Monday, August 31, 2020

ECOO Camp ON - "Just Try"

I miss seeing my friends. The most convenient place that I'd get to see my educator friends would be at conferences. Now that conferences are all virtual, I must make do with seeing them on screens. That's better than nothing. Combined with some new learning, that's also not that bad.


This promotional image was created by TDSB teacher-librarian David Hoang. I tried to Photoshop something like it but his turned out waaaaaaay better. "Just try" seems to be the unofficial theme of the conference. The conference planners took some big risks that didn't always go off smoothly, but they were valiant in their efforts.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020
1:00 p.m.
Welcome and Directions by Mary Walker Hope, Michelle Fenn and Andrew Forgrave

Summary: Mary, Michelle and Andrew gathered us all in the "main room" for some explanations and instructions. 

Microsoft Teams was the video conferencing tool the conference was employing to connect us. I had a brief training on how to use the basics a few days prior to help me as a presenter. Everything seemed to be in place.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020
1:30 pm 
Taking The Making Online with Jen Taylor

Summary (from website): 

Just when the momentum of our new Makerspace was building, Covid-19 arrived. How do we avoid losing that excitement and recapture the desire to Make, when it’s clear that come September, we will not be building robots or decorating cupcakes together? We go online, of course! Regardless of what school looks like in the fall, we'll need an online component to our Maker world. This session will explain how we are using Google Sites, WeVideo, Jamboard and other resources to encourage more Making and creating a digital companion to our school's physical Maker Culture.

The worst thing that could possibly happen in a virtual conference happened at this moment. None of the links to the "Team Rooms" worked. Presenters couldn't enter the virtual space. Participants couldn't join the workshops. Moderators (like my friend) were in the rooms by themselves with no one else present. It wasn't a complete disaster. 
I was able to get into the session around 2:05 pm. Jen was an absolute trooper. She truncated her presentation and was able to provide some helpful tips to her audience.

3 Key Points: 

1) Although it won't be the same, making opportunities can still exist. For example, metal is a decent type of material to clean, so her LLC's button maker might still be able to be used, with lots of cleaning and "rest" in between. Teachers can run the machines on behalf of the students, so fewer hands are touching the items.

2) Consider creating individualized making kits for students. 

3) Use a Google Sites to keep the maker momentum going. Show the different ways of making, like canning. Jen will do a "Feature Teacher" where she profiles a different staff member each month and their making endeavors.

So What? Now What? 

I looked at my 2019-20 scrapbook album and saw all the collaborative maker projects that happened and got a bit sad. I will need to be as creative as Jen Taylor in adapting maker tasks for my elementary aged students. Maybe I can use some of the tools that Kenisha Bynoe and Angelique Thompson gave us during the ETFO Summer Academy session they ran.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020
3:30 p.m.
Failing without Fear during Emergency Distance Learning - Lesson Learned; a Principal, Teacher and Parent Experience with Chad Reay, Emma Reay and Jen Apgar

There were 2:30 pm sessions but I tried very hard to space out my time on the computer so I wouldn't get screen fatigue.

Summary (from website):

Jen Apgar (21st Century Technology Coach from UGDSB - @JenApgar) will host a panel discussion with Author and Principal Chad Reay and veteran Technology Coach and Intermediate teacher Emma Reay. Using questions and ideas from Chad’s book “Failure Without Fear - An educator’s guide to supporting all students” Jen will invite Chad and Emma to share stories and answer questions about their biggest failures as educators (and parents) during the Emergency Distance Learning, how they survived and thrived and what lessons they are taking with them as they continue to fail forward through September 2020 start up and beyond

3 Key Points: 

1) This kind of minsdet needs time to build, in a safe place. Do things like use the word failure and say when things are hard, because it's not lowering the bar, it's a chance to look at what we learned from the failures.

2) The emergency distance learning situation added extra pressure on educators because they didn't have their colleagues near them or with them to laugh off failures. Even tech-savvy educators faced obstacles.

3) As Brene Brown has said, being clear is kind; it is helpful to call someone out or in. Determine their level of readiness to hear feedback because often people will say "tell me anything" but not actually be in a state or place to accept constructive criticism. Try emojis for feedback or other tools. 


Jen's analogy was spot-on and the frank talk (e.g. "banter does not translate well online") from Emma and Chad were refreshing. I got even more out of the after-chat, where Emma and Chad described the extent to which their children embrace the failure mentality and how birth order can make this challenging.

So What? Now What?

