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Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, self reflection

The drive

Hands up if you’ve ever wondered what goes on in the minds of the drivers on the road around you?

Recent commutes to school and to shopping feel more like scenes out of a Mad Max movie, except with snow storms instead of sand storms. Vehicles speeding, tailgating, weaving, cutting one another off, and then there were some drivers who provided visual proof that not all birds have flown south this winter. However, none of this reflects anything close to the spirit of kindness and giving this season is supposed to celebrate.

Lately, a combination of work-life/Geo-political stress, an over-abundance of festivities/holiday cheeriness, and wintry weather have made people significantly more interesting. And by interesting, I mean disagreeable, distracted and sometimes dangerous. Being easily distracted myself, I started thinking about self-driving cars and how an autonomous vehicle would handle this time of year?¹

Then came a realization that our current cohort of elementary students could be among the first to have self-driving cars by the time they get their driver’s licences. Will this be a good thing or will a Neo-Luddite backlash prevent this particular advancement in technology from coming? What about education? Could classrooms become more autonomous too?

Why hasn’t all of this happened sooner when it could be better and safer for everyone? Are there Edu-Luddites at work trying to preserve exhausted and traditional systems? As education ploughs into this century, will it keep pace with a modern world that is changing at the speed of learning? Will broke down dogmas of teach, test, report, and repeat finally be traded-in, repaired, or left on the side of the road? Is this why NASCAR is so popular?

Getting somewhere

Speaking of NASCAR, I wondered whether everyone travelling at the same rate was a good idea. Did you know there is something called a restrictor-plate? Isn’t that what’s happening in our classrooms already? Students race through their learning based on birth years, circling the track over and over until all of their age appropriate laps are completed, and then they’re towed or driven off at the end of Grade 12.

But what if they need to stop along the way? Are there pit-stops/provisions in place to support students who do not fit the factory learning model or who prefer a different pace? I get that special and alternative education options are already available, but what if more students need them and they are not available? Think of a racer who needs tires and gas at a pit-stop, but only being able to choose one. It’s only a matter of time before frustration and failure become the outcomes.

In my next post I want to continue driving home this theme, but will shift gears to consider where we and our students are heading. Please read my companion piece The destination to continue the journey.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share and take time to comment.

1. Did you know that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are logging over a million miles of data per day?

Arianna Lambert Assessment, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, self reflection, The Global Competencies

Embracing Creativity?

I’ve always been fascinated by teachers who are true life long learners. Those who understand that our work is a practice and that there are always professional development opportunities that are available to us to pursue for both personal and professional growth. I would have to say that my love for continued learning has in part been inspired by my parents who are constantly taking courses in order to grow. For the last few months, my mother has been taking a course in Critical Thinking and Creativity. I have to admit that I usually love following along in her modules to learn with her but didn’t get that opportunity this time because of my schedule. The course was developed to foster Critical Thinking and Creativity and yet when it came to her culminating activity, – in my opinion – the course fell short and this opened a discussion about how we might be doing the same in Elementary and Secondary classrooms.

In our board, consideration has been given to the understanding and implementation of the Global Competencies. We have even gone as far as creating a site with Learning Experiences that teachers can use in classrooms as we work towards helping our students to become globally competent. I found it interesting that my mom’s course would be in developing 2 of the competencies in participants. As mentioned before, I thought that her culminating activity was everything but creative and used very little critical thinking in order to put it together. When she first told me of the task, I was excited and wondered how I might be able to introduce something similar with my students but as the printer continued printing the long list of specific expectations, it became apparent that there was really only 1 way to be able to accomplish the task and the exemplars provided, solidified this understanding. As I watched my mother work through her assignment, I started to reflect on the assignments that I offer to students that are considered open, and wondered if in reality, they really foster creativity. Am I truly getting my students to think critically about information provided to them or simply getting them to regurgitate facts based on their research? How am I doing that? In the creation, am I encouraging students to be creative in their own way or am I limiting what they may create by what I hope to assess?

A few weeks ago, we started working on a board game project for Social Studies. The idea came from the book, Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student. My goal was to have students uncover parts of the Social Studies Curriculum and then create a board game, not a bored game. The grade 4s had a focus on the following expectations around the Political and Physical Regions of Canada.

Screenshot 2017-12-30 at 4.40.00 PM 

The grade 5s focused on the following expectations based on the Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship.

