self reflection

July 20, 2023July 13, 2023 Will Gourley Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Class Size Matters, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, IEP, Inspiring Students, Learning to learn, Making a Difference Through Education, self reflection, social emotional learning, Special Education, Student wellbeing, Wellbeing

that kid

Created by DALL-E
a-class-photo-of-faceless-students-in-the-styles-of-Monet-Rembrandt-Kandinsky-and-Warhol prompt by author

I was thinking about that kid and I found myself getting emotional.

You know the one. We all do. Whether the name(s) or face(s) you thought of are in your class this year or not. We all have one or two students who popped in there almost immediately. I am not going to sugar coat this either because it got emotional. When I think about that kid, my feelings range quite widely here. Anger, joy, sadness, peace, et al have all staked their claims in my amygdalae and other rose coloured spaces in my emotional thought centre.

My first “that kid” came when I was quite new to teaching. I probably owe them an apology for pushing too hard about their studies without considering how hard it must have been to be truly trying their best, but not meeting the expectations of which I was thoroughly* convinced were so clearly taught and put within reach. Like I mentioned above, an apology has been uttered on a couple of occasions for that learner into the universe.

There are two other feelings that happens sometimes, relief and angst. Relief that you were able to make it through a year together and grow. Angst over what I missed or, straight up, got completely wrong. My most recent that kid reads like this:

Is quiet – too quiet.
Sticks to the sidelines as if crazy glued there.
Struggles to start something, and struggles even more to finish.
Whether it is a transition, a sentence, or a math challenge mine has got me thinking about what I need to do differently next time because there will be a next time no matter how hard I work to learn the lessons from the past to use now and in the future.

As teachers, I’ve noticed that we tend to be pretty hard on ourselves much more often than we realize or care to admit. It’s who we are as reflective practitioners who seek to make things better for our learners. I have noticed that we fret far more about any flaws in our work even when there are few if any cracks in our foundations. We are constant works in progress alongside our students and we wear it on our sleeves when it doesn’t go well.

Sometimes, that kid gifts you some victories too. You see, all that time spent investing in that kid can turn out to be a life enriching moment for you as an educator and even more so for that kid as a scholar. Since my first that kid nearly 15 years ago, I have marveled at hearing from students who are completing degrees at amazing schools and starting to write the next chapters of their lives. This week I ran into a student who will be doing just that.

To be honest, it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops with this particular that kid. If poor choices, bad behaviour, and work avoidance were credit courses, this learner would be top of the class. Fast forward 6 years and they are about to begin a very challenging degree program at a top university. That could have only happened with significant support, responsibility, accountability, and commitment. In other words, the exact opposite to where they were back then. So what turned this scholar around? How did the switch get flipped, and who did the flipping? I was certainly thrilled to receive such news knowing that there would be more good things to come as a result of them finding their stride as a student. Whoever helped this “that kid” turn over a new leaf has changed one young person’s life not for good, but for great.

I am also aware that there are some who will never get to experience an about face like the that kid above, and I need to take ownership of that and work to improve going forward. Maybe my next that kid will not fall through the cracks through their education? I know that there is always room to improve what and how we do this job of ours. I know that teachers have countless conversations in order to find and fit the complex puzzle pieces we know as students together. I know that there is no single strategy or approach that will reach 100% of our students. What we need to remind ourselves is that we come pretty close to perfection, and we do it across a decade plus of siloed collaboration, between the panels, whether we realize it or not.

When you think about it, each of our students could have as many as 50 teachers over their K to 12 careers. Of course homeroom teachers occupy the bulk of those first 10 years yet that still means there are countless points of influential interaction to be had between an entire cast of educators all working in concert to make sure each that kid gets and gives the best.

This job asks us to accept and understand that we often will never know how the work we put in with our students will support them in the future. Closure is not a luxury many elementary teachers ever have once our students move onward and beyond our schools, but that should not bring us down because there is always that kid who takes the time, after several years have gone by, to reach out and connect again: to share how much they appreciated what was taught to them in and out of the classroom all those years ago.

