Yes Day!

Every year during Spring Break we celebrate "Yes" Day. This is the day that I am required to say "yes" to everything my kids ask for. Now, when we started this day we had some discussion and the kids helped to come up with the criteria for acceptable "yes" requests. The criteria that they came up with was really very usable, they couldn't ask for things that involved spending money, it had to be a reasonable request and it had to be doable within the day. Having younger children, the requests were usually focused around things like certain foods they liked or staying up later. This year was another successful "yes"day and this year it included making dinner for family members and a food fight.

What impresses me about my kids is that they developed criteria for the events including the food fight. We had to use food that wasn't usable any more (so that we weren't being wasteful), we had to do it where we wouldn't make a mess(outside), and we had to clean it up so that we weren't littering. My boys decided that stale buns from our grocery store would be ideal. They would stand up to throwing repeatedly, wouldn't cost much money and be easy to clean up.

Taking the time to let my boys enjoy a "yes" day is a great way to not only spend the day being the fun mom, but I learned that my boys are becoming great critical thinkers .

The Whole Group

I love the word synergy. It roles off the tongue, sounding smooth and easy, much like how I envision synergy to be. Easy and smooth. These past months working along side a new staff really has been these things and more. Every member has given me a piece of the puzzle to making my life and experiences at my school and with the students seem like a well oiled machine. I admire the wealth of skills and knowledge they have shared with me. I respect the information and resources they have provided me. I am honoured to call you my friends and valued colleagues. I am so glad I took the time to get to know you. Thank you for your wisdom and guidance in a world where time is a commodity, thank you for making things so easy and smooth.

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
― Aristotle

 

The Leader in Me

One of the things I am most grateful for this year has been the opportunities it has provided me. Opportunities to grow, adjust, learn, aspire, improve, and lead. My definition of leading has changed over the years and this year it seems to have come into focus. Leading is not about leading, it is about being willing to lead, to help other to meet their goals. Others in my life have been great leaders, not by leading me or telling me what to do, but by sharing their confidence in me and opened me up to ideas that I have moulded into my own. They really have done nothing other than let me know they believe in me and helped me be open to new things. This is how I look at teaching.

Teaching can be looked at as the sharing of ideas and knowledge, experimenting and engaging curiosity, practising and critically thinking about new concepts. And it is all that, and a bit more. Giving children a voice, helping them find their confidence and role in this world is also teaching. As we move ahead in this ever changing world, children are needing to meet the task of leading by knowing their strengths and have a willingness to share and collaborate.

One of my projects this year has allowed me to see this in action. We have been working on a project with a group of students, all at very different levels. The information given was very knowledge based and easily forgotten. I gave the students the task of arranging the information in a different way so that we could end up with a very different product. They took this challenge on and, although a bit worried at the start, I saw the learning happen. They were able to critically think about the problem and devise a solution. They came up with a plan self managed their learning and made a list of materials for me. They were not only ALL involved in this project but they were ENGAGED. Most importantly they were leaders. They took responsibility for their learning and I don't think what learned will be forgotten anytime soon.

The project is not yet complete, but I will post pictures and more explanation when it is complete.

Being a leader is more about standing back than about being up front.

The Connected Me

As a mom and a teacher, I strive to remain cool. This means I have to know what tweeting, blogging and instant messaging is. As someone who only recently (well, it seems like only recently) learned how to set the VCR this is a daunting task.

Last year my son wanted to do his Flat Stanley project on the SMART board. This meant I had to first hurry up and figure out how to sound cool while providing the opportunity for him to do this. Fortunately a fellow teacher was willing to give me the basics, allowing me to be cool and my son to have the knowledge to do his project. Once my son got the taste of this new experience I knew I would soon have to get technical if I was going to remain the "cool" mom.

I was quick to find SMART board courses over the summer, which I absolutely loved, and I started a twitter account and got an Iphone. (This upped my coolness factor at least 2 notches). I had been on Facebook for sometime so I was pretty confident with the friending etc, but I was lacking the confidence with many different programs and devices. With September coming quickly I was planning activities to use in my daily schedule to keep up with not only my students but my colleagues as well.  I stressed and I worried about my technological skills and my readiness for this new tech world I was now entering. I couldn't keep up with reading the tweets and wondered how on earth I was going to know everything I needed to know and how I was going to use all of the great ideas that were out there. IT WAS TOO MUCH!

