Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / Finding potential outside the grades with Jenna Sheehan

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Finding potential outside the grades with Jenna Sheehan · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, and a very warm welcome to Let Them Fly with me, Heather Harris.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a parent, you know that quiet worry, are my children on the right path?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is the podcast that gently reminds you to believe a little more in our children and their wonderful ability to surprise us.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because no one is born great and so few of us follow the path we first imagined.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We hope today to inspire you, reassure you, and give you the quiet confidence to trust a little more and let your children fly.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: So today it's my job to welcome Janice Jean, who's a program manager at Enhanced Training Institute, which is a KHDA approved youth enrichment institute within Jeby.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: 12 years as an educator and a school leader in the UE, she's built her career on giving children something different, something beyond grades, character, resilience, and a sense of what's possible.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So Jenna, thank you so much for well for joining us today.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hi there, it's a joy.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of we've navigated each other around various things for quite a long time, I think.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've had this conversation on connection and people every time we've met.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We love a chat, we love people.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the community is great for that here.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for giving me a place in your channel.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to start with a very simple question, which what do you wish every parent understood about the child beyond grades?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Heather, I could talk at length about this.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think of what I've learned back home in Ireland of my uh five years there, and certainly uh with over uh yeah, over a decade here in UE, I think it's about understanding the child where we meet them.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I see this across schools, uh, of my teaching career, both in mainstream from chatting with parents.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have most of my friends are mothers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's something we get asked the most uh character.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the report card, I saw it when I was in Alain with ADEC back uh from 2014, and then I saw it in the international setting.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The report card is a wonderful way to demonstrate performance.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I and they've they've come a long way with the drop-down, the proficient, the mastery, the the etc, etc.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a slap on the wrist many times for saying Jenna, like reduce it, because I would always want to add that extra text box to give the reasoning beyond the grade.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: That time when he built that uh not just the the 3D project for science, but that time when he public spoke, you know, if language was his barrier, and he took the time and finested and delivered it to his peers.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't always necessary, but for me it was essential that parents knew that beyond the grade that's what the progress looked like.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And educators know assessment of learning, assessment for learning.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: That all feeds into the child's overall performance, but it's all the other things, the softer skills, them as a little being, their peers, how they are as learners.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, are they risk takers?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are they problem solvers?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean in a in a an inquiry-based problem in a per curriculum sense.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: That can be on the schoolyard, it can be on the playground, it can be on the school bus, all those little things that marry together.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish there was more space for that in delivering to parents.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, parents ask more, definitely.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: In my career, I've seen that.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know how they are doing overall.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I leave the curriculum to the end because it's easy to talk about that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The assessment shows and data, and if you want to go down that route.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll always start with the interpersonal stuff and them as a little human.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love that because I think grades never tell the story.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we focus so grades are the tangible part that we just get hung up on focusing.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, I mean, I and I always remember whenever I used to go to a school meeting, and my first question is, but are they nice?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the teachers used to look at me sometimes as to say, I say, I don't care what their grade is, I want to know are they nice?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Carol Dweck, I know her work is amazing on growth mindset, but she uses this grade not yet.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not amazing.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not I got the air, I got the D.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's the not quite yet.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I did achieve along the way.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I grew my resilience massively.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's so important, isn't it?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking to one of the um guests we've had on the show a while ago, and they're a sports psychologist, and it was very much about it doesn't the grade doesn't matter.