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Kelly.McLaughlin General, Students as Teachers

A class full of teachers

It is now February and our class environment is finally starting to settle in. I recently wrote a quote for my class to help us remember a very important rule, that when one person is trying to lead everyone else should be listening. The quote I wrote was “Knowing when to listen is just as powerful as knowing when to lead”.  That way, when any student is trying to quiet the whole room, it reminds them that only the person trying to take charge should be in charge of that for the moment.

My class is fully run by the students as they start the day with a current event and end the day with leading the agenda session as well as leading a session of “big ups” which are compliments personalized to students around the room. The students during their presentations have to gain control of the class on their own as well as students teach math lessons using the app “educreations”. Students also can choose their own learning for our daily five activities.

I like to think that I am only there to guide the students through the explanation of projects and lessons and then for extra help in some scenarios. The students are becoming so independent even though they are only in grade six. The class is so student centred that you can feel the leadership daily at such alarming levels. I am so proud to be able to call myself their teacher as I feel like I am learning more than I am teaching. It is such an amazing experience having your students teach you something rather than the other way around. I honestly believe that after seeing this and knowing that this type of teaching is possible, that student centred learning is the only way to teach.

Photo of Lisa Taylor
Lisa.Taylor Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Planning, Report Cards

Updating the IEP

With the end of Term 1, comes the IEP review and update process. While the intention is that the IEP is regularly reviewed and updated, many IEPs lay stagnant all term and are dusted off at reporting time to be updated. Teachers are excellent at setting goals, supporting goals, working with children to achieve goals, and even revising and modifying goals along the way. We often slip up in the record keeping portion of the process. How many times have we called the parent of a student on an IEP to talk about how they are doing, what they can be working on at home to support progress, etc., and not logged it in the IEP contact record? I often forgot to include that until it was IEP review time and then I would grab my communication binder and update. It is so important to keep the IEP up-to-date always. If you set a goal for a student to be able to count up to 50 and notice that they can count to 60, that goal needs to be changed on the IEP immediately! The whole point of the IEP is to have goals that are attainable, but not too easy. The hope is that we will push the student beyond their current ability level to extend their knowledge, hopefully closing the gap between where they are currently working, and the level their class is working at.

When recording communication, goals, assessments, accommodations, etc. on the IEP, I find it helpful to include as much detail as possible. Many IEP engines have drop-down menus, check boxes, etc. This might not always provide you with everything you need to paint an accurate picture of the student. Don’t be afraid to use the “other” box and explain. If you are doing something that is “outside of the box” for a student and it is working, document it!

We like to think that those students will be at our school forever and so will we, but that is not always the case. Unfortunately, families move, teachers move, people get ill, things happen. If you are suddenly not able to be at school, it is important that those records are up-to-date. Last year, I became ill and was quite abruptly sent home from work to await surgery. I was given next to no notice that I was not going to be at work, and the duration was undetermined. In the time that I was gone, two of my students moved. Had I not had their records up-to-date, I would have had to come in off of my sick leave (which might have jeopardized my leave) to collect up my data to update their records. Keeping things thorough and detailed also means your colleagues who have the student in the future know what things have been done for the student, what works, where the strengths are, etc., without having to track down previous teachers. With Lay-Offs, School Surplus, Transfers, etc., the staff in a school can change pretty rapidly. That document might be he only thing left in the school that really knows a student by the end of the staffing process in a given year.

There are lots of sites that will help with writing goals, scaffolding to ensure goals are progressing toward a larger goal, etc. It is often easy to get the IEP completed once you sit down and get to work. It is feeling the urgency and the importance that the document holds that really motivates a teacher to keep the IEP updated on paper, not just in their daily planning.

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Challenging Topics, Wellness

Term 2 For You

Report cards are in the final stages, IEP’s being developed, interviews upcoming and we still continue on with our long term academic plans. Term 2 is now underway and it seems that our daily workload has doubled as we try to fit all of the above items in. This is a critical time to also put into place a plan for your personal wellness. How will you balance all of the professional demands you are faced with and still make time for yourself?

