tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37325372677681549072024-03-13T07:57:19.952-07:00Building OresomeCarobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-85686176802004257012016-10-17T19:56:00.002-07:002016-10-17T19:59:13.917-07:00Loose Parts Playground<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the Associate Leader of Learning (DP) for a new school in Auckland I was quite amazed to find out that the MOE does not provide funds for a playground. With a rapidly expanding roll and a school devoid of any ‘play structures’ we as a staff needed to do something to pique the interest of our learners at break times.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schools from my past often had a large play structure for climbing and sliding and once when we had a handy caretaker at the school (loved Mr Pita) we had a cubby/playhouse for the children. In many schools I taught in there were two playgrounds one for the juniors and one for the seniors - we can’t allow children of different ages to play together…! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The play opportunities of these playgrounds are often limited by “non-connected pieces of equipment” (Maxwell, Mitchell, and Evans 2008) on springy OSH compliant surfaces. I do recall my own school playground of the 1970s being set over concrete so we wouldn’t get muddy if we fell off…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="311" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Nm2lHfCIRW_hTr3mG5BxHAjrVO9fL9tqfVMiysZJ-D9bXB3nzmlyHgUBafUFFVaiCuzc5dzQ8OooK8YcZRgY5aCgcgRIvpsr6Pd_ETHseczn4Uoipi5nYyjaPGoHihP3bYCLeoJo" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="718" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As my own children began their school journey I was involved in actively fundraising for a new school playground - one with bright colours and lots of that springy matting… Funds were raised and the playground was duly installed, it didn’t really enter my mind that fixed equipment affords less novelty. I’m sure all the kids enjoyed the new playground with its $20,000 worth of springy matting - yup, you read that right and I’m talking 15 years ago. I’m sure the playground was a success and I spent many an afternoon waiting for my two to have ‘just one more slide’ but I don’t recall any rich and deep learning occurring from using the playground. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Screen Shot 2016-10-14 at 1.56.51 pm.png" height="326" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6A4F-5fxLwExRKxMf3ERLftEOuukKmAWxXvUBTg1BoO1o5EmTrSBNkvgOIfXTzSBbABTvQh4C1KsSASSUyBspumFIqqvKoSXtODSw0g8STZjdpqmhvY_I5IK7av10I7PWZ_yBud3" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="462" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fast forward to 2014 when we were first imagining and designing what teaching and learning would look like in our new context of </span><a href="http://ormistonprimary.school.nz/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ormiston Primary</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I was introduced to the idea of </span><a href="http://www.playpods.co.uk/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PlayPods</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/TarnzC" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tania Coutts</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This was a real aha moment for me - I feel instantly in love with the idea of open ended resources or loose parts as I was to come to know them. The term ‘Loose Parts’ dates back to the 1970's by architect Simon Nicholson, who believed that it is the loose parts in our environment that ‘</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">empower our creativity</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.’ Nicholson also </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">believed that the ability to create, discover, and imagine are enhanced when multiple kinds of loose parts are available for children to use (1971).</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what are Loose Parts? Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not only are loose parts cheap and easy to find, but they’re endlessly interesting to children. Unlike fixed equipment, loose parts allow children to recreate their playground every day from the materials provided.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loose parts add creativity into the playground while developing resilience, initiative and meaningful and positive relationships.” Interesting to note that Professor Jo Frost back in the late 1980s was talking about the idea that</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">loose parts are necessary for high-quality play experiences’ (Frost, 1989). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="452" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/VjfTXcPguu_Fv7stmDSIEq6AIEe99oXcprbORW3L2bzxZkH67JG4R9aL1ivPe4NPKJImpRnb5zIgoH0Doe5pSlFrTnQejlapnVjeCB-JUECR6QaqJCE5BK-unCzSIyhhdPB36GB3" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="443" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Complexity and the opportunity to creatively solve real-life problems holds the children’s interest and adds to their development as well as their enjoyment. The outdoor play experience is enriched if loose parts are part of the playscape. By adding quality to the outdoor environment loose parts are necessary for high-quality play experiences. (Kable, 2010). Ask most children and they’ll tell you they prefer open-ended, action-oriented, moveable materials that can be used in different ways for different purposes. Maybe not in those exact words, probably more in the words of one of our learners ‘I like using the different stuff for different games’ </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is my observation over my time in education, spontaneous outdoor play of all kinds has declined, both in energy and in quality. Several studies, real ones, led by actual scientists, concluded that physical education and playtime at school and outdoor play at home are essential to healthy child development. If inactivity among children isn’t addressed, the current generation may be the first in history to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. It is my belief that limiting children’s outdoor play harms their cognitive, social, and language development.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which brings me back to loose parts. Why use loose parts? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">■ Children can use the parts in any way they choose. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">■ Children can use and change the parts in many ways. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">■ Loose parts encourage creativity and a child’s imagination. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">■ Loose parts help a child develop more skill and competency than most modern toys. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">■ Loose parts can be used in combination with other </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loose parts can be handled, manipulated, moved, and combined to enhance the value of play (White 2011). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="350" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/o4Ds1ksYqRPWTc4jZWerDPeaPhB6CyX7FZW_r11yA3IkcUL5TfcRQkuX3T1pXiX0SwV-YsPJtQE-b-IZz8qKaSnv1wfNO2jKHqy6NFnJryjFrKsIeCLmrOyeQ_t3-cit9wdyjbvA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="525" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because we had no playground and weren’t likely to get any money to build one anytime soon, we had to use our creativity to some up with some ideas. It was a discussion during one of our team meetings that a learning coach happened to mention he had access to some tyres and pallets. We had also just finished some learning around farms and had some left over hay bales... low and behold the loose parts playground was born. The pallets, tyres, hay bales and reels formed what started of as ‘the obstacle course’ then became known as the ‘Trim Trail’ by our lovely young teacher from England - google trim trail, it’s an actual thing over there. It wasn’t until recently that the name ‘loose parts playground’ started and has stuck.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TgXIYDx1FoU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgXIYDx1FoU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you can see from the picture and the movie clip, the first iteration of the playground was linear and very teacher directed. The learners were unsure of what to do and how to fully engage with the playground. The learners waited for the teachers to change up the order of the “trim trail” it was like they were waiting for permission to mix it up. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After some discussion/questions with the learners, particularly with the Year 1 and 2 learners around ‘does the trim trail have to be in a straight line’ and ‘what would happen if we put the tyres in a pile?’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slowly things started to change, the playground began to take on different configurations, admittedly the changes weren't immediately huge - it went from a line to a rectangular shape, but the exciting thing was the learners starting to take ownership.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The linear and rectangular configurations lasted until about ½ way through term 2, then the real magic began to happen. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A learner (Jack) discovered that if he tipped the reel on it’s side he could walk on it as it moved. I can honestly say it’s not for the faint-hearted, overly OSH concerned teacher to watch, particularly as the reel was missing a board and said learner would leap over the reel as it was rolling to avoid the missing board.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="480" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/9Y7RkWvImAoOFWlMaFzYYPpbBH4GKv1CAmwx4RCphg6TCyZj7O3i_1A3jZ5NQQCdjs13Gx_1pJjcSTYDYK2DKrm8VXCkENaz8jtmr8agZPCAiSPdOhWPPvT_D_vgDw2fwP-WBb8d" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="480" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was doing lots of professional reading as part of my eFellows16 research around play based learning and came across a few gems. One that really struck a chord with me was the idea of risky play, more specifically the </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/emotion-regulation" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">emotion regulation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> theory of play</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—the theory that one of play’s major functions is to teach young mammals how to regulate fear and </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/anger" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anger</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In risky play, children engage with manageable quantities of fear and practice keeping calm and behaving adaptively while experiencing that fear. They learn that they can manage their fear, overcome it, and come out alive. In rough and tumble play they may also experience anger, one player may accidentally hurt another. But to continue playing, to continue the fun, they must overcome that anger. If they lash out, the play is over no-one will play with some one that keeps getting angry and spoiling the game. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the emotion regulation theory, play is, among other things, the way that young mammals learn to control their fear and anger so they can encounter real-life dangers, and interact in close quarters with others, without succumbing to negative emotions. The idea that the learners engage ‘in just enough’ risk to make it exciting, and not usually enough to cause serious harm or death, made me less likely to panic the next time Jack came zooming past me on the wooden reel. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now we were cooking - Jack’s prowess on the reel led to other learners wanting to do the same, I was fascinated to watch the learners who attempted this and I noted that only the learners who had some skill at balancing attempted it ie they only attempted what was reasonably within their capabilities to achieve. </span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XOboWQk3dEI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XOboWQk3dEI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gp30w4fzNiA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gp30w4fzNiA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you can see from the movie the two girls are at different levels of capability when it comes to balance and risk taking, it was so great to watch them learn from and help each other. It really affirmed for me the idea that learning and teaching doesn’t just happen in class time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other thing I was beginning to regularly observe was that the learners were working out conflicts and learning to negotiate independently of the learning coaches.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following video is one I took whilst on duty - I stood and recorded while the learners resolved the situation for themselves. The game they were playing at the time involved ‘four factions and a zombie apocalypse’ ) their words not mine - the deep level of engagement at the thinking, negotiating and collaborating that went into the game really made me reflect on my own children and their experiences of a playground being ‘just one more slide’ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At first glance the loose parts playground can look like a chaotic mess - learning coaches have been known to make comments along the lines of 'I had to step in they were "attacking each other" ' however look closely at about 12 seconds in - it looks like a learner charging around whacking everything in sight but when you look closely you can see he's actually being very controlled - the tears which start around the 18 second mark had nothing to do with the 'zombie killer' but were around ownership of certain loose parts - I love the way that one of the older learners takes charge of the situation and is able to negotiate a solution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The learning they get from authentic negotiation, problem solving and collaboration is huge, not to mention the learning they get from the actual building of the structures, just think of all the applied maths and science they are automatically doing as they create the amazing structures that were until last week 'faction headquarters' I've no idea what they are called now - I must go and investigate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes it can get messy, yes there are tears and we've even had a few splinters. The learners bring us the pieces they deem to be unsafe and one of our learning coaches checks the loose parts for nails which are sticking out. I'd have to say though it's the best run playground I've ever seen in action over decades of teaching and I truly think that's because the adults have stepped back and have stopped being so 'teachery' </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an aside our ELL Team Leader went with some of our senior learners to visit MOTAT. She observed that while all the learners were really excited about the ‘real playground’ and couldn’t wait to try it out, once they got on it they only lasted a few minutes and struggled to find something about it to engage them. </span></div>
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<ul>
<li>If you’re looking for more about PBL I’d highly recommend reading <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter Gray PhD</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> His book ‘Free to Learn’ is one of my go to books.</span></li>
<li>I also love the work of <a href="http://www.happilyfamily.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Celia and Jason Hilkey</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> they run some really good webinars around play based learning and developing happy, confident kids.</span></li>
<li>Below are more links to some more articles and informations you may find helpful</li>
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<a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/plays-the-thing" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Play’s the Thing</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1645&context=ajte" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Play in the school context</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.childdevelopmentmedia.com/articles/play-the-work-of-lev-vygotsky/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vygotsky - Play</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-importance-of-play-what-universities-can-learn-from-preschools-53007?platform=hootsuite" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The importance of play - what universities can learn</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">School Starting age the evidence</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.importanceofplay.eu/IMG/pdf/dr_david_whitebread_-_the_importance_of_play.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Importance of Play</span></a></div>
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<br />Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-73004885799617996842016-09-05T13:26:00.000-07:002016-09-05T13:26:01.007-07:00The ThinkFarm Leadership Seminar<div class="storify">
