Blog – Page 98

September 8, 2018 Kim Cousin Before School Starts, Celebrating Success, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Resilience, self reflection, Start of the year, wellness, wellness, Women at Work

Happy New Year

As a parent and educator this time of year is a transition back into a regimented routine. It is the New Year. New Year, for my child entering grade 3. New Year, for myself with a traveling (on a cart) assignment, Grade 5-8 Math and Self Contained Class coverage.

Preparation for this New Year celebration spans through the summer. Beginning in June by sorting and putting away this past year’s materials. I’m always thinking about what the New Year will hold. When I’m shopping and something catches my eye, I think, “Is it useful to me and my charges? Can I afford it? Will I use it?” As I unpack my storage areaZ, I find all kinds of collectables there. I started teaching at the beginning of the technological age of the education system. I still have materials necessary before the use of technology. This year, I found a grade 3, “Word Wall”. My child’s Grade 3 teacher, inherited this and a box of books for this level. whether she uses them or not, I feel great about the possibility. Sharing with others brings me joy.

New Year is a great celebration, ringing in the new, decorating for the season, preparing for a fantastic time, thinking of all the details, and knowing that an unpredictable event will happen and I will have to adapt and be flexible to smoothly slide through it. As Educators we have a multitude of talents. We are planners, organizers, predictors, caregivers, decorators, researchers to name a few. With all celebrations we plan and prepare well before the event. It is exciting to watch, assist and create space for the New Year. It is exciting to meet the new educators, children, and families whom will help with the growing and learning for all.

During the summer, usually a few weeks before the New Year, nightmares enter my dreams which include, “I’m lost in the school. I’m late getting there. I forget the most important item of my plan.” My mother has been retired from teaching for over 20 years and still has these dreams/nightmares just before the New Year. I wake up in the night thinking about plans and details. I jot notes in preparation for the celebration back, then convince my brain to slow down and return to a resting place.

The preparations as an Educator include more than the New Year celebration. These include preparing yourself and others for a change in routine. My child has appointments through the week. I have to plan my life around these and my own appointments too. I have to prepare for travel to and from, meals to eat, clothes for the changing season and the New Year. I have learned to slowly slide into these practices beginning before the New Year. This gives my body a chance to adapt to the earlier start times, bed times and daily expectations. I began teaching later in life and my body and mind thank me, when I care for them. Preparing for the New Year must include self care. I have made realistic goals to care for myself, so I can continue to celebrate the New Year with the many people I affect.

As you prepare for your New Year events, be mindful of yourself and flexible in all the change that will happen during these times. Smile, walk proud and be kind is my continuous reminder every moment of this New Year celebration.

Kimberley Cousin

September 2, 2018 Michelle Fenn Behaviour Management, Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, First Week Reflections, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Learning About Your Students, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Professional Learning and Growth, Start of the year, wellness, Wellness

Building Connections with Students

Be Authentic

The video of a teacher giving each of his students a “just for them” handshake each morning upon entry has gone viral. His efforts to connect with students have been applauded. I think that this is a wonderful way to create a bond between teacher and student; for THAT guy. I know that this is not “my thing”. If I were to choose to try this at the beginning of a new school year, it would not be genuine and it just wouldn’t feel right. I’ve also often wonder what happens when a parent wants a word in the morning, or someone forgot their backpack on the bus, or there is a class trip leaving 5 minutes after the bell. There are many ideas for connecting with students online, but you need to do what is genuine for you. Otherwise, you won’t sustain it and the students see right through it.

Lunch

During the first few weeks of school I try to stay in my classroom while the kids eat lunch. I will often eat my lunch at the same time as my students so that I can have the other half of lunch to relax, visit with colleagues or do some preparation. I choose to do this for the first couple of weeks to make sure that the routines for lunch time are established and students understand my expectations around cleanliness, behaviour and technology use during lunch. There are often different teachers on lunch duty, so it is helpful for them if the regular classroom teacher is in the room until they become acquainted with the students. When I take the time and effort to do this at the beginning of the year I find that there are less issues throughout the school year at lunch time.

