This Museum Is So Colourful & Stunning - It's So Pleasing To Look Around :) Wonderful Collection Delightfully

Well I do believe that winter is just about here… and so before it fully arrives I wanted to upload some of my favourite photographs of the beautiful London Autumn with the crisp but stunning light… it may be like that every year, however, I noticed it specifically this year :)

Crystal Palace Park Community Audio Trail

Welcome to the trail! I hope that you enjoy it. The trail started as a project for my final MA Museums and Galleries in Education coursework. It...

There are now 4 segments to the trail!! Have a listen if you have not before and especially to the new track entitled the 'Palace Site'. Hope you enjoy and there's more to come :) Please feel free to spread the word. It is a voluntary project - All the time and resources have been offered for free :) 

More Great North Wood Sessions

November 2017

Hello! Bit belated, however I would like to share a few words about the six sessions that Coralie Oddy (who also runs Remini-sense) and I delivered in Crystal Palace Park as part of the London Wildlife Trust's continued Heritage Lottery Funded: Great North Wood Project. 

It's hard to express how delighted I am with the fact that about five years after first starting out on Crystal Palace Park heritage projects I have been able to develop my skills in terms of completing my Masters in Museums and Galleries in Education, learn about Joanna Grace's Sensory Storytelling, tour guiding and oral history techniques from the Inspired by the Subway project - and most of all meeting like minded creative people to work with. Nothing beats the feeling of sharing a passion, brainstorming, developing and delivering a project with others. So thank you Coralie and Emmie! Thank you also to Penny who works in the Crystal Palace Park Information Centre building for welcoming us and the Friends of Crystal Palace Park for having us.

Coralie and I led six music, sensory and storytelling sessions over three days for between 6-8 adults with learning disabilities. We delivered the sessions in September 2017, a little over a year following the delivery of our initial Crystal Palace Park sessions for the London Wildlife Trust with Emmie Ward. Emmie was part of the development of these sessions. 

Coralie and I loved leading the sessions and meeting people from different homes and organisations. We varied the sessions slightly depending on the needs of the group. We had a great mix of participants and a couple of the groups had members who were predominantly sensory beings. Sensory beings is a term used by Joanna Grace to describe how this group of people largely experience the world:

Sensory Beings - people whose primary experience of the world, and meaning within it, is sensory. Joanna Grace  The Sensory-being project

We focussed on sensory activities for these groups, however sensory experiences was a primary way of communicating our theme with all groups. I (and I am aware many others) have often argued - If you make heritage activities accessible to people with as many different needs as you can -  such as in sensory ways - then the visiting experience will often be more pleasurable for all  anyway. I also believe in exploring themes that anyone would want to explore in a heritage venue. It is not purely about simplifying things it about how you develop your programme of activities: I believe one should always get to know the subject as well as you can. Even when working with nursery aged children I am not satisfied with just knowing the basics. It means I probably take longer than anyone else to prepare anything, however, it is just the way I work. I need to understand the topic as fully as I can to work out the essence of what I want to get across. Spending a lot of time in preparation means that you are able to really develop activities that: actually make sense; are meaningful to the heritage location; and link to anything/connections you know between the participants and the theme. Most of all spend time with people and have a passion for the people you are working with. This will ensure experiences are truly accessible and mean that nothing is part of the session just 'for the sake of it' or an on the surface accessibility.

I think the photos of the session materials are more useful than any explanations I will give here. These photos follow below. Our main theme was the park and it's different uses. One theme was focussed on the history of the area before the park - when the area was covered with the Great North Wood. We explored the plants, animals and people who lived there. Check out my song about Margaret Finch - famous for being called the Queen of the Gipsies and telling the fortunes of young reveller visitors to the area. For the second theme we concentrated on  The Crystal Palace and included meeting Queen Victoria at the opening ceremony of The Crystal Palace (with added harp music accompaniment that I recorded as part of my community audio trail) and an exploration of the aquarium (of which there are still some remnant walls in the park if you know where to look!) and some of the inventions on display such as Maxim's Flying Machine!

