Meet Our Guest
ANNICK RAUCH is a Grade 1 French immersion teacher in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She’s a loving mom to 4 boys and wife to the man who allows her to do it all. Her passions in education include growth mindset, global collaboration, and all things innovation. You can follow her on Twitter @AnnickRauch and visit her blog at http://www.annickrauch.ca/.
A Bump in the Road
Annick recalls a moment last year when a live on-screen image search in front of the class went wrong. After her initial alarm and concern, she carefully debriefed the incident with her learners and emailed parents to explain what had happened. Parents were surprisingly thankful for the way that she handled the unfortunate surprise and the lessons students took away from it. Read Annick’s full reflection on this situation at her blog.
Seesaw in the Language Classroom
As a language teacher, Annick loves what Seesaw offers in terms of helping students represent their learning and connect with parents. Although most of her students don’t come from francophone homes, Seesaw gets parents engaged in the learning process and is a great tool for documenting and curating the learning journeys of her students.
The Growth Mindset and YouTube Read-Alouds
Annick has done a lot of work with her learners around growth mindset. She sees it as an essential life skill – young learners need to grasp the Power of YET in order to help them develop grit and resilience in their approach to difficult learning challenges. Annick has helped to organize growth mindset read-alouds, featuring different classes reading through great children’s books that illustrate growth mindset. Her classes have also connected globally with other classes and authors around the world, giving these activities even more interest and impact.
Check out one example of these growth mindset read-alouds on YouTube: It’s Okay to Make Mistakes.
The Impact of Authors from Dave Burgess Consulting
Authors like Jennifer Casa-Todd, George Couros, Tamara Letter, Paul Solarz and many others have all been instrumental in Annick’s personal and professional learning journey. They all have one thing in common: they’ve published books through Dave Burgess Consulting.
Annick recalls how a learning conference at High Tech High in San Diego first connected her with Twitter and Learn Like a Pirate, by Paul Solarz. After learning from the book, Annick tweeted out a snippet from her learning, and the Solarz actually responded! Encouraged by this connection, Annick went on to read The Innovator’s Mindset, Teach Like a Pirate, A Passion for Kindness, and other best-sellers from DBC.
She’s thankful for the support she’s received from these authors and encourages other educators to experience the same sort of support and inspiration. “Just pick a book that interests you … and get connected with the author,” she says.
Passions and Professional Goals in Education
Annick is thrilled today by the incredible new opportunities for global collaboration in education. She talks about her recent connection with Karen Caswell in Australia and the opportunities she’s had to bring authors like Tamara Letter and Dave Burgess into her classroom via Google Hangouts.
This year, one of Annick’s biggest professional goals has been to develop the Optimal Learning Model (from Regie Routman) in her practice. She’s been getting together a few times a year with a small group of educators who are also working on this model, and she’s also been able to learn a lot from co-teaching with another teacher immersed in the model. She’s been able to implement what she’s learned in two incredible writing projects, and she’s been blown away with the learning and progress demonstrated by her first graders. See a recent exhibition of their learning.
Personal Interests Outside of the Classroom
Annick has been a writer since she had the first of her fourth boys. Her writing has moved from emails to keepsake books to her blog. Most of her blogging has been about education, because learning remains one of her chief passions. Writing has definitely been a source of energy and motivation for her ever since those early emails, and she plans to continue this practice.
Secrets of Annick’s Productivity
Annick relies on a few things to keep her healthy, inspired, and productive. Her husband is a key support on the home front, looking after dinners every day and supporting her in many other ways.
She’s also a goal-setter, and she’s found great success by setting simple, attainable goals. That attainable part is key – it’s better to run for at least ten minutes than not run at all.
Another productivity hack is list-making: she thrives on lists and will even write in list items after they’ve been completed, just so she can cross another item off.
Annick has also added more support at home by hiring some cleaning help. She and her husband really appreciate the time and energy gained from this decision and consider it a good investment in quality of life.
Voices & Resources That Inspire Annick’s Professional Practice
On Twitter, Annick’s been gaining tremendous inspiration from @TamaraLetter. Annick also wrote a personal endorsement for Letter’s A Passion for Kindness and recommends it as an essential read.
If you’re looking to start reading education books from Dave Burgess Consulting, Annick recommends starting with the title that began it all: Teach Like a Pirate. Follow the author, Dave Burgess, on Twitter @BurgessDave.
Over on YouTube, Annick recommends subscribing to John Spencer. His channel is full of short, pithy, inspirational messages for educators. Few education channels offer more value! Follow the channel creator on Twitter @SpencerIdeas.
On Netflix, Annick is gaining inspiration from Heal and reliable amusement from Life in Pieces.
We sign off on this conversation, and Annick lets us know where we can see more from her online. See below for details!
See more from Annick:
- On Twitter: @AnnickRauch
- On her blog: http://www.annickrauch.ca/
- On Instagram: @AnnickRauch
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Song Track Credits
- Intro: Stand Up (by Mike Cosmo — license purchased at https://taketones.com/)
- Outtro: Bluntedsesh4 (by Tha Silent Partner, courtesy of FreeMusicArchive.org)
Teachers on Fire 