Circle Chat

No matter what grade level, I have always started of my day chatting with kids. In a circle format the students can share something, check in, ask a question or some days they pass (I will personally check in later to make sure everything is ok). Sometimes we have topics, sometimes we have to discuss class updates but no matter what, we’ve connected in some way. Yes, it takes instructional time. Sometimes it takes up a LOT of time. But, in my experience, it builds relationships with your students and saves time in the long run.

Front End Load Communication

Parents’ concern for the well being of their children seems to be at its highest point at the beginning of the school year. It may be a new school, a new teacher, academic concerns from previous years or peer group concerns. Taking the time to communicate during the first week of the school year by phone, note or at least a personal email in addition to class updates on websites or newsletters home will pay off during the rest of the school year. The more you assure families that you are accessible and concerned about their child, the more supportive they will be if an issue arises. Find the good in each student and make sure that you communicate it to families. For the students that have academic or behaviour concerns, meet with families face to face as soon as possible. Do not leave it until report card time. I often start those conversations by asking them to voice their concerns, as well as asking their goals and hopes for their child for the school year. Those positive and proactive attempts at communication at the beginning of the school year will go a long way with families and ultimately will benefit the student.

Take Your Job Seriously; Don’t Take Yourself Seriously.

About 10 years ago I picked up a pair of absolutely crazy novelty sunglasses. No matter the weather, I wore them in the morning when I picked the students up at their bus lines and I wore them when I walked them out to their buses in the afternoon. There were always comments from the students (and sometimes parents) and it was often a conversation starter when I could see that kids needed to be checked in on first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. I began to get crazy sunglasses as gifts. I now have about 60 pairs and wear different ones depending on my mood. My staff humoured me and each wore a pair in the staff photo for the yearbook. This might be something that you try in your classroom, I’m happy to share, but make sure it is something that suits you.

I remember being told by a colleague at the beginning of my career that you shouldn’t smile at your students during the first few weeks or even until Christmas. I didn’t follow that advice, because it wasn’t genuine and authentic for me. The way I see it, if you aren’t smiling at the beginning of the year, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you won’t be smiling at the end of the year! Students feed off of the mood of the teacher. Ultimately, the teacher makes the weather in the classroom. There are days when I have to apply the “fake it until you make it” strategy and I smile until I really feel like smiling. I also highly recommend a morning music mix for the way to work. Put together 5 or 6 songs (or more depending on the length of your commute) that really motivate you, make you bouncy and make you smile. On the days where I know I’m tense, in a mood or haven’t slept well I put this on during my drive and usually by the end I’m singing along and feeling better. Then, I slide on those crazy sunglasses and I’m in tip-top teacher mode ready to greet every student with their name and a smile. I may not have individual handshakes ready to go but after 23 years…I still start the year off smiling.

August 23, 2018August 23, 2018 Deb Weston Advocacy for public education

Switching to a four-day school week

I recently read a NPR post about the Colorado School District Switching to a four-day school week to save money. This made me very concerned as many educational policy trends in the United States make their way to Canada.

In the 2018-2019 school year, Colorado’s School District 27J has dropped Mondays and now has school from Tuesdays to Fridays. Superintendent Chris Fiedler cited cost savings in transportation, teacher salaries, and utilities such as air conditioning and heating. This was a result of six failed attempts to raise money from the district. As a result of these cuts, the district will save $30 per student per day.

A Phoenix school board, Apache Junction Unified School District has also moved to the four-day week with classes going from Monday to Thursday saving about $33 per student per year. Here, parents can drop their children off at a city-run day care at a cost of $100 a month. Apparently, teachers in this district use to meet every Saturday to plan lessons for the week – now they meet Friday, without students.

For both districts, the most savings came from busing. Students had longer days. According to researchers at Georgia State University and Montana State University, students in four-day schools showed no negative academic impact and had higher math scores with little evidence of compromised academics. Research from these universities showed no evidence of an impact on shorter attention spans due to the pressures of a longer day.

In British Columbia, Boundary School District 51 switched all schools to a four-day school week during 2001-2002 to ensure schools would stay open and showed savings of more than $200,000 per year. They reported no change in academic performance and the need for student discipline dropped by 50 percent. Fort McMurray was also contemplating this strategy in order to save up to $1,000,000 per year.

