I just returned home from a week long trip to Eugene, Oregon.  Sounds exciting, right? 😉  So…why was I in Oregon?  Well, I had an opportunity present itself to me and I took advantage of it!

A week prior I was approached by a long time family friend who also happens to be a well respected educator within the Vancouver area.  We were catching up as I hadn’t seen her for a while and she asked me if I was looking for any part time work.  My interest was peaked and I inquired further as to what she was looking for.  This conversation lead me into being hired to work as a private tutor for her.  It also happened that a great training opportunity for this position would be taking place the following week in Oregon, which of course I wanted to participate in.  Especially since this training was only offered once a year.  So, I put it out there to the universe that if this training and position were meant to be, that everything would fall into place with ease.  And it did.  🙂

The training that I took last week was with an educational program that is offered mainly in the USA called Direct Instruction.  I went down with little knowledge of the materials or what it was all about, but I can tell you now that I am completely amazed with all aspects of this program.  It originated from a man by the name of Siegfried Engelmann who spent most of his life designing, researching and perfecting this program.  One of the core programs within Direct Instruction is called Reading Mastery, which is what I took training on last week.  It is a program used to teach anyone to read.

The first day I was there I took an introductory class about the history of Direct Instruction which also went over some of the reasons why it is less popular with many school systems today.  It was really quite fascinating to see the research and testing that has been done on this program, especially in comparison to a lot of the other programs that are used in the school systems today.  At first I assumed that a lot of schools must be using this program to teach children to read…I mean, when looking at the materials and the system that is used and seeing the research to back up the program, why not?  I was totally shocked when I found out that this program is rejected by so many teachers and administrators all over the USA.  I was baffled…so I started asking why?

I asked, ” I don’t understand why this program wouldn’t be embraced by teachers and school administrators all over the country.  Why aren’t more schools using these programs?”   I was told a couple of things, one being that the lessons are completely scripted and that there wasn’t room for any movement within the lessons.  That the teachers felt that they were drilling the students and they didn’t like that.  That it is difficult to learn and takes time to learn the scripting.  The most surprising to me was that many of the teachers that didn’t use it said it was because it stifled the creativity of the teacher in preparing their lessons.

I responded to the group that I was in with, ” But it isn’t about the teachers…it isn’t about them…it is about what is best for children to learn and provide them (the children) with the best possible program out there that is going to get them to learn the skills they need!  And research/testing is showing that this program, in comparison to the others used out there, is far superior in allowing the kids to absorb the skills they need!”  The group went silent.  Most of them agreed with what I was saying because they were familiar with the program already.  I can’t pretend at all that I know anything about the educational system, because I really don’t.  However, when presented with information about a program, that is backed by  years of research and testing, I just really had a hard time stomaching the fact that a teacher would choose a program that was less superior in helping a child to read/write or spell or learn math, just because they didn’t want to put their Ego aside and teach from a script. 

Anyway…enough ranting!  LOL  I am so excited to be learning this program as I really feel that it can help so many people out there!  Not only will it help children read, but the opportunity to teach adults to read is there as well!  I am very happy that this opportunity presented itself and I really look forward to taking it further and learn everything I can from it.

I’m sure some of you are in question about my readings and healing sessions.  I am still heavily involved with all of my intuitive endeavors as it is a passion of mine.  I do feel that adding this new path to my life will also be very rewarding and I already feel quite passionate about being able to help people in this way.  I have always been big on trying new things and learning new tools to add to my passion list.

So tell me…what is something you have recently learned that you can add to your passion list?

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