#176: Kate Stockman on student voice, empathy, and why so many students stay silent.

This one almost didn't happen, and I am so glad it did.

Today's guest literally walked past my booth at EduTech 2026 to introduce herself, and within about two minutes I knew I needed her energy on this podcast. Her name is Kate Stockman, and she is deeply passionate about helping young people find their voice and helping schools build cultures where communication actually thrives. Kate is a secondary educator, communication specialist, and founder of Communicators. Having taught drama, English, and performing arts across both the UK and Australia, Kate has spent her career helping students build confidence, develop communication skills, and engage more meaningfully in learning, drawing on dialogic teaching, oracy, and inclusive education.

So let's roll the tape. We start with what oracy actually is, why it's a much bigger conversation in the UK already, and why it's starting to gain real traction here in Australia too. Kate breaks down the difference between top-down, teacher-led talk and genuine dialogic, co-constructed discussion, and why so many classrooms are still stuck firmly in the first category.

We dig into the real barriers stopping students from speaking up, including a gap in empathy and self-expression that Kate is seeing more and more, and how technology is quietly reshaping the way young people connect face to face. Kate shares one of her favourite classroom strategies, the discussion chain, a deceptively simple, fully student-led technique that gets a whole class genuinely contributing without the teacher having to facilitate a thing. I make her walk me through exactly how to run it, live, so you can take it straight into your own classroom tomorrow.

Then, because I couldn't resist, we run a full bin or win round covering talking sticks, drama games, rote learning, homework, cold calling, and copying off the board, and Kate doesn't hold back on any of them. We finish with her best piece of teaching advice, the one mindset shift that completely changed how she shows up in the classroom, and the single thing every teacher can do tomorrow to immediately improve the quality of classroom conversation.

What you'll learn:

• What oracy actually means, and why dialogic teaching is becoming a much bigger conversation in education
• The real barriers stopping students from speaking up in class, including a growing gap in empathy and self-expression
• How to run a discussion chain, a fully student-led strategy that gets a whole class contributing without teacher facilitation
• Why practising discussion strategies early in the year matters more than just introducing them once
• How smartphones and digital communication may be reshaping students' confidence to connect face to face
• Kate's honest bin or win verdicts on talking sticks, drama games, rote learning, homework, cold calling, and copying off the board
• Why cold calling can work well as a revision tool, but becomes harmful when used as a "gotcha" moment
• The best piece of teaching advice Kate ever received, and why "being consistently good is outstanding"
• The one shift every teacher can make tomorrow to immediately improve classroom conversation

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management 
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Oh, hi there, teachers. Welcome to the Unteachables Podcast. I'm your host, Claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama, and a big old behaviour nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behaviour and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game-changing strategies, and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm, and dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode. Hello, and welcome back to the Unteachables Pop-Up Podcast studio here at EduTech 2026. Today's guest is somebody who just happened

Welcome And Classroom Calm

SPEAKER_00 0:58

to come into my studio to introduce herself, and immediately I knew I needed to have her energy, her vibe, and her passion on the podcast. Her name is Kate, and she is deeply passionate about helping young people find their voice and helping schools create cultures where communication truly thrives. Kate is a secondary educator, communication specialist, and founder of Communicators, which is a name that I absolutely love. Having taught drama, English, and performing arts across both the UK and Australia, Kate has dedicated her career to helping students build confidence, develop their communication skills, and engage more meaningfully in learning. Alongside teaching English and theatre in Melbourne, Kate delivers workshops for students and educators focused on strengthening student voice, empathy, and authentic communication through storytelling, structured dialogue,

Meet Kate From Communicators

SPEAKER_00 1:48

and drama-informed strategies. Oh, you have got one hair cover bio. Should I say your last name? Kate Stockman. Yeah, thank you. Her work draws on the principles of ORC, dialogic teaching, and inclusive education, all with the goal of creating classrooms where every student feels heard, valued, and empowered to contribute. You did well there. I wrote that in the car, stuck in traffic on the harbour bridge. Kate, welcome to the United Wars podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Thanks so much. It's great to be here. I'm so glad to meet you after listening to the podcast and yeah, just walking past. And here we are.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

