Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

As a teacher, you’ll likely wear many hats and work with students across different grade levels. Along the way, you might find your sweet spot—a grade that feels like the perfect fit. But just when you’ve settled into your comfort zone, you could be assigned to a grade you have never taught before. You may begin to ask yourself, “How will I connect with my students?”, “Can I manage the new curriculum?” “Will I teach it well?”, “Will I be judged if I do it wrong?”.  These concerns are natural and understandable. During moments like these, it’s important to remember that these challenges are opportunities for growth rather than as obstacles.

One of the most difficult things to do is to change our mindset. It is not a sign of failure—but it is a sign of growth. When we have a growth mindset, we are open to new possibilities and strategies. We allow ourselves to be flexible, a trait that is important in any learning environment.

In my classroom, I encourage students to embrace a growth mindset, regardless of the subject I’m teaching. I believe every lesson provides an opportunity to foster this way of thinking. A few years ago, I had a student who struggled with math and often grew frustrated when faced with challenging problems. Initially, I focused only on finding new ways to explain the concept, reteaching it in hopes of helping him understand. Despite my efforts, he continued to struggle. So one day I decided to have a deeper conversation with him.

During our talk, he shared that his fear of making mistakes and being judged by his classmates was causing him to lose focus. I realized in that moment that, without knowing it, I had been keeping with a fixed mindset myself. Instead of celebrating his efforts and the process of learning, I had been focused on getting him to the correct answer.

I shifted my approach.  As a class, we began to prioritize social and emotional learning, discussing what we knew and what we were “yet” to master. Together, we celebrated small victories—like the day we finally solved a difficult problem after several attempts—and I encouraged everyone to see how persistence and the willingness to make mistakes led to progress.

To reinforce the idea, I also introduced stories of  individuals who faced challenges but went on to succeed. Over time, my student’s attitude toward challenges in math began to change. He became more willing to raise his hand and share in open discussions and kept a positive mindset. Overall, he became more confident in his ability to improve.

To foster a growth mindset it is important to recognize how embracing change can positively impact both educators and students.

The Importance of a Growth Mindset for Educators and Students

  • Being open to change helps you connect better with students, and colleagues. When students or colleagues know you are open to change, they see that you are willing to understand where they are coming from and meet them where they are. 
  • When you step out of your comfort zone, you explore new ways to engage your students and colleagues. It expands your thinking and what seemed difficult becomes an exciting challenge.
  • Give yourself permission to try and fail. You will learn to be kinder to yourself. You’re no longer burdened by the pressure of perfectionism. You will also teach your students that it is human to make mistakes and learn from them.
  • When you are stuck in a specific mindset, there’s not much room for further development. Embracing change means you are always learning and growing, both professionally and personally.

How to develop a growth mindset:

  • Take time to reflect on what you know, what are you great at and where you might be stuck.  Journaling or talking to a fellow teacher can help clarify where you need to grow.
  • Observe colleagues, attend professional development workshops or conferences, or ask for advice from colleagues. Sometimes, seeing different teaching methods in action can inspire change.
  • Give Yourself Grace and recognize that no one has it all figured out. Teaching is a journey, and every challenge is an opportunity to learn something new.
  • You don’t have to change your entire teaching approach. Start with small adjustments, such as using a new classroom management strategy, having more student conferences or incorporating different lesson structures. 

So to my fellow educators, I want to say, embrace flexibility and a growth mindset when things aren’t working. Sometimes, the key is simply in our willingness to grow.

Resources on growth mindset:

Mindset Matters by Bryan Kyle Smith
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak
School Mental Health Ontario:
https://smho-smso.ca/emhc/positive-motivation-and-perseverance/reframing/the-power-of-yet/

seasons

seasons May 2024

This May seemed more like dismay, and there is not a thing we can do about it. It’s in the books.

As the sun sets on our 9th month of teaching for this school year, I am finding it hard not to mumble a bit more due to fatigue. It’s not just mumbling either. To be transparent here, I am speaking a bit more slowly, writing a bit more slowly, teaching a bit more slowly, assessing a bit more slowly, and on top of it all, I seem to be walking a bit more slowly too. Now before you dial 911 on my behalf, I am otherwise in passable physical condition. I have cut down on the caffeine, tried to be more active, and have increased my sleep times. Despite that little health flex, everything is just happening a little more slowly. 

My friend commented that I might be suffering from A.G.E.. Bwahahahahaha!

