‘Through careful reflection, design and planning of daily learning activities, teachers can identify opportunities for teaching resilience in their classroom.’ Dr Sarah Tillott and Dr Michelle Neumann discuss learning activities that foster resilience in the classroom.

Always was, Always will be is the designated theme for NAIDOC Week 2020, which is being celebrated this week across the country. Here, we take you through some of the resources developed for classroom educators to assist with lesson planning.

‘There are several cognitive strategies that support the development of resilience … these are the skills we want to encourage children to develop in the early years.’ In part two of her series on resilience, Dr Sarah Tillott discusses the adaptive and maladaptive traits of resilience.

Changing school practices means everyone working together – leaders, teachers, support staff, students, parents and the wider community – toward the goal of improving outcomes for students. In today’s podcast, we share some recent Teacher highlights on the topic of school improvement.

‘Being exposed to adversity is inevitable. How we manage and adapt as a response is what can make the difference between poor outcomes, or outcomes that signify growth from the experience.’ Dr Sarah Tillott explores resilience theory and the brain, and the importance of developing resilience skills from an early age.

Media coverage of the Californian wildfires has evoked reminders of Australia’s past bushfires and prompted discussion about the coming season. In today’s article Patrice O’Brien, Chief Community Officer at Beyond Blue, discusses why talking about bushfires with your students, no matter where your school is located, can help ease anxiety.

The yourstoryourjourney website has been created to help teachers and school leaders form relationships and partnerships with communities and parents to achieve better educational outcomes for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

‘While it will take us some time before we understand the full effect of temporary school closures on student learning long term, we’ve (in the meantime) learnt some important things to inform our teaching practices going forward.’

Since 2018, a Tasmanian primary school has been on a journey of school improvement which as seen significant progress in student engagement and achievement, as well as staff retention and teacher welfare. The Principal and Assistant Principal join us in this podcast to discuss how this was achieved.

Our annual Teacher reader survey has just concluded for another year. As your responses have been coming in, we have been making note of your suggestions and requests, and have been reading about your experiences with the challenges of this pandemic. You’ve also let us know how you’re taking care of your own wellbeing outside of work.