Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

Texthelp Blog - Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

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To help your organization become more inclusive of people with disabilities, we asked HR leaders and D&I professionals this question for their best ideas. From instituting a national awareness day to training and educating all staff, there are several initiatives proposed to help organizations make their workplace more inclusive of people with disabilities. 

Discover 10 proposed initiatives to make the workplace more inclusive.

10 initiatives for employers to be more inclusive of people with disabilities

What is one initiative that can help an organization kick start their efforts to be more inclusive of people with disabilities? 

We heard how teachers in the post-pandemic classroom find themselves drained and “frayed around the edges”. The past few years have shown how important it is for teachers to have support from colleagues and school leaders. Watch the full conversation below. Short on time? Read on to see a summary. 

Take 60 with Texthelp: The Teacher Edition

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we sat down with 5 teachers to gather their thoughts on the changing landscape of teaching.

Teacher Wellbeing in the Post-Pandemic Era

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we sat down with 5 teachers to gather their thoughts on the changing landscape of teaching. 

On this day, we’ll be bringing together industry experts and people with lived experiences of neurodiversity and disability. Together, we’ll uncover how we can work together to drive change, and make a lasting impact. Discover more.

What to expect at Texthelp's first ever Festival of Workplace Inclusion

On 26th May 2022, we’re hosting our first ever Festival of Workplace Inclusion. A free virtual conference where we’ll explore how to create a better working world for those of us who think, work and learn differently. 

On this day, we’ll be bringing together industry experts and people with lived experiences of neurodiversity and disability. Together, we’ll uncover how we can work together to drive change, and make a lasting impact.

Following on from the podcast, we thought it would be helpful to explore this topic a little more. We wanted to pull together some practical suggestions for your classroom. During the podcast, Dr. John West quoted Professor Dylan William who said, "Teaching is a career that it's impossible to master in just one lifetime”. So we know that the ideal maths lesson doesn’t exist, but there are some tips and tricks you can try at your school. 

No maths lesson exists alone, each lesson will form part of a bigger topic, which forms part of a bigger topic, and so on. A good maths lesson will follow on from the last and lead into the next. That way students build layers of knowledge as they go. 

At the start of the lesson, you can reference what you looked at last time. You can check what students remember about the last topic, and talk about why the topic is important. If you can show what else it links to, or even better how it applies to real-life - then it will mean more to your class. 

It’s important to have a plan for each lesson, the time you get with the students might be short, so you need to hit the ground running. It’s helpful to ask yourself What do I want the students to get out of this lesson? What resources will I need? Is there a practical way of showing this lesson? Can the kids get hands-on with this topic? 

Lesson structure is important too, is there something you can show the class at the start that sparks their interest? Things like interesting images, video clips, or something from the news can all be useful starting points.

There are so many materials available to you, they could be digital or concrete tools for students to manipulate. But you have to make sure they are the right tools for the job and that they add value to your lesson. With so much choice it pays to be critical about what you use and don’t just use them because they’re available. 

Following on from the point above, sometimes less is more. It’s better to break topics into smaller chunks and make sure the students understand it before moving on. This is especially important when tackling more complex topics. It’s easy to overestimate what you can squeeze into a lesson. Allowing students time to think and explore a topic fully can help with deeper understanding. 

Once the class gets into a topic this is a great time for some teamwork. Can you let your class collaborate or investigate something together? This is an effective way to let students apply what they know, and make links across the curriculum. This is also time for differentiation, if the class is working on something together this gives you time to provide 1:2:1 support to anyone that needs it. To make sure everyone is getting something from the lesson, and that all needs are met. 

At Texthelp, we take the Universal Design for Learning practices to heart. Creating access for everyone is what we do. We’d be missing a very important point if we didn’t remind you of these principles now: 

Design solutions that identify and remove barriers to learning

Promote high expectations through carefully planned goals for every learner

Give learners choice & support to help them reach those goals

A final point here is that UDL opens the door to opportunities for our learners. The teacher should have the same learning goals and expectations for each of their students. But remember that the way students get to the solution isn't always the same.

We have heaps of resources on our website that can help you with this. You’ll find lots of links in the resources section below this blog, but let's get on with our tips for your maths class….

As a teacher, you are often expected to have all the answers, but there may be times when you don’t - and that’s ok too. We know that young people learn a lot from the adults around them, and if you are stumped by a question it’s ok to say you don’t know, but you’ll find out. Or even better, say you don’t know but that you’ll figure it out as a class. Modelling problem-solving behaviour is a great way to show your students that it’s ok to not have all the answers.  As Allan says in the podcast “Fail fast, fail often, and fix it”. 

