Catholic Education Tasmania -North: Term 2

In last week's Launceston Parish Bulletin there was a reflection from Dianne Bergant CSS.

" This is 'Good Shepherd Sunday' and a particular focus taken today is leadership. Which voices do we follow? Why do we follow these voices and not others?

Genuine authority cherishes, guards and encourages the best in life; it provides rest and refreshment; it guides our steps; it nourishes us; it leads us to God. Peter is an example of authentic authority: he proclaims the truth, even if others find it hard to hear; he denounces error when this places him in jeopardy; he calls for a change of heart, even when it makes great demands.

Authentic leadership is patterned after the leadership of Jesus. It is gentle and familiar, like the true shepherd; it has won the confidence of those that follow, as did the true shepherd: it has committed to the enhancement of the lives of others, as was Jesus. Heavy demands are placed on those who follow authentic leadership. Those who follow the Good Shepherd must follow him in the dark valleys as well as the refreshing streams. They must be willing to relinquish some of their own plans and self-determination and entrust themselves to his leadership. "

On any given day I can listen to many different voices.

The voices of:

blame, defensiveness and ill-informed opinion.
vulnerability, flaw, and humanness.
insecurity, doubt, and inadequacy.

The change of heart I know I need to take is to listen to the voices that give me life, energy, and hope. The voices that enable me to enable others, the voices that help me see opportunity, life, and optimism.

This is more difficult to achieve than any curriculum change asked of us.
It is a change more important that will have more influence on our professional and personal wellbeing than most PD's could hope to achieve.

AROUND OUR SCHOOLS

Post 4

Building your child’s emotional resilience: Using MYTERN in everyday situations

Your child comes home from school and complains that someone has made them sad or angry. Explain to your child that although the other child probably shouldn’t have said or done that, they still didn’t have the ability to take control of their steering wheel. Help them understand that it was their decision to drive down the angry or sad road. The other person didn’t MAKE them do it. It’s ok to drive down a red road as this builds resilience, but they are not to stay on that road for too long.

Ask them what road they are now on. If they are on a red Buska road, discuss what type of PETS could help them drive onto a better road. Try not to focus on the reasons WHY your child is on a red Buska road. Focus on the PETS that can help them to regain control of their steering wheel getting them off the red Buska road and onto a green Reapo road.

Your child needs to begin to understand that even though they may not be able to control circumstances or other people, they ALWAYS have the option to control how they feel and which road they drive down. It is the feeling of control that we are trying to convey.

Helping your child to take responsibility and not blame others:

Stay calm. Your calm attitude communicates that there’s no emergency, and he doesn’t need to be in “fight” mode.
Empathize. Acknowledging your child’s experience will help him/her feel understood, less alone – and less like it’s an emergency. Bypass his/her anger and respond to the unhappiness that’s driving the anger, which helps him/her understand his own emotions better.
Model taking responsibility. Your goal is to help your children assume their share of responsibility for whatever happens in their life, instead of blaming someone else. So model taking responsibility in whatever ways you can,
Teach repair. When children are no longer upset and blaming others you can teach repair – for example, “You were pretty upset when your lego broke, I know when you told your brother it was all his fault, that really hurt his feelings…I wonder how you can make things better with your brother?”
Create a no-blame household. When children grow up in a household where blame is a way of life, they’re more defensive and more inclined to blame than to take responsibility. Not surprisingly, families who focus on solutions instead of blame raise children who are more able to take responsibility, because admitting a mistake doesn’t mean they’re “wrong” or “bad”. Why not experiment with a no-blame household? Every time you start to assign blame, teach yourself to ask “What can we do to solve this?” instead.

Exciting Announcement Congratulations to Larmenier, Star of the Sea and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Primary Schools. They have been awarded a Digital Literacy Government Grant. The Digital Literacy School Grants are an initiative under the Inspiring all Australians in Digital Literacy and STEM measure of the National Innovation and Science Agenda.

Nationwide, more than 1700 applications were received by the government. Of these, only 54 grants were awarded, and only 3 of these were in Tasmania.

Larmenier, Star of the Sea and Our Lady of Mercy submitted a joint submission for a Smart Garden initiative and have been awarded $48,000. The Smart Garden Project The ‘Smart Garden Project’ will allow schools to utilize the digital technologies curriculum to support vegetable gardens to produce healthy food with consideration of sustainable and innovative vegetable gardening techniques. Throughout the two-year project, we will gather data (for example soil moisture, temperature, acidity and crop yields) using digital technologies and this will enable students to make informed decisions about the ongoing management of the vegetable gardens. Students will have access to a ‘Maker Lab’.

In this lab, they can experiment with a range of technologies and apply computational thinking and information systems to define, design and implement digital solutions to resolve real life challenges in the vegetable gardens.

The awarding of this grant is particularly timely as we consider the Pope’s encyclical on the environment. Pope Francis focuses on global poverty, inequality, and consumerism leading to environmental destruction. He calls us as individuals to act in order to improve our care for our world and consider what kind of world we will leave behind for our children.

Prayer Liturgy at St. Anthony's