I was super-lucky that Jen Apgar chose to use trivia questions as a way to select the book winners. I actually won the book prize. My next step is very clear - I want to read Chad Reay's book, Failure without Fear: An Educator's Guide to Supporting All Students. I think I may (depending on what or who I'm teaching!) use as a thematic inquiry the concept of failure.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020
9:00 a.m.
Breaking the Silence: Acknowledging the Truth and Empowering Diverse Community Voices by Dr Jenny Kay Dupuis

Summary (from website): 

Jenny Kay shares her journey behind what inspired and motivated her to break the silence and create the bestselling children’s book, I Am Not a Number. Sharing her reflections on working with family, community, and the literary world, she tells stories with considerations for responsibilities, ethics, and protocols. She will share her knowledge of the power of teaching, telling, and hearing difficult stories, including ones that focus on the realities of diversity, human rights, and social justice issues through diverse literature such as I Am Not a Number, in classrooms, libraries, and community spaces.

3 Key Points:

1) Stories are so important and need to be treated as such. She consulted with her family and with her community before she decided to share her grandmother's residential school experience story.

2) Jenny felt silenced in school. The stories told did not reflect her culture positively. (She mentioned a Halloween story and the bear wore a feather headdress as his costume.) Make sure there is representation, and positive representation.

3) Do not shy away from telling difficult stories. 

So What? Now What?

One of my tweets from the session focused on how school libraries can perpetuate misinformation, like Dr Dupuis described the "Aboriginal Peoples of the Past" section in her childhood library. This is in contrast to author Jason Reynold's assertion that school librarians are the source of combating racist ideas. Both can be true. Teacher-librarians do have the ability (as Jess Longthorne said in her tweet) to make sure all voices are heard because censorship has serious consequences. The thing is, just being a TL doesn't magically turn you into an anti-racist crusader. You have to make changes and do the work. I plan on doing a diversity audit of my print collection, once I'm allowed to work in the space again safely.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

11:00 a.m.
Virtual Playdates: Social Connections and Learning Through a Screen with Aviva Dunsiger and Paula Crockett

Summary (from website):
The Kindergarten Program Document supports play-based learning, so what happens when school moves online? We explored small group virtual playdates to help support social-emotional expectations, as well as linking literacy and math to learning done at home. Hear about a few of our experiences as well as talk about other virtual playdate possibilities for kindergarten and beyond. Learning starts with relationships. How might these virtual playdates help solidify them for educators, parents, and kids?

3 Key Points:

1) Pay attention to your learners. Paula and Aviva noticed that fewer students were coming to full group session and they missed socializing with each other, which is why they created group play dates with smaller numbers (maximum 6 children so everyone could see each other on the screen) and shorter time (30 minutes).

2) Use nature as much as possible, as well as your student leaders. They took virtual nature walk, near the areas the children were familiar with (which was lucky, because Paula and Aviva live close to the school region). Paula collected things which led to students bringing their own collections. The student leaders helped other students to communicate more effectively online by asking questions of each other as they played, like "How many did you use?"

3) Remember to prepare for synchronous and a-synchronous scenarios. Not every family could "attend" at the same time so they would video tape the walks for students to watch later.

So What? Now What?

I love how reflective Paula and Aviva are together. I also greatly admire their respectful collaboration. As I was listening to their talk, I had a huge AHA which I promised to share in this blog. Their experiences, with learning how to play and interact socially with young children, mirrored the situation my sister and I face with choosing activities to engage my mother in during our virtual teas. Like Aviva and Paula, my sister and I are always thinking about things like materials, silence and time on a particular task (How much is enough? How much is too much?) I sent dice to my parents' house so we could play Tenzies, but they lost the materials. We can play Connect 4 because I can handle the materials and they can see it adequately and describe where they'd like me to place their game pieces. We monitor my mother's body language and comments during games like Spot It (which we have to modify because she forgets the names of items, so one card stays constant so she knows the words), to see if she has "had enough". We've discovered that she doesn't do well with more open-ended tasks unless someone is physically present and beside her (like with the Keva Planks). I'll need to watch how Aviva and Paula continue to support their young learners online because I can use these same strategies for my mom.





