How To Make Sure A Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Is Right For Your Class

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Teachers Pay Teachers is filled with some really fabulous, high quality and engaging teacher resources. But how can you make sure the lovely resources are right for your students and your teaching situation? Here’s a few ways to make sure any Teachers Pay Teachers resource is right for your class.

 
How To Make Sure A Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Is Right For Your Class. A Galarious Goods blog post exploring ways teachers can make sure they're purchasing the best resources for their students and their teaching style
 

1. Use the Grade Filters

When you do a search on Teachers Pay Teachers, there are a number of ways to filter down your results. One of the easiest ways to find what’s right for your class is to use the grade filter - you’ll find it on the left hand side of the page when you’re using the desktop version.

One thing that’s really great about the grade filter is that you can use it to look for more than one grade. This is perfect if you’re teaching a multi-age or composite class or if you have students who need to work up or down a grade level. You can also check out grade levels which are close to yours to see if the material will work for your students.

 
How To Make Sure A Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Is Right For Your Class. A Galarious Goods blog post exploring ways teachers can make sure they're purchasing the best resources for their students and their teaching style
 

2. Read the Description

This is the must read section of any Teachers Pay Teachers resource listing! The resource description - under the photographs and any bundle listings - usually includes a brief description of the resource, then more details which you can use to decide if it’s the right resource for you.

Each seller includes slightly different elements in their descriptions, but in a Galarious Goods description, you’ll find an introductory paragraph about the resource, then an extended list explaining what is included and some information about whether it uses US or UK English spelling and the number of pages included. This allows you to reflect on whether the resource has the activities you would like to complete or if the format will work for your class.

 
How To Make Sure A Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Is Right For Your Class. A Galarious Goods blog post exploring ways teachers can make sure they're purchasing the best resources for their students and their teaching style
 

3. Check Out the Thumbnails and Watch the Video

So, you’ve read the description but you really want to get the feel of the resource. This is where the thumbnail photos and the video preview - if included - are super helpful. You can find these resources underneath the main cover photograph - if there’s a video, it will be the second ‘image’, and the thumbnail photographs will come after that.

Again each seller does things in their own way, but many sellers will take photos of their resources printed out, so you can get an idea of what they might look like in the classroom. Any included preview videos can also help you get a better idea of how to use the classroom or an overview of what is included in the resource.

 
 

4. Look Through the Preview

Did you know that Teachers Pay Teacher sellers can add previews to their resources? These previews can be a great way of checking to see if the resource is the right thing for your class. Many sellers highlight included pages in their resource, allowing you to check for text density or if the design will be appealing to the age level you teach. Some sellers will include an introductory note or highlight elements which they think will help you as a teacher, while others will include a full range of the included activities so you can browse through on your own.

The preview is hands down the most useful part of a Teachers Pay Teachers resource listing and it’s well worth taking the time to look through it. Don’t forget to use the little zoom tool (the addition and subtraction symbols at the top) to look closer if you need to!

 
 

5. Ask a Question

Did you know you can ask a question on ANY Teachers Pay Teachers resource? Just above the resource description, there’s a little link bar with Q&A which will take you to all the asked questions and allow you to ask your own questions. This is perfect if you’re still not sure if the resource is right for you and you haven’t found your answers in the previews - a seller might be able to give you the little more information you need or direct you to a blog post with more info.

When you’re asking the questions, make sure you give the seller a bit of time to get back to you (after all, we’re all around the world and we do have to sleep at some point!) and make sure to check the box so you get an email when the seller responds. Unfortunately replies can’t be threaded, so you may need to ask another question if you need further clarification - that’s the best way to make sure the seller sees the question!

Just one last point - if you have a question about a specific resource, ask on that resource page or include the title of it if you’re asking the question at the general ‘Ask A Question’ page for each seller - otherwise it’s hard for the seller to know which of their resources you’re asking about!

 
How To Make Sure A Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Is Right For Your Class. A Galarious Goods blog post exploring ways teachers can make sure they're purchasing the best resources for their students and their teaching style
 

I hope this helps you to find the right resource for your classroom!

 
 
 
 

5 Times Teachers Should Contact Parents (and 5 Times They Might Consider It)

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Parent contact can feel like just another thing to do in a busy teacher life, but it can be a vital step to building good classroom relationships with students and their families. Here’s some times when you should get in contact with parents and carers and times when you might consider it

 
5 Times Teachers Should Contact Parents (and 5 Times They Might Consider It) : A blog post exploring times when teachers should reach out to parents and carers and when they might consider reaching out.
 

Five Times You SHOULD Contact Parents and Carers

1. An Introductory Contact

If you don’t have an opportunity to see parents face to face or you’re new to a class, a quick introductory email or message can be a great way to establish relationships with students’ families. These messages don’t need to be long - just a few sentences will let parents know who you are and how to get in contact with you. This can also be a great way to establish contact boundaries - letting parents know when you’ll be able to talk with them or that you’ll restrict email responses to working times.

2. When Parents or Carers Contact You

You absolutely don’t need to respond to parents or carers right away, but you should respond to any emails you receive. It can be as simple as thanking them for their email or asking them to set up a meeting time through the school office, or it might be a more in-depth response. Responding to parent contact allows parents to know that you are aware of any concerns or information they’ve shared with you - plus, it’s just good manners.

3. When Something is Wrong, Different or Changing

If students are demonstrating continual poor behaviour or disengagement from school work, a gentle message home gives families a heads up and prevents surprises when report cards or parent interviews come around. Contact with parents can also open up communication if something different is happening at home or if school and families need to work together to pursue further investigations.

If something is changing in the classroom, giving parents a heads up can prevent misinformation or anxiety at home. This might include changes in days for specialist lessons (especially if uniform changes are required and parents need to consider laundry), changes in teachers or new behaviour management systems.

