Praying and NVC

I have found that praying doesn't work when following another prayer with NVC. Prayer for me has just resulted in more guilty feelings and if I cannot forgive myself then how will I ever be able to trust that God will do it? It just doesn't make sense;
For my son Jacob at the moment he is scared that Mummy will get lost... (he's 3)and it is because he knows that even though he wants to do things like catch the train by himself he won't as he has admitted that he doesn't know the way home (my Gran's at the moment)... and to prove to him that I am not lost we have set up calling me on the mobile to reassure him I can be found. (I hope that he doesn't take this to heart for him though... )
Until we experience something ourselves then it isn't as true as it needs to be for us to be able to trust in it. This is just apart of the growing process that I tend to forget as a parents and as much as I try and show him real things I am not ready to let any animal die so that he can see how dangerous electricity is. So there is limitation here too.

ANZAC DAY- What it means to me

Today was ANZAC Day and with my assessment pieces...(finally in yes!!) looking at critical literacies I really couldn't help but notice that this statement made at the dawn service in Toowoomba; "Freedom isn't Free" - this was to justify ADF existence and what happened in the past... it really bugged me; yes I agree to a certain context- yet this is probably not meant that way nor if it was, was it made clear;

Freedom to feel safe isn't free because it has to be learnt and earned and it isn't until then that we will be free of fighting in such violent manners. Acceptance and Education on how to deal with conflict and know/feel reassured that you will be heard is all that is needed!!!

Please if you think that it is that simple I know that there is a lot of work behind this but if we really want our children not to have suffered the way people of the past have... we need to look at educating so. Children live what they learn. And no-one is really teaching how to cope well with pain, suffering which is of everyday  importance for growth!

With all the resources we could ever need at the 'tip of our fingers' then really we have two very powerful tools; the internet (information for all on everything) including cultural difference and empathy. And it isn't a matter about you catch more with honey... I am talking about authentic practice to have the skills to deal with violence and prevent it. As if you don't know Violence is just a suicidal attempt at expressing an unmet need- Marshal Rosenburg's NVC and growing from this work 'Don't Be Nice; Be Real'.

Recently I have been establishing what traditions we have within our society that I want to follow and celebrate within my family and why… I have noticed that all are good though they all can be shown in a negative light as well. I vow to show my children the positives and educated not ignore the negative aspects when they come in contact with them and why we celebrate it the way we do.

ANZAC Day for me is a celebration of past commitments to each other in the highest form; even though I might not agree with violence what I do acknowledge is that in those times understandings such as the ones that I am able to access to find better alternatives would not have been available as easily. Thus it isn’t their fault that they didn’t know of a better solution and therefore not the skills to implement.  These people did what they thought was the best thing and it was the best thing at the time and that is something that all of us need to accept; no one will do something the same; it is also highly unlikely that we will ever use the exact same muscles in the exact same way when we are doing the same task!

We have two modes when threatened on a serious level fight or flight, evolution can change this a little. I know of a better solution and I hope that I have the courage to stand strong in what I believe in.

Unschooling retreat link

Sorry to all I refer this site to... it is a mess though in my eyes it is my first draft and one day will be able to be well refined!

This is the unschooling conference site for this year..

http://www.unschoolingretreat.com/

Annotations for UNI Assessment Readings on Literacy

Glancy, K. (2008). spk2usoon? Literacy on Planter Internet. Teacher Journal: Curriculum and Assessment, September, 46-48

“ spk2usoon? Literacy on planet Internet” by Kevin Glancy brings our attention to just how influential the internet is and its importance in enhance literacy learning. He believes that using the two most powerful tools; empathy and the internet to reaching/teaching children will assist with the mastery of the art of the written word and/or intelligent conversation. This aligns with Productive Pedagogies by assisting students to make a ‘connection to the wider social context within which students lives’, forming of metalanguage and also deep understanding. Glancy outlines that without this social skills developed through the use of empathy and written word or intelligent conversation we would find it difficult to ‘defend ourselves in the face of unfairness and injustice that frequents our daily lives’.

