Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn … Create the possibilities

Tag: Flash fiction

  • Understanding family relationships

    At the Carrot Ranch this week Charli Mills is talking about cold cases and challenges writers to, In 99 words (no more, no less) write about an old mystery in the current time. Is it a discovery? Is it solved? Does it no longer matter, or does it impact innocent generations in between?

    My thoughts immediately turned to a mystery that occurred in my family over one hundred years ago when the two-year old brother of my grandfather disappeared and was never seen again.

    http://www.clker.com/clipart-10083.html
    http://www.clker.com/clipart-10083.html

    Most families do have a skeleton or two in the closet. Not all families like it to be known. Many Australian families who can trace the arrival of ancestors back to before the end of convict transportation in 1868 can find a convict in their ancestry. I have two; one on each side of the family. Generally the reasons for transportation were rather minor so I am not too concerned about sharing that information. In fact, many Australians are delighted to find a convict in the past as it adds a little interest and colour to their family tree.

    Children generally love to hear stories of their own lives and families. I have written about that before here. However young children probably have no need for or interest in delving as far back into family history as the three stories I have mentioned above. An interest in ancestors further back than living relatives (grandparents and great-grandparents) usually develops later, if at all.

    A great place to start thinking about history in early childhood classrooms is sharing stories about the families of children in the class. Most classes in Australia are comprised of children from variety of backgrounds so sharing those stories helps to develop an appreciation for each other as well as knowledge of the world. I developed a unit called Getting to know you for use in early childhood classroom which aims to develop discussion about family histories.

    But children can start learning about family relationships even earlier than that by discussions of who’s who in the family and explanations of the words and relationships; for example father/daughter; brother/sister; aunt/niece; grandmother/granddaughter. Here is a picture of some pages of a book I made for Bec when she was just a little tot, just to give you the idea.

    family book

    Photo books of family members are much easier to make these days with digital photos and programs such as PowerPoint, as well as glossy books you can make and order online.

    I am very proud of my two grandchildren, as any grandparent would be, and am pleased to say that they have a good understanding of who is in their family and their relationships to each other. It is a frequent topic of discussion. However I was very tickled when my three year old granddaughter proceeded to tell me, with some excitement, that her Daddy and her Aunty Bec were brother and sister in real life; in REAL life, she emphasized.

    Regular readers of my blog may be familiar with a character I have been developing in response to Charli’s flash fiction challenges: Marnie. Her story is not real life but, sadly, aspects of it could be, for others. There was a period of about twenty years when, after escaping her dysfunctional family, Marnie was untraceable, living without any connection to her family and past, a mystery. It took authorities five years after both parents had passed to track her down with the ‘news’. This episode takes up there.

    Found

    The officers looked friendly enough but still she tried to hide the tremble in her soul and tremor in her voice behind the blankness of her stare.

    She’d opened the door just a crack, as far as the chain would allow.

    “Marnie Dobson?” they asked. She shook her head. She’d not . . . ; not since . . . ; no longer. She shook again.

    They asked her to step outside. With no other option she reluctantly unlocked and emerged into the glare of daylight.

    “Marnie Dobson,” one said, “We are here to inform you . . .”

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

     

     

  • Who wouldn’t be excited with high test scores?

    Regular readers of my blog are aware of my attitude to didactic top-down, content and assessment driven methods of schooling students to become machines regurgitating meaningless facts on command. A bit of push and shove it in and belch it out.  For those of you who weren’t aware – now you are!

    I probably should apologise for my indecorous description as I’m usually a little more temperate in the way I express my views, but I won’t as that is how I am feeling about it at the moment. The authorities who have the power to make the changes necessary are so caught up in their own murky visions that they fail to see either effects or solutions. Every time I read another report of test scores or hear of another child damaged by a faulty system my frustration grows.  It becomes one of those hysteria blossoming days.

    bag

    A few moments ago I read a post titled “Vietnam Wallops US on PISA. Vietnamese educators belittle value of PISA” on Diane Ravitch’s blog. Ravitch is an education historian.

    As the title suggests, Vietnamese fifteen year old students did better than their US, UK and most other EU counterparts in the 2012 PISA tests, ranking 12th out of 76. What I found interesting about the article was not the results but the attitude of Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Education and Training. His view that the tests don’t reflect students’ overall competence, reminded me of a letter, shared in my previous post, written by teachers to students sitting the national tests last week in Australia. (PISA are international tests).

    In the article referred to by Ravitch, Dr Giap Van Duong was reported as making reference to UNESCO’s four pillars of learning: Learning to know, Learning to do, Learning to be and Learning to live together. His opined that PISA addresses only the first pillar, and in only a limited way. He said that while Vietnamese students did well on the tests, “many … students fail to land a job after graduation. (and that when) they study overseas, many have difficulties in meeting the requirements of advanced education systems like team-work, problem solving and creativity”. Perhaps they are not “out of basement ready” as described by Yong Zhao.

    Duong said that the reason Vietnamese students do well on the tests is because the “The whole system operates to serve only one purpose: exams.”

    Duong’s admission that Vietnamese students lack the ability to work in teams, to problem solve and to think creatively reiterates the fears of many teachers who are  ruled by expectations of high test results and provided little opportunity to inspire learning, which surely remains the real (if neglected) purpose of education. Counterbalancing one’s philosophy with an employer’s expectations sometimes seems like being caught between a rock and a hard place.

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills is talking about rocks and hard places. But Charli knows that good can often spring from those seemingly hard places through making connections. She has challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that shows a hard place and a connection.

