Winterfest

Our school is an OPHEA certified school- which means, “Healthy Schools Certification gives your school the tools to promote and enhance the health and well-being of students, school staff, and the broader school community.” More information about being an OPHEA certified school can be found here

Last year, our focus was on physical activity and this year, our focus is on wellness. So, our OPHEA team (which consists of ten teachers and over 40 students) planned a day called “Winterfest”. This day ran during school hours and was planned completely by our OPHEA student leaders. They planned activities indoors and outdoors for the school- students in grades 1-6. The intermediate students ran each student or led a group around the school to each station. Stations included:

  • Bobsleigh: students on a mat guiding their way through a course of pylons
  • Biathlon: a fake skating activity where students have to bowl to hit some cones at the end
  • Hot chocolate: students enjoy some hot chocolate while a fake fireplace sparks in the background
  • Ring Toss: an outdoor activity 
  • Directed Drawing: a mindful activity indoors
  • Box Igloo Building: students compete to build an igloo against other students with boxes 
  • Cooperative games: students work with their classmates to reach a common goal (silent line up, octopus, parachute)
  • Spoon & Egg relay: students race again their classmates to not drop the ping pong ball off the spoon
  • Obstacle Course: students run through a ground ladder and around pylons to race to the finish 
  • Capture the flag: class vs. class style, two classes play a game of capturing the other teams flag 
  • Ball Hockey: students compete against their classmates to score goals outdoors in a Canadian favourite

These activities were 25 minutes long in length and were a combination of indoor/outdoor games. The day went off without a hitch as intermediate students received compliments all day long for their excellent leadership skills! Thankfully, it was 8 degrees so the weather was not a negative factor. We look forward to doing another wellness day similar to this in the Spring. Try it out with your school!

 

YOᒐ

 

picture of a holiday JOY sign taken from behind so letters are shown in reverse
photo by author

No joy, no peace.
Know joy, know peace.
Perhaps this simplistic approach may lead some philosophers, I mean educators, to search for specific pieces of peace as part of putting their own life’s puzzle(s) together. Or maybe not. It’s good to have a choice in matters of this nature. 

As simple as the adapted axiom above reads, it becomes much more perplexing when, as, and if pondered.

Call it YOᒐ

So what happens when joy takes a holiday when doing the work that you love, and all that you are left with is its opposite? Without this becoming a full on self help post, I will attempt to work out my thoughts in the paragraphs below. 

At first blush, the answer comes with equal parts complexity, scheduled and unscheduled situations, and a litany of responses ranging from (over)reactionary to nuanced. I never said it was going to be easy, right. I also didn’t say it has to be difficult either. 

Finding our own versions of JOY while trying to avoid YOᒐ might as well be like trying to distil our own definition for the meaning of life. And you can’t use 42, Adams already gave us that one. What brings us JOY or YOᒐ is personal, elusive, and evolving. We are humans after all, and our tastes and needs are subject to change or be changed whether from inside or out? Joy will look different from one person to the next. One person’s perceived worst day ever, may only appear to someone else as an opportunity to gain knowledge and grow from the experience. 

The winter of my disco tents will lead to a rockin’ summer

Looking at JOY and YOᒐ as seasons instead of life sentences has been helpful for me. 

In fact it has become very clear that each and every day has the potential for us to take a time warped trip through the seasons complete with blizzards, droughts, refreshing rains, and warming sunlight. Whether we wither or weather the storms depends on first knowing who we are at the core and what emotional strengths we draw from to meet the demands of each day’s tempests.

Will I be ready with an umbrella for life’s downpours or will I be looking for towels because I left the windows down in my car? Will I be ready to shield myself with a supportive network of caring colleagues from the cold of self-doubt and discouragement when things are not working in the classroom or I am feeling unsure? Will I be ready with sunblock, glasses, and a hat to appreciate those warm days? How about you? With so much of our well being anchored in our mental health, it is crucial we know how to prepare and where to seek a proverbial shelter.

