IF YOU LOVE TEACHING
This website looks at curriculum planning through the eyes of passionate teaching professionals.
The consequences of COVID-19 disruptions and thousands of teachers walking away from our schools does not lessen the efforts of hundreds of thousands of heroic teachers who continue to be committed in the face of extraordinary difficulties. We dedicate this website to them.
Dr Josey De Rossi
Dr Josey De Rossi is an experienced educator, working at a large secondary college in Melbourne. She has taught for a number of years across Australia. Josey has run programs in school communities in Perth, Country WA, Melbourne and in the UK. She is a very experienced curriculum writer and former Creative Director at the Biscuit Factory Arts Centre in Fremantle, WA which offered a comprehensive recreational program for young people bringing together the development of literacy, thinking and drama skills.
THE FLS STORY
Fantastic Learning Systems is an education service founded on curriculum writing and designing imaginative formative assessments. Its vision reflects mainstream and progressive learning theorists: in particular, it is interested in the works of cognitive linguists and philosophers (e.g. George Lakoff, Mark Turner); embodied cognition by theatre and dance historians (e.g. Bruce McConachie, Nicola Shaughnessy) and sociologist Erving Goffman’s organisational management.
FLS demonstrates how pedagogy can reflect both productivity and creativity by remaining focused on the general capabilities in the Australian curriculum. It forms partnerships with writers of youth fiction, designing resources that reflects the uniqueness of their literary imaginations. Since 2016, FLS has created resources for children’s author Clare Rose Trevelyan for both her Young Philosophers Series and Past Life Library series of philosophy-focused texts and fictional journals.
WHY DO WE TEACH?
How important is it to know why you teach? The physical and emotional load of dealing with 26 individuals in a room for six hours a day, five days a week and forty weeks a year (remembering how in secondary schools 26 can balloon into three or four times the number).. and then there's yard duty.
Elena Aguilar writes in Edutopia:
"Recalling the reasons why we teach -- keeping them fresh and foremost in our minds -- is, I believe, the key to sustaining ourselves during the long and challenging school year."
Aleta Margolis in the ascd.org magazine says:
“I teach to change lives, to give my students a voice, to transform our society. I teach because I believe in our children and want to equip them with critical thinking skills to forge ahead into an uncertain future.”
Stay motivated. Join our KNOW TIME CURRICULUM PLANNING COMMUNITY.
OUR VALUES
We aim to be of service, which we believe begins with 'first do no harm'. That means for us to NOT add to the noise and spin teachers are frequently subject to when dealing with 'best practice'.
Our results and outcomes must always be tightly coupled with measuring how students learn.
We value collegiality, collaboration and other community-building processes that enrich our democratic ethos. One crucial aspect of that ethos is a sense of humour.
We are committed to ethical dealings with schools, teachers and curriculum leaders, valuing their legal and professional rights.
I love learning from today's youth and younger colleagues. They are growing up in a very different world than I knew as a young professional and certainly as a young student myself. Every day each of them teach me something new.”
___ Alena Margolis
We must not ignore the reality that teaching is incredibly challenging... But...we must also emphasise the essential role teachers play in sustaining our country ...
___ Alena Margolis
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