ART FROM THE HEART

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Processed with VSCOcam with n1 preset

I woke this morning with that Christmas morning feeling you get when you are anticipating joy!
All week we have ART FROM THE HEART classes and I know the atmosphere at ICE will be peaceful, excited and yet strangely calm.
We do a little bit of art in every course we run and of course HEAPS of art in ART FROM THE HEART!
ART should always be from the heart. Art engages the left and right sides of the brain as children imagine, plan, organise, “feel” their way in, create and revise. I love to watch their faces as they engage in art- they GLOW and all concentration and tension issues seem to fly out the window.
Interestingly, the learning that takes place after art is ALWAYS deeper.
Sure issues of low self-esteem, lack of confidence and worries about it not being perfect surface but the art time is a great place for these things to come up and be dealt with. Teachers who help kids engage in art are really not just doing art- they are helping to grow more centred, creative and self-aware people!
Should we ALL be drawing/painting/crafting?
Maybe hardened criminals and terrorists should attend daily art classes! It truly seems to make for calmer, happier children so let’s try it on some big people.
I am starting an ART FROM THE HEART pinterest board today and will be sharing lots of techniques and ideas as well as displaying kids’ work. Please follow and share some of your own creative ideas too!
Let’s make this a week where we ALL indulge in some creative practices and share.

Leaky Elbow Syndrome

STORY STARTERS A-page-0

I often joke about how many of our students seem to have holes in their elbows and their wonderful ideas drop out before they hit the page!
I think we forget how hard it is for children to coordinate ideas, handwriting, concentration, punctuation etc and get ideas down.
My favourite lesson every day is WRITING and I am amazed as I see the creative process begin anew with each lesson.
The blank page is transformed- one minute it is empty- the next there are ideas, “wonderings”, creative “splats” and sadly sometimes one word and a pencil that just won’t move!
When I ask children what they would like to write they describe how they have many ideas and just cannot choose. Sometimes they have a HUGE idea and they are frightened to begin because it will take so long to write or they feel they cannot spell the words.
There are so many variables and teachers need a very full tool-box and a huge dose of understanding to be able to effectively teach written expression.
We sometimes use story starters- especially when children are tired and we are approaching the end of the year.
As children LOVE random choices, we often cut these up and they take one as a lucky dip. They act as “circuit breakers” so their brains can zoom in on just one idea!
If I give them too many topics to choose from they will get into the “kangaroo caught in the spotlight” syndrome and simply stop!
I have given you some of our story starters here and invite you to try them out. We are always devising more and at the moment we are working on a new Christmas set.
We share all our writing strategies in our writing workshop for teachers- ALL KIDS CAN WRITE. Please contact me if you would like to attend the forthcoming ones in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane or Singapore.

Your child is only at level 23!

A view of a sad prisoner in jail
A view of a sad prisoner in jail

I have had to sit on this subject for 2 days as as it was connected to an incident that left me white hot with rage! All I could do was rant and rave with my colleagues who all agreed privately but pointed out they are often bound to work within this crazy system!

I worked with a perfectly normal 6 year old this week who is just beginning to sound out and recognise some words. He has a lovely sense of humour and is obviously a very active, creative child who will do well at school.

BUT he comes from a classroom where the levels may as well be inscribed on children’s wrists like those in POW camps! His parents were told the sad news- “Only at level 23!”

Up to level 23 in reading? What does this mean? Of course I know there are various prescribed lists of levels suitable for children with books that fit within these lists. Many of these lists are put together by publishers of particular reading schemes and teachers (searching for a sane, easier way of assessing) are grabbing at these levels and giving out comments such as “Oh dear! Your child is only at level 23- he should be at 30.”
Who said?
What about the fact that he has started his reading journey and now recognises all the single sounds, many digraphs and can sound out simple words?

What about the fact that he loves picture books, comprehends well and has great ideas for writing narratives?

Aren’t they things to celebrate for a 6 year old? But NO!

Because some children can master all their phonics at 5 years we now judge those who take a little longer.

This is utter madness and teachers know this deep down.
Evaluation is a complex process and cannot be pinned down to numbers like this.

You have to get to KNOW a child to evaluate them. Not only do you apply baseline testing, you have to observe, figure out their thinking patterns and watch them in action.

When we make these fast judgements we are lowering our standards as educators and behaving like teaching machines.

The results are sad kids with low self-esteem who already hate school at 6! At 6? Crazy!

I know some teachers are pushed to place kids against very questionable ranking scores but this causes unbelievable harm for children and parents.

We can do much better than this!

