CPL Podcast: Recent Episodes
Centre for Professional Learning
CPL Podcast episodes are professional conversations around practical and important aspects of teaching and Public Education.
To contact CPL please email cpl@nswtf.org.au
The CPL Podcast contributes to the purpose of the Centre for Professional Learning which is the professional development arm of the NSW Teachers Federation.
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. How can teachers maximize the effectiveness of the time allocated in each day’s timetable for English? TRIO discusses some options in this podcast.
Mary-Ellen Betts and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. Five key points from this podcast will support teacher reflection on teaching practices that improve student writing.
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. TRIO love poetry and this podcast offers all teachers some encouragement to include poetry in their teaching of English.
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. The five components of working mathematically are at the heart of the NSW maths syllabus. This discussion addresses what that means for classroom teachers.
Sandra Rowan and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. Every teacher wants a calm and well managed classroom. This podcast explores five principles that underpin effective behaviour management.
Sandra Rowan and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. There are much better ways to address the teaching of spelling than a weekly list. This podcast explores the effective teaching of spelling.
Mary-Ellen Betts and Sandra Rowan
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. Let’s get practical with spelling and sort out errors as the pen hits the page! Spelling conferences may be a real ah-ha moment for you and your class.
Mary-Ellen Betts and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. TRIO thinks you will agree that guided reading is a good idea but sometimes the management, timing and grouping of students can seem difficult. This is a discussion around these ideas.
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. TRIO discusses five ideas for teachers to reflect on as they think about the teaching of maths and what is important.
Sandra Rowan and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. All teachers will take something from this discussion about changing the teaching of literacy to improve student learning outcomes but the focus on executive teachers and the teams they lead.
Mary-Ellen Betts and Jenny Williams
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. Many teachers seem nervous about teaching grammar. In this podcast TRIO discusses where to start and how to make the teaching of grammar connect with what the class is reading and writing.
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts
Take 5 podcasts aim to provide listeners with five points to consider for their classroom practice. This podcast addresses the question of differentiation within primary classrooms. Students who may need differentiation are discussed. Differentiation of content, product, process and environment are unpacked.
Sandra Rowan and Jenny Williams
Professor Jim Tognolini from the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA), University of Sydney asserts that assessment is a central activity in all education and that its main function is to improve learning. He stresses that the teacher's voice and professional judgement are essential in this process.
"Assessment is the professional judgement [of the teacher] based on an image of what the student knows and can and cannot do. [It is the] monitoring of that image along a developmental continuum over time."
"We have to have confidence in assessment and our ability to do assessment well."
"People equate data to NAPLAN or test scores. No! Data is things you observe [about students]. It is qualitative. It's quantitative."
"We have to educate our communities [about assessment]. They have to understand that NAPLAN is just one more bit of information."
"Our schools are swamped by evidence and data. We've got to have a way to think about it in a contextualised way."
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Professor Jim Tognolini explains how it is both possible, and important, to measure values. He explains the process that can be used to develop descriptors and rubrics to measure them. . .
“Everything can be measured”
“We should be measuring what we value rather than valuing what we can measure”
Measuring values – “It is something so valuable for schools to take up”
‘It’s the process of working together to make explicit what you value”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Cath Jeffery guides you to success in regional and rural NSW…
It is great to live in a country town. You can feel invested in the local history and valued in ways that build lifelong relationships.
• Get to know your students and the town. • Establish boundaries very early and make it clear you are a teacher. • Focus on developing your teaching and avoid taking on too much, especially if you are a beginning teacher. • Incorporate local resources into your teaching as much as possible. • Take time to reflect on your teaching and relationship with the community. • Get to know the backgrounds of your students’ families. • A lot of residents will have attended and be invested in their local public school. • Try to respect and build upon the authentic relationships between the school and community. • Find opportunities to include community in ownership of the curriculum. • Be an advocate and empower students to work together for positive changes and services in their town.
For information about Off Class contributors, takeaway notes and graphic summary, as well as the CPL Podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Jowen Hillyer emphasises the importance of understanding unique school community needs and ensuring the structure of online schooling works for families...
“I think we need to check our assumptions at the door a little but too... every parent wants the best for their child but when there are competing elements... it can’t work I the same way that a dedicated digital school can.
Asynchronous learning definitely works the best with check in time points so that we can spread out the device requirements in the home...