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-47338795871333387712016-09-05T13:25:00.000-07:002016-09-05T13:25:30.252-07:00Nathan Mikare-Wallis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-055bd31c-fbf0-934c-97d9-6af9452160cd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the July holidays I was fortunate to be able to attend a one day workshop with Nathan Mikare-Wallis. I was doubly fortunate in that I was able to take 8 other members of staff to hear Nathan speak. I find PD that is shared among a staff much more valuable than PD you attend on your own.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">1990-1999 </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; white-space: pre-wrap;">was designated </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decade of the Brain</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by U.S. president George H. W. Bush as part of a larger effort involving the Library of Congress and the National Institute of Mental Health "to enhance public awareness of the benefits to be derived from brain research".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However up to the 1990s research was mainly focused around the anatomy of the brain, this was until the advent of MRI and CT scans - whereby it was possible to see the brain in action.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The brain is genetically and biologically designed to gather data in the first 1000 days, with conception being the starting point. This is to work out what type of brain you will need for the rest of your life, the outcomes are determined by the time you are 2 1/2 - 3 years old. The data gathering you are doing in your first 1000 days is predominantly about your primary caregiver, which is usually your mother. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFqkYLREEOQ_oHQdHw4WR0XbT3IF0s4sfCucCW9u-fdZ_Mh_iMSPrNRnGBD7NJRtaXijPA9NJ6K5uKszbEDNrMQ9-fAzI2sXSdaI8eleco-5r7JxHx2RUVCzjXnBEljFZYmEwfmUjVMg/s1600/baby-brain5-ssss010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFqkYLREEOQ_oHQdHw4WR0XbT3IF0s4sfCucCW9u-fdZ_Mh_iMSPrNRnGBD7NJRtaXijPA9NJ6K5uKszbEDNrMQ9-fAzI2sXSdaI8eleco-5r7JxHx2RUVCzjXnBEljFZYmEwfmUjVMg/s320/baby-brain5-ssss010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the points Nathan made which I found most interesting was around the assumption that there is an intelligence gene, when in fact there are 35,000 genes in a human and 23,000 genes in a fruit fly. This lends to the suggestion that there is no gene for intelligence - just enough genes for the human to exist. The latest theory is around the brain being designed to be moulded by the environment with 70% of our genes set by the environment.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP3TT0PXQxEHZxcxWIwQ5TzyD33NA1HpxWLMdW_WzVQtm28W-SeUnckOenC8MLB0qmH_Ey4CKQf1KgOqPHrQa1-T6tuXGj4Yxxp4vOCm9zotRsJ8ElwFjUaxMdXRpSYXmT-Ll8smc-6g/s1600/human-intelligence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP3TT0PXQxEHZxcxWIwQ5TzyD33NA1HpxWLMdW_WzVQtm28W-SeUnckOenC8MLB0qmH_Ey4CKQf1KgOqPHrQa1-T6tuXGj4Yxxp4vOCm9zotRsJ8ElwFjUaxMdXRpSYXmT-Ll8smc-6g/s320/human-intelligence.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oliver James - Not in your genes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="238" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/azYQMJXGPeg8Z1i8-QZvYmalQu8_97QJ8VR84CPJRMuUeXEQIUc75MTYZ7X7BXyqjf-vmk3MM3EEG1cyeNKs89_dmWYKVXVe7SJuZXQ4WzFho5OPEWjjNdAEmb3IlmEIUkzjyqus" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="158" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nathan spent some time covering the anatomy of the brain which was interesting - particularly in light of the fact I am parenting teenagers. Very simplistically, in the human neuro-sequential brain model we have 4 brains </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brain 1 - Brain stem - this is for survival; flight, fright, freeze - fear and anger are the only emotions needed for survival.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brain 2 - Cerebellum - movement and coordination </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no competition between learning and survival (survival trumps learning) </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwcPyhhW7iEXPlP7iJ_0pVvdEhNevZCn_lM9NXRoXU6z72F657lI9Dqf3T59LVqtgwSZPe1swT37jymOtdg2R4PXvo-S3PZdw3vFZ1NWWF88sqpO_4Pyx3QBWquDJ2AXq1ycmeXRjW5s/s1600/triune-brain-model.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwcPyhhW7iEXPlP7iJ_0pVvdEhNevZCn_lM9NXRoXU6z72F657lI9Dqf3T59LVqtgwSZPe1swT37jymOtdg2R4PXvo-S3PZdw3vFZ1NWWF88sqpO_4Pyx3QBWquDJ2AXq1ycmeXRjW5s/s320/triune-brain-model.jpeg" width="315" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nathan went on to talk about the different parts in the brain with Brain 1 and 2 being the reptilian brain, meaning that a reptile can survive and move but because it has no limbic system it won’t be pleased to see you when you get home. Combining brains 1,2 and 3 gives you the mammalian brain, thinking here about a dog, if your dog can do it then it comes from one of the first 3 brains. Brain 4 is the cortex, which is thinking and learning - if you can do it and your dog can’t, ie speak then it comes from the fourth brain. The fact that the human brain hasn’t evolved for reading and writing was a point that Nathan made early on in this part of the workshop, written literacy is a relatively new human skill developed over the last 300 years, the brain has evolved for the purpose of human interaction. Face to face contact engages more of the brain than anything else, this has been proven by the use of MRI scans. One of the implications for teachers is that telling a learner to be quiet is the equivalent of telling most of the brain to shut down.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two parts from this session that I found most interesting were that brains work in order from 1-4, which for educators and parents it is worth knowing that if the child doesn’t have the first three brains in optimum condition then learning will not occur. We need to meet the needs of the brain from the bottom to the top. The second finding from this session which I found interesting was the fact that brains 1,2,3 are compulsory but brain number 4 is optional. It is also worthwhile noting that the human brain is designed to survive - therefore brain gives more attention to negative feedback, which is why you can hear a plethora of positive praise about something but one negative comment will receive all your attention. Also worthy of note was that empathy, controlling emotions and consequences are in the frontal cortex.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nathan spent some time covering what the risk and resilience factors are for brain development. Gender and birth order determine outcomes and whether or not you are a first born or not are neuroscience factors in your outcomes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boys who are not the first born have the biggest risk factors, this is a statistical reality, they form the biggest group in prison and have the largest suicide rate. First born females have the biggest win when it comes to resilience factors, and at home parent in the first year is the biggest indicator of future success.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46HcKOv-yMu6uK6gKygZX5rGEwJCRnkU-lo2GnZ8hyXoJ0NQrRx6_Qs2E_9hPZA4V5AGo2BOeP0RGugR_VUa9tNK3ten5suhu4tvvf9U-Q9Hrx7O1xrgHGjLpUikQSxGxXXMO2LxpANg/s1600/baby-539968_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46HcKOv-yMu6uK6gKygZX5rGEwJCRnkU-lo2GnZ8hyXoJ0NQrRx6_Qs2E_9hPZA4V5AGo2BOeP0RGugR_VUa9tNK3ten5suhu4tvvf9U-Q9Hrx7O1xrgHGjLpUikQSxGxXXMO2LxpANg/s320/baby-539968_960_720.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nathan went on to discuss the importance of the dyadic relationship, as humans we are born to have attachment relationship with one person, this forms the blueprint for the rest of your relationships.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some interesting points were made in this part of the session. In your first 1000 days the number of words spoken to you directly co-relates to your earning power at age 32. Interesting to note that the language you hear in the first 1000 days has to be from a person who is emotionally invested ie the primary caregiver, it can’t be language heard via a third party such as from the TV or radio. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ross Greene </span><a href="http://www.livesinthebalance.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.livesinthebalance.org/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the importance of the primary care giver and the building of relationships </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was discussion around the ability to self-soothe which Nathan said came from the dyadic relationship and from having the primary caregiver provide the soothing in the first 1000 days before the child learns to self-soothe. "you learn to do it partnership before you learn to do it by yourself" When questioned about the phenomenon of abandoned babies in large orphanages not crying out for attention Nathan made the point that they hadn’t learned to self-soothe - they’d learned that crying wasn’t worth the effort.