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: The grade just shows where you are now.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's not showing you where you are in the future, it's not really showing you where you came from.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: It just shows you where you are now, and it's not it's not important.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that as professionals, I'm sure you know it from motherhood.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: We know it from travel, we know it from all the things we learn as we go.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if we had to put metrics on that, I imagine the story that would tell.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be less of a podcast, would it not?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: In saying I learned this, I achieved this, I got this by this year.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas actually the conversation and the the substance and the the significant part is the story about the child and getting there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: The saddest, I think the saddest line is when a child says, I've got nine, I've got nine grade nines.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and yeah, and and what did you do on the way?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: What what what what else?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me something about you because your grades don't define you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you define you.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's such a fruitful conversation.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had it with so many of my educator friends and now decision makers and people that we kind of, I suppose, want to align with and and be of service to in the community.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But certainly that mismatch between pedagogy curriculum, we're always going to be guided and underpinned by some level of a framework.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's up to us as practitioners and educators and moms and dads and family life to see that dynamic as more of an enriching process as opposed to a destination that we're all hoping our child gets to.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there is that shift.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: The conversation is shifting in UE, particularly around that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think P I think parents are becoming less fixated on grades.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, I think education, there's a there's a definite undercurrent to change education.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in Richmond, I mainstream teach, and I'll be really honest, end of day when I used to give my classroom to some extracurricular providers that would come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the cleanup was very swift and we were out the co out the door.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, huh, the kids are pretty exhausted.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And generally, and I know we'll we'll maybe come to it later in terms of, you know, what enrichment is it, a childcare service after school that mom and mums and dads are busy, households are dynamic places, they're busy, and sometimes they can serve as just that.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Great if they attain a skill.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember when I used to see the little tired faces, and my good friend Ash, who speaks about this in all terms of well-being as well, they're exhausted by the end of the day.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: The curriculum is so packed.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're asking again, because it's a it's a paid service, that the the you know, enrichment must be fruitful and it must be a you know, uh impact-driven kind of end, you know, what are they going to come out with?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Something tangible.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, I feel that there's a place to weave that into curriculum.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we not doing more character and resilient and you know, that type of work within our curriculum and allowing that fluidity to just be but fun.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just feel sometimes we're we forget that you know, children are only children for such a short space of time as well.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is true.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is true.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So what I I know that you've been doing this for about 12 years.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh 12 years now, yes.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: What what kind of drives you?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: People.
• 7:35
  unknown: Yeah.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember saying to my good friend Rebecca, who's still at home in Ireland, I did teacher training college with her.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: She's a mum of three now.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: She used to say, I said, you know, I'm thinking of leaving teaching, and she's my springboard for a lot of my inner thoughts.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's always that one, there's the one person.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying, I don't know, a level of guilt, I guess.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I know the phases of change bring that level of anticipation and maybe guilt, and then kind of, you know, you get excited then.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember being pretty sure back in Alane that I was coming to the end of my teaching career, and that was 2017.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying Rebecca, like, but I love children.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Jen, you love people.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the difference.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the reframe and thinking, okay.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when I got involved in Alane and more community-based initiatives.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Went back, studied, COVID hit, did my master's, then went on, and knowing I needed maybe a space in Dubai to further kind of excel and see maybe what else is out there in the international setting and had that benchmark to compare with government, my experience in government education, and private.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly it's people.
