With Covid still raging around our communities across the world, Principals would do well to ensure that their staff and student well being programs are in order and up and running.
In this context I share with my reader(s) a wonderful statement by an Aboriginal woman who is Senior Australian of the year 2021:
She said: "You can't just be floating around in this world not knowing where you belong."
Wish I'd said it! Inspiring hey!
May the Force be with you!
GD
After 10 months in Western Australia (WA) with no community distribution of the virus lo and behold yesterday a case of the UK strain escaped from the quarantine regime. Immediately the Premier locked us all down for 5 days while the authorities got straight to grips with this new threat.
Children were scheduled to return to school today, but the schools will not open for the next 5 days. A longer holiday for the students, more agony for the parents depending on how you look at it and Principals having to think about reactivating online learning plans just in case the lockdown has to continue.
Who would be a Principal in these tricky and uncertain times? I wouldn't mind being back in harness, but have to admit I would be on a steep learning curve. Hope my Principal colleagues have renewed their energies over the long summer break so that they can cope with the uncertainty that 2021 is likely to bring.
May the Force be with you!
GD
I have just attended my grand daughter's end of year concert. It was most enjoyable and cleverly built around the theme of the Covid pandemic.
I am pleased to say the the standard of singing had vastly improved on the previous year's effort. Shouting is not singing.
As one who places a lot of credence in the value of the Performing Arts to help build self esteem I am always keen to promote excellence in whatever performance medium is used. It takes a lot of work to teach a child to sing with sweetness and clarity. The school choir at the recent concert was getting there but more training is needed. Being a co-ed primary (elementary) school I was disappointed at the few boys in the choir. There is nothing like a well trained boy soprano voice. I listened also for the descant applied during the performance, but sadly this was not forthcoming this year.
The school band was in tune and did a good job. I was pleased that a solo guitar was utilised to back one song with the young teenage guitarist executing brilliantly on his electric guitar.
Overall I worry that the modern pop/rock dominance in our society too strongly influences what schools do in the Performing Arts areas of song and dance. The more classical singing and dancing might be being pushed into the background. There needs to be a balance between the classic and the contemporary.
All hail the value of the Performing Arts in the development of the whole student.
May the Force be with us!
GD
Covid 19 has meant a tense and worrying 2020 for school Principals across the world. Being ready to react at any time to a school closure due to Covid was a big challenge I am sure, followed by establishing a home schooling regime if needed.
The coming year 2021 in some countries is unlikely to be much better until vaccination programs begin to stop the spread of the virus.
Maybe the festive season will allow the drawing of breath and the recharging of batteries ready for the anticipated challenges. I hope so for the sake of my Principal colleagues and their school staff members and students.
May the Force be with you!
GD
Corny, but one to share with students:
ENTHUSIASM
A code to live by
E nergy – Work hard; do your best at all times; throw yourself wholeheartedly into what you are doing
N ous – using your common sense to arrive at effective outcomes
T houghtfulness – Thinking you way through events, processes, actions; being helpful to others
H umour – able to laugh with others; able to laugh at yourself; generating positive happiness
U nderstanding – understanding what you need to do; being understanding of others needs
S tamina – stick to the task with grit, perseverance and courage
I nterest – be alert and interested towards everything and everyone in your immediate environment
A cumen – show sensitivity, intelligence and good judgment in what you do, in how you behave and act
S incerity – in general in life mean what you say and do; be loyal where it is deserved
M emory – apply and use your memory to help you through life; apply past learning
ENTHUSIASM
GD May the Force be with you!
Once upon a time, many eons ago, I used to teach at primary (elementary) school level. I loved involving my students in what was labelled in the then curriculum "Nature Study". I always hoped that by studying nature, birds, ants, reptiles, bees, and so on to light up a wonder in children for the world in which they lived. I had to set this up within my generalist classroom having no laboratory in the school and this was very restrictive. I did not use the outside environment as much as I could have as it was not very rich in natural flora and fauna. It was inductive learning of the most basic sort yet I believe it yielded some of the wonder I was aiming for.
In 2020 the schools are so much better resourced and in a Covid free world students experience camps and excursions that provide the opportunities to develop a wonder for the natural world. There is so much access to observable natural species and events by prima facie observation or by secondary observation through the wonderful media streams now available.
I have to recall that as a student in secondary (high) school in the 1940s and 50s : yes that long ago : I only received flashes of the wonder of the natural world, especially being intrigued by the atomic and ionic structures of matter. I think that was my fault with a lack of maturity obstructing me from benefiting from the wisdom of my science teachers.
As a school Principal I regret not interacting more with the science teachers in my school to encourage them to excite every day. To have their students thirsting for the next science learning experiences. I suspect it is easier to excite in the biological sciences than in physics and chemistry, although when I see some of the robotics studies in today's schools and the excited faces of the students I should reserve such judgements.
