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Green SuperCamp Amber’s Reflection

July 15th, 2013


 

For our readers who were expecting Part 3 to our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success”  series of articles, I’d like to let you know that will be up very soon and it will be well worth the read.

 

Flynn and Amber Howitt have just returned from a Young Leaders Camp in Bali, and as it is so fresh and exciting I thought we would interrupt our 5 Part Series and share with you some snippets of Amber’s experience whilst on camp.

 

Amber and new friends.

Amber and new friends.

Amber and Maddi leading the run.

Amber and Maddi leading the run.

 

 

 

 

 

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Before I hand you over to Amber, I would like to give our readers a little back ground about the Green SuperCamp, which is held every year at Green School Bali.

Indonesia. In 2012 three of our children (Kaitlin, Jai and Flynn) attended the camp and returned full of experience and wisdom. The camp is designed to create young leaders to care for our future world. The camp does this by building their confidence, encouraging them to think big, and by giving them the skills to learn, interact and to step out of their comfort zones.

Amber participating in a team performance.

Amber participating in a team performance.

Flynn learning to trust.

Flynn learning to trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This year Amber was old enough to go along too. She was very excited as she had heard all the awesome stories and learning from her siblings’ camp experiences last year. Also a bunch of friends from Western Australia were coming along as well (Maddi Barrett, Macy Hobson, Georgia Dewar and Lachlan McRoberts). To learn more of what Green SuperCamp is about and to understand the philosophies of Green School, you’ll have to click the links to earlier articles.

So enough from me… here is Amber Howitt’s Green SuperCamp Reflection…

 

Green Super Camp, for me, was an amazing experience! Everyone there is treated evenly and kindly. No one is excluded or mistreated, so everyone is happy. Your phones and valuables are given in, but you can reunite with your valuables almost every night to contact your parents.

Grinding grain.

Grinding grain.

 

Flynn and his Super Camp team.

Flynn and his Super Camp team.

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The Green SuperCamp itself is built mainly out of bamboo. It is nurtured and cared for by the people within it. They use water from their lake and purify it. People from the world outside Green School can come collect the water for free and use it in their homes. Green School is meant so people around the community can be involved with the school. They make their own power using solar energy and grow their own food in food gardens.

 

 Goal Setting Steps

 

The camp has inspired me to do more with my life, rather than just sit around and be… normal. It has inspired me to take challenges, adventures and think of the things I could be doing. Writing books and travelling around the world are two of my crazy ideas… those things might be a little hard for someone at the age of eleven though. But I can try to work up to that goal. The steps for goal making are:

  • Design it
  • Outline it
  • In your face (tackle barriers)
  • Take action!

 

High ropes course. Facing fears!

High ropes course. Facing fears!

Flynn floating on hands.

Flynn floating on hands.

Quantum Strategies

 

We were taught Quantum Reading and Writing. I improved my reading speed with the same comprehension by over 100%. I concentrated by using the Alpha State. Alpha State is a technique to relax and to concentrate better. The steps to Alpha State are:

  • Sit up
  • Breath in and out
  • Close eyes
  • Think of a peaceful place
  • Roll eyes up and down
  • Open eyes
  • Concentrate

 

Maddi preparing the home grown food.

Maddi preparing the home grown food.

Macy and Georgia

Macy and Georgia

Relationships

 

The friendships you can make at Green SuperCamp are really special. I made friends with both team leaders and kids from all over the world. It is really easy to do so because everyone wants to make friends. Sometimes your relationships can last forever. Green Super Camp teaches you how to have the courage to become friends. No one is alone at Green School or Green Super Camp.

I also learnt techniques to help me learn. These help me to improve my relationship with my teachers. We call this “SLANT” (acronym)

 

Here are the “Tips for Learning” or “SLANT”.

 

  • Sit up
  • Lean Forward
  • Ask Questions
  • Nod your head
  • Talk to your teacher

 

Thanking and Apologising

 

Flynn Saying goodbye to new friends!

Flynn Saying goodbye to new friends!

We also learnt the importance of thanking people and apologising. We were taught how to do this properly. We call the steps to thanking “OTFD” or “Open The Front Door”.

 

Observation, Think, Feel, Desire

 

We call the steps to Apologise, “AAMR”, pronounced “A Mr!”

