Merry Christmas, teachers.

The Australian Government recently passed legislation prohibiting children under 16 from accessing social media. Although it is still a year away from becoming law, it is another step towards preventing or at least limiting harm from these platforms.

Of course, the platforms themselves don’t cause harm–the end-users do a good job of that.

Some Australian schools have embraced a technology-free day. Students research using books. OMG! They also write first drafts of essays using paper and pens. What a great idea.

There’s innovation right there. Books don’t have all the answers, nor does your favourite search engine.

The big picture wouldn’t be complete without the ’T’ word–technology. Love it or curse it, we teachers need to work with it. It’s a marvel when it works as planned, a right pain in the butt when it doesn’t.

Today’s topic–synthesis–is where it all comes together. If you teach in Australia, you’re into the fourth term. Final assessments, reports, wrapping up loose ends, and setting up for next year all start piling up.

Where has 2024 gone? It’s October, and we’re on the (almost) downhill run to Christmas. End-of-year activities build up. Not the least are final assessments, grades, and reporting. Of course, you’ve kept copious records and data about your students' progress. Of course, you have.

Practising to proceed comes with some caveats. Foremost among them is querying what is important. We decide what to teach based on our student needs and curriculum priorities.

Questioning underpins our plans, fostering a sense of collaboration and shared responsibility.

The pinnacle of sports is representing your country at a World Cup or Olympics. It's a goal that is not just difficult but incredibly rare. The chances of reaching that goal are indeed low, to the point of being practically microscopic, underscoring the rarity of such an achievement.

There isn’t a teacher anywhere who isn’t organised. Some are more organised than others. Experienced teachers with plenty of miles on the clock are organised. Beginning teachers are also organised, but their organisation looks different from that of their more experienced colleagues.

Let me introduce you to my Noteworthy Index, a list of essential elements that we, as teachers, aspire to. These things we do, often without even realising it, significantly impact our students' learning experience.

How’s that engaging classroom coming along? Time constraints holding it up? If so, find time. Creating and maintaining an engaging learning environment is the best thing you can do as a teacher.

Maintaining a student’s focus throughout a school day is undeniably challenging. It’s a task that often ranks high among the difficult things teachers do. Some teachers seem to do it effortlessly, while others work at it. The struggle is real, and it's a challenge that many of us, as professional colleagues, can relate to.

Question time:

How do we teach so that all students learn?

Do they understand the concept we’ve been teaching?

Is there a foolproof method of measuring learning?

Be careful before diving into any answers because there are as many answers as there are teachers.

Understanding the various ways in which students learn is critical to effective teaching. We all have unique strengths and preferences when it comes to acquiring knowledge. Tailoring teaching methods to accommodate diverse learning styles can enhance student engagement, comprehension and retention.

Instilling good learning habits is what we, as educators, do. I say ‘learning habits’ because we can never hope to teach all there is to know. Our world changes at such a pace, keeping up with new knowledge is impossible.

For me, one of the best times of the school day was the 15 minutes before the final bell. Although that appears as though I was hanging out for the day to end, that is not the case.

That final 15 minutes sometimes contained more learning than the time preceding it. It was a time to ask how everyone had fared during the day.

Many posts ago, I spoke about gathering information. Our students do it in a variety of ways. Your teaching methods are the primary source. Students gather info from your demonstrations, displays, and discussions. How much do they retain?

Depends on their level of engagement, right? We can share stories about the student who disengages. How about the one who engages?

So, here we are, back at school for the start of Term 2 in some Australian states. Others have another week. The beginning of the winter term in Australia marks athletics season. In every school where I taught, running, jumping and throwing activities led to an Athletics Carnival towards the end of the term.

Depending on where you are in the world, your school is closed for Easter. Here in Australia, Easter marks the end of the first half of Semester One. It’s a good time to rebuild the energy levels after the rush of a new school year.

Ever pondered the 'chicken and egg' problem in the realm of creativity? Does composition follow comprehension, or is it the other way around? Which holds more significance? And what exactly do we mean by 'comprehend' and ‘compose'?

Comprehending equals understanding. Composing equals creating.