You just happened upon my booth, and I was a very happy so. Uh, what is communicators? Tell us why communicators? I'm so interested to hear what kicked all of this off of you and why you're so passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

So I'm originally from the UK, and my first job as a teacher was in a secondary school in Devon, and I worked in a low socioeconomic area, and there was a project called the Orasy Project, and is where educators went in, they did some training, and then we came back to our school and led the training to teachers. And we had this small target group of students that would benefit from it the most. And I saw firsthand when I worked with this group, I was like, wow, that was so beneficial. And we worked with the families and the student, and I was that this is something. And when I moved to Australia, it was at the back of my mind, and I remember communicating with someone, and they were like, I've just had like a moment, communicate, like Kate, and I think from there it was just in me, and I I wanted to bring it to life. So that's kind of what led me to here.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I love that. You had that epiphany. I'm gonna communicate, okay? I'm okay.

The Origin Story Behind Communicators

SPEAKER_00 3:35

It was meant to be. That's amazing. You said OSC. I'm glad you said Orissey because there was a part of me that's like, am I saying it correctly? It's not a RC. Is it Oraki?

unknown 3:45

No, it's RC.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Um, but ORC is becoming something that is a bigger conversation in education. For teachers who are hearing that term for the first time, what does it mean and why should they care about it?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

It's quite big in the UK. I've seen it starting to emerge in Australia as well, which is great. Um, so ORC is rooted in something called dialogic teaching. Um, that's kind of the research behind it. And it's all about um like a collective approach to discussion. And there's kind of monologic, which is more top-down and lead led from say an educator in that context, whereas dialogic is like co-constructed, so you work together and it enables like more critical thinking, emotional awareness through like provoking conversation, effective conversation.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah, wonderful. Um, what do you see as some of the biggest barriers to like that are preventing students from speaking up and feeling heard in our classrooms?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Um, I hate to say it, but too much teacher talk is probably one of them. But technology, I mean, we're sat at edge of tech, so I probably shouldn't say that, but having tech in classrooms, I think, is probably impacting that. And just self-expression,

Oracy And Dialogic Teaching Explained

SPEAKER_01 4:54

too, you know, that students don't actually have the tools to do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Um, so I think currently that's probably what I would see.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, how how might just say if you're really struggling getting kids to talk in the classroom, what are some like good starting? Strategies.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I actually did a free resource today that I led over there, my talk. So I'd be happy to share that with people. But yeah, um, I think you've got to practice it. So practice it actually with your classes as well. But okay, we're gonna try this technique today where we're going to like there's one of them a discussion chain where you can the students actually end up leading

Why Students Hold Back

SPEAKER_01 5:29

it, and then you don't even have to facilitate that. Yeah. Um, so I think there's there's definitely different like dialogic principles and strategies, but they do take practice. It's not just you can't just enter into it. It's gonna you with your class, you have to promote it. They need to know what's what's coming and what's maybe expected, and then they build, they get braver.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

You know, initially some might not feel brave to share.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

So there's safety in being able to kind of step back away from the teaching, like away from like sharing. It's really vulnerable for a student to have to share something. Uh, what is it called? The chain of discussion. Yeah, so how would you do that? Let's do a chain of discussion.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Um, I might ask a question, like, let's do should students be allowed to use AI in schools? Yeah. Because I just talked about that there. Um, so I might start that off and say, okay, we're gonna look at this question, and somebody would, like a student, would answer that question with their response. And then they might say, So, Claire, could and they'd have to choose someone else in the class. Like, they actually have to look at them, they actually have to like change their body language, it has to be eye contact. And it's like, okay, Claire, what do you think? Like, this is my perspective, but what what do you think of that? And then you might share our perspective.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I think it's a very complex and nuanced situation. I don't want to share either way because it will start a very, very big time um big discussion. And then what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You it could come back or it could go to someone else. What do you think, James? And then James might share his, but also in a discussion chain, like James might also come back to you and be like, Oh, what do you mean by nuance? If you want to. So that's what I mean by it's got to be practice. So you might actually find your whole, I could give you that as a strategy of how and a description

