Pedagogy and Education: An End of Year Recap

What drives us as teachers?

Have you ever considered what drives us as teachers; and by extension, what drives the schools in which we serve? Is our major concern to see our students grow in character? Or are we fixated on growing knowledge, leading to success at school? Is our major priority (and perhaps that of parents) simply to help students' succeed at school and hence, in life? What a shallow and inadequate aspiration this is for education!

Every parent of course wants their children to succeed in life, to gain employment, have families and so on. But what of their character? Where does their formation as people fit in? Is it a deep concern for us as teachers? And what role if any, do we play in partnership with parents in the formation of  our students?  

When I wrote ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning, and Formation’, it was a distillation of my many years as a teacher and research. My intent was to address questions that get to the heart of our purpose. My experience as a teacher and researcher, as well as my faith, led me over almost three decades, to develop a pedagogy that did not consist simply of knowledge of good practice and appropriate curriculum content. It was based on my central assumption that children learn in relationship to others, and that these relationships and the practices they engage in day by day, are always embedded within shared communities, consisting of people who hold many understandings, beliefs and practices. The definition that shaped my book reflects my personal life journey as a teacher. My conclusion was that.

“Education is the whole life of a community, and the experience of its members learning to live this life, from the standpoint of a specific goal”

This lead me to develop a pedagogical framework with 20 components, organized around three key main strands within a biblical theology of person hood:

• God made us as unique creatures
• God made us as creatures who learn
• God made us for communion

Each of the above understandings of person hood lead to a number of questions that should shape pedagogy. In this post, I want to comment on the first question that relates to our uniqueness.

Do I identify that which is valuable in each child?

Above: Picasso's Girl with a mandolin

All children are made in the image of God (Gen 2:15-25) and yet, all are different. While we might recognize common behaviour, attitudes, knowledge, habits (good and bad), abilities, emotional strengths or weaknesses and so on, in our children, each child in his or her own way is unique. This is of course is true, even for identical twins (monozygotic twins) who from the same fertilized egg. They too are genetically different (see this article) and different in character.

What does this simple plank in my pedagogy imply for pedagogy? Let me suggest five things.

a) First, that to teach the whole class as a single group is foolishness. Sure, if we wish to teach specific skills and knowledge that we see as vital (e.g. learning to count), it will mean that all will be taught the same content. But if we are to engage students as learners, we will need to find content that varies and relates to diverse interests and adopts varied methods.

 
b) Second, we should expect our students to have different strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, we have a responsibility to build on strength and support students to cope with their weaknesses, and perhaps overcome them. Conversely, we need to have a diverse curriculum that allows students to demonstrate their varied capabilities. As a young difficult child in primary school I was grateful to several teachers who encouraged some of my key interests and tolerated areas of weakness.

c) Third, we should strive to develop curriculum content that opens up many and varied forms of learning. This of course might reflect and relate to curriculum content (science, art, writing, maths, drama, natural history, music etc), or perhaps other modes for learning (creative activities, oral and written expression, divergent as well as convergent thinking etc). 

d) Fourth, we should offer choice in content and curriculum activities, not simply prescription.  Enthusiasm can be more easily engendered by ensuring some freedom and choice for students in relation to the activities that are experienced.

e) Fifth, we need to understand that we all have different abilities and capabilities, and ensure that we allow space for this in our curriculum and pedagogical practices.

Schools in Australia have closed for the long summer holidays. Teachers and students are in need of rest before commencing a new year. To be an effective teacher is to recognize that which is unique and valuable in each child. I ask that God might bestow on my readers rich blessings at this time and a chance to rest, spend time with family and celebrate the wonder of our Saviour's birth. 

Enjoy your holiday break!

 

 

Story Telling Imagination & Life

Introduction

I have been writing this post while at the same time writing my monthly post for my Literacy blog titled 'Literacy, Families & Learning'. This of course has a different audience, but nevertheless many Christians read that blog as well as other faith-based people from around the world who are not Christians. One of the largest groups of followers overseas are parents who live as Muslims in a wide range of Muslim countries. Their concern for their children's education and growth is similar to many Christian parents. A case in point is seen in this month's topic, it is of relevance to people of all nations. 

In the post, I want to revisit the topic of Storytelling and discuss just how critical it is for the development of our children. This should not surprise you because I devote a full chapter to 'Imagination & Life' in my Pedagogy book. The book addresses pedagogy and teaching quite broadly. Considering the role of the  human imagination is one of the areas examined. The varied outputs of life are often expressed through the imagination, or at a minimum influenced by it.