The teachers were always online during their scheduled classes so that students knew they could always contact us at those set times...
Organise a timetable so that no one is left alone in the staffroom and everyone is checking in on each other... A lot of those supports need to come alongside the supports for students otherwise staff can feel very isolated...”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Jowen Hillyer has experience building relationships, beginning new classes and teaching well in completely online subjects...
“For mastery learning and formative tasks, when you’re working in the digital space, you’ve got this immediate feedback... you can see what is going on and step in...
Maintaining relationships online was something very difficult at first... understanding that you need to connect before you correct is really important...
Creating a collegial environment [with a new class required] a sense of security by having a structure to every lesson that was going to be the same... having a ‘do now’ activity and then a bit of banter ... getting a discussion going really early on...
Group accountability needs to happen as well. You need to have that interdependence of goal, you’re not working in isolation, just all on the screen together. There needs to be lots of opportunities to collaborate...”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Claudia Vera guides you to the support needed for students with disability...
Remember, as a mainstream teacher, you cannot be expected to meet those specialist needs. Specialist provision is needed for students with disability.
• Additional supports or accommodations may need to be put in place to enable learning. • It is helpful knowing about a diagnosis. What is even more beneficial is to know the person. • All of the syllabus documents use a Universal Design for Learning approach. • Ask the student or their parent or carer what the student needs in order to access learning. • Talk to other people such as previous teachers, the learning support team or the school counsellor. • Every school network has a team of support officers to assist the school. • Know the schools for specific purposes (SSPs) in your area. For information about Off Class contributors, takeaway notes and graphic summary, as well as the CPL Podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Lloyd Bowen provides strategies for success for starting out in a new school...
It is never too soon to ask for help. Start those ongoing professional discussions today.
• Lessons need to be meaningful. • Build positive relationships. • Get to know students quickly. • Learn some key names fast. • Look for opportunities to re-focus on learning. • Prepare a ‘go-to kit’ of learning activities across stages. • Chat with colleagues about classes right away. • Start discussions around student strengths. • Remember, teachers are people and we make mistakes too. For information about Off Class contributors, takeaway notes and graphic summary, as well as the CPL Podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Rosemary Henzell emphasises the role of teachers in supporting students and colleagues in this difficult and unusual setting...
This is Part III in a three-part special series recorded during the Coronavirus situation and Public Health Orders affecting NSW.
“It’s just saying to students ‘I’m here and its going to be okay’ and I think we do become an important anchor figure for our students in some way. So, lots of little affirmations, however we can do that for our students, whatever platforms they are on, whatever resources they are engaging with, if we can find ways to show they are important to us and we are here and we want to know how they are. That is going to encourage them to come to class and to log on and to join in...
As much as we can we want to maintain routines that support them and we want to normalise things as much as we can because we know that other things are out of our control.”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Rosemary Henzell reflects on the challenges of the online environment and the importance of noticing all your students and their learning...
This is Part II in a three-part special series recorded during the Coronavirus situation and Public Health Orders affecting NSW.
“One of my biggest takeaways from last year was the sense of being blind. I think we underestimated how much data we get from being in the classroom that we don’t even realise that we are taking in...
I think we’ve all had to be quite creative with the way we have had to fill in those gaps. It’s hard and that’s the first thing we need to understand and remember... Assessment in the broadest possible sense is crucial right now...
Those opportunities that we have in the online environment with interactive documents can be really helpful, and we can also do it with group projects...
Having a couple of bigger things that we are working towards, I think that normalises the online environment for them, they have an expectation that we will work towards something and they will have to produce something...”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Rosemary Henzell shares her experiences setting up manageable online lessons and plans...
This is Part I in a three-part special series recorded during the Coronavirus situation and Public Health Orders affecting NSW.
“We know we try to be organised always, but I think we can actually be a little bit more responsive in the classroom environment... I began to use a digital planner for every class... it relaxed everybody and everyone knew they could feel prepared and they would know what was coming....
Students became so overwhelmed by the number of platforms and documents that they were being asked to navigate...
We’ve got to find what works for us and experiment with a number of different things until we find what really suits us....”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Cath Jeffery explains why all schools should offer Aboriginal Studies...
“Start and conversation and be informed about what the subject actually is. I think one of the biggest myths is that it’s only for Indigenous students... If you have students going into health, education or law then definitely Aboriginal studies is part of the mandatory subjects they will have to do...
