Welcome to the Get Connected podcast.

I’m Catherine a retired teacher, with over 30 years devoted to the well-being & education of children.

One of the biggest challenges to teaching is having a supportive connected community. I began this podcast to help build a supportive community through mentoring, sharing experiences, taking care of your well-being & being connect-ED.

My goal now is to extend that support and connection further into the community & not just with educators as the need for connection or reconnection is at its highest.

Do you struggle with completing challenging tasks?

Are you a procrastinator or do you have strict self-discipline?

Maybe a bit of both?

In today’s episode, I’d like to discuss struggles with procrastination & making excuses for avoiding this one task I have been trying to accomplish for months.

Why do we procrastinate?

How do you pull yourself out of a procrastination funk?

So are you making an excuse or is it a legitimate reason?

The hardest part right now is to show up. Above all else, keep showing up for yourself. I know how much you love your students and you don’t want to let anyone down, but you are human first. When you are ready, after you have met your needs then you will have more strength for others. You will be able to show up for your teaching role & for your school community.

Today’s guest is Beck from @continuousclassroom on Instagram. She is a teacher, relieving assistant principal and a mum. Beck is a strong advocate for justice and equity for all, environmental sustainability, being authentic & taking care of your wellbeing.

Beck was one of the first connections I made on social media to become friends in real life hence her call to be my first guest. We talk about making connections with students, family, friends and yourself. I hope you value what Beck has to share just as much as I do.

Up to this point, we have endured a global pandemic for about 16 months so far, making this season extremely challenging.

Throughout this year, everyone has experienced restrictions & lockdowns & it’s far from over.

Here’s my little piece of wisdom: Let yourself feel. It’s natural to feel angry, frustrated, isolated & sad.

It’s alright to grieve the loss of freedom, contact with other people, especially family, the lost opportunities, the cancellations, no travelling & the missed gatherings with others.

Be compassionate with yourself.

Allow yourself time.

Acknowledge your feelings.

Create ways to relax and to get rest.

Be patient.

Hold onto hope.

Reach out.

Stay connectED

I had forgotten my purpose. I had forgotten to show up as myself. I retreated from showing the courage to be vulnerable.

I retreated from connecting with others.

Have you recently hit a wall, a self-imposed barrier?

Sometimes walls are there so we can lean on them & rest.

When you are ready, you’ll find the strength & courage to dismantle that wall. ‘How’ you might ask? One brick at a time.

We connect through our stories, through our vulnerability.

We are not alone.

At the start of this school year, I spoke on a Beginning teachers Webinar hosted by the wonderful Australian Educational website Teachstarter and I would like to check back in with our beginning, new and graduate teachers.

This is part 2 with another 5 teacher tips, thoughts & ideas following on from the last episode.

If you missed the first 5, you can head back to catch up.

1. Get organised

2. Take the best care of yourself

3. Be a lifelong learner

4. Clear communication

5. Make time for fun and play

Enjoy your teaching this year.

Know you are making a huge difference in many lives

Let’s connect.

@cathsclassroom05 on Instagram

@cathwilliams05 on Twitter

It is now January 2021, and we have farewelled 2020, well it’s more like, we gave it the boot.

Now that it is Summer break and teachers are hopefully feeling recharged & beginning to prepare for back to school,

I prepared some tips, ideas and thoughts that would be helpful for both returning teachers

& graduate teachers beginning their first year. Wishing you very best by the way.

I have prepared 10 topic areas.

However, to keep the episodes shorter, I am splitting this into 2 episodes

In this episode:

1. All behaviour is communication

2. Build a love of reading

3. It’s challenging, but it doesn’t always stay this way

4. Smile

5. Reuse, recycle, reuse

Enjoy your teaching this year.

Know you are making a huge difference in many lives

It was June 2020 and students in Australia were returning to the classrooms and online learning was being wound up

I heard many breathe a sigh of relief.

Ahhhh, now, at last, we can get back to normal.

This really got me thinking and I wanted to share my thoughts & reflections about the anticipation of ‘going back to normal’ in the wake of a pandemic. Should we be going back, or should we go forward, to a ’new normal?’

But wait, there’s more.

Protests over police brutality & the struggle to bring changes to racism, social injustices, Black Lives Matter and the work to be anti-racist was brought to the world’s attention.

Here in Australia this also included another wake-up call for changes to be made to the recognition, injustices & treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Then in late June 2020, the 2nd wave of COVID 19 has struck parts of Australia, particularly the state of Victoria  & it is back into remote teaching & learning.

In light of recent events, with the worldwide pandemic, lockdowns & the world having to distance itself, staying connected has become an even higher priority than before.

I had to do something to provide emotional support, positivity, hope and an avenue for others to stay connected.

Educators have been asked to incorporate significant changes in such a short amount of time and of course, this is having an enormous impact.

Don’t forget we are in the middle of a health crisis.

People are losing loved ones and others are ill.

Everyone is worried about the health of their family, friends & keeping themselves safe.

There is also the economic impact.

So my friends, how are you doing? Are you ok?

The thing to remember most is...

We will get through this.

It is, what it is.

Many things are out of our control. What is in our control is how we react and the decisions we make.

And we are all reacting to the situation in our own ways.