TheTeachersOasis

Does our Education System Kill Creativity?

Strip Mining our Minds

Although this video is a couple of years old it seems even more relevant in the light of what's happening to the global economy.

Our young people are the leaders of tomorrow. If they came out of school and university and entered the world of work with a more balanced perspective ie with emotional and spiritual intelligence as well as the currently accepted academic intelligences, maybe we would be in a different position now.

This means more than paying lip service or ticking a box. But we can only pass onto our youth what we value ourselves. I think 2009 is a year for re-examining our own values as educators and the curriculum we are offering.

Sir Ken Robinson puts forward a nightmarish scenario of what we're not only doing to our children but continue to inflict on ourselves. He suggests that our education system has "mined our minds in the same way we strip mine the earth for commodities...". It's compelling stuff delivered with a wry sense of humour.

Look out for the courses that I will be rolling out in 2009 that will help educators to tap into their "diverse intelligence" so that they can have happier and more "ecologically" sustainable careers with less stress.

Is What I'm Doing Too Woo Woo for Teachers?

The Confessions of a Solopreneur

Hi there!

Why, oh why am I finding it so difficult to write regularly in my blog?

As soon as I write these thoughts I immediately know the answer and it's the same answer to the question that's about to follow: why do I find it so difficult to get myself  'out there' and let people know what I'm doing? It's all tied up with thinking I have to be perfect, fear of being seen and caring too much about what other people will think of me. I also worry whether people will think what I'm doing is too - well ... woo woo!

At the end of the day, I realise I don't have to be clever or hide but just be authentic and true to myself. When I'm being that - I'm happy. When my lovely blog was being developed I thought - there's no stopping me now. But procrastination choked me because of my refusal to step into my own power and be the person I am meant to be.

5 Benefits of Coaching

As I get prepared for my next coaching session with Nicola my Wealth Coach, I thought I'd explain what benefits I gain from a coaching relationship ...

In fact, I now have several coaching relationships. Nicola Cairncross (just mentioned) who has helped me put my website together, Perenna Fleming who was my personal coach on my training programme and continues to coach me. There are also informal and mutual coaching relationships with colleagues who I trained with and who are now masterful coaches in their own right.

Stress Week on Teachers' TV

I think Teachers' TV is a great resource.

Below is an extract from the Teacher Support Network newsletter advertising a series of TV programmes about stress in schools starting Monday, 19 February 2007 and continuing throughout the week. Don't miss it. Find out what stress is really doing to your body.

How stressed is your school?

Can you imagine being followed around school for a week by a team of scientists and stress experts, taking your pulse, blood pressure and measuring the levels of stress hormone in your blood? Well for one week, this is exactly what happened at Kings Langley Secondary School in Hertfordshire.

‘How stressed is your school’ is a scientific investigation into the physical and mental effects of stress encountered by teachers, captured in a real-time ‘Big Brother’ style, to convey the effect a typical school day has on teachers’ bodies.

Read more about Teachers’ TV Stress Week or seek support in dealing with stress via Teacher Support Net work .

This and a range of other programmes including, ‘Stress relief for heads’ which shows how to identify and neutralise the different negative behaviour patterns, ‘Primary middle managers – Stepping up’ examining the difficulties involved in juggling time between classroom teaching and middle leadership will be shown on Teachers’ TV as part of Stress Week February 19-26 2007.

Free NLP! Was I bovvered???

Well it's 7.30 Sunday evening and I've just got back from Topher Morrison's The Mental Game of Money. I was up a 6 am Saturday morning and at the venue at 8 am ready for any return ticket from people who couldn't be bothered to turn up. Why was I so keen? I hadn't heard of Topher before ....

My Top 5 Achievements of 2006

I thought January would be the perfect month to reflect on my top 5 achievements of 2006. So here goes:

1. Working in a part-time teaching job that I love and that allows me time to build my business. Teaching English Literacy to adults is such a joy! Why did I teach Business Studies for 14 years? It's just so easy to get stuck in a rut isn't it?
2. Buying two investment properties. One painlessly and effortlessly with Passive Investments! More about this in future posts.
3. Deciding to be mentored by the fabulous Nicola Cairncross of The Money Gym. It's sometimes making that initial first step that's the hardest thing to do but it was the best gift I could have given myself.
4. Building my TeachersInDistress website with Nicola's guidance. It's been a steep learning curve for an internet newbie like me but more about this in future posts.
5. Joining singing and dancing classes at the Horniman Museum. After all the years of living in south London, I had never visited this wonderful resource before with its beautiful gardens. I also realised how much I missed singing and being in a choir. Raise the Roof - led by the anarchic Melanie Harrold is a giggle and most of all stress releasing. All those magical musical vibrations coursing through my body must be having some calming effect.

   Likewise the Nzinga Dance company's African dance lessons. We were a mixed group of ages and nationalities learning the dance moves to the fantastic drumming that accompanied us throughout. I'm not a lover of fitness gyms, so this workout had me sweating, laughing and completely switching off from the constant mind chatter. And, of course, oh my aching limbs!

6. Oops - I know I said 5 things but I'd forgotten that I ran the 5 km Race For Life in Hyde Park in June. My friend and I met every Sunday morning at 7.30 for running practice for three months prior to the event. This was no mean feat for me. I hadn't run like this since I was 16. I was very proud of myself. Note to self: sign up for the next running or walking challenge.

Here's to happy, energised and financially secure teachers!

Julia

Welcome

Having experienced work-related stress at first hand and also being surrounded by lecturers who were just teetering on the edge, I’m familiar with the mindset of educators.

We did a lot of complaining but seemed powerless to change what was happening to us. I’d been a lecturer and manager within a large multicultural, inner city London College for 14 years, feeling battle weary from government initiative overload and yet another organisational restructuring and the conflicting demands of my job.

Looking back now, my low level stress was always evident and it occasionally reached crisis point but I would ride it out and just accepted it as part and parcel of the job.