Chiu's Ways That Go Beyond

It is time for another tribute post for one of my co-workers. I received her permission to write about her and it's long overdue.

I have worked with Jenny Chiu for a very long time. She was already a fixture at the school when I arrived there in 2004.  Right now, we are co-teaching together for a partner unit addressing community and I am enjoying our time together maybe even more than the kindergarten students are with two adults in the room. It gives me the opportunity to witness the considerate, good things she does on a regular basis.

I could talk at length at how no-nonsense, frank, flexible and funny Jenny is. I could mention how she works hard and is willing to admit when she doesn't have all the answers or how she might do things differently. These are all part of her personality. What I want to focus on is how Jenny Chiu puts her family, friends and students first.

This focus on helping those around her is not new behaviour. Back when Jenny Chiu was a primary division teacher, she took extra steps to help her students be successful. I remember that she had a student who we'd now call a "reluctant speaker" - in the past, we called them "selective mutes". Chiu made a point of visiting this student's house, where he felt more comfortable. She played Beyblades with him and developed a positive relationship with the family. During those home visits, he spoke to her. Chiu wasn't required to do this; she wanted to because she knew that school was a stumbling block and she wanted to help him communicate without anxiety.

Even just this school year, I've seen Chiu bend over backwards to help families and friends who are struggling. She arranged to have important documents translated. She negotiated so that truant students could make it to school closer to the regular start of the day. She phoned families to plead with them about their decisions relating to in-person and virtual school so that they could make the most beneficial choices for the students. She has offered to take students into her class so that other educators could catch their breath - even though she herself has her hands full with students in her own class with special needs. 

Jenny Chiu still keeps her expectations high for her students. She has her students counting in French and English during attendance and constantly challenges them to "look, listen and think". Her inquiries with her students involve intriguing concepts that are often dealt with in older grades, such as structures and stability. She works hard and so do her students. She expects nothing less from her fellow teachers. Together, during this partner unit, we've pushed ourselves to have students conduct video interviews, take photos on exploratory walks, build a 3D replica of the school, and articulate how young people are just as much a part of various communities as the adults (who are traditionally the sole focus of "community helper" units). 

Jenny and I were chair people together, about "two principals" ago, and we also served with Kerri Commisso as union stewards for two years. It is a pleasure to work with Jenny because I can count on her to be honest, observant, insightful, and dedicated. We can't all be like Chiu (and I should explain that we got in the habit of calling each other by our last names when we had 3 people named Diana and 3 people named Jenny in the building - it was hard to distinguish so we became "Mali" and "Chiu"). It's probably a good thing we aren't all like Chiu - but I hope everyone has at least one Chiu-like person in their school, someone who is a champion for those families and students that aren't always the easiest to understand or assist.

School Families

 

This image comes from https://parade.com/1045384/marynliles/family-quotes/ and full credit goes to them. No copyright infringement is intended.

This image comes from https://quotes2remember.com/quotes/439 and in other images the words have been attributed to Les Dawson, Bear Grylis, and others. Since this site encourages sharing, I am posting it here with a link to the original source. 

Monday, February 21, 2022 is Family Day in Ontario. I will be spending it with my immediate family (consisting of my husband, daughter and son). Family Day was first celebrated in Ontario in 2008 and on that very first celebration, we took my children out to a restaurant to eat. They declared "this is now a tradition" and sure enough, every Family Day, we go out to eat together. I love my family!

I may love my family, and my family loves me, but that doesn't mean we live in utopic bliss. We don't get to pick our family (except for those we marry into and, well, it's part of the whole package, I guess). Our family members are precious to us but they can be a bit trying at times. In our family, we have superhero and supervillain names we've given each other, which hint at some of the traits that sometimes make interactions difficult: The Quibbler, Crankenstein, Professor Malice (more of a troll than malicious, before you get too alarmed), and The Lizard Queen. As the first quote suggests, sometimes we save our worst conduct to share with those closest to us. We are less polite or snappish or respond with less appreciation than we should. 

Challenges reset these patterns of behaviour sometimes, or moments that remind you that circumstances can change without warning. For instance, on Sunday morning, I woke up feeling "not right" and after examining the clues, especially the tingly aura surrounding my left arm, I realized that I was having a migraine. I treat my migraines with a combination of medication, dark spaces and sleep. I lay on the couch with a pillow over my head and conked out for three hours. Everyone in the family was so considerate and sweet. They let me rest and when I awoke, they made me lunch, gently hugged me and checked in on me. (My love language is all about the hugs, so this made me happy.) 

