Author: VictoriaC

Another round of “FIT THE KIDS INTO THE BOXES” where kids have to be squashed into pre-shaped moulds” is beginning! I must have had at least 20 parents over the last 2 weeks approach me with,  ” His teacher says he does not fit the mould”, she does not “fit in”, he is “different”, “not interested in school work”, “would rather play”. (Who wouldn’t?) Who DOES fit? And fit WHAT?

And now-for the newby-ODD- OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER (sometimes known as CONDUCT DISORDER)-yes-you can actually have a formal diagnosis for this!
Well, my own kids had it and so did all their friends-this is part of childhood!

I am happy to announce to the world that I have self-diagnosed myself as having OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER and I will not be taking medication ‘cos I am very happy with this diagnosis. It means-

1. I can and will stand up and tell the truth about an education system that is deteriorating into a “little boxes” way of thinking and making sure that all children “fit “-fit what? Who is the arbiter here? How can we possibly say what a child “should” be? Children are gifts from God and they will be who they are supposed to be. So liberate them from these confining boxes!
2. I won’t tell lies to children. If they have a learning difficulty I will tell them and then help them find ways around it. If their behaviour is disgusting I will tell them, insist they stop it and NOT give them drugs to keep their brains operating in a soporific fashion.
3. I will insist on children having time for the arts, for painting, drawing, music and literature. The very idea of children having to do hour after hour of “practise tests” for NAPLAN chills my blood. I will continue to jump up and down about the need for children to have some spare time to think and dream.
4. I will tell the truth about tests and ambiguous results and the shortcoming of numerical indicators. Childen’s academic performances change on a daily basis and so do test results. To judge a child’s abilities and make educational decisions based on test results is just plain stupid and borders on negligent. Why are we so scared to admit that educating children is a complex, sensitive and difficult profession and it involves copious amounts of “kid-watching”, finding out about learning styles, talking to children, perusal of written work -and yes-some test results. We need the WHOLE picture to make informed decisions.
5. I will defy all attempts to make education into a boring, factory environment. I want every child who comes to ICE to be engaged, enchanted and entranced by their surroundings. I want them to be as excited by learning as I am.

So-I am glad I have a huge case of OPPOSITION DEFIANCE DISORDER-I hope it gets worse so I can yell louder! I hope to infect hundreds of my colleagues!

I am appalled at the comments by the Olympic chief, John Coates, blaming “disappointing London results” on the Govenment’s failure to introduce compulsory school sport.

We can’t win all the time and there are many lessons to learn from failure! E.g. pick yourself up, analyse failures, try harder, train more, reward talent, breakthrough personal barriers etc etc.

Sport is important but let’s not get carried away and despondent-it is still sport and as such is about personal best, cooperation, being a good sport etc. Unfortunately there have been too many instances of bad sportsmanship in these games and this is a more worrying concern than losing gold! Young Aussies deserve better than this. They want to see their sporting heroes be brave when they fail. They want to know it is all about trying your hardest-not about winning.

Perhaps John Coates might like to contemplate the fact that 48% of Aussies cannot read and write to a competent level. Clearly, that is the area where extra funds should go! Quality teacher training and materials and programs that benefit ALL children must be funded from the federal government-not more funds for sports!

We have had so many teachers come through our JOLLY LEARNING courses to learn about effective ways to ensure all children reach full literacy. Sadly many of these teachers have to buy their own books and materials because money is not available through their schools. This is despite the fact that a recent study in South Australia has demonstrated that children using JOLLY LEARNING are usually 17 months ahead with speliing and 14 months ahead with reading!

Healthy physical activity is important and there is a huge amount to be gained by learning all the ethics involved with sports.

Sadly children have very little to learn by failing school because they are denied access to effective literacy programs that give them the basic phonics, comprehension, spelling and grammar skills they need to become fully literate!

I taught Sunday School to some amazing little children this morning. I was trying to get a difficult concept across-Jesus saying “I am the bread of life”, and didn’t think I would get far at all. We talked a little about bread for our tummies and then about bread for our hearts-these kids were amazing. They just GOT IT! As they touched their tummies and hearts to show me they understood I looked into their eyes and realised what I have always known at a deep level. Children have the most incredible ability to understand symbols, signs and interpret spiritual teaching. They are more able to understand because they lack the sophisticated, cynical veneers we adopt.

Children have really high spiritual intelligence and crave these teachings. It is sad that we so often deny them the chance to have them.

Whatever faith background we have- let’s share it with our kids and they will eventually make up their own minds. At least they will have had the chance to learn.

Today I visited Midland markets after Church to buy fresh vegetables, cheese etc and have coffee with my wonderful daughter!

As I waited to pay for my vegetables I noticed the young boy (about 11), had no help and at least 7 people waiting. I watched him carefully-expecting him to get frustrated, overwhelmed or at least to start making mistakes.

He was doing this amazing thing whereby he would weigh, total the amount in his head, tell the customer what they owed- then while they were fishing in their purse for money he would start serving the next. He stayed incredibly calm and was absolutely spot on with his mental arithmetic. (No calculator)

As I paid him I congratulated him on his maths skills-he looked a bit surprised as quite obviously this is what he does regularly. And yet-we spend HOURS trying to teach children of this age how to improve mental arithmetic. Maybe we should just assign them to a Sunday morning market stall minus a calculator! They could learn how to accurately weigh, calculate the amount owed and give correct change- all those basic maths processes but taught in context!