4. For Positive Events

You’ve just finished a really great unit of work and you’ve got a culminating event. You’d love parents to come along, so you let students know they can invite them. But . . . students are not always the best carriers of information. Things get muddled and confused or just forgotten. A quick email home lets parents know the time, the place, what they’ll see - and you can let parents know if you’ll be taking pictures or videos to share with them if they’re not able to make it.

5. If You Want Family Engagement

Family engagement comes in many different shapes and sizes, from volunteering at the school fete to being members of parents committees to helping kids at home. But if you want family engagement of any kind, you have to communicate with them. If you want parents to read with the students, they need to know this. If you want parents to fill out book logs, they need to know. If you need volunteers for an excursion, they need to know - but they’ll also be more likely to volunteer if you’ve put in the work to communicate with them regularly.

For learning related engagement, don’t forget to explain the aims of the activity. If you can’t explain to parents why you need them to do something, you might need to consider why you’re asking them to do it in the first place.

 
5 Times Teachers Should Contact Parents (and 5 Times They Might Consider It) : A blog post exploring times when teachers should reach out to parents and carers and when they might consider reaching out.
 

Five Times You MIGHT Contact Parents and Carers

1. After Classroom Testing

This can vary depending on your school’s philosophy around classroom testing, but for schools which regularly move students through reading levels, spelling levels or other levelled programs, letting parents know about progress allows them to celebrate those small achievements. This doesn’t have to be a big email - a simple “Yay! Joe moved onto Level 13 books today!” would let parents know where their child is at - and that you consider it an achievement to be celebrated.

2. With Positive Stories

Has a student done something particularly well that day? Or have they shown determination, hard work or great behaviour over a period of time? Let their family know about it! A positive phone call or email home leaves everyone feeling good, lets families know what’s happening in the classroom and creates a positive foundation for working between home and school.

3. With Event Reminders

Is something coming up soon at school? An excursion? Swim lessons? After school event? A quick email home with the details prompts the memories of parents and carers, makes sure that nothing important is missed and opens the door for any questions parents may have. This is particularly helpful for parents who aren’t always comfortable navigating school spaces.

4. A Weekly/Monthly/Term update

A regular newsletter style update allows parents to know what has been happening in the classroom and what is happening in the future. It’s a good opportunity to include any reminders, to celebrate classroom achievements and to build those positive relationships. While some schools have systems which make this easy to produce regularly, you can also make it a quick and easy thing once or twice a term - at the beginning of term to share what you’ll be exploring and at the end of term to share a few class achievements and photos if you are able.

5. When Starting a New Learning Unit or Topic

Letting parents and carers know about new topics or learning units is a great way to just touch base with them. But it can also be a good way for students and your class as a whole to engage in new knowledge or material. You never know when the families of your class have experience with a topic, or can offer a book, photo or other information which will make your learning topic richer. This also doesn’t need to be over the top - you can restrict it to topics which you’re really excited about, topics where you know families can make contributions or topics which have an excursion attached.

 
5 Times Teachers Should Contact Parents (and 5 Times They Might Consider It) : A blog post exploring times when teachers should reach out to parents and carers and when they might consider reaching out.
 

Thanks to all the parents, carers and teachers (and teachers who are parents!) who offered their thoughts on parent contact. When do you contact the families of your students? Let me know in the comments.

 
 
 
 

Starting a New Teaching Job on a Limited Budget

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When I started teaching full time I had very little money. I’d done relief work and one short contract before taking on this full time role. And it was a contract for one term only - I had no idea whether it would be extended or not. So there wasn’t a lot of money to spend on setting up a classroom.

With the ABC News article about a new teacher spending hundreds of dollars on preparing for the first day of school, I thought it was worthwhile looking at how you can set up a warm, welcoming and prepared for learning classroom when you’ve got a limited budget.

 
Starting a new teaching job on a limited budget. You don't need to spend all your money to set up a warm, welcoming and ready to learn classroom. Read this teaching blog post to find ideas for new teachers setting up their first classroom while keep…
 

The Bare Minimum

What’s the bare minimum you need for a new teaching job? It depends from person to person, but my bare minimum would include a broad brimmed hat for outside, some sort of planner and a pencil case or two.

It’s worth investing in the hat as a piece of safety equipment (and get a sun safe one over a fashionable one) - protecting your skin on playground duty, during sports events or those times when you need to get outside is 100% worth it. 

You can completely plan on your computer . . . but computers and school computer systems aren’t always reliable. A physical planner (or even a notebook) can give you a place to jot down a few notes when you have to fall back onto the old technology. Having a pencil case with some of your favourite pens (well named so they’ve got a chance of getting back to you!) and scissors and glue also gives you tools for any occasion. A spare pencil case with spare pencils, erasers and a sharpener can help for students who don’t have the tools they need to learn.

Finding Free Resources

Looking for more for your classroom, but your budget is spent? Ask if your school has a resource room or teacher resources as part of the library. I remember discovering the poster drawer in our school library - all the posters you could even need to decorate a room. The resource room was also filled with maths tools and science tools - all free for my class to borrow.

You can also use the school library for books in your classroom or talk to your local public library about whether they’ve got special conditions for teacher borrowing.

Don’t forget about free resources on Teachers Pay Teachers - searching for poster and narrowing the search to ‘free’ gave me more than 50 000 results. Bloggers might also have free resources available by signing up with their email list - like the Galarious Goods resource library!

Buying Affordably

What do you really need - or would really like - in your classroom? It’s worthwhile reflecting on this before you spend a lot of money. Then look for ways to buy these items affordably.

Op shops or thrift shops are GREAT for finding treasures. They’re especially reliable for books (and if you have one of the amazing Lifeline Bookfests near you, it’s even better) and you can easily build a small second hand collection, saving money for the special books. It’s also worthwhile looking at some of the bigger op shops for furniture - I found a great second hand bookshelf one year which I painted and put in my classroom. Don’t forget to look at their homewares or bric a brac or toy sections for other possible treasures.

