Celebrating the Magic of Everyday Learning

By Kevin Vallence & Russell Deal

Concept, text & developmentKevin Vallence & Russell Deal

Illustration Stuart Billington

Editing Karen Masman

Celebrating the Magic of Everyday Learning

Printed 2001. Reprinted in 2004, 2006 and 2011

New card ('I play') included in 2006 and 2011 edition.

© St Luke's Innovative Resources 2001

All rights reserved. No part of these materials may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior

permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 0 957 82313 4

St Luke's Innovative Resources

62 Collins Street KANGAROO FLAT VIC 3555 AUSTRALIA

Telephone 03 5446 0500

International +61 3 5446 0500

Facsimile 03 5447 2099

International +61 3 5442 0555

Email info@innovativeresources.org

Website www.innovativeresources.org

Incorporated as St Luke's Anglicare

ABN 97 397 067 466

CONTENTS

Foreword 1

Acknowledgements 3

Magic of Everyday Learning 5

Evolution of Sometimes Magic 8

A Tool for Learning About Learning 12

List of Sometimes Magic Cards 15

Ways of Using Sometimes Magic 16

St Luke's Innovative Resources 21

Feedback 23

About St Luke’s 23

1

FOREWORD

Sometimes Magic is a celebration of the expertise of all learners. The cards - but more specifically the ideas and inspirations that cause the cards to be presented as they are - recognise what we all know innately: that the most important learning happens informally.

For some reason that I do not fully understand as yet, our society seems to value most those forms of learning that happen 'sitting up'! But in classrooms and training rooms, adult and community education premises, people express disquiet with the 'sitting up' aspects of learning. This is confirmed by a recent national survey of thousands of Australian adults that found very little support for the concept of formal ‘education’ and ‘training’. The vast majority of people surveyed, however, related very positively to ‘learning’. Other studies have established that more than seventy per cent of the learning that adults undertake is informal.

Are any government and other funds or resources directed towards informal learning? Hmm. Maybe some, but frankly, not much. It all begs the question: what would happen if informal learning were resourced as fully as 'sitting up' education?

Which brings me back to why Sometimes Magic is so very, very important. For the first time that I know of, a resource has been prepared that can specifically be used to help with informal learning. It is flexible, has no set of rules but instead some helpful suggestions. The superb production of the cards indicates a high respect for potential learners. The cards provide learners, and those who facilitate learners, with a magic grab bag of opportunities for 'creating learning space'. As Kevin and Russell say, these resources fill a gap that exists for 'materials available to help adult learners understand their own preferred styles of learning'. Creating ‘learning spaces’ through these cards helps learners

2

understand their own learning and meta-learning processes, and therefore how to maximise the outcomes they seek from learning.

The chief importance of this resource, for me, lies in the fact that it can be used to promote and make explicit the processes and value of informal learning. In addition, this resource is so flexible that it can be used in more formal settings as well, especially in education, counselling, therapy and crisis work contexts, with individuals and small groups.

Finally, single, tiny but positive 'learning spaces' (or ‘learning moments’ as Kevin and Russell call them) have the potential to build to more significant and long-term learning ‘events’. These events affirm the value of the learners' skills, knowledge and identity. So for me, the real value of Sometimes Magic lies in its potential for rebuilding positive identities for disenfranchised people. These are the benefits that will foster positive attitudes of active, participatory, lifelong learning in individuals and eventually build into an inclusive and cohesive learning society.

Dr Ian FalkDirector, Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia.

Editor in Chief: LearningCommunities:InternationalJournalof

VocationalLearning, University of Tasmania.

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is another Innovative Resources 'baby' that has had a long gestation. The original conception occurred during a chance encounter, which, in itself, is a reflection of the spontaneous, serendipitous nature of much learning. Then a long process of design, reflection and consultation began and continued for nearly two years.

Along the way, we were greatly encouraged by a focus group of colleagues and friends. To Carol Clark, Di Parker, Lindy and Scott Hall, Rod and Sue Hawkey, John Bonnice, Jennifer Hocking, Anne Deal and Di O'Neil, we thank you for your enthusiasm and constructive criticism.

