Jill Rees: Welcome Press

Wondering about my friends in Abuja and what the weather is like, as they all told me it would be cold. As they were shivering when it was 25 degrees however I wonder what cold is for them.

I hear I have a little following who love my articles in the Leadership newspaper where I write a Sunday column.   Most of the articles are on this site under ‘articles for Leadership’. I’m also still writing for UK publications on a variety of subjects.

Still plugging on with the Education Handbook. Basically it’s done except that I am unsure how to present it ie is it for a day course? A week? how much depth? What is aim etc? When I know the exact nature of a project or what to do with it, it can be easily adapted to a given thingy.

At the same time, I’m extending the idea into a book form, where it will be about systemic and humanitarian education and will be good for a teacher training or professional development course, also will enter the general affray about education today. I think it will be good. Not only that but I am the only person with this idea as an organised whole, because of my particular experiences which haven’t been restricted by being just in the classroom or just in the academic world, also being involved in Developing communities stuff, I’m able to put together the various ideas going around in a cohesive way, which should be useful and kind of healing. Our government and indeed worldwide education is surrounded by ideas of creative learning, multiple intelligences, sustainability, life-long learning and the ideas from the systemic theorists, but there is no development of what underlies all these ideas. That’s what I am doing, and making it a useable handbook for teachers, trainers, school leaders, government advisors and so on.

Meanwhile it looks as if I’ll be arranging my return later in the year to Abuja soon. At the moment I’m going off to Austria at the end of January with a teaching company. I’ve wanted to work for them since working with River in the summer. You go off and teach English in a team in an Austrian school. the week ends with a show the kids put on. It’s collaborative teaching and quite creative and I’m really looking forward to it.

My first assignment is for 7 weeks. You go to an airport and they give you a brown envelope with your tickets, resources and details of the week’s mission. At the end of the week they give you another envelope and you make your way to the next school. You can see it has enough of the James Bond element to satisfy my sense of adventure. And surely there’s not much I can get embroiled in in Austria - it’s in the EU! although my daughter has been mumbling about neo-Nazism, so you never know!

Christmas Eve, off to hospital to have two bottom wisdo teeth out. Won’t be able to eat over Christmas. Or drink. We adventurers have to get this sort of thing done when we can though.

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