Audio Transcript

Recorded: 14 Oct, 2017
APA 7 Citation: Kershaw, H. (Host). (2017, October, 14). Ep.23 Live at EduChange… it’s #EC17! [Audio podcast transcript]. Fizzics Education. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/live-at-educhange-its-ec17/

[00:00:00]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:00:18]
Ben Newsome: Yes, welcome again to another FizzicsEd podcast. This episode’s a little different. Hundreds of educators and innovators got down to Melbourne for a very special event called EduChange, which is a three-day event where highly motivated people work together to solve some real challenges that face us in education. It was EduChange, it was EC17, and I tell you, it was certainly an awesome event. Holly Kershaw got to go down there, and in between running science experiments and presenting at EduChange, she got to have a chat with some seriously inspiring people. And really, you get to hear them, they are making a real difference. Let’s learn what she found out, starting with someone who helped put it all together.

[00:00:57]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast.

[00:00:58]
Holly Kershaw: All right, Dave, you’re looking very excited. Can you tell anyone who doesn’t know who you are, who you are, what you do, and why you do it?

[00:01:03]
Dave Faulkner: I’m Dave Faulkner from Education Changemakers. I find clever teachers, help them do their job better all around the world. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve got an amazing team who I do that with.

[00:01:13]
Holly Kershaw: So Dave is the CEO of the amazing organisation that’s put on this event that we are all having a blast at. Dave, what’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in the last two days?

[00:01:21]
Dave Faulkner: I think there’s been lots of exciting things, but for me, probably the most exciting thing is just getting in small groups and talking with incredible educators that are from right across the world and just riffing new ideas and coming up with things that, stealing ideas that might be able to change the game for kids here in Australia and anywhere around the world.

[00:01:40]
Holly Kershaw: Is there any idea that’s come that’s completely from left field or completely unexpected from a conversation you’ve had in the last couple of days?

[00:01:47]
Dave Faulkner: I reckon the one that’s left of field for me is we had dogs in here. And I was like, what if you did have a dog in every classroom? What difference would that make to the behaviour and the wellbeing of kids? I think that’d be pretty cool, to have a dog in a classroom. I was like, that’s kind of weird, but watching how people have interacted with that, it should have made sense before this, but actually now I’m looking at it going, that could actually change the game, not just for kids with learning difficulties, but for every kid.

[00:02:16]
Holly Kershaw: That’s really cool. Now Dave, just one more thing. If you had to give a piece of advice to a young educator who’s just starting out or starting to try and make change, what would you tell them?

[00:02:23]
Dave Faulkner: I would say to them, find people that fill you with joy and happiness. Find those teachers that support you and avoid the happiness vacuums, people who suck the life out of you and tell you that it’s all bad and it’s doom and gloom, because actually, it’s the best profession on Earth.

[00:02:39]
Holly Kershaw: Excellent. Thanks so much, Dave.

[00:02:42]
Elanor Wood: I’m Elanor Wood. I’m the Head of Science at Camberwell Girls Grammar School. I do it because I love science and I love communicating that with kids.

[00:02:53]
Holly Kershaw: Excellent. What was your path to getting into this place where you’re now the Head of Science?

[00:02:59]
Elanor Wood: I kind of always wanted to be a teacher. Then I just went to uni and started along that pathway. I taught in Queensland for a couple of years and then got an amazing opportunity to work for CSIRO Education. I did their outreach programme for a year, then got enticed to Europe. I went over there, worked in London in a very interesting school and academy, lots of deprivation, lots of challenges. Loved it, but detested the school system.

[00:03:32]
Elanor Wood: So I came back home eventually. After 11 years out of Melbourne, I walked back in and ended up back in science teaching down the road at Carey. Then I couldn’t deal with it anymore; I wanted to run my own department. So I found this job and was lucky enough to get the opportunity to do that.

[00:03:52]
Holly Kershaw: Awesome. Do you have any really cool projects you want to tell us about?

[00:03:56]
Elanor Wood: I’m currently redeveloping our curriculum for Year 7 to 10 Science. Being part of an independent school, I don’t have to stay with the Victorian curriculum to the letter, I get a lot more freedom. So we’re doing a lot more project-based learning and getting them into a makerspace attitude where they get to play around with stuff. We just finished an electricity unit and they built their own toy or wearable circuit at the end of it just to make that electricity part, which is often a little bit dry, a little bit more interesting. We did a unit on molecular gastronomy where we failed an attempt to make dry ice ice cream and ended up with fruit caviar as well. It’s been really fun but quite challenging.

[00:04:53]
Holly Kershaw: I can hear stuff starting up, so you probably want to run off. If you had to give an early starting out teacher one piece of advice, what would you tell them?

[00:04:59]
Elanor Wood: Put your hand up for things. Just try it and see what you like, because you never know where it’s going to take you.

[00:05:07]
Holly Kershaw: I’m here with Kirsty from Cool Australia. Kirsty, can you tell us what you do, who you are and why you do it?

[00:05:14]
Kirsty Costa: Sure. I’m the Head of Professional Development at Cool Australia. We support 70,000 teachers across Australia with implementing stuff that’s happening outside of the classroom and bringing it into their curriculum. So we focus on lots of different topics like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, health and wellbeing, sustainability, social equity, you name it. Anything that really answers that question for students when they ask, why are we learning this? We really try and make learning relevant. We’re not-for-profit and pretty much everything we provide is free. We collaborate with lots of different people and allow them to help us build some resources so that teachers don’t have to pay. It’s a really amazing time to be in education and we’re really excited about what we’re doing.