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Wednesday, August 26, 2020
1:00 p.m.
Building Community and Belonging in a Distance Learning Environment by Maxime Thompson

Summary (from website):

A positive school culture bursts at the seams with student engagement and community. When schools in Ontario closed on March 14th, 2020 a huge piece of the community puzzle ceased to exist. In this presentation, I will talk about the four parts of an individual's self - physical, emotional, social, and spiritual - a teaching and concept I have learned from Dr Nicole Bell at Trent University. In a more traditional school setting teachers are adept at fostering and cultivating these four pieces, however, with digital learning and loss of physical closeness, it is more challenging to do. I will share a strategy that I have used to bring back the sense of belonging and community in a group of students through the creation of virtual clubs. I will talk about the power of Microsoft Teams, Global Competencies, and STEAM challenges as vehicles to give students purpose, belonging, and community connections that can be lost in the virtual world.

3 Key Points:

1) There are four parts to a human being: emotional, spiritual, social and physical. The goal of education should be to address/achieve a positive level in all of these areas.

2) Distance learning led to an unbalance and collective trauma for staff and students. Community cannot be created in curriculum but in joyful pursuits like clubs and teams.

3) Using tools such as MS Teams, FlipGrid, Mindomo, Minecraft and online class notebooks, virtual clubs can help bring back a sense of belonging and purpose. Max did this with Girls Who Game.

So What? Now What?

I need to create some clubs, so that students in different classes have a chance to socialize with each other. Maybe that Roblox Club the students have been asking me for could become a reality? I will need to see if tinyurl.com/yyaaplev will work - that's where Max posted her slide deck.


Wednesday, August 26, 2020
6:00 p.m.
Bells and Bug-Offs: The Benefits of ACNH and Why This Doesn't Equal In-Class Play by Diana Maliszewski

Summary (from website): 

Animal Crossing New Horizons is a video game that has found unexpected popularity during the pandemic. There are many wellness benefits and natural connections to various aspects of the curriculum (media literacy, numeracy, social studies, etc.). It has also been an unexpected source of equity activism, and political/social discourse. This presentation/guided discussion highlights some of the thinking and learning possibilities to this game but also suggests an odd twist; think twice before turning it into your classroom focus. Your presenter has logged over 85 hours (and counting) of time on the game and, as a founding member of the GamingEdus, has some insights to share. (For a sneak peek, see http://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2020/05/animal-crossing-new-horizons-popularity.html)

3 Key Points:

1) There are many benefits to playing video games like ACNH (sense of achievement, relaxing, set own pace, sense of control, opportunity to socialize, creativity, etc.).

2) Just because video games like ACNH have tons of curriculum connections (Language, Math, Science, Social Studies, etc.), this does not mean you must play them in class. Unlike Minecraft, ACNH is only for the Switch (a pricey console), plus there are issues around sharing, game culture vs school culture, the adult colonization and monetizing of play, and more.

3) You can still incorporate ACNH in without playing it in class. Suggestions include using your shared enjoyment of the game as a building block for building relationships with students, reading materials, options in reading, writing, and mathematical tasks, displays, etc.


So What? Now What?

A comment by my hard-working moderator (thank you again, Jason Lay!!) made me realize that even though I felt like the "gamification vs games based learning" conversation is an old one that doesn't need to be repeated, it's actually a distinction that still confuses people. Thankfully, I had the handy-dandy analogy by Jen Apgar to use to explain difference. I had so much fun speaking with Denise Colby on the phone as my GBL consultant. The next step is that we are going to reinvigorate the GamingEdus website. Andy Forgrave (ECOO president) is now hosting the site and my promise to myself is to add more content. We may even get the old members of GamingEdus play D&D together in the future! (I also want to thank Amanda and Sarah for trouble-shooting my Teams issues. I need to figure out a way to see the chat while presenting in Teams, and I have to do this before October 23!)

Thursday, August 27, 2020
10:00 a.m.
Connecting to Learning: The Virtual School Library Learning Commons with Jenn Brown and Beth Lyons

Summary (from website):

School library professionals across Ontario utilized existing virtual library learning commons to connect with staff, students and families during distance learning. Join OSLA council members to discuss this important collaborative tool for distance learning and beyond. Topics include: creating, updating and maintaining the virtual library learning commons, using webinars, virtual content curation and discussions to better understand school wide value of a virtual library learning commons.

3 Key Points:

1) The slide deck link can be found at bit.ly/ECOOvllcR1 and bit.ly/ECOOvllcOPEN - try creative ways of approaching usual practices, like virtual genius carts, or live readings with inquiry questions posted afterwards.

2) Try to personalize interactions. For example, make a video on how to find things in the VLLC, or use other tools like Apple Clips, Adobe Spark or Screencastify to reply to a query instead of an email.

3) Equity is not a side gig- it should be part of everything you do in the VLLC and SLLC.

