Teaching Outdoors in a Rural School with Emma Don

A new feature for us on the Augmented Learning Podcast & Vlog is the "Friday Follow Up" where we briefly unpack the weeks episode and look to leave you with some form of provocation. This provocation will hopefully inspire you to take action over the weekend by unpacking the insights that were shared throughout the episode and leave you with some key actions moving forward. In today's episode, we'll unpack some of the challenges and opportunities that rural students face, as identified by Emma in her role at Oxford Area School, and what that means for us in our own teaching space.

During lockdown, Celia and I sat down with Emma to talk about some of her wins and successes teaching Outdoor Education in a rural school. Emma was a panel member at the PENZ conference earlier in the year where she entertained the audience with a snapshot of what teaching is like for here, around the theme of embracing uncertainty. Emma Don is the Head of Department of Health, Physical Education and Outdoor Education at Oxford Area School, a Year 1-13 school located in Oxford, at the foot of the Canterbury Foothills. Along with her role as HOD, Emma is also a Within School Lead (WSL) in the Tipu Maia Kahui Ako which encompasses Canterbury Area Schools. She is a Mum to two young boys, aged 6 and 3. Emma embraces every challenge as an opportunity to get better and improve her teaching and learning practice.

Next year I take a new step in my educational journey as a Deputy Principal at Wellington East Girls' College (WEGC). Throughout 2020 I have been fortunate to work closely with this school as an Across School Lead Teacher within the Motu Kairangi Kāhui Ako. Today's guest is a Within School Lead Teacher from WEGC who teaches Biology. Georgette Lampitt has been teaching for about 12 years and was trained in the UK. She has been part of teaching in a hub team at WEGC for about 5 years now. Throughout this episode George and I attempt to unpack a number of innovate approaches to learning they have within the school such as: •90 minute lessons and how that impacts learning •Ako time as an approach to pastoral care •Hubbing and integrated learning •Challenges and opportunities working within a modern learning environment WEGC are doing some amazing things and no doubt this episode will give you a variety of ideas you might be able to pull apart and see how you might be able to leverage them in your school.

On this weeks episode we have Celia sitting down with Kylie Thompson from the University of Waikato. Throughout this episode there is plenty of rich discussion about Kylie's transition from Secondary to Tertiary, initial teacher education, threshold concepts and the challenges facing primary school teachers trying to incorporate quality physical education. Kylie is currently lecturing in Health and PE at the University of Waikato. She was previously an HOD in Auckland, a national moderator at NZQA, an advisor for PENZ, and has just started her doctorate which aims to explore social and emotional learning in PE. Kylie is happiest when adventuring around the north island with her wife and two boys in their bright orange pop top caravan. Follow Kylie on Twitter.

We're excited to bring you episode 70 of the podcast today with Paul O'Leary! Paul is a 5th Year Health and Physical Education teacher and Year 11 Dean from Long Bay College in Auckland. Paul has been a big advocate in gamification and game based learning and uses this extensively in his teaching. We spend a lot of time unpacking his pastoral role and how it links with some of the key areas of Health and Physical Education. Paul talks a bit about some of the approaches his school took during lock down this year. Hopefully this generates some good discussion and dialogue around the challenges and successes other schools had during this period, so please add your comments and thoughts if you get some time! Paul is always keen to collaborate and share ideas to further develop personal learning, student's experiences and the value of the Physical Education and Health learning area, so if you haven't already, please follow Paul on Twitter.

A great episode for you this week, with Susie Stevens joining me to discuss all things relating to her recent appointment as President of Physical Education New Zealand. As well as covering governance in depth, Susie shares with us across a number of other domains she is involved in. Susie is an extremely knowledgeable individual who gives so much to the community and spaces she works in. -- Dr Susannah Stevens (Susie) works at the University of Canterbury and has just been seconded into a new strategic role. This platform, a Knowledge Commons, is tasked with bringing together the collective knowledge, skills, mana, networks and resources of partners to support the well-being and growth of Ōtautahi Christchurch. Working with the Ministry of Education, Canterbury District Health Board, Police, Chamber of Commerce, Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, The Press, Christchurch New Zealand and the City Council, this platform has audacious ambitions to make a difference. Prior to this, she managed a Research Institute for Child Well-being. She teaches the Graduate Diploma of Physical Education at UC, and is the President of Physical Education New Zealand. Susie loves learning, researching and challenging her thinking. She is currently part of funded research teams in the areas of well-being, movement, and Māori flourishing. Susie is actively involved with international organisations such as the Foundation of Global Community Health and the International Olympic Academy, and works hard to promote all things NZ PE on the global stage. Equally important, she has two boys, Mr9 and Mr6 who she has a tonne of fun with. Follow Susie on Twitter.

Today's episode features Amy Kaukau from Rototuna High School! Amy is currently the Poutiaki / Leader of Learning for Health and Physical Education and has over 14 years of experience teaching in New Zealand as well as abroad. In 2017, she completed a Masters in Educational Leadership and has recently been working with Tertiary leaders developing threshold concepts for Health and Physical education which focus on the jewels of the curriculum and what troublesome knowledge students find in our learning area. We spend a lot of time unpacking the Rototuna Senior High curriculum approach with a particular focus on threshold concepts - which I feel are a bit of a game changer when it comes to future focused learning and ensuring our students are critical thinkers across multiple learning areas. Learn a little more about threshold concepts at Rototuna Senior High School here. Follow Amy on Twitter.

Today we have Andrew Joyce on the podcast! Andrew is an establishing Health and PE teacher in his 5th year at Aotea College, holding both pastoral and curriculum leadership roles within the school. He has a strong interest in relational pedagogical approaches, restorative practice and game-based learning. Andrew promotes authentic relationship-building with ākonga and is interested in how power relationships are explored/created in learning environments. We spend a lot of time talking about the many hats Andrew wears, restorative practice, and game based learning. Andrew is a young teacher, but speaks with the maturity of a teacher with many more years of classroom experience. Follow Andrew on Twitter.

Lachie McLellan is a proud Kiwi and Ex New Zealand Sprinter who is currently in his 6th year of teaching Upper Elementary Physical Education at Stamford American International School in Singapore. He has previously taught an iPad Class at Grade 5 at Raha International School in Abu Dhabi, which has lead to an interest in the different way devices can be used as a tool to share knowledge and help students gain a deeper understanding of topics taught. Ha has a passion for coaching athletics and touch rugby and has completed Post Graduate studies on athlete centred coaching and leadership. We spend a good amount of time discussing his time as an elite athlete and how that supports him in the classroom, and some good examples of the way he uses technology in Primary PE. Follow LJ on Twitter.

Crystal Kirch taught high school math in Southern California for seven years before transitioning to a role as a Digital Learning Coach, working with teachers on integrating technology into their classrooms to support student learning. I stumbled across her work all the way back in around 2011 / 2012 as I begun exploring a flipped approach with my classes. At this point in time, Crystal had an amazing blog detailing her flipped learning journey which included a number of great resources that really supported teachers getting started with the approach. Her creation of the WSQ (Watch, summarise, question) sheet provided a framework for teachers allowing them to ensure students were not only watching the videos, but digesting the content as well. More recently, Crystal has released a book titled Flipping with Kirch and can be purchased through Amazon at a very reasonable price! I would definitely recommend picking this book up if the things Crystal talks about during this episode are of interest to you. Please follow Crystal on Twitter (she is a wealth of knowledge) and don't hesitate to jump into our free Introduction to Flipped Learning course over at Augmented Learning.