Today's blog post needs to somewhat short and sweet. I've got to get ready for the OLA SuperConference. While I was packing for the conference this weekend, I debated about whether or not I should bring some reading materials. I gave myself a good shake and refrained from including any of the books I need/want to read. After all, it's a library conference; chances are that I'm going to be buying a lot of books there! (Shakil Choudhury's Deep Diversity and Dr. Debbie Reese's An Indigenous People's History of the United States for Young People are two contenders).
Here is just a brief list of the books that are on my "to be read" pile.
We Got This: Equity, Access and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be
Cornelius Minor
(c) 2019
ISBN 978-0-325-09814-2
Why am I planning to read it?
Jennifer Casa-Todd, influencer extraordinaire, tagged me in a post about the ISTE Librarians Book Club. I like being part of book clubs (see the last one I did on White Fragility). I tried to source it locally, but I had to order it online.
Why am I planning to read it?
I was hoping to get into the Learning Forward book club that Noa Daniel was promoting. This is the chosen book so I bought it in advance. Sadly (or happily), there was huge interest in the club and I wasn't able to get into the focus group club. I've heard good things about it and want to read it.
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
Thomas King
(c) 2012
ISBN 978-0-385-66422-6
Why am I planning to read it?
Well, actually I'm 84 pages in so far. Dean Roberts, a teacher at my school, lent it to me. I started to read it but then I had all my Forest of Reading books to finish first. My husband, while cleaning up after me (a sad but regular state of affairs in my house) said he peeked at it and was impressed with the quality of writing (which is high praise because he's very particular).
Winnie's Great War
Lindsay Mallick and Josh Greenhut
Art by Sophie Blackall
(c) 2018
ISBN 978-0-316-44712-6
Why am I planning to read it?
I'm on page 77 as of 10:20 pm on January 26, 2020 and I have to finish it soon. It's one of the few Forest of Reading books that I haven't yet read. (Technically, as the adult running the program in my school library, I am obligated to read all of the books.) A student lent me their class copy of the book so I could read it and be available for Forest of Reading chats at lunch. Some of the other titles I still need to read (once I *finally* get my hands on an elusive copy) are:
A Grain of Rice
Nhung Tran-Davies Stowaway
Pam Withers
ETA - I forgot to include a book I have that I borrowed from the public library!
The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss
Nancy L. Mace
Peter V. Rabins
(c) 2017
ISBN 978-1-4214-2222-0
Why am I planning to read it?
My parents (and my mom in particular) have memory loss and it's becoming more pronounced. I need strategies to help them out.
It looks like I read a lot of non-fiction for fun, but this is actually quite unusual. Plus there's articles for Treasure Mountain Canada and my Kindergarten AQ course. I won't have time for reading this week but I've got lots to look forward to!
Today (Monday, January 20, 2020) is the first day that TDSB elementary schools are on (rotating) strike. I'm not going to write about that here right now.
I have (at least) three things that are percolating in my head from last week. Believe it or not, the ideas/events can be united under the title of "breaking things".
1) Breaking Apart A Couch Can Be Very Informative
My last media/library unit was about authority. My current focus is on furniture. Initially I was sad to learn that my old leather couch and chair needed to be removed from the library. In 2017, the hard-working and helpful Dean Roberts helped me cart the couch to the school - it was one of three comfortable areas with cozy furniture for students to use, but by far the most popular due to its size, stuffing, and relative durability. I didn't want to get rid of the couch but the cloud had a silver lining - my admin has promised to fund a replacement AND another teacher had a brilliant idea that we were able to use.
Old Photo (2017) of couch and chair
After seeing our wonderful caretaking team hauling the old furniture out of the library, Grade 2 teacher Kerri Commisso said to me, (paraphrased) "You're studying furniture ... are you going to take the furniture apart? The students would be really interested to see what's inside and how it's made."
