To say I was disheartened today, by the way teachers have been represented in the news – as angry, mistreated and disenfranchised professionals, unfairly being expected to go back to work “early” in NSW – is an understatement. What has the world come to when advocacy for the profession paints a picture of teachers in a manner that is in direct opposition to the way many of us feel about our work…

After a recent conversation with Pasi Sahlberg, hosted by Future Schools Alliance Australia, which highlighted the importance of ‘play’, in all levels of schooling (in fact, at all levels of society), I walked away with a niggle to wrestle further with the ideas raised. I found myself wondering what might have been in the minds of different people listening, as more time to ‘play’ was proposed as a key ingredient to throw into the mix of effective pedagogy and the future of schooling.

Have you ever been surprised to find yourself in the classroom? Might seem a strange question — but it happened to me. As a beginning teacher I was startled to find my ‘self’ so vividly in the classroom with me. I was there … in living, moving colour. Somehow I’d managed to imagine myself differently than I actually was.

You can’t be a ‘Reggio’ school. I am not a ‘Reggio’ consultant. There is no such thing as ‘The Reggio Approach’ in Australia. I’m hosting a 2 hour seminar for educators and parents who are interested to reflect on the Educational Project of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy.

Problem is, choosing to host this event carries an in-built ethical dilemma.

The statement, ‘Farmers are smart’, wiggled its way into my heart and mind many years ago when Grandpa and I were chatting in his Montreal apartment. Honestly, I don’t remember what we were discussing, but I remember the lesson…

“The person in the room with the most hope has the most influence”. Sometimes a statement stops you in your tracks, makes you pause and carries the possibility of shifting your point of view to such an extent that everything else you see shifts and changes.

When I think about teachers meeting in dialogue I imagine them meeting in a synapse. ‘Uhhh pardon me, a synapse?’. To explain, I’m going to have to take you on a journey all the way back to high school biology. Think nerves, neurons, synapses and all that jazz.

I have recently returned from two days working with Chris Celada and Margo Hobba, as a part of their workshop, ‘Teachers and Children: Being IN Research’. I am buzzing with ideas, insights and questions that were surfaced through our time together.

It is always fascinating to me, after a conference, what lingers in my mind and heart. What will be the thoughts, words and conversations that hold me and keep me wondering in the weeks ahead? What will be the stories I re-tell, re-think and re-consider? What marks will be still there, long after the details of the conference fade away.

What if we re-imagined teaching as listening? Really listening. We once heard someone describe listening as, “coming into a conversation with a willingness to change your mind”. What a challenge – to come to a conversation or an encounter open to change.

Once again, I find myself digging around Freire’s book, Teachers as cultural workers: letters to those who dare to teach (2005) searching for inspiration and a reminder of the significance of our work as teachers. Today it is this gem that stands out…

Our educational environments speak powerfully about our expectations of students and our beliefs about what learning can look like in schools. Only last week, I found myself reconsidering the ‘space’ I work in.

Introducing Vivian Gussin Paley. Conversation with Young Children: Fantasy, Friendship, Fairness & Other Urgent Topics on Every Child’s Mind

I am reading Freire’s (2005) work, Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to those who dare teach. Already I am challenged, and I’ve only read the introduction.

I was encouraged today as I read from one of the many unfinished books lying on my desk: “Far from being a disadvantage, struggle is a decided advantage, because it develops those qualities which would lie dormant forever without it” (Napoleon Hill, 1928, p.103).