Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn … Create the possibilities

Tag: School

  • Just imagine . . . the power of imagination

    Have you ever wished you could:

    • be in two places at once?
    • clone yourself to ensure you get everything done?
    • slow time down so that you could achieve all you wanted?
    • make time stand still so you could stay in the present moment forever?
    • pop back in time to undo that embarrassing moment, or peek forward to see the result of a decision that is pending?
    • choose both options and follow each through consecutively, as in parallel universes?

    I have.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/194578/07-Juli-goin-on-a-summer-holiday.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/194578/07-Juli-goin-on-a-summer-holiday.png

    Multiple invitations or engagements often occur on the same date. Deciding between desired activities is not always easy. Cloning would make choosing unnecessary. Additionally, sending a clone to an unpleasant but unavoidable engagement could also be desirable.

    penguins

    Sometimes the number of must-do tasks can be overwhelming. The ability to engage the assistance of clones, especially to complete less desirable tasks would be great.

    Time travel, wormholes and parallel universes are the stuff of science fiction; and while I am not a fan of the science fiction genre, I wouldn’t mind having access to some of its features. However, whether any, or which, of those features ever move from science fiction to science fact remains to be seen.

    The power of imagination to drive creativity and innovation cannot be overstated. Much of what we now accept as commonplace was once a part of science fiction. Imagination, the stuff of science fiction and scientific exploration and investigation, has brought them to reality.

    You are probably familiar with following quote, initially attributed to George Bernard Shaw but also made famous by Robert F. Kennedy:

     “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

    These words highlight the importance of questioning to stimulate imagination, and when paired with creative thinking, innovation can occur.

    Einstein said that,

     “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

    He also said that,

     “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

    Although I cannot be certain, from those quotes, what Einstein’s attitude to the current trends in schooling would be (he did attend school and was very advanced in maths and sciences but did not perform so well in the humanities) I think he would not favour a content-driven curriculum which excluded opportunities for imagination and creativity.

    On the other hand, Thomas Edison, the world’s most prolific inventor, was mostly educated at home by his mother who was able to encourage his experimentation and love of learning. He said,

     “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

    If these significant thinkers of the 20th century, each of whom followed different educational pathways, recognise the importance of imagination, why would anyone argue against it?

    Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch Communications certainly doesn’t. As a fiction writer she embraces imagination. It is the tool of her trade, creating stories where before there were none. This week her challenge is to In 99 words (no more, no less) craft a multiverse situation, setting or character(s)

    Now the term ‘multiverse’ takes me back to the science fiction genre: wormholes, parallel universes and time travel, for example. I’m not sure how well I’ll do with this unfamiliar genre, but I will call upon my imagination and give it a try. See what you think – does my piece fit the criteria?

     

    Clone Magic

    Clone magic

    All night Leone had huddled in line, sleepless with excitement, waiting for the release.

    Now she had them! Clone pills!

    ‘Take one with water. Cloning occurs in 30 minutes and lasts 24 hours.’

    Leone swallowed one tablet, then another, and another; ignoring the small print: ‘Do not take multiple tablets. Effects are unpredictable.’ 

    When three clones appeared she instructed:

    “1. Clean the house. 2. Exercise. 3. Weed the garden.”

    She flopped on the couch. “Now to read.”

    But — their hands grabbed for her book, pulling her hair and clawing her eyes.

    “Me read! Me read! Me read!”

     

    Thanks for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this article or my multiverse flash.

     

     

  • Benefits of inclusion

    Recently I listened to a compelling TEDx talk by Dan Habib. You can listen to it here:

    Dan opens his talk by asking the audience some questions about their school days:

    Did kids with and without disabilities study together and learn together?

    Did they have a best friend who had a disability?

    Did they have a boyfriend or girlfriend that had a significant disability?

    Very few of the approximate one hundred in the audience answered in the affirmative.

    Then Habib asked the audience to consider and answer the following question:

    Did you feel some fear or nervousness when you were a kid about talking to a kid with a disability?

    The majority of the audience affirmed they did.

    Had I been in the audience, my responses would have been similar.

    When I was a kid, there were no children with disabilities in my classes. Children with disabilities were hidden away as an embarrassment and were segregated into what where called ‘opportunity schools’.

    Thinking back, my impression is that people with disabilities were not visible in the community and their needs were not catered for. They were not expected to have any participation in society. Often they were targets of taunts and laughter, but mostly ignored and avoided.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/183559/oldmaninwheelchair.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/183559/oldmaninwheelchair.png

    However, when I was a kid discrimination wasn’t restricted to people with disabilities. It was a time in which racial discrimination and segregation was more prevalent; before the emergence of women’s rights and children’s rights.

    Sometimes when we see how far humanity still has to go towards equality, tolerance and compassion it is hard to see how far we have come. But looking back on the changes that have occurred in just my life time, the progress is obvious, if still insufficient.

    Even into my college years I had little contact with people with disabilities and my teacher training made no mention (that I can remember) of catering for students with disabilities, who were still segregated into what became called ‘special’ schools. I don’t recall catering for individual differences being high on the agenda back then.

