Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, self reflection, Wellness, wellness

THANK YOU!

It has been a long, arduous journey from September to the end of June and we are just weeks away from closing the chapter on another academic year. I am going to relive the last ten months of a fictional elementary school teacher.

A group of twenty plus disconnected, diverse individuals arrived in your classroom with a variety of needs beyond their academic status. Through careful planning, creative thinking, endless commitment and tremendous flexibility you were able to to:

  • make each child feel welcomed and loved
  • create a learning community
  • develop the confidence and self-esteem of your students
  • help them move forward in all academic areas
  • taught them the power of being a team
  • provided off campus, intramural, choir, club and athletic opportunities for them
  • offered them a high five to celebrate and emotional support when needed
  • in some cases provided food to meet their basic needs
  • laughed and cried with them
  • believed in them enough to provide tough love
  • wrote reports, called parents, attended meetings
  • organized assemblies and spirit days
  • created Individual Educational Programs
  • purchased necessary materials for your class and students
  • spent endless hours beyond your school day
  • gave up personal and family time for your students
  • helped develop future global citizens
  • attended a variety of professional learning opportunities to help in your journey toward best practice
  • you have sacrificed personal health for your class and school
  • please continue this list with anything I have missed

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! On behalf of students and parents everywhere, you continue to be a part of one of the most rewarding and important roles there is. You are a teacher!

I would also like to take this time to thank ETFO for the opportunity they have given me to be a part of the Heart & Art blog for the last 5 years. In that time I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn from many talented people. I have had comments shared with me that reminded me how proud I am to be a part of this profession. Finally, I have become a better teacher as my blogging has helped me reflect on the day-to-day work in my classroom. I am making this my last blog and challenge the many talented and inspiring teachers in ETFO to join in and share the expertise that lies within you and your teaching. THANK YOU!

Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Building Inclusion, Equity, Making a Difference Through Education, Professional Learning and Growth

Partnerships

This past week allowed me an amazing opportunity to work with a very committed and compassionate group of Early Childhood Educators. They are part of ETFO and as such are able to partake in a variety of services that are offered including workshops. The topic of this session was on poverty (Why Poverty? is the official name for the provincial workshop). So on a Monday evening in the month of June, twenty ECE staff showed up after a full day of work to talk and discuss the topic of poverty.

At first I was quite nervous, as I had never facilitated a workshop for anyone but teachers. Over the two hours that we worked together the titles faded away and we just became a group of like-minded people who were seeking ways to help level the playing field for the children in our care.

Then it happened, that aha moment where the idea of partners and partnerships became very real for me. So on my drive home from Hamilton I began to ask myself where else could I find partnerships? Who could also partner with me to enhance the educational experience of my students? The answer was astonishingly simple. I need to look no further then the staff room in my school. I just needed to look with a different lens in order to see the amazing wealth of talent that exists within each school (Child and Youth Workers, Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, volunteers).

Yes, right before my eyes existed a wealth of ideas, passions, skill sets and people who chose a career that focussed on helping young people be successful. The task is to work on bringing them all together, to create an environment that values each person, their profession and not their title. This approach is alive and well in our Kindergarten programs. How do we transfer that to our entire school? How do we bring support staff and teachers together in workshops to learn side-by-side?

I highly encourage the readers to please share their ideas or current practices on how to best create, maintain and foster growth in these types of partnerships. In closing, I would like to thank the Early Childhood Educators from Hamilton who helped me experience the power of a partnership.

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Standardized testing, wellness

Speaking of immovable objects

Here’s an open ended question for your classroom or next staff meeting.

Q: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

I love asking questions like this. They tend to force people to engage a different set of neurons to come up with the answer(s). Usually, the room gets quiet at first, but then what follows can be quite rich and edifying.

Did images of the universe collapsing upon itself come to mind? Were Neutrinos, light energy, and dark matter dancing destructively in your mind? Nice, but this is not a Science blog. I predict nothing happens. This seems to be the most simple answer I can conjure. Especially, when neither entity can be stopped or moved. Let the exchange of ideas begin. This is what I strive to achieve in my classroom.

Lately, something has interrupted our flow. Again.

Fill in the blank.

It’s the most __________________ time of the year.

a) Wonderful (b) Hectic (c) Incredible (d) Stressful (e) All of the above

Here’s a snapshot from last week in my own incredibly hectic and quasi-stressed out classroom.
Tuesday: Students come to school under a cloud of distraction and worry over the provincial government’s mandatory standardized test EQAO. So I prescribed a Math test to get their minds off of the days ahead.

