A Great Little Display

I thought I would milk the PNG Education Directors trip to Brisbane SDA Schools just one more week, if you don’t mind. Towards the end of the trip I saw a great little display that for me stood out in its simplicity. The room was a prep room and it was a piece of art work as you can see below.

It was with dye and painted pasta bits. I like it for a number of reasons. First it stood out, as should all of our displays in the classroom. Secondly, it was children’s work that was displayed. I get a little sad when I see great displays that consist of a poster, or some other work obviously done by a teacher but nothing of the students’ work up on the walls. They do enjoy seeing their work displayed. It helps them take ownership of their classroom and develops pride in doing their work. Thirdly, and I believe the most important, is that it promotes the special character message of the unit. I wish that every unit of learning that is done in our classrooms would have a special character message. To quote the great Graham Baird of Northpine Christian College fame “Special Character is the total environment of the school.” In other words it needs to be present and seen in every aspect of our school’s operations.

To give an example, we saw a very nice display of students’ self portraits strung across a classroom. The display was quite impressive in its own right. But what would have made it more so would have been a special character statement along the lines of “God has made each of us special” or unique or whatever. Now this begs the question as to whether this idea was even touched on in the lesson or unit. I would hope that it was, otherwise what difference has the lesson been than one that could have been taken down the road in a good State school.

Now I know that some will be tempted to say “But the difference is this teacher is a committed Adventist and I’ll guarantee that they had personal devotions this morning as they do every morning.” And yes that is part of special character, a very important part. But my argument is that we should be promoting our special character at every opportunity we can get and put it out there so that the message of God’s love and grace and who He is, is never missed in anything that is undertaken in our schools.

I know it takes time to develop such a culture. But it is worth striving for and creating in each of our schools. Now to be fair, this picture I’ve put up is not the only example we saw of special character being embedded in the instruction and displays in a classroom. There were many excellent examples in each school that we visited.So here is the challenge for you as Principals and to the others who get to read this blog. Take a visit to your classrooms – do a 4 minute walk through if you like! – and take time to focus on the displays. Ask yourself if each of them has some special character statement? If they don’t, then try to work out what a suitable one could be. That won’t be as easy as you think it will be, trust me. Now if it isn’t there, the next question to ask and seek information on, is whether it was ever taught as part of the unit or lesson? And if it wasn’t, could it have been, should it have been, considering we are an Adventist school?
These aren’t easy questions or answers to seek I know. But I can assure you that a huge impact is made on student lives as well as the community when each classroom consistently presents high quality displays that promote the special character of our system.

For those of you who are approaching holidays, I do hope you get to take some time out for rest and relaxation and family time as well. For those still looking forward to the holidays, don’t despair, they will arrive.

God bless you each as you continue to work with your learning communities.

Ken Weslake

Associate Director, Education,

SPD

News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.