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Beverly Papove Mental Health, Wellness

Time to Recharge

The way work slammed into the holidays this year explains why I find myself sleeping in late every morning. Phew! That just happened! Now the two weeks ahead seem like all the time in the world to do anything but work. So, what is the best way to spend this time off?

Some things are out of our control around these super-charged holiday periods – traveling, family time, weather, finances, health – but finding some time to shut down and recharge your energy supplies should be a priority before heading back to work in January. Things really start to gather momentum when we return to the classroom with end-of-term reports being the biggest extra-curricular activity for teachers at this time of the year. Not that I’m thinking about work. Well, maybe a little. I am finding it really hard to walk by recycling boxes in the city without glancing in to see if there is some cardboard – kindergarten gold – I can harvest. The holidays have already provided me with an abundance of recyclables for the Creation Station, so it is not as if I need to keep gathering items. I will just be super ready for our first Monday back and I’ve made sure I have some sturdy plans in place for the first week for a smoother re-entry.

Trying to shut off “work-brain” is not easy – in spite of all the distractions over the holidays – and in fact, distractions are often not quite enough if you want to really recharge your energy. Quiet time, time for self-reflection, is what this dark, cold season warrants, sort of like housecleaning for the brain. Whether it is by walking/skiing/snowshoeing in a forest, field or city park, listening to natural sounds, or while listening to your heartbeat as you bob around in a floatation tank filled with warm, salinated water (doesn’t everyone have one of these kicking around the house?), we all need time to ourselves. Hopefully, you will find the opportunity to gather some loose ends within your mind so that you don’t return to work frazzled and unrested.

Our jobs are stressful, no doubt about it, with a high rate of burnout, so that is why there are so many reminders, to new teachers especially, for the need to look after ourselves. Occupational burnout is a real thing and I recall a doctor friend, whose patients included police officers and teachers, who was fond of saying, “You guys are always on stage. If, for some reason, you aren’t able to perform, I will have to take your badge away.” With that in mind, we are lucky to have a break in between gigs, where we can slow down, take some things off our plates, stare into space and breathe deeply to recharge those batteries.

Will Gourley Celebrating Success, Constant Learning, General, Professional Learning and Growth, self reflection

2016, seems like we were just getting started…

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/orvalrochefort/2992146699
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

It’s too late. Whatever you wanted to share or teach in the classroom will have to wait until next year. I’d have liked a little more time. Was this the case for you too? Fortunately, a return date is just around the corner. Conversely, time away from routines can also restore mind, body, and spirit.

A break like this provides me with time to think about teaching and other pursuits. Usually, it’s catching up with family, over-caffeinating, reading, and blogging. With the school year already 40% complete, our time off serves as both restorative opportunity and cathartic challenge.

This December’s end, I wanted to reflect like it’s June. Think of it as part of my own personal development. I am trying to make sense of things now – in the moment. A resolution, pep talk, or plan of action if you please. This means there are a lot of questions to which the answers are either too simple, or underdeveloped.

Did I miss something? Could I have been more supportive? Did I make the curriculum come alive with relevance for my students? Did they have enough challenge, motivation, and opportunity to learn? Did I prepare enough? Did I assess too little? Too much? Did I give my students opportunity to succeed? Was I supportive to my colleagues? Did I give everything I could? Was my work-life balance maintained?

I am sure the answer to each one of the above questions could be yes. Even the one about work-life balance.

Now what?

Questions like these pervade my thoughts. I’m cannot be alone as a reflective practitioner in our profession. So how do you reflect at this time of the year? How are you de-stressing? Are you able to turn off your teacher brain for 2 weeks? How about checking your email or assessing student work?

Do you think that this changes over a career in education? After 8 years in the classroom, I am trying to see each season with fresh eyes, but still struggle with disconnecting entirely. Saying goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017 will see me sharing, reflecting, learning, and unlearning as part of a process crucial to a professional pursuit of progress. How about you?

Keep the conversation going. Please share, respond, or retort.
I love hearing about your journey and heart for the art of education.