    It is connections that are most important in my two main roles in life: parent and teacher. Neither is easy and neither will result in much good without making connections. I often worry about things I have said and the affect they may have had on others. To be truthful, occasionally it even keeps me awake at night. While I would rather think of my words and actions creating a positive ripple, there is no guarantee that, even when delivered with my best intentions, they won’t do harm.

    Trevor Pilgrim shared a quote which puts it this way:

    What-a-teacher-writes-on

    In his article Pilgrim says,

    “teachers have (the power) to develop their students and shape their future lives.  The power to turn them on or off academically, stimulate or dampen their minds and heighten or destroy their engagement and intellectual curiosity.”

    Scary stuff!

    At about the same time I read an article that said that the influence of teachers is not as great as one might think; that socio-economic status, amongst other things, is more important. While I am happy with the thought of having a positive effect, I definitely do not wish to ruin anyone’s life so am happy to know that my influence is not be the most important to the lives of my students.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/59389/happy_sun_gm.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/59389/happy_sun_gm.png

    For this challenge of Charli’s I am back thinking about Marnie’s art teacher and the hard place she found herself in when she saw the brown muddy mess that Marnie seemed to have made of her paints. That she must respond is a given; but how? Whatever she says will probably have a lasting impact so she must ensure that her response is appropriate. While her initial instinct is to express disappointment, she maintains her professional composure and delays commenting until she has thought it through.

    Here is my response:

    Brown.

    She glanced at the child, usually so eager to please, and knew this was no ordinary day.

    Downcast and avoiding eye contact, the child trembled. Her instinct was to reach out with comfort to soothe the hurt; but stopped. Any touch could end her career. What to say? Brown earth/brown rocks? would ignore and trivialise the pain. Any talk now would be insensitive with other ears listening. Any word could unravel the relationship built up over time. Nothing would harm more than doing nothing. Her steps moved her body away but her heart and mind stayed; feeling, thinking.

     Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction

  • The power of words

    writing

    The ability to learn language always amazes me. Given a supportive environment most young children will learn the language of the home effortlessly; forming their own hypotheses about its use and very quickly understanding the complexities of language structures and nuances of meaning.

    I am also impressed by the fluency and comprehension of many for whom English is not their first language. I briefly touched on some of the difficulties experienced even by users of English as a first language in a previous post about spelling.  Sometimes I wonder that communication is possible at all, especially when considering local idioms and sayings that make little sense out of context, but largely go unnoticed. What must a new speaker of English  think when encountering “Bite the bullet, break the ice, butter someone up, or even bring a plate”.

    How difficult it must be too, when words, like vice for example, have multiple meanings.

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills has been talking about vice. Her article is about the not-so-pleasant type of vices. As usual, I like to be the contrarian and consider alternative viewpoints. That might be considered one of my vices. Sometimes I laugh when a thought takes me to a context far away from a speaker’s intended message. Other times I fail to see the intended humour, reading beneath the surface intent to hidden messages.

    To illustrate this I will use two recent examples:

    bicycle

    The cyclist and the flight attendant

    He: a cyclist, just entering the last third of his life (about 60, give or take 5 years)

    As his bike was being loaded onto the plane he explained that he had ridden from Alice Springs to Uluru, the long way. (I’m not sure of the distance of the long way, but the direct way would be more than long enough for me!)

    Alice Springs to Uluru

    She: a flight attendant still in the first third of her life (about 25, give or take 5 years)

    “That’s so awesome! I hope I continue to exercise all my life.”

    I didn’t hear his response; I was laughing too hard: the innocence and blindness of youth. How well I remember thinking anyone over about thirty was at death’s door. What amuses me now is the number of people my age who think we are much younger than those of the previous generation at the same age. I think the blindness and selective sight continues throughout life.

    Of course I interpreted her words to mean: “You’re so old. I can’t believe you could do that. I hope I can still exercise when I am as old as you!”

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    The joy of fatherhood?

    Waiting for the same flight was a father and his daughter, approximately two and a half years of age. The daughter was doing what any child of that age would do: looking around, exploring a short distance away from dad before returning to his side. From what I could see she was doing no harm and was perfectly safe. It was a small airport, she could not wander far.

    Each time she moved away he barked a short command at her. Although his words were not familiar to me, I had no difficulty interpreting them. As with most children, sometimes she heeded them, sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes he repeated the command, or retrieved the child. Sometimes he didn’t.

    Then I saw his t-shirt and read the word emblazoned on the front. I am a reader. Sometimes I wish I were not. The words read, “Guns don’t kill people, Dads of daughters do”.

    I have never “got” the need for messages on apparel, and definitely not a message as negative as this. I assume it was meant to be amusing, but I could see no humour in it. Maybe he didn’t understand the message underlying the words (he was speaking in a language other than English). Maybe I read too much into it. Apparently though, according to this Google search, there is a sizable market for shirts and products extolling these sentiments, some even with the inclusion of the word “pretty”.

    My interpretation of the subliminal message is one of acceptance of a number of vices, and my belief is that until we can obliterate the insidiousness of messages such as these from the common psyche, our society won’t much improve. To me the message commends: disrespect for others, sexism, murder, violence, antagonistic relationships between parent and child/father and daughter, an absence of nurturing, an acceptance that children are difficult and a burden . . .

    Perhaps I should stop there. I think this father and daughter team would be prime candidates for the early learning caravan project I wrote about recently. I would love to help this father see, not only the power in his words, but the treasure his daughter is and the importance of their relationship.

