Summit Blog
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The Benefits of Student-Centred Contextualised Learning
Connecting with students and getting them to genuinely understand curriculum material is one of the biggest challenges that teachers face. Making a positive impact on your students….
CREATIVITY MATTERS – throughout the curriculum
There are many different aspects to creativity and there is no one definition with which everyone is happy…
Catch a Glimpse of the New-Age Classroom
Imagine your classroom as a blank canvas, where you are not bound by its four walls. Where your students were drawn into learning about a subject from the minute they opened the door, where from floor to ceiling they were immersed in learning. Enter the world of Chris Niven, Head
Digital Technology and Authentic Learning – Effective technology integration depends on when as much as what
With digital technology being so prevalent in the daily lives of our learners, from Foundation through to Year 12, deciding how to integrate this technology with meaningful learning can, at times, be challenging. Identifying the points where and when integration of technology will have the most impact on learning objectives
Spawn Point: School libraries as safe zones of student well-being and inclusive practices
“What I like most about our library is that it is like a ‘safe zone’ for all students. Like in a video game when you spawn at your base, or on a certain ship no one can…
Ensuring Extraordinary Outcomes for Young People with Language Disorder
For many decades there has been a lack of agreement regarding how to best describe children presenting with language difficulties (Bishop et al., 2016). This has subsequently led to….
Trust: the essential prerequisite for team building
“Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair”. When you meet someone for the first time, how do you know what they are telling you is truthful?
Teacher productivity, does it need to be “hacked”?
As teachers and educators, we know all too well the immense pressure placed upon our time. With the language of school term being a chance to ‘come up for air’ and to push aside the overwhelm, if only for a…
Practical Ideas for Integrating STEM
Children learn through play and discovery. Providing curious and interesting activities across the curriculum gives students opportunities to share their understanding and build…
Clever and Quirky: Seeing Through the Mask Part 2
In Part 1, the challenges relating to the identification of our twice-exceptional children were discussed, in addition to many strategies which may be effective in supporting the development of the ‘whole child.’…
Clever and Quirky: Seeing Through the Mask Part 1
It’s just a regular day in your classroom. All your Year 5 students arrive on the bell, greet each other, unpack their schoolbags, sit at their tables, and read their novel…
Gaming for good: using cooperative video games as tools for supporting neurodiverse children and young adults
Over the past decade there has been a significant shift in how we understand conditions such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Disciplinary Literacy – The Beginnings
Literacy is a vital skill for the 21st century and it is imperative for student mastery of practice that it is embedded across the curriculum. An important aspect of teacher librarianship is to support the development of literacy across the curriculum.
It takes a village to raise a teacher librarian – Mentoring at its best
Life is a journey. Some might say, being a teacher librarian is a life and journey of itself – a lifelong journey. My journey commenced in 2018 and is one I couldn’t have done, let alone start, without my mentors…
Resilience. Is it a “thing”?
In the world of education, we are passionate about our capacity to help our youngest, most vulnerable, most potential-filled humans to thrive…
Planning and Assessing a Meaningful STEM Program
How do you create an engaging, meaningful STEM program? A big question that isn’t so easily answered.
Stop blaming teachers: Students are responsible for their learning
William Glasser acknowledges that “there [are] no doubt….some teachers who are more skilful at motivating than [others; however,] there is no teacher, no matter how skilled, who can teach a student who does not want to learn”…
All things to all people…hints and tips for the up and coming TL
I am so excited to be coming back to the National Education Summit in 2022! In person conferences – hooray! The Summit is also a most excellent opportunity to mentor my friend and colleague, Kathy Talbot…
The Messy World of School Assessment
Learning about and presenting on school assessment is as mad as a bag of hammers, to mix a metaphor. The purpose of assessment in schools is very muddy.
Lessons learned from a life online
Over the last two years, boardrooms have become dining tables and classrooms have become bedrooms, as the world shifted to an unprecedented life online…
What happened to you? Trauma-informed behaviour support in schools
Schools today are grappling with many complex social issues which can impact negatively on student wellbeing and achievement.
Creating a Culture of Kindness through Friendship Skills
Friendships are central to our students’ lives and are among the most important relationships they experience, in school and beyond.
Change in the Library
Libraries thrive on change. Everyone has a story about the changes they have seen in their school library. Some of these stories are inspiring; tales of quickly taking up new technologies, building beautiful makerspaces…
Spatial Reasoning Skills: What are they? Why are they Important? How can we help our students improve them?
Written by Mandi Dimitriadis, Director of Learning, Makers Empire Mandi will be presenting in the STEM across the Curriculum Conference in Melbourne (17 & 18 June 2022) and Brisbane (5 & 6 August 2022). We go to the gym to improve our fitness, take short courses to learn new skills,
Creating Positive Conversations
All too often, many conversations that we have with each other fall short of being built on meaning, purpose and substance. We engage in conversations that not only fail to draw in the person we are speaking to, but also retain their attention for longer than that of 35 seconds.
When and Where should we start teaching STEM?
Most educators would be well-accustomed to the acronym STEM, which has gained increasing prominence in educational language/terminology in recent years. STEM is not only about content knowledge, but a pedagogical approach to supporting students…
Makerspaces and Student Wellbeing
When students engage in the many activities and opportunities provided in a Makerspace, they relax and have fun. It is non-threatening, no testing or grading!
3D Creation and Visualisation for Learning
Visualising information can be important in learning new concepts, for many students it is necessary to gain a good understanding. This might be an image to set a context or a diagram to help explain function.
Brain Based Educational Story Books – A wellbeing resource for children from 5 to 12 years of age
This series of picture story books is a revolutionary approach for educating young children about ‘brain fitness’ and its positive impact on wellbeing
Dedicated To The Cause For The Greater Good Of You!
If like me, you are juggling so many things from day to day, and you often forget what day of the week it is, then there is no better time like the present to stop, take a big deep breathe, and give yourself permission to slow down a little.