School families operate in similar ways - but without the hugs. We don't get to pick who is in our school. The principals may get a bit of hiring choice at some point but not enough to hand-pick every member of the team. The staff members and students I work with are special to me but that does not mean we always see eye-to-eye or we never get on each others' nerves. I know I get frustrated with things my colleagues say or do. I grit my teeth. I grumble. I rant to sympathetic ears. Depending on the person, I may even subtlety address the issue. As the second illustrated quote in this blog post says, families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. (Apologies for the implications around mental illness, but I couldn't find an appropriate quote that captured the essence of my thought in a better way.)   I still like my school family members.  After all, I'm sure that sometimes they might feel similarly about me. Like actual families, we deal with each other the best way we can, be it minimizing contact with those who are particularly vexing, taking a tolerant approach to those who are merely irritating, or seeking what role you can play in improving relationships. Happy Family Day!

Reaching Through the Screen

 I've been pretty open and transparent about my concern for the virtual students I serve. Back in December, I designed inquiry projects that I thought were accessible and interesting. I decided that this project would not count negatively towards their final mark, despite it being a significant portion of our time in class and the expectations from the term. If the project improved their grade, it counted. If the project lowered the grade, I commented on the project but did not let it impact the grade. Some students did a fantastic job and their marks rose. Others ... well ...

There's a higher-than-average number of students doing poorly, especially in one particular class. For some individuals, this coincides with what other teachers are seeing. For a few, I'm the only one not seeing the results I had hoped. It's tempting to dismiss it as "it's not me; it's you" but I feel compelled to try something different to lead to greater success without lowering the standards for the age and grade too much. 

I've turned to Kerri Commisso, a conscientious and hard-working teacher on my staff that I've written about before on my blog. I showed her a list of all the main tasks I provided during the first term, and asked her for ways to help the under-performing students to participate more and contribute more evidence that they are learning. She suggested a few things, which I wrote on a list that's posted in my office. Some of the tactics she suggested included keeping a class list and tracking who had spoken during a class discussion, then calling directly on students who had not spoken. I tried this and, although I was able to reach some of the students that usually try to slip under the radar, I had at least two other students complain that this "was taking too long" and was "boring". 

Kerri also suggested small group tasks and Jamboards with the students names on stickies, so that they could see when they've made a contribution. My latest task is to play virtual "hide and seek" using a map of my office. The slide deck gives them a word bank so they know how to type their clue. There are instructions on how to Arrange > Order > Send to Back items so they can be "hidden" on the map. Plus, we've used two class periods so that I could help students complete the task, so they didn't necessarily have any "homework" to complete outside of instructional hours. This task was due on Friday, February 11. When I checked on Sunday afternoon, 57% of one class and 50% of the other class finished it on time. I guess I'll need to make another extension before playing with them online.

The challenge is just as real in kindergarten. Some students are focused and some are distracted. I have been reading the Blue Spruce books with them online and attempting some "Forest of Making" like activities. I never get 100% participation. I thought I'd make it easier by taking the photos of the students and their work myself; it felt frenetic and I was able to capture over a dozen students who, in response to the book Malaika's Surprise, wrapped something from their home and wrote a word on it. (The follow-up goal was to have others guess what was wrapped and then do a version of an "unboxing" reveal, but many students misplaced their wrapped surprise.) 

I really wish there was a way I could reach them more effectively through the screen. There are times where I think that the online version of a task will give better results, but that has not yet been the case. For instance, for my health class, I gave the same type of task to an in-person and virtual class: we played a PBS video game called Arthur's Lunch-O-Matic. The second time we played it, I asked students to record the first letter of their guess. Online students typed the first letter of the object in the chat and in-person students wrote the first letter of the object on a mini-chalk board and held it up for me to see. Questions were things like "Which one of these items would give you protein? Spinach (S)? Chicken Fingers (CF)? Apple (A)? Or Orange Juice (OJ)?" A couple of times, I even showed the explanation for each item, which would often actually directly give the answer. The average score for the virtual class was 4/10. The average score for the in-person class was 8/10. 

At least one success has been our staff professional learning. Last Wednesday, February 9, we had a staff meeting and conducted it virtually. We embedded a SIP-connected activity and it seemed to go quite well.

What are your thoughts looking at these @unlearn_com posters. Open discussions during our @AgnesMacphailPS staff meeting was thought-provoking! pic.twitter.com/biDWBNVAnx

— Jen Balido-Cadavez (@jenabee_c) February 9, 2022

What's the answer? Every time I think I'm close to understanding how to address the problem, my results tell me that it's not the case. Sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining - it's not all that bad, I guess. Students ARE learning online. They are happy and safe. Some teachers are going to extraordinary efforts to engage their students. It's just not easy. I hope that the 2022-2023 school year will be in-person for most of our learners and that we can do it safely.

