The following is proof why I will never quit my day job for a career in entertainment.
Sung to the tune of Rapper’s Delight with apologies to the Sugar Hill Gang.
Rap
It’s June again and the heat is on,
School is buzzin’, students’ll soon be gone.
What’s that you say? No not yet.
You forgot to give one last test.
Too late my friends that’s all the learnin’
It’s time for the grades they’ve been earnin’.
10 months of fun fly by so fast.
Too bad, so sad these times don’t last.
But, that’s ok, not to fear,
We’ll all be back for another new year.
So say see you later, not goodbye
There’s no need to dry your eyes.
Take time to celebrate your endeavors,
Kick back, and relax. Take time to recover.
Boxes
Before you shut the door for the final time this June, take time to look back on all of the amazing things you were part of in your classroom this year? Maybe it was a break through in Math or Language. Perhaps it was a victory in classroom management? Don’t forget the “a-ha!” moments where it seemed like all of the light bulbs over your students’ heads went on at once. Make sure to pack your boxes of memories tightly. Holding on to each one, because it is the sum of these experiences that continue to inspire, shape, and fuel your practice.
Look at the lives you made better for students where you invested time to coach teams, organize a concert, or lead a club. Cherish the moments of learning outside of the curriculum. The minutes you have shared will add up to a life time of difference in the lives of learners. Think about the mentorship you provided a new teacher, or the warm welcome you gave to an OT. Take time to remember all of the good you’ve brought to education this year.
Congratulations to everyone for another amazing year of education at the speed of life. It is an honour to share the journey of education with you all. May your time away be truly be relaxing and restorative.
It has been a long, arduous journey from September to the end of June and we are just weeks away from closing the chapter on another academic year. I am going to relive the last ten months of a fictional elementary school teacher.
A group of twenty plus disconnected, diverse individuals arrived in your classroom with a variety of needs beyond their academic status. Through careful planning, creative thinking, endless commitment and tremendous flexibility you were able to to:
make each child feel welcomed and loved
create a learning community
develop the confidence and self-esteem of your students
help them move forward in all academic areas
taught them the power of being a team
provided off campus, intramural, choir, club and athletic opportunities for them
offered them a high five to celebrate and emotional support when needed
in some cases provided food to meet their basic needs
laughed and cried with them
believed in them enough to provide tough love
wrote reports, called parents, attended meetings
organized assemblies and spirit days
created Individual Educational Programs
purchased necessary materials for your class and students
spent endless hours beyond your school day
gave up personal and family time for your students
helped develop future global citizens
attended a variety of professional learning opportunities to help in your journey toward best practice
you have sacrificed personal health for your class and school
please continue this list with anything I have missed
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! On behalf of students and parents everywhere, you continue to be a part of one of the most rewarding and important roles there is. You are a teacher!
I would also like to take this time to thank ETFO for the opportunity they have given me to be a part of the Heart & Art blog for the last 5 years. In that time I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn from many talented people. I have had comments shared with me that reminded me how proud I am to be a part of this profession. Finally, I have become a better teacher as my blogging has helped me reflect on the day-to-day work in my classroom. I am making this my last blog and challenge the many talented and inspiring teachers in ETFO to join in and share the expertise that lies within you and your teaching. THANK YOU!
The mere mention of it conjures up deeply personal memories. Other than infancy, there are very few times in our lives when we act without discipline. STOP signs, social media, and schedules are all prime examples when it is required. And then there’s discipline as it relates to school. For me, it started with stories shared by my mom about a one room school house where the headmaster sadistically silenced students into submission with a switch.Shudder. I clearly remember the rows on a dusty chalkboards replete with repetitive reminders of our recalcitrance. In the 70s, my grade 6 rotary teacher allowed students to pick the paddle with which he would use to discipline us. He had a collection in the corner. Speaking of corners, many were filled with kids “rewarded” with a change of scenery and a new hat for their misgivings. It was a different time and we were afraid.
Discipline varied from year to year and teacher to teacher. Perhaps it was to keep us off balance or that a constant was simply not possible. I’ve experienced 100% of them myself, and was tied to a chair in grade 1 for good measure. Thankfully, I haven’t seen 80% of these types of discipline since beginning my career as an educator in 2009.
