Thank you to the 142 schools who submitted a nomination in this year’s awards. The difficult task of selecting the winner will now go to our esteemed panel of judges.

As we read the nominations we noticed the many ways education support staff have been helping students learn remotely. Below, we share some snippets about how they responded to remote learning and some of the initiatives that will make everyone better prepared for online learning, now and into the future.

Adam Belin, University of Canberra High School, ACT, supported students to be better equipped to navigate online communication once they returned to school.

Michelle Darker, Ayr State School, QLD, coordinated maps of where each family lived, and colour coded delivery zones, to ensure that every child was catered for in their learning.

Taryn Riles, Boorowa Central School, NSW, enabled effective communication between SLSO’s and teaching staff working from home, to create and produce resource packs for all students. 

Carolyn Eyles, Deloraine High School, TAS, engaged with students via Microsoft Teams to ensure they did not fall behind in literacy and numeracy outcomes.

Connie Midiri, Essendon Keilor College, VIC, set up her own Google classroom to meet with a student with disability without distractions of the rest of the class, which led to individual classrooms being set up for other students with disability.  

Jodie Vance, Guildford Grammar Senior School, WA, used forums to communicate with students and provided feedback to subject teachers about student progress and how she was supporting them remotely.

Today, we have published a list of all the teacher aides who have been nominated in this year's awards on our website.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people impacted by COVID-19. Please take care of yourself, keep safe, and stay well.

Warm regards

Mandy and Stella

Despite the disruption of COVID-19, this year's awards have been well supported.

We have received, read and assessed nominations from every state and territory. Again, we have been inspired by the stories that have been written about teacher aides, and amazed at the skills, knowledge, dedication and impact TAs have on student learning and wellbeing. 

To acknowledge this year's nominees, we have published the list of potential awardees on our website.

Keep an eye on our Events page as there are still lots of live events yet to come for the rest of the year.

Not sure how to register for an ATA webinar? Watch our video tutorial on the Event page, for step by step instructions.

LIVE WEB EVENT

Essential Behaviour Support Skills for Schools

Part 3: On Task Behaviour

Tuesday 11 August 2020 at 3:30pm AEST

There are 10 Essential Skills which are widely used as part of a whole school approach to behaviour management. These skills provide teachers and support staff with practical strategies that promote positive behaviour, student wellbeing and learning. 

In Part 3 you will learn to use the language of correction to get students back on task in the least intrusive way, and explore practical strategies to redirect students back to learning.

N.B The webinar recordings of Parts 1 and 2 of this series are available to members in the Professional Development Library, under the interest group, Behaviour.

LIVE WEB EVENT

Building a Culture of Happiness

1 September 2020 at 3:30pm AEST

To help celebrate Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week (31 August - 4 September), we have invited Patty Duque, internationally certified coach, speaker and best selling author, to present a special webinar on happiness.

We can all use a good dose of cheer in these challenging times, and we can't wait for this event! Stay posted :)

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Essential Behaviour Support Skills for Schools

Part 1: Prevention

Learn how to use the language of expectation to talk with students about learning and behavior, and explore practical strategies that prevent behaviour issues arising in the first place.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Essential Behaviour Support Skills for Schools

Part 2: Encouragement

Learn why praise and encouragement are different, how to use the language of acknowledgement to recognise and encourage appropriate behaviour, and explore practical strategies to encourage self-efficacy in students.

TA TOOLBOX - Behaviour

We have recently added new links for articles and videos to the Behaviour Toolbox on the following topics:

• Encouragement and student resilience
• The Learning Pit
• Self efficacy toolkit

Member Webinar Challenge

Corinne Carr was the lucky winner of our member webinar competition this month. Corinne won an ATA monogrammed polo shirt for correctly answering the question, What is the name of the American psychologist from Stanford University who is known for their work on Mindset? 

Do you know who it is?

Use the link below to purchase your polo shirt. They're super comfy and solve the problem of what to wear each day!

There is a fine line between a numerator and a denominator

14,274 views

835 reactions, comments and shares

This appealed to so many of you. Do you know the name of this fine line?

Fun fact: It's called the vinculum.

No matter what industry we work in, no matter our role, we can make a difference. It's the little things ...

8,864 views
473 reactions, comments and shares

This letter to a hairdresser from the husband of a woman with dementia showed how significant small gestures can be on one's life. Such heart!

We are remote ready!

We can meet the professional learning needs of teacher aides in schools, whether they are working from home or at school. 

ATA membership gives your school instant access to our online Professional Development library with almost 100 video resources, customised to the education support role. 

If you would like to make sure our resources are right for your team, download our Professional Development Planner for a comprehensive list of all available resources.