That was an AMAZING idea. Problem was, the caretakers had already removed the chair and couch from the library. It was already in the huge bin and the bin was slated to be taken away the next day. Thankfully, our caretakers are accommodating and very flexible. I asked Dave about the possibility of making a video of us cutting apart the chair in the bin. He talked to Michael, our new head caretaker, who agreed! They took time out of their busy schedules to come outside with me and allow themselves to be video taped as we cut open the bottom of the couch. The weather was miserable and the couch was big but they made the effort so that our students could learn more about how furniture is assembled. My STEAM classes seem to think that the best way to attach anything is with either tape or glue. This video demonstrates that tape and glue are rarely used when building something you want to keep together. I also discovered that there were a lot more things inside a couch than I realized!
Here is the video!
My next steps (after getting the students to finish their Goldilocks / 3 Bears drawings to match furniture to users, showing the above video and reading "A Chair For My Mother") are to do some research on what would be the characteristics of a good sofa for the library and shop online. (I originally had a plan to go to Ikea with the students to see about the messages that furniture can give to a room but the work-to-rule has paused that plan.)
2) Breaking Loose Parts Can Be Risky But Creative
On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, I attended my first session of my York University Additional Qualification course. It's Kindergarten (part 1 for me) and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. One of the things our instructors, Gail and Kenisha, did during the first in-person class was to set out several provocations and allow us to interact with the objects, play and explore.
I don't *mean* to be troublesome, but as a learner I can be a bit unconventional. I thought about C, who wrote all over my library shelves with crayon. I thought about R, who tried to take ALL the trains for himself. I thought about E, who had to be sent back to the library to return the toys smuggled out in pockets. So, I grabbed as many things as I wanted to examine and I hid in the play structure to explore them at my leisure without having to share. (More on the play structure later.) There were tiles that you could write on with black marker, and it looks quite striking. I decided to try and use the black marker on other things I had collected. I drew on mini-tiles. I drew on big jewels. I drew on feathers. I didn't draw on the wood because I knew for certain that it wouldn't come out and I didn't want my instructors to despise me on the first day. I peeked briefly at what others were doing (and I wish I took a picture of the beautiful mannequin that someone else clothed and then stacked mini-tiles in their hands) but mostly stayed in my tent-like enclosure. I overheard conversations about explaining to students how they could draw on mirrors at school but not at home, but I didn't partake in the talk. When it was time to tidy up, I thought I better start cleaning all the marker I had put on the loose parts. Big tile? No problem. Jewels? Uh-oh. I used the "mommy trick" of applying saliva, but that wasn't working. Thank goodness, hand sanitizer seemed to work, but not until I had spit all over the jewels I had borrowed. I asked if they still wanted the jewels back, and they did. When my principal asked me the next morning how the course went, I don't think he expected me to say "Well, I licked some of their jewels ..."
Here's the photo of what I made in the tent.
3) Breaking Rules About Centres and Limits Can Be Scary but Liberating
There's lots of room for play in my library space. I try to introduce new objects so that it's not boring and that different items can circulate. I knew that Mr. Tong's class were working in their regular program with the straws and connectors because they were studying shapes and solids in math so early last week, I thought it would be apropos to bring out the play structure I had bought with book fair funds. Together, we looked at the instructions and assembled the house tent. This was very exciting to the students but caused a new problem - everyone wanted to play in the house. I "solved the problem" by declaring that we could only have 4 students in the tent at a time, and for the first little while, they could only remain in the tent for a minute at a time, so that everyone could have a chance inside. I even had a timer so that it would be "fair".
This solution worked, but it didn't feel good. I talked with one of my new York University Kindergarten AQ instructors about it. She asked about the purpose of bringing out the house in the first place (which I was able to justify; I think she might have been concerned about the reduction in free expression because it was a pre-made kit with a set end result) and then suggested some questions that would allow the problem solving to be student-centered. (Her phrases were so good that I wrote them down verbatim.)
Let's think of a way where everyone has a chance to be a part of this learning experience.
This was much more invitational and positive than the "How many students should be at the house centre?" or "How long should students get to play here?" I was worried about overcrowding, but once again, there was a student-centered question that demonstrated the belief that children are competent and capable.