*On a random note: the word thoroughly breaks down into tho roughly. So now my idea of thorough will always be considerate of whether I was thorough or tho rough

July 13, 2023 Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Inclusion, Inspiring Teachers, Literacy, Professional Learning and Growth, self reflection, Teacher Appreciation, Wellbeing, Year End Reflection

Celebrations

Congratulations, you did it! We all made it through another year and are now on our much deserved summer vacation. This calls for a celebration! Yesterday at my school’s final PA day of the year, we were asked to reflect and share with our table-top the celebrations of the year. Things that have happened that we can positively reflect on. After everyone shared in the small groups, we were asked to share with our entire staff. It’s funny that with 10-12 different table groups, almost everyone shared the same general ideas. I am sure as you read this, hopefully you will also be able to share in the same celebrations.

Reasons to celebrate the 2022-2023 school year:

Student growth- the common idea amongst us all was that students grew from September to June. Not only with their reading, writing, etc. but their character developed. Behaviours settled down and students matured as the year went on. We were all able to identify a specific student that amazed us, specifically with their personal growth. I shared about a student who found it challenging to come to school last school year but thrived this year in a new classroom environment. Tears came to my eyes sharing about how proud I am of this student as his personal growth inspired me in so many ways.
Writing- teachers shared about how their students could only write a few words at the beginning of the year but by the end, were writing stories by the end of a school day. I can also relate to this as I have so many students who doubled their writing samples by the end of June.
Reading- our school’s plan this year was small group guided instruction and we especially focused on this in our language classrooms. Many of us noticed the impact this had on our students, focusing on phonics really allowed our students to grow as readers. Many of the primary teachers worked with programs that helped their students read. They noticed large gains and were so excited to share the success that the reading specialist and these programs helped them to achieve. We are continuing with this goal next year and I look forward to starting small reading groups in September. My class especially amazed me with their reading abilities, decoding at grade level and making connections to what they read.
Making good memories- with the year having minimal disruptions, students had a hard time picking just one memory to share that was their favourite. Opportunities were available again for students to make memories and they were all so excited to share during the last few days of school. When my own students shared this was their favourite year of school, I was so happy to hear! I look forward to creating new memories in September.
Feeling like a family- something that I am personally celebrating is that feeling of togetherness that every educator hopes to achieve with their class. By the end of June, I can fully look back on the year and say we achieved it. With respect, random groupings, positive affirmations and weekly celebrations, I know that everyone felt that our class was a family. This feeling made the final bell especially hard to hear on the last day of school. However, I look forward to next year and hope to achieve that same feeling again.

As we reflect on our successes from the year, they are probably some things we wish to “leave behind”. Whether it be a project, a mindset or a seating plan style that we didn’t quite like, it’s important that we don’t dwell on the negative, but look at the positives. I encourage you all to make a list of things that you want to celebrate from this year and think about it during your much deserved summer break. See you in September!

May 1, 2023 Will Gourley #hybridhurtskids, Celebrating Success, General, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Occasional Teachers, Outdoor Education, Outdoor Learning, physically active, self reflection, Student wellbeing, Weather

love(s)

Image generated by DALL-E 2 with prompts from author

love…”what is it good for?”
love…”exciting and new.”
love…means nothing to a tennis player

L O V E is an often overused word

Keep reading if you used the word ‘love’ somewhere in a conversation today.
Here are some examples: “I love this song.” “Do you love this sweater?” “Wow, do I love this book.” “Bye mom. I love you.” I could go on because the very air around us abounds in love throughout the day at school, but so often it seems that we miss the opportunities to them all in, let alone enjoy them.

Where are you going here Gourley?

Last week the first talk from TED 2023 was shared by Angus Hervey (click link) and it serves as the inspiration for this post.* As you know I can dig into some uncomfortable spaces here and felt the need to spread a little sunshine after hearing the ideas worth spreading from this year’s TED.

It’s April, late April to be precise. Spring is somewhere in the air. I know because I felt it at the beginning of the month with a week of unseasonally warm days. I loved how some were complaining that it was too hot. I also loved not having to scrape frost off of my windshield or see remnants of blizzards past on my lawn as well. I even put away my super warm toque until next year. I loved seeing the first flowers poking through the brown matted grass. I love how nature keeps its own time. With a spring in my steps I have found it really easy to get up before the alarm clock as light and warmth pour into my room to start the day.