During this time, we also bumped into Stuart Billington, a very talented graphic artist, and we asked him to design the cards. It was Stuart's idea to illustrate the cards using native Australian animals. This was a brilliant touch and added a new dimension to our proposal. It also added to the gestation as we researched the most appropriate animals to match each concept. Stuart's imaginative designs have made Sometimes Magic visually stunning and stylistically quite different to other materials from Innovative Resources.

Karen Masman did more than just edit. She encouraged, enthused, cajoled and contributed significantly to the outcome. Without her hard work and diligence Sometimes Magic may have sat dormant for much longer.

4

Terrie Lavis, Innovative Resources’ super-organised office manager, helped with advice, practical assistance, word processing, and liaison with printers. Thanks again, Terrie.

Ian Falk, who at the time was working with Kevin on a different project, listened in bemused fascination as we described our emerging idea. His long experience and insightful reflections on the nature of learning have been very supportive. In addition, Ian generously agreed to write the foreword for the booklet and we thank him very warmly for this valuable contribution.

Both the authors became grandfathers during the development of Sometimes Magic. Observing the wonder and magic in the learning of our grandchildren became a major preoccupation and source of delight. It also reconfirmed our ideas of how learning occurs. So, many thanks to our patient families, as well.

Kevin Vallence and Russell DealNovember 2001

5

MAGIC OF EVERYDAY LEARNING

Sometimes learning can be magical. Sometimes the magic comes with bells and whistles, like a loud, colourful circus and we sit enthralled as the magicians mesmerise us and do the seemingly impossible. But perhaps, more often, the magic is in the mundane, ordinary, everyday events that we so easily take for granted. Sometimes this sort of magical learning takes our breath away, not because of its performance spectacle, but because of its simplicity, its commonness, and its apparent insignificance.

Everyday learning is magical because it can be so easily overlooked. Sometimes it can sneak up on us and take us by complete surprise. Sometimes we learn when we least expect to, from unlikely sources, in ways we might never foresee.

Everyone has learning strengthsSo much emphasis in today's society is put on the spectacular and the mega-event. We all enjoy being entertained and we enjoy experiencing the magician’s craft. But we are all magicians and perhaps we need to be challenged to make our own magic and to recognise the magic that is in everyday things.

In education, social work and other human service professions, there is a temptation to worship the spectacle and deify the magician. It is so easy to become spectators in our own learning processes. It can be comfortable to settle back and put our reliance on teachers and therapists to create the magic that will change our lives. And indeed, our human service professions have made the performance very seductive. We want experts and so, it seems our professions need to see themselves as experts.

There is a collusion that often shifts the learner from an active to a passive role, from a do-it-yourself to a do-it-for-me mode. It shifts the emphasis from the challenges of learning to a focus on the skills of the teacher/therapist. Sometimes Magic is an attempt to explore the elements of do-it-yourself, everyday magic and to build on the inherent learning strengths we each possess.

6

Everyday learning momentsWe can all identify moments of learning that have changed our lives. The changes themselves may have been big or small but the sources of the changes often lie in the apparently trivial, inconsequential events that surround us. Even when we witness the big magic performances, it is often a little detail that can spark our learning.

These moments of learning help shape who we are and build our sense of identity. They are individualised: what works as magic for one person may have no impact at all on the next person. We can probably all recall large segments of our schooling that had no impact on us at all or that even turned us off education. We enrol in a course to find that it is uninspiring and irrelevant. We visit a counsellor but go away feeling unheard and unhelped. We hear of a great presenter who is conducting a workshop and we are excited and hopeful, but the chemistry doesn't work. We are unmoved.

Moments of learning can be elusive. At times we may desperately want to learn or change or grow, but the experience just doesn't happen. Because of such disappointment, it is easy to regard moments of learning as fleeting, random and capricious. They can't be predicted and can't be controlled. Libraries are full of books by philosophers, psychologists and educators who try to describe and predict how learning occurs. Yet so much of our learning has a feeling of serendipity - if it happens, it happens.

Through the learner’s eyesTeachers would like to be able to guarantee that they could capture the imagination and excitement of all their students. Therapists would like to guarantee their interventions were always effective in creating change. While such watertight guarantees can never be given, we believe that looking at learning throughthelearner’seyes can provide valuable insights and can open up opportunities for learning to occur.

