Don't Start Something New on the Last Week of School

Don't Start Something New on the Last Week of School

Sorry for the long blog post title. I usually prefer something short, pun-ish, or punchy.

Let me repeat the title:

Don't Start Something New on the Last Week of School

In this blog post, I will criticize a larger organization for disobeying this mantra. I will also, somewhat hypocritically, provide three examples where I have similarly ignored this advice and suggest why this was unavoidable in my case.

Last week, the Ontario Ministry of Education released its revised Language Curriculum for Grades 1-9. This is public information. I will keep my comments brief and focused on the timing of this release. This is not a wise time to share a new curriculum. It is too close to the end of the school year. In my board, there are no professional development days left to develop instructional strategies for implementation.

I'm going to share a tweet by Jerry DeQuetteville. I will preface it by saying that Jerry is no fan of the current provincial government, but he makes a valid point.

One week before the summer holidays the curriculum is released. Teachers are expected to figure it out themselves. They will be expected to develop materials and find resources. Schools will be expected to review and make modifications to IEPs etc. /9

— Jerry DeQuetteville (@jdeq) June 21, 2023

I'm sorry for quoting a tweet - as I am weaning myself from Twitter as it has changed for the worse - but this is poor timing. The new science curriculum was released in March 2022 for implementation in September 2022. That feels like a more reasonable amount of time to get organized prior to implementation. The new math curriculum was released June 2020 for implementation in September 2020 - this was particularly challenging as educators were still wrestling with the COVID pandemic.

Don't Start Something New on the Last Week of School

Why don't I pay closer attention to this statement? I have my reasons.

The first example of my contrariness is that I'm beginning the Queen's University Summer 2023 Teacher-Librarianship Specialist Additional Qualification course as the instructional lead. The course begins on Monday, June 26 because it aims to provide a bit of a longer time frame to complete than other AQs. (The Queen's TL AQ runs from June 26 - August 11.) I will also be teaching some of the York University TL AQs, but those AQs have a different schedule and they haven't started yet.

The second example that may make me wonder "What was I thinking?" relates to a voluntary project that some of my colleagues and I are undertaking. I won't say too much about it here, but it involves creating a 3-5 minute video. Our deadline is June 30. That's not my choice but we have to abide by the timelines we are given externally. Our team has been busy with graduation, report cards, extra curricular clubs, and all the wonderful but time-stealing tasks that come with the end of the school year, so we haven't had a lot of time to work on the project. It'll be an intense time to get it all done.

The third example isn't exactly starting something new. In a rare moment of being realistic, our Volunteer Recognition team at school realized that we had no time left to hold our annual Volunteer Tea and Reception. Instead, we created little gift packages that will be sent home during the last week of school. 

We still continued the tradition of placing book plates in new books for the school library in their honour. It's unfortunate that we couldn't carve out the time but maybe that message is slowly sinking into my subconscious.

Don't Start Something New on the Last Week of School

A Winning Week

 The week of June 12 - 16, 2023 was an absolute whirlwind of activity. Each of these events could warrant a separate blog post but in the interest of time (because I still have to finish evaluating work for one of the TL AQs), I'll touch on all of them briefly here.

1) Peter's Graduation

On Monday, June 12, my youngest graduated from college. I wasn't able to attend because his ceremony was the same day as the TDSB East Quiz Bowl. Some people might question my priorities. Don't worry. Family still witnessed him crossing the stage live. Peter himself had mixed feelings about going but felt that, since COVID robbed him of the chance to do his high school graduation that he should at least experience one convocation. Congratulations Peter on achieving this milestone!

