After all, Australia has an established reputation as the world’s foremost hub of creepy crawlies. But is all of the hype real?

We here at Leading Out want to put your mind at ease.

You Almost Never See Any, Ever

We’ve traveled all over Australia. We’ve stayed in apartment buildings in cities and camper vans in the Outback, we’ve gone on bush walks and nature hikes around the country, and across its gorgeous, scenic beaches. We’ve camped and swam and spent time indoors and outdoors.

We saw one spider. Ever. And it was when we were camping out in the middle of a jungle.

If you’re a Canadian, you might thing of the spider situation in Oz the way we think of bears here at home. Do we have them? Of course! Have they killed people? Sure they can, but when’s the last time you heard of a bear attack? Are you going to avoid cottage country up North forever because of bears? Heck no!

(True story: some Aussies think Canada is riddled with bears. We’ve met them.)

Don’t Believe ALL of the Bite Hype Either

Turns out a lot of the fear of dying from a spider bite is bombastic. According to Australian Geographic, more people die from allergic reactions to bee stings or car accidents.

Although someone did pass away from a bite in 2016, before that, the last recorded death was 1981, a difference for almost 40 years. 

In addition, there’s anti-venom available for all harmful bites. (Which again, almost never happen.) Whew!

Spider Fighting 101

So let’s say you want to be hyper-vigilant about not finding any “bears” in your shoes. Here’s a few steps for the well-prepared.

1. You can shake out your shoes before you put ’em on, don’t leave clothes or towels on the floor, and wear shoes outside and at night.
2. If you do see a spider, DO NOT PANIC! (We know. Tough.) Trap them in a glass jar (or kill them, we won’t judge). If you can’t tell whether you’re dealing with a dangerous one or not, don’t approach, call pest control.
3. If you find one in your car, again, again, don’t panic. Slow down, roll down your window, and pull over. (The wind will keep it away.) Then you can set about getting it out.

For a more in-depth guide to Spider Prevention 101, check out Australian Geographic‘s article here.

So there you have it, some of Australia’s most wanted debunked. While there is need for caution, you’re more likely to get a serious case of the heebie-jeebies than anything else.

After all, trying to pack a preventative flame-thrower in your carry-on just probably isn’t THAT great of an idea. If you need a palate cleanser, you can always spend 20 seconds with the world’s cutest spider, Lucas.

The post Australian Spider Hype: Why NOT to Freak Out About It appeared first on Leading Out.

1.  How much of an effort did I make to get to know my students?

2.  What do my students know about me?

3.  What did I learn from my students this week?

4.  Did I set my classroom rules and have I been clear in communicating them?

5.  Did I spent some time getting to know new colleagues?

6.  Have I asked for help when I needed it or offered to help a new teacher?

7.  What is my plan to communicate with the parents? When do I want to do this?

8.  What are some new teaching techniques that I want to try this year?

9.  How do I want my students to remember this year?

New and experienced teachers may have different things to reflect on, but for anyone starting in a new role there are a number of practical things everyone should check off to ensure a  smooth transition. As the school year continues and things get busy take the time reflect on who you are as a teacher and what are the most important lessons  you want your students to learn.

The post Nine Tips for Reflecting After the First Week of Teaching appeared first on Leading Out.

Edt! eidt! Edit!
It is not enough to read it over yourself. A second and third set of eyes will be invaluable to catching errors that you may have overlooked. Read it out loud. This is the best way to see how it will read to someone else.

Design
Be consistent with the format you use and how you list your information. Choose one and stick with it. Be mindful that you are not changing the format from one section to the other (spacing and margin alignment).

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When including your personal contact information, be sure to include the most up to date and appropriate data. Your contact phone numbers should have voice mail, preferably a message that does not include “what up” or ” leave a message okie dokie!” Stating your name is always helpful.