[00:05:56]
Holly Kershaw: That’s fantastic. What about your resources make those issues relevant to kids? What do you do to nail down that relevance so that they get it?

[00:06:04]
Kirsty Costa: That’s a really great question. We use lots of different contemporary pedagogies for teachers, so we look at things like design thinking and inquiry learning. But what we do is we say to teachers that exceptional learning isn’t that you have to have a whole unit on the environment, but you can actually use it to teach maths lessons. Instead of that old maths lesson that I used to have when I was a kid, like there’s a train travelling from New York at 30 kilometres an hour and John gets off and Betty gets on, and how many people are left? I’ve never been to New York and I’ve never been on a train.

[00:06:36]
Kirsty Costa: So we show teachers and help teachers use the tools around them and the environment around them. Whether it’s out in the schoolyard measuring the schoolyard, or just really showing students what they’re doing and why it’s important and how they can apply it in lots of different contexts. So that’s what we do with all different sorts of topics. We look at how students can be active citizens and use their critical and creative thinking to not only problem solve, but also find problems that they want to solve in their own life and their own world, and help teachers give them the tools to solve that.

[00:07:06]
Holly Kershaw: What has been the most exciting thing you’ve seen at EC17 this week?

[00:07:11]
Kirsty Costa: It’s been so amazing so far. Besides some of the people on the stage, I love Lucy Clark and her amazing book about beautiful failures and what the education system should be thinking about doing to support people like her daughter, who are really struggling through school. But I actually feel like the most inspiring thing has just been talking to lots of different people, hearing people’s stories, hearing about the sorts of things that people are doing. I’ve met people from Brisbane and Adelaide and Melbourne and Sydney, and I think it’s really important in a conference like this to see that this is actually an Australian and a global movement around thinking about where we need to take education in a really quickly changing world. I think that’s been the most inspiring part for me.

[00:07:47]
Holly Kershaw: That’s so cool. Now, if you could give a young educator starting out one piece of advice, what would you tell them?

[00:07:53]
Kirsty Costa: I’d tell them that teaching and learning is messy and that it’s okay to embrace failures and successes both at a teaching level and a student level. Sometimes I remember when I came out of teaching, I felt like I needed to get it right the first time. Actually, when I stopped in the middle of a lesson when I realised it wasn’t working and I said to my students openly, “Hey, this is not really working, is it?” and they all went, “No,” and we rethought it, that’s when the really rich learning took place. So I think it’s about being confident to take risks, being okay with any mistakes that you make along the way and learn from them, and then be able to create that sort of culture in your classroom as well.

[00:08:27]
Stephanie Salazar: Hi everyone, I’m Stephanie Salazar. I’m an instructional coach at John Purchase Public School. I’ve really developed a capacity of staff at my school, but I have a particular passion for supporting new teachers.

[00:08:44]
Holly Kershaw: Cool. And what do you mean by instructional? What does that physical part of your job entail?

[00:08:49]
Stephanie Salazar: I have created a coaching programme based on Jim Knight’s coaching process. Basically, I develop a relationship with staff in my school. We go and look at the reality of what’s going on in their classroom, so I’ll do a lot of video recording. From there we set up goals together. What I love about coaching compared to mentoring is it’s more of an equal partnership. I’m coaching people with 30 years more experience than me, so I don’t pretend that I know more than them. Together we learn about what we can do to improve their practice. So I may model lessons, we may co-teach, we may do a bit of reading, and we just experiment together and learn together really.

[00:09:33]
Holly Kershaw: What led you to take that up? How did you end up in the role that you’re in?

[00:09:37]
Stephanie Salazar: Honestly, I decided to go back to uni this year and do my Masters while being a lecturer and a tutor. I know, it’s a lot of things. My principal had to think of something to do with me while I was at school part-time. From her reading about instructional coaching, she thought that I had the right skills for it and she asked me if I wanted to do it. She gave me two books to read by Jim Knight and I fell in love, and I love the role. So now I’m a full-time instructional coach.

[00:10:10]
Holly Kershaw: That is super awesome. EC17 has been a really fantastic event. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen or done whilst you’ve been here?

[00:10:16]
Stephanie Salazar: Forming the New Teacher Tribe. Honestly, yes, Ashanti blew my mind and I was bawling my eyes out listening to him. But after that, my New Teacher Tribe is just forming and it’s growing, not just with new teachers, but experienced teachers who are passionate about supporting new teachers came along to my workshops. When we were ideating, I said, let’s come up with actions. Then I made them flip their paper over and I said, now this is where you come up with original ideas and you go. They came up with things like care packages for new teachers so that they know they’re appreciated and are on the right track, and reverse mentoring, so new teachers actually help experienced teachers understand how to mentor them and what they need. It was just brilliant. We came up with a mission statement and vision statement collectively, and we’re just so keen to form this New Teacher Tribe and make sure all new teachers feel supported no matter where they are.

[00:11:30]
Holly Kershaw: I think that supporting new teachers is really important given the attrition rate of new teachers just not making it five years. Given that it’s right up your alley, what piece of advice would you give a young teacher if you had to sit them down in just one or two sentences?

[00:11:37]
Stephanie Salazar: I would say don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are so many people willing to help you, so go to events, go on Twitter, and just connect. Don’t be afraid to say, hey, I need some help.

