The Learning Success Blog

There have been various reports over the past few years about the shortfall in technically qualified workforces in Australia. These shortfalls have led leaders in STEM-based careers to predict that Australia might be unable to compete on the global scientific and technological forefront.

The solution to this problem, however, is simple. Parents and teachers need to focus on getting children interested in STEM subjects from an early age. In doing so they can help to create a generation that can compete and contribute on a global level.

There was a Covid outbreak at a school near where I live.

A lot of the teachers at that school had to isolate. Added to that were the staff who hadn’t returned to school because they’re unvaccinated. This created a drain on the pool of casual teachers in the local area.

I work for LearnFast but I like to keep my hand in by doing a little casual teaching work for the department. So when all the casual teachers in my area were covering the Covid affected classes, I got a call from my old school which is also close to where I live.

Artificial intelligence and other machine learning principles may be taking over a plethora of industries, but there will always be room for design. Within this industry, there are a few future creative roles, including those of augmented reality designer, fusionist, and intelligent system designer. 

Creativity, originality, and vision are three elements that are usually present in youngsters with a flair for arts-related topics but when it comes to design, there are key principles children can learn so they can aim to create quality work with a real value from the time they are very young.

After all, ‘design for life’ - lasting design that has value in the real world - is considered a universal aim for designers from a wide array of industries.

Teaching is a responsible profession, where you act as a candelabrum for your students and guide them on the path of learning. Your sense of responsibility fuels your enthusiasm to teach your students in the best manner. So, every morning you enter your classroom enthusiastically, ready to serve your students.

But, many times, your enthusiasm can wither away within moments as you find your students not showing the desired interest in learning, despite your best efforts to teach them well. You feel disheartened when you watch them engaging in mischief, lacking attention and creating noise even when you are teaching.

Under such circumstances, you often engage in self-doubt and start thinking that you lack appropriate teaching calibre. However, this is not true! In almost every school and every classroom, teachers face similar problems from their students. So, cheer up, you are a great teacher, and deep inside your heart, you know that too!

Are we safe? This is the biggest question the pandemic makes us ask every time we step out of our house. We doubt every person we meet and surface we touch, are they the carrier of the deadly infection- Covid-19 ? This doubt stimulates us to take the best safety precautions for ourselves.

But, if you are a teacher, you’ll have to take care of your own safety as well as your students’ safety as the schools begin to reopen in some parts of the world. Although this is going to be a really challenging task, some effective tips can make it simpler for you.

We know that children are notorious, they are always making plans to break the rules you make. So, making rules for them is not going to be of help in this situation. You’ll have to make some special arrangements so that your students have no choice but to follow every safety precaution. These tips provide you with some arrangements that you can make in your classroom and ensure safe learning for your students. Now, let’s discuss them one by one:

As an educator who specialised in teaching children to read, I tried lots of different methods. Some worked with some children and some worked with others but there wasn’t one that I could say was super effective.

For 3 years I ran a reading group before school which we called Early Birds for the children who needed more help with literacy. We staffed the program with parents and volunteers and every morning before school we would see up to 15 or 16 children for a twenty-minute lesson, one on one. And when we did that, we started to see the children make progress in their reading. 

Something had to be done!

So, with a vote of 92-3 the Alabama state parliament enacted the Alabama Literacy Act beginning in 2020 to ensure that every child was reading at grade level by Year 3.

They nominated a task force to recommend a comprehensive core reading program and assessments to be used by local schools and that job fell to Tim Solley.

Solley is a kindly, bespectacled, grey-haired man who looks like he could be your kid’s soccer coach. In fact, he is a leading educational advocate and the Assistant Superintendent of the Madison School District which comprises 17 different schools.

Solley takes up the story:

Coroni Village.  That’s what my 5 year old granddaughter calls the world outside her family’s Sydney apartment, where they have been confined since the COVID-19 shutdown started.

I have no idea how she came up with that expression. No doubt it has to do with the number of times she has heard about Coronavirus. Both she and her older sister are doing school-at-home. So are their two cousins. 

“School-at-home” is a better description than “home schooling” for the situation most students are in now, with their schools shut or their parents deciding to keep them at home. That’s because “home schooling” is a deliberate choice by parents who take on the role of teachers. The “school-at-home” parents did not make that choice.

The vast majority of parents managing “school-at-home” are not teachers. They have no teaching expertise and are feeling uncomfortable being thrust into this role, even with the best remote learning support and resources from their kids’ schools. Plus, many parents are doing their regular work at home as well.

That sounds pretty tough – for the parents and the kids.

What's artificial intelligence got to do with learning and education? Actually, as it turns out quite a lot and in the future it may have an even bigger impact on how teachers teach and how students learn.

I was fortunate to attend the Australian Tutoring Association 2019 annual conference in Melbourne, where I heard educator Moya Gibb Smith give a presentation about the role of artificial intelligence (or AI as its generally known) in education and learning and how it's going to affect students, teachers, and tutors.

Today, Moya joins me on the podcast to explain her first experience of AI when she worked as Learning Support Teacher in a New South Wales country school, and how she sees it developing in the future.

Listen to the interview

My brother, a primary school Principal, told me he often noticed the kids who did well at school had families who were very engaged in their education and in the school community. 

That's not to say children can't achieve at school if their families are not involved.

But it's an interesting observation.

So I thought I would explore the impact of family involvement on a special category of students - those struggling with their learning.  And I spoke with Anne-Marie O'Hagan, a former teacher and now a tutor working with struggling students for her perspective on this issue.

We recorded our conversation for an episode of The Learning Capacity Podcast.