Keep an eye on back to school sales in big shops like Kmart, Big W, Aldi and Office Works to find bits and pieces - but use catalogues and lists to stop overbuying!

If you’re looking to use fabric for displays or to cover furniture, choose your fabric carefully. Poplin - which is a great, light fabric is often quite affordable, as is some of the homeware fabrics for furniture. It’s worth browsing some of the lower cost fabric shops like East Coast Fabrics or The Remnant Warehouse in Australia for specials too.

 
Starting a new teaching job on a limited budget. You don't need to spend all your money to set up a warm, welcoming and ready to learn classroom. Read this teaching blog post to find ideas for new teachers setting up their first classroom while keep…
 

Buying Thoughtfully

Are you interested in having a themed classroom? One way to achieve this on a limited budget is to pick a very broad theme - it might be rainbow or colourful, nature or the colour blue. You can add these touches to the classroom without having to go all out and it will still bring your theme to life. And it allows you to make changes as the years go by and trends change.

Falling in love with teaching ideas and items on Instagram? Stop and think about whether those teaching ideas will really work for you, in the classroom space you have and with the grade level you have. It’s ok to let ideas go through to other teachers! Also ask yourself if you can put purchases off for a little bit - can you buy a fancy lanyard later in the year when you have some pay saved? Can you make a list of things you’d like to add to the classroom later on once you know your students better?

Don’t forget - classes change all the time in the first weeks of school! In my first term, I went from a Year 4 class to a Year 3/4 class once Day 8 numbers came in. The next year I moved from 6/7 to a straight 7 and the year after that from 6/7 to 5/6 - I never took a class list as set in stone! Unfortunately this is also the time when teachers might also lose their new contracts or may be moved to other schools. Be prepared for any possibility in the first weeks of school.

What Really Matters?

In the end, it isn’t what is on your walls or floors which really matters - it’s what you’re teaching. My son’s prep teacher had very little classroom decoration on the first day of school. Instead she filled her walls with student work - celebrating everything they were doing and rotating it as new work was produced. Students loved taking their parents to see their latest work - they were so proud of what they’d achieved.

It’s totally ok to have the bare minimum when it comes to decoration and to allow your students to create the classroom space. It’s also ok to save your money for resources which will support you as a teacher, whether they’re resources which support your weaker subjects (I always needed more science support!), resources which make your life a little easier when you need them day after day or resources which bring a particular book or subject to life.

What are your back to school savings tips? Share them in the comments!

 
 
 
Read More!
5 Ways to Introduce Reading and Books into your classroom at the beginning of the school year. A back to school literacy and literature post for all teachers.
5 Ways to Introduce Reading and Books at the Beginning of the School Year
5 Galarious Goods Back to School Posts and Why I Love Them
5 Galarious Goods Back to School Posts and Why I Love Them
Starting a new teaching job on a limited budget. You don't need to spend all your money to set up a warm, welcoming and ready to learn classroom. Read this teaching blog post to find ideas for new teachers setting up their first classroom while keeping to a budget. A Galarious Goods Blog Post
Starting a New Teaching Job on a Limited Budget
Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom. A beginning of the school year post about prioritising reading in your classroom as a teacher. A Galarious Goods blog post
Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom
5 Great Reads for Teachers Setting Goals. A great collection of links for teachers beginning a new school year or a new term. Make effective goals to help your teacher growth. A Galarious Goods blog post
5 Great Reads for Teachers Setting Goals
5 Ways Teaching is Like the Beach. A look at how you can thrive and enjoy teaching - like the beach - and take care of yourself at the same time. A Galarious Goods blog post.
5 Ways Teaching is Like the Beach
Writing skills and expectations before goal setting. Don't jump straight into making writing goals with your students. Take a moment to make sure they understand what is expected of them and how they can achieve that. A Galarious Goods blog post
Writing Skills and Expectations Before Goal Setting
More Back to School Blog Posts to Enjoy
More Back to School Blog Posts to Enjoy
Back to School Blog Posts to Enjoy
Back to School Blog Posts to Enjoy
5 First Day of School Blog Posts to Inspire You
5 First Day of School Blog Posts to Inspire You
 

So You Want To Be a Teachers Pay Teachers Seller?

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Maybe you love creating engaging resources for your classroom which your students adore. Or you’ve had great success with a particular resource which has all your colleagues talking. Or you’ve got a bit of a following on Instagram and those followers are super enthusiastic when you show them your latest resources.

It’s time to monetise that interest and passion and get on Teachers Pay Teachers.

But - wait a moment - how can you make sure you're doing the right things when it comes to an unfamiliar venture? How can you avoid some big mistakes when it comes to Teachers Pay Teachers?

 
So you want to be a Teachers Pay Teachers seller? Some advice and tips to help you avoid common mistakes of new TpT Sellers. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is probably the biggest educational marketplace around. It attracts resource creators from around the world, creating everything from high quality, technological wonders, to engaging hands on classroom materials to worksheets quickly whipped up when a need was recognised.

If makes sense that a teacher who is passionate about creating resources would want to be involved in TpT. But, as a Teacher Seller with a number of years of experience, I’ve seen a rapid increase of new sellers who are unprepared, unprofessional, or - worst of all - are breaking the law as they step into the TpT world.

The good news is that there are ways to avoid that! Here’s some tips to help you avoid the most common pitfalls when it comes to TpT!

1. Check Your Employment Conditions

You’ve just made a new resource and you’re ready to post it on TpT . . . but wait! Does your job allow you to do that?

Your employer - the state, school district, religious educational authority or private school - probably had you sign a contract when you started teaching. Some of those contracts prohibit you from taking on other work. Others require you to get permission - from your Principal or the district or someone else - to engage in other work. Other employers may regard the resources you make to be their property, so you aren’t allowed to sell them. Or they might ask you to ensure that you restrict all TpT work to personal computers and personal time.