Happy 2017.

Will

Will Gourley Constant Learning, General, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, self reflection

Lessons from the hall. Or was it the mall?

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Not sure if anybody noticed, but local shopping malls were unusually festive over the past 6 weeks. Come to think of it, schools were too. Ever since Progress Reports went home, there’s been something in the air. In fact, I’m pretty sure it had to do with an annually anticipated event or holiday festivity. Whatever the cause, excitement abounded wherever I looked – whether it was in the halls or the malls.

However, there was one distinct difference, I couldn’t imagine have Boxing Day type line ups to get back into the classroom as if there was a 75% off learning sale. Get your lessons while supplies last! What if it was? There is no doubt that many educators and students were ready for a break.

The time leading up to the big day saw many classrooms adorned with seasonally themed crafts, gyms hosting concerts with particular attention paid to inclusive and acceptable winter music standards, and a lot of people wearing red in order to match the annual gift giving man’s commercially conjured wardrobe.

For years, many(not all) have decided, that during the six weeks leading up to the winter holiday break, they would attempt to cram as much kindness, creativity, and cuteness beyond human limits, capacity or reason. It was amazing to witness what can be accomplished when plans are hatched and deadlines approach. All of the work, acts of kindness/giving, and stress leading up to the winter break did not go un-noticed.

But wait, I wanted to connect this post to education not the Hall-i-daze or Mall-idays. 

In between dodging the inattentive and exhausted hordes, all I could think during my annual ‘mall-people-watching’ spectacle was how important having a purpose was to survive the experience. Come to think of it, teaching is quite similar. Having a purpose, a plan, and an exit strategy are imperative.

Am I saying that the halls of schools are filled with the inattentive and exhausted? Not exactly. Well maybe, but it does not have to be that way if we invigorate, iterate, and innovate our educational spaces. This can happen when educators at all levels are given the funds, flexibility and freedom to do so.

Take for example, instead of buying more text books a.k.a. knowledge coffins(my term), why not a document camera? See how I put some shopping in this post? Imagine the savings when digital copies of a Math text can replace 20 or 30 ($60 to 90) aging copies for fraction of the cost? Why should publishing companies be taking the lion’s share of our budgets? Of course, a few texts are necessary in each class, but not a text for every student in every subject in every class. The school wide savings of limiting text book purchases would free up budgets for more hands on learning resources like Math manipulatives, Science materials, maker spaces, and technology.

Allowing teachers a greater voice in their own budgets is a great place to start. In my classroom, we are paper minimalists. I do not believe in worksheets, instead make use of a document camera to share anything that might otherwise be copied. Instead of paper and consumables, I purpose 90% of my class budget for a growing collection of Math and Science manipulatives that will be useful from year to year instead of destined for the recycling bin.

By providing PD through school/board wide initiatives teachers would have a chance to engage in new ideas as new learners themselves. In the YRDSB we host 2 Edtech Summits per year to share ideas and learn new skills to use in the modern learning classroom. The new ideas, tools, and confidence can transform and invigorate a classroom. Imagine the engagement when students see a teacher as a learner too instead of the transmitter of lessons and marker of tests?

I can sense some walls and arguments being raised. Feel free to respond in the comment section. I promise it will not be comfortable at first. I promise it will be messy for a bit longer than that. I promise that mistakes will be made, but remember FAIL only means First Attempts In Learning. I promise that it will be the best thing you have ever done as an educator for a long time.

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health

Tis The Season To Celebrate

As the holidays approach it is important to sit back, relax, reflect and rejuvenate as you take time to get that balance back in your life. In the mean time, I would like you to celebrate everything you have done to advance your students’ learning and social development by putting in endless hours of lesson preparation, all the small things that are not part of your role, hours of team practices, choir practices and performances, clubs, extra support at recess, calls home, visits, breakfast clubs and on and on and on.

