Author: Laura Bottrell

It certainly is an exciting time of year! Report cards are finished, we are wrapping up curriculum and beginning to think about next year already. Most of all, everyone is excited for summer. Teachers are ready for a break from the busyness of school, but are our students?

We talk so much about building belonging in the classroom. We go out of our way to make our class feel like a family and make each child feel safe, valued, and at home when they’re with us at school. So why is it that just because the year is ending, we now outwardly and loudly celebrate the fact that this is ending?

I always thought that celebrating the end of the year was just adding to the fun and excitement of summer. I’ve always had a fun countdown for my class. Lately, I’ve been wondering if this is just adding stress on some of my students. It really hit me last week when I announced that we only had ten school days left and there were at least five children in my class that crumbled to tears.

There are many reasons a child might feel stress or anxiety about school ending. We know that for many children in this world, school is their safe place. It might be the only place they receive warm smiles, positive affirmations, their access to friends, or even healthy snacks. I wonder how it might feel, for children like this, to hear and see their caring adults celebrating and counting down to the day they no longer have to be there.

It’s not just those kids that might be feeling the anxiety around this time of year. Many children thrive on a predictable, consistent routine. The end of a school year is a major, sudden and highly impactful transition from one routine to another, or in some cases to very little routine at all. We have to be mindful of our kids that need consistency, rely on stability and struggle with change.

And then, of course, we have our children who just absolutely love school. This was the case for my young friends that were very upset last week. They simply adore being part of our class and look forward to coming to school every day. They want to be here and they want to learn. To make things worse, I likely will not be teaching at this school next year, so the end of the year for my students is also bringing with it a goodbye to their teacher. I’ve spent the year building and nurturing our teacher-student relationships and now I have to leave them. I would imagine that the departure of any caring adult would be a cause for stress and anxiety in any child.

We start to see a lot more behaviour this time of year and it almost always gets put down to “end of the year excitement”, but what if that’s not excitement? We know that behaviour is communication. What are our students communicating to us? Could this added behaviour be a result of added stress over the fast-approaching big change?

I think we need to rethink and reconsider how we are marking the end of the school year. Of course, a successful year of growth and learning calls for celebration. Can we frame our celebrations as just that? A celebration of the year, but not a celebration of the year ending? I don’t think we should pretend nothing is happening, because part of our job is to teach our children how to process these big changes. After all, life is full of change. But I do wonder if we can frame it in a more school-positive way, and through that, send off our most vulnerable students with all of the love and affirmation they need to make it through a summer without their safe place.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value of trading places between the teacher and student role. Building trusting and meaningful relationships with our students is one of the most important things we can do. An important part of this is showing students our vulnerable sides.

I want to reflect on the value of becoming the student and allowing students to become our teachers. I think there are three things that happen when we do this.

1. We show students that we are still learning, and making mistakes, too

2. We empower students to take on an expert role

3. We remind ourselves what it’s like to be a student

When we put ourselves in the position of the student and ask our students to teach us something, we are completely flipping the hierarchal system of the traditional classroom (for example, “I am the teacher, therefore I am the only person with right answers”). Most teachers these days are doing this in some ways already. The inquiry classroom model is one great example of teachers challenging the traditional role and learning alongside their students. Learning from them, is a whole other thing.

Students that are offered an opportunity to teach something they care and know about to an adult are empowered students. Whether it be a skill such as drawing, knowledge about their favourite animal or sharing aspects of their culture and heritage, every child has something that they are an expert in. Asking them to teach us what they know and care about builds confidence and empowers. Feeling like an expert is important.

It can be easy for teachers to forget what it’s like to be a student. It’s frustrating to want to learn something or master a new skill and struggle. It’s frustrating for us as adults (have you ever participated in a Paint Nite?), and it’s frustrating for our kids too. Trading teacher-student roles can be a refreshing reminder that understanding a concept does not always come easy.

There are many ways to become the student in your own classroom. I’ve seen colleagues implement things like “Teacher For a Day” projects, or include teaching as part of the culmination of independent inquiry learning. These are great ways to do it, but I think there’s a lot more value in allowing it to come up organically. A while ago, some of my students were writing in Arabic during their free time. I could have walked over and said, “great work!” but an opportunity would have been lost. Instead, I decided to ask them to teach me to write. It ended up being a wonderful bonding experience. I showed interest in their personal knowledge and skills, they felt empowered as experts, and most importantly, I showed them that learning is lifelong. I think that’s a powerful thing for kids to know.

