40 in 14

 I was originally going to call this post "25 down, 15 to go" but the numbers were changing too drastically from day to day to make it accurate.

It always takes me a while to calm my mind and body when school is not in session. Often, this shift results in me getting ill, but thankfully I have not succumbed to any viruses or bacteria. I was well enough to attend Mass on Christmas Eve, unwrap presents on Christmas Day in the morning, and host my parents for dinner later on Christmas Day.

The holiday is a time to rest and recuperate, but it is also a time to get caught up on some tasks. I've made myself a to-do list on the whiteboard in my basement; I try not to look at it too long because it's rather long.

One of the jobs I need to complete is to read all the Forest of Reading 2025 nominees. I did not bring home the ten Blue Spruce books, but I carted home the Silver Birch Express (10), Silver Birch Fiction (10), Yellow Cedar (10) and Red Maple (10) books, with the goal of completing them all in two weeks (ergo the mysterious "40 in 14" title for this post). 

What's the rush? According to my school board's policy, if a school wishes to participate in a recreational reading program, an adult in charge must have read the books beforehand, so that he/she/they are aware of all the titles and any potential content concerns. For me, I have another, more pressing reason: the students will be demanding to get their hands on our copies of the nominated books ASAP so I need to be ready for the onslaught! In fact, here's a photo of a particular student at my school - ever since the first week of school, he's been asking when the Forest of Reading program would begin. He also has been carrying around his old reading passport from 2023 as a treasure or trophy.

I received the shipment of books on the last few days of school, so I haven't had the opportunity to read them uninterrupted beforehand. One of my hidden talents is that I can read rapidly. I was a voracious reader when I was a child and I need the speed in order to be ready for January 2025.

My friend Wendy, a fellow teacher-librarian, was curious to hear about which titles have captured my attention so far. At the risk of prejudicing any of the readers in my school (since I know some students read my blog), some of the books I've read that I've enjoyed have been:

• Lost and Found: A True Story (it reminded me of some of my students)
• Odd Couples (loved the illustrations and had me guessing about the connections)
• The Cricket War (a powerful refugee story)
• Mortified (how much humiliation can one character take?)
• Welcome to AI (timely and a good fit for two of my upcoming workshops)
• Whales and Us (mirrored so much of what our First Lego League team researched/learned!)
• Operation Cupcake (wish I had this book when I was teaching about simple machines)

I still have more to read, so my list of favourites may grow. Don't worry; it won't be all work for me while I'm away from school. I'll get to nap and I've already had a lovely afternoon with my Fluevog enablers Wendy and Kim down at the Distillery District this past weekend trying on shoes.

Time for Three Tributes

 It's better to compliment people when they are alive to hear it. I realized that the last "tribute" post I wrote was in February 2024 for Julie Tran. As much as I'd like to surprise people with these posts, I know it's important to obtain consent. This post was rather tricky to get permission to create, so much so that I had to promise that the spotlight would be shared!

Our junior division team is strong this year. A lot of it has to do with our current Grade 5 teacher and her "next-door neighbour", the Grade 4-5 LTO teacher. Today's blog post will focus on the two of them as well as another LTO, and reasons why we are so fortunate to have all of them in the building.

Brenda Kim

Brenda Kim is our Grade 5 teacher. She has been with our school since 2014, if my annual scrapbooks are accurate. Brenda is a talented math educator, so much so that when my own daughter was struggling with Grade 11 math, I asked Brenda to tutor her, and thanks to Brenda's instruction, my eldest was able to pass the course! (This photo below of Ms. Kim and Mary was taken in July 2017 at MakerEdTO.)

I've always enjoyed co-teaching with Brenda. She and I attended a workshop series together on Critical Thinking in Social Studies in 2019, and together we taught a really cool end-of-unit-lesson that involved both of our student teachers in 2020. We even made collaboration work in 2021 when she was a virtual teacher. This year, we did some stuff together in science and it was her class that created those skinny pig slides I wrote about last month. 