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of our team members is a new mum to a gorgeous baby girl, when she heard Nathan talk about the importance of providing a pro-social environment, this is where we are shielding children from an aggressive response from the environment. One of the main contributors to what Nathan terms an aggressive response was that the earlier your child starts in Child-Care the more quickly they get an aggressive response, or the slower their social skills will develop. You could see on her face this information was a game changer in terms of when she will potentially be coming back to full time work.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scandinavian countries spend most taxpayers in the early years and their education systems are the world’s most highly regarded. Nathan pointed out some interesting observations which are as more money is spent in quality early child education the lower the incarceration rates are. Finland is quite often the media about the quality of their education system but their open door prison system is also worth taking a look at.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really enjoyed the opportunity to listen to Nathan as I have often quoted his Radio New Zealand interview on what 3-7 year olds need to know <a href="http://ow.ly/LZ4x303UVdi">http://ow.ly/LZ4x303UVdi</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My biggest takeaways were firstly my learning around the four different parts of the brain and the fact that learning will only occur when the first three brains have had their needs met. Secondly the importance of the dyadic relationship and the brain development of the first 1000 days.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you ever get a chance to listen to Nathan I highly recommend him as both an informative and gifted speaker. <br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-77926736122354527352016-07-31T18:40:00.000-07:002017-02-15T17:05:06.258-08:00EducampAkl 2016I love Educamps I love the ideas, the people and the sharing. Though I must confess that I have been a little slack in my attendance of late. There was a time I'd travel the length and breadth of the country to attend, over the past few years I've attended Educamps from Whangarei to Dunedin and everywhere in between. I've had great learning, sharing and best of all, great face to face connections where ever I've been. Now that I've, in the words of @Mrs_Hyde "found my tribe" I've lost some of my Educamp impetus - I nearly didn't go to EducampAKL but when I was tagged in a tweet by @Mrs_Hyde I knew I'd have to make the effort and it was well worth it. It's one thing to find your tribe, but like everything worthwhile you have to maintain it.
Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-6107916582199633072016-05-12T02:15:00.002-07:002016-05-12T02:15:53.741-07:00Crime and Punishment<b id="docs-internal-guid-ca2d611a-a435-ff54-aa39-f4d19c54d995" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is not a book I’ve read but rather a title that caught my attention. I’m not a fan of punishment, to be fair I’m not a fan of crime either. I worry about why our prisons are full to bursting and why our youth are indulging in so many risky behaviours that may affect them for the rest of their lives. What can we as educators do to stem the flow? Punish the bad behaviour out of them? I think we can do better ...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s frightening to me as an educator and as a parent that there was a need for Peter Gluckman (Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister) to write a </span><a href="http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Improving-the-Transition-report.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">report</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> titled; Reducing Social and Psychological Morbidity During Adolescence, written from concerns that New Zealand youth have a high suicide rate, how scary.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think that two of the reports summary findings are worthy of a closer look;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Firstly, the finding that set warning bells ringing for me was that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NZ is too punitive to our learners</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and secondly the finding that gave me hope </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the growing evidence that prevention and intervention strategies applied early in life are more effective in altering outcomes and reap more economic returns over the life course than do strategies applied later.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The report also states that “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is now clear that early childhood is the critical period in which executive functions such as the fundamentals of self-control are established.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an educator for the past 25 years and now as a leader in a school, I have often been faced with educators bringing learners to me, with what appears to be a need from the educator for me to ‘discipline’, however the body language says ‘punish’. While I understand that there is a need for the educators to feel that the people in positions of authority are supportive of them and that they can approach us for help when issues arise. I myself have many occasions over my years as a classroom educator and parent felt the frustration building, it takes a bucket load of self-control and repeating of mantra like “Who’s the adult? What’s the learning” to not resort to ‘punishing’ the learner - to be honest I wasn’t always successful, in fact I probably punished more than I disciplined, there was that one time when I left a learner sitting in the hallway for a good few hours without lunch, Christopher, I am truly sorry and I probably put you off education and/or teachers for life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a huge difference between punishment and discipline. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Punishment is not discipline. Discipline is used to teach and guide. Punishment is used for the purposes of controlling and retribution. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What educators often call discipline could actually be revenge packaged as punishment: “You’ve made me look/feel bad, so I’m going to do the same to you” Real discipline looks less at whatever a learner did wrong and more at how they are going to make a better decision next time. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The aim is for the educator not to be a prosecutor focused on the crime but more of a coach who has picked up on something that needs working on. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Young children do not commit crimes, they make mistakes or bad choices and I believe that their mistakes and bad choices call for a corrective coaching style. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Punishment is adult oriented, imposes power, arouses anger and resentment, and invites more conflict. Punishment can include isolation, embarrassment, humiliation, shaming and brute force. It makes the wounds worse rather than healing them because it is focusing on blame and pain. Punishment discourages students from acknowledging their actions because they might deny doing the behavior or place blame on anything or anybody other than themselves. When educators use punishment, good behavior is bought at a terrible price. Punishment leaves control in the educator’s hands and gives students the message that the educator is all powerful, accepts responsibility for student’s behavior and negates the need for students to develop inner discipline.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Faced with threats, domination, manipulation and control by someone bigger than themselves, learners will experience one of the following three things. One, they will experience </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fright</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and will do as they are told out of dependency and fear. In this case, the learners will obey the educator only until they are able to get what they need or want. Second is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fight</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and attack or take their anger out on other people or things. Such a response can produce an equal or more severe response from the adult. The t</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hird, choice is </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">flight</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, meaning they run away mentally or physically. Learners whose needs and feelings are dismissed, ignored, punished, or negated begin to believe they are of little or no worth.