Book Overviews Sample 1 by Julie Boyd

EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

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T H I S

I S S U E :

REDESIGNING EDUCATION GLOBAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES INTERNATIONAL OFFICE: 163 GEORGE ST. LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA 7250 AUSTRALIA PHONE: 03-6334 4929 INT PH: +61-3-6334 4929 FAX: 03-6331 7376 INT FAX: +61-3-6331 7376 U.S. OFFICE: 1500 W. EL CAMINO #325, SACRAMENTO, CA 95833 PHONE: 916-922-1615 FAX : 916-922-4320 N.Z. OFFICE: PO B OX 93, CARTERTON, NEW ZEALAND PHONE/FAX: 06-379 7396 E-MAIL: globallearning@vision.net.au WWW site: http://www.vision.net.au/~globallearning/education/

IN SEARCH OF THE VIRTUAL CLASS MY FIRST NATURE BOOK FOOTPRINTS ACROSS OUR LAND JOURNALING FOR JOY

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Welcome to the third series of the Global Learning Communities Educational Leaders’ Book Overviews. This continuing service is designed to assist educators to expand their professional reading while acknowledging that finding the time to read books is difficult. Feedback from subscribers indicates that the Overviews are providing: •

opportunities to be selective about which books to read

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professional dialogue starters for staff meetings

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a basis for professional discussion groups

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opportunities for professional reflection and development

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expanded world views of education

The purpose of these Overviews is to expose educators to a broad range of excellent books. We do indicate to you that the books featured in the Overviews are not all available through our Clearing House. If you wish to obtain a particular book, however, we will assist you to the easiest way to achieve this. We continue our commitment to excellence in education, through providing services, and building long-term working partnerships with educators and educational systems across the world for the purpose of creating sustained growth and development. Global Learning Communities, under the leadership of JULIE BOYD and CAROLE COOPER, is a leading Australianbased International Learning Facilitation organization. We are an organization created by educators to serve educators. Our mission is to improve the professional profile of educators and to enable schools to become collaborative learning communities within a global/local context. Our services currently include: *

Extended and intensive University Accredited (to Masters Level) programs.

Learning Facilitation and Professional Services to organizations, associations and schools, universities and systems.

Planning and conducting conferences as Collaborative Learning Communities.

Sustained School Improvement Programs

GLC Clearing House and Publications.

Global Learning Communities International Office: 163 George St. Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Phone: 03-6334 4929 • Int Ph: +61-3-6334 4929 Fax: 03-6331 7376 • Int Fax: +61-3-6331 7376 U.S. Office: 1500 W. El Camino #325, Sacramento, CA 95833 Phone: 916-922-1615 •Fax: 916-922-4320 N.Z. Office: PO Box 93, Carterton, New Zealand Phone/Fax: 06-379 7396 E-mail: globallearning@vision.net.au WWW site: http://www.vision.net.au/~globallearning/education/

LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL CHANGE REDESIGNING EDUCATION,

By Kenneth G. Wilson and Bennett Daviss, Teachers College Press,1995.

Technology and global competition have forced Western countries to begin to understand that national prosperity no longer depends on raw materials and a vast pool of manual labor; it depends on every worker s ability to meet the diverging needs of increasingly sophisticated and demanding customers in services and in manufacturing. Meeting those needs is no longer a matter of pulling levers on a massproduction machine or ringing a cash register. It now demands the thinking skills and judgment to make the best creative use of a range of technological and information resources, often in competition with low-wage workers abroad. We are finally being forced to accept the idea that the future belongs to the trained mind. The pressures forcing the creation of a new educational vision are precisely the same ones forcing our economy to reinvent itself pressures that value mind over muscle, process before product, and quality above quantity. Because our economy s strength grows directly out of the abilities of its workers, the same transforming pressures are reaching through to our schools and forcing us to redefine what it means to be educated.Yet, schooling in the Western world still conceives teaching and learning to be what they were ten decades ago, before computers, the global economy, or the information age added new dimensions to our concepts of knowledge and education. In most classrooms today, students chairs still face the teacher, just as they have for more than a century. The teacher delivers information; children receive it passively. Teachers ask questions; children answer when called upon. For most of the rest of their class time, far too many students work silently and alone at their desks performing rote exercises. Their progress is measured in letter grades, which children must win at one another s expense. Most classrooms lack not only computers and electronic mail systems, but even a simple telephone that might connect teachers and students to experts and stores of knowledge beyond the closed classroom door. Today s typical school is one of the few places in the modern world where citizens of George Washington s America would feel right at home. The key to reform is the understanding that educational transformation is not only unavoidable and irreversible, but also understanding that reform must involve an ordered process of strategic change a process of detailed planning, design and construction. This educational redesign process is the integration of research, development, dissemination, and refinement. It starts with a compelling vision. The vision must be gripping enough to inspire people to commit themselves to work for its realization to begin and sustain the arduous processes of change in pursuit of the goals that the vision holds out. Once the vision becomes clearer, an organization and structure coalesces around it. The organization s purpose will be to study effective practices that advance the vision, test them, refine them, integrate them into a comprehensive, integrated, coordinated, long-term structure of reform.Then one transfers these best practices to the educator s practice and supervises their implementation. Further adaptation and refinement and model changes will be called for along the way to a school s pursuit of their vision and educational excellence.

