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5 Tips for Great Parent-Teacher Conferences

March 5, 2020

1. Approach Parents with Positive Assumptions Parents want to partner with you. They want to see their child succeed more than anything else. Parent conferences might be an opportunity for you to surface your beliefs about parents and reflect on them but when you engage with parents, even if you hold some doubts about them, put those aside. Welcome every parent as your strongest ally in working with your student (their child). 2. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare What is your goal or objective for the time you have with parents? What exactly do you want to communicate? What would you like the outcome of this meeting to be? Here’s an example: My goal in Maria’s conference is for her mum to…

Dealing with Difficult Parents

February 20, 2020

Dealing with difficult or demanding parents can certainly add to the stress of working in schools. Whilst staff in schools have the needs of multiple students to consider, most parents are only advocating for a small number of students, their own children. That’s understandable! Keeping the scale of the problem in perspective is important. What is known as the 80 / 20 rule generally applies. 80% of problems will come from 20% of parents. In most cases an even larger percentage of issues will come from an even smaller percentage of parents. This is not intended in any way to trivialise the issues. However keeping it in perspective is important. Whilst dealing with difficult parents may take a lot of…

A Teacher’s Most Valuable Asset – Their Voice

October 17, 2019

A teacher’s most valuable teaching asset is their voice.  It is through the voice that the teacher communicates, educates and instructs. Without the use of the voice, the teacher has lost the painting brush to create their art work. Research is revealing that many teachers are struggling with their most basic tool to comfortably get through their teaching day. There are many demands placed on a teacher’s voice; constant talking, pushing the voice, talking with background noise, disciplining students, raising the voice to be heard, yelling over long distances eg in the playground, feelings of stress, frustration, low energy and tiredness will tense the vocal apparatus and  when constantly talking,  restricts vocal ease. Some of the symptoms teachers experience include; …

Do You Need a Digital Detox?

September 5, 2019

Technology advances in society and particularly in education have brought about some amazing advantages and should be making our lives easier. Unfortunately, these gains can come at a cost for many of us – our work can now seep effortlessly into nearly every corner of our life. Most school staff own and use a personal smart phone to communicate and be contactable in their professional role, as well as accessing a work laptop or desktop computer, often a tablet… and usually run more devices at home too! While our digital connectivity can enhance our productivity and bring about positive outcomes, it can also very quickly increase our stress and anxiety, affecting both our personal balance and ability to perform. Not…

MORE Tips for Communicating …With People You Don’t Get On With (part 2)

June 27, 2019

Schools are busy, people places. At times we will need to work with people we don’t get along with. In part 2 we share more tips for communicating with people we find difficult to get on with. Get specific Tell them exactly what they do that you do not like, exactly what you would prefer, and exactly what you or both of you could do to help. There is too much room for misinterpretation when you use vague words. Avoid giving your opinions, interpretations, or generalisations when you are having communication problems. They are likely to be misunderstood or seen in a negative light during these times. Stick with the recent past when you talk about problems It is harder…

Five Tips for Communicating With People you Don’t Get on With

June 20, 2019

Schools are busy, people places. At times we will need to work with people we don’t get along with. The following are the first five of ten tips for communicating with people we find difficult to get on with. Acknowledge others’ feelings and points of view Listening to and acknowledging the other person’s feelings and points of view can bypass many arguments and misunderstandings. Don’t try to correct them or rebut their points of view or feelings. Just listen. See if you can understand what the other person is trying to communicate. You don’t have to agree with what they are saying, but don’t dismiss or minimise their feelings or tell them they are wrong for feeling that way. Remember…

Are You Addicted to Your Phone by John Shackleton

I was sent a post today about someone attending a wedding ceremony and having their phone confiscated at the door! She was furious and wondered how she could ever enjoy things without being able to take photos of everything. But afterwards she realised that she’d really enjoyed the event and had much stronger memories of everything because she was actually present and not watching the whole thing from behind a screen. In her own words: ‘We are surrounded by so much content and have infinite ways to express that content. We believe that EXPERIENCING something isn’t valid without CAPTURING the experience in pictures – Pics or it didn’t happen’. She went on to say that the main reason we all post so much…

ABOVE or BELOW the Line?

I get really frustrated when I find myself surrounded by negative people, who appear to be filled with doom and gloom. I feel at risk of being buried in their negativity. You know the people, they light up a room….when they leave! Recently I was made aware of the concept of operating ABOVE or BELOW the line of life. Below the line all we hear are denial, excuses or blame. “We’re doing pretty well, considering!” “These students are from low socio-economic families; they aren’t real bright!” “Communication at this school is terrible, I never know what’s going on around here!” “We’d get better results if we had more money for teacher aide time or resources.” Whilst these statements might be…

Planning a Quality Parent Information Session

February 14, 2019

Maintaining a solid connection with parents is critical to ensuring a happy school environment and at the beginning of the year it is particularly important that a culture of high expectations, support, warmth and openness is established. Time and energy invested in this area also eases pressure on school staff later on because trusting parents are less likely to challenge or criticise and more likely to support school decisions in challenging times of high pressure, doubt and stress. An excellent way to build a positive and nurturing culture is to provide quality information sessions for parents to attend, in the first few weeks of the school year. While this is always a busy time, making the effort to prepare appropriately…

Effective Meetings

January 24, 2019

Schools are busy places, filled with busy people. Often there is too much to do and not enough time. It is therefore essential that available time is well utilised. We have all attended meetings that have been a frustrating waste of time. Some of them have been meetings that we have led. Meetings that are seen to be a waste of time is one of the biggest frustrations of staff in many schools. To ensure that people’s time is well utilised, it is essential that the following questions are considered and strategies applied. What are we trying to achieve? Is a meeting necessary? Is a meeting the best way to achieve the intended outcome? If we are delivering a message…

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