How To Run A Discussion Chain

SPEAKER_01 7:04

of what the discussion chain is, but then somebody else might want to add their own perspective. Okay, you can go back with the it's like a theater game to an extent, but actually rooted in RC.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And that's something that teachers can take away immediately and use. Like anyone listening to this could do that in their class tomorrow to promote more discussion and more like whole class contribution, which is something that's so hard to get.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

It is, and uh, and then it could be by the end of this discussion chain about this specific question. We want everybody to contributed something, and then you could have someone else that might be, I don't know, writing key points about what the discussion has been said on the board. Or you and as a teacher, yeah, it's full fully autonomous for the students, like you're just observing.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

You could do a bunch of things like a sticky note slam, like okay, write one thing you got down from that discussion that you didn't know before, like great pop down.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Or a reflection afterwards, or yeah, put one thing into your paragraph response if you want to make it written. Yeah, um, yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

I think that's a really practical thing. So for teachers listening, and this is that's probably one of the things they can do, but if teachers are listening in and they've just got that same five hands up all the time, and the rest of the class have opted out because they don't feel safe enough to share, or they just don't have the skills to because the students who aren't answering immediately, sometimes it's because they they have an answer, but there's just not enough space and time between. How can teachers get more whole class contribution when it's always those same few students with their hands up?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I think it's hard when there's so much content too, because the teacher like, oh, I've got to get through the content. So I'm just gonna call on James because feel the noise, feel the noise. Um I think if you again coming down to that practice with your students first and maybe some modelling around, okay, this is the this is the way that we could respond to this. And give them some wait time before you actually respond and just

Getting More Than Five Hands Up

SPEAKER_01 9:02

say, okay, I'm gonna come to group A and you need to choose someone that hasn't spoken today that's going to share this response. And immediately that person's gonna go, I think this is gonna be me, because I've not and so setting them up with not necessarily a traditional think per share. Well, there's always room for think per share. I love a think per share. I love a good think per share too.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I don't even care.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I love it too. I'm all for it. But I mean, maybe flesh that out a little bit. You could do some group, you could do independent of okay, have have wait time before they're expected to share. So it's not I love a cold call as well. So we, you know, that could be unpacked, but I do think that if you're trying to promote it early on, especially early on in the year, yeah, and then they're like, oh okay, we all contribute here. This is this is an expectation, but it's a practice.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, we'll get on to cold calling in the uh the win or bin rounds, and I want to ask you a couple of questions about that. How, oh sorry, what communication skills are young people struggling with most right now? And how is it impacting like the way they're you know they are at school and their lives and their potential future? Like, what are you kind of seeing as massive issues?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

There's a gap in empathy, I think.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Empathy has sorry to cut you off, but empathy has been the biggest thing that has popped up in every single Really? Yeah, it's really interesting, yes, no matter what topic.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, I actually did question some of my students on it, and they were like a VC theatre class, so I feel they they're everybody like it comes in pockets, I think. So they were really able to reflect on it that maybe it's not across the board, but some are really working on it and thinking about student voice and what it means and you know, uh different groups of people, but um empathy is is a gap, so like making students feel seen and heard and thinking about where they come from and what might be coming up for them, or um yeah, what what

Empathy Gaps And Self Expression

SPEAKER_01 10:50

they're going through, and I guess just self-expression, you know, not really knowing what their perspectives are and not having the opportunity to flesh them out. And you know, the uh course I did in the UK also like had parents within that too of our parents helping promote that RC at home as well, and so that self-expression can grow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, as you were talking, I'm thinking about like we've got a three-year-old, and I'm like, okay, what can I do at home sitting around the dinner table? Like that discussion chain. Yeah, like I'm like, how can I like how can we do that as she gets older and to make her feel confident and comfortable in using her voice and and building those skills?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