 

Please take the time to watch the following collection of short videos as they remind us just how important teachers are in a student’s life. ENJOY!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN3iLeq1828

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaHJRLoCyWc

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tN1U0uu2e4

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el6Hu2XQB_k

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2MLDW6Uh-E

 

 

 

 

 

Beverly Papove Learning About Your Students

Getting some perspective

The first time I really became aware that I was not in control of how other people saw the world was over 25 years ago when my mother was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 60. Before she got sick, like most families we would work together as a unit, going through our days with similar expectations of daily routines. When her decline became more rapid and evident, simple activities like stacking the dishwasher or opening windows on warm days caused conflict and stress. As she lost her ability to speak, the challenges were enormous for all of us – What did she want? What is she trying to say? Why is she doing that? Her behaviour was a puzzle for us. It was not until we began to try to see the world through her eyes that we were able to more often avoid stressors. We needed to stop thinking about our reality – opening windows on warm days was rational to us  – and start to see how open windows were a cause of anxiety for her. No use in trying to figure out why she became agoraphobic or hope for an improvement in her condition, it was enough to see that her world was turned upside-down and that we needed to realize this in order to be able to communicate with her on her new terms.

I was reminded of the importance of understanding that all behaviour is a form of communication when I attended an engaging workshop this week entitled, “Exploring Autism – The Elementary Years.” In one of the activities we participated in, the presenter encouraged us to consider the complexity, or puzzle as it was presented, of autism. The puzzle of autism refers not only to the fact that we have much to learn about causes and supports, but also to the fact that the disorder encompasses a variety of aspects from sensory processing and anxiety, to the developmental level of the child and their independence. After exploring the spider web of symptoms and strategies to help support children with autism, we were left with the central notion that it is a social-communication disorder; these children are definitely communicating to us, but the moments of intense frustration result from the lack of mutual communication due to the fact that we are not using the same language. A goal, therefore, is to try to see the world through their eyes so that we can better understand the stressors and be supportive when behaviours erupt.

In a classroom, we are constantly seeking perspective, not only for students with clinical diagnoses, but also for every behaviour that requires support and redirection. In one of my kinder classes, there is a child who experiences intense bouts of anxiety and fear of abandonment. She will often cry when we go on walks outdoors if she feels she is too far behind me or my ECE partner. We have learned that there is the possibility that she and her siblings are sometimes left alone in the apartment when their parent doesn’t come home at night. Knowledge of this possibility helps us to understand that what this child is feeling when she cries is not simply to attract attention, but is a symptom of a significant fear. In this case, we know the “why?” of her behaviour and this helps us find and implement supports at school. Taking her hand and walking with her is enough to allay anxiety at the moment and to build her confidence that we won’t abandon her.

Some behaviours, however, are harder codes to decipher and we are currently trying to gain perspective as a team into the possible reasons why one of our students is having serious toileting issues when this was previously not a problem. The fact that this child, who has behaviour issues as well, has been soiling himself almost every day for the past month when there are no evident symptoms of a digestive disorder, is the puzzle we are currently trying to solve. What are the reasons for his behaviour? What is he communicating to everyone? Despite our efforts to give him support and encouragement for positive interactions with his peers, why have none of the behaviours changed? We are sleuthing to be able to gain perspective into this child’s world so that we can give him the support he needs as soon as possible, and we are expanding our kindergarten team to include the administration and Learning Support Team so that we can gather some insight that might help us help him. At the moment, we have very little to go on, and we realize that our team of ECEs and teachers can see the result but not the cause of his behaviour. Doesn’t mean we are giving up, only that we have some work to do.

Laura Bottrell General, Math

“Unboxing” Math Instruction

“I’m not a math person”. This is probably a statement you’ve heard from someone at some point, whether it be a friend, colleague, student or even yourself. It’s something that I grew up truly believing. I grew up believing that I did not have a “math brain” and that it just wasn’t “my thing”. Today, I know this is a myth.

I learned this to be a myth about one hour into my Primary/Junior Mathematics course in my B.Ed program at Brock, taught by one of the most inspiring educators I’ve ever met. It was here I learned that everyone can learn math, there is no such thing as a “math person”, and that this was an unfortunate myth that has stopped many students and adults from success in mathematics.