The reasons why Brenda deserves extra-special recognition hinge on the circumstances of this year's class. In 2024-25, Brenda returned to teaching full-time from a stint as a part-time teacher to focus on her family. It would be a challenging transition for anyone, but Brenda is excelling, despite some of the needy students in her class. For instance, she is providing so many well-modified tasks for her multilingual learners. I'll be honest; she's doing a better job giving them regular structured practice work than I am as their ESL teacher! There are some students in her class that have had several visits to the office, and not for the best of reasons. Brenda could easily pass the responsibility on to someone else, but often she offers her own time to help solve problems, calm students down, or give them a space to eat or relax where they are less likely to get in trouble. Heck, she even sacrificed part of her lunch hour when I was the person in charge at school to patrol the hall and ensure people who were supposed to be outside stayed outside! She knows how much her class needs her and sometimes that resulted in her coming to school when she felt less than 100% well to make sure that her class was okay. (Some of this *may* have had to do with the reluctance to write supply teacher plans - I can definitely relate to that!)

One thing Brenda is terrible at is accepting compliments. She dismisses her efforts as "nothing special" but it is the efforts of caring and considerate teachers that make good schools great.

Lexi Williams

Brenda and her fellow junior division teachers (Diana Hong, Nelani Kokularajan, and Lexi Williams) helped tremendously with this year's Winter Concert. With our music teacher out of commission due to an injury, we had to alter our expectations for the LTO replacing her. (More on that LTO later.) A little bird told me that it was Lexi's idea to combine the Grade 4-5, 5, and 6 students and have them all sing and sign John Lennon's "Imagine" to perform at the concert.

I've written about fabulous LTOs in the past. It's not an easy job. Lexi started with the Grade 4-5 class in October and has done a phenomenal job of creating a positive culture in the classroom. Lexi has been a LTO at our school before; she was great then in her Grade 1-2 class, but, even though I didn't think it was possible, I'm even more amazed with her patience, skills, and creativity this year. She genuinely cares about reaching every student and crafting lessons and learning experiences that help them maximize their learning while honouring their individual differences. Like Brenda, Lexi is doing SO much to support her students who are ESL learners. I love hearing her share about the gains that specific students are making, or ways she's discovering to use their passions and interests to help them improve, achieve, and thrive in school. I'm disappointed that our school superintendent had to cancel his most recent visit to our school. If he was able to attend, he was scheduled to see how Lexi incorporates technology to motivate and support her students, many of whom struggle with reading and reading comprehension. There's a student who is writing an encyclopedia by choice because of the encouragement and personalized learning Lexi engineers. I walked into the Grade 4-5 classroom one day to have her students enthusiastically bombard me with queries related to their science task. Many of the students in Lexi's class are very artistic and as part of their science unit, they folded fifty butterflies and lizards and hid them throughout the classroom using physical and behavioral adaptations. When I marveled at how clever this lesson was, she said it was "just" a matter of finding the idea online and tweaking it for her purposes. I was still impressed with how she sought out interesting ways to captivate her students and not rely on pages and pages of worksheets to make learning engaging and fun.

Serena Fung

Lexi isn't the only LTO currently at our school. Our music/senior ESL teacher destroyed her ACL and is at home recovering. (Connie, don't you try and apologize again! It's not your fault this happened.) We were fortunate that Lexi had a friend who was not only available, but willing and eager to help out - Serena Fung.

 Serena has been a wonderful addition to our school. Like Brenda, she has willingly given up her time to provide emotional support for students who had difficulty managing the ins and outs of a school day. Her translation skills have been used to our relief multiple times since she started, such as when she filled holes during parent-teacher interviews. I've never heard her complain, even when she had to race after students who were attempting to leave unexpectedly or offer extra practices after school to assist the band students improve in time for our concert. The biggest WOW for me is how Serena initiated, and launched, a K-Pop Club for our students. Serena left no stone unturned when preparing for this club. She organized everything so well, from permission forms to weekly plans that help participants learn about Korean culture while enjoying the music. The popularity of the club has grown tremendously, and Serena willingly gives up her Friday afternoons (with supervision help from the other two tributes highlighted here - Brenda and Lexi - to ensure things run smoothly) to offer this optional enrichment to our students. 

We are now on holiday until school resumes in January 2025. I hope Serena, Lexi, and Brenda enjoy their well-deserved rest. Thank you, Ms. Kim, Ms. Williams, and Ms. Fung for everything you do as dedicated educators. We are so lucky to have you!

The Pretend Principal

'Tis the season ... for people to get sick! At the school level, this often means arranging for an occasional teacher to cover the class. If we are short of supply teachers, the specialist teachers (such as myself) will need to step in and cover the absence. However, when the ill individual is the principal, it takes on additional significance.

My school's administrator is rarely away. He was at a conference (principals need professional development too!) and when he returned, he was not his usual healthy self. Could it be "con-crud"? ("Con Crud" is slang for getting sick after attending conventions, because of the large gathering of people from different places at a single location.) Whatever the reason, he left on Monday and was away the entire week.

