000: Transcript - Welcome to Little Key Learning Podcast
Katierose
Welcome to edYou! A brand new podcast for teachers by teachers, with a mission to bring education research to colleagues and classrooms around the world. I'm Katierose Deos,
Sarah
and I'm Sarah Gilmore. And we're so excited to kick things off with this special introductory episode so you can learn a bit about us and more importantly, this show. In this episode we're going to share what edYou is all about and what we hope you'll get out of listening, how you can benefit most from the episodes and the research behind them, and we're also going to introduce ourselves and tell you a bit about our backgrounds, educationally and personally. So you can get to know us and what led us to create edYou. So, Katie Rose, why don't you start? What was the motivation for you been beginning this podcast?
Katierose
I love hearing myself talk.
Sarah
What else is in this for you?
Katierose
Aside from that, aside from that, I think now that I've worked in several different schools with lots of different professionals, and I've seen a lot of people work, I've been incredibly impressed and I've learned a lot. But I've also seen that there is, um there's this need to kind of feed teachers. They love to learn. They love to find out new things. They love to apply new things in their classroom, but often times you know the day is full. Our spare time is often full as well. And so I wanted to give teachers and opportunity to get involved in a professional conversation that's built from real research about teaching and learning and practice and strategies, um, so that way, you know, they can either find new tools, find new authors and start working to apply some of these great great ideas that are out there today.
Sarah
I think that I have been guilty at times in my career of feeling like the teaching profession should be more "professional" in the sense of, like, engaging with research and as I've tried to engage in research more, I found that it's actually really, really hard to do, you know, for one thing, research is hard to access. You have to pay for it. You often need to be, you know, a member of a university to get to it without having to pay, you know, up to 30 euros to access one paper for 24 hours. On the one hand, we've got this idea that teachers should be engaging with research, but we don't give them access to it. And then, you know, I'm a mum. Now, I have a lot of dishes to wash and a lot of driving to do, and a lot of things to do in the time that I'm not at school, and reading papers takes time, you know. If you want to engage with research, it's really hard to do. You have to sit down and read these really long and not very kind of accessibly worded documents and I just think that there's this barrier there for teachers that, hey, you can't get the research and even if you can, where's the time? You know, And so for me, I wanted to to provide a resource for teachers to kind of help them overcome that and do some of the legwork for them because I also really like it. I really like research, it' something I'm really into.
Katierose
So you're going to do you're going to do all the dirty work.
Sarah
I am.
Katierose
And then and then we're gonna talk about it and I'm gonna sprinkle some greatness on it.
Sarah
You'll bring the human element
Katierose
because we do care about people.
Sarah
Yeah, and I'll be like [silly voice] "the research says...."
Katierose
And then we hope... the hope is that you'll kind of you're kind of be able to dissect all that and, uh, and take it all in, washing over you and then apply some of it in the classroom or find out more or start a study group or, ah, whatever kind of fits for you in your context is the hope.
Sarah
That's the big thing, you know, like there's it's one thing to get the research, it's is a whole other thing to read it. But then it's a whole other world to synthesize it and figure out "What does that mean for me in my classroom with real students in a day where maybe I have, you know, five minutes to pee and eat a sandwich, and I might have to do that both at the same time". You know...
Katierose
That is far too much information about your personal life. Um, so, yes, So this show is really any kind of burst from, yeah, just the love of the profession. And, you know, the the real craft that is teaching. And we'd really believe that this is an art for sure. Um, teaching is an art, but it's also a science. And finding that balance or working with that balance is something we hope to help you with. Now we're gonna tell you a little bit more about us. So you have an idea of kind of what shaped our life professionally and personally to this point.
Sarah
So Katierose, why don't you start? Who are you? Who are you, Katierose?
Katierose
Oh, that's muddy. That's muddy. It's way muddy. But the first thing that comes to mind is that I am I'm one of five children. I think being part of a large family, for me personally has really developed some characteristics within myself. Everyone in our family kind of has a role, and for me, that role really has always been kind of the mediator. And, you know, I'm I find that I'm often in situations where I'm kind of gathering up everyone's feelings and, you know, settling things down. And for me, that just this kind of carried over as well into my role both as a teacher, the way I work with children and as an administrator, um, working with teachers who come to you upset or exhausted or overworked. And I've really I've really been able to kind of tap into the human side of the profession and build relationships, which I find is really important. If you want people to work with you, then you really gotta, you know, work to know them. And so I think that's really shaped me a lot. And you I know you're an only child.
