How I got here

In November of 2022, a friend who teaches at Trent reached out to me with a job possibility. I had planned for 2022-23 to be my last year teaching in the K-8 context and it was proving to be a difficult year. Despite the fact that the position she was suggesting wanted someone as soon as possible, and I knew I didn’t want to retire until at least April of 2023, she encouraged me to apply. Luckily, I did, and after a series of twists and turns, I accepted a position as Demonstrator for the School of Education at Trent. My last day in my classroom was April 6, 2023, and I started at Trent 5 days later. Note to self (and others) that starting a new position in a post-secondary institution mid-April may not be the most functional thing to do. I spent a lot of time on my own at the start of the job, but that also gave me time to figure out what the heck this fascinating job entailed.

My job description is multifaceted, and people often find it entertaining to read. I like to joke that it would really require multiple people to do all of it well. It includes items such as:

• organization, maintenance and development of the tech maker space (sic);
• develop, deliver, and ensure currency of appropriate tech micro-credentials for teacher candidates (plus evaluate achievement);
• maintain, catalogue and repair all School of Ed edtech equipment as needed; and my personal fave:
• proactively keep abreast of IT and software developments in K-12 programs in the English speaking world (mmhmm)

However, the multitudes I contain fit into the different parts of the job quite well. I have said for years that I can be found hanging out at the intersection of pedagogy and technology and this job lets me fully dive into that space.

I’ve linked a slide to tell you a bit more about those multitudes. This was part of a co-created activity with my Grade 7 students in the spring of 2021

I brought 30 years of elementary teaching experience, and lots of hands-on making materials to the job. I jumped into activities like coding, digital creation tools and multi-modal expression early in their evolution, and explored the ways those modalities enriched my students’ learning experiences and my teaching experience.  My current students are sometimes amazed when I show them  artifacts my students coded 10 years ago in Core French class. penguin rave tree (SR)

I’m also a maker – I am a spinner, dyer, knitter, stitcher, baker, paper crafter and more.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to encourage analog making in our makerspace, and connecting it with digital tools. Building a circuit card that lights up or sewing LEDS that have a coded sequence into a piece of clothing? Amazing. Using transferable skills (global competencies) across the curriculum while making? Yes, please.

My goal here is to create a document of what I’ve done in this job over my first year. I’m hoping it will be a pedagogical documentation tool and a curation space. I hope you enjoy the adventure.