I brainstormed all of the items I would like in my ideal learning space.

So, in no particular order...

From the age of about six, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I would 'play school' at any opportunity. I would mark my pretend roll, write up 'work' on my little chalkboard with my toys or any friends being my students. I would mark their work with red ticks and crosses and write encouraging words of feedback on their sheets.

After developing a nice workflow over the past few weeks in creating and responding to posts for the #youredustory challenge, it all fell apart for me last week. I decided to change internet providers which resulted in some issues with our phone line. Given they could only send a technician during business hours (when I happen to be at work!) I had to make arrangements for them to be able to get into my house to make the repairs. Juggling the repairs meant a wait and going without the internet at home for a week.

Initially, I thought this would be easy; just think of this as a dictionary definition. Something along the lines of "the acquisition of new knowledge and skills". That seemed too easy. A little too easy.

How could something that seems so complex be summed up in just a few words?

Luke* hated writing.

He would be the first to give up and would then behave in a way that distracted other students from their learning and required intervention from the teacher.

Working with Luke to develop his skill as a writer was slow and painstaking work. In the beginning, he would tell me his ideas and I would madly try and keep up with him and get them down onto the page. After writing a paragraph, we would read back over his work. It took some convincing for him to believe it was his work; after all, I was the one that had done all of the 'writing'.