I just talked as well about um like how was your day? Fine, yeah. You know, and it's like okay, well, what was one thing in your day that made you feel a certain way? Could you describe the feeling and what it was specifically? And then it enables that discussion to build. And we all do it. Good day, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yes, and I guess it comes back to also like us as the teacher or the adult modeling what that looks like for young people because if they don't already have those skills, like those five hands that go up, some students in the room might genuinely just not be able to access the skills they need to share what they might even be thinking.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And do they feel valued? Yeah, do they actually feel their contribution is something worth saying?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Which yeah, student voice is a thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Yeah, absolutely. Do you think that smartphones and digital communication in general, like all of those kind of newish, newish things, um, play a shape in play have a role in shaping students' confidence to speak face to face? Like I'm thinking about when I was younger and we had uh MSN. Well, even a cord, a corded phone. And I remember being in year six and calling my my primary school crush and asking his mum to put him on the phone and like I would never do that now because I become a hermit and you know, don't even call me on the phone. Like, I'll text you, you know. Do you think that that is kind of playing a role in how students are interacting and their communication skills?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Definitely, and I mean in a school that every student has a device, I mean that's massive in the classroom. I always part of my dialogue now is right, close your laptops, and it's actually a part they they immediately open them when they come in. And I know that my school's working towards only using laptops in a purposeful way, but actually it's

Devices And The Drift From Connection

SPEAKER_01 13:17

kind of ingrained in them. They've been using them for a long time now, so I don't think we can actually blame them for where they're at with that. But yeah, conversation-wise, I think that's that's a big challenge um to promote in the classroom. I think if they start to see the benefit of it over time, it can grow, but there's definitely a barrier. I mean, like you say, protecting like your energy at home. I'm like, oh, I can't. I always wanted to speak to that person on the way home, but I don't anymore.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, even like the new um iPhone, what's it called? Like the function of call screening? How it sends, you don't even know about it. Oh my gosh, you should put it on because there's so many spam callers. So they've implemented this thing and it's like call screening. So it's if the phone number's never been used or recognized, it sends them to like a little automated message that says, This person has phone screening activated or something like that. Please tell me your name and the reason you're calling, and then that will be sent to me in a text message, and I'll decide whether or not I answer that phone call.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Wow. It's really cool. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Because it does like filter out all of the because you get so many of those like scammy calls.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

And then you're like, I've now missed the doctor's appointment or something that was important because you don't answer numbers you don't know. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

We're we're moving further away from the need to like physically like connect, like picking up the phone, and it's I don't think it's our fault, but there are so many like barriers in the way for us just talking. Like it's so nice to see you face to face and talk to you on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

It changes everything, yeah because you have an energy, you feel of energy, and I guess historically too, there was community, yeah, and we've lost aspects of that, I think. And we're so we're absorbing so much all of the time through tech. So it's only natural that we don't have as much capacity for absorbing connection because we're just so overstimulated.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, and it is it is like a basic human need belonging, connection. So if we do remove those barriers for our students, like I actually banned laptops in my classroom when I was working in London. Because I'm like, I can't have you all coming in here with your laptops. It wasn't beneficial, it was really hard for me to police. Like they were going on like websites and then shutting them down. And I'm like, okay, blanket rule, like we're not on our computers in English. Like, actually, like when you're in here, I'm gonna get you to do like old school penpers. They're assessed in that way.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

That's the assessment. So it's like, okay, well, we need to build stamina towards that assessment. So what the laptop is that builds things that are good. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

And I think, but with the with the behavioural needs that I had in that, because they were it was a specialist SEMH setting. Um, so they were always on their devices, they were always on computers, and just to remove that for them, and I saw them flourish with like the connections that they were then making, because I was doing like little brain breaks, I was doing little things that required them to all of a sudden like look to the person next to them, and and it did change so much because we are driven by a need to connect as humans.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Belonging. I love the word belonging and eye contacts, feeling so seen. It's yeah, but maybe we learned that, and I don't know if that's actually being explicitly explored in young people in the same way that it is that it was, um, and I think it should be. Yeah, and could be, I should say, no shoulds. Could be.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Could speaking about like no, you know, no black and white thing. I'm gonna do a bin or win round with this.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Um there's no like everything in education is so nuanced, so it's gonna be hard. You can give me some caveats after. You can elaborate if you would like to. Um, and I might elaborate with you on some as well. So bin or win. Talking stick.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Win.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

A win.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

If done well.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

What does it look like when it's done poorly?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Um, I just think that everyone is then listening to that one person with the stick over a really slow period of time, and then they're just disengaged, so there's no actual listening. Whereas it could be like, okay, quick fire with the stick, you have two things that you can say, and then I'm gonna could choose anyone to question you on that afterwards. So they have to listen to that person with the stick, you know? But if it's just like if it's just Greg, if it's just Greg there going, uh Yeah, for like three minutes, and then everyone's drifting off, and what time's lunch?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

So

Bin Or Win Classroom Strategies

SPEAKER_00 17:34

I think as a teacher, you're dying inside because you're like, oh, but I'm losing the room. Like you look around, you can see yourself losing the room, and it's demoralizing. Bloody Greg. Quick discussions, obvious. Win, win, drama games, win, rote learning.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

There's a place for it. They're assessed on it to an extent. So win in the right context.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Homework, win if purposeful.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

What would it be purposeful? What would it be purposeful?