    I worked as a remedial teacher for a few years, supporting students who were achieving below the expected level, of reading mainly. These children were generally of average intelligence but experiencing a learning difficulty. Children falling below average on an intelligence test would still be shunted away to special schools.

    I cannot recall the inclusion of any students with intellectual or physical disabilities at any school at which I taught prior to the 1990s when integration and mainstreaming was introduced. Dan Habib says in his talk that, as he was growing up, ‘disability was just a blip on the radar screen’ as well. Maybe this experience was similar to yours?

    When Dan came to accept that his son Samuel had a disability and that he would have that disability for life, he realized that they had to create a vision for Samuel, and let ‘Samuel create a vision for himself“.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/195899/EPA-clubhousekids.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/195899/EPA-clubhousekids.png

    Part of this was the need for a sense of belonging: to the neighbourhood, the community and the local school. It was this that got Dan thinking about inclusion. Dan goes on to describe the ways in which Samuel was included in the school and the community, and the benefits, for both Samuel and others.

    He urges everyone to advocate for inclusive education as the benefits include better communication skills, higher academic achievements, wider social networks and fewer behaviour problems. He decries the fact that, despite the benefits, most kids with disabilities still spend their day segregated.

    He explains that the benefits are just as valuable for typical kids who achieve higher academically while learning to be patient, caring, compassionate, and loving. In my more recent years of teaching, I got to see these benefits of inclusion first hand. Not only did the children learn, so did I.

    I didn’t just chance upon this TEDx talk. It was included in a great guest post by Gary Dietz on The Cool Cat Teacher’s blog. The post introduced a book, written by Gary, about dads of kids with disabilities and proposed 5 practical lessons for elementary classroom inclusion. The book Dads with Disabilities is described as inspiring and ‘a must read for any teacher working with special needs kids’.

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/651/ryanlerch_kids_with_hats.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/651/ryanlerch_kids_with_hats.png

    The five suggestions (which I think are based on respect and are applicable for all students) are:

    1. ‘Meet the student “where the student lives” (where they need to be, at their level of development)
    2. Presume competence
    3. Be creative in your use of ‘adaptive’ technology (e.g. use of video and Skype or Facetime)
    4. Listen to parents and help them listen to the child
    5. Give “overlooked” children the same chance to shine as the superstars

     

    Vicki Davis is the Cool Cat Teacher. Her blog is consistently among the top 50 education blogs worldwide. Her byline is “A real teacher helping teachers be really excellent”. I agree that she is and recommend her blog to you.

    Update from Gary Dietz (12/08/2014):

    “The book ‘Dads of Disability’ is now a FREE loan if you subscribe to Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited. And if not, it is on sales as an ebook for $4.99. Look it up on Amazon. (Of course the paperback is still available!)”

     

    How do you view inclusion? What is your experience?

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

     

  • The classroom garden

    The classroom garden

    Expecting every child in a class to respond to the same stimuli, develop at the same rate and achieve the same targets is like casting a handful of mixed seeds upon the soil and expecting them all to flourish.

    Just as each seed has its own specific requirements of soil type, temperature, sunlight and water, so too does each child have its own needs, interests and learning requirements.

    Differentiation is no less important in the classroom than it is the garden and tending to the learning and development needs of each child requires understanding of individual needs, appreciation of learning styles and a program that includes both a nurturing and expectation of individual growth with a sprinkling of well-timed instruction, support and attentive praise.

     

    This week Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch Communications posted a flash fiction prompt that immediately conjured up an image of a classroom as a well-tended garden in which each individual is appreciated for its own value and receives whatever is appropriate to foster its development.

    Charli’s challenge is to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes fruit.

    Jeff Kubina, Apple Orchard https://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/2058047853/
    Jeff Kubina, Apple Orchard https://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/2058047853/

    Here is my response about a little tree whose time has come:

    A fruitful harvest

    Little Tree stood alone at the edge of the orchard thinking, “What’s wrong with me?”

    The other trees grew tall. Their branches, laden with bright green leaves and sweet-scented blossoms, seemed to whisper mockingly.

    The sun shone. Rains watered the soil.

    Their blossoms turned to fruit, a plentiful harvest.

    Confused and dejected, Little Tree avoided the celebratory festival.

    Then all grew quiet. The bigger trees rested, preparing for the next season.

    Suddenly an insect orchestra and an unfamiliar fragrance startled Little Tree.

    “What’s up?” it asked.

    “You!” they buzzed relishing the richness of its golden blooms.

     

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

     

    Featured image: rjp, Bird seed https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimpenfish/437991798/

     

     

  • Are you a lemon or a grapefruit? – Ten articles about creativity

    Are you a lemon or a grapefruit? – Ten articles about creativity

    I am a great fan of creativity.

    Imagination and creative thinking are what inspire and drive improvement, innovation and progress.

    I affirm my belief in the power of creativity in my header: ‘Create the possibilities . . .’

    In this post I share articles and blog posts that discuss creativity. It is not an exhaustive list, just a few to get you started. You will notice that many, but not all, are from Edutopia, a website that is ‘dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process through innovative, replicable, and evidence-based strategies that prepare students to thrive in their studies, careers, and adult lives’; and TED, an organisation of people who ‘believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.’