There were so many sessions at the same time that I wanted to see (like Centralizing Student Wellness in the Virtual Classroom and Beyond by Timea Szoboszlai and The Global Learner: Creating Cross-Curricular Units that foster STEM and 21st Century competencies by Manprit Rai and Chelly Persad) but this one was focused directly on school libraries, so how could I pass it up?

So What? Now What? 

I need to continue to reach out to the larger Ontario school library community for support and inspiration.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020
11:00 a.m.
Anti-Racism Through Media Literacy: Online and On-Ground Classroom Approaches by Michelle Solomon and Carol Arcus

Summary (from website):

Media literacy can identify constructed social and cultural biases, but how might it also mitigate against racism? This interactive session will discover and examine the roles of social and mainstream media in racist attitudes and activity, and also as positive forces for awareness and change. Rich teaching strategies include on-ground and on-line learning approaches, and the application of key media literacy concepts as a grounding framework.

3 Key Points:

1) Great tip for online presenting > use icons so viewers can be prepared for what will be asked of them (e.g. "respond in chat" or "take notes").

2) Understand these four terms: Hegemony, Anti-racist, Decolonization, and Media Literacy.

3) Media have so many layers (e.g. the Vanity Fair cover of Breonna Tayler - painting vs magazine cover vs other representations / Breonna as more than just her death / Breonna's image for consumerism, used to sell magazines / values promoted).

 

So What? Now What?

I'm lucky that I know and am involved with AML. I'll continue to learn from their amazing members and ensure that my media lessons are opportunities to address inequities.

Appointments (as a moderator for a TDSB webinar and to get my hair cut) presented me from seeing several anticipated sessions. I'm making a list here so that I make sure I return to the recordings to hear their wise words.

  • More Than a Selfie: Exploring Identity Through Photography by Tina Zita
  • BOBs: Sure Things in Unsure Times by Noa Daniel
  • Creating a Digital Toolkit to Support and Engage Literacy Learners by David Hoang and Casely Macdonald
  • Taking An Extra-Curricular Online: My experience to help students stay connected during emergency remote learning by Nadine Osborne
  • Teaching Students to be Critical Evaluators of Online Content by Ash Dwight
I only made it back in time for the last ten minutes or so of the closing keynote, which is why I'll refrain from giving it the usual "Summary / 3 Key Points / So What Now What" treatment.


Again, thank you so much to Mary, Michelle, Andy, all the committee members, all the presenters, all the moderators, all the vendors and all the attendees for making this risk a risk worth taking. 
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Monday, August 24, 2020

#tdsbbt2020 Board PD? Why not?


On Tuesday, August 18, 2020, I was glued to my computer for most of the day. It was due to the Toronto District School Board's Beginning Teacher Conference.

Part of me was unsure that the event would still take place. After all, many educators don't know what they will be teaching (or even where). Why continue with professional learning when the sands are shifting so rapidly that we don't know if we are coming or going? I was glad that the event proceeded as planned.

The first element of #tdsbbt2020 that I was grateful for was the opening keynote. Cornelius Minor spoke to us from New York City and gave us words of hope and encouragement. He addressed our COVID reality and didn't ignore it. He told his audience that there is no one best way to address anti-racism work but that key components of any successful approach includes self-work, systemic awareness, active change making and powerful teaching.

One of his slides said "We are allowed to be angry, sad, unsure and scared. These things are human and appropriate. We don't have to get over it. We don't have to get used to this. We can change this reality." This statement was so liberating. We aren't denying our feelings but we are working on change for the better. He reminded us about all the positive changes that have occurred before and during the COVID crisis - things like demanding more diverse and inclusive books, using UDL (Universal Design for Learning) and CRRP (Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy) to improve our teaching practice, and examining our own biases and how schools mirror and perpetuate the same "isms" in society. He didn't let us off the hook, though. He says that we still have a long way to go and he has a theory as to why we haven't advanced as far as we possibly could.


I was torn between trying to just soak in his words and trying to capture his message so that I wouldn't forget it. I tweeted a few thoughts as he spoke using the #tdsbbt2020 hashtag to collate everyone's ideas. I wasn't the only one impressed with what Cornelius had to say.


I've savoured Mister Minor's ideas before - I read his book We Got This and reflected at length on his statements and suggestions. My big thrill was that he now follows me on Twitter! Yippee!

You may wonder why I was at a Beginning Teachers' conference in the first place - after all, this September will mark my 24th year as a permanent contract teacher. I was lucky enough to hear Cornelius because I was helping to provide workshops. 

