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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.

Will Gourley Climate Change, General, Global Warming, Health & Safety, Resilience, Teacher Wellness, Weather

Beating the winter blahs

Brrrr! If my teeth weren’t chattering so much I’d be able to truly describe how b-b-b-barbarically c-c-c-cold it is outside right n-n-n-now. Not surprisingly, with such brutally un-balmy temps comes some interesting behaviour at school. Perhaps it’s a function of daylight hours(or lack thereof) or our proximity to one another as we cocoon indoors(achoo), or maybe due to the fact that we are all putting on a few pounds(of extra clothing each day). Whatever the reason(s), my demeanour is in direct dispute with my daily sunny disposition due to a lack of warm temperatures and sunlight in my life.

All this to let you know, the winter blahs have arrived. Yes, I am aware that this is what we all expect and get for living in Canada. Times like this make us tougher as a people and that living in colder climates is statistically proven to increase life spans of inhabitants. For what, so we can suffer the cold longer?

Just because we are polite Canadians does not mean we can’t be miserable about the weather(dangerous drives, snow days, bus cancellations) once in a while as an act of national unity. So winter has officially slapped us all in the face with frosty windows and frigid temperatures I thought it would be a good time to talk about how we can overcome this recurring seasonal challenge that affects staff and students alike.

Recent dips in temperatures have necessitated some strategic planning on many schools supervision staff when it comes to bus duty before and after school. Snow pants, heavy duty boots, layers of clothes(including longjohns), toques, parkas, and mittens all called in for active service when the sleet, ice, blizzards, and wind chills come.

There’s a Norwegian saying, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”. Recently, on a particularly cold morning I could feel my eye sockets freezing and I was angry for second guessing the decision not to bring ski goggles to school for bus duty because everything else was comfy and warm.

The cold weather also means that students have not been outside for much needed fresh air. This can compound itself in a number of behaviour issues especially when they are limited to quiet indoor games within the confines of classrooms. On occasion, I have seen the gyms at my old schools opened up for the JK/SK students who are able to work out a few wiggles, but this space can only safely accomodate so many students at once. Often it falls on teachers to up the amount of DPA on days like this to get the heart rates and minds going. Go Noodle is a great way to get everyone moving.

For the older students, staying inside is like a windfall because many in the Junior/Intermediate Divisions are happy to avoid going outside. It’s not so bad if it happens infrequently, however it becomes an issue when students are unable to understand the advantages of a break and some fresh air.

All of this time indoors takes its toll on the mood of a building. It’s as if the cold challenges us to use all of our energy to keep our emotional well-being fires burning. Here are some sure fire ways to keep mind and body stoked while making sure behaviour doesn’t burn out of control;

1. Have students be part of the decision making process well in advance of rough winter days. Let them create the standards and expectations for class behaviour and activities. They are usually more strict than you and more likely to adhere to rules they had a voice in creating.
2. Be patient. When everyone is cold and tired before the day even starts it is best to take things slowly.
3. Increase movement breaks in every class. Consider building active learning into instruction such as milling to music, yoga, counting in French while doing jumping jacks or vertical Math. Worksheets are not an option.
4. Consider Genius Hour or other ways to incorporate technology, inquiry, and presentation skills. I usually schedule this for Mondays so that students have another reason to look forward to coming to school to start the week.
5. Take time to check in and talk with students/staff. A simple smile and hello and conversation goes a long way. Sometimes a little recognition is all it takes.

All of the above have made whole-school life better for me and students when the winter blahs hit. What is working for you? Please take the time to share in the comments section. Thank you for reading. Keep the fires burning.

 

Arianna Lambert Building Inclusion, Classroom Layouts, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Constant Learning, Flexible Classroom, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources

The Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning Resource

I’m super excited about this being my 10th year of teaching. Although this year, I’m not teaching in the traditional sense of having my own classroom, I feel really lucky to work with educators as they design exceptional learning experiences for students. Over the last month I’ve been taking some time to reflect on my 10-year journey and all of the opportunities that have lead me down my current path.

