Drawing The Line

Each year, in Canada, approxScreenshot 2018-09-30 at 9.18.11 PMimately 460,000 women are sexually assaulted, although only a fraction of them report the assault to the police (1). In a day and age where this statistic holds true, it’s hard to imagine that our government is wanting to go back to a time where consent and gender identity aren’t being discussed in classrooms as a part of the Health Curriculum. Simply ignoring the very real issues that our students face in 2018 doesn’t make them go away, nor does it help to develop a society that is action-based and ready to implement change.

Earlier this year I was really excited to hear about ETFO’s and White Ribbon’s resource – Drawing The Line. Now I might be slightly biased as my brother is a contributing author but I was thrilled to see a resource that not only provided data-driven information for educators but also included a comprehensive guide for age-appropriate lessons for students in grades 1 to 8. I love that the guide addresses bystanders and offers students ways in which to respond to to sexual violence. Not only do the lessons connect to the Health and Physical Education Curriculum but expectations also in Language and the Arts are included in many of the lessons. This guide is truly a proactive approach to teaching students about healthy relationships and is one that every educator should read and implement in their classrooms. I know that in the past, ETFO was offering sessions on this resource and I hope that they continue.

Screenshot 2018-09-30 at 9.18.44 PM

With hotlines or tiplines being made available, it’s sad to say that we are in such a time where educators are somewhat in fear of teaching what we know to be essential for our students’ safety and healthy development. We need to be having these conversations because unless we do, nothing will change and perpetrators will feel empowered to continue. As you may already know, at the beginning of September, ETFO filed a legal injunction to pause the rollback of the 2015 Health curriculum. The union believes the government’s directive creates unsafe and unhealthy learning and working environments. In the meantime, how are you working to unpack these issues with students? They’re in the news and on the same social media platforms that students are interacting with. How will the work we do today impact the statistics in the future? In the next year, 5 or 10? If you haven’t already, please check out this resource as well as the other resources that ETFO has to offer.

1. Holly, Johnson, “Limits of a Criminal Justice Response” (University of Ottawa, 2012), https://books.openedition.org/uop/592?lang=en

Dealing with Students using Behaviour Management Training

tantrums meltdowns

Source: The Real Difference Between Tantrums and Meltdowns http://lemonlimeadventures.com/the-real-difference-between-tantrums-and-meltdowns/ via @lemonlimeadv

 

Dealing with Students Using

Behaviour Management Training

The purpose of Behaviour Management Training for ETFO Members is to deal with the growing incidents of violence in schools and workplaces.

As I wrote about earlier in December 2017, there is research to support my own anecdotal observations of increased violence in classrooms. Based on information from ETFO (Action on Violence in Schools), ETFO members are increasing facing violent incidents in schools and workplaces. This violence increases physical and mental harm to both adults and children. With violence, teaching and learning is disrupted. Teachers and students can develop anxiety that violence will occur again.

ETFO’s Professional Relations Services published a PRS Matters Bulletin #98 addressing training offered to teachers and education workers by school boards. I have not been “officially” trained in these areas but I have used some of the strategies. The programs mentioned in the bulletin are copied directly from the bulletin and are listed below:

Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) – This program has a focus on prevention and strategies designed to “safely defuse anxious, hostile or violent behaviour at the earliest possible stage.” “Disengagement skills” are demonstrated and practiced to train educators to remove themselves and others from dangerous situations. Participants are trained to recognize when it is appropriate to physically intervene and implement holding skills to manage aggressive behaviour.

My experience with CPI: I have removed myself and my students from my classroom due to hostile or violent behaviour. To prepared, the students and I talked about our classroom evacuation plan (without the student with special education needs present) and the students came up with the “retreat” signal word. We practiced getting out of our classroom and either lining up or going to a neighbouring classroom to be safe. This worked well and kept all safe and no students were physically touched in the process.

Behaviour Management Systems (BMS) – This program stresses early prevention and intervention techniques. It aims to teach effective and safe physical intervention techniques. The BMS training framework is made up of four phases, one of which is the “Action Phase.” During the action phase, practitioners can “intervene physically” through a series of blocks or releases or by containing the student (i.e., by wrapping “your arms around the student”). There are four written cautions in the workbook specific to containments that mention “positional asphyxiation” and students incurring “a dislocated shoulder.”

