The School Corridor Tatler

Our brains are growing and changing all the time. I have just watched the two TED videos on Doctor Lara Boyd's discussion of how amazing our brain is. In her informative and entertaining talks that I have attached below, Dr Lara Boyd will make anybody excited about the unlimited potential our brains have to change and how our behaviour shapes the extent to which our brain changes. Our brains are super plastic, amazingly adaptable and just waiting for us to reach great heights. Our brains want us to work hard to become super-charged. But, therein lies the rub: we have to do the work. Although our brains are super plastic and amazingly adaptable, we are responsible to develop our brains. We need to put in the long, hard hours to turn us into the brilliant writer, sportsman, scientist, musician, teacher, artist - anything we desire. The only thing standing between ourselves and our learning is whether we are motivated sufficiently to achieve our dreams. What ever you do...

Sun Valley Primary School SMT members and educators with Michael Hager, Subject Adviser When you speak to Sun Valley Primary School teachers about their shift away from conventional homework, they are unstoppable. Here is a transcript of our conversation. Why has the school decided to stop giving homework assignments as we know it? We felt that giving general homework was not helping to improve learners' performance. We wanted the homework that they received to be more focused and personalized. Not the 'one size fits all' activity that stressed both the parents and the children. Children also have a full programme besides their classroom teaching. They are involved in sports and extra-mural activities. When they finally get home, they are tired of the long day. Most parents work and there are also parents who aren't able to help their children with the homework so stress levels rise. Parents need to spend quality time with their children. They need to bo...

The HIV/Aids Day and 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence Arts programme at  Levana Primary School. The format of Levana Primary School's HIV/Aids Day celebrations was typical of school-themed festivals. There were drama skits, poetry reading, singing and dancing by the children. Because we also celebrate the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, the school made this campaign part of their festival. The impact of  Levana's show was the delivery of the  social message that was driven home by these young, unschooled actors. When these children dramatize their lived experiences, they blur the lines between fact and fiction. They are inadvertently sharing something far deeper with us. Principal, Andre Lamprecht and teachers at the programme. There is no doubt that the children absorb the traumas of their neighbourhood. The children effortlessly slipped into their roles as violent, domestic abusers, gangsters and aimless, drug-dependent  dr...

On this F r ee d o m D a y , I want to remind myself that first and foremost, I am in education because of the children we serve in our schools and that I should.. . remember that our children are wonderfully and beautifully made no matter how difficult they make our lives at times; realize that we as adults are the ones who should change our beliefs about children and their potential to learn so that we can unlock their amazing gifts; work with principals and teachers to help them deepen the quality of leadership and teaching so that our children's brilliance can be unearthed; remind myself that I am learning all the time and that I do not have the answers and therefore depend on others to help me grow; continue to encourage our schools to make all our children avid readers so that they can help to speed up their learning; be mindful that principals are human and that sometimes the responsibilities of leading a school can be overwhelming; all...

Negative attitudes by teachers can be a major barrier to learning The biggest barrier that children often face in classrooms  is the teachers' belief that the children are lazy and don't want to learn. This is especially the case where the majority of learners underperform. Of course, there are children who fall into this category, but when all the children are labelled like this, there is a much deeper issue at play. We know that children won't naturally gravitate towards things that do not interest them, that they have difficulty understanding or that seemingly have no immediate benefits for them. It is also true that children are wired to be curious about their world and new experiences. In other words, they want to learn. It is no different in a classroom. There will be those learners who are already self-motivated and will learn eagerly, but the masses may not have reached that level of self-motivation yet.And guess who is responsible for unlocking that ...