Author: VictoriaC

We are making a HUGE mistake in Australia with the panic and emphasis put on NAPLAN testing. Even Government schools are spending inordinate amounts of time and money practising for these tests and coaching kids for the tests. Schools, Principals and teachers feel judged by the results and parents are stressed to the max!

Sure-some coaching is OK and all teachers and parents would like to see their kids do well and of course the results do impinge on the self-esteem of the kids.

BUT-it is the huge amount of time taken out of teaching time to do this that alarms me. Surely rich, well balanced and systematic literacy and numeracy programs taught by trained and caring teachers is the best preparation for improved results?

Instead of this we have endless hours of time wasted where chn have to sit for mock tests, “off-Naplan” year prep and testing and less time spent actually teaching!

With our alarming literacy results in Aus it is time to return to allow our fine teachers to do what they do best-TEACH!!! We simply do not have the time to spend on all this mock testing.

I am so sick of the labels being put on children. Why must we be so quick to make them fit into boxes they were never destined for??

Why can’t children be allowed to birth their uniqueness and gifts to the world?
Why must every child learn in the same way?

This is all errant nonsense! Children are wonderfully unique and need to be nutured and helped to develop-not rammed into pre-existing templates!

It amazes me that here we are in 2012, turning back and back into the “empty vessels” model of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times novel! We know better now so why don’t we apply it?

The answer is simple-intellectual laziness, lack of funds and lack of respect and concern for these wonderful young people who will inherit the arid and barren educational landscapes we are forming.

Education is about engagement, curiosity, wonder, intellectual rigour, exciting ideas and extension of thinking. We MUST allow for different ways of learning, personalities, strengths and weaknesses in our classrooms if every child is to reach their potential.

This means teachers must have access to training that will show them how to teach in flexible groups, multi-age settings, cater for individual learning styles, extend and remediate where necessary.

It is not fair to expect teachers to carry the blame for low literacy and numeracy results-and we certaily do have those at the moment! Teachers need access to the best literacy and numeracy programs and professionsl development.
Many teachers are paying for their own extra training because their schools cannot fund it-this is ridiculous. Our teachers deserve the best pre-service and post-service training. The programs, knowledge, expertise for raising our literacy and numeracy skills are out there-we already have them in place-let’s make sure teachers can all learn these edvidence based methods to ensure future Aussies are fully literate and numerate and can use their skills to transform the dismal futures we seem bent on providing!

It is time that as educators and parents we take an honest look at what we are doing-let’s stop trying to create designer children and accepts every child for the unique gift to the word they actually are! Let’s peel the labels off and instead get to know these children, observe them, listen to them and provide nurturing and caring environments where all can learn!

This is RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS week and I am reminded of how crucial KINDNESS is for education.
I was asking children at our centre last week about favourite teachers they have had-amazing how many times the work KIND came up! Not one child commented , “She taught me maths really well”. They ALL commented on attributes such as KIND, INTERESTING, LOVED ART, SENSE OF FUN etc! We know children learn more when they are relaxed so we need to permeate our classrooms and all education/tuition centres with a sense of love and kindness. Children will feel affirmed, nurtured and then they can engage with our teaching and grow.
Of course also applies to teachers themselves. They also need to feel affirmed and nurtured, and busy administrators may not always realise this. As educators it is vital we –
take time out
nurture ourselves with beauty
feed our minds with wonderful literature and films
reflect on our work and congratulate ourselves for successes
admit when we need help and ask for it!

Education around the world would be revolutionised if from today teachers, children, parents and administrators all practised kindness EVERY DAY!

We just finished our first EQ4KIDZ course for this year with an amazing group of children-10 kids with their dreams, wishes for the year, hopes, problems but so much DETERMINATION! If I had to sum up this group it would be COURAGE!

It amazes me that each group is so different-develops its own “flavour” and by the end has a really cohesive feeling.

I am also constantly amazed that children really WANT to talk about their “stuff”-emotions, their dreams, anger, problems etc. We have just seen the research on our course from the Masters thesis completed by Lynne Oliver and we are thrilled! We knew we were getting results but it is wonderful to have this ratified. Our aim is to get this course out to ALL Aussie schools during the next 5 years. We are also offering it in Singapore.

Staff who worked with me on this workshop would agree-the kids taught us SO much! Each time we run the course I am stunned by how much we learn from children. I thought I was the author of this course but I am getting a strong intuition that children are the real writers and crafters of EQ4KIDZ!

Well-just reading what I had written just before New Year! That seems like a million miles away and yet-it IS still a new year!
We had a full quota of kids for holiday programs last week and it was so good to see our usual families, meet many new ones and help them prepare for the year ahead. There is something wonderful about seeing the world through a child’s eyes. There was one moment last week when a 5 year old said to me, so proudly, “I’m wearing a belt”! I replied, “Are you really? Show me”.
He so proudly lifted his T-shirt to show me his new best and when I told him it was the coolest belt in the world he just glowed! When was the last time we felt like that about something we wear?
There is a joy and energy that surrounds teaching but so often we get bogged down with marking, results, discipline etc and do not get to the heart of the matter-the children themselves. They are infinitely full of possibilities-not just because they are young but because they BELIEVE. A few years ago I asked a little 6 year old girl what she would like to be- ” a ballet dance and a truck driver” was her response-more power to her!!

So this year-I want to dream ICE some more-dream up possibilities and see what the children can teach us-not just what we can teach them! Their teaching curriculum is more vast and intiguing than ours will ever be!

