In this episode of The Wired Educator Podcast, I interview Bianca Woodard, Apple Distinguished Educator and awesome educator. We talk about building connections, rapport, and relationships with students. She shares her amazing story of becoming a teacher. Bianca emphasizes the importance of being intentional about building relationships with students over anything else. This is a great interview for everyone.
Bianca A. Woodard was born on Fort Bragg, NC into a military family. She currently lives in Augusta Georgia and teaches AP Human Geography, government, and Economics at Midland Valley High School in Graniteville SC. She’s a graduate of Augusta University’s Pamplin College of Arts and Sciences where she obtained her Bachelors degree in History. She began her teaching career in 2015 after over 15 years in corporate America as a trainer and manager at a Fortune 500 Appliance Company. She’s an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Microsoft Innovative Educator. She’s Literacy and Gifted and Talented endorsed. She strives to expose students to culture through music, art, and literature through social studies. You’ll often find her at church where she sings and directs the choir, coaching basketball, listening to NPR, or watching the latest British costume drama.
Her personal educational belief statement is “Teach with hope, faith and love because all students have the capacity to learn.”
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Mentioned in this Episode:
What Great Educators Do Differently Conference: https://connectedd.org
Apple Distinguished Educator: https://www.apple.com/education/apple-distinguished-educator/
Bianca's website: http://socialstudieschic.weebly.com
Follow Bianca on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sstudieschic
One of Bianca's most influential books: Caught Between a Dream and a Job: How to Leave the 9-5 Behind and Step into the to Life You've Always Wanted, by Delatorro McNeal II. (paid link)
In this episode of The Wired Educator Podcast, I talk to educator, speaker and EDU consultant, Ken Shelton about Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Education.
Ken currently holds an M.A. in Education with a specialization in Educational Technology as well as New Media Design and Production. He has worked as an Educator for over 14 years and most recently taught technology at the Middle School level. As a part of his active involvement within the Educational Technology community, Ken is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Innovator. Ken has worked extensively at the policy level and was named to the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction's Education Technology Task Force. Ken regularly gives keynotes, presentations, and leads workshops, many of which are hands-on, covering a wide variety of Educational Technology, Career and Technical Education, Equity and Inclusion, Multimedia Literacy, Visual Storytelling, and Instructional Design topics. Ken is the ISTE Digital Equity PLN 2018 Excellence Award winner.
Ken has had the privilege to speak at many major conferences and events around the world as well as schools and school districts. He brings a worldly breadth of practical experience, knowledge, and perspective. Ken also had the privilege to speak at the TEDx Burnsville ED event, as well as CRESSTCon16 at UCLA in front of a predominantly Higher Ed audience. Both can be watched below. One of Ken's recent talks was a keynote on equity, sustainability and access for the Iowa Technology and Education Connection conference which can be viewed here. Ken has also provided consulting support to many companies, school districts/systems Nationally and Internationally, as well as non-profits such as the California Emerging Technology Fund's School2Home program which is designed to support closing the Achievement Gap and Digital Divide at low-performing California middle schools.
Mentioned in the episode:
Ken's website: www.kennethshelton.net
Ken's TedTalk: Using the Past to Explore How to Make Students Future Ready TEDxBurnsvilleED
Ken recommends: The 1619 Projectvia The New York Times
One of Ken's favorite tech tools is FlipGrid
Ken's choice for the most choice for most influential book: The Autobiography of Malcom X as told by Alex Haley