School Holiday Power Blogging - Post No. 7

Yesterday was our whole school professional development day "Saving Your Sanity" was presented by Colleen Deveyrac - "I am deeply committed to helping people formulate innovative and dynamic plans to reduce stress and to help children and youth recognise their full potential."

Colleen provided us with proactive ideas and strategies to help teachers effectively teach children with autism, ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. In her interactive lecture she provide many opportunities for teachers/professional to share their thoughts/ideas about a variety of concerns e.g. role of the teacher has changed in the past 20 years, students are not passive learners, ADHD brain v's a neuro-typical. Different scenarios were provided and strategies were given, Proactive v's Reactive, what sort of teacher are we? We unpacked the meaning behind Discipline/Punishment and the possible effects this has on our learners.

Throughout the day Colleen constantly referred to her love of the website youtube and the profound effect it has on our students who struggle to communicate and the ability it gives to create powerful messages to share to create greater awareness within our society - no to mention support one another.




As teachers it is our responsibility to ensure that every opportunity is provided for all our students to share their thoughts and ideas - to give them a voice, to help nurture creative and innovative thinkers. Using our ever changing technology to break free from the classroom walls - I need to make this happen more !!!

It was a great day and as Colleen summed up at the end of the day the most important thing is "You!!!!" - so have just come back from 2 hour walk, thanks Edwina - you're in charge of the route next week.

School Holiday Power Blogging - Post No. 4

During the term I was lucky enough to attend a Sue Larkey Autism Course. What an inspirational lady and not to mention entertaining. The convention room was packed and she shared with us a multitude of scenarios that she has been involved with over the years. The day was engaging, she kept us involved throughout as we were given opportunities to be involved in discussion with other professionals as we delved into the complexities and issues related to this disorder.

We were given a variety of strategies to support these learners and I have already set in place social stories for my students. However, I think the most provoking moment of the day was a short video that she showed "Autism Teen Finds Inner Voice" - it just highlighted to me ... where would we be today without the technology we have available to us to provide these trapped people the ability to be able to communicate and the importance of providing a multitude of teaching and learning tools to support our diverse learners.