If this was my first year in the classroom, I might have needed to take a day to visit the doctor, but I know that the way I feel as June draws nigh, is largely a function of time; time of year, and time in environment. Definitively and definitely. 

So how could these two factors be the cause of my compounded confusion? It’s simple. So far, there have been 170+/- instructional days to plan, deliver, assess, and repeat subject over subject. Even with a fairly balanced amount of holidays, PA days, breaks, personal illness, family illness, and weekends this work takes its toll on body and mind. These past few weeks have come with a certain heaviness and have me feeling like it is a good time to hibernate rather than frolic in the fields. I find myself really craving quiet solace instead of seasonal solstice. 

Regardless of the current sources of my discombobulation, it seems like I can’t be the only one feeling this right now. Come to think of it, I have been noticing that there is a different set of seasons in this job. Here’s what it feels like as I type this post;

Sept to late October = Spring
late October to March = Winter
March to May = Spring, then Winter again
June = Spring, then Summer

This may not line up meteorologically or anywhere else except in my perception of education, but my physio-emotional barometer has read like this pretty consistently year over year. 

Maybe a better way to make sense of my seasons can come from acknowledging that we all have them and go through them in our own way. Truth be shared, my quasi-psyentific explanation above is quite falsifiable. Could this all be more a function of my current situation with another round of reports due soon? Is the internal weather that I am experiencing only a mental anomaly? Why am I struggling instead of dancing down the hallways with only one month of school left? I think there are three big reasons. 

First, the past 9 months have taken a toll on me mentally and physically. Running teams, mentoring sessions, and clubs in addition to the planning, instruction, and assessment comes with its costs. Time is finite and so are energy levels. The need to fill our tanks is undeniable. I also would not have it any other way. 

Secondly, there is a lot going on in June. Reports, EQAO, room moves for some, grads, school moves for others, and of course an extra demanding challenge of keeping the learning happening as the temperatures continue to rise. I have resorted to a resort styled wardrobe to beat the heat. Classy and cool. 

Thirdly, I am going to miss my students. Like every year, this group has really grown on me and we have come so far together.

As I try to snap myself out of this odd out of season stupor and into true June mode I am going to double up on my down time, continue to teach a little more slowly, linger longer in conversations with my learners, and take a little more time to take each of the coming moments all in knowing that another season is already on its way.

Mental Health Check

Happy March Break everyone!

I hope you are able to sit back and relax this week as we get a much deserved break from the usual day-to-day of being a teacher. I wish I was sitting on a beach right now typing this but I am enjoying a cup of coffee at my kitchen table after an action pack few days at camp with the grade eights. So for me, the peace and quiet is all the vacation I need.

On our last P.A. day at school, our Emotional Coach helped us work through some challenging feelings. She reminded us of many important things we should focus on each day. I am going to share some of the biggest take aways from the P.A. day session as I feel they would be beneficial for all teachers (and adults) to think about.

Focus on the Positives

During each school day, I am sure many of us feel especially frusturated about the students who aren’t coming to class because they are hiding in the bathroom. Or upset with the students who do not start any activity that is assigned to them. But how often are we thinking, “Wow, I am so lucky to have that student who gets right to work and takes pride in their work” or “Look how many students came to school today with a positive attitude and are excited for what lies ahead.” It is easy to focus on the negatives but take the challenge after the March Break to focus on the positives. Think about those students who are so happy to learn and will dive into just about anything that is given to them. Of course, we still need to help all of our students but with time, maybe they will find their own sense of joy in the school community.

Reflect on a “difficult thing”

Our Emotional Coach asked us all to pick one difficult thing in our life that we think is affecting our mental well being. I wanted to share my difficult thing- negative people. I was challenged last month with a few negative people that brought me down. No matter how hard I tried, their negative comments stuck with me even though I tried to think positively. So my “difficult thing” choice was negative people. We were then asked to write down three ways we could improve the situation, revising them as needed. My three ways that I hope will help me are: focusing on the positives when around these people, remaining my positive self and to not react to them. I hope that next time I am faced with a negative situation, I can use these strategies. One staff member even suggested that once you feel in control of that one difficult thing, you can move on to a second thing and try to tackle that. I am really excited for this challenge and hope it will work! I invite you all to try it and if you feel comfortable, comment your “difficult thing” on this post.

 

Teachers, YOU ROCK!