Education Week’s Paul Hill cites that educators and parents should be weary of this trend as, contrary to some evidence, students may fall behind in overall learning in school. Students from low socio-economic backgrounds or from minority groups tend to have less resources at home, and stand to lose disproportionately to their more socioeconomically well off peers. This means overall lower student achievement, graduation levels, and college attendance, especially in small towns and rural areas. Also, the real net savings in costs does not add up. Paul Hill states that “governors and state superintendents of education need to make sure local communities look at real numbers and don’t jump blindly onto a bandwagon that they might never be able to get off”.

I say, beware of education cost cutting as it could result in cutting overall students’ education.

Yours to consider …

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

References

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/638715749/colorado-school-district-switches-to-4-day-week-to-save-money?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/11/27/451754700/when-a-four-day-school-week-might-cost-more-than-it-saves

https://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2018/08/4-day_school_week_denver.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/are-4-day-school-weeks-good-for-students-1.3234375

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-a-four-day-school-week-a-good-idea_us_5abcfbade4b03e2a5c7a2523

https://www.parents.com/health/parents-news-now/a-four-day-school-week-may-benefit-kids-study-says/

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/07/19/beware-the-four-day-school-week-trap.html

August 22, 2018August 22, 2018 Deb Weston Advocacy for change, English Language Learners (ELLs), Inspiring Teachers, Social Justice

Welcoming Refugees … by any other name

Turned Away: Tale of St. Louis and the fate of its 907 German Jews.

Welcoming Refugees by any other name

While reading the Toronto Star, I came across an article by Martin Regg Cohn writing about his experience meeting refugees making their way through the Vermont forest into Canada. This made me think about black slaves coming to Canada through the Underground Railroad beginning in the late 1700s. This further got me thinking about all the people who have come to Canada seeking refuge after being forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, natural disaster or just to find a secure place to live and raise their family.

Canada (and its previous names of British North America, Upper and Lower Canada, and New France), has always been a destination for refuge. Today and before confederation in 1967, our nation would not have grown in population or diversity without the seekers of refuge. There’s been significant waves of refugee seekers over Canada’s last 250 years. I was surprised at the extend of the list!

This is a partial list from the Government of Canada’s Canada: A History of Refuge

1776: 3,000 Black Loyalists, among them freemen and slaves, fled the oppression of the American Revolution.

1783: Sir Guy Carleton, Governor of the British Province of Quebec, and later to become Lord Dorchester, safely transported 35,000 Loyalist refugees.

1789: Lord Dorchester, Governor-in-Chief of British North America, gave official recognition to the “First Loyalists” – those loyal to the Crown who fled the oppression of the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

1793: Upper Canada became the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery. In turn, over the course of the 19th century, thousands of black slaves escaped from the United States and came to Canada with the aid of the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.

Late 1700s: Scots Highlanders, refugees of the Highland Clearances during the modernization of Scotland, settled in Canada.

1830: Polish refugees fled to Canada to escape Russian oppression.

1845-1851: Irish refugees escaping the Great Potato Famine.

1880-1914: Italians escaped the ravages of Italy’s unification as farmers were driven off their land as a result of the new Italian state reforms.

1880-1914: Thousands of persecuted Jews, fleeing pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, sought refuge in Canada.

1891: The migration of 170,000 Ukrainians began, mainly to flee oppression from areas under Austro-Hungarian rule, marking the first wave of Ukrainians seeking refuge in Canada. 1920-1939: The second wave of Ukrainians fled from Communism, civil war and Soviet occupation. 1945-1952: The third wave of Ukrainians fled Communist rule.

1947-1952: 250,000 displaced persons (DPs) from Central and Eastern Europe came to Canada, victims of both National Socialism (Nazism) and Communism, and Soviet occupation.

1950s: Canada admitted Palestinian Arabs, driven from their homeland by the Israeli-Arab war of 1948.

1950s-1970s: A significant influx of Middle Eastern and North African Jews fled to Canada.

1956: 37,000 Hungarians escaped Soviet tyranny and found refuge in Canada.

1960s: Chinese refugees fled the Communist violence of the Cultural Revolution.