We believe moments of learning will always be magical and experienced as little epiphanies or flashes of insight. They will continue to surprise and excite and move us in many ways.

7

We also believe that magical moments can be encouraged and invited. Indeed, we think the ability to evoke moments of learning is a hallmark of a skilled teacher or therapist.

Sometimes Magic provides a set of prompts suggesting that moments of learning may be all around us or within us. We, as learners, certainly don't need a circus or even an 'expert' magician to experience them.

Sometimes magic happens when we simply look in the right places, with the eyes of a learner. Sometimes magic can to be found in our everyday activities and our encounters with everyday people (and animals!). We hope that Sometimes Magic may work as such a tool for all learners, including those learners who also perform roles as teachers or counsellors.

8

EVOLUTION OF SOMETIMES MAGIC

Sometimes Magic began its life in one of those 'moments of learning' that this set of cards is designed to invoke. It grew out of a conversation between two long-term friends.

The authorsKevin Vallence is a teacher. He has taught in Australia, Canada, England, Laos and Cambodia. He now works at Bendigo Regional Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) as the Manager of Quality Assurance and Research.

Russell Deal is a social worker, working initially in Victoria's prisons. He taught welfare studies at Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE for six years. Since 1984, he has been a director of St Luke's Anglicare, leading to his present role as the publisher at St Luke’s Innovative Resources. Russell also lectures in social work at La Trobe University, Bendigo.

Bendigo is not a huge place and it was during a 'bump-into' lunchtime conversation that Kevin and Russell started talking about the commonalities between their respective professions. A theme they kept returning to was the assumptions that both professions make about the processes of learning. The complaint they both voiced was the apparent lack of materials available to help adult learners understand their own preferred styles of learning. There was, they agreed, a lack of resources that could be used across both domains to look at learning 'through the eyes of the learner'.

Both professions are built around the promotion of learning, growth and chance, but they both emphasise, and perhaps over-emphasise the role of the teacher, counsellor or therapist as the ‘Expert'. There seems to be relatively little written about the 'expertness' of the learner on their own learning.

9

Everyone is a learnerWhile education and social work have well-articulated frameworks for building curricula or shaping therapeutic interventions, they seem to say little about the meaning of these frameworks for the learner or how they promote the little 'moments of learning'. They seem to say little also about the sense of magic inherent in these moments of learning and the sense of achievement when the 'penny drops'.

While only a few of us may work as teachers or counsellors, we all know what it is like to be learners. In fact, the richness of life invites all of us to be learners all the time. Sometimes we may find ourselves in a teaching or mentoring role, but even while teaching, we continue to be learners. Everyone has experienced 'everyday' learning, and knows that learning is not confined to formal situations like school or university. Nor is learning something that happens in the same way for all people, or even for the same person, all the time.

Mult iple inte l l igencesWithout wishing to enter the debate about the 'truth' of multiple intelligence theory, the authors do wish to state their fascination with the possibilities it suggests for developing a picture of learning from the learner’s point of view.

In fact, the concept of ‘multiple intelligences’ is not new for many people in education. The work of Howard Gardner* and others suggests that intelligence is not a single, one-dimensional attribute that we receive in greater or lesser amounts. Gardner suggests that there may be seven, eight, nine or even more distinctively different types of intelligence and that people learn and think in significantly different ways, depending on the person’s social and physical contexts.

The implications of different learning styles are often overlooked in social work. Social work has tended to emphasise logical and linguistic intelligences given the reliance it places on the use of words (most commonly the spoken word) as catalysts for change. The exciting corollary of multiple intelligence theory is that we can build a much bigger repertoire of learning strategies that honour this array of intelligences.

10

Kevin and Russell mulled over these ideas for a couple of years and then presented their thoughts at the Education and Social Action Conference hosted by the Centre for Popular Education at the University of Technology, Sydney (November 1999). This presentation was subsequently published in the conference proceedings as 'The Shoes of the Learner'. A prototype of Sometimes Magic was then workshopped with a multidisciplinary focus group. The mulling continued.

