B3AD2390-4CB6-4D7B-9282-FBAA702A4848
You can use your choice of rule lines on all pages.
BD53EAC3-F8FA-442D-81AE-090E20EAE556
Stickers and Templates are included.
471FAD32-98D3-4C5C-970D-5DC57FE3E0E9
Timetable
C325B54A-AB1D-4514-A062-82BE6C1CFDE9
Timetable Template

Downloading the Planner

You have two options for downloading this planner depending on whether you use a personal version of Office 365 or a school version of it. Follow the directions for the version you are using. Not sure? If you’re account ends with a school domain, it’s a school version. If you account ends with @outlook.com, it’s a personal account.

Personal Version

  1. Download the OneNote Even Brighter Future planner file.
  2. Unzip the file.
  3. Log in to your OneNote account.
  4. Go to the OneNote notebook importer.
  5. Find the location of the unzipped planner folder, select it, and click open to import it.

School Version

You will need OneNote 2016 on your computer to import and open this file. If you do not have OneNote2016, you can download it for free here.

  1. Download the Even Brighter Future Teacher Planner file. 
  2. Open OneNote 2016 desktop app.
  3. Find the location of the planner package file and click to open it.
  4. When prompted in OneNote 2016, make sure you save the planner file to your OneDrive and not your local hard drive. This is what will allow it to sync across all of your devices
  5. Save the planner, and it will start loading. You should be good to go.

Unfortunately from what I have read, OneNote package files don’t play well with Macs. If you are using a Mac, you might not be able to open the file initially. You might try the steps above on a PC. Once you have your planner saved to your OneDrive, you will then be able to open it on any device, including your Mac.

Feedback or Questions?

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to offer feedback about the planner. You can post a comment here or me an email. I hope you love this year’s planner and enjoy using it!

Astronomy in April and Drops on a Penny Video

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About, Teaching

Astronomy in April

Astronomy in April and Drops on a Penny Video

Join me tomorrow at noon as I work with UK Astronomy as part of Astronomy in April. 

Grab your Oreos and join us for a talk about the phases of the Moon using Oreos.

You can click here to join the event at Noon, BST on April 8th, 2021!

What you will need:
• 8 Oreo cookies per person
• A white paper plate or plain sheet of paper per person
• A spoon per person
You will also need to print out the NASA Moon phase journal found here https://www.ukastronomy.org/guides_activities.shtml
So that you are ready to also record your daily observations. Remember, you can record your observations even if it is cloudy. I will explain all in my talk.

If you miss the live talk, you will be able to find the replay on the U.K. Astronomy YouTube channel. 

Drops on a Penny Video

The latest Mrs Wilson Science video is here. This time, we look at a simple experiment that is great for investigating changes to the independent variable as well as observing some of the special properties of water like adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension.

I hope you enjoy it. Don’t forget to subscribe and share!

Reflecting on the Positives of Teaching/Learning from Home

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Teaching

I have  been teaching from home since December 11th. First due to isolating followed by a new national lockdown that closed schools. I am now preparing to return to the school building, and in person teaching, along with fellow teachers across England on Monday (March 8th). I think we can all agree that teaching from home is not ideal. It brings with it a unique set of challenges, and navigating technology can be frustrating when everything isn’t working as expected.

However, working and learning from home isn’t all bad. There are some things that I will miss about the experience, and I think students will miss some things as well. In the past week of home learning, I’ve been focusing on the positives – those things we’ll miss about working from home. Here’s my list:

  • nonexistent commute – my office is next door to the bedroom, so the commute couldn’t be any shorter! Now, I can’t complain, as it takes me 5 minutes by car to drive to my school, and I’m close enough to cycle on nice days, but the nonexistent commute is amazing.
  • more relaxed outfits – now some days I’ve dressed up like normal, worn a dress, and been just like in school. However, I have really enjoyed having the option of wearing jeans or yoga pants since no one ever sees me except for the shoulders up. This also means I can wear comfy socks and slippers all day – no need for proper shoes.
  • temperature control – working from home means you have complete control over the temperature (assuming you can agree with those you live with). This has meant feeling nice and cosy throughout the working day and having the option to easily grab another warm sweater or blanket if I am cold.
  • consistent schedule – in order to keep our bubbles apart for COVID safety, at school this year we have had 7 different break and lunch times. For teachers, this has meant your break and lunch time varying from day to day depending on which year group you are teaching at a particular time. At home, we aligned all the schedules and all of the start and end times for all year groups. This has been amazing!
  • long lunch break – our SLT realised within the first week of the new lockdown that students need a break from screen time during the day, and we instituted a one hour lunch break. During this time, students and staff have not been expected to be online. It’s been amazing to have that hour free. It’s given me time for walks with the dog, a relaxed pace lunch, and just some moments to rest my eyes away from the computer.
  • chat banter – I love the banter between my colleagues as we use the chat feature in Teams. We have a lot of fun throughout the day – as well as helping each other. Last time we were in school, we stopped using the chat as much. I really hope we keep going this time. Also, using the chat for lessons has meant a lot of students who might not normally feel comfortable participating are typing things in the box or thumbs upping others answers. Additionally, there is a fair amount of banter in many of my classes through the chat; however, I’m pretty sure most of this will continue in person.
  • learning new tools – During the first lockdown with school building closures last spring, we started using Teams as our platform. During this second round of school building closures, our students are really on top of using Teams. We’ve now started using OneNote Class Notebooks as a digital exercise book. There have definitely been some growing pains, and it can be a bit more difficult for everyone to wrap their heads around, but I’ve found once students and teachers have a good grasp of OneNote, they love it! Everyone has been really resilient and have learned so many skills because of working from home. The independence and ownership most students display for their own learning is really powerful. I am so exited for all of the growth I have seen in students and staff.
  • parental support – my school has been very transparent with parents as each new changes comes along. We also listen and help wherever possible. In this difficult time of lockdown, we’ve actually developed our connections with parents even more. For instance, we are going back to school in full uniform. Some parents expressed concern that students have outgrown their uniforms. Within a day, we had a uniform donation programme set up, and parents started donating outgrown uniforms. Our science technicians set to work washing and mending all of the uniforms, and then we’ve opened up a click and collect service for parents to order and pick up what they need for their children. It’s been amazing! It’s also given us a plan to do this every new school year. The parental support we have is amazing, and I know we will continue to work together as a school community.

Working through this second period of school building closures has been a very different experience since the first one. I’ve been much busier, as I’ve taught every single lesson on my timetable online. Last year, we had a lot more asynchronous learning. Students are in a much better place as we head back next week, and I am looking forward to so many things about being back in person. Perhaps the top one is gauging student understanding by observing body language. I never appreciated how much I do this until I no longer had this as an option.

As we return to the school building next week, I want to capitalise on all of the gains we have made while we have been working and learning from home. The skills students have learned will continue to help them grow and advance. I don’t want to lose sight of all of the good things that having some time working differently gave us, and I hope you can take a minute or two to reflect on the positives of teaching from home as well. 

Mrs Wilson Science on YouTube

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Creating, Teaching
Mrs Wilson Science on YouTube

Last week we had our half term break, and I was able to work on really launching my YouTube channel. I updated the theme (and then matched it here on the blog), but the most exciting thing is of course new content. I have several videos that went live last week. A couple of them are easy science experiments, and there are several on using Teams from a student perspective. 

I’ve been on a big push this past weekend to reach 100 subscribers. I’ve made it to 79 so far, and I’m just looking for 21 more people to subscribe to the channel. I would be so happy if you decided to subscribe and overjoyed if you passed on info about the channel to your friends. I would say may target audience are teachers and parents supporting their children. There will be lots of science experiments and explanations and tech videos as well – focused both on Microsoft how-tos and pedagogy. 

Here’s a taste of what you can find on the channel. I hope to see you there!

Changing Roles

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Teaching

This year I\’ve had two new roles at my school. The first one started in September (even though I interviewed and accepted the role last February), and the second one started in January of this year.

Head of Chemistry

Our Head of Chemistry retired at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. I was super excited to be appointed to this role, and I made a lot of changes to how we organise and teach our A Level Chemistry course. I revamped our teaching calendar, our summer homework schedule, and planned a transitional period for our new year 12 students to prepare them for A Level studies after being out of school since basically March of last year. 

Then in November, I had my biggest challenge in this new role: we were contacted by OCR to have our practical work monitored as part of a two year rolling cycle. This was a bit daunting – mostly because our students have not done that much practical work due to our COVID-19 restrictions. However, I was able to get everything together, we had a virtual monitoring visit, and all is well for the next two years. I also learned a lot during the process.