    1. In this article on Creativity and education Judy O’Connell says that

    ‘Every student is creative in some way, and the job of educators is to release and support that creative talent in an appropriate manner.’

    She adds that

    ‘Teaching creatively and for creativity entails taking students on a creative journey where their responses are not predetermined.’

    In her article Judy lists some features of teaching for creativity and includes a video of a new school in New Zealand that she suggests fits the criteria. It is quite exciting and worth a look.

    1. In this article shared on Edutopia Do Standards Kill Creativity Claus von Zastrow suggests creative ways of teaching creativity while teaching standards.

    Linking of subject areas, as we used to do through ‘themes’ in the old days, or more recently ‘integrated units’, before subjects were divided and each given their own slot in the timetable, was one suggestion.  A number of varied and interesting comments accompany the article.

    1. I have previously shared this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson on How schools kill creativity here and here. If you have not yet listened to it, please do. As well as sharing a very important message, Ken is a very entertaining speaker. I’m sure you will enjoy it.

    4. Following on from that talk is this article by Bruce Price shared on examiner.com Ken Robinson and the Factory Method of Education. The article shares an animated talk by Ken Changing Education Paradigms.

    Bruce does not agree with Ken’s views and warns readers to be sceptical of information imparted by Ken. He says that Ken’s opposition to traditional schooling is unhelpful and argues that, unlike most others referenced here, that creativity cannot be taught.

    5. In this article by Deepak Kulkarni Recreational and Educational Value of Math Puzzles shared on Edutopia the suggestion is made that creative problem solving can be taught using maths puzzles.

    6. A variety of Techniques for creative teaching are shared on the Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching website which states that

    ‘in order to teach creativity, one must teach creatively’.

    7. In yet another article shared on Edutopia, Andrew Miller states enthusiastically Yes, You Can Teach and Assess Creativity! Andrew provides suggestions for recognising creativity as well as teaching and assessing it.

    8. Also on Edutopia, Diane Darrow talks about Creativity on the Run: 18 Apps that Support the Creative Process.

    9. In this rather long TED talk on his life, authenticity vs karaoke culture Malcolm McLaren postulates that ‘we’re living in a karaoke culture, with false promises of instant success, and that messiness and failure are the key to true learning.’ He talks about his own schooling and attitude to creativity.

    10. Michael Michalki shared an article on Edutopia regarding what he considers the 7 Tenets of Creative Thinking, including:

    Believe you are creative

    ‘While creative people believe they are creative, those who don’t hold that belief are not.’

    Work at it and ‘produce an incredible number of ideas — most of which (may be) bad. He says that

    ‘more bad poems were written by major poets than by minor poets’.

    Go through the motions – ‘Every hour spent activating your mind by generating ideas increases creativity’; visualise what you want and go for it.

    On his own website Creative Thinking, Michael Michalko suggests many more ideas for getting you to think creatively.

    The header of Michael’s website states that “A grapefruit is a lemon that took a chance.”

    lemons and grapefruit

    So which are you: a lemon or a grapefruit?

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post and let me know whether you agree or disagree with the value of creativity and if it can be taught.

    Thanks for reading.

  • Four fabulous female educators

    In a previous post I wrote about 3 inspiring educators. In no way did I wish to indicate that the number of inspiring educators was limited to those three or that all inspiring educators are male. The list of inspiring educators is far greater than that and includes both male and female representatives.

    The purpose of this post is to both honour, and share the wisdom of, other educators who have positively impacted my life and thinking as an educator and the lives and education of many others. The list doesn’t end here. There will be more to follow.

    Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

    Maria Montessori’s name is known worldwide as the founder of the Montessori Schools. However her influence is not restricted to those schools. Many educational practices implemented, especially in the early childhood setting were influenced by Maria Montessori.

    Maria resisted the gender-stereotyping conservative views of Italy where she lived in the late nineteenth century. She developed her interest in maths and sciences, especially biology, and became the first female doctor in Italy.

    As a doctor Maria worked with children from poor and working class families. She developed the belief that every child had an intrinsic intelligence. She studied child development and education extensively and developed methods of implementing her theories. She traveled Europe sharing her ideas and advocating women’s and children’s rights. Her success with disabled students led to implementation of her methods with ‘normal’ children.

    Montessori’s methods put the child’s interests at the front of the program. The teacher was to ‘follow the lead’ of the child.

    Practices now seen as standard that were initiated or influenced by Maria Montessori:

    • incorporation of children’s interests, putting their interests first
    • recognising the development of the individual and making education appropriate to it
    • use of child-sized furniture and shelving
    • practical activities such as sweeping and cleaning up
    • environmental activities such as gardening
    • health and hygiene practices, such as washing hands, sharing morning tea, cooking
    • indoor/outdoor areas that children move about freely
    • opportunities to work independently
    • respecting the child as an individual

    She valued independence and saw it as the aim of education, with the teacher as observer/guide of children’s development.

    This video explains  a little of her work.

    Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1908 – 1984)

    Sylvia Ashton-Warner is a New Zealand writer, poet and teacher whose educational work I became familiar with in the 1980s through her books Teacher and Spinster, the latter of which was also made into a movie.