My school is not large enough to warrant having a vice-principal. In the "chain of command", the next person in authority would be the chair people. It just so happens that the other chair person is away recovering from an injury. That leaves - you guessed it - me.

The great thing is that there are supply principals that can be called on to help shepherd a school when their usual leader is away. Often, these are retired principals who make themselves available. We were extremely fortunate to have three principals come to cover. Thank you to Sue (Tuesday), Penny (Wednesday) and Allison (Friday) for stepping in when we needed them. Thank you also to Leigh, who was on-call on Thursday when we were unable to find a principal to be with us all day. (I took the liberty of parking in the principal's spot that day. People got a kick out of seeing my bright green Kia Soul there.)

I consider myself quite fortunate that the school where I work does not deal with a host of behaviour issues. My previous schools were challenging at times, and I wrote in the past about a time where I was the person in charge of the building and how difficult it was. This past week, I did not have to deal with problems like this, and I did not have to complete most of the duties that my regular principal is tasked with daily, but there were several responsibilities that require a principal and might often go unnoticed by regular educators. It makes me appreciate my principal and principals everywhere.

Discipline

As "easy" as my school can be, there were still some incidents where students misbehaved and they had to be addressed. This takes a lot longer than one might anticipate. You have to interview all the participants and witnesses, consider context, circumstances, and history, and communicate any consequences to everyone involved. This is where I am grateful for the guidance of our supply and support administrators, who helped me with the process.

Decisions

Decision-making fatigue for educators is real. Teachers have to make a lot of decisions over the course of a school day. For principals, I suspect that they have to make even MORE decisions, and there are many more factors to consider. For instance, if a teacher is absent, who will be asked to cover the class? How will this impact their regular schedule? Do we have enough people outside for yard duty? Are there plans available? Who will need access to those plans? 

Availability

It's important for a principal to be visible in the school, as a reassuring presence, as a physical representation of the school, and as a point of contact. This week, I ate all my lunches (when I had them) at the desk in the office. It ensured that our office administrator got her regularly scheduled lunch break, that phones were answered, doors opened, and visitors greeted. After school, someone "in charge" needs to be around until all students are out of the building. We have dedicated teachers who run clubs and teams outside of instructional hours, so I was around until after 4:30 pm several afternoons in a row. We also hosted our winter concert this week, and the concert always closes with final remarks from the principal. I brought greetings from our principal in his place. Someone had to be available as a stand-in. 

I didn't include all the other jobs a principal or vice-principal has to cover, like answering superintendent's emails, attending meetings, and filing reports. I'm glad I wasn't expected to add those to my to-do list!

There's sometimes an adversarial relationship between teachers and principals, possibly ever since the principals were removed from belonging in the same union. This is a shame because, despite being our "bosses", we are all (or we all should be) aiming for similar goals: ensuring students are learning and protecting the safety, health, and well-being of all people in school. Don't get me wrong - there are some terrible principals and terrible teachers out there (as Friday's Toronto Star article on chronic unjustified teacher absenteeism implies) - AND the education system is very broken and stumbling along, functioning thanks to the generosity of hours of unpaid labour by educators - BUT being a principal and being a teacher are both hard jobs. We need to appreciate each other. Being both at the same time - a "pretend principal" (since I do not hold any PQPs [principal qualification papers]) - made me realize that it's doubly difficult. Tack on a few extra jobs this week, and it's no wonder I'm looking a bit haggard and tired.

I'm looking forward to the final week of school and a bit of a break before returning in January! Stay well, everyone.

Saturday Competitions (From OBTA to FLL)

 When I was a young person, I used to be a competitive baton twirler. Eventually, I graduated to becoming a baton twirling coach. Competitions were held on the weekend. We'd pack all our costumes, equipment, and paraphernalia and drive to Kitchener or whatever city was hosting an Ontario Baton Twirling Association (OBTA) sponsored event.

This Saturday, I had flashbacks to my baton twirling days, because I was one of the coaches that escorted our school's First Lego League (FLL) team to their qualifying meet at David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute. This is our school's first year participating in the challenge competition and it's intense! Registered teams must program a robot to complete as many missions related to the year's theme - FLL Canada describes it more succinctly: "building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface". There's also a presentation component to the event; students need to research an issue related to the theme, come up with innovative technological solutions, and share their process and findings in front of a judge. This year's theme was "Submerged".