My experience with BMS: I have not had much experience with BMS. I have blocked students from leaving a classroom or running down a hallway but I have never touched any students. Personally, with or without training, I will never be comfortable using physical contact to intervene with student behaviour, especially when injury can happen to the student or to me.

ETFO believes that behaviour management training should be voluntary and should be done within the instructional day. Members are not required to sign any waivers with respect to training or in using physical retraints.

As noted in PRS #98, using physical components of BMS and CPT could put members are risk of a possible investigation from the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), and/or Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) or the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE).

For further information, please contact your local ETFO president or Professional Relations staff in Professional Relations Services at 416-962-3836 or 1-888-838-3836.

I did come across a chart to help distinguish between Tantrums and Meltdowns Posted on Twitter @ONTSpecialNeeds

trantrums and meltdowns

My best advice is to reach out to a supportive colleague for help as this is where I get the most help and support when dealing with challenging student behaviour!

And in the end, it’s up to you as an educator to use your professional judgement to keep your students and yourself safe.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

The Downside

It’s a wonderful time of the year…ish. However, there are a few downsides.
Starting with the scary winter weather commutes, bone-chilling outdoor supervision at -16C, or the daily loss of at least a half hour of instructional time while students remove their winter wear or gear up for recess. Today I was convinced that a child went out for recess and returned as a snowman. It was touch and go whether we would need a lifeguard on duty once all of the snow the students brought inside began to melt.

Then, there’s the realization, that maybe, just maybe I missed assessing something for my upcoming report cards. That sent a shiver down my spine. In my mind I just wrote report cards a few weeks ago. 10 weeks is a few, right?

The end of January signals the half way mark of our instructional year and things are clicking in the classroom. We have our routines back in place, students have shown a lot of growth since September, and there is a feeling of hope in the air at times. Maybe that’s tied to the temperature rising a few degrees and for the days when the trek between the portapack and the main building does not require a Sherpa or tethering students to a guide rope. With chilly temperatures, indoor recesses, and daylight still getting longer, this time of year can sneak up on your mental health and well being to blind side you when your not expecting it.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherpa_Glacier,_Cascades.JPG#file CC BY-SA 4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherpa_Glacier,_Cascades.JPG#file CC BY-SA 4.0

Today, a student was having a bad day. No one saw it coming. I was called into another class to provide support. The student was experiencing an anxiety attack. The entire class was genuinely concerned for them, and offered their support and kind words. Seeing this warmed my heart on a chilly day, but it also screamed about the fragility that exists in our learners. In my opinion, we never get the whole picture of our students lives. Finding time to fit it all in beyond the superficialities is difficult when deadlines and commitments loom.

Although we are in each others’ presence 6+ hours per day, we are often humans doing more so than humans being aware of one another when they are feeling sad, frustrated, or stressed. I am finding it more and more important to let students vent about what is weighing on their minds. Yes, it’s during instructional time, but it is an absolutely integral part of my classroom mental health strategy.

If my students are sharing from their hearts, they will also know they are being heard in a safe and supportive space. If we miss these chances in favour of trudging through the lessons hoping it will just go away, or that the student will get over it in time, then we are at risk of missing our opportunity to help our students when they need us most. There is a downside to this that could lead to depression, disconnection, and despair.

In his 2017 TEDxKitchenerEd Talk, Andrew Campbell shares the reason why he meets his students at the door each day. While watching him share this incredibly personal message, I wondered whether all of the other educators in the theatre wanted to be back at school at that very minute to greet their own students. I know the next day couldn’t come fast enough for me. I wanted to make sure they knew they mattered, that our classroom cared, and that even though we had just started the year, I cared too. It is only through these connections with students that I see any learning made truly possible.

The choice of whether to support, stand still, or dismiss could mean the world of difference to someone who is struggling. Choosing to connect and care over the curriculum at times may be the cure. No downside there.

 

Professional Judgement-Report Cards

I belong to a few Facebook groups for teachers. It is a great place for the sharing of resources, ideas and for suggestions on how to handle conundrums about classroom management. As teachers across the province write report cards, a few of the questions posted on these groups had answers to them that relied on teacher’s Professional Judgement.