    Sylvia, who in the interview below states emphatically that she is not a teacher, that she hates teaching and can’t stand education, has been very influential on teachers around the world.

    i was unable to embed the video. Click on the image to go to the original site.
    i was unable to embed the video. Click on the image to go to the original site.

    Sylvia says,

    “There’s a formula for all my teaching. It’s quite simple. I supply the conditions where life can come in the door . . . where both our teacher and our child can be themselves.”

    Children-and-even-adults - Sylvia Ashton-Warner

    Working with Maori children from poor and dysfunctional families and using organic reading, she developed what is called the ‘Key Vocabulary’; those words holding most meaning and interest to the child. The child asks for a word, the teacher writes it on a card. The child reads the word and copies it to write. The words requested are usually nouns and hold a lot of meaning for the child.

    I implemented her ‘Key Vocabulary’ for many years and found it to be a successful tool for developing readers and writers.

     

    Marie Clay (1926 – 2007)

    Marie Clay is another New Zealand educator best known for her work with literacy education and the Reading Recovery program which was developed to support students whose reading skills were delayed. She believed that early intervention was the key to improving literacy skills.

    I first came across her work in her book Reading: The Patterning of Complex Behaviour in 1979. Her 1983 publication Record of Oral Language provided teachers with methods of observing and recording children’s development in literacy.

    The Reading Recovery program, based on Marie Clay’s work and developed in the early 1980s, provides one-on-one support for students who are experiencing difficulty with reading in the first years of school. The teachers undergo training which develops their understanding of the reading process and how to support a student’s development. The training is more intensive and thorough with methods specific to this purpose, than generalised teacher education. However knowledge of her research, innovations and methodologies are also of benefit to generalist teachers and have been incorporated into many teacher education programs.

    I was very disappointed, as were many other classroom teachers, when this successful program was discontinued in our region earlier this century.

    Barbara Arrowsmith-Young (1951 – )

    I first heard about Barbara Arrowsmith-Young in Norman Doidge’s book The Brain that Changes Itself.

    I couldn’t put this book down. My thinking about the brain and learning was being challenged but excited at the prospect of overcoming learning problems experienced by many students.

    For years I watched helplessly as scores of struggling learners were pummelled with repetition of the same boring and meaningless methods that created (or at least contributed to) their problems in the first place; of seeing them humiliated by having to repeat a year at school, or being considered ‘dumb’ because they couldn’t do what the other kids could do. Now here was a book that suggested this need not be so. If only those making the decisions and delivering the programs could be influenced.

    One of the most memorable stories from the book was that of Barbara Arrowsmith-Young. Barbara suffered from severe learning disabilities throughout her childhood and early adult years. Every known method of compensating for the disabilities was tried without success. Barbara felt humiliated and a failure.

    Her life changed dramatically when she heard about neuroplasticity of the brain (the ability of the brain to change in physiology and functionality) and created exercises for her brain, teaching herself to do things she had never done before.

    Her story is an inspiring one of courage, strength, and persistence. Barbara has changed her life. After turning her life around, Barbara has developed programs for others with disabilities to engage with. She started the  Arrowsmith School in  Toronto in 1978. The Arrowsmith Program is now used in schools in the US and Australia as well as Canada.

    Barbara’s “vision is of a world that we create in which no child has to live with the ongoing struggle and pain of a learning disability. . . that cognitive exercises become just a normal part of curriculum. . . that school becomes a place that we go to strengthen our brains to become really efficient and effective learners engaged in a learning process where not only, as learners, can we dare to dream, but we can realize our dream . . . This is the perfect marriage between neuroscience and education.”

    You can read her story in The Woman Who Changed her Brain, and listen to her speak in this video:

    She travels the world sharing her message so you may even have an opportunity of meeting her in person. I saw her last year at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival. Magic!

     

    You may have noticed some unifying threads with each of these educators:

    A focus on the child, the child’s interests and life

    A recognition of the child’s ability to learn

    An optimism in the child’s ability to learn, for success and the future

    All educators worked with students from disadvantaged backgrounds or with disabilities or both; and all achieved success.

     

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this article.

     

     

  • Whose story is it anyway?

    Nor and Bec reading

    Children love stories.

    They love being read stories and beg for them to be read, over and over again.

    Equally as much, if not more, they love being told stories, especially stories of their own lives. They beg for them to be told over and over, listening attentively and with wonder as their own stories (her story and his story) are being revealed. They commit these tales to memory so that eventually it is difficult to distinguish the genuine experiential memory from the telling. Even as adults they seem to not tire of hearing tales of the cute things they did when they were little, or of shared experiences.

    They also love being told stories of their parents’ lives. These are the stories that help define them and their existence: how they came to be. The stories tell of times gone by, and of how things used to be. They marvel that their parents were once children and try to imagine how that might have been.

    My daughter would often ask for stories about herself, her brother, myself or other family members. One day when she was about six, she asked again, ‘Tell me a story about when you were a little girl.’ Before I could respond she jumped in with, ‘What were the dinosaurs like?’ She was teasing, of course, and her comedic timing was perfect. A story was created, one that has been shared many times.