1. Keeping Imagination in check 

C.S. Lewis talked often about the relationship between imagination and reason. He stressed we must not let imagination shape us so much, that we misuse it or allow it to replace reason. Jeremiah warns us not to walk "in the imagination of our hearts". By this, most commentators believe that he is stressing that while God gave us imaginations we must use them properly. 

Above: C.S. Lewis in his Study

I was an atheist to this point in my life, but went to church one day 40 years ago. I did so (much to her surprise) simply to accompany my wife, who while not a Christian herself, had an interest in God. She had attended Sunday School as child and her Grandparents were Christians. 

We moved to Bathurst (NSW Australia) in 1982 so I could take up a University appointment, my wife stayed at home to care for our two daughters aged 5 and three at the time. She took our 5 year old daughter to a Playgroup at the local Baptist Church after a neighbour (not a Christian) encouraged her to go with her.

To my wife's surprise, when she told me one day that she wanted our daughters to go to Sunday School, and a week later that she wanted to go to church herself, I surprised her (and inwardly myself). I replied "what makes you think I don't want to go too?" To this point in my life I saw myself as an Atheist. I was impacted by the sermon in the service on Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light".

I was touched by the message and when I got went home to the bathroom, dropped to my knees and in tears cried out to God, "God, if you're real, reveal yourself to me". In that moment, I was deeply convicted, and committed my life to follow him then and there on my knees. My wife came to faith about two weeks later. 

2. But a warning!

Veith and Rustuccia in their helpful article "Between the Image and the Word" remind us that imagination can provide some of the "subject matter" and "impetus" for our feelings and choices (see also Trevor Hart's book that was a key source for Veith & Rustuccia). Ultimately it is God who must use the circumstances of our lives, the gift of the imagination and the work of his Spirit, in concert with His Word, to bring us to our knees, repent and believe.

The would be evangelist, who takes pride in "their work" saving people and leading them to Christ, must not forget that it is the work of God that drives all, not us.  

3. Where to from here?

C.S. Lewis helpfully draws the above ideas together in his work "Bluspels and Flanasferes" pp 10-11 (Oxford University Press, 1939). While accepting the above insights about the imagination and God's use of it in lives like mine, we must remember that our imaginations can just as easily lead us in unhelpful directions. We must battle not to be captured by imaginations to lead us to stray and away from the truth. Having said this, it is also wrong to fear the imagination which God gave us as a gift. So encouraging children's imaginations is not bad, rather it is a gift that must be nurtured, encouraged and used to help all grasp truth.

Above: A Playgroup that encourages children to explore 

As teachers, we are to create classroom environments and atmospheres, that encourage children to explore questions like "what if?" "how come" and of course "why"? Such questions might lead to the seeking of deep truths mirrored in God's word. 

As parents we shouldn't fear the imagination. It is good for children to experience all written and spoken genres, including fantasy, to rightly understand the place of God's word in our lives. Fantasy, and truth are not the same thing. We need to help our children to understand and manage both as they engage and live in the world. 

These are important challenges for teachers and parents, might God bless and teach you as you head down such paths. 

Australian Children's Book Council Awards for 2025

This is a cross post from my Children's Literacy Blog - Literacy Families & Learning

Book of the Year: Older Readers

WINNER

'I’m Not Really Here' – Gary Lonesborough (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults).

"A moving coming-of-age story with so much heart. For readers who enjoyed Heartstopper." --BOOKS & PUBLISHING 

Honour Books

'Birdy' Sharon Kernot 

'Into the Mouth of the Wolf' Erin Gough (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)

Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers

WINNER

'Laughter is the Best Ending' Maryam Master. Illustrated by Astred Hicks (Pan Australia)

Honour Books

'Aggie Flea Steals the Show' Tania Ingram, and illustrated by A. Yi (Scholastic Australia)

'Fluff: Mess Up!' Matt Stanton (ABC Books) 

Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood 

WINNER

'The Wobbly Bike' by Darren McCallum

Have you ever helped a child to learn to ride their first bike? Most of us have and it isn't always easy. Those wobbly wobbly starts as we sit them on the bike, walk beside them, try to steady them before you let them move a little on their own? It is usually stressful for child and parent. 

