Start of the year

September 25, 2017 Will Gourley First Week Reflections, General, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Learning About Your Students, Start of the year

It’s like September all over again

Have you ever walked into a classroom and did a double take? Trying to gather your bearings, did it feel as if you’d been in that exact same spot and the very same moment before? I know it’s happened to me and wonder if other educators feel this way?

Returning to the classroom in September can be like this. The faces are different, maybe even the school, but there are connective currents running through time and space that signal you’ve been there before. I am reminded of a hall of fame quote by Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

This September, I started at my 4th school in 9 years. I could not be more thrilled joining a new family of learners and educators. Of course, I miss my old schools, but as I’ve written before, we have to move on to grow in our professional practice. This year was no exception, even after 3 amazing years at my former school.

Unsurprisingly, since the first bell on Day 1, things have been occurring at the speed of learning. Meeting my students/families, observing them interact, and watching them navigate our classroom for the first time. I’m never sure who is more anxious on the first day, parents, students or me?

To this teacher, the first week of school is like a three-way collision between energy, ideas, and awkwardness. I love walking into a new building and asking students to help me learn directions and routines. On more than one occasion, a student will ask, “Aren’t you supposed to know this?” I reply, “Maybe, but it’s more fun to ask. I’m new.”

What I’ve seen over my first 9 Septembers

After 9 first days of school, some things have not changed. September is a time when everyone is (re)acquiring their routines and rhythms. Everyone is trying to put their best foot forward – almost. Depending on their Summer, the most reticent learners and educators might still require an extra week or 2 to get up to speed. We need to avoid the rush to establish out of reach expectations. There have been a couple of years where I struggled to find my groove. I have found that the first few weeks are like a contract negotiation. Everyone is trying to get what they want out of the deal, and it takes time to hammer them out.

Each year I enter our, not my, classroom with complete trust that students are there to be awesome. Empowering them and presuming best intentions have always been great places to launch an important year together. Bringing students into the conversation and decision-making process, from the start, allows for long-term success based on understanding and mutual respect.

This happens in our classroom in a number of ways across a number of days. Students are asked to take chances, make mistakes, and be unafraid to fail. It asks us all to become comfortable with discomfort, feeling safe when vulnerable, and knowing everyone is respected and valued. If a space for this has not been created in my classroom, then there will be a risk of starting off on the wrong foot. Taking the time to create a consistent and caring class culture will ensure a cohesive committed community for the whole year.

What I did over the Summer

As a kid, it seemed that every start of the year writing assignment was a retelling of my summer. This was usually followed up with a presentation in front of the class. I am not sure whether this was an act of sadism or masochism for the teachers who assigned the task, and then had to listen as each one was shared. All I remember is that the act of recalling my summers and the subsequent in-class attention were boring for me too.

As I enter the classroom, I vowed to change this. I have asked students to share what they’ve regretted about their Summer, or what they would do over and change. We hold off on “presentating” in favour of peer sharing where volunteers are asked to read a few highlights that stand out after reading their classmates’ work. I’ve found that using 6 Words Stories as a great introduction exercise.

This year I had students write their own and then write one for their seat partner. *

Build flexibility into your planning

Beware of over planning. Yes, some planning must be done. Preparation is important, but a measured approach is best. Over planning has been, and continues to be a mistake I make. However, when plans go uncompleted or go off course, I am not going to count it as a loss. There needs to be time built into our work for the second and third questions. Sometimes students have more questions than we have answers. Yes, it takes away time from your plans, but the relationship building established through it will become invaluable going forward. Give yourself permission to go off script. The students will appreciate the spontaneity.

Noise

As part of classroom routines and noise management, I have heard classics from, “Hands on top. That means stop.” to “Un, deux, trois, les yeux sur moi.” These work well with JK/SK and primary classes, but tend to aggravate the more sophisticated learners in the Junior Panel.

I use a number of noise makers, ranging from a wood block shaped like a pig, a rain stick, and a guira Each is strategically placed about the room to access as needed. They are used to draw students back from their independent or team work. I also have a spot in the class where I will wait for students to come back to hear further instruction or feedback.