1968-1969: 11,000 Czech refugees fled the Soviet and Warsaw Pact Communist invasion.

1970s: 7,000 Chilean and other Latin American refugees were allowed to stay in Canada after the violent overthrow of Salvador Allende’s government in 1973.

1970-1990: Deprived of political and religious freedom, 20,000 Soviet Jews settled in Canada.

1971: After decades of being denied adequate political representation in the central Pakistani government, thousands of Bengali Muslims came to Canada at the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

1971-1972: Canada admitted some 228 Tibetans. These refugees, along with their fellow countrymen, were fleeing their homeland after China occupied it in 1959.

1972-1973: Following Idi Amin’s expulsion of Ugandan Asians, 7,000 Ismaili Muslims fled and were brought to Canada.

1979 -1980: More than 60,000 Boat People found refuge in Canada after the Communist victory in the Vietnam War.

1980s: Khmer Cambodians, victims of the Communist regime and the aftershocks of Communist victory in the Vietnam War, fled to Canada.

1990s: By the 1990s, asylum seekers came to Canada from all over the world, particularly Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa.

1992: 5,000 Bosnian Muslims were admitted to Canada to escape the ethnic cleansing in the Yugoslav Civil War.

1999: Canada airlifted more than 5,000 Kosovars, most of whom were Muslim, to safety.

2006: Canada resettled over 3,900 Karen refugees from refugee camps in Thailand.

2008: Canada began the process of resettling more than 5,000 Bhutanese refugees over five years.

2015: Close to 6,600 Bhutanese refugees arrived in Canada. Canada completes a seven-year commitment and welcomes more than 23,000 Iraqi refugees. Canada commits to and begins resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees.

2017: Canada announces historical increases in multiyear resettled refugee admissions targets, as well as new commitments for resettling refugees from Africa and the Middle-East.

2018: Canada resettled more than 1,300 survivors of Daesh in 2017 and 2018.

If it were not for Canada’s generosity to refugees and immigrants, my mother’s family would not have made it to Canada. Her family consists of Scots Highlanders escaping the Highland Clearance in 1830, British Loyalists and Quakers refusing to participate in the War of 1812, and Irish refugee escaping the starvation of the Potato Famine between 1845-1851. My Northern Irish immigrant father, on the other hand, was escaping bad business deals.

Canada, as a place, has not always been generous to refugees. In 1939, the William Lyon Mackenzie King government turned away 900 Jews escaping Nazis rule in order “to keep this part of the continent free from unrest and from too great an intermixture of foreign strains of blood” (Prime Minister King, 1939). Note that a third of these Jewish refugees died in concentration camps. During World War 2, Canada allowed less than 5,000 Jews into the country – a small quantity considering the numbers for the United States (200,000), Great Britain (195,000), Argentina (50,000), and Brazil (27,000) welcoming Jews into their countries.

In what we now call Canada, British governments created their own refugees through the expulsion of the thriving community of Acadians in 1755 and the ongoing expulsion of indigenous peoples from their traditional lands.

Be aware, that once settled in Canada, people were not safe from human rights violations. In 1941, 22,000 Japanese Canadians were interned in camps along with 660 Germans and 480 Italians. My very intelligent mother-in-law lost her opportunity to complete her high school education after being interned in Lemon Creek, B.C. Many of the internees were born in Canada but were treated as foreigners. The Chinese, who’s hands build Canada’s first national railroad, paid a Chinese only Head Tax for every person entering Canada between 1885 and 1923.

Given its history of welcoming refugees, why is there such a great debate about the current refugee crisis in Canada? If I look at the past refugees and immigrants, a great deal of immigrants could be classified as WASP – White Anglo Saxon Protestants who spoke English. Canada has opened its doors for non British, non English or French speaking refugees and immigrants. In the early 1950s, Canada welcomed my children’s grandparents from Yugoslavia. All the families and relatives lived in one house until each family could afford to buy their own house (this is not unlike what some families do today). The Yugoslavians did not speak English, but they were White.

