Will Gourley Celebrating Success, Emergency Distance Learning, Engaging students with online learning, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Teacher Appreciation, Why unions matter, Year End Reflection

The cold coffee song

 AKA – A parody on a familiar melody dedicated to teachers who finished as strong, after a tough year, if not stronger than the cold beverages in their cups.

Pt 1 (sung to the chorus of Escape, The Pina Colada Song by Rupert Holmes)

Yes I like drinking cold coffee!
And ignoring my chronic back pain.

I am out of the classroom,
At home by pandemic and fate

It’s really hard to be teaching,
sharing through cold blue screens.

It’s become easy to breakdown,
seeing students struggling each day.

Yup, it’s been rough one folx. We have come so far together and we all know that the journey is just beginning. When we look back to the start of the year in September 2019, no one would have believed that we would only be voting on a contract now. No one would have believed  that we would fund our sub-cost-of-living raises by standing up for our rights on the picket lines for 6 days. And no one would have believed that we would not see our students in real life this year past March Break. Judging by what has transpired already, I am pretty sure that the future will be equally unbelievable.

Without a doubt, we’ve shared many highs and lows in our profession over the past 10 months. We have stood together. We have found ways to make a terrible situation nearly tolerable. We have worked from home in makeshift offices at the peril of our own physical detriment. We are all grieving the loss of milestones (graduations, trips, community, playdays, track, and farewells) for the classes of 2020. Yet, we still came up with innovative ways to honour them.

We have parented through a pandemic, and cared for our parents too. We have watched vulnerable communities further separated from opportunities. We witnessed the inequity that exists in presumptions around access and “emergency distance learning.” In all of this we have maintained the dignity and duty of care everyday. On occasion, we even remembered to look after ourselves.

And even though direction from the elected only spilled out like water from a kinked hose, we knew what to do because we knew our students. So when the messages changed it didn’t matter that they came out at the end of the day on a Friday after hours or at all. In the end, teachers knew how to do right by their students. This even meant going on treasure hunts to find marks to fill report cards using a very vague map to cover a number of broad areas.

For my liking, I would love to have scrapped the focus on any marks for this term, and worked within a pass/not yet model.

Pt 2 (sung to the chorus of Escape, The Pina Colada Song by Rupert Holmes)

I am not into health spas.
I won’t ride on busses or Go Trains.

I am not into incomplete reporting
though the data sets must be gained.

I don’t like marking work til midnight
or going without sunlight for days.

I have been teaching from my basement,
and there’s no chance of escape.

The deeds are done and we can look back on them knowing that each teacher poured their heart and soul into their artistry as educators. Like any good gallery, the masterpieces ranged in complexity and beauty regardless of the eyes of the beholder. I’ll leave you with the last chorus to sing however you’d like.

At the heart of education,
We’ll stop at nothing to create,

To make the best of bad situations,
and challenges so hard to relate.

Can’t wait until we’re back in the classroom,
To learn, laugh, and say remember when?

It’s the year that no one planned for,
and hope will never happen again.

Thank you for all of your support over the past year. Wishing you a safe and relaxing summer. Celebrating you all with a cup of something cool and refreshing after I finish this cold cup of coffee.

 

A photo of a poster. Multicoloured letters spell out Be calm, be kind, be safe.
Tammy Axt General

Be Kind Be Calm Be Safe

Over the past 15 years, I have played a little Kool and The Gang’s Celebration to kick off summer. I usually do a little dance down the hallway and groove my way out of my classroom. This year, I got up from my kitchen table, closed my computer and walked 3 steps to the kitchen for a glass of water. “Ce-le-brate Good Times Come On!”

The summer is usually a great time to recharge and refresh my energy levels so I go back to teaching pumped up for the new year. This summer is definitely going to be different. There are no triathlons to compete in, no concerts to attend and no weddings to dance at. Although things may look different, I think Dr. Bonnie Henry’s mantra of Be Kind, Be Calm and Be Safe is good advice for this unusual summer.

Be Kind

Be kind as many of us are struggling with mental health.

Be kind to those front-line workers who have been our foundational glue that has kept society running such as grocery store workers, truck drivers and health care professionals. One of my students has only seen her dad for one full day since this all started as he hasn’t had a day off from his job as a truck driver.

Be kind to your neighbors as they might be one of the millions of Canadians who have lost their job and have extreme stress about upcoming bills.

Be Calm

Be calm with members of your community who appear to be not following Covid guidelines. You don’t know what underlying conditions they have that prevent them from wearing a mask.

Be calm with yourself. Slow down, take a moment to breath and give yourself a break from the unbelievably difficult school year you have just completed.

Be calm with your family. Being indoors with the stress of jobs, online learning and the longest winter EVER is enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure. Hopefully, with the beginning of summer and some fresh air there will be a chance to regroup and enjoy time with family again.

Be Safe

Be safe in your home. I have fallen down the stairs twice since this whole thing has started mostly because I was on edge and trying to move too quickly. Slow down and save yourself some bruises.

Be safe in the outdoors. For many of us, this summer will be filled with new activities that we have never tried before. Before you decide to take up downhill mountain biking because pick up basketball games are not allowed, investigate the gear required for this sport and reflect on whether or not the sport it right for you.

Be safe in your community. Continue to social distance, wear masks and meet in small groups. Your actions will save others.

 

Have a wonderful summer of 2020. Be Kind, Be Calm and Be Safe as who knows what 2020-2021 will bring.

Tammy Axt General

Anti-Black Racism in Education

Over this past year, The Peel District School Board has undergone a review specifically looking at systemic discrimination against our Black students and staff. The review clearly displays that anti-Black racism exists in the Peel District School Board and that there will need to be outcome driven action taken to reduce disproportionately and disparity in the board in many areas. In the report, data was shared that  would be helpful for all educators, administrators and school boards to review as they self reflect on their role in perpetuating anti-Black racism in their class and school board. After I read the review, some questions that I am reflecting upon are:

Student Discipline

Are Black students being suspended at a disproportionate rate?

In Peel, the answer is yes. “Black students are only 10.2% of the secondary school population, but approximately 22.5% of students receiving suspensions.”

How often is the OTH-Other code being used in suspensions?

For those like me, that didn’t know the codes for suspensions as set out by the Ministry of Education, they are:

 

You will notice at the bottom of the list that there is a code OTH-other. In Peel, this code was used “approximately 78% of the time in secondary suspensions and 40% of the time elementary suspensions”. These are problematic statistics that provoke questions about reasons that students are being suspended.

What board wide or school wide de-escalation protocols are implemented to reduce the number of suspensions?

In the report, there is clearly no board wide strategy that has been implemented to reduce suspensions. One school’s de-escalation strategy that was outlined was to remove oneself from the situation and ask “What is the type of incident? What are the assumptions being made about the student and student’s behaviour? And after walking through the version of events from the teacher’s perspective and student’s perspective, what makes sense?” This simple protocol reduced suspensions in this particular family of schools. Does your school have a process in place that is consistently implemented? Is it communicated well to all staff so that they know how to follow it? Does your board have a de-escalation process in place?

What steps have been taken to reduce implicit bias in staff at your school or in your board?

“Research supports the view that the increased rates of suspension may be the result of implicit biases amongst PDSB faculty who, participants (in the review) told us, viewed Black youths as prone to misbehaviour.”

Pathways and programming Choices

As an intermediate educator, guidance counselor and administrator, are you empowering Black youth and parents to ensure that students are appropriately streamed into high school so that the students can reach their full potential?

Many anecdotal examples were given in the report to indicate concerns about streaming Black students. One Math teacher stated: Do parents and students understand that it may be “better to receive a 60% in academic math than a 90% in applied math because the student’s options for future educational pathways are greater with academic credits”?

Are Black students disproportionately streamed into applied and locally developed courses?

In Peel the answer is yes. “In grade 9 and 10, Black students make up approximately 10.1% of the student population” but they are represented in the courses as follows: “in academic 7.7%, in applied 21.7% and in locally developed credit courses 25.4%.

Are black students disproportionately represented in specialized or regional programs?

Remembering that in Peel, the Black student population is about 10%, this is the representation in our specialized programs:

Curriculum

Does your school or board, embed Black history throughout the entire school year or wait until February?

This was consistently raised as an issue in the report and concerns about content knowledge among teachers was deemed to be part of the problem.

Is the primary focus of Black History taught in your school or classroom American?

I have personally sat through a lot of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks presentations in my teaching career and the review confirmed my experiences.

Are achievements of Black Canadians visibly highlighted in the school?

The examples outlined in the report indicates that this is not happening in schools consistently across the board.

Discriminatory Comments and Conduct

Is it policy in your board and school, that both the parents of the child who made the discriminatory comment and the parents of the child who had comments made against them are informed of the incident?

Examples of only the child who made the comment’s family being contacted were presented in the review. The family of the child who had discriminatory comments made against them were often never contacted.

What protocol do you have to address micro-aggressions in your classroom and school?

How do you address the n-word in your classroom and school?

In the review, students shared that the n-word was used often in their classrooms by students and that they often experienced inaction on the part of their teachers.

So I’ve read the Review, now what?

In light of this review and the events of recent months that clearly indicate profound systemic problems in relation to anti-Black racism in Canada, many educators are pushing themselves to be better. A better teacher, A better administrator, A better Canadian, A better colleague, A better friend. They are reading incessantly about white privilege, policing Black bodies, white supremacy and white fragility which is a great start to being self reflective.

To build on this reading, the Kojo Institute’s fall education series might be just be what you are looking for. In the fall, Kike Ojo-Thompson will be leading a three-part session about moving beyond awareness to strategic action that will aim to produce more equitable outcomes for Black students and educators.  The link for registration is here .

 

My local has worked with Kike Ojo-Thompson to develop a strategic plan going forward. I look forward to sharing my learning throughout this process as we begin to implement action in our local and in our board. I hope to report by this time next year, how we addressed some of the questions listed above and I am sure that as we go deeper, I will have a whole list of new questions.

Will Gourley Celebrating Success, Emergency Distance Learning, General, Making a Difference Through Education, self reflection, Teaching online, Year End Reflection

6 Similes to describe how it felt to teach during COVID 19 Quarantine

Teaching during a quarantine was…

Like meaning with no  I, N or G. It was just mean. There were times when it felt forced, and meaningless because I was trying to make sense out of how to do this when it seemed more about keeping students busy and less about how they were feeling. 

Education during a pandemic was…

Like an infomercial. But wait, there’s more! More to do and definitely more to worry about.  Our students went AWOL – They’d gone absent without learning because they couldn’t connect. Their worlds had been turned upside down, and the one place where they could count on from Monday to Friday had been shuttered and now they were shut out. 

Learning for students during COVID 19 was…
Like making a pizza without a crust – there was nothing to hold all of the ingredients in place for students when life’s bigger problems consumed their ability to learn from home. Students needed their teachers to keep things together when things got tough and the class pizza, with all of its different toppings, got thrown into the oven.

Emergency distance learning was…
Like an ice cream cone with a hole in the bottom – the goodness melted away fast  and ended up on your shirt. Either way what was good couldn’t last long and usually there was something to clean up afterwards. I saw my students trying to make the best out of this mess yet there always seemed to be a scoop of some new flavour that no one wanted being added to the problem of learning outside of the classroom. 

Teaching from home during a shutdown felt…
Like performing a symphony where I had to write the score, conduct, play every instrument, and stack the chairs. There were so many little things that consumed the movements and moments of my day. It felt like I was simultaneously teaching a song to 25 individual performers all locked in their own rehearsal spaces.

Distance learning was…
Like running a marathon for the first time. You knew there was a finish line, but couldn’t remember how far you’d run or where you were going once you hit the wall. There came a point where fatigue set in and I began to doubt why I took this on in the first place? Some students hit the wall after the first day while others lasted until being told that the rest of their year at school was done. Even our strongest learners hit the wall at some point. Despite all of my training as a teacher, the toll that the marathon of teaching from home took on my mind and body was significant. I can only imagine how it affected our students.

I’m tired and a bit broken. The breath was stolen from my body when our students went home on March 13th. None of us imagined that we would be away for so long. I was allowed to visit my empty classroom 3 times since then and still hope that this has all been a bad dream. Walking down an empty hall in an empty school denied it’s life breath of students and their teachers was not how any of us would have wished this time in quarantine to be. 

From the onset and onslaught of learning in quarantine we had to work together, to grow together, and to continue learning together. It took time, patience, and grace. Each moment required a willingness to work meaningfully, to seek out those who had gone AWOL, bake a crust under that pizza, put a marshmallow in that cone to stop the good stuff from dripping out, play music until our fingers ached, and get up the next day ready to run the race again. 

The summer finish line has been crossed. We made it. Now where’s that pizza and ice cream?

 

Laura Bottrell General

Rolling with the Punches

I’m the first person to admit that I don’t like change. I don’t handle it very well and I don’t handle uncertainty well either. I like to have all the information and I like to plan ahead. I know I’m not the only one! This is not the time for people like me. Our world is full of change and uncertainty right now. I’m learning to roll with the punches as we all have been during this pandemic. Almost all aspects of daily life have changed over the past few months. The change hasn’t been limited to our personal lives either, as the world of education has undergone some major changes too. Our jobs have changed drastically and the adaptability of teachers has never been so important.

This week definitely has a feeling of relief to it. I’m going to miss interacting with my students, but after the whirlwind (that’s putting it nicely) of a year we’ve had, I think every teacher is breathing a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, that sigh of relief might feel very short-lived for a lot of us. There is so much uncertainty in the air about what the future of education looks like. What will September look like? Will we be back in classes as normal? Will we be distance teaching again? Will we be working with a blended model of both? Will we be safe? How are we possibly going to make this work? As much as we all need these answers, we simply don’t have them yet. It’s so easy to get caught up in speculation and worry. Our minds race through “what if” scenarios, which lead us to more and more questions and a lot more anxiety.

Social media can be a dangerous place during uncertain times. People speculate, share hypotheticals, and post their own ideas of needs to happen which can lead to misinformation and overload. Try not to get caught up in all of that.

We’ve worked hard to get to where we are this week. We’ve accomplished what was completely unthinkable up until it became our reality in March. Colleagues, we’ve earned this summer break. We need to honour our own wellbeing this summer. Of course, there are things we can do to prepare ourselves for possible scenarios and teaching models but we would be doing ourselves a disservice to speculate, worry, and try to create answers that simply don’t exist.

Celebrate your accomplishments, reflect on what you’ve learned (I know I’ve learned a lot these past few months!) and take some time to distance yourself from distance learning! Our students deserve refreshed and rejuvenated educators welcoming them in September.

The detailed school reopening plans will come and when they do, we will roll with the punches! That’s what us teachers do best, isn’t? Not to mention that this is a great opportunity to model adaptability for our students and our own children. Even for people like me!

 

 

Laura Bottrell General

How is bowling like teaching?

Think about a 7-10 split in bowling. You aim right down the middle and knock over all the pins except for the two at the back corners. Happens to me all the time!

“The ball is the lesson, the pins are the kids. We aim for the middle. We do the best we can. The pins that are left standing we often have another chance to kind of get to them, but at the end of the day those two pins that are staring back at you are the kids who need the most support and the kids who need the most challenge. So, we end up choosing one and the other one is left standing.”

Watch below to hear how bowling really is just like teaching, and how a professional bowler can teach us a valuable lesson about inclusive education that you might not have thought about.

 

Shelley Moore is a teacher, researcher, consultant and storyteller in Vancouver, BC. If you haven’t heard of Shelley yet, then I’m pleased to be the one to introduce you! I was first exposed to Shelley’s online content during a PD session at my board and have since found her analogies, knowledge and passion to be extremely valuable for my own growth as an educator. Her research and work has been featured at national and international conferences and is constructed based on theory and effective practices of inclusion, special education, curriculum and teacher professional development.

For teachers both new and seasoned, Shelley offers video content as well as other online learning opportunities that are sure to bend the way you think and open your eyes to things you may not have thought of before. If you enjoyed this analogy, wait until you hear her use baked potatoes to explore scaffolding complexity. You’ll probably laugh along the way, too.

I hope you spend a few minutes checking out some of her content! I just couldn’t keep this fresh, entertaining and helpful resource to myself. You can follow Shelley Moore’s channel called Five Moore Minutes on Youtube, as @tweetsomemoore on Twitter, or at www.fivemooreminutes.com .

 

 

 

Laura Bottrell General

Distanced But Closer: Changed Relationships

Distance learning has offered rewards and challenges that I’m sure no educator could have seen coming their way. As our school year’s end is approaching, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on  the overall experience of distance learning for myself and my students. While I could probably write for days about all of the ways distance learning was impactful, I wanted to highlight one in particular.

In many cases, my relationships with my students changed.

At the onset of this wild ride, I was mostly worried about my teacher-student relationships changing, and not in a good way. I worried about how removing the social interaction of being together in the same room would negatively impact our relationships. I worried about the loss of our high fives, inside jokes, and the ability to play with each other. I dreaded the thought of simply assigning work from behind a screen while they completed it alone. Luckily, that’s not all how this turned out.

I was pleasantly surprised with how well I was able to maintain special, personal and close relationships with my students even over distance learning. I teach grade 3/4 and worried that my students’ lack of proficiency with technology and even just typing on a keyboard would add increased barriers to our communication. They floored me with their ability to adapt and overcome that. Every day, I exchanged instant messages with my students and was able to maintain the same banter and tone that we would if we were right beside each other in the classroom.

However, the most impactful change to our teacher-student relationships came from outside of the curriculum, outside of my planned program, and outside of anything either of us were expected to do.

With many of my students, the ability to stay in touch digitally and in real-time (we’ve been using SeeSaw as our main platform) allowed me to become a part of their daily life at home. Many of my students welcomed my presence with open arms into their daily activities and this opened up a new way for us to interact.

After a few weeks of getting used to online communication, my students started to send me photos and videos things that weren’t school work. I was getting pictures of Lego creations, arts and crafts, forts made out of cardboard boxes, or handmade jewelry. One student sent me a photo of lunch that she had cooked by herself for the first time. Another sent me a photo of flowers she had planted in her garden. Another student sent me a photo of a fox he saw in his yard. The other day, a student sent me a photo of herself doing a handstand in her pool that she had just mastered.

These offerings from my students acted as a catalyst for what I think was our most valuable learning together throughout this whole thing. Personalized, authentic and real-time exchanges that were child directed. A chance for me to engage them in critical thinking, prompt independent inquiry and point out their learning in one-on-one manner.

It might have been easy for me to fluff that off as typical kids being excited to show things off to their teacher, but there’s a Kindergarten teacher in me. And that Kindergarten teacher’s heart jumped with joy because my students were allowing me a window into their learning through real, authentic, hands-on learning and play. With them sharing their small projects, interests and curiosities with me, I could add to their experiences by noticing or naming academic concepts, prompting wonder, and pointing out their growth through their exploration.

It reminded me so much of teaching kindergarten, where the same relationship of observing a child’s play and drawing the learning from it was my main approach to teaching. This can totally still happen in grade 3 and 4, but when the world for them to explore is expanded beyond our limited classroom walls it is so much more enriched. To illustrate this, I had an entire conversation with one of my students about the things she noticed and wondered while she and her family explored a creek in a forest. That’s not something that can happen often in a primary/junior classroom (unless you’re lucky enough to teach near a forest!).

As time has progressed, I’ve shifted my approach with some of my students to simply building a relationship with them through what they are engaged in and interested in doing. It has added so much value to distance learning for those that have been struggling with engaging academically. We now have a class blog that I will post their offerings to, as well, so they can see what their peers are doing and accomplishing. Many times, other students will try something similar and send me a photo of it to post on the blog in response. This has led to inspired, busy, and most of all socially engaged kids.

Yes, my class’ overall engagement with the assigned work has declined significantly over the past few weeks – a trend I’m sure we are all seeing – but the one thing that hasn’t declined is the daily sharing of things they are proud of.

And, to me, is that better than them completing their assigned math? Of course it is.

Will Gourley General

Saying, “I am not racist” is not enough pt 2

This is the second of 2 posts about anti-black racism and being anti-racist. Here is a link to Saying “I am not racist” is not enough pt 1.

We are now witnessing some of the most significant events in recent history and they are direct responses to the overtly racist actions of those whose jobs are to protect the community. This is by no means the first time, nor will it be the last – regrettably. The death of George Floyd and other recent national news events have many ideological battle lines being drawn in the fight against racism.

I am hoping that these incidents will not be in vain if they can be used as the origins of how white people see themselves as complicit in perpetuating the racism that has led up to this point through their long and loud silences and that a genuine change can begin to end anti-black racism. Hence these posts.

Years ago, Desmond Tutu shared:

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. “

These words circle in my head right now as I consider how my actions as an educator, or perhaps more accurately, my inactions as an educator have allowed racism to continue without truly being aware of it? Seeing the streets filled with protesters seeking a change to a broken system has given me much to reflect on from the comfort and safety of my home far away. I am watching in fear as I see a system threatening to turn violently against them and at the racists who are using these tragedies as a tool to sew further seeds of their hatred and intolerance.

The events of the past week have amplified hundreds of years of inequality, inequity, and injustice in the social contracts of western society. Trevor Noah shared this so eloquently, that when the contracts that society pretends to adhere and uphold are continually broken, then what is keeping all of us from lashing out against the systems that are not honouring them as well? The only way I know how to answer this beyond changing my own actions is through education.

That got me looking for ideas on how to invite and be open to change. Here’s what I have gleaned from countless educators and activists so far that I am ready to do right now;

  1. Take a stand. Start by getting off of the fence. Stop saying “I am not racist”.
  2. Be prepared to be uncomfortable, to be called out, and to be challenged.
  3. Take stock of my past.
    Reflect on what needs to be done better to make a difference to stop anti-black racism.
  4. Excuse myself from having a saviour complex.
    Offering support not salvation.
  5. Ask and reflect about what are some of my privileges?
  6. Let my classroom resources reflect culturally relevant anti-racist convictions
  7. Let conversations with students turn into listening sessions where ideas and understandings can be turned into growth and deeper knowledge.
  8. Think about how I can leverage my privilege and position as a white male cisgendered educator to effect change.

I am sure there are more things to add to this list as I go forward, but I also need to be mindful of making choices and decisions that can be achievable without feeling overwhelmed or giving up the moment when things get tough. I am ready to apologize for mistakes I have made, am making, and will make. Relying on others is going to be a big part of my growth. Acknowledging that there is so much more to learn will play a huge part in going forward.

Consider the straight forward advice in this recent social media post from Mireille Cassandra Harper as a perfect place to ponder and equip for the journey to allyship.

We have the means to be on the side that helps change history. As educators, we can use our privilege of being agents of societal change and good citizenship to help change the values of students/society to be truly anti-racist. It will come with discomfort, change, and fresh perspectives that may not match past experiences. However, as change occurs, it will also come with a community capable of seeing everyone within it included, respected, and valued.

Accepting that meaningful change will not happen overnight is something else for me to work past, but I know that these are my first public steps to do so. I want all educators to understand the urgency that I share in this post and encourage you to be part of making this the change that needs to take place. It starts with saying, “I am anti-racist!”

Huge thanks to Ms E Ng for her genuine, supportive, and critical feedback in the writing of these posts.

Will Gourley Advocacy for change, Advocacy for public education, Anti-Racism, Building Inclusion, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Equity, General, self reflection, Social Justice

Saying, “I am not racist” is not enough pt 1

“One either endorses the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist or racial equality as an antiracist,” Kendi writes, adding that it isn’t possible to be simply “not racist.”
from New Yorker Magazine article Aug 18, 2019

It’s not enough to say, “I am not racist,” and I feel that it is time for us all to join in the battle against anti-black racism and racists. Recent events and tragedies in the news are too numerous to mention (Arbury, Taylor, and Floyd). They have left my mind spinning, and I want to do something supportive and meaningful with the privilege I have as a blogger for ETFO.

I am a white, middle-aged, cisgendered male who has watched from the sidelines, trying to mind my manners and my business for far too long. I have become uncomfortable with the skin I am privileged to be born in without becoming part of the solution to overthrow the overt and ignorant racist actions of my predecessors, contempories, and self. I want to use my next two posts to encourage all educators to join me on a journey that leads to our collective allyship in the fight against racism.

Educators find themselves on the frontlines of many socially volatile spaces. It is impossible not to be in the middle of things that impact our world because we are responsible for teaching critical thinking skills as part of our work with students. More importantly, our students are directly affected whether it is by witnessing daily violence and oppression in media or because of way they are made to feel by existing systems because of the colour of their skin. They need to see their teachers standing up for them. We have fought for good working conditions. Now it’s time for another fight against anti-black racism.

This means asking questions, listening for understanding, and allowing for ideas to be shared that lead to growth and change – especially during times of great unrest in the news. This also means being uncomfortable when answers to questions cannot be found at the back of a textbook or anywhere else for that matter.

To be sure, teachers are dealing with torrents of important issues right now and we must prioritize one above the others if we haven’t done so already – that is racism. First, we need to know where we each stand before any of us can commit to overcoming the central issue of  the day, week, month, year, and history of humanity around racism? So where do you stand as an educator? Are you trying to keep your head down, your nose to the grind stone, and avoiding making any waves on the calm waters of your practice? Admittedly, there can be a lot of peace and safety by being a witness to someone else’s battle.

But that safety is not a privilege that everyone has, there is something bigger at stake than our comfort in all of this. It is the entire fabric of our existence as educators to be the ones who foster change and encourage potential in our students. We are also really good at taking a stand along side of the oppressed in order to make something good out of bad situations. It’s time we weave a new and stronger layer.

In some places we witness systems, employers, and staff working together and taking stands against racism in solidarity. I know school boards have been embroiled in significant issues to do with anti-black racism in the past years. Some have been making slow progress to correct their past mistakes and lead forward. Breaking down Structural/systemic racism is crucial, but it must happen at the same time as we identify the signs of individual racism. Check out the 9 slides on this post from @theconsciouskid:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtmbeXJwOW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

In know that there are countless educators already learning and working together educate themselves and others in order to move from allies to activists through social and academic spaces.

Consider the wisdom in this quote from Ijeoma Oluo

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.”

There is so much being done already to equip hearts and minds for this battle. Yet, it seems that ideological differences continue to be amplified in the media, and allowed to build up until the pressure below the surface of a once capped/dormant social volcano rises up. A volcano has erupted somewhere else. Now, those lying dormant in our own backyards are experiencing significant seismic activity. So are you going to be standing at the bottom when the lava flows? Probably not, because like me, our privilege has us miles away watching out of harm’s way.

I understand that not everyone is capable of standing in the streets to demand justice and change, but of each of us can use the privilege of our voices to show support, demand change, and to state unwaiveringly, “I am anti-racist!” Once you’ve said it, it’s time for action.

This is a much bigger commitment than saying, “I am not racist,” because it is not enough to say that you are not something. The time for neutrality is over. Saying, “I am anti-racist!” means you are standing up against anti-black racism, and are willing to take action. It means that you are going to help others get out of danger when the volcano explodes.

Your turn. “I am anti-racist!”

If you said those words, most likely, you are already taking the steps to move from acknowledgement that racism is an issue that plagues our world. It means you are working as an anti-racist ally. As teachers, we are used to taking on challenges in the face of adversity.  Now how can the tragedy of recent events north and south of the border be used to support our students in and out of the classroom so that something positive can come from recent tragic events? It’s our turn to ask how we can help?

In Saying, “I am not racist” is not enough part 2 I will continue this thought stream and will share what I plan to do in my own life to grow into allyship and activism. For now, let’s say it together, “We are anti-racist”.

 

Tammy Axt General

Ideas for Distance Learning

Nine weeks ago, the teachers of Ontario were asked to do something most of us couldn’t have conceived of when the school year began. We rose to the challenge and in under two weeks we started to deliver distance learning to the homes of the students of Ontario. We did all of this while our own children cried in our arms, our puppies jumped on us, our computers and internet failed constantly and we became the sole earner in our home as our partners lost their jobs. I often am amazed at the skills the teachers of Ontario collectively possess but this was unbelievable. Teachers pulled together to meet their students needs so fast and 9 weeks later we are still sitting at our computer screens for hours at a time to continue this important work.

I teach a class of students with Developmental Disabilities which has made distance learning difficult since they have a limited ability to read or write and incredibly complex learning needs. It has taken a large amount of creativity and unconventional ideas to attempt to meet their needs. I ended up doing a mixture of weekly assignments, online platforms, postal mail and live synchronous learning to try to reach out to every one of my students.

(Just a note about synchronous learning… I used my professional judgement that live synchronous learning would meet the needs of my particular students because of their learning profile and emotional needs. However, live synchronous learning comes with a lot of challenges and pitfalls. I have been very cautious in introducing it to my students and have had at least one TA join me for every session. My team gathered online and spoke at length about parameters and rules for synchronous learning before we started and I have worked with parents to ensure that professional boundaries are maintained. I know that the teachers of Ontario will make the right decision about what kind of synchronous learning will best meet the needs of their students using their professional judgement.)

With four weeks left, I’m sure the energy level is starting to fade for many of our students. Keeping them engaged and excited about learning online is getting tougher and tougher every day. Today I want to share some ideas that I have come up with over the last nine weeks in the hopes that one idea can give you something for your students to do over the next four weeks to keep them going. These are ideas to do with your students if you are meeting with them on Google Meet, Teams or another form of teleconferencing service.

For my students with special needs, the goal for all of these activities was to have students actively engaged in communication with me and their classmates. The activities also focused on social skills such as taking turns, working with others and having patience.

  • Who is it? I took pictures I had of my students and zoomed in on one part of the picture such as an eyeball or running shoe. It became a guessing game of who they thought the picture was of. This game allowed my students to express how much they missed their friends and to celebrate their awesome classmates.
  • Charades The students and staff all took turns pantomiming an animal. The other students had to guess what the animal was. For my students muting and unmuting their mics has been very difficult, therefore, I encouraged my students to take turn guessing.
  • Find Something in Your House On plain pieces of paper, I wrote the colours blue, pink, black, red, green and purple. I showed them to the students one sheet at a time. When the students saw the colour, they had to go and run and find something from their home that was that colour and bring it back and explain what they have found. This is by far their favourite distance learning activity!
  • Freeze Dance I used my Bluetooth speaker to play music and we grooved and moved to some of our favourite songs. I stopped the music every once in a while, to allow the students to pose in their favourite dance move.
  • Pictionary The staff in my classroom all took turns drawing a picture for the students to guess. My students are amazing guessers at my less than perfect drawings. We work on taking turns and celebrating our friends when they get the right answer through this activity.
  • Show and Tell about your pet or stuffed pet My class and I are real animal lovers and we have had many, many conversations about our pets during this time at home. I can tell you so many things about Roxy, Sugar, Herc, Rona, Coco, Fenway and Pepples. It has been a great Segway for many of students to talk about their feelings when we talk about our pet’s feelings daily.
  • Making a Bird Feeder My students and I got the materials together for a very simple bird feeder and made them together as we chatted online. We each hung it up in our backyard and watched for visiting birds.
  • Art show and tell My students have done countless art projects from chalk drawings outside and poster boards for their friends’ birthdays. We often have a sharing time to show their art and discuss their pictures.
  • Exercise Time I lead a half hour exercise time for my students. We all bring our water and get our sweat on.
  • Lego building show and share I invite my students to build anything out of lego and tell us the story of what they have built.
  • Nature share My students have been noticing things that they have seen on family walks such as ducks, a bald eagle and a beaver. No alligators yet, but you never know in the last four weeks.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for going above and beyond to help your students through a profoundly difficult time. I have never been prouder to call myself an Ontario teacher. You are truly amazing!