Freesmith, D. (2006). Who’s ‘dumbing down’ the curriculum? A defence of critical literacy. Teacher Journal: Curriculum and Assessment, August 40-42

Who’s ‘dumbing down’ the Curriculum? A Defence of critical literacy by the Australian Council for Educational Research looks weights up the importance of critical literacy via argument provided within The National newspaper stating that it is crowding the curriculum. It rebuts the argument by breaking it down into the potential fears of the party producing such a claim; having a nation that is able to be empowered via their education to navigate through the power that multimodal texts have, fears of the unknown in regards to mass media and its uses and that traditional texts in English won’t be taught. All in all it brings it to a close by demonstrating that producing such claims reinforces the importance of critical literacy. Going back to more traditional practices isn’t in alignment with the Productive Pedagogies’ cultural knowledge, active citizenship or connectedness to the world that is endorsed by our current government; thus reiterating that change cannot be stopped.

Mills, Kathy A. (2008). The seven habits of highly effective readers. National Conference for Teachers of English and Literacy www.englishliteracyconference.com.au

Kathy A. Mills ‘s Conference Paper titled The Seven Habit of Highly Effective Readers highlights how  studies of effectively taught metacognition strategies have empowering students in their own monitoring and improvement of their comprehension. Through findings within the studies Keene & Zimmermann (1997) noticed ‘a cluster of thinking strategies used consistently’ these being the seven habits addressed and discussed- Activating prior knowledge; Using text structures; Visualising; Using graphic and semantic organisers; Retelling, summarising, synthesising; Making connections; Generating and answering questions. It highlights the importance of at the top resulting in critical literacy. It is align with Productive Pedagogies’ classroom reflection manual’s cultural knowledge, active citizenship or connectedness to the world.

Ryan, M., & Rossi, T. (2007). The Transdisciplinary Potential of Multiliteracies: Body Performances and Meaning-Making in Health and Physical Education. In A. Healy (Ed.), Multiliteracies and Diversity in Education :New Pedagogies for Expanding Landscapes. (pp. 30-57). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press

The Transdisciplinary Potential of Multiliteracies: Body Performances and Meaning-Making in Health and Physical Education by Mary Ryan and Tony Rossi also highlights the importance of Productive Pedagogies connection with students’ lives via making meaning through mind and body with a body-as-text approach. It breaks down how bodily practices are ‘immersed in, described by and used to inscribe multiple literacies.’ (p31) under two headings; ‘literacies for physical activity and movement; and the literacies of health’. Here the complex web of understanding uses Kalantzis and Cope’s (2004a) Four Main Knowledge Processes. These understandings are supported by Luke & Freebody’s four resources model (1999) and Darrant & Green’s 3D Model of Literacy.

Minchenton, D. & Exley, B. (2009). Curriculum literacies : linguistic design in everyday science texts, Literacy Learning : the Middle Years, (February).

Dale Minchenton & Beryl Exley’s Curriculum literacies: Linguistic design in everyday science  texts brings forth the point that we tend to ignore the ‘… literacies that carry and connect the content’. It looks at ‘one aspect of curriculum literacies, that of linguistic design (the London Group,2000)’ using the link between science and literacy via bread wrappers as scientific text. Through this practical deconstruction taken from the Australian Academy of Science’s Primary Connections Project suggested to do in the Middle Years it concluded that there is no standard format and significant as what is put on the wrapper is equal to that not. Thus arguing that this is an essential element for doing science for future everyday life.

Henderson, R. (2004). Recognising Difference: One of the Challenges of Using a Multiliteracies Approach? Practical Primary,  9(2) June, 11- 14.

Recognising Difference: One of the Challenges of Using a Multiliteracies Approach provides a thoughtful account on how ‘… diverse social, cultural and literate practices of homes and communities’ are overlooked.  It brings in The New London Group’s initial work in 2000 on multiliteracies pedagogy, addresses that it has be recognised that recognising difference is one of the challenges of a multiliteracies approach and  provides 2 case studies as exemplars for behaviour based diversity and learning based diversity. It challenges teachers to focus on children’s strengths through considering these questions; ‘How have I constructed this child/family?’, ‘Why do I think this?’, ‘Am I stereotyping?’ ‘Am I generalising form limited information?’ And provides a creative way that one teacher has achieved this.   

Cross, R. (2008). Monolingual literacy in multilingual context Working paper presented at the AARE International Educational Research Conference University of Canberra, ACT, November

Russell Cross’s study on ‘Monolingual literacy in multilingual context’ draws upon how the monolingual constructions of teachers from an English Speaking background get in the way when teaching literacy to bilingual or multilingual students. It draws forth that the National Curriculum caters for an ‘...all but a “first language: -only perspective on language and literacy development’ yet fails to cater for the’… social, cultural and linguistic “difference” into… the status quo/s. It analysis highlighted three key themes; Literacy for learning, language for literacy and language as literacy. Through this it shows us the assumptions made that will hinder the development of connection between the teacher, learner and content preventing what Productive Pedagogy calls “substantive conversation” allow the formation of a shared understanding.