There is something deeply satisfying about writing goals BEFORE New Year’s Eve!
I love this process-this gradual quickening of thr year and the finding of words to describe and capture then essence of the year!

This is a DRAGON YEAR and I think there will be plenty of dragon energy around! The children will be delighted to usher in the year of the Dragon-kids have this everlasting fascination with these amazing mythical creatures and so I confess have I! So this is the WATER Dragon year-we have not had once since 1952! Thank goodness we found our water-dragon eggs and they are definitely growing!

So-back to the goals-this year I am going to read through them everyday and carry them at all times. But-this year I am going to leave a little more room for spontaneity and fun-personally and for ICE-there must be some serendipity in our learning cocktail!
I feel like a creature who has been deeply sleeping since Christmas Eve and just shaking body and mind awake-deeply refreshed and wanting to hang on to this feeling of time to spare-that is my challenge for this year! Thi is also the year we re launching our new Time Management seminar-so TIME-must ponder and meditate on this during my lazy pool/breakfast time tomorrow!

Wow! Too fast by half this year! I had a very busy week in Singapore then back here to Aus for rest/feasting and lovely empty time!

This is the blessed time for us-hot weather, cool pool and good books and time to dream. The interval between Christmas and New Year is like a special gift- no wrapping required-just enjoy the joy of time!

So I am escaping with numerous books and I notice that as this fiction section of my brain re-opens-so the ideas start to flow and I become excited about 2012-what does it have to offer? What can I offer this year? The image of the Magi following the star with the gifts is my chosen image this year-have been having fun making my overview of goals with this theme.

I love this “new” feeling to the year-as if the year is wrapped in precious fine, crisp white tissue paper and we cannot wait to unwrap and smell the newness and note the hidden bright layers to our days.

But-that is WAY too much sensible stuff for today-now into the cool pool to gaze at the dragonflies!

Yesterday I took my work to a cafe-I was in search of escape, good coffee and the bustle and wonderful anonymity of a large shopping centre. I always feel grounded in these places as I watch young mums with babies, kids laughing after school, whole families out to buy the family food, old people moving slowly and carefully etc etc. I start to get some perspective and realise the construction of the next chapter in my book is probably not as important or as urgent as I thought. Most people head for the hills for this sort of grounding and renewal-but I really can get it with a coffee in a shopping centre!

As I looked around yesterday I realised how I love the sights and sounds of Christmas-the ridiculous tinsel everywhere, fake snow, ever present Santas, huge, lit up  Christmas trees and shop windows with special Christmas offers and welcoming window displays! Everyone complains at the hustle, bustle and amount to get done and yet all around were smiling people, laughing children, carols in the background and a sense of joy permeating the whole place. Is it the knowledge of holidays coming? The anticipation of gifts? The knowledge that we can spend time with loved ones? Is it more? Is there a sense of the deeper meaning of Christmas still there? I was showing a child some Christmas literacy sheets I intended to use yesterday, when she commented,” I love Christmas and know all about Jesus being born”. Surprised, I turned to her and asked her, “Oh-do you go to Church?” “No” she replied, “I have only been once but I still know this stuff!” She then started to tell me how she had really enjoyed the Church experience (I had assumed most children were thoroughly bored by it), and it set me off on many trains of thought!

My parents used to say, “The Christ has been taken out of Christmas”, but I am not so sure. I think Christ is lurking in there with all the bling, glitter and fat, juicy turkeys. I am cautiously optimistic that we still know what this season is all about!

But-I couldn’t help wondering about the holy family and how they must look on with absolute surprise to see what we have made of that quiet yet amazing night when Jesus came into the world.

I realised this morning that it is well over a month since I wrote in here. Most educators suffer the same at this time of year-the frantic scramble to get reports finished, parent counselling, programs planned for the following year and pulling all the threads of the year together so that Christmas can happen!

We are all so exhausted by the end of the year and many teachers report the “time to get sick syndrome” where they fall ill during holidays as their poor. exhausted bodies try to recover and replenish!

I am watching this whole busyness cycle with a somewhat analytical and removed eye as I am preparing material for a time management course.

We are launching a new time management course next year and extensively researching material for this. I want to aim the course (and hopefully the accompanying book” at people who tend to think in a whole brained or right brained manner and not notice details-they often have a rather optimistic view of time!

I am painfully aware that preparation for the Christmas rush (at least in educational settings), needs to start in June! In many ways it is all about self-discipline and time-lining.

I aim to not say the word BUSY next year! In fact I am starting to ardently dislike the word as it means a mindless amount of activity that occurs to try and catch up with tasks that should have been started a long time ago! (At least in my case!)

To write this course and book I need to “walk my talk” and clean up my own act!

So here we are again-exams upon us and worried faces amongst our students from ICE. I always feel so frustrated at this time of year-we have a wonderful STUDY SKILLS course with brain compatible ways to study and learn-but the very kids who desperately need these skills-so often don’t apply them. It is really all about self-discipline and this is something teenagers find so hard. I am thinking these methods need to be taught in schools because many kids find it so hard to arrange their study times and often have jobs as well-wouldn’t they be better off learning HOW to study during school time and then having 1-2 hours of compulsory study time after school?

I also get frustrated with the crazy amount of homework some high-school teachers give out-thereby effectively denying students a chance to revise and summarise course content.

I wish all high school students everywhere good-luck in their exams but I fancy it has little to do with luck and could be helped a great deal by some judicious changes to school timetables.