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Welcome to the Surviving Your First Years of Teaching Course

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Welcome to the Surviving Your First Years of Teaching Course

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Main points to remember

1. Modules and Activities The course is divided into 3 modules, one module per week, with an additional 1.5 grace week at the end of the course to complete all the tasks (that makes 4.5 weeks in total). We will be opening a new module every Tuesday. Once open, the modules will remain open until the end of the course, so you can always catch up at a later time.Each module consists of video clips, reflection and discussion activities, and a short quiz or peer-review exercise that checks you have been following the module. 2. Duration and Workload The course will run from 29 May to 28 June 2018, the latter being the final deadline for all tasks. Each module lasts one week, but remains open for completion until 28 June 2018. This leaves you with enough flexibility, should you be very busy during one week and need to catch up at a later date. However, please note that peer-review exercises have separate deadlines, so make sure to read the instructions carefully.All content will remain accessible after the course has concluded, but it won't be possible to do the final activity and receive the course certificate anymore.If you are wondering about the workload, we estimate it to be around 2-3 hours per weekdepending on your level of engagement.After 28 June 2018 a "blackout" period of 1,5 weeks will follow, during which the course will not be accessible. All your work on the course is saved and will become available again at the conclusion of the blackout period.This “blackout” period is a designated time during which we – the Teacher Academy team – will focus our attention on assessing the work of course participants where needed, dealing with any possible issues (plagiarism, missing final course activities/reviews, technical aspects), and preparing the course certificates.After the “blackout” period, certificates will be awarded to those who have finalised all required course activities. The course will remain open for those who would like to benefit from the pedagogical content but there will be no moderation on the course, and therefore no certification will be awarded anymore. You will receive your course certificate on 9 July 2018. 3. Discussions and Exchanges As part of the activities, you are welcome to share and discuss materials, opinions or experiences related to this course via a variety of online tools, which are integrated directly into each module. We have chosen these tools based on their user-friendliness, so you should not have to sign up to use them and most of them should be fairly self-explanatory. You will see that most sections make use of Padlet; for an introduction to the tool, check out this FAQ.However, we also encourage you to share your ideas and thoughts on Twitter using #IstartTeaching or on our Facebook group. 4. Assessment and Certification Each module will be scored based on an automated assessment in the form of a short quiz, intended to gather the main ideas of each module. It is important to complete the quizzes if you wish to receive the digital badges and certificate at the end of the course. In the final module, we will have one last activity which asks you to submit a lesson plan and then peer-review other participants' lesson plans. In order to receive the digital certificate at the end, you must complete both tasks. 5. How to get help If you have a question on the course or if you are experiencing technical problems, please check the course FAQ section first. There you will find common questions and answers; if that doesn't help, please post your question in the relevant forum category.Please only e-mail us or contact us on social media in emergencies. We are a very small team and cannot respond immediately if you contact us through these channels.

Who is behind the course?

The course was validated by the Teacher Academy Pedagogical Advisory Board and was significantly supported by members of the INDUCAS project. Many of the teachers and mentors featuring on the course originally participated in the INDUCAS project.

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Welcome to the course and thanks for joining us. If you haven't completed the pre-course survey yet or added your marker to the course participant map, please do so now by clicking on the links.
Main points to remember