 

Acknowledge, Apologise, Make it Right, Recommit

 

Eight Keys of Success

 

Lastly we were taught the “Eight Keys of Success”. These are the keys that keep you on course for success! For each of these keys we learn a different hand movement. This helps us to remember them. Here they are:

  1. Integrity
  2. Failure Leads to Success
  3. Speak With Good Purpose
  4. This Is It
  5. Commitment
  6. Ownership
  7. Flexibility
  8. Balance

 

 

If you read this and think “Nah… my child wouldn’t want to go to that camp!” Think again! Any child, from any place, no matter what, will want to go to Green Super Camp. Thank you to my parents and camp sponsors for making it possible for me to attend Green SuperCamp. Thank you to my friends and new friends that supported me on camp. Thank you to all the team leaders and facilitators that taught me all the tools I need for life. Lastly, thank you my team, GO TEAM H!

 

Thanks Amber for your reflection. Jai, Kaitlin and Lachlan are currently on the Senior Green Super Camp. Here is a link to the Green SuperCamp Face Book page. There are lots of photos to look at if you’re interested. And here is a link to an article we wrote last year on the Green SuperCamp.

Here are Jai’s and Flynn’s Reflections from last years Green Super Camp.
Kaitlin shared why she wanted to attend the Green SuperCamp here.

Our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success”  series will continue next week with Part 3 (Part 1 and Part 2). Amber would love to hear your comments. Be sure to ask her some questions. The comment box is below this article. To subscribe to Enterprise for Kids just add your name and email on the form on the left side bar.


Green School Bali Leading The Way!

April 3rd, 2013

Imagine a school with a natural, holistic, student-centred learning environment that empowers and inspires their young people to be creative, innovative, green leaders?

 

 

green school bali bamboo

There are many schools that aspire to a vision such as this, but very few achieve it! In fact, in all the years that I’ve been a teacher I know of only one such school that has been gaining the genuine attention of educators and parents from all around the world. This unique school is located in a forest on the island of Bali in Indonesia, and it is constructed entirely of bamboo.

Green School Bali is an innovative school that is different in just about every aspect to regular Australian schools. It is different in its construction, the way it is run, its philosophy on raising and teaching children and with its curriculum.

Alan Wagstaff Green School BaliCathy, myself and our kids recently had the opportunity to attend an excellent presentation in Perth on Green School Bali. The Principal, Mr Alan Wagstaff, show-cased his school and shared their philosophy on education. He spoke with passion and with tremendous pride.

Rightly so… as Green School Bali is turning many heads! The founders of the school think ‘way out of the box’ and have created a harmonious learning environment that kids excel in. They, and a growing group of others, believe that this school is the way of the future with education. Perhaps the policy makers, politicians and leaders of our outdated education system should take a serious look at Green School Bali.

In previous articles we have challenged the pedogogical practices of our current National Testing cartoonschooling system here in Australia. We have the view that it provides a good literacy education. However, the design of our system is to condition young people to be obedient, hard working and compliant. Now that doesn’t actually sound so bad does it, but what I mean is that our world needs workers to fill jobs and that is what schools do. They train kids to be loyal workers and aspire to have a life long JOB. Now, that is perfect for those who want to do that, but what happens if you want to become an Entrepreneur? Many of our schools don’t really foster true leadership, innovation or enterprise. Our schools certainly don’t provide a financial education, nor do they teach kids to develop the habits and thinking of an entrepreneur.

Disengaged Students

Disengaged Students

Alan Wagstaff was also very apologetic about his very strong views on our archaic education system currently running in Australia (and other western Societies). He pointed out many issues that should not be dismissed, and he backed his views with facts, figures and research conducted by qualified experts in education. He cited the work of well regarded intellectuals and authors such as Michael Shorts, Alfie Kohn and Steven Covey.

So what does green School have that is so uniquely special?

 

 

This quote by Michael Franti begins to paint a picture…

Check out a Green School classroom

Check out a Green School classroom

“For anybody that’s considering sending your kid to school here, it’s different than other schools where your kid’s going to be assigned a number and a desk and you show up and you do exactly what you’re told. Here if you have an idea to do something that’s outside of the box, that idea is going to be fostered and nurtured rather than pushed down. I highly recommend coming here as a visitor, if you’re just visiting Bali; and if you’re a student, it’s a great place to be.” – Michael Franti, poet, musician, and activist.

Alan Wagstaff shared an interesting statistic about students in our regular schools. Studies show that two thirds of students over 11 years old in Australian schools are not engaged in their learning and don’t really like school! These same students feel that they are learning irrelevant things that won’t be of any use to them when they leave school. Funny he happens to point this out, as we hear this at times from our teenage children. In fact I think back to much of the mundane content that I had to master, and be tested on, as a student in High School and then again as a student at Teachers College. Content that was of no use to me in what I do today.