    History is a story, though at school I never saw it as such. Had it been a story of lives, as its name implies, I may have been interested. But history at school was a list of wars and dates, and kings and queens to be memorised and regurgitated for a test at the end of the term. There was no story, no human emotion, no semblance to any narrative that may have lured me in.

    I hope that today’s students of history are not required to commit sterile lists of facts to memory without the stories that would give them meaning and significance, some human element to help the information stick.

    History, as a subject, had always been relegated to high school. It was not a discrete part of the primary school curriculum, though aspects were explored in other subject areas such as ‘Social Studies’ when I was at school, or more recently ‘Studies of Society and Environment’. With the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum, History is now a stand-alone subject.

    As an early childhood teacher I was a bit terrified that young children would be required to memorise lists of seemingly random facts and dates. I’m pleased to say that, for the early years anyway, this is not so. Children in the early years start by exploring their own history and the history of their family, considering similarities and differences between their lives, the lives of their parents, and of their friends.

    I applaud this as an excellent starting point. I believe, when working with children, connections must always be made with their lives and what they know. What better starting point than investigating the traditions of their own family and culture.

    In Australia, as I am sure it is in many other places, a great diversity of cultures is represented in each classroom. Encouraging children to share similarities and differences of traditions with their classmates helps to develop understanding of each other’s traditions and beliefs, which in turn fosters respect and empathy. For this purpose, I developed some materials to make it easy for children to share their traditions. These are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

    Whoever you areMem Fox has written a beautiful picture book Whoever you are that I love to share with children when discussing their cultures and traditions. It explains in a simple and beautiful way that although children around the world may live in different houses, wear different clothes, eat different foods, for example ‘inside, their hearts are just like yours.’ Mem Fox explains the story on her website.

    I also like to sing I am Freedom’s Child by Bill Martin Jr.; and in Australia we have a great song that tells about our different beginnings, I am, you are, we are Australian by Bruce Woodley.

    Heal the World by Michael Jackson is another great one for appreciating diversity and fostering inclusivity.

    What got me thinking about history in particular for this post is the flash fiction prompt posted by Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch Communications. Charli’s challenge is to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that considers history, near or far.

     

    This is my contribution:

    washing 1949

    Washing day

    Her freckled, calloused hands were red and chaffed as they gripped the wooden stick and stirred Monday’s sheets in the large copper pot heating over burning blocks of wood.

    The children played in the dirt nearby, scratching like chickens, hopeful of an interesting find.

    The dirt embedded under her torn and splitting fingernails began to ease away in the warm sudsy water as she heaved the sodden sheets and plopped them onto the wooden mangles.

    The children fought to turn the handle, smearing dirty handprints on the sheets.

    She sighed, and hung them over the line. One chore done.

     

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of the article or my flash fiction piece.

     

     

     

     

     

  • 3 Inspiring educators

    3 Inspiring educators

    Like every other teacher, I want to make a difference in the world.

    The thought that I could make a positive difference to the life of another is both empowering and inspiring.

    To do so, I seek out others making a positive difference and pay it forward, hoping that the ripple effect will carry it far and wide.

    flag on twitter

    Three inspiring educators who have positively influenced me are:

    Brian Cambourne

    Brian is an amazing literacy educator from whom I had the extreme good fortune of learning many years ago. I have written about him before here and here.

    Brian’s work focused on the conditions necessary for literacy development. His influence has spread beyond the classroom with the application of the conditions to learning in the workforce demonstrated.

    Tony Ryan

    Tony is an amazing educator who does his best to be the change he wants to see in the world. He talks about future-proofing and using innovative thinking to solve problems of both local and global importance.

    Anyone who believes ‘that education is the most important profession on the planet’ and does everything in his power to support teachers to be outstanding, as does Tony; must be pretty good in my books.

    One of Tony’s books The Ripple Effect is particularly apt for mention in this post. Tony 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.”

    This year Tony has started a new project called The Earth Movers Foundation which ‘helps young teenagers to create solutions to local and global issues. And they get to choose their own project. No adults will be telling them what project to do. They decide for themselves.’ Sounds pretty good to me.

    Ken Robinson

    Ken is another amazing educator. I fell in love with his ideas when I listened to his TED talk Do schools kill creativity? which I have also shared before here.

    The statement on his website declares that

    “Imagination is the source of all human achievement”.

    I could not argue with that.

    Ken introduces this short video The writing spirit which presents quotes from artists, thinkers, writers, innovators and snippets of interviews with writers. Just incidentally, and exciting for me, Richard Bach is included. Richard is the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, one of my favourite books for its inspirational message.

    It is more than likely that these educators have no idea how they have influenced my life (and others as a result).

    How wonderful might it be to know of the positive influence you have had on someone, and to have the opportunity of letting others know that they have positively impacted your life?

    This is the purpose of The Butterfly Light Award which was bestowed upon me my Lisa Reiter, a lovely lady who is herself inspirational for her courage and her positive attitude which she shares with others through her blog Sharing the story. Thank you, Lisa. I am honoured and accept with pleasure.