JOY is…

The feeling of sipping your coffee or tea when it is still hot, warm, or from the same day it was made. It is having all of your students in the classroom. It is a week of uninterrupted school life at the speed of learning. Joy is seeing the eyes of students light up when they accomplish a goal. Joy comes from having a purpose? Where it gets really good in our lives happens when we can combine what gives us joy, with what we love, with our purpose, and talents. This in essence is the Japanese concept of Ikigai.

For me, there is joy in knowing I am working in a space that I love and using the skills/gifts/scars/lessons thus far to occupy my place as an educator. Over the past 15+ years there has been far more JOY than YOᒐ too. It doesn’t mean that we are on easy street until our final days, but that each day we are presented with JOY or YOᒐ will be an opportunity to shine brightly or strengthen ourselves or one another.

As we navigate this season of low daylight and high workload, I just wanted to remind you all that you are purpose and passion in action. You are the light to so many even after the sun goes down. Thank you.

daring pt 2023

Saying goodbye to another year can stir up a lot of emotions. I found myself reflecting about a farewell post to share with you knowing it will be one more that brings me closer to the end of my time here on this platform.

This in itself is not yet a goodbye, as there are still 6 plus months of writing to come. It is, however, a great chance to look back and look forward from the precipice of one year’s end and towards a new year ahead. Maybe this is a function of age or some other memory related trope, but I will prattle on nevertheless.

As a result of this melancholic thinking I find myself asking, “what did I do in the past year that was daring as an educator, and what will I do in 2024 that will be daring as well”? I guess I need to consider what counts as daring because this can be construed as mere subjectivity if it does not mesh well with the minds of others as it is intended. Dare I go on? 

Daring can conjure up a lot of imaginary thinking from one to the next so before you conflate ‘daring’ with dangerous please read on.

Looking back on 2023

From an outsider’s point of view, 2023 couldn’t have been more normal considering the turmoil of the lockdown, online, and hybrid models we taught through in the years prior. The joy of not having to prepare and deliver lessons for two different grades of in-class and online learners while not having to worry so much about social distancing, masking, or illness was cause for much rejoicing. As 2023 started, it felt like we were really coming out of the pandemic and I was able to really focus on my students. 

This meant taking time to reimagine what learning needed to look like for students who experienced learning in a manner that had never been delivered to them before. Daring to go back to old(er) ways didn’t seem right with my students. They needed something else, and that came in the form of social emotional learning more than academics. 

So 2023 started off with more team oriented and collaborative projects that asked students to recapture their abilities to listen to one another to accomplish a goal with just as much importance as succeeding at learning the curriculum infused within it. My goal was to put the individual learner back into the spaces that were stolen from them by COVID19.

Admittedly, there was a lot of work to do when it came to assessment, but that in itself was also a chance to be a bit daring too. Before you dial 911, please remember that we were all given a new hand of cards to play with during the pandemic. What we knew beforehand was only going to serve as a starting point and not a return destination.

It was, to forgive the pun, like the beginning of new year. It was full of promise and without any mistakes in it. Assessment became a chance to have students see themselves reflected in how they wanted to show their learning. We took time to democratize rubrics and methods to demonstrate understanding. For us that meant fewer pencil and paper tests, more conversations and check-ins, more feedback, and many more chances to revisit learning. Instead of teaching, testing, and moving on we learned, lingered on what needed more time, unlearned, and relearned as often as needed.

Yes, we still managed to get the whole curriculum and it was a government mandated standardized testing year as well. 

I think that 2023 also allowed me to dare a little more boldly into my lessons when it came to social justice focused on BIPOC excellence and culturally responsive and relevant learning opportunities that went beyond the heroes and holidays. Instead of a single day or month, these conversations became part of our class logos, pathos, and ethos. Ultimately, it allowed my students to feel seen, heard, and empowered with greater understanding of one another which also led back to the social learning I set out to teach to start the year. 

Being able to work with my class to start 2023 carried over nicely from January to December even with my new, much quieter, cohort of students and I am seeing the fruits from taking those chances earlier in the year even though the delivery is definitely different for this group, the goal to teach to their social emotional needs first remained. 