Professional Judgement is enshrined in our central collective agreement and defined as:

Professional Judgement” shall be defined as judgement that is informed by professional knowledge of curriculum expectations, context, evidence of learning, methods of instruction and assessment, and the criteria and standards that indicate success in student learning. In professional practice, judgement involves a purposeful and systematic thinking process that evolves in terms of accuracy and insight with ongoing reflection and self-correction.

 

Some of the Facebook questions that I have seen recently are below, along with some suggestions of publications that you can use in your discussions around professional judgement with your administrators.

My principal has requested personalized comments for my students. I teach over 400 students. Help!”

This is a place where teachers can use their professional judgement. Having personalized comments does not mean that every student needs to have a different comment. This term, through my data I have collected, I can see that 6 students in my class are really strong at generating ideas in the creative process, but are still working at revising their musical compositions. Therefore, those six students will all have the same comments. Another group of 5 students can create a piece of music effectively and play it with good technique. They will have the same comment. In most of my classes that translates to about 4 or 5 comments per class. Some students get their own comments if their strengths and next steps are different than everyone else’s. Students on IEPs will have their own comment, but may be the same as another student working on similar goals. Refer to the Professional Judgement Matters Series for further details.

My principal has told me that I am not allowed to use an “I” for the student even though I have only seen the student twice in music class, due to an IBI schedule.”

Growing Success clearly lays out that it is within the teacher’s professional judgement when to use an “I”.

“For the report card, teachers will use their professional judgement to determine when the use of “I” is appropriate and in the best interests of the student. For example, teachers may find it appropriate to use “I” when evidence of a student’s achievement is insufficient because the student has enrolled in the school very recently or because there were issues or extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control, such as protracted illness, that affected his or her attendance and/or ability to provide sufficient evidence of achievement of the overall expectations.” ( Growing Success pg.42)

This term, there were many instances where I used an “I” for insufficient data on the report card. It is very common for some of my students to take 2 or 3 months off of school somewhere between November and March to travel. I have students who have been ill for many days throughout the term and others who have just arrived. All of these situations would make the use of an “I” quite clear according to the Growing Success document. In other instances, if students have not completed a lot of work for the term and you have insufficient data, both you and your administrator may question the use of an “I” versus an “R”. I direct you to the Report Cards-Questions and Answers on the EduGAINs site in order to help you answer this question. Question 40 explains in what circumstances an “I” or an “R” could be used.

My principal wants me to fill the entire Learning Skills Box”

It is really important to focus on quality over quantity. In speaking with some of my homeroom teacher colleagues, they have spoken about the various lengths of learning skill comments that may exist within the class. Some students may need longer Learning Skills explanations to clearly outline their next steps. Other students may require less explanation. Use your professional judgement. The Growing Success Document outlines the following:

“In the space provided for anecdotal comments, the teacher will elaborate on the student’s demonstration of the skills and comment on “strengths” and “next steps for improvement”. (Growing Success Pg. 55)

At no point does it say that you must fill the entire box.

ETFO has a great series called Professional Judgement Matters that you can refer to when questions arise. Topics include: diagnostic assessments, reporting, evaluations, IEPs and Kindergarten reporting.

Occasional Teachers; Unsung Heroes

Unfortunately, I have had many health challenges this year that have necessitated having to take a significant amount of time off of work to recuperate.  These absences have provided me time to reflect on my practice as a classroom teacher and about how important occasional teachers are in our practice.  I had the pleasure of working in our local ETFO office as a released officer for 3 years alongside the incredible Marsha Jones, Occasional Teacher President extraordinaire.  She taught me a lot about Occasional Teachers, the obstacles they face and the little things that I could do to make their days go easier.  I thought I would share a few of my insights.

Occasional Teachers that come to our school like to return because of the friendly atmosphere.  In the staff room, they are included in our “tea days”, people engage them in conversation and always ask how they can be of help.  It sounds like a simple thing, but many of the Occasional Teachers that come to our school comment on our friendly staff.  So the next time you see an Occasional Teacher in your school, smile and say hello and ask them how their day is going.

Do NOT ask an Occasional Teacher “who” they are for the day.  What an insult!  You can ask who they are in for, who they are helping out, who they are rescuing or replacing, but they are themselves each and every day they come to work.  We should appreciate the fact that we have access to qualified teachers to replace us for the day so that we can take sick days when we need them or go to conferences for professional learning.

