Throwback Thursday - Ella's 3rd Birthday

This weekend Ella turned six - it doesn't seem possible! She had a fabulous day at Disney on Ice with her sisters, nan, niece and sister-in-law and she looked beautiful. Therefore, today whilst I was looking for a Throwback Thursday theme, I saw these pictures of Ella's 3rd birthday and they seemed like a really fitting idea - a half way point for her life so far.

Ella's 6th Birthday

 

Ella's 3rd Birthday

Have you had any celebrations over the past week? What are you remembering for Throwback Thursday today?

Outsource Marking - Utterly Foolish Idea!

I couldn't believe what I was reading this morning when I read that Rebecca Allen, director of Education Datalab has seriously suggested outsourcing marking as a way to ease teachers workloads.
This utterly foolish (even plain stupid) idea serves to benefit no one.

The very purpose of teachers marking work, is to allow them to keep track of their students progress and help them improve on any difficulties they are having. How would outsourcing help that? 

Teachers need to be examining their students work themselves, and I'm sorry if that is time-consuming, but that is what teachers sign up for when they choose to become teachers. I never once heard my teachers in school complaining about all the marking they have to do, nor have I ever heard any of my own kids teachers making this complaint. 

The very idea of using outsourcing as a reliable method of marking, is laughable. For starters, India (where they suggested outsourcing would happen), does not share the same national curriculum as us, they do not speak English as a first language (this is by no means meant to be offensive) and their kids don't work to the same levels and standards as ours do. We are two very different nations and our children are educated differently. Therefore marking would not be to our standards. 

The idea of paying someone in India £2/£3 an hour to mark our children's work is appalling and is based on the fact that our government isn't prepared to pay Britain's who are in need of work, £10 an hour. Therefore, they are choosing to take advantage of a poorer country, by paying them below a fair wage - Funny when our government is so up in arms about fair trading etc. 

Outsourced markers are not in the classroom with our children, they can't fully comprehend whether or not our children are making progress or struggling with their work, whether or not they need to level up or are in need of extra support. Only our children's own class teachers are qualified to make these assessments, by working with our children on an almost daily basis.


I know teachers work very hard and I know that their hours are very stretched and yes, it would be great to find ways of making their workload a little lighter, but not at the expense of our children. If markers really need to be used, then schools or at least local authorities should employ their own, who are trained to our education standards and who can easily liaise with our kids teachers, so that both marker and teacher have a clear view on how each child is progressing, after all, our children ARE NOT just statistics!

SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32513932

*Please note, the views in this post are in no way meant to be offensive to any of the hard working teachers in India or to their students. They are simply intended to highlight that all countries provide different styles and levels of education. I am not claiming that the education system in India and inferior, just that it is different, much as ours is different to that of Germany or the USA or China, etc. All teachers at all levels across the globe work very hard providing a positive education for the children in their care and being different doesn't make one system better than the other. 

Amends and Forgiveness

The kids and I have been talking s lot about making amends for our bad behaviour, seeking forgiveness with a genuine heart and forgiving others readily. One of the key things I like to ask them, is "What would Jesus do?" The response to this is always quite mixed, but usually after a little discussion, we are all quite satisfied that we know what Jesus would do in a particular situation.

This helps the kids to be more willing to apologise, seek forgiveness and offer forgiveness without needing to turn a situation into a huge drama - something I have previously been very good at. But honestly, some may wonder what right I have to preach to my children about what Jesus would do and about having a forgiving heart, when some of my own past behaviour has been anything but Christ-like. Let me tell you about a messed up family...

At 19 years old, I became a step-parent. Looking back at this now, it was simply too much responsibility for a 19 year old girl to become a step mother to an 12 year old, a 10 year old and a 8 year old. I'm not sure I was truly ready for any of that situation at all - I certainly was prepared for the ex wife!

Needless to say, she and I butted heads almost constantly during the years that my ex and I were together, with only a brief respite when she signed me up to her Creative Memories team. She hated me, I hated her, we hated each other and neither of us were afraid to show it! There were back and forth police phone calls and threats and name calling and rubbing salt into each others very painful wounds - we were simply vile to each other.

As a result, my relationship with my step sons broke down and fell apart, costing me any sort of contact with three kids that I adored. Yet she and I continued to make each other miserable without either of us really seeing how miserable we were actually making ourselves in the process. After all, making other people feel bad, can only make you feel good for the briefest of times, as in truth, it's soul destroying.

Slowly over time, we grew out of this behaviour and it has been a number of years since things were so awful. I haven't seen her or heard from her in a very long time and things are calm now. Yet things aren't resolved at all. Honestly, I'm not sure they ever will be.

For the most part, I have been able to let go of the past, it doesn't belong to me and I have no control over it. For her part, I have made my peace and forgiven her, even though I have never had the opportunity to tell her. For my part, I am sad as I don't think there will ever be an opportunity to apologise, make amends and seek her forgiveness - and some of the things I said, require A LOT of forgiveness. My bad behaviour divided a family and caused a lot of pain, all I can do now is accept the consequences of that.

That brings me back to what I have been teaching the kids. It is important for me that they learn now at a young age, the importance so saying sorry (and meaning it), letting go of things they have no control over and moving on in a loving and caring way. It is important to me that they learn the importance of kindness and how bad the consequences of our actions can be, as one day, it'll be to late to say "I'm sorry."

One of the ways I like to teach the kids is by explaining to them, that if I broke a plate and then said sorry, it would not fix the plate, just as saying sorry can't repair people's hurt feelings or fix broken relationships. This is one of my favourite examples of the damage that can be caused my our actions, although I don't actually break plates when I explain it - I would have needed several new dinner services by now if I did!!!

My advice for today,.. If you are angry at someone or just dislike someone, let it go. Make your peace with the situation and if they have wronged you, forgive them. If you have wronged them, humbly apologise with a genuine heart and seek their forgiveness. It's not easy being forgiving sometimes, and it is a lot easier to be cruel rather than kind quite often, but not only are you damaging the person you want to hurt, you are damaging those around you, and you are damaging yourself.

I know that if I had the opportunity, I would say how very sorry I am, how I have learnt and grown as a direct result of my own unkind and selfish behaviour and I would ask for forgiveness, even though I do not deserve it and even though, it won't undo the years of damage that I have caused.

Acts of Kindness - Giving Something Back

Something I have been working very hard to teach my children, is about acts of kindness. Yesterday, we sat down and talked about all the people who work hard to give something to our community. We talked about the importance of supporting and respecting those people for everything they bring to the area we live in.
The girls agreed that our fire service, police officers and hospital work very hard to keep us safe and well and decided that they wanted to give something back to them. Last night, after dropping Rebecca and Daisy at a Brownies/Guides crossover night, Ella and I set to work in the kitchen and made sixty cookies. We then divided them into three containers and attached a note to them.
This evening after school, the girls will be drawing pictures and we will be delivering their art work and the cookies to our Fire Station, Police Station and Emergency Department to say a huge "THANK YOU" to them for all of their hard work.
This is something that you don't hear about very often in the UK, but in the US, it is much more commonplace. As a mother who wants her children to grow up respecting the local community and those who serve in it, I would love to see more and more people doing this. If you don't want to make cookies, that's fine, if you don't want to hand over gift in person, that is also fine. Perhaps, you and your children could write a letter and draw some pictures and post them.
I would love to hear about how you have helped your children to give something back to those who serve in your local area, or your ideas about ways people can become involved.