Joy, satisfaction and the link to living...

Interrupting my monthly updates with a teacherly reflection. Actually, it's more a reflection and a reminder on a few instances which have brought me joy this week. And they are both, unusually, from work. Teaching.

Teaching involves children. And so teaching involves stress and angst and hard work and trying to solve problems. Sometimes, it works.

The stress this week was trying to help a child do maths. His attitude was challenging: I counted myself fortunate that he hasn't actually written: "I hate maths." or "This lesson sucked." but it has been a close thing on a number of occasions. Matters came to a head earlier in the week when he just about refused to do any of the practice questions I had set the class. Tears - his AND mine - were incipient.

I took a deep breath and directed him to read and closely examine my Growth Mindset display at the back of the class. Fortunately, it was break at the end of the lesson so we both had time to recover. After the break, I asked him if anything had been helpful.  "Yes," he replied, "this." as he pointed to this image:
 "Oh, interesting," was my reply. "Where do you think you are on these steps?" He pointed to 'I can't do it.'
"I'm here," he said, confident that I would recognize the truth of the statement.
"Oh no, you aren't," I replied. He stiffened, ready to defend his position. "No, you're here." I pointed tot he bottom step "I won't do it". "You don't want to try maths at all. It's not about can't because I promise you, you can. And I know that is true, because, as you know, I am a Very Old Teacher and have taught hundreds of children. I know you can do maths If You Want To."
I carried on for a bit longer, going on about negative attitude, giving up before you're even started, blah blah blah.
Then we went back to my desk and I explained the maths issue again, using some very simple practical aids. After a few minutes of teaching, where my unwilling student had achieved 100% accuracy while I, metaphorically speaking, stood over him, we then stopped and I gave it no more thought....

...until a couple of days later, when I realised a) there had been no more negative comments written in the maths book b) no more negative attitudes in maths AT ALL  c)increased concentration and focus  and d)a much happier little boy.

I called him over and shared my observations. "Oh yes," he said, smiling. "I'm so much happier now. And I LIKE MATHS."
.
I congratulated him, low key. Well, I might have used words like thrilled, delighted, proud etc etc, but I didn't whoop for joy or high five him. Just found myself grinning broadly, at how just a few minutes of focused attention had made all the difference to this particular ten year old... Memo To Self: Pay Attention. It reaps dividends...

The other incident which gave me particularly warm and fuzzy feelings was, in brief, just reminding a troubled child of two key questions: What is the problem? What are you going to do about it?
A little reflection and he had a strategy. Result: a much happier, more in control child who, hopefully, has a strategy for the future now as well.

Teaching. Making a difference. And, really, Absolutely Nothing To Do At All With The Three Rs....

Observations in October

October began in an oddly musical way...

The first Saturday was time for my monthly participation in the Healing Rooms - praying for folk to be healed. We always prepare by having a shortish - twenty minutes - session of worship music, remembering that healing is from God and getting ready to serve Him in obedience.

After that, I whizzed down the hill to the library. Down in town, the first thing I saw was a dance group  of willing volunteers, performing steps to rap music...while, round the corner, a girl started busking, singing a Simon and Garfunkel song as her opening number: beautiful voice. I headed for the quiet of the library, but there was a celebratory arts event on with all kinds of activities and a classical music group, dressed in appropriate historical costume, playing Regency era songs from the minstrels gallery while costumed dancers performed steps below.  Back outside, the dance group had turned its expert feet to Irish dancing: at least, two tiny girls were earnestly hopping around while the rest of the group looked on, bemused. 

The cycle home is usually a quiet oasis of calm lanes, but as I approached the Guernsey Horse Riding Club, I was serenaded by loud popular music. Odd - a heavy drizzle had set in: not impossible for a horse event, but there had been no publicity.As I drew nearer, I saw a lone horse rider circling the ring, practising dressage to the music blaring out of the loudspeakers.

Strange to have so much music in the course of the day, but I was reminded again when our dear friend Robin phoned later. Now aged nearly 97, he has been a family friend for nearly sixty years. His was a highly talented musical and artistic family (his brother, John Craxton, became an internationally renowned artist while his father, Harold Craxton, was a well-recognised pianist and composer.  Robin's wife herself had been a wonderful piano teacher and both were valued family friends. She had died in August, so Robin had been on my mind as I wondered how he was coping after a lifetime of devotion...

Ongoing in October has been the fall out from the referendum in Kurdistan, Iraq. It has made life and work even more difficult for aid workers there. Cat and Andy could not fly out of Erbil, the capital, for their planned R and R in Croatia, as Iraq has banned all flights except internal ones to Baghdad. Instead, they had to drive across the border to Turkey and fly from there. So not impossible, just tricky, time-consuming and awkwardly fraught with potential difficulties...We pray.

Highlight in October was, of course, Byron and Lisa’s visit. Dear friends for 32 years, they have continued to live and work in Africa – presently Tanzania – and are considered as family by Jonny. What a delight that Jonny and Adele are now teaching in the same area and get to see them frequently... and what a help Byron and Lisa have been to our ‘children’ as they settle into life in Arusha, accompanied by all the challenges and joys that characterise Life in Africa.

So we had three days of much laughing, reminiscing, talking heart to heart... Walks on the windy cliffs as Storm Brian raged through the British Isles; coffee overlooking the harbour; a birthday celebration for Lisa, eating dinner while a high tide crashed waves on to the windows of the restaurant; exploring World War 2 relics and remains.

Selfies at home...

Sue Wilson from the Tumaini Fund came to visit. Byron has just supplied them with a Basic Utility Vehicle which his project in Arusha is developing for small scale farmers. #joyinconnection

Lisa was pleased to discover Blue Bottle gin, made in Guernsey, after Jonny's recommendation!

Rather an appropriate advert #Africanvisitors

Storm Brian. #windy #blownoffourfeet

Dinner out

Waves lashed at the windows

We took the overnight ferry to Portsmouth together in the motorhome, journeying up to Surrey to explore Newlands Corner, which Lisa had visited when living there as a child. Beautiful. I had had no idea there was so much countryside so near London. There on the  North Downs Way we saw a flock of jays and a variety of tits, including coal tits, clustering tamely on the bird feeders at the Visitors’ Centre.

It was, indeed, sad when we left them in the tiny village where they had booked to stay with their Karly and Trevor, their second son. Trevor and Jonny were adventure buddies growing up, sharing our holidays in Portugal and then, later, the whole group of brothers and friends making an epic walking safari of 100 miles through northern Tanzania...  Bummed that we had time only for a quick hello and goodbye...

Yet sadness did not consume us. The gift of the visit was such an unexpected joy that we were able to accept the inevitability of parting... and we, too, were on our way to other encounters with other friends...

...with Pickle. Adventuring, again, in the motorhome to Pastures New – or rather, mostly, Pastures Old.

And then, we were back home, to Nearly November.