The morning session I was involved with was called "It's All Political: Media Literacy and our Texts, Talk and Teaching". I co-presented with Sarah Baynes from the Association for Media Literacy. The two hours flew by and the participants were active, thoughtful and insightful. If you want proof, all I have to do is show you this screen shot I took of the Jamboard, where participants listed some of the resources, found on www.aml.ca, that they planned on using in the fall, in whatever teaching situation they were given.


I want to thank Victoria Lau for taking this photo below and sharing it via Twitter. We recorded the session and will share the file with the participants later this week, but it was nice to see what the experience actually looked like from a different angle. Thank you so much to Sarah for doing a fantastic job presenting and to all the people who chose to attend this session!
 
After a quick lunch break, we were back again with a different workshop scheduled. This one had a lot of "moving parts" - a shared slide deck, two moderators, and seven panelists! Just like the morning, I was delighted with how well it went.

The session was called "Teacher-Librarians: Together with You on the Anti-Bias Education Journey". We deliberately did not record this session, because this was a workshop filled with personal stories and experiences that could not be simply consumed outside this special frame and time. 



I am deliberately not using the phrase "I am proud of the team" - one, because pride is a sin and two, because I cannot take any credit or claim their successes as my own. I am, however, absolutely thrilled and wowed with how the session went. There were so many powerful testimonies shared and so much wisdom in the room. Andrea Sykes, the TDSB Program Coordinator for Library and Learning Resources, commented afterwards that she wished that more people, and not just new teachers, were able to experience that workshop. We will have to investigate to see if we can make that possible.

Huge thanks to Moyah Walker, Jennifer Derr, Karen Devonish Mazzotta, Salma Nakhuda, Diana Will Stork, Rabia Khokhar, Kim Davidson, and Ian Lawrence for giving so much of your time and yourselves to this endeavor. Some of these individuals presented for the very first time and did a great job. Everyone on the panel at some point expressed some level of "who, me?" uncertainty but the combination of people was excellent and everyone contributed to some great learning. Thank you also to the small but appreciative and understanding audience that attended this session. 

I cannot end a reflection on the TDSB Beginning Teachers Conference without a shout-out to Reshma Somani. Reshma is the outgoing TDSB Program Coordinator for English, Literacy and Teaching and Leading Learning (did I get that long title correct?). We have never met in person and have only started talking to each other this past June when this conference started to take shape, but I am so grateful that our paths have crossed. Reshma worked tirelessly on this project (even during the summer, when she was supposed to be "off the clock"). We appreciate the resources that everyone involved will receive and we appreciate the learning that happened. Thank you Reshma (and Jennifer Watt and everyone else who helped make the day a success, despite the uncertainties in this coming school year.)


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Monday, August 17, 2020

Reading Between The Lines as an ETFO SA participant

 Last week, August 11-13, 2020, I attended the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario's Summer Academy session run by Kenisha Bynoe and Angelique Thompson called Reading Between the Lines: Exploring Literacy Through a Culturally Relevant and Responsive Stance.

 It was an excellent three days of learning and unlearning and I wanted to reflect on my thoughts and feelings during the course. Big thanks to Kenisha for giving permission for me to share the images that I have that are from their presentation. 


How do you get people that do not know you or know each other to authentically reflect on their own biased assumptions and notions, and to do so virtually? Kenisha and Angelique had several activities and strategies that they employed to help their participants become more aware. One task from the first day was called the "Airplane Activity". We were given a list of six people that we might have to sit beside on a very long flight and had to rank our preferences for seat mates. The wonderful thing about this activity was that, even when we were cognizant of the purpose of the task, our presumptions snuck in. The follow-up to this activity, conducted in small breakout groups, was that Kenisha and Angelique gave an example of someone who fit that description that we may not have expected; this exposed our preconceived ideas that were based around just hearing an occupation or life situation. (I'm trying not to give specific examples because I don't want to reveal anything in case they use the task with other groups.)

Another activity conducted was when they asked us to draw (or use words to describe) four archetypes. I took photos of mine so that I could describe how I tried to fight against my assumptions but how bias still leaked in.

The first concept was "villain". Now, I knew what was possible with villains, because I had helped write the AML article about villains. I was going to avoid drawing a swarthy, dark-complexioned scoundrel. I was ready to deliberately choose things that were not going to draw on stereotypes, right? 

Well, wrong. My illustration was of a non-humanoid character, but still had shades of Ursala from Disney's The Little Mermaid. Ursala's characterization contains elements of sizeism (she is large and curvaceous), ageism (sultry older women are seen as deviant), and her resemblance to drag queens suggests an anti-queer lens. The other thing I noticed was some ableist notions - the hands aren't hands, but claws, and the feet aren't feet but tentacles. So much for making an obvious attempt to counter my biases.