1. Modules and Activities The course is divided into 3 modules, one module per week, with an additional 1.5 grace week at the end of the course to complete all the tasks (that makes 4.5 weeks in total). We will be opening a new module every Tuesday. Once open, the modules will remain open until the end of the course, so you can always catch up at a later time.Each module consists of video clips, reflection and discussion activities, and a short quiz or peer-review exercise that checks you have been following the module. 2. Duration and Workload The course will run from 29 May to 28 June 2018, the latter being the final deadline for all tasks. Each module lasts one week, but remains open for completion until 28 June 2018. This leaves you with enough flexibility, should you be very busy during one week and need to catch up at a later date. However, please note that peer-review exercises have separate deadlines, so make sure to read the instructions carefully.All content will remain accessible after the course has concluded, but it won't be possible to do the final activity and receive the course certificate anymore.If you are wondering about the workload, we estimate it to be around 2-3 hours per weekdepending on your level of engagement.After 28 June 2018 a "blackout" period of 1,5 weeks will follow, during which the course will not be accessible. All your work on the course is saved and will become available again at the conclusion of the blackout period.This “blackout” period is a designated time during which we – the Teacher Academy team – will focus our attention on assessing the work of course participants where needed, dealing with any possible issues (plagiarism, missing final course activities/reviews, technical aspects), and preparing the course certificates.After the “blackout” period, certificates will be awarded to those who have finalised all required course activities. The course will remain open for those who would like to benefit from the pedagogical content but there will be no moderation on the course, and therefore no certification will be awarded anymore. You will receive your course certificate on 9 July 2018. 3. Discussions and Exchanges As part of the activities, you are welcome to share and discuss materials, opinions or experiences related to this course via a variety of online tools, which are integrated directly into each module. We have chosen these tools based on their user-friendliness, so you should not have to sign up to use them and most of them should be fairly self-explanatory. You will see that most sections make use of Padlet; for an introduction to the tool, check out this FAQ.However, we also encourage you to share your ideas and thoughts on Twitter using #IstartTeaching or on our Facebook group. 4. Assessment and Certification Each module will be scored based on an automated assessment in the form of a short quiz, intended to gather the main ideas of each module. It is important to complete the quizzes if you wish to receive the digital badges and certificate at the end of the course. In the final module, we will have one last activity which asks you to submit a lesson plan and then peer-review other participants' lesson plans. In order to receive the digital certificate at the end, you must complete both tasks. 5. How to get help If you have a question on the course or if you are experiencing technical problems, please check the course FAQ section first. There you will find common questions and answers; if that doesn't help, please post your question in the relevant forum category.Please only e-mail us or contact us on social media in emergencies. We are a very small team and cannot respond immediately if you contact us through these channels.

Who is behind the course?

The course was validated by the Teacher Academy Pedagogical Advisory Board and was significantly supported by members of the INDUCAS project. Many of the teachers and mentors featuring on the course originally participated in the INDUCAS project.

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Course Timeline

Please take a look at the timeline below and make sure to enter the relevant dates in your calendar. The deadlines are final and we cannot make exceptions, so please plan well ahead for the submission of your work!

The course will have one live event in Module 2: a Q&A and discussion coordinated by the course moderator. The exact date and time will be provided soon.
Course Participants

If you’re curious about who is taking this course alongside you, we will soon share some data about your fellow participants (e.g. age, gender, experience level). As of 17.05.2018 we are 108 participants.

We are a large enough group to guarantee lots of diversity in backgrounds and views, which will be great for the discussions. At the same time, we need to be aware that school cultures are very different from one country to another. That means an idea which sounds like a great solution to us might be less relevant or suitable to you. It's important to keep this in mind as you go through the course, and to think about how these ideas can be made relevant to your context. However, that should not stop you from sharing your ideas and experiences, because only by reflecting on how we teach and learn - and by seeing how others teach and learn - can we truly develop our own practices.

If you haven't yet answered the survey, it takes only 5 minutes and you can access it here. You can of course also add your marker to the course map by simply clicking the big + button below (top right corner).

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Learning online, especially in MOOCs, can be easily overwhelming. Especially if you have never completed a MOOC before, we highly recommend you to take a look at the short, self-paced mini course "Five Strategies for Learning Online" before returning to this course.

Strategy 1: Reflect on how you learn best

One of the key characteristics about online learning is that how you learn is to a significant extent up to you. This means you need to reflect on how you learn best. For more information check out this video: https://youtu.be/fmoX9MP0fv8

Strategy 2: Plan your learning

Planning your learning is important and it is advisable to set times in your calendar when you will be working on the course. Think about what works best for your learning and your current schedule. For more ideas check out this video:   https://youtu.be/-QHepECV2LY

Strategy 3: Use a learning diary

It is important to put whatever you find in an online course into the context of your own situation. To do this and to counter getting lost in all the material and discussions, create a learning diary. For more information check out the next section of the course introduction and see here:   https://www.sutori.com/story/how-to-create-your-learning-diary

Strategy 4: Build a personal learning network

Learning on most MOOCs doesn’t just happen via the course content but more importantly by connecting to and drawing from the library of experiences, views, and practices that the diversity of participants bring to the course. Ideally, through participation on the course, you will build or extend your personal learning network online. For more details on this see this video: https://youtu.be/aQAbrLo8Zp0

Strategy 5: Find support when you need it

The team behind each course is usually very small making it difficult to respond timely to questions. Therefore, you will always be better off if you try to find an answer yourself, then direct your question to your peers and only if neither has resulted in a solution to go to the course team for support. For more details on how to find support check out this video here: https://youtu.be/UqBI6Qd-S5E

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What is a Learning Diary?

