If I could make a school that only taught life skills that would honestly be a dream come true. Life skills and world issues are super important, and my only wish would be to teach a full-time curriculum of this…and one day open up my own physical school. For the moment my online academy has been the true launch pad for this dream.
Real Stuff Matters Academy teaches the important life skills that are needed in everyday life. When I say this, I would like to emphasise that the real stuff that matters are the actual life topics that kids can take away instantly when they sit in one of my classes.
Feeling grounded in my teaching methodology is crucial for my overall vision in pioneering this new yet very important way of learning.
The areas that I find to be the most important to teach are the ones that kids already have some level of understanding in. The ability to learn English writing, communication and reading can be better taught when we use practical life skills and topics that they can relate to.
Don’t you remember going to school and learning things that absolutely did not make sense to you at the time therefore struggled to enjoy the learning topic and ultimately missed out on the learning side of it? I know how it feels because I too went through all of this. That’s why I try my best to avoid this happening to my kids also.
I’ve seen kids completely disengage with the learning topic because the topic itself has been absolutely boring. Why are we forcing our kids to learn something, then failing them when they don’t connect with the learning topic? For all the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) parents out there, how can we ensure that our children are receiving the customised learning they need in order to learn and grow?
The secret sauce is honestly in each parent slash carers way of teaching. We can teach our kids important life skills to ensure they are feeling challenged and inspired. We are our kid’s biggest inspiration and the closest to them.
I want to encourage parents to go beyond the four walls of their kid’s classroom and start looking at innovative approaches in how your kids can learn and grow best.
A simple way would be to sit down and draw up your own curriculum that highlights different learning opportunities for you kid to learn and grow in.
A simple curriculum could look like.
1. What is the learning objective?
2. How will you teach this topic?
3. What worked well?
4. What could be improved?
The simplicity of making our own learning topics and just doing a little bit of work in mapping out the structure and things will go a long way.
Don’t over complicate it. A simple piece of paper with the days written out and the 4 questions listed under each day is all that you need.
You are in control of your child’s learning and remember you are already self-motivated because it’s your child’s interest at heart.
Be organised with simple plans and action items and see how writing things out in a simple workbook can show you the progressiveness of the learning that you are initiating.
In my classes, I teach life skills and world issues and its through these learning topics that my students are able to build confidence and become advanced English writers, readers and communicators.
The effectiveness of this approach is 10-fold. I have watched children who could barely write a sentence transform over time (6 months to 1 year) to writing 2-4 pages within an hour class.
Hold tight to your new approach and remember we have an infinite number of times to try and see what works best. We all know how to communicate as a basis regardless of the language. We just need to ensure we are not leaving our kids to figure it all out on their own. Rather there are little things we can do everyday to encourage good communication skills. There are resources, tools, and services everywhere online to help you. One of the ways could be to attend one of my classes where I teach communication confidence in the context of teaching life skills and world issues.
Own your role as the ultimate teacher.
Blessings Cass.
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