The result is a unique multiple intelligence learning tool. It contains words but also graphics. It is a set of cards that can be sorted, moved around, spread out and stacked. It can be used by individuals or by groups. And each card uses a metaphor relating to 'naturalistic' intelligence.

As well as being produced in a form that reflects multiple intelligence thinking, the content of the cards is also clearly consistent with these ideas. The 32 concepts in the card set all demonstrate different components of Gardner’s theory and each of the designated intelligences is represented.

*Gardner, Howard

FramesofMind-TheTheoryofMultipleIntelligences

Basic Books, 1983

Gardner, Howard

IntelligencesReframed-MultipleIntelligencesforthe21stCentury

Basic Books, 1999

Mult iple domainsAs stated earlier, Sometimes Magic began with a conversation about the central importance of learning to social work and education. Both depend on an understanding of how people learn. Both are in the business of facilitating change and growth. A tool that could enhance these processes of change in their countless guises would, it seemed, offer both domains a fertile source of reflection and inspiration.

As Sometimes Magic evolved it became clear that it could also inform many other domains - supervision and management, pastoral care, parenting and care-giving were immediate

11

examples. This diversity of uses and the dialogue generated by applying the tool to such a wide range of human endeavours can help overcome some of the blind spots created by our need to construct specialist domains.

Animal metaphorsSometimes Magic was originally conceptualised without any illustrations or graphical style in mind. We sought simply an inviting and engaging design. The idea for using native Australian fauna that echo each of the 32 statements about learning came from graphic artist, Stuart Billington.

It was a challenge to get the illustrations right - choosing an appropriate animal that reflected each concept, capturing the right mood, being anatomically accurate, describing the relevant learning behaviour, and finally, cross-referencing for spelling and classification. A number of sources were used to check the accuracy of the zoological information. However, there is variation between sources and readers may find texts that differ in their description and classification of the animals that are depicted.

The result is an original and captivating series of cards where the graphics add layers of meaning to the written concepts. Stuart’s designs have a subtle, understated humour that can suggest that learning, whilst being a serious business, can also be fun. The accompanying text about each of the creatures and their characteristic habits and strengths is educational and informative in its own right, but also helps illustrate each concept.

Finally, the array of quite different creatures, each of which has its own beauty and fascination, contains an underlying metaphor of celebrating diversity. We are all individuals with individual gifts. We all learn in different ways. Our learning is enhanced when this diversity and individuality is recognised and we are free to build our learning around our individual strengths.

12

A TOOL FOR LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING

Sometimes Magic is a set of 33 colourful cards that can help users identify, explore and celebrate how learning occurs. It is a tool for teachers, counsellors, social workers, and supervisors. In fact, it is for anyone with an interest in how people learn, grow and change. It is a simple tool that requires neither extensive training nor prescribed instructions. It is a tool that relies upon the creativity of the user and the opportunity to build conversations about learning and how it occurs. We call it a 'conversational prompt'.

Conversat ional promptsAll St Luke’s Innovative Resources’ materials are designed to work as conversational prompts. That is, they provide the sparks that can get meaningful conversations going, build the pathways these conversations might take and inspire movement when 'stuckness' occurs. Skilled facilitators may be able to do all this without the need for hands-on materials. However, our experience suggests that visual metaphors and tangible objects can make a significant difference to how conversations are constructed. Such prompts suggest which questions might be useful and help build rich layers of meaning and feedback.

Each Sometimes Magic card makes a statement about how learning can occur. Each statement begins with the words ‘Sometimes magic happens when…’ This reflects our belief that learning is magical and full of wonder. We believe most learning is everyday learning. Sometimes Magic attempts to focus on the everyday nature of learning that is easily taken for granted by learners and teachers alike.

Curios i tyWorking with people from a position of curiosity, of 'not knowing' or of 'actively wondering' is a valuable way of opening up conversational space. A position of curiosity fosters a mutual spirit of inquiry and participation in the investigative process of understanding and celebrating the experiences of the learner.

13

Being 'curious with' a learner creates a conversation between co-consultants. It can be an antidote to the ever present pressure to ‘be the expert’, to 'have the answers’ and ‘know what is best’ for the client or student. Both consultants can inform the other, neither being the exclusive holder of 'truth'.