[00:11:55]
Holly Kershaw: Find your tribe.

[00:11:59]
Ashanti Branch: Ashanti Branch, Oakland, California. I run a mentoring programme called Ever Forward, Siempre Adelante. It’s a mentoring programme for young people in grade 6 through 12, and our aim is to address the dropout rate in our schools by providing resources for young people and for adults to have a deeper connection.

[00:12:21]
Holly Kershaw: How did you get to start this?

[00:12:23]
Ashanti Branch: Well, I was a first-year teacher and I was failing. I had left an engineering career, so I left a lot of money back there and became a teacher out of total heart in the work, but I wasn’t doing a good job. So I invited some young men to lunch and I said, “I’ll buy you lunch once a week. In exchange for lunch, teach me how to be a better teacher.” That was the premise of how it started and those lunchroom conversations became the Ever Forward club. I was not trying to start a non-profit. I think if you’d told me I was starting a non-profit at that time, I would have said that doesn’t sound like a good idea.

[00:13:05]
Holly Kershaw: I think the best ideas are ones that happen completely accidentally because you’re just following your heart. Do you have a quick example of an awesome young man that you’ve mentored and made a big change in?

[00:13:14]
Ashanti Branch: Yeah, it’s going to be a little longer than I expected. One young man, a PE teacher he knew I was running this programme, he said, “I have a young man who never dresses for PE. I think you should meet him. He may be good for your programme.” I said, “Well, bring him by during my prep period.” He comes by.

[00:13:28]
Holly Kershaw: That’s physics people in the background, I’m sorry.

[00:13:35]
Ashanti Branch: That’s awesome. He brought the young man by and introduced him. He said, “Hey, this is Jaime,” and the boy just looked at the ground. I said, “Hey, I want to shake your hand.” He gives me his hand, kind of limp wrist. I was like, “This is like a wet rag. Shake my hand for real. Squeeze my hand.” He looked at me kind of like no one had ever pushed him or engaged him like that. He squeezed my hand, pretty strong. I said, “Nice handshake. Come on in.”

[00:14:00]
Ashanti Branch: So the PE teacher left and I started asking him a few questions, just getting to know him. I was doing work, so I wasn’t going to stand there face-to-face with him. I wasn’t like his therapist; I was just a teacher meeting a kid. I’m doing work in my room and at one point I remember looking at him and he was crying. I’d asked about 85 questions already and I didn’t know which one hit that button. So I went and sat down next to him and I said, “Is that about your mom?” because I’d asked who he lives with—his uncle—and then it was about his mom.

[00:14:45]
Ashanti Branch: His mom had passed recently and he was dealing with a lot of sadness about that. But in his family, he was told that boys don’t cry—suck it up, man up. So he’s carrying around this baggage and he just went into a deep depression. I said, “Man, let it out. Let it out right here.” Literally, he cried right there for probably 20 minutes. The next day he came back, we had another session, and for a couple of weeks, every day he would come after school. He would look at me and be like, “Yeah, I need to go,” and we would go to the other room and he had a moment just to talk. I think he just never had a chance to grieve the sadness of losing his mom.

[00:15:30]
Ashanti Branch: As an adult, an old man, if I think about losing my mom, I get tears in my eyes right now. So I just was there for him. That young man, his life’s absolutely turned around. He needed to get some of that stuff out of his system; he was doing a lot of self-harm and some things that were dangerous. I love that kid. He’s now in the United States Marine Corps doing really well; he just got his promotion. I’m really proud of him. He became my godson, more than just me being a mentor for him. I think young people sometimes are just looking for someone to see them and ask them some questions, even personal questions.

[00:16:05]
Holly Kershaw: That permission to be vulnerable and that permission to just say, “I’m not okay,” is amazing. What has been the most exciting thing you’ve seen at EC17 this week?

[00:16:11]
Ashanti Branch: Oh my god, I don’t even know where to start. This building is amazing, the little events are happening on the side and in the front and back, it’s just been non-stop. I hear physics people making noise and blowing up stuff. There’s a man who built this little thing out of brick blocks over there—I think it took him like an hour—and this little two-year-old walked over and was like, “Hmm, what happens if I pull this out?” and the whole thing falls.

[00:16:38]
Ashanti Branch: I felt myself get so like, “What are you doing? All of that work!” And the kid was like, “That was great, right?” And it was like, okay, that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to create, we’re here to mess up some stuff, and we’re here to learn. I don’t have one thing. I’m just really glad to be in this space with educators who get it and who want to make a difference. That’s powerful to be around.

[00:17:03]
Holly Kershaw: In one sentence, if you could give a little bit of advice to an educator that’s starting out or trying to make a difference, what would you tell them?

[00:17:15]
Ashanti Branch: I would tell them my favourite quote by Howard Thurman. The quote says: “Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” I encourage educators that in this work, when you get to the place you don’t love it no more, leave it. But while you love it, do all you can just to be the best you can for the students.

[00:17:46]
Andrew Duncan: I’m a Deputy Principal at Bundaberg State High School. Prior to that, I was a Maths HOD at Maryborough, and before that, I was a Maths teacher and an IT teacher at Vicky Point State High.

[00:18:02]
Holly Kershaw: What got you into teaching?

[00:18:05]
Andrew Duncan: I didn’t get the OP that I needed to do video game design, so I did Maths IT and Education. It wasn’t until the third year at Griffith that they allowed you to go and do prac. Once I got into my pracs, I was like, well, this is me.