Sarah
When you say you "know" I'm an only child, do you mean you know it factually, or you can just sense it from being near me? "You are clearly an only child."
Katierose
I'm gonna take the fifth on that and not answer that question.
Sarah
Yeah, I am an only child, but apart from that, I mean, I'm not only an only child. I'm an only child who grew up in the highlands of Scotland with, like, in a field, like with nobody around, you know? So I'm especially isolated and, you know, whatever. I've got all the only child things happening with me.
Katierose
The lone wolf.
Sarah
Sure, sure. I mean, I grew up in in like the very north north north of Scotland. And I moved around a bunch in Scotland. What about you? Where you from?
Katierose
I grew up on Long Island, and that's an island off of the state of New York. And I loved growing up there. I didn't know any different at the time until I moved. Then I realized, "Oh, my gosh, yes", I did grow up on an island because I love being near the water. And now that I live in in landlocked Germany - some would say we're not landlocked because there is the Baltic Sea - um, some people would say that you know, you're not landlocked. You have that, um, and if you've ever been to the Baltic Sea and if you've ever been to like Main Beach in South Hampton, you can imagine that there's a great difference. And when I when I say water, I mean, like salty waves crashing on white sand... hot, hot in the summer and just crystal clear and that you don't get it the Baltic or I haven't any time I've gone. Um, so yes, I really loved it. And while I only went to 1 school district. It was Sachem High School I went to as as a high school student. I went to Seneca Middle School and then I went to Nokomis Elementary School. And yeah, that was my... that was my educational... my foundation educational start there at Sachem school district, and I have to say it was very positive. I really loved going to school. I enjoyed my time there. It was huge, though. My graduating class was 998.
Sarah
Wow.
Katierose
So yeah, so you really you could, for me anyway, you just float between groups and cliques. And, you know, I feel like you had the space to just kind of be who you were. But not everybody has that same experience, but also for me, growing up education was incredibly important to my parents. And so there was a great sense of pride, um, in the household, if you were doing well in school, if you were doing extracurricular activities and being recognized for it. There were these award evenings in middle school and high school, and being a part of those was always a big big event in my house because it was just super important to my parents that all five of us did well in school, went on to college. That wasn't really a choice. It was, it was "Of course you're going to university or college". And I'm really thankful for that because I knew what I wanted to do. And, you know, I have them -they gave me the means to do it, and the pathway, they helped me with that. And so I'm very grateful for that. Ah, question, though, because it's it's something I didn't experience: boarding school. You went to boarding school?
Sarah
Yeah... I had a much less straightforward experience of education than you did. I, oh, my parents moved around a lot when I was a kid, so I moved schools a bunch of times. I - only in Scotland, so, you know, in terms of... we work with a lot of third culture kids who move all around the world every two years, and honestly, they seemed to handle it on awful lot better than than I handled moving, whatever, 30 miles here and there. But for me, it was an interesting experience. Moving school so much, but yes, after I went to started out in Aviemore Primary in Scotland. And then I went to Drakies Primary in Inverness, and then I moved to the Black Isle, which sounds a lot more, I think, mysterious than it is. You know, it's really a very normal place and super quaint and lovely. And there I went to Cullicudden Primary. That's a good word.
Katierose
Great name.
Sarah
I know: "Cullicudden", right?. That was where I was in a, ah, you know, two-class school where we had, you know, maybe 30 kids in the whole school, a split into two, like, you know, primaries 1-3 and 4-7. And then I went to a proper normal high school. I'm called Fortrose Academy for four years. And then I went to St Mary's Music School, which is a specialist boarding school for "musically gifted children", which I never really felt... I though that was a mistake, to be honest, there was
Katierose
Hahaha
Sarah
Gifted's going a bit far, you know. I'm all right, but I'm not gifted. So that was a really weird experience to go there. It was, you know, this amazing, um, old like castle type building in the west end of Edinburgh and, you know, with just this really is just an amazing, amazing place with all these practice rooms full of pianos. And we had a different school timetable than a normal school would have certain independent school. So I only did, Ah, 50% of academic timetable. And the rest of the time was music. Um, there was still a lot of pressure in the environment to succeed that most of the kids go to Oxford or Cambridge afterwards on and, you know, you just be performing and all of these kinds of things as well. It was a very interesting, unusual educational environment to to go to on. Yeah. I mean, when you talk about 900 something, kids, I mean, my my class, my grade level had nine children in it, so bit different, little bit different.
