Constant Learning

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016 Will Gourley Constant Learning, General, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Math, Resilience

Keep swinging for the fences

Spring is definitely here, perhaps this is not so evident in our temperamental weather, but by the fact that baseball season is back. In honour of that I wanted to share some connections to how being a student of the game is like learning in the classroom.

I look at baseball as a sport for all ages and genders. Everyone can play. In some ways, a baseball diamond could be the ultimate classroom with so much going on at anyone time in the stands, in the dugout, and on the field.

Baseball is a game of scenarios. There are constant situations to be thought through in every game and there are statistics kept from little league to the major leagues. Just think of all the other Math skills at play in the concession stands, ticket offices, and accounting/payroll departments. Math is an important part of baseball.

Baseball is a game of Physics. How a ball rotates from the pitchers hand towards home plate determines its trajectory. The angle and bat speed at which a player makes contact with a ball determines its flight duration and distance. Major League Baseball measures everything possible on the field that happens in a game, including ball rotation, pitch velocity, swing(bat speed), and field area covered in a program called Sabremetrics. I wrote this TED Ed lesson called Future of the game: Baseball latest statistical revolution to show how it is used.

Weather plays a role here too. Forecasts determine whether games can be squeezed in or postponed. Data from on-field temperature, and prevailing winds gets noted too. Imagine the engineering required to design the perfect outdoor ball park because no two seem to ever have the same design.

Baseball can be altered and adapted to suit the level of all its players. There is Kickball(soccer baseball), marshmallow baseball(played with a tennis racket and a bag of marshmallows), and Rounders. Some might even prefer the game of Cricket as it may be more familiar to their students than baseball. All of these adaptations have similar fundamentals and transferable skills.

Baseball is a team sport. No one can play all of the positions at once. It requires collaboration. Everyone plays a role whether in the field or waiting to bat. Baseball is a thinking game. Many of the lessons of life come from playing it. I mentioned Math and Physics before, but there are other areas that come in to play here too;

Emotional- Players can get caught up by a moment, or when a mistake gets made. This can lead to other mistakes if focus required to make the next play. Baseball teaches its players to keep their minds on the game. It also shows students that mistakes are going to happen. How they recover from them is an important part of the game/lesson.
Mental – With all of the statistics kept in baseball it is important for players to know what to do with the information. Processing on the fly and responding just like in the classroom comes from preparation aka practice. Players and students alike prepare for games/tests receiving coaching/instruction and next steps for improvement.
Feedback – Whether playing baseball or learning in the classroom there is always feedback. Some is positive and some is negative. This can depend on something as simple as mindset, timing, and delivery. With students the risk of being kicked off the team is never on the table. There are no minor leagues in education. Teachers are in the room to help all of their students make contact with the ball and circle the bases with their learning. Regardless of the type of feedback teachers and coaches are there to instruct, identify talents, and encourage their students.
When a player strikes out, there will be another chance to bat. When a player walks a batter or misses a throw, there will be another chance coming their way soon. The lesson is always be thinking and practising for the next opportunity whether it is in the classroom or on the field.

So as the players take to the field for the next umpteen months take some time to share this incredible game in your classroom. Take time to enjoy the Science, Math and chance to develop life strong habits of resilience and teamwork.

March 23, 2016 Will Gourley Anti-bullying, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, General

Cancer, pink shirts, and why I hate Jell-O

Cancer is a ruthless disease. It knows no boundaries, respects no ideologies or cultures, and disrupts the lives of everyone affected by it. Cancer has a twin in education. It’s bullying.

Recently, I was creating some TED Ed lessons about bullying(in its various forms –The Cyber Bullying Virus and Bully Dance). This got me thinking about the following question;

What makes bullying so virulent that it can evade, morph, and destroy generation after generation?

What if we looked at bullying like it was a medical epidemic? If we called it a disease, which it truly is, would it be treated more seriously? Could it then be given the same attention and urgency as HIV/Aids, Ebola, and Cancer are in the medical world?