This is a really important thing to consider when you’re thinking about becoming a seller. Selling on TpT will take a lot of work - it can be years before you replace an annual income. You don’t want to be out of a guaranteed income because you unwittingly broke the terms of your contract.

Takeaway: Check your employment conditions and see if you can be a seller - and if you need permission to do so.

2. Register your Business

(Note: I’m approaching this tip from the Australian perspective - but it’s important to check if you need to do this if you live in other parts of the world!)

Did you know that you need to register your business name in Australia - unless you’re operating under your own name? The good news is that it’s a really easy online process and it’s very affordable. (You can read more here)

You might think that it wouldn’t apply to you if your business was only a hobby. It’s important to know that if you intend to make any profit, if you regularly carry out activities in the business - even setting up as a seller on TpT! - can qualify you as a business.

(You will also have tax obligations for any income you make from TpT - an accountant is the best person to talk to for more information)

Takeaway: Register your business if you’re required to - and make sure you keep receipts and paperwork!

 
So you want to be a Teachers Pay Teachers seller? Some advice and tips to help you avoid common mistakes of new TpT Sellers. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

3. Check Your Trademarks and Copyright

These are probably the biggest errors made by new sellers - and the ones which can get you in the deepest trouble.

First a note on terminology - copyright is the legal right for the creator of text, songs, images, photographs, films etc to determine who reproduces that work. Trademarks are symbols or words which are registered as representing a company or organisation - and only that company or organisation can decide who uses them. For example - the words and images of The Very Hungry Caterpillar are covered by copyright law, Eric Carle’s name is trademarked and cannot be used under trademark law.

New sellers may break copyright laws if they don’t take care with the images they use in their products. The creator (or owner, in some cases) of the image decides who can use the image. This means you cannot just save images from Google, from other websites or from social media to use in your resources without permission. This also applies to free resources.

(If you’re looking for images you can use, check out the fabulous and affordable clip artists on TpT or search for public domain images (make sure you check the terms of use for those images) or seek permission from the copyright owner)

As for trademarks . . . well lots of things are trademarked. Many popular brands are trademarked and cannot be used within resources. Author’s names might be trademarked and many educational programs are also trademarked. There are some great resources in the TpT forums and TpT University which will give you more information as well as searchable registers - but unless your work is completely your own, make sure you do your research. Trademark owners have the right to challenge your work and have it removed - and they often do.

Takeaway: Have a good understanding of copyright and trademarks - and do your research when you create new resources.

4. Be Original

You’ve seen a fabulous looking TpT resource on social media or in a shop and you know you can make something just like it. You’ll just change the words a bit and make it with images you like . . .

Don’t. Do. It.

Copying another seller is a deeply unethical thing to do. TpT is also a relatively small community and other sellers (and buyers) will notice if you do this - especially if you do it regularly. You’re also not producing the best possible resources - the best resources come from your own imagination, your own research and your own experiences.

Takeaway: Be your own fabulous self - it’s the best way to create resources and develop an audience.

5. Be a Professional - Treat your TpT shop like the business it is

It’s important, when it comes to TpT, to behave like you would in any other secondary income job. Real teachers will spend real money in your TpT store and by behaving as a business owner, you show them the respect they deserve as your customers.

What does that mean for you? It means being honest and just in your dealings with buyers - make sure the resources are of a high quality; take care to follow copyright and trademark laws; offer work that is original and thoughtful.

It means being kind to your buyers by letting them know what they are getting for their money. The best (and easiest) way to do this is by having comprehensive descriptions and previews of your work. (This is also good business sense! People are more likely to buy when they know what they’re getting!)

It means pricing appropriately. Do some research around pricing; read posts in the forums or in various Facebook groups. Ask a TpT friend for advice if you’re really stuck. Think about what value your resource has to the buyer, rather than how much time you put into it (especially in the beginning when everything takes a loooong time). Follow TpT guidelines on free resources and sales.

And - a note on freebies. Don’t use TpT as a host for your free resources. They make the money to employ staff and maintain the website through sales. A percentage of $0 is always going to be $0. If you only want to offer free resources, create your own blog or website or Facebook page or email list where you can give them away.

Takeaway: Treat your TpT shop as a business - even if you have limited time to work in it. Your behaviour reflects on you.

 
 
 
 

How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party

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I have been wanting to throw a Harry Potter birthday party for years. And with my Harry Potter loving son turning seven, I finally got to bring all my party ideas to life.

As the party finished and we attacked the clean up, I realised how much my teaching background had helped to make the party a success. Here’s some ways it helped me - and you can use your teaching knowledge to throw an excellent party.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

1. Being Prepared

Much like I collect random ideas for teaching resources, I spent a lot of time collecting ideas for the party. I kept a Pinterest board of inspiration, returned to my well-thumbed Harry Potter story and reference books, made detailed lists (and more lists) and had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted before the creating began.

This is the kind of ongoing preparation which can be super helpful in the classroom. Using pinterest or other note taking resources can help you keep track of any ideas you come across. Making lists as you go, and referring to source material - whether it’s books or websites or videos - can help you create effective learning units.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

2. Being Flexible in My Planning

I really, really wanted a slime station for this Harry Potter party - it was the perfect way for a group of curious 6 and 7 year olds to explore ‘potions’. But - like lesson preparation going askew - I couldn’t get any of the safe recipes I found to work. I didn’t want to use ingredients which would require heavy adult supervision, so I needed to get to work finding a solution. It took a range of materials, several hours of testing, quite a number of absolute failures . . . and some barely remembered chemistry knowledge from high school, but I finally got there.

In the classroom, we have to be ready to admit when something isn’t working - and be prepared to adjust what we’re doing, do further research into the topic, or throw it out and try something different. We’re only doing our students a disservice if we stay inflexible, if we’re not willing to move on from something which isn’t working.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

3. Using What We Have

“You’ll have a Sorting Hat, won’t you?” a friend asked about a week and a half before the party.