Wednesday to Friday: EQAO testing delivered over 3 days in 6 x 100 minute periods. Followed by a decision to provide 100 minutes of movement time each of those afternoons. After sitting at their desks writing assessments, which are as long as some high school tests, my grade 6 students earned the right to move around. So to the gym and outdoors we fled. Unless Participaction and Ophea are lying to us, an active body leads to a healthy mind and the two are inextricably connected because they add up to happy learners.

EQAO17

Movers and groovers

If we are truly differentiating education to support all learners in Ontario, then why is the standardized assessment basically a read and respond test? How are the needs of all learners honoured here? When will kinesthetic, musical, visual/spatial, and inter-personal learners get their rightful moments to shine? And then there are the students who suffer from anxiety regardless of their incredible skills.

Anxiety is one thing parents and schools do not need to teach students.

Q: Why do so many students come to school worried about this test?
A: They’ve learnt it at home, and then they’re learning it in school.

This revelation comes from an informal poll taken over 8 years of teaching students in grade 6, many, who feel their families put pressure on them over EQAO, and also that the school intentionally or inadvertently perpetuates in the classroom in Grades 3 and 6 does the same.

Despite repeated assurances that EQAO is a meaningless test, with regards to their report cards and chances of getting into university, students and their families are still laying a lot of emotional eggs into this basket. For whose benefit, then, do tests like these really serve? In my neighbourhood it appears to be increasingly financial as homes in “high achieving” schools like Markham and Unionville are in constant demand on the real estate market.  No pressure. 

Think of the money

Are parents sub-consciously stressing children over EQAO scores to influence their property values? Say it isn’t so. Each year on meet the parent night in September, the test is front and centre on the agenda of many in attendance. With some time and clear information, many of their concerns are acknowledged and addressed. However, 8 months into another year, there are still remnants of confusion in the general public. Recent correlations between house prices and test scores are adding fuel to this fire?

So how can you help students overcome test anxiety? Last year I shared some of my strategies. Below you’ll find some others to choose from and build on;

a) Give them lots of tests and worksheets to build up students’ test-taking immune systems? This is a classic technique from the Drill and Kill Society of Educators. This would not be my personal strategy to share, but it is still widely in use. It is easily rationalized with, “Life is a test” and “Everything is a test.” To which I reply, “Life’s tests are, at least, meaningful.”
b) Develop strategies for answering questions? This involves a plan. I always suggest reading the questions over 2 or 3 times while highlighting the key points, skipping questions to revisit afterwards helps students to get past feeling stuck, double checking calculations helps make sure all steps were followed along the way, and re-reading answers afterwards for evidence of understanding. These techniques help students to a point, but are not test taking cure-alls.
c) You could also build higher order-thinking skills that apply understanding, knowledge, application, and evaluation into every response?
d) Don’t forget to look after your body. Drink water, have a snack, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and repeat motivational axiom of your choice. You got this.

Our corner

What did we do to prepare? Nothing. No sheet of paper was harmed in preparation for EQAO in my class. I posted some links to the EQAO homepage via our class web site at the beginning of the year after a parent requested them. Other than that, it’s been a beautiful year of asking engaging questions, interleaving concepts*, and opportunities to develop/use critical thinking in every aspect of the learning lives.

Let me know what strategies you use in the classroom to combat standardized test fatigue. Please share in the comments section and keep the conversation going. Thank you.

* More on Interleaving via http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2015/02/01/building-interleaving-and-spaced-practice-into-our-pedagogy/

Mike Beetham Challenging Topics, General, Making a Difference Through Education, solidarity, wellness

Building Better Schools Forum

What does a healthy classroom look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like when you enter through the classroom door? I recently had the opportunity to be a part of our local ETFO’s Building Better Schools Forum in Kitchener. It is an initiative by our provincial office to engage parents, guardians and community members in helping shape the direction of elementary schools in our province (http://www.buildingbetterschools.ca/the_plan ).

I was part of a three-member panel that was made up of a social worker professor from the University of Waterloo, a school council chair and mother of students in the WRDSB and myself, a teacher in the board. We had a variety of questions that were asked of us that allowed the audience (including our local released officers, director of education, superintendents, board trustees and general community) to hear from this cross section of people about their concerns, their wishes and the areas that they felt satisfied with in the public education system.

The number one item that came across from the panel was the concern about mental health and how it permeates every area of our education system from students to teachers to parents. What was once overlooked, swept under the carpet or just ignored now is coming to light as a result of the courage of many people who are helping reshape our thinking.

The end result of needs not being met when it comes to mental health in the classroom is usually maladaptive behaviour that can range from withdrawal to violence to attempting suicide. What was clear in the conversation is that there is not enough supports available in our communities and schools to support the increasing demand.

As teachers, we are at the frontline to this growing epidemic and need to understand that our wellness will dictate the wellness of our classroom. Don’t tolerate violence, don’t just look at the behaviour component and don’t stop lobbying for change by our government. We must give ourselves permission to take care of ourselves, we must build balance into our lives throughout the school year and not just on holidays and finally we must have our voices heard in helping get the changes needed in our education system.

 

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, Constant Learning, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, Occasional Teaching, self reflection, The Arts

Jack of All Trades, Master of None

I am for sure aging myself here, but for those of you who may not be familiar with this figure of speech it is used to describe a person who is good at many skills but a master of none. That is the best way to describe who I am as a teacher and how I have evolved over my career of  learning to be a better teacher.

Far too often we think that in order to use a strategy or tool in our classroom we have to be an expert at it. We don’t! As a teacher I have to be familiar with the content, the methodology and/or the necessary steps but I do not have to be a master of it. I am going to talk specifically to my personal Achilles tendon of teaching, the ARTS. I am in no way a musician, yet I can share my passion for music, lyrics and the powerful messages found in music. I can learn and teach to the curriculum expectations of my grade. I can partake in professional development opportunities to expand my skill set and knowledge. Even after all that, I will still not be an expert as compared to a music specialist.

My greatest accomplishment in the arts has been my work on understanding drama as a teaching tool, learning dramatic content and implementing it into my program. I have never been on stage (other than as an elementary student at Christmas time). I have never been a part of any formal dramatic theme, other than helping clean up after a school event and yet drama is one of the most successful components of my program these days. Each year my team and I take a group of highly volatile behaviour students and put on a formal dramatic presentation that we travel with to various schools within my board to share. We are currently in mid production of this year’s play.

Like in almost anything I was not comfortable with as a teacher, the students’ skill set, passion and innate ability to learn took over and I was just left to facilitate their growth. The second message is that when you share your expertise with your colleagues (collaborative planning) the saying that no one person knows more than all of us holds true. I am writing this for all teachers to understand that is it okay to take risks, it is okay to make mistakes in your classroom and learn from those mistakes and it is certainly okay to be a jack of all trades and master of none.

TED Ed
Will Gourley General, Making a Difference Through Education, Resources, Use of Technology

TED Ed in the Classroom

I’d like to share, what is probably, my favourite on-line and in-class instructional tool – TED Ed. And since 2013, it has been front and centre in my classroom. TED Ed you wonder – it’s like TED Talks right? Kind of yes and not exactly. Although I use both at my school, there are some differences.*TEDEdClubLogo1920WhiteBG (1)

 

It all started in 1984

Last year, I shared TED Ed with alot of educators. So to break the ice, I begin by asking them to guess what TED stands for? Most people respond with Technology, Education or Engineering, and Design. Those happened to be my guesses too, but the ‘E’ in TED, stands for Entertainment. Since those first talks in 1984, tens of thousands of speakers(students included) have stood on the dot and shared their ideas worth spreading which are both entertaining and educational.

The Ed or education component is a relatively recent addition, but it is quickly becoming a phenomenon that is uniting educators around the world.

TED Ed Clubs

Out of the incredible talks and desire to connect educators around the world with one another, the TED Ed Club and TED Ed Lesson platforms were developed. Now teachers have an opportunity to curate, create and share lessons with a global cohort of educators and learners. What’s incredible is that students can access and contribute to the lessons too.

So far this school year, I have shared lessons with high school students in Poland, connected with TED Ed Club leaders and students in Zambia, and worked welcoming new club leaders from Syria, India, and here in Canada. From these experiences we support one another, while encouraging students and educators to discover their passions, find their voices, and develop important presentation literacy skills.

Through TED Ed Clubs in my school, students cultivate ideas, learn to organize and express them and then present their talks at number of opportunities throughout the school year. Some talks are even shared, with permission, on the TED Ed YouTube Channel.

TED Ed Lessons

Whether it is for mind’s on activities introducing new subjects, or I have created and shared over 50 lessons using their free lesson editor. It starts with an idea, and then another one, and suddenly there are ideas spilling all over the desks, into the hallways, and out the doors of the school. Simple right? Did I mention it was free?

With a certain lens. I’ve discovered the magic occurs whenever I am able to find out what interests students as I plan my instruction. Armed with that knowledge, I can then create or bookmark lessons to spark curiosity, broaden understandings, and encourage digging deeper.

In fact, one of my favourite parts of creating a TED Ed lesson is filling the Dig Deeper section with resources and additional lessons, images, and points of view. I even post music videos as a soundtrack for some. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from students and parents. I hope you take the time to explore TED Ed and are able to use it in your classroom. If you create a lesson, please share it with me.

If you’d like to learn more about TED Ed, please message me in the comment section and I would be happy to share. In the meantime, click on some of the links. One of them is the current Prezi I share with educators for PD.

Thank you for reading.

* When I was starting out in French Immersion, the subtitles in TED Talks allowed me incredible access to fascinating digital content, while honouring the need to maintain a focus on French language learning. Now, I am trying to gather like minded educators to contribute lessons to be shared for French Language education. Please leave a message in the comment section if you are interested in joining me.

Will Gourley Building Inclusion, English Language Learners (ELLs), FSL, General, Making a Difference Through Education

Welcome Boozhoo ᐊᕆᐅᙵᐃᐹ Bienvenue

front-entrance-v2Welcome Boozhoo  ᐊᕆᐅᙵᐃᐹ  Bienvenue مرحبا بكم  בברכה  欢迎  환영  स्वागत

It’s been over a year since Canada opened its doors and hearts to thousands of Syrian refugees. They, along with countless others from nearly every country, chose to make Canada their new home.

Along with the joy, angst, and tumult of moving must also come stress and bit of culture shock from so many new routines, signs, systems, official languages, and day to day decisions. Each of these are indeed daunting to any new arrival at our border including my own. Here’s my story.

In this post I wanted to parallel some of the memories, experiences, and feelings. Since the PM’s name hasn’t changed, I wondered if there were other things that still mirror the experience of moving to Canada nearly 40 years later. As the expression goes, “plus ça change plus c’est la même chose”. However, this time I’m not the nervous student stepping across the threshold of the unknown and into a new classroom. I am the smiling face that greets them on the other side. Here are three tips that help out in my learning space.

Firstly, remember immigration to Canada is nothing new. This can be a great chance for students to learn more about one another in the context that almost all of us have an arrival story to be discovered. That’s how my ancestors got here in the early 1900s.

Our nation was able to flourish because of the generosity of our its First Nations People, it is our privilege to continue making it greater by making room in our hearts and neighbourhoods for newcomers. This is not different in our classrooms whether it is by providing time to learn about a new arrival’s country, culture, and customs or a little extra ELL support. In doing so, teachers can plant seeds of cultural literacy in the classroom and foster an inclusive environment around everything we have in common.

Secondly, not everyone is equipped or able to embrace each new member to the community, but as a family of learners we can always be respectful, polite, and supportive. Whether it is having students initiate a brief conversation, offer help navigating the halls at school, or an invitation to play at recess – a bit of kindness goes a long way to making someone feel welcome. With a little time and encouragement, educators can turn this into an incredible mentorship opportunity that develops and empowers students into school ambassadors.

Thirdly, have students share classroom norms and expectations, not you. Instead, why not build in time for whole-class inclusion activities and ice breakers when new students arrive? Whether it is a game of Octopus, Hoedown tag(Chain tag), or Electricity students get to interact with one another through movement instead.

Over the past 4 decades, I have come to love our move back to Canada in 1978. Reflecting on this is what got me thinking about my own quasi-immigrant (repatriation actually) experience that prompted this post in the first place.* The lessons and lenses gained from all of this now guide my instructional practice and ensure that there is room in our hearts, minds, and classroom to welcome and support new citizens to Canada.

*It’s been a while since I’ve hauled these memories out of the vault – my first through the lens of an educator rather than student.

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, self reflection, Wellness

Memories

 

I remember my first day of teaching as if it had happened yesterday and not 32 years ago. As my journey of teaching continues, there have been countless scenarios that have occurred that brought a smile to my face, made me cry, challenged me, taught me and humbled me. Those are the moments that inspire me each and every day I enter my classroom. About 13 years ago a very passionate and visionary principal I worked with started our year off by giving each teacher an empty box. She then went on to describe how it is up to use to fill that box with memories, moments in time that are like treasures not to be lost or forgotten. Ever since that time I have kept a memory box.

 

This box is filled with magical moments that I have been a part of in my teaching experiences with colleagues, students and/or their families. There are letters, cards, toys, photographs, trinkets, phone call summaries, thank you cards, trip mementoes, amazing accomplishments of individual students as well as class accomplishments. What goes into that box is anything that reminds me just how precious and important my efforts are and that no effort is wasted. I take the time to go and revisit my box in moments of self-doubt, challenging times or just when it seems that nothing is going right. After just a few moments of revisiting these wonderful experiences I can raise my head and once again forge on filled with confidence and positive energy. I look forward to the day (not too far in the future) when I can stop, reflect back on a career as I take the time to go through each item in my memory box, piece by piece, story by story.

I hope you take the time to stop and smell the roses in your everyday teaching and life. Make a pledge to start your memory box in 2017. Happy New Year!img_20170107_131253

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health

Tis The Season To Celebrate

As the holidays approach it is important to sit back, relax, reflect and rejuvenate as you take time to get that balance back in your life. In the mean time, I would like you to celebrate everything you have done to advance your students’ learning and social development by putting in endless hours of lesson preparation, all the small things that are not part of your role, hours of team practices, choir practices and performances, clubs, extra support at recess, calls home, visits, breakfast clubs and on and on and on.

 

Please take the time to watch the following collection of short videos as they remind us just how important teachers are in a student’s life. ENJOY!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN3iLeq1828

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaHJRLoCyWc

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tN1U0uu2e4

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el6Hu2XQB_k

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2MLDW6Uh-E

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Beetham Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship

Pay It Forward

As I reflect back on my teaching career I have come to understand how appreciative I am of the amazing teachers and administrators that have impacted and helped shape my life both as a teacher and a person. Everything I am as a teacher, everything I do as a teacher, everything I have is a result of the sharing that was done with me throughout my years in the classroom.

There are times when you do not know how to show your appreciation and saying thank you seems so inadequate. As a very wise principal (and now a good friend) once said to me, the best way you can show your appreciation is to make use of the advice given to you and pay it forward.

This post is going to be about paying it forward. I am going to share with you two of my most successful teaching units and two of my most cherished books that I use year in and year out. If you read this blog, I am going to then ask you to pay it forward by sharing in a response to this blog or via other social media options two of your most tried and tested teaching strategies, units or themes as well as two of your favourite books that you use in your classroom. Together we will pay it forward.

Books:

1994h4This book has been a part of my teaching for almost fifteen years. It is the book that starts my class off from Day 1 each September. The power of this book is in the multiple messages that can be drawn from the words and texts. The two main benefits I reap from this book are that everyone can read, reading is going to be fun and it kick starts my focus on drama for the year.

 

imgresThis book is part of who I am and my passion for the outdoors. It is the story of a 13 year-old boy who is lost in the wilderness and has to rely on himself to survive. This is a powerful book to hook children into the outdoors as the author creates a picture that transfers my students into the setting where they re-enact the main character. We culminate this book with our ‘Hatchet Day’ at a local outdoor education centre and then do a compare and contrast with the movie version ‘A Cry In The Wild’.

 

Poetry is a powerful form of writing and the success I have had with reluctant writers has been very inspiring to me. The power of this genre comes in the multi-faceted approach one can take with it. Poetic language does not have to follow grammatical rules, which allows reluctant writers to focus on meaning through word selection. I often use the outdoors as the theme behind our writing as we bring our experiences into the classroom and on to the paper. We culminate with a poetry recital where they invite guests to hear their writing.

 

Team building is a non-stop, five day a week, always on my mind approach that I take in my room. I de-emphasize competition and focus on common goals. ‘We’ is the pronoun that runs through the heart of my classroom. We enter into our year as individuals and from minute one we focus on coming together for a common good. The diversity and differences in our room becomes our strength as we celebrate and benefit from the shared expertise and passions in our classroom. This is accomplished through character education, books, songs, games and most of all face-to-face interactions such as eating lunch together.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and I now ask you to pay it forward.