Or have we built up our immunity to the existence of bullying in our schools that says if it is not happening to us? Like cancer, bullying is serious. Its symptoms leave lives in havoc along its path.

Yet, for all of the attention(meetings, resources, legislation), research, assemblies, and instructional time invested into eradicating bullying across multiple lifetimes it has not disappeared. With fingers pointing in all directions it is time we all look to our youth to solve the problem of bullying because the adults have made a mess out of it.

Remember back in 2014 when school trustees, all adults, managed to create a working environment so toxic that the police needed to be called in to deal with the troubles. My students asked why the adults couldn’t get along? I couldn’t answer it with anything other than bullying.

How do we justify this behaviour to a media savvy student body when those in positions of leadership are modeling “do as I say, not as I do” by their actions?

The course of treatment for the cancer of bullying is simple. Let students lead.

Students possess limitless energy, potential, and ideas so why not equip, empower, and get out of their way to do great things? A powerful example of a student led initiative to stop bullying is Pink T-Shirt Day. It started in 2007 at a Nova Scotia high school where a grade 12 student defended a grade 9 be being bullied because of the colour of his shirt. It has since become celebrated as a national day of awareness, with schools across the country holding stand up to bullying by wearing pink events.

One of the reasons Pink T-Shirt Day is such a success comes from students leading the way. It has now fostered other wear pink events to fight bullying, homophobia, and transphobia. My school will be participating in its 2nd Day of Pink of 2016 on April 13th. At its core, pink shirt day is a way for everyone to stand together in order to focus on everything that unites us. I feel more student led events like this would set a positive and lasting example for people who have struggled with bullying at all levels of education from classroom to committee.

When students are allowed to lead they naturally rise to the task. Want proof? Look at the impact that Ryan’s Well, Free the Children, and Me to We have made on our world. Each amazing initiative inspired by a student.

Think about how you can encourage your students to be agents of change and social good in the fight against bullying in your school. I would love to hear if your school participates in Day of Pink activities. Tag me here or on Twitter @willgourley.

p.s.

I had Jell-O in the title because I was looking for a silly focus point in the title. There is an explanation of my true dislike for Jell-O at …why I hate Jell-O on escheweducationalist.wordpress.com.

March 8, 2016 Kelly.McLaughlin Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Resources, Students as Teachers, Use of Technology

Tech Talk

I would like to share a new initiative my class is starting at our school Ancaster Meadow.

Our class realized the large need for technology in the classroom. We noticed that students are sometimes unfamiliar with apps that are available for completing work and for presenting learning. We are starting a new program called “Tech Talk” where as a class we travel to classrooms and instead of “Reading Buddies” we will assist the class one on one with apps of the teacher’s choice. We came up with a benchmark of five:

Explain Everything
Kahoot
Weebly
Pic Collage
Prezi

These apps will be explored in detail by my class so when we visit our first class after the break, the break off sessions will be smooth and very productive. We will offer this program to grades two-five and speak to teachers before regarding sign up. Students will be able to explore the apps, prepare a small task and then share it with the whole class. The sessions will be fifty minutes long as that is how long a period is in our school. We hope that students will learn from each other and that everyone will be able to use these apps in the new future. I hope it will be a meaningful experience for my class to teach younger students skills that they already have. I cannot wait for our first trial after the break. I encourage everyone to try this “Tech Buddies” program and share your experiences as well.

February 25, 2016 Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Classroom Management, Constant Learning, Use of Technology

Recording Process

I recently gained access to the HWDSB app catalogue on our new teacher iPads. I was able to download up to 175 apps and check out the apps I thought would be very helpful for my students. The one app I discovered that I think helps with recording student progress and behaviours in class is the app called idoceo.This app allows for you to walk around with your iPad and keep track of all student work ethics throughout the day. I have started to use the “happy face” symbols that come in four different colours to note the four levels of achievement. This is so helpful because you do not always have to have your mark book out, you now have a portable mark book with easy to use features.