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Discipline on the other hand can be used as a coaching tool, the process of discipline does four things that the act of punishment cannot do:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It shows learners what they should have done. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It gives them as much ownership of the problem as they are able to handle.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It gives them options for solving the problem.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It leaves their dignity intact.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So if we don’t punish how can we discipline? I think you need to start with a belief that “Kids are worth it” a catch phrase and a book title by American author Barbara Coloroso. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educators must believe that learners and young adults are worth their time, energy and resources. Coloroso also believes that adults should follow the Golden Rule and ‘treat others as they want to be treated’. If educators feel uncertain about what they are doing to learners, they should place themselves in their shoes to see how they would feel. The educator should ask themselves questions such as: “Would I want that done to me?”, “How would I feel if someone did that to me?” or if you are a parent “how would I feel if that was being done to my child?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only discipline if it leaves a learner’s and your own dignity intact. Honoring the dignity of the learner should not be sacrificed in the name of behavior management. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we don’t ‘punish’ then shouldn’t we reward…?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please wait one moment while I pull out my soapbox...</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t believe that manipulative tactics such as rewards, bribes, and threats should be used. Which is why for years I’ve handed out stickers, had treat boxes and used any number of other ‘systems’ both in my classroom and with my own children. But stepping up to my soapbox or more likely onto my high horse I have come to the conclusion that learners should be empowered to trust in themselves and to learn self-discipline. The educator’s duty is to give critical life messages such as “I believe in you”, “I trust you”, “I know you can do this”, “You are listened to”, “You are cared for”, “You are important". Think about the this from the movie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H50llsHm3k" target="_blank">The Help</a> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rewards also send the message that kindness and positive behavior can be bought and bartered. Learners who are bribed and rewarded constantly will often start to ask questions such as “What’s in it for me?”, “What’s the payoff?” etc. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reward and punishment only teaches the learner to be “good” … as long as someone is looking</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alfie Kohn in his book Beyond Discipline states that rewards, like punishments, are extremely effective at getting us one thing and one thing only: temporary obedience. Where they fall short is teaching children how to become decent human beings. He refers back to studies showing that “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rewards are strikingly ineffective at producing lasting change in attitudes or behaviours</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”. Like training animals, rewards and punishments teach your children that if they do as they’re told, they’ll get a treat. The danger being, they might only conform if there’s a treat in sight. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They have done the research they know what they have to do to get a treat, conversely there are those learners that don’t actually care about the treats, no matter what the reward they don’t buy into it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What about when the crime involves hurt to people or property?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consequences and Restorative Justice are are powerful tools.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Firstly let’s think about consequences:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The purpose of using consequences is to help the learner learn to make decisions and to be responsible for their own behavior. Consequences are learning experiences, not punishment. Consequences such as if you tipped out all the blocks you’ll have to spend time picking them up. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s about helping a learner to solve their own problems, think things through, and learn responsibility.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Change from saying “when you” to “as soon as you”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You also need to step back and get a bigger picture of the behaviour, to see not just the ‘offence’ but the reasons behind it and the learning that can come from it. What lies behind this behaviour? Do they understand social norms? Do they feel they aren’t getting enough attention? What about the Maslow stuff...Are they tired? Are they sick? Are they hungry?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Restorative justice focuses on accountability and meeting the needs of those involved rather than on blame and punishment. By working with learners and being respectful of diversity, will help them take responsibility for their own behaviour. The following tables may help...</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 10.28.40 am.png" height="275" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/BJEH81BxOHeD0K66bxYSzUqkpfVgRRbECY5XOsG0nnoGOHuTNjjf1bvFfukId1k3DQqqZ3YFZONvmU-GR3UQJTyLy-sqBW9gce1SClHe0cTjrnmwqB7srhZSQq5sze9Tc5R0vdSj" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="296" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 10.29.11 am.png" height="346" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Ba6n_i3bYTRoBhfl10KO0KH9EQkcO9ol7R1WCUE-rgZY7gHxbqxRMJ0caVcMJdp6-7f4saBGRJfCqgPuDVlO3ktjDSfYHVdKJcL0sByfqz5Fs0by4-Bu3VpQRnCVU0xMGvatPxx3" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="308" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In closing and in short it’s about honoring the dignity of the learner, and it’s all about the learning</span></div>
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-62614380979887449122016-04-30T22:55:00.001-07:002016-04-30T22:55:25.073-07:00To shoot or not to shoot...?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An interesting question was posed by some educators on our recent call-back days. "Many of our learners (predominantly boys in years 1 and 2) are engaging in gun play - should we let them?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hmmm good question team - so the following is my thoughts based on years of watching children play and of researching about the value of play in a school setting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.8px;">One educator replied that gun play is not 'natural play'. I disagree, I have found that</span><span style="line-height: 23.8px;"> play themes involve big and serious issues which can and do include loss, death, loneliness, abandonment and being cared for (or not). In fact anything that children are anxious, concerned, worried or have viewed can form the basis of their play. Gun and weapon play is</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;"> as natural as pretending that a play kitchen produces delectable goods or that by putting on a cape you are a super hero.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">Weapon/gun play certainly provides opportunities for many themes to be explored and also involves the common dominant theme in children’s play – namely power, and either being in control or being controlled by others. Children are regularly seen to mimic adult roles in their play as they try out for themselves what it is like to be in control as they mimic parents, teacher, nurses, doctors vets, </span><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">retailers etc. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">But it promotes violence....</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">There is no evidence to support this belief, and believe me I have looked. Play with weapons and superhero play is pretend play. Imaginative play does not produce violence. Engaging in such play is an antidote to violence and not a cause of it. It is my experience that if you 'ban' gun/weapon play they will do it anyway - they just do it when you're not watching, then t</span></span></span><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">he moral issue of condoning violence or killing is replaced with the moral issue of accepting, and perhaps promoting, creative lying.