In the contemporary educational context the emphasis on environmental responsibility for the Earth and the Universe has the potential to make scientific studies more relevant to a wider range of students. I also wonder whether teachers of literature could work in a symbiotic relationship with their science colleagues through poetry genres that light one up about the natural world. There is the whole pantheist movement of Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Shelley. Today also drifting into my consciousness was a poem by William Henry Davies entitled "Leisure". You may recall it
"What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs.......and so on. Go on Google it!
I am fascinated by clouds and love to sit and watch the changing formations, especially imagining the forces in play as clouds build up for a thunderstorm. I have even written a sonnet about this, but having mentioned Wordsworth and Co would be ashamed to bore you with it.
As a university student studying metaphysics in philosophy I was fascinated by the argument by Design for the existence of God or if you will a Supreme Being. It would be exciting to open a biology lesson with the argument by Design, where we were to microscopically explore the delicate minutiae of some organism where intricate patterns are revealed. This would not be an attempt to convert students to a belief in God, but to show them how areas of learning connect in the creative minds of humans. All good fuel to light up the wonderment in learning. We could then pose the question: How could evolution come up with such intricate designs within these organisms? The teacher, if not framing all this carefully might expect emails from some parents about having raised the Creation theory/evolution theory debate that challenges many educators across the United States. Might be a bit radical to do this and I would only suggest it with Senior High School students.
Buy a microscope and or a telescope for your children or grand children. If you are a school Principal, a leader of learning in your school, take a major interest about what goes on with the science teaching. I wish I'd been more active in this regard when I was a school Principal.
You probably expected I was a bit eccentric from previous posts, and now all doubts can be cast aside.
May the Force be with you!
GD
I have always loved sport and played as best I could with my lack of leg speed but reasonable ball sense. As an Australian I live in a country where sport has an almost religious fervour and sporting stars are held up as role models for the young. My country almost becomes paranoid when an olympic games is due fuelled by a national fervour to win gold. Underlying this fervour is the economic benefit that governments see to any country hosting the games, or the Soccer world cup or the Cricket world cup one day series and so on. The captains of our national teams are revered. The same accord is not given to scientists or social workers although I see signs of this changing.
As a school Principal I enthusiastically promoted school athletics carnivals and team sports. Now as a reflective retired school Principal, father and grandfather I think about the involvement of my children and grandchildren in this cauldron of sporting fever. I have mellowed considerably and changed my views about the value of sport as part of the school education journey.
First I focus my attention on the cross country running events that many schools run annually. I see the slower runners a long way behind straggle into the finish line when to all intents and purposes the whole thing is over. I worry that one of my grand daughters spends nights of sleep loss when this annual event looms. She is not a runner, but after coming last in 2019 bravely let her parents enrol her in the running club so she could improve. It didn't help for the 2020 cross country event and several races in the general athletics carnival that has just occurred. Some of the feedback from the school was that competing develops resilience and helps the children I guess toughen up. I have seen anecdotal research that dismissed this notion of resilience building, especially when one comes last regularly. The researchers point to what can be a very public humiliation as one trundles up the straight when all others have long completed the event. The good news is that my grand daughter competed in 2020 without showing much concern that she ran last in her events. Privately she told me she was glad it was over for another year and that she hated it. In her events she ran against others of similar skill and being only four in each event she was awarded two 4th ribbons. I guess this helped her manage any feelings of once again being last. This is a child who performs in the top groups academically and I have gently pointed out to her that in the end it will be mathletics not athletics that matter in her life. I also share with her that her grand father was a very slow runner and had to put up with all that she is experiencing.
Why am I going on about one of my own, acting as an over-protective grand parent. I was not surprised to find, following on from the different insights of the researchers mentioned above, that schools having a free choice whether they will run a competitive event where everyone must participate regardless of their inherent physical skills, are adopting a new approach. Recognising that some people are not fast runners or swimmers they are creating sporting events that allow the speedy to have their races while the rest of the school is involved in other cheerleader and team events. It becomes more of a fun day when all can enjoy themselves regardless of their physical attributes. This is now occurring in a private secondary school not far from where I live. Interestingly talking with one of the students I learned that she was not one of the speedy ones during her primary school years, but now having grown a lot she has discovered a talent for the longer distances in running.
If I retuned to running a school I think I would now adopt this newer approach that removes the possibility of public humiliation potentially there in competitive compulsory racing. I would also make the physical education program a focus for personal fitness inclusive of the opportunity to hone the skills and the frame that the student has inherited. I am big on this and see it as a way to build confidence in self and to move the mindset of students into the preventive medicine mode, to make each person a good steward of the physical attributes they have inherited.
May the Force be with you!
GD
