VictoriaC, Author at Victoria Carlton ~ The Child Whisperer – Page 16 of 28

October 16, 2015

TEACHERS NEED SELF-CARE

Angry mother scolding a disobedient child

I recently spoke at a conference in Singapore to Pre-School teachers about the importance of self-care.
The thing is, stressed teachers are not effective and teaching is one of the most highly stressed jobs in the world. This is particularly true of pre-school teaching. You simply cannot get away from little children. It is not possible to say, “Open your book to page 123 and carry on with your maths” while you take a moment to leave the room and breathe!
So you have to be PRESENT all the time and that means very good stress management principles are needed.
A recent survey of 30, 000 US teachers in New York found most of them were highly stressed but wanted to stay with their profession because they CARE!

“We ask teachers to be a combination of Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and, I’m dating myself here, Tony Soprano,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. “We ask them to be Mom and Dad and impart tough love but also be a shoulder to lean on. And when they don’t do these things, we blame them for not being saviors of the world. What is the effect? The effect has been teachers are in¬cred¬ibly stressed out.”

Teachers often still have young children at home so they do “double duty!”
When we train teachers to use our EQ4KIDZ program we insist on spending 1 day where we focus on teachers’ mental health issues, EQ and stress management. We demonstrate ways to pause and be mindful and discuss helpful daily stress management.
In order to be able to drop all problems at the door of the classroom before entering, teachers need time to spend alone, to think, to plan and to manage their stress levels.
The busy school day must make some “intervals” or “gaps” where teachers can gather thoughts, reflect and re-group.
It is a great blessing to be able to teach the next generation but it is also one of the most taxing, enervating, highly skilled and stressful professions on earth so let’s ensure we do not lose our amazing teachers. The profession needs help!
With the many curriculum changes and challenging behaviours teachers must deal with, stress management is not just a soft option. It is a necessity. Unless all teachers are taught how to manage their stress, care for themselves and recognise unhealthy signs of tension we will have burnt out, fed up and stressed out teachers and unhappy, unsuccessful students.

October 13, 2015

“Kindfulness” Braids

Braided bracelet, colored threads, beads and various attributes

This term all our students will be invited to stop, be mindful for a minute and then focus on a kind deed they can do.
They will then take 3 pieces of yarn or ribbon and braid them together to hang on our learning tree.
This braid will symbolise the way that kindness affects at least 3 people-
• The person we are kind to
• Ourselves as we feel good inside
• Someone else who is affected by what we have done. (They may have seen the act, or benefited because the recipient of kindness tends to spread the love!)

This kindness braids us all together and causes ripple effects in our lives.
When I explained this to yesterday’s students (first day of term), they were very excited and wanted to start immediately! They also want to wear these KINDNESS braids as bracelets and thread beads onto them! I guess, (as usual), the children have taken an idea and transformed it. They breathed life into it and improved it!
We hope our learning tree and children’s wrists will be covered with these braids by the end of the term!
Next week we will be enjoying a special visualisation to help us spread the kindness and I will share it on this blog!

October 11, 2015

Not a Worksheet in Sight!

I was honoured to be a presenter both days at the recent ECDA conference in Singapore.

Over the 2 days I spent a great deal of time walking around, meeting educators and looking at the wonderful displays about children’s learning.

What really struck me as unusual was NOT A BORING WORKSHEET in sight!

There were photos of children engaged in creative, problem solving activities and many examples of their writing and fascinating ideas.

There were HUGE displays of children’s art and craft and models they built to demonstrate understanding of various themes and projects.

The excitement about science, maths, literacy and social emotional learning was everywhere! Young children had been to museums and art galleries to learn and absorb and then allowed to respond honestly in their own unique ways.

Congratulations ECDA on a wonderful conference and congratulations Singapore Pre-School teachers for the amazing showcasing of children’s work and creativity.

I came back to Perth, invigorated and fired up with so many ideas and new strategies. Thank you!

