NAPLAN Tests

I am not certain how many of you saw the news this morning where a teacher has been accused, and stood down, for manipulating NAPLAN tests in her classroom. Similarly, most of you would be aware of calls by the Australian Education Union to boycott the tests – this action was averted at the last minute through serious talks with Julia Gillard and direct intervention to ensure the tests went ahead. Most of you would probably have engaged in discussion within your schools about the use of those results on the new Federal Government website regarding schools.

I guess there is no simple answer to all of this. There are a great many parents who welcome the infromation from the Naplan testing as it gives them a broad picture of where their child stands up against the rest of his/her peers around the country. However, there are also a significant number of parents who are upset, angry and dismayed, for they already know that their child is succeeding below benchmark, and having their child sit these tests, already knowing they are going to fail…. well, it is heart-breaking and sad to see any child’s self-esteem chipped away.

With the empthasis on success rates, and high achievement in schools, I still wonder at the traditional lack of funding for appropriate resources for the children who are struggling. With it becoming harder and harder to prove need, the job of teaching children wtih so many learning challenges is becoming more and more of an issue for classroom teachers. I am not certain what the answer is, but I am glad that some of the main issues behind Naplan tests can be discussed in a rational way. The profession of teaching is under such scrutiny at the moment  – let’s hope with valid debate, we can fine-tune the education system to be equitable to all children.

Some reflections on technology…

Ahhh, things are a-changing at 5energies. As well as grappling with expanding premises, we have been on the search for updated technology to allow us to do what we want to do and enable greater productivity and communication.

I was just mulling that in my time as a teacher in school so many things have changed. My very first teaching position was at Umbakumba, a very remote settlement in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I hate to admit to living through the dinosaur days of technology, but this was prior to even Commodore computers moving into the school and home markets. This was even before the time of the Gestetner copying machine – my first stencils were made using what was called a ‘jelly pad’.

A jelly pad was made up of gelatine basically – a LOT of gelatine on a baking tray – and with texta pens (a new innovation at the time), one would write out some Maths (or whatever), place the texta pen written master stencil on the gelatine, face down, and after smoothing it firmly and lifting it off, place a blank sheet of paper on the gelatine to get an image on the paper. It would be good enough for six or seven images to be made before you had to write out your master stencil again.

Contrast that to the technology of today… No wonder schools have such a hard time keeping up though. Even the most innovative and financial schools of today are behind in their use of technology and sharing it with the bright minds of tomorrow. All I can say is thank goodness for the people who specialise in this field and have been kind enough to explain things in words I understand and in concepts I can come to grips with! So thank you to the experts in this field for understanding where we want 5energies to go – and for helping us to make this all a reality!

Welcome to Victor, Louise and Carol!

We are expanding!!

Over the past week we welcomed Victor and Louise, speech pathologists, to our team. It was a hectic week, with Victor and Louise thrown into a full schedule of clients – and by all accounts they were exhausted but happy!

Victor is working through the week, while Louise (photo on right) is taking over our Saturday sessions, and will shortly be joined by an Occupational Therapist.

Alexandra, our resident Speech Pathologist has been enjoying the company of Victor and Louise, and these two talented people have enjoyed their first few days as part of the team.

We were also remiss in not introducing you to Carol, who has started in the front office with Julie. Carol (photo below) and Julie are still the first people to contact, as they are the queens of the diary! Carol is also our resident bookkeeper so is keeping us on the straight and narrow!

The office will shortly be undergoing some renovations too – we are very excited about that too. We hope there will be a minimum of disruption, but are looking forward to the more usable spaces that are created.

So all in all, a time of excitement for us in 5energies. We are currently looking for another Occupational Therapist and a teacher to join out team too so if you know of anyone who might be interested, please get them to ring the office.

Federal Government help for Children with ASD

What a busy, busy time we have had since last October. We were registered as panel providers under the Helping Children with Autism package, a Federal government initiative, and since then we have been exceptionally busy, assessing, planning and providing programs for children identified through this program. What a joy it has been to meet so many hard working, caring and determined parents, who make our home programs a reality!

We are in the throes of planning for a branch office in Darwin, so from the 27th – 30th April, we will be in Darwin for the first of many regular professional visits. As you can imagine, it is taking up a lot of time and energy to make this a reality, but boy, are we excited! We are also after new staff for our Darwin branch in particular, so if you know of a good speech pathologist and occupational therapist, in particular, please get them to give us a ring.

But thank you to those parents who have found 5energies and continue to show us what a dedicated team of people can do, when we all work together. It makes our job so much easier, but it is so gratifying to see the children progressing so well. Life wasn’t meant to be easy (if you believe Malcolm Fraser, but sometimes life can get very hard – so it is nice that we can work together so effectively to help these children.

Helping Children with Autism

After a fairly extensive process, as of Tuesday, 27th October, 5energies is now officially a panel / service provider under the auspices of the Helping Children with Autism Package. This package is run through Autism Australia, with federal funding from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that we are a ‘one stop’ shop, one which offers Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Educational Psychology and education services under the one roof. As this package of funding is after an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach for children with autism, it seems we fit the bill!!

So very proudly we announce our new status as Panel provider for services relating to autism, but also advise that we will be continuing our quality services for any child with a learning delay or developmental challenge. It has already been a big week, with those who have heard whispers on the wind getting in fast for appointments, and screenings and program development taking place this week.

It goes without question that if anyone wishes any information on our services to children and their families, please just ring and chat to Julie in the front office.

