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250: Andria Zafirakou – Global Teacher Prize winner 2018

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We celebrate the release of our 250th episode with an inspirational conversation with Andria Zafirakou – 2018 Global Teacher Prize winner and founder of the charity Artists in Residence.

Andria, a teacher at Alperton Community School in Brent, won $1 million when she was crowned the best teacher in the world by the Varkey Foundation.

Andria was born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot parents and state-educated in Brent and Camden.

She is an art and textiles teacher in Brent on the outskirts of London, one of the world’s most ethnically diverse places. She is passionate about education and changing the lives of young people and underserved communities through creativity.

She has worked her entire teaching career of 14 years at Alperton Community School and was promoted to Deputy Head of Art within a year of her arrival. She is now Associate Deputy Headteacher leading on staff professional development.

Using the prize money awarded by the Global Teacher prize, Andria founded a charity called Artists in Residence (AiR) with an aim to improve arts education in schools.  

Andria has also been named in the top ten of The Evening Standard’s 1000 Londoners List, a list of the most influential people in London. She is a Culture Leader for the World Economic Forum’s as well as a member of their Global Future Leaders Council. 

 Andria sits on the Advisory board for the Cultural Leaders Alliance.

Artists in Residence is a new initiative to promote creativity in schools founded by Andria Zafirakou.

β€œIn recent times, there has been a decline in children choosing to study arts at GCSE, or enter into the workplace in an arts based job. Artists in Residence brings prestigious artists into schools and enables students to vision an exciting world they can be part of. This programme is not just about celebrities performing inspirational speeches; it is about real exposure to inspirational experiences, lasting creative relationships, and inspiring children to start a journey into artistic industries.”

Website

www.andriazafirakou.com

www.artistsinresidence.org.uk

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π‘œπ‘“ π‘Ž 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒 β„Žπ‘’π‘šπ‘Žπ‘›.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

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Social Media Information

Twitter @Andriazaf

www.facebook.com/ArtistsinR/

Show Sponsor

The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Find out more about their online CPD events this summer at nape.org.uk/online-events

Mental Health/Wellbeing – How to support pupils with transition to secondary school with Sam Moinet from Student Breakthrough (16th May 2022)

Ocean Plastic & Climate Change – Join Ellie Jackson author of the Wild Tribe Heroes book series as we invite pupils to write a story based on this topic in a writing festival (13th June 2022) 

Live from Bett 2022

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Mark Taylor shares everything EdTech with conversations from those speaking, attending and exhibiting live from the Bett Show in London 24th March 2022.

ViewSonic very kindly invited me to be involved with their EdTech Talks.

You can watch my conversation with Peter Claxton and Peter Godwin now.

The Role of Podcasts in Education Marketing and Education Technology | BETT 2022 EdTech Talks

Listen to my Education on Fire podcast with Peter Claxton from ViewSonic Ep 226

Prof Ger Graus OBE, Member of Bett’s Global Education Council. (05:15)

Professor Dr Ger Graus OBE is a renowned figure in the field of education, where, since March 2017, he holds the position of the first Global Director of Education at KidZania.

KidZania, where children aged 4 to14 can experience the world of work through role-play, is designed to inspire and empower: β€œfrom inspiration to aspiration”. Since its inception in 1999 in Mexico City, KidZania now has a presence in 24 cities on 5 continents with plans for further developments in some 20 locations including the USA, Canada and South Africa. KidZania London is the UK’s first such educational entertainment centre.

Ger Graus has been at the heart of innovation and project development such as ‘KidZania World Online’, ‘KidZtalk’, ‘KidZania Careers Week’, β€˜KidZania LitFests’; education β€˜Think-Tanks’, ‘Ambassador Schools’ and independent evaluations by, amongst others the University of Cambridge, Cass Business School, Havas Helia and Ernst & Young. Based on these evaluations’ findings, Ger is now spearheading a β€˜Futures Awareness’ campaign to introduce careers education into the primary phase. After all, as he frequently reminds us: β€œChildren can only aspire to what they know exists.” Ger started at KidZania London in 2014, where he has been responsible for developing the UK-wide education strategy, including partnerships with schools, Higher Education, commercial and third sector learning partners

www.bettshow.com/global-education-council

kidzania.co.uk/

Alexa Joyce – Digital Transformation & Skills Director at Microsoft. (19:54)

Alexa works across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region to drive digital transformation of education institutions and digital skills development, from primary through to higher education. She focuses on enabling them to develop the skills that students need to succeed in work and life. Over the last 20 years, Alexa has worked with governments in more than 100 countries across the world in digital transformation.