Then we were asked to draw a hero. Once again, I felt like I was going to be able to circumvent, by sheer force of will, the various stereotypes associated with heroes. I drew my person in a way that you could not tell what gender they were meant to be. The top of the head could even be a hijab - take that, Islamophobia! I remembered that during this pandemic, front line workers (especially hospital employees) were hailed as heroes, so I added a cross to the outfit.

Wait a second ... why a cross? A cross denotes Christianity. I could have just used an H for hospital. I quickly looked up Red Cross and saw this explanation from Britannica's online encyclopedia:

The Red Cross is the name used in countries under nominally Christian sponsorship; Red Crescent (adopted on the insistence of the Ottoman Empire in 1906) is the name used in Muslim countries.


When asked to draw something to symbolize "innocent", I automatically drew a young person. Many others did too. I tried to disguise any obvious gender by excluding bows and hair and by enlarging the eyes. 

Examine those eyes - why are they so large? I looked up symbolism of big eyes and the Internet seemed to agree with my ideas around innocence and vulnerability, but also added an association with feminine beauty. 

What does that imply for cultures or ethnic groups for whom large eyes aren't common? Are they less innocent? 

The last image was "ruler". I tried again to be as general as possible, but the quotation I scribbled was from one of my favourite poems, Ozymandias. It suggests that the ruler, Ozymandias, was a male tyrant. A crown suggests wealth - are all rulers rich? 

Another task we undertook was on the second day of the course. Kenisha and Angelique asked us to "bring in" a book that we liked that we felt was culturally relevant and responsive. There were lots of great titles recommended. What they asked us to do later on was do a deeper consideration of the texts. How might the text be interpreted? What's missing? What biases might be identified in the text? How might these biases impact our next steps in reading? Kenisha and Angelique reinforced this message earlier by sharing four different titles of books that are commonly acclaimed for their diverse content. After the participants picked which books they would be inclined to select if they were forced to do a quick read-aloud without any preparation, Kenisha and Angelique described how each title had problematic elements. It's important to re-evaluate books in our collections (school library, class library, or personal collections) because we may change our opinions of them and how we use them as we become increasingly aware of societal attitudes and shifts and learn more about the creators and the explicit and implicit messages that exist.

In my opinion, one of the most challenging but necessary aspects to examine is the lived experience of the authors and illustrators. We talked about the #ownvoices movement briefly during the course. This was the area where, when I took a second look at the book I had offered during the discussion, my choice could be improved upon. I am not saying that authors cannot write from their imaginations and research, but the sad fact is that often Black, Indigenous, and authors of colour are often passed over in favor of white authors who are writing stories about BIPOC characters and experiences. This was just one of many realizations and reinforcements during the course.

 

The course wasn't all just about confronting our own biases and those in literature. We examined the International Literacy Association's Children's Rights to Read as well as the comprehensive reading framework (modeled, shared, guided and independent reading). 



 We reviewed the differences between activities, learning invitations, and provocations. I was grateful that I had already learned some of this information during my Kindergarten Additional Qualification course in the winter; it was an excellent chance to strengthen my existing knowledge.


At the end of the course, Angelique and Kenisha gave us some wonderful gifts: links to all the resources mentioned, a thorough lesson plan for the book The Day You Begin and a virtual playspace.


Sidenote: The problem with thinking critically is that you cannot "turn it off". Once conditioned to question picture books, even ones we love to read and use, questioning other media texts just happens. My mind is always considering constructive feedback, whether I'm in a course as an attendee or as a facilitator. I am not going to list things here because I think it will distract from the purpose of celebrating what a great learning opportunity it was; plus, that's what the course evaluation is for.

I also question my own conduct during classes. I worried that I was "taking up too much space". I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one with that concern - my dear colleague Lisa Wallace from PDSB shared the same sentiment about herself during one of the breakout sessions. To try and remedy the situation, I deliberately did not type or say anything during the third day of the course. It made me realize how I learn through bouncing thoughts off others (a very verbal-linguistic and interpersonal style). 

Big, big thanks to Kenisha and Angelique for creating a great course, to all my fellow participants, and to ETFO for offering these kinds of professional learning opportunities. 