In this delightful picture book Darren McCallum was inspired by his three year daughter who one day was racing out the door. She had been given a bike and one morning her Dad caught her heading outside. He asked where she was going, to which she replied, "I'm going outside to ride my wobbly bike."

 

This experience was of course the inspiration for this wonderful picture book. He 

One afternoon when his daughter Summer was small, Darren McCallum took the training wheels off her bike. McCallum is a painter by trade who lives in Australia's hot Top End city of Darwin. He was something of a storyteller to his brothers and sisters while growing up.

When he eventually decided to give it 'a crack' (as we sometimes say in AUS), he remembered that Wobbly Bike. 

The Wobbly Bike, with illustrations by the well-known illustrator Craig Smith, is the well-deserved winner of the 'Early Childhood' Book award in 2025.

 Honour Books Younger Readers (Ages 0-6 Years)

'One Little Dung Beatle' by Heather Potter (illustrator) & text by Mark Jackson 

'How to Move a Zoo' by Kate Simson (illustrator) & Owen Simpson 

Picture Book of the Year Award 

WINNER 

'The Truck Cat' written by Deborah Frenkel (Author) and illustrated by Danny Snell 

The Truck Cat is a story about cats and humans, immigration and identity, and homes that can be lost and yet found again. 

Author Deborah Frenkel is an award-winning writer of books for children. She grew up in the 80s and 90s and thought she might just be a 'business lady'. But that wasn't to be, and after working in advertising in her day job writing ads for varied clothing brands, she changed course. She now lives in Melbourne, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation. 

Her delightful book is well supported by the illustrations of multi-award-winning artist Danny Snell.

Her delightful book is well supported by the illustrations of multi-award-winning artist Danny Snell. 'The Truck Cat' is the perfect book to inspire kindness and compassion in young children everywhere. Now this lead should get you in:
 
"Some cats are house cats. Some are apartment cats.
But Tinka is a truck cat. Tinka lives everywhere."
 
Tinka travels with his human owner Yacoub. But no matter how much they travel, home always feels very far away for both of them. Yacoub drives his truck to make a living, learning the landscape of a new country along the way, and longing for connection.
 
But on one trip, Tinka and Yacoub are unexpectedly separated. But they are both determined to find one another. In doing so, they find even more than they expected …

"In The Truck Cat, Deborah Frenkel’s beautiful writing takes the reader on a gentle and often amusing ride. Yacoub’s story is one of resilience, yearning and sighs of sadness. Tinka the cat makes sure there is sunshine and smiles along the way. Danny Snell’s gorgeous colour palette splashes movement and life on every page. From vignettes to double page spreads, the combination of art and text presents a heartfelt, hopeful story of finding home …"

Sandhya Parappukkaran, the award-winning author of 'The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name', suggests 'The Truck Cat' is a must-read picture book’. ‘At a time when the world is in turmoil, much of it due to ignorance, intolerance and bigotry, there could not be a more timely choice for a book that will bring children right across the country together, in a glorious celebration and a move towards greater acceptance and empathy.’

This is a lovely picture book that combines great storytelling that touch on the heartwarming emotions of loss, companionship and love. It's pitched perfectly to entertain and move young readers, as well as to gently open their hearts and minds.’

 Honour Books

 'These Long-Loved Things' (illustrator) & Josh Pyke (text)

"A moving coming-of-age story with so much heart. For readers who enjoyed Heartstopper." --BOOKS & PUBLISHING

 

'Afloat' Freya Blackwood (illustrator), Story by Kirli Saunders (Little Hare)

'These Long-Loved Things' Ronojoy Ghosh (illustrator), Story by Josh Pyke (Scholastic Australia) 

Other Picture Books Nominated 

'A Leaf Called GREAF' by Kelly Canby

 

'AFLOAT' by Kirli Saunders and text by Freya Blackwood

'The Garden of Broken Things' by Freya Blackwood 

'We Live in a Bus' by Dave Petzold. 

  

Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

 Winner

'Always Was, Always Will Be' by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson (Magabala Books)

 Honour Books

'Making the Shrine: Stories from Victoria’s War Memorial' Laura J Carroll (The Crossley Press)

South With the Seabirds – Jess McGeachin (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)

Book Of The Year - New Illustrator

 Winner

 Grow Big, Little Seed – ill. Sarah Capon (Bright Light)

Worthy Picture Books to Note but not awarded major prizes

1. 'AFLOAT' by Kirli Saunders & Illustrated by Freya Blackwood (Little Hare)

"Roam the water with me. We are here to learn.