So, why do so many people believe they can’t do math?

Traditional math instruction has been black and white –  right or wrong. But isn’t the grey area where the real learning happens? When we box our students into answering questions that require only repetitive tasks, rote memory or simple procedures, we box them in to a world of right and wrong. We box them in by assigning them a grade “4/10” on a simple procedures task. We box them in by marking their work wrong if they haven’t solved the problem in the exact way we’ve taught them to. We box them in when we don’t give them the chance to show us what they are truly capable of. When we box them in, we send a message that they can’t do math.

We know that having a growth mindset is directly related to success, especially in mathematics. Right now in education we are moving away from straight forward, right and wrong math, and moving towards building an environment where problem solving, growth and exploration is more important. With instructional techniques like the three-part lesson plans and number talks, we’ve moved our instruction in the right direction. We also need to open up our math questions so that there is space within them for learning.

Last week I had my grade 2/3 students write a math assessment as a conclusion to our unit of learning. One of my students did quite poorly on the assessment and I was hardly able to understand what he was thinking when he wrote down one of his answers. When conferencing with him after, he explained his thought process to me. He misunderstood the question on the test so he answered it in his own way. After understanding his perspective on the question, it became obvious that he had solved the question in a much higher level way of thinking and clearly had a deep understanding of the concept. He told me, “I made my own math”. Well, how great is that? Had I just taken it for granted, marked it wrong and moved along to the next student, I would have missed this teachable moment. Instead, he left our conversation feeling proud of his abilities rather than feeling like he can’t do math. He left our conversation with a growth mindset.

What our students believe about their abilities in math directly affects their success. We need to set up our students with opportunities to challenge their thinking, try new things, explore and make mistakes. If our students believe they have unlimited potential in math, they will do great things.

Next time, I will replace that question with something process oriented and open ended. After all, I’m still learning too!

 

 

 

 

Kelly.McLaughlin Learning in a Real Life Context, Math, Students as Teachers, Use of Technology

Surveys that matter

Today was a very interesting day for learning that took a different direction than I anticipated. We started off talking about ideas for the holiday assembly when I mentioned to my students that I would like them to survey the grade to find out their interest. It seemed unfair to force a grade of students to be involved in an assembly unless they really wanted to. Five of my students surveyed the entire grade about how they wanted to be involved. It was great to see them learning the process of how to create a survey (using google forms) and then administering it to their peers. Twenty minutes later, we created one to see if and how we should decorate the class. This survey was then administered to our class by five other students. It was great to see students talking about percentages and comparing pie graphs in a context that was not even supposed to be a math lesson. Learning can take place in all contexts and it is awesome when it is student led and the teacher just sits back and lets the magic happen. I am letting my students survey the intermediate students to select their music for the next school dance. I am also hoping to survey the school in the near future about extra curricular activities they would like to see in our school. Data management is proving to be an all encompassing area of study and is creating amazing student leadership! Try it out at your own school and see your students become teachers. They loved seeing the results from their survey matter and saw how action took place right away.

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship

Pay It Forward

As I reflect back on my teaching career I have come to understand how appreciative I am of the amazing teachers and administrators that have impacted and helped shape my life both as a teacher and a person. Everything I am as a teacher, everything I do as a teacher, everything I have is a result of the sharing that was done with me throughout my years in the classroom.

There are times when you do not know how to show your appreciation and saying thank you seems so inadequate. As a very wise principal (and now a good friend) once said to me, the best way you can show your appreciation is to make use of the advice given to you and pay it forward.

This post is going to be about paying it forward. I am going to share with you two of my most successful teaching units and two of my most cherished books that I use year in and year out. If you read this blog, I am going to then ask you to pay it forward by sharing in a response to this blog or via other social media options two of your most tried and tested teaching strategies, units or themes as well as two of your favourite books that you use in your classroom. Together we will pay it forward.