[00:18:22]
Holly Kershaw: What excites you most about being a teacher?

[00:18:31]
Andrew Duncan: Currently as a DP, I do quite a lot of stuff with at-risk students, and it’s getting them to see that maybe they’re not successful in this type of schooling, but there are other pathways that they can get into that gets them on board, back re-engaging in the community, being contributing members of society. That’s what gets me going.

[00:18:50]
Holly Kershaw: You guys have done a lot of work on transforming your school. Can you tell me one thing that you are most proud of?

[00:18:57]
Andrew Duncan: The Bundaberg State High School transformation has been a long time coming. I’ve been there for a short period of that time, but the re-engaging programmes that we run—through a boy, through a girl, if you’re Indigenous, if you’re at risk, if you don’t have parents who can take care of you—there’s a lot of support programmes there. When you see one student who comes back, joins mainstream and they’ve been successful, and they give you that smile and they nod, you just go, “Yeah, we got that down pat, we saved that one kid.” That’s what makes me get to school every day.

[00:19:38]
Holly Kershaw: What has been your favourite part about hanging out at EC17?

[00:19:42]
Andrew Duncan: It’s having this collective genius. This is my first EC and all I can say is I could just imagine if we all just left our schools and created a super school, it would be amazing. The amount of innovation and the momentum would just be world class.

[00:20:01]
Holly Kershaw: Any advice that you could give to an educator who’s starting out?

[00:20:07]
Andrew Duncan: Just do it. There’s no superpower in people; they just need to give it a go. Just starting is half the battle. If you start, the rest will follow.

[00:20:21]
Bec McCauley: Hi everyone, my name’s Bec McCauley from the Beacon Foundation. My title is Facilitation and Training Manager. I work for an arm of the foundation which is involved in the running of our high impact programmes, which are one-day work readiness programmes for young people at secondary school level. We run programmes from Year 7 right through to Year 12 to help get them ready for the world of work, for further education, and basically just to do awesome stuff with their lives.

[00:20:54]
Holly Kershaw: How did you get into working with the Beacon Foundation?

[00:20:58]
Bec McCauley: My entry into the foundation was a story that I tell a lot in my programmes because it’s a story about networking. It was who I knew, not what I knew at the time, that got me the role. I’d heard a little bit about the Beacon Foundation and I really liked the idea of working for a not-for-profit. I have a teaching background, so I really wanted to get back to working with young people. I also wanted to use my transferable skills from the film industry and the performance space to do what I consider to be “heart work.” The Beacon Foundation and my skill set were a really great alignment.

[00:21:49]
Holly Kershaw: What is your favourite part about your work?

[00:22:01]
Bec McCauley: Without doubt, it’s the young people that I get to meet and work with every day and the stories that I hear. They’re extraordinary. Young people have so much wisdom to share. While we’re all different and unique and diverse, we have so much in common. I love that shared humanity that we discover in our programmes. Even though they’re work readiness programmes, I think of them as being life skills programmes.

[00:22:45]
Bec McCauley: The other day I asked a student what animal they’d be if they were an animal and why. She said, “Dolphin.” I thought, yeah, that’s a common one, they’re intelligent, they work in teams. But she didn’t say that at all. She said, “I’d be a dolphin because when we escaped my country…” she was a Syrian refugee… “when we escaped my country we were on a boat and the navigational instruments broke and we were lost at sea and had no idea where to find land. And a pod of dolphins came and showed us the way to land. And that’s why I want to be a dolphin, because I want to show people the way to a better life.” That gives me goosebumps. That’s why I do what I do.

[00:23:30]
Holly Kershaw: What’s been your favourite thing about hanging out at EC this week?

[00:23:36]
Bec McCauley: The people. There are so many innovative, enthusiastic, positive people in the education space who really want to implement wonderful changes and to be leaders in terms of new ideas and ways of working and educating young people. I just find it incredibly stimulating and friendly. Incredibly friendly.

[00:24:09]
Holly Kershaw: If you had to give a piece of advice to a young educator, what would it be?

[00:24:14]
Bec McCauley: To be kind to yourself because you’re doing a job that is not just a job, it’s a vocation. You have to be very invested in taking care of yourself. It’s a big job, an important job, and you pour a lot of energy out. When you take care of yourself, I think that just emanates out into the classroom and it makes you a much more empathetic person.

[00:24:46]
Fairlie Pritchard: My name’s Fairlie. I’m a primary school teacher at Meredith Primary School, a rural primary school halfway between Geelong and Ballarat. I work in a multi-age classroom of Grades 4, 5 and 6, and it’s a very small school, so we get lots of exciting things happen.

[00:24:59]
Holly Kershaw: That sounds like a really interesting teaching environment. What is the most exciting thing that gets you out of bed in the morning about teaching that mixed group?

[00:25:09]
Fairlie Pritchard: We have a very country-minded group of kids who love being on a farm, they love the outdoors. If you think of city kids liking technology and screen time, our kids aren’t like that. That passion for the outdoors just makes us want to do stuff outdoors.

[00:25:26]
Holly Kershaw: What sort of things do you incorporate into your lessons that take you outdoors?

[00:25:31]
Fairlie Pritchard: I run a Meredith Makers programme in our school, which we’ve used to make things like markets, expos, a whole lot of things in our school. Essentially we let our kids use saws and tools and drills, and we garden, we have chooks. It’s just not having that fear. They know how to use tools better than I do. Not having that fear of letting them use a saw, it’s like, “Go for it, boys. Make a table. That’s fine. You need a table, you need a workbench, make it. Pallets? Great.”