We highly recommend that all course participants create their own Learning Diary. The Learning Diary should be a collection of all elements from the course relevant to your own context. A good Learning Diary will provide you with a summary of the course at a later stage and focus your attention on those areas that are especially relevant to you.

A good Learning Diary will also show that you have reflected on the questions introduced on the course and that you have engaged with the ideas of others on the course.

The diary can include anything you like, but we would suggest collecting...

1. Your answers to the questions posed in the modules (usually underneath the videos).

2. Comments, ideas, resources from the course materials or shared by other course participants that you found interesting or relevant to your own situation.

Your diary can of course be in your native language, but in previous courses we found that course participants really enjoyed sharing the Learning Diaries amongst themselves and giving each other feedback. This will be much easier if you create your Learning Diary in English, as otherwise you have to find course participants who share your language.

Why a Learning Diary?

There is a lot of material on the course, and there will be even more once everyone starts discussing and sharing ideas and resources. Not all of this will be relevant to your own situation, so to avoid getting lost, we recommend that you create a Learning Diary. This will be a valuable resource for you, should you want to revisit the topics of the course at a later stage.

How do I create my Learning Diary?

You can create your Learning Diary any way you like, but make sure that it is easily shared and understood, as this will allow others to provide you feedback. An easy-to-use tool is Padlet; as we will also be using it in other parts of the course, it would be good to become familiar with it early on. However, you are welcome to use alternative tools to create your Learning Diary, such as Glogster, Google Documents, Sutori, etc. For more ways how to produce your Learning Diary and tips and tricks for each tool see the Sutori further below.

How can I share my Learning Diary?

Probably the easiest way to share your diary and get some feedback from your peers is by posting it on social media. We have also created a dedicated forum category where you can post your diaries.

Suggestions for a great Learning Diary

1. Your first entry should briefly introduce yourself. Tell your peers a bit about who you are.

2. Your second entry should briefly introduce your teaching context. Tell your peers a bit about your school, classroom and what technologies you have access to.

3. All following entries should clearly identify which module and which question they are linked to. The easiest way is to include the module number and the question in the title of the entry (see the example below).

4. Make sure to include links, photos, videos, documents, etc. in your entries.

5. Don't forget to add any interesting piece of content you come across on the course to your Learning Diary.

Make sure to take a look at the different examples you can find on this Sutori page.

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By the end of the course, a great number of excellent resources will have been prepared by you, such as lesson plans, Learning Diaries, development plans, etc. We want to ensure that some of the great work being produced is properly curated and published in order to provide recognition and visibility to its authors, as well as offer a larger audience the opportunity to benefit from the great output being produced. For this purpose, a course alumni group & participant editorial board will be set up at the end of the course with the goal of curating outstanding work of participants on the course, and selecting it for publication. You can see an example of the final result of such a curation here where you will find a selection of lesson plans developed by participants of the Introducing Project-Based Learning in your Classroom course.

Alumni Group

Everyone who finishes the course will be invited to join the course Alumni Group. The Alumni Group offers a place to continue the activities and exchanges with fellow course completers after the course has come to an end. The group will be moderated by Max, Cristina and Daniela, the current course moderators, who will offer you regular events or activities linked to the topic of the course. The Editorial Board will be recruited from members of the Alumni Group.

Participant Editorial Board

The Participant Editorial Board will consist of a small group of people who have demonstrated commitment and outstanding work during the course. The purpose of the board is to review and rate lesson plans which have been flagged as noteworthy, in order to finally select a certain number of lesson plans which will be published on the School Education Gateway. The board will have a designated online space to discuss their reviews and ratings, and will be led by the Alumni Group moderators.

So, make sure to complete the course and submit excellent work. Your work might be selected for publication, or you might want to join the Participant Editorial Board! More details will be provided via email at the end of the course.

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Netiquette

We are an online learning community and all online communities have their own codes of conduct. It is therefore very important that we all know and follow this code of conduct to create a good working climate and ensure everyone feels safe. In most cases, these are just common-sense rules, good manners and other good practices normally observed in any social interaction.

However, it is important to take into account that we are communicating online and therefore missing very important pieces of information, like tone of voice, gestures, etc. As such, it’s very easy to misunderstand what others say or take words out of context.

Take a look at our Code of Conduct, Use Policy and Honour Code to make sure you are aware of how to interact on the course.

Copyright

The Internet is a space for sharing and exchanging. But when and how can you use material found on the Internet? Can you use copyrighted music when creating a video/presentation? Can you use a nice picture found on a Flickr album on the web without a second thought? If you are at a loss about copyright issues or have trouble understanding complicated law statements related to terms and conditions of use of certain materials, take a look at this Childnet International website.

