Will Gourley Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Students

The gift

It’s Monday.
I should be in the classroom right?
Nope, not this week, or the next one either (insert thoughts of appreciation here).

It’s the Winter break and millions of students and teachers are waking up to the first of 10 vacation days. WooHOO! My internal clock did not get that message. Neither did my clock radio alarm as it went off at 5:55 am as always. So as the chorus of Pat Benatar’s Love is a Battlefield blared, I pressed snooze for the first time since September.
15 minutes later I’m up, dressed, and drinking the first of the day’s many coffees. That’s enough sleeping in for one day.

It has been a hectic 4 months in the classroom.
The months have flown by at the speed of learning(my term).
Not that it’s a bad thing, but frenetic might be an apt single word descriptor.
With reports going home late this year, ongoing committees, teams and extra-curricular activities in full swing to accompany day to day instruction my schedule is full. Needless to say, free time is in short supply.

As the Christmas/Winter Holidays approached, students started hinting about gifts, our school concert, and ideas for class parties. Soon we were discussing clothing and toy drives and plans for the break.

1. “Mr G., I noticed you drink a lot of coffee. Would you like coffee for Christmas?”
2. “Can I volunteer to be an ambassador for the school concert?”
3. “Mr G., here are some toys I brought in for our toy drive. Can I bake some cookies for the class?”
4. “I don’t have a gift for you. I’m sorry.”

Here are my answers in order;

1. Yes please and that’s very thoughtful of you to ask.
2. Yes, you’d be a great ambassador. Thank you for stepping up.
3. What a kind gesture. Some cookies would be awesome as long as they are peanut free.
4. You do not need to apologize or give me a gift. Coming to class, everyday, willing to learn has been the best gift a teacher could receive, and you have been giving it since September. I should be giving you a present.

On the last day before the break we tidied the class, stacked desks, and arranged chairs in a circle for a social activity. Cookies, candy canes, and cheer were shared – along with fun draw prizes for every student. I was blessed with a number of thoughtfully worded cards and generous gifts including coffee(I can quit anytime).

While were all sitting in our social circle I began reflecting more on the conversation with the student who said he had no gift to give.  As I shared with him then, his gift to me arrived everyday in his hard work and positive attitude. I realized he had offered me another amazing gift – a chance to encourage my class; to let all of the students know how their hard work and desire to learn were the best gifts a teacher could ever receive.  So before the bells rang and the best wishes wished that gift was shared with the class.

As I look back on the first four months it is clear to see that the holidays in our class started in September because we gathered, we shared, and gifts were given.

Christmas Card 2015Merry Christmas   Joyeux Noel
Happy Holidays   Season’s Greetings
Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year

 

 

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Resilience, Wellness

Celebrating You

As my all time favourite author Dr. Seuss said, “Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” If you are like me at all, you have difficulty accepting compliments from colleagues, administrators, students and/or parents for the commitment that you put forth in your role as a teacher. Yet we are open to criticism each and every day. Why is that?

Well this past weekend while I was doing some work in my office area I looked at the bare walls around me and thought to myself. Today I am going to hang up my diplomas that I received over 30 years ago. Yes, that is right, they have never seen daylight, never been hung and thus never been admired for the accomplishments I had reached. I scoured through a variety of storage bins and found them still in their original holder from the university. So off I went to get them framed. Within a few hours and a few extra holes in my wall, I sat back and admired my accomplishments (albeit a few years later). What I hadn’t expected was the renewed sense of pride and enthusiasm that followed that small action of recognizing my work.

As we know ever so well, positive feedback, sincere compliments and celebrating small and big successes with our students is an essential component to helping students be triumphant in their educational journey. So to it is for teachers. Take the time and not only smell the roses on your grand tour, pick a few and put them on display!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Photo of Alison Board
Alison.Board Celebrating Success, Year End Activities

Reflect, Create, and Celebrate

These are the words that I chant as the end of the school year draws near in June. It is a challenging time, unlike the busy planning and organizing needed to set the pace in September. The days now feel longer and there seems less content to cover, as it was mostly completed in time for reporting. So, this may be a good time to review the concepts that your students struggled with throughout the year, or a time to introduce a topic related to the curriculum or their inquiry work that wasn’t in your long range plans. But filling in the days with worksheets and outdoor play is not the answer, it leads to issues of classroom managements and student discontent.

