National Science Week – an annual celebration of science and technology in Australia – is going to look a little different in schools this year due to COVID-19. The Australian Science Teachers Association coordinate school involvement in the event, and have had to make significant changes to what celebrations will look like this year.

At Teacher magazine, we love to share innovative and research-based classroom activities from educators across Australia and the world. In today’s podcast, we take take you through some of the engaging learning activities educators have been using during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Knox School’s Allan Shaw and Ben Righetti join Teacher to discuss the Character and Leadership Model that was implemented at the school between 2017 and 2020. It aims to foster the development of young people of character who will be ethical citizens and community leaders and involved a redesign of camps, excursions and community-based learning.

This week, Teacher has been sharing reader stories on their school’s response to the pandemic. This final instalment is written by Michael Rosenbrock, Assistant Principal at Wodonga Senior Secondary College, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

In today’s article, Kate Hill – an Australian teacher from Melbourne who is currently teaching Year 7 and 8 English at Braeburn School in Nairobi, Kenya – gives an international perspective on learning during the pandemic.

As educators in Australia return to face-to-face teaching, and schools around the world grapple with new ways of working to provide continuing support to students during the pandemic restrictions, readers have been getting in touch to share what’s been happening in their own context.

‘While schools will be gradually re-opening in China by mid-April, they’re closing around much of the rest of the world. How well are we prepared? OECD’s TALIS survey offers some insights,’ Andreas Schleicher, the organisation’s Director for Education and Skills, writes in his latest Teacher column.

In her new Teacher column, Dr Sue Thomson discusses some of the latest results from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), including issues of resourcing and student achievement.

‘Educators and parents are questioning the effect that technology can have on students' mental health and wellbeing, now more than ever,’ Julia Gillard writes in her new Teacher column.

'While people have different views on the role that digital technology can and should play in schools, we cannot ignore how digital tools have so fundamentally transformed the world outside of school,' OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher writes in his new column.