When you move into the HSC course you really get a grounding into the relations in contemporary society....
In relation to community, you don’t have to have those links before you start... it builds relationships that are authentic and embeds your local Aboriginal community into four years of the curriculum. ... there are lots of opportunities for cross-curricular benefits so that students who are studying their HSC have that increased depth across subjects...
It’s important to create a classroom space where all questions are welcome...”
For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Off Class episodes, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Kathryn Bellach suggests approaches to improve your classroom management...
The mood in your class is set by your behaviour. If you are welcoming, encouraging and positive, the classroom will be too.
• Explicitly teach behaviour. • Create a welcoming environment. • Be consistent and fair. • Make students feel part of the ‘class team’. • Work as part of a school team. • Your class are not your responsibility alone. • Focus on correcting one behaviour at a time. • Prepare students for different settings. • Make the room your own. • Consider an individual behaviour plan. • Plan around student interests. For information about Off Class contributors, takeaway notes and graphic summary, as well as the CPL Podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Jim Sturgiss and Gavin Parker want you to assess your students with confidence... There is a lot more assessment now... kids are tested beyond belief at this stage and there is no point having data if you are not going to analyse it and use it. Data is one thing but unless you map that to some kind of assessment framework which puts flesh on that in terms of what the data means in relation to the syllabus its meaningless. If you do not understand how the assessment has been put together than that data is fairly meaningless... External data can give a good understanding of where there might be a gap in the teaching programs related to the syllabus... With NAPLAN, the error of measurement of any kid’s score is quite high... If you get your assessment right it will drive your teaching. Think about what you are going to assess, how you are going to assess it and the standards you are going to address and everything will flow from that. For information about CPL Podcast contributors, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Cath Jeffery has taught and raised her family in country NSW. She reflects on how she became invested in her students and town...
“You’re kind of always on... and that can get a little bit draining at times... your parent teacher interview can be anywhere.
...You need to establish boundaries very early, have those conversations very early when you join a team or a club. But if you show the initiative and be proactive, having those conversations helps to dispel any potential incidences that may come up...
You become a very valued member of the community... The ability to make changes... has been a real positive.”
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as the Off Class podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Lloyd Bowen shares some reliable strategies to begin with in any classroom now...
Know the students and their community, their background, and their values. Learn what the wider community expects.
• Stop and look around the class • Control the energy in the room • Have a refocus spot • Be organised • Use visuals
Aim for young people engaged in learning who are interested in what they're learning about, and who understand how they can use their learning in the wider world.
For information about Off Class contributors, takeaway notes and graphic summary, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Wayne Sawyer and Katina Zammit share some theory and findings of the teacher-research model of the Fair Go Program, which is celebrating its 21st anniversary...
“We all came from an equity and social justice background... and we were very much interested in trying to improve the learning outcomes for students in disadvantaged schools...
“we were trying to change the learning that was happening in classrooms... its not like we come along and tap the teachers on the shoulder and say ‘your cognition needs to be upped’, but if you’re interested in working on your pedagogy, we’re interested in working with you...”
“there is a tendency to pick up something that is a short-term fix that doesn’t necessarily have long-term outcomes for students... sustainability is a key issue and that’s why for me, teachers as researchers was so important... It’s the mindset of taking on research, asking a question and looking for evidence...
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Lila Mularczyk and Maurie Mulheron insist public schools must maintain a comprehensive curriculum and that no option should be left unexplored to provide the full range of subjects...
“Its very important that children, whether in Walgett or Woollahra, are expected to have a degree of resourcing and a professional qualified teacher in front of them.”
“We need those institutions, the Department and universities, working together...
“the longevity of understanding and putting in place years in advance is really important....”
“It goes to your strategic planning... if we agree as a staff that we are a high expectations school, then what do we need to do? Where are the gaps? Where are the professional learning gaps and expertise?”
“...start thinking in terms of subjects, disciplines, physics, chemistry... and marry the teachers to the subjects and their love of their subjects.”
“...the kids pick up on that passion and expertise”.
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Graham Sattler explores ways to talk about music with your students and how to make these conversations features of every classroom...
“We have duration, pitch, dynamics, tone colour and structure...
One of the significant things inside the syllabus and outside the syllabus is being able to talk about (music). Music is the art form that is invisible...
It is not just the sounds that we hear that make music meaningful, it’s the change, it’s the difference, it’s the contrast.