Do you ever think back in time to the moment when you discovered what you wanted to be when you grow up? Or the moment where you started your education for that career? Or your first official day of work when you have been hired? Well the entire process leading up to that exciting moment is not as easy as one may think. In fact, teaching is actually one of the most challenging careers when you come to think of it.

Just recently, I heard someone commenting on how challenging teaching was, that it was not what they thought it would be. For that reason, they would not be pursuing this career anymore. I think when I was in university, I had some kind of idea how challenging teaching would be, but you don’t really find out until the first day of your practicum. Even then, some candidates do not feel the full challenge of teaching until their first day of work. I feel for the people who go through even half of the process only to discover it’s not for them. Perhaps there needs to be a way for candidates to discover that they be not interested in the career before they put all the time and energy into the program. I remember many students dropping out of my program, maybe realizing the career was more challenging than they had first thought. I am so thankful that was not the case for me as I had been sure since I was 15 that I wanted to become a teacher. I am so grateful I had the most supportive mentors, teachers, friends, family and of course, my placement students who made my job easier than it could have been.

Think about all that teachers do within one day. Not only do they have to care for the safety and well being of 20+ children but they also have to run a successful program while thinking about the specific challenges each child faces. I think during university, I had assumed the lessons we teach were in the curriculum documents or would magically appear in a cupboard within our future classrooms. But no, these lessons have to be carefully curated for our classrooms with what sometimes feels like over 100 things taken into consideration. Then, we second guess them and try to pull them off flawlessly, hoping each child learns something from the lesson and listens to it. That has to be done not once, not twice but sometimes six times throughout a school day. That in itself is a huge success! Plus all the little intricacies of the day have to be perfectly run as well. Teaching is not easy and although it is the most rewarding career in the world (in my opinion), you have to be ready to commit to the time and patience that is required.

Once again, I am so happy my 23 year old self saw past the challenges during my placement, the challenges in the university classroom, the long hours in and outside of the classroom and made it through to where I am today. I do not write this post to scare anyone but really, to congratulate all of us who made it out and are now living proof of what hard work and determination look like. Congratulations and well done because being a teacher is NOT a piece of cake!

track and field

Track and Field Day

Is it possible to have 4 words to usher in the beginning of the end of the school any better than these? Perhaps class party early dismissal come close, but I have to admit track and field day takes first place. Although it’s been a while, we start each year off running with cross country in September and October. Somehow, they have set the pace to a year of engaging students in spaces outside of the classroom.  

Aaah there’s nothing like being outdoors in the fresh air watching students roam, run, roll, and occasionally hop from event to event. Whether it’s a 100 m dash across uncut grass, jumping events (minus high jump) or 4 laps around the building as an impromtu 800 m track it is definitely a day for students to outshine the noon day sun. Now this is my idea of distance learning. 

This year the events were held over the course of a week in order to accommodate for some wet Spring weather, but student spirits were undampened when rescheduling occured. They knew those freezees waiting at the rest station were only going to be more freezier from the wait. When the sun came out to stay, the competitions were underway. And they went off with relatively few hitches or injuries. Especially, that run around the school on an occasionally uneven concrete sidewalk. Even with a less than perfect track and field the students did really well. So why state the obvious in a union blog post?

Well I wondered that too at first when the idea baked into my head while watching our students compete. It also occurred while I watched students run events, while staff supervised, and when students had free time in between. It was like hundreds of different versions of the same moment happening simultaneously yet differently for all of us. WHOA! (Bill and Ted version)

So as I watched the days run their courses, I witnessed a lot of parallel events that might have gone otherwise overlooked if solely looking at the times, distances, and names on the events lists. Here are a few things that made it to the invisible podium that day. I’ll let you decide whether they are positive or negative. 

  1. Students are really helpful when they are empowered to lead and trusted to do so. This was so obvious as I watched volunteers from older grades lead their stations, show up on time, and encourage(wrangle, herd, shepherd) the competitors through their events. 
  2. Students really thrived with the extra time outdoors. These days were pure social with a healthy amount of friendly competition. I really appreciated how students from different grades lined the event areas to cheer on their peers. For the most part this was really wholesome other than the one or two knuckleheads who thought it was okay to mock their friends throwing abilities. #teachablemoment
  3. Students gave their best efforts considering that practice for these events (standing long jump, running long jump, ball throw, shotput etc.) is usually limited to Phys Ed classes that occur only twice per week. Seeing students struggling with these skills shows how much we have missed over the past two years of pandemic learning when we were online. 
  4. There will always be some students who choose to quit before a race is over.