Oh. Right. About that . . . .

No. I hadn’t planned a Sorting Hat. But this was a party based on the first book alone (so we can hold other parties in other years if we want to!), so a Sorting Hat would be an excellent addition. It turns out that a cheap straw hat from the discount shop can be combined with a couple of pieces of paper, a stapler, some felt . . . and a lot of glue and paint to make a great Sorting Hat.

Knowing what I had available at home (everything except the hat) and having a pretty good idea of what I could do with the tools and supplies I had (glue and felt together are rather magical) allowed me to bring the Sorting Hat to life. The same principles apply in our classrooms. It’s good to know what we have available to us - whether it’s books, physical supplies in our rooms or resource rooms, technology apps and programs or just the knowledge we’ve picked up over the years - and to know how we can use them in different ways.

How can we use what we have better? By keeping it organised and up to date, keeping lists of books and materials and making notes of things which work well in the classroom or information we get from professional development sessions. And by taking a little time to learn how to use the tools we have - whether it’s science equipment, technology tools or digital resources. It takes a little investment to start with, but will save you big time in the long term.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

4. Name Everything

While we did traditional gift bags, we kept them small (bookmarks, a slime recipe and a treat) and supplemented them with wands and the slime they created and the plants they potted as part of the party activities. With all these objects flying around (not literally, we’re not really magic!) and more than 20 guests, only 1 thing - a wand - was left behind at the end of the party. How did we achieve this?

Well, we did have some brilliant parents who kept an eye on everything, but we also had a space for names on absolutely everything. We used sticky labels on the plant pots (with another sticky label for plant care instructions). We hot glued tags onto the wands. We had a handful of permanent markers at hand to write names on the slime. We had permanent markers everywhere for naming!

We also had guests who were excellent at writing their names on things (thanks to their teachers!). Getting students to write their names on their work - no matter how old they are - makes life so much easier in the classroom. Being able to match a student with their work, without needing complex handwriting recognition or standing holding the lost work at the front of the room, makes life better for everyone.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

5. Don’t Forget Your Classroom Management Tricks

Earlier, I mentioned the slime station. Slime. Slime ingredients including glue, glitter and food colouring. And 20-odd six and seven year olds (and a few siblings) with varying levels of reading mastery when it came to the instructions - even the visual instructions I made.

They clearly needed adult help, and - as the current slime expert in the house - I was the best placed to offer it. Despite their beautiful manners and behaviour, it was occasionally chaotic. In the midst of the chaos, I remembered my son telling me about the call and response chants his teachers use. I asked one of the guests for a quick reminder of the chant, used it . . . and wow, I had the calm I needed to organise the next steps for everyone involved. (Again, these kids have GREAT teachers)

We use our claps and chants and gestures because they work. Not all the time, and they can definitely become overused, but they can also give teachers and students lovely little pauses where we can all breathe and take a moment to consider what comes next. It’s definitely worth teaching a few to your students - you never know when you might need them - or someone else will benefit from them.

 
How to Use Teacher Knowledge to Throw an Excellent Birthday Party. Explore how teacher skills helped me throw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for my son and his friends. #galariousgoods
 

Now to apply everything I’ve learned to the next party. My 3 year old is considering themes as we speak . . . I wonder if 6 months will be long enough to prepare?!

 
 
 
 

Finding Communities to Support Us as Teachers

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What does a community of support look like when you’re a teacher? How does a community like that help you learn? How does it lift you on those hardest of days? How does it challenge you? And why is a community so important?

 
Finding Communities to Support Us as Teachers. An exploration of the importance of teaching communities and an invitation to join a new Australian/New Zealand teaching community. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

When I started teaching, most of our teaching communities existed ‘in person’ - the community of other teachers in our school, the other teachers you meet at professional development opportunities, your friends from university.

The online teacher support space was very different from how it is today. Facebook and Twitter were fledgling sites, with invitations and limited reach. Yahoo groups were clunky things and message boards had all sorts of restrictive rules.

At that point, I found my online teaching community through blogs. Blogging allowed me to reach out and beyond the teaching community of South East Queensland to make teaching friends around the world. It allowed me to discover new ideas and new ways of teaching from the comfort of my home. Through comments on the blogs of others and eventually my own blog, I could ask questions, share what I was doing in my own classroom and clarify my own opinions about teaching and learning.

As technology has improved, we’ve been able to connect as teachers better than ever. We can find teachers everywhere; teachers who are passionate about different topics - from flexible seating to reader’s workshop to integrating STEM. We can still find people through blogs, but also on Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Instagram and more.

Why Are Teaching Communities Important?

For me, a teaching community reminds me that I’m a lifelong learner - that there’s always more in this world to explore and apply. I can follow a tweet to a blog post to academic studies to teachers in a group discussing how something looks in their classroom and I’m better for the experience.

Teaching communities can also be places of support when things aren’t going right. When we can talk about teaching issues in safe teaching communities, there’s usually someone else who’s been in a similar position and can offer advice.

A great online teaching community is also a place of celebration. A place where you can talk about the lesson which kept every student engaged, the elusive ah-ha moments we all chase or those rare days when you manage to clean your teacher’s desk and get out the door before dark!

 
 
 
 

Why I Won't Share Anti-Parent Teacher Memes (and you shouldn't either)

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There’s a popular type of meme you might see on teaching focused Facebook and Instagram pages or shared by teachers you know. They make fun of the ‘stupid questions’ parents ask. They state that the work of parenting is only being done by teachers. They portray all parents as neglectful, aggressive, quick to jump to the side of the child and lying about the behaviour of their child. The worst go out of the way to mock the home situations of their students or engage in racist stereotypes.

