Jessie and Rebecca MacInnis are sisters and first-generation farmers and together they operate Spring Tide Farm, where they focus on mixed vegetable and cut flower production, growing in fields and greenhouses for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members, farmer’s market, and wholesale. Their farm is certified organic and they strive to adhere to the principles of agroecology. The film showcases their farming practices and discusses the importance of community.
Grade levels: Teacher Resource
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These Days: Youth Suicide Teacher Resource Kit
Kick start the conversation with These Days: Youth Suicide Teacher Resource Kit. The aim for this kit is to demystify the issue and reduce the social taboos that prevent an open and effective discussion about suicide with young people.
These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide
These Days is a short film exploring the aftermath of a youth suicide (Malik) on his friends, family and school community. It is targeted firmly at Australian teenagers in language and tone, and has a very honest look at teenage life today. The narrative focuses on Malik’s friend Chloe as she struggles with the grief and depression that follow this tragedy. It provides an opportunity for viewers to reflect on warning signs, positive and negative coping strategies, and ultimately the importance of resilience and a strong support network.Understanding Youth Suicide: A Guide for Teachers
This program provides background information on suicide and advice about how to discuss suicide in a classroom setting. It helps viewers understand what leads to suicide/suicidal thoughts among teens, the warning signs you may see in the school setting and what to do if you suspect a student is suicidal. We also look at how teachers can support themselves, the school community and students who are dealing with the aftermath of a student’s suicide or attempted suicide”This kit includes:
- These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide
- These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide (Censored Version)
- These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide (with Extended Commentary)
- Understanding Youth Suicide: A Guide for Teachers
- Discussion guide with questions to consider and student activities to support mental health and wellbeing
- Consent form template in case you wish to obtain parental consent prior to viewing
- Instruction on how to use the videos
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These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide
High school student Chloe is shocked to discover her best friend has taken his own life. She finds herself and those around her, struggling to cope with the complex, confusing emotions of grief and loss. The tragedy brings to the surface her own dark troubling thoughts causing her to withdraw as her life seems to slowly unravel. However, with support and understanding, there’s a way through these dark days. Intended to open up debate and discussion around this difficult, highly emotive and confronting subject, the drama explores: what can lead to suicidal thoughts; the warning signs; how to support someone thinking about suicide; dealing with depression and coping with tragedy when someone close takes their own life. An essential resource for teachers wanting to raise awareness about this difficult topic and encourage student discussions around mental health and emotional well being.
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These Days: A Short Film on Youth Suicide (with Commentary)
High school student Chloe is shocked to discover her best friend has taken his own life. She finds herself and those around her, struggling to cope with the complex, confusing emotions of grief and loss. The tragedy brings to the surface her own dark troubling thoughts causing her to withdraw as her life seems to slowly unravel. However, with support and understanding, there’s a way through these dark days. Intended to open up debate and discussion around this difficult, highly emotive and confronting subject, the drama explores: what can lead to suicidal thoughts; the warning signs; how to support someone thinking about suicide; dealing with depression and coping with tragedy when someone close takes their own life. Commentary by mental health experts is interspersed at key points in the drama to further explore the complex emotional and psychological themes covered. It provides talking points to support class discussions. An essential resource for teachers wanting to raise awareness about this difficult topic and encourage student discussions around mental health and emotional well being.
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Understanding Youth Suicide: A Guide for Teachers
Suicide has been a taboo subject but attitudes are changing. There is a push to raise public awareness, openly discuss and seek different approaches to this complex and highly emotive issue. Teachers, students and school communities should be prepared to deal with this tragedy. In this program, Psychiatrist Patrick McGorry and Psychotherapist Julie Lynn Evans discuss factors that may lead to thoughts of suicide, warning signs, what to do if you suspect a student is contemplating taking their own life, how to respond to a student in distress, coping with the tragedy of a student taking their own life and how teachers can support themselves as well as students in the school community. The short film and commentary was produced in consultation with Psychologist Susan O’Brien, MATS; CEDP. Essential for all high school teachers wanting to tackle this difficult subject matter but not sure exactly how.
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The Empty Desk
For many young people, the school environment is a place of learning, creating friendships, forging an identity and searching for a direction in life. However, there are some students who have difficulty in actively engaging in the learning process and therefore run the risk of not completing their school education. ‘The Empty Desk’ is a practical and informative program that focuses on how educators can identify and assist students at risk. It introduces what ‘student at risk’ is, examines the causes of disengagement and provides strategies that educators can use in the classroom to build a strong teacher student relationship. Also featured are interviews with teachers from The Pavilion School, Melbourne.
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Teaching ESL Students in the Mainstream Classroom
It is vital for teachers to consider the language used in their subject area from an ESL learner’s point of view. This informative program helps teachers accommodate ESL learners with real-life classroom examples and practical strategies. We explore how teachers can consider the language demands of their lessons and use non-verbal cues to enhance language comprehension. We then explain how language modeling builds learner confidence and how to differentiate between language and content when correcting. Finally we demonstrate the “Think- Pair-Share” strategy for concept checking and discuss the importance of integrating cognitive taxonomies and learning styles to build thinking skills.
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Easy Ways to Use e-Learning
e-Learning has become an important area of professional development for teachers. Many are unsure of what these changes will really mean for the classroom and their life as teachers. There are many possibilities and future directions are unclear. We need to deal with what is there now and be open to changes that excite our students.
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Learning with Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive whiteboards are increasingly used in schools around the world. They provide for teachers to use technology as a tool to enhance their teaching. This program provides an introduction on what a board consists of and how it can be used in the classroom. There are practical examples of uses of the board as well as possible ways of using them in various types of classrooms and for different student needs. This includes using interactive whiteboards in both prep and primary classes. Examples in secondary classrooms include English, Mathematics and science lessons.
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Astrophysics: A Tour of the Universe
Astrophysicist Rachel Webster – a Professor at Melbourne University – reviews key aspects of our current knowledge of the Universe and other topics and concepts that excite students.