Term Talk

🤔💭 Thinking routines became a thing you're supposed to be doing. There's a poster in the room next door, someone mentioned them in a staff meeting, and when you've tried them, they felt a bit flat. The class went through the motions, and you weren't sure anything changed. This episode is about the gap between the routine as a poster and the routine as a real shift in how children think. A thinki...

🤓 'I've finished.' Four minutes in. And now the rest of your lesson becomes supplying entertainment to the kids who work fastest. This episode is about why the fast finisher has been misunderstood. A child who finishes in four minutes isn't a logistics problem to be managed with the early finisher box. It's feedback. They're telling you the ceiling of the task was too low, or that they're ready t...

🫣🚫 A child melts down over something small, and a tired voice in your head says the quiet thing: 'they should be able to handle this by now'. This episode is about the expectation underneath that moment . We expect children to manage feelings we have never actually taught them to name. Emotional regulation isn't a trait some children have and some don't. It's a skill, and like every skill it has...

🗣️ Say 'differentiation' in a staffroom and watch the shoulders drop. Somewhere along the way it stopped meaning good teaching and started meaning more: more worksheets, more groups, more versions of the same lesson, more of you spread thinner. This episode takes the word back. Differentiation was never about making more things. It's about going deeper into one thing. I unpack why the three-versio...

You ask a rich, open question and you get silence. 🫣🤫🚫 Or the same three hands. Or 'I don't know' before you've even finished asking. It's easy to conclude your students can't think critically, or that you need better questions, better routines, a better program. This episode is about why none of those are the real problem. Critical thinking isn't a skills problem first. It's a safety problem....

🎉 Term 3 starts here, and it starts with the thing that makes every other part of the term work. ✨ If you've walked back into your classroom and felt like the class you built has slipped a little, this episode is for you. The routines are mostly there. The relationships are mostly there. But something feels off, and it's tempting to read that as a behaviour problem or as proof you've lost them....

🎙️ Reflection Before Reset: What Reporting Reveals About Your Teaching This is the final episode of the Term 2 series. And before we close it out - I want to ask a question most teachers skip at the end of every term. Not where did your students finish. Where did your teaching land? Because data is not just a mirror for where students are. It is also a mirror for where you are. If you know how to...

🎙️ Prompt Before Panic: How to Use GPTs Without Getting Generic Output Most teachers who try AI and give up are not giving up because AI doesn't work. They asked the wrong question. And asking better questions is a skill. One that nobody teaches. One that nobody assumes you need. And one that makes the difference between AI that wastes your time and AI that genuinely changes what a task costs you....

🎙️ Support Before Struggle: Using AI to Think, Not Replace There is a conversation happening in schools right now that is generating a lot of noise and not a lot of clarity. AI. Some teachers are using it constantly and quietly. Some are avoiding it entirely. And most are somewhere in the middle - curious, a little uncertain, and not quite sure what the rules are. This episode is a calm, honest an...

🎙️ Organisation Before Overload: How to Store Data So It Actually Helps You Reports are done. And somewhere in your classroom, your drive, or your desk is a term's worth of data, evidence, and records that most teachers put somewhere and never find again. This episode is about breaking that cycle. This conversation focuses on: Why storage and organisation are not the same thing and why that distin...

🎙️ Systems Before Burnout: How to Batch Reports Without Losing Your Mind Reports are not hard because of how many students you have. They are hard because of how most teachers write them. Student by student. Subject by subject. Switching between data sets, between language, between thinking modes - twenty-eight times over. Your brain never settles. You never find a rhythm. This episode is about ch...

🎙️ Structure Before Stress: What to Say in Parent Interviews Without Winging It You prepared. You walked in. And then a parent said something you weren't ready for. This episode is about what to say inside the room. This conversation focuses on: Ask before you tell - the opening move most teachers skip How to manage the time without cutting the parent off Exact language for the four hardest interv...

🎙️ Preparation Before Pressure: How to Actually Prepare for Parent Interviews There is a difference between hoping an interview goes well and being ready for it. Most teachers prepare by pulling up the report and glancing at the grades. This episode is about what preparation actually looks like. This conversation focuses on: The three things to know for every interview: strength, current picture,...