    As with any award, it comes with conditions:

    1. You should write an acceptance post, making sure you link back to the blogger who awarded you and thank them. You MAY NOT lump this award in with a batch of other awards.

    Thank you Lisa Reiter!

    1. You must individually name and re-award to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 9999999 bloggers. You must let them know either personally with a comment on their blog OR a pingback.

    As I have been writing about educators, I am going to stick with that theme. A quick visit to these blogs will explain why I have selected them.

    Ruth Mancini

    The Nerdy Book Club

    Two Writing Teachers

    Raising a literate human

    3.  You should link back to Belinda’s blog either to http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/about/ or http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/i-love-charismatic-geeks/

    Done!

    1. You must write a short paragraph entitled either “How I’m Spreading Light” OR “How I’m A Positive Influence” (what Lisa calls ‘the squirmy bit’).

    Done! See beginning of article.

    5. Display Belinda’s lovely “Butterfly Light Award” badge on your blog.

    Thank you, Belinda. It’s a pleasure! We can never have too many butterflies!

    butterfly-light-award

    Note: The beautiful framed quote, pictured at the top of this post, was made for me by a wonderful lady, the mother of two of my students. They all share my love of butterflies! I thank them for sharing their appreciation of my positive influence.

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of the article.

  • What do you have in mind?

    This week Two Writing Teachers posted a wonderful article by Stacey Shubitz (one of the Two Writing Teachers) about A Picture Book that Pushes the Growth Mindset.

    This post coincided beautifully with the flash fiction prompt posted by Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch Communications. Charli’s challenge is to:

     In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about getting stronger.

    This is a perfect prompt for a teacher as a major focus of our work is in developing children’s strengths:

    Strengths as in abilities; strength as in self-esteem and self-confidence; strength as in willingness to face setbacks and try, try again; strength as in keeping on going even when the going gets tough.

    The picture book discussed in the article by Stacey Shubitz is The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires. Stacey suggests that the book is a great opener for discussions with children about the importance of a growth mindset.

    According to Stacey, an understanding of ‘the power of having a growth mindset’ has been enabled by the work of Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychologist. It is grounded in a belief that

    ‘Someone can accomplish a lot more through hard work and dedication, rather than by relying on their smarts alone.’

    I agree with Stacey that

    ‘Educators know the benefits of having a growth mindset, rather than having a fixed one. We learn from trial and error. There is value in failure.’

    I will not quote Stacey’s article in its entirety, but suggest you pop over and read it for yourself. (If you do, and leave a comment prior to June 27th, you may win yourself a copy of The Most Magnificent Thing, if you live in the USA or Canada.)

    Stacey says that “The girl in the story tries over ten times to build something and get it right. Through hard work and some help from her trust sidekick, her pug, she eventually succeeds.” As well as a starting point for discussing the growth mindset, Stacey suggests eight features of the book which are useful for teaching writing. The article also includes a brief, but informative, interview with the author/illustrator Ashley Spires.

    In response to Stacey’s question about using The Most Magnificent Thing for discussing a growth mindset, Ashley responds:

    ‘The character is a perfectly capable girl with a great idea and the skill to make it, but she has to try, try and try again in order to succeed. Most kids (I was one of them) think that if it’s not perfect the first time, then they should move on to something that comes to them more easily. Working hard to succeed is what true success is.”

    <p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/89499612″>The Most Magnificent Thing Book Trailer</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/kidscanpress”>Kids Can Press</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

    My flash fiction, told through the jottings of a classroom teacher over time, shows a growth mindset emerging from one that was previously crushed.

    Progress

    Day one

    Timid. Needed help getting things out of bag to put in drawer. Sat towards back of group. Drew knees up under chin. Hunched over. Sucked thumb. Twisted long tangled hair under nose. Rocked.

    Day twenty-six

    Responded in roll call! Sat with ‘friend’. Legs crossed. Back straight. Smiled – briefly. Someone looked! Screamed, “Stop looking at me!” Dissolved in tears. Again. Retreated under desk. Again.

    Day fifty-two

    Initiated conversation!! Hair combed!! Nose not running!! Brought toy for show and tell. Responded with one- or two-word answers. Small, dirty, pink unicorn. B laughed. Erupted, but went to desk, not under!

     

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of the article or my flash fiction piece.

  • I’m too busy to be tired!

    www.openclipart.org http://goo.gl/zkTCJO
    http://www.openclipart.org http://goo.gl/zkTCJO

    This week’s flash fiction prompt posted by Charli Mills posed a challenge for me.

    How do I respond to her prompt to:

    In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about exhaustion.

    and maintain my focus on education?

    Do I ignore the prompt and post about education?

    Do I respond to the flash fiction prompt in isolation?

    Neither of these alternatives appealed as I have been enjoying the camaraderie and support of the flash fiction tribe as well as the opportunity to experiment in a genre that, while not an immediate writing priority, I may move towards in the future. On the other hand, as my intent with this blog is to share ideas and thoughts primarily about education, I don’t want to become distracted from my focus.

    As do many, the idea for this prompt attached itself to me when I wasn’t thinking about it. Ideas tend to pop into my head when I first awaken in the morning, when I am showering, or during any other moment when my thoughts are free to flit and fly without the constraints of achieving a particular outcome.

