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Will Gourley Constant Learning, General, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Math, Resilience

Keep swinging for the fences

photo by jcclark74 CC0
photo by jcclark74 CC0

Spring is definitely here, perhaps this is not so evident in our temperamental weather, but by the fact that baseball season is back. In honour of that I wanted to share some connections to how being a student of the game is like learning in the classroom.

I look at baseball as a sport for all ages and genders. Everyone can play. In some ways, a baseball diamond could be the ultimate classroom with so much going on at anyone time in the stands, in the dugout, and on the field.

Baseball is a game of scenarios. There are constant situations to be thought through in every game and there are statistics kept from little league to the major leagues. Just think of all the other Math skills at play in the concession stands, ticket offices, and accounting/payroll departments. Math is an important part of baseball.

Baseball is a game of Physics. How a ball rotates from the pitchers hand towards home plate determines its trajectory. The angle and bat speed at which a player makes contact with a ball determines its flight duration and distance. Major League Baseball measures everything possible on the field that happens in a game, including ball rotation, pitch velocity, swing(bat speed), and field area covered in a program called Sabremetrics. I wrote this TED Ed lesson called Future of the game: Baseball latest statistical revolution to show how it is used.

Weather plays a role here too. Forecasts determine whether games can be squeezed in or postponed. Data from on-field temperature, and prevailing winds gets noted too. Imagine the engineering required to design the perfect outdoor ball park because no two seem to ever have the same design.

Baseball can be altered and adapted to suit the level of all its players. There is Kickball(soccer baseball), marshmallow baseball(played with a tennis racket and a bag of marshmallows), and Rounders. Some might even prefer the game of Cricket as it may be more familiar to their students than baseball. All of these adaptations have similar fundamentals and transferable skills.

Baseball is a team sport. No one can play all of the positions at once. It requires collaboration. Everyone plays a role whether in the field or waiting to bat. Baseball is a thinking game. Many of the lessons of life come from playing it. I mentioned Math and Physics before, but there are other areas that come in to play here too;

  1. Emotional- Players can get caught up by a moment, or when a mistake gets made. This can lead to other mistakes if focus required to make the next play. Baseball teaches its players to keep their minds on the game. It also shows students that mistakes are going to happen. How they recover from them is an important part of the game/lesson.
  2. Mental – With all of the statistics kept in baseball it is important for players to know what to do with the information. Processing on the fly and responding just like in the classroom comes from preparation aka practice. Players and students alike prepare for games/tests receiving coaching/instruction and next steps for improvement.
    Steve Hovley negative feedback
  3. Feedback – Whether playing baseball or learning in the classroom there is always feedback. Some is positive and some is negative. This can depend on something as simple as mindset, timing, and delivery. With students the risk of being kicked off the team is never on the table. There are no minor leagues in education. Teachers are in the room to help all of their students make contact with the ball and circle the bases with their learning. Regardless of the type of feedback teachers and coaches are there to instruct, identify talents, and encourage their students.
  4. When a player strikes out, there will be another chance to bat. When a player walks a batter or misses a throw, there will be another chance coming their way soon. The lesson is always be thinking and practising for the next opportunity whether it is in the classroom or on the field.

So as the players take to the field for the next umpteen months take some time to share this incredible game in your classroom. Take time to enjoy the Science, Math and chance to develop life strong habits of resilience and teamwork.

Will Gourley Anti-bullying, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, General

Cancer, pink shirts, and why I hate Jell-O

cancer

Cancer is a ruthless disease. It knows no boundaries, respects no ideologies or cultures, and disrupts the lives of everyone affected by it. Cancer has a twin in education. It’s bullying.

Recently, I was creating some TED Ed lessons about bullying(in its various forms –The Cyber Bullying Virus and Bully Dance). This got me thinking about the following question;

What makes bullying so virulent that it can evade, morph, and destroy generation after generation?