As classroom teachers, we know who is coming into our country as it is evident from our classroom compositions. I often share that if it were not for refugees and immigrants, I would not have a job as a teacher. I have taught many refugees from all over the world including Africa, Bosnia, Kosovo, Thailand, Syria, Iraq and the Middle East. I have been honoured to teach them and to hear their stories.

I believe that the current refugees are receiving pushback from some Canadians (i.e. who’s families were also immigrants and refugees) because many of the refugees coming to Canada are not White. I believe that this pushback is solely due to racism.

Refugees and immigrants, regardless of place, time, or label, sacrifice everything for a chance at a better life when they set foot in Canada. When talking about human rights in my classroom, I always remind my students that if we do not stand up for the human rights of others, ours could be at risk.

If Canadians allow for the discrimination against our current refugees, we are setting ourselves up for a future of more discrimination, regardless of status in Canada. Do Canadians really want to repeat the tale of the St. Louis and the fate of its 907 German Jews? More recently, do Canadians want to see more children like 3 year old Syrian-Kurdish Alan Kurdi lose their lives while their families seek more secure places to live?

This blog is dedicated to the refugees I had the honour to support as a Red Cross volunteer this summer. I wish you all success in your new country, Canada.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

References

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/08/20/my-border-encounter-with-a-migrant-family.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/canada-role/timeline.html

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1174272-canada-turned-away-jewish-refugees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_head_tax_in_Canada

https://www.dummies.com/education/history/world-history/canadian-history-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Alan_Kurdi

July 23, 2018 Michelle Fenn Assessment, Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Constant Learning, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources, self reflection, Start of the year, Technology in school, Use of Technology, wellness, wellness

My Yearly Notebook

Each summer I buy a brand new spiral bound notebook. Not the skinny ones that you get in the 3 pack from Hilroy with the flimsy cover that rips within a few uses. I am particular about my stationary. It may be a kind of a problem. I get the 8 1/2 by 11 solid cardboard spiral bound notebook. It is where I keep my lists. Lists of things to buy for the classroom. Lists of things I want to change in the physical space of my classroom. Lists of books I’d like to read or add to my classroom library. Lists of things to get done before September. Lists of the curriculum topics I’ll be teaching and in what months I plan to teach them. Lists of special events each month that I might highlight or celebrate with my students. Lists…of lists. I use that big notebook all school year long to add notes from meetings, professional development sessions and of course, more lists. I have many already filled spiral notebooks of new ideas that I’d like to try over the school year on my shelf in my office. This summer I realized something. After the school year is over I have NEVER opened those notebooks again. There are lots of great ideas in there that I didn’t implement and then I feel guilty about that! Teacher guilt never seems to stop, unless of course, I choose to stop it.

This summer I quickly read the book, “Ditch That Textbook; Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom” by Matt Miller. It has fantastic teaching tips for technology integration in the classroom. Although I do not have the desire nor the access to the 1:1 technology to go completely paperless, I found a lot of wisdom and great teaching tools in Matt’s book. I have also provided a link to Matt’s blog. Matt helped me to break a cycle. I haven’t bought a spiral bound notebook this summer and I’m not planning on buying one. Among many pieces of advice in the book, Matt suggests picking two new things that you are really excited about to add to your teaching practice, being clear about your intention for using those practices and following through. I’ve been guilty of overdoing the professional learning to the point that I overwhelm my students by doing a whole bunch of new things all at once and then don’t end up sticking to any of them. I also get overwhelmed by the many great ideas out there and wonder if I do something else, what I’ll have to give up doing.

I’ll admit that I’m already kind of cheating. Instead of just choosing two teaching practices I’m also choosing two new technology platforms to learn about for next year. One of the practices that I would like to get in the habit of doing is adding more descriptive feedback to assignments that students do online and have multiple opportunities for the students to respond to that feedback and re-submit assignments with changes. The second thing that I would like to do is educate parents on how to leave constructive feedback for their students online rather than a thumbs up or “Good job!” I plan on exploring the video and audio creation tools, WeVideo and Voki. I may explore more than these but these are the ones that I am committed to doing. Since I have written my commitment here on the blog, I also commit to sharing what I thought about those tools in a review format. If you get a chance to read Ditch That Textbook, I highly recommend it. It is a quick read with great already-made lists and hey, it made me “Ditch That Notebook”.

