Snow Day

So......it is a snow day...........the merry sound of children rolling around in the freezing white stuff - i like it.............everything is so cold and clear and the moonlight is going to be really brilliant tonight.....reminds me of a fabulous Roy Henry Vickers potlatch moon painting... Native American art is just so captivating...and the giving moon is just right for almost the beginning of December....'tis almost the season !

Playing Outside

Was at the Playing Outside conference this past week. Children in Europe have been really looking carefully at projects which help us to consider the benefits of increasing children's access to the outdoors to enjoy the freedom of exploring and playing in their natural environment. Children in Scotland have been working hard to take forward this agenda and it was good to see some prominent leaders and politicians present, listening, taking in the issues and broadening their understanding of how educators of all kinds feel that this is a crucial area for work and attention over the next few years.

daisy's boy

this is arthur, son of daisy cow who lives in the field by the brook on the moor at the back of our house - he really is the most extraordinarily mellow creature - nothing phases him - he is even content when the ground is too frosty to chew ! - daisy is not having any calves this spring as she had twins a wee while ago - arthur seems to be enjoying the note of spring that is in the air - almost full of the joys (except that he is as usual too laid back to seem excited about it !)

my mum

mother's day today - flowers, chocolates, music.....and my daughters' amazing cooking - how wonderful ! and just thinking about my lovely mum makes me smile...............

springtime ?

maybe i'll just be a springtime blogger - suddenly when the sun shines and things begin to spring up out of the ground i feel better about communicating - have been away from this blog more than i have been here - lots of publishing deadlines, so it's not like i haven't been at my computer - but now that the ground is waking up and the hills near my home all have their spring green dresses on, i am beginning to feel like reaching up and reaching out too - i have spent the winter mulling over a lot of ideas - maybe now the spring is springing i will see some of those thinking seeds begin to grow ?

october

not sure where august and september went - just crazy mad busy - october is here - everything smells different outside - don't think i am ready for another dark winter.......we went to the woods to find beautiful things to cheer us up

real life learning

i am writing up a research report about the importance of engagement with real life experiences outside of the formal classroom context - trying to shake some sense into educators that think they can continue to control children's learning with an island mentality through a transmission of information model that operates in isolation from the rest of the world - somehow we have to influence formal educators towards a pedagogy that embraces life as meaning making activity :

‘Learning power depends on developing certain dispositions, qualities and capabilities; but, as with all other knowledge and know-how, these are embedded within a shifting intuitive sense
of when, where and for what purposes they are best employed ……Knowledge and know-how that are learnt intellectually have to be re-embedded through reflective practice in the functional networks of the brainscape before they can turn into fluent expertise.’ (Guy Claxton 1999;338-9)

we only really know something when we use that knowledge in real life - so the process of learning should be less about accumulating and rehearsing knowledge and much much more about developing our understanding in response to the problems and challenges of real life - the phrase 'use it or lose it' comes to mind !