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Monday, August 10, 2020

With a Plan and a Song (and Games)

 "With a smile and a song / Life is just a bright sunny day / Your cares fade away / And your heart is young". (Frank Churchill and Larry Morey)

These are the lyrics to a song famously trilled by Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) in the famous Disney animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White was in peril; her stepmother the Queen was out to kill her and she was alone in the woods. 

Replace the wicked Queen with COVID-19 and insert our uncertainties about returning to school in September (and the press conferences by the provincial Minister of Education that contains no new information) as a metaphorical abandonment. You won't be able to see any smiles because our masks cover our faces, but this week, with no ETFO Summer Academy to distract me, it was a plan and a song (and, let's be honest, several hours of playing both Animal Crossing New Horizons and now Animal Crossing New Leaf) that have carried me through. 

 There is so much uncertainty and one way to try and obtain a sense of control is to create a plan, even if that plan has to adapt and change repeatedly.

I signed up to be part of a writing project with my board. Led by Francine Schwartz (@denlowllc), the goal for the group I belonged to was to create a series of lesson plans that addressed social studies curriculum expectations and used critical thinking prompts and structures as modeled by The Critical Thinking Consortium. For June and July, I was quite stymied. I really didn't know what grade to focus on or what qualifier to use. The hope is that in the fall, we will use the lessons we design and then provide feedback to the organizers. I'm a teacher-librarian. I don't even know if I'll be doing my library job in a modified way, or taking a cohort of 15 as a classroom teacher, or being the all-around prep provider for just a few classes. (Note: I'm willing to do any of these scenarios.) Francine and I chatted so that I could "get over the hump" and it helped tremendously. I printed out helpful slides from Francine's workshop in the fall to refer to frequently. I found my writing rhythm and prepared a series of lessons that can be taught by me as part of prep, by me as a class teacher, by another teacher on their own, and/or by me in conjunction with the classroom teacher. I can't share the unit plan, because my contract states that it belongs to the TDSB and I need to clarify any restrictions. I hope that the lessons will be useful to me and to my fellow teachers. If inspiration hits twice, maybe I'll write one for a different grade level!

So what about the song part?

Well, as I mentioned in a June blog post, my sister and I have been hosting virtual tea parties with my mother. I think my father is just as thirsty for attention and companionship, because he joins us. We've done this eight times so far. Casual conversation can be challenging because of a) mom's dementia and b) a lack of anything new to report. My sister and I have overcome this in two ways - through games and songs.

Four years ago for Christmas, my sister made a book featuring comics she made with Bitstrips based on real events that happened when we were children. One of these traditions my sister documented in comic-form was sitting on my parents bed and singing together while Dad played the guitar. 

At our request during one of the virtual tea parties, my brother brought out my father's guitar and played a song for us. Dad said that he couldn't remember how to play, but he played a song for us. He said his fingers were unaccustomed to playing and were sore afterwards but he still entertained us. Singing a song or two has now become part of the virtual tea party routine. My sister and I have started to video tape these tiny snippets of my parents singing.






Sometimes the words don't come as quickly to mind, but I'm amazed at how many stanzas *are* remembered by my parents. Dad never took guitar lessons; he just learned through experimentation and one of those songs he sang was a tune he had never tried before on the guitar. Mom always gets a big smile on her face when they sing together. 

There are many health benefits to singing - see https://www.barbershop.org/the-health-benefits-of-singing for a huge list of research studies. I hope that when students return to school in the fall, there will be some way that singing can occur safely. Right now at church, we are allowed to sing - which sadly suits my spouse to a T. 

I tacked on "games" because plans and songs technically aren't enough to keep me contented. I am still playing Animal Crossing New Horizons and added its predecessor to my repertoire. Video games are also my social outlet because I make a point of "visiting" B-Town (the island inhabited by the Brown family) once a week to check out their progress, chat with their villagers and have fun. 

I'm translating this into a session that I'll run at #ECOOcampON sometime between August 25-27.


The next few weeks will be slowly ramping up (the activities and the anxieties) with AML think thanks, ETFO courses (as a participant), TDSB Beginning Teachers Conferences, TDSB new TL sessions, ECOO Camp and ... oh yes, getting ready for school. I hope to get through it all with a plan and a song (and some games thrown in for good measure).







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Monday, August 3, 2020

ETFO SA 2020

Jennifer Brown and I had the honour of facilitating a summer academy session twice this summer - July 21-23 and July 28-30. Today's blog post will reflect on that experience and make some connections to "regular" teaching.