    As I’ve explained, I sometimes see humour in words where it’s not intended, and fail to see it where it is. I’ve attempted to include humour in my flash response to Charli’s challenge to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes a vice, by using three different meanings of the word. I’ll be interested to know if my “humour” matches yours, but won’t be surprised if it doesn’t!

    This one is definitely not about Marnie!

     

    Vice-captain

    She almost danced along the verandah. What would it be: medal, certificate, special recommendation?

    The door was open but she knocked anyway.

    “Come in.” The command was cold. A finger jabbed towards a spot centre-floor.

    Confused, her eyes sought the kindness of the steel blue pair, but found a vice-like stare.

    She obeyed.

    “In one week you have led the team on a rampage:

    Smashing windows

    Uprooting vegetables

    Leaving taps running

    Graffiting  the lunch area . . .

    We thought you were responsible. What do you have to say for yourself?”

    “But sir,” she stammered, “You made me vice-captain!”

     

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • A sprinkling of semicolons

    wordle semicolons

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills is talking about semicolons; but not the little squiggles on a page, the semicolons that are sprinkled liberally through life as new beginnings. Sometimes we see them and grasp the opportunity for renewal, other times we ignore them and miss the chance to revitalize. Sometimes we get pushed down and it takes all our strength to pull back up, grasping onto the semicolon as if it was a dragon’s tail.

    mystica, A remix of dragonart https://openclipart.org/detail/132805/rainbow-dragon
    mystica, A remix of dragonart https://openclipart.org/detail/132805/rainbow-dragon

    Charli was inspired by Project Semicolon that provides this explanation:

    “A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence if your life.  Project Semicolon exists to encourage, love and inspire.”

    Every day can be a new beginning in some way. With our thoughts, words and actions we can change our own lives, or the lives of others. The impact may be deliberate or unintentional. We may be aware of the effects, or we may never know the consequences.

    Without wishing to diminish the importance of helping those “who are struggling with depression, suicide, addiction and self-injury”, which is the focus of Project Semicolon, my focus as always is on education and the importance of maintaining curiosity and an interest in and love of learning.

    jimmiet, A colourful monarch butterfly https://openclipart.org/detail/19002/monarch-butterfly
    jimmiet, A colourful monarch butterfly https://openclipart.org/detail/19002/monarch-butterfly

    What better analogy of a semicolon of life than the transformation from a caterpillar in a pupa to the beauty and flight of a butterfly. An inspiring teacher can mean the difference between full stops and semicolons in learning.

    To illustrate this I refer a post called Deeper Learning: Highlighting Student Work written by Ron Berger and shared on Edutopia.

    In the article Berger discusses his obsession with “collecting student work of remarkable quality and value . . . the work of regular students in typical schools around the country . . . (whose) teachers have helped them develop the skills and mindsets necessary to produce work of exceptional quality, and have built classroom and school cultures in which exceptional work is the norm”.

    Berger discusses ways of engaging students in authentic work, work that can have an impact on their communities and on the way they see themselves as learners. I remember Charli Mills telling me about similar work that her children were engaged in when they attended The School of Environmental Studies in Minnesota; and I shared some of Chris Lehmann’s work at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia here.

    Berger says,

    “Once a student creates work of value for an authentic audience beyond the classroom — work that is sophisticated, accurate, important and beautiful — that student is never the same. When you have done quality work, deeper work, you know you are always capable of doing more.”

    Semicolons in teaching and learning, all.

    As with the three cited above, the situations referred to are often of teenagers in high schools. I am an early childhood teacher and, while I find the work exciting, I sometimes struggle to see the relevance to my situation. However, in this article Berger shares the work of Austin, a year one student from Boise, Idaho doing a project about a tiger swallowtail butterfly.

    Austin was to illustrate his project with a detailed scientific drawing of the butterfly. His initial drawing was what I would consider to be fairly typical of a year one child. However he received feedback that was specific and not mean from follow students; and through a series of six drafts finished with a drawing that was much more sophisticated and demonstrated more careful ‘scientific’ observation.

    Berger also shared work by year two students at another school, demonstrating what can be achieved “when students are allowed, compelled and supported to do great things”.

     

    Last week Charli’s flash fiction challenge “the day the earth turned brown” prompted me to write about a student mixing all the colours together to make one muddy brown. The teacher paused before responding. There are many such pauses, (semicolons) in a teacher’s day. The teacher knows the power of every remark and must consider the impact that a response may have.

    If you had provided each child with a palette of primary colours and black and white expecting them to mix a variety of colours and shades and tones to create an interesting picture; then found that one child had mixed them all together to make one muddy brown, how would you respond?

    There were a number of comments on the flash including one from Geoff Le Pard  who said that there were “So many questions as to why the little girl is making muddy browns and lathering them everywhere.”

    So true. The teacher’s response would be influenced by knowledge of the child’s background, interest in art, and behaviour that day, among other things.

    Charli Mills said that “It could mean many things and nothing!” She recalled, “mixing paints as a child hoping to create a vivid new color and (being) disappointed to end up with mud.” Anne Goodwin agreed, saying that “mixing paints to make a muddy brown, (was) a distinctive childhood memory”.

    In my experience there was usually one child who ended up mixing all the colours together, often for no other reason than to see what happened. Sometimes the process of discovery gave as much pleasure as would a colourful painting of a house a tree and a sun.

    house and sun

    However, there might be more to it than that. Charli Mills sympathesised with the teacher, saying that “So much is put on the teacher to figure it out.” She thought that the child “might be disturbed, highly imaginative or confident enough to experiment”.  Sherri Matthews suggested that perhaps the child was “troubled . . . living in a dark, mixed up world, but . . . trying to find their way”.

    So much to consider. So powerful the response. Will it be a full stop, or a semicolon?

    This is my response to Charli’s challenge to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a renewal story that proclaims, “This isn’t the end; I will go on.

    muddy brown

    She paused. The muddy brown extended beyond the paper virtually cementing it to the desktop. The palette too was brown with little trace of the beautiful primary colours she had prepared. Looking from desk to child she observed two large smears adorning the shirt. A bruise-like smudge on the cheek showed where an intruding hair had been brushed away. “Oh!”

    She breathed; she counted to ten; and back again; “Breathe,” she told herself. “Why?”

    She moved on, observing the assortment of smiling suns, houses and garden paths, but her mind was on the mud; the child . . .

    What would be the appropriate response?

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

     

  • Displaying symptoms or true colours

    For just over a year now I have been participating in the weekly flash fiction challenge set by Charli Mills of the Carrot Ranch. I enjoy participating for a variety of reasons, including:

    Challenge: I enjoy the challenge of

    • thinking of something to write
    • telling in story or scene in the 99 word total
    • applying it in some way to my blog’s focus on education

    Variety: I enjoy writing in various forms and genres and the fiction is a pleasant change from the informational writing that I am primarily engaged with at the moment

    Practice: The requirement to tell a story in just 99 words means that I need to:

    • choose my words carefully to make my meaning explicit
    • decide what can be told, what can be implied, and what can be omitted
    • think of alternate ways of expressing an idea or describing a situation or character

    rough-writers-web-compCommunity: The Congress of Rough Writers: I have made connections and online friendships with a wonderfully supportive and encouraging group of bloggers, whose numbers are constantly growing.

     

    Feedback: The feedback that I receive in response to my flash fiction pieces and the posts in which I embed them gives meaning and purpose to the writing. I enjoy the in-depth discussions which quite often occur in response to the blog’s content and the additional thinking that I often need to do as a result. While it does distract me somewhat from my longer-term writing goals, the immediacy of the feedback is encouragement to continue and I am always appreciative of it.

    There are many other reasons and benefits of participating in the challenges. The above are just a few. If you have not yet considered joining in the fun, now might be the time to do so.

    www.openclipart.org
    http://www.openclipart.org

    This week Charli Mills wrote about a vivid dream that compelled her from her bed in order to capture it on paper before it escaped. She says that

    “Characters sneak into our dreams, our waking moments and tease us. We write to find out who they are.”

    Thinking about the character from her dream led her to consider symptoms, and the way that symptoms reveal more of who they are.  She challenged the Rough Writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story to reveal a character’s symptoms. 

    Many of my responses to Charli’s challenges have been written to find out more about Marnie, who reveals snippets of her life, as if in flashbacks or dreams, at various ages. You can read what we already know about Marnie here.

    “Symptoms” seemed perfect for revealing a little more about Marnie. A child such as she would display a great variety, an important one of which would be her attempt to hide those symptoms from others.

    Here then is the next part of Marnie’s story, which follows on from the bullying episode shared last week.

     

     Symptoms

    The children suddenly appeared: one bedraggled and muddied, the other exuding authority.

    “Brucie tripped her. On purpose!” declared Jasmine.

    “Come on, Marnie. Let’s get you cleaned up,” said Mrs Tomkins. ”Then we’ll see about Brucie.  Is your mum home today?”

    Marnie looked down and shook her head.

    “Will I help you with that jumper?”

    “A jumper? It’s too warm . . .” Her thoughts raced.

    Marnie turned away. As she pulled up her jumper, her shirt lifted revealing large discolorations on her back.

    Over the years Mrs Tomkins had seen too many Marnies; too many Brucies; never enough Jasmines.

     

    Sadly, children like Marnie and Brucie are very real and very familiar to many teachers.

    A few weeks ago I shared a post by Julieanne Harmatz on her blog To Read To Write To Be. I always enjoy reading Julieanne’s blog because it helps me walk right back into the classroom, in my mind. The Student Z she described in that post has many “symptoms” in common with other students I have worked with over the years.

    This week Julieanne shares ways she provides authentic opportunities for using digital technologies in her classroom. One of the ways is student blogging, and Julieanne linked to a post written by one of her students, Zoe. I was very impressed. I’m sure you will be too.

    In the post Zoe shares information about, and links to, her favourite song and singer. She says it is her “favorite song because it teaches you why not to bully.”

    The song is a rap version of “True Colours” with additional original anti-bullying content written by 12 year old MattyB to support his younger sister who is excluded and bullied because of her “symptoms”. I have not linked to the song here because I would like you to read Zoe’s blog and listen to the song there.

    I was so impressed by Zoe and MattyB, both showing traits of strength and of being an “upstander”, as described by Mrs Varsalona in the comments on Zoe’s post,  that I decided to find out a bit more about MattyB.

    Here is the story of how MattyB and his family wrote the song to support MattyB’s sister Sarah.

    I love to hear positive stories like this, don’t you?

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • Ripples through time

    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/219606
    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/219606

     

    This week at The Carrot Ranch Charli Mills has challenged writers to in 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes a river and a person (or people). 

    A river? That brought to mind two ideas:

    ripples, and

    that you never step into the same river twice (from the Heraclitus quote).