    This one descended when I was out for a drive appreciating the beauty of the pure white clouds, like puffballs, on the bright blue sky of a glorious winter day. It plopped down, ‘Barrrump!’ just as the space-bat-angel-dragon from The Iron Man by Ted Hughes had plopped down on Australia.

    book 2As mentioned in a previous post, The Iron Man is one of my favourite books. It is a great story told in beautiful language. On the back of my copy a quote from the Observer declares that it is ‘Reckoned one of the greatest modern fairy tales.’ The rhythm and poetry of the language begs for it to be read aloud. Because it has just five short chapters, ‘a story in five nights’, it is perfect as a first chapter book to share with younger children, and can be read to a class in a week, a chapter a day.

    The chapter I wish to share with you in this post is #4 ‘The Space-Being and the Iron Man’.

    The previous chapter has seen The Iron Man happily ensconced in a huge scrap-metal yard. It could have finished there with a happily ever after ending. But no. It was only chapter 3. There were two more chapters to come! What excitement was in store?

    The chapter begins

    ‘One day there came strange news. Everybody was talking about it. Round eyes, busy mouths, frightened voices – everybody was talking about it.

    One of the stars of the night had begun to change.’

    We are immediately reeled back into the story – What is going to happen? What will the Iron Man do? – and propelled along by the giant star that grew ‘not just bigger. But bigger and Bigger and BIGger’ as it came

    ‘rushing towards the world.

    Faster than a bullet.

    Faster than any rocket.

    Faster even than a meteorite.’

    Thankfully it stopped before it hit Earth. But wait – it’s not over yet, for ‘a dreadful silhouette, (came) flying out of the centre of that giant star, straight towards the earth.’

    After several days it (‘a terrific dragon’) landed, with its body ‘covering the whole of Australia’ and it ‘wanted to be fed. And what it wanted to eat was – living things.’

    ‘The people of the world decided they would not feed this space-bat-angel-dragon … they would fight it.” But all the forces of the world were no match for the dragon.

    As you may have guessed, this is where the heroic Iron Man devises his plan ‘to go out, as the champion of the earth, against this monster from space’. The dragon was very surprised to be challenged to a test of strength.

    The Iron Man, you may remember, is taller than a house, but the space-bat-angel-dragon is bigger than Australia.  The dragon thought that, when the Iron Man had finished, he’d ‘just lick him up.’ He didn’t figure on the ingenuity of the Iron Man. The Iron Man’s challenge was for the dragon to ‘go and lie on the sun till (he was) red-hot’. (The Iron Man was small enough to be made red-hot on Earth.)

    After the second journey to the sun the dragon again ‘landed on Australia. This time the bump was so heavy, it knocked down certain sky-scrapers, sent tidal waves sweeping into harbours, and threw herds of cows on their backs. All over the world, anybody who happened to be riding a bicycle at that moment instantly fell off. The space-bat-angel-dragon landed so ponderously because he was exhausted.’

    Have you ever felt that exhausted you just wanted to flop down and never move again? An article in my local newspaper1 recently declared that ‘We belong to the Spent Generation – the most overcommitted, overscheduled, overconnected, and therefore overtired, in modern times.’ The journalist Frances Whiting listed a number of professions including ‘doctors, scientists, social commentators (who) the statistics tell us (are) working longer, sleeping less, not resting enough and taking on too much.’

    Teachers weren’t on this list, but they could have been at the top. Anyone who lives with, or has a friend who is, a teacher knows the long hours they work. Because it is a caring profession it is impossible to leave work at the gate and pick it up the following day. Content-driven curricula and unrealistic expectations imposed upon both teachers and learners place extra stress upon all stakeholders. Long before a school terms end teachers are tired, stressed and in need of time to recuperate and recharge in preparation for the next one.

    At the moment most teachers in Australia are conducting assessments, evaluating their own work and student learning, preparing report cards and conducting teacher-parent interviews. This is in addition to their ongoing tasks of preparing and teaching lessons and is mostly expected to be completed in out-of-scheduled work hours.

    When I was teaching I worked between 50 and 70 hours most weeks. I used to say that even with our ‘enviable’ holidays we were still owed time. In my current out-of-the-classroom role as writer of curriculum materials, I now feel the difference as I don’t have to think about it away from my desk.

    I still get tired, but not the same heavy exhaustion that comes from giving all; physically, mentally and emotionally, to a class of 25 active learners while trying to stay afloat amidst ever increasing expectations.

    So my flash this week recognises the teachers who, buried under a pile of paperwork and lost in a maze of data collecting spreadsheets, still struggle to be everything to everyone, endeavouring to make every child feel special and valued, while often feeling that their own work fails to achieve any real recognition. Enjoy the break, teachers. You deserve it!

     

    A Unicorn at School

    ‘Miss. Marnie has a toy in her bag.’

    ‘Uh-uh,’ I responded.

    ‘You’re not allowed to have toys at school,’ he insisted.

    ‘Uh-uh.’

    Trust him! Always dobbing.

    ‘Miss,’ he persisted, tugging my sleeve.