• 8:33
  unknown: Yeah.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have as much adoration, and my time was invested as much into the parents, the staff at my school, loved the chat in the mornings.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: How are people doing?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I just think those are the conversations, listening to parents, not just the parent teacher meetings where you're relaying it and having that exchange of, you know, progress or successes, or you know, it was just the everyday chat.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's essentially what they would come to me and talk about enrichment.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it was a sadness and saying, I'm working on spring break.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I offer my child something meaningful?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or we're not traveling for summer.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what is out there?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: What's of substance in the community?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I suppose I logged all of these kind of conversations, I suppose, uh subconsciously, and leave and teach, and then thought, well, there's something that I could maybe put some time and effort in designing and focus on, is offering something in the community that just might speak to parents as an educator and speak to fellow educators in their kind of, I suppose, battles between a jam-packed curriculum and offering maybe something of difference in an enrichment space.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's done really well.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's done really well.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's done really well.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: There was there was a space.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was a space.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say there are phenomenal practitioners.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very busy market of enrichment and beautiful clubs, and everyone has their area of focus.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we went back to the drawing board, much like the I think many people have during quieter times of the instabilities in the region, and we really looked to see what was working.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And a good friend of mine in Abu Dhabi said that to me about a year ago.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I used to keep a notebook of all these little words of wisdom.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Jen, to scale up, you have to niche down.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we really began to niche down.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: We were offering 11 individual KHD-approved child courses in skills development.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: What was really working well?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: What was of impact?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I always think if we come back to that one word impact, what's really measurable and what are we making the difference in?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how our program now has niched down.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It looks a lot smaller, but it just encompasses what works for us and it's given that the children the experience, a dynamic experience, as opposed to one single.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: We think about the child that maybe, for example, photography.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a photographer.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We never get asked when people are out.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Could you take a photo?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or the ones that do, it's like, oh, thank you.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's been delicious straight away.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I say I'm not creative.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when I hear that from a seven-year-old, I think, not creative.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Have they ever been given a camera or a paintbrush in a mess space just to be without the frameworks of gotta tick the box?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a school assessments coming up, and we have an inspection, and I best have all my assessment in line.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is what formed giving children a transdisciplinary.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know I'm in it from an inquiry background with IB, but I still feel the place belongs to just explore something familiar.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that beautiful um desirable difficulty, that lovely phrase of let them in where meet them where they are, yes, and then stretch.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think just because they have never held a microphone in a shark tank experience or you know, created a STEM LED light, so be it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let them explore.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think and I think you touched on it, but one of the things that always worries me is art, because so many kids love art and then they go into school and they've been told to draw in a particular way.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: But art isn't meant to be drawn in a particular way.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the number of children who don't love art that did love art is phenomenal.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And there's still a level of ceiling uh on that, isn't there?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: A cap as to what maybe oh, we don't have time for that, or boys and girls, we have to move because it's our big time.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of shattering that glass, yes, being there as a facilitator, but they must shatter it.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that kind of narrative around that autonomy.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I always talk about student agency, and I think that would be a big one for parents.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're here to kind of, yes, conscious control of who what clubs or enrichment or curriculum they they invite their children into, but given that child the absolute autonomy and agency over their kind of trajectory.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: On, you know, identifying their strengths.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: We know confidence over capability is a topic we always talk about.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've met such capable children, Heather, but they've never been stretched to find out what it is I'm really, really good at.
• 12:42
  unknown: Yes.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say it on a report card, I'm doing very well.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not the same.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, what else?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: We keep talking about this word resilience.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: What should resilience look like in a child?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I read this last week, Heather, and I wish I could find, I will send it to you when I do find it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember thinking it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the R and the E for resilience reminded me, it's like a response.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um what was it?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Speed response.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, how quickly are you actually recovering?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, recovery speed, that was the R and the E.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, and yesterday actually at an event, and a lady pointed out so well that it has to be also sustainable because we talk about resilience being a quick spring back, and you know, but actually having the tools and that regulation.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know as an adult, it's still something I'm working on.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Being able to self-regulate in moments of pressure and time restraints and deadlines.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think of little children were asking so much of them, but it's also, I love this one, and I read it from I think it's a John Dewey, it's safe failure, safe failure given another space to fail, but it's designed that we're going to catch them, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and then repeat it again.