On a personal level we sold our house, moved, and continue to unpack. In between all of that were 3 weeks of summer school teaching, and a quick trip to bury an uncle. Life did not skip a beat when it meted out the highs and lows of 2023. For all of them, I am thankful to be working in a wonderfully led and staffed school filled with caring and curious learners each daring to take the steps towards discovering and developing their talents.

My next post will look at how I might be daring in my classroom in 2024. I ask you all to consider that too and share your thoughts in the comments below.

10 years later…

It is officially my tenth September starting the school year. I am so excited to blog once again this year and share the experiences from my grade 7/8 classroom. As I reflect on the past ten years, there are many things I have learned. Things I have stopped doing, continued doing and started doing. I have reflected on almost all of these in the past on this blog and enjoy reading old posts to see how far I have come.

Most importantly, I enjoy remembering why I got into this profession. I thought I would share that as my first post this school year.

Why Teaching is the best job on earth

Teaching is the best job on earth because I get to inspire and help students each day. That is something that means a lot to me because when I was in school, nobody ever did that for me. I used to get spoken to as a student if I was doing something wrong, not something right, which made me upset. Now that I am a teacher, I can make a difference in many ways. One way I would like to make a difference is by helping students with their mental health.

Mental health is so important because if students do not feel safe and happy, they cannot learn, so those are both needed in order to start teaching. That being said, it is easier said than done. It is important to spend the first few weeks of school helping everyone get to know each other and finding out what interests each student has. Then, you can begin teaching the curriculum. Thankfully, my school board created a wellness activity set for teachers to use in their classroom. We have over 100+ activities that foster a community in our classrooms and are encouraged to do one daily for the first six weeks of school. I have seen my class enjoy these activities and start to create friendships with students who they had not met before. Here are some of the activities we enjoyed the first eight days of school:

  • sharing about their identity
  • finding things that have in common/unique things within their seating group
  • two truths and a lie
  • sharing goals for the year
  • finding an inspirational quote that is meaningful to them
  • sharing one interesting fact about themselves

Another element about teaching I enjoy is coaching. I enjoy coaching because you get to see your students outside of the classroom, which for many is their favourite spot in the school. Coaching gives me a way to connect with students who may not build that connection inside the classroom. I also have always loved sports, so I enjoy coaching now that I do not play on as many teams as when I was younger. 

The last thing I love the most about teaching is creating leadership opportunities.  I have had many opportunities to be a leader and plan events as a teacher, so it is my turn to teach students how to create these events and help me run them. That way when they are older they can run them on their own. I am most excited for school spirit days, music events, sport events, Prom Project and more for the 2023/2024 school year.

Even though I could go on and on, I thought I would sum up my three favourite things about teaching so I can always reflect on these when I have a challenging day. I hope each and every one of my students find something that they are passionate about one day just as I have found. Ten years later, still loving this job!

snacks

Via DALL-E – create a painting of Chips, Goldfish crackers, Cheetohs, Nachos, Pretzels, Carrots and other snack foods in a Rubenesque style – prompts by author

Crunchy food. I need crunchy food! Chips, goldfish crackers, veggie straws, or even, heaven forbid, real vegetables to stave off my brain triggered hunger now arriving via its ally my stomach.

Our stomachs tell us a lot of things, they are much like having a house weather forecaster by giving off warnings of inclement times ahead. Whether it’s stress, anxiety, nerves, or need for nourishment, stomachs are in the middle of a lot of action(s).

Mine is telling me that some crunchy snacks would be good right about now. So while I type and stare at my own options (granola bars, seaweed, crackers + hummus, pretzels, et al.), the idea to write about snacking and teaching comes to mind. Before I cave into my brain’s demands I thought it would be a good idea to consider why noisy food is a strange necessity during this and other similar moments of my day. 

Furthermore, in the interest of transparency, I will neither be making excuses for my snacking habits nor endorsing them. However, I will mention that there are times during the day which correlate to my need for a snack when the emotional and cognitive demands are increased. I am sure that this is a common occurrence amidst our ranks. 

