Blog Posts

1. What is Democracy?

Before students can gain a deeper understanding of democracy, they need to understand what it is. They might like to start with breaking the word down - democracy is a Greek word meaning rule or strength by the people.

In our modern world, we understand democracy is a type of government where citizens get an equal say in how things are run - usually through voting.

This is a good opportunity to explore what voting looks like. Students may have accompanied adults as they vote and they can talk about what they see. You can also share photos of voting around the world - whether it’s Australians voting at an Antarctic station, a primary caucus in Iowa or voting in space!

Students can also talk about other places they see voting - whether it’s voting in the classroom or voting for a reality television show.

2. Where Does Democracy Come From?

If you’re digging deeper into democracy, it’s good to know where it comes from - and how modern democracy is different.

Democracy started in ancient Athens around 508-507 BCE. It was a change from ‘aristocracy’ - rule by the elite - with the idea that ‘the people’ of Athens should have a say in how the city state was run. The ‘people’ - those who got to vote and were involved in decision making - was quite restricted though - women, slaves and non-citizens were all excluded.

Students might like to reflect on how the development of democracy would have changed the life of Athenians who were able to vote. They might also like to research some of the features of democracy in Athens like ostracism and the red rope!

3. Common Features of Democracy

What features usually accompany democracy? From elections, to majority vote to the right to protest against the government, there are a range of features which people usually associate with democracy. These can change from country to country - not every country has free speech, for example - but the philosophy of everyone having the right to participate in decision making is usually behind these features.

Students might like to create a list of the features of democracy they know about and discuss why those features exist. They might also like to examine what can make democracy fairer and look at how some countries have worked to create fairer systems. To extend this, students might like to argue to a change to their own democratic system - from how the senate is created, to how votes are cast, to a change in who is allowed to vote.

4. Types of Democracy

There are two main kinds of democracy - representative democracy and direct democracy. In direct democracy, voters vote for all the decisions. In a representative democracy, voters vote for representatives who serve to make laws and decisions.

Many countries have a mixture of direct and representative democracy. In many countries, almost all laws are created by representatives. However, when the law is particularly big, or there’s a lot of conflict about passing it, laws might be referred to the public to be voted on. This is called a referendum.

Students might like to look at the benefits and drawbacks of both kinds of democracy and write a persuasive argument about which one they believe is better. They can also research notable referendum and talk about the different arguments people might put forward when they convince people to vote for laws.

5. Where Do We See Democracy?

It can be tempting for people to dismiss democracy as not important, but it’s essential for students to see the impacts of democracy all around us. From politicians belonging to different political parties, to newspapers being allowed to disagree with the government, to people being allowed to sign online petitions to ask the government to change something, democracy influences our lives more than we might realise.

Students can talk about the places they see democracy - or the influences of democracy - in their life and talk about how things might be different if only some people were allowed to vote. They can discuss how voting rights have changed over time and whether there are still changes required. They can also look at how different countries celebrate democracy - from democracy sausages in Australia, to I voted stickers, to election night parties.

When I started teaching full time I had very little money. I’d done relief work and one short contract before taking on this full time role. And it was a contract for one term only - I had no idea whether it would be extended or not. So there wasn’t a lot of money to spend on setting up a classroom.

With the ABC News article about a new teacher spending hundreds of dollars on preparing for the first day of school, I thought it was worthwhile looking at how you can set up a warm, welcoming and prepared for learning classroom when you’ve got a limited budget.

Starting a new teaching job on a limited budget. You don't need to spend all your money to set up a warm, welcoming and ready to learn classroom. Read this teaching blog post to find ideas for new teachers setting up their first classroom while keep…

The Bare Minimum

What’s the bare minimum you need for a new teaching job? It depends from person to person, but my bare minimum would include a broad brimmed hat for outside, some sort of planner and a pencil case or two.

