Will Gourley Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education

Best to you in all you do (an alphabetic acronym for educators)

Happy New Year! Well at least the Gregorian one. What’s really neat about teaching in Ontario is the amount of cultural sharing that occurs as part of our school calender. January 1st marks the start of 2019 on most calenders and in the spirit of rebirth, new beginnings, and good will I wanted to share a prosaic attempt to encourage you all to savour the good from 2018 and prepare to embrace the awesome potential of another new year.

Always take time to reflect on the impact you are having on the lives of others.
Being present is the best present.
Channel your energy into lifting others up and creating community in your classroom.
Dedicate to change and learning even when it is uncomfortable.
Everyone matters, most importantly you.
Forget past hurts and move forward.
Give freely of your time and resources.
Homework doesn’t have to be a worksheet.
It can be a conversation or a chance to play.
Jump up and show your students why movement is important while learning.
Kinesthetic learners need to move. So do their teachers.
Leave the answers in the back of the book to explore other responses.
Make room for culturally responsive pedagogy.
Never doubt the impact you are making on the lives of others.
Open your mind to innovative practices and take risks trying something new.
Play + timely relevant instruction = learning.
Questions are bricks to build a solid foundation in learning. They are not meant to be thrown.
Respect is at the forefront of all we do. It presumes positive intentions in everyone.
Some days, some people are going to push your buttons. See R, Q, F, and C
“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” Robert Shuller In case R, Q, F and C don’t work.
Understanding includes everyone. We need to seek it, model it, and share it daily.
Victories come in many forms. Somedays it will look different than others.
Wonder is the rocket fuel of enagement in education. We have the ability to send our students to the moon and beyond.
Xenophobia is an enemy that can only be defeated by dedicated educators.
You are a dedicated educator who has accomplished great things and will do so again in 2019
Zzzzzz. Sleep is your friend. Rest you deserve it.

Thank you for all you do to make education awesome. It is a privilege to share with you on this platform. Cheers to many great things in 2018, the many lessons too, and to all of the amazing potential that is to unfold in 2019. Will

Will Gourley General

Bonus Blog for December

Hi. I just had a few thoughts that extend out of my previous post The best present is one you can give year round.
I thought it would work best as a two minute reminder about the wonders of outdoor time for students even when the weather outside is frightful.
Stay warm and well. Will

What’s this about fresh air?

After all of that hard work and kindness, don’t forget to celebrate a little too. When the snow flies, there is nothing like an outdoor hike combined with a game of snow tag(not to be confused with snowball throwing). Students love the fresh air and physical movement too. The time spent preparing for the elements is well worth the mental health, exercise, and class unity that outdoor opportunities provide. It’s also a great chance for your learners to see you play and having fun too. You can wrap it up by serving hot cocoa and cookies(or approved health conscious treat) too.

Although outside time is one method to gift time to your class, it is not always possible. Sometimes students become schoolbound because of extreme weather(usually cold or rain). After a few days, the vibe of a school gets thrown off. The lackadaisical attitude becomes hard to miss except in the mischief department where students seem to be able to consistently achieve. I knew we had had too many indoor recesses in a row when a student called me dad.

It is important our students maximize the times when they are able to get outside. This is never more evident than in the older grades of 6-8 where students are routinely hiding in the bathrooms or going around rooms begging to help teachers. I think we have missed something when students celebrate when it is indoor recess instead of getting some fresh air.

There is so much to learn in an outdoor setting. It is calming and exciting at the same time. It allows for movement, engagement, and wonder. It can be as simple as a neighbourhood hike, a read aloud under a shady tree or a snow fort building lesson for structures and stability. For Math purists there can be hypothetical conversations about the number of snowflakes that it takes to cover a certain area?

Thanks for reading.

Will Gourley General, Great Gifts for Teachers, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education

The best present is one you can give year round

https://www.flickr.com/photos/72153088@N08/6510934443 CC BY 2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/72153088@N08/6510934443 CC BY 2.0

Like many gifts wrapped up during this Christmas/Winter Holiday season, this post could take a lot of forms. Whether it is with a bow, within a kindly worded card or if it is hidden in a neatly wrapped gift the feeling of giving and receiving gifts is a special one.

Classrooms can be gifts that keep on giving

Although, traditional presents are nice, it has been my experience to savour the moments when we are able to strengthen our class community through quality time together. Long after the sweetness of a treat or period off for a movie has been forgotten, students remember being part of something special that benefitted others.