The authors,Wilson and Daviss, cite five structures that should be considered for the redesigned school, because they each meet the following criteria for success: They improve the quality of life in school for teachers and for students by making school a more exciting, inviting place to be; They seem to make many kinds of learning more efficient and effective and thus raise student achievement; They thrive and grow, moving from school to school because educators and students not just regulators or academic theorists champion them; They make it possible for teachers to handle larger classes without sacrificing their effectiveness. The essential five areas to school reform are: 1. Total quality management and learning; 2. Teachers empowered to work collaboratively; 3. Cognitive science and understanding how children learn; 4. Cooperative learning; 5. Electronic technologies. Reading Recovery is also listed as a demonstrated program that has used the principles of design because it has shaped its methods according to the results of its own and others research. It has tested and honed its techniques through years of trials and refinements. It equips its specialists with a common body of proven knowledge and skills that allows instructors to tailor each lesson to each child s needs. It maintains rigorous systems of selfevaluation and offers on-going support to teachers and schools adopting the program.The process of combining research, development (on-going teacher education), marketing, and technical support in an orchestrated system of change is the school design process. There are three major areas that make it extremely difficult for schools to redesign themselves: 1. The isolating structure of the teaching profession: Because the teaching profession lacks a technical culture , teachers see their work as intensely individualistic, subjective and expressive. A technical culture cultivates the process of research and experimentation. It embodies a process to transform research into solutions for practical problems. It includes ways to gather, preserve, codify and disseminate the practical knowledge to others. A technical culture means communication and collaboration. However, teachers do not commonly come together to study each other s work and help each other to become better teachers. Professional development is seen as a frill instead of as an integral part of continuously improving the school and student learning. Professional isolation stifles professional growth. Unless adults talk with one another, observe one another, and help one another, very little will change. There can be no community of learners when there is no community and when there are no learners. Roland Barth

2. The culture of the school and educational politics: Educational innovation is buffeted by the subjective agendas, desires and political manoeuvers of every individual and interest group. Change takes place only when teachers desire it and the culture of the school accepts it. Teachers rightly resist reforms that demand change from them but that don t demand correspondingly deep changes in the inherent culture of the school. Different cultures of the world have different assumptions about education. For instance, Australians don t see schooling as more important in a child s life than any number of other activities. Asians want their children to excel in school, where Australians want their children to be well-rounded . Americans see academic success as a matter of inborn ability rather than diligent effort; Japanese think the opposite. American families reduce their involvement in their children s learning once they are in school, where Japanese parents commit themselves to a concerted effort to support their child s academic success. In the USA, there is still an assumption that a teacher who is not teaching is not working. In China, teachers are in the classroom 60% of the day and refining their practice and developing lessons and units 40% of the day. In order for a school to be redesigned, assumptions must be examined and the common six fallacies of reform need to be changed: 1. Reform begins in the classroom. 2. Reform has to show results right away. 3. Reform can t work unless we reduce class size. 4. We can t afford it. 5. Continuing education for working teachers is too expensive. 6. Scores on standardized tests offer the best gauge of effective reform. 3. Assessment and evaluation of schooling: In an effective redesign process, only chances that show measurable improvement over previous versions are embraced.This means that we must be able to assess student learning and evaluate program implementation and effectiveness. Assessment and evaluation are halves of one whole. Ironically, we are using more standardized tests, which are less meaningful and relevant to student s understanding and use of knowledge each year. At the same time, we are not evaluating at all the implementation of teaching and programs.While most educators admit the weaknesses of standardized tests, the test results continue to dominate decisions that are made. Mastery is shown through demonstrations and exhibitions of knowledge through performances and portfolios.What we need to be putting our assessment and evaluation time and money in are: a. New techniques to measure subtle difference in quality among varying classroom approaches directed toward the same goal, such as ways of teaching reading or mathematics; b. Evaluators need to develop ways to measure innovations relative cost efficiencies; and c. We need to refine the ability to conduct detailed, internally consistent evaluations of single programs as work in diverse communities and classrooms. Successful school restructuring programs do not offer pat solutions to problems, but new patterns by which problems can be addressed through local design. A framework for school change can help administrators and teachers search out innovations that fit their unique needs. We first need to create a vision for education and then design how to achieve it.We must mentor each other by collaborating to create, implement, and evaluate our efforts and results; then share those results with others.The power to change is the power of choice.We choose our preferred educational vision.We choose our design strategies.We have a future that holds change as the only constant; therefore, we must begin now the journey of redesigning education.

CLASSROOM PRACTICE IN SEARCH OF THE VIRTUAL CLASS: EDUCATION IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY, by John Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham, Routledge, London, 1995.

What kind of system is needed to prepare people for life in an information society? An industrial society depends on the physical movement of people and goods, so the critical technological infrastructures are rail, road, sea and air transport networks.The critical technological infrastructure of an information society, however, is its telecommunications network. If you want to talk to someone who is not actually with you, today you either go and see them or telephone, fax or email them use a transport network or a telecommunications network. To prepare people for life in an information society, an educational system is needed that is based on telecommunications rather than transport. Virtual means in effect, but not in fact and tele means at a distance. Information technology, the technology behind the information society, is the conjunction of computer and telecommunications technologies. Computer-assisted instruction, computer-managed instruction, and the use of computer simulations for training goes back to 1960s. Audioconferencing has been in use since the 1970s and instructional television has been tried around the world since the 1950s. It is, however, the coming together of computer and telecommunications technologies that could lead to the virtual class as the primary locus of learning in society. The idea of a virtual class is that everybody can talk and be heard and be identified and everybody can see the same words, diagrams, and pictures at the same time. In the 1990s, we are seeing the explosion of the use of telecommunication with the Internet and email and there is an increased use of teleconferencing and adapting its use for educational purposes. In the virtual classroom of tomorrow, we will see an increased use of virtual reality (VR) , which creates the effect of actually being inside a simulated reality. Applications of virtual reality are currently being made in medicine, architecture and science. It is time to see how it could be applied to education and the development of virtual classes in the fullest sense as wrap-around environments for learning where students as telepresences can see, hear, touch and perhaps one day smell and taste. VR offers us the possibility of a class meeting in the Amazon forest or on the top of Mount Everest or it could allow us to enter a fictional book or play as a character or we could accompany a surgeon in an exploration of the human body. THE VISION