If there are a lot of us in the space, what might happen?
I liked the approach but I still worried about those super-shy students who might not get an opportunity to use the tent. She suggested that when students were dispersing for centre time that I ask the quiet students:
Where do you want to go?
so that they could claim the house area before the more assertive students took the spot. While talking to Gail, it inspired me to bring out more fabric and rods/connectors so that students could experiment with building their own tent / house / structure.
I tried out the suggestions. It didn't work as smoothly - I had already "poisoned the water" so to speak with my pre-made rules. I took off the sticky note with the centre guidelines. I told one of the kindergarten classes that even though it said "4 people" before, it was up to them to decide what was safe (and I had the SNA watch the group carefully). More students were in there but they stayed in longer and exercised their creativity muscles much more than if they only had a minute to explore.
4) Breaking Down Large Atrocities into Individual Stories and Concrete Objects Can Encourage Curiosity and Empathy
I remember my Grade 12 and OAC English teacher, Mr. Sturm, telling us a story about a particular Jewish family and the horrible way one of them died. His point was "6 million people killed in the Holocaust is a big, unfathomable number. Knowing the personal story of one family makes it much more real."
As part of Jewish Heritage Month (and thanks to Indigo and Second Story Press), every Grade 6 student in the Toronto District School Board received their own personal copy of the famous book Hana's Suitcase. My principal encouraged me to ensure that the book had meaning for the students. He didn't want the students to get the book without any sense of what it meant. When my principal was a teacher-librarian, he brought in an actual suitcase for the students to examine and consider. We were provided a teacher's guide to the book, with links to the related film, but I wanted something quicker to capture their interest. I devised a short lesson that, it turns out, packed a punch.
I distributed this to groups of four. Without any explanation, I asked them to look at it and to answer the following:
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
Students were curious. I took photos of one class and recorded comments from the other class because they were both so engaged and focus (but left my paper at school, so the comments are just from memory). They noticed that it was some sort of list, and in a different language. They noticed the writing all over the list, with check marks and a single name encased in a rectangle. They wondered if this was from a residential school. They wondered how the similar names (if they were names) were related. When they were told that the check marks indicated that those people were eliminated/murdered, they were shocked into silence. How were they killed? What happened to Georg Brady, the only name on the list without a check mark? When they were gifted with their books, students immediately opened the books and started to read.
"I found the list!" exclaimed a student, his nose buried in the book.
"Hana, her name was on the list", said a second student.
"Hana was George's sister!" declared another student.
5) Breaking Down Huge Concepts into Doable Definitions Is Worth the Time
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 was also the second part of our critical thinking workshop. Brenda Kim, dedicated Grade 4/5 teacher, and I really struggled with how to get the group to understand some pretty sophisticated concepts and use some critical thinking to make reasoned judgements. Brenda did a lot of the heavy lifting with lessons done in her classroom during social studies time to understand the word "effective" and have enough background knowledge on government and environmental issues. At the second day workshop, I asked Francine about how many terms can be introduced at one time and how to do it in a less-boring way. Francine gave different suggestions. The next day, Brenda and I attempted to finalize our work with the students on their social studies critical thinking question. They read articles, picked the 15 most significant words from the article, and then decided the most compelling argument. Never presume students know what you mean when you use certain words - the previous week, the Grade 4s and I had to review what "public transit" meant because there were some misunderstandings. In this lesson, we had to define significant and compelling. There's only so many times you can look up a word in the dictionary before it starts to get boring, so I tried something weird - I asked the students to define "significant" with their bodies.
Guess what? They ROCKED it! Two volunteers bravely offered their kinesthetic interpretations and they were magnificent. These were their "body definitions" of "significant".
So I broke a lot of things this past week, but all for a good cause - learning!
I knew exactly what I wanted to write about on my blog for this week pretty early on. Great minds think alike, because the wonderful Doug Peterson had the same idea. Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radio won the 2020 OLA Media and Communications Award. Doug and I plotted together and we informed Stephen about the win live on the This Week In Ontario Edublogs broadcast.