Speaking of insults, please try not to call Occasional Teachers “substitute” or “supply” teachers.  We rely on these colleagues. “Occasional Teacher” is their job title.  Be respectful of it; we rely on them.

Remember to have a few days of “emergency” plans in advance of your absence.  It takes the edge of having to type up plans in between trips to the washroom when you have the flu.  Leave them in a place that is easy for the Occasional Teacher to find.  This makes your life easier too.

If you generally have an active classroom that engages in centres, activities etc., then TRUST your Occasional Teacher and leave plans that include those lessons.  Chances are your students know how this stuff runs and will let the Teacher know.  It may mean giving up a bit of control; deal with it.  If you leave all day seat work that you’ve photocopied or a movie that isn’t connected to anything that they are doing in the classroom, it will not be enjoyable for the students and likely your Occasional Teacher will have more behaviour issues.  Consequently, you will not get the quality of work that you normally see from your students. Don’t have huge expectations.  No matter how wonderful the Occasional Teacher may be, they are not you and the students know that.  We also need to remember to trust the judgment of an Occasional Teacher.  I’ve heard it and I’ve said it; “The ‘supply’ didn’t follow my day plan. I worked for hours on that detailed plan.”  We don’t know what kind of a day that teacher had with our students.  They may have experienced a lockdown, fire drill, class evacuation, pizza money, scholastic money, a student injury or even a skating field trip.  (My sincere thanks to Occasional Teacher Rachel Johnston on that one!)  We need to remember that they are qualified teachers and they have the right to exercise their professional judgment in order to keep the class calm and engaged.  Let them do their job and thank them for it.

I write my day plans on my computer for myself each week.  This makes writing a day plan for the Occasional Teacher much easier.  I have all of my emergency information, how to deal with specific students, who to count on and the general rules and routines in a separate document to attach to daily plans.  I always attach a class list.  Try to keep your plans as close to the regular routine as possible.  If I am going to be away for a meeting I will try to find out who will be replacing me for the day and I email them the plans in advance and ask if they have any questions.  I include my cell phone number in case they can’t find a password or an item and few of them ever use it but if they do then I know that they care about my students and the plans that I have left for them.

Finally, show your gratitude.  Some Occasional Teachers drive an hour to get to our school and in bad weather.  Some are called at the very last minute, through traffic, to an unfamiliar school using GPS.  Their mornings are often stressful before they even arrive on site.  So when an Occasional Teacher has done a great job and your classroom is still standing when you go in the next day, write a quick email and say thank you. Occasional Teaching is often a thankless job but we can’t be sick without these wonderful people.

 

The Conundrum of Parent Communication

4 years ago I discovered the app Seesaw which is a digital portfolio for students but way more.  Recently it also added a direct parent communication piece which I absolutely love and I can also post announcements all at once to parents or just to a few by the click of a button.  The best thing about the app for me is that the students can upload their own work and comment on it and I can provide feedback.  I approve everything before it goes on the site. Parents LOVE it.  For me, it does everything that I need a communication app to do.  So what’s the issue?

3 years ago our school board got a contract with Edsby. I understand that as a school board it is accessible in many ways for all teachers.  There is system information that is on the site that can be accessed from anywhere.  There is a platform for staff room chat and places to post things on calendar etc.,  However I do not find that it is friendly for teachers nor students to use.  The mobile app is glitchy and I get frustrated at the stream of conversations that don’t seem to match up.   I have been told by our administration that we have to use it to communicate with parents.  All but two of my parents have signed up for Seesaw (internet access issues) and only a quarter have signed up for Edsby.  I don’t know why exactly, but I can only assume that they don’t find it as friendly to use.  I do paper copies for major announcements to ensure that everyone gets those in one way or another.  I use Edsby to comply to my school board’s request and I’m doubling my work in the meantime.