Shirley zips into her skin-tight school uniform which on the outside looks something like a ski suit. The lining of the unit in fact contains cabling that makes the suit a communication system and there are pressure pads where the suit touches skin that give a sense of touch. Next, she sits astride something that is a bit like a motorbike except that it has no wheels and is attached to the floor. Her feet fit on to something similar to a brake and accelerator and her gloved hands hold onto the handlebars. Shirley is in the virtual world of her virtual school. The moment the helmet closes over her head, Shirley finds herself looking at an information map of her school and her own academic activities. There is her individual school diary of daily activities and appointments, class timetables and academic calendar. She can see for any particular class what will happen at what time, for how long or when an assignment is due. Her overall progress in terms of her chosen career path is charted. As she turns her head there are notices about meetings and extracurricular activities she is involved in. A couple of the notices have signs winking on and off to show someone wants to get in touch with her. She looks at the information map of school functions library,

registration, counselling, health services, research lab, computer room and classrooms are all clearly marked. To go to any one of them, all she has to do is reach forward and touch them and she will be there. She considers going early to her virtual class, because the pre-class chats are fun with people from so many cultures. She often wonders how many students there really are in the virtual school and how many countries that represents. Today, however, she is leading her group s presentation on glacial retreat as evidence of global warming and she is not sure of her grasp of the concept. Putting herself on automatic, which means that when the class begins she will automatically find herself in the class, she hits the library function and asks for the Franz Josef glacier. Then, she selects the transforming and flight overview options. As the simulation forms around her, she gets the familiar feeling of butterflies in the stomach as she finds herself hovering above the glacier. Kicking the accelerator with her right foot, she leans forward and zooms down to the front of the glacier. As she reaches the position she wants, she decelerates with the left foot. She touches the function key that gives her the simulations capability index and selects glacier movement at a century per second starting at 2000 BC. The term glacial to her means something that moves so slowly that it hardly seems to move at all, so she is startled by the size and speed of the glacier s advances and retreats at this rate and quickly slows the simulation down. Suddenly the glacier disappears and is replaced by three-dimensional images of her teachers and classmates sitting in a sun-dappled glade while deer graze among them in the forest they have designed for their virtual learning space. The virtual class is starting.

Everything that has been described in this vision is technically feasible within the next eight years. If we really begin to see learners as customers in the information age, then education needs to be: more accessible than it is; less expensive than it is; up-to-date and relevant; tailored to fit the needs of individual learners. Telelearning makes it possible to offer a variety of courses that no conventional school can match. There are no physical limits to the number and variety of courses that can be offered. Likewise, any number of students could be accommodated seven days a week at any time of day or night. Education could become international as well. If the equipment and software were mass produced for a global population of school goers it would also be cheaper than the buses, roads, buildings and books that constitute the infrastructure of today s conventional classroom education. However, there is another side to the vision. In their research with virtual learning environments, the authors had to deal with problems caused by differences in time and culture around the world, the way educators felt threatened by the technology, and the fact that students wanted real social contact with each other. Some unexpected difficulties were problems with the technology itself and working the bugs out of that, and the exaggerated amount of communication across the airways, such as overcrowding email. In looking at education in an information society, we need to see education as a communication system. The interaction of four factors the learner, teacher, knowledge and problem in a particular context constitutes the fundamental communication process that is education.Within this there are three fundamental communication functions to transmit information over space, to store information over time and to process information so that it is regenerated. Conventional education systems are based on human transmission, human memories and above all, human processing the thinking in education. That we can use technology for transmission, or as an auxiliary memory is something most people are 5

accepting. They are also comfortable with low level processing systems for instruction, such as computer-assisted instruction. However, what is controversial is the idea of a future educational system that includes the technological high-level communications processing that people engage in when they think. We are on the brink of having the power of creating any experience we desire. (Rheingold 1991: 386) In the industrial age education systems that took place separately in the home, school and workplace. In the information society these education centres will be combined as the following table illustrates.

In telelearning, four basic levels of communication whereby learners can interact with teachers, knowledge and problems to learn. These levels are: (a) the individual learner with PC and modem, (b) small group networks; (c) course networks; and (d) virtual learning institutions. The first three levels form the virtual class. The virtual learning institution is concerned with administration and support of telelearning systems, the design and development of courseware, the provision of telelibraries and databases, telecounselling services, and teleregistration.With the individual learner, PC and modem, the student can use multimedia computer-assisted instruction, do a library search, upload an assignment, voice mail a teacher, and engage in learning projects and dialogues with a whole community of learners. With small group telecentre networks, small groups of learners can teleconference; they can work with information technologies and at the same time, engage in face-to-face interaction on topics of interest.When a number of teleconferencing centres are networked together, they can become telelearning networks. Different groups in different centres can address different parts of a problem; people can easily shift from technology to small group mode and back again to the large group technological mode. The possibilities are endless, where learning is an alternating process of analyzing and synthesizing skills at different fractal levels, as shown in the table above. 6