Conditioning childrenAlan says we need to change the structuring of timetabling. We need to go from subject based teaching to student-centred. If you look at what children do at school, their timetable will typically revolve around Literacy and Numeracy with subjects such as The Arts being of lesser importance by shoving them into the afternoon gaps on the timetable. We push the students with Literacy and Numeracy in order to uphold the education ‘brand’ and to satisfy National Testing (NAPLAN). Our curriculum is all prescribed with little room for being flexible. Whatever the subject, the emphasis is always Literacy and Numeracy. With the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum we are in for an even more inflexible schooling system.

With all the emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy, why do we have so many kids not meeting the grade?

 

What is it about schooling that creates life success? … the short answer is simply having kids turn up at school and be fully engaged and you’ll get there!

 

Outdated education systemTherefore we need kids to be satisfied. Schools need to link students into life! Their learning needs to be realistic and of relevance to each of them individually. Everyday we should be academically up-skilling kids, but not comparing them with other kids.

Parents should ask, not how do they compare with other kids, but what is it they are learning.

Alan explained how they educate children at Green School Bali. Here is what he said.

The programs are structured around themes. These are collaboratively planned by the teacher team leaders. Teachers then run proficiency lessons within these short term themes. Students are shown the continuum of what they need to learn in the different areas of the curriculum and then the students set about working towards learning what they need to learn at their own levels. The students take the responsibility for their own learning.

green-school-classWithin the broader themes, students follow their own individual interests. They develop their own ideas and these ideas are fostered and expanded. They themselves identify what they need to learn and then conduct their own investigations and study groups in order to learn, understand and practice skills.

Every day the children are engaged in practical lessons that challenge the Big Four… Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Interpersonal.

For example, if the general theme was ‘Waves’, then the Big 4 may run as follows…
Physical- Go experience the waves by surfing.
Emotional- Paint a wave or sing a wave melody
Intellectual- Study wave formations.
Interpersonal- Sit by the waves and meditate.

At Green School there are no rigid timetables. This allows themes to develop through dynamic chaos. Specialist teachers decide what will be done and teachers research the theme and subject areas. Students are then engaged in proficiency lessons.

green schoolAlan said that in order for students to learn something they must ‘hit it three times in three different ways during the week’. Thus mini themes develop within the bigger themes. Teachers teach children to self manage their way through learning. Therefore the kids are fully engaged and it leads to lifelong learning.

Opportunities are seized as they arise to provide practical real life lessons in the following areas… connect to the real world; environmental education; health and wellbeing; performance arts; enterprise education; and visual arts.

These lessons are timed (have end date), sustainable, are flexible and must be authentic. They do this by venturing beyond the school and accessing adults and resources in the ‘enterprising world’.

Green School’s aim is for kids to want to go to school and for them to be fully engaged. Thus the emphasis is on relevance to learning and valuing students, and not on testing and comparing students as we do in our current schooling system. This simply puts unnecessary pressure on them.

green school bambooGreen School Bali is an architectural masterpiece. A masterwork built of bamboo and mud brick. There are no classroom walls and very little impact on the environment. The school is self sustainable with power sourced from a large bank of solar panels and hydro power from the river. Students all assist with growing food in the large permaculture garden where animals are also kept for use.

Surrounding the school are bamboo homes built by local and international people who choose to live in Bali so that their children can attend the school. green school bali gardensUnder construction are numerous studios that are to be leased cheaply to entrepreneurs under the proviso that the students are involved with these businesses, allowing them to develop enterprise skills and ultimately they will learn to be entrepreneurs.

This is truly a real live example of an exemplary school. Students attending this school are achieving outstanding results in all aspects of their development, including academics. They are learning faster and going further than their peers on mainland Australia. Although the school has only been running for a short time, they have their first graduates graduating and, those choosing to do so, are being accepted into universities around the world.

green school kidsAlan Waggstaff and the founders of the school have a vision to create change in how all schools educate. They know that they will be challenged if they target the top of the education hierarchy in Australia. So they are working to make change from the bottom up. They are doing this by being an exemplary school and by being noticed! They are also training teachers on mainland Australia with Green School ideologies with the purpose of these teachers making gradual change in their own schools.

If you are inspired by what this school stands for and would like to impact change in our current schooling system, then get in contact with Alan Waggstaff to organise for him and his team to train your people (parents and teachers done at very low cost). This is his email alan@greenschool.org .

There are currently places available in the school for students. The school charges $6000 year for primary aged students and $12000 year for secondary. It is a non profit school and offers places to many disadvantaged students through privately funded scholarships.

green supercamp baliAnother way to have your kids experience Green School Bali, is to send them along to the Green SuperCamp. There is one coming up mid year. Kaitlin, Jai and Flynn attended last year and came back transformed! We are working towards them attending the camp again this year along with our eleven year old daughter Amber.  If you would like to know more about the Green SuperCamp give us a call or email.