In 2017, discipline has evolved to lost recesses, extra work, isolation from peers, loss of privileges, the walk of shame/glory to the office to see the principal, expulsion, and yes still, the writing of lines.* Have students become better behaved or have educators become better at classroom management? Ask yourself, “How does discipline happen in your school?”
In my classroom, a collective establishment of behavioural expectations has been crucial. With my students involved there is democracy, their voices are heard, and this then becomes the standard for everyone to uphold. At it’s heart, discipline must be founded in respect and responsibility where students contribute to and are expected to make good decisions at all times.
via https://www.flickr.com/photos/st3f4n/4193370268 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
So how in 2017, where a JK to 12 education is mandatory and free for all, why then are things like the one below still happening?
| The state of Arkansas Corrections department carried out the unprecedented execution of 4 prisoners in April. Really?|
This got me thinking about discipline, law, crime, law enforcement, punishment, society, and then, without fail, back to education. I wondered how any society built on the rule of laws, which are guaranteed for the protection and benefit of all, fails itself so frequently? Does education contribute to the school to prison pipeline with outdated methods of discipline?
Would it not be easier to rearrange the order of this equation in order to place education and society first? Could schools be funded as highly as prisons in order to end this destructive cycle? Did you know that education receives approximately one tenth of the funding per student as the prison system does per inmate? This gap cannot continue if we expect to grow happy, healthy, and whole learners.
Can we return to discipline’s original Latin disciplina; where it means method, instruction, and knowledge instead of scourging and flagellation? If we put knowledge and instruction over control we could restore discipline to its positively intentioned origins? I am positive the investment in education will lead to greater opportunities for everyone while reducing crime and prison populations.
I wanted to stretch, if not challenge, thinking with this reflection on discipline. Specifically, how this word, through its meaning and deeds, effects everything we do in education. Assuredly, any discussions of discipline require rules, boundaries, and consequences. But after all, isn’t that what it’s here for? Perhaps, in the spirit of the word, it can be so much more if we choose to use it positively instead to preserve power.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your memories in the comments section below.
Remember the axiom. ” Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Banning the Strap delves into the history of discipline and banishment of corporal punishment in Canada. Looking on our neighbours to the south, New Jersey was the first state in the USA to abolish corporal punishment in 1867 with Massachusetts coming a close second doing the same in 1972.
Thought this was interesting from our friendly neighbourhood land of the free.
It’s official because geese are honking on the playground. There’s more daylight, the snow is not staying on the ground, and my classroom is buzzing from the promise of Spring. Students’ activity levels are coming to life as the weather warms; even though, they’re prohibited from using the grass(mud/chance for grass to grow)or running on the tarmac(overcrowding).
Energy levels range from abundant to absent, as any teacher would attest. Our class is making excuses to learn outside. I love it when they ask and am happy to shift instruction and inquiry to outdoor mode. A sort of”Education on la Grande Jatte” with apologies to Seurat. There’s movement happening in the halls, and it’s not only the students this time. It’s educators too.
An annual migration of staff is in full flight. One that can only be equated to something akin to the trade deadlines in professional sports. Teachers and administrators are being moved, receiving their teaching assignments for the new year, or are actively seeking new opportunities. Whether it’s a move to a brand new grade, a new school, a new role in admin, or retirement; thousands of educators will find themselves in new spaces come September. Or is it a rut? So, like death, taxes and dishes left in the staff room sink – change is inevitable.
In March, teachers were told of their teaching assignments for the year ahead. Like the birds returning from the south, administrators were tasked with considering staff requests, future growth/decline, fit, and a host of intangible staff dynamics. Some teachers have discovered that the nest has been blown out of the tree. Some are learning, with a measure of surprise and uncertainty, how a change has happened which was contrary to their absolutism of choice(s). Yes, there are people who would go out of their way to avoid change. They have their reasons and are respected for them. However, there are still others who will be welcoming new opportunities with excitement.
