Time to Move On....

Well it is time to move on....
I have moved to a different school which means a different blog site!

Please visit:
http://wrsdplp.weebly.com/

I will share reflections regarding my learning, students, and teaching.Thank you all for reading!

Inclusive Education- Hope, Dignity, and Purpose in Learning

As an educator, I believe all students should be given the chance to have a sense of belonging and be respected and valued for who they are through opportunities to learn within a supportive community. Recently , I had the opportunity to see Julie Causton-Theoharis at a session, speaking about inclusive schools and classrooms.  She was incredibly eloquent and powerful in her message on inclusion.  She spoke about inclusion being all about creativity.  I reflected on this as well as her comment on the  number of minutes students are in the classroom directly affecting how well students do in general education.  When she was talking, I was thinking of students who find things in the classroom challenging - some with autism, some with severe physical needs, and some with behavioural difficulties.  I thought about the comments I have heard around students "just being disrespectful" and how perhaps with some creativity we could change the path for their education and instill purpose, dignity, and hope in learning with these students as we work towards this vision in our division.  Are they engaged?  What would hook these students and be purposeful learning for them?  What adaptations do they need in the classroom to help them succeed?  What is the trigger for the behaviour? She spoke of fair being everyone getting what they need.  Is there a difference between a student having glasses to read or a student needing a fidget to help focus attention on their learning?
Can we re-frame our way of thinking to look at student differences as attributes?

Below is a video trailer for Autism is a World.  It is a wonderful movie about a women with autism who did not speak until she was 13.  A truly amazing individual.

Are we creating sausages in the same way?

I was fortunate to see Dr. Yong Zhao speak in the last couple of weeks. His current research focuses on designing 21st century schools in the context of globalization and the digital revolution. During his talks, he used a very poignant analogy about creating sausages the same or creating different sausages. Sounds strange but I think he made a very valid point. Do we want all students to look, sound, and learn the same to create a culture of students that have exactly the same skills and can solve problems in the same ways or would we like our students to be critical and creative thinkers, innovators to be able use their strengths and become entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs?
Now you might ask what this has to do with sausages? Dr. Zhao uses the analogy to describe the turn out of students- are students put into your machine and are they turned out with the same skills (traditional schools - left brain thinking schools)? They would be given routine and procedural jobs. Dr. Zhao argues that these jobs can be outsourced.
I like to think the students in our school are given the opportunity to be "different sausages". As teachers we support students to develop the skills they will need for their future through emotional development, critical and creative thinking, innovative, and able to synthesize information. We are not trying to create students that all come out the same, yet develop well rounded students who are right and left brained thinkers, developing the creative skills they already have, hence the different sausages. As we work hard to support students individual for their needs we create classrooms for all and a possibility for the next Lady GaGa or Steve Jobs.

A 21st Century Promise

Bernie Trilling - 21st Century Skills (Leading and Learning 2011)

As we embark on a new year, people are setting goals, renewing spirits, and reconnecting with who they are. As a teacher, I am constantly reflecting and learning about what I can do to provide better service for the students in my class and in the school where I work. As an instructional coach, I feel the same way about the staff I work with in their classrooms. This 21st century promise really summed up what I was reflecting on and how I feel about each day when I enter the building. I am passionate and personally connected to all facets of my job and want the best for each person I connect with every day including students, parents, colleagues, and community members. When people feel that you truly care and value them for who they are we get the best result of learning and create the best learning environment possible for students to flourish. This my promise, what is yours?

Are you Holding Back Something too Obvious to Share?

People often "sell themselves short". Ideas that they come up with seem like day to day activities that anyone could come up with. The above video spoke to me in that people should celebrate and share what they do. As we collaborate more than ever in our fast paced world it is important to share all kinds of ideas with your colleagues as what we might feel is obvious, might be amazing to others. As instructional coaches, we work hard to bridge colleagues together to share their amazing ideas with others to spread the wealth of information. In spreading the greatness that colleagues offer we should celebrate what we do for the students we teach!