I love knowing that the we will keep getting closer to the sun for a couple more months. I love feeling the change of seasons and the decisions being made to remove layers of sweaters, winter boots, hats and gloves. I love the fresh and hearing the birds sharing their songs with me each morning. I love how having windows open allows for nature to visit the classroom. I love how learning spaces can be expanded exponentially when more time outdoors is included. Math, Phys Ed, Social Studies, Science, and every other subject just got a lot more fresh.

I love how students get so excited to be taking the learning outdoors. I love how much planning goes into preparing for these memorable moments and the amount of faith it takes to pull them off with so many variables at throughout the day. I love how students can still be goofy at heart – staff too for that matter.

I love how this year has flown past without a single moment of hybrid teaching. I love how OT positions have been filled more frequently. I love how well schools run when there are no outside forces undermining and gaslighting the incredible work done each day on behalf of students, their families, and the community. I love that students know we are working hard for them.

I love being an educator.

* The actual talk has not been posted however the article above captures the goodness contained therein.

April 6, 2023 Arianna Lambert Kindergarten, Literacy, Math, self reflection, STEM

Spring Has Sprung!

After what has felt like a long, cold winter, I think it’s safe to say that spring has sprung. Well, at least in our classroom! The kindergarten students have been hard at work learning about plants and what they need to grow. We’ve even started growing our own grass heads. We’re pretty excited about it!

During the first week back after the break, we were talking all about spring and we were also building. Students used Lego to build something that reminded them of the season. Many students built gardens that were full of interesting flowers and animals. They were quite beautiful and this sparked some of our conversations about all the changes that we expect to see over the next few weeks.

After seeing all of the beautiful Lego gardens and I must admit that I have quite a love for plants, we thought it might be great to try our hand at a little gardening. Using some eye, nose and mouth stickers, students were tasked with creating a face for their grass head. Once they added the faces, cups were filled with soil and they began drawing and writing in their journals about what their grass heads would need to grow. Now, I think that I mentioned before that I’m relatively new to kindergarten so it was definitely interesting to see students trying to copy off the whiteboard. EEK! I can’t say enough how grateful I am to work with and learn from two amazing ECEs! Of course, they were there to the rescue and showed me that some students required more support and that tracing might be a way to get them to practice forming their letters. I tucked this one away for our next class together.

Time truly flies when you are having fun. During our first class, we were able to prepare our cups but the fun came during our second class when we had the chance to mix our soil and grass seeds and add water. Let me tell you how excited the students were. Little fingers got mixing seeds in soil as students were reminded that we needed soil, water, sun and seeds to make their grass heads grow. During this class, we also wrote the first entry in our observation journal and this time, we were able to do some tracing. Students also had the opportunity to draw a picture of what they observed. I asked students to make predictions on how long it would take to see the grass grow and we got answers anywhere from the next day to two weeks. This was on a Friday and imagine my surprise on a Monday morning when I started to see some little green bits popping out of some of the soil.

We haven’t yet had a class together this week but I’ve had a few visitors come up to water and I’ve taken down some of our grass heads for students to see their growth. They are amazed that they started growing so soon and that some already have a lot of “hair”. Yesterday, one student noticed that in some cups, the grass is growing really long roots. On Friday when we meet again, we’ll start to measure our grass and we’ll continue to record our observations. I wonder at what point our grass heads will need a trim!

April 6, 2023 Arianna Lambert Black History Month, Equity, Inspiring Teachers, self reflection, The Arts

Unpacking the System Through Artistic Expression

In February, ETT hosted workshops, offered an incredible book draw and shared resources and events happening during Black History Month. I was honoured to have the opportunity to design and facilitate a workshop for members that was offered during Black Mental Health Week – recognized during the first week in March. The workshop was entitled Unpacking the System Through Artistic Expression. It was an interactive workshop, where participants came together to discuss some of the challenges while considering ways in which practicing art and embracing our own creativity can help support our mental health and well-being journey. The evening was capped off by some time to get creative with black canvas and neon paint.