One such reflection was about my experiences with blogging and thinking about the reasons why it all began. In 2016, I was looking for an easy way to connect with parents around the work that we were doing in the classroom. I wanted to parents who weren’t always able t  o visit the school to know what was happening and to feel a part of the school experience and learning of their child. Even if only 1 parent took the time to read the blog, I found value in writing it. My weekly writings also offered me the chance to reflect and think about what we were doing in the classroom and the reasons why. I truly enjoyed blogging weekly and for the most part, kept it going for the last 3 years.

In September 2017, I started blogging for the Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning and it’s truly been an honour. Every month is an opportunity to reflect on my practice and write in the hopes of inspiring even 1 new teacher to perhaps try something new in their classroom or possibly consider an idea from a different perspective. When put that way, the task now seems a little daunting. For this post, I wanted to get back to the heart of what inspired me most about this online community and the resource that is its namesake.

Over the summer of 2017, I was sent the Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning resource. I have to say that the subtitle is a little misleading. It reads: Practical ideas and resource for beginning teachers. Perhaps it should read: Practical ideas and resources for ALL teachers. Even though this is my 10th year teaching and perhaps I’m not still a beginning teacher, there are so many amazing ideas inside. This past month, I pulled it off the shelf and dug back into it again and found a few ideas that I would love to share. I really hope that you take some time to dig in and find some amazing gems that you might be able to use in your classroom.

Mentorship

In chapter 2, there is a section on the importance of Mentorship. Throughout my career – not only as a beginning teacher – mentorship – whether formal or informal – has been an important part of my growth. In my first year, from Linda, I learned how to easily plan a Math unit that allowed for flexibility based on student learning and interest. In my second year, I learned from Toba how to truly engage students in the French language while making it relevant. In my third year, Alyson taught me the importance of connecting with students and genuinely caring for them not only academically but socially. I can honestly say that the list can continue and as the years progressed, there were often times more than one “mentor” from whom I was learning. I’ve always believed that there is something to learn from every experience and I think that I’ve been able to learn as much as I have because of the people around me. Pages 17 and 18 of the resource share models of mentorship. Take a look and see if you can find one that works for you. You never know where it might take you!

Classroom Set-up

Screenshot 2016-10-23 at 08.23.27Chapter 2 ends with classroom set-up. As many of you know, I was a passionate advocate of flexible seating in the classroom. Years ago, my students worked on a Math project where they re-designed our classroom while taking into consideration their learning needs. They measured the classroom and petitioned our Principal for some money for items they thought would better meet their learning needs. Some wanted standing tables while other wanted opportunities to sit on the floor. We created a learning environment that worked best for us and the autonomy and increased levels of ownership in the classroom were an indication that students felt as thought the classroom was their space. Now I know that we were lucky in that we were given some money to redesign but since leaving that school, I learned 2 important lessons: where possible, let students design the space so they feel that sense of ownership in the space and be intentional about what you chose to include in your classroom space. This picture of our space looks quite full and I would have to say that every item spoke to who we were as a group. On pages 25 to 30, I love that each of the classroom learning spaces are different and yet the amazing educators can speak to the differences that they have included in their classrooms with intentionality. I just started feeling a little nostalgic about designing learning spaces!

 

Screenshot 2019-01-29 at 1.50.16 PMIdeas

This resource has a variety of ideas meant to allow teachers and students get to know each other in the first hours/days/weeks of school. One idea that tempts me to ask around to borrow a classroom is found on page 52. I love the prompts and think they’re great for getting students – and frankly even teachers – to get to know each other on a deeper level. Beyond the first weeks of school, I think activities like these really help to promote a sense of belonging and inclusion in classroom spaces.

Tips

It’s report card time and I know that once again the crunch is on. Throughout my career there were many times that tips from others on best practices came in handy. This resource is FULL of great tips – and questions – that help to guide educators through some of the different aspects of our jobs. For report cards specifically, I really liked the Big Picture Questions on page 87. When reflecting on them, I think they would have been great questions for me to have asked myself during writing.

Screenshot 2019-01-29 at 2.04.13 PM

If you haven’t already, please take a look at this resource. It’s fantastic! Not only for the beginning teacher but I strongly believe that every teacher could gain something from taking a read. Once again, I’m grateful for the Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning for the chance to reflect and hopefully I’ve inspired you to take a look for yourself!