 My method for managing my tech world was this. Pick one or two things at a time do them well, and, as my confidence improves, move on to another device, app, program etc. I started with the SMART board and document camera. I was able to provide opportunities for my students to do a project with the SMART board and then present to the class. I was regularly and often using the document camera to teach, share and to edit work. I used it to read books to a large class and to present lessons in different ways and to provide alternate methods of teaching. Then I moved on to emailing and blogging with my students. I had students email me work and recordings so that they could be assessed. I helped parents access these sites online to help with their home instruction and programming.  I now have some students emailing me their journals for those students who do not like writing but want the sharing and feedback from their teacher. (These are grade 1 and 2 students). I have students sharing apps with me and blogging for fun.

Now this all sounds wonderful and exciting and it is, I have found Pinterest and google docs, but I still have not figured out how to add more time to my day to read all of the fantastic articles, blogs, and sites that I receive word about. A very wise woman recently said to me, "you have to be at zen with your tweets", huh, I responded. She basically said that when I have time for my tweets they will be there otherwise let it go. Good advice.

I am thinking that being at zen with the connected world is basically balance. Like all good things in life, balance the old with the new. As much as I love to find a new recipe online it still gives me great pleasure to pull out my great aunts cookbook to find her favourite recipe. Tweeting is offering up to date information immediately, while conversing with an old friend can offer up tried and true wisdom as well.

Taking the time to learn new things is indeed a passion of mine and I will continue to be connected and stay "cool". This blogging thing is starting to grow on me......

A Different Path

I have always been a planner...always. Ask my friends and family and they will tell you, if it wasn't in the plan.... This used to interfere with my spontaneity until I a married a very spontaneous man. He has helped me to enjoy the unknown and the unplanned. As we have journeyed together I have become more flexible and able to be more in the moment. Do I have a way to go? Yes, but I am getting there. This year teaching has also helped to create a more spontaneous person. The students have made me look at flexibility in a whole new way.

During a class about describing words, I took my students on a guided imagery trip. I was focused on getting out new words to describe the beauty around us. I told the children we were going to try something different and go somewhere in our minds to "see" things differently. I had a very clear picture of walking down a path across a field, heading into the forest where there was a creek. I knew the words I was hoping the children would come up with. I knew what I wanted to happen. With our eyes closed and the vision before us I was asking students what they saw, felt, tasted, heard and smelled. I was quickly writing down the words the child were using, exactly the type of words I was looking for, yay! Words like crunched, earthy, tingling, velvet, etc were being used by grade 2's. Success!  We continued mentally down the path in the forest and discussing the things we were experiencing, when one student put his hand up and and said, " Mrs. S I  think I took the wrong path".  I asked him why and he responded "cause I don't see the same things as you". I responded with "whatever path you are on is the right one, now tell me what you see". Still with his eyes closed, this quiet, reluctant, writer provided my students with descriptive words that I had not expected to hear.

I couldn't have planned it better.

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Change and the New Report Card

This has been an absolutely fascinating year to get immersed in the policies and responsibilities of a teacher in Parkland School Division. The new report card has provided me with numerous opportunities to not only understand roles and responsibilities as a teacher but it has also given me the chance to get to know and converse with many teachers and leaders with Parkland School Division. At first I was wondering what I could possibly add to conversations about report card when in fact I hadn't done one yet. Then it struck me that I would be on the ground floor of understanding the report card when it came out. Taking the time to add my thoughts and ideas at the workshops, not only as a teacher but as a mother was invaluable. Now the "new" report card doesn't seem so scary and I also feel way more prepared to help parents understand it ....because now I do, or am at least beginning to. I have learned through these workshops the power of collaboration and sharing, and how important different perspectives and ideas can come together to create not only a usable product but a valuable one.

I am also very pleased that PSD70 is taking the time to listen to the feedback from teachers and parents to make the report card the tool that all parents and teachers want it to be.

The Value of Portfolios

This year I have set up very different portfolios of my students work. In addition to this I have also been working on my own portfolio.  I created an Art Portfolio with my behavior class and a writing portfolio with my home schooled students. Each portfolio was set up for very different reasons.

The Art Portfolio was for my students to develop a sense of pride and sharing with the class and themselves. It served to demonstrate their growth and it also showed them that they could do it. Something that these students desperately need to know. This is a class of students who regularly think and say, "I can't do it". These students were able to take out their portfolios at the start of each class and say "I can do it" and begin. They ended each class by reflecting on their learning and seeing and saying "I did do it". Not only did I learn a great deal about how my students think but they learned that they have great talent in them as well.

