Behaviour is infectious!

I recently saw this post on my Facebook News Feed - and thought how true it is. When people make an effort to smile and greet each other, use common courtesies, wait patiently at the checkout, drive courteously and generally be pleasant, others around them often follow.

And similarly, when we are angry, discourteous and greet the world with a scowling face, the world scowls back at us.

If you ever have a chance to drive up (or down) the west coast of Australia, you will see the roadside strewn with bottles, fast food wrappings, nappies, and all manner of rubbish normally reserved for the local tip. It's almost as if every traveller on that highway has seen the rubbish and thought 'oh well, I may as well throw all mine out there too'.

And so it is, not just with litter, but with every behaviour - they are infectious! People seem to catch them and the ripples spread. I see a lot of ripples of infectious behaviour in our school - our children play well together, greet each other warmly and include new friends, use their manners freely, hand in money when they find it, smile openly and are generally cooperative, friendly and cheerful to be with. The virus behaviours are infectious too. The other day I watched a couple of boys on the oval tripping each other up and pushing each other to the ground. By the time I got the teacher's attention and pointed madly to the fracas going on behind him, the 'game' involved five boys.

The behaviour of adults is also infectious - going a little too fast on the roads, jaywalking instead of crossing at the lights, pulling up in a No Parking zone for just a couple of minutes and swimming outside the flags. For more examples closer to home/school, just take a look at parking around our school in the afternoons, stopping in the Drop Off/Pick Up Zone, and latest virus to catch on, encouraging children to 'jump the fence' or putting children over the locked gate on Ridges Boulevard. A couple of people do it, and before you know it, many are doing it, even though it's unsafe and all students have been asked to walk around to the entrance.

In many cases, children can work out when behaviour is a virus and when it's a peaceful ripple, and make a choice accordingly. But as they are learning how to get along in the world they look to adult role models to help them discern the finer points of what is 'right' and 'wrong' in any given situation. As adults it is important for us to think about what our children are learning from watching our behaviour and the choices we make - the 'rules' or safety practices we decide to ignore or just bend a little. In many cases, children are learning that it's okay to ignore rules and do what they want, as long as no one is watching.

I wonder where a learning like this could take us in the future? Will children learn, for example, that its okay to take something from someone else because no one was there to see it? Or they may decide to not wear a bike helmet because it's unlikely there will be a police officer to notice. Instead of learning to be intrinsically honest and caring about others, they learn to test the waters to see if they get caught - and rejoice in the times they 'get away with it'.

Let's all consider what our children really learn when we are rushed and frazzled and tempted to 'jump the fence', and instead, choose the long term solution of teaching our kids how to tread a safe and thoughtful passage through life.

A friend commented on the picture above in her News Feed and said 'Imagine if everyone in the world did this for just one day? It costs nothing and would create world peace'.

Have a lovely day!

Why I work with kids...

Image courtesy wikipedia.org

Years ago when I was a teacher on Year 3, I read Roald Dahl's, Matilda, to my class. There's a classic paragraph in Chapter 2 where Dahl describes Matilda's mother, Mrs Wormwood, as 'a large woman whose hair was dyed platinum blonde except where you could see the mousy-brown bits growing out of the roots'. As we were examining Dahl's inimitable writing style and skills of exquisite description I went to some lengths to explain what this meant. One little boy shoots his hand up in the hair and says 'like yours, Ms Sands'. Needless to say I went directly to the hairdresser after school that day.

Kids say the funniest things. They don't mean to be funny but their observations on life are often astonishingly accurate. They state the obvious with such innocence and with such clarity that you just can't help but laugh. All through my career I have wished I recorded the things kids have said to me - of course, I haven't, and I've probably forgotten the funniest ones.

This afternoon in the Drop Off/Pick Up Zone a little girl said to me, 'Ms Sands, I love your shoes and your dress and your watch and your bracelet and your hair and everything...' Yep, this was just what I needed on a Friday afternoon at the end of a long week of meetings and other boring stuff.

And this is why I work with kids... It's why all of us work with kids - you just have to be sure you've done your hair and you've got your good shoes on.

Cardboard cut outs or creative units of learning

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

I read an interesting blog in the week by Seth Godin about why all Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate bars are identical - carbon cutouts of each other. Cadbury's employees follow a manual and a process which ensures they produce a perfect bar of chocolate every time - as a result, the Cadbury brand, the organisation and the chocolate they produce is known and trusted world-wide. This is good for the market (if you have shares in Cadbury), and it's good for the customer (as you are practically guaranteed a good bar of chocolate every time.)

This got me thinking about our classrooms. We are a big school now - we have many classes in each year level; for example, there are five Prep classes this year! There are many practices, procedures and routines that all our classes and teachers use and follow; this ensures our distinctive brand, our Peregian Spirit or the Peregian Way as we sometimes call it, is evident throughout our school. We are proud of our reputation for being a 'great school' and we know what we do is working for our children so we make sure we are doing it in every class and in each specialist area across the school.

There is a special blend of fruit and nuts (no pun intended) we expect to see in every room which guarantees a quality education. And in addition, every teacher and teacher aide sprinkles their own skills and knowledge and sense of creativity over the top that contributes to every child's experience of school - they all do it differently and it means that from year to year children experience something unique, all backed by our unique brand evident in every class, our Peregian Spirit.

Schools are a human endeavour, not a factory. Our classrooms will not all be the same; teachers are not all doing the same thing or doing things in the same way; we are not producing hundreds of little chocolate bars, all perfect and all the same. There will be similarities between rooms and parents will recognise these. And there will be differences to rejoice in.

(And in case you are interested, the chocolate in the picture is my favourite - a bar of Guittard - all individually crafted, ensuring a unique tasting experience, and one is rarely identical to another).

Whole School Assemblies - a precious part of our culture

I love our Assemblies!

Assembly occurs every Friday morning in the Central Covered Games Area and involves every student and every teacher (unless they are at swimming lessons!) It's the one time of the week when we all get together in one place and celebrate our learning journeys.

Our Assemblies are full of colour and fun. They are not the time of the week when we use the opportunity of everyone being together to have growl - although sometimes there are some messages that everyone needs to think about!

Our Assemblies are a time when students get to practice appropriate audience behaviour - we teach these skills explicitly and expect every child to demonstrate them. And they do this very well - although I long for the day when they can all stand QUIETLY for the Anthem!

The items from the classes are always wonderful - the Preps are usually colourful and very cute and command much attention. The Year 7s usually manage to make everyone laugh and then occasionally, we have a student steal the show (like last week) with her stage presence and skill in commanding a large audience of wrigglers! The items classes present are entertaining and also often focus on a point of interest about out school - for example, this year already we've seen skits on using the Take 5 and on our Code of Cooperation and getting along in the playground.

Assemblies are a time when we celebrate the successes of our students - in sport (both individually and in teams), in music and in any other area of endeavour. I love to see kids really appreciate the achievements of others - as we did last Friday with our record breaking swimming students from the 2012 Swimming Carnival.

I love that parents come along - and when they walk up the pathway afterwards everyone is smiling.

We also acknowledge Country - a very important tradition for all gatherings in Australia, and we proudly sing our Anthem - both verses! We learn a lot from all being together at least once a week - over the last few years as we have grown from 264 students in 2010 to 464 students in 2011 to 511 students in 2012 to a record breaking 712 students in 2013, I've watched all the space in our Central Covered Games Area gradually disappear under a sea of uniforms. But I'm determined we will continue to meet altogether once a week and somehow find a way to make all those bottoms fit!