Crunch crunch crunch when feeling the crunch

Why does eating crunchy food feel so satisfying? Is there a primordial connection to our primitive brains somehow? I can state without hesitation that there is something soothing in the noise. If not soothing then how about distracting? Sometimes our brains need a break from what they are processing. Eagelman repurposed the term “strategic surrender” in his book The Runaway Species.

I love how this phrase sounds, and share it often. Moreover, I share it in my classroom as a strategy for my students. Perhaps my breaks for crunchy foods are providing me with a diversionary pause that allows my brain to continue solving a problem while being distracted by the crunching going on just below it. All things considered, I had not thought about snacks as a restful respite from the compounding moments of the teaching day, but I know if they are good for me, then they are good for others. This includes students and teachers. 

To that last point, I always have a box of granola bars (peanut free – Costco brand) to support the growing minds and bodies in the room. Whenever an OT joins our classroom for the day, I am sure to leave one for them too. I know that it cannot be easy to step into unknown spaces on a daily basis without the need for some strategic surrender from time to time. A snack and a note of gratitude may be a simple act, but can be very meaningful too. 

Crunching gone wrong

I add this thought for consideration only because it is still important to make healthy choices when it comes to what we consume. There are only so many Cheetos binge windows left in my life and I want to savour them over the holidays. So that means carrots, radishes, and other less carby things that can still shake up my brain with some decibels with each bite. Another thing to consider might be how often I am eating my feelings and stress rather than identifying and addressing their root causes. If I am eating to cope with my stresses then I need to get some help. If I am eating to keep my brain and body fueled then I will continue to crunch on. 

Thirst

There might be another factor at play here, and I have often turned to my coffee cup and water bottle to deal with it. Sometimes we forget to drink enough throughout the day. It’s kind of hard when our bladders need to be set to an entirely different schedule than our bodies deem naturally necessary. Unlike our students, we just can’t ask for permission to take the long way around the building to get some water and use the washroom. As a result, many teachers are under-hydrating. This can lead to decreased energy levels and can impair cognitive optimization and may also lead to long term health issues.

As we work to finish off our final month of the year in a good way, it is crucial to keep both body and mind in healthy states with a little crunch and a big sip.

Pause as Motion

Rest
Picture by Anna Shvets

 

Have you ever thought of that? Pause as motion. Take a break, a breath, a moment to gather momentum and run well-oiled instead of fumes.

Rest is an essential practice for teachers for several reasons:

  1. Self-care: Teaching is a demanding profession requiring much mental, emotional, and physical energy. Rest is crucial for educators to take care of their well-being. Like any other professional, educators must prioritize their health and well-being to be effective. Rest allows educators to recharge, rejuvenate, and replenish their energy levels, which can help prevent burnout and promote overall well-being.
  2. Mental and emotional well-being: Teaching can be emotionally challenging, as educators often deal with various stressors such as managing classrooms, navigating student behaviour, meeting deadlines, and dealing with parent concerns. Rest allows educators to relax and de-stress, which can help them manage their mental and emotional well-being. It will enable educators to take a step back, reflect, and process their thoughts and emotions, which can improve their ability to handle challenges and make sound decisions.
  3. Cognitive functioning: Rest is essential for cognitive functioning, including memory consolidation, problem-solving, and creativity. Educators must be mentally sharp and alert to effectively plan and deliver lessons, assess student performance, and adapt their instruction to meet diverse student needs. Sufficient rest can enhance cognitive functioning, including attention, concentration, and critical thinking skills, essential for effective teaching.
  4. Work-life balance: Rest is crucial for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Teaching can be a demanding profession requiring long work hours, including lesson planning, grading, and voluntary extracurricular activities. Educators may become overwhelmed with work-related responsibilities without adequate rest, negatively impacting their personal life, relationships, and overall well-being. Rest allows educators to establish boundaries between their personal and professional lives and promotes a healthy work-life balance, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction.
  5. Role modelling for students: Rest also serves as a positive role model. Educators are responsible for imparting academic knowledge and modelling healthy behaviours and habits. By practicing rest, we can show students the importance of self-care, well-being, and overall balance, which can positively influence their behaviours and attitudes toward their health and well-being.