Here to spin wisdom, to grow …"

This wonderful picture book is from award award-winning author Kirli Saunders (a proud Gunai woman) and seven-time CBCA-winner Freya Blackwood comes 'Afloat'. And what a triumph!

This is a story told in a time of climate crisis, but against a backdrop of a changed environment. An Aboriginal elder leads a child along the waterways, sharing her People's knowledge, skills like weaving and much more. All the while a child is leaning, discovering and gathering community and seeing their world extended and enriched along the way.

A wonderful new book about the skill of our Indigenous nations. In this book the skill of weaving has a special focus on weaving. But more broadly, it seeks to help young readers to remember and honour our First Nations. This wonderful book has a special focus not just on their unique skills, but also their wisdom and many lessons as they look with hope to the future.

2. 'The Garden of Broken Things' Written & Illustrated by Freya Blackwood

"One day, curious Sadie follows a cat into the tangled vines behind the lonely house at Number 9, Ardent Street.

Deep in the undergrowth, past all the twisted, rusted things, Sadie finds the cat sitting on the lap of a woman, bent with time and weariness.

Sadie has found the Garden of Broken Things." As Maura Pierlot wrote in her excellent review of this picture book in 'Reading Time'.

"A story’s first line can do so many things: capture attention, conjure emotions, pique curiosity, create anticipation, evoke nostalgia. The opening line to The Garden of Broken Things masterfully achieves all these things and more.

One day, Sadie follows a cat into the scrub behind Number 9 Ardent Street, where tangled vines concealed things from another time … things that had come to a final halt. Deep in the undergrowth, she finds the cat sitting on the lap of a woman, bent with time and weariness." 

This intriguing and unique picture book is a worthy member of the Children's Bookweek Shortlist in 2025. Freya as we've come to expect has crafted with warmth and emotion and allows us to enter into the life of Sadie as she explores her world. This includes memories, grief and loss, her natural world and her own journey as she grows older and comes to understand the changes in herself.

3. 'We Live in a Bus' by Dave Petzold

The Relationship of Story, Meaning and Imagination for Younger Writers

Writing is Shaped by Family & Community Life

Well known Australian writer Dorothy Hewett grew up on the sprawling  sheep station of 'Lambton Downs' in South Australia. Bruce Bennett suggests that this was “the seedbed of Hewett’s creative fiction” (p.xv). Hewett herself, suggested that: 

 

“The first house sits in the hollow of the heart, it will never go away. It is the house of childhood become myth, inhabited by characters larger than life whose murmured conversations whisper and tug at the mind”. 

Above: Dorothy Hewitt

 

My childhood was very different to Hewett’s. I didn't live on a sprawling sheep station with the richness of memories and opportunities that Hewett experienced. As well, home for me was far from being a place of harmony and security. Nor was it a place where great literature was shared. Yet, I too found inspiration and ideas for my writing, from the storytelling, yarns, poetry, and music of my childhood, and from the key events of my early life.

 

Above: My First Home

 

Looking back at my childhood, and my early writing that survives, I can see how both were shaped, in part by the home I lived in, as well as my family and early uncontrolled life. Home was not in general a happy place, but it was an environment in which storytelling was everywhere, and not just from books. The stories that surrounded me had connections to music, poetry, 'yarns' and my free range life style. The latter offered boundless opportunities through my self-made adventures, and also the varied experiences and challenges of everyday life.

 

The tension between my experience of story and the literature of school, was a great challenge for me, especially in high school. I lived in a home where storytelling, yarns and some more contemporary poetry were what mattered. But at school, it seemed that it was only the work of great writers that was valued. This tension for me, had an influence on how I dealt with literature in my classrooms later in life as a teacher, academic and writer. 

 

The Many Seed Beds of Story Telling in My Life

 

Sometimes, hidden within the stories our students write, are hidden echoes of their personal life. Many find personal suffering is too painful to share, perhaps a near death experience that they were too scared ever to reveal it to their parents. However, there are often hints, crumbs along the path of their lives than can offer deep insights. These might reflect an event, person, or even a deed done for which they feel deep shame.