When I first began teaching it was a big deal to have a “monthly” newsletter and calendar of events go home to parents. Principals wanted to see copies and approve them before they went home.  Now we are in constant communication with parents and we are being told exactly what platform we are supposed to be using in order to do it.  There is a huge workload issue in parent communication and it creeps up on us daily.  With an increase in high needs students that deal with behavioural or mental health issues teachers are expected to communicate on a daily basis in a communication book with their families.  While I understand the need for documentation for myself and for the parents, the expectation is overwhelming.  I am fortunate this year that I have my preparation time at the end of the day and I can take the time to communicate with parents.  However, I don’t get to use my prep time for lesson preparation.  I don’t know what the answer is here.  I’m going to continue to use my professional judgement about how I communicate with parents however, hopefully this post will begin a discussion about communication overload.  I’m open for suggestions on how others are able to manage!

 

 

 

Call the cops

Call the cops

I’m guilty, and intend to re-offend. I will not be pleading innocent or apologizing either. So call the cops because I confess to caring about the well being of my students. And I think there are other recidivists like me out there. Yet, how would we know since so many educators spend their time siloed in self-sentenced solitary confinement?

Maybe, the problem is attributable to my particular approach to pedagogy? I write my tongue in cheek admission because I believe that student well being needs to be the foundation upon which all student success is built. Ensuring that my students know that they matter comes first and foremost. If not, it would be like building an upside down pyramid. It will not stand the test of time. (insert imaginary picture of an upside down pyramid here) In other words, it’s about relationships.

Is that a siren in the distance?

My instruction is student centred, connected, and committed to their success far beyond the marks on a report card. I want them to learn how to be awesome at life. That means taking time to invest in learning what makes my students tick as learners first. Not to mention, by the creation of safe, failure tolerant spaces for them to share what they hate about school. Before you let the police in, think about this.

My students are also asked to share what they love about school, and what they would like to have happen more often. I am trying to democratize the classroom here by listening to and valuing their voices. Let’s call this time Septovember. When it comes to their futures I’m guilty of involving students in the conversations that affect this part of their lives too.

Many of our Septovember discussions circle around activism, advocacy, and learning to think about one another. In the past year, I decided to throw all of the cards on the table. I announced that we were going to have a challenge task in our language block. I started the lesson off by saying, “The adults in your life have failed you. I have failed you. My parents have failed you. And a whole lot of people before us have failed you too.” Once they picked their jaws up off of their desks, I asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

We established a few parameters, discussed possible learning goals, and students set out to identify and solve  one of the many problems they are inheriting from us (e.g., environment, political strife, human rights issues, equity). Almost immediately my students were engaged and motivated and there it was: inquiry, empowerment, and authentic learning.

I hear handcuffs rattling.

Naturally, whenever life learning like this happens, it puts me behind any traditional instructional schedules, but thankfully it also allows instruction to happen much more effectively over the remaining months of our year. That’s right officer, it’s spelled G-O-U-R-L-E-Y

My students are going to learn that I care about them long before ever being expected to care about what I know or have to teach. If that means shaping the curriculum around them first rather than bending them around the curriculum, so be it. I know I’m not the only one. Have I mentioned that it’s about relationships first?

I have an accomplice.

In his 2017 TEDxKitchenerEd Talk, Andrew Campbell shares a very informed opinion about why he meets his students at the door every morning. And it’s not to check whether they’ve completed their homework. Campbell eloquently meshes his TEDx Talk with complete emphasis on connecting with his students. In it, he shares how his students changed his outlook after a tragic event involving a student in their class. He shares;

“the most important thing I can do as a teacher are the relationships I form with my students and the relationships I help them form with others. When the students come to me in the morning, I don’t know what they’re coming from or what they’re carrying. And when they leave at the end of the day, I don’t know what they’re walking into.”

There is no doubt that all students who pass through Andrew’s classroom door are welcome and valued regardless of the fact he is not a fan of well planned lessons. Imagine the power and potential in the simple act of meeting students at the door with a smile and a kind word? That is a “noble purpose.”

I knew there was another recidivist out there. Are you one too?

They better call for back-up.

 

Report Cards Are Coming: Professional Reporting

Growing Success K-12
Growing Success K-12

Elementary Report Cards … the mere mention of report cards can send some teachers into anxious ridden days and sleepless nights. Even after 17 years of writing elementary report cards, I anticipated that my levels of anxiety would be non-existent but, no, for me, the thought of report card writing still stresses me out. I know of some colleagues who are so anxious about report card writing, that they had to seek medical support.