🎙️ Communication Before Conflict: Why Parents Should Never Be Surprised There is a phone call most teachers dread making. You've looked at your data. You've noticed a pattern. And you know a parent probably needs to know. But the conversation feels complicated before it has even started. So, it gets pushed to next week. Or saved for the parent-teacher interview. Where it lands like a surprise in a...

🎙️ Time Before Panic: Why Reporting Feels So Rushed There is a particular kind of tired that comes with reporting. It is not the tired of working hard. It is the tired of working hard on the wrong things at the wrong time. Week 7 arrives. Reports are due in two weeks. And suddenly everything feels urgent . But here is the thing… Reporting doesn't feel rushed because there isn't enough time. It fee...

🎉 The Term Talk Hub is live. Everything is now in one place - your free resources, your tools, and everything we have been building behind the scenes to support you as a teacher. Head to https://hub.termtalk.com.au/ to create your free account and access all episode resources, including the Student Goal Setting template from this episode. 🎙️ Evidence Before Overwhelm: Where Your Assessment Should...

🎙️ Clarity Before Assessment: Why Most Data Becomes Useless There's data sitting somewhere right now. Pre-assessments you marked before the holidays. Anecdotal notes from a term that moved quickly. A spreadsheet you meant to return to. You collected it. You kept it. But no one ever showed you what to actually do with it. In this episode, we explore why most assessment data never gets used and what...

🎙️ Reset Before Results: Starting Term 2 Without Carrying the Chaos There's a particular feeling that comes the night before Term 2. Your bag is packed. Your room is mostly ready. And you've had a break. But underneath all of that - there's a hum. The marking you didn't quite finish. The behaviour pattern that never fully resolved. The mental load of everything you were still figuring out when the...

🎙️ Intentional Before Automatic: A Term Reset for Sustainable Teaching There’s a feeling that often comes at the end of a term. You’re tired. Your mind feels full. And there are always things left unfinished. In this episode, we explore: Why moving straight into the next term without pausing increases workload and mental load over time. And how a small, intentional reset can create more sustainabl...

🎙️ Awareness Before Overwhelm: The Expectations Teachers Carry That No One Explains Some parts of teaching are clear. Lessons. Programs. Assessment. But much of the work isn’t written anywhere. In this episode, we explore the expectations teachers are expected to know, but are rarely explicitly taught. Most teachers don’t struggle because they lack care, skill, or commitment. It becomes overwhelmi...

🎙️ Teacher Wellbeing: Capacity Before Burnout Teacher burnout rarely begins with one difficult day. More often, it grows slowly when capacity is stretched for too long without enough support, recovery, or clear boundaries. In this episode, we explore teacher wellbeing, capacity, and how teachers can protect their energy before burnout appears. Teaching requires constant cognitive, emotional, and r...

🎙️ Parents: Proactive Communication Before Problems Grow Parent communication often feels hardest when the first contact happens after something has gone wrong. In this episode, we explore how proactive, intentional communication with parents builds trust early and prevents small concerns from becoming bigger problems later. Most teachers don’t struggle with parent communication because they lack...

🎧 Simple Systems That Stop the Overwhelm Assessment often feels overwhelming not because teachers lack skill, but because systems are introduced too late. In this episode, I explore how assessment and evidence can feel lighter when they are planned with intention from the start, rather than added on once learning is already underway. Most teachers don’t struggle with assessment because they lack...

🎙️ When It Gets Hard: Behaviour, Boundaries, and Staying Steady In this episode, I’m unpacking what really helps when behaviour feels challenging, emotions run high, and you’re trying to stay steady in the classroom. Most teachers don’t struggle with behaviour because they lack care, skill, or commitment. It becomes hard when expectations feel unclear, routines feel shaky, and emotional load build...

🎙️ Differentiation shouldn’t double your workload from Day One. Today, I’m unpacking why differentiation so often feels like extra work in Term 1 and why it becomes unsustainable when it starts in the wrong place. Most teachers don’t struggle with differentiation because they lack skill, care, or commitment. It becomes difficult when differentiation is treated as something you add on later, instea...