woah I just noticed that the last blog on here was my birthday...


Well I have felt the need to write this blog as a reflection of something that my boss sent me today as a thought. I love to reflect and over the last few hours of report correction, review, and contemplation I have come to the following thoughts that I would love to share.

This is the link of the original article that got me thinking

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/why-state-school-students-win-the-battle-for-values-20130609-2nxug.html

I'll start with my journey as a student.

My parents did not have a lot of money! I went to a state school my entire 13 years of primary and secondary education. I don't consider myself to be the smartest, most intelligent, or even sporty person. In fact, Sport and me probably had many arguments over my childhood. I choose a career in Music. In fact my music teacher in primary school was amazing with how she let me explore the Music room whilst managing to keep others on basics. My general experience of Primary school was one of wonder, exploration and the occasional mean kid who for whatever reason choose me as a target.  Sounds like a normal childhood. I was the youngest of 5 kids. I do have 4 amazing older sisters but don't tell them I said so.. They won't believe you. I had a loving Mum and a Dad that was truly a superhero in my eyes. I had teachers who challenged me, taught me about being me, let me imagine. But, a minority were just  not like others... they were special. I saw in them something that made me want to learn about why they were who they were. They were truly amazing people, even to a 10 year old kid  (Year 6)

Fast forward to Secondary College. I went to a state school which in the eyes of the community probably had a pretty bad reputation but behind those walls, was an amazing opportunity to be the best I could be. Granted, sometimes the facilities weren't great, the teachers were varied, some even made me feel like they didn't care... But a few, maybe 5 to this day, make me proud to say that I learnt from them. I had music teachers who pushed me to be the best I could, A maths teacher who not only got to know my learning style and way of thinking but made it a personal quest to get to know the class as young people. I had a humanities (Geography) teacher who challenged me to not look at the world through my eyes, not take a book for fact, but to look at the world as a canvas to explore. I had a science teacher who challenged me not to be smart, but be intelligent in my decisions. I had a Technology teacher that not only embraced his subject but was so patient with the 20 boys who would rather burn something than make something. It doesn't end there. I had friends who were as varied in Race, Culture, Academic and Society status, who were in love with subjects that made some people question why they would bother. I got to go on Music camps that would change my outlook on what it was like to be a musician. I met people that at the time I thought were just special, but now I call them my friends. I work with them, play in groups with them, hang out with them, share life's journeys with them. Granted I had bad teachers too, but they at least taught me what I wasn't going to become in my later career choice.

Forward to my senior schooling. I embraced the change as best I could. I remember an English class in yr 12. The softly spoken teacher challenged us to study the characters and without telling us directly, I found myself falling in love with the literature we were reading. I loved reading and analysing it was a quirk I guess, but as a musician it allowed me to be emotional without the instrument, to learn how to hear a sentence for more than just words. Ok, I didn't get a 99.95 for my TER (the university entrance score) I was never going to get that. But I got into Uni. I lived a great life as a student. I made plenty of mistakes. Probably hurt people along the way with those mistakes and as I reflect, Faces and names come to mind of those that hold a special place in my heart.

University was where the mixing pot became like a giant boiling pot of simmering delight... This is where I found myself. Where everything that had happened before made sense. Where I found purpose in what I had done for all this time.


It's now 2013. I've now taught Instrumental music in Private Schools, Taught students in classrooms in Private and Public classes and I want to tell you about what I see day to day and why I want to celebrate it.

I am a proud teacher of secondary school children in a public state school in the NW region of Victoria. I am a Music Co-ordinator of a program which provides me with more joy than it does the students and I mean that with sincere thought towards what the students teach me about myself every day. I work with amazing people, some of which taught me. I have a team of people that I know will challenge me to be the best I can, but also expect that I do the same. For us, it's about the kids... It's has to be all about the Kids. Kids being said are some of the amazing young adults that we have serving in our community in a vast range of jobs and services.

I look at the kids with disabilities and I see in their eyes, a joy that can't be measured. They are able to achieve whatever level they think they can because we provide that opportunity. I manage staff which show them and myself that compassion and empathy is what makes this world a better place.

I see the students who will never be rocket scientist or even CEO's or business owners. They come to school with a hope to make it to the end, to maybe get skills to get a job and be a responsible tax payer. I dream of the best possible future for them and I will do anything I humanly can to share that dream and make it a reality for them. I see the students who sit in a classroom bored, not because they are lazy but because they are not being pushed beyond what they think is possible. They are the thinkers in this world. The ones who sit and ponder what is possible. There is the artists who dream of telling a story, the sportsman who dreams of glory, the author who is wanting to create a new world, the dancer who can't stop moving because in the movement comes beauty.

There is no mention of the Financial background there because there doesn't have to be. It is not about how much you can afford education. Money does not mean better education, Money means better facilities, better buildings, better whatever.... Real education is not taught or consumed with money, it is through sharing and accepting that this world is so varied that we can never know or imagine the vast opportunities that present itself, that shape our learning. Some of the best teachers we have are in the poorest areas and schools. This is so, because they are not teaching the text book, they are teaching the real world and life. Life isn't fair, it's not going to owe you anything.. You grab it with both hands and use it to guide you to YOUR destination.

I see what I see through my eyes. Sometimes those eyes are wide and open and sometimes they are flooding with tears. I never want to see a student not make it to the end of the education race. I want to see them finish strong. It is not my job to judge what is in front of me. It is my job however, to take what is in front of me, open the door that is education and allow students to explore what is an amazing universe of learning and exploration.

One day I will leave this profession! I don't know when that will be, but I do know this. I will not leave until I can say, that I have taken the door of the hinge and that door will forever remain open to the people who sit in my class.

Food for thought.