Courage to Lead
Nonfiction
Before Everything Changed
Catalogue of Australian Fossil Dragonflies
A Personal Essay on the History of Neonatal Nursing
Embrace: In pursuit of happiness through Artificial Intelligence
Prabash Galagedara
Lumps and Bumps Yarn Worms
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart.
I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine. I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents. I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now. When, while the lovely valley teems with vapour around me, and the meridian sun strikes the upper surface of the impenetrable foliage of my trees, and but a few stray gleams steal into the inner sanctuary, I throw myself down among the tall grass by the trickling stream; and, as I lie close to the earth, a thousand unknown plants are noticed.
For the love of Teaching
Mike Middleton’s sixty year educational career in Australia and overseas includes teaching from primary to postgraduate levels, through school and state-based curriculum planning to policy making at the national level. By school or system invitation, Mike has worked as a consultant in over four hundred Australian schools.
He is passionate about teaching and its place in a healthy society. He believes that the Covid interruption provides a much-needed opportunity for policy makers, and school communities to rethink teachers’ work, restoring it to a valued and central place in society.
Since he began his career, Mike has seen teaching change from a role that was exciting, creative, and attractive to one where universities struggle to attract young people into the profession and where education systems struggle to retain teachers, even part-time.
For the Love of Teaching follows Mike’s career as he strived to maintain the integrity of his beliefs about teaching in the face of social and political circumstances that were transforming it from a high status and culturally embedded profession, to one that threatened to make teachers no more than educational functionaries. Combatting an agenda that shaped young people into economic units ‘in the national interest’ rather than participants in vibrant and culturally rich Australian communities was a constant challenge.
This is a celebration of teaching as it can be, and in all-too-rare cases, still is. In parallel, is a critique of the political and administrative changes that have, over several decades, shifted from support for teacher professionalism and autonomy to making teachers accountable for the delivery of a uniform and ‘teacher-proof’ curriculum to all Australian communities and students independent of their background and circumstances.
Mike offers ways that teaching might be brought back, involving initiatives to free up the immense potential of the teaching profession.
The late Bloomer and her two polar bears
‘This book is a work of my memories, made up of true stories © All I hope is that © people may start to see into the life of someone they never understood.’
Jacqueline was a young child the first time she experienced abuse from those meant to protect her. As her life progressed, and the state of her mental health created more questions than answers, Jacqueline found herself facing adversity, time and time again. Through family violence, abuse and undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Jacqueline tried hard to stay afloat. But as she grew in age and experience, so started a mission to confront her past, find healing in the present and change her future.
Detailing her story in honest and forthright style, Jacqueline takes the reader through the highs and lows of her life, not only in words but also through her artwork. Sharp, witty and surprising, The Late Bloomer and Her Two Polar Bears will leave readers uplifted and prepared to face the world with new eyes, understanding and love.