Principal's Page
Kia Ora Friends - Our Warmest Greetings
This newsletter is going to be shorter than usual this week.
I left for Beijing on Saturday, 8 March, and arrived back on the night of Sunday, 16 March. This has been a big week with very long days, and I leave for China again this Saturday at 5 am.
My first trip to China involved visits to Beijing and Shandong province. I lost count of how many schools we visited and presented to. I was invited to present to a university's Teacher Training staff and a large group of principals. Their school sizes ranged from 1,600 to 2,500 young students.
My university presentation focused on the Four Original Languages and the Power of Emotion to ensure learning that lasts a lifetime.
In addition to the summary below, I worked with my audience to script a learning activity involving each of the four original languages, focused on daily life in ancient times in the Forbidden City.
A Brief Summary Of Some Of My Main Points:
By far, the majority of our human history was spent as hunter-gatherers. These people hunted and travelled and did not have writing, but they had four other important ways of communicating. They were the four original languages.
Those four languages are so original that they are embedded into our DNA.
Language One - Movement:
60,000 years ago, the Aborigine people of Australia were performing dances
that told stories - for example - the story of the kangaroo hunt, teaching hunting techniques and creating excitement for their audience.
Musical instruments date back to the beginning of human history. They have the power to tell stories and evoke deep emotions. We, too, can tell our stories through movement and dance.
Language Two - Music:
From ancient times, we told stories through music. Musical instruments date back to the beginning of human history. They have the power to tell stories and evoke deep emotions.
Today, we still tell stories through music.
Language Three - Visual:
Cave paintings have been found in Europe, dating back to 37,000 years ago.
All these years later, we can understand the story this picture tells.
If it had been written in the words of their “language” of that time, we would not be able to read it so we would not have any understanding of their life and adventures.
Every picture - no matter how simple - tells a story.
Language Four - Storytelling:
Story-telling dates back to the beginning of time as we know it. We told stories to teach, to educate, to excite and to laugh. Those stories had a magical quality that always made us want to come back for more.
Today stories are everywhere - the best TV advertisements tell a story in only 30 seconds - but that is enough to capture our imaginations and want to know (or have) more.
Putting All Four Languages Together:
So, we can then combine all those original language outcomes into an awesome multi-media presentation. - putting everything together - the dance, the music, the paintings and the powerful story-telling that came from our visit to the Forbidden City. Then, we will have something that connects to each of us at a DNA level. It will speak to our hearts and send chills down our spine. And so it will become a learning memory that will last long in our lives.
Importantly, it will encourage a passion in us that will make us want to continue learning for the rest of our lives.
A few of our students have asked me to upload a few short video clips from my trip - I'll do a better job with these in our next newsletter - so here are a few very short clips for now.
The first two are copies of Television News Broadcasts that were aired during our visit.
Next week's trip to China includes visits to all new schools in mostly new cities and with an all-new group of international principals from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. This time I will present my thoughts on the Future of AI in Education - no pressure!
As always - if you have questions or concerns about anything school-related - email me at macash@mac.com, and I will get back to you asap.
My very best regards to you all,
Ash Maindonald
Principal.