She previously led the global strategy at Microsoft for engaging and support education system leaders as they evolve their institutions, and was formerly EMEA Director of Policy, Teaching and Learning, focusing on supporting national device deployments across the region. Prior to Microsoft, she worked with leading international education organizations: European Schoolnet (the network of 34 Ministries of Education in Europe), UNESCO and OECD. She’s on the advisory board of the EDUCATE incubator ed-tech startups in the UK.

www.microsoft.com

Cypher Learning (31:02) offers schools and universities an online learning platform to help revolutionise and personalise hybrid education. The platform is used in hundreds of countries, supporting over 40 languages, trusted by hundreds of thousands of users.

The learning management platform, NEO, empowers teachers to deliver a seamless learning experience by making it easy to create and manage all learning activities. This includes building online classes, assessing students, enhancing collaboration, identifying knowledge gaps and tracking achievements. This system takes the best of online learning and injects it into the everyday classroom, to modernise and streamline education.

www.cypherlearning.com/

Listen to my Education on Fire podcast with founder Graham Glass Ep 244

Sparx Learning – Colin Hegarty (42:31)

Sparx is working with 2000 secondary schools to help more children to make good progress with maths. In particular, they ran a large scale pilot with 4 MATs during the 2020 lockdowns and are waiting to see if the work will be recognised with a Bett award for school collaboration. Sparx uses AI but is cautious about its use and is also a great advocate for evidence about the impact of Edtech, they’re founder members of the of EdTech Evidence Group.

sparx-learning.com/

jamf (53:44)

Education technology solutions for Apple. Educators need powerful, intuitive tools that serve all students β€” no matter who they are, how they learn or where they learn. Jamf helps schools deliver an active learning environment to everyone with iPad, Mac and Apple TV devices.

I chat to Aaron Webb – Global Senior Product Marketing Manager for Education and Suraj Mohandas – Sr. Director, Strategy, Education

www.jamf.com/

Class (01:08:21)

Add teaching & learning tools to Zoom. Everything you can do in a physical classroom, you can do with Class

I chat to Matt Baker SVP Strategy International

www.class.com/

www.class.com/blog/class-is-partnering-with-intel-to-improve-virtual-learning/

Encyclopaedia Britannica (01:19:27)

Britannica has provided people with researched and trusted information for more than 250 years. In the current climate of the Internet being cluttered with misinformation more schools are moving to use Britannica Digital’s learning content. In addition to this Britannica has worked with Shirelands Academy Trust on a full STEAM curriculum called LaunchPacks. Britannica has also worked with the Government in Egypt and Japan on similar STEAM learning content.

I chat to Hayley Mills and we discuss:

  • Britannica’s journey from print publishing to being a must-have digital resource for students globally
  • The need for trustworthy information in this era of increasing misinformation for young people
  • How we are reaching younger audiences in creative ways such as TikTok and YouTube
  • How we are partnering with companies like Dynabook to provide a better rounded EdTech solution for schools

www.britannica.com/

Show Sponsor

The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them.

Watch their Christian Schiller Lecture 2022 with Nancy Stewart

Cherishing the growth of young children: what early years education can be.

The Role of Podcasts in Education Marketing

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The Role of Podcasts in Education Marketing BETT 2022 EdTech Talks

 

I was very kindly asked by ViewSonic to take part in their BETT Show EdTech Talks 2022 discussing podcasting in education. The recording is available for you to watch here.

Listen to my Education on Fire podcast interview with Peter Claxton – Ep 226: Digital transformation of education to find out more about how they are supporting schools.

Peter Claxton is Senior Director EdTech Solutions at ViewSonic.

Cherishing the growth of young children: what early years education can be

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The NAPE Christian Schiller Lecture 2022 with Nancy Stewart.

Nancy Stewart is a consultant and writer with wide experience across early years sectors in schools, nurseries, local authority advisory service, and National Strategies where she was Senior Early Years Adviser with a central role in Every Child a Talker. Nancy provided expert advice to the 2012 review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, drawing on her interest in communication and language for thinking, as well as children’s development as self-regulating learners. Nancy co-authored Development Matters 2012, and wrote How children learn – The characteristics of effective early learning. She led development of Birth to Five Matters (2021) as Project Lead for the Early Years Coalition, and is a Vice President of Early Education.

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