It’s Friendly February – what’s your plan?
Welcome to New Ways November!
Never Stop Learning!!
The Centre for Teacher Effectiveness is a pretty amazing organisation that dedicates itself to creating programs and resources to support schools, teachers and students to be and do better.
I am incredibly proud to have taken the opportunity to become a trainer for them fabulous Time to Teach program which focuses on classroom behaviour management. I cannot wait to start sharing this program with schools and teachers near and far and to grow and develop as a trainer, teacher and human being with such a motivating organisation.
Some things I need to acknowledge…
Depending how far into the website you dig, it might be possible to miss the fact that I am Australian. Born and raised in Brisbane, I lived in Queensland from roughly the age of 4 through to 38.5. At that point, in mid 2020, my family and I took the leap and relocated to beautiful Colorado, USA. So, here are a few things I reflect on regularly as they impact (not necessarily positively or negatively!!) what you might experience in working with me:
- I have an accent. I mean, we ALL have an accent. But mine is distinctive and different from almost every single person I speak to on a daily basis in the US. I’ve discovered this means that sometimes when I say certain words they sound “wrong” to people here.
- In addition to my accent making things difficult, in Australia there are many things we name one thing that American’s name another. A couple of common ones that have tripped me up are:
- Capsicum vs Pepper
- Boot vs Trunk
- Bin vs Trash
- Ute vs Truck
- Doona vs Comforter
- Biscuit vs Cookie
- Lolly vs Candy
- Petrol vs Gas
- We use the letter ‘s’ rather than ‘z’ in lots of instances (we also say the letter ‘z’ differently) and we include the letter ‘o’ in many words Americans do not. For example:
- Organise vs Organize
- Humour vs Humor
- The way we present the date is different! In Australia, we identify day, month, year. So, if I were to write the date on the top of my page for notetaking today, it would look like 13/9/2021. For many dates, this isn’t too much of an issue because people can work out that I have them mixed up. You know there aren’t 13 months in the year, therefore it’s the wrong way round. Where I really mess up (and book summer camps for my kids that they actually can’t attend) is for days below 12 where I can be way, WAY off with what I am trying to communicate.
- Australian’s abbreviate EVERYTHING THEY POSSIBLY CAN. We live by the basic rule that you really should avoid saying more syllables in a word than necessary. So, even when I am talking about things that should make sense because the word itself is the same, because I’m so used to shortening it, I still don’t make any sense. When I say ‘uni’ for example, this is university. ‘Macca’s’ is Australian for McDonalds (the fast food restaurant). ‘Arvo’ is the afternoon and of course ‘Aussie’ is how we really refer to ourselves 🙂 This list could really go on for ever… servo (service station/gas station), tradie (skilled tradesperson, eg electrician or builder), cuppa (cup of tea), footy (football – NRL, AFL or Union), biccy (biscuit/cookie), prezzie (present/gift)… But you’ll learn as you spend time with me.
Anyway – why do you care? Well, communicating with me might take a minute or two to get used to. Sometimes we may be having parallel and somewhat confusing conversations. But, a key Executive Functioning skill is the ability to seek clarification and self advocate – that is, to say “I don’t understand, can you please explain that better?” So, really, when you think about it, the cultural barrier is really just an extra support in your learning and development!
Plus – I’m pretty hard to offend. You should never be concerned about telling me I’m not making sense to you. I’ve got pretty good at explaining myself without using my natural dialect.
Action for Happiness Calendar – September
Things to consider when hiring education support.
The decision to hire a teacher or tutor is not a simple one. It is not just the financial investment that you are making in your learner. Education support must be about meeting a learner where they are at, identifying their individual and unique needs and developing a plan of action for support. Ultimately, education support should be about helping to transform learners into eager, engaged and self motivated individuals who want to be life long learners – a philosophy that extends long after they have left the classroom and the teacher/tutor relationship has been disolved.
With that in mind, how do you make the decision? Here are some questions for you to ask of yourself, your learner and your potential educational support professional:
Of your learner
- How do you learn best?
- Will you give this an honest try?
- What do you want to achieve?
Of yourself
- Can you afford this financial investment?
- Can you afford NOT to make it?
- What alternatives can/have you tried?
- What are your goals for your learner?
- Do your desires align with your learners?
Of your teacher/tutor
- How will you support my student?
- How will you and we know my learner is making progress?
- How regularly do you recommend running sessions?
- Do you provide activities/instruction for outside of sessions?
- What do you charge?
- Can you provide any references regarding this kind of work?
Good luck as you move forward in your learning journey!! I hope I can be a positive part of it for you at some time.
Available now!
Carolyn Prince has availability for the upcoming 2021-22 US school year to provide online homeschool supplemental teaching and 1-1 tutoring.
Check out the Services tab to see how Carolyn can help you and connect using the Contact form for further information or to book services for you or your family.
TESTIMONALS
Under Carolyn’s guidance, my son has progressively improved from grade C to grade A in English over 2 years. Carolyn has very in-depth knowledge and understanding of the English curriculum. She employs appropriate teaching methods to match the learning style of our son. She gives regular tasks which we can very easily monitor to keep our son’s learning on track. She also provides regular feedback on his progress. We would highly recommend Carolyn, she is magic!
Saurabh and Sangeeta Prakash – May 2021
Carolyn has worked with both of my children over the last 5 years. She is very good at identifying the right strategy to support each individual to help improve their reading and writing skills. By getting to know my daughter well she was able to diagnose what was preventing her from achieving in reading and teach skills so that she would approach tests at school in a positive and productive manner. Throughout their time working with Carolyn, my children have strengthened their skills like vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.In addition, Carolyn has worked with them on time management, planning and thinking skills and all of this helped improve their grades significantly in school.
Heeru Jaitley – July 2021
Carolyn Prince has shown me that I have more value as a person than I originally thought. When I first told her about my problem of feeling behind and that I think I should completely start everything from the ground up and lower every expectation I have she just said that I should never ever think that way and that she could help. I was willing to try anything that could help me improve my ability to grow and learn even at the age of 19. Over the course of a month, I was taught that I should prioritize myself and my growth rather than just throwing away my chance at a future to help everyone now. I have been able to create a functioning schedule and not just throw away any plans I might have just because someone might want me for something. I can’t say more how much she has been able to show me in a short period of time and could likely show others with more time available. I truly am grateful for all the help she has given me, and the whole experience has brought me to a far more confident and stable place than I ever have been in my life. If I could recommend her any more I would.
Akin Beckley – February 2022