Teacher Hacks

Teaching is the most dynamic of professions. It is perfect for people who like to do a million things at once and have autonomy in many of the processes and approaches as far as organisational systems and approaching different scenarios in the classroom.

I have picked up a few things over the last 9 years that would have been handy to know a little earlier. I think this is a list that once I start, I will keep adding to.

1. If something sucks, toss it out. When I first started teaching I was very invested in the resources I created and activities I devised. One particular time I decided to get students to convert an extract from Homer's 'Odyssey' into comic book form. We were all very excited to start, a classic text, drawing, comics, yay! However, it was a long extract and it ended up taking so very long that the students (and I did too) lost interest and the purpose of the exercise was completely lost. There's an old age adage, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' just remember, when it is broke', chuck it out!

2. Voice. I cannot sing, at all, not even a little bit. When I play Singstar, the television is very loud and microphone, very, very low. However, I did some voice training when I was at university, for something fun to do (I sung only in front of my teacher!). Anyway, medium-sized story, short, I learnt a few things. Your voice needs to come from your belly, not your throat. If you want volume you need to take a big breath and then push your voice out from your abdomen. This, is key, to a great teacher voice too, and sometimes you need one of those. I definitely do not recommend using it all of the time, it is hard work, and frankly, unnecessary. Voice variation is key to maintaining student interest, use the big voice (from your abdomen) when you need it.

3. Do Now/Start Now/Let's Go Activities are awesome. A starting activity where few resources are needed gives the teacher time to set their things out, grab their roll, hand out pens if needed, get someone to hand out books, get everyone in the room and in chairs, all whilst completing a short (5 - 8 minutes) but meaningful activity. Some ideas?

• BOGGLE CUBE, a tic-tac-toe grid with the letters of a 9-letter word scrambled. Students have to come up with as many smaller words as they can, and hopefully they can work out what the 9-letter word is too. Small prizes can keep students engaged and this is a great way to reinforce key vocabulary (especially if they are 9-letters!). I have seen staff use larger squares - it depends how much extension your students need. 

• PUNCTUATION CHECK, write up 3 - 5 sentences sans punctuation for students to punctuate or use incorrect punctuation and have students correct. If the sentences are topic specific this is an easy way to continue the previous lesson or reinforce an important concept or skill (such as dialogue, imperative).
• GRAMMAR CHECK, subject/verb agreement, pronouns, choose an appropriate adjective, etc.
• SPELLING, scramble 3-5 key terms that have featured in lessons and have students write them correctly in their workbook and then write the words into sentences. This could be extended to a paragraph for Stage 6 students.
• 7-MINUTE PARAGRAPH, have students write a paragraph without stopping about the content they have been learning. With Stage 6 students, I usually put a past HSC question on the board and have them write either an introduction to a critical essay or a body paragraph.
• CREATIVE WRITING, a 50-word story, 6-word story, a story without the letter 'e' (or another letter), a descriptive piece using the five senses as a guide, can provide students with inspiration to put pen to paper right away.
• JOURNALLING, reflecting on their lives can give students a tangible place to start writing from. Students could write about their favourites (food, place to go, music, thing to do when they are happy/sad), they could talk about how to make their favourite meal, what they had for breakfast, what they did in the holidays/on the weekend, what they would do if they won a prize. There are so many prompts available on the internet. The '642 Things to Write' Books are wonderful, however, not all of the prompts are appropriate so I would suggest buying the 'Young Writers Edition.'

4. Resources. Label everything electronic like you would #hashtag on Instagram or Twitter and ensure you spell these correctly. I cannot believe how much time I have wasted looking for documents with a misspelled file name! Choose a hyperlink storage system as soon as you can. Pinterest is great - you can keep links publicly or privately, Diigo is also one that many teachers use. Sometimes a reading list on your home computer can be helpful but if you need to access links at school, it can be a bit tricky. Someone once likened these types of websites as 'online hoarding' which is apt, however, it takes up far less room that IRL hoarding - just keep everything organised to save hassle looking for things!

5. Professional Associations, join them, or if your faculty has membership - grab the login details! The ETA English Teachers' Association and the PETAA Primary English Teaching Association Australia are wonderful and membership includes reduced price resources, professional learning, and regular journals and publications. Joining your state association also includes access to the AATE Australian Association for the Teaching of English. These organisations provide opportunities to develop a professional network and the ETA also has a Facebook group where staff from many different contexts share ideas and discuss issues relevant to English teaching today.