Screenshot 2017-12-30 at 4.41.34 PM

After doing some research and learning collaboratively about Canada, they were asked to select the expectation that they would like to focus on. From there, they worked on their own individual research that they would submit with their board games at the end. Although we made some general guidelines about what was to be contained in their board games, it was open for students to create and for some, it appeared too open. Many wanted to know what they could do to get a B or an A and were expecting a list, similar to my mother’s. I struggled with finding a balance between providing enough support while at the same time giving them the freedom to try something, even if it didn’t quite work out the way that they expected. After investigating some of the qualities of games that we enjoyed as well as exploring some that were new to us, we worked together as a class to come up with our success criteria that was based on both the Social Studies and Language Curricula. Posted in the class, it was available for all students to review as they continued to work, not for the specific way to create the same cookie-cutter board game but rather to make sure that they were critically thinking about their research and their ability to communicate the learning by guiding players with their procedural writing.Screenshot 2017-12-30 at 5.34.40 PM

What I noticed during this activity was that students wanted to dig deeper into developing and sharing a plan of social or environmental action rather than merely providing facts about Canada. Many of my students looked at issues from bullying to deforestation and urbanization and considered creating games where people were given ways in which to have a positive impact in our country.

 

Screenshot 2017-12-30 at 5.32.24 PMAs I mentioned before, we are well into the creation stage and will continue in the new year. I do wonder however, if by calling it a board game, if I have steered them into a specific direction. Could it have been just a game where I may have seen a greater diversity of materials being used from physical to online? Did I in reality just do the very thing that bothered me so much about my mother’s course? Ask students to create something that wasn’t bored and yet steered them all into asking for bristol board? I’m on a path to really reflect on the types of tasks that I design for students while expecting them to become critical thinkers who are creative. This has now become food for thought for future tasks that we’ll embark on. Please stay tuned!

Deb Weston Indigenous Perspectives, Indigneous Ways of Knowing

Acknowledging First Nations Women in the development of Canada

1890s_fur_trader

If you have studied Canadian History, you will know that without the establishment of the fur trade, our nation of Canada may have been limited to the banks of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Saint Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean. Without the push of fur traders called Courier du Bois (i.e. Runners of the Woods) and their exploration carving out routes through forests, creeks, lakes, and rivers, Canada may have not been established in the west as it is today.

 

We know that European and Aboriginal men traveled through these routes transporting large quantities of fur, particularly Beaver fur. The men lived in harsh climates, especially in the Cree Woman Norway House HBC enhancedwinter. The European men came to North American accustomed to a different less harsh weather, and faced dealing with different food sources and clothing unsuitable for the Canadian climate.

So how did these men survive and who provided the clothing and food needed to face a very different climate?

The answer is evident but not obvious to Canadians … it was the First Nations women who played a vital role in establishing Canada’s fur trade. It was First Nations women who provided travelers and fur traders with the tools they needed to explore Canada.

 

What tools did the First Nations Women provide?

 

HBC trading routes

Knowledge of the Land:

First nations women acted as guides and interpreters for fur trading as they knew the languages and trading customs of many First Nations groups. These women guided Europeans through well established aboriginal trails and trading routes and along Canada’s lakes and rivers. These women knew the best places to camp and how to set up a campsite with fires, meals, and comfortable bedding.

 

Food for Survival:

First Nations women knew which plants and animals could be eaten. Picking the wrong, leaves, roots, shoots, fruits, and berries to eat could result in sickness or worse, death!

pemmican-02 (1)Picking the right food could result in delicious, nourishing meals which provided enough calories to fuel long trips through the wilderness. These women taught Europeans how to fish and trap animals for food as well as preserve food for winter. They taught the Europeans how to plant corn and use it for bread, like bannock or corn stew like sagamit. The First Nations women provided fur traders with high calorie Pemmican made from dried bison, moose, caribou, or venison meat powder mixed with animal fat and berries (see recipe below). Apparently Pemmican can last over 50 years without going bad, now that’s the ultimate survival food!

making_felt_hat

Preparing Furs for Trade:

The First Nations women knew how to trap the animals to get the best fur for trade. Once caught, animal furs needed to be prepared for sale. Preparing furs for trade meant work. Furs had to be cleaned through scraping, strung and stretched while drying, and tanned so they did not rot. Well prepared furs sold for high prices.

 

fur trade clothing

Making Clothing for the Climate:

From the skins and furs, First Nations women made clothing perfect for the Canadian climate. They sewed moccasins, coats, mittens, and leggings to keep traders protected from the elements. They also wove blankets and used furs and skins to make shelters and bedding.