When we are talking about describing sound, there is really no wrong answer... The wonderful thing about music is you can just do it!”
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Rose Dixon explains what anxiety feels like and what you can do to look for warning signs in your students with special learning needs...
“every adolescent wants to be popular and accepted... there is stigma in our society about difference and that really comes out in adolescence... it’s something I think we really do need to work on.
If you have an anxiety disorder you are going to find learning very difficult... it’s very hard to process information, to organise it and to retain it...
It’s important for teachers to recognise this, unless we deal with the anxiety disorder, we won’t be able to help these students very well.
The good news is that there are signs which happen before the severe blowout... and it’s our job to know what those triggers are...
And you can actually preserve that student in the classroom...”
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Kathy Rushton and Joanne Rossbridge discuss the essential concept of Critical Literacy. They explain why it is essential for teachers (in both primary and secondary classrooms) to teach our students how to critically analyse all texts and to help them to develop a broader view of the world . . .
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
In this special edition of the CPL Podcasts, Maurie Mulheron discusses the history, politics and ongoing debates surrounding public education in Australia.
For information about contributors and the CPL Podcast, as well as the Centre for Professional Learning courses and professional learning articles please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Graham Sattler explains why it is essential to teach all K – 6 students to read music so that those students can play instruments in class. He gives some practical advice on how all primary teachers can teach these important skills. . .
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the Podcasts, as well as Centre for Professional Learning courses and articles, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Rosemary Henzell thinks introducing a variety of texts is good for students and their teachers…
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Jenny Williams and Sandra Rowan discuss how teachers can create ‘writers for life’ in their K - 6 classrooms and encourage students to embrace writing and to enjoy it for their whole lives . . . “Our focus, as teachers, needs to be on the fact that it [writing] is a lifelong skill that all of us need to be able to use, throughout the course of our lives, in a variety of different ways. And, that is because writing is one aspect of communicating – as citizens in a global world, we need to be able to communicate by computer across to different countries; we need to be able to make ourselves understood in formal and informal settings. . .”
“So how do we get them all engaged? It’s about student engagement. If we offer them choice even if it is as simple as A or B (‘so you could perhaps write an imaginative story about this aspect or you could write a persuasive’) . . . when they have to stop and decide (‘what do I do? Do I want to do this or do I want to do that?’), once they have made the decision they own it. It is really important. The brain research says giving them choice increases student engagement.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the Podcast, Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) courses, please visit our website cpl.asn.au
Aarti Nand discusses teaching stage 6 Legal Studies and what you, as teachers, can do to encourage our students to choose this important subject and to help them to meet with success within it...
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning (JPL) articles and professional learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au
Mark Harris, Chantel Mirzai and Cathy Clift discuss multicultural education and how they have made their school a really inclusive place to be…
“We have a really strong understanding of our context, and balance that by keeping abreast with research and evidence. So what we try to do, particularly as a leadership team, is engage strongly with what the evidence is telling us and consider the application of the evidence in our context.”
“[We work from] this idea that all members of our school learning community - who we define as our beautiful students, our wonderful parents, our exceptionally hard-working teachers, and our leaders - are working together with this unrelenting pursuit of excellence and this feeling that every single member of our school learning community can achieve outstanding outcomes socially, emotionally and academically. And what we’ve done is to develop a vision, a mission and a school plan where every program and practice that exists is to develop collective community efficacy.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
Additional text for Soundcloud: For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Kathy Rushton and Joanne Rossbridge make the case for specialist teachers for our EAL/D students…
“Some students might be recognised as having support… if you go back to the research, students need about seven years to develop the English language, academically, to get to the level that a native speaker would get to. So, anyone who comes into our schools not speaking Standard Australian English, I think, deserves specialist support.
… it is important for teachers to have as much information about the backgrounds of our students as possible… part of this is valuing what students may bring.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts take you from inspiration to reality and back again…
“The key to being a successful teacher is seeing yourself as a constant learner…
You can come into a school that has a lot of its own traditions and its own ways of doing things… in teaching you have to navigate school tradition, policy documents, syllabus documents and the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day… over the course of you first year there will be a lot of experimenting and trying things out and that’s just the way it is.
…One of the things that is really important for us to come to teaching with is the idea that every year is a new year.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Rose Dixon suggests practical strategies to meet the needs of your students…
“We need this extra special training to actually meet the needs of these special students…
There is no cure for Autism … that doesn’t mean that we can’t create Autism friendly environments where people with Autism can grow and flourish…
…the LAST and the Leaning Support Team are the people you go to first… it’s much better to start this planning, if you can, the year before… and you are going to have a much better day if you put this planning in.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Kristy Pugliano and Alexandra Johnson explain why all students need to study the Creative Arts…
“Visual Arts is subjective and students can have an opinion and have it valued… we encourage difference and we encourage diversity… People are inspired by creativity and more often than not that is what employers are looking for too…
I expect students to be engaging in the art world and anything I expect of them I expect of myself also… I practise my own art as much as I can.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jenny Williams and Sandra Rowan explain what you can do to create a classroom where students are focussed on thinking...
“I think a good place to start is to think about what our students are like now and what being in a classroom used to be like. I went to school in the sixties and the pedagogy around learning was very different to what our understanding is now… where the emphasis was on learning facts and memorising content.
… we are trying to make sure that we are teaching very explicitly and systematically, as still considered key components of what a teaching program should look like, but also making sure that we are offering to students the sophistication and full range of outcomes that the syllabus addresses.
… the syllabuses reflect our increased understanding of the importance of being a thinker and training our students to think and not just to do a worksheet or a task but to critically and reflectively think.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Margaret Vos encourages all secondary schools to offer History Extension…
“It’s a course which is incredibly valuable… it’s important for the continuation of history as a discipline … and because you get students who love history in your History Extension classes you have great discussions.
… It truly is an extension course where they take the skills they’ve learned in Year 11 and especially in the Historical Investigation… and they become very passionate.
…It’s not just more history, it’s about historiography and the history of history… and it allows students to be life-long learners and to realise that having half of your brain in the past is not something unusual, and there are like minds out there that love it just as much as you do.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Eddie Woo and David Watson love teaching mathematics and you can too …
“I became a Maths teacher because of my Year 12 Maths teacher… they came across as good people teaching good things… since then, I’ve been thinking about the power of exploration in Maths and the beauty of not always having to have the right answer.
…in Mathematics it’s like oh, this makes sense now and it’s something I’ve seen all the time in my everyday life and now I know why...
Connecting students’ learning to their own context and showing the relevance of that… it’s not “fake world” learning… what I think might be a good place to begin is to find a local problem, something that’s pressing on you ... to solve a problem that matters.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Beatrice Taylor began teaching in 1911 after just 6 weeks training. She was only 17 year old. Beatrice reflects on her experiences teaching at the outbreak of World War One, supervising classes of 70 students, and other oppressive conditions and demands of her times…
“I felt delighted. The children were simply gorgeous… I can see them all so plainly… they were as enthusiastic as I was…
There was another teacher in the room with me. I was talking against another teacher all day and it was exhausting… the boards were all uneven with cracks between them and it was freezing…
We were always reading and studying and you didn’t mind…‘You must have been teaching then when World War One began?’ Oh, yes! That was when the real horror began!”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Dan Sprange knows the power and potential of engaging Science lessons…
“We often sit at the front of our classrooms and think, yeah, we’ve covered that it’s all good, but if we were to sit in the minds of our students, we might see a very different picture…
We need to aim for durable knowledge and make time for students to understand… we are looking for high cognitive, high operative and high affective… it’s the process of working something out…
There is a skillset that goes with releasing responsibility to students… teachers that do this well have really high expectations for students. ”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Tom Alegounarias tells the story of the teaching standards in NSW and why they can be useful for teachers…
“It is not possible to codify what constitutes quality… but we needed to build a discourse of professionalism beyond a simple statement … and articulate what values we will protect.
You cannot enter the profession without having recognised teaching qualifications, as defined by teachers… there is a constant tension between describing and articulating what might constitute quality and teaching … and being seen as a potentially punitive statement of surveillance and containment.
The only people who understand these values and can put these into practice are teachers, and that’s our value and our strength…”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Dr. Jennifer Lawless and Jonathon Dallimore discuss what to do with the new Stage 6 Ancient and Modern History courses and see much to be excited about…
“I hope a lot of people will be willing to try some of these new topics and I think they will … In terms of the topic flow, the cores do an important thing in setting up the flavour of the course… This new Core for Modern revamps the flavour of Modern History for a new course and a new generation.