Katierose
That is. And so that school was in Edinburgh. Because I know that you... so that was kind of your your gateway into Edinburgh. And then you just went on to study there in university.
Sarah
Yes I did. I took a brief detour to Newcastle because of a boy. Um and went to university there and then, um I didn't like it there, and came back to Edinburgh and just did music, and a little bit of French. And then, yeah, I studied there for did my undergrad there, on a Scottish undergraduate bachelors degree is four years. And then when that was over, I stayed in Edinburgh and I went to the Moray House School of Education to do what in Scotland is called a PGDE, which is a postgraduate diploma of education, which is kind of that, plus, then the year after, um, which is your non your probationary year? I'm or NQT year in England. That's where you go into a school and you work there for a year as well as doing, you know, professional development. And after that, you're a teacher so that those two things together the PGDE plus the year in school or sort of equivalent to an American Masters in terms of qualifying you then to be a teacher. So that's what I did after school. What about you?you?
Katierose
I was similar in the way I went to straight from high- out of high school. I went to Towson University in Maryland and there, I actually started as a business undergrad.
Sarah
Business?! I didn't know that.
Katierose
Yes, yes, I was really into accounting for a little while.
Sarah
[Laughter]
Katierose
Yes, yes. Um, numbers. I liked numbers. Very far from human, as I just said before, Um, which is why we which is why we divorced. I... after one term, I decided. Okay, I don't think this is really the track that's going to make me happy in life.
Sarah
But you were so into accounting, Katierose!
Katierose
I was so into accounting. Um... and so I broke free from that, and I went into psychology because I found it very interesting. And, um, the classes were just interesting for me. And so I went in for a major in psychology. And as I went farther and farther into it, I realized I was actually really interested in education, but I didn't want to be involved in educational psych as such. So I thought the best way to kind of find my feet was to go into the classroom. So I wrapped up my undergraduate in three and 1/2 years, and I went right into the master's program at Towson, um, for education. And there I got my degree and I did my student teaching and all of that in about a year and 1/2. And then I started in the classroom in August 2005... is where that went.
Sarah
Ooohhhh. You'd be a year or two ahead of me then. Then I think I went into the classroom in 2007.
Katierose
Well. that would make sense, because I'm about a year or two older. Yeah, the math works out.
Sarah
Well, you would know. [laughter]
Katierose
I have my sheets!
Sarah
Well, see, now, I feel I mean listeners need to know that earlier today, we set up an expenses spreadsheet for our website, and Katierose said to me, "you'll probably want to reorganize it" because reorganizing things is like a thing that I do, and I thought "Nah, for sure not" and now I definitely don't want to reorganize it because you're practically a chartered accountant. If anyone knows how to do an expenses spreadsheet, it's you.
Katierose
Oh, I don't think you can count one term as a business major really, you know, getting in there, um, I don't like again. Um, but I did. It did really pay off. Like in the administrative role the coordinator role that working with all those budgets, I was like, Yeah, this is my jam.
Sarah
"This is my jam?!" Katierose we're going for relatable here! No-one is going to find "Budgets are my jam" relatable!
Katierose
It is really messed up, but I did. I really I really loved working with the budgets. I can't explain it. Um, but yes. So then from there, I got hired right on in the school that I was student teaching at? Well, not exactly. I was There was a school within a school. There was an early childhood center within the school, and I got hired as a kindergarten teacher at the early childhood center, which I loved. I didn't think I was gonna like it. And my dad even asked me, Are you actually gonna get paid to do that? Like, look after five and six year olds and teach them? Um, and I was so upset with him. As you can tell. I still I still harbor a little bit of it today. He meant it with the most love, but, um but it really taught me so much about the people we work with. And by people I mean, the students that we work with and looking at, like developmental growth and organization within the classroom and how to really scaffold learning engagement. I mean, it just... songs? I never... That was one thing I had a lot of trouble with when my student teaching was like incorporating that musical element but, man, with the little kids? Not a problem. They loved my voice, loved it, loved it. And I love them for it. Um yeah so those those. And it was a small class to a had 15 kids, and 12 of them were boys. Well, I only had three girls. Yeah, and I have to say people might like Oh, my gosh. Pulling their hair out. No, that was lovely. I mean, you had to Really, Um my my approach in the classroom had to shift. There was a lot of energy, a lot of imaginative play things going on, but it really it made me so much more creative as a professional, I I just really it's made such a difference for me starting in the younger in the lower years in the early years and so that was a very huge foundational experience for me as a professional which you also you also worked...?