Our school's lead coach is Matthew Malisani. He is a font of knowledge and expertise. His prior experience as a FLL coach and judge really helped us understand how and what we had to complete. Matthew was much more conscientious than I was because he would read every word of the five-page email updates we'd receive and studied the Robot Game Rulebook to ensure we knew what time limits we had or what actions could disqualify us or reduce our point acquisition. (Before you think I was just a barnacle or a hanger-on, I contributed with my teacher-librarian skills and networking abilities; I helped the students research their project, connect with an expert they consulted with about the issue, and assisted them with polishing their presentation with props, phrases, and many rehearsals.) I even made them some swag to wear as part of our team spirit that fit with our research theme.

I've used the word intense already but I'll repeat it again - it's an intense process! The robot performance match is a 2.5 minute timed process. Team members have no time to dilly-dally. They must put their robot through their paces and get as many tasks completed in that short period of time. Our team, AMPS Robotics, have been working together since the second week of school. As the competition date drew closer (and especially after several of us were done with our twice-a-week choir practices to prepare for Remembrance Day), the team met every day at lunch to work. Matt informed us that there were teams that have been working for a lot longer. There are teams that aren't associated with schools that schedule all-day sessions on the weekend to prepare and practice. 

Participating in FLL isn't cheap either. Matt correctly pointed out that equivalent school sports competitions are expensive in terms of the teacher release time, jerseys, and space. For FLL, it costs money to register a team, purchase the year's thematic kit, and build a table. This doesn't include any additional items that help supplement the presentation or care for the competitors, like paying for their pizza lunch the day of the event.

We wanted to have realistic expectations for our students. Our team is relatively young. The Challenge category is for children ages 9-14 and our team of eight students consists of two in Grade 4, three in Grade 5, and three in Grade 6. At Saturday's competition, there were 28 schools and 43 teams participating. Our hope was that the students would score some points (because it is possible to have a negative total at the end of a match) and not be in the bottom third of the pack. We also wanted our students to have a positive experience at the event - have fun!

Our students exceeded our expectations from beginning to end. First of all, everyone arrived on time for their early 7:00 am pick-up at the school.

The main motto of these FLL events is "gracious professionalism". It's a competition but teams must be kind to each other and to internal members of their own team. Our students were wonderful to each other. In between matches, they played board games with each other and had fun. (Below is a photo of them playing Spot It together.)

They kept calm under pressure and made a point of tidying up their area and plugging in the robot to keep it charged.

The students were delighted to see our principal visit them at the competition and some members who were reluctant to be at the table for the timed mission portion actually relented and joined in. 

We didn't enter the room when the students did their presentation. We were allowed, but Matt recommended that we stay out, because if things went south, then they could problem-solve independently. When our students exited the room after their 30 minute session, they were smiling. They reported that the judges had many nice things to say about their project. Big thanks to Jessica Roberts from York University for answering our students' questions about noise pollution in the ocean! They wore the ear muffs I made them (to fit the theme of reducing noise) and they said the judges were tickled with all the various props they brought to help each other out, like the hula hoops to prevent each other from wandering away during the talk! (The photo below is of the students practicing on our own mat in the "pit area".)

The crowds watching the action got thicker as the day went on. Our kids started to get a bit tired, but they persevered. 

We stayed for the awards ceremony, not expecting to receive anything, but because it's the polite thing to do. Out of 43 teams, we placed 17th, which was an excellent showing. Imagine our surprise when our team was called as a prize winner! We were awarded the Rising All-Star Award for the team that showed the most potential.

The kids were happy and delighted with this recognition. As we gathered our things for the drive back to north Scarborough, many of them talked about re-joining and what they could do next year. Matt will probably start next year's team in May so that we have even more time to get ready. Congratulations to every team that participated, regardless of the end result. Despite our worries about the organization of the event (i.e. Why are we still receiving invoice notices when we paid over a month ago? Why wasn't our team allocated a table in the pit area? Why does FLL make it so hard for TDSB to pay for registration?), the event ended up running relatively smoothly and the young future engineers and scientists really enjoyed putting their robots through their paces. Healthy competition can be motivating and invigorating! Best of luck to those advancing to the provincial competition in January. It won't be us, but big thanks to our team and their families: EM, EM, JY, JY, AC, LT, SZ and LZ. 

Who Really Runs My Library?

