Professional Learning for Australian Educators

Proactively Preparing for Student Anxiety
A Seminar for Primary & High School Teachers & Well-Being Committee
Presented by Greg Mitchell

I often refer to my inner critic as Nancy, as in Negative Nancy.
My counsellor asked me how I speak to her
and I said I often tell her to shut up
and we agreed that doesn’t work.
Now when I have the energy I say thank you for your concern Nancy,
but I’ve got this, and you aren’t needed here.
Georgie7, Beyond Blue Forum Topic: Talking to your inner critic, can it be tamed?

Adeptness in teaching students with anxiety disorders has become an essential skill that many teachers lack training in.

Anxiety is a pervasive disorder and effects nearly all aspects of school today.

Anxiety disorders which include social phobias, separation anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder have become more common in classrooms with anxious students displaying poor attendance, poor connectedness and poor engagement.

Children with any anxiety disorders have lower average test scores compared to those who have
no mental disorder, these differences are significant for all years and all domains. By year 3, students with mental disorders were on average 7-11 months behind their peers, by year 9 the achievement gap increased to 1.5-3 years on average.

This leaves schools with a challenge that needs a multi-pronged approach to assist students, support families and empower teachers.

Greg Mitchell works with schools all over Australia to help create school cultures that can deal with stressful issues. He was raised in a family redolent with anxiety and has a mountain of lived experience in dealing with all of the anxieties that teaching can deliver.

Greg has developed a five-part approach that enables schools to

• Create safe emotional classroom environments
• Empower resilient relationships and peer support
• Design better approaches to problem solving and cooperation
• Teaching and learning that enables positive risk taking
• Plans which help anxious students design positive responses to daily challenges and better goals for brighter futures.

This workshop abounds with practical strategies, useful insights, humour, compassion and buckets of common-sense including

• How to counsel students in panic mode
• How to move students in deep defence lock down
• How to anticipate problems and teach students to deal with their inner critic
• How to deal with our own anxieties and provide the template for honest discussions about fear, image and reality

This seminar is for teachers, teacher assistants and administrators in Primary and Secondary schools.

Completing ‘Anticipating Anxiety’ will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered PD addressing 4.1.2, 4.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A Seminar for Primary & High School Teachers
Presented by Dr Bill Rogers

This seminar will help in addressing a challenge faced by many teachers today – Why is this particular class so difficult? What can we do, together, to change things? How can we get out of the spiral of defeat and low expectation to enhance success in learning, and social interaction? Most of all how can we support one another?

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

Inquiry as an approach to teaching and learning has long been regarded as an effective way not only to engage students in their learning but to challenge them to think deeply and apply skills and understandings to new contexts. Many of us like the idea of an inquiry approach but feel less confident with how to actually use it effectively in the classroom. This workshop is designed for teachers who are newer to inquiry or those who wish to refresh their understanding of the approach and update their pedagogy.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Dr Bill Rogers

This seminar will help in addressing a challenge faced by many teachers today – Why is this particular class so difficult? What can we do, together, to change things? How can we get out of the spiral of defeat and low expectation to enhance success in learning, and social interaction? Most of all how can we support one another?

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

*Please Note: As so many teachers wish to attend our SYDNEY seminars we now offer separate days for PRIMARY School (Wed) and HIGH School (Fri). Please ensure you enrol in the correct seminar.

A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Dr Bill Rogers

This seminar will help in addressing a challenge faced by many teachers today – Why is this particular class so difficult? What can we do, together, to change things? How can we get out of the spiral of defeat and low expectation to enhance success in learning, and social interaction? Most of all how can we support one another?

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

*Please Note: As so many teachers wish to attend our SYDNEY seminars we now offer separate days for PRIMARY School (Wed) and HIGH School (Fri). Please ensure you enrol in the correct seminar.

A Seminar for Primary & High School Teachers
Presented by Dr Bill Rogers

This seminar will help in addressing a challenge faced by many teachers today – Why is this particular class so difficult? What can we do, together, to change things? How can we get out of the spiral of defeat and low expectation to enhance success in learning, and social interaction? Most of all how can we support one another?

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00p

A Seminar for Primary & High School Teachers
Presented by Dr Ian Lillico

This seminar is for teachers, teacher assistants and administrators in Primary and Secondary schools. Ian will explore teaching, motivating and managing students with particular needs in schools. There will be an emphasis on Autism and ADHD but other needs including Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), being bullied, giftedness and family dysfunction will be covered.