2) TDSB East Region Quiz Bowl 2023

I couldn't attend Peter's ceremony because of Quiz Bowl. This was the first time the event was in person since the 2019 event at Alexander Stirling P.S., although we did hold it digitally last year. Our host school this year was Chief Dan George Public School. There were seven schools that participated: Agnes Macphail PS, Chief Dan George PS, Iroquois Jr PS, Macklin PS, Military Trail PS, Percy Williams Jr PS, and Port Royal PS. Even though the rain prevented the students from going outside all day and caused the cancellation of the ice cream truck, it was a wonderful day. J Torres was our guest author. He stayed to watch part of the Quiz Bowl competition, took selfies with the competitors in charge of his nominated book, and sold out of all the books he brought.

The winning team for the Silver Birch Fiction Quiz Bowl was Iroquois Jr PS, with Chief Dan George PS in second place and Port Royal PS in third. The winning team for the Yellow Cedar Non-Fiction Quiz Bowl was my school, Agnes Macphail PS! The students were delighted with their win. We teachers were delighted that the students interacted positively with each other (both in the gym and on the shared school buses) and tried their best to answer the quiz questions.

3) Pokémon Video Game Guest Speaker

On Tuesday, June 13, Peter came to my school to run mini-workshops on the history of the Pokémon video game franchise. Groups even played a bit of the game with Peter at the controllers. Some of Peter's observations noted that the primary division students claimed to be fans of Pokémon but knew little about the strategy of considering types when battling (e.g. a Water type is stronger against a Fire type). I wonder if that comes with age, as some of my students were playing with the Pokémon cards during free time at Quiz Bowl the day before. 

4) Final AQ Guest Speaker for Spring 2023 Session

Andrew Woodrow-Butcher spoke to the York University TL AQ participants via Zoom Tuesday evening. Big thanks to ALL our speakers for the Spring 2023 session (Denise Colby, Jennifer Brown, Andrea Sykes, and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher). I could listen to Andrew talk for hours, even on topics I am quite familiar with. 

5) TDSB TL End of Year Social

Wednesday, June 14 was the gathering of the board's teacher-librarian community to honour retiring TLs and celebrate. All the TDSB TL facilitators received a rose and a certificate for their efforts this year coordinating network meetings and growing the profession.

6) Staff Social and Retirement Party

Thursday, June 15 was the date of our staff social. The inclement weather forced us to change the venue and we held it in the school staff room. We paid tribute to people who will be leaving our school at the end of this year (Sunita Rawat, Katrina Dubrowski, and Stephen Tong). The food, catered by Los Vietnamita, was delicious. (Sorry I had to miss the AML meeting but I haven't perfected time manipulation or cloning technology as yet.)

7) Red Maple Marketing Campaign

On Friday, June 16, four local schools (Agnes Macphail PS, Banting and Best PS, David Lewis PS, and Port Royal PS) gathered at the Goldhawk Park branch of the Toronto Public Library for the Red Maple Marketing Campaign. Like Quiz Bowl, we ran the event online last year and 2019 was the last in-person event. The weather cooperated so we were able to have the ice cream truck visit. 

Agnes Macphail PS had two teams. One represented the book Batter Royale and the other represented the book Walking In Two Worlds.

This was Port Royal's first time at the event. Their team was in charge of Children of the Fox.

This was Banting and Best's first time at the event. Their team represented Sorry For Your Loss. 

David Lewis PS fielded three teams. Their groups were in charge of the books The Bear House, On The Line,  and Let the Monster Out. 

Two representatives from Manifest came to judge the projects - Joan and Abby. Each group had up to 10 minutes to "pitch" their advertising campaign to people actually in the field. (Three photos are below - two from my school and one that was an animated short film the team created as part of their promotion.)

To my shock and surprise, the winning group was NOT the one we teachers would have guessed. The runners-up were the David Lewis PS team that made the campaign for Let the Monster Out. The winning team was Agnes Macphail's Walking In Two Worlds group.