When classrooms unite for a cause bigger than themselves, that is where true giving occurs. Raising funds to support schools in need of resources, supporting clean water projects, or collecting food/clothing for local charities are all ways for students to give. The holidays serve as a perfect time to make it happen, but the need does not stop in January. So why not make giving the focus year round?

Getting started is easy. Start by setting aside a little time to gather/chat about needs and goals for giving in support of others instead of getting down to the business of learning every period. There are numerous NGOs for a class to support such as Ryan’s Well, Plan Canada or Right to Play to name a few, but in 2019 I think it would be great for us to seek justice and equitable funding and access to education for our First Nations families. Most of our classrooms are embarassments of riches in my school board. I know there is room for us all to be generous.

What if we all provided time to interact and set our minds to support a common goal? Encouragement and a space to make it happen are simple gifts that teachers can offer their students. Then let them co-create and negotiate where they want to concentrate their efforts. Your class can divvy up responsibilities such as organizing awareness parties / fundraisers / whole-school events for everyone to look forward. They can plan and host inter-grade social games to include younger and older students. This way, everyone becomes connected to the event(s) in one form or another. That connection allows the community to grow closer together as they work on a common goal. Each time students work together to achieve something or are kind to one another is like a gift that keeps on giving beyond the moment. Start small, think locally, take some time, and grow from there. Remember to have fun. It will be like a breath of fresh air from the regular learning at school.

Although this post was shared in December, its message stretches well beyond any season. I’m hoping that it will serve as a reminder of the give and take that exists in our schools, as well.And, like most gifts, it is better to give than to receive. Especially in the classroom. Keep on giving your best to everyone and in all that you do.

Thank you for reading. Here’s to an amazing 2019 at the speed of learning and life.

 

Laura Bottrell General, Mental Health, Wellness

Snow Suit Stress

Can we talk about snow suits for a minute? I absolutely love teaching our youngest learners but with them comes a few months of winter clothing nightmares. I didn’t mind this so much while teaching Kindergarten, because I saw the [endless hours of] time spent getting dressed as a teaching opportunity and an important part of our program.

Now that I’m teaching grade 1/2, there is still a lot of stress around getting dressed for the outdoors. The difference is that there are other expectations, schedules and logistics that make me see it less as a learning opportunity and more as a problem.

In my class, I have a handful of students who are still learning to independently dress for the outdoors. Even with my assistance, it can take them 10-15 minutes to get ready on some days. It’s just where they’re at developmentally. It doesn’t help that these particular kids are very social and can be easily distracted. They will drop a half-on boot in a heart beat at the chance to talk to a nearby friend instead.

What also works against them is the school’s timetable. My board works on the balanced day (two nutrition breaks, each 40 minutes in length). While I love this structure for most other reasons, I can’t help but think that it serves our students a lot less in the winter months. The primary division at my school eats inside for the first twenty minutes and then plays outside for the second twenty.

Or if you’re a child that struggles to get dressed, you might get to play outside for five minutes if you’re lucky.

Oh, how I wish it were the other way around! Since it’s lunch time first, I’m often not in the room to support them during this transition. Sure, there’s a duty teacher in the hallway but they can’t be expected to support these students in every classroom.

This makes what is supposed to be a fun break from the classroom into yet another stressful transition. For some kids, this ends up having the opposite affect of what recess is supposed to do for them. They come inside exasperated, stressed and having only had five minutes of time outside. They’ve missed out on much needed physical activity, play and socialization with friends.

And, these kids are the ones that need those things the most.

I guess I feel like our timetable is letting them down. In Kindergarten, we had the ability to deviate from the school’s timetable to best suit the needs of our class. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in primary. So how can I support these kids when I’m not there? How can I help them take back their recess time and eliminate the stress around winter clothing? I’ve tried visual timers, checklists, the buddy system, laying out their clothing before lunch begins, re-organizing our hook space, and sometimes I just stay in the room myself to help them (although a teacher needs to take her lunch, too).

I’m a bit stumped beyond this. I’ve asked parents to work on independent dressing at home, but in my case, the issue isn’t so much fine-motor as it is executive functioning. Putting all of that aside, this has got me wondering:

Is 20 minutes outside really long enough for our kids to get the physical activity and play they so desperately need? Is it even long enough without the winter clothing battle? With such a focus on students’ health and wellbeing, why aren’t we seriously looking at extending scheduled outdoor play beyond the expectation of DPA through the classroom teacher?

What do you think? Do you have similar problems in your primary classroom? I’d love to hear your creative solutions in the comments below!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird FSL, General

Motivational Mornings

One of the most frustrating parts of my morning used to be the first ten minutes after the bell. My school, like many others, uses an online attendance tracking system which requires  us to log in and complete attendance within the first fifteen minutes of the day. It takes time to check whether all of my students are present as they put away their backpacks and outdoor gear. It also takes time to start up the computer, load the attendance app, and complete the attendance (twice, because we do both morning and afternoon attendance at the same time, don’t ask).

Without direction, my students take advantage of the time to get off-task and chatty right from the beginning of the day. Bell work isn’t ideal either, as it quickly becomes a chore to plan and even more things to mark. It’s difficult to plan meaningful, engaging tasks that my students can do with limited instruction or supervision.

This year, I tried something new: a question of the day written on the whiteboard before they come in, with markers in a variety of colours available for them to use to add their response to the board. The questions vary from simple questions about student preferences to deeper questions about overcoming personal challenges. Sometimes students are asked to write a message to a peer – something to brighten their day, or motivate them, or give them a confidence boost.

At first, only a few students came up to the board and added their responses. It didn’t take more than a day or two for more to start taking part, however, and now the board is usually so full that the last few students have trouble finding space to write their thoughts down. The first week or two, they were determined to find a way to work Fortnite into every answer as a joke, but now they’re more interested in meaningful answers with reflection and real thought.

Sometimes, the morning question has led to a longer discussion about current events, or a frank discussion about challenging topics like mental health, or a silly debate over whether chocolate or candy is better. As an FSL teacher, it’s also a great opportunity to challenge my students to speak spontaneously in French. It’s informal, relaxed, and about personal topics, so I’ve found that even my more reluctant speakers will take part. Overall, it’s been a highly rewarding routine to put in place.

If you’re looking for question ideas to do something like this in your class, check out the hashtag #miss5thswhiteboard on Instagram. She has many wonderful ideas!

Tammy Axt General

One Sore Throat and Two Stomach Flus

Today in my class, I have one really bad sore throat and two of the ERFs in my classroom are off with the stomach flu.

So, I thought today might be a good day to talk about personal wellness.

We are coming up to the last three weeks of school before the break and these three weeks tend to be the most demanding. The students will be extra anxious, excited, emotional and generally demanding of your time and energy. The problem is after report cards, interviews, IEPs, referrals, ISRCs etc., we are all pretty run down by this point in the year.

There are many ways to make it through December with a smile. Some of my favourites are:

  1. Do an activity with a colleague. Put two classes together and work together to support your students. Having a team approach to deal with extra behaviour from students can take the pressure off of being calm and patient all day long.
  2. Plan activities that don’t require you to take marking home. Try to get all your marking done in class. Commit to taking anecdotal notes about rich conversations as opposed to marking assignments after school. For writing, do an assignment that requires writing conferences as assessment. For Math, get into some amazing Marion Small rich tasks and capture everything in the moment. The less you have to take home, the more time you have to recharge in the evening. You need to stockpile the energy this month.
  3. Get outside. Do a couple of lessons in the great outdoors building structures out of snow, balloon races or making some art out of found objects. Extra time outside can really have an impact on all those high emotions and can help students burn off some energy.
  4. Take time out for laughter. Yesterday, a bunch of my friends and I went out and did an ugly Christmas sweater run. It was great to get out and laugh A LOT. We took crazy selfies all over town and cars were honking at our silliness everywhere we went. I know many of you have a whole bunch of gifts to buy and food to prepare and family to host but somewhere in there find time for laughter. It can be the best self care there is.
  5. Make rewards more immediate and obvious for the students. I sometime up the reward time in my class in December to help the students stay focused and on task. I have posted the letters F-r-i-d-a-y-F-r-e-e-t-i-m-e at the front of the room and tell the kids that each letter represents 10 mintues. I remove letters based on if students are not following the rules.
  6. If emotions are running high, have students do some independent work. Give them a break from doing their work and using their social skills at the same time.

All in all, I love December and all the celebrations that happen at this time of year. But this month requires you to take one deep breath and take care of ourselves!

 

 

Tammy Axt Field Trips, General, Special Education

Our First Field Trip Into The Community!!

This is my first year being a teacher of students with developmental delays. Being new to the role, some days are very successful and some days are a definite work in progress. Even with the possibly of bumpy days, I decided that my lack of experience was not going to stop me from setting up activities in the community with my students. After getting advice from some other amazing teachers, I set up my first field trip. We went on the city bus to the Dollar Store to buy holiday decorations for our class!!

The Dollar Store is about a 6 minute bus ride from my school and it took us about of 20 minutes in the store to purchase all of our items. However, I planned for this trip like we were doing a backpacking trip across Europe for 45 days.

I began by preparing my students for the trip by explicitly explaining what would happen on the trip and my  expectations of their behaviour. I shared many pictures and explained them every day for a week. Here are a few of the pictures that I shared with my students:

SPD trip

I will be leaving school after lunch. I need to use the bathroom before I leave.

bathroom

mccrimmon middle school

Then we will walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus.

bus stop

I need to stay with the teachers while we are on our trip and listen to their instructions.

AXT

I need to stay with my teachers on the sidewalk while we walk to the Dollar Store.

walking to dollarstore 2

When we get to the Dollar Store Ms. Axt will give me my money.

dollar store

At the Dollar Store, we will each pick one decoration for the class.

shopping isle

Then we will go to the cash register to pay.

paying

After we reviewed the pictures with the students, we practiced walking around the school like we were out in the community. My team and I had a meeting and made groups according to speed, personality and need. Each staff member took two or three students and walked in the halls at school the week before the trip.

We also practiced expectations of shopping in a store. The staff and I became the cashiers and my students practiced finding something, bringing it into the checkout line and waiting to pay for their item. The more we practiced the more independent they got.

Finally, the day arrived and off we went. The whole trip lasted about an hour and we didn’t have one issue. Preparing the students beforehand went a long way into making the trip successful.

The day after our trip,  I showed all the students the pictures from our outing and asked about their experience. I put a few pictures and their thoughts in a little note and sent it home in their communication book. For many of my students, the pictures help them with their ability to explain what happened on the trip. It also gives parents some ideas about what happened on the trip, if their child has impaired verbal skills. The note I sent home looked like this…

note home

It took about 10 minutes to make and the parents really appreciated the communication.

We are off on our next field trip on Monday. Wish us luck…………

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird FSL, General, Modern Learning, Technology in school, Use of Technology

Global Read Aloud – Join In!

Over the past few weeks, my class has been participating in the FSL-centric version of the Global Read Aloud, an international event where classes all around the world read the same books and share their learning over social media. Some teachers choose to connect directly with other classes, some simply share their activities online for others to see, but all are engaging with the digital community in some way.

My class has really enjoyed participating in this event. It was entirely teacher led, initiated by Tammy Aiello of Teaching FSL. The official iterations of the GRA are designed for either English programs or French-first-language programs, making it challenging to engage with the event if you teach an FSL program of some kind. Thankfully, there were enough of us interested in working out the details that Tammy was able to coordinate book lists for all ages (based on teacher input!).

If you haven’t participated in the GRA before, I strongly recommend it. While my teaching assignment and personal life meant that I couldn’t delve as deeply into it as I would have liked, even the small taste my students had of engaging with the online world had them eager to do more. More importantly, though, we chose books with deep meaning and strong curriculum connections. For my age range (Junior French Immersion), the books were about Indigenous issues, LGBTQIA issues, infertility, immigration. We had many valuable conversations in the class about history, human rights, and moving forward with a more open mind. These are not easy issues to tackle, by any stretch, but the books served as rich starting points for these topics of incredible importance.

I spoke so animatedly about what my class was doing that another teacher joined in. This gave us the opportunity to share resources and ideas, compare student engagement, and co-plan. We both realized that we really loved the format of diving deep into one picture book a week, as it opened a lot of cross-curricular doors and made for great teaching. It’s changed my teaching for the last six weeks – and may well change my teaching for the rest of the year.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the Global Read Aloud, you can check out the website here. If you’re an FSL teacher, our Facebook group is here. The event is officially over for the year, but you can always start it up in your school and go through the book(s) a few weeks late! Otherwise, see you in September 2019!

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Special Education

Behind the behaviour – seeing our students

I see you.
I see you trying.
I see you fidgeting.
I see you working hard.
I see you fighting the floor.
I see you being a peace maker.
I see you standing up to bullies.
I see you waiting for snack time.
I see your random acts of kindness.
I see you struggling to pay attention.

I see you trying to find the space where you fit in.
I see you when you haven’t had a good night’s sleep.
I see you watching the seconds slowly tick as time crawls.
I see you throwing things because words have escaped you.
I see you searching for representation in the books you read.
I see you when you are trying to make the distractions vanish.
I see you walking off your school bus with an emotionless face.
I see you when you arrive to school without warm winter wear.
I see you taking extra long water fountain and bathroom breaks.
I see you when you come to school without having a morning meal.

I see you working to make your classroom and school a better place.
I see your desire to move about, doodle or make things with your hands.
I see you looking around the room for something else to do. Anything else.
I see you in your worst in best moments as you learn and grow as a learner.
I see you trying to understand that one student who just doesn’t fit in. Yet.
I see you avoiding difficult things because of a fear of having the wrong answers.
I see you writing notes to comfort someone who is feeling down and needs a friend.
I see you getting frustrated when things don’t go as well as you thought they would at first.
I see you when you come to school exhausted after a previous night’s music, sports or tutoring.

I see you because you matter to me.
I see you because it matters to be seen.
I see the potential in you even when you don’t.
And if I see it, so do others. Now you matter to all of us.
We see you.

Love your teacher(s).

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, General, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Mentorship, self reflection, Teacher Wellness, wellness

Believing in the power of a mentor to support new educators

It’s Progress Report time in many school boards this week. Once again, ETFO colleagues have typed and tweaked their thoughts about student stemming from conversations, observations, and products onto reports that capture “the learning” thus far. This annual first rite of assessment seems to come earlier and earlier each year, but is an important opportunity to map out the learning for then next 7 + months. Then there’s the meeting scheduling and organizing in addition to our already crammed days. So, how are you doing?

Have you had time to catch your breath since the start of the year?

I know the first weeks in the classroom seem to fly by for all of us. Regardless of years experience, it’s a hectic time of year.  This can be especially difficult for new teachers who find themselves working before/after school as well as during evenings and weekends at home to plan, prepare, and assess. All this, in addition to trying to have a personal life that may include time with friends and family or just to be still. To no one’s surprise, the hours that educators invest in their calling are often spent in equal proportions in and out of the classroom. So how are you doing?

What would you change about the first 11 weeks of your year?

Over the years, I have enjoyed numerous conversations with new teachers at Progress Report time. For many new educators, it is the first time that they have had the time to reflect on what has gone on since the first bell in September. Many have shared that they are tired and feel a little overwhelmed by the pace and volume of work. It is not uncommon for new teachers to go through a case of the November Blahs where their energy level has waned a bit from the beginning of the year.

http://weac.org/articles/new-teacher-handbook/phases/
http://weac.org/articles/new-teacher-handbook/phases/

The first question I usually ask after “So how are you doing?” is, “Are you connecting with your colleagues to divide and conquer or are you stuck inside the walls of your classroom?” In my first year as a teacher, I made the mistake of not asking for help because I thought I could solve my own problems as they presented themselves. I did not want to appear weak to my new colleagues or admin. Needless to say, come November of the first year, things were deteriorating. So I suffered. Which means my students suffered too.

Long nights, failed planning, missed opportunities, and frustration were my regular companions at work and at home. I did not feel like I was taking advantage of the natural mentors in the building that first year. However, by my second year, my eyes and mind were open to any and all who were willing to offer their wisdom, guidance, and resources. By taking myself out of my fortress and asking for help I was able to redirect/rescue/re-invigorate my instruction and outlook.

After that point, suffering was optional. I chose to seek out the support of others when things became murky or began to go off course. It was humbling to know that the people I turned to for help had my best interests at heart. Knowing that I did not have to have it all together every moment of the day was like removing a giant gorilla from my back that was constantly whispering, “You don’t need any help. You can do this on your own. Don’t let anyone think your weak.”

Having a peer mentor to turn to has become a cornerstone of my personal development. In turn, I try to support my colleagues when they need someone in their corner. Perhaps when this time rolls around each year the first question I ask teachers is, “So how are you doing?”