This is a question that often occupies my thoughts. We are taking on new staff on at the moment and beginning new training cycles and  find myself (as always) trying to get to the heart of this-here are some things I am pretty sure DON’T necessarily make a good teacher-

Technical skill, extra degrees, over-confidence, being sure you are right, trying to ensure everyone does the same, over-reliance on test marks, sticking exactly to set hours, never talking to students about anything other than schoolwork.

We have emplyed scores of teachers over the last two decades and the qualities of a good teacher remain a little undefinable but some things stand out-

A good teacher-

• Really loves kids although at times experiences them as incredibly annoying and frustrating.
• KNOWS that a teacher can never know it all and understands that teaching is a daily learning experience.
• Approaches teaching as a calling, a sacred journey of preparing the next generation to play their part and have happy, fulfilled lives.
• Understands at a deep level that all kids learn differently and that we need to “kid-watch” rather than rely on arbitrary and outdated test scores.
• Is prepared to learn from children.
• Understands that parents are the senior partner in the education process.
• Can get on the floor, make a mess, have fun, laugh and learn-WITH the children.

Ben Jensen from the Grattan Institute says” Too much is made of qualifications that often don’t result in improved learning and teching in classrooms. Good teaching requires many skills but fundamental is the ability to diagnose each student’s learning-where they are in their developmental path-and to shape teaching methods to take them to the next step”.

I agree -good teachers observe, “feel”, ask questions and probe until they really know what each child need and then delivers the program in engaging ways.

It is an honour to teach -and to teach well brings joy to both student and teacher!

sticking to timetable always

insisting everyone does the same

 

Yesterday we were at the MRT station on the way to meet friends and as usual most people were totally absorbed in phones, facebooks, music or reading. I looked all around Clarke Quay station to see if ANYONE was just thinking, looking around but no-EVERYONE was plugged in apart from one child who was reading. It was as if we were totally unaware of each other and all in our own little bubbles. I wanted to yell loudly-BOO- I’M HERE AND SO ARE YOU-LET’S TALK!!! See the thing is-NO-ONE was talking, looking at each other and this continued on and off the train. A pink elephant in yellow pyjamas could have jumped on the train and would be totally ignored. We are so self-absorbed and so reliant on our technological crutches-how will it be in 100 years?
It is exactly the same here in Australia. What is this doing for our brains? Maybe it is OK but I don’t think so. There must be time to just sit and wonder and think rather than incessantly checking messages and photos. Our Intrapersonal and Interpersonal intelligences will vanish altogether if we don’t use them.

The only people watching, looking and wondering are the children and sadly no-one is looking at them as they are totally plugged in to their devices! Actually it is pretty weird and will have such a negative effect on thinking, social interactions and emotional intelligence.

It is as if we have become technological zombies-WAKE UP RIGHT NOW EVERYONE WHILE WE STILL CAN!

Somehow we need to look at this deeply. So many children I assess are absolutely addicted to technology and I-pads are now regularly used as babysitters.

Just been looking at some writing samples from 7yr old children. Of course there were the usual charming spelling mistakes children make-eg. CUMAGEN for COME AGAIN, After a while I realised the entire selection was totally phonetically spelled.

I don’t believe this is OK. We follow the JOLLY PHONICS program quite closely and the children certainly rely heavily on phonics to write when they are 4/5 and 5/6- but as they go from 6-7 we expect them to learn to spell conventionally. We do a lot of multisensory spelling activities and help the childrn to thoroughly learn the TRICKY WORDS. (Those sight words such as WERE WHERE SAID and DOES that cannot be accurately written by listening to sounds) Of course young children do often revert to phonetic spelling when faced with unknown, difficult words. We see this at ICE regularly and we gently teach them the correct spelling and insist they spell accurately whenever possible.

Repeating the same spelling mistake regularly, unfortunately leads to consolidation of the spelling mistake!

We need to make sure that teachers studying the synthetic phonics method ensure that children realise conventional spelling is needed and spend time teaching children to spell accurately and with facility.

We have an ADVANCED JOLLY LEARNING seminar coming up and we will be working hard to promote effective and practcal ways to ensure ALL students to be able to spell at appropriate levels.

In London and having time to think again! I love this annual pause in the pulse-a sort of “in-between time”.
Went to Tate Britain and re-acquainted with the Turner paintings-funny that you can look at something many times and then one day it leaps out at you! The huge influence of Greek and Roman empires plus especially all the old mythology surrounding them- all there in these amazing paintings.
I know Turner was a competitive, ruthless artist but HEY- what amazing connections he made between art and history!
It made me vow to reconnect with these old tales again-we have been parted far too long!

And-then got to thinking-all these wonderful kids we teach-they are missing out on this stuff. Their lives are stuffed with so much tuition, digital pursuits etc etc and the basics of classical edication are disappearing. I don’t care how anachronistic this sounds-I want them to have these old tales that uplift, help us to make connections and inspire!

I now have another pet project-to bring these tales to life in my programs-so looking forward to re-reading and breathing life into these old tales!