    You are probably familiar with the terms “the ripple effect” and “the butterfly effect”. Both terms refer to the effects, which can be far-reaching and unintended, of small changes or events which may seem insignificant or even go unnoticed at the time.

    In his book The Ripple Effect Tony Ryan shares many stories about small actions having a positive effect on the lives of others. He has a firm belief that each of us makes a difference with our everyday actions be it through a smile, a kind word or a helping hand. He says,

    “you must believe in your personal power to create ripples that spread out and change the world. In fact, if it is not you who is going to do it, then who else do you think is likely to make the effort? Remember that every change on this planet begins with a human being somewhere, somehow. It may as well be you.”

    None of us can ever know the full impact of words and actions.  The potential for teachers to create ripples is powerful and this knowledge, for them, can induce as much anxiety as it does joy. While I am always the first to acknowledge my shortcomings, I hope that positive effects far outweigh the negative.

    Readilearn bookmark

    Sometimes expressing an opinion that differs from the status quo can be considered ‘making ripples’ or even ‘making waves’. On his blog Theory and Practice, Matt Renwick is making waves this week talking about assessment and standardised testing. (I have expressed my thoughts on the subject here and here, for example.) I wish Matt’s waves a long journey with school-changing effects.

    Matt summarises five articles about testing, including one by Noam Chomsky from which he quotes,

    “All of the mechanisms – testing, assessing, evaluating, measuring – that force people to develop those characteristics… These ideas and concepts have consequences…”

    The consequences, the ripples, are not always the ones we want: stressed and anxious students afraid of trying and of failure are just part of it. The effects reach further: inappropriateness of tasks, reduced equity, mis-placed funding, teacher dissatisfaction . . .

    Matt’s voice is not alone. He expresses what most teachers know. Unfortunately teachers are not the ones writing policies and setting procedures about what happens in schools. Often they are not even consulted. The companies who have most to gain by sales of their testing programs can be very influential.

    Matt concludes his article saying,

    “I think this information needs to be shared over and over again.  . . . To not advocate is to concede our authority as the experts in our profession. We are in the right on this one. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

    I agree with Matt. We must advocate for the children, the students, their education and their teachers. So many administrators are talking about data, proclaiming that data is what is important. Now there is even “data mining”, big data mining, as explained in this article by the Australian Council for Educational Research. Check out this great new tool for use in mining data! Don’t they realise the children, their curiosity, wonder and creativity, are the treasure!

    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/941659
    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/941659

    And as for the quote that you can never step into the same river twice because you will have changed and the river will have changed. Well I think it’s possible that that situation doesn’t apply to schools. What happens in many schools probably doesn’t look all that different from what has happened for at least the last two hundred years: children sitting in rows chanting meaningless lists. Harsh? Maybe. Reality? Pretty much.

    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/902642
    http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/902642

    And now to finish in a more positive way with my flash which combines both ideas: the life-changing consequences of a seemingly insignificant event at precisely the appropriate moment, and the difference in the person and the river on two separate occasions. And the person? None else but Marnie.

    Richmond Bridge 1825

    Ripples in the river

    Marnie paused on the bridge and gazed into river.

    “My life began here,” she thought.

    . . .

    More than twenty years before she’d stood there, begging for release from torments she could no longer endure; when a gentle voice beside her said, “Beautiful, isn’t it?” and stood there with her in silence a while before asking, “Care to walk a little?”

    . . .

    Marnie flicked the agent’s card into the water and watched momentarily as it carried away the last remnants of that other existence.

    “I wonder if Miss still lives there,” she smiled. “Must say hello.”

     

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I value your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • Clearing confusion – reading and writing for the masses

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills is talking about disorientation and has challenged writers to In 99 words no more, no less) write a story about disorientation. She suggested exploring different ways confusion could be expressed, and the tension that could be created by that confusion.

    I decided to give myself a break from writing about the confusion that students may feel as they attempt to navigate the murky waters of expectations and inappropriate curricula that have little connection with their lives; or about how disoriented they may feel in an environment that bears little resemblance to any other they will experience.

    Instead I decided to share an interesting story I heard this week and a flash fiction which is more memoir than fiction, a reminder to self of how lucky I am to be doing what I am.

    First for the story.

    My current audiobook is Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story by Michael Rosen. In the book Rosen talks about the English alphabet, dealing with each of the 26 letters in turn. He has organised the book so that

    “Each letter in the book is linked to a topic. Each chapter takes on different aspects of how the alphabet has been used. Each chapter is preceded by the short story of how that particular letter evolved, how its name came to be pronounced that way and something on how the letter itself is spoken and played with.”

    K

    When listening to Rosen read his chapter about the letter ‘K’, “K is for Korean”, I was fascinated to find out that the alphabet of South Korea, Hangul, is “the earliest known successful example of a sudden, conscious, total transformation of a country’s writing.”

    The alphabet, described by Rosen as more of “syllabic monograms” than letters and is easy to learn, was devised in the mid-fifteenth century by the ruler of the time, King Sejong, as a way of enabling everyone to be literate.

    Prior to the introduction of this alphabet, Chinese characters were used. According to an article on Wikipedia “using Chinese characters to write was so difficult for the common people that only privileged aristocrats usually male, could read and write fluently. The majority of Koreans were effectively illiterate before the invention of Hangul.”

    Rosen says that what is “remarkable . . . is that there was an already existing system of writing which was, to all intents and purposes, overthrown in its entirety – not adapted. (It happened) because one part of the ruling elite decided that a total change was the only way in which everyone could read and write easily.”