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Lead into the next task that is coming. Yeah. So do this response, we're gonna unpack it at this point. But if it's just homework for homework's sake, yeah. Do you get asked about that from parents?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Like, do you get asked for more homework?

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, or what should they be doing? And I'm like, oh, you can find that there on the OneNote, and you know, you can do that. But I do, and you'll have some that really flourish in the homework space and some that won't. So I think it does have to be purposeful, otherwise it drops off.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

When I worked at the SEMH school, um, there were some parents, like it was all of their needs were very complex. There are a couple of parents who were like, Oh, can I have some homework? And I'm like, Oh, reads, like that I say it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Yeah, get the code. Because the vocab, the vocabulary and uh ability to even imagination, you know, like they have to do a crafted text at year 11 VC and they have to create their own. I'm like, read books, yeah. So important, really good for your mental health, really good for your vocab development, all of the things. I do say that reading a lot. Yeah, cold calling when again that's really surprising. Yeah, do you know what? I think if there's a purposeful drive to cold calling, yeah, then maybe like towards the end, towards assessment of like, okay, tell me one area of context from that book. Go. Tell me something, a moment in the text that shows this. And so we're almost using it as a bit of a revision tool. Like I did it this week around like mind map for revision. Okay, three minutes, everything you know about context in Brave New World. Good and that was so.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Would you give them planning time and then you would do some cold calling?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, I don't, I think maybe just allowing the critical thinking to emerge before cold call because there might be, and then everyone else has a plan in their hand, they have to add to their mind map. Yeah, something that they they haven't written down. So, but I think just cold call for who can tell me, or can you tell me, Kate, what this is? I don't know what it's doing.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

I think sometimes it's used as a gotcha moment rather than a strategy for teaching and learning when you're contributing to a whole class thing um and you're using it very strategically. That's why I wanted to unpack it with you. Because obviously, I can vibe that you're not someone that would be like, Con call, just because I'm gonna catch you out.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

That student and like they're just they freeze, and that's well, my whole culture is the opposite of that of the fear and but I do think it's important, it could be used in an important way later on in the unit. I don't think because it's not a memory test, no, but actually in assessment sometimes it is. Yeah, they have to remember all their quotes. I have to remember my quotes, and I'm like, yeah, I don't know, but it's part of it. Remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

You're you're an English drama. Yeah, yeah. Um, have you ever taught the Wilfred Owen unit?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So it's like a I think maybe it was when I was teaching in Australia before moving to the UK, but it was like a horrors of war poetry unit that we did with HSE students. And half of the students that I so I was marking their essays, half the students, instead of writing Wilfred Owen, who is the poet, they all wrote Owen Wilson. So I had to have like this really big lesson around like the actor, Owen Wilson. Right. I had to like do this lesson where I put Owen Wilson's face up on the board and then I put the poet, then I put the poet up there, and I had to like be a drill sergeant, be like, this is Wilfred Owen, and who is this? Owen Wilson. And then I like put little photocopied, like how many people did.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So sometimes in that instance, that was like his yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, you have to remember the poet's name. You do.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

But why as well?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah, you're analyzing the the poet. So funny. Some of the things you read blow my mind. It's so good. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Uh okay, so I'm now going oh, copying off the board. Spin or win. Spin. Why?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Unless it's something we've built together.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yeah, if we're doing construction.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

If we build it together. Or like, you know, I'm a big one for make sure we've got like the heading.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