Gaffney, M. (2010) Enhancing Teachers’ Take-up of Digital Content: Factors and Design Principles in Technology Adoption . accessed 03.03.11 http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/verve/_resources/Enhancing_Teacher_Takeup_of_Digital_Content_Report.PDF

Enhancing Teacher’ Take-up of Digital Content: Factors and Design Principles in Technology Adoption by Professor Michael Gaffney highlights that ‘…teacher take-up of digital content is a multi-faceted undertaking’ that consists of two dimensions; Types of factors associated with teacher take-up of digital content and the nature of the tools teachers use to support the content. This research has produced  four factors for consideration accompanied by the Technology Adoption Model. Findings within the contextual factors found include; support, timeline, policy clarity and relevance to curriculum so to align with Productive Pedagogies requirements for Higher Order Thinking, Deep Knowledge and Understanding.

Healy, A. (2007). Expanding Student Capacities: Learning By Design. In A. Healy (Ed.), Multiliteracies and Diversity in Education :New Pedagogies for Expanding Landscapes. (pp. 2-29). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press

Chapter 1 Expanding Student Capacities: Learning By Design Pedagogy Annah Healy provides a epistemological theory of learning: Learning by Design (Kalantzis & Cope 2005). This conceptual learning framework ‘aims to engage students’ life-world interests and ways of being…’ ‘by promoting student agency’ thus strongly supporting Productive Pedagogies’ academic engagement, self regulation, inclusivity, group identity and active citizenship. This is done through the use of four knowledge process; Experiencing, Conceptualising, Analysing and Applying whilst also looking at text design. The students agency is protected pedagogically via the use of a community of learners context, which is flexible to cover civic and private activity. Thus flexible enough to cater for the natural learning diversity within any group of people.  

Santoro, N. ­­­­­­­­­­­­Using the Four Resources Model Across the Curriculum. Text Next: New Resources for Literacy Learning pp51-67 accessed:15.03.11 education.qld.gov.au/literacy/docs/four-resource-model.pdf

Ninetta Santoro’s chapter is written for in-service teachers; it provides a practical deconstruction of Luke and Freebody’s (2000) Four Resource Model. For her purpose Ninetta defines literacy via Winch’s (2004) ‘ we can think of literacy not merely as a single set of skills, but as a way of operating with a variety of texts within particular sets of social situations… Literacy practices are embedded in the practices of our everyday lives’. It highlights that ‘[i]ncreasingly, middle-years teachers are realising that teaching of subject-based content s linked inextricably to the teaching of subject literacies.’ Thus to be literate and for success in today’s assessment pieces students are needed to be ‘…explicitly taught subject-specific vocabulary or …linguistic ‘tools’ of comparison’ .

Refugees And Acceptance of Self

I finding Acceptance is all we need;

I have been watching the news this morning and it is all about what the refugees have done after they have been told that they will not be granted a pass into Australia. We Australian’s who feel as though we will give the ‘underdog’ a chance must surely be losing this as we are all about putting people into categories. We will get anger and violence unless we treating each person like a person and get to know them; understand what they have gone through… that they are just trying for a better life.

This not being able to accept others is from our feedback generally as children to ourselves that we aren’t achieving at a high enough rate; school is all about finding out how to teach at a higher level all the time. Children will learn what they need to learn when they are ready; and as parents we also need to remember that. The hard part is that we don’t drop expectations that don’t allow us to see them as adults.

I myself find that within my studies I am making promises to myself and course coordinator to have things done by certain times yet are not following through. This isn’t because I am not able, it may be slightly that time is hard to find, and things take longer than I expect (as most of my studies are incorporating new experiences and understandings for me) though it is mostly me needing to feel accepted. This I cannot do unless I work on myself. And like it or not this takes time.

I keep wondering what/where it is that I will fit in within the work force; it has been great really feeling like I’m achieving something by going into the Toowoomba UNI to study as I am fulfilling the role of a student who will make a contribution to our society.

I am aware that I am not wanting to start working on something when I’m already within a framework that is going to work against what I am trying to achieve. I am in a process of trying to get rid of as many deficits as possible. I know that I do want a consistency with some aspects of what I will do; maybe the people I see a few times a week; thus as much as I want to train others in NVC ( and I know I will at some point), I also want to see learning happening; I want to celebrate growth. And in some weird scheme of things celebrate death as that is where death leads… I do not want to be scared of it. Yes it is unknown to me but it’s celebration I’m sure is what will assist us from working within a deficit as society.