    Hear! Hear! I say, and express a wish that all our students of English would find learning to read and write far more easy and enjoyable than many do, that more emphasis would be placed upon helping students learn than in “teaching” particular content at particular times.

    Also included in Rosen’s chapter about ‘K’ was mention of the Voynich Manuscript which appears to be scientific in origin, but which contains fictitious plants and is written in a “language” which no one, including codebreaking experts, has been able to decipher and read. Rosen says that “With one beautifully executed volume, (the author) causes instability and doubt at the heart of the production, ownership and use of knowledge. It is a carefully constructed absurdist joke.”

    Unfortunately for a small (but too large) number of our students, reading and writing for them is often as confusing as the Voynich Manuscript.

    Man-resigning

     

    For a little bit of reminiscing, here is a video of Michael Rosen talking about the dreaded Friday spelling test. I wonder how his experience matches yours.

    And so to my flash fiction of disorientation and confusion . . .

    Obfuscation

    The pulsing train wheels pounded in my head.

    Way off in the distance voices called instructions to each other.

    “What day is it?” I said.

    The voices were closer now. “She’s in here.”

    “Can you walk? Come with us,” they said.

    They led me to a vehicle and bade me lie down inside.

    Then came the questions:

    What’s your name? When were you born? What day is it? Why are you here? Who are you with?

    Slowly, as if from the deepest recesses, I drew each recalcitrant answer, recreating identity.

    “You’re okay. You bumped your head,” they said.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • In their own time

    This quote by Albert Einstein is one of my favourites:

    “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/20496/CoD-fsfe-calendar.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/20496/CoD-fsfe-calendar.png

    Without the addition of a date to signify, I would find it difficult to separate out the memories and distinguish how far apart events occurred or in which sequence.

    If the “The only reason for time“ was applied to the school situation, it might be quite different, for example,

    “The only reason for time is to ensure that everyone is doing the same thing at the same time.”

     

    school cropped

    In previous posts I have talked about the importance of having a growth mindset and the power of ‘not yet’ thinking. Most respondents to these posts agreed on a preference for thinking about their own goals as not yet achieved, rather than as failed to achieve. Much like for a twelve month old child who is not yet walking, ‘not yet’ implies no failure, just steps in the right direction, an expectation of success, when the time is right and the child is ready.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/20496/CoD-fsfe-calendar.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/20496/CoD-fsfe-calendar.png

    For many things we do in life there is no hard and fast rule about when they should be achieved. Most developmental milestones are presented as an average, a range of ages during which time most will achieve. But the edges are blurred and, unless attainment falls way beyond the guide, there is generally no cause for concern.

    When it comes to school learning there is much more anxiety about achievement and reaching particular benchmarks by certain ages. Anne Goodwin hinted at this is her comment on my post Reading is out of this world. Anne said,

    “we need to create the conditions in which children want to learn to read and to continue reading regularly. Sadly, I think some kids are put off by attempts to teach them to read before they are ready, which just gives the message that it’s hard or boring or both.”

    She said that we need ways to “get them in their own time, to where they need to be.”

    Anne is right. Children may be put off reading by attempting to teach them before they are ready; just as often, I would add, by inappropriate methods that present reading as a series of unrelated skills devoid of context, meaning and enjoyment.

    Children may come to reading at various ages and in various ways. Some read early. Mem Fox says that, if she were queen of the world, “children would learn to read easily, long before they came to school”, like my two did.  Others suggest a “better late than early” approach or not hurrying the child.

    I think it is important to recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach has no place in education. I would love Mem Fox to be queen of the world and for all children to learn to read easily and with joy before school age, but there is much to do for that ideal situation to exist. David Elkind says that no one believes in hurrying children but parents, educators and legislators can always find a reason to do so.

    Being out of step with peers can be a great cause of anxiety; and anxiety begets anxiety which further impedes learning, as shown in this presentation by Heidi Lyneham.

    To improve the situation for learners we need to recognise that

    • Learners learn in their own time. We need more flexible timeframes that honour each child’s development and learning journey.
    • Learners learn in ways that are as individual as they are. However there are conditions which improve the chances of learning occurring, such as these conditions for literacy learning  as proposed by Brian Cambourne.

    In her comment on my post Reading is out of this world, Nicole Hewes indicated support for this view by describing how she assisted a student’s learning by providing books about whales, a topic the student was greatly interested in.

    Along with the recognition of different timeframes, there must be recognition of and value placed upon the time required by students to develop the skills; and time and opportunity must be provided for that development.

    Just when I was writing this post, Bec, who loves to look after my reading and learning needs, sent me a link to this article by Pernille Ripp who asks,

    “Why do we forget that time to read is the one thing readers need the most to become better readers?”

    And then Charli Mills of the Carrot Ranch posted her flash fiction challenge for this week: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a 2 a.m. story.

    Time: everything was pointing in the same direction.

    Thinking of a learner’s timing being out of sync with that of others made me think about waking up in the middle of the night (say 2am) and not being able to get back to sleep; knowing that one should be asleep; that everyone else is asleep; that one needs to be asleep because there’s a “big” day head. And all the while the anxiety grows as quickly as the ability to sleep fades. Maybe you can identify?

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/19413/manio1-Digital-Clock-2.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/19413/manio1-Digital-Clock-2.png

    Wakefulness

    One moment deep asleep. Next, upright; breath still; ears intent; staining to hear above her pounding heart.

    Nothing. Just the familiar: fan whirring, palm frond swishing against the house.

