Posts tagged dream
Moving Cities
Jan 22nd
Recently I went on a bit of a tour of northern England with the purpose of meeting people and finding a city where I could start my business.
One place I went really captured me. Newcastle. The people are really friendly, the city is really bustling and there is a really good atmosphere there. Not only that but it is a really attractive city. Really! The buildings, and the Gateshead area are just gorgeous. I took a few photos while I was there, you can view them here.
I also met some great people in Newcastle who were very supportive and excited about what I am doing. They offered me a tonne of advice and have sparked several ideas and approaches to take which has been invaluable.
There are also a lot of business resources to draw help from. I have started collecting links to them here.
I am quite excited about the move. I am doing a little travelling over the next few months, but when I get back I will be moving up there, should be sometime in April.
Curriculum Theory
Jan 8th
I have been working on writing a curriculum for the sand box and teaching programs I plan on running. As I have never written a curriculum before I have been on a steep learning curve! I have been reading ‘Curriculum theory and practice’, and have found it really useful. The author presents four options as to what it a curriculum could be and leaves it somewhat up to the reader to decide the most appropriate meaning.
From reading this I find that I most identify with the ideas of curriculum put forward by Lawrence Stenhouse:
‘A curriculum is an attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice’ – Lawrence Stenhouse (1975)
One of the key ideas that Stenhouse puts forth is that individuals are not merely present in the process but that they should have a voice in the way that the process is implemented. This is important because the process is only a guide that is being worked out. It will not necessarily be perfect or the right thing for all the participants, therefore they must be able to provide feedback on how things are run so as to provide them with the most value – after all they are the reason for even having the curriculum in the first place!
Classic methods of teaching often fail people because they do not work well with the way that they learn. I know this because the way I was taught had little alignment with the way that I learn, I therefore had little desire to apply myself and subsequently dropped out. I was lucky that my desire to succeed and accomplish things drove me to learn skills on my own time and in my own way. I am hoping that my experience with this, and the understanding of how I learn, will enable me to effectively pass that knowledge onto others. My goal is that they will catch a passion for learning that inspires them to pursue knowledge their own way, on their own terms.
Which brings me back to the last part of the quote from Stenhouse:
‘... and capable of effective translation into practice’.
This is the key – translating the theory into practice. I have a lot of work to do to figure out how to do this and it is what I will be working through over the next few years.
Finding youth to work with
Dec 27th
One of the things people keep asking me is where am I going to find people to train.
I expect that getting this business started is going to take some time because it is very much about relationships and in my experience there are no short-cuts – it just takes time. So here is my game plan. I want to form relationships with existing organisations and people that know of people who could benefit from my help. This involves school, the police, youth workers, churches etc. Of course they are not just going to refer people to me directly with no track record of helping so I am going to have to build some trust. To do this I will have to get involved with an existing organisation working with youth. Maybe to do some mentoring or just general dogs body helping out.
It may not be exactly what I envisaged from the start but I am beginning to see that transforming a vision into reality involves making some consesions and doing things a little differently along the way.
I have a dream
Dec 19th
Over the last few months God has been developing a dream in my heart. I want to share this with others as I work through exactly what it means and how to apply it in my life.
The dream is to start a business whose focus is on others. Initially I want to focus on encouraging and developing young people who do not complete school or are otherwise challenged in the area of qualifications and work skills. I can relate to people in this situation as I left school before I finished, spent some time at a technical institute and also left that. Finally I found my niche in computers and I have spent the last eight years working with software and honing my skills.
I hope that I can use what I have learnt to inspire others and help them to avoid the mistakes I made.