Sarah
Yes, I did. Yeah. I mean, I had a less, ah, less kind of direct path into the classroom in the sense that after I finished my teacher training in Scotland, there was a huge issue that there's one enough jobs to go around. And so for a year, I worked as a membership advisor in gym, just to, you know, branch out my skill set.
Katierose
I could see I could see you in that role
Sarah
I was spending a lot of time in the gym, so it made sense. But, um yeah, I mean, then I This is gonna seem like a theme as well. Then I was running away from a boy who I had broken up with...
Katierose
[laughter]
Sarah
Or who had decided to break up with me.
Katierose
Really, this podcast, it's gonna be about teaching, really.
Sarah
It's good to be vulnerable. Anyway. A friend of mine who lived over here in Berlin, knew of a school, a parent initiative school that was hiring, and I applied, and I got the job that came over. And so after I finished my teacher training, I went that into a grade one class, and I ended up staying in grade one and great to for the next five or six years, just kind of because that's the way that it worked out. Not necessarily so much bye like choice. I didn't enjoy it, but it gave me such a strong foundation in how to scaffold learning. You know, that has never hasn't let me down then, you know, moved to grade five after that. And now I work with all ages and my current role on I'm so grateful to the experiences. I had a great one in Grade two in helping to scaffold learning because it's made such a huge difference to my practice.
Katierose
It's really amazing, even as I climbed through the grade levels, like you have mentioned that that scaffolding that that layering of learning, uh, all students need it. We all need it without a doubt. And I did do a short stint of teaching English in the Czech Republic to middle school and high school students, which gave me such a respect for secondary educators. I don't know how you do it. I will stick with small children any day.
Sarah
Absolutely
Katierose
Not only were these kids actually physically bigger than me, but because of the way the system was there and it was I was a private school. Some of them were actually older than me at that time, which made it so uncomfortable for me. Um, but anyway, even they even them with learning the English language the way I had to lay your tasks and scaffold the learning and differentiated. Ah, it just totally brought me back to the way I had to do it with with kindergarten. And so, yes, I would agree the younger years are really, really powerful.
Sarah
For sure you mentioned the Czech Republic there. Is that how you came to be here in Berlin with me? What happened? How'd you get here? Do they know you're here?
Katierose
How did I get here? Yeah...
Sarah
Does America know you're here?
Katierose
Something tells me America doesn't mind that I'm here. But, um um, yes, they know I'm here. I had to file lots of tax work, but but no, no, not exactly. So I After I finished a year of teaching in Maryland in Anne Arundel County Public School, I decided I really wanted to travel, but I didn't want t o backpack and, um, do all these odd jobs: I really wanted to keep teaching. And so I thought, OK, teaching English. Why don't I do that? At this point? I didn't really I hadn't really tapped into this international teaching world. I hadn't tapped into that yet. And so I got my TEFL certificate and I got a job in the Czech Republic at this middle school high school teaching English to the students. But they would only let me teach like conversational English. And they had other check teachers to teach English reading an English writing. It was it was it was a very interesting experience challenging. It was incredibly challenging for many reasons. Yes, um, and I and I didn't enjoy it. Actually, I realized that the elementary school... Middle school was more fun, but elementary school is really is really where I wanna be. So when that ended, I came back to Maryland and I worked there for just another half year, taking over ah, a long term sub position. And then I started applying to international schools, and I knew I wanted to be in Europe and Berlin International School happened to be the one that called me back, and I interviewed and I got the job teaching in grade two And so I just grabbed it and and then the story goes on from there, but, uh but yeah, So that's how I got here.
Sarah
Awesome. I mean, I was kind of the same in the sense of, like I had worked in three different schools in Berlin, including Berlin International School. And while I was working at my second school in Berlin. I, um I came to visit BIS because I was trying to learn more about how to do the PYP And for those of you who don't know, that's the primary years program by the International Baccalaureate. And I came and I observed a teacher who still works at our school, Suzanne Lilly, and I loved the school so much that I then kept an eye on their vacancies page for, like, the next two years until I ended up moving to Thailand for a year. And then I needed to come back again because I had met my now husband in Berlin and we needed to be together. And so I emailed the school and, you know, just kind of on spec and was lucky enough to get an interview and ah, try a lesson and ended up getting the job.. and so and then I've ended up staying there for the last, you know, five years now, right? Five years, something like that.