Plus, you can learn some pretty cool things from the grade one and two kids of today. How do you trade places with the students in your classroom?

I’ve been employed as an Occasional Teacher for just over three years now. I spent some time doing daily supply work and I’ve been very fortunate to have worked in full-time Long Term Occasional positions for nearly the whole time since. My last few LTO positions have been full-time, full-year, so I haven’t really been feeling like an Occasional Teacher, until the end of the year comes and I’m loading up my car, once again. I’m very happy doing what I do. Whether I’m with my class permanently or as an LTO teacher, it doesn’t change my day-to-day life and it certainly doesn’t change how much I care about my work.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not waiting patiently, and excitedly, for a permanent position.

If you’re like me, you’ve been paying close attention to the movement in your board, checking job postings daily, closely monitoring your place on that seniority list, and trying to determine your chances at having enough seniority in an applicant pool to finally get that permanent interview call. By my speculation, I was quite hopeful that this coming school year would finally be my year to gain permanent status.

Recent changes to our education funding have caused up quite a stir about hiring and the potential loss of teaching jobs. I can’t imagine how newly hired permanent teachers or those in positions at risk must be feeling. After all, they were right where I am not long ago.

My fellow Occasional Teachers are worried, too. Could my hoped-for permanent position be delayed by a year, two, or three as a result of the inevitable surplus? Many boards are hoping to absorb job losses through retirements, but it’s easy to see that next year’s hiring just won’t be what it has been over the past few years. It won’t be what I think many of us were expecting, meaning many people in the same boat as I am are probably feeling pretty discouraged right now.

What I want to say is hang in there. Remember that every day you spend in a classroom, whether you’re there for one day as an Occasional Teacher, or a year as an LTO, you are making a difference. You are teaching, inspiring and doing what you are meant to be doing. The road to permanent employment may have just become seemingly longer and harder to navigate, but it certainly doesn’t change the fact that one day, you won’t have to load up your car at the end of the year. One day, you’ll get to stay permanently in your happy place. Don’t give up on that.

It hurts my heart and my head to see colleagues and friends considering alternate employment, purely out of the necessity to provide for their families. I’m talking about people who have poured their heart and soul into becoming a teacher – people who belong in the classroom. Beginning teachers are some of the most driven, excited and passionate people I know. We’ve got so much to offer to our kids.

It certainly is an interesting time in education right now. To all my colleagues out there who are concerned about their jobs or their ability to find work over the next while – I see you. Hang in there and don’t let our circumstance overcome your drive and passion. Good teachers belong in classrooms, and you’ll get there eventually!

With report card deadlines looming and the continuation of our never-ending cold weather, I want to share some inspiration this week!

In addition to teaching full time, I have the complete pleasure of being a theatre arts educator and part of the overseeing team for a variety of youth theatre education programs at a local theatre company. Part of my responsibilities at the theatre is to coordinate several student matinee performances throughout the school year. I love this cross-over of my two passions, theatre and teaching. I’ve been fortunate enough to bring my own classes to some of these matinee performances over the past few years and each time, I’m filled with joy about what we’re doing.

This week I have been reminded of the magic of experiencing theatre in childhood. My theatre company offers free-of-charge tickets to high priority schools in my board, which allows around 4,000 children to attend a live theatre performance each year. In many cases, this is the first opportunity for a trip to a theatre for these children. My absolute favourite thing to do is stand at the back of the theatre and watch the faces and expressions of an audience full of children experience the magic of theatre for the first time. There are often audible “wow”‘s and “whoa”‘s coming from the young audience as a neat set change, prop magic or particularly powerful performance takes place.

I step back and think about all of the good things happening in that room. There are over 700 children in the audience experiencing the magic of theatre, fully engaged and often entranced by the performance on the stage. They are experiencing a beautiful culmination of literacy, drama, dance, music and visual arts. They are experiencing culture, being immersed in a new setting and learning the social cues and etiquette of attending a theatrical performance. On the stage is often our youth company – over 40 children in grades 5-8 singing, dancing and acting in front of large crowds. They are building confidence, teamwork, perseverance, resilience and so many more things that I’ll need to write another blog post about it –  but ultimately, they are being empowered. Children sharing their art with other children, an empowering exchange both ways.