Books:

1994h4This book has been a part of my teaching for almost fifteen years. It is the book that starts my class off from Day 1 each September. The power of this book is in the multiple messages that can be drawn from the words and texts. The two main benefits I reap from this book are that everyone can read, reading is going to be fun and it kick starts my focus on drama for the year.

 

imgresThis book is part of who I am and my passion for the outdoors. It is the story of a 13 year-old boy who is lost in the wilderness and has to rely on himself to survive. This is a powerful book to hook children into the outdoors as the author creates a picture that transfers my students into the setting where they re-enact the main character. We culminate this book with our ‘Hatchet Day’ at a local outdoor education centre and then do a compare and contrast with the movie version ‘A Cry In The Wild’.

 

Poetry is a powerful form of writing and the success I have had with reluctant writers has been very inspiring to me. The power of this genre comes in the multi-faceted approach one can take with it. Poetic language does not have to follow grammatical rules, which allows reluctant writers to focus on meaning through word selection. I often use the outdoors as the theme behind our writing as we bring our experiences into the classroom and on to the paper. We culminate with a poetry recital where they invite guests to hear their writing.

 

Team building is a non-stop, five day a week, always on my mind approach that I take in my room. I de-emphasize competition and focus on common goals. ‘We’ is the pronoun that runs through the heart of my classroom. We enter into our year as individuals and from minute one we focus on coming together for a common good. The diversity and differences in our room becomes our strength as we celebrate and benefit from the shared expertise and passions in our classroom. This is accomplished through character education, books, songs, games and most of all face-to-face interactions such as eating lunch together.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and I now ask you to pay it forward.

 

 

 

 

Tammy Axt General

Grade five dance

 

Sometimes getting our older students to dance with each other is a challenge. Being touched or touching others can be so uncomfortable for them. I know exactly how they feel. I was one of the first members of my class in grade four to hit puberty with the force of a train. I remember what it was like to be so uncomfortable with anyone in my personal space or to have anyone look, comment or touch my body in any way . As a result, I really empathize with my students when they are shy or uncomfortable about personal space. One idea my teacher partner and I came up with to help with this issue was to create a dance unit that required students to dance with props instead of each other. Below I have outlined the student and teacher instructions of our unit.

Grade Five Spatial Relationship Dance

Student Instructions

Learning Goals

  1. Demonstrate the use of five different spatial relationships with a prop.
  2. Demonstrate the form ‘Call and Response’

 Spatial Relationships

Over/Under

Around

In-front/Behind

On/Off

Beside

Through

In/Out

Call

PARTNER 1 – performs a 4 or 8 count movement with a prop that demonstrates the use of a spatial relationship such as ‘over’. Partner 2 remains still while Partner 1 performs.

Response

PARTNER 2 – Then Partner 2 performs a 4 or 8 count movement with a prop that demonstrates the use of the same spatial relationship (such as over) as their partner but the movement must be different.

This call and response pattern is repeated five times.

Dance Plan Example:

 

Spatial Relationship Partner 1 Partner 2
1. Over/Under Jump and Spin Twist and Gallop

 

Criteria

  • Dance with a prop using 5 different spatial relationships
  • Use the form ‘Call & Response’
  • Create movement that uses your whole body
  • Use both locomotor and non-locomotor movements

 

Next Steps: Show a preliminary performance to the teacher to get some next steps to help in the creative process

 

Student Reflection – Identify the two sections of the dance that you liked the best. Explain why these were your favourite.

 

Teacher Instructions:

  1. Explain to students that spatial relationships have to do with how we relate to an object or person in space. Prepositions are used to describe spatial relationships. (Provide a list of prepositions.)
  2. Introduce the concept of spatial relationships in any of the following ways: using a prop, using your own body, or using a partner.
  3. Introduce the criteria for this dance emphasizing that the spatial relationships will be done with a prop.
  4. Explain that the form ‘Call and Response’ is used when you see a dance battle. This dance will use the same form but is not meant to be a ‘battle’. Each partner will create their own movement.
  5. Provide a variety of props for students to use to stimulate creativity.
  6. When students begin to create their dances, watch to see if they are following the criteria listed on the student handout sheet.