Arianna Lambert Inspiring Students, Mindfulness

Bell Let’s Talk Day – Helping to End the Stigma in Classrooms

Tomorrow is Bell Let’s Talk Day. Through powerful stories and campaigns on social media, now more than ever individuals are working towards ending the stigma surrounding mental illness. When we begin these conversations in classrooms, we start to help students develop empathy and who become more aware and eager to join the fight. It’s during this time every year that I wanted to ensure that if on no other day – and the conversation needs to happen on other days – we spoke about mental health.

In years past, as a class we worked towards understanding different strategies that help to improve our mental health and wellbeing. And while particular strategies worked best for some, each person really needed to work on identifying what tools or strategies worked best for themselves. By exposure to a variety of tools – mindful colouring, journaling, emotion check-ins, meditations, and more – students were asked to consider how each of these tools or strategies made them feel and whether or not they found them useful as a means of helping them through challenging situations. The strategies that worked, they were asked to keep and the others could be discarded. Through conversations, students were able to understand the importance of mental health and that sometimes without being aware of our levels of stress and/or our abilities to handle the stress, we are all susceptible to experiencing challenges with our own mental health.

With this background knowledge, I found that students were the ones who would often initiate the work we did in the school and classroom to support initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk Day. Using some of the resources in the Toolkit, students: hung up the posters and created their own; modified the PSAs and included facts that they found; used the template to create powerful poems and other writings in support; and with my help used this template to draft tweets that we posted.

Students want to have a positive impact on the world. Using issues that are current and relevant as part of the learning happening in the classroom allows them to have a platform to share their thoughts and ideas with others and to see themselves as real change makers. Tomorrow is #BellLetsTalk. How will you and your students get involved in this very important conversation?

Tammy Axt General

Examples of Alternative IEP Goals

Writing goals on an alternative IEP can be a daunting task for a teacher who has never done it before. That has been my experience this year as it is my first year teaching an amazing group of students with Developmental Disabilities.

I have written many modified IEPs over the course of my career. I am very comfortable increasing or decreasing the complexity and/or number of the Ontario Curriculum expectations. I know who to consult and what information I need to gather to make an informed decision about these types of goals for my students. However, writing Alternative Goals required a whole new set of skills this year.

Since Alternative expectations represent skills that are not represented in the Ontario curriculum it is sometimes difficult to know where to begin. For many students in Ontario, they will have Alternative expectations in addition to their modified expectations such as speech remediation or social skills. However, for some students their entire IEP will be Alternative.

So where do you begin?

If your students have been in school for a few years, the face place to find information is the OSR. In the Ontario Student Record, you can see what kind of services and goals have been recommended in the previous school years. You can also refer to previous IEPs to help get your started. If your OSRs arrived a messy blob of papers, take the time now to organize them. A friend of mine sat with me in September to walk me through organizing the hundreds of papers and it has saved my life. I am either filing or referring to an item in my OSRs at least once a week this year so they have to be organized.

The next place to turn is people. Consult with the families and Special Education colleagues. Families play an important role in helping set goals and can give you great ideas about IEP goals. For example, in December one of my parents contacted me and asked if we could work on fastening buttons during our fine motor skill development time as her son was starting to wear jeans to school and needed to learn the skill.

Finally, data collection will play an ongoing role in the creation and updating of goals throughout the year. I do assessments on my students consistently throughout the year. If you want some ideas about what to assess and how to assess things that are not curriculum based, I recommend using one of the two following resources.

The FISH (Functional Independence Skills Handbook)

fish_l

 

The Carolina Curriculum (both the infant/toddler and preschooler resource)

Carolina Curriculum

 

They will help you gather the information you need.  Both are incredibly expensive to buy, so borrow them from your resource department or special education team.

Here are some examples of what your goals could look like. I am not an expert by any means but if you are like me, sometimes examples can be a really helpful place to get started.

Attention/Focus

_______ will attend to a self-selected activity without being distracted or losing interest for 10 minutes.

_______  will work on completing teacher directed tasks for 25 minutes.

Mathematics

_______ will count to 100 with 75% accuracy.

_______ will demonstrate one-to-one correspondence up to 10 between numbers and objects with 75% accuracy.

_______  will identify time that is personally relevant to her and use it to independently begin tasks.

Life Skills

_______ will wash her face and put the facecloth in the laundry bin daily after lunch.

_______ will use a visual guide to assist her with the steps necessary to establish routines regarding menstrual activities (e.g., bringing necessary items to school, changing pads, disposing of pads, washing hands)

_______ will brush her teeth and put on deodorant daily after lunch.

Personal and Social Development

______  will successfully participate in a turn taking game with a peer, 3 out of 5 opportunities

______  will orally express when someone is in her personal space.

______  will work on sharing the classroom materials with other students.

Communication

_______ will demonstrate a choice between two types of food for snack time by pointing to the item.

_______ will point to a picture when he wants to request a walk.

Tammy Axt General

Learning about Menstruation for girls with Developmental Disabilities

A few weeks ago, I heard my student screaming in the bathroom. I mean really screaming. The bathroom is located right across the hall from our class and two of us bolted to the door to see what the problem was. 8,000,000 things went through my mind in the 4 seconds it took me to get to the door. Was she hurt? Did she cut herself? Had she broken her leg? We knocked frantically and went into the bathroom and breathed a deep sigh of relief. My student was having her first period. She was bawling and very upset because she did not understand what was happening to her. My student has a Developmental Disability that impairs her ability to process information so explaining this was normal was a very difficult thing for her to understand.

We got her cleaned up, assisted her with some materials and brought her back to class to relax. (My other students who also heard her screaming were freaked out and needed to see that she was okay)

I called mom to let her know what had happened and supported the student through the remainder of the day until it was time to go home. I explained to the student multiple times that it was part of growing up and that all women experience this but she still seemed incredibly confused by the whole thing.

I went home that night and decided it was time for my 5 girls to learn about their menstrual cycles. However, I have never tried to teach students with Developmental Delays about what happens during puberty. I thought about what I needed to do to explain this effectively.

The next day I spoke with the parents of the other four girls and told them that we would be speaking about this in class. I wanted to prepare them in case they came home and had questions. Some of my student’s ability to communicate is quite impaired so when they come home talking about blood with no context there could be some confusion.

I also prepared visuals for us to use in class and visuals with a dialogue for home. It is really helpful for my students to hear things repetitively so having the same message at home and school is very helpful. I used visuals from Boardmaker online. Here is what an example of that looked like:

Menstrual

I made a time in our schedule over the next 6 weeks for the girls and boys to do a separate activity. The girls stayed in the classroom and the boys went for a walk. During that time, I used visuals to explain when a woman grows up, she gets a period. I explained what a period was to my girls using the most basic language and pictures I could think of. It has taken some time but my girls are starting to understand. For my group, I have had to reassure them consistently that it is healthy. The word healthy was something that they all understood. They knew if you ate vegetables it was good for your body and it made you healthy. It is a word that obviously resonated and made sense for them. After using that word, they all stopped looking so horrified about the concept of becoming a woman.

Privacy has also been a real challenge for some of my students. The day after our first big talk, my student walked into school and was so excited to tell me that she explained everything to her mom and dad last night about periods. She said it so loudly that an entire class of grade eight students next door to us heard it and burst out laughing. My other student walked in and loudly asked my other student “how’s your period going?”. My girls have had to be reminded multiple times that periods are private and not something we talk about in public.

Throughout the past few weeks, we have also purchased pads from the grocery store and practiced putting them on underwear correctly.

We will continue learning about puberty and menstruation until all of my girls develop the skills to manage their monthly cycle independently.

 

Deb Weston Copyright, Plagiarism, Professional Judgement, Teaching as a public profession

The Basics of Understanding Copyright in Canada

Creative Works are Protected Under Canadian Law

When protecting creations such as writing, paintings, and even computer programs, regardless of value, Canadian law protects all creative works, under the Copyright Act. Creators of original work have rights that are protected.

“Simply put, the Act prohibits others from copying your work without your permission. Its purpose is to protect copyright owners while promoting creativity and the orderly exchange of ideas” (Government of Canada, 2018).