And with the addition to these tools, First Nations women provided the future of Canada with the most important resource, people. First Nations women had common-law marriages with European men who’s union produced a great many generations of hardy future Canadians, ready to survive and thrive in Canada’s northern climate.

Fort Albany family

In Fort Albany, in James Bay, Robert Goodwin (1761 – 1805) from Yoxford, England, a Hudson Bay Company surgeon, had “a la facon du pays” or a country common-law marriage with Cree Woman Mistigoose (1760-1797), a Goose Cree woman probably from the Lake Nipigon area.  Their first child was Caroline Goodwin (1783-1832). Robert also took on a second Goose Cree wife, possibly a sister or close relatives of Cree Woman’s, called Jenny Mistigoose (1765-1864), daughter of Pukethewanisk. Both these First Nations women likely provided Robert with the supplies, food, and clothing he needed to do his work dealing with broken bones, cuts, infection, consumption (TB), scurvy, smallpox, malnutrition, frost bite, gangrene, gout, and STDs. In 1797, when Robert Goodwin took his son, William Adolphus Barmby Goodwin to England to get an education (and live with his lawyer), William’s Cree mother, Jenny drowned herself from grief in the bay of Fort Albany. In this death in his 45th year, Robert included the support and ongoing care of his wives and over 8 children in his will.

At around the same time, John Hodgson (1764-1833) from St Margaret’s, Westminster, London, was Hudson Bay Company’s Fort Albany Chief Factor (between 1800 & 1810). John Hodgson had a country marriage with Ann, a Cree Woman, possibly from Thunder Bay. Their union produced a first born son, James Hodgson (1782-1826) also know as James Hudson. Ann supported her husband by providing him with food, shelter, and clothing to sustain him in his work and at the same time gave birth to over 12 children.

Fort_Albany,_Ontario_(1898) tents

CarolineFort_Albany,_Ontario,_1886 Goodwin married James Hudson and had over 16+ children together.

 

 

 

Their 7th child was Mary Ann Hudson, granddaughter to Robert Goodwin, Cree Woman (wife #1) Mistigoose, John Hodgson, and Ann Mistigoose.

Mary Ann Hudson was also my third great grandmother (discovered in 2017).

So, not only were the First Nations women important to the support and expansion of Canada’s fur trade, these women also helped establish the population of our future Canada. Today, like me, Canadians are here because they have, knowingly or unknowingly, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit ancestry.

So when Rosanna Deerchild on CBC Radio welcomes listeners as “your favourite cousin”, indeed, some Canadians may truly be all cousins.

Next time you look at a Beaver on the Canadian nickel … remember who did all the work to make the fur trade a success in Canada.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

PS: Unfortunately, none of the people in these pictures are related to me.

 

 

How To Make Pemmican

We recommend trying HQ’s recipe as stated above, but if you’re looking for more precise instructions, we found this pemmican recipe by the University of Minnesota. This recipe makes 3.5 lbs. http://www.alloutdoor.com/2014/01/28/this-pemmican/

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups dried meat (only deer, moose, caribou, or beef)
  • 3 cups dried fruit (currents, dates, apricots, or apples)
  • 2 cups rendered fat (only beef fat)
  • 1 cup unsalted nuts (optional)
  • 1 tbsp of honey (optional)

Supplies:

  • Cookie sheet
  • Mortar and pestle
  • Kitchen knife

Instructions:

First, dry the meat by spreading it thinly on a cookie sheet. Dry at 180° overnight, or until crispy and sinewy.

With the mortar and pestle, grind the dried meat into a powder.

Add the dried fruit and grind accordingly, leaving some larger fruit chunks to help bind the mixture.

Cut the beef fat into chunks.

Heat the stove to medium, and cook the beef until it turns to tallow (rendered fat).

Stir the fat into the powdered meat and fruit mixture.

Add nuts and honey to improve taste (optional)

Shape pemmican into balls or bars for easy and quick consumption. We recommend wrapping individual servings in wax paper or storing in plastic bags.

 

References

Rosanna Deerchild

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/rosanna-deerchild-1.2813088

Robert Goodwin

https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/g/goodwin_robert.pdf

http://www.metismuseum.ca/media/document.php/07205.Notes%20on%20Robert%20Goodwin.pdf

John Hudgson

https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/h/hodgson_john.pdf

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hodgson_john_6E.html

“She is Particularly Useful to Her Husband”: Strategic Marriages Between Hudson’s Bay Company Employees and Native Women – https://www.nps.gov/articles/hbcmarriages.htm

Michelle Fenn Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Constant Learning, Equity, General, Inspiring Teachers, Mindfulness, Occasional Teachers, Occasional Teaching, Planning, Professional Judgement, self reflection, solidarity, Wellness

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.

 

Tammy Axt General

Dealing with a particularly challenging parent

There are so many steps that you can take to develop strong relationships with parents, such as staying in regular contact, contacting them at the first sign of trouble or inviting them to be a part of their child’s learning. For most parents, developing a trusting relationship with their child’s teacher can be achieved when they feel informed and are part of the decisions made about their child’s progress.

However, since we work with the public, we also teach the children of some parents who are impaired in their ability to work with others due to a variety of reasons. These reasons may include mental health concerns, addiction or emotional or physical abuse. Over the past ten years, I have interacted with parents who have been physically aggressive in parent teacher interviews, disparaging to their child in public settings and have been so intoxicated that we had to call the authorities to ensure that the child had a safe way to get to their home. These parents make up such a small part of the large group of amazing parents that I have worked with over the past ten years. These parents are also the ones that have caused me the most stress and challenges when trying to establish a positive relationship.

I feel like I have learned some things from my mistakes in the beginning of my teaching career when dealing with volatile parents.

Be transparent and document, document, document everything. At the first sign of trouble, start documenting all interactions in a parent log, in detail. If a volatile parent makes outlandish accusations or complaints, the easiest way to defuse the situation is to have proof to the contrary. E-mail or speak to your admin about the parent as soon as you suspect trouble, so that they are aware of a potential need for assistance.

You are not there to be abused. I tried desperately to deal with everything by myself earlier in my career. I wanted to show my principal that I could handle the tough situations. However, in the process, profanities were being shouted at me regularly and I was becoming quite fearful of going to work. No one should ever feel afraid to go to work. Do not try to deal with this alone.

Depersonalize. This is the hardest rule to follow for most teachers because teaching is so very personal. We spend countless hours worried about the well being of our students and planning the perfect modifications to ensure our students’ success, so looking at the situation analytically is tough. However, I can logically realize that I am not the reason that an adult has a substance abuse problem and I am not the reason that they have mental health challenges. I have not abused this person, fired them, divorced them, evicted them or stolen their money. All of these things can lead to a general aggression that sometimes is misguided and is wrongly directed at teachers. All of these things also have nothing to do with me.

Stay calm. When someone is yelling at you, it is very hard to stay calm, however, it is very important. You have an obligation to follow the professional standards outlined by the OCT. Also, if your student is there, it is imperative that they have an example of an adult interacting with respect and integrity. They only get this example if you stay calm, professional and respectful. Calmly call for assistance if there is a parent acting in a way that is volatile. Allow the administration to intervene and remove the parent.

If your administration is unsupportive, call your local union office. They will be able to help you in dealing with unsupportive principals and give you guidance about how to proceed.

Finally, try to have compassion. Again, this is very hard when you are fearful or getting little support from administration. However, everyone can agree that living with mental health issues is very difficult. At the end of the day, though, the person who needs the most compassion is your student. This stressful, volatile and aggressive adult is who your student goes home to every day.

 

Tammy Axt Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General

Modifying music for a student with special needs

I have been working with the amazing ERF Ms. B to develop a program for one of my students with autism who is in my mainstream grade four classroom. This student has so many talents and I feel that the program that we have developed for him is allowing him to show his talents to us and his peers. He is very limited verbally, so we have focused on playing the xylophone and recorder and using technology, which he is excelling at. The predictability of the routine has also supported him in his success.

The period is broken down into four parts for him.

Part One- Warm up

All of the students in grade four have been working on playing the recorder in November and December. At the beginning of every period, we sit together and do some simple warm ups with the notes B, A, G, E and D. My student with autism joins us for the warm up and, with assistance from Ms. B, plays at the same time as the rest of the class but not necessarily the same notes. This warm up is usually just a few minutes long.

Part Two- Independent Work/Peer Assessment/Creation Time

All of the students in the class are working on a variety of songs at their own level. At this point in the class, I am giving individual students feedback, pulling small groups for guided instruction and assessing the students’ ability to read and play a variety of pieces of music. Ms. B works with my student to play the same songs as the rest of the students. His music just looks a little different.

IMG_0085

Each colour represents a bar on a xylophone and the black bars are for rests and extended notes. The little notes are for eighth notes so that he plays them more quickly. You can see below him working with Ms. B.

