Hi everyone, it's Christie from My Mum, the Teacher here, and today I'm going to be sharing with you the reasons I have for making kids with ASD in my classes hand write the majority of their tasks, rather than use their devices to type up work, and why we all need to continue encouraging and developing our children's handwriting skills. 21st Century Literacy and Learning: Some may argue that in the age of technology we don't need to have such as strong focus on handwriting anymore - writing skills aren't that important since we have so many software programs that automatically edit ou ..read more

Working as a relief teacher, I need to have a full bag of tricks to keep the children motivated and engaged throughout the day. That's when some handy, no prep, 5 Minute Fillers come in handy!  Here are a few of my favourites that can be used across a number of year levels. Balance Children make a circle. Number the children off “one, two, one, two…”. Holding hands, ask the “number ones” to lean in and the “number twos” to lean outwards, can you all stay up standing? Switch around. Number Heads Two children sit on chairs in front of the whiteboard. Write a number behind each child and g ..read more

Preparing for NAPLAN can look very different from school to school for a number of reasons. Some schools take the teach to the test approach and others don't. There is a big focus on NAPLAN through the media and this puts vast amount of pressure on the government, schools, principals, teachers, parents and ultimately the children taking these tests. I have put together some ideas, strategies and resources to help teachers prepare their students for those somewhat dreaded 3 days.  Hi all! I am back on the Australian Teachers blog this time to help, hopefully, you in preparing your class f ..read more

Hi everyone, and welcome to 2017!! It's Christie from My Mum, the Teacher and this is my first post for the year, and I hope it will be one that people keep returning to as the dreaded 'school assembly' roles their way! The school assembly is one of those things that every (Primary) teacher knows they'll have to do at some point, and yet it always seems that you realise with one week to go that it's your turn to get your kids up and stage and perform something meaningful and engaging! Talk about your tough gig! Even the experts warn against working with children LOL! So, what can you d ..read more

Hi everyone, it's Alison from Teaching Maths with Meaning. I'm taking this opportunity to introduce myself to you all and tell you a little about myself! I live in country Victoria, Australia and am currently relief teaching as I am on family leave. I started teaching in 2005 and haven't looked back - I love the profession and have definitely missed being in the classroom while at home with my little one. My husband is a winemaker and or nearly 2 year old son and lively border collie Lexi love being outside and helping in the vineyard. I love living in the country where life is a lit ..read more

With the influx of new readers over here on our blog, we have decided to re-introduce ourselves. Today it's Casey's turn! Why hello there! My name is Casey and I am the teacher-mama blogger over at Little Lifelong Learners. I have been blogging since I first started teaching back in 2012! My little corner of the internet has evolved a lot, particularly over the last few years as I became a Mum for the very first time. When I first started blogging, my husband and I had just gotten married and I was a fresh graduate who felt very inspired by the amazing teachers who blogged about thei ..read more

Happy New Year everyone and may 2017 be amazing for us all.We have so many new followers that we thought we would take the opportunity over the next eight weeks to re introduce ourselves and let you know a little bit about each of us. I'm Paula from Paula's Place and have been teaching for a looonnnng time! I love my job, it is different every day and we never never stop learning. I grew up in NSW in a town called Murwillumbah. I went to Teachers College in NSW too. I started teaching in the mid 80s (yes a loooonng time ago) and taught in a large country school in Queensland. I ..read more

Hi Everyone! It's Christie from My Mum, the Teacher writing our Christmas blog post for 2016! Teaching is now recognised as one the most stressful jobs one can do. According to Sir Cary Cooper, it is consistently in the top three most stressful professions - "the hours are long and antisocial, the workload is heavy and there is change for change’s sake from various governments". So don't feel bad when people carry on about teachers getting soooooooo many holidays each year. We are given these for a reason - that being to rest, regenerate and re-cooperate!  Studies have been condu ..read more