It’s worth investing in the hat as a piece of safety equipment (and get a sun safe one over a fashionable one) - protecting your skin on playground duty, during sports events or those times when you need to get outside is 100% worth it.

You can completely plan on your computer . . . but computers and school computer systems aren’t always reliable. A physical planner (or even a notebook) can give you a place to jot down a few notes when you have to fall back onto the old technology. Having a pencil case with some of your favourite pens (well named so they’ve got a chance of getting back to you!) and scissors and glue also gives you tools for any occasion. A spare pencil case with spare pencils, erasers and a sharpener can help for students who don’t have the tools they need to learn.

Finding Free Resources

Looking for more for your classroom, but your budget is spent? Ask if your school has a resource room or teacher resources as part of the library. I remember discovering the poster drawer in our school library - all the posters you could even need to decorate a room. The resource room was also filled with maths tools and science tools - all free for my class to borrow.

You can also use the school library for books in your classroom or talk to your local public library about whether they’ve got special conditions for teacher borrowing.

Don’t forget about free resources on Teachers Pay Teachers - searching for poster and narrowing the search to ‘free’ gave me more than 50 000 results. Bloggers might also have free resources available by signing up with their email list - like the Galarious Goods resource library!

Buying Affordably

What do you really need - or would really like - in your classroom? It’s worthwhile reflecting on this before you spend a lot of money. Then look for ways to buy these items affordably.

Op shops or thrift shops are GREAT for finding treasures. They’re especially reliable for books (and if you have one of the amazing Lifeline Bookfests near you, it’s even better) and you can easily build a small second hand collection, saving money for the special books. It’s also worthwhile looking at some of the bigger op shops for furniture - I found a great second hand bookshelf one year which I painted and put in my classroom. Don’t forget to look at their homewares or bric a brac or toy sections for other possible treasures.

Keep an eye on back to school sales in big shops like Kmart, Big W, Aldi and Office Works to find bits and pieces - but use catalogues and lists to stop overbuying!

If you’re looking to use fabric for displays or to cover furniture, choose your fabric carefully. Poplin - which is a great, light fabric is often quite affordable, as is some of the homeware fabrics for furniture. It’s worth browsing some of the lower cost fabric shops like East Coast Fabrics or The Remnant Warehouse in Australia for specials too.

Buying Thoughtfully

Are you interested in having a themed classroom? One way to achieve this on a limited budget is to pick a very broad theme - it might be rainbow or colourful, nature or the colour blue. You can add these touches to the classroom without having to go all out and it will still bring your theme to life. And it allows you to make changes as the years go by and trends change.

Falling in love with teaching ideas and items on Instagram? Stop and think about whether those teaching ideas will really work for you, in the classroom space you have and with the grade level you have. It’s ok to let ideas go through to other teachers! Also ask yourself if you can put purchases off for a little bit - can you buy a fancy lanyard later in the year when you have some pay saved? Can you make a list of things you’d like to add to the classroom later on once you know your students better?

Don’t forget - classes change all the time in the first weeks of school! In my first term, I went from a Year 4 class to a Year 3/4 class once Day 8 numbers came in. The next year I moved from 6/7 to a straight 7 and the year after that from 6/7 to 5/6 - I never took a class list as set in stone! Unfortunately this is also the time when teachers might also lose their new contracts or may be moved to other schools. Be prepared for any possibility in the first weeks of school.

What Really Matters?

In the end, it isn’t what is on your walls or floors which really matters - it’s what you’re teaching. My son’s prep teacher had very little classroom decoration on the first day of school. Instead she filled her walls with student work - celebrating everything they were doing and rotating it as new work was produced. Students loved taking their parents to see their latest work - they were so proud of what they’d achieved.

It’s totally ok to have the bare minimum when it comes to decoration and to allow your students to create the classroom space. It’s also ok to save your money for resources which will support you as a teacher, whether they’re resources which support your weaker subjects (I always needed more science support!), resources which make your life a little easier when you need them day after day or resources which bring a particular book or subject to life.