Sometimes Magic is a tool that can build and maintain curiosity. It sets up suggestions or possibilities that might be explored further. It suggests questions that come from wondering about what is happening, inviting learners to reflect on and discuss the ways they learn.

Strengths-basedThe term most commonly used by St Luke's to describe their style of human service work is ‘strengths-based’. A strengths-based approach includes the attempt to build into all elements of practice activities that:

• enhance people's competencies

• lead towards a fairer and more just society

• enhance rather than diminish ourselves.

Further, strengths-based practice is built around beliefs that everyone has strengths and that problem solving and learning occur best when we can identify and mobilise those strengths. Hope, resilience, optimism and purpose are seen as growing out of a strengths-based approach.

14

As a strengths-based tool, Sometimes Magic aims to capitalise on the individual strengths we all have as learners. It is not a diagnostic tool that explores learning difficulties. It does not focus on problems or what we can't do - our deficits. Neither is it a panacea for our struggles with new learning. It will not create the 'renaissance person'!

What Sometimes Magic can do, however, is create powerful, strengths-based conversations with ourselves and with others about how we, as individuals, learn and grow. It can help prevent the conversations from falling into deficit-focused traps, and instead, shift the tone of the interaction to one that is more hopeful and optimistic.

These conversations may suggest ideas about how we go about tackling a new learning experience. They may help us recognise that we can all be experts on our own learning. They may also help us understand why some of our experiences as learners have been negative, unhelpful or destructive.

As a strengths-based tool, Sometimes Magic reflects Innovative Resources’ intention to produce ‘seriously optimistic books and resources’. Yes, people do learn from negative experiences, and a strengths-based approach can incorporate the need for these experiences to be heard and given due acknowledgement. Importantly though, a strengths-based approach upholds the view that a focus on strengths is the most useful way, in the end, of achieving our goals.

15

L IST OF SOMETIMES MAGIC CARDS

Sometimes MagicHappensWhen:

I am believed inI am encouragedI am heard and understoodI am in a learning environmentI am learning what is relevant to meI am open to new experiencesI am respectedI ask questionsI believe in myselfI build on what I already knowI can practice what I am learningI can see the progress I have madeI can take small stepsI can understand the languageI celebrate successI don't give upI get startedI give feedbackI have a good teacherI help others learnI know my strengths and use themI know what i want to achieveI learn because the time is rightI learn in ways that suit meI let others help me learnI look at things differentlyI playI recognise that everyone learnsI reflect on what i am learningI respect other learners and teachersI seek feedbackI take risksI want to learn

Sorry this page is only available in the hardcopy

version of this booklet

WAYS OF USING SOMETIMES MAGIC

Sometimes Magic, as noted earlier, is a set of conversational prompts. Each individual card, a group of cards, or the whole set can be used to build conversations about learning and change. The ideas on the cards can prompt us to think about aspects of our learning that we might otherwise overlook. The illustrations on the cards open up possibilities for thinking and talking about learning that sometimes words alone cannot achieve.

An individual can pick up Sometimes Magic and use it as a tool to reflect on their experience as a learner. This is like having a conversation with yourself. However, the cards are primarily designed to promote conversations with others. It is by sharing and talking about our moments of learning that we can really develop an appreciation of our unique skills as learners and our similarities with, and differences from, other learners.

Specif ic appl icat ionsSometimes Magic has been designed as a generic or multi-purpose tool that is applicable to a broad range of learning situations and professions. The possibilities are truly as broad as the creativity of the user. However, some domains immediately spring to mind:

• Tutoring∑• Supervision • Management• Counselling • Group work• Adult education∑• Work place training

No set rulesAs with other strengths-based materials published by St Luke's Innovative Resources, there are no rules, no prescribed methods and no set sequence of activities. All the materials rely on the creativity and sensitivity of the user. They do not require preparatory training courses. They do not come with an instruction manual. They are not games to be played out like 'Snakes and Ladders'.

16

17

However, there are factors that need to be considered to ensure the materials are used purposefully and respectfully. The cards work best when the timing and circumstances are conducive to learning. Judging the right moment to introduce the cards relies on the skill, creativity and sense of timing of the person introducing them.