Another ‘attention-getter’ to consider is something shared by Paul Solarz called “Give me 5!” I love the power this places in students hands along with the responsibility to be relevant and engaging as they capture the room to share their ideas.

Having a wide variety of tools in the kit have allowed each of my 9 first days of school to begin memorably and effectively. Of course there are bumps and tweaks to be made along the way, but that ads to the joy of the job. As each year brings us a unique set of lives to discover, equip, and watch flourish.

Thank you for reading this post. I look forward to sharing with you again this year. If you have any questions about the resources or strategies shared please message me below.

*Which 6 words would you use to share your story? Feel free to share in the comments section.

September 24, 2017 Arianna Lambert Inspiring Students, Learning About Your Students, Math, Start of the year

Empowering Young Mathematicians

I’ve always been a lover of Math. Even when I wasn’t particularly strong in a specific area, I always loved the thought of calling myself a Mathematician. Now I know it’s a huge leap from loving the subject to ascribing to being a Mathematician but hear me out for a minute. As many of my friends may know, I love Google so I thought I would ask my good friend for the definition and here’s what I found.

Magically, this definition empowered me to realize that I too can be a Mathematician simply by being a student of Mathematics. It didn’t say that I always have to excel in all areas. It simply says that I have to be a student. Now for the definition of student. Ok Google….

I’m going to go with the last definition. A person who takes an interest in a particular subject. So after much searching, I think it’s safe to embrace the term. The question is, how do I get my students to do the same?

Inevitably, when I ask my students to tell me about their Math experiences, there are many who already describe themselves as being “not good at Math” or state, “it’s too hard”. My task then is to reframe their experiences with Math, encouraging them to change their outlook.

At the beginning of the year, I’m always looking for new ways to engage my students in Math tasks as my assessment for learning. For the last couple of weeks, we have been doing Which One Doesn’t Belong activities and I have been asking my students to use Mathematical language to justify their answers. After a few rounds, one of my students started laughing and said, “there’s really no wrong answer so long as you explain what you are thinking”. It was interesting because it didn’t occur to many of them that there may be multiple possibilities to answering these types of questions.

This got me thinking and asking myself:

Is this what holds our students back from realizing that sometimes engaging in Math isn’t just about getting the right answer but exploring different pathways to finding solutions?
Is Math about allowing students to explore the different concepts and seeing where these concepts intersect or are useful in everyday life?
Can we reframe Math for our students so that they realize that so long as they take an interest in it and persist as students, they too can be Mathematicians and that it is not only about “being good at it”?
On Friday we were coding in Scratch and words like values, angles, turns, length were coming out. Isn’t that Math? Can we explicitly teach the concepts and empower them to create using them?

Ms. Lambert, the self-proclaimed Mathematician, is on a mission this year to work with students to empower them to embrace Math just a little more. I’ll keep you posted on our journey!

March 5, 2017 Mike Beetham Communication with Parents and Guardians, General, Learning in a Real Life Context, Resources, Start of the year

Allies

The word ally is typically defined as a nation or state cooperating with another for a military purpose. As with most words it of course has been expanded for many uses but retains the meaning of being on your side. So the question I ask you today is, as a teacher who are your potential allies?

From the minute I enter into my school I have an amazing opportunity to make allies, get people to support the work I do with my students, school and community. Allies are everywhere but like countries you must take the time to build up relationships to develop those allies. When you do that, they will be there when you need them most. I am going to talk about several key allies that I have in working with my students and how without them there are many things I would have much greater difficulty accomplishing.

The first ally is of course the parent(s) of my students. Let’s be honest, we both really want what is best for a child even though we may not agree on how to accomplish that. From the moment I know a child is going to be in my classroom I reach out to families to try and start building that working relationship. It starts with a simple call home the week prior to school welcoming them and their child to my classroom. It continues on with my first Weekly News letter home by asking them to brag about their child as they know them best as well as asking them to prioritize two goals they would like their child to accomplish this year. This helps sends the message they are a part of the formula to create success for their child. I continually update them with sunshine calls home, weekly news updates, inviting them to attend events in the classroom and any other way I can include them or make use of their expertise and assistance in my room. Of course not every parent becomes my ally or totally agrees with every decision I make. There will be some parents who just won’t or don’t engage in your efforts. This work I put into recruiting parent allies always pays off with some very strong relationships that are there when I need them most.