It’s always a good time for a change when the dust in your classroom is older than the students.
By Stromcarlson (Originally uploaded to en as PD by Stromcarlson) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsLet’s consider a sample scenario that could playing out right now with a veteran teacher in the same grade for 5 or more years. Add to this fact, s/he has been in the same physical space for that long. Now, think of the upheaval and umbrage that might underscore the news they’re being shifted to a new grade, a new room, and maybe even a new teaching team?
Some might think that this educator was being shifted as a form of punishment. While in fact the move is the breath of fresh air. Yes, there is uncertainty and people hate that, but there is also freedom. Think of it like changing the air filter of your furnace. You would never keep the same one in place for a year let alone 5 or 6?
So this Spring, choices can be met with acquiescence or anticipation. Whichever view you choose will shape your thoughts and practice for the coming year. Will you stretch beyond your walls or will you barricade yourself behind your dusty desk?
Now before any harsh replies, keep in mind that the goal of our job has never been to become the comfortable automatons of education, but to stretch as lead learners in our schools. It is the very idea and excitement of change that should set us a light in our teaching practice.
Last year I wrote a piece entitled Time for a Change where I share advice and encouragement about stepping out of our comfort zones as educators if you want to read more.
and something else
There is another side to this thought that reflects the turnover of educators in struggling/poorer schools in England. This two page graphic made me wonder whether this might correlate to our inner-city or First Nations Metis and Inuit communities are facing the same issues of teacher turnover, and therefore are creating an educational vacuum in our own country? http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/cmpo/migrated/documents/howlongteachersstaying.pdf I’d love to know your thoughts about this.
By Shane Gavin [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsWithout offending your musical sensibilities, I want those who might have been singing Madonna’s Get into the Groove, to turn it off of their mental playlist for a few minutes, and spin Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground instead.
It’s OK, if you have both battling it out in your brain. I did. Stevie prevailed in case you wondered.
Although it’s catchy, the Madonna track gets me into a small groove, but it can’t keep me there. Music is like that. I count on it, always, to get me in a steady groove and to keep me there. Shouldn’t education be like that too?
So, what’s a groove? Is it a track or channel that you fit yourself? Is it a vibe or a feeling? Is a groove smooth? How do you distinguish when you’re in a groove versus a rut? And how does it relate to my practice and pedagogy when you’re in one?
A groove is something that fits you perfectly. A groove feels good. When you’re in a groove, it never feels like what you’re doing is work. Being in the groove is contagious. It helps others around you find theirs too.* Imagine a whole school where everyone is in their teaching and learning groove? Students are witness to enthusiastic educators who are fearless learners and relentless encouragers.
What an incredible opportunity to learn, grow, and share everything that is awesome in education?
The groove is good
So whenever it feels like work then you’re in a rut. A rut travels from A to B or deeper. A rut wears down the traveler and the trail. Teaching in a rut is like being on auto-pilot because you’ve been down the same worn path over and over. A rut leaves its travelers dulled before, during, and after the journey.
The foundation for this post was set by wondering whether I am teaching in a rut or rocking/rolling along in a groove? And whether one was different from the other? My original post can be summed up in 3 key points to help stay out of a rut;
Being a flexible learner in front of students and colleagues
Being open and adaptable to what and where I teach(kind of like #1).
Seeing the challenge as something to accomplish rather than feeling punished for it.
Being unafraid of change even when it is something unknown
Thinking about this might be scary for some. Many of us have been raised in a corporate culture that requires keeping a nose to the grindstone, focused on the job, and safe from risk. That is precisely why we have to lift our heads and stretch our outlook. This comes from taking chances in the classrooms, hallways, staff-rooms. We have to encourage one another to share ideas, passions, successes, and failures. Teachers need to celebrate “the hard times and the good” with our students and with each other. That’s how we will find our groove(s)?
For me the groove is what gets me out of bed before the sun rises. It makes me excited to share learning with my students and with a world of educators. A groove does not have time for pettiness, negativity or self indulgence. A groove is designed for the positive, potential, and process in education.
Now the hard part…
What’s your groove? If you could do anything in education knowing you’d succeed, what would it be?