These memes get shared a lot, which is great for the algorithms of the pages which share them. But I won’t share them. And you - as a teaching professional - shouldn’t share them either.

 
5 Great Reads for Teachers Setting Goals. A great collection of links for teachers beginning a new school year or a new term. Make effective goals to help your teacher growth. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

Memes can be incredibly funny. They can connect the seemingly unconnectable (I’m personally very fond of popular culture meets Socrates memes). They can be topical and thoughtful.

But they can also be cruel and hateful. They can make broad generalisations. And they can fracture relationships instead of building them.

An Anti-Parent Atmosphere

So many of the anti-parent teacher memes embrace an us and them narrative. They place teachers as all-knowing and infalible, while parents are portrayed as ignorant and unwelcome.

Some of this is a result of the media and governments stirring up anti-teacher sentiment across the 2000s and 2010s as a way to get easy headlines and quick ratings. This made teachers feel like they were constantly under attack while some parents jumped on teachers as easy targets. Parents and teachers were pitted against each other as opposing forces - unable to reason with or work with each other.

It’s easy to see the memes coming from this. A ‘harmless’ way for teachers to hit back at parents who might be frustrating them or who feel like they’re making the job much harder. But so many of these memes are lumping parents as one homogenous group. They’re hitting down at people who often have little power in the school system. And when you see enough of them, when you share enough of them, at least part of you is buying into the beliefs behind them. At least part of you begins to believe the lazy/aggressive/clueless/permissive parent narrative.

When you start to believe this, even just a little, it’s ultimately going to backfire on you as a teacher. Parents know when they’re not respected or welcomed by teachers. They can see which teachers welcome parents into the room while they are pushed away. And they’re more likely to speak out about smaller issues. They’re more likely to share their concerns with other parents. They’re less likely to go out of their way to make your year easier.

A Lack of Empathy

Many anti-teacher memes rely on broad caricatures of parents instead of encouraging you to see the actual parents in front of you. Is the parent in the email really asking ‘stupid questions’? Or is English their second or third language and your instructions are unclear? Or do they have anxiety and they are in a better position to work with you when they have clarification? Are the parents neglecting ‘behaviour management’ at home, or have they been to a range of professionals and taken several courses to help them with their child’s behaviour and they’re hoping to work with you for a positive year?

So often we don’t really see what’s happening in the homes of our students. We don’t see parents holding together families with baby-sitters, doctors appointments, expensive therapy sessions and hours and hours of work. We don’t see the school refusal, the outbursts when the school day is finished, the serious discussions parents have as they work for the best for their children.

 
5 Great Reads for Teachers Setting Goals. A great collection of links for teachers beginning a new school year or a new term. Make effective goals to help your teacher growth. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

As a teacher, you’re also a newcomer to the life of the child. Parents have years of accumulated experience and they usually know their own kids. When they say that this behaviour is unusual or that it doesn’t happen at home, it’s worth listening to them and working with them to see if you can make a difference together. Afterall, how many parents of ‘model students’ tell you that they aren’t that well behaved at home? Plenty of children act differently in different situations.

And Don’t Forget . . .

When your frustration level is high, it can be easy to like or comment on an anti-parent meme on Facebook. But don’t forget how public those can be. It only takes one friend of one of the parents in your class to comment on the same post and they might see your like or comment.

Do you really want to parents in your classroom thinking that those are your beliefs about parents? Will that make your job easier?

Working With Parents

Actual aggressive behaviour from parents is not acceptable - it needs to be recorded, reported to your Principal and referred to your Union if required. And if you suspect a student is being harmed by their parent, you must go through the reporting procedures for that. But when the parent behaviour is annoying or frustrating, there are more productive ways of dealing than sharing anti-parent memes.

Take a moment to put yourself into the shoes of the parents if you can. Think about previous experiences they may have had at school as a student or a parent - can you reassure them and let them know that you want a positive relationship with them and their child? Acknowledge the ways schools have changed and explain any educational jargon you use. Give parents time to speak - don’t dominate the conversations - and let them know that they are welcome to ask follow up questions. Let all the parents know how and when they can communicate with you. Know that good relationships with parents will be rewarding for them, for your students and for you.

And for those parents who resist a positive relationship, take the higher ground. Be friendly and respectful and refuse to turn it into an us and them situation which will eat all your time.

Save your time for the Spiderman Socrates memes instead.

 
 
 
 

5 Great Posts for Teachers Writing Report Cards

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Are you deep in the world of report card writing? Are you procrastinating? Or are you simply unsure where to start? Here’s some great blog posts from other teacher bloggers to help you on your way.

 
5 Great Posts for Teachers Writing Report Cards. Check out these thoughtful and comprehensive posts to help you during report card writing season. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

1. Bring a Successful Mindset to Report Card Writing

12 Top Tips for Report Writing Success

I adore this comprehensive blog post from Rainbow Sky Creations. It’s filled with thoughtful ideas, covering all aspects of report card writing from compiling data to the language you can use through to treating yourself at the end. There’s also some great mindset advice as you take on what can be the most stressful task of the year.

2. Keep Distractions Away

Teacher Tips for Writing Report Cards

This post talks about how to prepare for a report card writing session, minimising distractions from the environment around you and removing reasons to get up and move away from your desk. I particularly like the tip of using the support of your colleagues to assist you in report card writing.

3. How to Construct Thoughtful Report Card Comments

Practical Tips for Writing Report Card Comments

This is another thoughtful and comprehensive blog post, this time stepping through the process of writing valuable report card comments. It starts well before report card time, with the advice to use observations and notes from throughout the semester or year to guide report writing. I also love the advice to approach with compassion - a mindset which will make reports more valuable for all involved.