My funeral needs to be a real celebration; A celebration of connections made, needs being met both positively and negatively and grief over how sad it is for this wonderful gift of life to be so short lived.

It is a learning journey; and at different points we all will have different points of view and need for them to be heard … yet really all we need to remember is how to accept what we are feeling, acknowledge from that what we are needing and accept that others have different ways about doing the same process. It’s all in the giving.

Great sites list I will add to

Starfall.com this is for reading, I have been told that there is a maths version though I haven't found it yet.

My Bible through this development phase

Unschooling to read authors;
Dayna Martin- also her webcasts are great
How I Parent eBook by Bob Collier

General Parenting/Marriage Survival Kit;
Don't b Nice, Be Real- Non Violent Communication Based Book
Unconditional Parneting- Alfie Kohn

Check out the Unschooling Conference 2011 in Australia... I am so excited

If you are ever in need to buy a book go to booko to get the best price/s. Usually free shipping world wide!

With Change Comes...

Trusting that my child/ren getting all that they need? 12.04.11

Hi I am in state of flux re: sending my child to ‘school’ for a 3yo; he is wanting to go to school, and I am wondering if what he is wanting to do is to learn from older children/have more stimulus than I/we have been offering… Is this the best solution or should I be saying no and trail other things first…

My husband has PTS and is at home and I have taken the drive ‘to get us somewhere’ via taking up full time study. This on top of this general state of life we are in a move which has caused a lot of practical use of time. This has taken away the focus I usually would have on my children; up until now my 3yo has been happy with just having a 1yo and the playgroups, play dates, different trips to here and there.

I am feeling also a little isolated via situation and lack of family support/influences for myself and children thus am tempted to take Jacob to day care and let him have a taste of this for the remainder of the Uni semester. Is there to many changes at the moment? And have I successfully set him up with the skills for him to feel safe and able to accept this in his stride? (I suppose this is all apart of the trust aspect to unschooling… and parenting.)

I have always had issues leaving my children with anybody and if there wasn’t an older female whom I felt comfortable with I generally feel even less comfortable as I am aware of how many kids from high school go straight into childcare without a clue past this being their first real job.

I know that if I keep it centred to what Jacob wants I am keeping in sync with what I am want for the learning experiences of my family; unschooling. Though I am wondering about the big jumps in  comfort zone that I am about to let my 3yo embark on.  He is getting to a stage where he doesn’t want to talk about things as much and just do; is this a bad thing for a 3yo as we are very language based within my family or has some of you experienced different jumps in different learning areas and consider this to be normal.

(I am feeling a little self conscious as I am noting that I am feeling a little disconnected from my family as I am trying to complete 4 subjects this semester). This though in itself (not as positive for the 1yo but still not negative either) is a overall good thing as it is allowing my husband to be Dad and not the parent that is Trumpt by Mum all the time. My 3yo is ready for understanding of his father more and is doing lots of ‘Boys’ stuff’ with him. Oh and my 1yo fits well into the scheme of things though is learning a lot differently to our 1^st child and I am still getting my head around this… any help with this though…. What sort of things do the following children miss out on a little bit more than the first? Where do they advance (well this is pretty obvious)

I’m feeling as though I am happy to send him to school with his Dad and brother in tow to settle him in and only have this (at this point until the Uni semester is over and I am freer to look at the HS and US and AP networks around Toowoomba).

I am beginning to acknowledge that this is the path that we are going to take and that within our family thus far we do tend to go through growth spurts of massive change and then what feels like nothing for quite a while; so the change isn’t scaring me that much. Nor is the potential long term affects of being  sent to day care ( as I remember that I was quite a shy child who hated day care and wasn’t very trusting) as I hope that he will want to come out by the time the Uni semester is over. 

Though in the interim; has anyone else been in the same situation, how long did this want to go last for and what where some of the issues that came up? 

What strategies have people used to assist with this change that my child wants to embark on?

Thanks for your time and consideration; this internet is great for connection and feeling supported.