I believe wholeheartedly in the value of experiences in the arts for students. Not only is participating in the art forms of dance, drama and music so rich for children, but being an audience member can be just as important. I hope that I’ll be able to continue my role in providing theatre experiences to many more children over my career, and that theatre will always remain a large part of who I am as an educator. If you haven’t considered a field trip to the theatre this year, I encourage you to do so!

Last year I had the pleasure of teaching in the smaller community of Dundas, Ontario. My school was located just a two minute walk from the charming, very walkable, downtown area. This got me thinking about how I can use the community as my main teaching resource.

As important as it is for children to build a sense of community within a classroom (Belonging and Contributing!), I believe it is equally as important to build this sense within the larger community. At a school where a wealth of enriching experiences was just a short walk from our classroom door, we decided to make this a large part of our program.

One of my favourite aspects of the year was the amount of walking trips that we went on. Since we obtained walking trip permission forms at the beginning of the year, we were able to take our class on adventures out in the community whenever it suited our programming. Here are all of the places we took our class last year:

Coffee Shop – When our children wanted to make a coffee shop in our dramatic play centre, we extended their learning by arranging a visit to a real one nearby where they got to go behind the counter and serve their own hot chocolate!

Animal Hospital – When an inquiry led us towards learning about veterinarians and pets, I connected with a friend who is a veterinarian who provided us with real life materials for our dramatic play centre. The next week, we went for an hour-long tour of the animal hospital and a “day in the life” experience!

Book Store – After a visit from an author, we walked to the local bookstore to look for and purchase a copy of her book for our classroom. This led to some great discussions about how books can be sorted and organized.

Dundas Museum – One day, while out for a walk, we watched construction crews use a crane to lift an antique steam hammer onto an installation on the front of the museum. We watched for nearly half an hour as they lowered the large machinery into place, and came back a few weeks later to confirm our hypothesis about what that machinery actually was and why they were putting it in the museum!

Community Park – When our outdoor learning program needed a little change of scenery! We also used the directions to the park as an opportunity for some learning about directions and maps.

Down Town Strip – After a discussion about places in the community one day, we took the class on a walk down the main strip of downtown. Equipped with clip boards and pencils, we invited the children to document what they saw. This led to some beautiful discussions and connections to familiar words, signs, logos and numbers they saw as they walked!

The Mail Box – A few times, we mailed letters or thank you cards to our special guests and walked to the community mail box to drop them off.

A Construction Zone – During our inquiry about structures, we extended the learning by walking to a nearby construction site and observing the workers for a short while. We were lucky that a foreman came over to answer all of our questions!

Our Neighbourhood – We made sure to go for a neighbourhood walk at least once a week, usually twice. We made observations about nature, house numbers, street signs, cars, architecture, and whenever possible, pointed out the students’ houses.

And, when we couldn’t walk, we took the bus for three trips to:

Community Theatre – I work and teach at a local theatre and arranged for my class to attend a matinee performance of our current show. For many, it was their first experience with live theatre. I was also able to take them on a backstage tour afterwards! I think there is a lot of value in showing your “real” side to students by sharing important parts of your life with them.

Butterfly Conservatory – To extend our inquiry about life cycles and insects.

Children’s Museum & Maker Space – This was our year end trip this year. We spent the day exploring the hands-on exhibits at The Museum in Kitchener, and also got to participate in two workshops: one about using colour in visual arts and another problem solving challenge to solve a puzzle by finding clues around the museum.

We also had a variety of rich experiences that came from people in the community that visited our classroom. Whether they were sharing knowledge, a new skill or facilitating an activity, each special guest that came to visit us brought with them something that enriched our classroom in a way that we couldn’t on our own. Between parents and other family members of our students, we had the following visitors:

A Musician and Sound Engineer – A father came in at the end of our music inquiry to play guitar for us and then make a recording of our “orchestra”, which we then shared with all of our families.

University Engineering Students – Arranged by an engineer parent, we had a workshop about engineering and each child got to design a robot that balances!

An Apiologist [A honey bee researcher!] – A mother came in and prepared a hands-on workshop about honey bees and how we can save them, as a compliment to our insect inquiry.