Before us ing the cards – useful quest ionsThe following questions may be useful to consider before deciding to introduce Sometimes Magic:

∑• What is the purpose for introducing the cards? How might they help?

• Is there a learning opportunity the cards might facilitate or create?

• Is it the right time to introduce the cards? ∑• Will the cards get in the way of the learning that is occurring?

∑• Can the cards be introduced respectfully in these circumstances?

∑• Is there a trusting, respectful relationship between those who will be using the tool? ∑• Is there a mutual interest in exploring processes of learning?

• What is the energy level? ∑• Is there sufficient time to work through the insights and issues that may be raised?

∑• Are the cards culturally relevant to the user?

Used carefully and respectfully, the cards may generate lots of questions. As conversational prompts they can assist conversations to evolve in different, even unexpected ways. Sometimes we refer to this as creating different windows into learning. We also talk about the cards’ capacity to open up different ‘pathways’ of conversation.

Spreading the cardsYou may wish to spread all or some of the cards on a table (or on the floor) so that those using them can scan the array. This opens up possibilities for comparison, sorting and connecting different

18

concepts. Not all the cards have to be processed in one sitting and conversations using the cards can be built over a period of time.

When used in group situations, the cards can reinforce how, even in large classes or gatherings, learning is still an individual and an individualised process.

While us ing the cards - useful quest ionsThe potential of Sometimes Magic to identify, expand and celebrate our learning processes and preferences is magnified when conversations are built around carefully considered questions. There are infinite possibilities for constructing such questions. The examples below illustrate the need to be clear and purposeful in designing questions. As well, they suggest ways of building ‘questioning pathways’ or sequences that purposefully build the conversation:

∑• As a learner, can you identify any ‘magical moments’ when you have been surprised and excited by your learning?

∑∑• Are there some cards that describe your excitement?

∑• How do you learn best?

∑∑• What are your strengths as a learner?

∑∑• Which cards illustrate your strengths?

∑∑• Can you describe your strengths further? Can you explain how you developed these strengths and how you go about using these strengths to learn something new?

∑• We all learn in different ways. How do you learn in ways that are different from your friends, family members or colleagues?

∑∑• Which cards would you choose for your best friend? Which cards do you think he/she would choose for you?

∑∑• Which cards illustrate the learning strategies that you use? Do these strategies always work? When do they work best?

∑• Can you think of a learning experience you have had that matches each of the Sometimes Magic cards?

19

• Can you describe your worst learning experiences? What made learning so difficult? Which of the Sometimes Magic cards would you use to illustrate how you might do things differently next time?

∑• Have you ever become stuck and felt unable to learn? What did you do to get through? What would you do differently?

• What sorts of learning do you most look forward to?

∑• What things might get in the way of successful learning for you?

• In your experience, what makes a good teacher? Do any of the cards describe his/her teaching style?

∑• The discussion seems to have stalled. Can you select a Sometimes Magic card that we can use to recommence the discussion?

∑• Which cards would you select to help resolve a disagreement? Why?

∑• Which cards would you select to describe how our group is functioning?

∑• Which card would you select to help you talk about what you have been doing this week?

∑• If we were an older/younger, male/female (etc) group, which cards would best describe our learning?

•∑ Which cards best illustrate the way that people learn in this workplace? In another workplace? Can you explain the differences? The advantages?

• The training program we are planning will respond to/stress/accommodate, which cards in particular? Is this our intention or can we achieve a more effective balance of learning styles?

As an evaluat ion tool

20

The Sometimes Magic cards can also be used as an evaluation tool for reflecting on a particular learning opportunity or event such as a course or a workshop. Participants (including the facilitator) can have conversations around the following questions:

• Which of the concepts in the Sometimes Magic cards did you use through this learning activity?

• Which concepts were the most useful for you? Why?

∑• Do any of the cards illustrate new learning strategies that you hadn't used before? How did it feel to try something different?

∑• What did you discover about yourself as a learner during this activity?

∑• Looking back, could you have gone about your learning differently? How?

∑• What will you be doing differently now?