Katierose
Yeah, because I've been there for 10 so yeah, yeah, double digits. Normally normally you'd say "That hurts", but it actually doesn't. I do really love the school that we work at and the program, the Primary Years Program out of the International Baccalaureate has developed me as a professional and challenged me and a lot of ways. And so I can't I can't complain at all. And I feel like we worked with some really excellent practitioners and the administration I find very supportive. And so it's ah, um, it's a nest right now it's a nest. It's just, like, cozy. It's cozy, it's warm. And, um and I and I love teaching there, and so it's really it's really great. But it's so funny because our paths, you know, our paths crossed at such a tense moment.
Sarah
We were rivals
Katierose
We were rivals and I want, I would love I would love now to take bets on our listeners. Who do you think won: the lone wolf? Or me.
Sarah
The semi professional accountant.
Katierose
Yeah. So then our paths crossed. And from there it's just been magic, really.
Sarah
Yeah, well, so that the coming to Berlin brings us up to the relatively recent past. Although you've been there for 10 years, it's very recent. But we met when we were both going up for the same job, which was the curriculum coordinator position. And you had been on maternity leave. Right? And I had only been at this school for a year at that point on and the accountant won, she got the job, um and she's very good at it, and there's no way I could do as well as she does it and I ended up getting a consolation prize job in the form of the edTech - educational technology - integrator, which has ended up being just the most amazing opportunity for me professionally. And it's completely changed the entire course of the rest of my career as a result. So...
Katierose
Yeah! Pretty powerful!
Sarah
Amazing, completely amazing how these things can happen. I was so gutted when I didn't get the coordinator job. But in the end, the having us both in those positions as being, you know, really opened some really interesting doors for the two of us. So interesting. Interesting times.
Katierose
Yeah. And this, edYou is one of them, actually. From the work that we've done together and working with teachers and staff and reading research, developing curriculum came came all this knowledge, all of these questions and then kind of spiralled into this show edYou. And you as our as our listeners.
Sarah
I think what's really interesting is that we've had such kind of diverse experiences, you know, come, you come from a huge family. I come from a small family, you know, I come from a rural area. You come from the beach, (you're so lucky), you know, and you come from the States. I come from Scotland and our you know, our educational experiences are so diverse, but they've brought us here to the same place. And you know, I think what's great is that who we are and the diversity that we have is gonna be a real asset for us in this podcast that we can reach out to the international community and talked to a lot of different types of teachers in different places with different issues and different questions.
Katierose
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the professionals that will meet and who will be able to bring on and chat with us and see kind of how things are developing all over all over the world because there are really, really fantastic things happening in all corners of the globe.
Sarah
So our hope is for edYou, that is gonna be a resource for you and a resource for us, because we're going to be learning right alongside you about these topics. There are things that we all as teachers want to know more about how we can address in our classrooms. How do you do homework? How should we decorate my classroom? How should I be handling discipline? And so we're gonna be learning about these topics and our hope is that we can give them to you in nice short, digestible episodes were gonna be keeping our episodes that under half an hour. This is an exception because we felt you needed to get to know all about us to start this podcast off, but we really want you to be able to enjoy the podcast during your your your journey to and from school, picking up the kids, doing the dishes, setting up your classroom in the morning. Just make it more palatable for you to engage with the topics that we're all interested in and teaching.
Katierose
Yeah and hopefully out of this, it'll stimulate conversation, whether that be at your table, in your team, at home. Ah, answer questions that you have and support you in implementing strategies, whether that be new or refining the strategies that you already are using with within the classroom and taking steps towards developing your craft.
Sarah
So with that in mind, what is coming up next? We're releasing this episode is part of a five episode bundle to get you started and show you what we're all about. On our next episode is going to be about homework cos that's such a big topic. What is it, how to do it? How not to do it? What does the research say? And how can we apply in our classrooms?
Katierose
And after that, we'll also be looking at other topics, such as discipline within the classroom, display boards and structures of school, different schools, different school systems around the globe, just starting to pick apart topics that we've all kind of had wash over our table and things that have just been sitting on the burner that we haven't been able to kind of dig into yet.
Sarah
In the meantime, while you're getting stuck into those episodes, you can join us: we have a Facebook page and a Facebook group, which you can find at edYou podcast. Or you can find us on Twitter at edYou Podcast We would love to hear from you. If you have questions or topics that you would like us to cover in the show. Please just reach out and let us know because, um, this is a podcast by teachers for teachers, and we want to hear from you.