The second set of allies I work hard at creating are with the school support staff such as our office manager and custodial team. These are key people who are the heart and soul of the school and can be there to support me in many situations when I need the help. One of the most unique request I made of our custodian was to have our front classroom door taken off so my class could create a drawbridge door for our Medieval Times study. Needless to say I had to have a strong relationship with that person to make and receive such a request. Our office manager (and every office manager) is the heart of the school. He/she is the first and often last person everyone sees when coming to our school. That role is so important and my class spends time on a regular basis showing how we appreciate the work she does. That time and effort has helped me many times over the years when I need a last minute request or forgot some important deadline.

The final ally I want to talk about is a community-based position. My class spends time doing service learning projects and as such we need to have people who trust that I can take a group of 8-11 years old out into the community and perform projects that enhance our community. I have worked a lot with city environmental personnel who over the years have come to value and trust our staff and the request we make. There are community agencies and people who can also become a potential ally for you.

As I began to change the lens upon which I viewed my classroom I began to see more and more how many potential allies (support) I have available to me. I do not have to do this on my own. My educational team continues to grow as I grow relationships and take advantage of the opportunities they can provide me in supporting my students and my professional growth. Allies do not just happen, you must work at creating them.

September 28, 2016 Tammy Axt Start of the year, The Arts

Starting The Year With Dance

Welcome to a new year! My name is Tammy Axt and I am a music/drama/dance teacher at a K-5 school in Brampton, Ontario. This is my fifth year teaching music and my first year teaching drama and dance. I am sure that with my new teaching package I will have a lot of learning to share in this blog. I love my job wholeheartedly and am proud to be part of the BEST profession in the WORLD! I should mention that I come from a maritime family where hyperbole is the norm when interacting in daily life.

In addition to teaching drama and dance for the first time, it has also been my first time teaching grade one in many years. Wow, they sure are a busy bunch. I’ve already learned a ton about having really simple, short instructions and built-in busy and quiet times. All of my grade one classes are also going to require a lot of community building and development of social skills.

This term, the grade ones will be making up a number of dances. However, this month I have noticed a few things about grade ones in my class. First, they cannot remember what dance moves they came up with three days ago. Second, they have no idea who their partner was three days ago. Third, they have difficultly putting papers on the floor in a row to make a sequence. Finally, without some structure put in place, they will have difficulty building on and revising their creations.

My colleague and I talked it through and came up with the very simple idea of housing their creations in a file folder. Each section of the folder would contain one creation that the students came up and at the end of the term the file folder with all of the dance plans will go home with the students.

Our first dance plan addresses the curriculum expectation ”students will use movements that are part of their daily experience in a variety of ways in dance phrases”. We asked the students to come up with movements that they like to do and draw a picture of the movement on two pieces of white paper. We glued the two pieces of paper into the folder and scribed the words that matched the picture. The folders will be a valuable tool in helping the students to create their dances and assist them in remembering what they did in their previous dance period.

September 5, 2016 Will Gourley General, Start of the year

Digging the new digs.

Colleague: SO…how did you end up out in a portable?

Me: I volunteered.

Colleague: Really? (making a face of disbelief) You volunteered?

Me: Yup! I call it the learning bunker or my tarmac chalet. Did I mention it is air-conditioned and has a dedicated WiFi signal? (trying not to smile too much)

This year’s students will occupy, to the max, every square inch of this indoor space. And they will be allowed to shape it to suit their needs as learners for this year, and not mine. This will be, after all, a democratized classroom intended to engage student voice and choice from the get-go. However small, our instructional space will not be limited to these steel clad walls. Instead we will pursue a more ubiquitous approach. In fact a world of outdoor learning is mere metres out the single entrance/exit door, just as much as it is at the tips of fingers online.