The source of this anxiety is embedded in inconsistencies in how report card policy is implemented. And the source of the inconsistencies is rooted in the process of educational policy implementation. With each level of educational policy implementation gatekeepers, such as boards of education, superintendents, schools, administrators, and classroom teachers, all interpret and change the policy based on their own context and their own perspectives (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012).

As report card policy initiatives are translated into real life, the policy stakeholders, like administrators and teachers, adapt and reinvent their interpretation of the policy into school contexts. Since the education policy guidelines tend to be abstract and non specific, confusion and disjointedness results (Ball, 1993), and teachers end up decoding and recoding the policy text such as the reporting policy, Growing Success (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010). Even with the well written Growing Success document (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010), the process of understanding and translating report card policy can result in various degrees of intentional and unintentional interpretations (Fuhrman, Clune, & Elmore, 1991). Or, in other words, there are inconsistencies in report card policy implementation. Competing theories between policy authors (i.e., governments and school boards) and report card implementers (i.e., principals and teachers) can cause conflicts between the vision of policy and the practice of policy (Timperley & Parr, 2005). This can result in gatekeepers’ experiencing “most carefully planned” initiatives unfolding in a “non-linear manner” (Timperley & Robinson, 2000, p. 47).

This policy implementation process results in the practice of report card writing that look different from the vision of the report card policy writers. Therefore, because of this flux,  report card formats and content can change from school board to school board, school to school, year to year, administrator to administrator, and sometimes even term to term (Note: this is strictly based on my own experience over 17 years). As noted earlier, at every level of implementation, each person put their own spin on the policy. The result is that teachers have to deal with changing report card writing expectations. Inconsistencies directly result in teachers having to spend a great deal of time trying to meet the expectations of different stakeholders. Teachers then have to use their professional judgement to interpret these expectations.

The document Growing Success (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 152) states “ Judgement that is informed by professional knowledge of curriculum expectations, context, evidence of learning, methods of instruction and assessment, and the criteria and standards that indicate success in student learning. In professional practice, judgement involves a purposeful and systematic thinking process that evolves in terms of accuracy and insight with ongoing reflection and self-correction.”

Further, Growing Success states that “successful implementation of policy depends on the professional judgement of educators at all levels, as well as on educators’ ability to work together” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 2). It is through educators’ collaboration that educational change becomes reality; it is how policy becomes practice. “Teachers’ professional judgements are at the heart of effective assessment, evaluation, and reporting of student achievement.” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 8). So teachers, working with other stakeholders, using their professional judgement need “to clarify and share their understanding of policy and to develop and share effective implementation practices” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 2).

Below is a breakdown of the Growing Success policy based on areas I have needed information on while writing report cards. This is not an exhaustive list. Please refer to the documents noted below for further information.

Growing Success Reporting Chart

Ontario Report Card Policy Breakdown with reference to report card writing

The Growing Success document notes the following “It is important that teachers have the opportunity to compose and use personalized comments on report cards as an alternative to selecting from a prepared set of standard comments. School boards should not enact policies that prevent teachers from providing personalized comments on report cards. It is expected that principals will support best practice and encourage teachers to generate their own comments.” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 64)

Given the focus of encouraging “teachers to generate their own comments”, having a bank of pre-approved board-wide report card comments available to elementary teachers may or may not be forthcoming.

After the above analysis and reflection regarding report card writing and professional judgement, I ask myself “What has helped me the most in report card writing?”

My answer is collaborating with other teachers. It is in the discussion, co-creating, and sharing of report card comments that I have been supported the most in my writing of the Progress, Term 1, and Term 2 report cards. For me, sharing report card comments does not mean that I simply “cut and paste” my colleagues’ work. This does not happen because I write comments through the lens of my own teaching practice. My colleagues’ shared learning skill comments often inspire me to write comments especially for challenging students.

In writing report cards, I use my professional experience and knowledge that has resulted in the development of my professional judgement. So my advice to any teacher who is being challenge in report card writing is to reach out to your colleague … for advice, support, or debate.

I believe that when working collaboratively, teachers are better together … especially when writing report cards.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

 References

Ball, S. (1993). What is policy? Texts, trajectories, and toolboxes. Discourse, 13(2), 10-17.

Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. New York, NY: Routledge.

Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. (ETFO). (2016). The elementary provincial report card continued implementation update – Grades 1 to 8, Professional Relations Services, PRS, Volume #66, January 2016. Retrieved from http://www.etfo.ca/SupportingMembers/Employees/PDF%20Versions/The%20Elementary%20Provincial%20Report%20Card%20Continued%20Implementation%20Update%20-%20Grades%201%20to%208.pdf

Fuhrman, S., Clune, W., & Elmore, R. (1991). Research on education reform: Lessons on the implementation of policy (pp. 197-218). AR Odden, Education Policy Implementation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2000). The Ontario Student Record (OSR) Guideline, Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/osr/osr.pdf

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2010). Growing success: Assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools, First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12 Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growSuccess.pdf

Timperley, H. S., & Parr, J. M. (2005). Theory competition and the process of change. Journal of Educational Change, 6(3), 227-251.

Timperley, H., & Robinson, V. (2000). Workload and the professional culture of teachers. Educational Management & Administration, 28(1), p. 47-62.

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press.

Finding Balance in a Digital World

When I first began teaching, over 20 years ago, I spent a lot of personal money on “resources”.  In teacher’s college I worked part time at The Teacher’s Store and spent the majority of my paycheque on black line master books, “units” and teacher’s guides, which took up space on my book shelves and in large plastic totes in my basement.  Now I can access free downloads, use Teacher’s Pay Teachers, Twitter, Pinterest or any number of educator websites.  It is difficult to deny that the use of technology is a huge part teaching.   I access the curriculum documents online on a regular basis. In fact, I don’t even own a paper copy of the curriculum documents.  Attendance, IEPs and report cards are now web-based.  Student portfolios are digital and parent communication is mostly electronic.  We communicate with our staff on Edsby and post our students’ triumphs using digital platforms such as Seesaw.  When I am away from school for the day, I book an occasional teacher online and send in my plans via email. As a parent, I pay for my son’s school trips online.  Almost everything we do in education seems to involve technology in some way.  It makes our job so much easier!  Doesn’t it?

Herein lies the rub.  As wonderful and “easy” as it all is, digital information and communication can also be suffocating.  For example, it is easy to ask a question of a colleague in my large school something by email or text and get an answer in seconds without having to take ten minutes to walk to his or her classroom.  However, it also may mean that I won’t see my colleague all week.  It is easy for a upset parent to send an email in the middle of the weekend and then I stew about it until I can take care of it when I am back at school on Monday.  It is easy to spend hours following the trail down an internet rabbit hole trying to find the “perfect” lesson plan.  It is easy to look at examples of art lessons on websites like Pinterest and then feel inadequate as an educator because mine didn’t go quite according to plan. It is easy to send an email in the middle of the weekend, just to get it done, when I should be spending time with my family.  It is easy to get into a chat on Twitter with educators around the world and learn all kinds of cool stuff, and then realize that I have missed going to the gym…again.  Digital information and communication is never done.  There is always something to check or answer or post.  Yes, I admit that it is a little ironic that I am writing this on a blog post, but wait…here’s why.

I have decided to try a few things so that digital information and communication will not suffocate me.  I have created “office hours” for communication.  I have told the families of my students that I will only respond to emails or messages on Edsby or Seesaw between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. If I take the time to communicate something to families outside of office hours, then I will draft it and save it and send it during office hours.  If there is something urgent, families are instructed to call the school.  I have turned off notifications of email on my phone.  I no longer go on Pinterest and have stopped going on Twitter.  I will only check Edsby once a day.  If there is something of urgent importance, I have no doubt that someone will find me and let me know.  My students will update their own digital portfolios. I am going to try to be mindful of the amount of time I engage in digital communication and information for my job in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance.  It will take some practice and I’m sure that I will find myself getting into some old habits.  However, my mantra this year for my class is also for me…strive for growth and progress, not perfection.

Getting Past “The 5 Year Wall”

wall peek

As a new elementary teacher, I believed I would really know what I was doing after 5 years of practice. After 5 years in my previous careers, I could handle just about anything. I had 8 years experience as a student in elementary school. And, yes, I had watched my elementary teachers teach. I thought, “How hard can it be?” I figured after 5 years of teaching, working long hours after and on weekends, I’d be able to relax a bit.

But back then, I was very naive.