And what happens when you create your own material? Would you like to share it with fellow colleagues but protect it from any misuse? Take a look at Creative Commons, which can help you answer these questions. It is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of materials and resources through free legal tools. Learn more about the different licenses and what they mean. On their website, they have a simple tool that will help you choose the type of license you need. Once you have picked the one you need, you can download it in high quality and different formats here.
eSafety
Your online reputation is the “perception, estimation and opinion that is formed when you are encountered online". Learn more about online reputation here.

What can you do to protect your personal data and online reputation? The golden rule is “think before you post”. Is the content you are about to share online going to affect your or someone else’s privacy? Can you be friends with pupils on social networking services? What should you do if other people post inappropriate images of you online? And if you fall victim to cyberbullying? Take a look at this guide, which includes advice and interesting questions regarding your online reputation for you to reflect on.

For more information about eSafety as well as lots of resources to use with your students, check out the following links:

1. eTwinning Featured Group: Bringing eSafety into eTwinning projects (you need to be a member of eTwinning to join the group)

2. Better Internet for Kids

3. Web We Want

4. eSafety Label

5. Safer Internet Day

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This is an optional test to confirm that you understand how the course is organised and what you have to do to successfully complete it. You need to get all answers right, but you have unlimited attempts to pass the test.

To pass this test, you must correctly answer at least 100% of the questions.

What do I have to do to receive the course certificate?

Visit all course sections and complete the final peer-review activity in Module 3.

Pass all tests in Modules 1-3 and fill in the course evaluation survey at the end of the course.

Visit all course sections and post at least once on social media or in the forum per module.

If I have a question about the course, what is the fastest / most optimal way to find an answer?

Sending an email to the Teacher Academy email account

Posting in the Facebook group

Checking the FAQ section for an answer or visiting the relevant forum category

What are the course and module deadlines?

The final course deadline is 28 June. Module 3 has a peer-review activity with two deadlines: the 1st deadline (for the submission of your own work) is on 21 June, and the 2nd deadline (for the submission of your reviews) is on 28 June.

The final course deadline is 19 June. Each module has a peer-review activity which has two deadlines: the 1st deadline is on the Sunday of the same week the module was launched, and the 2nd deadline is on the Wednesday of the next week.

The final course deadline is 1 July.

What is the Learning Diary?

The Learning Diary is the course moderators' blog of announcements.

The Learning Diary is a lesson planning tool that we will use on the course to create a learning design for implementing the course ideas in our own classroom.

The Learning Diary is a place where you collect your reflections and contributions to the course as well as all those resources, ideas and tools that you come across on the course that are relevant to your own context.

I confirm that I have read and agree to abide by the course Code of Conduct, Acceptable Use and Honour Code.

Yes

No

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“Being a new teacher is like trying to fly an airplane while building it.”
Rick Smith

…and this is why this course is about “survival”.

There is little question that life as a new teacher can be tough. And while teaching can be the most rewarding profession out there, it is easy to forget this during your first years practising it. This course is here to help you get through those tough first years as a teacher. Of course, it can only provide a small part of the type of support you will require as a new teacher, but we hope it can be an important stepping-stone for you to find the relevant support you require, as well as to realise that you are not alone in your daily struggles. We hope that this course can help you find your way back to your original vision, dream, or inspiration of why you wanted to be a teacher, and also become the type of teacher you would like to be.

Throughout this course, we will explore how you can ensure you have the right framework in place for a good start in the profession. We will also explore how you can manage your daily lessons and the planning thereof, as well as focus on effective classroom management.

We will start out with some key points about how and where to find support and training, as well as how to ensure you have a good first day / lesson at your school.

As a first step, make sure to reflect on your goals for this first module and then identify relevant learning objectives for yourself. Some you can choose from are the following:

Reflecting on what is important for a good start at school

Identifying some practical tips and tricks to help with a good start at school

Understanding the variety of professional development opportunities that are on offer for teachers

Considering which combination of formats of professional development are most effective for your own learning

Identifying the support infrastructures available at your school

Developing a plan on how to gain additional support at school or at an external level

On this course there are two larger overarching activities which we would like you to focus on as you move through it:

1. Preparing a learning diary – this will help you structure your work and reflections throughout the course

2. Preparing a lesson plan – at the end of the course, you have to draft a lesson plan which you can use in your teaching, incorporating some of the ideas, resources, etc. which have been covered on the course