The End of School?

But I am just beginning…

As I prepare to go back into the school system (after 20 years out of it), hoping to be more than a teacher, but a better facilitator of learning… I bought another book called The End of School by Geoff Maslen….which has a ring of irony to it.
I had just read Geoff’s article in The Age about the founder of Preshill (Progressive School), Margaret E Lyttle, who had recently passed away. It was a great article and I liked the way Geoff wrote about progressive education. I then located his Blog – The Education Reformer, and was very impressed so I bought his new book, The End of School.

Over the past 6 months I have had a few days doing relief teaching in small rural primary schools and enjoyed the side by side work I was doing with the students but not the need that rises up to always be in control and dishing out busy work.

I was wanting to unlock their passions and interests to work on projects that were of interest to them, that were relevant and real. I wanted to inspire them, get them out into the real world, to unlock their creativity and imaginations. But the system does not make that easy.

Here is a section in the book that really rang true to me:

So, here I am armed with all these ideas and about to face 3 days relief teaching at the same school. A bit shell-shocked from my last day there being tested out by a few students. Respect and Trust are so important – working both ways between teacher and student.

I hope that the students and I can work together as a “community of learners, where there are no barriers between us. This takes time.

Lost Generations

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until both my mum and dad passed away that I started to become interested in local history and that of my own family. Too late to ask my parents….

Over the past 6 months I have stumbled into being keenly interested in History through photographs.
I now manage 16 Facebook pages such as Lost Shepparton, Lost Echuca Moama, Lost Bendigo & District (and other Victorian towns with “Lost”). The pages foster people’s interest in their local history by viewing/sharing the old photos and sharing their memories of what has been lost or forgotten.
I have joined 3 historical societies to learn more about collecting and curating these images/artefacts of our past and finding out what are the needs of these groups.
The ‘Lost Pages’ also gave me the opportunity to produce calendars, postcards and poster prints as a way to help raise some money for these historical societies.

I am also developing my own primary school history/technology program called Lost Generations which will be based on hands on learning with the students working with historical societies doing real and relevant projects.

In April I have been invited to speak at the Victorian Museums and Galleries Conference in Warrnambool which is an honour as I am only a newbie to the history scene.