Author: Brenda MacNaughton

Seeing Physical Education on the daily schedule can be very intimidating to an Occasional Teacher. Teaching children in a large open space where running is often encouraged is very different from the classroom. This blog is for teachers who leave P.E. plans and for those of us who follow those plans.

Inclusiveness is just as important in the gym as it is anywhere in the school. The goal in P.E. is for everyone to participate so we need activities that allow for students to work at their own level. In primary classes I will sometimes play games, work on skills or allow students to rotate through centres. Whatever the activity, I’m constantly monitoring and checking in with students to see if we need to make any changes. For example, if I challenge the class to toss a ball straight up and clap before catching it but I see someone missing every time, I’ll ask them to take out the clap and work on toss and catch. We could also swap the ball for a scarf to give them more time.

I like to set the tone before I get to the gym. I remind students about being safe, respectful, and responsible. We clarify rules about water bottles and indoor shoes. Having a whistle handy is helpful. I like the rubber squeeze style of whistle.

Safety is the first priority. With k-3 classes we repeat the rule “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING” several times at the beginning of class and in the middle of class if needed. My favourite P.E. classes have no injuries. If an injury does happen it helps to know how to contact the office for support.

Here are a few low organizational games that my primary students enjoy.

Spaghetti and meatball tag (hoops, balls)

Half the class are customers eating at a restaurant and the other half are the chefs. There are a dozen hoops on the ground to be plates. The chefs place meatballs (balls) on the plates and the customers remove the meatballs and toss them away from the plate (hoops). You can play the game as a win/lose game with the object being for all the plates to be either empty or full. I prefer to play for a set amount of time and then count how many hoops are empty or full. You could add in a spaghetti Monster who has a noodle and can tag people which makes them freeze in place until a member of their team tags them for freedom.

Everybody’s It

Everyone is tagging everyone in this game. If you are tagged you stay down until the person who tagged you is tagged. The teacher can call out “Freedom” and everyone sitting can get up. This is another game that goes on with no definitive winner

Zombie tag (hoops, pool noodles)

A few zombies are it. They each drag a hoop with one foot and try to tag someone with a pool noodle to also be a zombie. The goal is to be the last surviving human.

Have fun and stay safe!

Brenda

“You have no books that I want to read!”

This quote is from a five year old boy who was being shown around the school library. He had just been playing hide and seek during the book exchange time. I had only just begun my role as teacher-librarian and I didn’t know the collection all that well at the time. I tried books on dinosaurs and cars but he wasn’t interested. He could only tell me about a video game he played.

Shortly after that experience I surveyed staff and students on what books they wanted in the library. I started holding comic book fairs and building the collection to meet everyone’s needs. I advocated for funds from the school council and the school budget. I was determined to improve the collection so that every student could find something they loved to read.

Graphic novels became a hot commodity; especially ones with characters and story lines from movies, video games and card games. Non-fiction books relating to popular sports, video games, animated features, and pets started flying off the shelves. We couldn’t keep up with the shelving and we started a reading club.

It all started by listening to a student whose needs weren’t being met.

Our students have such diverse learning needs and special interests but it’s not always easy to get the right resource or learning tool. Sometimes there will be obstacles like money, lack of knowledge or understanding. I’ve written before about advocacy and how important it is for teachers to be a strong voice for their students.

One of the most important things we can do to reassure students that we have their interests at heart is to listen without judgement. Listening builds trust and creates a safe learning environment. Besides using surveys and other written tasks, we can listen to students through discussions, group work, audio and video.

I’m happy to say that we eventually got the right book into that student’s hands but he still liked playing hide and seek when he got the chance.

 

Dear 23-year-old me,

You are about to begin an incredible journey. Your career as a teacher will take you to different communities and working with children of various ages and individual needs. You will adore teaching and helping kids. You will also have an influence on your school staff, parents and community.

Now that I’ve been through that career, one of the most important things I’d like you to know is that consistency and a calm manner are very important to your job. As much as you love to be spontaneous, creative and high energy…that can sometimes lead to tricky situations. There’s a place for all that energy but it might take you some time to fine-tune when you want to use it.

Part way through your career you’re going to learn about Indian residential schools and the impact they have had and continue to have on Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. You will be shocked to know that Phyllis Webstad, founder of the orange shirt movement, is the same age as you. While you had your entire schooling and working career in education systems that respected your language and family and culture, Phyllis and thousands of Indigenous peoples have experienced the opposite.

Try not to wallow in guilt. It’s just not productive. Instead, get out there and learn. You know that informed people can create positive change. Make sure your schools have materials they need to help everyone learn the truth so that reconciliation can take place. The commission on Truth and Reconciliation will provide a guideline of recommendations. Read them. Understand why they are there and take action. Some of your most memorable days of working in education will include the ones where you made the most effort toward reconciliation.