There was a lot about teaching I did not know or even consider. I did not count on having to switch grade levels every year for the first 5 years of my practice. I thought I’d have readily available teacher resources. I did not know that teachers spent a great deal of their own money to stock their classrooms with supplies and books. Nor did I realize I would be expected to implement waves of educational initiatives within a year of introduction. Further, I had not considered having students functioning at grade levels below the grade I was teaching or dealing with special education needs with little or no support. In addition, I did not know how to deal with students who had behaviour issues – in my first week of teaching grade 8, a student threw a chair at me. I also was hoping to get support and mentorship from my teacher colleagues, which at the time was not always forthcoming. My teacher education had not prepared me for all of this.

So I pushed forward by working hard and doing the best for my students. I took courses that I thought would fill in some gaps, which helped a bit. I solicited curriculum support from my colleagues and spent a great deal of time talking to my peers about my classroom challenges. My colleagues were very helpful and I absorbed as much wisdom as I could from my tenured peers.

Then it happened. I hit “The 5 Year Wall”. After 5 years of teaching, I thought I’d know more and feel more effective in my practice. I thought my lesson plans should be going the way I planned them. I thought that my classroom management would be awesome by this time. Instead, I was left with feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction in myself as a teacher. I thought, maybe if I worked harder, I would feel more effective; I was so disappointed in myself.

But because I was very committed and dedicated to becoming a great teacher, I moved forward facing many challenges. I continued to seek support and mentorship from my colleagues. My collaborative collegial support proved to have the biggest impact on my practice. My colleagues saved me from my professional dissolution.

Then something else happened. Around my 7th and 8th year of teaching, I started to feel my levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence rising. I started to finally feel like I knew what I was doing … most of the time. At 7+ years of teaching, I still faced challenges with switching grades. I realized that educational initiatives did not always stick. Lack of continued resource support or the introduction of a “new” initiative, often meant the end to last year’s latest innovation. Having students with multiple functioning levels and needs was a classroom norm. My teacher skin grew thicker when dealing with student and parent issues. I realized that lesson plans were made to be adapted to address the students’ needs, not the teachers. After 8 years of practice, I really started to enjoy teaching.

While researching, I discovered that my experience of building professional confidence and self-efficacy was supported in the literature. In the British VITAE study of 300 teachers in 100 schools, authors Day, Sammons, Stobart, Kingston, and Gu (2007) showed that teachers’ levels of confidence and self-efficacy continue to grow until around the 7 year mark. After 8 years, teachers reached a significant turning point in their professional development (Day et al., 2007).

I thought about what made this 7 year mark so significant. Then a friend mentioned that in the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell stated that in order to master any skill  it takes “to a large extent, a matter of practicing … for a total of around 10,000 hours” (Gladwell, 2008).  I did the calculations and the 7 year mark correlated with about 10,000 hours of teaching practice. This made sense because teaching is a complex and challenging profession and as a result it takes over 7 years to develop high levels of professional efficacy. Further to this, as teachers’ professional knowledge grows, so does their professional judgement.

Well into my 8th year of teaching I noticed several new teachers experiencing high levels of professional frustration. Some of these teachers were so distressed they regretted becoming teachers. Some were thinking of leaving the profession. Remembering my own frustration, I reached out to my novice colleagues. I told them about The 5 Year Wall. In my following years of teaching, I have talked many novice teachers off the ledge of The 5 Year Wall. Sometimes there were tears. Sometimes there were daily pep talks. Sometimes there were weekly meetings at a well known coffee shop. After my years of collegial mentorship and support, my colleagues have become excellent teachers.

So if a new teacher talks to you about their professional frustration, tell them about The 5 Year Wall. Tell them to hang in for the next few years so they can reach their professional turning point in year 8. Support them with your mentorship and listen to their concerns. Because in isolation, there are no colleagues to inspire novice teachers with ideas or to suggest resources/strategies or to support them when it’s really needed. And even as an 18 year plus teacher, I thank my colleagues for all the mentorship, collaboration, and support they continue to give me, every day.

I believe that when working collaboratively, teachers are better together.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

 

References

Day, C., Sammons, P., Stobart, G., Kingston, A., & Gu, Q. (2007). Teachers matter: Connecting lives, work and effectiveness. Maidenhead, UK: Open University

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. Hachette UK.