… Some of the areas teachers need to stop and think about are the skills and the concepts and how we are trying to integrate some of those higher-order concepts a little more specifically… it is quite easy to introduce these...
We tend to start Year 11 as a clean slate and it is important to look back at the end of Year 10 and consider the step up to the new Year 11 outcomes too….”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Les Perelman makes the case for teachers to do their own research into teaching writing…
“If you think about most professions, think about medicine, they don’t have outside social scientists come in and do their research for them… It is absolutely essential that we do the research for our discipline because we know what the research is supposed to do and we know the questions we want to ask.
…We need to ensure that the things being measured are actually the things we want to measure… this is also about giving teachers language to critique studies which might be reliable but not valid...
The single most important thing to consider when looking at someone else’s research is scepticism. You should start with a null hypothesis and they should have to convince you. You should also always ask: ‘who is funding this research?’
When doing research, the most important thing is to think about the questions you have about your own teaching… All teacher research should be collaborative and teachers should see themselves as both professionals and intellectuals.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Les Perelman wants all of our students to be excellent writers. He shares his knowledge about effective writing teaching and assessment to empower all students and their teachers…
“The people in our society who have power are excellent writers… Writing should be a positive activity where people are expressing themselves, making meaning and gaining pleasure from that… grammar should always be done in context with the student’s writing and what they are doing right.”
When you are thinking about teaching writing focus first on pre-writing, on invention. There are lots of techniques for pre-writing and it is the essential first step. Next, you need to be thinking about the audience, and giving students a real audience, the work needs to be organised with a particular structure and a plan in place, there needs to be opportunity for revision, not just editing but reviewing the whole piece.
The writing should be based on student interest and come from a place that means something to the individual. When we are assessing a student’s writing it needs to be in the context of their work, not an artificial thing done for a mechanical audience but in the moment of the student’s own writing process.
We need to provide students with real situations to write about and we also need to be real ourselves, and open our own writing up to critique. We then create opportunity for peer review, sharing what students have written in a low stakes situation where they can change and improve their work.
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jane Sherlock and Deb McPherson share the texts they love and some possibilities for you and the new Stage 6 English courses…
"I love to read and I really think that English has so much potential in helping students… to make our students more discerning readers and viewers…
The Craft of Writing is really like the child of Reading to Write… We have a wonderful combination of texts that reflect and also that demonstrate the craft of writing… and 1984, of course, is a gift to any teacher in these times. It really is important to not overload yourself, but it is also really important to ensure you avail yourself of the riches that are there and that you make use of some of them."
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Joanne Rossbridge and Kathy Rushton want to help you improve your teaching of writing…
“Every school we have worked in have structures for text and teachers help them with that all of the time… teachers often write ‘try to write in a more sophisticated way’ or ‘this is not formal enough’, the student has worked very hard, they have read everything and they are relying on their oral language to fill in those gaps in the structure…
Literacy isn’t a set of skills you can learn from a book… it’s got to be about meaning… those students who you know know their content, but when you read their responses it’s just not quite right, it's actually their literacy that’s holding them back and not their content knowledge.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jenny Williams and Mary-Ellen Betts encourage you to teach your students to read for meaning using the NSW K-6 English syllabus…
“We want every student, in every grade, to understand that reading is about meaning… the syllabus has at its heart: make meaning through language.
…if students come through their whole schooling believing that reading is meaning and understanding, they are able to critically analyse texts at a sophisticated level. If they come through school thinking it is just about words on a page, they are missing about ninety percent of the text.
…there is a connection between what I learn in reading, I use in writing, what I know in writing, I use in reading. We know that learning takes place best within a context, so any way we can find to integrate what we are doing with grammar and spelling and reading is really important.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jim Sturgiss, Tim Sloane and Emma Finlayson discuss approaches to assessment and the new Science syllabus which encourages your students to investigate…
“Teachers can really tailor this new syllabus to suit their students, in their context at their school… the syllabuses have around 30-40 content dot points and this really frees us up to explore ways in which we are going to deliver this more open enquiry based syllabus.
…We are now expected to teach what it means to investigate… It’s science by doing, almost.
…In days gone by you could actually look at the syllabus and you could almost have a teaching sequence just by looking at the syllabus and following it down… but no longer. You now need to program what you are going to do. You need to integrate these depth studies into your teaching and that is going to take a lot more preparation but it is also going to be a lot more rewarding.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
David Watson explains why planning for the Stage 6 Mathematics Standard syllabus and new forms of assessments are a priority and how to implement these effectively…
“It is often true that there is a right answer and a wrong answer, but investigation is what makes Maths really good… a Mathematician is interested in so much more than getting the right answer.