IMG_0077

In addition to playing for Ms. B, we have also recently done peer listening assessments in my class. The students were required to play for five other students so that they could listen to feedback from others.  You can see how I have modified the assignment from the recorder to the xylophone for this student.

Recorder

IMG_0083

Xylophone

IMG_0082

During this time, students are also required to write some of their own music. I have simply written out some blank squares and had this student colour in some choices and play it for me.

IMG_0087

Part three- Rhythm Games

On my iPad, I have loaded some rhythm games for my student to play. The game below is Rhythm Cat, which many of my students really enjoy playing. Ms. B uses a timer so that there is a visual cue for the time allowed on the iPad.  The rest of the class does some sharing during this time.

IMG_0078

Part Four-Tidy up and celebration

This year I have made a celebration wall to acknowledge the achievements of my students. My students have signed the coloured paper that coordinates with the song they have successfully played. By playing the xylophone with colour coded bars, my amazing student has passed the first three songs and is working on the fourth, which is right on par with his classmates. He has signed his name happily and his classmates have cheered him on every step of the way!

IMG_0080

Kelly.McLaughlin General

Music project

Hello all,

I thought I would share about the music project my students have been working on lately. They were asked to remix a holiday song in preparation for the holiday assembly. This post is mostly to share how incredible children are 🙂

My students had no boundaries for this project and here are some of the directions my students have taken this project:

  • creating their own song on garageband with holiday rap lyrics
  • using a music writing software called musescore to write a combination of four songs creating a holiday spin on all of them
  • creating their own beat on garageband and playing a pre-existing song to an incredible sped up tempo
  • using boomwhackers and bells to recreate holiday songs
  • using the drum kit to create a beat to little drummer boy while having a singer on top of that beat

It’s incredible to see how children can take something as simple as “remix and song” and find many ways to incorporate their own ideas and talents. I think that you can do this with any project and asking students to try to go above and beyond often inspires them to do more. This was a question my principal spoke to me about, asking students to self reflect on what inspires them to go above and beyond? Also, why do they select that option when given it rather than just always trying to go above and beyond. I invite others to try out this music task for any project really but keeping the expectation simple often invites students to go crazy with it! Obviously my rubric was detailed but the expectations were clear and had lots of room for imagination. I hope to post some of the final projects on this blog!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Deb Weston Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Math, Resilience

Math Instruction for Struggling Readers

42d13283546edcd4684f24d2297a9257--math-books-reading-books

As a learner, have you ever felt really frustrated because you know you can do the work but you just have a barrier that prevent you from moving forward?

This is how struggling readers feel when they try to complete their math assignments and assessments but cannot read the words. Did you know that most content area text, including social studies, science, and math, are written several reading levels higher than where the students are at in reading? Did you know that most students are introduced to 1000 to 2000 new vocabulary words per each year? (Harmon et. al., 2005).

The reality is that in order to do math, students need to be relatively good readers.

In order to put you, the reader of this blog, into the perspective of a struggling learner, I’ve included some simulations below.

Try them and experience what your struggling student readers experience when doing their math work!

Reading Issues Simulation

Experiencing Math Issues

Experiencing Attention Issues

Experiencing Organization Issues

Experiencing Writing Issues

So, as a teacher, how do you support students with struggling readers in math? In order to support struggling readers, teachers need to understand their students’ deficits and strengths!

Math challenges faced by students with reading disabilities

  • Understanding the math questions due to weak phonemic awareness and decoding strategies
  • Dealing with math vocabulary
  • Movement and/or reversals of text & numbers
  • Remembering dates, names, numbers, list that lack context (i.e. random)
  • Processing during tests & assessments
  • Limited executive function due to brain function being used to read text
  • Challenges with rote learning such as math facts

Strengths of students with reading disabilities

  • Curiosity, gets new concepts linked to meaning
  • Enjoys puzzles & building models
  • Excellent thinking skills in comprehension, reasoning, & abstraction
  • Excellent listening memory
  • High success with practicing reading in subject-area vocabulary
  • Often excels in subjects not linked to reading such as math, computers, visual arts, science, and other conceptual subjects

By understanding students’ deficits and strengths, teachers can build on this understanding to help struggling readers excel in math.

