If you’re into student-centred learning, you’re going to love this. I picked this up from Morgan Daly at http://twitter.com/urbangrind Indian teacher Kiran Bir Sethi decided to develop a school that focused on the expression ‘I Can’. This goes for 9 mins, and it’s worth every second. Watch for the world’s first child-friendly Zebra crossing.
Archive for the 'narrative' Category
Always an interesting time of the year for teachers, is it not?? Lights at the end of the tunnel, and all of that stuff.
I remember reading some research indicating that the school office would be sent the most number of ‘troublemakers’ from classrooms in the 2nd last week of any term. And even moreso in the 2nd last week of the year.
Why not the last week, I thought to myself? And yet it probably makes a lot of sense. Somehow, when the end is nigh in that final week, we tend to summon up our last reserves of resilience, and cope with everything as well as possible. As well, kids will remember the last few things that were said and done, and so, we’d obviously prefer those memories to be more positive.
This following narrative has application at any time of the year; and yet I suspect that it applies even more directly to this specific time. Goes like this:
A teacher was once talking with her class, and told them about the two monsters that were always fighting inside their heads.
“So what are the two monsters?” asked one student.
“Well, one of them always looks for the best in your life, and encourages you to think about what is going well in the world around you.”
“And the other?”
“ Ah, well, that’s the monster that always looks for the worst in your life, and hassles you to think about what is going badly in the world around you.”
One student asked: “So which one wins?”
And the teacher responded: ‘The one that you feed.”
If this doesn’t cheer you up, nothing will!
Antwerp Central Railway Station in Belgium on March 23 2009. A recording of Do Re Me, sung by Julie Andrews, suddenly began playing over the public address system, and 200 people streamed out of the crowd and started dancing. They had practised twice. Pretty good effort for two rehearsals.
Why don’t we start setting up impromptu performances like this all over the world? Given the talent I often see in schools, they could be strongly involved. From there, we could set up a YouTube channel, and compile these presentations.
Over to you. Arrange something in your local shopping centre, or at your airport, or at some (normally) boring meeting, and exercise everyone’s goosebumps!
There comes a time in your life when you may need to face up to actions that you’ve taken in the past. Welcome to your school or workplace reunion. I’ve just experienced one; and didn’t I discover some powerful lessons about life!! Mine and others.
Way back at the start of my teaching career, I was working in a beautiful little school at Finch Hatton (about 40 mins west of Mackay in Nth Qld). And they had their Centenary celebrations last weekend. I was in Napier in NZ the day before, so there were quite a few flights before I managed to make it up there.
Just a delight to reconnect with so many of my former pupils. Quite a few of them spent a whole three years with me (the legacy of small schools in the bush). A very strong proportion of them have now become teachers (hmmm….).
Some of my learnings:
* Did I really play that much when I was 22 years old? It’s not that I don’t play a lot now, but heck, I must have been over the top then. If I can believe half of what I heard, I created a game out of anything and everything. It was a magic reminder for me to keep the play going.
* If someone smiles beautifully at the age of 10, they do the same at 35. If they care deeply about others in childhood, they still do in adult life. Yes, I know that we can all make the effort to change who we are. However, I suspect that there are characteristics that are embedded at a very early age (or maybe even before). Goes to show just how vital those early years are, even in the context of one’s entire lifetime.
* When people get together after a long time apart, they basically just share stories. I heard (and told) one story after another all through the time there. Narrative binds us, even when time and distance create separations.
Given the narrative scene, I was asked to lay a time capsule, and to offer a few thoughts on my time teaching in the school. For starters, I was wondering how I would announce the laying of this Capsule eg do I say “I now declare the Time Capsule closed?’ or what? Anyway, I decided on ‘I now declare this Time Capsule laid.” Seemed appropriate.
Instead of raving away about lots of things, I also chose to share just two narrative that gave a taste for my three years there. One about the kids; one about the parents.
The Kids. They were a fantastic group. Keen, great work ethic, and often very creative. One boy used to stand in line before a lesson with his top shirt button undone. After he persisted with this for a while, I eventually told him that he could leave his button undone the day that he finally grew some hair on his chest. The next day, he was again lining up, with that top button undone. And when I asked him to do it up, he pointed out the cat fur that he had taped to his chest.
Gotta love the initiative.
The Parents. They understood the worth of a local school; and for me, they were hugely supportive. I once took my class on a 3-day camp to a beautiful beach called Cape Hillsborough, in spite of the warnings of wiser heads, who pointed out that some bad storms might be imminent. However, being young / foolish / and wanting to give these kids a great time, I headed off.
And on the 2nd night, the mother and father of all storms hit. Tents flew everywhere. The lighning was a wondrous sight… until it was crackling all around us. At 3 in the morning, I called one of the parents back home, who arranged for others to immediately drive down (90 mins away) and rescue us.
And you know, not one single person, then or later, kicked my butt for it. I’m still grateful for the trust and the support.
May you celebrate all of your anniversaries with special narrative.
Do you enjoy your work? Here’s one perspective on that question.
I’m a board member of a non-profit group called School Aid. Also on the board is a rather interesting dude called Richard Sauerman. Bit of a PR guru around Sydney. Richard has a most interesting blog called Wake Up Tiger. Average read of each is about 10 secs. Beautiful images… and some intriguing messages. Really worth a look.
I’ll borrow this Paulo Coelho narrative from one of his blogs. A rather telling insight on ‘work’. Too often, I hear people complaining about their daily contribution to society, and lamenting that they have not yet won a huge lottery. What a dream, they sigh. If only I could be rich, and not have to work.
Well… there are worse options. Here’s the narrative:
As soon as he dies, Juan finds himself in a beautiful place surrounded by all of the comforts and beauty he had ever dreamed of. Someone dressed in white came up to him and said:
“You are entitled to whatever you wish: any food, pleasure, entertainment.”
Enchanted, Juan did everything he had dreamed of during his life. After many years filled with pleasure, he again sought out the person in white, and said:
“I’ve already tried everything I wished for. Now I need a job so that I can feel useful.”
“I’m so sorry”, said the person in white. “But that is the only thing that I cannot manage for you; there is no work here.”
“How terrible!” said Juan in irritation. “I shall spend eternity dying of tedium! I’d prefer a thousand times to be in hell!”
The creature in white came over to him and said in a low voice:
“And where do you think you are?”
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