Starting with this configuration on Day 1

So how will it be in your class? Will you allow students to shape it to make it their own? Are the walls waiting to be the gallery space for their work? How will you step aside for your learners to thrive?

Whenever reflecting on this, I always find motivation from the Twitter motto of Christina Milos. It says, “Making myself progressively unnecessary. Therefore, a teacher.” That simple axiom frames what I want to do for my students year after year, and challenges me to do better when I catch myself falling back to old habits.

Every time I want to make it my class and about me it’s simple wisdom from teachers like Milos that keep me humble and focused on my role as educator, equipper, and encourager with a job to do.

It now becomes the homeroom to 30 new Grade 6 learners with hopes, dreams and limitless talents. I can’t wait to see what they will do and will enjoy becoming progressively unnecessary to them as the year goes on.

September 5, 2016 Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Celebrating Success, General, Inspiring Teachers, self reflection, Start of the year

Dear Teacher

This is an open letter to all teachers across the world no matter what your role. This past summer I was part of a campaign entitled ‘Project Hero’. Teachers and students from across Canada wrote to teachers in Sierra Leone celebrating the extraordinary courage and resiliency they demonstrated during the Ebola crisis in their country. My team and I were able to hand deliver over 300 letters to teachers from all regions of that country. In continuing with this campaign, I am sharing a letter from me to teachers around the world.

Dear Teacher,

What words describe a hero? One might say kind, super hero strong, courageous, resilient, compassionate, generous, self-sacrificing, trustworthy, gracious, fearless and loyal (only to name a few). Each and every day you demonstrate these altruistic characteristics in so many ways that make a difference for the students you are entrusted with.

Yet, your tireless efforts are not celebrated in books, movies or on the television. Your efforts are not worthy enough to make the evening news or local headline. There are precious few times when even a thank you is shared. That is what makes you a hero. You are not seeking public fame. You are not trying to get unlimited likes on social media and you do not seek out recognition of any kind. You simply do what you do because it makes a difference in the life of a child and ultimately the world in which we live in.

I have had the honour of being a teacher for thirty-one years and am ready to start another voyage in the life of a group of children. I am honoured and humbled to be in such a noble profession working with heroes like you each and every day. I wish you the best in this school year and will say thank you in advance for the many, many heroic acts you will carry out on behalf of children around the world.

Humbly yours,

Michael Beetham

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

PS – please share this video with a hero you know

– this is the moment some of the Sierra Leone teachers

received their letters

January 5, 2016 Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Start of the year

Assessing Student Work

Adding onto my last post about the excellent book I read, “Creative Schools”, I would like to expand on an idea from Sir Ken Robinson. He spoke of a program called “Fresh Grade” where you would take pictures of student’s work and you would store that online. These are online student portfolios where you directly take photos of their work and comment on these photos. You can set up parents to be the eyes of the account so that each day or week, depending on the time you would like to take to update this, your parents will see the work of their children. Sir Ken talks about not including marks on these tasks as we have become too mark orientated as a whole generation. I have included comments on students work and I have made sure to include next steps for the parents to see. I hope to continue using this program “Fresh Grade”.

My next step is to contact parents asking permission to email them the portfolio that goes with their child’s work. The letter I will create to go with the portfolio is yet to be created and I would love advice of how to create that letter! I hope to attach the parent’s email to their child’s account so the communication of student work is always ongoing!

I cannot wait to see the reaction from parents and I hope that this app interests them.

January 1, 2016 Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Classroom Management, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Learning About Your Students, Start of the year

Advice for Starting Partway Through the Year

This particular post comes to you as I try to wrap my head around going back to work on Monday after fifteen months off. I left mid-October of 2014 after being placed on medical leave for the last few months of my pregnancy, handing off a lovely group of students to a great teacher for the rest of the year. That was difficult, but I knew they were in good hands. This time, I’m taking over a class someone else has been teaching for the first half of the year – something I find much more difficult.

This isn’t the first time I’ve taken over for another teacher. Having done this a few times now at different grade levels, I’ve learned a few things to help make the process a little smoother.

Introduce yourself! This might seem like a no-brainer to some of you out there, but communication with families is really important. No matter what time of year you’re starting, you should either send a letter home or invite families into the school to meet you. I actually like to do both. Your letter doesn’t have to be huge and really shouldn’t be your life story, but a little bit of background is nice to include – where you’re from, how long you’ve been teaching, that sort of thing.

Get to know your students. I start the first day by playing a few get-to-know-you games, then transition into a variety of activities meant to provide insight into where my students are with language. I’m a French Immersion teacher, and at my level I don’t teach math, but if I did I would include some activities to learn their problem solving/reasoning skills in that subject as well.

Find out your students’ goals for learning. This is the perfect time of year to talk about goal setting and have your students do a learning skills self-assessment (in fact, I do that every year already). Goal setting can tell you a lot about a student and where their strengths are. I find students are typically very honest when discussing their learning skills, too. Those two activities can give you a lot of insight into your students’ strengths and areas for improvement.

Don’t try to change the routine all at once. You don’t have to be stuck with the routine the previous teacher put into place before you arrived, but you really shouldn’t overhaul everything at once. Transitioning from one teacher to another is already stressful for students, so try to keep most of the routine familiar to them while you gradually implement your own ideas. It’s hard to rein in your excitement, I know, and sometimes you just have so many ideas you want to try them all right away before you forget them. Resist that urge – you don’t want to overwhelm your students.

Resist gossiping about the previous teacher, either with colleagues or students and their families. I’ve been there, I know all about it: people will try to engage you in discussing the previous teacher’s style, personality, and methods. Just don’t do it. I probably don’t have to tell anyone this.

Don’t take on too much outside the classroom. I love running extracurricular activities, but when I’m starting an assignment partway through the year, I try to limit how much I’m doing other than teaching my class. I need the extra time to plan and, I’ll be honest, unwind. You have lots and lots and lots of years ahead of you to do the drama club or sports team you love doing. Sometimes, it’s incredibly liberating to just have to worry about teaching your class every day.

Remember that students need time to adjust. Don’t take anything they say or do the first few weeks personally – I’ve had students decide on the first day that they hate me, only to have them declare me their favourite teacher by the end of the year. I’ve had students do a complete 180 in behaviour when I started. Students will react differently from one teacher to the next, and they need time to adapt to having a new teacher.

Finally, don’t be discouraged. I find starting partway through the year much harder than starting at the beginning. I feel lost for a few weeks every time, and I think that’s a normal part of the process. Just like at the beginning of the year, it will take time for you to find your footing and get into a groove with your new class. All you can do is show up and do your best every day.

October 1, 2015 Will Gourley General, Professional Learning and Growth, Resilience, Start of the year

The Re-Org

Well, it’s bound to happen in any school once, but again? That’s new.

I teach in an amazing school in York Region that opened in Sept. 2014; right in the middle of a growing subdivision. Our original numbers for K to 8 seemed modest at 300+ last year, and have since grown to over 5oo+ and rising in 2015.

Yup! Despite the statistical wizardry school boards use to construct population models, even the most seasoned actuaries struggle to solve an illusive problem in education, that of population growth or decline. As such, many schools like ours needed to be “re-organized”, and with that come a few highs and lows.

Re-Org

After months of prepping, planning and perspiring to start the year, our school has been re-organized to accommodate the incredible growth in our area. This week many students were introduced to new classes, new routines, new schedules, and new teachers. At the same time, teachers were introduced to new students, had to choose which students to transition to new classes, rewrite plans/paperwork, and prepare for the possibility of different teaching assignments. None of which is ultimately a bad thing on its own, but to a new teacher it can be pretty daunting.

To outsiders, reorganization is something related to the business world that is usually a precursor to bankruptcy proceedings. In education it is merely a reality due to unpredictable student population growth and decline. Here’s a brief explanation as explained to parents;

“In order to comply with the Ministry class size reduction strategy, we have had to move small groups of students from many different classes. This process was done with emphasis put on academic needs, boy/girl ratios and social needs of students.”

In education it is an important measure to preserve government mandated class sizes in all elementary panels. As any teacher who has experience Re-Org knows, classes can be overcrowded to start the year. Frequently, JK/SK teachers can have 30 +/- , as can junior and intermediate teachers.