I mentioned earlier that you will have to decide how to see this one

For me this has always been a toughy. Having been taught from the start to give it 110% and every other cliché in the book, I was left wondering why someone would quit in the middle of a short race when they were not injured? Have some of our students cracked some code here? Maybe it was easier for them to control the moment by ending it on their terms? All of this led to an interesting discussion with my 4/5 students. 

Since I was with them for most of that day, I saw a lot of determination and effort. I made sure I told them as such and how I was a bit relieved to see most of them push through even when first place, second place, and third place were not the prizes at the finish line while an unusually larger of their peers did not. I asked them what made them finish anyways? I also asked them what made them stop at certain times? Then I asked myself what needs to happen for everyone to finish their metaphorical events regardless of the outcomes? I guess that question has to be asked of all of us? Just like the events on track and field day, how we prepare ourselves for each day really matters. 

What keeps you going when the finish line seems further away than ever? What keeps you roaming, running, rolling or hopping until the end of the race? 

Whether it is fitness, meditation, hobbies, acts of kindness, family, friends, faith, pets, any or all of the above these pursuits/passions have helped many of us finish another school year strong despite the wretched election results, a year of hybrid learning hell (personal opinion), and countless uncovered COVID 19 absences due to systemic ineptitude. Without them, I am sure that I would not be in a good place this month.

I encourage you all to take heart, you’re almost there. The tape is stretched across the line of this decathlon of months spent planning, communicating, learning, unlearning, supporting, and teaching. You will cross that line and the rest to follow will feel so good. 

Looking Back Over the Year

In my twenty three years of teaching, this year has been like no other year. From working from home at the start of the school year, placed in a new central role with new schools, only to be redeployed a few months later into a new school community, to becoming an ETFO blog writer for the very first time. This year has certainly had its ups and downs. 

I am thankful for the support I have received from family, friends and colleagues throughout a very demanding year. Their support has been invaluable to my mental health and my professional journey, especially during these uncharted times. I am also very thankful to ETFO and to you, my readers, for allowing me to speak my mind on matters that are important to public education and social justice. This blog has really given me the opportunity to develop a personal voice and to be able to think critically about issues affecting publicly funded public education. Your feedback and responses to my blogs have been so thoughtful and supportive, it has allowed me to be more conscious of my words and the impact my message could have on viewers and on the profession as a whole, across the province. Thank you for all that you do and for allowing me to be me.

Most educators across the province, myself included, would probably say that they have had a school year like no other. They have seen many changes to their teaching assignments, they have adjusted to the demands of the numerous pandemic protocols, and they have weathered the storm through a very unpredictable political environment. To me, you are all heroes for making it through, for continuously advocating for public education and for always putting students first. We, as educators, are often the last ones to give ourselves props for the good that we do and the impact we make on the lives of students and their families. Well, this is the year we change that. This is the year we begin to see ourselves deserving of being praised and being recognized for our commitment to quality public education. This is the year we celebrate our successes, in spite of any bumps we might have had throughout the year. If others are not willing to recognize and celebrate our successes, then this is the year we do it for ourselves.

I encourage you to take this time to recharge, to rejuvenate and to self-indulge in whatever makes you happy, albeit in a safe and responsible way. Take comfort in knowing that the impact you made this year (and years past) does matter! I, myself, am looking forward to going out again with family and friends, to travelling beyond borders and to breathing unencumbered air again, while remaining safe and prepared for any changes to current protocols. I am going to bask in the sun and enjoy the moment, unapologetically. I deserve this, and so do you. Enjoy it freely! 

Survival tips

I am not talkative. I will share my voice in writing though. Perhaps it is more a function of selective participation rather than voluntary silence. Writing provides me with some permanence, albeit only in pixels, as much as it does a chance to reflect on the words I do choose to share. Instead of my mouth going off like a cannon. I can chew on my words a bit more before spilling my thoughts on a page. In short, it has been quite a month and if I am going to survive the next 9, I will need to get some things off my mind.

Most of this September felt like driving in the dark of night and every oncoming car had its highbeams on. I found it hard to see where I’m going and it hurts. With so much time staring at a screen now, the additional online professional learning is blurring my vision and I am starting to develop an aversion to screen time. It has me thinking twice about how much I want to integrate tech in my classroom right now too. 