Dr. Dylan Wiliam, mentioned in the podcast, talks in his book Embedded Formative Assessment about how the students can be learning resources for one another. If teachers allow students to support each other’s learning in a structured way it’s another way to engage with the content. This is where the “think, pair, share” idea comes into play. Pairs are a great way of doing this because it’s easy for them to switch and take turns. Is this something you could experiment with within your classroom? 

Many people are not big fans of maths, anxiety around the topic can start at an early age and create feelings of frustration, and even inadequacy.  There are some people who love figuring out how to solve a problem, these students perform well in maths and other related subjects compared to those who find it difficult.

Using fun games that kids can play with can really help break down a topic. Games are a fun and engaging way to reinforce the lessons, often students are having so much fun that they don’t even know they're learning. You can split students into teams and have spot prizes for the winners to add a little competition and get your students working as a team. 

We believe it’s important not to skip this step as it’s possibly the more important time in your lesson. It offers time to reflect as a class and allows students to think more deeply about what they have learned. It’s also a good time to pose questions and link topics together. For you, as a teacher, you can make sure everyone understands the topic, it gives you a quick snapshot of learning evidence. We recommend taking a little time for this at the end of every lesson. By planning out in advance and having all the tools to hand you can build reflection into your day. 

Maths classes vary hugely from class to class, so there are many variables to how teachers design great maths lessons. The key point is to provide the chance for all your students to achieve success, whatever that looks like to them, to be engaged. And most importantly, to enjoy maths. 

In this episode we are joined by 2 experts in maths education in Australia. The host for the podcast is Allan Dougan from AAMT, joined by Dr. John West.  So you can see that if anyone can answer the question, what makes a good maths lesson -it's John and Allan.

Texthelp Talks Podcast: What makes a good maths lesson?

Visit to our guide to the best tools and tips for teaching and creating engaging maths online. There's videos, blogs and downloadable guides to help you along.

Teaching maths online

This guide provides recommendations to ensure all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities across the curriculum.

Universal Design for Learning

Read on for 8 ways in which you can inspire your students to engage with maths.

8 Tips for a great maths lesson

In a recent podcast our friends Allan Dougan, from the Australian Association of Maths Teachers and Dr John West who is the WA Project Officer for the University of Adelaide Math in Schools Project, and is a fly-in/fly-out numeracy consultant for Coober Pedy Area Schools in South Australia, joined us for a Texthelp Talks Podcast. The topic of discussion was “What makes a good maths lesson?”. If you missed the podcast, you can catch it on demand - the link will be at the end of this blog. 

With its time-saving elements and unique feedback features for scoring student’s writing assignments, WriQ is a teacher’s ‘best friend’.  But, like all friendships, we learn from one another and grow together as time goes on. Your friendship with WriQ has taught us that it could stand to blossom even further and help you ‘work smarter, not harder’. 

With that in mind, we want to share how we’ve upgraded your friendship with WriQ to now include Writing Prompts, which are available to use from April 28, 2022 and will help encourage that creative writing flow. 

WriQ - Writing Prompts Video

We're excited to announce the release of writing prompts in WriQ - coming April 20, 2022. A brand new feature that will help encorage creative writing flow.

We’ve updated WriQ to help writing flow

We're excited to announce the release of writing prompts in WriQ

This year, I had the opportunity to attend the South by Southwest Education Conference (SXSW EDU) in Austin, Texas. At the Education portion of the conference, you’re less likely to see movie stars or rock ’n’ rollers strolling the city streets (I know, bummer, right? Well…). 

Ceo & Founder Of Outlier.org, Co-Founder Of Masterclass

Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Eye to Eye and presenter of “Mentorship Matters: Empowering Those with Learning Differences'

United States Secretary of Education

Texthelp's round-up of key learnings from SXSW Edu 2022 conference. From topics on Assistive Technology (AT) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) you're sure to find some useful takeaways from this blog by Deena Kimmel, Social Media and Community Manager at Texthelp.

Barrier-Breaking Education: Lessons from SXSW EDU

Our round-up of key learnings from SXSW Edu 2022 conference. From topics on Assistive Technology (AT) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) you're sure to find some useful takeaways from this blog by Deena Kimmel, Social Media and Community Manager at Texthelp.

Blog

10 initiatives for employers to be more inclusive of people with disabilities

Teacher Wellbeing in the Post-Pandemic Era

What to expect at Texthelp's first ever Festival of Workplace Inclusion

8 Tips for a great maths lesson

We’ve updated WriQ to help writing flow

Barrier-Breaking Education: Lessons from SXSW EDU

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