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Driving through the fog used to fill me with frustration.  The traffic would slow to a crawl and I knew that it would add at least another 5 minutes to my trip.

Since following the same road through Belair with my daughter, though, the experience has become completely different.  Every time we drive into the soupy mist, she delights at “driving through the clouds.”  Now, even if I am by myself the same fog seems to be a little magical.

Learning can often take a similar route.  Where students remark, “I can’t do this,” our first job at Mesh is often to find out what they can in fact do and then work with this.  Once they see that they are attaching new concepts to skills they already have, they gain an instant confidence boost.

As a teacher, there is really nothing quite like that moment when the light comes on and you hear the words, “Oh, now I get it!” 

What used to be a subject that instantly conjured negative thoughts starts to be broken down into manageable pieces.  For many students (although most probably would not admit it!) they even start to experience a sense of satisfaction because they are suddenly able to understand what is going on.

Then, in some cases, we even hear reports of mum experiencing mild shock as their teen says something truly out-of-character like, “You know, I actually think I kind of like maths.”

It is always interesting to me that as we travel through life, we often unknowingly interpret events through the eyes of those around us.  As an educator, I have found that consciously being aware of the experience of learning has far more significance than being purely focussed just on teaching.