Week+One


 * Week 1 - Understanding Education**


 * Lecturer: Greg Powell**

//Week beginning March 2nd 2009//


 * Hello everyone. This is Ken Nee. Hello Nick. Hello Bec. Hello Ian. I look forward to being and working with everyone in this team called "Riskfactor". Thank You All for Sharing this Much of Your Selves thus far. I would also like to acknowledge Greg Powell and All that he has been and will continue to be facilitating for all of us. I would also like to thank the Infinite Spirit - that is too Vast to fit only into any one label, box, concept, or ideology - for bringing me here.

Who am I ? What values are important to me ? What has shaped me thus far and what do I bring to teaching ? What type of teacher do I wish to be ?

My professional identity as a teacher will be deeply interwoven with my personal identity. I am a person who listens to my own heart, and that's why i can really relate to the chapter on 'Timeless Learning' by Miller (2006). She talks about teaching with soul.....teaching with creativity and passion. She is talking about teaching from the heart as well as the mind, not only from the mind. She quotes John Gerber: "Transformative learning (for me) is a process of personal and community growth toward a state of egolessness and communion". Miller states: "Timeless learning is not limited to the intellect: it is also connected to the emotions, the body, and soul/spirit" (p5).

This, to me, is what Week 1, has been about. As Sir Ken Robinson said in the video clip at the lecture, "creativity has to be as important as literacy". Spirit has to be as important as Practicality. Heart has to be as important as Mind. Soul has to be as important as Intellect. As Greg Powell said: "Educate your Whole being. Expand your Horizons."

We can see the spirit is alive and well. Dr Peta Heywood (2005) in her article on Transformative Learning says: "educators can consciously ensure that their practice releases, rather than tightens, the manacles of their students' minds"(p24). Julie White (2006) in her article on Australian teacher education reinforces the need for creativity, risk-taking, and daring in teachers as well as students, and so she introduced opera into the university classroom. And all the way, in the little Italian town of Reggio Emilia, there is a network of educators who champion the rights of children:" their right to be heard; their right to be respected; their right to feel a sense of belonging to their family, school, and community". Peta Heywood talks about offering many stimulating challenges to children in an atmosphere of unconditional love. This is all that I have been reflecting on, during this 1st week of my Graduate Diploma of Education year. Thank one, thank all...(4/3/09)

Hello team, this is Nick here. Ken Nee (it turns out your name isn't spelt Kenny, I've made a mental note of that) you're a wordsmith with a gift for speaking from the heart, very nice work. To begin with I'd just like to say that I've had a really fun week and I feel lucky to have met so many nice people already. Starting a new adventure is always a little dicey and you can sometimes end up in a social scene not entirely to your liking, like when I was a street fighter in Brazil, not true, but very fortunately the start of the course has been a real treat so thanks everyone, I'll bake some cookies to show my gratitude next time we meet.*


 * please note promises may not be honoured and are due mostly to a spur of the moment sense of being all loved up

In terms of the readings, I think there was some magic sprinkled amongst it all.

My favourite was the one titled 'From An Old World-view To A New' which in large part is told from the perspective of Angela, a five year child. I liked how it painted a picture of what life and school is like for children right now. It helped me to understand that even though I'm still fairly/mostly young, the world changes very quickly and my childhood experience is very different to that of a child today. I don't know if I took away as much from the 'Timeless Learning' article as Ken Nee but I did still enjoy it. The key message I got was that successful teaching is in large part due (I originally wrote 'dude' for 'due', fun huh?!) to three things: genuineness, respect and empathy. The next article I read was 'Changing Minds' all about transformative learning. The big idea that struck me is that transformation is something that can happen imperceptibly, so a student can in fact be learning and changing at a rapid rate in very dramatic ways that are not immediately noticeable. To draw a metaphor from the article, it is similar to finishing your tea and thinking that you would like seconds, but in fact you should really wait for a little bit because it takes some time for your body to feel full. So in a similar fashion, a child may not immediately display the positive changes in their learning for some time and that the transformative process in a protracted process rather than a flash bang of dramatics as the term may infer. And finally I read the 'Arias Of Learning' article which was in fact my least favourite but I did like the idea that teachers are the responsible for transmitting culture in Western society, it makes me feel like a witch doctor or clan chief type of character. I'd like a costume if that could be arranged. Thank you. The other idea that resonated with me was the need to teach through creativity rather than just about it, that struck me as an important distinction to make and remember.

So all in all I'm feeling good about the course. The workload, the people and the environment are all postive and the final goal seems achievable and not too distant and untenable. Also Greg I'll say this only once orelse it'll get uncool but I really like your enthusiastic, experienced and clear teaching style, where were you when I was languishing in Aranda Primary School?!