A Tale of Two AQs

 

“Busy hands and idle minds have knitted many a sweater; Busy minds and idle hands have knitted many a brow.” (Maryrose Wood)

I like to keep busy, although there are times that I worry that I have bitten off more than I can chew. The first third of 2022 is going to be very busy for me, because I am teaching not one, but four different AQ courses for two different institutions. The great thing is that both of these institutions have very different approaches and content. In my completely biased opinion, I'd recommend taking courses from either of them. Let me briefly talk about the strengths of each of these programs.

Queen's University TL AQ courses

Right now, I am facilitating the TL Specialist AQ course for Queen's University (Winter 2022 session). I've taught the TL Part 1 AQ twice and the TL Part 2 AQ once in the recent past. What I really like about this course is that the assignments are really enjoyable to do and to read as an instructor. There are a lot of them, but it is such a pleasure to digest and responses seem to come quite naturally. All of the course content is available immediately, so participants can work at their own pace. The size of the class is small, which makes it feel intimate and I am able as an instructor to participate frequently and thoroughly in discussions. The information aligns with the most recent revisions to the guidelines for teaching the TL AQs that OCT developed. This means that equity is infused throughout the entire course and course candidates will receive an up-to-date education on the current issues in school librarianship, as well as exposure to foundational concepts and documents. The tools we use to complete assignments are varied and can be employed by educators outside of the course, so we are learning through and about various media texts. Course experiences will not be dependent on the instructor you receive, as the content is consistent regardless of the leader. 

York University TL AQ courses

A fellow TL and friend of mine, recently retired as the lead instructor for York's online TL AQs. These are big shoes to fill and I am grateful to York University that they believe in me (their blended TL AQ learning instructor in the past) and invited me to be the new regular instructor for all these online TL AQs. Right now, I am guiding the Parts 1, 2 and Specialist courses. This is busy but guarantees that all sessions can run despite lower numbers in the upper versions of the course. What I really like about these courses is that I am allowed the flexibility to offer options. For instance, the candidates can choose to attend one of our guest lectures by external speakers (that I've organized) in lieu of a course assignment. Our first talks will occur this week (by Salma Nakhuda and Jennifer Cadavez) with three more to come (by Kim Davidson, Melissa Jensen, and Jennifer Brown [from PDSB]). The course content appears in chunks, so it is manageable and not overwhelming. I also like how reaching out to practicing TLs is part of the Part 1 tasks. All of the assignments can be completed within the Moodle platform, so it is centralized. I am revising the course content to match the newest TL AQ guidelines, so I'm very excited about that. It will look different from other institutions (as their course content is proprietary) but it will still do a good job of preparing educators for the role of leading and learning in the library. 

After reading the above descriptions, my recommendations might sound contradictory. How can I like a prescribed curriculum AND opportunities to change things simultaneously? This exercise of listing all the benefits of each program made me realize that there are many different approaches to teaching an Additional Qualification course. There is not just one right way to facilitate this learning journey. Certain aspects might appeal to different kinds of learners, even when those learners are themselves educators. What I've discovered from teaching with two different universities is that there are many ways to approach the same material. This reminder will help me in my regular teaching gig; just because I might like a certain method or pedagogical technique does not mean that everyone will respond to it positively. This also extends to the fact that not everyone responds to the instructor in the same way. There are other TL AQ providers. My friends Cindy Van Wonderen and Dawn Telfer are instructors for OISE's TL AQs. I'm uncertain about the other instructors for the seven other institutions offering various Teacher Librarian AQs - this is unfortunate, as I think it'd be nice to be transparent (to help people make the decision about where and when to enroll in a TL AQ) and it would be wonderful as a support network. (The image below is a list of the 10 providers of the Part 1 version of the course.)

To the course candidates in all of my TL AQs: thank you for participating in professional learning of this type; I enjoy learning from and with you. Keep up the great work!

PS - I wanted to add a little something to the end of this blog. I did a critical reading of this post, and an internal voice said to me, "Diana, why are you hogging all the opportunities? You get to rewrite two courses? Why not give someone else, especially someone that isn't white, cis-het, and female a chance?" (I appreciate that inner voice, even if they make me uncomfortable sometimes.) To that question, I reply that, although getting my "foot in the door" with teaching AQs was initially a bit of a fluke, I've been able to continue because of my experience in the field. Having said that, however, it is my goal to continue to mentor and promote many other teacher-librarians so that they are able to gain experience and then eventually take my place. The course content I help produce will also center voices that aren't usually part of the dominant narrative. I am going to use the privilege I possess to introduce more people to the opportunity to teach other educators via AQ courses. Now, if only some of these people would let me pay them an honorarium for their time! (Educators are too accustomed to providing their labour for free, but that's another topic for another day.)