Let me be brutally honest. From the very beginning, I doubted this group and their approach. They wanted to promote the book with humour. I was skeptical. Wab Kinew's book wrestles with some serious topics, from suicide to online bullying and misogyny. How would they pull this off? When they showed me the video trailer they filmed, my comment actually was "This was much better than I thought it was going to be". I think their group lead was either slightly hurt by my opinion of their prospects or took it as a challenge. When they saw the other groups, they were a bit nervous but their unofficial team captain said, "We got this." Their spiel to the judges actually startled me. They took my criticism of their project and turned it on its head. They told the judges exactly why they made a funny trailer despite the content of the book. They said they wanted to provide content that could be turned into memes and go viral. To my horror, as part of their pitch, they actually dissed the other competitors. They scoffed at the bookmarks and trifold board displays, which generated a big vocal reaction from the others watching. I was worried I was going to have to guard them for their own protection when they left the event!

It seems as if the marketing executives really liked their techniques, including "throwing shade". This really highlighted that there were "two worlds" at play here. In the educational world, we really focused on the artistic and collaborative aspects. (I would have sworn that the Let the Monster Out team was going to win. They had QR codes! They got the author to record a promotion message on their behalf! Their book trailer was an animated film!). In the marketing world, it seems to be more about grabbing and holding attention. (I haven't had the chance to read the feedback they wrote for each group.) I know some of the other teachers are a bit worried that next year's teams will adopt a more mean and aggressive approach. I have no idea what the fallout from this will look like next year.

Hopefully I can catch my breath a bit. We have ten days left of school. Congratulations to all the "winners" from last week!

King Tong

 This is my "Tribute to Mr. Tong" post. My family voted on which title I should use. (I nixed their original idea; Steve, if you are reading this, I'll have to tell you in person what they recommended I call this blog post.)

In about three weeks, one of our long-time teachers will retire. Stephen Tong has been at our school since 2006. (For context, I arrived at our school in 2004, along with three others who continue to teach there. There are only two other teachers still on staff that have been there prior to 2004. It's a wonderful place to work, so people try to remain on staff as long as possible.)

Steve is an incredible educator. I was flipping through my digital photo collection on behalf of the Grade 8s who needed photos for their graduation slide show, and I found a few featuring Steve that deserve commentary. It's evidence of his commitment to students and to learning.

The above two photos were taken November 6, 2020. I was teaching Grade 5-6 during the height of the pandemic and there were so many restrictions that planning physical education lessons was a challenge. (We couldn't even share balls at the time!) I decided to do a mini-golf unit - but I don't know the first thing about golfing. Enter Steve. Not only did Steve conduct a class for my students on how to putt properly, we held a small tournament in December 2020. Steve created the "Golden Golf Ball" award and gave it to the student who had the best score. (See, I know so little about golf that I don't know if a high number or low number is the best!)

Another pair of photos come from a moment in April 2023. (See below.)

I was fortunate to collaboratively teach for a bit on a unit that he and his amazing ECE Thess Isidro had already been developing, on food. What I love about these photos is how it shows Steve getting up close and personal with the students. As a kindergarten teacher, he has almost limitless patience. (I think I can only count on one hand the amount of times I have ever heard Mr. Tong raise his voice.) He knows a lot about how to explain things in age appropriate ways and how to scaffold lessons for maximum understanding. When the students were busy working, I'd pick his brain about authentic kindergarten assessments and methods of content delivery and I always walked away smarter after talking with Tong.

To the left is a rather old photo, from 2006, Steve's first year at our current school. (For the record, this is Steve's third school of his career.) This was a photo from Twins Day and I hope it captures how much FUN Steve is and was on staff. (I'm on the left, Steve is in the middle, and Renee Keberer is on the right.) He is game to do or try almost anything. Dressing up for Danceathons or Spirit Days or Halloween was no problem. Funny (and disgusting) stories in the staff room always flew around the table when Steve was present. (Trust me, in kindergarten, there are a LOT of disgusting stories to share.)

To the right is probably the most recent photo I have of Steve, taken surreptitiously during our Welcome to Kindergarten evening for the incoming parents. You'd think that with a dwindling number of days to go before his educational career ends, he'd be coasting or taking it easy. Not Steve. He is still fully present, sharing insights, and providing that rock-steady foundation for parents nervous about their child's beginning school days. 

