“Christ is all, and is in all.”
I read an article in The Educator Australia on an interesting topic - sleep. More specifically, sleep our students need. Titled, ‘How sleep routines can help kids do better at school’, author Brett Henebery explores the need for sleep and how students today are not necessarily getting the sleep they need to do their best - including how technology can have a negative impact.
Brett Henebery says, “Increasing children’s understanding of why a good sleep routine is important, in the same way exercise and nutrition are focused upon in the curriculum, can help them to maintain healthy sleep behaviours.”
It made me think about ways some young people are not prepared for learning at school before they come through the gates in the morning. Some students come to school with their heads so full of things from their previous 16 hours of social media and online use that subject material has little room to be engaged with.
These two examples, sleep deficit and social media, are just the start of the difficulties facing teachers.
In our meeting yesterday afternoon, Senior Staff started looking at ‘Deep Learning’ and the Six Cs - citizenship, character, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. We would say, of course, that there is a seventh C - Christ. As the Bible verse says, Christ is all. Drew and I have been discussing this for a while now, and teachers have looked at deeper learning from a different perspective through our Visible Learning professional development.
Emmanuel Christian School wants to reimagine life's possibilities and see our students thrive and see success in their work. As we take the school on a journey to explore deep learning and get students to really sink their teeth into topics and explore subjects and issues beyond any surface-level thinking, we need our students to be fresh and ready to learn. Exciting times ahead.
Scott Winkler — Principal