Here is some of the feedback we got:

Amazing visit to Brooklyn - stumbled across the boulevard and then could take a ferry up 34th st because someone gave me a map with ferry routes on just as I was thinking about ferries - yay :)

Victoria Park - to accompany my previous text!

Oral History Consent Forms, recording equipment etc

I meant to add this a few days ago. I thought it might be helpful for people to know where I found some resources for making consent forms and making sure I was not infringing on copyright etc, as well as some info about choosing recording equipment:

Advice on recording equipment from GEM:

 http://www.gem.org.uk/soyh/toolkit/mini/mini-toolkit-4.php

Advice on recording equipment from East Midlands Oral History Archive:

http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/no3.pdf

Info about copyright from East Midlands Oral History Archive::

http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/no4.pdf

Oral history interview guidelines and techniques from GEM:

http://www.gem.org.uk/res/howto/ball/res_inter.php

Oral History Ethics from the Oral History Society:

http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/ethics.php

Oral History practical advice for getting started from the Oral History Society:

http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/practical-advice.php

This has a great guide to all things digital, including equipment by JISC:

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/

And this great link from a friend which compares main digital recording equipment:

http://transom.org/?page_id=7514

and finally, this was the video from the same friend -that helped me choose which audio equipment to get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmwuS9QOlvs

Fingers crossed it was right :)

As I have said before I was very grateful for the advice I received from the GEM (Group for Education in Museums) discussion mailing list as well as he MCG (Museums Computer Group) mailing list for a lot of this advice. Good luck if you are embarking on the same process....

Montessori and Learning Disability

November 2016

I have just been looking back to the power point and hand out that I made for the training day I gave to my colleagues in L'Arche back in 2009. It was the subject of one of the thrice yearly (I think they were) training days that I organised for the support assistants who worked in the the day provision workshops. I really continue to feel strongly about the links between Montessori philosophy/education and good practice for working with people with learning disabilities. Don't get me wrong I am open to other methods and love learning new skills, however, my Montessori training and work has remained a constant source of inspiration. I hope you will find my thoughts interesting!

Later that same year (2009), when I was first seriously working towards working in the museum sector, I was invited by the the then leader of the education team to carry out a week or two's work experience at the London Transport Museum. As part of that work experience I carried out several observations of how nursery aged children interacted with the museum - as it was then. I then wrote up extensive notes into a report for the museum, which included my reflections and suggestions for ways forward.

The following text is the hand out that I created for L'Arche and then adapted for the London Transport Museum. The actual notes and the power point are not included here. Let me know what you think and if you are interested in hearing more or perhaps even asking me for some consultancy? (Better get something about work in there!) :)

Just please bear in mind that I wrote the handout back in 2009. My role at the time was Day Provision Co-ordinator and I supervised the then five different workshop leaders. It wonder if I what I would write the same and different if I was compiling an up to date list...

The handout is/was as follows:

Questions: (Inspired by the Montessori Method)

What do you think the workshop does well and has to offer the people with learning disabilities who come to it?

What aspects do people like about working in the workshop? What is unique about the workshop?

What things do you feel the workshop could do better with in what it offers people with learning disabilities? Are people as independent and in control as possible?

Environment: (How the workshop space is set up.)

Is there order in the environment?

Does everything have its place?

Do people know where to find everything they need without the help of an assistant?

Can the people reach everything?

Is everything within their reach appropriate? (So you don’t need to say no or stop someone from taking something.)

Are there any unnecessary distractions in the physical space? (E.g. large colourful pictures and or objects.)

Are people working in a space that is appropriate for them? (E.g. sitting, standing and with where in the room they are and who else is near where they are working.)

Is there enough opportunity for movement in the work place and within the activities themselves?

Daily routine: (Timing of things)

Is the timing of daily events clear?

Does everyone know what is happening and when?

Is the routine as it is working for everyone or do people require changes?

Is everyone clear about the work they are doing, goals/expectations, boundaries?