 
5 Great Posts for Teachers Writing Report Cards. Check out these thoughtful and comprehensive posts to help you during report card writing season. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

4. Rephrasing for Difficult Report Card Comments

4 Ways to Write a Good Report on that Difficult Student

This is a brilliant blog post for the report comments which just stump you. What I like best about this post is that it doesn’t just give you vague ideas, it gives you great sentence stumps and phrasing options which you can easily use in your reports. A great way to keep a positive spin in your reports

5. Have a Bit of Fun with It

How to Write Report Cards

A humorous look at the report card writing process. Complete with the very important steps of ‘procrastinate more’ and ‘panic’. I’m sure some teachers get through report card writing without hitting any of these steps, but for those of us who sometimes feel completely unstuck in report card time, this is a welcome laugh.

What are your must-dos for report card time? Leave a comment below!

 
 
 
 

Assessing and Addressing Waiting in Your Classroom

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For many children, waiting for their classmates to finish working so they can move on is a frustrating - and frustratingly common - occurrence. Researcher have even found that some students spend as much as 50% of their learning time waiting for other students.

How can we assess the waiting in our classroom? And how can we address it so our students are learning as much as possible?

 
Assessing and Addressing Waiting in Your Classroom. Do you have students who are always finished early? What do they do while they wait for other students. This blog post explores why you should assess the waiting of early finishers and how to avoid…
 

1. Be aware of the waiting in your classroom

It’s hard to address waiting in your classroom if you’re not really sure when or where it’s happening. Classrooms are busy places and it can be hard to be sure what is happening unless you’re making a point of focusing on it. Keep a record of what waiting happens over a week. You might want to record

  • The inevitable waiting. Waiting for assemblies, specialist teachers, technical equipment to work, students to line up to return to class or move around school. You can do things to reduce some of this, but there’s always going to be some waiting - and it’s ok for your students to know this.

  • Which students are finishing early. Some of the students might tell you if they finish early, others might just finish and wait. Keep an eye out for them, or ask your students to let you know if they finish early.

  • If there are students who are finishing with the rest of the class, but they probably could be finishing quicker. If students have become accustomed to getting more work when they finish early, they may have learned to slow themselves down to avoid the extra work. These students can be hard to spot, but keep a note of any suspicions you have. Especially look out for students who are inserting ‘non-work’ time into their work time and still finishing on time - although their interruptions might be distracting, it might be their way of delaying their finish.

  • Students who are finishing early, but could probably be working at a higher level. It’s good to have a record of who might be ‘rushing’ through the work and may need some slowing down strategies and thinking time.

  • Which subjects have more waiting time. Are students waiting more in maths? Or reading? Do you have lower number of students waiting when you do handwriting? Make a record of this to help you plan future lessons.

Be kind to yourself. If you get a lot of information it can be overwhelming. But it’s ok to pick one or two areas to work on first. It’s also ok to come back and undertake this reflection at a later time - especially if you’ve made changes. You may see some great improvements and you might also find some other areas to work on.

2. Plan to differentiate - combat waiting before it begins

The best way to avoid frustrating waiting in the classroom is to plan for all your students to be as engaged in learning as much as possible! This kind of differentiation is not always easy, though. Here’s a few things you might like to include in your planning.

  • Pre-assess when you can. If you’re approaching a new concept in reading, mathematics or science, it may be useful to offer a short pre-assessment. This allows you to see where students already have a good understanding of the concept - and where there are gaps in knowledge. The work can then be targeted to the students in your class for the best learning for all of them, and it may help you put together some temporary groups to work together.

  • Plan to use open-ended activities with different possibilities. Open-ended activities are a great way to allow all students to be engaged and show understanding of a concept. For example, instead of (or as well as) offering a page of maths problems where students add 10, ask them what happens if they add 10 to different numbers. Students can practice their skills and find patterns.

  • You can also offer students a range of activities to complete - nominating which ones are ‘must-dos’ and which ones they can choose to do when the ‘must-dos’ are completed. (You can read more, and get free resources from this great post from Top Teaching Tasks)

  • Think Sideways. What is the learning outcome? What would it look like if students dug a little deeper into that outcome? For example:

    • if the class are doing addition problems, the students who have finished can explore matching the addition problems to ‘turn around’ subtraction problems

    • if the class are reading an information sheet, the students who have finished reading can find the most important vocabulary (and rank importance?) or create a diagram of what they have read.

    • if students are working on reading sight words, the students who have finished can work on adding new letters or swapping letters to make different words

Try to make as many of your differentiated activities transferable to other activities, while still being effective. Creating a ‘tool-kit’ of differentiation for quick finishers will make it easier to make it part of your planning.

 
Assessing and Addressing Waiting in Your Classroom. Do you have students who are always finished early? What do they do while they wait for other students. This blog post explores why you should assess the waiting of early finishers and how to avoid…
 

3. Be Prepared for Surprise Finishes

As prepared as you might be, you’ll probably still have time when students finish early. Here’s a few things you can try to work with that

  • Develop a classroom culture of ‘is it my best work?’ This allows all students to demonstrate the best work they can possibly do in the classroom, but also gives quick finishers something meaningful to do when they have ‘finished’. Going back and revising work is an important skill for all students to develop. Ask students to find 3 areas where they can improve their work and ask them to reflect on why they think those areas can be improved. It is possible that they won’t find anything, but it’s important for them to know that even adults (such as authors) go back and revise and improve their work - and a thoughtful way to use time.

  • Ask students how they would explain the concept or how to solve the problem to someone else. They might create a written piece, a drawing, a diagram, a verbal explanation - even a podcast or a video of their explanation.

  • Ask students to create their own related problems. If they’ve finished all the comprehension questions for a chapter, what questions would they ask? If they’re finished with a fractions problem, how would they create one? This allows you another way to see the depth of their understanding, while being meaningful work.

  • Keep reading and games on technology as a last resort. If there’s really no other way to fill in the waiting time, you may need these to turn to. Think about setting a time limit on them (assess when you’ll be moving other students on) so students know when they need to put the book down or turn off the game. And make sure there’s time in your schedule for all students to enjoy the games or reading time so there’s no resentment building against those fast finishers.