Now when I assess children and ask them how they think they are doing at school, they answer me like this,
“Oh Vicky- I am only at level 15.” When I ask them what that means they haven’t a clue and neither have I.

Let’s get back to solid, on the floor observation, talking to children, identifying learning styles, finding what they can do, running records and closely monitoring phonological awareness, word identification and fluency. I tell kids when they have problems and I make up plans to help them rather than giving out some meaningless score! We are teaching children- not machines!
What is happening is stupidity of the first degree and I cannot stand back and watch what is happening with a closed mouth.

Come on educators- speak your minds and parents- DEMAND to know exactly what these levels mean and why your child should have to be a carbon copy of some “idealised” robot child!

The A-Z of Child Whispering: I is for IMPOSSIBLE (wrong!)

“ALL THINGAllKids are Smart Front CoverS ARE POSSIBLE- ONLY BELIEVE!”
I remember singing this at Church many years ago and wondering, “Could this be true?”
Fortunately for me I was able to navigate my way around the school system at the time and it suited my learning style.
I knew many kids my age who did not do well academically but could think far more creatively than me and were obviously much smarter!
Why do we consign kids to educational rubbish tips so early?
Why are we so keen to burst bubbles of possibilities?
I hear so many instances where teachers have said of a 7 year old, “Well he won’t get to Uni but…….
How would they know?
I have been teaching for a very long time and I can’t predict that.
I truly believe all kids are gifted and that is why I wrote ALL KIDS ARE SMART.
This is what I believe-
We should stop limiting children at such early ages. We don’t use the word IMPOSSIBLE in my programs. IMPOSSIBLE things may well be possible tomorrow!

I see so many anxious parents of perfectly normal, intelligent children who just happen to be taking a little longer to develop.
I also see children who have genuine difficulties as their learning style is not catered for by their school and they have some huge learning gaps. We work hard to mend their self-esteem and establish basic concepts.
We also have many children attending who achieve academically 1-3 years ahead of the expected levels and we provide challenge and enriching programs for them.
Both teachers and parents need to get to know children and considered preferred intelligences and learning style.
Readers of ALL KIDS ARE SMART can use the provided tests to determine their own strengths and weaknesses as well as the children they are concerned with. This helps us to offer precision teaching based on actual needs and delivered in such a way they can access and benefit.
The old hymn was right and is being proven by entrepreneurs all over the world. Most famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branston scooted around the school system and pretty well ignored it! They refused to have their self-belief and creativity confined and battered as discussed by Ken Robinson:

Child whisperers – take note and stoke the fires of belief rather than pouring the cold, cruel waters of cynicism onto children’s emerging self-beliefs!

If you would like a copy of ALL KIDS ARE SMART please email victoriacarlton@iinet.net.au

Does anyone speak “Fairy” around here?

FAIRY
Today I told teachers in Darwin about a teacher I knew who had her Kindy kids writing and drawing pictures to an imaginary fairy who lived in her cupboard. One of the teachers in the workshop told me a lovely story.
This teacher had written on a piece of pink paper with a few squiggles with lots of glitter and asked her 4 year olds, “Can anyone speak “Fairy” around here?

One little boy confidently called out, “I can!” and then made up a lovely, creative explanation of the weird squiggles!

A few weeks later, the teacher thought she would try it again, and asked the little boy to try to decode some more “Fairy” words on a purple piece of paper. This time she wrote a few simple words that could be sounded out. The little boy was having none of this! He was not interested in sounding out words as this was not half as interesting as making up his own story!

The little boy took a good look, and assertively replied, “Sorry, I can’t read “Fairy” when it is written on purple paper!”

The point here is the marvellous confidence and creativity the little boy showed and his ability to fight his way out of a difficult situation!

Young children have huge dollops of wonderful creativity and imagination. Unfortunately we usually squash this within the first 2 years of school. As Sir Ken Robinson points out- so many Kindy kids are creative geniuses but lose it within a year! We need to grow creativity rather than kill it!

Can you imagine walking into your local pub/café/ workplace and asking the same question: “Does anyone around here speak “Fairy?”
I dare you to try! The answers might be a little different!

ABC of Child Whispering: I is for Immediate

Teacher-Stickers[1]

Immediacy is craved by youngsters but as teachers and parents we need to be aware of the effects on developing characters if we always provide instant gratification to children. We ALL need to learn to wait! (Not an easy concept for children brought up in the age of push a button and something exciting happens!)
Today I came across an interesting article about the famous marshmallow test), done with children that showed that the ability to delay gratification has such a huge effect on our lives.  (Stanford University during the 60s)

The interesting part for child whisperers is that a second experiment set up at Rochester University to replicate this but with an important twist, proved that we can deliberately set out to develop this ability to delay gratification in children.