As students fill the classrooms to capacity and beyond, the need for more manageable class sizes becomes necessary and mandatory. This could mean more or less split/combined classes, new hires, surplusing, a complete reworking of teaching assignments, and or no change at all. Actual class sizes will then vary depending on the school, administrative creative class structuring, and or willingness to reorganize classrooms to accommodate what has been “mandated” by lawmakers.

As a teacher it helps to be able to adapt/adjust and advocate for yourself when Re-Org happens. You are not alone. If you are new to teaching, ask for some support from your admin or a teacher who has gone through it before. Take time to communicate with students, clarify changes to schedules (yours and theirs), and collaborate with colleagues for resources, plans and curriculum content.

With school’s officially starting in September, it may not be until Re-Org in October when the routines, roll call, and real teaching can begin. You can do it.

September 14, 2015September 14, 2015 Tisha Nelson Before School Starts, Building Inclusion, First Week Reflections, General, Learning About Your Students, Start of the year, Student Ownership, Wellness

The First 20 Days of School – Connecting with Students is a Great Place to Start

Teaching is always new! With a new group of students, fresh reflections on practice and the opportunity to start from scratch, as it were, the start of the school year provides teachers and students alike the opportunity to create new beginnings every year. Knowing this, what might some important considerations be to make it a great start? Chapter One of The Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning: Practical Ideas and Resources for Beginning Teachers highlights four important themes for success: connecting with students, passion for teaching, attributes-based approach and importance of school culture. I would like to focus this reflection on the importance of connecting with students within the first 20 days of school as a means to establish an authentic relationship with students that fosters trust and inspires a willingness to take risks within a safe learning environment.

Renowned poet and author Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This profound sentiment holds true for teachers and their relationship with students in that when students feel respected, safe and cared for, the experience of learning is enriched. The following are five practical ways for teachers to build authentic connections with their students at the start of the school year:

1. Be authentic. When teachers model what it means to be an authentic learner – mistakes and all, students are then encouraged to take risks without fear of reprisal. Let your model of authentic learning influence students to do the same. This form of transparency sets the tone for fostering meaningful connections between teachers and students.

2. Ask students about their needs and listen. Validate student voice by positioning them as the experts on themselves. Invite students to share their learning needs and the things that you could do as their teachers that would support their success and commit to doing them. Conducting multiple intelligence and attitudes and dispositions surveys are great ways to begin the dialogue for students to articulate how you can support their learning and their level of self-efficacy.

3. Explore student interests. As teachers we all need to cover the curriculum but viewing the curriculum as a launching pad as opposed to a landing pad can invite student’s interests to take centre stage in the teaching and learning process. Ask students about their interests and find creative ways to invite further inquiry into them while exploring the curriculum at the same time.

4. Learn the students. In addition to the information that can be found in student records (i.e. OSRs), commit to learning more about your students in meaningful ways. Pronouncing student names correctly is important way to let students know that they are valued. Challenge yourself to learn at least five non-school related facts about each of your students. This can help to build a positive relationship and validate their experiences outside of the domain of the classroom. Finally, being aware of students personalities (i.e. introverts, extroverts, etc.) will inform how to relate to them as well as setting the conditions of the classroom experience.

5. Invite to student voice by fostering a reciprocal relationship with your students. Nurturing a collaborative learning environment for students does not merely mean giving students the opportunity to collaborate with each other, but it also means positioning students as collaborators with you. Partner with your students to design the learning space and learning opportunities. This fosters student ownership in the teaching and learning experience and empowers students to be meaningful contributors to the class. When you invite their voice in classroom decisions, ensure that it is validated by action on your part. Leveraging positional power in the classroom creates space for a more meaningful connection between students and teacher.

As teachers we are in the business of supporting students success. Fostering meaningful connections with students goes along way in promoting both student achievement and well-being. When students know that their teachers authentically care about them, their willingness to learn will support their ability to do well. Starting the school year with students in mind will set you on a solid foundation for building upward. Make it a great start.