While all of this was happening, and since March of last year, I\’ve been supporting teachers and other staff at my school in online and blended learning – specifically focused on how best to use the technology tools. Well, that led to a new role being created, and I was the obvious choice. This led me to my new role.

Ambassador for Technology for Learning

I was a bit hesitant to accept this new role, as I had only been in my position as Head of Chemistry for a term, and this role would mean giving up that position. I was also a bit concerned about upward progression, which is much more clear in a head of subject role. The position was also listed as a fixed term contract, and I didn\’t want to move to a new role to only be in it for a year. I was afraid it would be a lateral move. I emailed my concerns on to the person responsible for supervising the role, and he passed it on to my principal. My principal called me to address all of my concerns, and I was blown away by this. So, needless to say, I applied for the role, interviewed, and was appointed.

This was a journey I wasn\’t exactly expecting this year. However, I was strategically placed when news of schools closed to most in person learning and lockdown 3.0 was announced. I\’ve been able to not only teach all of my classes live (via Teams) following my full timetable, but also help to rollout using OneNote Class Notebook with all classes across the school. I\’ve provided training for teachers, staff, parents, and students during the January term. I have also started attending our SLT meetings, giving me a much clearer glimpse into the inner workings of leadership at my school. I feel like I have a much more strategic position, and I am able to provide suggestions to improve our technology for learning. 

And probably one of the coolest/nerdiest things is that I now have access to the Teams Admin console, so I can get a better idea of how our Teams settings are running in the background.

So even though my stint as Head of Chemistry might have been short, I feel like I did have a positive impact in the role. I also helped to interview my replacement, and I know the department is in excellent hands. As part of my role as Ambassador for Technology for Learning, I am able to impact all stakeholders, and I am making a positive impact in our use of educational technology.

Returning to School in the Time of Covid-19

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Teaching

I’m worried. I’ll return to school in three weeks along with many other teachers in England. I love teaching. It’s more like a calling than a job to me. I love interacting with my students, giving them problems to solve, providing hands on experiences, making them discuss content, and seeing those lightbulb moments. I love it!

When school buildings closed in March and teaching moved online, it wasn’t the same. Not to say that some students didn’t thrive in ways they hadn’t before, because some did, but teaching over video, is not the same. Asynchronous interactions with classes is not the same. Not doing laboratory or practical work, is not the same. Teaching in person is so much better. I want to return to school. I want to see my students. I want us to go back to as close to normal as possible.

But I’m worried.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in an article for the Mail on Sunday,

“But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.” and “Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.”

 

 

Do we really know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely? 

Before moving to England, I taught in the largest school district in Georgia (Gwinnett) for 10 years. Georgia has one of the earliest return to school dates in the US, and many have already been in school for a week.

Last week, a viral photo of a packed hallway at an Atlanta area high school started circulating. It showed the first day of school (August 3rd).

(The school initially suspended the student who posted the photo, but it was revoked. A suspension is like exclusion in the UK.)

This week? The school had to close for two days for a deep clean after nine students and staff members tested positive for coronavirus. 

Another district in metro Atlanta has over 800 students and 42 teachers in 19 different schools in quarantine due to either direct exposure to or contracting the virus. 

School has been back in session for in person learning with staggered dismissal times for just over a week, and already they are seeing a surge in cases. 

And then an article in The Times today reveals that secondary students transmit the virus like adults. Public Health England believes that tougher rules may be needed for secondary students compared to primary students due to this. Not to mention, in the US, nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the virus the last two weeks in July.

Let's get back to school - but safely!

I completely believe getting back to school is important for children and their learning, especially for older students preparing for exams next summer. 

(Although positively, a survey has revealed that children coped well with school closures.)

Staggered break times, staggered lunch times, staggered start and end times will all help some, but I’m not sure it will be enough when over 1,000 students are walking our halls (or corridors). 

So what is the answer? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m a chemist/astronomer. Biology is my least favourite science, and I’m definitely not an epidemiologist. But I do know data, and I would say we don’t have enough data yet to know the impact of students being back full time. However, we can observe what happens in other countries as they go back to school. Will we learn from the lessons they teach us? I just hope that whatever happens, the safety of teachers and students will be more important than a political agenda.

Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel and Reflecting on Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

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Exploring, Teaching
Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel and Reflecting on Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel!