∑• Are there other learning strategies you would now like to try?

∑• Were you aware that other people were learning in different ways? Can you use the cards to describe these different ways?

•∑ How could your learning needs have been more effectively met?

• Can you describe the moments during the learning activity when you were surprised or excited by your learning?

∑• From your experience, what do you think you could now teach others about learning? How could you use the cards to help you teach?

21

ST LUKE’S INNOVATIVE RESOURCES

The Innovative Resources team is made up of curious and passionate learners. We are curious about ideas that people can use to change their lives. We are curious about the solutions people find to overcome issues they face and the skills and strengths they employ. We are curious about fairness and social justice and finding ways to overcome discrimination and disadvantage.

Our passions revolve around sharing our learning about the possibilities of strengths-based practice. We are trainers and publishers who enjoy seeing ideas grow out of multi-disciplinary conversations and facilitating their translation into useful hands-on tools that promote change.

As learners, we can be painfully slow but we can also accept the value this can have for creating quality products. (Our accountant also says we are painfully slow at learning how to make money, but we generally manage to break even!)

St Luke's Anglicare is a community service organisation based in Bendigo and providing social work services to communities throughout North Central Victoria, Australia. Innovative Resources is St Luke's unique enterprise designed to value-add to St Luke's service delivery roles. We do this through:

22

• Publishing: Under the Innovative Resources name, we publish materials used by thousands of teachers, social workers, counsellors and other human service workers throughout Australia and overseas.

• Mail Order Retailing: This includes our own original materials and other books and materials that fit with our strengths-based philosophy.

• Bookshop and Resource Centre: Come and visit us at 62 Collins Street Kangaroo Flat, Victoria 3555.

∑• Newsletters: Innovative Resources produces a Seriously Optimistic On-line Newsletter called SOON (emailed to subscribers every month).

∑• Training: A small group of trainers regularly travel within Australia and elsewhere delivering strengths-based workshops and consultancy services. See our training calendar @ www.innovativeresources.org

Innovative Resources’ motto, and the phrase we use to describe all of our activities, is Seriously Optimistic. We are optimists and we take our optimism seriously. We believe that the seeking and incorporating of feedback is an important part of this. Anyone who uses Sometimes Magic is invited to contact us by phone, fax, email or to drop in to 'Metaphors'. One of the main purposes of our quarterly newsletter is to provide a forum for sharing ideas and suggestions for using the resources, so feedback and experiences are much appreciated and can be published with appropriate consent.

23

FEEDBACK

Sometimes Magic is not a finished act of creation. Innovative Resources regards this as an evolving tool, just as our awareness of social justice needs to keep evolving.

As a work in progress, we would greatly appreciate your comments, criticisms and suggestions. We would like to hear your stories of how you have used and applied the cards and the questions or the ideas behind them.

As with all our strengths-based materials, we purposefully keep print runs small so that we can make changes according to the feedback we receive. This certainly applies to Sometimes Magic

So, yes, we would like to hear from you, even if it is simply to tell us that you think Sometimes Magic is brilliant! Equally, we would like to hear any ideas for improvements.Please contact St Luke's Innovative Resources by phone, fax, email and snail mail.

ABOUT ST LUKE’S

St Luke's Anglicare is one of Australia's leading community service organisations. St Luke's provides a range of child, family, disability and community development services throughout central and northwestern Victoria.

Originally auspiced by the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo in 1979, St Luke's is now independently incorporated but still receives active support from the Anglican and Uniting churches. St Luke's is a member of 'Anglicare Australia' as well as a number of other peak bodies.

Service delivery at St Luke's is built around a commitment to social justice and strengths-based, client-directed practice.

St Luke's mission is to 'assist people to develop choices in their lives and to contribute to their communities. St Luke's is committed to practices that promote justice and hope, and challenges actions that devalue, disadvantage and discriminate.'

24

25

St Luke's Innovative Resources137 McCrae Street BENDIGO VIC 3550 AUSTRALIATelephone 03 5442 0500 (International +61 3 5442 0500)Facsimile 03 5442 0555 (International +61 3 5442 0555)Email stlukeir@stlukes.org.au Website www.stlukes.org.au

St. Luke’s