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Tammy Axt Learning About Your Students, Special Education

Why are your eyebrows grumpy?

One of my students asked me the funniest question during our morning meeting this week.  She stopped, looked at me and asked, “Why are your eyebrows grumpy?” It struck me as really funny and I burst out laughing and she did as well. I went home that evening and began to think more about her question. At the time that she asked me the question, I was talking about an exciting trip that was coming up for our class. My voice was animated and I thought I was conveying my excitement through the words that I was choosing but upon deeper reflection I am not sure my facial expression was matching my words.

One of the real gifts that my students bring to the school and the class is their ability to read emotion. Many of the students are very sensitive to the expression on my face, in my voice and in my body. They laugh with me often and can easily tell when I am upset with them by a simple look or a body position. The great thing about this is that I rarely have to use my voice to intervene on unwanted behaviour and I can show someone what a great job they are doing by a simple look. The tricky part of this is that my facial expressions are being analyzed all day long. As a person doing this job for the first time, I am often perplexed or thinking about next steps. When I was talking about the upcoming trip with the class, I was also thinking about all the logistics of how to make this trip successful. I am sure that is why my student thought my eyebrows were grumpy.

Working with this group of students has been a fantastic reminder to slow down, stay in the moment and enjoy the experience. Things will get done. I will make mistakes and learn from them. I will get better at this job every day.

My talented students will forever teach me the skill that the author Toni Morrison spoke about. Toni Morrison explained that children don’t care about weather you help them zip up their jacket or have everything prepared. They care about one thing ….“Does your face light up when a child enters the room?” She also encouraged all of us to “let your face speak what is in your heart.” My students are reminding me of Ms. Morrison’s important lessons everyday. Slow down. Stay present in the moment. Let them see everyday how much you care for them.

Will Gourley Climate Change, General, Global Warming, Weather

The breaks when the weather puts the brakes on bussing.

It’s another day when many school boards have made the decision to cancel buses because of imminently deteriorating weather conditions. While this morning appeared calm and the roads dry and clear on my commute, a massive weather event approached that was significant enough to set a flurry of board contingency plans into action. With first tweets chirping around 6 am, the news outlets began to spread the word.

As I sit at my desk and share this post, I know that families are scrambling to make arrangements to make sure their children are safe whether at home, in transit, and during the 6.5 hours from first bell to pick-up at school.

Cue the blizzard of retorts on social media. Today is the 5th cancellation of transportation this year and my school board(YRDSB et al) will undoubtedly see the comments pile up like the flakes outside.

Without sharing the Twitter handles here is a sampling pulled from today’s tweets to some GTA school boards:

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Health & Safety, Violence in Schools

Education is in crisis – and so are our students

I wrote this in response to the CBC story about violence in classrooms that went live this past weekend. I was – and am – fired up about it.

If you’re wondering what you can do to help us, to help these children in crisis, to repair our broken system: make education, social services, and mental health support your priorities when you elect public officials. At all levels. This is not only a provincial issue. This is not only a municipal issue. This is not only a federal issue. It is an issue that must be addressed by all levels of government, by all Canadians, by all elected officials.

Kids aren’t “worse” now. It isn’t because of a “lack of discipline”. It isn’t because teachers are “soft”. This comes down to a total failure of social services and mental health support, because these children are IN. CRISIS. They aren’t choosing this. We can’t “fix” them with the right consequences.

They need homes. Food. Caregivers they can rely on. Stability. Therapy. Treatment for anxiety, depression, PTSD. Academic support. Removal of systemic barriers. They need compassion – to know that the adults in their life see them, see what they’re going through, and are finding ways to help them. Their caregivers need a living wage. Access to housing. Adequate transit. Functional health care. Affordable utilities.

And now, because they aren’t getting these things, all of their peers need these things too. Every child in public school right now could use therapy to help them process what they see on a regular basis. Some of them, like my daughter, are growing up thinking that it’s just a regular part of school to have a child in your class who throws chairs and tries to attack other kids or teachers with scissors.

This is a crisis. This is a disaster. These children – all of them, aggressors and bystanders – are going to suffer lifelong consequences from our government’s abject refusal and failure to address these issues.

Help. HELP. It’s hard for us to tell our stories because we have to be careful not to stigmatize children in crisis, not to give identifying information, not to break confidentiality. Please, trust us when we say there are horrific things happening in schools. Please, trust us when we say we’re doing everything we can but we can’t do any more.

Please, just… trust us. It’s not us. It’s not the kids. It’s not school.

It’s the entire system that’s broken.

As my friends shared this post on Facebook and it made its way out to a few strangers, some people commented that they “didn’t buy the perspective” and that it’s somehow our failing as teachers if there is violence in our classrooms. That if we can’t manage our students’ behaviour, we should reevaluate our capability as teachers.

What a painful, frustrating thing to hear.

“I shouldn’t have set them off by asking him to sit down.”

“If I hadn’t taken a sick day, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I should have gone out at recess to supervise that student (even though it’s not my day to supervise recess and this is my only break today).”

“I shouldn’t have called for help. It only escalated the student more.”

There seems to be no end to the ways teachers blame themselves for violence in schools. Colleagues, let me say this nice and loud:

VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS IS NOT YOUR FAULT.

You didn’t cause this. You didn’t make it happen through your action or inaction. You are doing the best you can within a catastrophically broken system. Our students need us, but they also need everyone else too, because educators alone can’t get the right people into office, the right changes made.

Keep doing what you’re doing. You are superheroes. You are helping. You are making change. Now we just need the rest of our country to back us up.

Kim Cousin Assessment, Building Inclusion, Challenging Topics, Classroom Layouts, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Flexible Classroom, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Interviews, Learning About Your Students, Math, Planning, Play-Based Learning, Questioning, Resources, Students as Teachers

Create Success in Intermediate Math through Play….

“What are you doing in Math today?” the VP inquires of my grade 5,6,7 and 8 students.

“We’re playing games.”

“You’re playing games?”

“Yes, we always play in math.”

The assessments gathered from these classes provide me insight of where everyone is in their learning. My experience with assessments are that individual conversations to understand the thinking process provides the most valuable information. The range of each of my classes is from a low elementary level to a low secondary level.  This is quite a span. As a school we have been, “Landscaping” these students using; Fosnots– Landscape of Learning.  http://thelearningexchange.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Creating-Conditions-for-Learning-Math-Viewers-Guide.pdf This provides an great snapshot of where your learners are on a continuum. Our board has developed some very specific assessment questions for all grade levels which include strategic numbers to help determine the strategies individuals use.

How do I managed this?

It took me a while with the continuous disruptions to the daily routine. The way, I have adopted my assessment sessions this year is similar to how a reading group would be managed.  Provide the lesson, give the class expectations, then work with a small group on a rotating basis. The entire class already understands the rules and class expectations which have been familiar routines followed to date.

Now what?

I find creating a growth mindset is most important. This is developed through creating a comfort zone for all, including the teacher. Each year I am challenged to ensure my learners grow and develop forward on the continuum. I use a variety of resources such as Sherry Parrish’s-Number Talks http://www.meaningfulmathmoments.com/number-talks.html This is a great beginning to each class.

I resource Dr. Small’s-Big Ideas https://search.library.utoronto.ca/details?7785153&uuid=5d3e7d21-dfef-4e3a-a3d3-9f33f13418b9 for different activities to compliment the concept of study.

Presently I am using, From Patterns to Algebra, by Dr. Beatty and Dr. Bruce https://school.nelson.com/from-patterns-to-algebra-book/

Play, yes these resources include play which I implement on a regular basis.  The students enjoy learning with and from each other while I guide them. During my classes, Play creates a class dynamic for success.

Michelle Fenn Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Professional Learning and Growth, Resilience, self reflection, Teacher Appreciation, Teacher Wellness, Teaching as a public profession, wellness, Wellness

Let’s Talk About Shame

Author Brené Brown from her book “The Gifts of Imperfection” writes that there are three things that people need to understand about shame:

1.  We all have it.  Shame is universal and one of the most primitive human emotions that we experience.  The only people who don’t experience shame lack the capacity for empathy and human connection.

2.  We’re all afraid to talk about shame.

3.  The less we talk about shame, the more control it has over our lives.

While reading this it resonated with me as a teacher.  How many have you experienced Professional Learning Shame?  I’m a professional learning hoarder.  I consume professional learning whenever possible and yet, often I feel shame while experiencing professional learning.  I listen to another teacher who is courageous in sharing strategies and ideas that are meant to help me in my job and ultimately I end up thinking that I must be a poor teacher because I don’t do those things in my classroom. Often I come away feeling worse about myself.  I’ll think, “Well great, obviously everything that I’ve been doing has been ineffective and I need to add THIS onto everything else.” or “I haven’t been doing THAT in my classroom. Clearly I’m not working hard enough. What must my colleagues think of me?”

Shame makes us think that we are somehow not worthy.  I know that I’ve convinced myself of not feeling worthy when I compare my work to other teachers in my school, on Twitter or (cringe)…Pinterest.  I find it difficult to look at myself professionally through an asset lens.  The best way to stop feeling that shame is to talk about it.  Once shame is talked about it tends to lose power and it is easier to let it go.  So, I’m talking about it in a public forum so I can work on building up that resiliency.

I’ve felt shame as a teacher in social situations with people who aren’t educators.  I’ve felt judged, compared and found unworthy.  More than once I’ve heard, “Teachers are paid too much and have far too many holidays and benefits and they’re really just babysitters.”  Whenever a Provincial Government talks about making cuts to education, it sends a message that teachers aren’t worthy of maintaining the current working conditions and fuels the public perception held by some that teachers are unworthy of what we earn.

In our school, whenever EQAO results are returned and we have our fall meeting to talk about the school improvement plan for the year, we celebrate for a nano second the areas in which the student have succeeded and focus intently on the shortcomings.  As a school we know that we all share in the responsibility for the cumulative education of students and feel shame when we look at where we didn’t succeed, but some of my grade 3 and 6 colleagues have told me about how they feel solely responsible for EQAO scores and consequently, feel shame.

Well, this is a downer of a subject, get over it Fenn.  What can we do?  It’s the nature of our job right?  Nope.  There are some great pointers that Brené Brown shares about becoming shame resilient:

1.  Understand when you are feeling shame and recognize what messages and experiences trigger shame for you.

2.  Remember not to equate being imperfect with being inadequate.

3.  Share your stories with people you trust and own your stories.

4.  If you feel shame, name it.  Talk about how your feeling and ask for what you need.

Teachers are constantly in receipt of feedback about their job; from parents, students, administrators, colleagues, the public and themselves.  Staying open to criticism and feedback is what helps us improve education for our students.  We need to take risks to remain open so that we can experience improvement.  However, what we should also try to remember is that everyone is flawed and imperfect but that doesn’t mean that we are lacking.

 

 

 

Michelle Fenn 21st Century Learning, Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Curriculum Planning, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy

Non Fiction vs. Fiction?

The majority of what I read and write daily is non fiction.  If I were to attach a statistic to it, I would hazard to say that 95% of what I read and write on a daily basis is non fiction.  I like to write poetry and narratives too but I seldom have the time to do that and it is only for pleasure.  I read fiction daily too.  I read about 2 to 10 pages each night before falling asleep with my kindle on my chest.  Many years ago I was introduced to the work of Tony Stead at a Reading for the Love of It conference.  It changed my practice as a teacher forever.  Tony made me realize that almost all of my classroom library was filled with fiction, all of my class read alouds were fiction and the majority of the writing that my students were doing was fiction in some form or another.  I was not exposing them to enough non-fiction text and I was not preparing them for adult literacy.  Using “Is that a Fact?” by Tony Stead and “Reading with Meaning” by Debbie Miller I began to create a literacy program for my primary classroom that had a much stronger focus on non fiction.  I also began using my Scholastic book order money to augment my classroom library with nonfiction texts whenever possible.

I began explicitly teaching how to not only use, but to create non fiction text.  This focus engaged those readers who had struggled most.  There is far more information that can be read and synthesized through pictures in non fiction texts which enables all students, including the struggling readers, to contribute to discussions and make sense of text.  Curiosity drove students to have a purpose for reading and authentic purpose is everything.  We created “Wonderboxes”, an idea from Debbie Miller of small recipe boxes filled with index cards where students wrote down their questions and wonders.  It wasn’t labeled inquiry teaching at that point, but in retrospect it is what we were doing.  The students also created “Non Fiction Text Feature Notebooks” in which they designed illustrations that demonstrated the function of the various non fiction text features.  More recently my grade 4 and 5 students used a screen casting app called Explain Everything in order to create short videos explaining non fiction text features.  After learning what these text features were used for, students were able to interact with non fiction texts more efficiently to find what they needed.  In addition, they began using these text features in their own writing, especially when uploading to blogs and creating Google Slide presentations.

I still value the world of fiction-especially for read alouds. I know the magic of getting lost in a book or a better yet a book series and I want my students to have that experience too.  Being able to connect with another person over the topic of a book that has been thoroughly enjoyed is why book clubs and literature circles exist.  However, I am also aware that it isn’t for everyone.  A few years ago a colleague admitted to me that she had never enjoyed novel read alouds as a student because she just couldn’t visualize what was happening in the story in her own head.  For whatever reason she was unable to provide the running movie that went along with the narration from the teacher.  My first reaction was, “How sad!” but then I began to wonder just how many students I have taught over the years that felt exactly the same.  My literacy program became a more balanced diet of fiction and non fiction.  I encourage you to look through your own classroom library and review the read alouds that you have planned for the school year and take stock of how much of it is non fiction.  You just may want to augment your classroom literary diet with something that includes diagrams, labels and a glossary.

Kelly.McLaughlin 21st Century Learning, Celebrating Success, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Math, Questioning, The Arts

Inquiry Project

As part of a board focus group I am involved with, I am exploring along with a group of six other teachers, the inquiry model in the classroom. Each group that has gathered together to focus on inquiry looks at how it works in their classroom in a different way. My group has selected questioning. We are looking at how and if students select better questions, they will become more successful.

I just recently came back from Disney this Christmas break and I was overwhelmed with the many posts on instagram telling me what cool food I could find at literally every inch of the parks. There were so many options and I had to try them all and take pictures of them all. This has been an interest of mine for some time now, finding a really cool looking item of food and taking a picture with it. I came home from the trip feeling inspired and thinking, I can explore this phenomenon with my class of motivated grade eight students.

At first I posed it to them as a question, what are the most trending items right now on instagram. They came up with a huge list and then I made them create the questions. They came up with a few deep questions: Why do things trend? What makes an item trend-worthy? How can we explore a trending item in our classroom? What item could we produce as a class? It took us a while to get there but we figured out that it would be cool to market a food item as a class and then create it and sell it.

Since we were just finishing up our data management unit, we talked about how can we gather results from our student body about what item would be a hit in our school? First, we asked our office staff for advice about this exciting project. We were given the okay to market and sell an item as long as proper food handling techniques were followed. We then talked about what are the top six trending food items right now? We came up with six as a class: donuts, cookies, cupcakes, bubble tea, smoothies and the Harry Potter beverage. My students paired up, created a google survey and added all these options to the survey. They emailed every teacher in the school setting up meeting times to survey their class.

Before we analyzed our results, on our inquiry wall we came up with ways our project hits every subject we study. We talked about the literacy connections to marketing, advertisements, etc. We talked about art connections when designing logos, posters, maybe even creating a wall that would be a backdrop for a cool photo with our finished product. We talked about math connections when coming up with the cost of the item, the cost of ingredients, the profit calculations, etc. We made large lists for each subject so we can see how wide this one small question covers.

We have now gathered all our results and the top choice for our school was smoothies. We have now created a list of what to do next. It is on our inquiry wall along and our team leaders will check off our ideas as we complete them.

I would love to say we work on this six periods a day, which we very well could since it covers many expectations in each subject, however, grade eight is such a huge year that there is always so many other things that we have to be working on. Currently, we work on this project one period a day. We have 25 entries for logo ideas, 10 entries for company name and probably over 100 smoothie ideas. We will be narrowing down our choices on Monday.

I will keep you all posted on our progress! It is turning out to be a great project and the engagement level is incredibly high. We all sit around the back inquiry board and the hands that go up for ideas during this project are not up for any other time of day. My students are excited about the possibilities that this project presents. It is fun turning over everything to the kids and seeing how it all ends up!

Deb Weston Indigenous Perspectives, Indigneous Ways of Knowing, Social Justice

Importance of Safe Water for Aboriginal Children’s Education

drinking water

Access to potable water is a fundamental human right and essential to ongoing  human health. Good health is also essential for students to obtain an education. For over 20 years, conditions of water safety and quality on reserve lands continue to be an ongoing concern in Canada. “Despite a substantial amount of funding allocated toward improving water infrastructure on reserve, an alarming proportion of communities face boil and drinking water advisories” (White, Murphy, & Spence, 2012, p. 1). As reserve land is under the Government of Canada’s jurisdiction, bureaucracy via regulatory frameworks, legacy of colonization, funding formulas, governance and policy issues remain as roadblocks to ensuring access to safe water on lands where Aboriginal students attend school.

Limited access to safe water impacts health creating discrepancies and disproportionate levels of disease and early death among Aboriginal people. Further, health discrepancies between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are also directly and indirectly related to social, economic, cultural, and political inequities (Adelson, 2005).

Even though, in 1989, Canada played a prominent role in drafting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a United Nations Child Find (UNICEF) report cited the plight of Aboriginal children due to lack of adequate housing, education, and clean water (UNICEF 2007).  In 1997, the Government of Canada documented promises to improve living condition for Aboriginal children (Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development 1997). The 2007 Senate report (Canada, Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights 2007) recommended a legal framework and an independent national children’s commissioner to monitor implementation of children’s rights federally and to coordinate federal, provincial and territorial policies that affect children. But with no legal framework or commission to monitor change, very little continued to be done to improve living conditions.

Poor living conditions impact children’s lives as Aboriginal children have a 1.5 times greater probability of dying before their first birthday, higher rates of hospitalization for acute lung infections and accidental injury (Canadian Institute for Health Information 2004), higher rates of apprehension by child welfare services, and a greater chance of having to live in a series of foster homes outside their community (Trocmé, Fallon et al. 2005). Further, living in poverty means that a large proportion of Aboriginal children lack the basic necessities. “Aboriginal homes are often poorly constructed and ventilated; their plumbing systems are often inadequate for the number of residents; and their clean water supply is often unreliable. Six percent of these homes are without sewage services, and four percent lack running water and flush toilets” (Assembly of First Nations 2006).

One in three Aboriginal people consider their main drinking water unsafe to drink with 12 percent of communities have to boil their drinking water (Chan et al. 1997). Contaminants in the water and food supply create concerns for the health and wellness of young Aboriginal children. For example, one study found that more than 50 percent of Inuit in a Baffin Island community had “dietary exposure levels of mercury, toxaphene and chlordane exceeding the provisional tolerable daily intake levels” (Chan et al. 1997).

In 2019, the Canadian Government continues to address healthy living conditions only when emergencies and outbreaks start hitting the media. The big challenge is for the Government of Canada to increase a sustainable level of investment to produce long-term improvement of living conditions for the Aboriginal children. Aboriginal children are being denied clean water in Canada (Klasing, 2018).

In Canada, Aboriginal children living in rural and northern Canada are the least-supported children in the basic aspects to support qualify of life. Persistent inequities in health care, housing, access to safe water, protection from family violence, early childhood education and protection of cultural and linguistic heritage all impact these children’s lives and their ability to attain a quality education.

What will it take for Canada to ensure equity and dignity for Aboriginal children?

Collaboratively Yours,

Dr. Deb Weston, PhD

Classroom Resources to Support Inquiry

Grade 3 – Water the Gift of Life: Investigating Environmental Impacts

 In our own words: Bringing authentic first peoples content to the K-3 classroom

Deepening Knowledge: Resources for and about aboriginal education – Kindergarten/ Primary/ Junior/ Intermediate/Senior/ French/ Aboriginal Language

Our word, our ways: Teaching First Nations, Métis, and Inuit learners

Aboriginal Children Canada Must Do Better: Today and Tomorrow

References

Adelson, N. (2005). The embodiment of inequity: Health disparities in Aboriginal Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health/Revue Canadienne de Sante’e Publique, S45-S61.

Assembly of First Nations. 2006. Royal Commission on Aboriginal People at 10 Years: A Report Card. Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations.

Ball, J. (2008). Promoting equity and dignity for Aboriginal children in Canada. Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and Canadian Population Health Initiative. 2004. “Aboriginal Peoples’ Health.” In Improving the Health of Canadians. Ottawa: CIHI. http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/products/ IHC2004rev_e.pd

Chan, H.M., P.R. Berti, O. Receveur, and H.V. Kuhnlein. 1997. “Evaluation of the Population Distribution of Dietary Contaminant Exposure in an Arctic Population Using Monte Carlo Statistics.” Environmental Health Perspectives 105 (3): 316-21.

Klasing, A. (November 20, 2018). Why is Canada denying Indigenous peoples clean water? Globe and Mail. Assessed February 1, 2019. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/why-is-canada-denying-its-indigenous-peoples-clean-water/article31599791/

Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. 1997. Gathering Strength: Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan. Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada. Assessed February 1, 2019.  http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/R32-192- 2000E.pdf

Trocmé, N., B. Fallon, B. MacLaurin, J. Daciuk, C. Felstiner, T. Black. 2005. Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect. Ottawa: Public Health Agency of Canada. Assessed February 1, 2019.  http://www.phacaspc.gc.ca/cm-vee/csca-ecve/index-eng.php

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 2007. Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries. Innocenti Report Card 7. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. Assessed February 1, 2019.  http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pdf

White, J. P., Murphy, L., & Spence, N. (2012). Water and Indigenous peoples: Canada’s paradox. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 3(3), 3. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol3/iss3/3/

Laura Bottrell General

A Trip to the Theatre

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Will Gourley Assessment, General, Mental Health, Report Cards

Bs are “A” okay

It can vary from day to day, but for me it begins almost as the last Progress Report parent conference concludes. I become a bit frantic at the realization that Term 1 Reports are going home in about 10 weeks. Quick to follow are the second guesses as to whether or not I have not gathered enough “data” from students. Fast forward to late January and now there is not a minute of instructional time left because it’s “show what they know time”, but where did all that time go? For teachers, like me, who do not have a homeroom class on which to anchor there are a lot of factors that can impede assessment in a quasi-timely manner.

In my situation, I only see some of my classes once per week. Like all schools, class time can be interrupted by any number of events ranging from inclement weather(affects attendance when buses are cancelled), assemblies, sporting events, concerts, staff PD(off site), vacations(theirs not ours), and illness. It is not hard to see how time can speed by between Progress Reports in mid-November through Winter break and whamo it’s January 31st and your assessing, reporting, and writing blogs to meet your deadlines.

Side note: When it comes to writing blogs, it’s always a great reminder to all teachers to take frequent breaks while putting the finishing touches on report cards. Wryting is the perfekt brake four me. I especially like editting my werk, but eye digress. Which ever way you prefer to recharge, make sure you take some time for yourself as you tick the boxes and craft those comments.

This post is supposed to be a comment about assessment and I want to share a few thoughts about expectations in all of our classrooms. This is where I need your help with this question: Is an A- the new B? Are we recording too many As in our markbooks? Is this a function of self-esteem and or family/system/political pressure to show constant improvement? Considering the number of bovine births that happen each year EQAO results are released, it would seem that the adults are taking it harder than the students.

The part that throws me for a loop is how misinformed the press and public are around the results of this annual assessment-palooza. It’s time for education to do what it does best and demystify provincial assessment results for everyone. This way we can get on to helping our students instead of everyone worrying about school rankings and subsequent real estate fluctuations. Now about those marks…

A few years back, a student shared a humourous take on how report card marks were viewed

A = okay
B= better work harder
C= choose a new family
D= disowned

Although meant to be funny, the message shared by this student cut to a startling truth about many existing attitudes towards achievement in education. I have had to communicate with students and parents that achieving a B in a subject is considered success according to Ontario standards. Last September a CBC News story shared how some Ontario universities used a ranking system for  that implied that averages were inflated. This meant that A from one school might only be a B or C at another.

The intrinsic motivations of families who seemingly base their self-worth on a child’s report card are also bones of contention for me? How is this a healthy way to approach learning when students are pressured to be perfect achievers and expected only to bring home straight As in order to maintain family honour? We have to make sure that report cards are seen as snapshots of information that are captured in time. They cannot be reduced to moments of instant gratification and then ignored out of context.

It happens from JK to 12. After each teacher spends hours crafting comments about learning skills and all subject areas the eyes of most people will only track to the Level or Letter grade on the page. The messages of progress, next steps, and encouragement all need acknowledgement too.

I get that parents expect their children to do their best. What else would they expect? Their worst? What becomes difficult to translate to families is the amount of effort that students are putting into their work in order to learn, improve, and grow as learners. It is impossible to simply measure out in Levels or A to Ds. This is why teachers need to work with families to establish realistic expectations about achievement. If we are preparing our students for the real world that we have promised them in high school, post secondary education, and beyond; then marks that are other than As are going to have to B part of everyone’s alphabet.

Bs can be built upon. They show the beginnings of brighter days ahead. Bs can be the starting points of brilliance. So celebrate those hard earned Bs earned by your students because they are A okay everyday.