What if we looked at bullying like it was a medical epidemic? If we called it a disease, which it truly is, would it be treated more seriously? Could it then be given the same attention and urgency as HIV/Aids, Ebola, and Cancer are in the medical world?

Or have we built up our immunity to the existence of bullying in our schools that says if it is not happening to us?  Like cancer, bullying is serious. Its symptoms leave lives in havoc along its path.

Yet, for all of the attention(meetings, resources, legislation), research, assemblies, and instructional time invested into eradicating bullying across multiple lifetimes it has not disappeared. With fingers pointing in all directions it is time we all look to our youth to solve the problem of bullying because the adults have made a mess out of it.

Remember back in 2014 when school trustees, all adults, managed to create a working environment so toxic that the police needed to be called in to deal with the troubles. My students asked why the adults couldn’t get along? I couldn’t answer it with anything other than bullying.

How do we justify this behaviour to a media savvy student body when those in positions of leadership are modeling “do as I say, not as I do” by their actions?

The course of treatment for the cancer of bullying is simple. Let students lead.

Students possess limitless energy, potential, and ideas so why not equip, empower, and get out of their way to do great things? A powerful example of a student led initiative to stop bullying is Pink T-Shirt Day. It started in 2007 at a Nova Scotia high school where a grade 12 student defended a grade 9 be being bullied because of the colour of his shirt. It has since become celebrated as a national day of awareness, with schools across the country holding stand up to bullying by wearing pink events.

PinkShirtDay

One of the reasons Pink T-Shirt Day is such a success comes from students leading the way. It has now fostered other wear pink events to fight bullying, homophobia, and transphobia. My school will be participating in its 2nd Day of Pink of 2016 on April 13th. At its core, pink shirt day is a way for everyone to stand together in order to focus on everything that unites us. I feel more student led events like this would set a positive and lasting example for people who have struggled with bullying at all levels of education from classroom to committee.

When students are allowed to lead they naturally rise to the task. Want proof? Look at the impact that Ryan’s Well, Free the Children, and Me to We have made on our world. Each amazing initiative inspired by a student.

Think about how you can encourage your students to be agents of change and social good in the fight against bullying in your school. I would love to hear if your school participates in Day of Pink activities. Tag me here or on Twitter @willgourley.

p.s.

I had Jell-O in the title because I was looking for a silly focus point in the title. There is an explanation of my true dislike for Jell-O at …why I hate Jell-O on escheweducationalist.wordpress.com.

Beverly Papove General

Learning to share habitat

The week before March Break we scheduled a workshop with the Scientist in the School program. Our presentation was for a kindergarten workshop on habitat called, “There’s No Place Like Home.” It was a great way to engage the students so close to a holiday, and a wonderful lead up to Earth Hour which our school participated in during the last afternoon before the break.

During the workshop, the students rotated through centres facilitated by parent volunteers and the program presenter. In the well-organized and engaging centres, they learned about animals in salt versus freshwater habitat; they learned about animals that dig tunnels and animals that live in, on and under trees; they also learned how beavers create habitat when they dam a waterway. All in all, it was a great afternoon of hands-on learning which the students thoroughly enjoyed.

When we got back to the classroom, I created the opportunity for the students to paint a mural of animal habitat as a follow up to the workshop. On a blackboard placed at eye level for the students, I painted the slope of a hill which lead to a body of water. To encourage the placement of a beaver dam, I painted two water levels, to simulate before and after a dam. Then I invited students to come and paint animals in their habitat.

They painted birds in trees on the hill, worms and ‘bunnies’ in tunnels under the hill, and fish, ducks, and turtles in the water. Someone painted the beaver dam and added a moose on the shallow water side having a drink. Throughout the day, students would ask if they could add an animal and its habitat, and so the mural was quite full and detailed by the time we left for outdoor play at the end of the day.