What could be critical in education is for a learner to be able to shift between levels as they seek the point where the learner/teacher and the knowledge/problem axes lock into place and they understand. Even if they understand at one level, learners may seek verification that they understand at other fractal levels. In this way they come to see the kind of problem they are studying from different perspectives, their understanding is holistic, and there is feedback at each level to reassure them that their problem-solving capability is culturally and socially acceptable. This view of education suggests that the greater the number of fractal levels, the greater the potential of an effective educational system. If this is so, then the virtual class for education in the future information society will benefit to the extent that it retains the existing fractal levels in conventional educational systems and adds to them by providing a greater depth and breadth possible with technology and adds the global level as well. She did not know then that imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. GB Shaw, Back to Methuselah

ECOLEARNING MY FIRST NATURE BOOK: LIFE-SIZE GUIDE TO DISCOVERING THE WORLD AROUND YOU,

by Angela Wilkes, Alfred Knopf Publishers, NY, 1996.

My First Nature Book is full of interesting things to do at home and outdoors. Each activity, from making bird-feeders to watching a caterpillar grow into a butterfly, helps one find out more about nature. Simple step-by-step instructions show exactly what to do and there are life-size photographs of each nature project. The projects are beautifully designed and could be used as gifts for friends or family. The book s contents include: Nature in Pictures Nature Spotter s Kit Nature Museum and Showcases Collecting and Sprouting Seeds Feeding the Birds Tree Prints From Bud to Leaf Creepy-Crawly Pit Bottle Garden Caterpillar House Everlasting Flowers Worm Farm Pet Watching and Tracking Nature Diary

The book ends with the following Country Code: When you have finished a project, put everything away. When collecting things, only take what you need and make sure you leave plenty of specimens behind. Leave things in the wild as you found them. Do not drop litter anywhere. Never disturb nesting birds or steal birdsÂ&#x2019; eggs. Be gentle with any creatures that you catch. Set them free when you have finished a project. Only pick wild flowers if there are plenty growing, and just pick a few. Never pick rare plants. Never uproot any plant unless you have the landownerÂ&#x2019;s permission. Water your plants and take good care of your animals.

INDIGENOUS LEARNING FOOTPRINTS ACROSS OUR LAND Compiled by Jordan Crugnale. Magabala Books, Western Australia 1995

This inspiring collection of short stories was told by a group of senior Kukatja, Wangkajunga and Ngarti women based at Wirrimanu and Yaka Yaka communities. The women present their perspective on living in the desert, Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) and their encounters with kartiya (white people) in the 1930s and 1940s.The stories are presented in the women s own words and are illustrated with photographs and paintings which add a richness to this collection. The project was initiated by the women themselves who were concerned that their stories, knowledge and history would disappear with nothing written down for the future generations of their community. It began in 1992 as part of the bi-lingual program in Wirrimanu, where Kukatja is the lingua franca. It was intended to compile and publish a bi-lingual book for the secondary girls. All stories were recorded on tape and then translated into Aboriginal English over an eight-month period. Most of the storytelling and paintings were done on a trip away from the community to sites nominated by the women. This allowed them to visit their country, hunt and gather food and collect wood for their families. We want people to learn about our culture We got a lot of stories secret one too Too long people not listening to women Not listening to Aboriginal people We women got our own Law and Culture Different from men We not stupid Giving you very important stories about our culture So you people understand We wanna spread our stories down to Perth and other side Overseas too right around Our children wanna be learning our stories Keep on hanging onto our culture Keep it strong Listen to what women saying It very important We getting old now We worrying for mining companies They think we stupid Treat us with no respect for Culture and Law Government mob too We know how to look after our country It very special to us You ll see You ll understand

Ngunytja Napanangka Mosquito

Walking around with my mother My mother and other women used to go hunting, getting their own food, and us mob went to get our own too. This is when we were young girls and we get plenty of bushtucker. My sisters taught me to go hunting. My sisters taught me about Law and Culture. When my mother come back from hunting they used to get lots of bushtucker and the bushtucker was walku. They used to make a big fire and cook it. We used that plum to rub our hair to make it long make hair grow fast. We were waiting for our mothers and fathers to come home from hunting. we used to squeeze it and rub all over body. For Culture, while we were waiting, we used to put tucker on our bodies. All the young girls used our mothers ochre when they went out hunting. We used to make big fire to cook that walku. We also used to cook mangarta on the fire, and from the fire it would open when cooked. We used to rub that quandong all over us it was very greasy. When our mothers come back form hunt they bin ask: Look at these girls, what they bin doing? They bin using this one here, walku and mangarta. Our mothers would go out to get karrulykura, wangki, nyurrariku. They used to get plenty, not far from camp. They get big mob. Get just tucker, no leaves, used to get plenty of tucker on that trees, biggest mob. That karrulykura is like a bag in the tree made by an insect. Our country had this kind of tucker, never go short of tucker, plenty there. I wouldn t know which way to go to get tucker it was everywhere. All the young girls, no boys, would stay at camp and their mothers would come back and say: Are you all right? And happy to see them that nothing happened. I would go out hunting with all the other girls and learn to get our own food. Sometimes all the young girls would get leaves to make a shelter. Mother would come back and we bin get up and stand in a line: What bin happening? What you bin doing? We tell her that we bin using this one here that mangarta, same one. We all bin laughing. Mother bin bring back lot of goanna, rabbit and meow. We used to get happy when we bin see them coming. When mothers come back from hunting we used to sit down with big mob goannas, blue tongue, and pink one like that blue tongue. Our mothers would start painting themselves and when we see other people with big goanna, we would go over and sit with them, so they would give us some. That bushtucker bin share with everyone.