This past weekend, my friend Kim Davidson attended the burial of her mother back in Jamaica where her mom was born and grew up. Kim's mom, Pat McNaughton, was my "library mom"; she worked as an adult volunteer at the Agnes Macphail Public School library for many years. Often, the children would suggest (or outright state) that Mrs. McNaughton ran the library and wonder what my role was exactly. I attended Pat's Canadian funeral two weeks ago (on November 16) and had the honour of giving a tribute during the service with another dear friend, Moyah Walker. Pat's internment, as well as some more joyous events from this past week, inspire me to ask, "Who really runs 'my' library?"

Every year, as part of our Library Helpers Team, we hold elections for the positions of president and vice-president. Eligible nominees must have had at least one year of experience working in our school library. They give an impromptu speech, and the rest of the library helpers make their selection by closing their eyes and raising their hands to vote. The person with the most votes is president and the runner-up is vice-president. The president and vice-president monitor the attendance of the helpers and choose who attends the coveted library helper shopping field trips. Their privileges include going on all library-related trips and having permission to enter the library during any recess. This year, N from Grade 8 is our president and A from Grade 7 is our vice-president. They met with me a number of weeks back to discuss plans for improving our school library. I took notes and didn't think much about it. Last Monday after school, I entered the library and found N and A hard at work. They took it upon themselves to begin some of the revitalization projects they had suggested. They were restoring the labels on the shelving carts and relabeling the everybody book shelves.

In the pivotal Canadian school library documents Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons as well as Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, there is a big push for creating a team approach to managing the school library. T4L says "It requires leadership to success, and that leadership can only come through the willing co-operation and collaboration of everyone participating in the school learning process." (page 40). In Leading Learning, the practical "younger spiritual sister" of T4L, it's more explicit: "The Library Learning Commons Leadership Team represents the learning needs of the entire school community. Working together with classroom teachers, students and community, the vision and action plan for developing and sustaining each school Library Learning Commons will evolve." (page 22) I was so impressed with the initiative and dedication that our current student leaders possess. Leading Learning lives in this school library!

A few days later, on Wednesday, November 27, twelve library helpers, a parent supervisor, and I took the GO Train to the GTA Resource Fair to purchase new books for our school collection. As is typical of my practice (and you can see my Treasure Mountain Canada 6 paper about these actions), I provided my students with a copy of the abbreviated TDSB Guide to Selecting Learning Resources, told them my budget limit for the day, and let them loose. The students were fantastic, as usual. They chose wisely, kept track of their purchases (a great lesson in financial literacy!) and actually stayed under budget!

It warmed my heart to see students from two other schools at the GTA Resource Fair with their teacher-librarians, knowing that they were inspired to bring young readers by seeing me and my students shopping together in the past. I estimated that I've made this trip with students about 35 times, so the young people's presence is no longer a shock but a welcome addition to the event. The students even helped barcode the bought books, thanks to the patient guidance of TDSB's Library Technical Service Team, including a former elementary student of mine, Jessica Ho!

I have a new adult library volunteer who comes in a half-day each week. She's shy and doesn't want her efforts to be publicized much, although her children are always delighted when they see their mother helping out in the school. My new helper won't be able to replace Pat, but she shares the same devotion and determination that Pat possessed. She refuses to leave until the entire shelving cart has been emptied and put away. As she left on Thursday afternoon, she asked me about ordering special book glue, so that the repaired books can last longer. 

So I conclude with the same question I began: Who really runs 'my' library? It's a trick question, because technically, it's not my library. It's our library. It belongs to all the staff, students, and community members that care about it and use it. Even though I've been in it for over twenty years, it will continue to exist long after I am retired. (One student asked me recently who the teacher-librarian was before I came, and I know who it was, because she recruited me for the job - Lorna Embrey, thank you for encouraging me back in 2004 to apply for the position!) My job is to facilitate, build relationships, and set the conditions for success.

Pedagogical Power of Pigs

Here on my blog, I write a lot about my school skinny pigs. I don't know of any other school that houses hairless guinea pigs as semi-permanent residents. Alvin and Simon, our current creatures, garner a lot of attention from students and visitors. I wanted to mention a couple of recent lessons that involved our pets  (and reassure readers that animal safety and security is taken into consideration).

Skinny Pig Slide

The Grade 5s have been building slides as part of their STEAM / STEM Lab use. When chatting with their homeroom teacher, the amazing Brenda Kim, we contemplated the idea of having the skinny pigs try out some of the slides. Brenda and her students narrowed it down to three contenders and last Tuesday, we all gathered in the school library learning commons to see how the skinny pigs would react to the builds.