The following day, I sat with some students at the art table. I had with me a pile of card stock cut in half lengthwise (about 4.5” x 11”). On one of the cards, I drew a long broken line down the middle of the length of the card, put some masking tape on the back, and handed it to one of the students, asking them if they could find a spot to put a section of road in the habitat mural. I asked them what happens when a road is built but there is water or a valley along the way. That’s when they realized they had to build a bridge with the cardstock over the water and the beaver dam. As the road and bridge were being built, I asked if anyone wanted to draw, colour and cut out cars and trucks to put on the road. Then I asked if houses and buildings could be drawn up the same way. Soon the mural was full of roads with cars, buildings, a bridge, a car factory, stop signs and traffic lights.

When it was done, I gathered the students to have a seat in front of the mural. I asked them what had happened to our habitat mural. Here is some of what they said:

“Cars came.”

“The habitat got covered up.”

“Their habitat is under the road and it’s not really good.”

“The road’s right above the bunny tunnel and they can’t get out.”
 “If animals try to get up on the road, they could get killed.”

“Maybe some workers that cut down the trees might not know that a robin was in there.”

When I asked, “What should we do?”, the students suggested taking all the roads and buildings out of the habitat, until one little girl asked, “But what about us? We need a place to live, too!” There was a collective murmur of, “Oh yeah…” and several heads nodding in agreement as they realised that there might be a bit of a problem with their initial idea. Rather than getting into a discussion of the enormous conundrum involving population growth, urban development, and habitat destruction, and hoping instead that the lesson would build knowledge and end on a positive note, I reframed my question by asking them if they and their families had ways of living that could help and protect habitat. Many mentioned that they have bird feeders, that they walk to school instead of driving in a car, and that they have a garden and a compost bin. As they continued to list off the many small ways they are engaged in looking after the environment, there was a sense of , “Oh ya! I am a helper not a destroyer,”  which seemed to make everyone feel better.  Later on, when we turned off all the lights, the computer, and the overhead fans for Earth Hour, the students had a new appreciation for participating in yet another way to help out the planet.

Mike Beetham Building Inclusion, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, physically active

That Chickadee Feeling

This classroom field trip is based on a book written by Frank Glew. It is a regular part of my classroom in the winter. Each year in my attempts to keep my students winter active I use this read aloud as a focus for my students to connect to their natural world in all seasons. The precise of the book is about how a young child is bored and has nothing to do. So the parent decides to take them on a hike. The child experiences for the first time that Chickadee feeling.

Finally the day has arrived where my class and I will be heading to our local outdoor education centre where we will try and experience in real life what we witnessed in the picture book. The snow is gently falling and the forest is covered in white with only the underside of branches showing their natural colour. It is a perfect day for what we are wanting to do as there are very few natural food sources available for our winged hosts. As we hike toward their feeding area, the Chickadees know we are coming and they start to follow us, knowing that human presence means it will soon be feeding time. My students start to both hear and see the tiny birds as they stay close to cover to avoid any natural predators.

Finally we arrive at the location where we will attempt to experience that Chickadee feeling. I take a few moments to talk about the best techniques to try and get the tiny winged marvels to land and feed from their hand. One-by-one the students collect some black sunflower seeds (Chickadees are very fussy eaters) and move to a location where we will serve as a human bird feeder.

Within minutes the word has spread somehow in Chickadee language and it seems like dozens of birds arrive and carefully scout out the sudden feast that awaits them. Then, it happens! The first Chickadee lands and perches on my student’s outstretched hand, grabs a seed, looks at my student and flies quickly away. This first landing creates a chain reaction of the same scenario and they feast for the next 10 minutes. Like a proud father I carefully observe my students to ensure that each and everyone of them have that opportunity to experience the Chickadee feeling. The smiles, the chorus of oohs and ah that echo in the forest tells me that they know they have just become a part of the infamous Chickadee Feeling Club. I hope you do one day as well.P1050784 P1050792 P1050786

Kelly.McLaughlin Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Resources, Students as Teachers, Use of Technology

Tech Talk

I would like to share a new initiative my class is starting at our school Ancaster Meadow.