In the bush I lived with my grandmother in the bush when I was little. My mother ran off with another husband. I had to stay with her. We started walking through Lake Gregory, Kilang Kilang, and turned left to go to Lampu Well. That was the last water and so we had little and camped in the middle of the dry desert. We still had water in those big coolamon on our heads. We keep going, heading for Tangku. During the middle of the day, we all sat down in the shade for a rest and wait for the sun to go down, wait for it to get little bit cooler. Then we start again. We camped just near Jgaranytjartu, then we arrive there. We tasted the water, it was a well, and it was very salty. So we keep going looking for another water. We found a rockhole, little bit wet, no water in it so the people started digging then clean it and wait for the water to come up. We filled our coolamons and kept going and camp halfway on the road. Some sat in the shade and some kept going because they knew where the water was. The men went in front with some kids and we stayed behind; grandmother and us were tired. The first mob found water and had to dig for soakwater. They waited for the others and when we got there we camped for two-three days. We started walking again in the morning and saw some people in Tangku. People looking after sheep there. For those who were looking after sheep, people would bring more load of food for them on horse, no mutika then, in those days. When we arrived to the main camp, everyone was painted up so we painted up, sorry meeting. Both groups of men threw boomerangs and everyone was crying. Some people used to steal the sheep and eat it. No one knew. (I laugh because they used to do that at Old Mission, when I was a big girl, and the police used to come). Our mob stole kartiya food at Tangku when we were passing through but they never catch us. Then we went our own way. I went to Kupartiya (Bohemia), with my granny. Some went to Christmas Creek, some to Fitzroy. We kept going from Kupartiya to Kurlkarrara and got there at night and made camp. Some went to say hello to the people who lived there and they gave them food. It was the best time at night to sneak to the house when the main camp was and let them know how many people are travelling. they were afraid of white man. In the morning we left early and as we walked along, some men and women went hunting and killed big water goannas, quite different from the ones in the desert. We had been travelling all day along the big river and we stopped in the afternoon to make camp.

Morningtime we had breakfast and rolled the swags and started walking again. As we walked some people killed goannas and cooked them for everyone. We continued on and arrived at Margaret River after travelling around Louisa Downs, Mary River. We don t get tired like in the desert, lots of water, can swim, and we were happy. The people there greeted us and gave us rations kartiya was good. We had Christmas and New Year there. After New Year we had to travel again and kartiya gave us food to take with us. We were travelling back the same way we came, same story, stopping halfway, camping out and walking. We went straight to Kupartiya. My real father stayed at this place, and we went to Christmas Creek. When we arrived people were down near the river, not at the house. Some started working here, those travelling nomad people. People worked in the bush making tanks, yards, fences and when they finished they come back to the station for Christmas. We left Christmas Creek and headed for Cherrabun. We camped halfway and had lunch halfway. The next day we got to the station. We saw lot of Walmajarri people. We left and headed north to Jubilee Downs. We stayed there for a while and then headed back to Cherrabun and got there at night-time, not too far. No mutika long time ago. We went back to get our grandmother at Cherrabun, she had to stay with some family. Then we all started walking back to Christmas Creek. When we were travelling to this creek, we saw stockmen on the way. I saw my real father working in the stockyard. Then I went back to my mother and stepfather. I had to travel with them. Kartiya gave us rations at Christmas Creek and we left to go on holiday to a camp in the bush. Kartiya used to bring us rations every week. We had three months and kartiya told us to go bush for that time. It was time for us to go back to the station to start work. We made tanks, build yards, fences and some men were working on the stockyards, mustering bullocks and horses. When people were working out in the bush they had contract and each week someone from the group would go to the main camp to get rations.

Looking for parents Me and my husband went back to Billiluna to look for his mother. When we were young we walked, we didn t have any children then. We left Old Balgo and we camped at Old Station. In the morning we kept on walking and came to a place called Palapiyarru (only a yard between Billiluna and Malarn). We killed goannas and got bushtucker. When we got there, his parents were not there. They were out making fences working for kartiya on stock camps. People told us they were making new stockyards at Tjangalatjarra windmill. We stayed down the river at the bushcamp with Jaru, Ngarti and Walmajarri people, waiting for his parents to return. they came in for the weekend to get more rations for everyone working on contract at the yards. This way they had a chance to meet the relations. The people on contract got more things than people on the river. The workers got more food, got blankets, swags, hats. We stayed there for a holiday then started walking back. On the way back we had no donkeys or cars for carrying swags and we never got sick, we were really healthy. The sun was going down we got to Old Balgo, the mission. It was near the river and there were humpies everywhere along the riverbed. We didn t have houses, we had to make our own tents, humpies, windbreaks, spinifex houses. No kartiya building nothing. In the morning, we went to get our rations. Then we went out hunting for the day and some people looking after sheeps and some after goats. In the afternoon we came home with goannas for the family and for the two Napurruals, Nanyuma and Marri Yakuny. Big rain came and we didn t have a humpy, we covered ourselves with our canvasses.