If you have not already created a separate professional email address, may we suggest you do it. While hotpants or cuppycake may be a well earned and fun nickname, this is not the best way to set you apart from the rest of the candidates. A simple combination of first initial and last name will do and look far more professional!

Know Yourself
Don’t shy away from the great qualities you have to share. As you already know, this is the point of a resume, and it doesn’t hurt to add more and or refresh some of your strengths. Spending one-on-one time with your resume and rewording it also helps you keep the language fresh in your mind. You want to be able to recall your assets and strengths during the interview. Your work ethic, quiet confidence, sense of humour, flexibility, adaptability, positive outlook, initiative, leadership qualities, efficiency, open-mindedness, resourcefulness etc. will shine through.

Helpful Tip: Applying for a teaching position overseas suggests that you have an adventurous spirit and that is half the battle. Experienced and inexperienced travelers are prone to encountering some “culture shock” and it doesn’t hurt to read how others worked through it. Our article on culture shock in Australia may help you generate a few qualities to include in your resume. Qualities that highlight your willingness to learn from a new culture and share your own.  These will go a long way.

Think of your resume as your introduction and  first impression.  Take the time to review and revise.  We already know you are awesome teachers, let your resume reflect that.

The post The Do’s and Don’ts When Writing Your Resume appeared first on Leading Out.

Initially, I was actually surprised that the “5 years of more Experience” is rivaling “school leadership” in a neck-to-neck tie. I put in my vote (had to tip that little baby over the edge!)

I mean, I know that’s what we are told in Teachers College: that classroom management comes with time.

But then I always said Teachers College was a lot of codswallop.

Does Experience Dictate Ability?

I don’t think Classroom Management has much to do with time or experience at all.

Certainly, we become more able to deal ‘on our feet’ with poor behavior as we experience the dynamics of more classrooms–but once you learn a few mantras ( that’s really all there is to discipline) then it all comes down to consequences.

It’s not only up to the school leadership team to deliver consequences. As a teacher, we all have the initial responsibility as we strive to build a class rapport, to help our students know where the boundaries are.

On that note, my poll is probably not being quite fair enough to everyone. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

The point is, there are a few mantras that anyone can learn to significantly improve their classroom management.

I’m an expert on High School discipline, so I’m going to gear my answers to this age group. (It’s probably not realistic to try to use reason with a 7 year old–and I recognize that my skills do not lie with Primary aged children).

The key to classroom management best practice is to understand teenagers, in order to get them to cooperate.

How to Achieve Best Practice Classroom Management:

These are my rules:

1. Emotionally, teenagers are basically adults. They are aware of social awkwardness and they have a moral code of what is right or wrong. You can reason with them on this note, but if you don’t show respect for their emotions and their own intellectual reasoning, you’ll never get them to cooperate. How many adults would take such a crappy approach? They’d flip you the bird and ignore you, too.
2. All students are basically good, kind individuals (1). As such, these teens are pretty keen to have adult approval–even if they act like they don’t (2). Explaining poor behavior in terms of how it affects the teacher is extremely compelling. Most kids have no idea that what they are doing upsets you. If you explain it to them in these gentle terms, they’re very likely to be cautious never to do it again.
3. Always discipline 1-0n-1 and with a smile. If you come at someone in public, they are likely to front you. You will be much more likely to succeed if you take a 1-on-1 approach–especially for ‘attention seekers’ (even if they don’t look like text-book cases). Old enough to take care of themselves, and to bail out on ‘family time’ for homework reasons, and to see their parents imperfections–most teens are starving for external adult attention.
4. Regarding the Making of Mistakes (3). It’s best to develop them with the student, or to have set rules. But remember, you are there to facilitate their learning and to nurture them. You can’t expect yourself to be perfect; apologies for your mistakes thereby teaching them to as well. Consequences should be fair, consistent and just.
5. Follow up! If you say you’re going to give a detention to anyone ‘without their homework’, or ‘without their record book’ or whatever your classroom rules are–then DO IT. Young adults have an acute sense of justice. If you don’t deliver on your word, why should they? You have to develop an atmosphere of trust in your classrooms in order for your kids to want to work with you–that’s real management skill.

