PODCAST · education
Term Talk
by Nicola Di
I'm so glad you're here, I'm your host Nicola. 🩵✨Term Talk is a podcast for primary education, made in Australia and written for teachers everywhere. It is grounded in the belief that teachers don't have all the answers and that meaningful professional growth happens through curiosity, collaboration, research-informed practice, and honest reflection.Early in my career, I wished for a mentor to guide me through uncertainty in teaching. What I had instead was curiosity and a deep drive to keep learning, asking better questions, and growing through experience.Through personal experiences, thoughtful conversations, and reflective insights, each episode explores what it really means to:✨Keep learning through mistakes + challenges in education.✨Ask better questions + engage more deeply with educational research.✨Reflect honestly on teaching practice + professional identity.✨Build confidence as an educator without pretending to have it all figured out.This is not a podcast about overn
Episodes
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Thinking routines, without the performance
🤔💭 Thinking routines became a thing you're supposed to be doing. There's a poster in the room next door, someone mentioned them in a staff meeting, and when you've tried them, they felt a bit flat. The class went through the motions, and you weren't sure anything changed. This episode is about...
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The fast finisher is telling you something
🤓 'I've finished.' Four minutes in. And now the rest of your lesson becomes supplying entertainment to the kids who work fastest. This episode is about why the fast finisher has been misunderstood. A child who finishes in four minutes isn't a logistics problem to be managed with the early…
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They are children, not adults
🫣🚫 A child melts down over something small, and a tired voice in your head says the quiet thing: 'they should be able to handle this by now'. This episode is about the expectation underneath that moment. We expect children to manage feelings we have never actually taught them to name. Emotional...
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Differentiation Was Never Meant to Mean More Work
🗣️ Say 'differentiation' in a staffroom and watch the shoulders drop. Somewhere along the way it stopped meaning good teaching and started meaning more: more worksheets, more groups, more versions of the same lesson, more of you spread thinner. This episode takes the word back. Differentiation…
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Why Critical Thinking Needs Emotional Safety First
You ask a rich, open question and you get silence. 🫣🤫🚫 Or the same three hands. Or 'I don't know' before you've even finished asking. It's easy to conclude your students can't think critically, or that you need better questions, better routines, a better program. This episode is about why none...
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Connection isn't a week one activity
🎉Term 3 starts here, and it starts with the thing that makes every other part of the term work. ✨ If you've walked back into your classroom and felt like the class you built has slipped a little, this episode is for you. The routines are mostly there. The relationships are mostly there. But...
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Reflection Before Reset: What Reporting Reveals About Your Teaching
🎙️ Reflection Before Reset: What Reporting Reveals About Your Teaching This is the final episode of the Term 2 series. And before we close it out - I want to ask a question most teachers skip at the end of every term. Not where did your students finish. Where did your teaching land? Because data...
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Prompt Before Panic: How to Use AI Without Getting Generic Output
🎙️ Prompt Before Panic: How to Use GPTs Without Getting Generic Output Most teachers who try AI and give up are not giving up because AI doesn't work. They asked the wrong question. And asking better questions is a skill. One that nobody teaches. One that nobody assumes you need. And one that...
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Support Before Struggle: Using AI to Think, Not Replace
🎙️ Support Before Struggle: Using AI to Think, Not Replace There is a conversation happening in schools right now that is generating a lot of noise and not a lot of clarity. AI. Some teachers are using it constantly and quietly. Some are avoiding it entirely. And most are somewhere in the middle…
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Organisation Before Overload: How to Store Data So It Actually Helps You
🎙️ Organisation Before Overload: How to Store Data So It Actually Helps You Reports are done. And somewhere in your classroom, your drive, or your desk is a term's worth of data, evidence, and records that most teachers put somewhere and never find again. This episode is about breaking that…
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Systems Before Burnout: How to Batch Reports Without Losing Your Mind
🎙️ Systems Before Burnout: How to Batch Reports Without Losing Your Mind Reports are not hard because of how many students you have. They are hard because of how most teachers write them. Student by student. Subject by subject. Switching between data sets, between language, between thinking…
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Structure Before Stress: What to Say in Parent Interviews Without Winging It
🎙️ Structure Before Stress: What to Say in Parent Interviews Without Winging It You prepared. You walked in. And then a parent said something you weren't ready for. This episode is about what to say inside the room. This conversation focuses on: Ask before you tell - the opening move most…
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Preparation Before Pressure: How to Actually Prepare for Parent Interviews
🎙️ Preparation Before Pressure: How to Actually Prepare for Parent Interviews There is a difference between hoping an interview goes well and being ready for it. Most teachers prepare by pulling up the report and glancing at the grades. This episode is about what preparation actually looks like....
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Communication Before Conflict: Why Parents Should Never Be Surprised
🎙️ Communication Before Conflict: Why Parents Should Never Be Surprised There is a phone call most teachers dread making. You've looked at your data. You've noticed a pattern. And you know a parent probably needs to know. But the conversation feels complicated before it has even started. So, it...
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Time Before Panic: Why Reporting Feels So Rushed
🎙️ Time Before Panic: Why Reporting Feels So Rushed There is a particular kind of tired that comes with reporting. It is not the tired of working hard. It is the tired of working hard on the wrong things at the wrong time. Week 7 arrives. Reports are due in two weeks. And suddenly everything…
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Evidence Before Overwhelm: Where Your Assessment Should Actually Live
🎉 The Term Talk Hub is live. Everything is now in one place - your free resources, your tools, and everything we have been building behind the scenes to support you as a teacher. Head to https://hub.termtalk.com.au/ to create your free account and access all episode resources, including the...