Thank you for reading. Please share and keep the conversation going in the comments section.
Will
* Oh, oh! I just thought of a B52’s song to go with this post.
I love music in most of it’s forms. It pervades my day, accompanies me as I work/relax, and provides me insight into people as an inter-generational time machine and lens. For a deeper understanding about the soundtrack to my life, click on this link to I(n) Tune.
It’s March, and things are changing – again. The birds now welcome me to school most mornings with their spirited songs. Not to be outdone, Winter still attempts to poison as many perfectly sunny seasonal days with its cold, wind, and snow. Preparing for outside supervision has required that I keep all outdoor gear at the ready for another March meteorological maelstrom. I am beginning to wonder whether I’ll make it through another outdoor supervision at -15 C or colder.
It’s been tough on our students too. Many times finding themselves cooped up in their classes due to frigid temps. Imagine learning, working, having your breaks, and eating your lunch in the same space as 25 other people? At least teachers can excuse themselves to the staff room. So it’s no wonder that, at the first signs of Spring, energy levels go from sedentary to bristling the moment the mercury rises above 0 C.
Yet, for all their energy, students find themselves confined to hardtop for recess while the weather changes its mind daily. The once snow covered fields are wet and look like pallid straw waiting for the sunlight to warm up its roots with the promise of growing greener. With it, a well worn patch of the mud and muck that has become the current site of a, “I dare you to jump this,” long-jump pit.
Recently, something stuck to my mind like mud on a shoe. It came after seeing this newly christened jumping pit on the school yard. It was a mucky/dirty patch of exposed earth full of tracks/footprints left behind by the brave who tried to clear it, but fell far short. Indeed, Spring’s official arrival comes with its share of magnificent and messy moments at schools.
the thought process
Those footprints made me think of how difficult it is to extricate a shoe or a car that is stuck in mud. That led to think about the expression,”a stick in the mud”, and how it relates to inflexible attitudes. Then I wondered, am I being inflexible? Could I be in a rut in my practice as an educator? Was I able to avoid the ruts and muck in my professional practice to stay in the groove moving forward, or was I already wallowing in it without knowing? Did I want to know? After all, some people pay big money at the spa for mud baths.
rut or a groove?
Are there ever signs to tell us we’re in a rut? I have been teaching grade 6 in one capacity or another since starting my career in 2009. The Junior Division is, definitely, one with which I am very comfortable as a teacher. But it’s that word comfort which concerns me because it might be keeping me in a rut and hindering my growth as a constant learner? Let me ask you. How long have you been teaching in the same classroom, subjects, grade or division? If you answered more than 3 years for any of these, you might be carving out quite a rut.
When you’re in a rut you can still roll along without an issue unless you try to get out. Climbing out is dangerous if ever attempted, and leaves one feeling exposed or vulnerable. Yet, if we move our students along from grade to another, why are we not seeking the opportunities to grow into new experiences as well by changing our routines in for some new ones? Sometimes a rut maybe so high that it is more like a canyon where sunlight seldom hits the floor. This means that perspectives become narrowed our hyper focused.
…we are certified to teach much more than we do. We spend tens of thousands of dollars to be certified to teach multiple grade levels, but we are put in a position, or are resistant to being any other position, of teaching one grade level for multiple years. Some teachers teach the same grade level for decades.
At some point, that does not foster growth. It fosters comfort. ” Peter DeWitt, 2015
Have you ever wondered why educators move schools? I know from experience that moving to a new school brings an infusion of enthusiasm, and ideas into a new learning space. We can’t help, but learn from one another when we engage in new situations and with new people. Many of us feel entitled to teach the same grade each year even when we are qualified to teach a range of grades and panels. We have to remember that assignments are not guaranteed for life and that change is ultimately better for our practice.
What about the argument that a rut is really a groove? In my next post, I will share about how we can escape or smooth out the ruts in our practice and get into a groove of our own.
I’d love to know your thoughts about this post. Please take the time to share in the comment section below.
Thank you for reading.