Website Woes!

Oh dear… Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men actually do unravel and come astray. We were under the impression that our Order form for the newly launched literacy package, and our contact form were in working order – but nope, sorry, not to be. Thank you to the couple of people who contacted us about it, and we ‘think’ it is now OK.

On another note, we are very sad at 5energies to be leaving our favourite web guru Leah, at workingsolo.com… Fortunately for Leah she is going to be enjoying a lot more of life over the next few weeks, months and years, and is looking forward to many wonderful ambulatory strolls through her neighbhourhood and elsewhere, but we are so going to miss having her quiet support in the background of our web presence. Leah, thank you for your wonderful ability to translate our murky ideas into reality, and for helping us immensely as a growing business.

On that note, the website will be migrating to a new hosting service over the next week, so if for any reason, you experience difficulties, please return in an hour or so.

A Concern – from one teacher to another…

Through the week, I had the good fortune of meeting Leslie, Simon and young Peter (see my recent posting for parents). What concerned me was how powerless Leslie and Simon felt about their son, and what conflicting advice they had been getting from their son’s school. Fortunately someone they trusted had suggested they bite the bullet and see if young Peter had any issues, or whether  his issues were maturational. What good advice!  As it turned out, Peter’s issues were developmental, and in some areas of gross and fine motor skills he was significantly delayed – and a good Occupational Therapist can work with him and likely achieve good results within a relatively short time span.

However, it was of concern that a teacher at the school told them to wait for a year or two and see what happens. I am a teacher of long-standing, and I know that our experiences with so many children can lead us to conclude that most children will improve over time. My concern is that sometimes we are wrong. Since working so intensively with speech pathologists and occupational therapists, my advice has now changed significantly – for the sake of a screening / consultation wtih health professionals, it might be better to find out NOW if a child has developmental delays. As teachers, we might be education experts – but we are not the masters of every health care domain, and sometimes it is good to ask for expert assistance early. Peter’s issues can be resolved relatively easily now, as he is young enough to benefit greatly from an intensive programme helping his development. Had his parents waited till he was failing magnificently at age 8, a time when concrete learning moves into a more theoretical framework, a similar story might not be told.

Please consider what you say to parents. Please consider that there are other professionals who also have a vested interest in optimising each child’s development. Please consider that a problem today just might not go away in two years time – and in fact, might have grown to such significance that there is little hope of overcoming it.

The Launch of In the Garden!

What a fantastic conference we attended on the weekend! The Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference is now over for another year, but what a time we had! As satchel sponsors, we were overwhelmed with the support that we got from conference participants. Mind you, perhaps the free highlighters and traffic lights were also enjoyed by conference participants too!

The launch of the In the Garden Literacy Package was attended by some 75 conference participants, and there was overwhelming support for our new, innovative and Australian Literacy Package.  Thank you to the MANY teachers who visited our stand, and who were generous in their praise for the package itself, but also for what 5energies is trying to do. The conference itself could not have run more smoothly – many of the presentations were very thought-provoking, the discussions and conversations were interesting, and the food was exemplary!

Over the next couple of days, I will be posting some more photos of the conference so you can see how wonderful the conference was. The information about the Conference special, for purchase of the In the Garden series, is now posted in the Resources section of the website as well. Please contact us if you want more information on this wonderful literacy package!

Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009

What an exciting time we are having!  We are in preparation for the Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009 at the Brisbane Conference Centre on the 18th and 19th September and we are almost leaping and squealing with excitement! It is our honour to be satchel sponsors – but what we are exceptionally excited about is the launch of our In the Garden Literacy Package!

Filled with innovative and exciting resources for teachers, this package is not just the culmination of hard work, but an absolute celebration of the value of dedicated and committed professionals collaborating to create a resource of best practice across so many domains. We will be thanking the wonderful people who have collaborated with us – from Sarah Amies (Author and illustrator), Anne-Maree Garcia (Multi-media guru), Patrick Mitchell (narrator and story-teller),  Tina Kriedemann (The Purple Jam Studio / Brisbane), Angie Sublime (Sublime Music Studio/ Brisbane) and Iris Wesling (St. Eugene Catholic College, Burpengary),  these people have given blood, sweat and tears to make this launch on Friday a spectacular success.

The Literacy Package consists of 7 in the Garden student texts, a Big Book, some visual processing Mystery Sheets, a CD of music suitable for assembly items (and tapping into another sensory learning pathway), a DVD of supported reading modes, and a teacher resource book, jam-packed with black-line masters, strategies and activities suitable for develping higher-order thinking. What can I say? We are justifiably proud of it, and hope many of you are able to join us at the launch.

Hopefully we will also see many of you at the conference – we are just so excited about being there and renewing friendships with those who attended the last conference – and meeting new conference participants.

What an exciting time!

What a busy, and exciting time we have been having.

Over the next few days I will be posting some photos of the recording session that Alex and I were involved in on Friday, at good friend Angie’s studio. Tina, another good friend,  (from The Purple Jam Music Studio – link below) was also there – Tina and Angie have written the music and provided the technical support as we develop a package of goodies to go with our ‘in the Garden’ texts which were published last year. This is an exciting time – the package will be launched in mid-September, so keep watching this space! 

The new learning calendar is up as well, with more training going ahead in July, for teachers, teaching assistants and childcare workers. So take a look if you are interested.

www.thepurplejam.musicteaching.info 

Next Page »