Additional Notes:

(1) Hopefully most students you encounter will not have had such a horrible life that they’ve learned never to give adults a second chance. It’s a different story if your teenager has already encountered all the violence and horrible adult liars and knows their game. But luckily, this isn’t the case with most students.

(2) If you have grown up with a reason not to expect consistent behaviour from the adults around you–you’re prety likely to be cautious when you meet new people. I think this leads to many teens/people acting with a sense of disdain for anyone ‘new’.

(3) Keep in mind, that people/teens will always boundary-push. Would you do a homework assignment if you had something better on? Save yourself the headache of learning this Human Truth. Just because a student voices the “this is stupid” opinion–that’s not a reflection of the intelligence of your assignment. Don’t take it personally. Instead, try to find out why they’d use that word. Chances are, there’s something deeper. In my experience, this ‘disengaging’ behavior is often because the task is very difficult and the kid is anxious he/she won’t be able to do it.

The post Poll Results: Best Classroom Management… appeared first on Leading Out.

We have long been regarded as stingy. And most sales people that we have to deal with dislike our supposed thriftiness. So what I’m wondering is–where does it come from? Is it just a stereotype of a poor few or is there a reason behind this (over?) statement?

And while we’re attempting to mythbust, is it also true that teachers only ever talk about teaching?

I think all of these issues are related and I think there is only really one solution.

Teachers are in the service profession. We are not a business. But we don’t get tips, don’t get to charge per hour and largely feel underpaid (and undervalued) in our work.

Schools are a microcosm of young (often immature, or at least inexperienced in the ways of the business world) minds, administrators (former teachers on a stringent budget) and other teachers.

How is the value of teaching recognised?

Teachers know that we are valued by our parents, colleagues and our students through our emotional connections with each that are priceless. Most teachers lead a very enriched life by committing themselves to celebrating this; still, in a capitalistic driven economy there is no price alottment for the value of our service and as we work away on weekends, after business hours during the week, and on our holidays, we all realise a large portion of our job is voluntary.

Non-teaching people have long criticised “how many holidays you get” as a teacher. They scoff at our pay-check whimpering and thriftiness (and most of these people probably hated school and never had a teacher they loved–a very different reality to most teachers).  When we put our families on strict budgets in the community purchasing something, it is easy to get a little jaded.

Teachers often talk about how busy they are, and what they are doing because they are people, and people like to feel like they are celebrated. We expect to make money for work we do because we are a rewards-driven society. Where is this forum for teachers? Outside of our social life, it doesn’t exist for most teachers. Thus you get the self-promoter person who speaks out of pride to anyone who will listen and and out of defence to those who may be quick to criticise.

At some point, the we realise that we can’t sustain our current full-time volunteer, part-time paid positions and want to move forward in our career. How does a teacher do that? A select few go on to be administration–thereby giving up the very aspect of the job they love: working with students.

When it comes to asking for more money: teachers fall down in a heap of exhaustion (like most people) as soon as they get a holiday. Where is the energy or time to “fight the good fight” against the rest of the people who plan educational budgets. Eventually, you learn to either put up or shut up. Some of us leave the profession.

My ‘Food for Thought’ on the Value of Service:

I think the people who are the most thrifty as the most skeptical, and some might argue become unappreciative of the services provided by other communities becuase maybe because our own service is undervalued, we do not know how to value and appreciate the services of others? After all, the only way you learn something is to be taught it (from some source).

But, I’m not saying it’s right. The bottom line is teacher pay and value is a societal problem because schools and teachers exist because of a societal value.  That means that service value is also a societal problem.  In the business world, people are taught to justify their services. As critiquers of human work, teachers learn to be sceptical of all things.

Of course, appreciation is something we can all never show enough of and learning to show gratitude is also a really important lesson.

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