[00:26:00]
Fairlie Pritchard: I’m a firm believer that every kid should have a screwdriver, a hammer and a soldering iron, right? They’re just useful skills for life. Getting kids to do that early is really awesome. You’ve got to build these kids to continue doing these things forever.

[00:26:22]
Holly Kershaw: What has been the most exciting thing that you’ve seen in the last two days here?

[00:26:26]
Fairlie Pritchard: I love coming here because it’s a bit of an affirmation that what I do do in my small school is the right thing, is a great thing. I get to see other people doing those great things and then take them back and incorporate little bits at a time into my own classroom and teach other teachers in my school to join in.

[00:26:52]
Holly Kershaw: If you were giving advice to a young educator, what would you tell them?

[00:26:58]
Fairlie Pritchard: Don’t be afraid of your ideas. Your ideas are always good ideas. Just be brave enough to give it a go. Things won’t work all the time; we’re not born to work all the time. Just give it a go. If it works, build on it and keep pushing the boundaries.

[00:27:15]
Dan Wolf-Clark: MyEd‘s a platform, and basically we’re passionate about personalised learning. The thing we want to see is a world where every student is challenged to reach their full potential. The organisations that teachers work within, they actually empower them to do that using technology.

[00:27:35]
Holly Kershaw: What is the most exciting thing that you’ve seen at EC17 this week?

[00:27:40]
Dan Wolf-Clark: The most exciting thing that happened to me at EC17 was I got quite scared by a balloon that was exploding from somewhere. I’m pretty sure I know who did that now. Catching up with friends from High Tech High, Laura McBain and Randy, that was amazing.

[00:28:14]
Holly Kershaw: You work with personalising education for kids. What do you hope that MyEd can do in the next five years for education?

[00:28:23]
Dan Wolf-Clark: What I’d love to see MyEd do is be a place where it really blurs the line between who are the educators and who are the learners. We see students creating a lot more content for their peers, because I think if we want to tap into the intrinsic motivations that really drive people to want to learn, and then beyond that take that learning to do positive things in the world, that comes from within the communities that they’re formed. It’s just self-driven learning communities.

[00:28:59]
Holly Kershaw: Have you seen kids do some amazing stuff on the MyEd platform already? Or is that something that we’re working towards achieving?

[00:29:18]
Dan Wolf-Clark: Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to take a step back and go and teach some primary school kids, Grades 3 and 4, which blew my mind apart. I was a secondary teacher. I walked in there and had students who could do quadratic equations in the same room as a kid who couldn’t tell the time on his watch. I couldn’t keep up with the amount of work they needed across that spectrum.

[00:29:50]
Dan Wolf-Clark: So we created what’s known as the Quest Creator programme and then the Student Instructor programme. We had kids making quests. I had a girl create a quest to teach measurement using horses as a vehicle. I didn’t know this, but apparently bridles have different thicknesses in millimetres and all this sort of stuff. I’ve never seen a bunch of kids more motivated to learn about measurement. I would never have thought of that in my wildest dreams. I don’t know about horses, but she understood her peer group.

[00:30:26]
Holly Kershaw: If you had to give a one-sentence piece of advice to someone starting out, what would you tell them?

[00:30:37]
Dan Wolf-Clark: Just be aware of your self-limiting beliefs. My story is I went into a primary school thinking that the kids needed me to show them the way, and honestly they showed me the way. Keep your eyes open for what your self-limiting beliefs are, and that’s the way forward.

[00:30:56]
Penny Harris: I am the director of Genie and Penny, and we have a set of materials for children aged three to eight teaching ethics, empathy and emotional intelligence. The materials have been developed in consultation with three high-level academics: Professor Doreen Rosenthal, Dr Jeanette Poulton, and a doctor of linguistics.

[00:31:19]
Holly Kershaw: So why three to eight year olds?

[00:32:24]
Penny Harris: We have a very deep belief that children need to learn these foundational elements from a very early age so that as they get older, they establish their core self-identity, they develop persistence, and they learn about empathy and ethical behaviour. We published the books in China into schools, and today at EC17 we are launching our Australian books and materials here.

[00:33:10]
Penny Harris: The materials are based on the Early Years Learning Framework. Each book has a major learning outcome and then further learning outcomes. At the back of each book are a series of open-ended questions that teachers can use to discuss lots of issues, both between the characters and internal conflict. Each book has talk bubbles and think bubbles, so sometimes a character might be thinking one thing and saying another. We’ve also got a QR code that accesses read-alongs, which are great for teachers projecting onto digital whiteboards.

[00:33:51]
Holly Kershaw: What’s been your favourite most exciting thing about being at EC17 this week?

[00:33:57]
Penny Harris: The vibe. This is our first foray into this kind of thing. My partner Winnie and myself were at a workshop at Education Changemakers. We loved talking to the teachers, we loved showing people our materials, we’ve had a great response. It’s a really lovely vibe and I think Aaron and Dave have done a great job.

[00:34:36]
Meg Foley: My name’s Meg Foley. I’m from St Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane. I’ve been a teacher for 11 years and have taught the middle years ages, 5, 6, 7. I just see education as the way forward to positive change around the world. That’s why I love my job.

[00:34:55]
Holly Kershaw: Is there something in particular that you’re working on recently that has reaffirmed that love for what you do?