A journey to Student Blogging

Recently I have been working with my class on a class blog. I was not sure how this would evolve at the beginning of the year but I am amazed at what we have been able to do with it so far and the benefits to student learning. We started with simply going to the blog at eating time and exploring what was on our website so far. We have been and will continue to build on it throughout the year, so it was a good opportunity to explore. My teaching partner and I encouraged students to go home and add a comment about the day. We in turn, tried to add ideas we have been working on in class, or questions for students to begin commenting about. The response from some students was impressive. The confidence that it brought as well as voice and ownership shone through their comments. They enjoyed the conversation with us and asked questions that were on their minds when they got home. We were thinking, "this is powerful learning" but it gets better. As we learn along with our students, we have been able to have students adding comments to the blog during class. My hope and vision is that this becomes part of our daily life in our class community. The comments are now stretching to comment to each other, asking powerful questions and relating to one another with care and empathy. I stumbled upon this blog post on the ABC's of blogging and thought I would add it on as it has many points to what I think the benefits of kids blogging is.

The Benefits of Student Blogging (from A Fly on a Classroom Wall blog)

Authenticity – authentic writing for authentic audiences
Affordability - kidblog.org is for example is free
Builds confidence as students shine, share & respond
Carries across the curriculum
Collaborative discussions as students respond to & learn from one another
Communication skills – writing for an audience necessitates & builds effective communication skills
Connections between students & classes, between home & school
Develops higher order thinking skills (as students write, read, reflect & respond)
Digital Age – learning about, creating and leaving positive digital footprints
Digital Citizenship – students learn about proper etiquette & cybersafety
Editing skills development – undertaken in manageable, bite sized chunks
Facilitates constructive criticism
Focus
Flexibility
Fun!
Improves typing skills
Introduces, interjects & integrates technology into all subject areas
Learning styles are put into play that might not always otherwise be
Provides a medium within which to apply learning
Motivates independent writers & readers
Organic (not static)
Peer mentoring
Reading skills development
Reflective thinking / practice
Responsibility & awareness – provides an authentic opportunity to teach & monitor both
Sharing ideas, understanding, etc.
Student driven (teacher facilitated)
Writing skills development – skills include writing for meaning, organization, sentence structure, spelling, grammar, etc

We have been able to incorporate digital citizenship authentically into blogging as we go along this journey together. A site we have used is http://comments4kids.blogspot.com/. It has amazing videos of kids discussing digital citizenship and blogging tips such as how to leave a good comment. Our next leap - having students add posts to the class blog.
As I went through each of the general outcomes of Language Arts in the program of studies, I realized that blogging meets all of the general outcomes in some way and many of the specific outcomes under each general one.

I love having a class blog. We had worked on kidblogs last year and this helped prepare students for the next step this year. I am hoping as time goes on they will have their own pages with an active individual blog. It has brought forward student voice and ownership to learning. We are finding it very valuable to assess where the students are in their learning and what they are enjoying or not enjoying about school as well. I guess I can say the same about having my own blog - I have learned many things and been able to reflect on teaching in order to improve my teaching for students. Check out our blog at:
http://5mw.weebly.com/blog.html
Students would love to hear from you!
How do you increase voice and ownership of learning in your classroom?

Refocusing on What is Important

In Todd Whitaker's book "The Ball" I was taken by the message and thought it would be a great way to start the school year. It is about a teacher and former student who meet up and have had challenges to deal with in recent years. Through their discussion, they realize that the need to refocus and get back to what is important.

As we've been going back into a new school year, I reflected on this before I started with my class. Students are the reason I teach and love what I do. There are many things in our life and career that can cause our focus to drift but ultimately those little bodies sitting in front of you at the start of the day, wondering what they are going to learn next, are what matters. They are the reason we spend days in the classroom getting it ready, planning intricate lessons that meet the needs of all students the best we can, and stay up late at night researching what we can do better.

As I talked to my own children the night before school started, when they could not sleep due to the anticipation of the next day, and told them I felt the same way, they were surprised. I used to wonder if that feeling of anticipation would ever go away but I think if your passion and love for what you do is there and you are focused on "the ball" in this case, the students, your passion shines through in true colours. Success for me was watching their smiling faces go out the door at the end of the first day saying they couldn't wait for tomorrow. When I got home, exhausted, I checked my e-mail only to find that some of the students had commented on our class blog, wondering with anticipation of the next day's events. With the ball right in front of me again, I was commenting back to continue their learning and with a new burst of energy, tailoring the learning for the next day for my students. If you feel like you are losing focus - just remember why we are here doing what we do and who is counting on you. The ball will be right in front of you, giving you the energy you need to continue doing the best you can for your students.