This is a time of year where stress levels rise and as teachers we tend to put our professional obligations above all else, even if that is detrimental to our health. We will tell ourselves that the March Break is not that far away or I can rest up in summer or, or, or etc… It is essential that as we move into the very demanding time of year that we also plan for our own social and emotional wellness. For each individual that will look very different. For myself I have developed a practice of when something is added to my daily workload (like report card writing) I take away one item to make time for that. So this year I have delayed doing our annual class play until after the break where it will be a much better fit for me both professionally and personally. In addition I have booked every Sunday morning to go out either cross country skiing or snowshoeing with a close friend. By having other people part of my commitment I am now more obligated to follow-up on it as it is more than myself I am letting down. Personal wellness and lifestyle balance should be a part of every teacher’s yearly planning.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Professional Learning and Growth

Working With a Mentor

As a new hire, all Ontario teachers participate in the provincial New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP). While the specific details of NTIP vary from board to board, one common component is working with a mentor teacher to develop your professional skills.

I was fortunate to go through NTIP in a school where I had already completed a Long Term Occasional assignment. I knew the staff, and as such I had developed great working relationships with many teachers in the school. Before my principal could even ask me who I would be interested in working with, I had discussed the idea with a colleague – my teaching partner from the year before. We knew we had similar teaching styles but different strengths, so it was as much an opportunity for her to learn from me as vice versa.

In my board, we are given three release days to be divided between the NTIP teacher and his/her mentor as they choose. These days can be used for time outside the classroom for planning, time observing either the NTIP teacher or the mentor in the classroom, attending professional development opportunities, etc. It was really nice to have it be so open and undefined because it allowed us to decide what my priorities were and how we would address them.

We started with a very general question: “What am I good at?” This question would give us a starting point for discussion. My mentor had already come up with a few things areas in which she felt I was strong. I added a few more, though it was an incredibly difficult question for me to answer because I was so new. It was really beneficial to see what she considered my strengths because I hadn’t yet had a TPA, so I had never heard someone talk about my teaching skills from an outside perspective. Many of my strengths were things I had already decided were priorities.

The next question, perhaps predictably, was, “What do I want to improve?” While it’s easy to criticize your own teaching style and come up with a list several pages long, I tried to really focus on a few things I felt were particular areas of need for me. It wasn’t going to be possible to touch on all of them with our limited time, so together we decided on one thing that we could work on together. For us, that was assessment. Together we planned a unit for my class and a unit for hers, with the plan being to work together to assess students before starting the unit and again at the end. For all of the assessment during the unit, we would be flying solo (because realistically, that happens on such a daily basis that it would be impossible to do together).

We never had a chance to finish our units together because of a family emergency, but to be perfectly honest, the planning and discussion was beneficial all on its own. Just by having a frank conversation about our strengths and needs and by planning units together, I learned more in two days than I had thought I would. I’m not certain that our discussion would have been as meaningful or helpful had we not been familiar with one another already. My mentor already knew a considerable amount about my teaching style, my strengths, and my areas of need – so we were able to dive into professional discourse and develop a plan.

I suppose my point with all of this (disjointed though it may be) is to strongly encourage you to find a mentor with whom you can work in an open, candid manner. Be realistic about your expectations: you won’t be able to address everything you want to address. Most of all, have fun learning from one another!

Photo of Tammy Axt
Tammy Axt Classroom Management, General

Managing a three-ring circus

Classroom management can be challenging at times but add in 30 instruments, noise and tons of movement and you could have a three-ring circus. Some of the extra challenges that planning time teachers have to face are the constant transition of classes, teaching hundreds of students and managing a multitude of materials. With a little forethought, planning and well-trained students, managing a planning time subject can be a dream instead of a nightmare!

