Posts by Jackie Clark
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Hard News: OGB Update, in reply to Isabel Hitchings,
There weren't! From now on, I will assume responsibility for such things.
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What a lovely evening, thanks Russell. It was a real pleasure to hear Louis the Zu, and see some of Cut Collective's work. Talented people indeed. My highlight was meeting Hilary Stace and Christopher Dempsey. This is such a wonderful community, and it makes me very happy to be a part of it.
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One question. Will there be nametags? Shall I bring some?
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Here is Ruby. Ruby is very naughty. Ruby smashed a window today by jumping at it. Ruby is fine, but the window is not. Now Ruby is tired. Because being naughty is very tiring.
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Hard News: Who'd have thought?, in reply to chris,
My brothers went, as very small boys of 7, as weekly boarders to Kings Prep. They were gotten up, every morning of the year, to swim in the cold pool. Sado-masochistic they must have been, back then.
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If anyone wants to have some dinner beforehand, just let me know. My email icon is up there.
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Uniforms are an interesting thing. I went from uniformed to non-uniformed schools - uniform at my very first school (St Annes which closed and a parent group started up Kristin), to nonuniform at Takapuna Primary, back to uniform at Dio, and then on to Marsden, and finally mufti in my 7th form year at Rangitoto. Coming from a relatively wealthy family, I don't know that I ever noticed the difference. But nowadays, as an observer, and seeing school kids every day in Mangere, I have understood two things. Firstly, the school next door to us has a sort of a uniform - the red tshirt/sweatshirt, blue/black pants thing. Most of the kids wear it, and it would seem to me that for their parents, this would save a great deal of money. Some of the kids don't wear it all the time, which would be about what Emma has said. Namely, if you can only afford one set of uniform clothing, then you aren't left with much choice. Secondly, with the Mangere College students, they look so smart - especially the senior kids, the prefects and so on - and I know that a number of them feel really proud when they're wearing their blazer. So there is that part of the equation too. It's something their family has invested in and something they wear with pride.
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Hard News: Who'd have thought?, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Email me and I'll tell you where we are, but there are 110 public kindergartens in Auckland and most of them have vaguely similar philosophies. We're all run by the same outfit.
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Hard News: Who'd have thought?, in reply to Scott Chris,
The philosophy o' education (no, I'm not being jaunty, the letter on my keyboard between d and g has been rendered unusable) is a many splendoured thing. I am a kindergarten teacher in the public sector, and this is our philosophy. I know it inside out, because I wrote it.
The teachers at <redacted> Kindergarten believe that early childhood education lays the foundation for a child to become an engaged and powerful learner in their own world.
We make this belief manifest by welcoming children and their whanau, and encouraging the learning community to explore and discover this environment in a way, which recognises individual strengths and competencies. We acknowledge and value parents as first teachers.
We encourage children to grow as learners by enabling them to explore all areas of the kindergarten, and by celebrating who they are as unique competent, witty, strong human beings with their own view of the world.
We believe that we build a loving and effective learning community by supporting families in their endeavours and listening to their stories without judgement.
We value the concept of whetumanawa– that every child has innate creativity and a rich imagination – and we treasure the opportunity to build on children’s’ prior experiences and knowledge, making authentic links for them by allowing them to explore at their own pace, in their own way; by recognising the importance to the brain and body of making connections; and we recognise and value peer learning by encouraging the healthy and organic growth of reciprocal relationships.
We believe that teachers are most effective when at the child’s level – seeing the world through the child’s eyes and remembering what it is to be a child, and what it means to experience the world in a joyous and wonder filled way. We feel that it is vital that children are heard, and that we make it clear to them that what they say is valid and interesting. We take joy in all that children do and say and we embrace and strive to embody the concept of taha Tinana – “the sheer joy of being human”. (Pere 1991)There is another document which I wrote to support this philosophy which breaks down each component in detail to show how our philosophy is enacted. Which is not relevant to this discussion.
And your supposition that we need to know how a child is being educated? Well, that's what ERO is all about. We already have learning outcomes that are measureable. I have no idea why we need more and more, when we already have them in place.
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Bugger. Never mind.
