Back To School
In episode 1, the Teacher Takeaway team will be unpacking and discussing all things back to school, including:
Season 2 Podcast Goals
Our Roles for 2022
The Teacher Takeaway team are in some exciting roles this year. Check out what they are up to:
Back To School Tips and Tricks
COVID Conversations
It is important to have an idea about how you might facilitate these discussions early on - will you embrace it, use a social story or scaffolding a conversation! We need to be aware that our students are coming off a 6 week break that will have perhaps looked different. Some may have experienced isolation, contracting COVID or knowing someone who did, vaccinations. All of these experiences are valued and naturally kids will want to talk about what they did during the holidays, so ensuring we are prepared is essential. Austism Spectrum website social story - visual schedule for RAT testing
Building Routines
Start the year by building routines and spending lots of time getting them how you want things done. Time invested at the beginning of the school year in setting routines up properly is not time wasted. It sets your year up for success. Make sure that you do things slowly and chunk bigger routines into small manageable components. Be really explicit about your expectations, which goes right down to the smallest things, like:
Practice It! Expect it! We guarantee you won't have to do it all year long if you lay the ground work from Day One. Include visuals to go with routines for students whose English is a second language or a barrier for them. If you use a visual timetable. Be religious with it and think about how you will show change for those that really need it, like a STAR.
Behaviour
Spend time building quality relationships with students, regardless of if you have taught them before.
Every child wants to feel known, valued and cared for!
Alice highlights that the classroom is not just for th teacher but it is a space for the students as well and they need to have a voice in how that room looks and is set up. This includes the desk arrangement, the spaces in the room, and what goes up on the wall.
It is tempting to put lots of things up on the classroom walls at the beginning of the year. Everything that goes up on your wall should have a purpose - shaing learning or instructional practice. If we are putting a poster up before term has started, is it really going to have the instructional value that we are looking for? Anything that goes up on your wall for instructional purposes should be explicitly introduced and explained or be utilised in the teaching process for it to have any value and for students to use it beyond that learning experience. Otherwise it just becomes part of the background and takes up valuable wall space. Students love to help the teacher - allow them to help put things up on the wall. Think about the placement of your displays.
Remember
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AuthorsThe Teacher Takeaway Podcast is hosted by four Australian teachers and school leaders. With a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise, Aaron Johnston, Alice Vigors, Rebecca West and James Gray bring all the elements of effective pedagogical practice to the fore in a light-hearted way. These show notes are a summary of each episodes discussion with some added gems for you to takeaway. Happy reading everyone. Archives
April 2023
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