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015

The ABC of Child Whispering: I is for IMPORTANT

As developing child whisperers we need to keep IMPORTANT in front of us at all times. That means thinking deeply about life and children.

It means letting children be who they are meant to be. It means honouring their cocktail of intelligences.

ALL KIDS ARE SMART can show you ways to assess your child’s intelligences and build on each one.

You can of course also assess and build your own intelligences as well with this book!

Of course we want the best for our children but that does not always mean academic success.

The values such as kindness, self-discipline, perseverance and loyalty are the most important things we teach as well as spiritual, emotional and social learning.

Listening to children and making time to be with them, are essential as we help them to grow.

Encouraging children to be kind and loving people are essential components of real learning. These values cannot be learned at speed and children gradually learn these through interactions with you and their close and extended family and community groups and through their play, books, media and faiths. Build a meaningful, positive and life enhancing home environment for your children and choose a schooling system that will build their EQ as well as their IQ!

You are a model- ultimately what you DO rather than what you say will have the greatest impact on your children.

Give up your preconceived notions of who they should be. (And who YOU want them to be!)

Rather ask- who are they?

Let them unfold and discover their own destiny and don’t stand in their way!

October 9, 2015

What Hudson Taught Me

I have had a little “just under 2” child staying at my house for a few days and his Mum boldly told me, “We are not leaving till you have taught Hudson to read!”

MMMMM- bit of a challenge there!
Joanna (my daughter), grabbed the Jolly Phonics manual and made some flash cards of the first few lessons and taught Hudson the sounds and actions. Amazingly he just learned them and now LOVES to practise- until he gets bored and wanders off to ride his bike or whatever!
I realised when he left that Hudson taught and re-taught me quite a few lessons that ALL teachers need to remember. He taught me more than I taught him! Here are a few things I learned about toddlers!
• Don’t push it- when the learning is over, it’s OVER.
• Young children can easily learn the sounds and in fact enjoy this.
• Children will take your specially constructed games and invent even more interesting games to play!
• Music and movement trumps everything else!
• Humour and a good dose of silliness makes EVERYTHING work!
• Strong colours in books really attract.
• Children do not need expensive toys. In fact almost everything you need to teach a toddler is already in your house!
Kids want to do EVERYTHING themselves!
They have an insatiable curiosity and are therefore completely open for learning!
There is no joy greater than playing with a completely free and inventive, creative toddler.
If you can- arrange to spend a few hours with a toddler this week. You will re-discover your inner child and be forced to be creative!
Hudson’s coming for the day on Friday and I’m excited!

October 7, 2015

The ABC of Child Whispering I is for INTERESTING

Children are intrigued, interested and in love with life. The art of child whispering includes the capability to provide enriching, interesting experiences to help children pay attention and engaged with their learning.

Children do not pay attention to BORING, and neither do we! There are boring things that we need to teach children (e.g tables, spelling etc) but it is up to us to find interesting ways to make that happen. Just this morning I found a Superhero program that will zap up our tables practice and no doubt I will be looking for another one within 6 months!

The ability to sense children are switching off is paramount to acting quickly and facilitating optimal learning. Watch their eyes- boredom is easy to spot!

Here are 10 ways to keep learning interesting–

Use auditory, visual and kinaesthetic strategies to make sure ALL children are engaged.

1. Vary your voice so it is not a monotone.
2. Use colour as a learning aid and allow children to respond in colour rather than just grey pencil.
3. Include lots of experiences with the natural world as children are totally intrigued by nature.
4. Be clear about the outcomes and standards you expect.
5. Be clear about discipline and rewards and consequences.
6. Encourage children and show them HOW to improve.
7. Ensure your learning program can be “tweaked” so that children who need to have their learning extended or slowed will have needs catered for.
8. Be enthusiastic yourself and allow children to see you are also a learner.
9. Make sure children have some spare time to do anything they choose (within limits!) The biggest complaint I hear from children of all ages is that they have no spare time.
10. Model leading an interesting life so that children will see that you have fun too and love to learn and experiment with new things.