    Must investigate: bravely, fearfully.

    With limbs trembling, palms sweating and mouth dry, she eases her legs out of the bed, puts her feet on the floor, pushes herself up and pads to the window.

    Peeking out she scans the yard, illuminated by the full moon.

    Nothing. A dream?

    She pads back to bed. 2am.

    “Ooh! Only three hours!” She closes her eyes, wishing hopelessly for sleep until morning’s liberation.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • Finding meaning

    ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ is a philosophy to which I aspire. Many think I have achieved it but they don’t know how hard I struggle. I do try to find the good in people and situations, but it’s not always my first and instinctive reaction. When I realise I’ve reacted negatively I try to change or hide my negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. But it’s not always easy to convince myself, regardless of whether I convince anyone else or not.

    It reminds me of a quote on a laundry bag which has stayed with me in eight different homes in three different states and for well more than thirty years. After all this support I have finally thought to seek out the source of the wisdom and found it to be UK poet and playwright Christopher Fry.

    bag

    I feel the quote represents me quite well; doing what I can to hold it all together and keeping those negative instincts in check by ‘nipping them in the bud’, all the while fearful of one day just losing it and letting it all out in one mighty swoosh. I guess the expectation of fewer years remaining in which I will need to keep myself contained makes me a little optimistic. (Always look on the bright side!)

    I like to think I’m more of a hopeful realist than either a Pollyanna or a negative realistic. A discussion about optimism and pessimism followed a previous post in which I asked How much of a meliorist are you?  But meliorism is more a belief that the world can be improved by the actions of humans than an optimistic or pessimistic expectation of the outcome.

    I believe that humans have an amazing potential for improving our world (i.e. every aspect of it). That makes me a meliorist. Recognising what is happening in the world now makes me a realist. A belief that human actions will make improvements in the future makes me an optimist, but not one without some pessimistic fears. While stories of terrorism, climate change and violence fuel the fears, stories like this TED talk by Tasso Azevedo show that improvements can be, and are being, made.

    I am an education meliorist. I believe that education is a powerful agent for change and has an enormous potential for improving lives. My optimism that education will impact positively upon individual lives as well as the collective human situation outweighs my pessimism about the outcomes I see in current systemic trends and leads me to seek out educators, like Ken Robinson, Chris Lehmann , Michael Rosen, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young and Rita Pierson who share my vision of what could be.

    A quest to improve my own life and the lives of others through education has been a long time passion. Ensuring that my own children experienced the benefits of learnacy, though I hadn’t heard of the term at the time, as well as literacy and numeracy was of great importance to me. I encouraged them to question, to create, to think critically, to read, to learn, to wonder . . .  There is so much we teach our children the list goes on. It is very rewarding for me to see that they have a love of learning and are passing that same love on to the next generation.

    Having, sharing and fostering a lifelong love of learning perhaps in some ways contributes to giving meaning to my life. But it also leads me to question life and its purpose in ways that many others don’t.  This questioning can lead to a sense of unease, of lacking fulfilment, of needing to do and achieve more. I know others who better accept the way things are, accept each day as it comes, and are content in their existence. Sometimes I envy their complacency.  Other times I want to shake them and make them realise that there is more to life than this.

    But am I wrong? Is there actually less to life than this? It is sometimes said that there is no point in accumulating wealth and possessions as you can’t take them with you when you go. But is there any point in accumulating a lot of learning and knowledge? After all, you can’t take it with you when you go either; but like wealth and possessions, you can leave it behind for future generations. If we lived only for what we could take with us, would there be a point?

    I guess what matters is what helps each of us reach that level of contentment, of being here and now in the present moment because, after all, it is all we ever have.

    I often think about life, existence, why we are here and the purpose of it all, constantly wavering between seeing a point and not. A recent discussion with a friend about her feelings of emptiness and needing to find more purpose and meaning in life disturbed my approaching, but elusive, equilibrium again. Will I ever reach that blissful and enviable state of contentment: knowing and accepting who I am, where I am, where I am going and how I am going to get there? Who knows? But I can have fun figuring it out. I am determined to enjoy the journey. I don’t think there will be much joy at the end!

    Which is all very timely with the current flash fiction prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch who talks about actions that we take to reach our goals and challenges writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that describes a moment of being.

    I hope you enjoy my response.

    Being, positive

    “It’s positive,” he said.

    She smiled. She knew. She only needed official confirmation.

    He wanted dates. She supplied.

    But she knew the very moment an unexpected but welcome spark enlivened her being with its playful announcement, “Surprise! I’m here!”

    She’d carried the secret joy within her for weeks, never letting on, keeping it to herself, waiting. No one would have believed her without proof. But with her whole being she knew.

    Finally, after nine inseparable months, she held the child, distinct and individual. She marvelled at the tiny creation whose existence breathed purpose and meaning into hers.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post and flash fiction.

  • I can do this – one step at a time!

    Confidence, the willingness to have a go and to get up and try again after an unsuccessful attempt, is crucial to learning.

    Attached to real confidence, as opposed to false bravado, are certain types of knowledge:

    • of the desired outcome
    • of possible steps to achieving the outcome
    • of what is needed to achieve the outcome
    • of where and how to find the knowledge or support necessary to achieve the outcome

    and an openness to possibilities.

    Knowing what one doesn’t know is just as important as knowing what one does!

    www.openclipart.com
    http://www.openclipart.com

    Caroline Lodge expressed a similar view on her blog just this week, confessing that she didn’t know how to go about revising her novel, but that she did know what to do about not knowing: she enrolled in an online editing course. She attributed the view of intelligence as “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” to the educationalist Guy Claxton.