Cheers everyone, have a cool weekend

Nick

Hello one and all! This is Ian. Thankyou Ken Nee and Nick for your personal reflections on Week 1. Ken Nee you had the job of kicking us off from a clean slate so hats off to you Sir. Nick, I look forward to trying one of your cookies! I too like to partake in a bit of baking and would be happy to bring a cake to the party. Bec, I am looking forward to reading your reflections. I feel excited to be writing my first entry into the ‘RiskFactor’ wiki. Having this opportunity to personally reflect on my professional identity as a Teacher, to share these reflections with you other ‘Riskfactor’ members and to be able to respond to your postings is in my opinion a truly original and innovative way of learning. I look forward to experiencing how it evolves and grows. I was apprehensive going into the first issues lecture. It was the first lecture I had attended since my under graduate degree 10 years ago and so I was certainly feeling nervous. What was I letting myself in for? What did this year hold for me? Well these questions were certainly addressed in Greg’s lecture. I found his passionate and welcoming words inspiring but nonetheless humbling too. This is going to be a tough year and also a hard, challenging and life changing career in Teaching. It also has the potential to be richly rewarding. I learned that teaching requires passion, the ability to engage, being prepared to take risks and learn from mistakes, to know your content area, emotional intelligence, creativity, resilience and to be open to learn from the children. We watched a video of a speech at a conference given by Sir Ken Robinson called ‘Creatively Speaking’. Part of Ken’s speech struck a chord with me. When Ken discussed how “we stigmatize mistakes” and “we are educating people out of their creative capacities”, I could personally relate to that. I feel like I went through an education system where creativity was not encouraged. It made me fearful of making mistakes. Enough so that embarking on this course has felt like I am confronting those fears head on. Ultimately it has made me determined to ensure that no child has to go through that learning environment. I found the issues readings for week1 informative and interesting. They picked up the main themes from Greg’s lecture and I responded to them positively. Like Nick, I especially responded well to Beare’s article. To consider the future of a 5 year old child and remember how integral this is in primary teaching was enlightening. I also feel passionate about ensuring education is not all about the acquiring of knowledge through the “banking approach” (Miller, 2006). I enjoyed reading therefore the ‘Timeless Learning’ and ‘Transformative Learning’ articles. I am opening up to new ways of teaching which I never experienced. I am prepared to try and be daring and take risks during this course and into my teaching career but I do draw the line with Opera singing! Hopefully Greg does not get any ideas from the ‘Arias of Learning’ article by Julie White. I also wanted to share with you all a couple of links. The first is another lecture from the TED website. It is by Dave Eggers and is a wonderfully inspiring story of like-minded writers/tutors teaching literacy, one on one to young people in a humorous setting (pirate supply store!). Enjoy: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html Also please read this article by Naomi Westland about how male primary teachers are becoming ‘an endangered species’: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/4347966/Male-teacher-a-most-wanted-man.html I would just like to finish by applauding you Ken Nee, Nick and Bec (obviously the best wiki by far!) plus all the other wonderful people on this course. Everyone I have met in this first week has been warm, welcoming, friendly and compassionate. It is a pleasure to be involved in such a creative and stimulating environment.

Hi all, Bec here(Rebecca Mackey in case you need the clarification Greg, I know there are two Rebeccas in our group!). I'm the lucky last to contribute to week one - a little late so I apologise! Reading through each of your entries has been fascinating, its great to see such insights are arising already. I can see what an excellent reflection tool this wiki will be.

My experience of week one in Issues was very positive as it clearly was for all three of you. I found Sir Ken Robinson's talk in the first lecture extremely inspiring. The video really challenged my preconceived notions of what this course can offer me as a professional and as a person. Like Ian, I felt that creativity was not encouraged while I was at school, and in retrospect I'm very disappointed about that. The prospect that I may be able to change that view for children in the future is a very constructive and positive feeling. Again, to reiterate what Ian has said, I immediately felt like I was in 'good hands' with Greg - too often in the past both academically and professionally I have either had mentors and teachers that were passionate but lacking substance, or extremely knowledgeable but jaded. Its fantastic to have someone with both passion and knowledge! Rarer than it sounds.

In regards to our readings, I found all the subject matter interesting, but was most taken with the themes in Transformative Learning, which I felt were reflected in part by Timeless Learning. I found it revolutionary to hear about an educators role reaching beyond teaching a child English and Mathematics and encumbering spiritual growth and personal transformation. Of course this makes sense, but I think this is a very different notion of what a teacher is and what a teacher does than we all grew up with (am I right???). I would have liked to hear some more practical examples for classroom teaching from the Timeless Learning chapter, but the overall message was strong in any case. The question I was left thinking about after reading Transformative Learning was - (is the purpose of education) 'to socialise future employees and train them to serve the culture's needs? Is it to enable the individual to become who they are, to develop their potential? Or is the main purpose to preserve?' The reading goes on to say that perhaps the purpose of education is all of this and more. I hope that I will be able to keep in mind these 'big picture' ideas when focusing on the detail and logistics in everyday classroom management. I suppose its all about the BALANCE hey?!

In terms of my own professional development, week one has got me thinking a lot about the importance of my role as an educator, and how I can educate myself and encourage my own growth to ensure I can teach, nuture and inspire the children in my classroom. It looks like we've all got a whole lot of food for thought from this first week and may it continue until the end of the year! Its been great to meet you all and I look forward to much more collaboration....! Change 0 of 0 << First < Previous Next > Last >>

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