13.04.11

I am acknowledging that today I am aware of just how I have situated myself through my experiences and the internal work I need to do to make this above possible and not live in fear and thus teach my children to live in fear.  As a sensitive child who’s needs weren’t picked up on I have adapted coping strategies that are like many of our coping strategies less than effective, though very effective for the short term. Q: How is it that we teach our children more holistic ways of dealing with conflicts within our lives when they will see a strategy that they thought is/was used effectively and take it on board; A: through acknowledgment and consistency with talking about how that made us feel in the long run. Did it make us feel safe and secure? Did you feel as though you can trust this person to have your best interests at heart? As if someone has your best interest at heart then we consider them to be our friend. We don’t like thinking that people will hurt one another though we don’t consider that people are learning different things at different rates and have different values. Overall we have the same need but we go about getting them met in different ways.

Assertiveness is something someone needs to be developmentally ready to do? Talking things through or just letting them know that it is all aright that the other person that did you an injustice/hurt your feelings/made you scared was learning something and learning is all alright. Though if you don’t feel safe whilst they are learning something then that is when we need to place up our personal barrier and this is always going to be pushed either by our understanding or that of others trying to figure out what is classed acceptable behaviour with one person will not be with another.

Creating the feel safe bubble is so hard to do as lots of things scare different people and usually it is things that have been passed down from the family. I don’t want my children to be living in fear of anything even change; I want them to acknowledge that they are uncomfortable though that this brings with it an opportunity to grow and experience new things or become resentful for not being grateful or even for not being happy as they haven’t acknowledge that they need to grieve over the passing of time and the past becoming the past. Change happens and it is not able to be prevented, for me change comes in waves; lots of it at times and then none for a while. I am acknowledging that it is how I live within the times of little change that will best situate how I deal with oncoming change and let me feel happy and grateful for the ‘rest’ periods between the change.

I acknowledge that all of these questions come from my experiences of pain/conflict that I didn’t feel as though I was skilled enough to handle thus they have become fears that I don’t want my children to… I don’t want them to become a barrier that we need to get past thus I am

I want to thank some great influence of mine. There are a lot of people who I do this for in my head though I am now wanting to publish them to celebrate my growing understandings of life and our connectedness to one another; thus overall celebrating life;  ‘Great’ is up for interpretation here and the one that I am suggesting is that these ladies have provided me with a few different understandings over time short moments of time for me are worth more than all the money in the world to me.

Julie Curtis Maths teacher Earnshaw State College 2004; Thank you for your time answering my questions surrounding maths and being honest about not knowing how to overcome being scared off by not feeling empowered/ capable of handling a mathematical equation. Your honesty even though couldn’t stop my pain then nor even now it has taken me further to find lots of little parts to the puzzle that was my question. I acknowledge now that you need time to become comfortable with new things/understandings/mathematical concepts, maths being one of them, you need to celebrate new understandings and be creative with them to really apply them into your knowledge bank through the use of real situations. And finally when you don’t know how to tackle a new situation and you have been shown then you need to break it all down into things that you do know and build your confidence by doing the above sentence again and again until you are happy to know you will understand it one day or finally understand it now. This I find is the one area that learning for me could only be true learning.

Mrs Armstrong Music teacher ; Your support of my joy that I found in music to do more of it was exactly what I most craved within my life inside and outside of my schooling, that little attention through feedback inspired me to do well in what it is that I liked. I am particularly grateful for the understanding that even if your folder doesn’t come back in the same condition that you lent it to someone in that it isn’t a big deal and it is up to me to say something if it bothered me… I was surprised though thankful that it came back the way it did… food for thought was always something that I was in need for and it isn’t until recent that I have been able to acknowledge various needs being met in busy lives that will account for little things like this being overlooked, and how I was protecting my relations with you in not saying anything (this I have found out recently is something most teens; thus an age and stage development).  I will never want an apology as this did me more favours as in providing understandings that means more to me than that folder and thus I am saying thankyou for the experience it provided.

With all of these understanding provided another area that I keep circling on is; Where is the line for getting in and preventing learning for our children (by maybe doing something for them too much), Is there a valid part that one person can actively play in someone’s learning such as that of a teacher… ( this is more if the learner is not ready for that learning),

There are balances and I am yet to define them clearly for my understanding.   

A lot of changes

Hi All,
We are moving house and city; back to Toowoomba to see old friends, make new ones, finish Uni for me and to Start uni for Sean. Jacob is 3 now and wanting to go to school so we are going to trail this.... Ben is growing bigger and oh so active... We are leaving our first home as a family and going into our first real rental (as prior to this we were housesitting). Sean and I are both excited and scared.
Keep in touch
Candice