I realized that the students' initial dreams would have to be modified. Our skinny pigs are neither adventurous nor brave, so it would be ill-advised if they were to be placed at the top of the slide and pushed or prodded down the ramp. (Alvin and Simon don't even know how to jump out of their cage bottom when I'm cleaning their cage and take off the top!) I didn't want the skinny pigs to have a heart attack and die in front of the children. Instead, we gently suggested we see if the skinny pigs could be coaxed up the slides with food.

Brenda was also very aware of keeping the animals free from harm. She had to reduce the number of slides we used from three to two, because one group's slide had too drastic of a drop and the bindings were too insecure. We also put a barrier of boxes around each slide so that the students wouldn't crowd too closely around the skinny pigs.

The students loved watching the skinny pigs explore the slides, and they were delighted when they saw the pigs attempt to climb up the slide to snag their vegetables.

Pet Club

I started a Pet Club this year, partly because of the huge interest in the skinny pigs and partly because I need help taking care of them! (In addition to them, our Specialist Teacher PLC focus is about using clubs and teams as a way of addressing student social-emotional needs.) There are several teams of students from Grades 3-5 that are responsible, for two week chunks, for checking in on the skinny pigs. They need to change their food and water, and let me know when it's time to change their bedding. The students have these badges they are supposed to keep and bring back at the end of their two-week duty time, although I've noticed they have been "forgetting" to return them.

Taking care of a pet activates a lot of "soft skills" as well as numeracy and literacy skills. The students have to:

• estimate how much to fill the food bowl and water bottle
• observe, using multiple senses (sight, smell), and determine the level of cleanliness of the cage
• communicate with their fellow pet club members about when it is time to meet after school to clean the cage
• measure how much bedding needs to be put in the cage bottom
• determine when it is a good time to check on the skinny pigs (time management)

Group 3 in particular have been extremely attentive and they have made efforts to communicate amongst themselves about their responsibilities. Here are some of them as they feed the pigs.

Here's a photo of Group 2 as they helped clean the cage. (Don't worry - I am the only one that handles the poo. The students wash their hands after petting the skinny pigs, and they only touch the clean bedding.)

We have future plans for the Pet Club to get visitors with dogs to come to the school, to talk to us about how to interact with dogs we see in the community. We'll see how busy it gets in the new year, with my new athletic club (more on that in a future blog post) and the Forest of Reading program demands. The students are doing very well with the animals and I am proud of their efforts. I also notice how the skinny pigs are the first place that the students I see for ESL head to when they enter the library. I also hear them saying "pigs" and using English words related to them.

Having said all this, I have come to the realization that it is highly unlikely that I will be getting a dog as part of my retirement. I've never owned a dog and at one point, I considered it as a good project to keep me busy and active when I would eventually stop teaching. I even got to the stage of researching breeds, since my son is allergic. However, the more I seriously debate it in my head, sadly the more I'm convinced that skinny pigs are the biggest kind of pet I'm meant to have. 

Reasons?

•  the cost (today I spent $150 at the pet store on skinny pig supplies; I'd be spending a lot more on a dog and sticker shock is real)
•  the training (my pigs are a bit skittish and that's because I don't handle them as frequently or train them as thoroughly to be used to being held; dogs would take a lot more training and I have no experience)
• the attention (I needed to start Pet Club because I'm so busy doing other things that sometimes I forget to check on the animals; I wouldn't want to neglect a dog, which would need much more focus)
• the individual responsibility (when the skinny pigs are in my house, it's my husband that takes care of them more than I do; he's not a "pet person" and it would be unfair to inflict extra chores on him)
• my tolerance levels for mess or destruction (I don't want my Fluevogs chewed up, and although I can handle skinny pig pee and poo, I'm not sure how I'd do with dog vomit or feces)

I'd love to be proven wrong on this point, but at this point, it looks like it'll just be the pigs for me, my school, and home. 

Nunsense

This past week was another action-filled adventure, filled with parent-teacher interviews, CSL webinars and other appointments. I'm going to focus today's reflection on some collaborative units I'm teaching, and a particular outfit I wore. (No, it doesn't have to do with Fluevogs; sorry Wendy and Kim!)

I really enjoy teaching with Lisa Daley. She encourages me to bring my "A-game" to every lesson. We are co-teaching a series of history lessons based on the time period from 1713-1800. There's a lot of background knowledge that students might need, especially if our eventual goal is to pursue inquiry projects based on student interest. Our most recent lesson introduced some of the settler groups from this time in pre-Canadian history, and I used "teacher in role" to give students the chance to allow students to ask questions "directly" to a coureur du bois and to a nun.