Doug, I'm sorry I made you feel bad about posting your excellent recount of our big revelation - https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/voiced-radio-recognition/ - we can totally have more than one person write about the experience. (Plus, I'm going to add a second element and then show how they relate.)
Worth the Energy (of Preparing a Nomination) - VoicEd Radio
I love how Doug starts the story three years in the past. I'm going to begin my retell in the fall of 2019, when the OLA and OSLA advertised various awards and encouraged people to nominate others. I've had the honour of winning a few awards myself and it is such an exhilarating experience to discover that someone thinks you are worthy of the energy it takes to be nominated. (I wrote about it on this blog here.)
I was the nomination team lead (a point that, in my excitement to reveal the secret on the air, I forgot to mention explicitly) but it took a team of people to accomplish. We began the work in September 2019. My first step was to contact Doug Peterson, connected educator and VoicEd regular. I coordinated, but Doug consulted, and he dug - for data. We talked about the best evidence and key accomplishments to highlight as part of our nomination package. Doug had the unenviable job of locating and linking all (or most) of the shows on VoicEd Radio that included references to libraries and/or library professionals. Doug's response when asked to perform this Herculean task?
I can try. That's a tall order.
That's no lie. VoicEd Radio has hundreds of hours of archived podcasts. I found a few but Doug discovered many, many more and linked all the recordings that we then placed in a single document so the OLA Board of Directors could hear for themselves.
I asked Doug who we could approach for recommendation letters. Doug came up with the list of writers and we included them in our plan. There were so many potential writers because there are so many people inspired and influenced by Stephen and VoicEd Radio. Doug compiled a list of eloquent educators: Lisa Noble, Beth Lyons, Sheila Stewart and Paul McGuire. They wrote such beautiful testimonials. I will need to talk with Lisa, Beth, Sheila, Paul and Doug to decide when and where we actually give Stephen a copy of the letters that were written on his behalf.
When we learned on January 6, 2020 that Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radio had won the award, we were elated. There was discussion about revealing it on The Dock (the Saturday music call-in show that Stephen runs on VoicEd) but Doug and I decided to reveal the news live on TWIOE (This Week in Ontario Edublogs). I rearranged my schedule (thanks to Kerri Commisso and Matthew Webbe) and Doug surreptitiously sent me the link so that I could secretly join the broadcast in person. Stephen was startled to hear my voice during the broadcast, unscheduled but, being a professional, he continued on as if uninvited guests are commonplace. It was only when the actual news broke that Stephen was actually at a loss for words. On his blog, Doug posted a screen shot of Stephen's initial reaction to the award on Twitter. On my blog, I'm going to share the Hurley family's reaction.
I don't want to speak on behalf of Doug, Lisa, Beth, Paul, or Sheila, but I felt it was worth all the planning and writing and emailing. VoicEd Radio and Stephen Hurley are such worthy recipients.
Worth the Energy (of Arranging Chats) - Forest of Reading
January means the launch of our Forest of Reading program at my school. Students had already approached me about starting our chats - students chat with adults who have also read the same books and the adults will sign the passports as proof that the students read and understood the title - so I opened the doors to the library after school and started chats.
School ends at 3:30 pm. I never left school any later than 5:00 pm this week. Students were eager to earn their signatures (even though I didn't have the physical passports ready to go until Tuesday!) I like to track how many chats I conduct (because I'm a data nerd) and from January 6-10, I was part of 37 conversations! Some were solo, but others were group chats. I had students qualify on the very first day the program "officially" started. Don't let anyone tell you pre-teens are lazy or unmotivated! For instance, J in Room 207 explained that she set a personal goal to read all 10 Red Maple books this year. She said that she knew that the public library request list gets clogged during the winter break, (and that the school copies aren't available until January because the teachers are still reading) so she looked up the list of books on the OLA website in the fall and placed holds on all the nominated titles early. By January 6, she had already read 7 of the 10 titles. Isn't this awesome?