 

At a distance of many decades, I can see an example of this in my early writing. One piece I wrote in my teens was titled "The Orphan Seagulls". This picture book told the story of two seagull chicks who were sometimes left alone in their nest, on a high rock cliff near the ocean. While often only the father would leave to find food for them and their mother, as they grew older and food needs were greater, both parents would at times leave them.

 

On one of these occasions, the two half grown chicks huddled in their nest as a Sea Eagle flew in circles above the cliff that held their nest. They were high in the clouds, looking for prey. Father was well beyond the clouds and out to sea, and Mother had gone out quickly just along the shore, to seek some easy pickings in the surf below. But she had not gone long before we saw an eagle circling above us. I wrote about it in early story this way: 

 

"While mother was away, we took the opportunity to sit on the edge of our nest and stretch our wings, which were now fully feathered. Suddenly, we saw an eagle above us and we realized it had spotted us. It began to circle and then descend. We looked beyond it hoping that mother might be returning. But we could not see her." 

 

 

As an adult, I often recall childhood memories of my sister and I often being left at home on a Saturday and sometimes Sunday nights while our parents were out entertaining at clubs, weddings and hotels. When it was time for bed and they hadn't returned, we would huddle under the covers and worry at every noise we heard outside. On one such evening someone came and banged on the wall outside my sister's room where we were both trying to fall asleep. We were terrified! Thankfully, it stopped but we couldn't get to sleep. When our parents arrived home at about midnight we rushed to them. Dad tried to calm us by going outside, searching the surrounds before coming back and saying it was probably a horse that had come into our yard and bumped into the house. This of course, was nonsense. 

 

As a teacher, when I read the writing of some of my students, I would at times hear a few faint echoes of life experiences they had which troubled them. On a few occasions, my students privately shared some of these experiences.

 

Growing Young Writers

 

I believe as teachers we can have a great influence on growing our students as writers. We will do this if we are able to inspire them with great literature and powerful story telling. As well, we need to assist them build on such literature, to grow as story tellers and writers themselves. 

 

Imagination is of course, a key ingredient in this quest. So, how might we inspire our students to write not just because they have to, but to release them to explore ideas and seek deeper personal insights that turns life experiences into rich story telling?

 

 

Above: A very young writer composing an early story

 

First, we need to flood their world with stories and poetry of all kinds. This requires skill by the teacher to introduce them to varied works, and inspire them to read and seek out books themselves.

 

Second, we need to model this by sharing books that would also be appropriate for them, and that open up opportunities for them to share some of their favourite books.

 

Third. we need to create an environment in the classroom that allows space for such personal reading, and some time when they can share these with other students. One simple way to do this is to allow students to go and read if they have finished other subject area activities and tasks. I might return to this topic in a future post.

 

Good Luck!

The Role of the Imagination in Story & Character Development

In 2024 I presented two keynote addresses to a national gathering of the 150 leaders of ‘Christian Schools Australia’. To do so, I drew on the ideas outlined in my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning and Formation'. I suggested that Christian education and pedagogy must be rooted in an understanding of God's people in-between this life and the next.

 

As I suggest many times in my writing, we are shaped as we engage with others, and as we inhabit varied 'communities of practice'. That is, we move in and out of many situations and groups, all of which have an impact on us in varied ways. This is reality for our students as they attend our schools, and inhabit many groups. The term “Intertextuality” helps us to understand what this means. It was coined by cognitive anthropologist Julia Kristeva (1991).

 

It describes how we ‘inhabit’ the varied groups in life. And as we do we learn things, and take on many of the same concerns, passions, values and beliefs of the groups or ‘communities’. As teachers and school leaders, we need to understand this as we teach, educate and point students in wise directions for life.

  

1. Imagination and COMMUNITY

 

Martin Buber suggested as we build relationships, our ‘Character’ requires us to have and preserve a level of freedom, expressed in any human communion. Conversely, ‘compulsion’ illustrated by rules, can create disunion, sometimes humiliation, and hence rebelliousness.

  

In many ways, this is why the informal networks of life beat the formal structures of education hands down, in influencing the heart, life priorities, hopes and dreams. Why? Because in such less formal gatherings young people are able to ‘speak into’ the lives of their friends in ways that few teachers and even parents cannot. So, the varied communities our children inhabit, help to shape minds, lives, expectations, imaginations and hoped for futures.