Two snakes Two snakes bin travelling from Kanapilyirr Big mob people bin dancing It ceremony time Them two snakes bin watching They bin see all the womans dancing And the grabbing of the young boys. Kuniya Kurnatawurn That name of them two snakes They bin getting angry watching that dancing They bin think What we gotta do, eat them? Some people bin come from another place Bin come for that ceremony Warlpiri, Walmajarri, Wangkajunga Kuniyan and Warlyintjii people. Two snakes bin eat all the people They bin start run Too full and eating too much people They bin go underground Two fella still in the claypan Kuniya on one side Kurnatawurn on other In Jgukanu Palkarr, other side Piparr.

I understand When we grown up we understand everything. We go walking around for bushtucker called pampilanytji. It green beans. All the mothers told us not to fight when we stay in camp, just to sit there. When we go hunting we go on top sand dune to look around for tucker, find tree and go and get him. This time it end of wintertime, September, and we get plenty pampilanytji, it ready. If they ripe we just eat them. Today maybe that bean still there around that sand dune area. You don t eat the skin, just the inside, clean clean open it and eat inside. We used to run back to camp and tell the old people who don t go out hunting that there a lot of bushtucker.

When we used to finish hunting that bushtucker, go back home and play hide and seek. Kawarli kawarli, that mean hurry up, run and hide. Turn around and look. You out, I can see you These days when they play ball they say Kulila kulila Which mean look around.

All the old woman sit in the windbreak, they look all dusty, ash all round and hair not comb, all their hair curly. Use to get spinifex, not real one, it like a branch and they burn it and put through hair. Burn (charcoal) that hair and then grease him up. Womans use to go hunting looking for bushtucker to bring back home. When I was little I lost my mother. My granny grew me up. Antbed Tjungurrayi mother bin grow me up. Next day we showed big people where we find that bean bushtucker. We all help the old womans true no lies. Throw him in fir and cook it. Some old womans follows us, we not go far and we carried her coolamon, stick, and helped her get that bean. They finish in cold-time. Those kids, when they three or four, no drink breast milk of mother, they used to eat bushtucker. Our faces and body used to be real dirty. Other mothers used to feed anyone, not just her kids. When smallest kids didn t have teeth, other kids would bite the food and make it soft for them to eat. Even for my aunty we used to bite that food and give it to her she had no teeth. Mother and father come back from hunting and we were waiting for all the stuff. Grandmothers stay in windbreak looking after us. We would play not far from them. We not only used to live at one living water but go to another one to fetch food. We went to different soakwater and joined another mob, family and all the kids happy.

My Country This is a country one walking around Yurunguny rockhole, Tjaliwaya, Tjaalinu rockhole My country Deep rockhole there Drink that water, then go hunting around Come back and drink more water I was a young girl Then we went to Tjunparntja Got frogs, sand ones When we ran out of water, out hunting Go back to hole and get more Then go out hunting again Then we travelled back to Kuntupangu When we finish water, go to billabong Put leaves on the billycan to cool it down Sun go down Back to billabong. Out hunting always dry We had kids too After sun go down Went back to Tjunparntja Then to Kurtuwarangu The to Kunyulurru Camped there and later went east Then to Tjanpirku Dreaming story there Women saw two snakes fighting, two Tjungurrayi them snakes coming from Tjukula way, going to Kulykurta

From the sand dunes real ones Took no notice of those snakes Drank water from the rockhole Then we moved to Minyurr Stopped there and did some hunting. Then to Mantilatjarra Nyaakarlpa, Nyila big rockhole Between Well 33 and Jupiter Well Just went to Nyila rockhole, kids and all Getting plenty lukararra, white seeds too The to Ngawuli rockhole real big Stayed awhile Tipiltju, moved there Yalanytjirri, the to Tjintarr rockhole Grandmother bin find me there Lot of walking Plenty water in my country That s My Country.

PERSONAL AND SOCIETAL GROWTH JOURNALING FOR JOY: WRITING YOUR WAY T O PERSONAL GROWTH AND FREEDOM by Joyce Chapman Newcastle, California 1991

The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed. Charlotte Bronte JOURNALING FOR JOY: offers a highly user friendly method of journaling to encourage you, the journaler, to write from your heart and soul with a single focus. This is a book for those who have either tried writing a journal and not persisted, or thought about it but not taken the next step. It enables you to take a close look at who you are and what you want through thinking and writing from your heart. The book itself is filled with over 200 techniques for accessing your own thoughts, wishes and needs in a way which brings personal strategies to a very useable level.As an educator, the author understands the power of feedback and learning from your thoughts and writing in a metacognitive way rather than simply using journalling as a cathartic activity. The aim of the book is to enable you to bring joy into your own life. The premise of true joy is simple: what we need to be happy we already have. It will emerge from within when invited and given the chance. It s not to be found outside. It s found by following your heart and following your dream! You are the treasure. You are the joy! So, as Chapman implores, don t lock up your joy in a box and throw away the key. Instead, open your journal and accept the invitation to return to your natural self. Discover the treasure inside you. JOURNALING FOR JOY is written to be used as a tranformational tool with the potential of enhancing personal growth and individual therapy. It provides an internal means for selfinquiry, self-discovery, and self-direction that is unmatched by any external information available to us. It is based on the belief that we are all meant to experience peace, joy and happiness as our natural birthright. Somewhere inside, we know that. But often many of us need permission to find it within ourselves. We know everything we need to know in order to find it. All it takes is to stop, pay attention and listen to our inner voice. You can write most freely in your journal if you are clear that you are writing for yourself so Chapman suggests that you set no performance standards on yourself as you write. Rather, give yourself permission to express your truth, and develop your very own style in doing it. A good starting point for beginning to keep a daily record is to sit down at the end of your day and picture the day s events in the context of your life. Review your day. Close your eyes, letting the day pass before your attention on the movie screen of your mind. Go back to the time when you were still in bed. Recall your first thought of the morning. Notice how your body felt. What was your first movement of the day? What was the first thing you did? What did you look forward to or dread? What would an objective outside observer think, watching your movements? What might not appear obvious to an observer, being known only to you? What were your thoughts? What happened next? What were the feelings you felt? What did you notice about your body? When you have recorded the main ideas and details of your day s experiences, stop and reread what you have written. What does it say to you? What conclusions can you draw?