I am so excited to introduce the new Mrs Wilson Science YouTube channel! I’ve been posting a few videos here and there to YouTube for years, but I’d always used my personal channel. I thought it was time to get a bit more professional and to separate personal and education focused videos. I plan to post videos explaining how to use technology tools like Teams, OneNote, and MS Forms. I will also post the occasional instructional video about different science topics. Please subscribe to my channel, and I look forward to sharing informative videos with you in the future!

The Space Foundation's Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in a virtual PD with the Space Foundation. This is usually held in person at their headquarters in Colorado. However, the pandemic meant they had to get creative and move the experience online. This also meant it was much easier for international participants, like me, to get involved.

We spent the week working through a project based learning (PBL) task. We envisioned it was the year 2035 and we were tasked with setting up a lunar base. We worked in groups of 3-4, and I had the most amazing team. Even though we were in three different countries and time zones, we found a great working rhythm and were able to get everything done in an efficient manner. Not only that, but the experience included lesson plans for each day so that we can take the project and do it with students. 

I have quite a bit of experience with PBL working in two different schools with PBL programs. However, even with this experience, I got some great new ideas as part of the PD. I can’t wait to bring this back to school and create a way to share this with students!

The Space Foundation is a non-profit organisation, and the love to support teachers. If you’re looking for ways to incorporate space into your classroom, check out their student and teacher resources for ideas and support.

Check out our final project explaining the lunar habitat we designed.

Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2020-2021: My Microsoft Journey

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Teaching
Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2020-2021: My Microsoft Journey

I was so excited to learn yesterday that I have been chosen as a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert for the 2020-2021 school year. I didn’t realise how much I wanted to be a part of this incredible community of educators until I saw people on Twitter posting they had been selected last Friday – and I hadn’t received an email yet. I noticed they were all in the US, and I hoped the UK decisions were coming later – and it turned out I was correct. Now, I can’t wait to start this year of learning, innovating, and sharing.

Over the past year, I become a huge Microsoft fan. It was a process and took time, but when the pandemic forced school closures, I dived head first into the world of Teams and never looked back. 

Initially, I was hesitant. OneDrive, Teams, and Windows 10 were all introduced at the start of the school year, and we were told that we were moving away from Google Drive and associated tools. I was skeptical. I love using Google Drive to plan lessons – especially as I have an old MacBook Air at home with memory issues, so the cloud based format made preparing materials a lot easier. I’ll admit, I dug my heels in the ground for a while and was really reluctant to change.

And then there was Teams. When school started last September, I didn’t understand Teams, it’s purpose, or how helpful it could really be. To be honest, I don’t think the school had a clear idea or plan either, and part of it was the endless emails about being added to a new Team. Since then, we’ve worked out better parameters for setting up Teams, and I’ve grown very fond of the class Team and Teams meetings since we’ve been engrossed in pandemic teaching.

As I started to move away from using Google Drive products, I took a fresh look at PowerPoint, and I was impressed. I love the design ideas for each slide to help make each bit of info pop. It looks very slick and professional, and nothing like the PowerPoint of 10 years ago. 

Once in person school closed, I started using Teams and Stream. I am a huge fan of both, and Stream is particularly useful for safeguarding students, their data, and following GDPR. It makes it really easy to upload lesson videos, and using PowerPoint’s audio and video recorder has made it easy for teachers to create these lesson videos from existing resources. Not only that, I discovered it is possible to screencast from PowerPoint!

My last big delve into Microsoft this year has been OneNote. Now that I understand how it works and all the possibilities that surround using it (like Class Notebooks and Staff Notebooks), I really love using it. I even made a complete digital teacher planner that I can’t wait to use this year.

Through all of this, I’ve been an early adopter at school. As I’ve become comfortable using these different tools, I’ve shared with colleagues in trainings, videos, and being there to help. I’m now known as the Teams Guru or Queen of Teams at school. It’s really nice to be able to help others understand how to use these tools, and I am also part of a group that will be shaping our school’s IT vision for the future.

So now I am really looking forward to diving even further into the Microsoft world. Being part of the MIE Expert cohort will open so many professional development opportunities and connections, and I can’t wait to learn more incredible new tools to use with my students and colleagues.

(Below, you can see the self-nomination I created as part of my MIE Expert application. I created it using Sway, another Microsoft tool.)