July 1, 2018 Michelle Fenn Constant Learning, Genius Hour, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology

Why Coding Is Important Part Two

In Part one of this blog post I talked about coding with relation to the deep learning competencies and learning skills. However, there are greater implications of teaching kids to code. I am a huge science fiction and dystopian fan. I think I am attracted to the resourcefulness of the characters in the movies and books. The characters that have hands-on life skills and leadership qualities are valued and survive. Let me be clear, I do not view the classroom as a dystopian or science fiction society…well…unless we are suffering from a severe heat wave. I think that understanding the way the technology on which we rely on a daily basis, is a skill worth exploring. That understanding also builds an appreciation of the work of coders and others in the computer science industry. After taking 20 minutes to code a square with a small spherical robot a student said to me, “Wow. Can you imagine how much time it took to code everything in FortNite? Every step my character takes, everything it wears or every background must be lines and lines of code.” That was a pretty serious revelation for a 9 year old.

It isn’t science fiction that there is a huge demand for computer science programmers and developers. According to Code.org, 71% of all new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) jobs are in computing, yet only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science. According to the employment website Indeed.com there are currently over 2500 full time job openings in the greater Toronto area in the field of Computer Science with annual salaries between $60,000 and $140,000. Learning to code increases the odds of securing a lucrative STEM career, especially in a world where computing jobs are growing exponentially. Coding has quickly become a vital skill in the work world. Elementary teachers can begin to open doors for students by exposing them to coding in a fun and interactive way. It is safe to say that coding language will develop into something much different before our students get into the workforce. It isn’t about the “content” or “language” of code. It is about teaching them a new way of thinking that they could apply to any coding language or problem solving situation. According to Code.org, many colleges and Universities are looking for experience with coding on entrance applications. It is difficult to ignore the statistics.

With Alexa, Google, and Apple in homes, cars, pockets and on wrists we know that this our reliance on computers as a society isn’t going away soon. Exposing students to these new learning opportunities to develop their deep learning competencies is necessary for development as learners and in the end, may prove quite lucrative for their futures.

July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Michelle Fenn Assessment, Challenging Topics, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, Genius Hour, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Math, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Questioning, Report Cards, Resilience, Student Ownership, Students as Teachers, Technology in school, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology

Why Coding is Important Part One

I consider myself a fairly techie teacher. However, until recently I hadn’t really tried my hand at coding or robotics. Well, I had, but I had lost interest as I quickly felt as though I was out of my depth. So, I did what I always do when I really want to learn something about teaching, I go to a colleague that has the knowledge and I try it WITH the students. Collaborative inquiry.

Until recently, I didn’t see what the big deal was or why it was important to teach coding to students. Yeah, playing with robots is fun but what does that have to do with curriculum? When I started working with and learning coding along side students I had a change in mindset. There is a lot of math, strategic planning and visualization in coding. Coding may not always directly relate to curriculum content-that is true. However, in terms of teaching students about the deep learning competencies, coding is key. If you aren’t sure what I mean by the deep learning competencies; they are referred to as the 6 C’s. Here is a link to the New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning paper but I have extracted a summary of the 6 C’s for a quick reference:

Character: Character refers to qualities of the individual essential for being personally effective in a complex world including: grit, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, reliability, and honesty.

Citizenship: Thinking like global citizens, considering global issues based on a deep understanding of diverse values with genuine interest in engaging with others to solve complex problems that impact human and environmental sustainability.

Collaboration: Collaboration refers to the capacity to work interdependently and synergistically in teams with strong interpersonal and team-related skills including effective management of team dynamics, making substantive decision together, and learning from and contributing to the learning of others.

Communication: Communication entails mastery of three fluencies:digital, writing and speaking tailored for a range of audiences.

Creativity: Having an ‘entrepreneurial eye’ for economic and social opportunities, asking the right questions to generate novel ideas, and demonstrating leadership to pursue those ideas into practice.

Critical Thinking: Critically evaluating information and arguments, seeing patterns and connections, constructing meaningful knowledge and applying it in the real world.

I reflected on these 6 C’s as I wrote the learning skills for my grade 4/5 students this year. I spend the most time on my reports creating the Learning Skills for each student. They are personal and they reflect each individual student. As a parent, it is what I am most interested in reading about my own child. The 6 C’s are competencies not only for school, but for life. While students were exploring coding I had them working in pairs or small groups to give them the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and show leadership. When the code didn’t work, they were able to go back and find the error and correct it and try it again with results right away. Sometimes they found it painstaking and I had to let them work through that and they were glad in the end when I didn’t give them the easy way out and they solved things on their own. When they learned something in coding, they quickly wanted to share their learning with other students. I gave basic instruction about the program to start using a youtube tutorial and then let the students go. Students who often don’t do well in groups with “typical” academic tasks often excelled as leaders in coding because it is a divergent way of thinking and they had a self-check strategy built into the task. It was incredible to witness the amount of learning that was taking place.

You don’t have to have robots to code. There are online coding websites that teach kids to code such as code.org and Scratch. The students even as young as grade 3 are easily able to use these sites to code. Scratch Jr. is available for younger students. The sites have great tutorial videos and somehow the students seem to just start discovering and creating things intuitively. They begin helping each other when they see that someone has created something cool and ask the creator to show them how to do it too.

I am proud to say that I can now code a square, star and a small obstacle course using blocks and a Sphero robot. My students discover new things every day and share them with me. It is definitely a new age in teaching.

June 30, 2018 Arianna Lambert Inspiring Teachers, Occasional Teachers, Professional Learning and Growth, Social Justice, Use of Technology

Summer Professional Learning

The summer is here and if you are anything like me, it’s the perfect time for some professional learning. Ok…well maybe after the long weekend so at least you’ve had a bit of time to unwind from a hectic month at school. You may be wondering, “what’s out there this summer for me to learn?”. Well, here are 2 great opportunities that I am excited to be a part of this summer.

MakerEdTO – Every year, during the first week of July, educators who are excited about Making get together for the MakerEdTo Conference which is held at the York School. From inspiring keynotes to hands-on sessions, this is a conference that I’ve been inspired by for the last couple of years. What I appreciate most is having the time and space to play and talk with colleagues about applications in the classroom in order to get new ideas for the following year. Maker Festival Toronto is also happening July 7th & 8th at the Toronto Public Library.

ETFO’S Summer Academy – With over 55 courses this year, ETFO’s Summer Academy has something for every teacher who is looking for more than just a day workshop but rather an opportunity to network and connect with like-minded educators for 3-day courses on topics from Kindergarten to Design Thinking and Technology to Mathematics. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from some of these amazing educators and I’m certain that you’ll leave feeling excited about trying something new or more confident about a specific area in your teaching practice. I’m facilitating courses on Getting Started with G Suite Edu in Stratford on July 17th, 18th & 19th and Empowering Students Through Design Thinking on July 31st, August 1, & 2nd. Consider joining me!

Prefer to do some professional learning on your own? ETFO has amazing Resources that are available. From resources for Occasional Teachers to resources and Book Lists on Social Justice topics, there is such a wide variety of information available for reading on your own time.

This summer, I hope that you take some time for yourself to rest, relax and enjoy the beautiful weather and if – like me – you get the professional learning bug, seize the opportunity and enjoy it!

June 30, 2018 Arianna Lambert Celebrating Success, Year End Activities

End Of Year Reflections

EEEK!!! Where has the time gone? I meant to post this earlier in the month to get the conversation going and to perhaps find new or different ways of reflecting both for myself and students but began writing and switched to report cards, June Reviews or OSR sign-offs.

Every June or maybe even earlier, I start to reflect on the year. I think about the positives/gains that I made both personally and with students and I take time to think about what I could have done better. Inevitably the column of what I could have done better outweighs the column of what I accomplished and while that always offers me the opportunity to improve as an educator, the problem becomes that I can leave the year feeling as though I haven’t really made as many gains – which simply isn’t the case. I wonder when we get our students reflecting, if this too is the case for them.

As I mentioned, I started reflecting earlier and I don’t think that I realized the impact that I had on my students until the day that I told them that I was leaving. While I hated seeing some break down in tears, it wasn’t until that moment that I realized that I had reached some who I perceived as my toughest critics. Students for whom I often felt as though I wasn’t reaching started to open up about the ways in which our interactions and our work together this year changed their mindsets and how they wanted to learn in the future. Some expressed a sense of being heard and/or seen while others felt as though they found their passions through some of our activities using Design Thinking. And then I started to wonder how different the last few months may have been had we taken the time to start reflecting earlier and perhaps not taken each other so for granted.

While I reflect personally, I think it’s really important to have students reflecting as well. I know that there are many ideas that are out there for ways in which students can reflect, but I wonder in what ways can we work with students so that they are constantly reflecting and not simply because they are told but because they know that reflection can facilitate greater success. This year we answered questions about moments of pride in our year as well as moments where we learned something about ourselves or others. We also created a Google Slides deck of words to live by, which included quotes we found and/ or created on our own. Students were tasked with using the words but finding images that may help viewers to feel inspired by the message of the words. Many were very deep and in retrospect, I now see that it would have been useful to have done this earlier in the year. I would have printed them out and had them on the walls of our classroom to continue to inspire us through the learning process this year.

So my question is, how do we as reflective educators, truly take the time to recognize the gains made throughout the year and not just at times when journeys may be changing? Is it about smaller chunks of time on which we reflect? I know that I reflect daily but it’s sometimes a challenge to see the progress from day-to-day. How do we get our students doing the same thing? How do we get them to reflect or become eager to reflect on their own? Is it offering times of journalling or getting students to reflect like I saw a fellow Twitter Friend – Jay Dubois – do with his students – https://twitter.com/Jay__Dubois/status/1011345374009847810?

Screenshot 2018-06-30 at 4.35.54 PM

My role is changing next year but know that reflection is a huge part of my ongoing learning journey. Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated. How do you reflect?

June 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General, LGBTQ2S

Happy Pride Month!

This June, Peel District School board has raised the Pride Flag at every school for the first time. I didn’t realize the impact that the flying of the flag would have on me until I saw it every single day as I came into school. It gave me such a sense of joy and happiness that I was entering a building that explicitly and overtly demonstrated to my community that our building is a safe space for the 2SLGBTQ+ community!

It is so important that our students and their families see that flag flying high as our students who are queer are some of our most vulnerable students. Rates of suicide and self harm are alarming. It is paramount that our students feel that they attend a school that values them and promotes a climate of inclusiveness.

In addition to the flag, The Peel District School Board has taken some great steps in recent years to support teachers in providing safer spaces for the 2SLGBTQ+ population. We held our 2^nd annual middle school GSA conference this year which is helping teachers bring Gay Straight Alliance Groups to middle schools all over Peel. I also cheered the day I read the following headline in the Toronto Star: “Peel Board Won’t Exempt Kids from Learning About Gay Families, Gender Issues” in 2015.

ETFO, in conjunction with many locals across the province, has been doing this work for many years and has so many fantastic resources and professional development opportunities for teachers. I attended the workshop called LGBTQ in the Primary Classroom this past year. We worked through a variety of scenarios focused on gender identity that many teachers are experiencing with their kindergarten and grade 1 students. Teachers in the workshop were committed to making their classroom a place where students can explore their identities. This included training on language used in the classroom, physical classroom environment and managing the challenging conversations with parents that regularly arise. We also reviewed Peel’s Gender Identity and Gender Expression Guidelines, which I appreciated. Every piece of policy helps support the conversations I need to have in order to provide a safer and inclusive environment for all of my students.

ETFO has created many resources including safe space posters that hang in our classrooms as a welcoming symbol to all and has provided us with training on how to start/facilitate and maneuver dialogues about inclusion. My safe space poster is beside my door. I regularly have students ask me about my safe space poster as we line up. I explain that this poster is to tell people that my classroom is a safer place for transgender, 2 spirit, lesbian, bisexual, queer and gay people. I have explained that to students between the ages of 6-11 regularly for the last 10 years. When you start teaching students about the idea of respect for all at a young age, it becomes part of the norms for our teaching space.

I hope everyone had a Happy PRIDE MONTH!!