Work..

Thinking about coming back and I haven’t left yet.  Sonia is thinking about doing something else next year… teaching in a place where her daughter could get a better education.  Maybe she should take over my job. 

And I take over hers. 

She has built up a connection with the community.  None of the other schools have really done this, mainly because of numbers, I think.  There are still the same issues as other remote schools, but there just aren’t as many kids here. 

The school has an older cohort.. which means play based learning with blocks and such would not work as well.  Or would it.. maybe even better.

The community could get involved in the Play Based model, but with older kids it translates to Project Based learning. 

Community meetings with the kids, parents, elders.. at the start of the year could educate the community and outline expectations on both sides and gather together ideas for that 45 minutes a day working on a project. 

Ideas?  Web pages/ videos/ mechanics/ Body-work (fixing or taking apart an old car) painting (Indigenous or other), gardening, landscaping, recording local bird or animal life, etc. 

We could work with the Rangers, the nurses.. the people from Voyager in regards to the resort. 

Then back to class to practice their presenting and oral language skills. 

I have been listing to a tape on the brain.. interesting. 

It talks about how important writing is.  Perfect script.. or tracing over foreign symbols, say Thai or Japanese.  This helps the brain do things for extended periods and connects stuff.  People like me, people who would rather type, or print, have connections in their brain which don’t let them connect things.. practicing connections like that, until it is perfect, actually changes the configuration of the brain mapping..

I need to listen to that CD again.. and again.. it is full of ideas.  This is just one..

The main one that I got, is focus.  Kids need to focus.  One way to get them to focus is to let them write about things they are interested in.  I could get them to write a report each day on what they did during Investigations.  Put it together like a journal, or a report.. or connect the journal into a report. 

And oral language.  Reporting on what they are doing to the class, at least three times a week?  This would very much improve their oracy.. and I know that was in the tape some place.  Oracy has certainly diminished since the days of those magnificent Roman speakers.. now we like power point.  It is because of the education system and the way the brain develops. 

So, the classroom time is set up to do Investigations until recess.. Short maths and language (phonics, grammar, numeracy) lessons are after recess.. connecting to the morning work whenever, wherever possible.  The afternoons, are art/history/geography/science… connected to the curriculum and again, where ever possible, to the investigations. 

I think it would be exciting.  I would like to get some more training in The Walker approach to project based learning.. I think it could improve attitudes toward education in the outback,

..and it could be fun.. for all of us.