I was a bit worried that the activity would go "off the rails" because the students would get too riled up at this alternative way of obtaining information. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The students actually grasped the format of "teacher in role" and asked really powerful questions. I had to remove my head gear / habit - a gesture in drama that means that I was "stepping out of role" to respond as myself - to acknowledge that some of their questions were ones in which I did not know the answer. (One such question that blew me away was "What was the opinion of the Church and the nuns towards the American Revolution?")

When I mused about the experience afterwards, I realized that, in our public school system, students have very little exposure to religious figures. The students associate nuns with being solely residential school villains who beat and mistreated Indigenous children. The culpability of nuns in some of the atrocities committed while residential schools were in operation is not in question, but as a Catholic myself, it's a shame that this is often the only connection that students make with nuns. Religion has been the catalyst for both bad and good things in the world; sometimes we focus on the bad and forget the good. I've actually renewed my volunteer commitment to the church recently by becoming a lector (reader) at Mass. A little known fact about me is that when I was young, I once suggested to some friends (Anita Cicco, do you recall this?) that if I wasn't married by age 30, I'd consider becoming a nun. I think I make a much better wife and mother than I would probably be if I took different kinds of vows!

It was also quite revelatory for the students to demand hard questions and hear some in-character answers. I had to remind the Grade 7s, when they asked my nun persona, that the residential school system did not begin in Canada in earnest until the 1880s. It was also a foreign concept for students in our pluralist society to consider that some groups believe that they have the right answer and that others are wrong. Many nuns felt that they were in the business of saving souls and that their method was the best, guaranteed way to get to heaven. 

I had planned to re-use my nun outfit with the Grade 4 students. They are studying societies from the past. We are examining Medieval England and Ancient Rome, so I thought it'd be useful for them to have a conversation with a nun and a goddess. I had to postpone that lesson to complete some others, but I look forward to donning the robe again for some interesting dialogue.

Something that is more NONSENSE than nun-sense is this ear situation I'm facing. On Friday, November 1, something got lodged in my ear. It's negatively affected my hearing and giving me soreness and pain. I went to my doctor's clinic on November 10 and was told that I had to treat the ear infection that developed first before dealing with the blockage. I had a migraine on November 11 and an even bigger migraine on November 14 which knocked me out for the entire day - it's not normal for me to sleep from 9:30 am - 4:00 pm as part of my recovery. I returned to the clinic on November 17 to learn that this procedure is de-insured. Even if I wanted to pay the doctor to help me, they aren't allowed to remove the blockage. I have to locate an audiologist to pay for the removal. This is going to mean more time off work. I know it's (hopefully)  a temporary problem but I'm really frustrated. We can never take our health for granted. I've seen how quickly people can go from able to infirm. Saturday, November 16 was the funeral service for a wonderful woman who used to volunteer in my school library - Pat McNaughton. She had a stroke / brain aneurism in the spring and never fully recovered. A lung infection took her a few days after her 77th birthday. It was rather challenging to try and hear what others were saying and I apologize to anyone who had to face my odd contortions as I navigated my head so that people could speak into my "good ear". Let's hope my hearing impairment gets resolved so that things don't get worse. 

Don't Disappoint

 I am under strict orders not to be on the computer for long today. I am recovering from a migraine and have an ear infection. Usually, I write my blog posts on the weekend, but this weekend was just too hectic to get it done on time. My husband keeps telling me to take it easy, but it's hard. 

There's so much to do and I don't want to disappoint anyone.

I'm writing about disappointment today because of something that happened on Friday. To protect the identity of those involved, I won't go into detail. Some students poked pencils into some of my flexible furniture while I was supporting others. When I discovered this, I didn't yell, but I asked them to stay in at recess to see if they could figure out how to get the pencils out - a consequence to match the misdeed. What I did not expect was to see two of the four students crying uncontrollably after recess was over. They realized that the pencils weren't coming out, but worse for them was they realized that I was disappointed in them. I had to make it very clear that I still liked them, that I still cared about them, and that I forgave them. At lunch time, one of them sought me out with his class teacher. He spent the hour between recess and lunch writing and drawing me a picture of remorse and an apology. I didn't expect this at all. I cried. My tears startled the student. His class teacher had to explain that Mrs. Mali wasn't sad but was happy with his effort and words. He spent the rest of the day checking on me to ensure I was okay.