There will be many changes over the years. Changes in curriculum, technology, administrative policy, walkouts and even strikes. Through all this know that you and your fellow educators have the students’ interests at heart and making a positive difference in their lives is what you’re there to do everyday.

For a while you might think that you would never consider supply teaching in your retirement. There will be many days when you feel tired and the stress seems too much to think of teaching after your pension starts. I’m here to tell you that with enough time to decompress, you will love getting back in the classroom and making a difference.

Take care of your physical, mental and spiritual health. Reach out when you need help.  Stay connected to nature. Put family first.

I believe in you!

Signed,

Your (semi) retired self

 

 

 

 

 

In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, here is one way to find highly recommended books by Indigenous peoples for your classroom.

The First Nations Communities Read “…celebrates the very best of Indigenous literature across Turtle Island. The program encourages family literacy, intergenerational storytelling as well as intergenerational knowledge transmission. FNCR also helps to increase awareness of the importance of First Nation, Metis and Inuit writing, illustration and publishing.”  (fcnr.ca)

I am sure there are books from the past and present short lists that would be incredible stories to  read aloud in your classroom. 

Let’s look at last year’s winning book in the children’s category, Phoenix Gets Greater. The main character is a boy whose confidence gets shattered when he realizes he’s different. His self-image is rebuilt as he begins to understand what it means to be Two Spirit. The acceptance and love from his family help him rekindle his passion for dance and dolls. I can imagine using this story as a wonderful teaching tool.

The volunteer jury of First Nations librarians who select the award winning books from the short list must have a difficult time. There are so many great books nominated that I wouldn’t know how to narrow it down!  This year there are 34 books on the short list in the children’s category. The program awards $5000 to the authors through sponsorship by the Periodical Marketers of Canada. 

The FNCR also has a YA/Adult category where you can find titles for yourself. Many of you are avid readers who are looking to better understand our role as teachers in truth and reconciliation. Looking through the titles I can see many that would interest my colleagues and friends. One of the things that I love about reading is that it gives me a deeper understanding of other people’s lives. No doubt I will be suggesting titles of this list to my book club!

I’m heading to my local public library to get familiar with some of the nominated titles in both categories.  When I’m out on my supply teaching days, I will also be talking to teacher librarians and principals to encourage them to add books from FNCR to their collection. I’m grateful to the Ontario Library Service for running this program and shining a spotlight on these wonderful books!

Welcome: to be gladly received.

Welcome to the 2024-25 school year! I hope you have been gladly received by your co-workers and administration. You are likely putting a lot of energy into creating a warm classroom environment that welcomes each of your students.

When I was a new teacher I remember being told that I shouldn’t smile until November but I always failed miserably at that assignment. After all, if the word welcome means to be gladly received, then a smile is the first way you want to communicate to your students that they are welcome in your class!

Another bit of advice I got was to teach the students all the routines I wanted them to follow. Simple procedures had to be reviewed such as where to put their outdoor shoes, how to enter and exit the building, and safe use of the washrooms. Together the students and I would outline expectations for out of classroom locations such as the schoolyard, the library and the gym.

Teaching these basics is second nature to me now but I really appreciated that advice early in my career. I believe consistency helps students feel safe and students who feel safe have an easier time learning and retaining what they have learned.

Academics have their place in September but building a sense of community amongst the people in your classroom is going to set the tone for your year ahead. As a supply teacher I often look for the class agreement poster wherever I am working. It is helpful to have something like that to refer back to when needed. Including prep teachers, support staff, lunchroom helpers, custodians and secretaries as part of the community will help students understand and appreciate the different roles that make the school function. Students can be taught the names of all these important adults throughout the first month.

I already know you’re a resourceful, problem-solving type of teacher since you’re here at the heart and art blog. You are looking to others for ideas and seeing yourself as a lifelong learner. Keep doing what you’re doing. It may not go as planned. It probably won’t go as planned! I’m sure you’ll continue to learn and grow as a teacher and fill your toolbox with all kinds of suggestions from others.

I gladly receive you here and I’m sending you all kinds of great vibes for a wonderful September!

Brenda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve spent my life being really critical of my artistic abilities so this blog took me out of my comfort zone!  Lately I’ve been wanting to give myself a chance to create art, especially after learning that putting your hands to use can be an excellent way to relax your brain and get some good feelings from dopamine. 