A Fisheries and Oceans Scientist – Another father came to teach us about fish and clams during our inquiry about the ocean!

Two Children’s Book Authors – A friend of mine came to read her book about math, and one of the children’s aunts came to read her children’s book as well! Both followed with a Q&A session about being an author.

A Visual Artist – One mother came every Wednesday to share a visual arts invitation with the children during play.

A Sushi Chef – We had a sushi day and children had the opportunity to make [allergy friendly] sushi, which led to some wonderful discussion about food from different cultures.

An Outdoor Learning Specialist – The owner of the natural playground company that designed our play space came every Friday to bring new outdoor learning opportunities for us. Some of our favourites were wood whittling, threading berries onto string for the birds, berry picking and making syrup from scratch by harvesting it from nearby maple trees.

A Violinist – A parent that played the violin came in to demonstrate the instrument, which allowed us to make great connections during our music inquiry.

A Children’s Music Artist – A neighbour to the school, and friend of a parent, was a locally famous children’s musician. He came in to sing and perform for our class!

The community was an integral part of our programming. It was such a powerful resource to have, and it really was at our finger tips – all we had to do was ask.

This year, I’ve moved on to a new town, new school and new grade. I know I was very lucky to spend a year in that wonderful community, and I only hope I can recreate the same experiences for my new class. More on that to come!

How do you make use of your local community in your teaching?

With the shift towards inquiry based learning in Kindergarten, I’ve seen some really wonderful things happening in classrooms. Teaching to the interest of the children opens doors to some really authentic, meaningful learning and quite honestly makes our job pretty fun. Educators have the ability to cater their program towards certain interests and often get quite creative in bringing these interests to life in their learning environments.

When classes get right into an inquiry, it can completely take over the classroom. Dramatic play centres are turned into elaborate submarines, dinosaur museums, space stations – you name it! Almost all areas of the classroom get retrofitted to go with the inquiry: the sensory bin, the library book selections, literacy materials, the block centre, and so on. All of these things are wonderful, but I find myself wondering a few things.

At what point does an inquiry become dangerously close to being a theme?

Kindergarten educators have a guilty pleasure for theme based teaching. It’s easy, it’s organized, it makes sense, it follows rules, it’s pretty and it all matches! It just makes sense that we have a harvest inquiry in the fall and a plants inquiry in the spring, but do they come about authentically or because we secretly want them to? We need to be careful not to turn our inquiries into themes.

Why? Themes aren’t meeting the needs of all of our learners. When we start an inquiry based on the observation of a few students displaying an interest, we’re doing a wonderful job meeting their particular needs and encouraging their learning. What about those few (or sometimes more than a few) students in our class that aren’t really interested in insects, arctic animals, structures, flight or whatever it happens to be? Sure, they will benefit from the exposure and probably take part, but for them the time spent during that inquiry isn’t as valuable as it could be.

An illustration of this is when we’d spent hours creating an intricate veterinarian’s office dramatic play centre and many students turned it back into a home living area whenever they used the space. This is mostly, I think, because they didn’t know how to take on the roles in a veterinarian’s office, but also because they weren’t really interested in that and just wanted to role-play home living like they’re naturally inclined to. Perhaps we build these beautiful inquiry related areas in addition to their usual dramatic play area, and not instead of?

This leads me to my second thought. We know that we have a diverse group of students with a variety of interests, levels of understanding and learning needs.

Why does everyone need to participate in the same inquiry, all at once? 

Children could participate in inquiries with small groups or individually! This is something I have been trying to encourage in my classroom and I’ve been finding great results. Students are more motivated and engaged in their day’s work [play]. We currently have a few inquiries on the go: some learning about the ocean, some about flight/airplanes, some about otters, some about hockey teams and one student who is individually researching The Tragically Hip. Again, got to love Kindergarten!

I’m not saying that whole group inquiries don’t hold value, because they certainly do when every child is engaged by them. We’ve had some wonderful experiences with the entire class engaged in the same topic for extended amounts of time this year. Our inquiry on music was a very rich experience and all of our students were genuinely interested in some way. I’m saying that whole group is not the only way to do inquiry.

Opening doors to more than one inquiry at a time will open the doors to more authentic and meaningful learning for all students. Yes, it will be messy and scattered and unorganized. For some, it might be a step out of a comfort zone but isn’t that what learning is supposed to be?