[00:35:00]
Meg Foley: As well as being a classroom teacher, I’m involved with robotics. When I walk into the room, I just see genuine learning. It’s that state of flow that is spoken about a lot, where the kids are just losing track of time because of what they do. I’m trying to find a way of creating that on another level. So if I can set up a school that is for engineering, just like there are amazing schools for music or other excellence areas, and try and find that genuine deep learning and do what I can with that.

[00:35:53]
Holly Kershaw: Have you had a particular student that’s completely surprised you when you’ve handed them a robot?

[00:35:57]
Meg Foley: Absolutely. One student in my class in Year 7, I remember him hiding under a desk in the fetal position rocking when he had to do an oral presentation. He wouldn’t come to school, he had massive school avoidance. Now he is coming to school at 7:00, 7:30 so he can do robotics before school.

[00:36:25]
Meg Foley: He recently just got back from Washington where he was part of the team representing Australia at the First Global Challenge. He did over 20 media presentations and was on TV, radio, newspapers around the world. It’s given him a voice, a focus, and allowed him to be who he is.

[00:36:51]
Holly Kershaw: What has been your favourite thing about hanging out at EC17 this week?

[00:36:55]
Meg Foley: The “Yes I can” attitude. Ideas here are crazy, exciting, huge, but no one’s saying no, it can’t be done. It’s so inspiring, it’s like a breath of fresh air that you can just dream, and those dreams can be supported and put into action by the amazing people here.

[00:37:25]
Holly Kershaw: If you had a little bit of advice you could give an educator starting out, what would you tell them?

[00:37:30]
Meg Foley: Be true to yourself, don’t let the system corrupt you, and find your tribe. Find people that have the same vision as you and make it happen.

[00:37:41]
June Bayha: My name is June Bayha and I started a company called Bayha Group. What I do is try to get other people to pay for cool ideas that organisations and individuals may have, especially if it’s around education and innovation. I like disrupting education. I’ve been doing government funding for a long time. I get fired up seeing how kids get really excited to learn, where they just see what’s possible for their lives, especially if they have a say in what they’re doing. I’m a huge fan of students having a voice and having some choice.

[00:38:30]
Holly Kershaw: Can you give us an example of a cool project that you’ve worked on that’s led to kids getting super inspired?

[00:38:37]
June Bayha: I’m working at a community called Downey Unified in Southern California. Through a $6 million grant that I helped write, I’m helping them implement. We’ve been partnering with an organisation called The Science and Entertainment Exchange, they’re part of the National Academy of Sciences. They’re the 1-800 call-a-scientist for movie advisors.

[00:39:15]
June Bayha: So for example, when Doctor Strange came out, there was a special event that was the Science of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We had a group of high schoolers who were able to borrow a robot from SoftBank Robotics, and they programmed the robot to do five different Marvel characters and iconic moves. They had 12 days to learn how to program this and create a presentation, and then practice it well enough to present to a panel of professionals.

[00:39:50]
June Bayha: We did a survey with the students afterwards and they were just so excited that they were able to learn how to program the robot and feel prepared to present to scientists from SETI, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and a stunt woman. It was a completely diverse panel of professionals.

[00:40:22]
Holly Kershaw: What’s the best part about being at EduChange this week?

[00:40:29]
June Bayha: I walked around this hall of heroes where they saw Captain America’s suit and Thor’s hammer and Ant-Man’s mask. These are kids who come from a community that don’t have a whole lot of resources, 70% qualify for free and reduced lunch. Just to see what’s possible totally makes my day.

[00:41:18]
Holly Kershaw: What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen here?

[00:41:22]
June Bayha: For me, it’s just being around people who think completely out of the box. Education is generally constrained. As an outsider coming in, talking to teachers, these are individuals who get it.

[00:41:51]
Sarah MacDonald: I am the Director of Canine Comprehension. We try to make learning fun using dogs as a tool to get kids more engaged with their learning. We go around to schools all across Melbourne and work an eight-week programme getting the kids to understand their own learning, getting them to understand what motivates them by training a dog and using the dog as the point of talking. We have eight tutors going around the place and a couple of dog trainers. I get to spend time with both animals and kids, so life’s good.

[00:42:40]
Holly Kershaw: Some people say that you shouldn’t work with children or animals. How do you find that in practice?

[00:42:44]
Sarah MacDonald: There are some days. Because I very much see the dogs as not performance animals, they’re there so we can point out their emotions and blocks in learning. Whatever happens, happens, and my job and my tutors’ jobs is to be able to use that in the lesson. So some days my biggest dog, Minnie, will go and be scared or she’s just not sure about meeting new people, so it gives us an opportunity to talk about what happens when you’re meeting new people in a social situation where you’d rather not be there. We can help them understand other skills by using the dog, rather than just saying to kids, “What are you frightened of? How do we fix it?”

[00:43:29]
Holly Kershaw: What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen at EC17?

[00:43:32]
Sarah MacDonald: I’m often a little island onto myself. I hire teachers and therapists, but I don’t get to just move around and talk to teachers. To have a group of people that are so dynamic in their thinking and thinking outside the square, I just feel like I’m amongst my people here. Just wandering around and talking to everyone, finding out other small businesses that have sort of done the same thing as me. I realise I’m not by myself in finding these small parts of education that can help kids that’s a little bit different.

[00:44:18]
Holly Kershaw: Do you have a story you can tell us about one of the best things that’s happened?

