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Back In Action - Coming Out of the Covid & DeVos Era Educational Haze


 I am embarrassed to see that the last time I posted on this personal blog was back in February, 2017.  That is quite the long hiatus.  No excuses other than I think I was hiding out until the DeVos era ended. I would love to say I have been hanging out at the beach and enjoying life, but in addition to that I have actually been working hard these last years. Teaching, supporting teachers, doing hundreds of presentations around the country and world (Italy, Germany, Japan, England to name a few), and working on new technologies for math (ClassPad.net) and doing webinars and creating lessons and how-to's to support technology integration. Never a dull moment....with occasional beach days thrown in!

Anyway, back in action on the blog. Going to try to be a bit more present in this personal blog. I've been blogging non-stop on the Casio Education blog, but it's time to get back to my individual voice and messages as well. I can do both!! 

I am working on a couple things of late that I am pretty excited about and hoping turn into some fun and informative things for others. This includes a podcast, possibly creating some PD courses (online) to support math teachers, and exploring some new avenues and partnerships.

I am still teaching online for Drexel University, and as we are all still under the COVID restrictions, I know how many educators, parents, students and people in general have really struggled with this remote-learning/working environment. As it has been something I have done for over 12 years now, I was not stressed, but I have seen and hear the struggles from friends and neighbors and colleagues, so I know transitioning to an online environment is difficult. This is one of the exciting things I am thinking of focusing on - i.e. creating some courses focused around how to teach mathematics online, since it's something I have done, with a particular focus on using technology appropriately in an online environment.  Developing a PD resource for teachers/schools. It's what my whole dissertation was based on - how to provide hybrid PD around using technology to teach math - so, just creating my own courses to share with others.  

https://www.180days.education/

A couple years ago, my friend and I, Tim Pope, started a podcast, 180days.Education. Tim and I had the pleasure to work together at Key Curriculum and traveled the country doing lots of work with educators on inquiry teaching with mathematics and technology integration. We started the podcast to share teaching with others, as both being former K-12 teachers and administrators, and then working in the publishing and training part of education, we thought we could provide some insight and a voice to others about education. What we found in our first podcast go-around was that the episodes where we had guests, talking about their expertise, were much more informative and fun, compared to those where he and I did all the research and tried  to be the experts.  Then life happened - career changes (for Tim mostly) and a couple moves, and so we took a 2-year hiatus. But - we have come back, and have just started our 2nd Season this past January with a different approach, much better equipment and recording capabilities, the same editor/producer (but with much more expertise under her belt as well (Quinn Greenhaus, my younger daughter)), and having a lot more fun with it. Our approach now is to rely on experts in the educational field to share their experiences, resources, etc. and Tim and I are just the facilitators of the conversation. We also are not limiting ourselves to math (though we do tend to be a bit math centric at times, as these are often the experts we know best), but education topics in general. We have talked to an expert on environmental literacy, someone on curriculum development, experts on professional development and systemic change, teachers in the classroom sharing their experiences with Covid and teaching, an astronomy and physiology professor.....it's exciting for us to be able to open up different avenues of interest to explore and share with others.  So - hopefully you will give it a listen!!  You can find us wherever you get your podcasts and also at our website, 180days.Education, where you will find more detailed show notes and links to resources mentioned in each episode. 


Finally, I am exploring the idea of branching out and trying something new. I admit to perusing the job offerings at various edtech and math education companies to just see if there is something that sparks my interest. I know my strengths, of which professional development and online training/teaching are a couple, so I am looking in those areas. To be honest, being an independent consultant, while very freeing, is NOT very lucrative, so it would be nice to maybe bring in a bit more money, especially after a pretty tough year of COVID confinement.  But that freedom of schedule is something I am not quite sure I want to give up, so looking for flexibility and more 'project-focused' timelines versus a required 9-5 or 8-4 work day. I have my aging mother with dementia that takes a lot of my time, so flexibility and remote work are not things I am willing to sacrifice. But - I am looking, exploring, putting out feelers....if anyone knows of anything!

Anyway - I am back and hoping to post a little more frequently - once a week is a goal at this point. Might be more, might be less...depends on the news and the mood!! Meanwhile, enjoy this sunset view from my home office....not a bad way to end each day.








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Location: Doylestown, PA 18901, USA

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