Here are some suggestions that can be adjusted for your age group or subject area:

  • create math teams that solve math problems from all strands. Then have teams present their answers and compare their strategies. One word problem a day.
  • provide time for student groups to create a summary of their literature circle book. They can present their summaries as a series of tableaux, a movie trailer on iMovie, or as a skit. These are presented to the whole class or another class to promote reading for the summer months.
  • list 3 or 4 issues on the board and have students sign up accordingly. Provide them with a structure to research and present in a debate that you monitor (debates can be informal or formal)
  • show students a youtube video on branding and logos. Then ask each student what their brand is. Have them design a logo (that doesn’t reveal their name). Display all logos with a number when completed and have students complete a numbered list, matching each logo to their classmates. Discuss the most effective logos and why.
  • provide groups of 4 students with a bag of mixed materials to encourage STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning. Provide them with an hour each day to design and create a product with the recycled or mixed materials. Display and share  in the last week of school for other classes.
  • Read aloud. Students of all ages love to be read to. Pick a recent and relevant chapter book and read to your students each day. Have them draw character sketches, write 3 predictions, or create alternative cover for the book.
  • Use large paper to ask about 5 reflective questions related to your year. Questions such as, What would you change in the past school year? How has your understanding about Mental Wellness changed? What projects did you find most meaningful to do? Then have students do a gallery walk and fill-in responses on the large paper. Display for the last week and highlight evidence of learning and understanding.

Enjoy the last weeks and keep the students engaged with the meaningful work they will value.

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, Making a Difference Through Education, Wellness

You Did It

To quote my favourite author Dr. Seuss, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” As the year is rapidly coming to a close it is so easy to reflect on what you did not get accomplished, how you wish you had more time, if only …. The reality is that for the last ten months you have given everything that you have to a group of students, their families and your school community. You have sacrificed your personal health at times, your family time and your passions in order to provide each and every individual under your care the best opportunity to learn and evolve as best they can.

It is now time to allow yourself to take a deep breath, look in the closest mirror and smile as you celebrate the relentless commitment you have put forth in your role. It is not easy for teachers to do this as we are by nature perfectionists that do not seek out the limelight. As the summer break quickly approaches it is important that you take the time that you need to bring that balance back into your life (family, friends, passions) so that in a very short two months from now, you are prepared to do it all again!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Celebrating Success, General

Challenging the “Impossible”

“I was shocked when I saw what he had done in class. The psychologist said that’s the kind of thing he wouldn’t be able to do.”

“You’re going to try and teach your class to use sewing machines? Do you think they’ll even be able to?”

“You don’t really think beginner immersion students can memorize an entire play’s worth of lines, do you?”

At least once a year (and usually much more often than that), I have a conversation with someone – parent, colleague, administrator, student – who tells me that something I’m doing in class is “impossible” for one reason or another. Sometimes, like the first comment above, it’s an incredulous parent who is impressed (albeit confused) that their child was able to do something that shouldn’t have been possible. Other times, it’s well-meaning fellow educators who, I think, are trying to keep my lofty newbie expectations in check.

It’s okay, guys. I have this. My students can do it.

I’m not saying that I’ve never tried something that failed horribly (student-created team games in Grade 4 Phys Ed, I’m looking at you) but for the most part, my wackier ideas actually do pan out. Sometimes it takes some creative intervention from me, other times it takes a lot of patience and dedication, other times still I have to admit that we didn’t end up where I had planned but that the activity still taught what I was hoping it would – but we get there!

I credit my dedication to trying new, challenging, ambitious class projects to two people.

The first was my Grade 7 and 8 French Immersion teacher, Mme Crystle Mazurek. I have to admit that I don’t remember a lot about those two years except the really awesome art activities we did, but MAN, did we do some cool things! We made quilts, 3D art out of foam and cardboard, batik designs on fabric using melted wax, linoleum printing… I loved being in her art class (even if her dog literally ate my homework one time). It was in her class (though I can’t recall if it was while I was in Grade 7 or 8, or if it was when she was my teacher again later in high school) that we started a coin collection to help a village in India, where she had spent time in her childhood with her parents, to purchase a buffalo. From those humble origins began an ongoing collection to alleviate some of the effects of poverty in India by buying tools which can be used for trades (such as sewing machines) or by sponsoring students to attend school outside the village. I check in on the fund regularly and have a hard time believing it’s come as far as it has – from old soup cans in classrooms collecting a few coins here and there to a charity raising several thousand dollars a year.

Mme Mazurek, in hindsight, also dedicated a lot of time to helping her students succeed. Some of us were not particularly great students – I may or may not have had a few detentions in my time, despite being an active participant in class – and yet she still managed to get us excited about learning. I never did my homework, but I actually remember one of the novels we read as a class (it was about teenagers in Lebanon), details of Canadian history I know I learned in that class (the Rebellion of Upper Canada comes to mind), and how gracious and funny she was when we played an April Fool’s joke on her by switching her desk with our English teacher’s identical desk across the hall. I think a lot of my interest in becoming a teacher came from her. She probably doesn’t know that. Maybe one day she’ll google her name and find this. None of this paragraph has anything to do with challenging the impossible, she was just a really cool teacher with a bright red pixie cut, leather pants, an awesome attitude, and a wealth of personal anecdotes to keep us interested.

The second was my first Associate Teacher while I was in teacher’s college. I had the extreme privilege of working with a phenomenal teacher, Mr. Bill Morton, in an incredible Grade 3/4 Gifted class. My time in the class was too short, as all practicum placements are, but even in my five weeks there he bestowed upon me a lifetime’s worth of wisdom about education. I’m not sure the word “impossible” is in his vocabulary, unless we’re talking about retiring. His Grade 3/4 students were already engaged in learning and rehearsing A Midsummer Night’s Dream when I started in his class. As I took groups out to work through scenes and break them down, I was amazed by how well they understood the material with very little prompting from me. Nine and ten year olds! Reading Shakespeare! Not just reading it, but actually understanding it. Given what I could remember of reading Shakespeare in high school (and those were plays which I would argue were easier to follow than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, read by teenagers who were given very explicit instruction on what the words meant, who STILL didn’t seem to understand that “wherefore” doesn’t mean “where”), that shouldn’t have been possible.

The point of all of this is that you’re going to hear and read about a lot of things that your students “shouldn’t be able to do”. Students with NVLD “shouldn’t be able to” illustrate a graphic novel with consistency and detail from one page to the next. Second year French Immersion students “shouldn’t be able to” write short stories. Ten year olds “shouldn’t be able to” design and sew quilts. Students with a long history of behavioral problems “shouldn’t be able to” have a year where they fully engage in class and take responsibility for their actions.

You won’t always succeed with the wacky, outlandish ideas you have, and sometimes no matter how hard you and your students try, it won’t work. That’s part of life. But you will almost certainly have more successes than failures, and even the failures teach you something.

Be that teacher who does something “impossible”.

Fair warning, though: it gets pretty addicting to overhear your students bragging about the cool things they did in class as they walk to the bus.

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship, Wellness

You Never Know

This blog is based on a real life scenario that I was fortunate enough to be a part of both on a personal and professional basis. It truly reminded me just how important our teacher/student relationships are as you never know when your kind word, out of the ordinary effort or simply just being there will make a difference.

On a late Saturday afternoon there was a knock on our home door and to our surprise, there was our very distraught neighbour who just needed someone to talk to. Over the course of the next hour this young mother poured her heart out to both my wife and I. During that time she asked us to read a series of letters that obviously were very important to her.

As we scanned the pages it became clear to us that these letters were from a past teacher who took the time to write to this young women while she was in her classroom. The key message that surfaced on each and every page was that this young woman was an amazing person who had the potential to be herself and that alone would make her great. It was clear that she had experienced trauma in her adolescence and did not receive the necessary support that she should have had. Through teary eyes, this distraught woman just kept telling us how important this teacher had been in helping her get through some very dark times in her life. In fact, she owed her life to her.

Although these letters were almost 20 years old, we could tell by the wrinkled paper and tear stain marks, that she had went to these words of support many, many times over the past two decades. Once again, she was going to this teacher for support in these times of hardship.

As a teacher, we are merely a step or two on a child’s life journey. Yet that time we spend with each child is one of the most influential events they will ever experience. It is our responsibility to ensure that memory is as positive as can be.

Photo of Beverly Papove
Beverly Papove Celebrating Success, Diverse Learning Needs, General

A Year of Septembers

My colleague and I have had a challenging class since September. In fact, we are calling this year “The Year of Septembers” because although the students have come a long way, they are still very unsettled and we still spend a considerable amount of time re-establishing class rules and expectations. Thankfully, my colleague, who teaches English to my French Immersion students, is an amazing, funny, dedicated and sincere individual. What’s more, we are both on the same page when it comes to where we are with the students and where we’d like them to progress.

Our biggest challenge this year has been getting support for over 7 of our 19 students who came into grade 3 with a variety of issues and difficulties in learning. We have probably been a thorn in the side of the administration in our efforts to get additional in-class support for a few of the higher-needs students. However, it has been worth it as we have begun to see incremental improvements in learning skills and overall collaborative behaviour within our group. But it has taken great effort! We have often been exasperated with strategies that worked one week and then became ineffective the following. Our aim has been to express our collective expectations to the class so the students will understand that we are a team. This is especially important given that my colleague is only in the class for an hour at the beginning of the day, which has the added challenge of instructional time set aside for morning announcements and the national anthem. To help set the tone, I greet the students with my colleague as they come into the portable, allowing her the time to speak individually to certain students and to help them get settled into their morning routine.

During the week, we meet briefly to bring eachother up to date, to review goals and to cowrite email correspondence to parents. We support eachother with regard to behavioural goals as well as curriculum goals. This has been an absolute necessity as lessons and whole days have fallen apart due to extreme behavioural challenges and consequent interruptions in engagement in the class that have translated into a divergence from the lessons geared to meet curriuculum expectations. None the less, the students are learning and growing and progressing, and after many series of meetings with administration and parents, appropriate supports are being put in place to help us help the students with high needs, which in turn, has allowed us to also meet the various needs of all the other students. It has been an exhausting year thus far, but there has emmerged a sort of cohesion out of the often chaotic environment. Although every month has felt like September, my colleague and I are happy to see the pay-off in the successes of all the students.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Celebrating Success, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Student Ownership

Showcasing Student Work for Parents

I’m not a huge fan of Parent/Teacher Interviews. It’s not the idea of speaking with parents about their child’s progress, because I am totally on board with that. It’s not the time spent after school, either; I’m usually one of the last teachers to leave my school at night, so I’m pretty used to being around after hours.

My issue with Parent/Teacher Interviews is that the focus is rarely, if ever, on talking about what students are doing daily in the classroom. To me, that’s the important thing: seeing their work and their progress over the course of the ten months that they’re in my class. My students work hard and take pride in their accomplishments. I’ve never liked that interviews are linked to progress reports or report cards because the natural thing to do seems to be to talk about grades.

I hate grades, but that’s another story for another time. 😉

A few years ago, I did something with my class that I felt really offered my students the chance to show their parents just how much they had accomplished that year. It was a really rewarding experience for everyone.

In spring of that year, a few students in my Grade 5 class came to me and asked if we could do a class talent show. This was a congregated gifted French Immersion class with many performers of all kinds. We discussed it as a class and nearly all of them wanted to participate. We decided that we would host the talent show in June as an end of year event and invite everyone’s parents to come. I was not going to force anyone to participate, though, so I had to come up with some reason for the parents of students who were not performing on stage to attend.

My students had been amassing large portfolios of work all year. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to student work and I like them to keep it all at school for as long as possible. Usually this just leaves me drowning in a pile of art projects, scientific models, chart paper, and duo-tangs, but this one year it really paid off. I had my students go through all of their work and choose five things that they were really proud of.

We discussed why they might choose certain pieces over others. Some pieces were chosen because students had worked particularly hard and had done a really great job with them. Others were chosen because they were really fun and exciting. Others still were chosen because students felt that they had made a lot of progress that year. The highlight, for me, was when one of my students chose to showcase her Mathematics notebook. When I asked her why, she said that it was because she started that year hating math, just like every other year, but by the end of the year she felt really confident in math and it had become her favourite subject.

Validation! My teaching is working! But that’s not what this post is about.

We ran the entire event in the school’s gym, which had an attached stage. I pulled out some tables and set them up, then gave each student a space to display their work. They decided how to display it. As parents came in, they were able to wander around the tables and see the work all of the students had put out.

The talent show itself was what I expected: a seemingly endless parade of ten and eleven year olds playing musical instruments, telling jokes, dancing, and doing whatever else they had come up with as a talent. It was really sweet. They did a wonderful job. All I really did was invite the parents; they coordinated who did what and when, rehearsed on their own time, and ran the whole show for parents.

After the talent show, all of the students went and stood by their work. They were expected to explain to their parents why they had chosen to include each piece. I was there and able to answer any questions and chat with the parents, of course, but the students were the stars of the afternoon. I got a lot of positive feedback from parents on the event and they were happy to be able to hear their child talk about his or her work in a positive light.

Photo of Lisa Taylor
Lisa.Taylor Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Making a Difference Through Education, Wellness

Healthy Options at Schools PPM150

With PPM150 having had some time to settle into schools, there are blog posts and parent forums popping up all over with discussions about food options being offered to students at schools. While the PPM does outline expectations for what foods can be offered to students at schools, many teachers provide food in class as a reward for good behaviour, sharing candies and snacks as curriculum connections (graphing M&Ms, making Rice Krispie Squares for measurement, blowing a bubble with bubblegum for procedure writing, etc.). Websites like Pinterest are full of ideas that involved engaging students with food and candies.

As a mom of a child with a food allergy and significant digestive struggles that require a very strict diet, I am often overwhelmed when she chealthy-meal-clipartomes home from school to tell me about all of the special snacks she had that day. It is next to impossible for a 6-year-old to say no to a cupcake, so we as the educators need to make those healthy decisions for them by simply not offering them at all. With poor eating habits and obesity on the rise, we need to take advantage of the time we have when children’s diets are completely dependent on the decisions of adults and only provide them with healthy options.

I have had classes that “earned” a positive behaviour reward and we opted to have a balanced breakfast reward where the first period of our day was spent talking about healthy breakfast choices and then we had a balanced breakfast together complete with wholegrain cereal, milk, fruit, and even some veggies! They loved it because it was a snack and it was out of the ordinary!

Think about the value of what you are giving your students both nutritionally and educationally. If you are giving candy or something that is not a healthy choice, ask yourself if there is a healthier option you could give that would get the same result (i.e., if you are teaching procedure with bubblegum, could you teach procedure with making oatmeal, or salad, or something else that is healthy?).

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, Communication with Parents and Guardians, General

Communicating With Parents

Part of our professional responsibility is to communicate with parents about the progress their child is or is not making in your classroom. How much communication? How often to communicate? What way is best? There is no one answer to that. The answer is determined by what is both comfortable and effective for you as a professional.

I use a variety of ways to ensure that my parents know about what is happening in my classroom as well as how their child is doing. The following is a list of the types of communication and what I hope to accomplish with each.

Weekly News – this is a one-page summary that I compose at the end of each week of school. In it I summarize what has been our curriculum focus, as many good news items as possible, important upcoming dates and I typically try to add ways that parents can support their child at home. In addition, our weekly awards’ recipients are listed by name. It goes home on Monday and is due back signed by the following Monday. At the end of the year it is a yearbook for each child. As well I use it as a personal reflection of what I had accomplished that week and what direction I need to go the following week.

Sunshine Calls – these are random calls home where my sole focus is to share good news and celebrate each child. I try to time them with specific deeds of the students as the timing also provides a powerful mode of feedback. If I have to make a call home where the news is not good, I try to ensure that I increase the number of positive calls home after that.

Student Work – I constantly try to share as much of our finished work as possible with parents (not just the evaluation aspect). I will have students share their poetry, a story, read to their family and have the family sign it to show they have had it shared. At times, we invite families in to look at our art displays, attend a poetry recital or drama performance.

Monthly Calls – these are extra calls that go to families of my students who have academic or behavour struggles. It is important to keep families updated and to offer ways for them to support their child. It is too late if I wait until reporting time. There have been times when the frequency of these calls increase to bi-weekly or weekly updates.

Meetings – I work hard to have a face-to-face with each family regardless of whether their child has struggles or is working from an enriched curriculum. There are situations where these meetings are scheduled on a regular basis.

Surveys – Occasionally when I am looking at a special event (often a field trip) I will send a survey home outlining what my intended outcomes are, the proposed cost, details and get them to share their thoughts with me. This is sometimes easier for parents to do in written form.

I have made a personal choice to not use email or any kind of social media as a vehicle of communication to my families. There are pros and cons to this decision and should be left up to each teacher. I just caution you to make sure you are aware of the risks that can be associated with that practice so that you can ensure your protection. If you need more information about communication via social media, I would recommend you contact the ETFO Provincial Office.

The final item I would like to mention is that even though as teachers we have a professional responsibility to communicate to parents, we do not have to endure a parent’s tirade, be yelled at or verbally abused. You have the right to stop any meeting or conversation that is deemed inappropriate. Should you need support with a parent, contact your principal or your local ETFO leadership. The one thing my experience has taught me is that a parent’s approach or view about their child’s schooling is often influenced by the experience they had as a student (good and/or not so good).