There is data to back up the theory that busy hands are good for your brain. Knitting, painting, carving, needlework, cooking, gardening and so many more activities that use our hands also help us feel happy and calm.  Studies by neuroscientist Dr. Kelly Lambert explore the effort driven reward cycle.  She believes that moving our hands to produce satisfying creations may help prevent depression and have other positive benefits on mental health.

Applying this science to ourselves and our classrooms could very helpful! Lambert encourages us to get off screens and put our hands and minds to use in more productive ways. 

I’ve included a suggestion for an art lesson. You could definitely do this with a class but honestly I also do it for myself. My brain needs a break too!

What you need

Paper – watercolour paper is great but try experimenting with old music sheets, pages out of discarded books, box board, etc

Watercolour paints – I have very inexpensive ones

Small paintbrush – since this is very blobby art, the brush doesn’t matter much

2 containers of water (one for washing brush and one for clean water to add to paint)

A marker, pen, pencil crayon or crayon

Scissors and glue (optional)

Technique

1. Use masking tape to frame the paper and attach to the work surface.
2. Draw curvy  intersecting lines with your marker – many of them
3. Where the lines intersect make them thicker and  more curved
4. Spray your water colour paints with water and let them sit for a minute 
5. Dip your brush in and paint one of the empty spaces.
6. Continue filling the empty spaces with colour.
7. Allow colours to mix or leave each blob as a colour of its own.
8. Let it dry.
9. Options: 

• Fold it and use it as a card.
• Cut out shapes and glue them on a card.
• Frame it!

If you enjoyed this activity then I encourage you to follow Andrea Nelson on Instagram. She often references that creating art soothes her brain. Her videos inspired me to do this!

 

 

I recently read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer with a book club of people across Canada. We were amazed by the numerous messages throughout the book. The author is a Potawatomi woman and mother as well as a botanist. She encourages readers to use two-eyed seeing, meaning to see the world through an Indigenous lens as well as a scientific one.

This leads me to thinking about the medicine wheel and the teachings of the sunrise, the East, the beginning of life and the season of spring. Although I am Irish-Canadian, these teachings resonate with me more than the idea of a new year in January. The natural world is bustling with energy as buds burst into leaves and blossoms form on flowers. Birds are singing out and the bunnies are appearing in my neighbourhood. 

This energy transfers into our classrooms as well and we may need to re-establish routines that change as wet weather brings muddy shoes and cool frosty mornings bring layers of sweaters and jackets one day and then t-shirt weather the next. Spring is a natural time for all of us to review the goals we wish to reach before the end of the school year.

Personally, I am building an understanding of the theme of reciprocity from Braiding Sweetgrass. Kimmerer explains it as “Nature gives us so much; the only thing one can do in the face of such profound generosity is to turn around and do the same.”

My choices at the grocery store impact the planet’s health as well as my own. I know I cannot always buy organic or local food but I’m doing it more often than I was. I’m also adding native pollinator plants to my garden to help the ecosystem where I live. It’s a start.

Professionally, I’m working on how to develop rapport with students quickly as an occasional teacher. I enter their classroom community as a guest teacher hoping they will feel safe and respected. Some strategies I’ve adopted include quickly learning their names, using a seating plan, giving the safety talk and interspersing mindfulness activities throughout the day.

If you are reviewing your goals this spring, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. Be realistic about what can be achieved in the next two months. 

One suggestion for student goal setting is to include daily goal setting in your morning meeting time and take time to reflect on previous goals. A wonderful picture book to illustrate this point is The Bad Seed by Jori John. One year I had a student identify with the main character and then he set goals for self-improvement. It was very inspiring to see him do the work needed to make positive changes in his life.

Whatever happens with you this spring, I hope you enjoy this incredible season of renewal!

 

The schools where I work as an occasional teacher play O Canada in the morning. I’ve been listening to this anthem for decades and am happy there is a movement to have diverse and inclusive versions of the anthem played at various schools. Recently, I was at a school for two days in a row and on both days they played an older version of O Canada with the lyric “all thy sons command” in it. As you know that line was changed in 2018 to “ in all of us command.”

As the anthem played I wondered if any students had picked up on the different lyrics so I asked my grade 4 students what they had noticed about the variations in the versions of O Canada that their school played. Their comments focussed on the style of singing and the style of music. When I asked them about the lyrics there was one student who was able to identify the word “sons”  in the version we had heard that day.

Grabbing this teachable moment I realized we had an opportunity for a topic for their journal entry.  I decided the students would benefit from hearing the 2023 story of the anthem being performed at the Toronto Raptors game by Jully Black. Black changed the words to “our home on native land” instead of “our home and native land”. We watched her performance and then viewed an interview with her.  I asked the class to reflect about whether or not the lyrics of O Canada make a difference.