What action is suggested? Chapman shares an anecdote which illustrates how she learns from her experiences in the following extract: I once came home from one of the many never-ending, pointless meetings I was required to attend and immediately sat down to record the day s events. After writing, I realized that I hated everything about the meetings I attended and that I no longer fit in that organization. There was no further contribution I could make, and I definitely didn t need to be sitting in meetings making judgments and hating it, if nothing could be done to change things. The next day, I resigned. Breakthroughs come when we record our experience in enough depth to become aware of where we are and what changes we need to make. When we record our lives, we start to take responsibility for what happens in our lives. I don t know how many more meetings I would have sat through without realizing that the time for action was long overdue if it weren t for that simple act of recording. There are numerous techniques suggested throughout the book which may be adapted as you experiment to find the method of daily recording that works best for you.Another technique to try is to carry a small notebook with you throughout the day, and make notations as you go along. Be sure to scan through your daily records at the end of the week and month and take advantage of the cumulative messages that are there for you. As a keeper of a daily record in your journal, you will learn immensely from your writing over time. Any unrest that comes up in the moment can be dealt with and learned from by writing in your daily record. It may be a simple reaction to a picture you see in a magazine or a deep response to something in the news. It may be an observation you make in the grocery store or while driving on the freeway. If you find yourself impassioned by a particular social or political issue, or an event you encounter in your everyday life, use your journal to let these feelings pour out. Then later, follow up this work further: What issue of yours does this speak to? Keeping a log, or simple list recording the details you re interested in knowing more about is another simple technique. Think and/or write about issues and questions such as those below.Then, when you choose to be more aware, follow through with a concrete action: set the facts and figures down in black and white before you. What are you dissatisfied with? What do you feel unfulfilled about? What area would you like to assume more control over? What feeling or experience do you want to increase in your life? If I could take a souvenir or memento from today, what would it be? and Is there something I would like to say to each person who entered my day in some form? Wonderful learning can come from recording the activities and thoughts and events of one single day:

* Want to become more positive? Log your negative thoughts and words for a day. Then write what your learning is from what you have observed. * Log your accomplishments for a week, and then write a Feedback Statement * Keep a log of your frustrations during a day at the office or at home. Then write what you can learn from what you have written. * Want to learn to communicate more effectively? Keep a log of your communications for a day, and then write yourself a Feedback Statement . * What s bugging you? Keep a log for a day, and then write your conclusions and recommendations to yourself. * Your body is acting up again? Keep a record of your symptoms for a day or a week, noting alongside each what else was going on in your life at that time. At the end, write what learning is available from this record. Then keep another log: of times your body feels wonderful!

* Want to learn to be more assertive? Keep a log of your interactions for a day. Ask yourself, Did I say what I felt, wanted, needed? Or do I say, What s the use? or Who cares. What difference does it make? * Low self-esteem? Keep a log for a day of thoughts and interactions that raised and lowered your self-esteem. What is the learning there? * Keep a log of your feelings for a day. What do you conclude? Write about your learning. If there is a feeling you want to increase in your life, keep a log of the times you experience this feeling. Is your life too bland? Keep a log of times you experience passion. Summarize your conclusions.

Consider the following possibilities of lists to create:

a short synopsis of books read and their important ideas quotes to remember memorable thoughts from a class or lecture amusing anecdotes, jokes and cartoons ideas on latest projects inventions and creations dreams ideas for making money ideas to use in presentations or papers you will write ideas for books you may want to write Aha! insights that strike you suddenly log your thoughts over a period of time without any interference from radio or TV.

The most powerful concept in Journaling for Joy is using your writing as a learning experience. It s a small but very critical step to reread a journaling piece and draw out the learning from it. In journaling, when you become aware of the decisions you have made and are about to make, there is a fascinating side-effect: you begin to act out of this new awareness.

Other journaling ideas include:

* Snapshots of Your Life An Album of Memories * Significant events of the past, * A present experience * New revelations * Writing about your own past experience in the third person. * Writing about the skeletons in your closet * Decisions have you made in your life? * Listing Your Life. Write as many ways of defining and explaining yourself as you can think of, then Who Do I Want to Be?, with a Feedback Statement comparing the two lists and concluding what action or changes they suggest. * A What I Want list without editing, ranking or prioritizing. * Milestones in your life: stages, progressions, learnings, decisions, inspirations, wishes & dreams, successes, failures * Blocks and Patterns * Fears * What I Like * Things I do well. * Times I ve felt fulfilled. * Things I love. * What I like about myself. * Positive experiences I ve had. * People I like being with. * Ways I am like my mother, father, teacher, my parents ideal. * Excuses I sometimes use. * Things I would do if I were the person I admire, left my misery behind and had no excuses.