Supporting students with reading disabilities

  • Use decodable, easy to read, text and sight words in math problems
  • Engage students curiosity so they can explore the meaning of new concepts
  • Use puzzles & show models to solve math problems
  • Teach math through discussions and group work to take advantage of excellent listening memory
  • Explicitly teach and support math vocabulary with a visual math wall and math dictionary
  • Extra processing time during class work and assessments
  • Take advantage of students’ excellent thinking skills in comprehension, reasoning, and abstraction
  • Support learning with assistive technology (e.g. Google Read/Write & Open Dyslexic font)

As I am a teacher with a reading disability (i.e. dyslexia), colleagues have often asked what it it like to be dyslexic … well, I found a website that simulates dyslexia. After showing colleagues my world of reading, I explain that I have developed strategies to read like reading words as pictures and reading conceptually. Students will develop their own strategies through hard work and resilience.

Check Out the Dyslexic Reality Here!

Using an adaptive font can significantly help students to deal with word and letter reversals. I use an Open Dyslexic font on my web browsers and in my word documents.

OpenSource Dyslexic Font

As a teacher, I ask you to be patient with your students who are struggling readers because with work and effort, one day they will become strong readers …. because not all students are good readers … yet!

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

References

Harmon, J. M., Hedrick, W. B., & Wood, K. D. (2005). Research on vocabulary instruction in the content areas: Implications for struggling readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21(3), 261-280.

What it’s really like to read with dyslexia

Michelle Fenn Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Mindfulness, Professional Judgement, Resilience, self reflection

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!

 

 

 

Michelle Fenn Anti-bullying, Building Inclusion, Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Diverse Learning Needs, Equity, General, Inspiring Students, Integration, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship, Social Justice, Students as Teachers

Kindness and Gratitude

My hope in asking for a junior division assignment was that the students would be more independent however, I also knew that in exchange, I would be likely dealing with the issues of the tumultuous “tween” years.  My expectations for this group were particularly high because I had taught nearly half of them for two years in grades 1 and 2 and I felt as though I knew them pretty well.  Unfortunately, we have been having social issues in our classroom and the students are having difficulty treating each other with kindness.  I wasn’t prepared to have to “teach” kindness and gratitude at this age.  After 20 years in the primary grades, I suppose I assumed they would already know how to be kind.  Let me be clear.  They are not horrible kids and having raised two kids through the “tweenage” years I know the behaviour is driven by hormones etc.,  Kindness becomes more complicated in the junior grades as the social constructs change and being popular and fitting in becomes that much more important.  What I’m trying to get across to the students is that kindness is actually more powerful than being mean but they aren’t yet all buying into it…yet.  I’m not giving up.

We started by reading the book “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio together as a class.   After every few pages there was so much to unpack in discussion with the students about empathy, “precepts” for living and loyalty in friendship.  In discussions, the students were easily able to empathize the injustices suffered by Auggie and were angered by the actions of the antagonist, Julian. We also went to see the movie in order to compare the stories and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were thoughtful in their assessment of the themes and the major differences.  In reality, however, they were having a hard time putting all of this knowledge into practice with one another.

I needed to dig a little deeper and do some research and I happened upon a great website connected to the book; #choosekind is a campaign attached to Palacio’s book and it started us on a journey of kindness.  We’ve also been using lesson plans from the Random Acts of Kindness website and have begun daily gratitude journals.  We started restorative circles using our talking stick using Restorative Circle prompts. We have created our rules and agreement for our circle.  It has been a slow start because we are starting with topics that are allowing students to relate to one another and are not value or character based sensitive topics yet as we work to build trust in the circle.  Our first couple of prompts were, “What are 3 things that you cannot live without?” and “Who is your hero?” Not everyone is able to come up with something right away and sometimes we have to circle back, but it is a beginning.

We also wanted to do something as a class that was more global and would make an impact on people whom we didn’t even know.  In Peterborough, we have a store called Under One Sun.  They are part of a larger organization that supplies crafts from artisans in Haiti, “Restoring Dignity Through Artistry”.   We decided to participate in a Christmas ornament fundraiser which helps to create jobs and sustain families in Haiti. Some of the money goes to the artisans for healthcare, childcare, education and materials and some of the money comes back to the school.  Our class of 22 students alone sold more than $1000.00 worth of ornaments.  This fundraiser makes a difference in our community and for families living in Haiti and broadens our student’s awareness of global issues of poverty.  In addition, we are going to learn how to make paper bead jewelry ourselves as gifts for our own families.

As we move into the holiday season, December is a great month to think about giving, gratitude and kindness.  We are going to be working with the Senior Centre down the street, hanging our art work, singing songs to entertain and presenting a dramatic re-telling of “A Promise is a Promise” written by Robert Munsch.  We have created a kindness calendar which includes random acts of kindness for each day that do not cost money.  Hopefully, day by day, discussion by discussion the students will come to realize the power of kindness.