September 28, 2015

An Inspirational Woman!

I caught up with my friend, colleague and “inspirer” yesterday at the Singapore Preschool teachers’ conference.

Dr Christine Chen is a bright, shining Jewel on the Singapore Preschool educational scene and I am proud to have been associated with a few of her myriad projects!

Christine commented to us, “My job here. has finished,” in response to the tremendous outpouring of creativity and showcasing of quality pre-school programs on show. She is both right and wrong!

Yes Christine- you have done an amazing job and what a transformation over the last 20 years but Christine- you are still needed! All your ideas, passion, clear thinking are needed on the world stage now as well as in Singapore. We ALL need you. The children around the world need you!

It is the Christine Chens of this world who humbly work towards helping children and transforming their world. People like this think clearly, stick to their visions, work incredibly hard and remember it is all about children. We all need models like Christine to inspire and lift us up!

Sorry Christine- your work will NEVER be finished but may your journey be blessed and joyous!

September 18, 2015September 18, 2015

There’s nothing wrong with me! by Guest Blogger Kelli Gander

There’s nothing wrong with me! (Embracing the quirky)

It never ceases to amaze me how many children I see each week who have been branded with one label or another. There are your standard ADD, ADHD, APD, CAPD & AMD’s. There’s your ED, NLD, ODD, PDD, AFD and AMD’s. Then we have less common Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and Dysnomia (believe me when I say that there are many, many more). Obviously there are children out there with very real problems preventing them from functioning fully in a class room but where has this enormous growth in disorders come from and who is it driven by?
Is it the teachers who no longer know how to manage multiple personality types or learning styles, the parents who need to rationalise why their child does not fit into a predetermined mould or is it the professionals cashing in on the insecurities of those parents whose children are just ‘a little bit different’.
We have a saying in Victoria Carlton Programs and it is ‘embrace the quirky’. Children, like adults, are all unique but somewhere along the line, unique has become bad and these children have become problems that need to be solved, disorders that need to be diagnosed and something that needs to be fixed.
When was it decided that all children had to think, act, learn and behave in the same way? Why is there no room left to be different, individual, quirky and just a little bit odd? Anybody who is the parent of a quiet, well behaved child knows that compliance and silence does not equal understanding or higher levels of ability and I can say with all certainty that the quirkiest children are often our most gifted, creative and brightest but they do not fit the mould. They come outside of the box, they challenge us, question us and often exasperate us but does that mean there is something wrong with them, a deficit or flaw waiting to be diagnosed.
It honestly breaks my heart to hear a child say “I can’t do that because I am (or) I have….”and then they are shuttled between one specialist or other to receive another label or another diagnosis. Energetic five year old boys who don’t sit still during mat time have ADHD, creative children who don’t colour in the lines have fine motor issue, introverted children who daydream in class, have auditory processing problems.
This problem is not exclusive to our children either but also effects parents, who are being led to believe that their one of a kind offspring is somehow faulty, which then keeps this perpetual wheel of diagnosis and testing turning. As parents we are often insecure but we are the ones who know our children best and we should not be afraid to use our voices and say that being different does not equal something wrong that normal is not a one size fits all mould used to compare children against each other.
That child who is obsessed by potatoes, only ever writes about Komodo dragons, is better at math than English, would rather run outside than tell news, talks a lot in class, doesn’t like poetry, forgets what the teacher just told them, can’t sit still for long, repeats the bad language they hear their parents use, only wants to colour in green etc etc etc……..they are all ‘normal’. Let’s all try, not only to embrace but also to celebrate the quirky and stop telling our children that there is something wrong with them!

August 17, 2015

You say discipline, I say humiliation! by Guest Blogger, Kelli Gander

It is no secret, teachers are like circus performers. They are constantly juggling tasks, performing classroom magic, taming, orchestrating the show and entertaining and engaging a very tricky audience. All the while they do this they are also walking a very fine line between creativity and control, process and product, function and freedom.

