5 Ways Xello Can Help Ease Educator Stress this Autumn Term
Going into the new school year, Covid continues to be a lingering consideration worldwide. So how can a program like Xello alleviate some of the common pressures educators may experience when it comes to careers education and future readiness planning?
We recently asked a few educators how they felt about the forthcoming school year and their responses were varied. Common concerns included safeguarding worries, heavy teaching loads due to reduced staff numbers, delayed planning, operational concerns surrounding Covid testing, ways to support students through the current uncertainty, and more.
Everyone, especially teachers, know that things can change quickly during these unpredictable times, so it’s hard to tell what September and beyond will bring. In either the classroom or online setting, educators will continue to face added stress and need as many supportive tools at their disposal as possible.
And for many students, living through the pandemic has changed how they feel about their future schooling and career options—they’ll need support navigating the choppy waters of uncertainty. For others, returning to school may trigger a lot of fear and distraction, so engaging, culturally relevant content to keep students on-track will be crucial.
There will be a lot going on for both students and educators in the new academic year. What Xello can offer educators is tools to help provide students with engaging experiences to return focus to their future and not what they may have missed during the last year and half.
5 Xello tools to ease your workload
Here are five Xello tools that can help to ease the load on teachers for the new school year, particularly when it comes to careers education and future planning.
1) Integrate Flexible, Built-in Curriculum into Teaching Plans with Xello Lessons
You may know Xello for its career exploration tools for students, but are you familiar with its lineup of ready-to-use lessons? Xello’s ready-made Lessons cover a wide range of age appropriate, future-readiness topics that encourage ongoing learning and reflection. Looking for something to help prep students for the transition to further education? How about the overwhelming task of choosing a university? Or what about something like understanding work-life balance?
Xello has educators covered with interactive, fully digital lessons that can be integrated into a curriculum or used during form group time. In their Xello accounts, educators can experience each Xello Lesson themselves so they’re fully aware of the student experience–just check out Xello Support to find out more.
Our favourite part:
Xello’s built-in lessons are not only interactive for students, but they’re personalised based on what students have saved in their Xello account, such as careers of interest. Keeping a student focused and engaged in a lesson is no small feat, so having something personalised to each student helps to keep them involved and on-task.
2) Ensure Students Successfully Complete Requirements with Custom Lessons
If there’s a specific project or set of criteria not covered in Xello’s out-of-the-box lessons, be sure to check out Custom Lessons in Xello. Educators with administrator access can create customised lessons where everything from the content, title, instructions, attachments, and even Xello activity prerequisites can be customised to ensure specific statutory requirements, such as the Gatsby Benchmarks, are met and easily reported on.
Our favourite part:
Even though Custom Lessons are yours to customise, you can still determine which ‘gates’ to put on each lesson. Take advantage of prerequisite options when creating custom lessons to ensure students finish other activities in Xello, such as completing an assessment, creating a plan, or adding interests. Learn how to track student activity with prerequisites for Custom Lessons.
3) Quickly Identify which Students Need Support with Xello Reporting Tools
With Xello’s robust and easy-to-understand Reporting Tools, educators can use report data for accountability, create relevant learning experiences by understanding students’ aspirations, and ensure students are on-track to meet expectations. Reports in Xello give educators quick answers to important questions, such as ‘who needs more support?’
Xello’s reporting tools can help educators evidence progress towards achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks to their senior leadership team, as well as help them to get in front of possible mental health issues with at-risk students.
Giving students tools like Xello that allow them to imagine an exciting and achievable future is a great way to ensure students are practicing positive future thinking. Keeping an eye on students’ mental health will continue to be an important theme for educators this autumn term, so reporting on students who haven’t been able to create a post-secondary plan in Xello can help educators recognise students who might be struggling with their mental health.
Our favourite part:
With Xello’s reporting tools, educators don’t have to worry about creating a report or dashboard when they get their Xello account. All educators gain valuable insights right away with Xello’s ready-made engagement and profile reports, so they can get the information they need and act on it. There’s even a specific Gatsby Benchmark report that is compatible with the Careers and Enterprise Company’s Compass+ tool!
4) Provide Independent Learning for the Real-World with CV Builder
The important role of a good CV is something we, as adults, understand and continue to finesse as we move through our careers. Summarising who you are, your experiences, and why you’re the best candidate for an opportunity is a daunting task when you’re young.
Educators can introduce students to the skill of CV building when students are already in the process of reflecting on their interests and experiences in Xello. And since CV Builder has a built-in onboarding function that takes students through the process, educators can leverage this tool as a great self-paced, independent, in-class or at-home activity while providing one-on-one support to students in need. Need some inspiration for your younger students creating their first CV? Invite an older student who works part time to be your class’s weekly guest speaker!
Our favourite part:
Students don’t have to start from scratch with CV Builder in Xello. If they’ve added interests, skills, work and/or volunteer experiences in their Xello ‘About Me’ portfolio, those items are available for them to add into their CV. The CV Builder also ensures that there aren’t any discrepancies between the content of a student’s CV and their ‘About Me’ profile. So, any saved profile entries edited while in CV Builder or new content that is added is automatically synced back to the ‘About Me’ profile. Everything is mirrored. This gets Grade 9 for consistency!
5) Turn Student Families into Careers Education and Future Readiness Super Teams
Careers education and future readiness relies on the perfect three-way relationship of student, educator, and family.
Parental engagement in education is more than just attending parents’ evenings and signing permission slips, especially when it comes to a student’s future-readiness. Parents and educators need to be aligned and Xello is equipping both parties with a tool to accomplish that. With Xello Family, parents and guardians can be invited to view their child’s future goals and plans, so they can better support their learning and development.
Our favourite part:
Whether a family has one child, three children, or even more, parents and guardians can access all their students’ work in one location.
The hard truth for many educators is that the pandemic is not yet over and they will continue to be met with challenges in the new academic year. At Xello, our team is here to support educators in any way we can when they’re gearing up to take on the new year this autumn term.
