Personal Stories

These are personal stories, and reflections on learning which I find inspirational and thought provoking

Claire teaches infants and copied me in when she wrote about her experience that day.

'This afternoon during a circle time on the theme of what friendship meant to the children, one little girl, Catherine, asked if she could have more time to think “because I know what I want to say but I am trying to think of a better way to say it.”  A few minutes later she put her hand up and said she had thought about it. Her words were:

"Friendship is showing someone your heart."'

You can read Claire's accounts on http://www.actionresearch.net which have been accredited at the University of Bath as part of her master's programme.

Ros was a junior school teacher and wrote about  a time she felt she was 'making a difference'.

Pupils come and go over the years. Some make very little impact on your memory after a while, and yet there are some who stand out as being of some significant milestone in your own development as a teacher.

You can read some of Ros's educational enquiries on http://www.actionresearch.net which have been accredited at the University of Bath as part of her master's programme.

Anat lives in Israel and was kind enough to tell me her story, which those with special educational needs might find particularly inspirational.

I will try to condense the 15 years of trial and error of my son’s life as a gifted and dyslexic, dysgraphic child in a few sentences. My child has gone all the way to hell and back again. We knew that he was dyslexic when he started kindergarten but despite reporting his difficulties to his teachers my child suffered from the first day in school...

Alan was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1950. He obtained BA and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences at King's College, Cambridge and is currently a Reader in Biology at the University of Bath, England. Details of Alan's work on inclusionality and his art can be found Alan's own website  . Alan offered me a very moving story of his own experiences as a child labelled gifted in  My Achilles Heal: Testimony of a 'Gifted' Child

Joy offered me this account by AC who was an 11 years old when she wrote this. I think her story reflects the thinking of someone with, what Carol Dweck would call, a growth Mindset - The Staircase of Life

Moira was awarded the position of Life Long Professor at Ningxia Teachers University in China. It is the only centre of it's kind in the world, and it's purpose is to improve the learning experience for all children in China. Moira's work and that of her colleagues and students can be found on her website. She gives some of her personal story in working with her brother

I start from the premise that every human being is gifted and talented. That is not a wishy-washy liberal wishful-thinking, but my increasingly-honed awareness and observation of the nature of being human. My brother is a case in point. Unable to talk until the age of five ....How do I know? Well, that’s where my gifts and talents came in...

and this one from when she was teaching

I was excited to recieve this from Adrian, an adviser I worked with. We had been talking about an inclusive understanding of gifts and talents and the implications for what we do in schools and how it connected with the personalisation of learning agenda.

As part of the personalizing learning debate the Secondary National Strategy (SNS) is quite rightly focusing on the needs of what they refer to as 'gifted and talented pupils'.  …  When challenged to consider this rather narrow view of gifts and talents,…

Pete was an educator who for many years worked with young people experiencing more than their fair share of challenges. He reminded me of what is found is in the eyes of those who can look.

Some years ago I taught a boy who I shall call Rex (because that was his name).   Rex was insignificant in his class. …  The other kids and I were astonished.