I see your high beams are on, but do you have to drive in my lane?

I have been trying to make sense of the way the government ghosted education, the rising COVID case numbers in schools, and the unconscionable decisions being made by many school boards regarding hybrid learning

This is also what hurts:

Of course it has been completely safe to go back to school this year even though cases are nearly 5 times higher than September 2020.
We have HEPA filters in every classroom. Mine must be hidden somewhere.

Of course the hybrid model will work for families instead of dedicated Elementary Virtual Schools. “Teachers will figure it out.”
We have figured it out by the way. It sucks.

Of course the glaring gaps in equity and decisions made “for all” only benefit the privileged who have the wherewithall and choice as to whether their child stays home or not.
Here’s a terrible camera and headset so you can syncronously miss being present in your physical and digital classrooms. 

It is very clear that the “brain trust” tasked with these decisions declared, “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” I can’t shake these questions: When was the last time any system leaders taught an online class on a daily basis? Where is their compassion, consideration, or consultation with current classroom educators? Why in good conscience would anyone with mental health as a pillar in their foundation allow this to happen? How did they lose their way so completely at the expense of their most valuable resources? It is dizzying. 

How about the feeling of knowing you are going to pass out just before passing out? That’s how it felt when the news of having to teach the hybrid model came down from the folx above. This decisive disconnect was dropped on us without a single consideration of the trauma it would cause in and out of classrooms. It was at that moment when I went into survival mode. I needed to “guard my heart and mind” from diving into dark spaces as it was very clear that no one else was going to do it for me. 

This realization got me thinking about what I needed to do to keep a grasp on my sanity and professionalism in order to do my job in these conditions. Here is what I have come up with so far:
1. Guard your heart and mind. Don’t get caught up in actions and activities that will only stretch you thinner. It’s okay to let someone else lead a meeting or division, run a club (when permitted), or welcome a student teacher. You are allowed to focus on you first. 

2. Resist through rest. I saw this in a tweet from @MsDhillon6A and it really resonated with me. Educators are notorious for taking on too much. We are doers and getters of things done, but we also need to pace ourselves. Teaching is a marathon not a sprint. It takes stamina and determination to maintain a steady pace. The 2021-22 school year is a great time to learn to say no and to let go of extra activities that drain the life out of your practice, body, and spirit.

3. Set boundaries with colleagues, students, admin, and families. There is nothing wrong with having office hours from 8 until 5 pm Monday to Friday. That email reply from the weekend will wait until Monday. You deserve work-life balance not work-work-life imbalance. 

4. Do something for yourself. Take a personal mental health day. Practice good sleep hygiene. Walk, yoga, play pickle ball, or call an old friend who you used to work with to touch base. I like to read, cook, and work on my not so secret goal to be a stand up comedian. As a primary teacher on occasion, I am used to tough crowds so I am half way there. 
And finally, 

5. Don’t silo yourself away. You do not have to go through any of this alone. Share your frustrations, joys, ups, and downs. It is another year unlike any other. Teachers need to know that there are tens of thousands cheering for each other to make it through the day in the service of our students. Tag me anytime via Twitter  if you are having a rough day and need to share. Watch how the #onted family is there to rally and offer kind words of support. 

I’m going to listen to Gloria Gaynor now? Feel free to join me.

 

Please note: ETFO’s position on in-person learning remains unchanged. The union firmly believes that the daily, in-person model of instruction and support best meets the educational, developmental and social needs of students, provides the best experience for support, and is the most equitable learning model for all students.

ETFO’s expectation is that elementary virtual learning in any capacity, including through hybrid models of instruction, will end once the pandemic ends.

Educational Perfection

As we end another school year and look forward to summer vacation, I think back to my first years in education and what summer “vacation” looked like for me. July was spent taking additional qualification courses and most of August was spent prepping and planning. It wasn’t really much of a vacation.  So why did I do it? Two reasons. I am passionate about learning and I am a (now recovering) perfectionist-especially as an educator.

