Fascinating and Insightful

Greg Mitchell is presenter of many popular workshops for teachers and schools. With over four decades of teaching experience Greg has taught and tamed the hardest of children and their parents. Greg Mitchell knows that collaboration, innovation, high performance learning, and sound decision-making all hinge on a teacher’s ability to form positive relationships with students, teachers, administrators, and parents based on honest advice delivered when it matters most. In over 40 years of teaching Greg has developed an amazing array of frameworks and practical skills that he shares with teachers and students. His highly interactive, visually stimulating, fun-soaked and practical workshops have inspired and instructed sold out audiences of school leaders in how to reach and teach across Australia.

Presentations

WHAT TO DO WITH PARENTS WHO...

Answers to questions teachers and schools are afraid to ask

Much focus is spent on student behaviour. But how do you deal with parents you dread? Or deliver bad news to good parents? Or reach out to disengaged parents?

Communicating with parents is a challenging and stressful task teachers and principals face on a daily basis. Whether trying to engage an avoidant parent or handle a complaint, it is essential to know how to initiate contact, handle difficult situations, establish positive relationships, recognise when a parent is right, stop problems before they escalate to the main office and never let ‘em see you sweat. But dealing with parents, often leaves teachers and schools feeling out of their depth or on the back foot. 24 per cent of Australian teachers report ‘addressing parent or guardian concerns' as a major source of stress which has contributed to more teachers wanting to leave teaching within the next five years. 

This workshop is for every educator who has asked - why do parents do that? Dynamic, insightful and practical this is must do training for graduates to old school teachers wanting to know how to deal with sticky situations they don’t teach in college/ uni. Packed with over 30 simple strategies you can start using tomorrow to expertly navigate challenging interactions with parents, and walk away feeling that you have made a positive and meaningful impact.

BETTER BEHAVIOUR

Behaviour Changing Strategies for Schools and Teachers

Better Behaviour workshops provide teachers and their leaders with an overall review of classroom teaching practice and the practical way that this impacts on student behaviour.The workshop details the everyday interactions of teachers and students and draws attention to how these can be modified to get more engaged, respectful relationships and better learning. The workshop details a plethora of small but powerful techniques that focus teachers on meeting students’ needs before teaching them specific skills in a sequence that turns challenging behaviour around in an instant. Presenting over 40 strategies, techniques, hints, lesson hooks and resources Greg will explore:

• The impact of self-confidence issues such as anxiety and procrastination have on school behaviour management systems
• The potency of use proactive calming checklists
• How to work with students to build their Behavioural Intelligence
• Teaching the “Greet, Serve, Return, Validate” conversation sequence that will transform your school.
• How to handle difficult behaviours, such as challenging power struggles, with skill and grace
• Diagnosing difficult behaviours and drawing up action plans that work.
• Building better team structures for teachers so that they get support, feel valued and feel confident in their teaching.

TEACHING COMPLEX, HARD TO REACH, DISRUPTIVE AND TRAUMATISED STUDENTS

Teaching students who live with trauma is no easy task but schools who have a whole-school based approach that uses data to inform methodologies, monitor progress and reflect on successes is the most impactful way to approach transforming schools to be more trauma-informed.  
This workshop helps align mental health and behaviour management to create better ways to teach difficult complex and hard to reach students so that trauma-informed practice is incorporated into the culture and climate of a school in a way that it becomes part of the identity of the way that school operates. This workshop helps schools:

• Understand who experiences trauma, why, and how it impacts learning
• Recognise the key impacts of trauma & toxic stress
• Develop a multi-tiered system of support
• Create engaging and affirming classroom instruction that minimises disruption and differentiates for difficulty
• Embed healthy relationships, sleep, nutrition, exercise, mental health, and mindfulness into your school’s daily operational plan
• Engage families and community so that school can be a place where all are welcome and feel included
• Change the  school climate so that students, staff, and families can experience school as a safe place, both physically and emotionally

It's ultimate aim is to help teachers and students find meaning and purpose in their work together, by developing a positive vision for the future and an internal drive that motivates them to do their best for each other.

BOYS BEHAVIOUR

Boys have not been doing well in school this century, boys’ scientific literacy is decreasing faster than that of girls, and their reading levels are one school year behind that of girls.  Australia had one of the worst student reports of disciplinary climate in 2018, and schools with at least 60% boys had a poorer disciplinary climate than those in all OECD countries. Add to this, community concerns about toxic masculinity, male violence against women and sexual misconduct, paints a disturbing picture of male development. This highly practical but intensely challenging workshop does a deep dive into the research behind issues that beset boys at school and shows how we can help boys learn tactics that help them turn the key to teaching boys that allows them to be active learners, not passive recipients of information.

AMAZING POWER of SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Student leaders can transform how your school operates, dreams, and achieves. However, the greatest change that enables this is how we as adults must change our mindsets to enable the growth to happen. By encouraging students to have more of a role in your school and preparing teachers and administrators to be genuinely open to listen to, learn from, and lead with those students is the key to meaningful and sustainable whole school change. This vibrant, engaging workshop details the practical steps needed to open teachers and administrators minds and provides many practical steps that improve student engagement in the classroom and provide incredible insight when planning and organising virtually any activity in the school. 

REGENERATING RESILIENCE 

Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress but many young Australian children lack the self-awareness to cope with the most trivial of adversities.  With the right support, children can be empowered with the skills, knowledge, and grit to manage disappointment and challenge and move forward with courage and strength. Offering a range of practical and powerful strategies to assist administrators, teachers, and parents to help respond effectively to students at different developmental levels.

YOU CAN’T CORRECT IF YOU DON’T CONNECT

Loaded with strategies, techniques, and ideas designed to prevent motivation and discipline problems in the most difficult classrooms. Complex students are easy to find, and their numbers are increasing. Providing teachers, behaviour coordinators, teacher assistants and support personnel with clear strategies, techniques, and ideas designed to prevent discipline problems and build motivation for complex, hard to teach, disinterested and disruptive students

GETTING STUFF DONE - Leading from the Middle

How do we lead people to work happily together towards new goals and directions? This fast paced, entertaining, and practical day that will enable middle leaders and coordinators to explore the skills, resources, activities, materials, and experiences which help coordinate: 

• Connecting and building a team
• Mentoring and developing talent
• Transform meeting protocols
• Helping everyone to adapt to change
• Researching and developing innovation
• Innovating by borrowing
• Gathering data to better understand students’ needs
• Delivering quality learning
• Establishing goal setting and innovating through goal setting
• Getting routines right

THE DIFFERENTIATOR’S MINDSET

Differentiation is a sequence of common-sense decisions made by teachers with a student-first orientation. Differentiation recognises that even the most homogenous of classes has a spread of talent, skill, behaviour, and knowledge. Even though Australia is hobbled by one of the worst curriculums in the world, there is a rock-solid strategic set of steps to creating a classroom that responds to the needs of the students. This workshop will detail how a classroom can move from ad hoc strategies for individual students to cooperative, skill filled classrooms that engage and motivate all students.

Book Greg for your school or conference