Remembering …

 

For Dad

Great man of my life,

I think of you,

remembering

the times we shared stories of our days around the dining room table, laughing.

Your quiet confidence and humility as you shared about life and

played your favourite songs

Tales from Vienna Woods,

Let it be,

Hey Jude,

Long and winding road and

My way…

 

When I was a young, older and older still

you wore a vest

sitting at the dining-room table

reading a Louis L’amour cowboy book,

drinking a Hansa,

and following your horse racing

from a box radio beside you

 

Not that long ago I made the journey in a local bus,

from Kitwe to our first home

Chingola.

remembering the copper mine,

the football

at Ndola

Mufulira

Nchanga

the holidays – long tiresome trips through Beit Bridge to

 Scottborough

the joy of the sea

you fishing

high diving

us swimming, playing, living and loving life.

 

And then place where I knew you,

Durban.

Remembering

Berea Road

Stationery Box – your last born

window dressing early on a Saturday morning

serving customers

the Ocean View Hotel

surprise peace offerings

your joy and pride as you shared

whole chickens, toasters and more.

arms full of chocolates

for the kids

 

Remembering

your death.

The panic, the suddenness

And then the peace

 

I heard you say softly to mum,

“I love you Katy”

remembering

your gentleness

your love

the cards you wrote mum on her birthdays

 

And then

the early morning call – you had left

Great man of my life

 

 

with grateful thanks for the inspiration, Paulette Coetzee

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Education & Love #lovelearning

Isn’t it strange that when we’re descending in the depths of despair love sees us through.

I’ve been feeling disempowered, disenfranchised, demotivated and somewhat jaded about my work, teaching and learning for a host of reasons… they are actually not important at this moment because in picking up a book to put onto the library data system I found  my ‘love’ and my whole perspective has changed.

I’m feeling empowered again, motivated and upbeat and here is the reason why.

Thank you Steve Wheeler…

I bought this book for the library. It’s written by Steve Wheeler. It has the subtitle “Educational Theory and Practice in the digital age”.

Every morning, I spend some time in my habitual quest for new knowledge, learning and becoming reading new books, searching the internet for new thoughts and ideas on technology, learning and teaching. Today, I decided to put Steve’s book onto the library data system and began reading the foreword.  After the second paragraph started I jumped to the internet to find this “Wheeler” guy…

What I found was so exciting that I just had to share…

I discovered,  a new blogger who blogs about “learning with “e”s. Technology and learning.
I’m very interested in this topic, as I am busy with some research on the digital practices I use in the library and their impact on reading motivation, reading attitudes and time spent reading with the hope that these practices will eventually develop life long readers and therefore life long learners.

I then went to Steve Wheeler’s blog and browsed – perfect timing for some long weekend reading I mused.

Whilst browsing on Steve’s website and came across this post

What’s love got to do with it?  That struck a chord as I have a blog with exactly the same name as this post. Yes, I thought I believe in love and yes I know that love has everything to do with everything… even teaching and learning.

Then I discovered 3 more posts on love and teaching and learning – what a way to start the day!

 

Post 1. What has love got to do with it?

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2015/02/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it.html?view=timeslide

There are also several other posts linking love to learning. A blogger after my own heart.

Post 2. Everlasting love
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2015/02/everlasting-love.html?view=timeslide

Post 3. The Power of Love
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-power-of-love.html?view=timeslide

Post 4. All you need is Love
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2015/02/all-you-need-is-love.html?view=timeslide

Truly a great teaching, technology and learning blog by a man with a heart of love for learning.

Try it?

You will be transformed  – but then isn’t that “what love is all about”?

Thank you, Steve Wheeler you have made my day and set up my weekend…

Do writers, because they’re good with words, have the keys to LOVE?

Make up your own mind as you read these quotes…

 

Sumptuous quotes about love

 

 

Love + Discipline in Schools?

Jonathan Jansen has written an article in which he declares that, “[love] is the missing variable in the school change literature.”
http://www.toughlove.org.za/articles/54-discipline-and-love-at-schools-prof-jonathan-jansen

He says ” What we found interesting, though, was the symbiosis that exists between love and discipline.” Love is itself an enabler and thus a form of discipline.

So here is the rub.
Teacher’s say that they are there to teach and parents and the home must be the seat and the foundation of love, but Jansen says that his experience in schools, has shown him otherwise.

A caring, loving school environment in Jansen’s opinion, is one that also has discipline – rules, regulations and expectations that are required to be met. This discipline eventually becomes internalised by the students.
“Where discipline is preceded by and couched in love, children respond positively.”

