Hopeful Words

You know what I’ve realised (and probably not for the first time) is that when adversity comes your way, and it will, it’s the love, care and support of people - from near and far - that makes all the difference.

Evil prospers when good men do nothing. Thanks to all the people who step up and pitch in to help others.

Monthly writers' group meeting tonight. We had to write for five minutes using the prompt, "I edged around the ledge and came to an opening in the rocks. I squeezed inside and ..."

Thought I'd share:

I edged around the ledge and came to an opening in the rocks. I squeezed inside and discovered a box full of buried thoughts, ideas and potential.

It was called The Box of Everything You Were Meant to Be.

I had a choice.

One, open the box and recall all my missed opportunities, failures and regrets.

Or ...

Two, leave it well alone. Be grateful with everything I have learned and continue to live each day with love.

I chose the latter.

Suddenly, a golden light shone, and words appeared in the air before me: “Congratulations. You have arrived at Wisdom.”

Laughter really is the best medicine. After a fun weekend with the girls, my head is clear to write and write and write. And I just wanted to share some hopeful words at the start of a new week… so many to choose from but this one is about appreciating time.

Last one for tonight. One that I'm sure all teachers can relate to... mental exhaustion.

17 March 2011
11.03pm
Mental Exhaustion
Tonight I am too tired to handwrite my reflection. I don’t have to write a reflection but I want to. Even though I am physically and mentally exhausted, I am on autopilot because I am excited about the road ahead. It’s a road towards improving outcomes for my students and it’s a road I am glad to be travelling.
Why am I on this road? I think I have my Year 11s to thank for inspiring me to take this path. You see, at the moment we are studying Personal Reflective writing. It’s because of this that I have ‘googled’ information this week on “Reflective Writing” and found that reflection often springs from a critical event. Not only that but after reflecting on the critical event, the subject finds themselves changing their life, their way of thinking or their way of responding to issues.
So, having digested this knowledge, I found myself reflecting at home about how I could improve my Year 10s and Year 9s futures, with Senior English in mind. I wrote a reflection of the main behaviour/work ethic/housekeeping problems with my Year 10s because how can I expect to teach them to learn unless they are listening to me. Then I wrote a solution to each problem and today I went into the class so much clearer about what I need to do. I spoke to my class firmly but gently. I often find it a difficult balance between discipline and a good relationship with my students. I’ve decided that I will speak to my students no more harshly than I would speak to my own children,
Anyway, the whole gist of what I’m trying to say is that I reflected, I changed what I was doing in the classroom, and it worked. Or as the saying goes, I came, I saw, I conquered. I came home, I reflected, I conquered the problems. For today, that is!
When I am inspired, when I am not exhausted, when I am emotionally engaged, I write far more effectively than when I am tired with too much to do. Could it be that students write more effectively when they are inspired, when they are not exhausted, and most especially, when they are emotionally engaged?
Kettle’s boiled!!!
One more thought though – it seems that when I am inspired, when I am emotionally engaged, I prefer to write by hand, with a personal touch. When I am tired or feel like it’s ‘work’, I prefer to get it over and done with on my laptop. Interesting.

Teacher Reflection #1 - March 2011
Teachers and students, please feel free to add your own perspectives in the comments below. Together, let's write 'A Love Letter to Teaching'...

I am a teacher in a secondary school and this is my first year of teaching Senior English. Until now, I have been a beginner teacher for four years, and it has always bothered me that students succeed in English until the end of Year 10 and then find it difficult to succeed in Senior English. I have often wondered what the ‘gap’ is between Junior and Senior English.

I have also been a casual tutor in a Literacy and Numeracy in Secondary course at our local university, so I am very interested in literacy as a way into learning. My involvement in the university has resulted in my commencement of a Master by Research Degree this year. Initially, my research question was centred around student success, with a leaning towards looking at the literacy side of things.

When I began my Masters in March 2011, I found myself writing daily reflections as I wanted to examine my own practice as a teacher. I remembered reflecting daily when I was a pre-service teacher, and I found the writing of reflections a very powerful tool for highlighting strengths and weaknesses in my pedagogy and in students’ learning. I found them helpful because they enabled me to develop a plan for improvement the next day. No stone was left unturned!

After reading my initial reflections to my supervisors, they suggested that my research methodology approach could be something like a narrative or an autoethnography; telling my own story as a teacher. I was thrilled with this idea and couldn’t believe my good fortune in being able to do ‘work’ and enjoy writing about it at the same time. I find that I am passionate about writing now.

In navigating this autoethnography, the reader will notice that sometimes the fonts change. This is no accident. It was written that way on purpose. Because I didn’t have enough time to handwrite the personal reflections that I wanted to handwrite, I chose to write them in Monotype Corsiva. These reflections were quite personal and close to my heart. On the other hand, when the reflection was more like work, and less of a heartfelt matter, the font has remained in stock-standard Arial (or Calibri which seems to be the default font on my personal laptop at home). The differing fonts were quite valuable in the initial analysis of my Term One reflections and helped delineate which issues were more emotive and which were more professional.

I hope the reader enjoys reading these experiences and knows they are certainly not alone in the emotionally charged world of teaching.

I launched Hopeful Words in November last year thinking that the way I'd be teaching them would be through writing in schools. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then... lots of good times and lots of challenges that caused me to pause and rest.

Now that I'm teaching university education students, I'm thinking that the work is injecting hopeful words into teaching and they can carry them to the students.

On the 10th of August, I'll start a research project. I've already got some research from a decade or more ago where 'robust hope - active hope' bubbled up as an important theme. I'm thinking it'd be good to do a 'then' and 'now' and 'what remains' kind of approach.

I think of the verse "These 3 things remain: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love."

I believe this to be true. That we need to actively build on these, make room for them, use them in our language and actions with students, so that we can be guides for them into the future.

And trust. We need to build trust.

All intangible things - you can't see them or touch them - but if we live them, schools will be beacons of hope for staff and students and the community.

Reading old journals on lessons I’ve learned reminds me of the important stuff 💕

What are you hopeful about today? Hopeful words + hopeful actions = hopeful outcomes

It never ceases to amaze me how when there's a group of human beings together, telling stories connects them. I was sitting on the train from Brisbane Central to Palmwoods when a man with a bicycle came over to me. "I just wanted to ask about your shirt," he said. He looked harmless enough. A good chap with a kind face....

Strangers on a Train It never ceases to amaze me how when there’s a group of human beings together, telling stories connects them. I was sitting on the train from Brisbane Central to Palmwoods when a man with a b…

When I was in Grade One, my mother came up to the school to talk to the principal. It wasn't anything to do with me or my older brother in Grade Three. We were doing fine. Mum was concerned about the system of grading - the Bell Curve. It meant that only a certain number of students could get an A, and once those spots were filled, the others would slide down to a B and so on....

What about the other kids? When I was in Grade One, my mother came up to the school to talk to the principal. It wasn’t anything to do with me or my older brother in Grade Three. We were doing fine. Mum was concerned a…

Just sharing a piece I wrote in December - it has a good strategy for proactively striving for a better day.

Wishing you a great day!

Seeking Hope The first memory I have of proactively seeking hope was when I was a young girl – possibly 9 years old. I measure the time by my baby brother who is 7 years younger than me. He was a toddler …

The first memory I have of proactively seeking hope was when I was a young girl - possibly 9 years old. I measure the time by my baby brother who is 7 years younger than me. He was a toddler around 2 years old, and just out of nappies. I know that because one of his nappies features in this story....

Seeking Hope The first memory I have of proactively seeking hope was when I was a young girl – possibly 9 years old. I measure the time by my baby brother who is 7 years younger than me. He was a toddler …