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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at a deep level that all kids learn differently and that we need to “kid-watch” rather than rely on arbitrary and outdated test scores.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.

A few weeks ago, one of our staff at our centre was having a hard time getting the children to be quiet and do what they were had been told to do. It was not that they were being naughty, just happy and playful and a bit noisy.

Victoria walked into the room and sat down and looked at the children, before she had even spoken a word the children settled and were quiet and attentive.

Later the staff member commented, “You did it again! You did not even have to say anything and the children were doing exactly what you wanted. You are The Child Whisperer“.

And so the name was born. It has already appeared in other places referring to Victoria in print and during a radio interview in Singapore on The Parent Program on 938 Live.

I like it so much that I have re-named Victoria’s blog 🙂

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!

I am just getting our PD days ready for STAR for teachers next week-and realising some significant points-

* I really DO believe all kids can learn.
* Testing kids is nowhere near the full story!
* These kids have their own “learning narratives” and we need to spend time getting to know them and HOW they learn.
* There are no quick fixes-we need evidence based learning programs, kindness, close contacts with parents and some magic and optimism!

I LOVE giving this course-it is my absolute passion!

EQ4Families May2012

Yesterday I read Colin Thompson’s THE PARADISE GARDEN at our “Gathering”. This is the special time when students gather for a story, awards, saying out motto etc-our motivational and inspirational time.

It is a marvellous book-all about our need to escape and find secret places of the heart. What really struck me as I read it and searched the faces of the very mixed age 20 or so children in front of me-they had all fallen into the story. Their eyes were shining and they were THERE! These kids were PP-Yr 10 and they all got it and wanted to explore the idea of a secret place, discuss, draw and write about the book.

Powerful picture books such as this have such a transformative effect on children and lift our teaching programs to new heights. I love the stillness and wonder that descends when children enter this secondary world. I think the trick is to enter with them-to get out our child’s eyes again and allow ourselves to wonder and delight in the huge possibilities opened up by inspirational authors such as Colin Thompson.