Ngoolyark News

We have entered the Renaissance Main Lesson, and what a wonderful period it was. As a teacher it was the Middle Ages and the Renaissance I really wanted to experience, and teaching both has been a dream come true. As is the dilemma with every Main Lesson, how do you squeeze a whole period of history into just three weeks! I have accrued enough teaching material to accomplish a degree on the subject, how to impart it all!

Enter ‘The Project’. I simply love a project, maybe it stems back from my own childhood. The opportunity to really ‘sink your teeth’ into a subject and find out all sorts of fascinating and interesting facts about it, is absolutely exhilarating. Surely you remember? Doing a project brings with it a sense of freedom, sure you need to work on a specific topic and meet certain criteria, but beyond that it’s all yours. Delving, discovering and delivering – the project lends itself to all sorts of wondrous activities: researching, reading, summarising, writing, diagrams, models, illustrations, presentations.

There is just so much learning jam-packed into the humble project. There is a certain level of contact you make when undertaking a project, because when you enter a project, you enter a sacred pact between yourself, person, place and time. Joining worlds, understanding ‘back then’ and how it impresses upon ‘right now’ is a very special kind of alchemy.

Here two worlds get to connect, the one you are exploring, and the one you live in. It is in this meeting of worlds a precious exchange happens. Our humanity is shared. It is here that we are united and forged into an existence, which appreciates and honours that what went before us has sculpted and shaped who we have now become.

Last week, the Class Seven children were very busy working on their own project, as they explore in depth the life and work of a significant Renaissance Person. Exploring architects, scientist, inventors and artists who life’s work impacted the world in some way, leaving a wondrous legacy in our world centuries later. There is a particular type of ‘hum’ that occurs in a classroom when each student is fully engaged and fulfilled with their learning, and I can tell you as a Class Teacher I live for that hum. It is in the hum that the weaving of the profound, the mysterious and the ordinary meet. It is a very humbling moment.

As I go to sign off, I want you to know it has been an incredible honour to be part of this joyous school community. The students are delightful bundles of mystery and intrigue held by staff who are brilliant beacons of light capable of any navigating anything. This growing school is a precious gift. A little seed was planted and here it is growing big and strong. I have been so blessed to be part of this sacred passage. Thank you.

With much Love
Anne-Marie