Now, our work-to-rule is escalating. I have to give credit to our unions; they are trying very hard not to negatively affect the lives of students and parents while still trying make their dissatisfaction known with the school boards and government. As part of this new stage of job action, we won't be able to run any extra-curricular activities after school or before school. We can still run them at recesses and at lunch (i.e. during the instructional day) so I'll move my chats to Mondays and Fridays at lunch. Yes, it means that there's less time. Yes, it means that I'll probably get through fewer chats. I make these changes willingly because it is both worth the energy (and reduced lunch hour) to have literacy-rich conversations with students so they can meet their reading goals, AND it is worth the energy (and reconfiguration) to abide by our union guidelines so we can demonstrate that the elimination of Kindergarten Intervention Programs, the potential dismantling of the Kindergarten class set-up, and the removal of class size caps are moves that hurt students more than they save money.
A belated Happy New Year 2020 and Happy First Day Back to School!
For someone who initially mocked the concept of selecting a single word as a guiding principle for a year in lieu of New Year Resolutions, I've become quite enamored of the idea. I've thought a lot about how my 2019 word kept arising in ways I hadn't expected.
My 2016 word was continue.
My 2017 word was forgive
My 2018 word was seek.
My 2019 word was enough.
Turns out, I had enough and retired from several cherished organizations and responsibilities.
My husband and I retired from serving as the marriage preparation course head facilitators at our parish.
I ended my term with the Digital Human Library as a Regional Curator.
I took a hiatus (which will probably be permanent) from my role as the Volunteer Coordinator at Maker Festival Toronto.
The upcoming Ontario Library Association Super Conference will mark the end of my volunteer career with OLA that began with The Teaching Librarian magazine in 2006
My 2020 word is both similar to my 2019 and vastly different. When I mentioned it as a possibility during dinner, my husband said that it wasn't much of a stretch - but I think it could be. I know it excites the coaches at my gym. My word is:
push
In 2020 I hope to do a lot of pushing.
I will push myself.
I plan to push myself physically. (I hate push-ups at the gym, and I don't do them properly. Hopefully in 2020 I can do a proper push-up without modifications like using the wall or a box or getting my legs to help me cheat. My gym goal is to perform more than one double-under skip in a row.) I will keep going to the gym, even though I don't always like it. I will push my own learning further along, by taking an AQ course this winter with York University.
I will push limits.
What's possible? Almost anything. By continuing to be an innovative, creative educator, this means that I may have to push traditional concepts of librarianship around and aside. It means that even though I promised I wouldn't bring sand in the library again doesn't mean that I won't bring other weird things in (like thinking putty) as long as it benefits the students and the learning environment. In fact, according to the online Oxford dictionary, "push the envelope" (see the image next to this text) means to "approach or extend the limits of what is possible."
I will push against things.
Injustice? The status quo? Inequity? Actions or words that are morally wrong? It will take courage but as I continue to develop my understanding of equity and anti-oppression (I read White Fragility last year and I bought How To Be An Anti-Racist this year) I will need to speak up and push back when things aren't right. (This is where the similarities to "enough" lie.) I will continue to be a union steward and this coming year looks uncomfortable as teachers continue to negotiate with the provincial government and school boards. Class size matters and I will need to push against those who think otherwise.
I will push and make things move.
Usually pushing in school is frowned upon. We aren't supposed to use physical force on anyone. The kind of pushing I want to do is the kind that leads to action, maybe even with those who don't want to take action. I suspect I will need to push the issue of dealing with (edited to remove specifics) extended family issues, even though this is going to be a difficult series of conversations to have. I will need to push my youngest to make decisions about his post-secondary education and investigate on his own. (Is it possible to push someone so they don't need pushing?) Even my spouse may not escape my pushes.
For someone whose nickname is "Push-It" (mostly because I try to push as many errands or activities in a single day as possible), it'll be interesting to see how the word push evolves over 2020.
How To Be An AntiRacist 