[00:44:20]
Sarah MacDonald: As a teacher, can you have favourites? I have a few favourites.

[00:44:26]
Holly Kershaw: You’re definitely allowed to have favourites.

[00:44:28]
Sarah MacDonald: There’s a child that I started tutoring who was living at a residential care home. When we first met, the kid couldn’t stop swearing at you and he was very violent. I would have to come in just with the dog and myself and not even bring pencil cases and pens, because you don’t know how he’s going to use them. It became very apparent that he wanted the connection with the dogs. He didn’t want to hurt the dogs; he did want to scare the people, because adults had let him down time and time again.

[00:45:00]
Sarah MacDonald: Bringing in especially Oscar to begin with, because Oscar’s such a chilled out guy, really allowed me to have a relationship with this young person. Because of the nature of residential care, he got moved from place to place to place. We were lucky enough to keep on being funded and we followed him, so we were the only constant in his life. It took me a good six months to be able to get him to hold a book and start reading again, or pick up a pen.

[00:45:45]
Sarah MacDonald: Nowadays we’re working on a business for him, he’s doing a small BMX business. He’s really got a lot of confidence with working with his hands. The fact that he’s focused and he allows me to tell him when he’s right and where he’s wrong, he’s just come such a long way.

[00:46:16]
Holly Kershaw: If you could give a sentence of advice to someone starting out, what would you tell them?

[00:46:24]
Sarah MacDonald: Follow your passions. If it seems a little weird at first, just keep going and you’ll find your tribe.

[00:46:38]
Nicole Dyson: My name is Nicole. I am co-founder of Verge Young Entrepreneurs. It’s a curriculum-embedded programme in both business and English where we ask Year 9 students to take on the role of social entrepreneur and come up with their own solutions to solve some of society’s problems.

[00:46:54]
Holly Kershaw: What inspired you to start running these programmes?

[00:46:58]
Nicole Dyson: My big passion is making sure that learning links to life. I love curriculum that actually asks students to take on a role that connects them to something in the real world. I’m particularly passionate about social entrepreneurship because I feel like it creates a space for young people to develop real empathy for some of the challenges that exist out in their world that they may not be exposed to in traditional curriculum settings.

[00:47:36]
Holly Kershaw: I got to meet a few of your students last year and they were some amazing humans. Do you want to tell us about one of the kids that’s gone on to do some cool things?

[00:47:45]
Nicole Dyson: Last year we brought 11 students down, and one of the students was Jordan from Mental Music. He started a mental health podcast, which you can check out on iTunes. It is basically run by teenagers for teenagers, and his big passion is that he wants to reduce the stigma around mental health and make it something that young people feel comfortable talking about.

[00:48:25]
Nicole Dyson: He also wants to engage professionals in a dialogue with young people so that they can access more information about mental health and how to look after themselves. What’s really cool is he also takes music developed by young people and plays it in the podcast, so he’s kind of supporting young artists and creatives. He was a really quiet kid, and this kid worked a room like nobody’s business. I’ve never seen a 14-year-old kid own a space with some of the most legendary entrepreneurs at the time and he just walked up and introduced himself.

[00:48:58]
Holly Kershaw: What is the most exciting thing you’ve seen at EC17 this week?

[00:49:09]
Nicole Dyson: The most exciting thing for me is the kids. The fact that we have young people here that are presenting masterclasses. I spoke to some boys from up near Noosa that are running masterclasses for adults on coding in schools. You’re talking about primary school kids that wouldn’t have seen entrepreneurship necessarily as a journey option for him moving forward.

[00:49:49]
Holly Kershaw: How did you get the 14-year-old panel to happen?

[00:49:57]
Nicole Dyson: I asked. You’d be amazed by the number of people that are invited to speak on panels that give up their incredibly busy schedules and spend time sitting on a panel for 14-year-olds. The response that I always give is I just asked. If I had to give any message to young educators, it would be if you have a great idea, if you know the person you have to talk to to make it happen, just ask.

[00:50:35]
Nicole Dyson: The worst that will happen is they’ll say no, and then you just ask the next person. You keep asking until you get the answer that you want.

[00:51:08]
Holly Kershaw: If you had a piece of advice to a new educator, what would you tell them?

[00:51:16]
Nicole Dyson: Find your tribe. Find those people who fill your cup up, who speak your language, who challenge your thinking, and align yourself closely with them because teaching can be a really lonely game if you don’t find those people.

[00:51:52]
Sarah Ralston: Hi Holly, lovely to speak with you. We look at staff training and student workshops where all about empowering kids. What we do is we provide tools that people can use in a classroom setting and a whole school setting. Great language, simple language, that is based in neuroscience and trauma-informed, to help young people understand what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, and how to move forward in life.

[00:52:19]
Holly Kershaw: What inspired you to get into doing this?

[00:52:23]
Sarah Ralston: I had PTSD myself and I recovered. What I could see out there is there are millions of young people who are confused and angry and upset and uncertain. Life is just getting faster and more confusing, so we need clarity and we need a sense of purpose, but we also need to be really grounded and strong within ourselves. The best place to get that is probably in a classroom.

[00:53:03]
Holly Kershaw: How does that actually work in a classroom?

[00:53:11]
Sarah Ralston: If we can give teachers really simple language to grab students and give them the awareness of how they’re feeling and what they need, then we’re really empowering young people to move forward in a really positive way.