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px;">Personally, I’d rather children didn’t play with toy guns, mainly because they look too realistic</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px;">Letting children use their fingers, stick or some other creation they have made as weapon</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px;">s could actually help them gain enough understanding, empowerment and emotional stability to have fulfilled their need to use guns.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 23.8px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 23.8px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Play is the way in which children make sense of the world. Where such play ie weapon/gun play is not permitted children may get a sense that what they have experienced, what they know about, what they are anxious about, what they want to know more about, what they are interested in and how they feel is not valued. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 23.8px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 23.8px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">When children receive this message, their self-esteem will drop. When their play is not permitted, they lose out on developing play skills – and when this happens, they lose a whole range of routes to learning, to exploring their world through play and </span><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">developing all the skills that play enables. </span><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">Their cognitive capacity is reduced, and so is their commitment to learning as these negative messages are likely to affect their engagement in the world of education where their interests have been marginalised right from the start. Children who have their starting points for play stopped at an early age may not achieve their potential because they do not feel positive about themselves as learners.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Weapon/gun play has many benefits because it is about:</span></div>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Problem-solving, “how can I hide”, “how can I get from 'a to b' without being hit?”</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empowerment - taking initiative and making decisions </span></li>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Understanding that rules of consent and safety are important for any game -you only shoot those who agree to be part of the game</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belonging and being part of a group - sharing interests helps build friendships.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Developing confidence - great for quieter children giving them playful opportunities to assume a more confident persona.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Developing play acting or drama skills </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 23.8px;">When you support this type of play you are:</span></span></h3>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 23.8px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Picking up on children’s own interests and it becomes possible then to use this interest as the starting point for further learning.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">Helping improve spoken language as they engage in pretend play. 'Sportscast' or commentate the play this will help increase an enriching their vocabulary .</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an adult/educator you can help by:</span></div>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supporting this kind of creative and imaginative play. If they don’t have to hide their weapons they will feel safe in approaching you for ideas to develop their play.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting involved as and when appropriate. When you watch only there is a risk that you will end up being judgemental, it is harder to guide play or help to enrich it when you are not part of it. Join in! Die spectacularly or add complexity i.e I have a power that turns bullets/lasers to dust... </span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suggesting ideas, information, and materials and props to extend the richness of the play. Turn their play into a movie or podcast - what will happen next? What happened first - what's the story...</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Facilitating children’s understanding of violence and aggression and why violence is never acceptable but aggression can be ie in sport </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="line-height: 27px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 27px; text-align: justify;">Help the children establish clear safety boundaries, communicated in a calm manner, focusing on what the children CAN do, is the most effective way I’ve found to keep pretend weapon play safe. Naturally responsible adult supervision is advised during war play too. Think about the quality of the play - if it is low-level you may like to use the following indicators to help the children improve the quality.</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;">The 12 indicators of quality play: </span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Using first-hand experiences </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Making up rules </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Making props </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Choosing to play </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Rehearsing the future </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Pretending </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Playing alone </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Playing together </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Having a personal agenda </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Being deeply involved </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Trying out recent learning </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">Co-ordinating ideas, feelings and relationships for free-flow play. </span></li>
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Indicators adapted from Bruce, T. (1991) Time to Play in Early Childhood Education, London: Hodder & Stoughton</div>
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</span>Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-14600241501014998122015-11-18T17:18:00.001-08:002015-11-18T17:18:23.680-08:00More #Oresome in #LH4<div class="storify"><iframe src="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresome-in-lh4/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresome-in-lh4.js?border=false&template=slideshow"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresome-in-lh4" target="_blank">View the story "More #Oresome in #LH4" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-91724999540608789772015-11-04T11:01:00.000-08:002015-11-10T10:43:44.688-08:00Weeks 2-4 on Storify<div class="storify"><iframe src="//storify.com/Carob/3-more-weeks-of-oresome/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/3-more-weeks-of-oresome.js?border=false&template=slideshow"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/3-more-weeks-of-oresome" target="_blank">View the story "3 More Weeks of #Oresome" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-67678176093237317292015-11-02T22:19:00.001-08:002015-11-02T22:19:21.980-08:00Phew - a short weekThe week may have only had four school days in it but we certainly packed in loads! After our Tuesday iDesign we have made some tweeks to our morning design, we will now stop at 10:15am to pack up, share our learning, and read our poem as well as our Whakatauki before we go out for iActive. <div>
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LH4 is now doing iActive at the same time as the rest of the school, previously we had found it very time consuming to participate in iActive as it took us way too long to pack up and get organised to be out the door in time. It's a bit like going out with your first child, you can't imagine going anywhere without at least a day's notice and a containership load of supplies - but by the third child you can leave in a minutes notice and survive with some tissues and a manky muesli bar you found at the bottom of your bag.<div>
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Anyhoo back to iActive - Some of my thinkings/questionings/wonderings around iActive are "do we need to stop and deliberately be active?" Are we not already really active enough during our learning day? <div>
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Well gone, are the days of enforced sitting while we learn, and the learners in LH4 are constantly on the go - proven by the fact that when I am in the Habitat, my Fitbit reaches 10,000 steps by lunchtime at the latest. It would be interesting to try the FitBit on some of our 'never sit still' learners!</div>