Before offering the child the marshmallow, the researchers split the children into two groups.

“The first group was exposed to a series of unreliable experiences. For example, the researcher gave the child a small box of crayons and promised to bring a bigger one, but never did. Then the researcher gave the child a small sticker and promised to bring a better selection of stickers, but never did.
Meanwhile, the second group had very reliable experiences. They were promised better crayons and got them. They were told about the better stickers and then they received them.
You can imagine the impact these experiences had on the marshmallow test. The children in the unreliable group had no reason to trust that the researchers would bring a second marshmallow and thus they didn’t wait very long to eat the first one.
Meanwhile, the children in the second group were training their brains to see delayed gratification as a positive. Every time the researcher made a promise and then delivered on it, the child’s brain registered two things: 1) waiting for gratification is worth it and 2) I have the capability to wait. As a result, the second group waited an average of four times longer than the first group.
In other words, the child’s ability to delay gratification and display self-control was not a predetermined trait, but rather was impacted by the experiences and environment that surrounded them. In fact, the effects of the environment were almost instantaneous. Just a few minutes of reliable or unreliable experiences were enough to push the actions of each child in one direction or another.”

40 Years of Stanford Research Found That People With This One Quality Are More Likely to Succeed

So what can we learn from this?
Very simple.
We can learn to clean up our act- especially as teachers and BE CONSISTENT with the environment we set up for learning. We can learn that rewards, when consistently and fairly used WORK!
Just this week I had a child show us this. This child is extremely bright but was not showing this at school. He has developed the trait of not paying attention (he is 6) as he is bored and has learned that his ability is a nuisance in his class so he has just switched off. Not a stupid way of coping when you consider he has to spend from 9-3, 5 days a week in this environment! His parents have enrolled him for 2 learning sessions with us per week to try to turn this situation around.
We set out to capture this child’s heart and I listened as the teachers at my center openly acknowledged his great skill with maths (he can work at a level 2 years above his age) and I noticed this little smile growing on his face. During his two 1.5 hr group learning sessions this week I tried to consistently acknowledge him and thank him for his efforts: wonderful mind-mapping, writing, maths and so on. After the second session he bounced out the door – happy, proud of his achievements and back in the learning community! Simple verbal praise delivered on a consistent basis with accompanying points is turning this child around and helping him realise his amazing intellect is a gift not a nuisance. Not rocket-science!

As parents and teachers we can set out today to notice what children CAN do, help them improve and set up goals with them with simple rewards built in.

We award points during each session and children use these to fill in the squares on their rocket ships. (100 squares.) When they have filled in 100 squares they get to choose a prize. It helps that we keep the prize box filled and children notice the wonderful contents as they fill in their scores each week!

They learn to WAIT for rewards and WORK for them!
During each learning session children can earn points for paying attention, getting homework done, neat written work, kind acts, having imaginative ideas………. They LOVE their points system and it works. Consistency of approach is ALWAYS the key. I figure that if we can just turn one young life around a week so they can enjoy learning and develop their potential, the effort and grey hairs will be worth it! Teaching and parenting truly are the most important jobs in the world!

TEACHERS NEED SELF-CARE

Angry mother scolding a disobedient child
Angry mother scolding a disobedient child

I recently spoke at a conference in Singapore to Pre-School teachers about the importance of self-care.
The thing is, stressed teachers are not effective and teaching is one of the most highly stressed jobs in the world. This is particularly true of pre-school teaching. You simply cannot get away from little children. It is not possible to say, “Open your book to page 123 and carry on with your maths” while you take a moment to leave the room and breathe!
So you have to be PRESENT all the time and that means very good stress management principles are needed.
A recent survey of 30, 000 US teachers in New York found most of them were highly stressed but wanted to stay with their profession because they CARE!

“We ask teachers to be a combination of Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and, I’m dating myself here, Tony Soprano,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. “We ask them to be Mom and Dad and impart tough love but also be a shoulder to lean on. And when they don’t do these things, we blame them for not being saviors of the world. What is the effect? The effect has been teachers are in¬cred¬ibly stressed out.”