    ‘What is it?’ I sighed, dragging myself out of the confusion of marks and percentages that now seemed more important to telling a child’s story than their own words and actions.

    I looked at the little fellow pleading for my attention. They were all so needy; so demanding; but time . . .

    ‘It’s a unicorn, Miss.’

    ‘Unicorn! Let’s see!’ I was back. A child in need!

    flag on twitter

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of the article or my flash fiction piece.

     

    1 QWeekend 14-15 June, 2014

  • It’s no surprise! Talking education

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/185077/creepyjackinthebox.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/185077/creepyjackinthebox.png

    We all like a surprise, right?

    Well, you might say, that all depends on whether the surprise is a good surprise or a bad surprise.

    A surprise is simply something unexpected, and everyday life is full of surprises; some so little they go almost unnoticed, others of larger more life-changing proportions. Some are pleasant and others far less so.

    What got me thinking about surprises this week is the flash fiction prompt posted by Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch Communications.

    Charli’s challenge this week is to

    In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that shows surprise without using the word. 

    I have been thinking of all sorts of surprises I could write about but decided to maintain my focus on education.

    There are many opportunities for surprises to occur throughout one’s education, which is not limited to (but probably, dare I say, by) one’s schooling experiences.

    For example:

    • Discovering you can read a book, all by yourself
    • Discovering an author whose work you just can’t put down
    • Finding a solution to a problem that had seemed insurmountable
    • Achieving a favourable result in a dreaded test
    • Being offered a place in the course you were wanting
    • Having work accepted, valued and receiving payment

     

    There are many situations in which the surprise could go either way.

    For example:

    • Being called to the principal’s office
    • Having a parent-teacher interview about your own child, or student
    • Receiving exam results or course placement offer
    • Meeting a new teacher
    • Working in a group to solve a problem

     

    Being a lover of stories, especially picture books, it is rare that a situation doesn’t trigger a thought connection to a story or book I have read.

    Thinking about the good surprises and bad surprises that could happen in some of these situations made me think of a book I had read to my own, and classes of, children years ago. Maybe you will remember it also.

    what good luck what bad luckThe book is What Good Luck! What Bad Luck! by Remy Charlip and relates a sequence of events alternating between good and bad.

    It appears, from what I can find out, that it was first published by Ashton Scholastic in 1964 and sold for 60 cents.

    Today Amazon has used copies on offer for $34.99 or $122 and a collectible as high as $157.70.

    What good luck, I used to have a copy.

    What bad luck, it is no longer in my possession.

    I was at the stage of mentally composing my story with my fingers itching to get to the keyboard to translate it into print when I glanced at the morning paper1 and came across this headline:

    Lesson 1: Bad teachers = bad results

    As a teacher who is passionate about education but also critical of top-down force-fed schooling institutions, headlines/comments like these have me vacillating between defiant self- (and professional-) protection and agreement with the criticisms.

    Teachers come in for a lot of criticism, some of it deservedly so, other of it not so much.

    One quote I love is “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions”.

    On the flip-side of this is “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

    While I take offense at this one, sometimes I am inclined to think it alludes to an important quality in a teacher. Frequently those who are expert at something, find it difficult to break a process into a series of steps that would enable an explanation to be easily understood by others. If one has struggled to master a task, the process can seem clearer and easier to explain. However there does come a point below which knowledge and experience must not fall or effective teaching cannot exist.

    In her article Bad teachers = bad results, Kylie Lang says that

    “C-grade teachers will not produce A-grade results”.

    She says,

    “Too many mediocre minds are becoming teachers. Universities usher them in, these academic underperformers who fail to qualify for courses with higher entry requirements.”

    She says that

    “A federal education department report shows a rise in the number of school leavers with poor grades being offered places on teaching courses. This year, 55 percent of Year 12 students that were allowed to undertake teaching degrees had an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank below the average . . .”

    It is a bit scary, isn’t it?

    She also says that,

    “If we are a nation that values education . . . we must attract brighter, more creative thinkers to classrooms.”

    I couldn’t agree more. However I wonder where they will get those creative thinkers if higher order thinking skills, creativity and innovation are sacrificed in the relentless quest for scores on academic tests which require students to spit back information forced upon them in hours of didactic instruction and rote learning.

    It’s no surprise that anyone who maintains the ability to think outside the square would rather not return to it!

    And so to my flash piece for this week, which comes with a warning – there’s no rhyme because there is no reason:

     

    What luck!

    No books, no talk were in the home.

    What luck!

    He was happy to play on his own.

     

    School began when he was five.

    What luck!

    Learning from flash cards, how hard he tried.

     

    “My boy can’t do it!” his Mum once wailed.

    What luck!

    With ‘forged’ test scores no child would fail.

     

    Leaving school, the options were few.

    What luck!

    Teaching was the one he could do.

     

    Uni years flashed by so fast.

    What luck!

    Number requirements meant he passed.

     

    Then into the classroom he unprepared went.

    No future joy for any student.

    What bad luck!

     

    I always enjoy reading your comments. I invite you to share your thoughts.

     

     

    1 Courier-Mail, Sunday May 25 2014

     

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