This reflection is going to be peppered with appreciations. First set goes out to the ETFO team. Ruth Dawson has supported us (us = Jenn and me) with previous Summer Academies and for 2020 the assistance was different but equally important. The team also includes Kalpana Makan, Lisa West, Dennis Governor, Kelli Parton, Kristin Vander Eyken, Kruti Macwan and involved Joshua Jones from WebiNerd. All ETFO Summer Academy facilitators were given training in how to use the Zoom online platform effectively. Ruth was also so receptive to the sometimes-bizarre ideas we have when it comes to running our school library sessions. Ruth gave the okay for the session to run twice; this wasn't the original plan but the response was so overwhelming and the waiting list was so long that when we proposed this option to Ruth, she approved.


Jenn and I spent a long time pondering and preparing for each of the six modules in our session. This was time well-spent (and we were compensated too). Each module was only 90 minutes long. There was a morning session, then a lunch break, then an afternoon session of equal length, for three days in total. 9 hours is not a long time but Jenn and I made every minute count. We referred back to our session description to ensure our topics matched and we planned for ways to engage the learners, build community, and teach through and about different media and technology tools/texts. (These embedded photos of me experimenting with my green screen are examples.) We developed synchronous and asynchronous ways for the participants to contact each other, so that it was a more democratic model of program delivery.


Our tech mentors, Cameron Steltman (week 1) and Ian McLain (week 2), were great. We didn't need a lot of assistance but they came in handy, especially for two particular portions: taking attendance, and monitoring the main room when both of us were preoccupied with breakout rooms. Cameron and Ian were also wonderful cheerleaders, encouraging us as we tried increasingly daring Zoom maneuvers like manually chosen breakout rooms (because Jenn and I are strong proponents of voice and choice).

Those pre-selected breakout rooms were important because on the third day, we had guest speakers join us. Big, BIG thanks go to

  • Stephen Hurley (VoicEd Radio)
  • Ardo Omer (FOLD Kids)
  • Toni Duval (FOLD Kids)
  • April deMelo
  • Wendy Burch Jones


I apologize for not getting a photo of Ardo and Toni - I never obtained their consent when I popped into their breakout room, and another important tenet I try to practice regularly is acquiring consent.

These guest speakers captivated our fellow learners and I can testify to the sentiment. Everyone spoke so eloquently and with such passion. A common refrain among the participants was "Why can't we get to see all three?" - this is a natural consequence of providing choice; sometimes you can't have your cake and still keep it (have your cake and still eat it? I can't recall the proper way that saying goes.)

I wish I could name all 61 people who took the course, but once again, I want to respect people's privacy and the need for informed consent. Just know that every single one of you contributed to the wonderful learning experience that occurred. I know people have asked for Jenn or I to "bottle up" or "package up" what what covered in these events, but it is so difficult to comply because it is a co-constructed opportunity and is just as much about the process as it is about any of the products we share or make during this time.

The participants used the #ETFOsa2020 hashtag a lot (and I take pleasure in noticing that the top tweet for this hashtag, as of August 2, was one related to our workshop). I love it when educators make their learning visible like this.



These conversations fed my soul - it was so rewarding to have in-depth, thoughtful exchanges with different people from various school boards.


And then there's the pleasure that is working with Jennifer Brown.

I had so much fun with Jenn, even when the work was serious and sobering. I've tweeted and written in the past about what a joy it is to be in her presence at these type of events. At the risk of repeating myself ... I feel so fortunate that I get to spend time with this person. She is passionate, caring, energetic, experienced, authentic, equitable, observant, hard-working, and knowledgeable. I even spend time with her for recreational reasons (on our Animal Crossing New Horizons virtual islands). Thanks for including me in your life Jenn! Love you oodles!

So, what links can I make with my regular education portfolio? This experience was well supported financially, with enough people power and adequate time for planning and delivery (not too little to feel frazzled, not too much to have screen fatigue). Too bad it doesn't seem like that can be replicated province-wide. Scaffolding online learning to make it meaningful was possible with all those other factors in place. Diversifying the space with small group gatherings was beneficial but also had its drawbacks. Bringing in other voices was essential (especially ones that weren't from the typical school library professional profile = white cis-het upper middle class female TLs). Having two facilitators involved at all stages was crucial to our success.

As we continually said during the course (which fell right during the huge Ontario Ministry of Education announcement at 1:00 pm on July 30 about returning to school in September), we aren't sure what we'll be instructed to do, and how our jobs might change, but remember that school libraries are important to student academic (and socio/emotional) success. Thank you ETFO for allowing this summer academy session to run. Fingers crossed that a version happens again (either virtually or in-person, with or without the Brown-Maliszewski team) next year.


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