I am for sure aging myself here, but for those of you who may not be familiar with this figure of speech it is used to describe a person who is good at many skills but a master of none. That is the best way to describe who I am as a teacher and how I have evolved over my career of learning to be a better teacher.
Far too often we think that in order to use a strategy or tool in our classroom we have to be an expert at it. We don’t! As a teacher I have to be familiar with the content, the methodology and/or the necessary steps but I do not have to be a master of it. I am going to talk specifically to my personal Achilles tendon of teaching, the ARTS. I am in no way a musician, yet I can share my passion for music, lyrics and the powerful messages found in music. I can learn and teach to the curriculum expectations of my grade. I can partake in professional development opportunities to expand my skill set and knowledge. Even after all that, I will still not be an expert as compared to a music specialist.
My greatest accomplishment in the arts has been my work on understanding drama as a teaching tool, learning dramatic content and implementing it into my program. I have never been on stage (other than as an elementary student at Christmas time). I have never been a part of any formal dramatic theme, other than helping clean up after a school event and yet drama is one of the most successful components of my program these days. Each year my team and I take a group of highly volatile behaviour students and put on a formal dramatic presentation that we travel with to various schools within my board to share. We are currently in mid production of this year’s play.
Like in almost anything I was not comfortable with as a teacher, the students’ skill set, passion and innate ability to learn took over and I was just left to facilitate their growth. The second message is that when you share your expertise with your colleagues (collaborative planning) the saying that no one person knows more than all of us holds true. I am writing this for all teachers to understand that is it okay to take risks, it is okay to make mistakes in your classroom and learn from those mistakes and it is certainly okay to be a jack of all trades and master of none.
I remember my first day of teaching as if it had happened yesterday and not 32 years ago. As my journey of teaching continues, there have been countless scenarios that have occurred that brought a smile to my face, made me cry, challenged me, taught me and humbled me. Those are the moments that inspire me each and every day I enter my classroom. About 13 years ago a very passionate and visionary principal I worked with started our year off by giving each teacher an empty box. She then went on to describe how it is up to use to fill that box with memories, moments in time that are like treasures not to be lost or forgotten. Ever since that time I have kept a memory box.
This box is filled with magical moments that I have been a part of in my teaching experiences with colleagues, students and/or their families. There are letters, cards, toys, photographs, trinkets, phone call summaries, thank you cards, trip mementoes, amazing accomplishments of individual students as well as class accomplishments. What goes into that box is anything that reminds me just how precious and important my efforts are and that no effort is wasted. I take the time to go and revisit my box in moments of self-doubt, challenging times or just when it seems that nothing is going right. After just a few moments of revisiting these wonderful experiences I can raise my head and once again forge on filled with confidence and positive energy. I look forward to the day (not too far in the future) when I can stop, reflect back on a career as I take the time to go through each item in my memory box, piece by piece, story by story.
I hope you take the time to stop and smell the roses in your everyday teaching and life. Make a pledge to start your memory box in 2017. Happy New Year!
It’s too late. Whatever you wanted to share or teach in the classroom will have to wait until next year. I’d have liked a little more time. Was this the case for you too? Fortunately, a return date is just around the corner. Conversely, time away from routines can also restore mind, body, and spirit.
A break like this provides me with time to think about teaching and other pursuits. Usually, it’s catching up with family, over-caffeinating, reading, and blogging. With the school year already 40% complete, our time off serves as both restorative opportunity and cathartic challenge.
This December’s end, I wanted to reflect like it’s June. Think of it as part of my own personal development. I am trying to make sense of things now – in the moment. A resolution, pep talk, or plan of action if you please. This means there are a lot of questions to which the answers are either too simple, or underdeveloped.
Did I miss something? Could I have been more supportive? Did I make the curriculum come alive with relevance for my students? Did they have enough challenge, motivation, and opportunity to learn? Did I prepare enough? Did I assess too little? Too much? Did I give my students opportunity to succeed? Was I supportive to my colleagues? Did I give everything I could? Was my work-life balance maintained?
I am sure the answer to each one of the above questions could be yes. Even the one about work-life balance.
Now what?