[00:53:45]
Sarah Ralston: There’s a primary school that had the highest number of suspensions in the entire state. The staff were really stressed. When we went in, they had a suspension rate of about 15 per week. It dropped down to two per week after three months of the programme.

[00:54:21]
Holly Kershaw: If you could give one piece of advice to a young educator starting out, what would you tell them?

[00:54:26]
Sarah Ralston: Student-teacher relationship is absolutely everything. Research shows pretty clearly that the level of emotional intelligence of the person who’s standing at the front of the class dictates the classroom climate. The more you understand who you are and what you’re doing, and you’ve got your intention and passion really clear, plus your ability to self-regulate, teaching is incredibly hard work and you are going to be thrown doozies and challenges on a daily basis.

[00:55:34]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelt F I Z Z I C S. And click 100 free experiments.

[00:55:52]
Ben Newsome: And that was just some of the people who were at EduChange. It was a seriously vibrant event and I highly recommend if you can turn up to EC18, it is well worth your time. Hey, if you’re wondering what the Education Changemakers have been getting up to, check out episode three way back when we started this, where we got to speak with Maddie and Luke from the Education Changemakers about embedding language, culture and risk-taking into science lessons.

[00:56:16]
Guest: When I walked into Mimili school as a middle school teacher, I was a teacher of everything. I taught numeracy, mathematics, and even science, and I wasn’t a science-trained person necessarily. It became very clear to me that unless this is engaging and actually taps into the current realities of the kids here, the audience, they are not going to engage. So I learned to become a very engaging teacher very quickly. I did that really by saying, what matters to these kids? What’s the hook of the lesson here? How does this attach to their world?

[00:56:45]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Sign up now for our fortnightly email newsletter. It’s loaded with details on new experiments you can do, STEM teaching articles, new gadgets, exclusive offers and upcoming events. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au, scroll to the bottom and add your email.

[00:57:04]
Ben Newsome: Yes, definitely check out that episode. By the way, Maddie and Luke are also involved with the EduChange podcast, which is a podcast where they get global innovators and thought leaders when it comes to teaching, to have a bit of a chat with them too. So it’s definitely worth checking out. And that just about brings us to the end of yet another FizzicsEd podcast. Hey, thanks very much for listening. We’ll catch you next week.

[00:57:22]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is instructional coaching compared to traditional mentoring?
According to Stephanie Salazar, instructional coaching is built on an equal partnership rather than a hierarchy of seniority. While mentoring often involves a more experienced teacher guiding a junior staff member, coaching focuses on a collaborative relationship where both parties look at the reality of the classroom (often through video recording) to set and achieve professional goals together, regardless of how many years of experience each person has.

How can educators make abstract subjects like mathematics more relevant to their students?
Kirsty Costa suggests moving away from traditional textbook word problems—such as trains travelling between distant cities—and instead using the students’ immediate environment. By using contemporary pedagogies like design thinking, teachers can apply mathematical concepts to real-world tasks, such as measuring the schoolyard or solving problems within the local community, which answers the common student question: “Why am I learning this?”

What role do emotional intelligence and ethics play in early childhood education?
Penny Harris explains that teaching ethics, empathy, and emotional intelligence to children aged three to eight provides a foundation for self-identity and persistence. By using storytelling and “think bubbles” to show what characters are feeling versus what they are saying, children learn to navigate internal conflicts and develop the social-emotional skills necessary to handle life’s challenges before they reach secondary school.

How can non-traditional tools, such as animals or robotics, improve student wellbeing?
Several innovators at the event highlighted that tools like robotics or “classroom dogs” serve as catalysts for engagement. For students experiencing school avoidance or mental health challenges, these interests provide a reason to arrive at school early and a safe space to practice vulnerability. As Sarah MacDonald noted, dogs can act as a “point of talking,” allowing students to discuss their own emotions by first identifying the emotions of the animal.

What is the best way for a new teacher to avoid burnout and stay motivated?
The collective advice from the EduChange speakers is to “find your tribe.” Dave Faulkner emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with people who fill you with joy and avoiding “happiness vacuums”—those who focus only on the negatives of the profession. Maintaining a sense of passion and being kind to oneself is seen as critical, as teaching is a vocation that requires high levels of emotional regulation and support.

Extra thought ideas to consider

The “Dolphin” Effect: Storytelling as a Bridge to Empathy
Consider the story shared by Bec McCauley regarding the Syrian refugee student who wanted to be a dolphin to “show people the way to a better life.” This highlights the incredible depth of wisdom and experience students bring to the classroom. How can we create more spaces in the curriculum for “heart work,” where students’ personal histories are not just acknowledged but used as a vehicle for teaching leadership and shared humanity?

The Dignity of Risk in the Makerspace
Fairlie Pritchard discusses allowing primary school students to use real tools like saws and drills in their “Meredith Makers” programme. This challenges the modern trend toward over-sanitising the learning environment. Discuss the potential benefits of “the dignity of risk”—does giving a child a real tool and a real responsibility foster a level of engagement and self-respect that cannot be replicated with safer, simulated activities?

Redefining Success Through “Beautiful Failures”
A recurring theme throughout the interviews was the idea of embracing “messy” learning and failure. Kirsty Costa and Sarah Ralston both touched on the need for teachers to be vulnerable and admit when a lesson isn’t working. If the education system moved away from a results-only focus and toward celebrating the process of “failing forward,” how would that impact the mental health of both students and staff?