Here is a blog post we wrote a year ago about Green SuperCamp sharing our kids’ experiences there.

 

Check out what Flynn had to say about the Green SuperCamp

As always, we appreciate comments. Do you think our schools are up for the challenge of preparing our children for our modern world?

 

John Hardy, founder of Green School Bali speaks at TED.

Green SuperCamp

June 6th, 2012

It’s amazing how life works sometimes. As you know, we have been sharing our kids’ experiences and jouney as they follow their enterprise ideas through to fruition. Certainly, as our learning and that of our children has accelerated over the past 6 months, other opportunities have landed in our laps.

One such opportunity came in the form of a friend and a simple email. She attended one of the workshops we have been doing with our mentor, Paul Counsel. She sent us an email with a link to something (in her words) pretty special.

Being school teachers and always being open to hearing about things that inspire children to think outside the square and follow enterprising ideas, the link our friend sent us truly was “special”.

Below is a snapshot of a concept that really had us super excited and super motivated.

The Green school

Amazing bamboo structure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Green SuperCamp is indeed a very unique and inspiring concept.

The school, located in the tropical paradise island of Bali, runs very forward thinking, engaging leadership camps that have attained massive results in the transformation of kids over a very short time. The SuperCamp uses a state of the art Quantum Learning System that delivers the very best in life and learning skills. We’ve seen no other camp or school use such forward thinking technologies that tap into a child’s mind and rapidly advance their abilities to read, and process and memorize information.

Trust activities and...

....working in groups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The staff ratio to kids is 1:4 and they are all highly trained. In fact they go through 300 hours of extensive training in Quantum Learning methodologies and 290 specialized learning techniques that lead to outstanding results that they seem to get consistently get for the kids who attend their camps.

Lots of learning...

...loved by all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening to some of the videos posted on their website, we viewed teenagers who have gone from reading 200 words per minute to 1000 words per minute in just seven days. We have both worked in many schools and seen no one that can claim anything like that!  Kids from all over the world attend the SuperCamps. They are particularly popular for American kids who travel to Bali during their summer vacation.

 

A bird's eye view

Looking up into the ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SuperCamps are held at the world renowned Green School campus. The founders of the school, John and Cynthia Hardy, built the new Green School almost entirely of bamboo. They wanted to set up a school that is at the cutting edge of environmental education, and also takes on a holistic view for the future of the Earth. Their school was never to be built in a city, but in the very heart of nature itself.

Solar panels in a natural environment

Hut accommodation for the camp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is designed to have the smallest carbon footprint by having compost toilets, to open walless rooms with natural lighting. The kids interact with animals that produce the methane gas for power.  The flowing river that passes though the grounds also powers the school. To top it all off, the kids grow their own food to eat!

Green School’s mission is to “empower global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world”.

“The school has attained international attention for its revolutionary approach to education, with its focus on transformational education in a spectacular setting. It has built a reputation for its focus on nurturing our young leaders of tomorrow on sustainable living with a deep respect for our planet and each other.” (Quoted by CNN TV.)

The school bases much of its philosophy on the Steiner System. The early Austrian educator, Rudolf Steiner, believed in the philosophy of balancing education with social learning.

Social interactions....

 

...and just hanging about!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we viewed the short movies of teens who share their experiences after attending a Green SuperCamp, we were astounded by their personal insights. They all go through a journey of self discovery where they get to build strong relationships with future leaders from all over the world. Many claim that Green SuperCamp is a life changing experience!

Leaping for joy!

Kite building skills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They learn to live in the moment and be fully self expressed. They develop a responsibility for themselves and each other and they do things way outside their comfort zone. Activities such as rope climbing, Balinese dancing, mud wrestling, flying fox, and physically breaking wood, all contribute to building self confidence and leadership. Many kids manage to have massive break throughs in overcoming obstacles in their lives and their parents are astounded by their transformation.

Fun in the mud!

Fun as a group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are completely amazed that Green SuperCamp manages to have such a huge positive impact on kids in only a matter of days. If all schools could learn from this innovative school, then we would have a generation of kids who are very equipped to provide the leadership required for our future world. They have a camp designed especially for developing entrepreneurial teenagers. Now that is a first!. When has a school ever tried to foster in kids an Entrepreneurial mindset?

We have been so inspired by Green SuperCamp that our three oldest kids are attending the camp this year.

We will let you know in future blogs, how they go….although we think we already know the answer to that one! 🙂

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