Questions like these pervade my thoughts. I’m cannot be alone as a reflective practitioner in our profession. So how do you reflect at this time of the year? How are you de-stressing? Are you able to turn off your teacher brain for 2 weeks? How about checking your email or assessing student work?
Do you think that this changes over a career in education? After 8 years in the classroom, I am trying to see each season with fresh eyes, but still struggle with disconnecting entirely. Saying goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017 will see me sharing, reflecting, learning, and unlearning as part of a process crucial to a professional pursuit of progress. How about you?
Keep the conversation going. Please share, respond, or retort.
I love hearing about your journey and heart for the art of education.
Not sure if anybody noticed, but local shopping malls were unusually festive over the past 6 weeks. Come to think of it, schools were too. Ever since Progress Reports went home, there’s been something in the air. In fact, I’m pretty sure it had to do with an annually anticipated event or holiday festivity. Whatever the cause, excitement abounded wherever I looked – whether it was in the halls or the malls.
However, there was one distinct difference, I couldn’t imagine have Boxing Day type line ups to get back into the classroom as if there was a 75% off learning sale. Get your lessons while supplies last! What if it was? There is no doubt that many educators and students were ready for a break.
The time leading up to the big day saw many classrooms adorned with seasonally themed crafts, gyms hosting concerts with particular attention paid to inclusive and acceptable winter music standards, and a lot of people wearing red in order to match the annual gift giving man’s commercially conjured wardrobe.
For years, many(not all) have decided, that during the six weeks leading up to the winter holiday break, they would attempt to cram as much kindness, creativity, and cuteness beyond human limits, capacity or reason. It was amazing to witness what can be accomplished when plans are hatched and deadlines approach. All of the work, acts of kindness/giving, and stress leading up to the winter break did not go un-noticed.
But wait, I wanted to connect this post to education not the Hall-i-daze or Mall-idays.
In between dodging the inattentive and exhausted hordes, all I could think during my annual ‘mall-people-watching’ spectacle was how important having a purpose was to survive the experience. Come to think of it, teaching is quite similar. Having a purpose, a plan, and an exit strategy are imperative.
Am I saying that the halls of schools are filled with the inattentive and exhausted? Not exactly. Well maybe, but it does not have to be that way if we invigorate, iterate, and innovate our educational spaces. This can happen when educators at all levels are given the funds, flexibility and freedom to do so.
Take for example, instead of buying more text books a.k.a. knowledge coffins(my term), why not a document camera? See how I put some shopping in this post? Imagine the savings when digital copies of a Math text can replace 20 or 30 ($60 to 90) aging copies for fraction of the cost? Why should publishing companies be taking the lion’s share of our budgets? Of course, a few texts are necessary in each class, but not a text for every student in every subject in every class. The school wide savings of limiting text book purchases would free up budgets for more hands on learning resources like Math manipulatives, Science materials, maker spaces, and technology.
Allowing teachers a greater voice in their own budgets is a great place to start. In my classroom, we are paper minimalists. I do not believe in worksheets, instead make use of a document camera to share anything that might otherwise be copied. Instead of paper and consumables, I purpose 90% of my class budget for a growing collection of Math and Science manipulatives that will be useful from year to year instead of destined for the recycling bin.
By providing PD through school/board wide initiatives teachers would have a chance to engage in new ideas as new learners themselves. In the YRDSB we host 2 Edtech Summits per year to share ideas and learn new skills to use in the modern learning classroom. The new ideas, tools, and confidence can transform and invigorate a classroom. Imagine the engagement when students see a teacher as a learner too instead of the transmitter of lessons and marker of tests?
I can sense some walls and arguments being raised. Feel free to respond in the comment section. I promise it will not be comfortable at first. I promise it will be messy for a bit longer than that. I promise that mistakes will be made, but remember FAIL only means First Attempts In Learning. I promise that it will be the best thing you have ever done as an educator for a long time.
![By Stromcarlson (Originally uploaded to en as PD by Stromcarlson) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://heartandart.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Dust_bunnies.jpg)
![By Shane Gavin [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://heartandart.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/512px-Vinyl_groove_macro.jpg)