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if the fall comes again, that's also but it doesn't matter.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of our podcasts is very much on that that quote that you know, let them fly, and you and the the question is, but what if they fall?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but what if they don't?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: What if they don't?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: What if they don't?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's all that good stuff again.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Angela, is it Angela Duckworth?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Grit.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Grit.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's everything you can be so high in aptitude, but it's that attitude of Do you think that this generation is lacking grit for some to some extent?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: They're almost oh we're almost overparenting kids these days.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can be.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I ask my my good mom friends this ones you can really unpack with that will give you the real honesty and and transparency.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very vulnerable um topic, isn't it?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a mum and I wonder how I would be.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I think when I try to wear what I think a mom hat must feel like, as well as uh, I suppose my background in education, I think, I think it's it's we're doing them an underservice if we don't allow just to ex just let them.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely agree.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what that may look like in terms of a curriculum or how the household is, or I think they marry in.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think they marry from how they watch older siblings, um, aspirations of mum and dad can look very different, um, school setting, peer group.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of that combined.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to think even of a small service, it can be I think service and significance, isn't that what they say?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Success is that being of service as us as an enrichment provider, that it's a space, a space where we can stimulate and plant those seeds of resilience and character building.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that failure is a real thing.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think I mean fail, yes, and I I'm a great believer in on it.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: We often parents who phone us up and you know, one thing so we sort of say, let them fail before we try and find the solution because there might not be necessary for a solution.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I personally blame social media and I have a big, big sort of parents have this pressure to be a perfect parent.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that means that you know, my child shouldn't be dirty, my child shouldn't eat hamburgers or whatever it is they should.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, the reality is they should.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: They literally should, because if they don't, they don't ever know the experience of doing.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we know this as educators that you know it's all about the actual doing, the hands being the connector to the brain and that knowledge is that experiential learning.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the same thing by living something out, and that's the I I've seen it time and time again, or you'll hear it through another staff member, let's say the Arabic teacher or the R teacher.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: This used to come back often.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You are always looking for your evidence in the classroom through observations.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: When it doesn't come, it may be when you're not watching.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a real sign when a teacher or another staff member will come back and tell a child, tell a story of the child that you know the incident happened in your the, you know, experiential learning or some level of growth or progress happened in that aha moment in the classroom.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it it demonstrated in Arabic class or yes, and that's a great thing to observe when they don't think anyone's watching and how do they respond?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's their kind of coping mechanism?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's their problem solving?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do they do in that moment without looking for a response from an adult?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, I suppose, is it all in the questioning when we are asking how was your day?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is it in that shift of what lit you up today?
• 17:08
  unknown: Yes.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do for someone else?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: That that excitement.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, you just can't beat that.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about your institute.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure, sure.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're almost two years old, Heather.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I joined with, as I always say, when when Ali's in or out of the room, our CEO, I joined with a laptop and a trade license and an empty desktop on that, which is a wonderful thing.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mentioned earlier about you know creativity.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would be creative not in an art sense or uh, I suppose, artsy scene, but I'm massively creative when it comes to people.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I believe hugely in the power.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Impact, I think, is people.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's our, you know, the most valuable currency we have is human connection.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I suppose I was at an advantage of having the 12 years here in UE, uh, beautiful relationships built, and also I suppose, the, I suppose, the honesty to know that there were gaps, there were underserviced areas.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I came back to Tom about, you know, reframing things when during the hostilities in we were offering much, but what did we actually want to do really, really, really well?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the learning carousel came about.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that took five of our most, I suppose, um, socially proofed, most popular, most impact-driven uh child development skills, which are photography, STEM, public speaking, enterprising, and financial literacy.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And those five can absolutely be weaved into much like an inquiry-based that your child may or may do in an IB curriculum, where their common theme across the week, I'll give you an example that we ran at Expo our first time, was where iSPy through my little eye was our um was our theme.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Children went in with very little knowledge.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: We just did a simple provocation and showed a picture of a gallery at the Lure Vin Abu Dhabi.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we thought we stimulated some questions, there was a bit of curiosity, and that's where we're meeting them.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say meet them where they're at.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: So bear in mind we had students of determination, we had some uh second English as a second language speakers, so a typical dynamic setting in this particular camp.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we walked through what the week might look like.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're kind of probing to see what the interests are and the hands fly up for, but are we doing woodwork and please are we doing art?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my mum said that we might be doing photography.