TA TALK

Issue 21

July 2017

Can you believe we are already into Term III, with only one term to go before the end of the year! 

Both individual and corporate memberships have continued to grow, and we welcome back those of you joining us for a second year, as well as our new member schools, training organisations and individual teacher aides. Thank you to the teacher aides who have talked to their schools about joining ATA. We appreciate it, as do the schools, when they hear about the benefits from their own teacher aide staff. Please continue to spread the word and help us to help you in your role as paraprofessional educators.

Your enthusiasm for professional development has not gone unnoticed, and even during the holidays we had an amazing turn up to our live events. In last Tuesday’s live community webinar, Practical Strategies For Assisting Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, we had massive registration numbers and a record 75% of those registered, participated! Well done!

Most of you are getting the hang of using our new registration process. Remember, there are two steps!! Step one ensures you receive a certificate and step two ensures you get the all-important email with your 'join' link. Please make sure you mark emails from ATA as safe, as we don’t want you missing out because the email was hiding in your junk folder. 

We hope you have a fabulous Term III.

Warm regards

Mandy and Stella

Directors

Australian Teacher Aide

Some teacher aides have been unable to join our live webinars from school. Your school may not have automatic access to Go To Webinar. You can request access through your school. View our FAQs for more information.

COMMUNITY WEBINAR: Practical Strategies for Assisting Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This webinar explores the key features of Autism Spectrum Disorder. ATA guest presenter, Lydia Meem, is the founder of Autism Understanding

and a clinical psychologist with many years of experience working with children and adolescents with autism. She shares practical ideas and strategies for overcoming common difficulties in the classroom, and how to provide effective support for students with ASD in schools. She has generously shared one of her excellent resources, the ASD Student Profile, which is uploaded with the program. Lydia also answers question from the audience, and outlines some of the workshops and services she provides to people working with autism. For information on Lydia's upcoming workshops, use the links below:

Adelaide Workshop

Brisbane Workshop

Perth Workshop

MEMBER WEBINAR: eTAPS Module 2 Preview - How To Support Student Learning

In this webinar, Stella gets the audience participating in practical activities that explore how to support students with learning. You will learn about the role of scaffolding, when to support students with a task, and some practical scaffolding strategies. You can use the downloadable worksheet to do the polls and activities. 

MEMBER WEBINAR

eTAPS Module 3 Preview: How to Give Effective Feedback to Students

Tuesday 8th August 2017 @ 4:15pm AEST

Don’t miss the third preview of eTAPS, when Stella explores the role of feedback on the learning process. You will have an opportunity to get involved in practical activities that you can use in the classroom, and learn how to teach students coping strategies and break the failure cycle. This session includes a worksheet, and a Q&A session.

COMMUNITY WEBINAR 

Big Write and VCOP – A Fun Program To Improve Student Writing

Tuesday 29th August 2017 @ 4:15pm AEST

“If they can’t say it, they can’t write it” is Samantha Taylor’s motto for teaching children to write. Join us for our next community webinar where Samantha shares her knowledge and teaching experience about raising the standards in writing. She will uses Big Write and VCOP, an oral based writing program that helps students transfer their verbal skills into written skills. In this interactive webinar, participants will learn fun and practical strategies that they can use with students straight away. Session notes and worksheets will be available for download in My Portal prior to the webinar.

DISABILITY

In our recent community webinar, Lydia Meem recommended a book, The Sixth Sense II, by Carol Grey. It's an affordable book that provides easy to use lesson plans for students aged 7-12, to share information about autism spectrum disorder.

WE HEAR YOU!

26,241 views

763 reactions, comments and shares

We hear you! We know there is a real need for practical and relevant professional development for teacher aides working with students with disability. Nonetheless, we were amazed by your enthusiastic response when we advertised our webinar, Practical Strategies for Assisting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We will act on this feedback and keep our ears and eyes open to bring you more presentations in this area. If you know of an expert that you would like us to approach, drop us a line using our contact form.

DON'T DO IT ALONE!

17,100 views
94 reactions, comments and shares

ATA is all about connecting, collaborating, and learning with other paraprofessionals, and this post struck a chord with teachers and teacher aides all over Australia. Thank you for sharing our message ☺

WELCOME TO ATA!

St Joseph's Primary School, QLD

Wodonga Institute of TAFE, VIC

Rosella Park School, QLD

Emmanuel College, QLD

Kolbe Catholic College, VIC

Riverside Christian College, QLD

Overnewton Anglican Community College, VIC

John Paul College, QLD

Mackay District Special School, QLD

St Michael's School Traralgon, VIC

Dakabin State High School, QLD

VICSEG New Futures, VIC

Staines Memorial College, QLD

Bairnsdale Primary School, VIC

Flinders Christian Community College, VIC