A loving environment makes the discipline easier to accept on the part of the children and easier to instill on the part of the school management and teachers. The love extends beyond the day to day tasks within school into the life fibres of each and every child. It becomes the very culture of the school… resulting in a school that works.

Teachers don’t have courses on love.

Perhaps we need to heed the call of Leo Buscaglia who believed that love is the best behaviour modifier of all. He believed that teachers need to love what they do and get excited every morning about getting to school and wanting to help those children in their care. We need to “look at them”, relate to them, care about them…”

So what is education?

Education is not just teaching. It is about allowing those you teach to become the best human beings they can be and it’s about believing and investing in them, for both yourself and them. It’s about risk. It is about believing in the children, about expecting the very best from them and seeing their best in amongst their worst.
This is teaching with ‘love’. Teaching for life.

After all, “the purpose of life is to matter, to count to stand for something, to have it make some difference that we have lived at all…Happiness comes only when we push our brains and our hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable… Leo Roston”

Right side up!

take some time to turn your world “right side up”.

Love and Risk

Inseparable bed fellows, love and risk…

Monsters

Ever read anything by Patrick Ness?

I saw a new book sometime ago called ‘The Monster Calls’, written by Partick Ness and Siobhan Dowd.  She apparently left some thoughts, characters and ideas for a book that were discovered after her death due to breast cancer. Patrick Ness was asked to complete/write a novel. 
It has been illustrated by Jim Kay, and may I say, magnificently.
Illustrator Jim Kay

It is an amazing read and gets one thinking about what ‘monsters’ one has in their own life…
anger…
hate…
truth…
disappointment…

It also opens a discussion … are monsters some kind of truth bearer!

What is wanting to break into or out of your life through your monsters?

It also begs the question… Can love handle truth?

Love changes everything…

what has your love changed?

Teaching … what has love go to do with it?

Teaching is all about self-concept?
Our self-concept determines who we are. What we think about ourselves, what we can or can’t do and ultimately who we become… it is that powerful!

How is your self-concept?
Positive?
Negative?

Give some time over to a bit of self-reflection and see if you can remember any experiences that supported the formation of your self-concept. Time with your mum, dad, grandparents, teacher, friends…

Teachers next to parents are the most powerful people that ever cross our lives.
Do you know the poem by Dorothy Law Note “Children learn what they Live”?

If a child lives with criticism,
he learns to condemn.
If he learns with hosltility,
he learns to fight……
If a child lives with encouragement,
he learns to be confident.
If a child lives with tolerance,
he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with acceptance,
he learns to love……

With what is your child living?

Ask that question of the classroom climate that a child spends from 5 to 8 hours a day in?

In my view, Teacher’s need to enable children to feel that they are “OK”, that they are loved.

In fact if we look at our lives both teacher and taught, “our lives area shaped by those who love us and by those who refuse to love us” John S.J. Powell

Do teachers love and teach or just teach and refuse to love?

In my view, Teachers need to take good care of developing a positive self-concept within themselves so that they can develop a positive self-concept within each child that crosses their path.

Goethe said” In all things we learn only from those we love..” and Kahlil Gibran said” the teacher gives not of his wisdom, but rather of his faith and lovingness…”

So what has ‘love’ got to do with teaching?

Everything!

A teacher quoted by Everett Shostrom in Man, the Manipulator said…
“I had a great feeling of relief when I began to understand that youngster needs more that just subject matter.
Oh, I know mathematics well. and I teach it well. I used to think that that was all I needed to do. Now I teach children, not math. I accept the fact that I can only succeed partially with some of them. I have found further that my own personhood has educable value. When I don’t have to know all the answers, I seem to have more answers than before when I tried to be the expert.
The youngster who really made me understand this was Eddie. I asked him one day why he thought he was doing so much better than last year. he gave meaning to my whole new orientation. “It’s because I like myself now when I’m with you,” he said.

Love is everything in teaching!

Just love the winning streak of the BOKS!

Yes being South African means you love to watch rugby! And yes, it means you want the BOKS to win!

So today when the BOKS won at Suncorp stadium in Brisbane it was awesome!”If you’re the South African, New Zealand or Australian coach, you’re always under pressure, the team’s always under pressure. They will want to lift themselves. It will be very physical and I think it will be very fast. It will be a very quick Test match.” – South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer

Just loved what Meyer had to say about his team before the game…
“they will have to lift their game..” and lift their game they did for the full 80 mins!

The Springboks played with a passion and love for their game, their country and the results speak for themselves.
Well done guys!
We love you!