Our class realized the large need for technology in the classroom. We noticed that students are sometimes unfamiliar with apps that are available for completing work and for presenting learning. We are starting a new program called “Tech Talk” where as a class we travel to classrooms and instead of “Reading Buddies” we will assist the class one on one with apps of the teacher’s choice. We came up with a benchmark of five:

  1. Explain Everything
  2. Kahoot
  3. Weebly
  4. Pic Collage
  5. Prezi

These apps will be explored in detail by my class so when we visit our first class after the break, the break off sessions will be smooth and very productive. We will offer this program to grades two-five and speak to teachers before regarding sign up. Students will be able to explore the apps, prepare a small task and then share it with the whole class. The sessions will be fifty minutes long as that is how long a period is in our school. We hope that students will learn from each other and that everyone will be able to use these apps in the new future. I hope it will be a meaningful experience for my class to teach younger students skills that they already have. I cannot wait for our first trial after the break. I encourage everyone to try this  “Tech Buddies” program and share your experiences as well.

Mike Beetham Challenging Topics, General, Inspiring Teachers, Learning in a Real Life Context, Mentorship, Resilience, Wellness

Rebound From Your Mistakes

Perfectionism seems to be a common character trait of teachers in that they expect to be perfect at everything they do. They must have perfect lessons, they have to have perfect classroom displays, they expect perfect interviews and so on and so on. If this level of achievement has not been met they often feel they have let down their students. They may feel guilt or embarrassment and tend to dwell on the negative aspect of the scenario. The reality is we are human and humans make mistakes even if they are teachers.

We are patient with our students. We expect them to make mistakes in their personal learning journey and offer formative feedback that allows them to reflect on their learning and move forward to the desired outcome. If this works with students, it will also work with teachers.

There have been many, many times over the course of my career that I made a mistake. Like when I said something I should have phrased a different way or when my reaction to a classroom situation was not handled in as professional a manner as it could have. Each time a situation occurs that I feel could have been handled a different way I complete a personal reflection that helps me move forward in my practice. All of those not so shining moments, have helped shape my learning and skill set for the present and future.

One of the Keys of Excellence in my classroom is ‘Failure Leads To The Sweet Smell of Success’. This foundational belief teaches my students that mistakes are inevitable and we can examine the error and turn it into a teachable moment so that future scenarios will result in success for all. An added bonus to this is that my students become more of a risk taker as it relates to ability to try new things. I live by this belief and it has helped me become a lifelong learner as well as a risk taker in experimenting with new pedagogical practices.

 

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Modern Learning

Movers and shakers

I might catch a little fire for this title.
And thank you in advance for reading.

Every classroom has them- fidgety student(s). You know the ones who cannot get comfortable to sit still, are unable to focus for longer than 8 seconds (there are statistics for that), and are constantly in motion. Some days you see your classroom is more like a garden filled with hummingbirds flitting, buzzing, and appearing to faff about even when totally engrossed in a task.

Are they learning? Can students learn when their distractedness is a distraction? You’re thinking about your students right now(past and present) aren’t you? I am, and yes like yours are incredible capable learners, each of whom possess a curiosity and creativity that we allow to flourish.

So, how do(did) we manage to harness a student’s abundance of energy without blowing a fuse or short circuiting the individual? For me, working with* a ‘busy’ student, whether officially identified with ADHD or not, requires a deft balance of patience, structure, and at the same time flexibility. Inside of this is an expectation of great things that is mapped out and shared with the help of the individual learner. It is not my agenda that gets carried out. Student voice is crucial in this process. Negotiation skills training is included in the deal.