Take a moment. Give it some thought. Pause as motion. Educators must maintain physical, mental, and emotional well-being, enhance cognitive functioning, establish a healthy work-life balance, and model positive student behaviours. Prioritizing rest can lead to more effective and fulfilling teaching and learning practices.

love(s)

Image generated by DALL-E 2 with prompts from author
Image generated by DALL-E 2 with prompts from author

love…”what is it good for?”
love…”exciting and new.”
love…means nothing to a tennis player

L O V E is an often overused word

Keep reading if you used the word ‘love’ somewhere in a conversation today.
Here are some examples: “I love this song.” “Do you love this sweater?” “Wow, do I love this book.” “Bye mom. I love you.” I could go on because the very air around us abounds in love throughout the day at school, but so often it seems that we miss the opportunities to them all in, let alone enjoy them.

Where are you going here Gourley?

Last week the first talk from TED 2023 was shared by Angus Hervey (click link) and it serves as the inspiration for this post.* As you know I can dig into some uncomfortable spaces here and felt the need to spread a little sunshine after hearing the ideas worth spreading from this year’s TED.

It’s April, late April to be precise. Spring is somewhere in the air. I know because I felt it at the beginning of the month with a week of unseasonally warm days. I loved how some were complaining that it was too hot. I also loved not having to scrape frost off of my windshield or see remnants of blizzards past on my lawn as well. I even put away my super warm toque until next year. I loved seeing the first flowers poking through the brown matted grass. I love how nature keeps its own time. With a spring in my steps I have found it really easy to get up before the alarm clock as light and warmth pour into my room to start the day.

I love knowing that the we will keep getting closer to the sun for a couple more months. I love feeling the change of seasons and the decisions being made to remove layers of sweaters, winter boots, hats and gloves. I love the fresh and hearing the birds sharing their songs with me each morning. I love how having windows open allows for nature to visit the classroom. I love how learning spaces can be expanded exponentially when more time outdoors is included. Math, Phys Ed, Social Studies, Science, and every other subject just got a lot more fresh.

I love how students get so excited to be taking the learning outdoors. I love how much planning goes into preparing for these memorable moments and the amount of faith it takes to pull them off with so many variables at throughout the day. I love how students can still be goofy at heart – staff too for that matter.

I love how this year has flown past without a single moment of hybrid teaching. I love how OT positions have been filled more frequently. I love how well schools run when there are no outside forces undermining and gaslighting the incredible work done each day on behalf of students, their families, and the community. I love that students know we are working hard for them.

I love being an educator.

* The actual talk has not been posted however the article above captures the goodness contained therein.

fine, everything is fine

I have a habit of saying, “fine” whenever asked how things are going. Whether it is symptomatic of a half century plus of social conditioning or simply learned ambivalence is still to be determined. It could be a combo of the two as well. I am a big fan of “fine”.

It has the insouciant distance and indifference that propels me past and through the issues of the day. After all, who wants to be a burden to others when so many are already maxed out with their own lives. Isn’t it the North American expectation to steadfastly power through the day with stoic determination. In many ways that’s what happens to people who stay in the safety of their silos. 

It is not beyond a single educator to utter this answer all the while knowing that behind the scenes, in our heads, or in full view of all to see that there is a lot of meaning to “fine”. It is a societal expectation that we respond “fine” because our polite programming provides the same answer each time even when it is not true. 

It’s not a lie if you believe it. – George Costanza

I love the quote above and it rings a little too true with this topic. Although it was intended for a different context in the show Seinfeld, it definitely applies when considering the mental health and well being of all who work in education. When will we have time to unpack the emotional baggage covered by “fine”? How do we get to a place of trust to provide the support that is necessary for us to listen as well as be heard? 

Breathe in, breathe out. I’m fine. You are fine. Everything is fine.  Thank you very much for asking and not burdening either of us with a truth that we verily have little time to acknowledge or attend to if it turned out to be false. Now, let’s get about our days. Sound familiar?