 

Ironically, sometimes families (and some schools) only end up reinforcing the things that matter much less than faith in the living God. Even in faith-based schools, teachers and leaders can end up promoting worldly success, starting salaries for future jobs, career status, achievement etc. This is at the expense of faith and character, wise choices and growth. School for many, can become an annoying imposition that one endures, knowing that one day they can escape to find what they see as ‘true’ freedom. The communities that matter most can end up being outside the formal structures and life of school.

 

 

2. Creating different and more effective communities within our classrooms

 

What we need to consider as teachers and schools, is how we can build more effectively different within our classrooms and the school at large. That is, communities which can shape imaginations, and how our students use them.

 

But how can this be done? Let me offer a fuller vignette that might help to reinforce this key point. How can we assist our student imaginations to be shaped within our school communities of practice?

 

A number of years ago, I spent 12 months team teaching within a Year 1 classroom in Wagga Wagga, a wonderful town in inland Australia. My partner (Inta) was teaching in a Lutheran school, at a time when we were not plagued by the current education system’s desire to test children for the sake of testing. Rather, Inta’s key priority for these early learners was to embed them within an exciting classroom, that in its own way was a well-focused and exciting community that both taught and shaped at the same time.

 

 

One of my first observations as I entered the grade 1 classroom, was the rules within this classroom for 6 year old students in their second year at school weren’t dominant, and yet all seemed to know where the boundaries stood. As a result, there was movement, shared learning and intertextuality everywhere.

 

3. What do I mean by 'Intertextuality'? 

 

What is intertextuality, and why is it important? As I have already alluded, it is the relationship between one text or experience and another. By ‘text’ I’m using a term linguists use to refer to a spoken or written unit of meaning, of whatever length that forms a unified whole (a caption, headline, story, joke, play, essay, musical lyrics, letter etc). This term was first coined by philosopher Julia Kristeva in the 1960s. In essence, intertextuality involves “the connection or relationship between similar or related stories, images, songs, ideas and so on”. The interconnections we see can of course influence other learners to create very exciting classroom communities.

 

When I entered Inta’s classroom on my first day, it was obvious that the talk, drawing, writing, play etc, were being ‘collectively’ shaped as students read and wrote together, as extensions of their relationships with the teacher, and other students. Such interconnection didn’t stop within the classroom. I observed them in the playground, on the bus going home, and at home itself, with the texts playing a key role in establishing and extending their relationships. Sometimes the response of one child would lead naturally to the response of others.

 

 

I became involved very quickly and in my second week I read them the delightful book 'The Jolly Postman' (Ahlberg & Ahlberg, 1986). The children's interactions with the book as they sat on the floor in front of me was very exciting. They loved the book!

After finishing the book, I allowed time for students to chat about it, then sent them back to continue with a range of language activities (including writing). Within 10 minutes of reading the Jolly Postman, one student returned to show me a letter that she had written which was obviously inspired by the book we had just read (see PPT).  She announced:

 

“Look Mr Cairney, I've written my own Jolly Postman letter.  Chlorissa is writing one too.”

 

 

 

Within 20 minutes there were at least 10 letters in preparation, and by recess the whole class was writing "Jolly Postman" letters. Within a few days the class had produced many letters to favourite characters in books. 

 

 

The next day I was confronted by a small group of students who politely suggested (almost demanding): 

  

“Mr Cairney, we'll have to write our own Jolly Postman book.  Can we do one?”

 

And of course, Inta set about putting the wheels in motion to do just that. This was to dominate the next day or so at school. 

When it was time for me to leave the classroom after a few months I was presented with the class version of its own 'Jolly Postman' book. 

 

With the class letters inspired by ‘The Jolly Postman” Inta used the words from the book and the children's letters, and turned it into their own book, which they presented to me when I left them.

 

4  What can we learn from this example about imagination and character development?

 

This literacy lesson illustrates how classroom environments provide an opportunity for students to build textual histories, as they relate to others and share their experiences. These and other events in and outside school, help to shape them and to establish their hopes, dreams, values and priorities in life. As James Smith famously suggested, “we are what we love”. And this class had been inspired by Inta to love books!

 

This type of shared experience is a vital part of any classroom environment. Straight rows and "eyes to the front" and "heads down" will maintain discipline and focus on the teacher's agenda. This is of course is important and essential at times, but for younger learners, creativity and enthusiasm for reading, writing and even arithmetic (to use an old adage) are critical. So too, are creativity, joy in learning and collaboration with others, are also key skills for life.