The re-categorisation of Standard 1, I feel, works very much in our favour as teachers. It makes that course much more relevant and obvious to kids… it’s an opportunity for us and knowing what NESA’s intentions are helps us to implement the new syllabus best.
Many of the topics are very much the same as they were before… there are a few inclusions that are worth noting and that we are unfamiliar with. I found researching these and why they exist is really helpful for understanding why I am teaching it... Networks is by far the biggest change and only included in Year 12… Asking ‘Why would a kid find this useful?’ was a really helpful way for me to understand what the topic is about.
…I'd like to see students being less fearful about our subject.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Graham Sattler builds your confidence to implement the music elements of the Creative Arts syllabus…
“The benefits music activity brings to the classroom and school communities are particularly significant and it benefits learning interaction with and in all of the key learning areas.
…hearing is the sense that is fully developed when we are born… it is essential for the development of human beings… if that very natural process is interrupted at school, that’s actually a very strange and artificial thing…
There are many simple songs that you can just start singing with the children and they can sing it back, or clap or stamp a steady beat or sing in a round. …to join in successfully, you have to listen very carefully and that critical listening is something that benefits all learning.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Sue French and Natalie Pierson reflect on their experiences as teachers and leaders of Aboriginal Education. Together, they suggest some approaches to supporting our students and schools.
“I think that Aboriginal Education is in two parts; one part is Aboriginal People and making sure all Aboriginal Peoples have all of the same opportunities as other Australians do… but it’s also about building understanding and knowledge throughout the community, and I believe that until we build that knowledge and respect throughout the wider community, long term very little will change. I think we will struggle and struggle and struggle until this lovely land of ours is free of fear and racism…
… For young Aboriginal teachers, I say, ‘focus on your craft and have a look at the things you need to do to get better at teaching’…
For schools, having a look at what’s mandated, what’s mandatory and what’s important? …What do staff already know? What is happening and what else can we do? It’s really important to do a little bit of an audit and evaluation of what we are doing and what’s working and then go from there…”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Sandra Rowan and Mary-Ellen Betts understand that wise assessment should inform good teaching using the NSW syllabuses.
“For our students, it would be nice for them to be learning new things because they have mastered their existing learning…
…assessment is an important part of teaching in that it acknowledges the skills and behaviours our students bring to the classroom… it shouldn’t be, okay, I assess on this week and then I never do it again for 5 weeks… sometimes we get caught up in gathering a whole lot of data that isn’t relevant against student learning outcomes…
…the NESA advice on assessment gives an excellent framework for what assessment can and should look like in our schools and it concerns me that at times we deviate, and collect numbers for the sake of numbers…”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Deb McPherson loves reading and writing. She suggests some approaches and texts to enthuse your students using the NSW 7-10 English syllabus.
“…the best time I had was in the classroom and the best time I had in the classroom was when I could see students hooked on reading and writing… It’s very exciting to be living in a world where texts have exploded… there is a huge range of texts we can explore and that’s very exciting for students. …Student choice needs to be there front and centre and it is essential that student choice is there.
… Getting into writing regularly and often and frequently, that is the key... it’s got to be a routine that you get into… to have writing in the classroom every day is really important.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Mary-Ellen Betts and Sandra Rowan explain what effective spellers do and how to teach spelling using the NSW English Syllabus.
“At the heart of the English syllabus is to make meaning… in order to communicate your message you want to be able to spell it so that people get the meaning you intend… Correct spelling is respecting your reader to ensure they get the message you intended.
… ‘good spellers’ implies that you either get it right or you don’t… ‘effective spellers’ have a range of strategies so that they will have a go at different words and exciting words but they then have ways to get to the correct spelling of it… W want kids who are willing to take a risk, who are willing to expand their vocabulary and try to use it without worrying about ‘am I a good speller?’… for kids to be effective spellers the first thing we need to get them to do is care about getting their message across to the reader.
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Lorraine Chaffer explains why she is passionate about teaching Geography and how to best implement the new syllabus.