As a profession, there are few others to rival the frenetic paces that educators face over the entirety of a school year. Imagine each classroom along the lines of a corporate model where each grade occupies an important floor of a tall tower. On each of these floors there are numerous cubicles filled with team leaders and workers all charged with annually accumulating, accruing, and retaining the knowledge and the skills to find, climb, and remain on the next floor above them. 

With each September ‘new year’ comes the mysteries, highs, lows, and unexpected life events of a newly gathered group. Buckle up because it could be a bumpy ride. What surprises me, over most of my 14 years in education, is that the ride is nearly 3/4s finished before I realize where the heck I am. This explains the timing of this post in March with the realization that there is much work to be done. 

As if that collaboration and hard work to move on up wasn’t enough, the teams are dismantled, mixed, and reassembled to include other workers from their former floor, but now forming under different leaders just to keep it fresh. Despite the best efforts to make everything seem fine, I can’t help but wonder how students are doing too. The past 3 years have been anything but fine. Yet, as we move them from floor to floor, like the adults who lead them, they are already accepting that the only answer to give is “fine”. 

With all of the talk surrounding mental health and community wellness in schools, I am not fine with “fine” being the answer and am working hard to redefine the work I am doing around it. 

I’ll leave you with this.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a meeting with student leaders from our school mental health collaborative.
This session revealed some extremely important truths that can light a path to somewhere good for students and teachers.
Here are my takeaways and echoed thoughts in (  ).

  1. Students are feeling the stress
    (Teachers are feeling the stress)
  2. Students want to do something about it
    (Teachers want to do something about it)
  3. Students are looking to work with educators to create and implement solutions
    (Teachers are looking to work with students to create and implement solutions)
  4. Students need teachers who can listen without feeling that they need to have any or all of the answers
    (Teachers need others who can listen without feeling that they need to have any or all of the answers)
  5. Students need teachers who will help lead programs that are relevant to their needs rather than those that have been prescribed from outside of the building.
    (Teachers need others who will help lead programs that are relevant to their needs  rather than those that have been prescribed from outside of the building.)

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment box to keep the conversation going.  

fractures

an image of fractions made with a blend of colourful geometric shapes in the style of Picasso and Klimt via Dalle 2
Image – fractions made with a blend of colourful geometric shapes in the style of Picasso and Klimt via Dalle 2 prompts by author

Bumps, bruises, cuts, and scars dot my skin. They serve as little reminders of the life that has been lived on the outside. Whether visible to others or not, I cannot look at them without recalling most of the moments and misadventures that caused them. I see these marks as near misses and continue to add more to my collection whether it is in the kitchen, workshop, or enjoying time with others.

Call this post ‘fractures’?

In my half century plus adventure time, I have not broken many bones along the way. Other than most of my fingers, a couple of ribs (which made baseball and golfing really tough that year), and my nose back in grade 6 playing football on the school team, I have been very fortunate not to ever be fitted with an itchy or cumbersome cast – although there is still time.

My collection of near misses and minor breaks have taught me quite a bit. I have to take my physical existence seriously when it comes to my actions and inactions. Perhaps my injuries are the products of inattention on my part? Perhaps I let my guard down with what-could-possibly-go-wrong thinking? Perhaps I needed to pay closer attention going forward? Somehow I am sounding like my parents and teachers and it’s bringing me back to the purpose of this post – fractures.

There is not a single one among us who enters the classroom each day without fractures. You see, we have all endured down times, loss, failure, and disappointment at one point in our lives or another. Whether physiologically or psychologically, fractures come along with life’s other certainties such as death, taxes, and dishes(without apologies to Ben Franklin). What we make of our fractures is often where we find our strength and determination.

If a bone breaks, the body begins the healing process immediately. Once something goes snap, the cells organize themselves to start the repair process. Interestingly enough, it is not like your brain is the boss yelling at the workers to do their jobs or go faster. At this point it is along for the ride because the body already knows what to do. The brain just takes the credit. “My what a nice job we did healing that tibia over the past 6 weeks.” Despite attending to the remediating a reconstruction project, the body can still get about other daily cognitive business, but when someone’s mind or spirit becomes fractured, the body is often likely to deteriorate in the process until healing and restoration are complete. So why is this so hard?

