Authentic Learning Experiences

Love coming across teacher blogs.

Providing authentic learning experiences to all learners should be the highest prior for all administrators, curriculum developers, and teachers.

Authentic learning is learning designed to connect what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications; learning experiences should mirror the complexities and ambiguities of real life. Students work towards production of discourse, products, and performances that have value or meaning beyond success in school; this is learning by doing approach (Authentic learning: what, why and how?).
In education, the term authentic learning refers to a wide variety of educational and instructional techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications. The basic idea is that students are more likely to be interested in what they are learning, more motivated to learn new concepts and skills, and better prepared to succeed in college, careers, and adulthood if what they are learning mirrors…

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Justice for Cassius

Gumboootspearlz

What a week to be studying Understanding Indigenous Education and Perspectives for my masters.

I have been reading on stolen generations, the Northern Territory Intervention, the Bringing them Home Report and much more, as well as watching powerful documentaries on Gurrumul and Rachel Perkins, The First Australians.

One of the questions we have been looking at are what are the barriers to change and what are the windows to change for Australia’s First Nations people.

Then, in the middle of it all, Racism rears its ugly insidious prevalence again.

So what are the windows? The windows of seeing what happens now that something like the situation for Cassius and his family.

Going back to study and being a writer, I will be thinking an reading about what education, and teachers and schools, can do to challenge and change such things, and also how much the WHOLE community need to work…

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Disenchanted

In Disenchanted Morel treats us to a Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales, most definitely for adults not children.

Featuring an Ugly Sister who really isn’t that ugly, a Goose sick of laying golden Egg for a certain young man named Jack, a racy Woolf who tells the truth about Grandma, a sleeping beauty who has a thing or two to tell today’s young men and women and one of Blue Beard’s Wives posing a question for us to puzzle over.

Host Madame d’Aulnoy (a real life historical figure) transports us back to 1689 and keeps us unsettled, throughout the show, and just as she strips back layers of clothing, to transform into each of her special guests, the Cabaret strips back layers of women’s experience through time, seeking freedom from the restrictions of class, expectations of aristocratic parents, and social and sexual identity – Viva La Revolution through the power of fairy tales.

This satire feature fantastic singing (Morel hits some superb notes), audience participation (including a Harry meet’s sally kind of moment only involving something to do with eggs), some eggcellent punning, and the occasional repartee with the accompanist on (electronic) harpsichord.

Playful humorous artistic licence connects the stories to contemporary social and political issues of me too, environment, and recent happenings in a certain royal family.

Featured at Brisbane’s Fringe Festival, Friday 21st of October 2022. EC Venue the Hub

Ancestry as Fossil

More thoughts on the conference!

Gumboootspearlz

It was a fabulous experience to prepare a conversation for the AFTS 2022 conference in Brisbane.

Inspired by the Flesh to Fossil theme, Lauren and I discussed the idea of ancestry as fossil and thinking of our audience not just ourselves from the very beginning, our discussions began.

Through the course of our preparations, we had zoom conversations, which were transformed into a collaborative slide presentation with pertinent images of our own choice.

At the same time I was conversing with Roselle and Sharon, and finding that any many ways Lauren had a deep understanding of many cultures and backgrounds which she is able to respect in the editing process and was equally helpful to bounce ideas off.

Lauren is a true sister of the Diaspora, as an American in an Australian environment, and our conversations were so interesting for both of us. She has learnt to embrace the feelings…

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Diaspora Fairy Tales

Presentation from the Diaspora Sisters, at Australian Fairy Tale Conference…

Gumboootspearlz

It was brilliant to present with Sharon Orapeling and Roselle Tenefrancia at the recent annual Australian Fairy Tale Conference hosted this year in Brisbane. Many more thoughts on this conference to come, but this is a summary highlight of our presentation.

We began by acknowledging the many nations, of Indigenous Australia before it was colonised.

It was extremely moving for us as we shared the process of collecting our stories from family, community and online following this with a telling of a story each.

Although we personally felt we could not fully do them the justice we hoped for in the time we had to prepare and tell, and saw all the ways to expand and improve our tellings in the future.

Still from the depths of our hearts, we honoured the past, whilst adapting to the present, our home country and the diaspora we all found within our identities…

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