First of all, make your expectations of behaviour very clear and transparent. I also make my expectations short, catchy and to the point. Right now we are doing a bucket drumming unit, so I take 10 seconds in the hallway before the students enter to say “If you play before I say….” and the students respond with “Then I’ll take your sticks away”. The students know what is expected of their behaviour before they even walk in the room. Furthermore, follow through on what you have said. If anyone even plays a little bit I walk over to them and just hold out my hand. I do not stop giving instructions and I don’t give the student a hard time. If he or she looks confused I point to the sign posted in the class. I hold onto the sticks for the first five minutes of class. Once I have taken one pair of sticks on the first day, the students usually remember the rule. It is impossible to talk over instruments, especially drums, so I stick to this rule in every class. I briefly review the expectations of behaviour almost every class.

Secondly, the arts are amazing as there are many opportunities for sharing performances. Groups or pairs are often presenting their creations so audience behaviour is something that needs to be explicitly taught and reviewed. I refer to some of the symbols above to help students do their best work. Strategic grouping and seating can also go a long way in preventing problems. I put a big focus on group work at the beginning of the year so that activities in my class can run more smoothly.

Another tip is to make your materials accessible to students. In the hallway, I quickly tell the students what instruments to take out or what materials will be needed that day. I will either assign a few students to be in charge of taking out the materials or everyone will get their own as they enter. Materials should be in a clearly labeled location and at a height that students can access. Since I only have the students for 40 minutes twice a week I need to maximize the time in which students are engaged in fun music activities. This also speeds up transition time which is where some of our students get themselves into trouble.

I’ve realized after a few years of teaching that good classroom management is 95 percent about planning. If you are well-planned you will often have fewer management problems to deal with. I was walking down the hall the other day past our drama/dance room and the teacher had put the outline of a giant mitten on the floor. Even I was intrigued. What were they using this mitten for? I know if I am that interested, every kid who walks in this classroom will be doing the same. I also know that the students in French class are doing crazy fashion shows and in music they are talking about music that is important to them. Planning engaging activities will keep students on track.

Finally, You can implement a reward system in a planning time subject. Our French teacher has a straight forward and simple system that is very effective in encouraging the students to do their best. She divides the students in groups and they work towards rewards.

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Beverly Papove Building Inclusion, General

Celebrate Fabulousness

In my grade 3 French Immersion class, the following is something we do to help everyone feel special on St. Valentine’s Day. You need a few days to complete the activity, depending on the number of students in your class and how fast they work.

The idea is to make an “I am Fabulous” book.  I like to use, « Je suis fabuleuse – une histoire vrai de (nom d’élève) » (I am Fabulous – the true story about (student’s name) for the book’s title.  Each student writes the opening page of the book telling why they think they are fabulous, then they do the same thing for all their classmates. As a bonus, I send home a page for the parents to complete about their own child, and I also fill one out for each student. The pages are all collected and compiled so each student will receive their own ‘true story’ on Valentine’s Day and read about their Fabulousness/Fabulocité  (words invented for this activity…).

To get ready, I make a chart to help students keep track of who they have written about and have them start by writing something about themselves.

Example/

Name/ Nom Fabulousness / Fabulocité Example/ Exemple
Me I can do difficult things on my skis I can do flips with no hands
Alison  She is an inventor She invented a game called Oidar
Benjamin  He loves music He likes to bring in CDs for the class to enjoy and we like them, too

 

After the students have written about themselves, I read a few samples to help create categories of fabulousness. On chart paper, in a web graphic organizer with the word Fabulousness/Fabulocité written in the middle, students see themes or categories emerge, such as; sports, kindness, perseverance, generosity, imagination, etc. You could also do categories following Bloom’s Taxonomy of Multiple Intelligences. In grade 3 language, this could be simplified to the terms Math Smart, Nature Smart, People Smart, Body Smart, Music Smart, Logic Smart, Self Smart and Logic Smart. Creating categories helps students avoid repetition and guides them to think about their classmates and themselves in many more ways.

A strategy I use to help students learn to express their opinion and justify it, is something called “Les 3 Ps” (Je PENSE… PARCE QUE… PAR EXEMPLE…). You can use a template for the students to complete as in a cloze activity, write it on the board so students can copy it and complete it in their own handwriting, or have them type out a few a day on the computer. There are probably a million other ways to do this more quickly and conveniently, however, once they get going, it does go remarkably fast.  Students use the ideas they generate in the chart graphic organizer to fill in the blanks and complete these sentences.

Example/

Je pense que ______________ est fabuleux/fabuleuse, parce que ____________.  Par exemple, ___________________________________________.

In English, it could look something like this;

I think that __________________________is fabulous because ________________ . For example, ___________________________________________ .

For the cover of the book, students are invited to bring in a photo of themselves or they can draw their portrait if they choose. For the pages inside, students are encouraged to illustrate their message to their classmates to help decorate the book and make it more special.

Although it takes a little planning and organization, creating the book is a nice activity to help remind students of the talents they each have.

Photo of Lisa Taylor
Lisa.Taylor Building Inclusion, Challenging Topics, Making a Difference Through Education, Wellness

Student Mental Health

With #BellLetsTalk day coming to a close, I thought I would talk a bit about how to address mental health in the classroom and why it is so important. No matter what the grade, it is essential that you model healthy behaviour, and teach strategies to deal with stress and talk to your students about mental health. There are obviously different levels of this and you would gauge that based on the group you have, but no matter what, it should not be ignored.

Last year I was having some personal mental health struggles. My physical health was fragile and I had been given some potentially very bad news about the possible outcomes for my physical health. This, combined with other issues that were weighing down on me, caused my mental health to really buckle under the pressure. I remember one day going into my class of Grade 2s and sitting on the carpet to do Tribes Tribbles. This is an activity where you pass around a card with 5 furry creatures on it and each student completes the sentence, “I’m feeling ______ today.” The blank is a colour and that colour corresponds to one of the characters. Each of the characters has a facial expression and body language to express an obvious emotion (sad, angry, happy, excited, just okay, etc.). The student also had the option to explain why he/she was feeling that way.

This particular day, I started us off. I had been feeling quite down that morning and my emotions were at the surface. Students have the “Right to Pass” if they do not want to share, but I was modeling healthy behaviour by sharing my feelings with a group I trusted. I told my class that I was feeling “blue” today. I decided to tell them why. I explained to them that our hearts are like cups and everything that happens in a day that is upsetting or “bad” is like putting a bit of water into that cup. It makes the cup heavier, and it starts to fill it up. I told them that I had been having a difficult time lately and that my cup was very full. One of my students asked what happened when the up got too full. I explained that everyone handles it differently, but that we often get very upset, and even cry. I then told them that there are ways to empty the cup before it overflows. We brainstormed some ways to empty the cup out – playing with friends, snuggling up with your parent(s), talking to someone about what is bothering you, helping someone else who seems to have a full cup, etc. We also talked about the fact that some of us have big cups, and some of us have smaller cups. Something that will roll of one person’s back, might cause another a great deal of emotional stress and pain. It all has to do with the size of their cup. This made the whole concept of feelings and handling bad feelings more concrete for them.

The most significant part of the whole activity for me though, was that my students could see that I was feeling blue. I was having a tough time. I had been for quite a while. As we went around the circle so that everyone else could have a turn with the Tribbles, my class did something I will never forget: they overflowed my cup and emptied it all at once! They shared their feelings with me in a way that filled my heart with such joy, as I knew they understood the importance of sharing, talking, and supporting each other. They said things like, “I feel blue because my friend is feeling sad today and I don’t know how to help him.” By the end of the circle that day, I was sobbing. My cup was almost full when we started so I knew it wasn’t going to take much. We did Tribbles almost everyday last year and I loved it. It doesn’t always start off in a deep, emotional place, but when it gets there, it is pretty incredible.

I feel like Tribbles or something like it lays a solid foundation for conversations about mental health and feelings in general. This is an activity that can be done from Pre-School up. It is non-threatening and a very positive way to share highs and lows in a non-threatening way.

 

Watching social media on a day like #BellLetsTalk makes it so clear that there is still a lot of work to be done to educate around mental health. I have included some infographics that were shared today that I found particularly interesting/shocking. Let’s get the conversation started when they are young and the stigma isn’t there!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Professional Learning and Growth

Beyond the Classroom

Before I started teaching, I never really gave much thought to how much more was involved with this profession than simply the day to day classroom experience. I knew about grading, report cards, and extra curriculars, but I had never considered the federation side before. I had never really known anyone who was part of a union, nor did I really have a sense of what a union did for its members.

Since becoming a contract teacher three years ago, I have become active in many aspects of our union. Having participated in the union in several different ways now, I’ve found that I have more respect for and understanding of everything they do for both teachers and students. My practice has evolved, my network has grown, and I have become a better teacher because I have been involved. Here are the three primary ways that I have been involved in my union at both the local and provincial level, just in case someone out there might not have considered what is available to them:

Local Steward: I owe my involvement in the union to a colleague of mine who urged me to get involved. In my first year as a permanent teacher, she was our school steward and brought me along to a few of our local meetings. When she had to take a leave of absence, I filled in for her for the last few months of that school year, then carried on as steward the following year. It was a daunting prospect, to be certain, but I found that the other stewards and my local executive were very supportive of me as a new member and a new steward. I enjoy going to monthly meetings, finding out about new developments and collective bargaining, helping my colleagues when they need it… it isn’t always easy, but even when the meetings are several hours long and have gone way past their expected end time, I have always found the experience rewarding.

As steward, I have also had the chance to participate in discussion of and voting on motions to help people in crisis. Both my local (OCETF) and ETFO have given considerable amounts of money to those in need. At times, I have seen my local executive suggest a certain amount of money to donate, then watched as fellow stewards suggested raising the amount to be given. I have never heard anyone suggest that helping others was a mistake, or that we should think of ourselves and lower the amount.

Provincial and Local Committees: While I haven’t sat on any committees at the local level, I was urged to apply to a provincial committee by the same colleague who pushed me to take over as steward. I have been a member of the ETFO New Members’ Committee since last year. In our meetings (as several other bloggers here can attest, as they’re also members of the committee!) we have had some productive and fascinating discussions about the challenges being faced by new members, the similarities and differences around the province, and how we can better connect new members all across Ontario so that we all benefit from one another’s experience. Being a member of the committee has been fun and very low stress, with two meetings in Toronto a year (in addition to a few e-mail exchanges when necessary). Provincial committees can have a profound effect on ETFO through creating and preventing resolutions at the Annual General Meeting or by presenting them to the executive for action.

One of the things I got to do as part of this committee was pilot the Teacher Workload Survey that we were asked to fill out recently. We went through the survey as it was being developed and provided feedback on what was good, what was missing, what needed to be changed or taken out… I appreciated having the opportunity to have a direct impact on something that will, in theory, serve to make our professional lives a little better.

Annual General Meeting: Last year was the first time I attended the ETFO AGM in Toronto. My local sends a large delegation to the meeting and last year they strongly urged people to sign up if they had never attended before. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I submitted my name. I still didn’t know what to expect when I attended the meetings leading up to the AGM. Even if someone had described it to me – a massive room full of teachers voting democratically on resolutions to decide the direction, governance, and policies of their union – I’m not sure I would have really imagined it properly. Maybe I’m a bit of a union geek, but the AGM, as it turns out, is a REALLY neat exercise in democracy in action. Resolutions are brought forward, justified, debated, defended, and ultimately voted on by teachers. Some resolutions are put forward by locals, others by committees, others still by the provincial executive. Teachers vote independently, giving individual members a say in the direction their union takes. It was really cool.

That makes me sound like a nerd, doesn’t it? (Don’t worry, that’s nothing I haven’t heard before!)

Those are just three of the ways that you can become involved with your federation – simple but rewarding ways for you to affect change in your profession. There are many, many more opportunities out there, too. Teaching isn’t just about getting into the classroom and delivering a curriculum. We are a community. We learn from each other, we help each other, and we help others, too.

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Lisa.Taylor Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Report Cards

Report Cards – Make it Personal

There is lots of talk about using comment banks to create report card comments. I remember when I started teaching, a retiring teacher handed me a USB drive and said, “I am giving you years of work, use it well!” Trying to complete my first set of report cards with that drive was a complete disaster! I didn’t teach the same things she did, nor did I teach them the same way she did, so how could her comments possibly convey what I wanted them to? And she didn’t teach the kids I was teaching, so how would her comments really and truly reflect the kids I was teaching?

After about 3 report cards, trying to find the right comments in her drive, I gave up and wiped the drive clean. Using a bank of comments that someone else has created is not terribly effective. From then on, I started writing my own comments. I am going to describe my process as I have used the same process ever since and it has always worked! We are all different, but this might help you get started!

I would start each report card writing session by taking the strands I was reporting on, and picking the overall expectations I wanted to address. I would write them down or highlight them, and then think about what we had done that term that would demonstrate that. I had done all of this previously in my planning of the unit, but it is nice to refresh and make sure that in the end, you accomplished what you set out to! Once you have established what it is you assessing, find a student you know did really well with it. Review their work and make sure they did as well as you thought, and then write their comment. Then go through and find some more students who are similar in their achievement/work style and give them the same comment, but modify it to truly make it reflect that student. These would be for  your Level 3ish kids. Their next steps should be all individualized. Then bundle up your Level 2 kids and do the same. Then do it again for your Level 1 kids. Level 2 and 1 will often just need an individual comment each anyway, without any copy/paste/modify.

I use that process for subjects like the Arts, Science, Social Studies, Health, Phys Ed., etc.

For Math I do each strand individually and I generally do each strand as described above with some variations.

Language and Learning Skills, I take an entirely different approach. I generally set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, depending on how much time I am feeling like I need. If I have gone through portfolios and have lots of evidence and details to support where that child is working, 10 minutes should be lots. If I need to double check portfolios, etc., then 15-20 might be necessary. I give myself just that much time per student per strand. It seems like a lot of time, but I know I can give each child an individualized account of their abilities, strengths, needs, and next steps, and be sure in my mind that it is accurate and that I have seen the evidence as I was writing it. Learning Skills is usually more 10-15.

I generally do Language in the middle, after I have done a few of the smaller ones (Science, Social, Arts, etc.), and Learning Skills are generally at the very end for me, once I have had a thorough look at that student and all of my records, notes, anecdotals, etc.

Writing report card comments is a very personal, involved process. As a parent, I have read comments that were from a teacher that I could tell knew my child, and I have read comments that were obviously stock comments applied to the whole class or a bunch of kids, that did not reflect my child at all. Once you see a comment like that on a report, it is difficult to take anything else on the report seriously. Take the time and make it meaningful. You don’t have to fill the box, just put something meaningful in the box so parents see that you know their kid and you know what they are capable of.

 

**Note that I always wrote the IEP comments last as they were pretty quick and easy to write**

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Tammy Axt General

Passion for Teaching

I learned something this fall that will stay with me as a teacher for a long time. I always encourage my students to be creative and be risk takers but I am a planner that usually takes small cautious steps to learn something new.

However, by pushing myself out of my comfort zone I learned that…..CHOIR IS AWSOME!

Let me explain. I am a music teacher who had NO INTEREST in ever running a choir. I trained as a taiko drummer in Japan and am able to play the piano reasonable well. All of my training has been instrument based and I have never once stepped foot in a choir rehearsal. Due to my inexperience, I was very nervous to run a choir so my colleague always led the way.

Due to circumstances this year, I had no choice but to step up and take over the choir. I put in an announcement for choir in October and I started with about 40 students. All of a sudden, I realized how fun it was to join together in song with 40 people and I think my excitement rubbed off on the students. Soon my 40 student choir turned into a 150 student choir and all fall we were having a blast singing holiday songs during our nutrition break. I never in a million years would have thought that I would look forward to Monday and Wednesday choir practices so much. My main focus while running this choir for the students was to have fun and that is exactly what I did as well.

I did my usually research about how to run a choir by reading books and watching videos but this time I really tried to just share my love of music with them. It is a passion of mine but sometimes I think I forget to show the students my passion when I am busy helping them with their technique or teaching them to read or write music.

There is something so powerful about stepping outside your comfort zone and stumbling into a whole new world of possibilities.