The Writing Portfolio was perhaps the biggest surprise for me. I started it part way through the year and I wanted to encourage writing that wasn't part of the module work done at home. The writing at home with the modules can be very generic and I was looking to get authentic and unassisted writing from my students. Students that disliked writing or that struggled with writing were my biggest surprise. Not only did they have great imaginations, but the product that they produced was beyond what I had seen from their work so far. I saw a whole new side to them and got to know them on a whole new level. It helped me to rethink the bar that I had mentally set for them. Not only did we create a collection of work that they were able to see their growth and development, but we also created a collection of tools to help them with writing that may be more generic.

My portflolio has been another surprise. I have always considered my portfolio something to share with people I trust or something I show for a job interview, kind of like a diary. Going online with my thoughts, opinions and ideas seemed like a really intimidating thing to do. I like to be liked, and fearing that someone might not like something I say or take it the wrong way is nerve racking for someone like me. Anyway, the leap has been made and ironically I found this process to be very valuable. Go figure. I didn't say the public part was valuable, (haven't done that part yet) but the organizing of my thoughts and my reasons, was. I will be going public with it and I am sure I will learn more lessons with that part of it as well. For right now I am basking in the bliss of private reflection.

Taking the time to do a portfolio has been illuminating for me and my students. Not only did they uncover hidden talents but they revealed parts of themselves in a safe place and I can only hope my journey brings the same for me.

......the more I know I don't know.

Entering the world of home schooling has been an eye opening experience and the more I learn about it the more I discover there is to learn. Having been a stay at home mom and a teacher, the world of homeschooling interested me and mystified me, and seemed like an option I wanted to know more about.
Since September I have been immersed in the world of homeschooling and have learned a great deal. I have also learned I have much to learn.

One of the things that has impressed me is the variety of options available to parents and students homeschooling. It can really be made to fit to a student and parents lifestyle and goals for education. It can compliment a families trip around the world, or a way of life. Home schooling can be done for a year or two or be done all through high school. The variety is endless.

There is also a unique blend of parents and students that choose homeschooling and a variety of reasons for choosing it as well. Some parents choose homeschooling for the flexibility that it provides a busy family. Others enjoy the custom programming, and still others prefer the one on one education that their child can receive.

What I have learned is that the majority of these parents and students have a desire to build a strong and individualized educational foundation. They want to embed their beliefs and culture into this education and to be apart of their child's learning. They want quality time and what is best for their children. This I understand.

What I am now taking the time to understand, is the process and plan for the new school act. http://education.alberta.ca/ What does it all mean and how do home schoolers feel about it? What are my parents thinking and how does this affect my role with them?

Take the Time

  Several years ago I took the Stephen Covey seminar "7 Habit for Highly Effective People". I was asked to come up with a "Mission Statement".  It was meaningful, thoughtful, in some ways profound, and long. Over the years I have only looked at it occasionally and when I do I am reminded that yeah it was good but not something that I thought of often, and yes it still reflected a good deal of what I believe in but it was still long. Over the years I have been in groups to make vision boards, philosophical statements and yet more mission statements.They have all been meaningful in the moment and have defined my beliefs and goals but really not usable.

Last year I had the opportunity to take the "7 Habits"seminar again and this time I wanted a statement that I could really use. I found it, "Take the Time".  I realized these three words are something I could apply to all of the areas of me life to help me become the woman, wife, mother, teacher, friend, and citizen that I want to become. Take the time to, listen, be heard, do it right, find the meaning, make a plan, define the journey, etc. I found that I could apply this short meaningful statement to every aspect of my life, every decision and every goal.

The following entries are examples and reflections of how I have used my statement in the facets of my teaching and my life.

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A Great Day!

These last few weeks have been exciting, refreshing, and challenging, and without a doubt, FANTASTIC. I have learned so much and I have enjoyed every minute of it. The students are getting to know me, I am getting to know them and we are getting into a really great routine. Every night I come home and reflect on the day and examine the plans and the activities, wondering what was great, and what could have gone better. Some things I have changed and some things I haven’t. This last week something amazing happened to me and I needed to share. This moment is one thing I hope will never change.

The grade 3’s are working on their learning about different countries and their cultures, goods and services, languages etc. To make it a bit more fun, I gave them the opportunity to do one of three things in this country. They could move there, start a business there, or go on a vacation there. They had to answer 8 questions and present to the class what they learned and how their adventure went. Now here is the amazing part.  After working in their groups for the morning, it was time for lunch recess. When announcing this to the group, one student moaned “noooooooo, I want to stay in and do more social studies”. I honestly think my heart grew two sizes.  

What a GREAT day for a teacher!!!