It was an absolute honour to have had this opportunity and I must admit that in the planning stages, I was a little nervous for a number of reasons:

I know what interests me and I’m not always sure that it resonates with other members. I wanted this to be a space where people would have the opportunity to connect, share stories and strategies, and have fun painting. I knew that I wanted to share some of my experiences navigating the system and offer that to members but I’m also acutely aware that for many, sharing our stories is deeply personal and historically, the “safe” spaces often spoken about, don’t exist. In planning, I decided to stick to sharing my own experiences, some facilitation on white supremacy culture and really focusing on the joy that can come from creating.
When I think of paint nights, people are usually painting the same image. For this session, I wanted participants not to focus so much on learning how to paint something but to have the freedom to be able to create what they wanted with the materials. I crossed my fingers and hoped that members would embrace the idea of being free to create.
This was my first in-person workshop since the start of the pandemic. I still mask and sometimes feel a little awkward in new or unfamiliar settings where I might be the only one. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Being greeted by a masked Juluis at the ETT office really went a long way to ease some of the last few jitters.

Our paint night was a success! It was great meeting, chatting, and creating with members. It was incredible how quickly time went by. So often, we are at events and thinking about what’s next. It was refreshing to see members who came prepared to fully engage. I have been on a mission to intentionally carve out time for experiences that bring me joy. For me, this was yet another opportunity and it was truly an honour.

March 29, 2023March 29, 2023 Will Gourley 21st Century Learning, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Professional Learning and Growth, self reflection, social emotional learning, Teacher Wellness, Wellbeing, wellness

fractures

an image of fractions made with a blend of colourful geometric shapes in the style of Picasso and Klimt via Dalle 2 — Image – fractions made with a blend of colourful geometric shapes in the style of Picasso and Klimt via Dalle 2 prompts by author

Bumps, bruises, cuts, and scars dot my skin. They serve as little reminders of the life that has been lived on the outside. Whether visible to others or not, I cannot look at them without recalling most of the moments and misadventures that caused them. I see these marks as near misses and continue to add more to my collection whether it is in the kitchen, workshop, or enjoying time with others.

Call this post ‘fractures’?

In my half century plus adventure time, I have not broken many bones along the way. Other than most of my fingers, a couple of ribs (which made baseball and golfing really tough that year), and my nose back in grade 6 playing football on the school team, I have been very fortunate not to ever be fitted with an itchy or cumbersome cast – although there is still time.

My collection of near misses and minor breaks have taught me quite a bit. I have to take my physical existence seriously when it comes to my actions and inactions. Perhaps my injuries are the products of inattention on my part? Perhaps I let my guard down with what-could-possibly-go-wrong thinking? Perhaps I needed to pay closer attention going forward? Somehow I am sounding like my parents and teachers and it’s bringing me back to the purpose of this post – fractures.

There is not a single one among us who enters the classroom each day without fractures. You see, we have all endured down times, loss, failure, and disappointment at one point in our lives or another. Whether physiologically or psychologically, fractures come along with life’s other certainties such as death, taxes, and dishes(without apologies to Ben Franklin). What we make of our fractures is often where we find our strength and determination.

If a bone breaks, the body begins the healing process immediately. Once something goes snap, the cells organize themselves to start the repair process. Interestingly enough, it is not like your brain is the boss yelling at the workers to do their jobs or go faster. At this point it is along for the ride because the body already knows what to do. The brain just takes the credit. “My what a nice job we did healing that tibia over the past 6 weeks.” Despite attending to the remediating a reconstruction project, the body can still get about other daily cognitive business, but when someone’s mind or spirit becomes fractured, the body is often likely to deteriorate in the process until healing and restoration are complete. So why is this so hard?

Fractures in our personal and thought lives are never usually front and centre though. Adding to this mystique is the elusive nature of mental health in general. Our fractured spirits are not easily seen by untrained minds and are often interpreted as rude behaviour or that maybe you need a time out to gather your thoughts. This is also common in our students. It is also compounded because, many times, they are processing emotions that seem difficult to articulate due to confusion and fear of being judged, cast out, mocked, or all of the above.