What is Copyright

Copyright is defined in the simplest terms, “copyright” means “the right to copy.” “In general, copyright means the sole right to produce or reproduce a work or a substantial part of it in any form. It includes the right to perform the work or any substantial part of it or, in the case of a lecture, to deliver it. If the work is unpublished, copyright includes the right to publish the work or any substantial part of it” (Government of Canada, 2018).

“People occasionally confuse copyrights with patents, trademarks, industrial designs and integrated circuit topographies. Like copyright, these others are rights granted for intellectual creativity and are forms of IP”(Government of Canada, 2018).

Important differences:

  • “Copyright provides protection for literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works (including computer programs) and other subject-matter known as performer’s performances, sound recordings and communication signals.
  • Patents cover new and useful inventions (product, composition, machine, process) or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention.
  • Trademarks may be one or a combination of words, sounds or designs used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or organization from those of others” (Government of Canada, 2018).

Copyright protects all original “literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works provided the conditions set out in the Copyright Act have been met. Each of these general categories covers a wide range of creations, including:

  • literary works such as books, pamphlets, computer programs and other works consisting of text
  • dramatic works such as motion picture films, plays, screenplays and scripts
  • musical works such as compositions with or without words
  • artistic works such as paintings, drawings, maps, photographs, sculptures and plans” (Government of Canada, 2018).

The Conditions for Copyright

Works

“Copyright applies to every original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work where the author was at the date of the making of the work a citizen or subject of, or a person ordinarily resident in, Canada or some other treaty country. (A treaty country is defined as a Berne Convention country, a Universal Copyright Convention country or a World Trade Organization [WTO] member.)” (Government of Canada, 2018).

Benefits of registration

“The Copyright Act states that a certificate of registration of copyright is evidence that copyright exists and that the person registered is the owner of the copyright. However, the Copyright Office is not responsible for policing or checking on registered works and how people use them. It also cannot guarantee that the legitimacy of ownership or the originality of a work will never be questioned” (Government of Canada, 2018).

A lifetime of protection

“Generally, copyright lasts for the life of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, and for 50 years following the end of that calendar year. Therefore, protection will expire on December 31 of the 50th year after the author dies” (Government of Canada, 2018).

The difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism.

“Copyright infringement is simply any infringement up on the rights of a copyright holder. Copyright law gives a copyright holder (usually the creator of the work) a set of rights that they and they alone can exploit legally (save for exceptions such as fair use)” (Bailey, 2013). Those include:

  • The right to reproduce/copy a work.
  • The right to create version of a work based upon another work.
  • The right to distribute copies of a work to the public.
  • The right to publicly display or perform a work.

“This means a wide variety of activities can be copyright infringing including performing a copyrighted play without permission, writing an unauthorized sequel to a work or simply making copies of the work” (Bailey, 2013).

Basically, copyright infringement, under the law, covers many unlawful activities that violate the rights of copyright holders. Copyright infringement is constructed under law as plagiarism is constructed under ethics. Plagiarism is essentially taking someone else’s work and presenting it as your own.

“The definition of ‘work’ can include a variety of things including ideas, words, images, etc. Anything that is seen as an unethical and unattributed use of another’s original creation can be defined as plagiarism” (Bailey, 2013).

Teachers are held to higher standards as teaching is a public profession

As teachers, we are held to higher standards as “teaching is a public profession” and that Canada’s Supreme Court rules that “off duty conduct, even when not directly related to students” is relevant to their [the teachers’] ability to teach. The Education Act Section 264 states that teachers are to have morality “to inculcate by precept and example respect for religion and the principles of Judaeo-Christian morality and the highest regard for truth, justice, loyalty, love of country, humanity, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, purity, temperance and all other virtues” (Education Act 264 (1) (c)).

 So think before you use another person’s work and cite the work when you use it.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston, PhD

References

Bailey, J. (October 7, 2013) The Difference Between Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism, Plagiarism Today, Downloaded from https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/10/07/difference-copyright-infringement-plagiarism/

Government of Canada. (1985). Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42). Copyright Board of Canada https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/

Government of Canada. (September 26, 2018). A Guide to Copyright. Copyright Board of Canada https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr02281.html#understandingCopyright

Government of Ontario. (October 17, 2018). Education Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.2, Government of Ontario, Downloaded from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90e02