Do you allow students to doodle? This simple artistic expression allows students a place to focus the fidgety moments onto the paper while freeing their attention to concentrate on the lesson. How about a soft foam squeeze toy? In my class we have several available that are specifically dedicated to any students who might feel a bit of stress or the need to keep their hands occupied. Plus they’re fun to throw around the class as a kinaesthetic activity and to practice Math facts or French verb conjugation.IMG_0164

Doodling and fidget toys seem counter-intuitive to many teachers who were educated annually in the art of rote in row after boring row, but can be great ways to support your busy students. Sadly, the education from the good old days doesn’t always honour the progress of humanity in the 21st Century. Especially, when it keeps referring to what worked or is rooted(stuck) in the last one as the only path to knowledge. In my opinion this is antithetical to the needs of modern learners who, as a result of innovation, technology, and pedagogy find themselves barely coping in some classes while thriving in others. 

My teachers had a kid like that, me. My mom shared, that after some tests and upon the school’s urging our family doctor prescribed some meds which were intended to help channel my “energetic” demeanour. My parents refused. Thanks mom and dad!

Although some of my colleagues might volunteer to renew the prescription for me, I am glad my parents decided not to take the pharmaceutical option. Instead they chose to work with my teachers on implementing strategies which would keep me busy, moving, and engaged.

Do you know how many notes I delivered around the school, erasers I cleaned, or how many times I helped the caretaker sweep? And that was during instructional time. Every recess(2 x 15 mins + 60 mins lunch) was spent running, jumping, climbing, and playing. It was the time outside, in motion, that made the time inside learning tolerable. So it makes me wonder how many others went through, or are going through the same thing as I did?

Without apologies I wish to proclaim and thus forever own my ADHD. In fact I wear it like a badge knowing it was a blessing in my life as a learner and is a gift in my life as an educator. The challenge for learners and educators comes in finding that Goldilocks Zone between perpetual motion and learning progress each year that is just right.

As the researchers note, “in the school setting, the challenge becomes how to create an environment in which creativity is emphasized as a pathway to learning as well as an outcome of learning.” from The Creative Gifts of ADHD by Scott Barry Kaufman in Scientific American

And therein lies one of many Catch-22s in our profession. We have some who have blessed their classrooms for  35 years or more, and others who are just being hired. The gap between youth and experience is not going anywhere? How do we re-invigorate mindsets, open ourselves to greater collaboration, and sharing the wisdom gathered from experience. There is much to gain from having both. Now the challenge is preparing, pairing, and finding some playtime between the two sides.

* I had originally considered using the word ‘handle’ instead of ‘work with’ as I wrote this post. Upon reflection it was wiser to be considerate of the fact that handling a student conjures negative thoughts, whereas working with a student evokes a working opportunity.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General

Quick and Simple Language Activities

Over the past few years, I’ve spent a decent amount of time amassing quick and simple language activities to use with my class. I’ve focused on finding things that easily adapt to a wide range of abilities, can be used in a variety of ways, and are fast to set up. I like to use these activities during my language groups/centres time, but they’re also really handy to have around in case there are any last minute schedule changes or an unexpected absence.

1) Photo of the Day: I load up a photo from a website like National Geographic (their Photo of the Day galleries are great) or a news source. I like to choose photos with a lot of interesting elements to them – things my students can talk about, think about, compare to their own experiences, etc. I provide my students with some sentence starters (I teach a second language program) and then ask them to write about the photo, prepare a short presentation for the class, or discuss it in groups. My sentence starters are things like:

“In this photo, I see…” / “Dans cette photo, je vois…”

“I think ________ becase ________…” / “Je pense que ________ parce que ________…”

“This photo makes me think of…” / “Cette photo me fait penser à…”

My students talk about where they think the photo was taken, what they think is happening in the photo, what details they notice which provide them with insight into where/when the photo was taken and what is going on. These activities have taught them a lot about providing evidence and justifying their responses, which has helped their literacy development considerably.

 

2) Journal Tic-Tac-Toe: At the beginning of the week, I set up one of my language centres with a tic-tac-toe sheet (really just a 3×3 grid) where each square has a different writing prompt. Over the course of the week, students choose three prompts to write about, with the caveat that their three choices have to make a straight line. The prompts can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. You can tie them into your Social Studies or Science units, or you can focus on specific writing forms, or follow a simple theme. These sheets provide students with choice while focusing on specific skills or subjects.