Fractures in our personal and thought lives are never usually front and centre though. Adding to this mystique is the elusive nature of mental health in general. Our fractured spirits are not easily seen by untrained minds and are often interpreted as rude behaviour or that maybe you need a time out to gather your thoughts. This is also common in our students. It is also compounded because, many times, they are processing emotions that seem difficult to articulate due to confusion and fear of being judged, cast out, mocked, or all of the above.

The Ontario Grade 6 Health Curriculum gives us some solid teaching and learning points that I have really been trying to build into the life skillsets of students in and out of our class time. Interestingly enough, this teaching really meshes well with the book The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels which happens to be my current personal read, but that’s a blog for a different site.

So often we are faced with situations that are followed by a barrage of feelings and much more often than not we find ourselves reacting rather than responding. As our lessons have progressed, students have learned to assess the situation, identify their emotions, and then use strategies for resolution. Yet, even with the skills we are implementing into our daily interactions, the struggle to be honest and free of fear about our fractures and feelings is really hard to reckon with one another. This goes for teachers just as much as students.

We need to step outside of our comfort zones which double as camouflaged cages of social media level perfection and problem free happiness. We need to normalize that life is messy at times and that things can be and become broken. If we take time to pick up the pieces and put them back together there is a chance that these fractures can be mended.

In many cases the silence is even more deafening when it comes to issues of mental health in the classroom. Judging by recent news reports in response to the provincial budget causes me to believe we are in for more and more fractured students slipping through the cracks in our schools.

Yes, we can acknowledge it, but more often than not we are still too fractured as a society to truly support each other when there is so much need already. The keys has been and will continue to be in the hands of educators. As we walk through the hallways and curate our classrooms, take time to help the fractured around you by making time to acknowledge them (yourself), listen (talk with someone), and help them (yourself) heal.

Mental Health Check

Happy March Break everyone!

I hope you are able to sit back and relax this week as we get a much deserved break from the usual day-to-day of being a teacher. I wish I was sitting on a beach right now typing this but I am enjoying a cup of coffee at my kitchen table after an action pack few days at camp with the grade eights. So for me, the peace and quiet is all the vacation I need.

On our last P.A. day at school, our Emotional Coach helped us work through some challenging feelings. She reminded us of many important things we should focus on each day. I am going to share some of the biggest take aways from the P.A. day session as I feel they would be beneficial for all teachers (and adults) to think about.

Focus on the Positives

During each school day, I am sure many of us feel especially frusturated about the students who aren’t coming to class because they are hiding in the bathroom. Or upset with the students who do not start any activity that is assigned to them. But how often are we thinking, “Wow, I am so lucky to have that student who gets right to work and takes pride in their work” or “Look how many students came to school today with a positive attitude and are excited for what lies ahead.” It is easy to focus on the negatives but take the challenge after the March Break to focus on the positives. Think about those students who are so happy to learn and will dive into just about anything that is given to them. Of course, we still need to help all of our students but with time, maybe they will find their own sense of joy in the school community.

Reflect on a “difficult thing”

Our Emotional Coach asked us all to pick one difficult thing in our life that we think is affecting our mental well being. I wanted to share my difficult thing- negative people. I was challenged last month with a few negative people that brought me down. No matter how hard I tried, their negative comments stuck with me even though I tried to think positively. So my “difficult thing” choice was negative people. We were then asked to write down three ways we could improve the situation, revising them as needed. My three ways that I hope will help me are: focusing on the positives when around these people, remaining my positive self and to not react to them. I hope that next time I am faced with a negative situation, I can use these strategies. One staff member even suggested that once you feel in control of that one difficult thing, you can move on to a second thing and try to tackle that. I am really excited for this challenge and hope it will work! I invite you all to try it and if you feel comfortable, comment your “difficult thing” on this post.