 
 
 
 

Don't Put My Child On Your Classroom Data Wall

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In the lead up to the 2019 school year, Instagram was filled with teachers creating beautiful things for beautiful classrooms. But as the parent of a school-aged child, one thing worried me - the number of displays which were created just to share the academic and behavioural levels of children in the class.

And - as a parent - I’m asking you to take children off your classroom data walls.

 
Don't Put My Child on Your Classroom Data Wall - a look at public data walls and how they lack context, privacy, thought for outlier students and how they may harm our students. A parent-teacher perspective from Galarious Goods
 

Whether it’s reading levels, test scores, behaviour, number of books read or goals achieved, our schools are filled with data. But should those data levels be publicly displayed on the wall of our classrooms?

The call for ‘accountability’ - mostly stemming from No Child Left Behind (an early 2000’s government initiative from the United States), led to the call for more and more data to be collected, recorded, analysed and displayed. One way this was achieved was by creating data walls for teachers to use. These were placed in teacher areas - like staff rooms or planning rooms - where they could be used for planning and evaluation. But slowly, these walls of academic and behavioural levelling crept out of the teacher areas and onto the walls of the classrooms. It is these classroom displays which concern me as a parent and a teacher - for a number of reasons.

1. The Privacy of Our Students

Once a child’s name is attached to a levelled display in the classroom, they lose the privacy of their own achievement level. Every classmate, every other student who comes into the room, every parent can see exactly what behaviour level students are at or what reading level they have achieved and how they compare with other students.

In some places around the world, these data walls actually break laws protecting student privacy. But even when they don’t, these walls - which are often put up without the permission or knowledge of parents - share information about students which should be kept for the students, their parents and the staff of the school. I had to give parental permission for my son’s kindergarten to share his learning statement with his school - but few teachers ask for permission to share reading levels, behaviour levels or achievement levels with anyone who looks into the classroom.

2. The Lack of Context

A display showing how many books a child has read over the year sounds like a great thing. But when Alice is reading picture books and Bill is reading novels, Alice is obviously going to look better on the chart.

Lack of context is a serious problem for a wall chart - yet that is what students see, day after day. For some students learning comes super easy. They absorb the information, share the information and it all takes very little effort. For others, they can work extremely hard at school and at home and - on paper at least - show very little progress.

Even if Bill knows he’s only read half as many books as Alice because he’s reading much longer than books than she is - he knows that his number of books looks ‘small’. It takes away some of the pride that he might feel for being able to read longer books, or - at worst - tells him that he should also swap to picture books so he can have a lot of books to add to the chart on the wall.

You cannot easily add context to a chart on the wall in your classroom - not in a way which will help your students to understand it.

3. Is There Evidence That They Work?

The short answer to this is no. When researchers from Australian Catholic University examined the research, they found only one example of research showing positive results for TEACHERS using data walls - and nothing about classroom displays making a difference to students.

Australian authorities and school administrations often point to one school in Australia which showed improvement after putting data walls up where everyone could see them. However, this is a) isolated, b) focused on a particular population of students and c) was combined with a significant program of improvement - much more than just a data wall.

So, why are we doing it? Are we creating walls just because they’re popular? Or because admin told us to?

 
Don't Put My Child on Your Classroom Data Wall - a look at public data walls and how they lack context, privacy, thought for outlier students and how they may harm our students. A parent-teacher perspective from Galarious Goods
 

4. Does Your Data Display Harm Your Students?

Have you got anxious students in your class? Imagine being the anxious student working hard to go up the behaviour wall, but for some reason you don’t seem to be moving, no matter how hard you try. While your behaviour continues to be good at school - because you’re striving to be moved on that wall you see every session of every school day - your behaviour at home is deteriorating because you’re frustrated and you just don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Or what if that data wall becomes your sole focus in class. You’re no longer interested in classes which don’t progress you on the wall, or learning for the joy of learning. You just want to see that peg with your name on it moved.

Or what if you just cannot get past other people on that chart - if no matter what you do, you’re always on the bottom.

As a teacher, you may not see the harm these charts are doing to your students - students can be remarkably good at masking how they feel to fit in. But parents see it at home. We see it in poor behaviour and loss of enthusiasm for school. We see it in school refusal and constant anxiety related illness.

5. Do your data displays allow for outlying students?

Have you got a goals chart in your room? A chart with the standards for your grade level, and places to put the students as they’re striving to meet those standards?

What are you going to do when a student walks into your class and they’ve already met those standards? Your display has told that student and their parents that you have no goals for them to meet - that there is no learning place for them in your classroom.

If you’re measuring reading levels, where do students go when they’ve already reached the top level?

What about a student who is working on goals or levels which are not easily seen on a standard chart?

 
Don't Put My Child on Your Classroom Data Wall - a look at public data walls and how they lack context, privacy, thought for outlier students and how they may harm our students. A parent-teacher perspective from Galarious Goods
 

What’s the alternative?

The good news is that if you’re all about data, there are alternatives to classroom data walls. Data walls in teacher spaces - either physical or digital - can be a great tool when planning. There is no reason students can’t track their own data either - keeping it in a private place in their own notebooks and creating their own learning or behaviour goals.

Classes can also create collaborative displays. Recording the amount of books read by a class can be incredibly motivating (we kept ours on the door of our classroom and it provoked many conversations with students from other classes about why we enjoyed reading so much) - and every students contributes together from this. Similar things can happen with achievement levels - additions can be added to displays whenever any child in the class achieves a new level or has a particularly successful (for them) piece of work.

We can also acknowledge a full range of classroom achievements - from being a good sport during a sports lesson to using particularly good words in a piece of writing. We can make our classrooms places of joyful learning, instead of places where everyone is just trying to climb the ladder to their next regimented success.

Further Reading