 

3) Story Starters: My husband is a professional artist, so sometimes I ask him to make things for me to use in the classroom. It’s pretty awesome when he has the time to make something for me! One thing he made me several years ago was a bunch of sets of “story starters” – collections of images (two characters, an object, and a location) based on fairy tales or themes. I printed them out on cardstock, laminated them, and put them all on their own keyring. In my classroom, I use them for writing and drama. They’re handy to have around for having students come up with simple skits to get them speaking (especially useful in a second language classroom like mine). Sometimes I use them in their original sets, other times I mix and match characters, settings, and objects from different stories/themes. I have about twelve different sets of these, which I keep in jars/tubs that students can draw them out of randomly. Here’s an example of a printsheet with a few different sets:

Story Starter Small Set 1

 

4) Boggle: I have a standard Boggle template I’ve made and a bunch of laminated square cards that I can write letters on with dry-erase markers. The square cards have magnets on the back so that I can stick them on the blackboard. Students have to make as many words as possible with the letters provided. In French, I don’t worry about adding accents to vowels, telling my students instead that they can add accents to the letters as necessary when forming words. We keep a tally in the class throughout the week of which students have found the most words and/or the longest words, which really motivates them to try and find more as the week progresses. I usually pick the letters for the week by starting with a long word so that my students have a really good one to find. Sometimes I use letters that I know will form a vocabulary word from a unit we’re studying. I don’t do Boggle every week, but they enjoy it every time I do!

 

Hopefully those are a few ideas others can use in their classroom when they need something fast and simple to prepare. The nice thing about them all is that once you’ve set them up once, they’re really easy to come back to again. I have all my favourite photos bookmarked, for example, and I keep lists of Boggle letter sets my students were really successful with.

If you have any favourite quick/simple set-up language activities you do with your students, let me know! I am always looking to add to my repertoire.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General

On Work/Life Balance

When I started teaching five years ago, I quickly became known at my school for being at work late. I was usually one of the first teachers to arrive, and I was nearly always the last teacher to leave. I would be in the building for ten to twelve hours a day. I brought work home with me many nights, and every weekend I would spend hours marking, planning, finding ways to keep working long after I should have been finished for the week. I had the sense that if I didn’t spend that much time doing work, I would fall behind, my students would suffer, and my colleagues wouldn’t see me as a dedicated teacher.

(The funny thing about that, as an aside, is that I never thought any less of my colleagues who didn’t spend ten hours a day at work. I could see that they were all good teachers no matter how much time they spent at work. So why did I feel like I was any different?)

Two months ago, I went back to work after being on parental leave for a little over a year. One of the concessions I had to make, now that I have a child at home, was how much time I spend at work. I pick my daughter up from day care at 4 PM, which leaves us just enough time to get home, play a little, have dinner, take a bath, and go to bed. On days when I have to be at work later than usual (such as staff meeting nights or union meetings), I don’t see my daughter at all. She is just getting up as I leave the house in the morning, and she’s in bed by the time I get home on those nights. Because of this, I make it a point to leave as early as possible every day that I don’t have something after work.

Before, my hours were generally 7:30-5:30 or later. Now, I get to work between 7 and 7:30, but I leave by 3:30 every day. I am spending considerably less time at work. And here’s the thing: my students are fine, I’m fine, and my classroom is running pretty much the same way it always has. The only appreciable difference between my last year at work and this year is that I’m spending a lot less time “at work” and a lot more time with my family. I still bring work home sometimes, but I don’t feel guilty when it doesn’t get done. I still spend some time after work prepping for the next day, but more of my prep and marking is done during school hours (such as at lunch and recess). I’ve changed some of my assessment practices to make assessment easier and quicker (more on that in another post).