The Ontario Grade 6 Health Curriculum gives us some solid teaching and learning points that I have really been trying to build into the life skillsets of students in and out of our class time. Interestingly enough, this teaching really meshes well with the book The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels which happens to be my current personal read, but that’s a blog for a different site.

So often we are faced with situations that are followed by a barrage of feelings and much more often than not we find ourselves reacting rather than responding. As our lessons have progressed, students have learned to assess the situation, identify their emotions, and then use strategies for resolution. Yet, even with the skills we are implementing into our daily interactions, the struggle to be honest and free of fear about our fractures and feelings is really hard to reckon with one another. This goes for teachers just as much as students.

We need to step outside of our comfort zones which double as camouflaged cages of social media level perfection and problem free happiness. We need to normalize that life is messy at times and that things can be and become broken. If we take time to pick up the pieces and put them back together there is a chance that these fractures can be mended.

In many cases the silence is even more deafening when it comes to issues of mental health in the classroom. Judging by recent news reports in response to the provincial budget causes me to believe we are in for more and more fractured students slipping through the cracks in our schools.

Yes, we can acknowledge it, but more often than not we are still too fractured as a society to truly support each other when there is so much need already. The keys has been and will continue to be in the hands of educators. As we walk through the hallways and curate our classrooms, take time to help the fractured around you by making time to acknowledge them (yourself), listen (talk with someone), and help them (yourself) heal.

March 29, 2023 Kelly.McLaughlin Building Inclusion, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Inclusion, self reflection

Cultural Humility

At a recent P.A. Day, we were learning about “Cultural Humility” and how every person should somehow reflect on this on a daily basis. One definition I found is, “Cultural Humility Is: A personal lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of [their] own beliefs and cultural identities.” (inclusion.uoregon.edu)

Cultural Humility is a lifelong process

During our discussions, we talked about how this is a lifelong process, not just something you think about for a month. You need to always be aware of your own biases, maybe based on your personal beliefs or your cultural beliefs. As educators, it is even more important that we take time to think about this on a daily basis.

Everyone is equal

Part of this process is to recognize that no culture is superior and to also learn about other cultures. I think we can do a great job at this by making sure our classroom libraries reflect all cultures, that we make sure we are learning about every celebration and not just one from one culture, and also making sure that the articles and curricular content we are sharing is based on more than one cultural story. This is how we can start to make sure our cultural humility is shown in our own practice.

Be honest when you are unsure

We do not have to know all the things at all times (even though students think we do). It is okay to look things up, to be aware of what we know and do not know. There are so many great resources especially within our own ETFO articles that can help us learn more about this topic. I particularily enjoyed the content during February, having discussions about the Black History Month poster, etc. So it is best to be honest when you are not sure about a specific topic.

Learn about other cultures

I remember being a 13 year old in a Catholic School unsure of the other cultures around me. I knew there were other religions and other nationalities but I had never really learned about anything outside of my inner circle (my own culture). It wasn’t until high school that I started to find out about other cultures and by then, I had already lost so much time getting to know other people. This is why I love how creating these opportunities to learn about other cultures will help others see outside of their inner circle. I have a grade eight student who is so hoping to run a Culture Day by the time she graduates and I hope we have time to get it going. I think this is important of us educators too- if there is a culture we are unsure about, we could do some more research to find out about it.

Our school board has a program that was created to help our students understand more about this topic. Our program is called “LDR (Learn, disrupt and rebuild) and our Module 3- Exploring Human Rights helps students dig deeper into these topics. I challenge you all to think about your own cultural humility as it is a personal commitment but also a lifelong one.

March 19, 2023 Kelly.McLaughlin Challenging Topics, Mental Health, Resilience, self reflection, Wellbeing, wellness

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.

February 23, 2023 Will Gourley Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Flexible Classroom, General, Inquiry, Learning to learn, self reflection

antiques and collectibles

Recently, I had enough energy at the end of a work week to do something unusually out of character when it comes to my free time. What was it you ask? Nothing. I did nothing school related for an entire 48 hours. Well it was almost 48 hours, but who’s counting? What counts, is that it happened over that magical weekend of the school year when report cards are completed and next term planning, assessment, and fretting were up to date.