Activities/Work: (In the environment)

Are they suitable for people?

Are they too difficult? If they are, is there a simpler or part activity that could take its place?

Have you observed, broken down and tried the different movements needed for an activity?

Could some people be challenged more?

What new skills could people learn and be involved in?

Is there a particular skill that the people are expressing a desire to refine? If yes, how can you support them with this?

Are people choosing their activities?

Do the activities have a clear purpose and meaning?

Are there any jobs that assistants are doing, that adults with learning disabilities could be doing? (E.g. getting cups and taking them back at tea break.) Remember we are enabling people to be as independent as possible. What may seem hard work the time will be worth it in the long run.)

Assistants: (As teachers)

Do you have a positive attitude to everyone in the workshop?

Is there favouritism?

Are you aware of your prejudices?

Do you approach people in a positive way?

Are you careful about not criticising their work, even in a subtle way? (You can show the activity at another point, rather than criticise at the time. Or look at the appropriateness of the activity)

Do you value all activities and work the same?

Do you allow people to take their time and repeat where necessary? Do you give people time to finish their work cycle?

Are you doing too much for people? (Think about even the small things/parts of the process.)

Do you ensure that you don’t interfere when the person is concentrating on their work? (Even by speaking to them with a positive comment! Concentration is a very important skill to develop.)

Do you make sure that you don’t constantly praise people? (People should not rely on others to feel good. The aim is that it comes from within.)

Are assistants clear with people about when the person can make a decision and when they can not?

Are people allowed to make all possible decisions?

Do you take time to sit back and observe?

What areas do you feel you need more support in?

Some quotes about Montessori education.

‘An adult can substitute himself for a child by acting in his place, but also by subtly imposing his own will, substituting it for that of the child. When this happens it is no longer the child that acts but the adult working through the child,’ Montessori.

‘The most important discovery is that a child returns to a normal state through work…. A child’s desire to work represents a vital instinct since he cannot organise his personality without working; a man builds himself through working.’  Montessori

'It is important for us to know the nature of a child’s work. When a child works, he does not do so to attain some further goal. His objective is the work itself, and when he has repeated an exercise and brought his own activities to an end, this end is independent of external factors.’

‘It is necessary for the child to have this order and stability in the environment because he is constructing himself out of the elements of the environment… it is his foundation.’  Montessori

“A child’s different inner sensibilities enable him to choose from his complex environment what is suitable and necessary for his growth. They make the child sensitive to some things, but leave him indifferent to others. When a particular sensitiveness is aroused in a child. It is like a light that shines on some objects but not on others, making of them his whole world’  Montessori

Me in the World

October 2016

Hello there :)

Testing out writing a bit more regularly about what I do in my tutoring, music and storytelling sessions. I would be interested to hear if any of it is useful to anyone reading this.

So the first activity that I am going to talk about is a one I found through a search of Montessori blogs. It is called a 'Me on the Map' or 'Me in the world' activity. It is an activity I didn't come across when I was Montessori teaching a few years back. However, when searching for activities about the world I really liked the idea of this. An important part of Montessori philosophy for me is the area of cultural education. Montessori was very much dedicated to peace and the activities in this area really develop this through helping children to understand more about the world, their place in it and how everything is connected.

I tried this activity out with two brothers I tutor. The idea is that you have coloured circles of ascending sizes. You start by asking the child to draw a picture of themselves and then their house and gradually progress to their continent and the world.

The youngest started accordng to the plan. He wasn't too keen on drawing his houseso drew the entry gate to his house. We only did about three last week and completed this week because the activity did not captivate him as much as others. The eldest decided that he would do it in his own way and started with a mean looking character who ended up living on the moon. He gave areas of the moon different number codes that got more complex as they went along and really got into it. I had intended that he did it about himself, however, I loved his creativity. Below are the results. And here is a link to the page I found the best for describing this activity and variations:  Here

Bye for now....

Me having decided that I need to get some practice myself at speaking and trying to express what I am experiencing!