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I'm wondering if perhaps we need to rethink the purpose of iActive/fitness, to be more about participating and contributing rather than enforced being 'active'. John Hattie (yes Kyle, that was an H bomb!) once said about the research around activity increasing academic ability that 'sometimes the fat kids are better readers/writers etc because that's what they spend their time doing' Something to consider, however, to be fair most of the <a href="http://www.humankinetics.com/acucustom/sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/2196.pdf" target="_blank">research</a> I've read states there is definitely a correlation between physical activity and cognitive function.</div>
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In our world of ILE learning maybe iActive/Fitness is something we need to consider re-ideating to be more inline with our vision of: </div>
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-12572175586377586162015-10-27T01:03:00.004-07:002015-10-27T01:03:41.108-07:00Austin's Butterfly<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hqh1MRWZjms" width="560"></iframe>
Last week at our team meeting I shared the Austin's Butterfly video with my team members (Thanks <a href="http://www.core-ed.org/about/meet-our-team/anne-kenneally" target="_blank">Anne Keaneally</a> for the tip)- I was interested in the team's take on the clip, particularly after I had watched our learners create a picture of their time at OrmPS, TBH I was underwhelmed by their efforts.<br />
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As a team we decided it would be good to share the clip with our learners and teach them explicitly about giving specific feedback. We showed our learners the clip and then divided the learners into groups of between 15/18.<br />
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The task we set our learners was to view and recreate the logo of a superhero. I showed my group the Batman logo and gave them 5 minutes to draw it, after they had completed their first draft (not a first giraffe as I had to explain) They then had 3 minutes each to share some specific feedback on how they could improve their drawing, after which they had 5 minutes to create a second draft.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNAbr31GYMD7K0fh3hPUsLP4yviqs_vx8KgmGhyNDsttWVFWqOAIfJurbiEVyNiDkHx8rfqeC7Vv2f1BTsUpwG46FACT3cBUgw5VxAX-eCebqCVPLbxBEsjnZqjX_ArMnIr3qgCAWHsw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-10-27+at+8.48.32+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNAbr31GYMD7K0fh3hPUsLP4yviqs_vx8KgmGhyNDsttWVFWqOAIfJurbiEVyNiDkHx8rfqeC7Vv2f1BTsUpwG46FACT3cBUgw5VxAX-eCebqCVPLbxBEsjnZqjX_ArMnIr3qgCAWHsw/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-10-27+at+8.48.32+pm.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I loved how they all took to the task and was super impressed with the level of feedback they were giving each other in such a short space of time - I was particularly impressed by the learners who can be hard to engage. The difference between their first and second drawing was huge, surpassing my expectations on all counts. </div>
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As a team we have decided to spend three learning blocks on this task with the ultimate aim of having them use their feedback skills on all areas of their learning.</div>
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I will be interested to see what they produce on their 6th draft and if they can/do actually use their feedback skills in other areas of their learning.</div>
Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-71673138808765846822015-10-16T23:49:00.001-07:002015-10-16T23:49:23.242-07:00Week 1 T4 2015<div class="storify"><iframe src="//storify.com/Carob/week-1-t4-in-lh4/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/week-1-t4-in-lh4.js?border=false&template=slideshow"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/week-1-t4-in-lh4" target="_blank">View the story "Week 1 T4 in #LH4" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-9774238217133200042015-10-02T15:04:00.000-07:002015-10-02T15:05:43.534-07:00Weeks 9 and 10 in #LH4<div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/Carob/weeks-9-and-10-in-lh4/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/weeks-9-and-10-in-lh4.js?border=false&template=slideshow"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/weeks-9-and-10-in-lh4" target="_blank">View the story "Weeks 9 and 10 in #LH4" on Storify</a>]</noscript><br />
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-7801407524528280242015-08-25T15:30:00.002-07:002015-08-25T16:17:36.288-07:00More Oresome in #LH4<div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresomeness-in-lh4/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresomeness-in-lh4.js?border=false&template=slideshow"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/more-oresomeness-in-lh4" target="_blank">View the story "More Oresomeness in #LH4" on Storify</a>]</noscript><br />
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Another great learning week in #LH4. The learners are certainly much calmer now than they were 4 weeks ago. The more I think, learn and read about play-based learning the more I am convinced we are on the right track and the more I realise how much more I have to think, learn and read!<br />
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One of my main ponderings is; how can we best encourage the use of English in the Habitat? (24/28 are ELL) It seems to be mainly the boys that revert to using Chinese when playing but that could be because we have a much larger cohort of boys (22/28). They seem ok with using English when talking to English speaking adults but as soon as there are two or more Chinese speaking learners together they speak Chinese.<br />
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As being at school is often the only time they can speak English with fluent adult speakers, I wonder if we should we be encouraging them to speak English more often or should we leave them to converse in their native tongue as often as they do?<br />
One of my frustrations is not being a fluent speaker of either Mandarin or Cantonese is around how we tell if the language they are using is at an age appropriate level or if they are using a low level of language.<br />
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-3123550548438595482015-08-11T14:23:00.003-07:002015-08-25T16:18:56.837-07:00Storify <div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/Carob/1-month-of-learning-in-lh4/embed?border=false" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Carob/1-month-of-learning-in-lh4.js?border=false"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Carob/1-month-of-learning-in-lh4" target="_blank">View the story "Learning in LH4" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-48022630471753055262014-11-27T13:52:00.001-08:002014-11-27T13:52:15.049-08:00Learning NZSL<h2 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Amaranth, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding-bottom: 0px;">
Learning NZSL</h2>
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New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) is recognised as an official language of New Zealand through the <a href="http://www.odi.govt.nz/what-we-do/nzsl/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #77c043; text-decoration: none;">New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006</a>.It is for this reason that NZSL has special mention in <a href="http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Official-languages" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #77c043; text-decoration: none;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The New Zealand Curriculum</i></a> (2007)<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">. </b>When NZSL is taught as an additional language, it fits within the aims and objectives of learning languages in the New Zealand Curriculum.<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </b>NZSL is used by members of New Zealand’s Deaf community and those who are linked with this community, for example, hearing people who have Deaf relatives and interpreters who work with Deaf people. In linguistic terms, sign languages are as rich and complex as any spoken language with many different dialects and grammar structures.<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;">