Here is a picture that includes some of the props we used for our unit.

props-1

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

Painting with the same brush.

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
PublicDomainPictures / 18043 images CCO 1.0

Underlying
An artist was preparing to paint one day. First, she stretched and secured her canvas over its wooden frame. The artist continued by arranging her brushes, planning a colour scheme, and then by setting up her supplies. Finally, it was time to ponder her subject forever to be captured in a moment of time and occupied space – where her vision would be on display in pigment, oil or acrylic for evermore for all to enjoy.

The artist could already see her finished masterpiece. As if the picture had miraculously painted itself. Without anything left to imagine, conjure, or deliberate she began.

Un-(der) inpired
It was all right there in living, er um, cold dead colour. All she had to do was slather it onto the wintery whitewashed space in waiting. She pulled out the widest brush in her kit, dipped it into the first colour, white, and painted a perfectly straight line across the top of the canvas. She dipped her brush again and repeated, the same thing over and over, with the precision of her first strokes until she has covered the entire canvas. She felt satisfied, but did not have time to admire her work for long. There were 29 more canvases to cover just like the first one. She smiled, sighed, dipped her brush, and started on the next one.  Yet, with a pallet of colours and brushes at the ready, the artist only knew how to paint with a single brush and to use white paint to do her work.

http://kaboompics.com/one_foto/880/brush-painting-the-white-wall CCO License

Under pressure
Does teaching ever seem like this to you? Do educators feel they are asked to paint blank canvases everyday, but are only given one wide brush and a single colour to work with? I wonder whether that is how some teachers have come to feel when a learning system is imposed on them which expects students to be taught to the test?

Teachers plan and prepare their materials to deliver a lesson much like the artist in the story above and in the end are expected to use the broadest brush and one shade of paint. What may be more disappointing, is that many only have time to paint one coat before feeling they have to move on.

Underwhelmed
I am not a huge fan of the traditional textbook. In fact I have called them “knowledge coffins” in the past. When traditional textbooks are at the centre of the instructional day, there is little option for learners to explore beyond its pages.  Yes, it’s all in there, but at what cost are other things and ideas being left out?

First, consider the cost of purchasing texts/licenses per class. Math books alone can range upwards of $1500 to $2000 for a class set per subject. What happens when the curriculum gets revamped like what has recently happened in Ontario with the French(2013), Health/Physical Education(2015), and Social Studies(2013). Could the money schools, boards, and government pour into photocopies and textbooks be used to provide Chromebooks for every student instead? Imagine the cost savings in paper alone. If we did this, every learner from K to 12 could be equipped with a productivity and research tool for the classroom at their fingertips? And, at home too if WiFi is available.

Unrepentant
I am a fan of adaptive and hands on learning environments. In the classroom, I want students to have a voice in how and what they are being taught so we can democratize education. I believe all educators possess the means/ability to transform and tailor their instruction to suit their students. What they need now is a safe place to do so and that’s an issue of system and school leadership.

JFK Paint by Numbers
JFK Paint by Numbers

To paint a portrait of the future, educators need to use the prescribed curriculum as a pallet filled with colours that is not limited to a paint-by-number task. However, many are afraid to use other, less traditional brushes and materials to paint their masterpieces because the outcomes might not look resemble or match work gathering dust on the walls.

Yes, there are things to be taken from the past, but the world outside our classrooms has not remained fixed in space and time. Neither should it remain static inside. The classroom must become a vibrant and connected place where students have access to, and be able to contribute to a world of knowledge.

This requires courage to happen. It requires time for others to understand, accept, and embrace. It doesn’t have to look perfect. The mess is an important part of the process.

Ask yourself what or who inspires you to take chances as a learner? What new idea(s) would you try in your classroom if you knew you couldn’t fail? Start by giving yourself permission to change things up in one subject area, and then go from there.

I’ll be here to chat if you want to talk more about how we can change the portrait of education to a landscape of creativity, differentiation, and encouragement.

In the meantime I have some brushes to clean.