The ability to experience this “blue moon”occurrence was directly due to this cosmically-convergent educational allignment and allowed for some spontaneously spirited adventure. Energized, caffeinated, and curious I went to an antiques and collectibles store to browse their wares knowing there was nothing pressing in the backburners of my mind. I was free to roam.

Full disclosure

I struggle with shopping and wandering through retail spaces without a specific purpose, most of the time, my visits are only out of necessity and not as a way to wile away the hours. On this particular day however, before I could keep on strolling past the entrance doors, I was on the top floor. With my spouse and son leading the way, it became very apparent that I was in for a treat.

Back to my story

This place had everything from china plates, old Tupperware, vintage clothing, vinyl records, VHS tapes, jewelry, and books crammed throughout its four floors. In fact, there were so many other items that another visit is definitely in the cards the next time the stars allign. It was as if collectors of odd memorabilia and retro housewares throughout time had converged in one space. (I’ll come back to this idea. Please read on.)

The 2 plus hours we spent pacing the aisles of this place came with all of the kitchy over-stimulation that accompany musty books, retro clothing, milk crates brimming with albums, and constant trips down memory lane from the relentless onslaught triggering my fond and fading memories. Given my unusually relaxed state of mind, I also found myself taking inventory of my life when it came to things that were held dear and things that have been allowed to disappear unless dug out through deep sensory recollection.

Cue the thoughts about being in the classroom

Now I have not spent two hours in one indoor space, other than work or home, voluntarily since COVID 19 broke out. So this day was very different from most in the past 3 plus years. As I wandered the store, I started to ask myself what needed to be thrown out, gifted to someone, or recycled in my teaching space? Maybe it was seeing all of these items occupying space throughout the store that created this thought ripple?

I know that it is easy to accumulate resources in this profession and I have gathered and then lugged my share of boxes from class to class and school to school, but recently I find myself taking a different approach to my, let’s say, hoarding nature by going through each resource and deciding whether it is time to keep it, gift it, or toss it. My goal here is to reduce the clutter that might be getting in the way of new ideas and resources coming into my classroom. If I am only holding on to the same ones because they are comfortable and known, I might not be doing any favours for my students.

Just like that antiques and collectibles shop revealed that day, there are somethings worth hanging onto because of their value. This could be a tried and true unit plan or favourite resource that is used on regular rotation throughout your career. In other cases, it might be a dust collector that never took off. As we seem to be shifting away from text books, and in response to changing curricula, it is probably best that teachers take inventory of what they have been carrying around in the hopes that someday it might be useable in the classroom.

Other than Math manipulatives, art supplies, and novels, I have learned that everything in my classroom should only be a temporary fixture that can be replaced or retired when it comes to instructional resources. If reading that makes you uncomfortable, that’s okay. I am not talking about wasteful consumption along the lines of fast fashion, but my thinking is that we can become stuck in the safe and familiar. It is in our nature to stick to our favourites at the risk of missing out on something unknown, possibly more relevant, without realizing it.

I had a Fables unit for Gr 4 that I wrote about 12 years ago. It was beautiful, comprehensive, so descriptive, and complete. It was a show piece sitting in its binder and although I worked hard on that unit, I never used it again. As I was going through my resources, I opened it up again only to realize that this work would be counter-intuitive for me to share with my students. The fact that it was laden with worksheets to copy and lacklustre lesson activities made me realize the amount of changes that have occurred in my own pedagogy. I pulled the pages out of the binder and blue binned them back to the recycler in the hopes that something better will be printed on them next time. It was hard to accept that most of that work was no longer relevant, but it was an important reminder about how we have to shake off the love/bias we have for our own ideas in order to get better. In other words, leave the antiques and collectibles behind sometimes.

I have held the walls of that box up even while outside forces were trying to pull them down for me to try something new. As teachers we develop a sense of what will and won’t work through our experience(s), what walking through this shop made me realize was that what worked from the past is not guaranteed to work in the future. We are using resources and methods that were used to teach us when we were students in grade school. Sure we have tech and access to every truth and lie via the internet, but that should not preclude us from taking stock of what we use on a regular basis or to boldly seek how to change it all up on a regular basis.

Thank you for reading. Please share and leave a comment if you would like to continue the conversation.