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Heath, Koral, Di and I are currently learning NZSL so we can more easily communicate with our KDEC (Kelston Deaf Education Community) learners. The lessons are taught by Marjorie a trained teacher of the deaf, at the Anton Centre. As with all new learning, some things are easy to grasp and some not so easy. Many signs are representative, which makes them easy to pick up, the challenge then is to retain the knowledge and be able to use it in context. As Marjorie is deaf herself we have to communicate either with sign or by writing. We have shared many laughs as we get signs mixed up or incorrect, I found it particularly funny that the sign for Principal is very similar to the sign for God - luckily Heath's title Leader of Learning - though I do know several principals who would not be adverse to the signs being mixed up...</div>
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Having used NZSl briefly while growing up, I have retained some knowledge of NZSl particularly the <a href="http://nzsl.vuw.ac.nz/alphabet/" target="_blank">fingerspelling alphabet</a> however I still struggle with the vowels - and remembering which finger represents which vowel sound. I hope I don't confuse too many of our deaf learners as I hesitate when trying to fingerspell... </div>
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Something I have also learned and found interesting is that it is our deaf learners who will assign us a sign for our name. This will be based on personality traits or physical characteristics. When I told my own three children this they offered to give the deaf learners some insight - an offer I have politely declined... </div>
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Ormiston Primary has two trained teachers of the deaf on the team, Luisa (Habitat 1) and Margaret in (Habitat 2) who will be supporting our KDEC learners within the Habitats. Every learner at Ormiston Primary will have the opportunity to learn NZSL, some times through explicit teaching but probably more often through immersion and the need to communicate and collaborate with our deaf learners</div>
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Learning NZSL will give all our hearing people insight into the Deaf community. In turn, this will allow our Deaf people to communicate with hearing people more easily. Thus, our school will become more inclusive as we work together to create our distinct Ormiston identity.</div>
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-59724634547054653972014-11-20T13:37:00.000-08:002014-11-20T13:56:33.716-08:00IgniteAnother great ignite evening and as always the right people were in the room.<br />
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Seven presentations spanning a multitude of topics, it was great to see some new faces and first time presenters. Tino Leaupepe from the National Library gave a very moving and inspirational presentation around our perceptions of students ideals and the idea that you can make a difference to your learners by immersing them in things that are relevant to their needs.<br />
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The amazing OPS' very own Di (ignite newbie and now hopefully convert) together with Justine presented on their #GTASYD experiences - something I am planning to apply for next year. I am interested in learn more around design thinking.<br />
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The <a href="http://pamhook.com/">SOLO</a> (structure of observed learning outcomes)<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span>presentation by <a href="https://plus.google.com/+BridgetCasse/posts" target="_blank">Bridget</a> reinforced my thinking around the potential of this as a learning tool something I'd like to investigate more when we have learners on board.<br />
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I gave a repeat performance of my very first Ignite presentation about the FISH philosophy - something I'm very passionate about both personally after discovering it around ten years ago. Hopefully this time I managed breathe and not race as quickly through it.<br />
One thing I have realised the more I present is it's less about the presenter and more about the message - but being able to breathe is still required...<br />
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-8627658904105234902014-10-23T18:21:00.001-07:002014-10-23T18:21:16.472-07:00School TripToday <a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link" href="https://twitter.com/DianaWilkes" role="presentation" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #00d9ff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="color: #66e8ff;">@</span>DianaWilkes</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link" href="https://twitter.com/heathmc1" role="presentation" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #00d9ff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="color: #66e8ff;">@</span>heathmc1</a> our Admin Ninja, Koral and I all got to go and check out Office Max. We were able to try out some of their furniture options and then were given a tour of the dispatch centre. Talk about teacher stationery heaven, oh for a free run of this place!<br />
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This is where the magic happens<br />
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They have an automated system which was incredible to watch - it felt a bit like being in a cross between the conveyor belt scene in Toy Story 3 and Charlie and Chocolate Factory.<br />
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The labels on boxes are scanned at various points on the line and exit the belt where the pickers select the items.<br />
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What I found to be really interesting, was that the pickers wear headsets which tell them which items need to be picked, they then have to verbally respond before they get the next item. As part of the staff induction each picker has to create a 'voice response' template, this can be in which ever language they choose, - a great example of personalising the work space.<br />
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I loved this machine - it creates paper tubes which are used to fill the empty spaces in the cartons - ever the junior teacher I want to see what kids would create with them. Our Admin Ninja has promised to save them from now on....<br />
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A paperless society - yeah right! This is but a small portion of the paper they supply.<br />
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Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-1567916925020416802014-10-15T19:03:00.001-07:002014-10-15T19:17:43.210-07:00Community Information Evening Recently we held a <a href="http://prezi.com/_pnkscohirdr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy" target="_blank">Community Information Evening</a><br />
We used this evening to communicate with interested parents in our enrolment zone.<br />
One of the activities we got the parents to do was to write down on templates the attributes they wanted for their children when they left Ormiston Primary.<br />
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We wrote down all their words and used them to create a 'wordle'. I must say there was a 'fist pump' moment when we realised what our most common word was.<br />
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<br />Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3732537267768154907.post-54827537896496089752014-10-12T16:54:00.000-07:002014-10-12T16:54:08.355-07:0010 weeks of OresomeDoesn't time fly when you're having fun! First term done and dusted and day one of term two begins..<br />
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I have loved every minute of my time so far as the Associate Leader of Learning here at Ormiston Primary and have loved all the learning.<br />
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I found when I was first appointed it was like being inducted into some exclusive members only club, doors opened and many professional relationships where taken to the next level. I have been humbled by the huge amounts of support offered by the people who have travelled this journey before - everything from the sharing of resource lists, to offers of 'come and play at our place'. We do truly stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.<br />
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Some things that have been challenging to deal with are; not having the amount of structure you are used to as a classroom teacher - every day is hugely different, from site meetings to eBOT to procuring resourcing to wonderings and ponderings of what the learning will look like at our place.<br />
I've also been challenged by the seemingly moment to moment flicking from micro to macro - what staplers shall we order, what will our vision principles look like??<br />
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Every day is different and every day is #Oresome at Ormiston<br />
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<br />Carobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03382011337703991625noreply@blogger.com1