* Times I ve want to quit/give up. * What I want to add to my life. * What I want to eliminate from my life. * Things I want to be remembered for. * Creative Conversations with yourself, your body, a person you admire, an idea, a conflict, to release anger, tension or stress, dispel depression

You can also write a long time on the following list of simple questions: Am I happy? Do I love the people I associate with? Do I love the work I m doing? Why am I sad, troubled, worried? What do I want? What do I have to do, to get what I want? What Can I Do to Have Intimacy? Where Am I with My Body? Is There Such a Thing as Pure Integrity? Where am I in my life right now? How do I get to the question I need to ask? Why don t I have time to journal? Who am I today? Who was I yesterday? What do I want to be tomorrow? How do I feel? What is my body telling me? How do I give up resentment? What s the best way to give up fear? How can I forgive myself or someone else? How can I know I am free? How do I know I am on the right track? How do I get where I want to go? What part of me do I want to express? What do I want someone to know about me? What is love? How can I experience more love? What does spirituality mean to me? What is wrong here? What do I need to communicate? What do I want out of today? What part of my life is working? What s not working? What makes my heart sing? What is it going to take to love myself no matter what? What can I do to give back to those who have given to me? What can I do to make a difference in the world?

It is a rare individual who takes the time to record the joy. How many of us sit down to analyze why good things happen? Have you ever had a glorious day, gone home and examined why it was such a good day? How did you create it to be so good? Most people only take the time to question, analyze, dissect and recreate over and over again in their minds why bad things happen. How could this have happened? What did I do to deserve this? Where did I go wrong? Just think how much more powerful and promising an accentuation of the positive is! What do you think would happen in your life if you spent twice as much time focusing on and writing about the good? Want to try? As Chapman asks, what do you have to lose? As you find your truth and reclaim your dreams, your journal can empower you to take total responsibility for your life for deciding what and how you make a contribution to your work place, family, community, or the planet.

Other Global Learning Communities Publications: MOTIVATING SCHOOLS TO CHANGE Carole Cooper and Nan Henderson (1995) $10.50 This useful little book paints a clear, simple picture- to be shared with school staff, students, parents, and others connected with the school community- of why schools need to change to better prepare students as major contributors to society and the improvement of our world. It addresses the need to change from two complimentary points of view- change to increase students’ lifelong learning and change to increase student’s wellness. LEARNING AND PLANNING JOURNAL FOR EDUCATORS (1997) Julie Boyd $26.50 This planner and journal is a NEW concept in professional learning, teacher appraisal, and record keeping. It is a reflective journal, provides a guided educational journey, is a professional development tool, a daily, weekly and yearly planner, a diary, and a record of personal and professional achievements, information and assessment task results for students. Presented in a leatherette, gold embossed cover this is designed to enhance both the professional image and professionalism of teachers. COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND REFLECTION Carole Cooper and Julie Boyd (1996) $25 With growing interest in teacher professional learning, appraisal, peer coaching and conferencing, it is imperative that schools model approaches that reflect what we know about how people learn. This book offers a menu of methods designed to assist individuals, groups and whole school staffs to implement collaborative reflection which will enhance professionalism and improve the practice of teachers. MINDFUL LEARNING Carole Cooper with Julie Boyd (1996) $18 Teaching is much more a matter of facilitating student learning than it is of covering content. Therefore, if we are going to be serious about facilitating student learning, we need to be serious about developing learner thinking and mindful practice through creative experiences for students to refine their thinking, create meaning, use their knowledge and find the intrinsic value of learning. LEARNING CONNECTIONS: INTEGRATED CURRICULUM FOR MINDFUL LEARNING A new and innovative series of teaching units that align in a comprehensive and practical way the classroom environment, a conceptually-based curriculum, with meaningful, relevant, interactive teaching and learning strategies, and purposeful assessment. These units are written by Australian teachers and trialled in all Australian states and territories, several of the United States of America and New Zealand. They incorporate state, National and International Curriculum Frameworks and profiles. $15/unit THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY for Grades 5/6/7 - a Study of Societal Change THE Y FILES for Grades 6/7/8 - a Study of InterDependence THE GREAT AUSSIE COOKBOOK For Grade 1/2/3 - a Study of Community LEARNER CENTRED ASSESSMENT Carole Cooper (1997) $24 This book is a comprehensive guide to the guiding principles and practices of classroom-based assessment. Chapters include practical ideas on performance-based assessment, observation and interviewing, portfolio development, student role in assessment, grading and reporting and much more. EDUCATIONAL LEADERS’ BOOK OVERVIEWS: An annual Subscription Service designed to screen and select books which will enhance your knowledge and professional expertise in a fraction of the time it takes to read a complete book. Fifty carefully selected books per year summarised by leading International educator/practicioners. 10 issues contain one book from each of the following fields: Leadership and School Change Ecolearning and Systems Thinking Indigenous Wisdom Personal and Societal Growth Community and Classroom Practice Subscription $70 per individual subscription or $55 per individual for bulk subscriptions (5 or more from the same workplace) *Volume 1 Collection (10 issues) : $60 (includes: The Fifth Discipline, What’s Worth Fighting For, Schools for the 21st Century, Celestine Prophecy, Creating Community Anywhere) *Volume 2 Collection (10 issues) : $65 (includes: The Exhausted School, Earth in the Balance, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Global Mind Change, The Leadership Paradox, Care of the Soul) * Volume 3 Collection (10 issues over 12 months, 1997) $70

Copyright © Global Learning Communities, 1997, Vol. 3. To subscribe, call or fax. Credit card facilities available. Subscribers receive 50 overviews per year in 10 volumes. Copying is not permitted. Additional copies of an entire volume or single summaries available on request.

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