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Clarity Before Assessment: Why Most Data Becomes Useless
🎙️ Clarity Before Assessment: Why Most Data Becomes Useless There's data sitting somewhere right now. Pre-assessments you marked before the holidays. Anecdotal notes from a term that moved quickly. A spreadsheet you meant to return to. You collected it. You kept it. But no one ever showed you…
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(BONUS) Reset Before Results: Starting Term 2 Without Carrying the Chaos
🎙️ Reset Before Results: Starting Term 2 Without Carrying the Chaos There's a particular feeling that comes the night before Term 2. Your bag is packed. Your room is mostly ready. And you've had a break. But underneath all of that - there's a hum. The marking you didn't quite finish. The…
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Intentional Before Automatic: Resetting Your Term for Sustainable Teaching
🎙️ Intentional Before Automatic: A Term Reset for Sustainable Teaching There’s a feeling that often comes at the end of a term. You’re tired. Your mind feels full. And there are always things left unfinished. In this episode, we explore: Why moving straight into the next term without pausing...
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Awareness Before Overwhelm: The Invisible Work Teachers Carry
🎙️ Awareness Before Overwhelm: The Expectations Teachers Carry That No One Explains Some parts of teaching are clear. Lessons. Programs. Assessment. But much of the work isn’t written anywhere. In this episode, we explore the expectations teachers are expected to know, but are rarely explicitly...
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Capacity Before Burnout: Why Teacher Wellbeing Isn’t a Luxury
🎙️ Teacher Wellbeing: Capacity Before Burnout Teacher burnout rarely begins with one difficult day. More often, it grows slowly when capacity is stretched for too long without enough support, recovery, or clear boundaries. In this episode, we explore teacher wellbeing, capacity, and how teachers...
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Proactive Before Reactive: Parent Communication That Builds Trust
🎙️Parents: Proactive Communication Before Problems Grow Parent communication often feels hardest when the first contact happens after something has gone wrong. In this episode, we explore how proactive, intentional communication with parents builds trust early and prevents small concerns from...
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Systems Before Stress: Assessment and Evidence Without Overwhelm
🎧 Simple Systems That Stop the Overwhelm Assessment often feels overwhelming not because teachers lack skill, but because systems are introduced too late. In this episode, I explore how assessment and evidence can feel lighter when they are planned with intention from the start, rather than…
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Steady Over Strict: Behaviour, Boundaries, and Staying Grounded
🎙️ When It Gets Hard: Behaviour, Boundaries, and Staying Steady In this episode, I’m unpacking what really helps when behaviour feels challenging, emotions run high, and you’re trying to stay steady in the classroom. Most teachers don’t struggle with behaviour because they lack care, skill, or...
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Design Before Differentiation: Supporting Learners Without Doubling Your Work
🎙️Differentiation shouldn’t double your workload from Day One. Today, I’m unpacking why differentiation so often feels like extra work in Term 1 and why it becomes unsustainable when it starts in the wrong place. Most teachers don’t struggle with differentiation because they lack skill, care, or...
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Clarity Before Complexity: The Foundations That Make Differentiation Possible
🎙️Differentiation shouldn’t feel like extra work before learning even begins. Today, I’m unpacking why differentiation so often feels overwhelming and why it quietly falls apart when the foundations in a classroom aren’t clear. Most teachers don’t struggle with differentiation because they lack...
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Planning Without Panic: Teacher Planning That Actually Works
🎙️ Planning shouldn’t feel overwhelming before the week even begins. In this episode of Term Talk, I'm unpacking why teachers don’t panic because they’re disorganised - they panic because everything feels equally urgent and their week lives in their head. This episode focuses on how to plan in a...
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(Bonus) Expectations and Routines: The Invisible Work That Saves You Time
🎙️Calm classrooms aren’t created by stricter teachers - they’re designed. In this episode of Term Talk, we unpack the invisible work that sits underneath calm, safe, and sustainable classrooms. The kind of work that often goes unnoticed but makes everything else possible. We explore how...
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Connection Before Content: 5 Week One Strategies for Building Classroom Culture
🎙️ Week one sets the tone for the entire school year. In this episode of Term Talk, I unpack why connection before content isn’t just a nice idea - it’s a strategic choice that shapes classroom culture, behaviour, and learning from the very start. This week I share five intentional week one...
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Trailer
Term Talk is a teacher podcast focused on wellbeing, reflection and sustainable teaching practice. Through honest reflection on learning, leadership and growth, the podcast explores the messy, human side of teaching. Short, calm episodes support educators to learn, lead and grow across the school...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
I'm so glad you're here, I'm your host Nicola. 🩵✨Term Talk is a podcast for primary education, made in Australia and written for teachers everywhere. It is grounded in the belief that teachers don't have all the answers and that meaningful professional growth happens through curiosity, collaboration, research-informed practice, and honest reflection.Early in my career, I wished for a mentor to guide me through uncertainty in teaching. What I had instead was curiosity and a deep drive to keep learning, asking better questions, and growing through experience.Through personal experiences, thoughtful conversations, and reflective insights, each episode explores what it really means to:✨Keep learning through mistakes + challenges in education.✨Ask better questions + engage more deeply with educational research.✨Reflect honestly on teaching practice + professional identity.✨Build confidence as an educator without pretending to have it all figured out.This is not a podcast about overn
HOSTED BY
Nicola Di
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Term Talk have?
Term Talk currently has 30 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Term Talk about?
I'm so glad you're here, I'm your host Nicola. 🩵✨Term Talk is a podcast for primary education, made in Australia and written for teachers everywhere. It is grounded in the belief that teachers don't have all the answers and that meaningful professional growth happens through curiosity,...
How often does Term Talk release new episodes?
Term Talk has 30 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Term Talk?
You can listen to Term Talk on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Term Talk?
Term Talk is created and hosted by Nicola Di.
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