    I wasn’t aware of Claxton but he sounded like my sort of educationalist so I decided to investigate further.

    https://openclipart.org http://goo.gl/ZvsCFc
    https://openclipart.org
    http://goo.gl/ZvsCFc

     

    A Google search brought up this result:

    Claxton - Google

    Hmm – seems like, according to Claxton, that definition of intelligence is first attributed to Jean Piaget. I’d better read his article: Learning to learn: a key goal in a 21st century curriculum.

    I didn’t have to read far into the article before I knew that Caroline had sent me in the direction of another great educator (thanks Caroline).

    In the introduction Claxton says,

    “The well-rehearsed economic argument says that knowledge is changing so fast that we cannot give young people what they will need to know, because we do not know what it will be. Instead we should be helping them to develop supple and nimble minds, so that they will be able to learn whatever they need to. If we can achieve that, we will have a world-class workforce comprising people who are innovative and resourceful. The personal argument reaches the same conclusion.”

    I have expressed similar views previously on this blog, including here, here and here.

    A little further into the article Claxton introduces a new (to me) term: illearnerate. He described students not thinking of themselves as effective real-life learners. He says,

    “They think that school has not only failed to give them what they need, it has actually compounded the problem.”

    The term is new, but the thinking is not!

    He goes on to say that,

    “More fundamental even than the concern with literacy and numeracy is the need to protect and develop young people’s learnacy.”

    What great terms, illearnerate and learnacy, I have added to my vocabulary today!

    The steps I am taking are definitely enhancing my learning. I think I am learnerate.

    However, I digress. I was looking for the attribution to Piaget and, a little further into the article, there it was:

    Claxton - Piaget

    I looked further online for confirmation of the quote and found this on goodreads:

    Good Reads - Piaget

    I think there is a subtle difference in the interpretation given by Claxton and would say that intelligence is not so much defined by, but incorporates “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do”.

    A few weeks ago I used images in my post Bring a plate that prompted Geoff Le Pard to ask,

    “How do you do the images? Adding the captions?”

    I said that I used PowerPoint and would post some instructions if he thought it could be useful. He said that it would be, and Anne Goodwin agreed.

    For some time I had been wanting to create an instructional video using a capture of what I was doing onscreen. However it hadn’t reached the top of my to-do list. This seemed the perfect opportunity to put it there and do the learning required.

    In response to Geoff’s request I made this video demonstrating how to insert pictures and text in PowerPoint, then group and save them as one image.

    For my first attempt I was fairly pleased with the result, though I fear the video may be a bit long at 10 minutes. Maybe I should have started with a simpler image – one picture and one text box may have been enough for the demonstration to be effective. I’d be pleased to know what you think.

    After I had finished the video it occurred to me that I may not have addressed Geoff’s question at all, that the combination of image and caption that Geoff was referring to may have been the image of the whole PowerPoint slide, like this one:

    Rice salad 2

    If so, then my first video would be of no use to Geoff.

    There is a saying attributed to George Bernard Shaw:

    “Those who can do, and those who can’t teach.”

    I both agree and disagree with the statement for different reasons. Teaching is an incredibly important profession and not everyone can do it. Looking beyond the profession to simply teaching someone a skill is also something that not everyone can do. Sometimes I think that the one most capable of teaching a skill is the one who struggled to learn it; not the one who was able to do it effortlessly and almost by intuition.

    The ability to teach requires knowledge of each step or each component and how they work together. This knowledge helps the teacher understand where a learner is confused or what the learner needs to know.

    So just as teachers in classrooms provide resources and strategies to cater for a range of needs and abilities, I have produced a second video demonstrating how to make an image of a PowerPoint slide. This shorter (five minute) video explains how to create images using three different methods: Snagit, Snipping Tool, and printscreen function. I hope I have explained the steps for each clearly.

    Important update: Do not do this at home. Do not follow the procedures in this video.

    Since viewing this post and videos my daughter Bec has told me of a much easier way to create an image of a PowerPoint slide, or of every slide in a presentation. Maybe you know of it too.

    Here’s how to do it:

    1. Click on the slide you wish to make an image of, or any slide if you wish to make images of all slides in the presentation
    2. Go to file, save as
    3. Choose Save as type: PNG
    4. Click Save – you will be asked which slides you wish to export: all or just this one
    5. Selecting all saves every slide as a separate image to a new folder with the file name you choose; selecting just this one saves only the slide selected.

    How easy is that? Thanks Bec. 🙂 And I don’t mind that I found out after making the video. I wanted to learn how to do that anyway, and now I have learned something else as well. Great steps in learning. I’m learnerate!

    The discussion of steps to learning tied in very nicely with the flash fiction prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch this week. Charli challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about steps, stairs or a staircase.

    This is my response:

    If only

    She collapsed, exhausted. Stairs led up and stairs led down; some steep, some wide, some narrow, most dark. Her head spun and vision blurred. Which way now? Which way had she come? Had she been going up and down these stairs forever?  Going around in circles?  They all now looked the same. She didn’t even know if she’d been in this place before.

    “I’m trapped,” she thought. “Stuck here forever.”

    She closed her eyes, surrendering to despair.

    Outside birds heralded the rising sun. She was lost, oblivious of its promise.

    If only she had recognised the door.

     

    Thank you

     

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post, including the videos and flash fiction.