So that if any notes are taken today, then you know why and where they come from. But just a whole class of that, yeah, it's not very engaging, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yeah. Yeah. No, and it's um it's what I call the pedagogy, I don't call it that. It was an article. The pedagogy of poem that I talk about a lot. Um, if you've got a really challenging class, you just put like a whole thing of like writing up on the board, it actually settles them so well because there's no there's no risk involved in that. There's no fear. They can just be successful and write that down. So a lot of teachers rely on that because they're in survival mode.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

I've been there.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

So have I.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah, that's why. I will probably be there again in some lessons, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Just going and sitting down and going, you know what, I just can't cope. Like just write this thing. Just write this one thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Yeah. And yeah, it's that some days you are just trying to survive. Survive. Yeah. And that's let's be honest.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I think that's really important for teachers to hear as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Rapid fire question rounds. Okay. Biggest communication killer in classrooms. Tech.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Oh, maybe I should say that. Maybe that's not my thing. What hill do you want to die on? Tech and at times, if tech if not used appropriately, and maybe not enough chunking. Like short, sharp chunking of lessons would probably be if it's too much of one thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Yeah. Favorite communication strategy.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Maybe discussion chain. Let's go back to discussion chain. Or um something student-led. Yeah. For me, it's like student-led student at the center. Yeah. Anything that promotes student autonomy, I am there.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

I love it. Discussion chain. Maybe that can be the episode name. The hardest thing about teaching today.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Maybe engagement and time like they're not engaged for as long.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Which is really funny because the next question in the rapid-fired

Rapid Fire Engagement And Teacher Mindset

SPEAKER_00 23:56

question round is the best way to get students engaged.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Make them a part of the process.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

And make them enjoy their process. So that it's a because it's so outcome-driven.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

What might looking what might being a part of the process look like?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Questioning what they've created. It's like, oh, you know, okay, we've we've done a paragraph response. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

How can we improve that based on X or how what's I mean, it's a And you said before, like during constructing things, like during constructing a paragraph, making sure that you're And what's the student done well and having that, you know, we've got this response.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

What would you give it initially? And then someone's from the classmaker, someone that's done something really well, something we can improve together. And then even the student that maybe their work needed some improvement, they're like, We worked on my thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

And like that was mine. And now look at it.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, I love that. Best piece of advice you've ever received as a teacher. That's that's pretty deep. It's really hard. It's kind of a rapid fire one.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

But being consistently good is outstanding. And my mentor said that to me my teaching year. And you know, it's really helped me not be so hard on myself of actually just trying showing up and being doing your best and trying to be good.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, I love that. Actually, it reminds me of something that a mentor once told me, which is Claire, you are good enough. Like, and that is okay. You are good enough. Some days you're freaking excellent, but if you're just good enough and that like that is okay, your kids, you just need to be good enough. Yeah. And I've reminded myself of that millions of times throughout my career, and you need to go back to it. And I think a lot of people are going to resonate with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, because sometimes you'd you'd feel like you're not doing enough.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah. Especially in TG. Yes. Um, I've got one uh final question. Tell me. It's a bit of a takeaway for teachers who are listening in. What's one shift teachers can make tomorrow that would immediately improve the quality of the conversations that students are having, the amount of even ruth in the right context?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Maybe move to more of an evaluative stance. So when we're moving into our questioning, going into the why and the how and what makes you say that. Yeah. Just digging a little bit more into the evaluation of what they're saying and making them feel really heard and just from the moment they enter. Hi Claire, how are you doing? Yeah. Did you win at the footy at the weekend? How is it? You know, those types of things. If they feel seen, they're gonna want to contribute in the academic space.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yeah. That's and if we're not modeling that to our students, if we're not able to bring them in with

One Shift For Better Talk Tomorrow

SPEAKER_00 26:38

warmth and conversation and, you know, like model what it looks like to be a human in the room, they're not going to want to contribute in the way that they could as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

And we haven't got all of the answers. We don't hold this infinite amount of information. It's okay if we're wrong. Um, you know, we might we don't know everything, but if we're working as a collective to improve every lesson, that's such a win.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

And they feel that drive of like, I want to improve.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Okay, thank you so much for stumbling upon booth, I think it's 1216, and finding me and uh agreeing to, at the last minute after your talk today, come on to the um Unteachables podcast. It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Thank you for having me. I was so excited to come and see you today. I said, I could see Claire after my talk. Yeah, thank you.