In The Wisdom of Heschel, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that “People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle…. Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.”
Your actions have been remarkable this year. They’re worthy of a celebration beyond a morning tea or a socially distanced Christmas Party.
Stop for a moment and really appreciate your work. Revere it. Your work is worthy of that.
I reckon anyway.
GIFTS
There’s still time to make 2021 the year that you invest in your people. If you’re a Victorian school it works like this. We write both phases of the Grant Application for you and deliver high-quality support that targets genuine shifts in Teacher Wellbeing at your school. Yep – that’s it.
Use this Calendly link to book a time to chat with Amy Green about your school’s needs… like now.
Teacher Talk
Wasting time looking for activities only to find they aren’t quite right, your students finish way to quickly or they are just too much of the same?
Join Amy on Tuesday at 5pm as she shares how to flip from activity-based planning to learning-based planning. Find out how this can make resourcing easier, strengthen learning and improve formative assessment.
OPPORTUNITIES
The Inner Circle
is now open for 2021 Registrations.
This is a high-level Mentoring Program for School Leaders charged with implementing Restorative Practices.
It’s comprehensive, wholly supportive and facilitated by a subject matter expert who has been there and done that.
Here’s what one 2020 participant had to say about it:
“Empowering! I looked forward to each group and 1:1 session. I always left our sessions feeling inspired and had learned something new which I could implement immediately. Hearing the stories from other schools was amazing. I have worked in a RP school for most of my career. Through participating in The Inner Circle, I have learnt more about working restoratively than I could have imagined. It has given me both the knowledge and confidence to share my work on RP with students, teachers, other leaders and now our parent community. I have been able to see how my knowledge and implementation of RP, across the school, has encouraged positive behaviours and a positive school culture. This year, as a school, we have moved from implementing RP to embedding RP. With the support of the Inner Circle, and primarily Adam, we have run a series of internal PL days, created our school’s Student Engagement Plan, reflected on and celebrated our many strengths in RP, redesigned our Student Behaviour Plans and processes, refined our induction process, taken steps to improve our school culture and collaboratively created plan for moving positively into 2021. Do it! The knowledge and confidence I have gained through participating in the Inner Circle exceeded my expectations. It has made me a more restorative person, a better teacher and a more confident leader.”
— Kelly Roberts – Assistant Principal, Bayswater PS
THOUGHTS by Simon Dewar
As we get closer to the end of 2020, I’ve been thinking a lot about the year.
I’ve always been big on reflection, but every so often, I need to remind myself to stop looking backwards and just keep taking small steps forward. The middle of term 4 is always frantic in schools and I am sure that like most teachers, we wish we could have done more to this point, especially with the challenges of 2020.
Don’t dwell on the past and what you haven’t done or achieved, just keep making the most of the opportunities that present over the next few weeks. I often find this quote by C.S Lewis to be very helpful at this time of the year, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Go well and enjoy the last few weeks.
EPIPHANIES by Amy Green
It’s easy to get lost in your first thought.
Lately, I have taken up yoga of a different kind and am trying out Kundalini Yoga. This is not your normal yoga. As part of one of my classes, our teacher was talking about reacting vs responding, and how you can’t always control your first thought, but how you can control your second.
Your first thought is often your instinctive, primal brain, ego-driven thought, however, it may not always be your best thought. The teaching within this week’s class focused on how although we have our initial thought, our first thought, we must learn to have a second thought. One we can control, choose and which puts us in a direction we want to head in.
This sound nice. But my epiphany came not from this lesson, but in the realisation that we too easily get lost in our first thought. We entrain it, let it build and perhaps let it spiral out of control.
My epiphany this week is to not just control your second thought but to also not get caught in your first thought before your second thought even gets a chance.
Warm regards,