Teachers often still have young children at home so they do “double duty!”
When we train teachers to use our EQ4KIDZ program we insist on spending 1 day where we focus on teachers’ mental health issues, EQ and stress management. We demonstrate ways to pause and be mindful and discuss helpful daily stress management.
In order to be able to drop all problems at the door of the classroom before entering, teachers need time to spend alone, to think, to plan and to manage their stress levels.
The busy school day must make some “intervals” or “gaps” where teachers can gather thoughts, reflect and re-group.
It is a great blessing to be able to teach the next generation but it is also one of the most taxing, enervating, highly skilled and stressful professions on earth so let’s ensure we do not lose our amazing teachers. The profession needs help!
With the many curriculum changes and challenging behaviours teachers must deal with, stress management is not just a soft option. It is a necessity. Unless all teachers are taught how to manage their stress, care for themselves and recognise unhealthy signs of tension we will have burnt out, fed up and stressed out teachers and unhappy, unsuccessful students.

“Kindfulness” Braids

Braided bracelet, colored threads, beads and various attributes
Braided bracelet, colored threads, beads and various attributes

This term all our students will be invited to stop, be mindful for a minute and then focus on a kind deed they can do.
They will then take 3 pieces of yarn or ribbon and braid them together to hang on our learning tree.
This braid will symbolise the way that kindness affects at least 3 people-
• The person we are kind to
• Ourselves as we feel good inside
• Someone else who is affected by what we have done. (They may have seen the act, or benefited because the recipient of kindness tends to spread the love!)

This kindness braids us all together and causes ripple effects in our lives.
When I explained this to yesterday’s students (first day of term), they were very excited and wanted to start immediately! They also want to wear these KINDNESS braids as bracelets and thread beads onto them! I guess, (as usual), the children have taken an idea and transformed it. They breathed life into it and improved it!
We hope our learning tree and children’s wrists will be covered with these braids by the end of the term!
Next week we will be enjoying a special visualisation to help us spread the kindness and I will share it on this blog!

Careful- I can hear you now!

loud1 I can hear clearly now the wax has gone. I can hear all sorts of things I should not hear!

I can hear clearly now the wax has gone. It’s gonna be a loud, loud, interesting year!

(abject apologies to Johnny Nash!)

I have just had my ears syringed out by a wonderful health professional who knows me well. She warned me I might feel unbalanced and she was frankly amazed I could still hear anything at all! I fly frequently and over the last few cold and flu infested winters had built up my own candle making factory.

However – the magical moment arrived when finally the sound came in and for the last week I have felt like Alice in Wondersoundland!

My aunt and I had champagne and oysters in Harrods straight afterwards and I swear I heard enough whispered conversations to bring down the House of Lords!

For the past week I have heard EVERYTHING and I am like a kid with auditory processing issues. What shall I listen to? They are ALL interesting???

I am like an owl inclining my neck this way and that to catch all the things I should not be hearing!

Kids will NEVER be able to have hidden conversations again- I can hear the lot!

The dishwasher is so loud it frightens me and don’t even talk about the dryer- that puts me under the table!

But the point is- what to listen to? All these competing sounds and many of them boring so I am paying attention to the interesting ones- like the whispered conversation between the middle aged business man and his secretary on the table next to ours at dinner last night!

No wonder children choose not to listen to us! While I had the wax issues, all I could concentrate on was what I was doing. Now I am an ADHD nightmare going from one inbox DING to the next and eavesdropping on naughty conversations! There is something to learn here but I am too busy listening to the very loud bird noises outside this window and the traffic noise from the highway that I never heard before!

What a very loud world we live in!

JIGSAWS- A POWERFUL LEARNING TOOL!

jig 2

I have always loved jigsaw puzzles.

Children learn so much by the manipulation of shapes to create pleasing images.

Recently I watched children complete a simple, colourful jigsaw about the farm.

To complete it they had to think logically and find 4 right-angled corners, border pieces, keep checking the picture and go from large picture to small details. They had to concentrate fully and commit to actually completing the puzzle. So much learning took place!

There were various times when it wasn’t going so well and they had to problem solve and cooperate. There were some cross words as they disagreed on various methods. (It was a large and difficult puzzle for a 3 and 5 year old!)

Finally I watched their increasing concentration and mounting levels of anticipation and excitement as the gaps decreased and the picture came together.

And finally it was done!

One child wanted to rebuild straight away, the other wanted to just enjoy. We are all different!

Then the teacher in me kicked in.
We talked about the content and colours. We counted the animals and talked about the theme of the picture.

It sat on the floor for hours. A proud testament to their ability to stick at something,

Jigsaws are also good for adults. Studies have found that active adults who regularly complete jigsaw puzzles and crosswords experience longer lives and have less chance of developing Alzheimer’s, memory loss, dementia and other problems related to old age.

Dopamine production (crucial for learning and memory) is increased when we do jigsaws. They also increase our concentration, develop creativity and helps us to visualise, lower breath rate, reduce heart rate and blood pressure.
What’s not to like?
Start a jigsaw today!

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