I'm not sure of the reason, but often, if Steve was owed prep that he didn't get, because a teacher was away with no supply replacement, it'd take some persuading for him to take the time he was owed. I suspect it was because he'd take all the hard work on his own shoulders and try to lighten the load off his colleagues. I know when I wrote kindergarten report card comments for Steve, he'd tell me not to fret so much about them. He had it all covered. 

Below is another example of how Stephen Tong "took care of us". We had a School Open House and Exhibition on May 25. He set up a hall display featuring the work of his students that had everyone from the principal down in complete awe.

Mr. Tong organized a "Master Chef" class competition. Students in small groups (led by one of three team leaders - Tong, Maliszewski, or Isidro) had to create and cook a healthy meal that used all the food groups. The above photo doesn't do it justice. The documentation goes on for the entire length of the hall. In post-Expo conversations, he says that this display was "minor" compared to some of the ones he put together in the past, including a floor-to-ceiling dinosaur!

As the other male staff members we had retired or moved on, Steve held a unique place as the only guy in the classroom. This made him a very important role model for our male-identifying students. Steve coached basketball and volleyball, with positive results. He knew that it took years to grow a team to its full potential, which is why he'd begin with students in the early junior grades and build their skills, year by year, until they were ready for competition. Steve also played an important role this past year when we went on the Grade 7-8 overnight trip; he was one of the supervisors. (Below is a photo of all the teachers that went; from left to right are Lisa Daley, me, Dean Roberts, and Stephen Tong.)

Behind the jokes is/was a wise man who you could sit down with and have a serious conversation about future goals, career aspirations, and ways to be a good person. Just last week, he took the time to chat with a former student visiting and promised to help him out with his job search.

Mr. Tong, we are going to miss you. Congratulations on your retirement!

The Ed World Version of Rubber Ducking

 Rubber ducking is a term I first learned from my son, who just graduated from the Game Arts program at George Brown College. To quote Wikipedia,

In software engineering, rubber duck debugging (or rubberducking) is a method of debugging code by articulating a problem in spoken or written natural language. The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by forcing themselves to explain it, line by line, to the duck.^[1] Many other terms exist for this technique, often involving different (usually) inanimate objects, or pets such as a dog or a cat. Teddy bears are also widely used.

This week is prime time for writing report cards. I spent several hours co-assessing the Grade 7 history projects with Ms. Daley and the Grade 8 history projects with Ms. Wadia. I also spent a large portion of Friday and Saturday together with my daughter (who isn't an educator) evaluating the Pokémon cards that the Grade 1-3 students made as part of their media literacy unit.

I'm not comparing Lisa, Farah, or Mary to a plastic toy. However, the concept shares some similarities to moderated marking, or at least evaluating projects with someone else. Even though it can be onerous and take a lot of schedule coordination, marking assignments together is worth the effort.

Assessment should be objective but also needs to be subjective. What I mean by that is that the criteria should be clearly outlined and determined by the learning evidence, while at the same time, teachers must take into account the various other factors that impact those artifacts (i.e. if the student's first language isn't English, if he/she/they struggled with a particular concept related to the task, how much assistance they required, etc.). 

By having a second person around the explain or justify why a certain project might receive a certain grade, it helps me to see if I'm on the right path. I appreciate having another point of view. 

Because people (such as my dear friend Wendy Kaell) have shown some interest in "the Pokémon project", here is the evaluation criteria we used to mark the cards, as well as 10 of the highest ranking cards created by students. 

I deliberately gave few marks to the written components because the students are in Grades 1-3 and some of their writing skills are a bit weak. However, many wrote much more than I anticipated and demonstrated that they totally understood the codes and conventions of the media text. 

The next (and final) stage (or should I say "evolution"?) of this Pokémon unit is to have my son come in to play various Pokémon video games with the students and do a read-aloud of a Pokemon manga or novel.