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So now you kind of have a feel for the for the room, and now it's us as our job as facilitators to step back and just let them.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we put out what we hoped the end product would be, all in isolation.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of cameras, Nikon happened to be our collaboration with Nikon at the time, was day one.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Day one, they were gonna photograph.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Day two, they were gonna use that photograph and transfer it onto a canvas.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there was the art element.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've got two of our KHDA-approved um child development skills.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wednesday got very, very tricky because Wednesday was the resilient day, where they had to now create, well, you're gonna exhibit in a gallery, right?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the Louvre, so you must how does lighting um depict in your in your picture, and that's gotta be accurate.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Kate is our creative Gen Z are on the team, and she had them eaten out of the palm of their hand, palm of their hand with all this kind of creativity.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so they did an LED light, they built a solar-powered LED light, and Expo being so big on sustainability that you know it worked in the setting, they understood the examples in their environment.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thursday, they designed their pitch.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you every artist has to talk about their piece of work, right?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And Friday, we always love to bring in some level of Islamic values and tradition and heritage.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we got a beautiful calligrapher in and they learned their name in Arabic calligraphy.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Friday was exhibit day, moms and dads joined, and the auditorium we presented.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Heather, I cannot tell you if that was my job done in that one week in Enhanced, because it planted the seed of what became at the time.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a pilot, just to see would a carousel model work there?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: What would it look like?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, a lot of our students weren't in an IB curriculum, so it didn't.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: We had to almost, I suppose, um hand walk through the process and handhold us to why we were doing everything in succession.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it should be spoken about Monday's learning, should be still spoken about on Thursday during their pitch.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Tuesday's art lesson is still being talked about at Friday's exhibit.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they marry and they understand why, why they're learning what they're doing.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a massive believer in a tangible output.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always come in the form of the painting or the LED light or the photo in their hand.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's the the creativity that comes with it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: The fact the next time they go on Zoom with granddad in New Zealand, they're talking about the experience.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a memory, it's proof, it's a presentation that you know hopefully when they go to do the interview in a new school or they take the next assessment in language that it's going to kind of further bolster them.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's all we can hope for in our place and the limited time we have with children is that we leave some impact.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I've stayed on two years and why I'm so passionate about growing a small business because there's a place for us, the community is so, so, so welcoming in being the connector and the enabler.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, government entities have been wonderful, particularly in this time.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the whole Dubai It is a real thing now.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that there is excellence out there, and we can all be a part of that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds absolutely something a child will remember for the rest of their lives.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just the next stage, that's a real memory.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's so lovely.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Heather.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, for a mum planning a summer camp, a very topic of conversation at the moment.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: What's one thing for her to look for and one thing for her to avoid?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, we talk about the report card.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back there that sometimes it can be a very um one-sided uh we're offering this, and that's wonderful if you know what your child is really, really into.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: But don't forget to explore that sprinkle of newness, something they maybe haven't tried.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It might just be the kid that didn't have the camera access to a camera ever, and they're super creative.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, something tangible that will always go with some tangible object-proof presentation, something that they're gonna take with them and bolster even further.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't believe in segregating the kids based on age to a point, but ability, no, because it's up to us as practitioners to be able to scaffold and and and really be able to, you know, make quality and provide quality provision.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, yeah, something stimulating, something that's really gonna be.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Something different.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I always say something different.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: For safety for failure, given the space to be able to say, I did this, it didn't work.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what, yeah, our youth founders, again, another flagship program, they're really good at that, building a prototype and hoping for the best.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, totally.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've got one last question.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you had to go back and knowing everything you know today, and you go back and ask your seven-year-old self one qu um, you give yourself one piece of advice, what would that one piece of advice be?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: If it's both terrifying and amazing, you should definitely pursue it.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: We should be afraid, we should have that little thing in our belly about something, because it's a challenge, right?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then the safety also of knowing, I've got this.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've, you know, I'm familiar, it's comfortable, but also safety again to fail and say, something is, you know, like maybe today.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today's my first podcast for this one.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, welcome.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And again, new experience.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I sat in the car, you're reading your notes, you're excited, but it's a little bit terrifying, right?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So more of that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Absolute pleasure.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Heather.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, look forward to seeing the programs for this summer.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: You there will be a note down below of where to get a hold of you.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, thank you so much for joining us.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it, Heather.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.