Tag: learn

Careful what you wish for


I have been foolishly prancing around saying I lack stress in my life and I can’t seem to function as well without it. Well today was frantically busy. I got an extra and an emergency yard duty. I had already filled my day with commitments and our interim reports due tomorrow the world went a bit pear shaped today.
On my extra yard duty I took this accidental photo of myself with my mobile. It is an apt self portrait of today and I am impressed with how white my teeth look, particularly since I smoke and drink a lot of coffee.
I have also been reading a lot and learning a lot at present. I have been thinking about homeschooling. This was initially prompted by one of my work mates whose children are home schooled by his wife. Then I read some articles today. If you were interested you could read about it on my work blog. Here I want to write ‘my story’ about it.
When my kids were at Harkaway Primary School, a school I absolutely loved by the way, I decided to go back and do a Dip Ed so I could be a secondary teacher. I was doing all kinds of different work at the time and I wanted to get serious about a career that would work for my most important priority, which is being a mum, and a single one at that time. Anyway a treasured friend, Rene and I often discussed that we could home school our kids when they got to secondary school and that idea seriously appealed to me. When I did my teaching rounds I felt it was the only sane alternative, as sending the kids to a secondary school seemed too frightening.
The bottom line is that a lot changed in my life between then and when my kids started secondary school. We moved back to Traralgon for a start and the kids really didn’t want to be home schooled. They were social beings and wanted to remain with their friends. I am sure there are times when they have hated school and I still don’t know if school is what is best for them but it is convenient. I really think homeschooling is the best education you can give your child to be honest. I have often wished I had been able to afford to stay home and educate my kids. I believe they would have enjoyed their education more.

Neighbourhood Houses

Immediately before I became a teacher, I was a co-ordinator at a Neighbourhood house. I loved my time there. I believe in Neighbourhood Houses and the work they do in the community. I find it challenging though when I begin to think about how under resourced they are and how some don’t work very well at tapping into the needs of the community. Tonight I had coffee with the Traralgon Neighbourhood House co-ordinator.
Jenny is one of the most wonderful people you will ever meet. She is down to earth and giving and really takes care of the people in her community. Her house is thriving because she is intelligent and skillful at meeting her communities needs. When I was doing that job, she was my mentor and my hero. I wanted my house to be just like hers. Full of people and laughter and value for the community. She is still hard at it and I take my hat off to her and all the Neighbourhood House people in Australia. It is such a valuable part of our community.

Louis Sachar & school counsellors

I read Holes at school during reading class a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I watched the video last Friday night and it was great. I am going to use this book and film with students as I feel there are a lot of good things to be learnt from it. I found another book There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom by Sachar. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the counsellor at our school. I don’t know how often I have heard or said the comment that the counsellor is not doing enough to help. I read that book and it made me appreciate the kind of long term effort it can take with people for counsellors. It is an important role and to expect instant results would be silly. It is a great book, was an enjoyable and mostly very light story. I think there is something in that story for everyone. I realised in reflection on my own behaviour, how it is easy to become disliked when you are angry and sad. You push others away and it can happen very quickly that you end up with few people who want to be around you. It is not some kind of huge personality disorder, that needs to be untangled. It was a great read.