“There is an exciting future out there are we are doing good things in the right direction… we need to think about the inquiry approach that is now a main feature of this new syllabus... The focus is to get students questioning and to make inquiry the basis of their learning.... When you look at the syllabus it’s easy to think that it’s a linear process… but we could be doing any part of that inquiry in any one lesson and as a result… questions may arise that lead us to another inquiry.
…Reflecting is really important... There is so much out there that we can choose … we should try for a really good balance of breadth and depth … go back to the topic focus and rethink what you’re doing in-depth and have you got the depth in the right places?”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Claudia Vera supports you to meet the needs of all your students.
“Just as with any other student, we are aspiring for excellence for the student... What we can do today in our classrooms today can really have an important impact on the lives of our students.
…apply the A.T.P. approach, that is, ask the person… know your student; that is the best place to start… it is helpful knowing the diagnosis but it is even more helpful to know the person… show that you value them and that their contribution matters… talk to other people who can help you…the Department has some really valuable tools that can support you.
…an adjustment is about giving access to learning… we refer to making adjustments as an opportunity… that student is also teaching you how to making teaching and learning accessible to every child that comes into your classroom.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Lloyd Bowen shares the hints and tips he has collected to improve classroom management through effective teaching in the Secondary school.
“When we’re in that room, we’re usually the only professional in that room. There is nowhere to hide… Even the most expert and experienced teachers would still have those days when it’s difficult... It’s never too early to ask for help.
…when a lot of effort has been put into making the lessons authentic and meaningful to students, classroom management is infinitely easier and we can use a lot of non-verbal things like… We can know the rooms we are in and control the energy in the room… All of the things I do in my class are not original… sometimes they work within a week and sometimes they work within a term...
…We need to focus on students as people first.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Sandra Rowan and Jenny Williams understand that some students are challenged by learning mathematics. They guide teachers to the essentials of teaching Mathematics using the NSW K-6 syllabus.
“Mathematics has got a bit of a bad rap… we have a challenge to get kids engaged in mathematics. We need to make connections to everyday things around them… and perseverance is important. Mathematics is about thinking, and having a go and trying to solve a problem.
…The new syllabus is asking students to be creative and critical problem solvers… There is a need to have an understanding of the mathematical concept. It’s very important that we give students a range of manipulatives to help them solve the problems… One of the essentials of teaching Mathematics is knowing your students.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Kathryn Bellach suggests some principles and practices to improve classroom management through effective teaching in the Primary school.
“For many teachers, classroom management is the thing that keeps them awake at night… we can actually put things in place and development them over time to make sure things are working for each student…
If one student needed help with reading, we would do everything we can to help them. If someone needs help to be a member of our class, then they need help too… usually, a lot of the great lessons comes towards the end of the unit, but of you run out of time then you don’t get to do the fun parts.
…You need to work as part of a team. Just because they are in your class does not mean they are only your student. There are people in your school who can help you.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Denis Fitzgerald is a teacher. He reflects on being in promotions positions in NSW Public Education. Denis thinks being a Head Teacher is one of the best roles in our system.
“One of my first feelings was of an inner sense of self-doubt but also knowing that I had to exude a sense of confidence and command of the role from the first day… when you turn up at your first school you think “can I really do this?”… you turn up in your faculty as a good teacher and aspire to be one of the better teachers in the faculty… The first idea was to get to know the school, and my faculty and also developing relationships with the other executives and of, course, the students… each combination of people are quite different.
You need to earn that capacity and the inclination for other people to follow you… The leadership principle that is in vogue now was not nearly as widespread. We had inspectors and a strong Department. A Department that would set values across the system and across and between our schools… they were the gel of our system.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts
Jenny Williams and Sandra Rowan explain why all students need to learn poetry. They help teachers to implement the poetry aspects of the NSW K-6 English syllabus.
“Poetry is best words, in the best order, about something important… Poetry improves vocabulary and … it’s a short text normally, that kids can manage because they can write briefly, rather than long essay type writing.
…Poetry is also about playing with words, and so we can have a lot of fun with words… We have a mandate to teach poetry in every stage… it's small manageable chunks, it’s often about emotion and so everyone can relate to it… The message of the poet can be very powerful.”
Note for listeners: This episode was originally recorded for the JPL Podcast, hence the references to the JPL Podcast throughout.
For information about contributors and the JPL Podcast, as well as Journal of Professional Learning articles and Centre for Professional Learning courses, please visit our website www.cpl.asn.au/podcasts