You can also use the “seating plan” section app that helps you chose students at random rather than calling out random students. This keeps all students on their toes and always ready to answer.

You can always show students how they are doing on this app by calling them over to check their process marks in class. I find that I am always so focused on the end product and do not focus enough on the process of my students. With this app in hand, I feel I will be more readily available to record student efforts.

I am very fortunate to be able to have this extra iPad for my class which makes using technology that more accessible.

February 24, 2016 Beverly Papove Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, self reflection

Life is for Learning Curves

The view from the halfway mark of my first year teaching senior kindergarten is a lot different than it was just four months ago. Whereas I struggled every day in terms of how to implement the curriculum, now I am so much more comfortable in many, but not all, areas of the program. I hadn’t really taken the time to reflect on how I was feeling about my progress as a teacher and co-learner until, while chatting with my principal the other day, she asked me if I loved kindergarten. I hesitated, because I was thinking back to other grades I have taught, wondering if I had ever said that I loved teaching any of them. I realized, in forming my answer to her, that it is never really the curriculum of any given grade that I love teaching, but rather learning about my learners in order to be able to teach them is what I enjoy the most. I said to her that last term felt like ice-climbing, but now I am on a sort of a plateau – I can take a breath, look back proudly at where I came from, and look forward to how much I still need to learn. I most definitely have not mastered this grade, however, with the loop-de-loop learning curve I have been on this year, I am sure I will be a much better teacher next year.

That is what I was telling myself until recently when our school board confirmed its decision to integrate junior kindergarten with senior kindergarten next year. Even after having lived the senior kindergarten life for six months and feeling they could not be too dissimilar, I could not really tell you what goes on in a junior kindergarten classroom. That is why I am hoping that my principal will give me some coverage time to hang out in one of our JK classrooms to get a feel for the way the program is run and to see how the wee ones go through their day, as a way to help me imagine a blended classroom. Adding French Immersion will be another part of the picture – what will that look like? In-service workshops are to be part of the plan from the school board, and hopefully, so too is having quality time to work it all through with a supportive team of ECEs and teachers. Whereas this year, I was scrambling to make sense of it all as the newbie in the midst of a crew of seasoned kindergarten teachers and ECEs, next year, everyone will be trying to work things through. Life is indeed for learning curves.

February 18, 2016February 18, 2016 Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, General, Mental Health, Professional Learning and Growth

Time for a change

The words above can pervade many work cultures.
It is no different in education. Here’s why.

“We’ve always done it this way,” says…

There is nothing to strive towards. It says, “we’re out of ideas.”
Change is frightening, requires hard work to implement, and may have unpredictable outcomes. It says our corporate culture is too fragile and or afraid to take chances that might result in failure. Run!

“We’ve always done it this way,” says…
Disruption and change are not allowed in the building because they challenge the structures and status quo. It says, “free and fresh thinking are not welcome.” Is there any place where this is a healthy work ethos?

“We’ve always done it this way.” says…
It’s easier to go with the flow than rock the boat. It says that making waves might sink your career. Let me throw you a lifeline.

A friend gave me some great advice when I started out my career as a teacher. He said, “Never stay at a school for too long. Take the opportunity to join new communities of learners to keep your practice growing.” In my career, to date, I have worked at 3 schools and have loved every new adventure.

Was it scary to leave and join a bunch of strangers? Yes! Was it worth? YES!
Do I miss my colleagues? Of course, but that is exactly what coffee shops were made for — reconnecting.

Joining a new staff allowed me to broaden my professional practice and experience new communities of learners while broadening my world-view in education. Think of it from this angle; by making a change you will bring the benefit of your experiences and enthusiasm to a new school. It is in these shifts and new partnerships that strengthens our collective wisdom, and is crucial to innovation of our profession.

It is the time of year where we are asked to submit our teaching assignment requests for next September. For many new teachers this is a great chance to stretch beyond the confines of the comfort zone towards new opportunities.

Frank Zappa said, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is impossible.” This has to start from within. If you work in a place where innovation and growth are discouraged, let me encourage you to take a chance, step out of your comfort zone, and make a change. Seek out communities where ideas are fostered, tested, and curated.

Change is often messy, but it is important to progress. A very very few might still lament not being able to hand write report cards. Although, at the time, there were skeptics of the technology and the disruption it caused while teachers learnt and mastered a newer method of reporting.*

Step out, break free, and affect change in your space. Do anything, but maintain the status quo.
I encourage you to find like minded educators who value the process over perfection and consider where to make a change in your practice whether it is by applying to a new school or in courageously sharing fresh ideas in yours.

*If you’ve seen my handwriting you will be glad the reports are typed and printed.

January 30, 2016January 30, 2016 Will Gourley Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Questioning

Waiting is worth its weight.

I wanted to share a post about the joys of waiting.

No it is not Health curriculum based so uncover your eyes and read on.
It might be worth the…time spent before something happens.
Ha! You thought I was going to write the word ‘wait’ there.
Dang it! I just did.

In the Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s song The Waiting the chorus goes, “the waiting is the hardest part” and in the classroom it is no different for teachers.

There are a lot concepts to cover. There are a lot of assessments (for, as, and of learning) to record. And yes, there are a lot of students to teach. One thing there does not seem to be enough of is time. So in an average, active modern learning environment, there is little time left to permit students to engage in anything but what Daniel Kahneman refers to as System 1 Thinking. Yet, what we need to be doing, more than ever, is allowing our students and ourselves to engage in System 2 Thinking.

Here’s a graphic comparing the two. Click to enlarge.

Understanding and implementing think or wait time in my classroom has changed the dynamics of learning for my students. It is no longer a contest to see whose hands can defy gravity the fastest or longest. It has increased the number of participants and ideas shared. It has deepened our discussions in many subject areas such as Science, Social Studies, and Literacy.

For my part, questions are crafted, whenever possible, that require the awkward silences achieved while learning and thinking beyond automatic or immediate responses. Letting students know before they respond that no hands will be acknowledged until think time has happened for the entire class has helped transition my instruction.

What about Math? Yes, even Math. Here’s an example to support think/wait time in Math from Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow that I share with students and adults alike:

A ball and a bat cost $1.10.
The bat costs $1 more than the ball.
How much does ball cost?

According to the book most people get this question wrong because they are engaging the wrong system of thinking. I did. So how can we as educators afford more think/wait time in all of our classrooms?

My suggestion is to slowly integrate it into your daily instructional routines. Be intentional with a few questions in specific subject areas to start. Be patient. The silence can be deafening at the start, but is worth it.

Want to know the answer to the bat and ball question?
Take your time. You’ll get it. It’s worth the wait.

January 11, 2016 Mike Beetham Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs

Brain Shifts

Have you ever been on a very long car ride and just as you think you are not able to continue you come upon a service center? Within 10 minutes of having a change of state, you eagerly hop back into your vehicle and are ready to go for several more hours. The same is true for students. By allowing short (1-2 minute breaks) you help energize the students to continue on with their learning, fully engaged.

I call these breaks ‘Brain Shifts’. For example my students just finished working on a problem-solving task in Mathematics and prior to starting Science (which is the next item on our daily agenda) I ask them to do a Museum Walk around our displays. The first benefit is that they are physically moving and thus increasing blood flow to all body parts, including the brain. Secondly they are now focussed on our science topic and have started to activate prior knowledge even before the lesson begins. The final benefit is that it allows socializing to occur amongst my students.

The Brain Shifts are not just random activities but rather have a very specific purpose. That purpose is dependent on what is occurring or not occurring in the class at that particular time. For example, if the energy level seems low, the activity will be chosen to increase the energy in the room (find 3 people and share with them the strategy you used to solve this task). If the students are bordering on being hyper, the task is designed to bring a calm to the room (look around the room and show with your fingers a score out of 10 that you would give this latest chapter in our book). There are so many ways that Brain Shifts can occur. The key is that you develop activities that are a good fit for your teaching style and accomplish what they are intended to be used for.

January 1, 2016 Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Constant Learning, Inspiring Students, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Professional Learning and Growth, Student Ownership

Classroom Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions are a time-tested tradition in which individuals make personal commitments to improve in some aspect of their life. I have used this activity in my classroom for over two decades and find it to be a wonderful, fun tool in helping both myself and my students set goals on how to make the most of their academic year.First and foremost I model this activity for my students by reflecting on my first four months of the school year. I determine what went well and what do I need to do to further enhance the success of my students. I set personal resolutions in the following areas:

Continue – what practices are going very well and should continue in the new year
Improve – what practices have not went as well as expected and what do I need to do to improve that area of my teaching
Experiment – what new area or tool would I like to start to experiment with in my day-to-day practice

This year my resolutions are going to be to continue with the use of technology as an alternative option for demonstrations of learning. I will improve in my area to both understand and apply the concept of sensory accommodations in the room (especially around noise). I will start to experiment with social media and how it can become an option for my classroom pedagogy.

For my students it starts with a discussion around New Year’s Resolutions and how it is a part of their life. Most often they talk about how the adults in their life make resolutions around quitting smoking, losing weight or exercising more. The conversation shifts to what the purpose of a resolution is and why people make them. I pose the following question, ‘Should only adults make New Year’s Resolutions?’. Of course their answer is always no. That leads us to talking about the types of resolutions that children might make. It always generates a very rich discussion about how we are individuals with different strengths, different needs and different lifestyles. That focus in itself is a key vehicle in which our group comes to understand and accept the uniqueness of each other.

The final product that is used by my students is a graphic organizer that will focus on four different areas of their life. The first is personal health. What do they need to do in order to be healthier (exercise more, less screen time, eat healthier)? The second focus is on happiness. What will they do in order to be happier in their life? The third area is academics. What do they need to spend more time on in order to be successful? The final component will be on friendships. How will they be a better friend or seek out more friendships? For the month of January we review these resolutions every Friday. After that we look at them every 2-3 weeks and finally in our year-end celebration we examine how successful we have been in reaching our resolutions. Over time I have had the students put them in a time capsule that is opened up much later in the year as well as having them take it home and share with family or a close friend. Whatever way they are used, it is an enjoyable way to start the new calendar year off.

November 22, 2015November 22, 2015 Will Gourley Constant Learning, General, Professional Learning and Growth

Teachers need to get away from each other. Once in a while.

I love teaching.
Like you’ve never read that before?

I get excited when I learn something new and get to share it with my class and others in our profession – or with any one else, for that matter. Also not news.

I’m not alone in a relentless pursuit of learning. My wife can attest that my personality changes gears whenever the conversations turn to education. And why not? It’s like a spark plug ignites and a fire lights my mind.

With education, I’m in my happy place.* When it comes to gatherings of educators, I always want to be there too. However, I recently declined to attend a conference. I even surprised myself by this decision, but was really happy my pass was able to allow another colleague to go in my place. This got me wondering. Why am I eschewing some educational events while gravitating towards others?

To wrestle with this I need to purge some myths(real or perceived) that might be affecting my decision to say yes or no to attend certain conferences going forward.

Myth 1: Everybody loves sitting and listening to speakers prattle on for endless hours? UGH!!! This is the antithesis to the differentiation we embody in the classroom. So why is it this way at education conferences so conferences? If I have to endure one more power point slide show with content I could read from home I’m done.

Many conferences feature speakers who are bringing published research and or their brand of common sense content to conferences. Theirs are messages which have already been shared among those actively engaged in a Twitter PLN. The exception being they are in the same room for a conference. Is it worth it? How do we extract a greater value from keynote speakers that cannot be taken from their books?

After 5 years of conferences, I struggle to find anything to rival Sir Ken Robinson, Sugata Mitra or Rita Pierson’s TED Talks as the last times my mind has been set ablaze with such a lasting impact. How can we curate moments like this when they only come around so rarely?

Yet, if you ask me about student speakers who have rocked my thought life? I only have to go back to my own school’s TED Ed Club weekly meeting, or the recently held TED Youth to find Ishita Katyal, Marta Botet Borras, Chelsea Ha or Raymond Wang. Perhaps a stronger student presence at educational conferences is necessary to bring the truth to educators?

Myth 2:
Everyone wants to view data sets gleaned from standardized tests ranking different nations, and then to applaud delegations from other countries supposedly doing education better than us? This bugs me. There seems to be an idolization of success from other countries around PISA results et al, but no tangible road map, context, funding models or political will to genuinely support change if that is what’s truly desired from seeing whether the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

I find this a Catch-22. They should pay our experts to visit them, and share what we do well. We have excellent systems in place that serve our students in an incredibly effective and affordable manner. Better yet, as an act of fiscal restraint and responsibility, why not cancel the visits and make a couple of Skype calls instead?

Myth 3:

Everyone feels good after their heart strings have been tugged on or torn out by a powerful narrative about the nobility of our calling? Me too. The myth is that the feeling lasts. I am touched by triumph, but am also disappointed that the fire cannot be stoked, maintained, and spread further beyond the ride home or at the next staff meeting.

How do we keep the fires burning by authoring our own every day success stories in the classroom. This might mean blogging, micro-blogging(Instagram, Twitter), and creating leadership opportunities beyond our comfort zones. If we stay close and connected we share in the warmth and encouragement of one another. This is a powerful tool against educational apathy that can happen after messages from educational conferences are long forgotten.

This year I have attended 2 Edtech conferences (Connect 2015 & BIT15), a GAPPS type summit, 2 Ignite events, a TED conference, and most recently a Pechakucha. Of course, there were teachers at all of them hoping to learn, unlearn, and innovate what we love to do. What I discovered surprised me. The more the conferences were open to other voices and experiences, the better the level of engagement and interaction. Would education conferences benefit from having speakers and attendees from outside our hallowed halls?

Admittedly, I am a bit disappointed that the vibe and messages given at conferences dedicated solely to education have remained static year after year with few exceptions. Few, if any, big ideas from the past have been usurped by revolutionary and achievable new ones. There are some perennial favourite themes that have stood the test of time; engagement, mental health, literacy, numeracy, technology, student voice, and inclusion. Worth noting that each plays a vital role in creating the conditions for successful modern learning. As the proverb says, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Did I miss any? Trust me. That’s enough for a decade’s worth of growth and learning. So how about some time to embrace the messages in a meaningful and manageable manner?

Should there be a pause in education so that education can catch up with all of its ideas? How are any of these ideas ever going to be implemented without more time, commitment, and guidance/leadership?

And so it goes. Teachers gather, share ideas, share experiences, commiserate, and collaborate. Every week there is another conference somewhere, another keynote speaker plucked to expound the latest wisdom culled from a data herd unlike any other. Is that all there is left for us to change the world of education? What if we started meeting other professions at conferences and working alongside of them in workshops to solve real world problems facing our youth?

I propose to take a break from educational conferences to put into place some of the ideas that have been shared over the past few years. We all have some catching up to do.

*Anyone familiar with couple dynamics knows this can be a bone of contention in relationship politics. I am not prepared to admit this is a problem. However, let the record show, my wife is an understanding and patient person in this and several other areas of our 22 years of marriage.