What if the most powerful thing a teacher leaves behind isn’t a lesson — but a sentence?

In this episode of Grow Your Flow & Glow, I reflect on how learner identity is shaped long before students realise it’s happening — and how teachers play a far bigger role in that process than we often acknowledge.

Through personal stories from school, work, and teaching, I explore how identity forms in micro-moments: a comment on a report, a throwaway remark, or a quiet moment of belief that keeps a student’s future open rather than closing it down.

Drawing on Flow Theory, NSW Department of Education priorities, and ideas popularised by Sir Ken Robinson, this episode reframes equity as possibility — not sameness — and challenges us to think about the long shadow our words and expectations cast beyond the classroom.

Because every teacher leaves an identity residue.
The question is: what kind are we leaving behind?

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Think about a sentence you still remember from school.
Not a lesson — a sentence.

What did it teach you about who you were allowed to be as a learner?

What if assessment isn’t neutral — and never has been? In this episode, I unpack how grades, rubrics, and feedback can either build student confidence… or quietly teach kids to fear learning. Through a personal story from my own school years, I explore what happens when students stop asking “What can I learn?” and start asking “How do I not fail?”
We’ll look at the shift from grades to goals, how rubrics can act as maps (not verdicts), and what feedback sounds like when it actually fuels progress and flow. This is an episode about designing assessment with students — so learning becomes clearer, safer, and more empowering.

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What changed when you redesigned the task, the feedback, or the way success was made visible?

In this episode of Grow Your Flow & Glow, we move to the practical heart of the work: learning design.

Drawing on personal experiences from high school mathematics — where worksheets, worked examples, and “you should already know this” replaced explicit teaching — this episode explores how students become lost in learning when tasks are designed without clear entry points.

We unpack why flow doesn’t happen by accident, and how self-regulated learning, cognitive load, and explicit teaching shape whether students can begin, persist, and succeed.

Framed within the NSW Department of Education context, this episode reclaims design as a core professional skill — even within mandated Units of Learning — and challenges the idea that teaching is simply about delivery.

You’ll hear why:

• learners disengage when they don’t know where to start
• independence is not confidence, but successful transfer
• task design must offer challenge without shame
• and why designing for flow protects both student dignity and teacher wellbeing

This episode is an invitation to rethink “perfect lessons” — and redesign learning so more students can enter, stay, and grow.

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What’s a learning moment that made you feel lost — and how does it shape your teaching today?

In this episode of Grow Your Flow & Glow, we look beneath behaviour to the learning conditions that shape it.

Drawing on personal classroom experiences — from performing for connection in a Year 5/6 classroom to leading behaviour conversations as an Assistant Principal — this episode explores how students adapt when learning feels unsafe, confusing, or overwhelming.

We unpack the idea of the hidden curriculum: the unspoken rules about how to start, persist, ask for help, and recover from mistakes that some learners acquire early — and others never do.

Framed through flow theory, self-regulated learning, and aligned with NSW Department of Education priorities around student engagement and wellbeing, this episode invites teachers and leaders to rethink behaviour not as a compliance issue, but as valuable information about what learners need next.

This episode isn’t about excusing behaviour.
It’s about explaining it — so teaching can be more effective, inclusive, and human.

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Share the moments that disrupted your flow as a learner — and how they shaped you as an educator.

What if the problem in our classrooms isn’t student motivation — but how learning feels?

In this opening episode of Grow Your Flow & Glow, I reflect on my journey as a learner — from struggling with maths in primary school, to failing (and then passing) mathematics as an adult learner at university — and how those experiences sparked my interest in flow, self-regulated learning, and learner wellbeing.

Set against the backdrop of NSW curriculum reform, this episode explores an important question:
How do we strengthen essential foundations without losing student engagement, teacher creativity, or the joy of learning?

This series isn’t about rejecting reform.
It’s about making it work in real classrooms — by understanding how learners develop the habits, strategies, and mindsets that allow them to thrive.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, instructional leader, or school executive, this episode invites you to rethink what effective learning actually feels like — for students and teachers.

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Share your reflections, classroom experiences, and questions — because this work grows stronger when we think together.