We then posted the current lyrics from the federal government website and I gave the students a chance to reflect in their journals about the lyrics. Should the lyrics go back to what they were originally? Should the lyrics stay the same as they are currently posted? Are there any lyrics that could be changed to make the Canadian national anthem more inclusive? It was an open opportunity for students to do some critical thinking and explain their reasoning in their writing.

After some discussion, the students settled into their work fairly quickly. I was only supply teaching for a couple of periods so I was impressed that we were able to have an honest discussion and get some thoughts on paper. I was pleased to see that there were students who noticed other words in O Canada that could be changed to make the national anthem more inclusive. 

One of the students had explained clearly that the school should stop playing the version of O Canada with “all they sons command”.  She backed up her statement with solid reasoning.  With her permission I showed her journal entry to the principal and she promised to have that version taken out of the rotation. The student was all smiles knowing that her work had made a difference.

Unexpected teachable moments are one of the great benefits of teaching. I think our day plans should always have an asterisk with a reminder to go with the flow of energy that the students bring. Keeping them engaged with relevant material and empowering them to make positive change keeps everyone motivated to be present. I hope you have many teachable moments this year.

On March 31st, one of the last things I thought about before going to sleep was that I had not organized an April Fool’s joke for the morning. When my kids were little or when I had a class of my own I would often have some little April Fool’s thing going on. But now as a semi-retired teacher doing supply teaching it hadn’t really been on my radar. And besides this year April Fool’s Day fell on a holiday Monday and I had a busy weekend. I was looking forward to really relaxing on April 1st.

My brain had other ideas. 

I’ve had my share of teacher dreams. You know the ones that start in August and you’re worrying about not going to school on the right day or that you haven’t worn the right clothes or maybe any clothes. As I aged I started to have dreams about my teeth falling out and I’ve had dreams where I was blind and plenty of driving dreams where the brakes don’t work or the car is going in reverse only.

In the predawn hours of April 1st I was dreaming of a perfectly relaxing day at the beach. I had food and drink packed, a great novel, sandals and a floppy hat. I knew there was a school nearby and in this dream I planned to visit the school to use the washroom. I settled in the beach chair briefly when I realized that I would have to make my first trip to the school.

In this dream universe I was going into a school that I was familiar with because I had supplied there before. I arrived at the school just as the students were entering and the hallways were chaotic. A teacher spotted me and called out that she had been looking for me and that I would need to be in her class for the next 40 minutes. 

The look of shock on my face must have been quite noticeable to her because she explained that my name was on the board in the office and I had a schedule of prep coverage to do that day. 

At this point I really wondered what was going on. Was I dreaming? I had many questions. Wasn’t today was supposed to be a holiday? Why would I planning to use the school washroom on a holiday? How could I forget that I was supposed to be at work? I was sent into a swirling panic thinking I’d be teaching in my beach cover up. I snapped out of my deep sleep and into an awakened state of confusion.

I opened my calendar and there was the explanation I needed.

April Fools!

On April 8th, 2024 there will be a rare and unique event in the lifetimes of many Ontario students, a total solar eclipse. Many more will experience a partial solar eclipse. Whether or not your students are in school on April 8th, consider planning special activities and learning as the day approaches.

This natural event is shared by millions of people across North America. Let’s take the opportunity to help our students understand how much we have in common with others.  It’s a perfect time to get kids connected to the natural world.

Fun Facts about this Solar Eclipse 

Very important!

Looking directly at the Sun, without appropriate protection, can lead to serious problems such as partial or complete loss of eyesight.

In Canada, the solar eclipse’s path of totality will pass through some cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, plunging them into darkness for a few minutes.

https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/eclipses/total-solar-eclipse.asp

Solar eclipses happen about every 18 months but they are not visible to everyone on earth.

During an eclipse the moon casts a shadow that is approximately 250 km wide on the Earth.

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/total-solar-eclipses-provide-opportunity-engage-science-culture-and-history

Curriculum Connections

Explaining the eclipse will generate excitement in many areas of the curriculum. 

*We can study maps and learn more about places along the eclipse path.

*We can learn about space exploration and the upcoming Artemis mission to explore the moon.

*We can study the timing of the eclipse looking at both digital and analog clocks.

*We can write predictions about animal and plant behaviour during the eclipse. Will nocturnal animals awaken? Will flowers close their blooms?

*How will the horizon look? We can create a class mural, individual paintings or drawings.

*We can dramatize the eclipse by taking on the roles of sun, moon, earth, animals and plants.

Get more information on the eclipse:

Canadian Space Agency

Ontario Science Centre 

Queen’s University

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada