Are we preparing kids for the future or for 1950? Are we preparing kids for the future or 1950? I think it’s a valid question considering most school layouts, school days and classrooms look the same as they did 70 years ago. In the past 20 years technology has quickly driven society forward in nearly every way - communication, travel, financial, and leisure looks different than it did in the year 2000, and almost unrecognisable from 1950. Despite this, our school year, school day, lesson layout, and lesson delivery still retains much of the "old guard". Kids with learning difficulties did not fit into that old model, and they still don't. Think about your own school experience: How did your

Independence: The final goal or a step in the right direction? I often stand in front of school audiences and pose the question: What’s the point of this whole school thing? I typically get a variety of answers ranging from the brilliant to the occasional dreadful how-did-that-person-get-a-job-in-a-school type response! Things like: "So kids can one day get a job." "For kids to learn to follow instructions." "To help kids can grow up and be healthy and happy." "To help kids learn to be creative and work together to build a better society." Other than the second one, which is Victorian-era thinking at best, I think these are fairly noble answers. We want our kids to learn skills that allow th

The Sprint: all about me? Think for a moment about the 100m sprint event at the Olympics. For years, each runner has trained day and night to qualify for this 10-second race, qualifying at a local, regional and then national level. Thousands upon thousands of hours have been exhausted to stand on the Olympic stage for this over-in-a-flash event. At the start of the race, each runner takes their time stepping up to their blocks, going through various warm-up exercises, stress-reducing routines and performance-focused visualisation of what the race will look like – including how they will approach the starting line, how they will explode out of the starting blocks, the stride with which they’l

Proving Yourself versus Improving Yourself My acting career never got off the ground (quite literally!). When I was 16, I starred in a high school musical performance of West Side Story (photo above from the 1961 film). In it, I played the character “Riff” - the singing, dancing, 1950s Upper West Side finger-snapping gang leader of The Jets. Unfortunately, dancing was (and is) not a particular strength. In the opening night performance, I slipped up in the big dance scene and ended up falling on a girl’s face; knocked her out, gave her a concussion and sent her off to the hospital. If I had any doubt that my uncoordinated dancing abilities hardly rivalled that of an uncoordinated tree sloth

Fortunately, things have changed​ I hated school. You can ask my parents, my kindergarten teacher, the school secretary and anyone who knew me. I used to cling to my parents' each day at the school gates while the office lady pried my raging arms off my dad's legs. I refused to go inside the building, i didn't understand the point of going, and found no satisfaction from being there. I used to think Horace Mann messed us all over with his so-called "public education reforms" and belief that education was for everyone. Did you really know who Horace Mann was? Yes. As a kid my parents told me to complain to the person who started "school", so I looked up who to blame, only to find that he'd be

The cat left a present in the sandbox...again. Do you remember playing in the sandbox as a kid. Do you remember what happened when the neighbourhood cat got in the sand? I do, and I shudder to think about it... I would often find myself playing with toys only to find some cat had mistaken it for its own personal litter-box, leaving behind... you know what I’m talking about! Fortunately, that is all I have to say about playing with cat poo in the sandbox, but if I can get you to remember the phrase: "cat in the sand” …then I’ve accomplished my goal. Multi-sensory teaching When we talk about multi-sensory teaching we are referring to utilising the different senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste

Let’s look at overlearning. Let’s look at overlearning. Let’s look at OVERLEARNING! (Yes, that was intentional) Think back to when you learnt to ride a bicycle (or another amazingly wonderful childhood feat). When learning to ride a bike did you have instant success, or did you have to first learn to pedal and steer on a tricycle or foot cycle for a couple years? Did you instantly ride off into the sunset with perfect two-wheel steering control, or were you a little wobbly at first? Could you “pop-a-wheelie” with instant control on the first day, or did you crash violently onto the pavement like I did at the tender age of 5? Let’s face it. None of us were instantly ready for Le Tour de Franc

Let’s take a look at the next principle of SLOOM! teaching: Little and Often “Little and Often” means to teach in small time frames... often! Rocket science it is not! If you’ve spent any amount of time in a school, you know that teacher and support staff time constraints can make it difficult to deliver interventions to students. As a teacher, I know that shorter (10-15 minute) sessions require me to be clear and concise with the skills I am teaching. When it comes to teaching students with literacy difficulties it is vital that targeted intervention and support is delivered in lengths of 5-20 minute (at most) blasts rather than a prolonged, full 1-hour of teaching. If you have a child (or

Developing confidence in our kids Have you ever experienced failure in something? Perhaps it was a test or assignment in school? Have you ever worked with a child (your own, or in school) only to see them struggle to succeed or even flat out fail? It can be incredibly frustrating, can’t it? Feelings of helplessness, self-doubt, and self-condemnation try and creep in and it can take awhile to recover. Imagine what it’s like as a teenager with reading difficulties who has struggled with reading their entire life. Think about it. Their hormones are already all over the place as they look around to see everyone else succeeding at this “ordinary” skill, but for whatever reason they simply cannot

The Christmas Holiday has the potential to be the most wonderful time of the year for food, family, faith and friends. The time together can also provide terrific opportunities for parents and carers to connect with their children by enjoying a variety of leisurely learning experiences with them. As teachers, parents and carers of children with learning and additional needs, it’s always important to remind ourselves that children’s’ curiosity is often most developed through hands on, interactive learning experiences with friends, family and the world around us. Many of our children learn more by doing and investigating rather than simply seeing and hearing. While tablets, smart phones and co