That line will vary class to class and teacher to teacher. It will depend on personal philosophy, experience, training, skill sets and individual expectations but what happens when the line gets crossed, particularly when it comes to behaviour management of children?

I had a recent experience of this that was close to me. The teacher described her actions as discipline, I considered it humiliation. She said she was using a routine classroom strategy and I said she was shaming in order to achieve compliance. So where is that line?

I know for me personally, publicly shaming a child is never appropriate. Whatever short term gain the teacher may feel they have made is out weighed, considerably, by the emotional anguish and negative feelings the child suffers as a result.

I spoke to many adults, both friends and colleagues, who had stories of school day traumas that stay with them still, after being made emotionally vulnerable by a classroom teacher. Did it change their behaviour long term? Apparently no!

It would seem that research agrees. After a 3 year study by the University of South Australia, it is evidenced that exclusion and isolation of children is an ineffective means of affecting a change in student’s behaviour.
So why does it still happen routinely in our schools and why is it tolerated and considered acceptable? Perhaps not enough thought or attention is put into considering the rights of the child. That is not to say that the teacher should be left powerless but surely isolation, naughty chairs and public shaming are old and antiquated methods for our modern, emotionally intelligent and creative educators.

Surely we don’t have to make children feel bad about themselves in order to achieve a behavioural objective. Let’s use our powers for good, not as an emotional weapon to achieve a short term goal with possibly very long lasting emotional effects.
You say it’s discipline, l say It’s humiliation and I know my voice is not alone!

August 10, 2015

Another brick in the wall?

What sort of an education do we REALLY want for our children?
Maybe it’s time to listen to the Pink Floyd song again but this time really listen!

Do we really want to turn our kids into robots or “just another brick in the wall?”
There are clear choices:
Choice A: Do we want happy, well rounded kids with high emotional intelligence and a wide range of talents and interests? Do we want kids who will become life-long learners? Do we want kids who love reading and love to express themselves in writing and enjoy the elegance and challenge of mathematics?
Choice B: Or do we want kids who just regurgitate facts like trained seals and do not know how to think or even have anything to think about?
Most definitely the British and Australian Governments are choosing the latter and this will have hugely negative effects on children’s well-being and ability to think, create and dream. We are in effect, once again abolishing childhood!
This is a really interesting article about the British Government trying to adopt a more test oriented approach to education- somewhat like the Chinese one; and strangely, at a time when China is moving away from this because it simply does not work!
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgu.com%2Fp%2F4b8h7%2Fsfb&ref=responsive
The Australian Government is doing exactly the same. It has used the big NAPLAN stick to try to beat schools into some sort of results driven shape and reduce them to the type of school written about in Dicken’s Hard Times.
“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”
― Charles Dickens, Hard Times
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Children CAN learn the basic literacy and numeracy skills without the hugely expensive and inefficient NAPLAN process.
I don’t think all testing is wrong. As teachers we need to be aware of levels, learning styles and have practical plans to help ALL students reach their potential. However, teachers need to be given the tools to teach effectively, the resources and mentoring they need and to be trusted to get on with the job!
Term one in many schools is now given over to the new subject: NAPLAN! Kids do long, boring tests that effectively teach them how to pass tests but not much else. This means that 4 terms of work have to be crammed into the three remaining terms. No wonder teachers are tired, stressed and unwilling to teach the NAPLAN years.
We have to wake up from this soporific educational haze and look at what DOES work. I for one am sick of all the sycophantic praise given to Finland’s education system (one that DOES work) and then watching the Aussie Government totally ignoring good practice and reverting back to the big stick of testing!

Now the problem with standardized tests is that it’s based on the mistake that we can simply scale up the education of children like you would scale up making carburetors. And we can’t, because human beings are very different from motorcars, and they have feelings about what they do and motivations in doing it, or not.

Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests.
Sir Ken Robinson

Author: VictoriaC