As we come to the end of the year, we are finishing work, planning for the New Year and submitting proposals for new projects. We fondly remember past lives where things slowed during December and January - a thing of the past perhaps!   more »

The last month or so has seen us both doing more work for the Catholic Education Office on early childhood issues including delivering workshops and writing Stimulus Papers to support their Early Years Positional Statement. However the highlight for Marie has been a week in the remote community of Muludja in the Fitzroy Valley in the Kimberley.   more »

September has been a month of reconnection for Learning Conversations, highlighted by a four day 'break' in Uluru in which we were able to enter into many conversations!   more »

Highly successful workshops about Literacy Learning and Projecting Curriculum K-7 were appreciated by teachers in August and Marie is beavering away at writing up these and the earlier Reggio Inspired Weekend experiences to post to the www.learningconversations.net site. Other Reggio Inspired weekends are to be offered this year. Please see the end of this newsletter for details.   more »

We have been out and about since the last newsletter, visiting schools as part of the FIELD Project Evaluation (Focused Intervention in Early Literacy Development), conducting workshops on Play and Consumer and Financial Literacy and having Learning Conversations with staff in schools. We note the rising anxiety in teachers and schools as we come into a major reporting time and encourage all of you involved in family/school interviews to think of this as an opportunity to share information about the children!   more »

All the planning of first term has now come to fruition for Learning Conversations with Marie off to many parts of the state to deliver workshops on Play for the Catholic Education Office, Consumer and Financial Literacy workshops for PTCWA and a variety of other customised workshops for AISWA and individual schools or districts across all systems. In between she has been doing a variety of in-school consultations and facilitation projects with schools other community organisations. We count ourselves most fortunate to work cross-sectorally and have the opportunity to meet with so many fine teachers and other education workers all over the state.   more »

The last month has included the usual consultants’ cycle from proposals to planning to delivery to reflection to proposals. We are thinking about ways in which learning environments can be ‘audited’ in such a way that teachers, families and schools are enriched and supported to think about what they are doing and how they are doing it. It was a great pleasure to “take a walk on the child side” with Child Side School and see in action a program that focuses on learning.   more »

The past month has involved a great deal of ‘operational organisation’ at Learning Conversations – organising a range of different presentations that Marie will be doing around WA in second term – about play for the Catholic Education Office, on Consumer and Financial Literacy for the Professional Teaching Council of WA, and her Reggio Inspired Weekends.   more »

At the start of a new year it’s not unusual to think about change, and each year almost as long as we can remember, individually or together, we have been hoping to see real change in our education systems.   more »

The work on the Unintended Consequences of NAPLAN has caused us to reflect on unintended consequences generally. There is much ...   more »

Uncertainty is a reality. Historically we know that in times of uncertainty people seek certainty and agree to regulations that give them a sense of order. It would seem that if we are trying to ‘prepare’ children for anything, it is to help them find more effective ways of meeting uncertainty. Complexity theorists describe uncertainty as a set of relationships   more »

As we have talked with others about the proposed EEC Framework we have been reminded of an analogy we heard Philip Gammage use some years ago. He talked about the challenges of ‘growing a carrot’.   more »

We’ve been thinking about setting up laughing metres in schools and places of work. Then we thought, we need something to trigger the metre, something to ensure it is working   more »

We continue to puzzle and think about professional learning. What makes it effective?   more »

The most important news for Marie is that she has finally finished her work with the Loftus Community Centre and is preparing for her trip to the UK.   more »

We've had terrific conversations about the differences between didactic, explicit and transparent teaching and the way people 'have a friend who should do that!'   more »

What's the Labor Day weekend for? Compiling Learning Conversations Newsletter of course!   more »

After a brief respite over the Christmas period, life at Learning Conversations has been gathering pace   more »