Sentral Station

Richard Andrew, maths teacher and PD presenter, brings a refreshing view that all students can understand high school maths. It's based on his views about conceptual vs. procedural approaches to maths teaching. In his light hearted, but serious way, Richard helps us understand the benefits of conceptual approaches...with a few laughs along the way. To find out more about Richard's PD courses for m...

Coming soon. A series on 'Cultures of Thinking' with education researcher and presenter Simon Brooks. This series draws on the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard Graduate School of Education. The series provides insight and practical tips on developing cultures of thinking in our classrooms. In this highlight... guess what's in the teacher's head? This podcast is brought to...

It's been a packed Term 3 this year, and I've had the pleasure of conducting some great interviews with passionate educators from around Australia. When you dive into what's actually going on, it doesn't take long to find some really great stories. In this episode, we'll take a look back over a few highlights from Term 3. In this episode... Peter Barnes, learning innovator, on the benefits of educ...

Coming soon. A series on 'Cultures of Thinking' with education researcher and presenter Simon Brooks. This series draws on the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard Graduate School of Education. The series provides insight and practical tips on developing cultures of thinking in our classrooms. In this highlight, what is a typology of questions? This podcast is brought to you...

Arvind Ramchundar works in the field of software product development. It's one of those fields where we perhaps don't really think about software being a product, like something we buy off the shelf, because these days it just seems to be all around us, all the time. And education is no exception. So what are the motivations that might draw someone to work in the education sector, but not actually...

Coming soon. A series on 'Cultures of Thinking' with education researcher and presenter Simon Brooks. This series draws on the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard Graduate School of Education. The series provides insight and practical tips on developing cultures of thinking in our classrooms. In this highlight, just how much is technology affecting our ability to think? This...

It seems like everyone wants to make a movie these days. Well, perhaps not a movie, but at least a video that can record fun and precious moments of life. And the high quality cameras that we see in mobile phones these days makes that easier than ever. But what if we made movies or short films as a learning exercise at school? And not just learning about film making itself, but about subject conte...

If you've ever watched someone play the game, Minecraft, you could be forgiven for being a little confused as to what it's all about. Strange blocky looking characters, wandering around in a blocky looking world, where things are created and dismantled for no other reason than what appears to be pure fantasy. My guest today is Anthony McDonald, an English History teacher in regional NSW, and he's...

Have you ever felt like you needed a mentor? Someone you could count on in the workplace, an education setting, or even simply as a trusted friend? For school students this can be an incredibly important source of support. My guest today is Leah Shmerling, the director and principal consultant at career coaching and training. As part of her range of training solutions, Leah runs courses on coachin...

If you're a teacher, and sometimes wonder why you just can't get through to your students, have you ever considered that it might be due to some kind of hearing problem? Your students might not have a total hearing loss, but they may need some assistance to cope in our ever more demanding classrooms. My guest today is Jim Russell from Hearing Loop Australia, and works closely with schools to creat...

If the thought of doing maths makes you feel a bit uneasy, and concepts like combinatorics and graphical relationships sound like another language altogether, then you're definitely not alone. But thankfully, my guest today is doing his bit to help the world understand complex mathematics more easily. Steve Howard comes from a long line of teachers, and loves to spend his time at the complex end o...

Professional development, or PD, has now become a mandatory part of just about any industry you can think of. And of course education is no exception. My guest today is Miles Campbell, founder of Teacher Training Australia, or TTA, which is an organisation that collects insight and skill from Australia's best teachers, and makes that available through courses both face to face and online. Over the...

Have you ever considered how much you check your email? I've given it some thought, but my guest today has made me give the idea a big rethink. Monica Wulff is a technology entrepreneur, and the host of the Digital Love podcast. She's got a great tagline in her email signature that says quite simply, "I check my email at 10am and 3pm each day. If it's urgent give me a call." This resonated with me...

Managing a school's administration system can be a tough job. Especially if the school runs over multiple campuses with literally thousands of students to manage. My guest today is David Summerville who has exactly that job at Callaghan College, in Newcastle, north of Sydney. Over the last 20 years he's seen plenty of changes in the way technology has made its way into schools, from the bad old da...

Brad Fuller is the music director at Northern Beaches Christian School, in Sydney and is also a PhD candidate at Sydney University. In his career as a music educator, he was there when computers made their first real entry into mainstream education. Although the ride hasn't always been that easy, the evolution of technology has made things possible now that we could have only dreamed of in years p...

The use of computers in classrooms seems to be an endless question, dilemma, opportunity, and source of success and frustration. What was once new and special, now seems to be ubiquitous, at least in most situations. But are students actually using computers effectively in classrooms? Nicola Johnson is an associate professor of education at Edith Cowan university in Perth, who has spent some time...

If you made it to EduTECH 2019 in Sydney this year, you'll appreciate how big the event was, and how much there was to see. Over 250 exhibitors and 20 seminars kept everyone busy with some amazing new technologies, programs, products and approaches to learning. In case you missed it, here's part 4 of our series of highlights from EduTECH 2019. Canvas http://www.canvaslms.com.au Soundtrap http://ww...

If you think that robots that look like toys, are really just toys; then you might like to think again. Or if your school is considering investing in robots as part of a STEM program...well, the potential is mind blowing. My guest today is Sam Kingsley, from the Brainary which develops and supplies a variety of educational technologies that go far beyond what you might simply describe as... a toy....

If you made it to EduTECH 2019 in Sydney this year, you'll appreciate how big the event was, and how much there was to see. Over 250 exhibitors and 20 seminars kept everyone busy with some amazing new technologies, programs, products and approaches to learning. In case you missed it, here's part 3 of our series of highlights from EduTECH 2019. Think You Know http://www.thinkuknow.org.au enhanceTV...

Richard Andrew had a career as a maths teacher spanning several decades. In recent years he's been helping other teachers by developing online professional development courses covering maths teaching and student engagement. Like for many teachers, the first few years were really tough, and it was only after many years that Richard discovered the value of teacher transparency in the classroom. It's...

If you're in education, it's the season for conferences, and there aren't many bigger than EduTECH in Sydney. This year there were over 250 exhibitors and over 20 seminars on the latest in educational technology. It gave me a chance to step out of the studio and meet some people to chat about some of the latest developments. So, in case you couldn't make it, here's part 2 of our series of highligh...

Greg Robinson is the Head of Students, Senior School at Hunter Valley Grammar School in the NSW Hunter Valley region. He heads up a team of people including Heads of House, Heads of Year and also the deputy principal as they oversee and manage issues of Wellbeing in the school. As you might imagine, this is quite a task for a school of around 1100 students, particularly in a world that is changing...

If you're in education, it's the season for conferences, and there aren't many bigger than EduTECH in Sydney. This year there were over 250 exhibitors and over 20 seminars on the latest in educational technology. It was quite a bewildering display, but it gave me a chance to step out of the studio and meet some people to chat about some of the latest developments. So, in case you couldn't make it,...

Peter Barnes is an ex-banker turned learning innovator, based in Sydney. About 20 years ago he decided to leave the banking world and explore the emerging field of educational neuroscience. It saw him navigate turbulent times when it came to delivering educational neuroscience software. But times have changed. The computers and science are both better, and making significant differences to the liv...

Music as a subject in schools is one of those subjects where you'd think that you had plenty of opportunity to do creative and different things, in the pursuit of improving teaching practice. And that's just what Brad Fuller is exploring in his PhD research, on teaching music in secondary education. He's a music teacher at Northern Beaches Christian School, in Sydney, and a PhD candidate at Sydney...