Effectiveness

Celebrated in more than 100 countries world-wide, World Teachers’ Day was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1994 to recognise the role of teachers in society. In Australia and New Zealand it is celebrated on the last Friday in October.   Who Would Be A Teacher? Teaching can be a thankless task You give your heart, your soul and often ask, In times of frustration, exhaustion and despair, “What other jobs are out there?”   Running low on reserves, at the end of each day, Exhausted and with no energy left for play, It can seem impossible to see, Anything you have achieved.   ‘Tradies’ must get great satisfaction, A feeling that they are…

Research shows that childhood anxiety left unmanaged will almost certainly re-emerge, highlighting the importance of early detection and management. Teachers, as first responders, play an important role by minimising the impact of stressful moments before they lead to full-blown anxiety. Recognise anxiety triggers Recognising the events that trigger anxiety is the first step to helping students to manage their stress. Rapid or unpredictable change, new social situations, unfamiliar events and difficult experiences are the most common anxiety stressors for students. Know how anxiety shows Stress and anxiety show in many ways however, most students display anxiety behaviours that are specific to them. Typically, anxiety shows through physical signs such as chest pains, nausea and headaches. Anxiety can be observed through…

Rare is the person who hasn’t heard about SMART goals – most of us have learnt the theory and many of us have probably experienced some success with them! To revise, the acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The intent of using the acronym is to help you focus your efforts and increase your chance at success. For example, “I will complete my weekly plan every Friday afternoon,” is in the format of a SMART goal. It is intended to help us keep focused and to achieve. However, at times (probably more often than we care to admit), life doesn’t go to plan and your ability to commit, be persistent and achieve your goal is negatively impacted.…

It’s not surprising that one of the most consistent findings in educational research is that the more time students spend engaged during instruction, the more they learn. It also won’t surprise staff who work in schools that the more engaged students are, the less stressful it is. Instead of trying to ‘manage’ students to comply, engaged students are on-task and ‘in the zone’. As they are interested and actively involved in the learning experience they don’t require ‘management’. This lowers the demands on the teacher and reduces our stress level. ‘An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!’ (editor’s note – the metric conversion – ‘A gram of prevention is better than a kilogram of cure’ doesn’t…

The purpose of report card comments is simply to convey the big ideas and most important information parents need to know. The most important, not everything. Think about what you really need to document. What do you need to have proof that you have expressed in writing? Ensure the comments align with the students’ grades. If a student has earned below a “C” or expectations, in any area, I recommend explaining that briefly in the comments so there’s no confusion about why the student isn’t performing better. For some parents, it might be smart to explain the “C” grades as well. No Surprises – Problems should always have been communicated to parents through conferences, emails, voicemails, and other ongoing, proactive…

For most of us the answer to the question, “Who is your biggest distraction?” is simple. We are our BIGGEST distraction! We often procrastinate and get distracted away from what we SHOULD be doing by doing the things we LIKE to do. Time is a precious commodity. We often have too much to do and not enough time to get it done. This can result in us working longer hours than we should or NEED to. With so much to be done in schools, it is vital that we use our time efficiently. This is especially important with any discretionary time that we have during the day.  Often our days at school are filled with fixed commitments eg classes or…

How do you typically finish a school day? Exhausted, running on low reserves, feeling guilty about the things that you didn’t get done and already worried about tomorrow?   Working in schools can be exhausting. There is always a lot to be done and a limited amount of time to get it done. Our days are often filled with interruptions and unexpected events e.g. Johnny having a melt-down, a cranky parent arriving unannounced or an accident in the playground at lunchtime. No two days are the same and you are very unlikely to become bored.   One of the challenges can be that there is always more that can be done. More preparation! More planning! More marking! Our work can…

Your motivation at work is directly related to how you spend your personal time. If you don’t do anything after school that is re-energising, you are going to go back into the classroom the next day feeling even more depleted. The job will take even more out of you and you are going to get sucked into a downward spiral. I try to do something that is inspiring and energising for me as a person on a daily basis. Even though I’m busy, this is the choice I consciously make because I know that the way I choose to spend my evenings makes a tremendous difference to my creativity level, attitude and productivity the following day. I can’t afford not…

We all know the importance of actually taking action, rather than just talking about what we are going to do. I have certainly come across a lot of “gunnas” in my career. People who are “gunna” leave teaching, “gunna” write a book, “gunna” sell real estate and “gunna” make a million dollars. The following are THREE key examples where ACTIONS speak louder than words – changing habits, establishing your reputation and doing good deeds.   Changing Habits We all know what we SHOULD do but saying something and doing it are two different things – we SHOULD exercise daily, we SHOULD eat 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of veggies, we SHOULD reduce our intake of saturated fats, we…