I must have thought there was some kind of a prize for having the tidiest, prettiest and well organized classroom. I wanted my classroom to look like something out of the Scholar’s Choice catalogue. The custodians would be annoyed at having me in the school and I would wait anxiously for them to be finished waxing our hallway so that I could get in and set up my classroom. I needed everything to match. If I had baskets for items in the classroom they had to all be the same colour. It isn’t always easy to find 24 of the same basket at the Dollar Store.  Before the students started in September I felt the need to have labels on all of their notebooks, duo tangs and I even labelled their pencils. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to control the environment for my students. My classroom looked like a showroom on the first day of school and I would spend the next 194 days trying to maintain that standard. Our first printing practice lesson (because we still did that back then) was to practice writing “A place for everything and everything in it’s place.” When I think back now to all of the time and energy that I wasted not allowing learning to get messy I shake my head. It was exhausting.

After twenty plus years in education I’ve learned a few things about educational perfectionism and letting go of control in order to empower the learners in the classroom. When I was given a portable for a classroom that I wasn’t able to get into much before school started I panicked at first.  I didn’t have space or time to create a showroom. I decided to give the design over to the grade 4-5 students.  I still had labelled duo tangs and a place for each of them to put their things that was their space ready on the first day but the rest, we did together. It built community, it gave the students ownership and it gave me some of my summer back. If you’ve ever taught in a portable that has the coat racks inside, winter is a bit of a nightmare for an organizational freak but eventually I let it go. We still had a tidy classroom because their wasn’t enough space to be too messy but the organization of things didn’t stifle the learning. We learned how to paint in a portable without water using buckets and trips into the school. We brought lawn chairs to school at sat outside at reading time. I loved our little cabin in the woods.

As educators we have a lot of people that we are accountable to in our jobs. Students, families, administrators, our board and our communities are all stakeholders in what we do. The pressure to be perfect in our roles can be overwhelming and paralyzing. What educators do each day is literally driven by “overall and specific EXPECTATIONS”. It took time for me to realize that the expectations that I was putting on myself were much higher than those of anyone else. It took reflection to realize that perfectionism isn’t the badge of honour that I thought it once was and that it was making my life more difficult. I came to understand that it isn’t the room or the resources that make me a good educator.  It is about the connections and relationships with my students and their families that matter. It is about embracing the Ms. Frizzle moments and rolling with it.  If I’ve learned anything from COVID-19 it is that being flexible and letting go of what I cannot control are the keys to staying out of perfectionism. I plan on guarding my summer vacation as I would a medical specialist’s appointment but I’ll likely take a few professional resource books along to read in the waiting room.

 

Attitude of Gratitude

I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness -- it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.

Many years ago I remember watching a gratitude themed Oprah episode.  There was a gratitude journal that the guest had developed and was relaying all of the benefits of writing down things that you were grateful for each day.  The power of suggestion (I’m a sucker for an impulse buy for self-improvement) lead me to the nearest Chapters to purchase one of those journals that weekend.  I certainly didn’t fill that journal. I think I lost interest in a couple of months because it felt as though I was writing the same thing over and over again.  I realize now that gratitude, like mindfulness and meditation, is a “practice.”

Gratitude practice is most effective when life is rough.  It sounds counterintuitive.  It is much easier to be grateful when things are going well right?  Easy to “count your blessings” when you are sitting on a beach in a resort in the Dominican Republic.  I personally feel the power of the gratitude practice when life isn’t going according to plan.  Though, I want to be clear here, there is a fine line between true gratitude practice and “looking on the bright side” or “finding the silver lining.”  That bright-side-silver-lining thinking can border on toxic positivity which isn’t helpful.

Gratitude practice means different things to different people.  For me, it is connected to daily journaling.  Each night since the fall I have been writing about my day in terms of gratitude before going to bed. Some nights I might write for 5 minutes.  Some nights I write for a half hour.  It might read something like, “I’m grateful that we got outside for a walk, that my son felt good about his essay after all of the struggles and tears, that we were able to eat a healthy meal, for Hello Fresh being delivered to my door and for the opportunity to reach out and connect to some new teachers through professional learning today.”  I try to reflect on the events of my day in terms of gratitude.  I could write in my journal that the technology in my professional learning session that day was glitchy, we got off to a rocky start trying to get everyone into the WebEx room, and there were links that didn’t work even though I had tested them twice. Instead, I choose to be grateful for the connection and discussion that I had with the teachers that day.  It isn’t that I ignore that bad things happen or think about how things can be improved, but ruminating on the bad things that happened during the day right before going to bed isn’t going to ensure much of a restful sleep.

