Today is a public holiday in many parts of Victoria for the Melbourne Cup Horse Race. Where else in the world, but Australia, would there be a day off for a horse race!
With a day off on a Tuesday, many families take a long weekend and don’t come to school on the Monday before cup day. Because of this, many schools have a Professional Development or Training Day on the Monday. This was me yesterday!
We had our first training session into “Understanding Poverty” yesterday. We have a second training session in January. Many times you walk away from training sessions feeling “that was great, but when am I ever going to have time to plan and implement it into my classroom?” – the great thing about this training session was that wasn’t the case!
We had a fantastic presenter, Nairn Walker a teacher who has done so much for children living in poverty and she was so easy to listen to. She caused me to do a lot of reflection on my own teaching and experiences I have had. While I don’t have a lot of students at the moment who are part of Generational Poverty, I have in the past and now know a little more about the kind of life these children have outside of school. No wonder they didn’t read or do their homework – that is honestly the last thing these children think of when they get home (if they have one). I used to teach a child who ate breakfast and lunch at school, then I would see him stuff his pockets with his leftovers from lunch so he could have it for dinner, that is if his brother didn’t take it…. It breaks my heart! I think it is all about understanding, now I have that little bit more knowledge!
This is the book we are working through – I am really looking forward the next session in January! Has anyone else done this training?
We did a book study of this last year. It is a good book. I love that it confirms the need to continue with art, music, physical education, etc… as ways to build the brain and assist other learning.