Nadine King | Surviving and Thriving

Top 8 Report Writing Tips

As I write this, teachers all over the country are deep into report writing season. Some enjoy it, others dread it. In my first few years of teaching I felt so overwhelmed and anxious about what I was writing and it took me forever. Since those early days I’ve developed some strategies to make the [...] Continue reading

Sick Days

Just recently I logged into my pay and leave information to check the balances. I was astonished to discover I have 26 week’s sick leave available! 26!!!! It got me to thinking about how teachers take sick leave and how tricky it can be for planning and follow up afterwards. We can’t just resume where [...] Continue reading

Equipping Children for Independence

I was inspired to write this article after a day spent teaching Grade 1 and 2 children. As the Visual Arts teacher I take four classes of the same year level a day. The lesson I prepared was two finishing off tasks. The first half was painting some clay pieces they’d made earlier and the [...] Continue reading

Ten Common Teaching Mistakes

We all make mistakes. What’s important, however, is learning from them and reflecting on ways to avoid another one! Think of it as an opportunity. It’s not the end of the world when you make a mistake (although it sure can feel that way sometimes). This list gives you some helpful tips to avoid mistakes [...] Continue reading

Social Media in the Classroom

Should we use social media in our classrooms or with parents? We hear so many negative and alarmist stories about how social media is not suitable to use in a school environment. With strict guidelines and boundaries, I believe social media (SM) can be a useful and engaging tool to use. What is Social Media [...] Continue reading

Social Media

Happy New Year everyone! This is an excellent time to reflect on our own personal use of social media, possibly after we’ve given our accounts a work out over the Christmas/New Year period. It’s really, really easy to overshare or to upload things we may regret later. Perhaps this doesn’t matter if we aren’t teachers, [...] Continue reading

Reflecting on the Year

Today marks the final day of the school year for many Australian government schools. Did you drag yourself to the finishing line or did you skip energetically? However you got there, it’s an excellent opportunity to reflect on the year that was. No matter what circumstance you found yourself in throughout 2015, employment wise, there [...] Continue reading

End of Year Activities

As the last few weeks of term approach, it’s pretty tempting to pop on a movie or two. Or three. Whilst there’s definitely a place for a movie very occasionally, it’s not a good look in the wider school community So, what are the alternatives? There are heaps of options for fun, engaging lessons and [...] Continue reading

Securing An Interview

Getting that phone call for an interview is both exciting and scary! Now you have to go face to face and stun the school with your skills! Last article I posted covered some tips to get your application over the line and noticed by the panel. My book, The Essential Teacher’s Guide, goes into much [...] Continue reading

Securing Your First Job – Application

Landing your first teaching position is a daunting task. There are many more graduates than there are jobs. I’ve been fortunate enough to sit on a panel this week to employ two new graduates at my school, and through this process I have formulated some tips to help you gain the edge in the crowded [...] Continue reading

Avoiding End of Year Madness

Here in Australia we’ve just started our final term for the year. It can be truly overwhelming with the number of events and things to do. Throw in commitments outside of work and it’s even crazier. To avoid the madness and keep your sanity, follow these tips from a seasoned expert! Yes, I did just [...] Continue reading

Working Quietly

It’s very easy for the noise level in classrooms to escalate quickly. It’s also true that some classes are just chattier than others and therefore it’s harder to manage the noise level. Personally, I’m a little more permissive with noise levels than other teachers I know, however it’s still important for me to have access [...] Continue reading

Gaining Attention

Many times throughout the school day we need to gain the attention of our class. There are hundreds of ways to do this, it’s just a matter of choosing one that you enjoy and find effective. Some are more suited to junior classes and some to senior levels. Classroom teachers There are two main methods [...] Continue reading

Transitioning

The curriculum is crowded and it is probably impossible to cover everything required each year. Instead, we often have to choose the sections we feel are most essential to be covered, especially those that are sequentially based. Children are actively engaged in structured learning of some sort for approximately five hours per day. How much [...] Continue reading

Dressing up days

Schools seem to have regular dress up days. I have a love hate response to these. Mostly children love them, parents not so much. I try to never hold one for my class, just the ones the whole school are participating in. Here are some very old and grainy photos of me on primary school [...] Continue reading

NAPLAN Data

A previous article covered the lead up and what to do on the day to improve the performance of your students. Today I will help you discover how to make the most of the NAPLAN data from the day after the test, not September when results come out. (Seriously, if the government really wanted us [...] Continue reading

School Camp

It’s school camp time! I love camp and have even been known to volunteer to go on a few unpaid. Not everyone feels like that though, so I thought some ideas to make the camping experience more enjoyable or endurable might help. Preparation Camp can be a difficult experience if you are not prepared adequately. [...] Continue reading

Planning

How are you managing your daily and weekly planning? Need to finetune the process a little more? I have gathered together some key points that will help you improve your technique and help you focus on the content, rather than stressing about the process. Sourcing an appropriate planning template should be your first step. The [...] Continue reading

Reflecting on Lessons

No matter how many years you have been teaching, it is still essential to reflect on your lesson content and presentation. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious it is not working whilst you are teaching, we might feel we are stuck in a rut with content or activity choice, or we think our students are not progressing [...] Continue reading

NAPLAN

I’m not sure I’ve met any teacher who thinks NAPLAN is a fantastic assessment tool. It has its place, but I believe the government (and sometimes principals) put far too much emphasis on its importance and accuracy. This has led to cheating and bending of the rules, in fear of the consequences of poorly performing [...] Continue reading

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Author Archives: Nadine King