Ian will discuss the role of layered techniques and strategies in the management of these children, the latest research from DSM V and how children commonly have multiple problems called Co-Morbidities. He will discuss a range of alternative therapies and give a host of practical strategies to assist in classroom instruction and management.

The aim of this seminar is to give teachers and education support staff who deal with young people a contemporary understanding of these special children and the effective tools to help them achieve their maximum potential.

Dr Lillico has updated this seminar for 2020 to include the most recent research relating to working with students with Autism and Special Needs

Completing ‘Teaching & Motivating Students with Particular Needs’ will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered PD addressing 4.1.2, 4.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A Seminar for Primary & High School Teachers
Presented by Dr Ian Lillico

This seminar deals with teaching, motivating and managing boys in the 21st Century where they are infatuated with technology and devices. Ian will outline the challenges facing educators and will explain ways to deal with boys in the modern classroom. A highlight of the seminar will be discussing the impact of changes arising from DSM V for classifying ADHD, ASD and other disorders in children and how this particularly impacts boys who are more affected by the range of medical, biological and psychiatric conditions than girls of the same age.

Ian will provide classroom strategies in terms of utilizing technology, relationship building with boys, classroom ambience, behaviour management, homework, literacy, group work and the use of visuals. A number of policies and practices from around the world will be critically analysed and some of Ian's 52 recommendations will be expanded and analysed in terms of their application to schools, homes and society generally. This seminar will be engaging, humorous, practical and interactive.

Dr Lillico has updated this seminar for 2020 to include even more valuable classroom strategies and behaviour management techniques!

Completing Teaching Boys in the 21st Century will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered PD addressing 4.1.2, 4.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A 2 Day Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

Participants will leave with a treasure trove of strategies, resources and insights into the use of a quality, inquiry based approach to teaching.

About the workshop

The learning landscape is rapidly changing. For teachers in the 21C, adapting to this changing landscape requires new ways of thinking and new instructional strategies that really build students' capacity as learners. An inquiry approach has long been recognized as a powerful way to equip students with the skills, strategies and dispositions needed for independence and creativity in learning. The Australian Curriculum also recognizes the need to engage students in active exploration and promotes the development of inquiry skills in history, science, geography and other areas. Contemporary inquiry practices, however, go beyond the "unit of work" and weave their way across the curriculum. Quality inquiry teaching helps both teachers and students navigate their way through abundant information, rapidly changing technologies, shifting community priorities and the need for both personalized AND collaborative learning.

Through interactive tasks, viewing of videos, work samples and planners as well as access to resources and research-based strategies participants explore the following questions ...

• How can we create classrooms where inquiring into LEARNING is central to all we do?
• How can we use an inquiry approach across the curriculum?
• How can we personalize inquiry for students while maintaining a manageable routine?
• What frameworks and scaffolds can we use to 'anchor' student learning and guide our practice?
• How can we create contemporary contexts for real inquiry into relevant questions for students?
• How can quality thinking routines and strategies help build capacity for learning?
• How do we ensure we involve students in negotiating aspects of their learning while maintaining clear learning intentions and meeting curriculum expectations.
• How can we use technologies to engage students in authentic inquiries and to build our own personal professional inquiry networks.

Through this 2 day workshop, participants will gain:

• A deeper understanding of how to use contemporary, inquiry based approaches in the classroom
• A broader repertoire of quality teaching strategies and techniques to help build students' skills as inquirer
• Greater familiarity with and understanding of a model for designing powerful units of inquiry with conceptual underpinnings
• Strategies for planning and teaching that encourage students to become increasingly independent as inquirers
• Ideas for assessing growth in students' understandings and skills in the context of inquiry
• Opportunities for reflection, collaboration and planning
• Knowledge of the resources (particularly on line) available to support teaching and learning through inquiry

2 Day Workshop: Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2020.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $460.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

Inquiry as an approach to teaching and learning has long been regarded as an effective way not only to engage students in their learning but to challenge them to think deeply and apply skills and understandings to new contexts. Many of us like the idea of an inquiry approach but feel less confident with how to actually use it effectively in the classroom. This workshop is designed for teachers who are newer to inquiry or those who wish to refresh their understanding of the approach and update their pedagogy.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm