Spring is a good time to reflect and pay attention to growth, change and transformation. After a long year of isolation and stillness, everyone is hopeful about the promise of movement and possibility. Planting seeds is a wonderful metaphor of the learning that we are doing together in our school communities.
Planting Seeds:
Jenny Davis is one of the parents at The Grove Community School who has supported the growth of the Rainbow Garden, by working in consultation with First Nations and Indigenous families and community members. In the fall, Jenny harvested seeds from some of the edible plants, including sunflowers, cornflowers, and marigolds. This Spring, families worked together to deliver a paper bag of soil, seeds and a pot to every student.
Jenny facilitated on-line planting with our classes, and shared what she is learning about important Indigenous protocols, such as the practice of gratitude and reciprocity. We were encouraged to sort and describe our seeds and learn their names before planting, to draw pictures on our popsicle sticks to welcome them, to “pay attention” and give them what they need to grow. During our Land Acknowledgment, I have been honouring our plant relatives, and inviting students to share what they notice about their seeds as they break open and rise up.
Me and White Supremacy:
This winter, as part of my ongoing commitment to the practice of anti-racism, I participated in a community Book Club with a small group of parents and staff. Together, we read “Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor” by Layla F. Saad. I highly recommend this resource to White educators. This is a powerful book that includes journal prompts at the end of every chapter to support deep reflection and action. Layla Saad first wrote the book as a 30 day Instagram challenge, with daily prompts to support readers who have White privilege to recognize and disrupt White supremacy in their lives. Our Book Club met on-line every month, and we discussed one week at a time.
Layla Saad offers a process for engaging in the work called “The Circle Way”, which was developed by Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea. The Circle Way includes guidelines and a structure for readers to follow, including rotating facilitators and a shared intention and responsibility to stay focused on the work. It was very helpful, and can easily be used to facilitate critical and courageous conversations in other contexts. I recently facilitated a discussion about the final chapters, and I invited everyone to think about their own growth, change and transformation, and how we might invite others into this work.
Root into darkness:
This work is not supposed to be easy. Layla Saad explains that feelings of devastation, anger, and confusion are important parts of the work. She writes, “Without those feelings, nothing changes, because there is no reason to heal what does not feel broken.” (page 199) As White educators who are committed to racial justice, we must recognize how we are complicit in a system that is causing harm to Indigenous, Black and racialized people, and allow the pain “to break your heart open” and work towards creating change.
Maya Angelou wrote: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” After discussing what holds us back from “doing better”, such as fear, loss of privilege, confusion, or insecurity, the Book Club members made commitments to take action and disrupt White supremacy in our different communities. Each member shared “I will….” statements, and we agreed to continue the Book Club next year, and support new families to join the discussion.
Me and My Commitments:
I want to share my own commitments to anti-racism and publish them in this blog, so I can be held accountable. I will also include concrete actions that I will take towards these goals.
*I will….continue with my own on-going learning and professional development.
(I recently started the ETFO MentorCoaching program, and I am learning about intersectional feminism, anti-oppression frameworks, and transforming power. I will continue to use the reflective journaling prompts in the book to challenge my own White silence and fragility.)
*I will….share my learning with others.
(As an ETFO workshop facilitator, I meet with members from all over the province and always position myself as a co-learner. I will always join committees at school and/or in my local, that are doing racial justice and equity work.)
*I will….use my privilege to disrupt White supremacy in my classroom and school community.
(I will meet with my principal to discuss Equity goals for next year, and share recommendations at our last Parent Council meeting, including an on-going process of discussion and reflection to determine how well we are meeting our collective goals.)
*I will….center and celebrate voices of Indigenous, Black and racialized voices in the classroom.
(I have more learning to do about anti-Asian racism, and integrating curriculum to support East/South Asian students. I will dig deeper into the new ETFO resources, and implement Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy. I will teach love and pride always.)
*I will…listen and learn when I am called out and called in. I will allow myself to make mistakes, especially as I break open and rise up!!
Thank you for reading this blog. Writing and learning in community continues to be a transformative practice for me. I am deeply grateful for all of the support and nourishment I have received to keep growing.
Looking Back to Move Forward
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on past practice lately. As part of that process, I’ve been revisiting old lesson plans, activities, report card comments – essentially, everything that goes into being an educator.
Part of this has been borne out of necessity. This is a year unlike any other I’ve experienced and I’ve regularly found myself needing to find new and forgotten ways to keep students engaged, which has led me to look for ideas from previous years.
The larger reason for this, though, is to confront the necessary but harsh truth that I have not always been the most responsive or informed teacher when it comes to equity and creating safe spaces in the classroom.
I have always done what I thought was best for my students. I have never intentionally done something that would cause them harm. But looking back like this, I can see places where my practices weren’t what they are today, and that’s an important thing to acknowledge so that I can remind myself both of how far I’ve come and how much learning I have to do.
For example, at the beginning of my career, I segregated Health classes for units on puberty/sexual health. I thought I was creating a safer space for my students, but in actual fact, this practice is harmful in many ways. I wasn’t educated enough on trans, non-binary, and intersex identities. I know better now.
Another example of past mistakes is my participation in and promotion of spirit days at school. At the beginning of my career, I didn’t understand how problematic most (if not all) spirit days are. I have pictures of me proudly participating in “crazy hair day”. I cringe at them now, but I keep those photos tucked away in a folder on my computer specifically to remind myself that I am not infallible and I am always learning.
I’m writing about this tonight not to dwell on past mistakes, not to overthink or express regret over my earlier ignorance. I’m writing about this to hopefully let you know that many of us – especially white educators – have made and will make missteps in our careers. We will do what we think is right and it will not be right at all.
When we make missteps, it’s important that we be able to reflect, recognize that we’ve made a mistake, acknowledge what the mistake was, and commit to doing better. If we never look back, if we never acknowledge that we have caused harm, then we won’t be able to do better in the future.
You may feel discomfort and embarrassment as you look back on your past practice. Don’t run from that discomfort. Sit with it, think about it, let yourself feel it. This discomfort is an important part of learning. Recognizing your past mistakes is the only way to truly move forward with your practice.
OAME Math Conference 2021: Equity Counts
I am very excited to write today’s post as I had the pleasure of once again attending the OAME math conference this year. The conference ran from Monday, May 17th and ends today Friday, May 2st. There were over 160 sessions to select from so it was hard to narrow it down to three per evening. I was offered a volunteer position with OAME to assist with moderating 3-4 sessions. This gave me access to the entire conference and as usual, this year’s conference did not disappoint. I would love to tell you about the exciting sessions I went to and some details about them. I also attached resources that were made publicly available and some ways I have already used my learning inside my grade seven math classroom.
Session Name: Supporting the new Elementary Math Curriculum: Educator Learning Modules
Presenters: Moses Velasco and Chantal Fournier
Summary of my learning: Moses and Chantal shared their presentation about ELMs. They shared a great resource as well! This presentation was geared towards more of a math coach audience which as I am not was not able to connect with much of their content. The ELMs were from 2017 and I know there were some questions about making new ones with the new math curriculum. Moses let the audience know that they will be coming out soon. The examples that we saw on the website were great! Feel free to explore their resource.
Resources: https://sites.google.com/view/operation-sense/home
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Session Name: Assessment that Moves
Presenter: Jordan Rappaport
Summary of my learning: Jordan was a gifted speaker and he had so many important things to share. Many of them I implemented in my class the very next day. Jordan spoke a lot about virtues in math:
- Being creative
- Being a thinker
- Curiosity
- Perseverance
- Willingness to take risks
- Ability to collaborate
Jordan shared that these virtues are important to people who hire mathematicians and essential in every math classroom. We also looked at a forward thinking rubric which had three boxes and a large arrow on top. He talked about using this so students can see where they are and where they should move towards. For the topic of collaboration, on the left column on the rubric, you would put terms like excluding, not being supportive, etc. and on the far right you would put the expected behaviours (opposite of the left side). You would then circle the place where the student was at. Jordan mentioned that building a rubric should be a collaborative process and he starts jamboards and shares them with his students. They generate ideas together when talking about a specific math virtue, what you should see and not see.
How I used this in the classroom this week: The day after hearing from Jordan, I posted the virtues on my slide and asked students to share what their best math virtue is. This allowed us to engage in conversations about why they take risks, why others may not, etc. This conversation was so meaningful and I loved hearing from my students.
Resources:
https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/
https://www.peterliljedahl.com/
http://fractiontalks.com/
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Session Name: Designing Classroom Explorations that Engage All Students
Presenter: Gail Burrill
Summary of my learning: During this session, Gail spoke about many exciting topics. Gail shared that in her math classroom, she has her students complete various math tasks such as: book reports, research reports (math in art, etc.), write stories from graphs and many more. This connects math to many other subjects and is meaningful for students. Some other key takeaways included:
- Data driven tasks are important in the classroom
- Connecting math to student’s lives
- Gail gave an excellent example where students had to find the problem with Fred VanVleet from the Raptors as his shooting percentage was in a rut. They had to solve if there was a rut or not and look at percentages with his shooting statistics.
- Following instructions doesn’t mean your students have learned anything
- Turning procedures into problems because then students will want to solve them and remember them
- Vertical non-permanent surfaces
- Visibly random groups
- Comments before grades; feedback should be for thinking
Gail also mentioned a great resource where you can visit https://censusatschool.ca/ and have students answer: What do you notice? What do you wonder? These real life statistics engage her students for the first fifteen students of her class and she looks at real life scenarios. Gail also left us with some things to think about:
- How much time do your students spend..
- in silence?
- talking to peers?
- listening?
- presenting?
Resources: https://censusatschool.ca/
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Session Name: Building Math Residue with Lessons That Stick
Presenter: Graham Fletcher
Summary of my learning: Graham shared many ideas that help students engage in explorations and lessons that really make students wonder, what is the answer to that question? I loved this idea from Graham:
- Estimation Waterfall: asking students to wait until they hit enter so that they are not just copying the student who always gets it “right”
Of course, the focus of the session was what makes a good task? Here were Graham’s steps:
- Simple: Is it accessible? Avoid language due to any language barriers
- Unexpected: Does it fire up the guessing machine? Do students actually want to know the answer?
- Concrete: Do your students have any prior knowledge to connect to?
- Credible: What validates the math?
- Emotional: Does it create an ah-ha moment?
- Stories: How will the math story be told?
Graham also mentioned the following ideas which are important to know and to understand:
- Anyone can be good at math
- Listening to a student’s thinking is more important than the answer
- Graham showed a video of him working with a student and he was so patient, waiting to hear the student get the answer and listening to their process
- Right answers should only matter at the end of a unit (assessment/test). The journey along the way is for making mistakes and for building understanding
- A good math question makes you excited for the answer
- Teachers shouldn’t jump on their students when they see a wrong answer, they should question them and wait for them to have that ah-ha moment
How I used this in the classroom this week: The day after hearing from Graham, I asked my students join a jamboard and I posed the above statements to them. I had them disagree or agree and if they wanted, they could share their reasoning on the mic. Students had such incredible things to say about all of the statements and we even got one anxious student to admit that making mistakes along the way is okay! A huge breakthrough for this student.
Resources: https://gfletchy.com/Be sure to check out the tab “3-Act tasks” for some engaging lessons that stick!
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Session Name: Math, Social Justice and Actions
Presenter: Robert Berry
Summary of my learning: Robert Berry brought up incredible conversations that need to be had in our math classrooms. Robert shared a provocation for us: Who are our essential workers? What do you notice, wonder and how does it impact your community? Robert shared a lot of insight on how to create your own social justice math lesson:
- Learn about relevant social injustices
- Identify the math
- Establish your goals
- Determine how you will assess your goals
- Create a social justice question for the lesson
- Make student resources
- Plan for reflection/action
There should be conversations about connecting math with students cultural and community histories. This was a great session and I was so engaged in his presentation, I did not take many notes!
Resources: https://padlet.com/rqb3e/sjmathresources Attached are incredible social justice mathematics resources
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Session Name: Some of my Favourite Problems
Presenter: Mike Eden
Summary of my learning: Mike is from the University of Waterloo and he shared many engaging math problems from various contests and from challenging math lessons. He asked people in the chat to share their answers and we looked at many ways to solve these challenging problems. I am sure you are all familiar with “Problem of the Week” from the University of Waterloo, well Mike took us further with these incredible problems!
Resources: http://: https://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/ https://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/past_contests.html
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Session Name: Slow Reveal Graphs as Social Justice Provocations
Presenters: Kyle Pindar and Jennifer Fannin
Summary of my learning: This was such an engaging session that used the website https://trends.google.com/trends/ to design slow reveal graphs. The focus of the lessons are asking the questions these key questions: What? So what? Now what? Also, what do you notice? What do you wonder? Slow reveal graphs are innocently framed as hard hitting social justice questions. Kyle explained how to make these slow reveal provocations using these steps:
- https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=CA Make sure you are using the Canadian trends (setting on top right should say “Canada”
- Download the image (graph) you want to use
- Open up a blank google sheet
- Upload the download and re-size the columns
- Delete the top two lines
- Create slide show
Then, show your students these graphs, slowly revealing new features on the graph such as: the actual data, x axis information, y axis information and then eventually, the title (trend). Kyle and Jennifer discussed generating expected students responses so that you can be prepared to have these discussions as a class. They had great examples, specifically a graph showing the googling of “BLM” and you could see the spike on the day that George Floyd was murdered. Both presenters discussed how you would have that conversation with the class of what made these search results spike up in May of 2020? These are such great ways to have social justice discussions in class!
Resources: https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=CA https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/start
Overall, I am so grateful for the opportunity that was this year’s OAME Math Conference. I wish I had been able to attend/moderate more sessions but as an OAME volunteer, I have the ability to listen to recorded sessions I could not attend. I will listen to some over the next few weeks and post anything else I gather. I hope this post provides a snapshot of such incredible math presentations and all of their wisdom that they wished to pass on to math educators! I know it is late in the year to take in this much incredible math information, but this post will be here to refresh your memory after a well-rested and well-deserved summer vacation!
If you wish to learn more about OAME or how to attend the conference next year, visit their website: https://oame.on.ca/main/index.php
The Importance of Trust
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to uncertainty and change in education. Just when I think I have a handle on the way things are going to go for the week there is a Government announcement that changes the plan. I am “pivoting” so much I have motion sickness. When decisions that affect a work environment seem to be constantly changing, trust becomes more important than ever. In a recent video “How Leaders Build Trust,” author and leadership thought leader Simon Sinek, describes trust: “Trust is a feeling. It is earned and evolves based on a series of actions that prove that you are worthy of trust. It creates a sense of belonging. When you don’t feel trust or without a circle of safety, we inherently concern ourselves with our own survival and become cynical, selfish and paranoid. You become convinced that everything is trying to hurt you. We do things to protect ourselves.” In her book “Braving the Wilderness”, author Berne Brown says that “in the absence of communication we make up stories and the majority of what we tell ourselves isn’t true. In fact, our brain goes into self-protection mode and those stories that we make up are often exaggerate our worst fears and insecurities.” It is hard to learn or work when you are in self protection mode.
In learning more about culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy, I have noticed that a common keystone element in what I’ve been reading is that trust is crucial to creating a truly inclusive classroom. In the famous YouTube video “Every Kid Needs a Champion” educator and speaker Rita Pierson stated, “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” I would go one step further to say that even more so, kids aren’t likely to learn from people they don’t trust.
So how do we create an environment of trust in which students can be their absolute best? More specifically how do we do this at a time when we are teaching students over Google Meet, through a PPE shield and mask or even through video that students watch asynchronously? I think that we do it the same way we would in a pre-COVID classroom. One small interaction at a time. I recently experienced an a-ha moment while engaging in a webinar called “The Neuroscience of Trust” presented by Dr. Rumeet Billan. According to Dr. Billan; “Trust is something that has to be given to you and needs to be earned.” Trust is something that comes from repeated behaviours that demonstrate that we are worthy of trust. When we repeatedly demonstrate that we listen actively, show authentic care and empathy, we generate trust. When we provide opportunities that deliberately and intentionally extend trust, such as giving students voice and choice in their learning, we generate trust. When we provide actionable and meaningful feedback to students and celebrate their learning goals with them, we generate trust. When we provide learning opportunities for students to make mistakes, when we celebrate the learning from mistakes and provide an opportunity to try again, we generate trust. When we genuinely demonstrate transparency with students such as admitting to not knowing all of the answers about a concept or sharing times where we have failed and persevered, we generate trust.
Creating an environment of trust with our students and with our colleagues is something that we have to work on daily. It is currency that we build up with one another to draw on in a time of need. I think of creating an environment of trust like learning how to play a musical instrument. You cannot learn to play an instrument by practicing for seven hours straight. You need to practice daily in order to become truly proficient. When you don’t practice, you get rusty. When things in my classroom feel as if they are particularly stressful or students are exhibiting behaviours that are uncharacteristic, I usually come to the realization that it is because trust has eroded between us. It might be that I haven’t been recognizing their accomplishments as readily. It might be that I haven’t been giving them challenging opportunities to learn that extends trust to them to persevere and practice resilience. It may be that I haven’t followed through on something that I said was going to happen. When I come to those realizations I have to go back to the student and repair that trust. Ignoring the event will only widen the gap. If we want kids to be innovative, creative and take risks a psychologically safe space with mutual trust is essential. It doesn’t happen overnight but by making it a priority, amazing learning will happen.
Teaching dance and health online, yikes!
Happy week after spring break everyone!
Is anyone else feeling super impressed with their students and their ability to get right back into things after a week-long break? I have never been able to say that before so I thought I may as well express these feelings of joy while I can.
As we get closer to the end of our school year, I am quickly compiling numerous tables with expectations, activities and number of periods needed for each subject. Since I have such an engaged group, I want to cover as much as I can so they are ready for their grade eight year. I think I’ve had about ten nightmares related to teaching dance and health since I started my online journey in September. I knew I wanted to start them sooner rather than later so we had time for more relaxed subjects in June.
So, Tuesday our first day back this week, we started dance and I was overwhelmed with the amount of participation. I wanted to keep things manageable so I started with this specific expectation:
- Exploring cultural forms, specifically, looking at the evolution of dance over time.
We watched an eight minute long YouTube video called “The Evolution of Dance”. Using what students saw in that video as well as researching on their own, students posted sticky notes on our jamboard link, sharing anywhere from 50-60 different styles of dance. We started in the 1950s and went all the way to present day. One student went so far as to share a comment about how nowadays, dances become popular overnight due to trends set by “celebrities” on tiktok. This app allows a worldwide stage for new and viral dances. This was such a great connection and was something we were going to address the following class. I was very nervous to teach dance, but I am glad I started with some discussions and video sharing. I have never taught this topic and was unsure of how to get a group of 33 grade seven students to dance, but I was able to see such engaging conversations take off around the evolution of dance. An engaging lesson for any who are skeptical about this hard to each subject (especially in a virtual space).
I am also gearing up to teach the health curriculum for the first time in my career. We were asked to send a letter home to parents where it outlines the expectations we will be covering. We also made parents aware of the exemption form that they would be required to fill out if they are requesting an exemption (as per board policy). These are the topics that I will be teaching this year to the grade seven students:
- Describing the dangers associated with computers/social media and identify protective responses
- Demonstrate an understanding of the link between mental health problems and substance use
- Explaining the importance of having a shared conversation with a partner about delaying sexual activity until they are older
- Understanding consent and the importance of communication
- Identifying sexually transmitted, blood-borne infections and describe their symptoms
- Identifying ways of preventing infections and unplanned pregnancy
- Mental Health Literacy
- Substance use, addition and related behaviours
The following resources will be used to assist in the delivery of this unit:
- Ontario Curriculum sample questions
- OPHEA guidelines
We will also be able to attend a lunch and learn for more information as well as hear more about these topics at our staff meeting. For a teacher who has never taught health, never talked about these topics in an online setting and never met their students, it can be quite an intimidating subject. However, I know these topics are very important to talk about and my students are well versed in the importance of learning sensitive things, especially in today’s society. I am hoping I will be able to cover these to the best of my abilities and I look forward to reading the OPHEA resources before doing so.
If any teachers have tips/tricks for dance and health, I am all ears! For now, these are my go to plans for the two subjects. As for the other subjects I still need to cover, even though they have their challenges, are pieces of cake compared to the unfamiliar dance and health!
Enjoy your weekends everyone and hang in there, we almost made it through this wild and unique year!
Wrong again
Privilege, position, and power are placed in the hands of all educators. Being a teacher, regardless of instructional medium is more demanding than ever before. While our world in and out of the classroom looks like nothing we have ever seen before, some things haven’t changed – such as the importance of social justice in education. What we teach must always be inclusive of who we are teaching, the community, and the world around us in our instruction.
This is why anti-racist education is so important. We need to continue this work beyond the month of February because systemic racism and bias are hard at work all year long. That means there’s always something more to learn. There’s also a chance that we could get things wrong and that can get in the way sometimes.
As learners, humans can gain much from making mistakes. There’s even an expression for it: “To err is human.” I must be really human because I have learned so much from my mistakes already. From what I am seeing in the news and on social media, our humanity has never been more human based on the loads of mistakes we’re making. Depending on how you see it, this could be good or bad? Isn’t that the essence of what we do on a daily basis? Isn’t education where we model process and progress over perfection?
Confidence does not come without failure
I am confident that there is a line about being ‘lead-learners’ in the fine print of our infinite-paged-job description. That’s because teaching naturally comes with all of the ‘lessons’ ever imagined whether you are leading or learning. The trick becomes knowing how to find them, and then accepting that none of us will ever know everything. Perhaps this peace of mind is why I have grown more comfortable with discomfort of not knowing everything, and even with being wrong at times. I have also discovered that there are many like minded educators just like me – most of us in fact.
In On becoming an anti-racist educator I wrestled with my past along the path, but it also meant confronting the existence of racism in my personal life and my part in it. A younger iteration of myself might have struggled with this, but by examining my past and my responsibility as a bystander has helped move me forward. Throughout my life I have grown accustomed to getting things wrong, but always believed that I was standing on the right side when it came to issues of equity and anti-racism. What I realized, after reflection, mentorship, and deeper learning was how my belief in those lies was solely meant to ease my burden of responsibility for my complicity and privilege.
Black History Month is 10 months away
Cue the current teaching situation where our roles have now expanded to include daily counselling on issues of mental health, experts at PPE, and classroom sanitizers extraordinaire. We have also become distance learning specialists, multi-modal lesson trailblazers, fearless conversationalists about issues of race and racism, and critical thinkers on how to overcome and dismantle systemic racism and bias. All because we have assumed a lead learners mindset fuelled by getting things wrong and working on it along the way to success.
So it doesn’t have to be different in the classroom then. For me it has meant trying to include culturally relevant and responsive content into each day. I am choosing to avoid the prescribed resources from text book companies that have grown largely culturally irrelevant and unresponsive. Now is the time to amplify new voices in our classrooms and staff meetings too. Regardless of the platform being used to deliver learning, the opportunities and responsibilities remain in every lesson and moment we engage our learners about issues of racism and how to fight against them. The work must continue long past Black History Month to undo 400 years of injustice in for the future generations.
Whether it is in my lessons or by omission, my mistakes are at the core of learning how to get things right. In all of this I find my humanity too with more mistakes to come. To misquote a Disney song and without their lawyers hurting me, “no one fails like Will G”. Embracing my messtakes, excepting korrection, and leaning form them are kee ingredients to a butter me in the classruin. Won day aisle get it write.
New Spec Ed AQ- Teaching Students with Intellectual Needs (DD)
I just signed up for a brand new AQ that ETFO AQ is offering this spring. It is called Teaching Students with Intellectual Needs (Developmental Disabilities). This AQ was created to support teacher’s professional growth in meeting the needs of their students with Developmental Disabilities.
As a teacher of students with Developmental Disabilities (DD), I have often been approached by colleagues throughout the province asking for help and suggestions on how to meet the needs of their students in inclusive settings. The questions have been plentiful and frequent which tells me that there is a great need for an AQ like this one. Students with DDs are amazing, vibrant, and fantastic members of our classrooms. They bring a unique perspective on the world. They also need a very specialized and individualized program in order to be successful at school. This AQ will give teachers some foundational information to begin to understand the unique needs of students with these exceptionalities.
In preparing for this blog, I was fortunate enough to speak with one of the writers of this new ETFO AQ, Lindsay Freedman. She has been a teacher of students with Special Needs in a variety of settings for many years in the Peel District School Board and is currently a Lead Instructor for ETFO AQ.
Lindsay shared with me that it is important for teachers to take a course that focuses on students with Intellectual Needs for a couple of reasons:
a) Throughout your career, you are going to have a student in your class with an Intellectual Disability. It is not a matter of if; it is a matter of when. This AQ will allow you to be proactive, prepare to meet the needs of these students and learn about the policies and history that will impact your programming decisions.
b) This AQ is important as it will help teachers with inclusion practices. Most school boards in Ontario have a full inclusion policy for students with special needs. This AQ will begin to give teachers the tools to be able to effectively support these students in the classroom and provide an environment that will benefit all learners.
c) If you are an educator that holds Special Education qualifications, this AQ will further expand your knowledge specifically with the many exceptionalities that fall under the Developmental Disability classification. As Lindsay shared, many educators are choosing to specialize more deeply in a specific area such as Behavioural Needs or Communication Needs (LD or ASD). By offering this course, ETFO AQ has really answered educators’ need to go beyond general Special Education courses by continuing to expand the choices available.
d) This course will support you in writing IEPs and transition plans and many of the other mandatory requirements for educators in Ontario. If you have never written either of these documents before, this course will go through step by step how to effectively prepare documentation with a focus on equity and well-being. Personally, I have written IEPs for years and I am really looking forward to seeing if there are any parts that I can refine and improve on.
Knowing that a part of the course focuses on history, I also asked Lindsay, why it is important for teachers to know the history of people with Intellectual Disabilities in Canada?
Lindsay shared with me that to really understand where we are in education, teachers need to realize that there was a shift from institutionalization to inclusion that happened with Bill 82 in 1980. Knowing how people were treated, the absence of services and lack of choice that parents had before this change, provides clarity and empathy. Understanding the history really brings focus to why we have inclusion in Ontario schools. It also highlights how important program and placement choice are for families. During this AQ educators will learn about some of the challenges, awful names and horrible conditions that people with Intellectual Disabilities had to endure and why it’s important for parents to have the right to make choices about their child’s education.
The history of people with Developmental Disabilities is closely connected to many of the policies that were implemented throughout the last 40 years. Educators must understand many of these policies so that they are able to support students correctly. The policies impacting students with Developmental Disabilities will be studied in this new AQ.
Finally, I asked Lindsay, should a new teacher take this course?
She stated that the course will benefit all educators, regardless of teaching experience. It is presented in a very sequenced and practical format so that you are continuously building your skills. For example, when writing an IEP, educators will have access to examples and will be supported to write each section until they have completed an IEP. By the end of the course, teachers should feel confident in the skills they have developed. Lindsay shared that all ETFO AQs are written by teachers for teachers and are easily accessible for teachers at any of their stage of their career.
ETFO AQ is one of the two course providers for this AQ. This AQ is being offered during ETFO AQ’s spring sessions. Registration for the Spring session closes March 30th at 5pm and the course will run from April 6th to June 18th.
You can register here: https://etfo-aq.ca/courses/teaching-students-with-intellectual-needs-developmental-disabilities/
Anti-Racism and the Fight for Black Lives
I recently joined educators from across the province to participate in ETFO’s powerful four-part webinar series called, “Anti-Racism and the Fight for Black Lives”. It was an amazing professional learning opportunity, and it should be mandatory for all ETFO staff and members.
The program involves watching a short video clip each week, and engaging in courageous and critical conversations about anti-Black racism with other educators. ETFO released the video, “Anti-Racism and the Fight for Black Lives” during the 2020 Annual Meeting, as part of the ETFO’s Anti-Black Racism Strategy. This video is available to all members on www.etfo.ca, along with guiding questions to explore on your own or with your colleagues.
In the video, we hear the voices of Sandy Hudson, who is a political activist, writer and the founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, and Phillip Dwight Morgan, who is a journalist, poet and researcher. The interview is moderated by Alejandra Bravo, who has a history of working for progressive social change with grassroots, immigrant and labour groups.
What does it mean to fight for Black lives?
Throughout the interview, Sandy Hudson and Phillip Dwight Morgan share knowledge and insights about how educators might use this moment of “awakening” to fight for Black lives and demand systemic change. One of the issues that we discussed each week was the impact of police in schools and in communities, and the call to action to defund or abolish the police, and re-imagine different ways to respond and care for each other.
Each session was organized and facilitated by ETFO staff Alice Te and Matthew Sinclair, and included opportunities to break out into smaller groups to share ideas and reflect on the guiding questions. The active and deep engagement of the participants was inspiring. Educators from Kindergarten-Grade 8 leaned in to listen, learn, ask questions and share resources.
What is your positionality?
In our first session, the facilitators shared a definition of anti-oppression work as the “active and consistent process of change to eliminate individual and systemic oppression”. Alice Te and Matthew Sinclair acknowledged that we are all in different places on our learning journey towards equity and racial justice, and that being an ally sometimes means standing UP, standing BEHIND, or standing WITH others, depending on your positionality.
Throughout the program, we were encouraged to move from individual to collective action, and think critically about how we can use our privilege as educators to work towards systemic change. As an educator who is committed to learning and unlearning what anti-oppression looks like in schools, I am always grateful for the opportunity to learn from and with other educators about how to disrupt institutional racism.
How can we transform Canadian institutions?
In order to change or transform systems of education, we must first recognize that schools are not safe or equitable spaces for all students, families, staff and community members. Schools continue to reinforce White privilege, and create barriers for Black, Indigenous and other racialized students. Please read the following ETFO VOICE articles about the impact of institutionalized racism in schools:
Anti-Black Racism in Education and Black Students Navigating the Pandemic by Stephanie Fearon
Sisters in the Struggles: Racialized Women and Microaggressions in the Workplace by Angelique Cancino-Thompson
Can you spare some change?
In Part #1, Sandy Hudson invites us to think about the difference between fighting FOR Black lives and fighting AGAINST anti-Black racism. She says, “It is not enough to be a good person. You have to be ready to accept a change in your living conditions, so that everyone else’s living conditions, in particular Black people’s living conditions can change.” Alejandra Bravo agrees: “Solidarity is only real if it costs you something.”
Educators have a lot of political and economic privilege, which can be used to fight against anti-Black racism. As we consider how we might change or transform our institutions, we need to be ready to put our money where our mouth is, and fund direct action. We also need to recognize how institutions are interconnected and advocate for change so that all communities have equal access to health care, housing, paid sick days, food security, accessible transit, etc.
Two organizations that are working hard and deserve our financial support are: parentsofblackchildren.org and showingupforracialjustice.org
Why defund police?
Part #2 focuses on defunding the police. In the video, Sandy Hudson challenges us to shift how we think of safety and security in our society. She explains that police have historically harmed many communities, including Black, racialized, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, and the underhoused. This harm and violence is still ongoing, and police actually make some folks feel less safe. Hudson shares facts about how police budgets are allocated, and argues that funding must be provided to support services that are more effective, and to build alternatives.
Why are police in schools?
As part of this program, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Phillip Dwight Morgan, and hear more about his personal experiences and his advocacy work. Morgan encouraged us to critically reflect on the role of School Resource Officers (SRO’s) and police in schools, and to consider the impact for Black staff, students and their families. He also questioned where police are located in Toronto schools, and the racial bias of defining “high priority” neighbourhoods as areas that have a higher percentage of racialized families. These discussions helped me to understand where the call to defund the police comes from, and how it connects to the fight for Black lives.
What is the role of educators?
In Part #3, we discussed other forms of anti-Black racism, racial profiling and bias that need to be addressed in schools and other spaces for youth. We also shared ideas about how we can use our position to best create and promote changes in our school and local community.
In our break-out groups, we talked about the importance of representation, and the need to hire more Black educators. We also talked about centering stories of Black resilience and pride, innovation, love and joy. Educators from rural and northern communities talked about how they might teach students about anti-oppression without “othering” or reinforcing “us/them” inequities in their predominantly White communities. Everyone agreed that addressing anti-Black racism in our schools benefits everyone.
ETFO has developed many resources to support educators to engage in this work, including White Privilege Lesson Plans and ETFO Black 365 Canadian Curriculum. Please share any resources that you have used in the comments below.
What does solidarity look like?
Part #4 focuses on the need for awareness and action. In the video, Alejandra Bravo asks if changing our individual behaviour will help make Black lives better. Sandy Hudson and Phillip Dwight Morgan criticize the impact of individual acts of solidarity, if they do not include the call to action for systemic change. For example, many folks are comfortable hanging a poster that says, “Black Lives Matter” or posting a black square on their social media, but they are not comfortable advocating for the abolishment of police.
The discussion in our break-out group was interesting because we all have colleagues that are at the beginning of their learning journey, and need to do the individual work to recognize how they are impacted by and complicit in reinforcing oppression and privilege. We talked about how we might support all members in our school community to engage in courageous conversations about racial justice and anti-oppression work. After participating in this program, I understand that fighting for Black lives must also include advocating for systemic change and funding direct action to fight against anti-Black racism.
What are the next steps?
ETFO has a lot of privilege and political power to advocate for systemic change. I look forward to hearing about the next steps that ETFO will take to continue to fight for Black lives.
I am grateful to ETFO and all of the educators who created this professional learning opportunity, and I am inspired by the members who showed up every week to actively engage in this critical work. I encourage everyone to watch the videos, and to participate in the webinar series when it is offered again.
A Call for Change
In this post, I write as a Black educator struggling to understand why change is so hard. Over the years, I’ve had many colleagues and administrators who “understand” my position, and yet when it comes to enacting change, the status quo is upheld. If you understand my position and can support me in the private moments when you come to “pick my brain”, why is it so hard to support my position in public? Understanding to me means that you have heard me and are willing to do something about this new knowledge. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not expecting that everyone should change their practice to accommodate my preferences but when real harm is being done in schools and they are voiced, I expect that these voices would not be silenced and dismissed. Here are 2 ways that I think we can do better.
Think Critically to Understand the Why
The old adage, “We’ve always done it this way” is dangerous. Just because something has always been done, doesn’t mean that it needs to continue. Throughout my career, the people I have admired or respected the most have been those who have been reflective on their practice. Years ago, I remember myself and a colleague often popping by our VP’s office to just sit and talk at the end of a day. It became common practice – that probably annoyed our VP at the time – but it was a time to debrief and to think critically about our day and next steps. In speaking aloud and reflecting on lessons or upcoming school events, it became a space where we asked the important question, “why?” In these moments, I learned the value of being intentional in my practice. When there has been no substantial or good answer to the question, I often sit with the origin of the practice and consider how I got started using it. The first way that I think that we can bring about change in our schools for the better is to think critically about why we do what we do. With a clear understanding of “why”, we can choose which practices we continue and which ones we should consider changing or eliminating altogether.
Speak up!
Many may recall my post from months ago on “Crazy Hair Day”. The number of people who messaged publicly and in private was amazing. People taking the time to read, reflect, and reconsider made me think that my moment of vulnerability might possibly bring about some change for the many harmed by this practice that has no place in schools. While I don’t see as many pictures of the days on Social Media, I’m not naive enough to think that they no longer happen. Earlier this month in a meeting, the topic came up again and there were a number of sighs in the room. While sighs are a step up from remaining silent, without a justification for the sigh, there’s no conversation on what evoked the sigh. In that moment, I wished that all the messages around the harm of Crazy Hair Day would have been voiced. I wish that those who mentioned the inequity online and those that mentioned their feelings of uncertainty through messages would have taken the time to speak up, rather than looking to me to say something. One person came to me and asked why I didn’t speak up and I said that I always do and have written on the topic publicly. In that space, every person knew my perspective. As I packed up my bags to leave, I didn’t bother to ask my colleague why they didn’t speak up. The last time I asked them this, they said, “Yes, I should have said something.” My ask is this, please stop relying on that colleague who is seen as the disrupter to always speak up. They’re tired. Use your privilege and voice to do what you so proudly do in private. We need you to talk on these matters when they actually matter. As Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” If you’ve heard or learned that something is problematic, please turn that learning into action by speaking up. If as a collective we speak up, then there is a greater opportunity for change.
I know that we are all on a journey of learning. My call for change today is that this learning includes action. Think critically about practice. Ask the “why”. Speak up; particularly when you have privilege in a space. Your voice is needed to enact tangible change.
“Just” an Occasional Teacher
Hello everyone!
I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining the Heart and Art blogging team this school year. I look forward to time spent being passionately curious with all of you.
As educators, it feels we are under the spotlight this year to openly reflect in conversations with curious strangers on how the school year is going amidst the pandemic. Everyone is wondering how educators are creating activities and lessons for students that involve social distancing, mask wearing and constant hand sanitizing. When asked personally about how this crazy year is affecting me, I often find myself replying with “I am just an Occasional Teacher”.
I love my job and feel valued in the school system, especially this year with the demanding need for Occasional Teachers across Ontario school boards. I feel important, worthy and necessary. Why do I sell myself short each time by adding the word “just” in front of my job title?
The word “just” has so much power and holds the potential to remove importance from meaningful concepts. As I reflect upon my own use of the word “just”, I begin to think about how this small but significant word can affect my students. Psychologist Carol Dweck talked about students’ growth mindset and the power of the word “yet”. In terms of growing and learning, students can use the word “yet” to talk about what they cannot do, but will learn to do after practicing, taking chances and making mistakes (for example: “I do not know how to multiply… yet”).
Does the word “just” have the opposite effect? Instead of granting power and adding room for growth like the word “yet” does, “just” seems to diminish the power of whatever follows.
Let’s harness the power of “yet”! Here are some phrases that should not follow the word “just”:
- Students are “just” playing.
Play is how students explore, investigate, discover and create what they don’t know yet. No matter age or ability, each student deserves play opportunities in an environment that respects and celebrates the benefits play can have on academic progress, social and emotional growth and overall student well-being.
- “Just” Art, Phys. Ed, Social Science or any subject that isn’t Math or Literacy.
Each subject and learning area contributes to holistic development while providing opportunities for learning and success in areas which students have yet to grow. Students deserve to know that each subject is important and personal accomplishments can be celebrated in sports, the arts, etc. With the pressures to push for success in reading, writing and math, we must not let talent and passion in other areas go unnoticed, unacknowledged or undervalued.
- You are “just” an Occasional Teacher/Rotary Teacher/whatever your role is in a school.
To all my fellow educators out there, no matter what you are doing, no matter where you are, you will ALWAYS be more than “just” a (insert job title here) to your students, their families and the school community.
You are passionate.
You are important.
You are valued.
For what you know now and for what you do not know yet.