In some of the professional learning opportunities that I have recently hosted with new teachers we have discussed the struggles of the current climate in the classroom.  It is important to have a safe place for teachers to voice those concerns and have someone listen with compassion and empathy and ask curious questions.  I will often say that there are many things that I can’t help them with, but that I am there to “embrace the suck” with them.   At the conclusion of those discussions my final question is always, “What is a recent personal or professional success that you’ve experienced that you would like to share with the group?”  This ends the discussion on a note of gratitude. It is SO easy to get caught up in venting and complaining about the situation in education right now. Teaching it is NOT an easy job on any given day but the difficulties have grown exponentially with the pressures that COVID has added.  So when we can take a moment to remember why we continue to go to work each day, why we got into the job in the first place and what our recent wins have been, I think it brings a feeling of hope.

Sometimes I practice gratitude in a less formal way that is more like mindfulness.  Recently while walking on a treed trail on a bright, sunny, winter day with my best friend, I stopped mid sentence and just looked around at the beauty.  I said to my friend, “I just had to take a minute to take this in.  We are so fortunate to be able to walk here.”  It only took a moment.  I don’t do that all of the time, we’d never get anywhere on our walks! However, remembering to do it every so often helps me to deal with stress and the bad things when they do happen.  If in the moment of a stressful situation I can take a moment to breathe and practice gratitude it sometimes keeps the emotions from escalating.  When conversing with someone who is frustrated and perhaps complaining or lashing out I try to remember that this person is doing the best they can at that moment and that each opportunity to interact with someone who is suffering is a chance to learn and I try to be grateful for that.  Author Andrea Owen in her book, “How to Stop Feeling Like Sh*t” would call it an AFOG-another flipping opportunity for growth.  When I remember to think about gratitude in a not so great moment, I might do it raised shoulders and through gritted teeth, but I keep trying.  It is, after all a practice.

“If the opposite of scarcity is enough, then practicing gratitude is how we acknowledge that there’s enough and that we’re enough.” -Brene Brown

Remote Learning Hereos

Celebrating the Remote Learning Heroes

I wake up to teach each morning, excited to hear my students voices and to teach the lessons for the day. I love every moment with them and I think the world of these students. They really are little super heroes, but do I tell them that enough?

It was brought up at a staff meeting by multiple staff members this week how are our students are super heroes for engaging in a learning setting that we would have never imagined. Just waking up, signing in and listening is something that should be celebrated. But of course, we have to expect more from them and I am delighted by what they show me each day. My students are coming to school each day in a virtual setting, meeting deadlines and participating more than I have ever seen in my seven years of teaching. Just this week alone, they handed in their final copies of their MVP 0f 2020 essays, many of them writing five or more pages about their selected person. Six of my students even wanted to learn about MLA citations and how to format a works cited page. These are things that will help them so much in the future and I was so excited to teach them about that. They also worked hard on their financial literacy final project- coming up with a budget for an imaginary person, looking at how to buy a car and selecting between various interest rates as well as looking up how to save for local universities. Most of my 33 students handed in both of these projects this week and were so excited to celebrate afterwards.

Every week we do student shout-outs and yesterday, I made a “wordle” (mashup of student names) to celebrate each and every one of them. For showing up, but also, for doing so much more than that. I know for some students, the challenging situation we are in right now makes it hard for them to participate in daily lessons. One of my most engaged students told me the other day, “I don’t know how I am doing it. I have the whole world at my finger tips but I am expected to sit and listen to lessons each day. I have to avoid distractions with nobody on the other side of the screen to hold me accountable. I do not know how much longer I can do this.” What an honest statement from my student. My response was yes, what a challenging task! But imagine completing this year and having the skill to avoid distractions and to be responsible for your work without I suppose there isn’t anybody there to remind you to stay on task like there would be in the physical classroom. I encouraged my students to think about all of the things they will be able to accomplish in the future with this new found responsibility. That independence will take them all the way through their academic career.

It is also important for me to remember that they still need to engage with peers, so I have been making breakout rooms each day in a variety of subjects. This is great as well because they have another student to chat with. I love popping into the breakout rooms and hearing the conversations (all on task?!) with students they have never met in real life.

These students are so resilient and they truly are my heroes. I know it is easy to get frustrated with the lack of output from some students, but in the physical classroom, it may have been the same thing. In an online setting, it is just more noticeable. All we can do is continue to encourage our students and remember to celebrate their success, no matter how small. Always try to remember that as challenging as it is for us educators, it is even more challenging for our kids- the remote learning heroes.