My professional life has not suffered in any way from me leaving at a reasonable time and leaving work at work. My personal life, however, has benefited tremendously from this new schedule: not only do I have more time to spend with my daughter, but I have more time for my husband and friends as well.

I am still behind on marking, just like I was when I would be at work late every night. There is still more I could do to prepare for lessons or plan ahead of time, just like before. There are many days when I am running around all day to get things done before leaving, and there are days when I bring a stack of work home because I have no choice but to get it done that night. But that’s my point: it was like that before, and it’s exactly the same now, only I’m spending a lot less time at work and a lot more time with family and friends.

And my students are okay.

If you’re a teacher doing what I was doing – spending over ten hours a day at work because you think you need to in order to be a good teacher – try taking a step back for a few weeks. Try leaving earlier, leaving work at home, changing some of your assessment methods so that you’re spending less time marking. You might be surprised at how little it changes your professional life… and how much it changes your personal life.

Tammy Axt General

How important are the arts?

arts

Look very closely at the picture above. This picture was taken at an elementary school in St.Kitts while I was on a tour. I stopped to look at the bulletin board and on the board was a list of classes that the students could choose from for the upcoming term. There choices were Cooking, guitar, drumming, steel pan, dance, drama, sewing, arts and crafts and masquerade. As an arts teacher, with a team of three to support the pursuit of arts at my school, we would not come even close to offering our students all of these subjects as a separate choice.

The reason why I was lucky enough to be taking a school tour in St.Kitts was because two summers ago I was a member of Project Overseas. As a participant on Project Overseas, I spent the month of July giving workshops to teachers in St.Kitts about autism and it was the experience of a lifetime. Although I was there to lead workshops, I definitely learned a lot about my own practice and came back with a lot of questions about our education system. First and foremost, how important are the arts?

Teaching in an elementary school, I see the benefits of the arts every day. For many of my students, it is a chance to be successful in an otherwise challenging day. For other students, it is the outlet that helps them deal with challenges in their home life. I could tell the story of my struggling student who beamed when all of his classmates gave him a standing ovation in class for his beat boxing presentation. During our Black History Month assembly, one of our students did such an amazing dramatic interpretation of a Maya Angelou poem the whole audience broke into thunderous applause at the end and she looked so happy. There are stories of art projects, songs written, original dance moves and hours upon hours of critical thinking and creative expression.

The arts also support learning in all other areas of the curriculum. The scientific inquiry process and the creative process follow a very similar trajectory. They both encourage a lot of curiosity and a chance to try something out and revise as needed. The arts also support learning in math. Music notation and instruction in rhythm is basically a different way of thinking about fractions. Many music posters with division of beats look identical to fraction strips. When I walk around my school, I also often see art projects based in tessellations or symmetry. Social studies is basically embedded in the third overall expectation in the arts curriculum. Analyzing historical contexts and the past and present community perspectives is taught every term in Ontario arts classrooms and that is directly tied with the Social Studies curriculum. Finally, language is often what drives music melody and dramatic presentations.

The arts are also bring us together and make us feel good about ourselves. I have read so many studies about how music and the arts provide stress relief and comfort in times of need. With a very important move towards providing support to our students in the area of mental health, we need to recognize the important role that the arts can play in achieving this goal.

I recognize that I teach in a school with a large staff that requires a lot of planning time so having specialized arts teachers is easier for us than many others. However, when you start looking at the research conducted by People for Education in 2013 versus the same study in 1998 about specialist teachers I start to wonder about the direction we are taking. In 2013, only 44% of elementary schools had specialist teachers dedicated to teaching the music curriculum. In 1998, the number of specialist music teachers was 58%. My question is if planning time went up over the last 15 years why are there fewer music teachers required?

Can classroom teachers do an amazing job at teaching, drama, dance, visual arts and music? Of course they can! I see amazing instruction in the area of visual arts at my school all the time. However, with funding for arts performances and programs down as well as declining commitment to have specialist teachers are we moving in the right direction?