The desire to satisfy and please those whose opinion matters to us is a strong one. 

Today, we had our Remembrance Day ceremony at school. Usually, our talented music teacher Connie Chan coordinates the event. Connie is off recovering from an injury and so I took up the mantle, with significant contributions and planning by our Grade 7 teacher, Lisa Daley. We wanted to do our best, for Connie's sake and for all the staff and students. It went well, considering we did not have a lot of time to rehearse. Unfortunately, because Lisa and I were making all the arrangements, I didn't get the opportunity to take any photos. It's too bad, because the students sat quietly and the choir, band, and poets worked hard. Sorry!

With my blog posts, I always include photos (that I take myself - copyright belongs to me as the photographer). I'm sharing posts of the multilingual learners in my ESL class as they went on their "directions hunt" two weeks ago. This week, they are having a quiz (that my son helped me create) to check for understanding and consolidation of the ideas. Two weeks ago, they had to find the hidden turtle by reading clues that used some of the directional words (in / on / under / behind / beside / between) we've been practicing hearing and saying.

I worry about disappointing my ESL students. They are so keen to come with me for lessons that they pepper me with questions ("Is today ESL?") and they get very disappointed if I have to cancel class because we have a shortage of supply teachers. Today, we welcomed two new students to our school. Neither speak English. This makes 4-5 Newcomer Profiles I need to complete ASAP. I may need to rejig my ESL schedule to better accommodate the students who are fluent in their home languages but require some basic English phrases so they can communicate with their teachers. If I have to demit some students to make room, I have a feeling they'll be disappointed.

I also don't want to disappoint my staff. I have a series of collaborative lessons in store and I want to ensure that "teaching in twos" happens this year and is a rewarding experience for those involved. I'll try to keep my expectations realistic, but I do put a bit of pressure on myself.

It's another busy week. I'll do my best, and try not to disappoint.

Fun with Friends and my "new" Phone

 I really wanted to tie together the idea of positive personal relationships in today's blog post, since so many of last week's adventures involved connecting with others. One day, I'll need to try feeding in all of my past blog posts into an AI LLM and see what kind of "Diana post" it churns out. However, today is not that day.

My current iPhone (an iPhone 6, I think) is on its last legs. It reminds me of the children's movie, "The Brave Little Toaster" and the rant that the objects have against "planned obsolescence". It really does feel as if the technology is pre-programmed to fail after a couple of years, in order to force me to buy a new phone. When I call home at the end of the day, my husband can only hear me 50% of the time and it's equally spotty for me trying to hear him. My texts don't always go through; it's getting a bit frustrating.

One of my ESL students asked me about the kind of phone I own. He really likes "Samsung". His current classroom teacher is probably one of the best things that has happened to this kid. She genuinely likes him and I think he senses how she feels about him, because he tries harder, acts happier, and speaks more frequently this school year than any other previous year I've witnessed. He chats with his teacher regularly and technology is a frequent topic. He was having a hard time pronouncing the Ss in "Samsung", so talking about this phone has given him extra, authentic practice making those sounds. His classroom teacher already owns a Samsung phone, so the student decided to give me a Samsung phone.

This is a very valuable phone, not because of the material cost, but because of the time and effort cost, and what it represents. This student doesn't like to write much, but he spent time writing the numbers on the keypad display and adding all the features, which he proudly pointed out to me when he gifted it to me. I make a point of trying to call him on my "new phone" and he talks a lot about how his present to me made me so happy. I think he plans on making a second phone. He was already chatting with his teacher about giving him more paper of this particular size to craft another phone.

Positive personal relationships are so important to cultivate. We need friends in our lives. 

I got to see some of my dear library friends at the Ontario Teachers Federation Curriculum Forum on Saturday, such as Julie Milan, Melanie Mulcaster, and Kate Johnson-McGregor. Kate and Melanie helped me design some questions to use for my end-of-collaboration-unit "exit tickets" to improve my impact surveys.

Melanie and I are going to be presenting a workshop next Tuesday, November 12, for Canadian School Libraries, in conjunction with Ontario School Library Association, about creating action research for Treasure Mountain Canada 8. We've been planning it online, so it was such a bucket-filler to see her happy face in person. We all can use some friends, especially when they are supporting us with our goals, like Melanie is doing with this webinar and like Joanie Proske is doing with our shared TMC8 research paper.

I usually don't go to the Curriculum Forum, but I was stepping in for my colleagues from AML, Chelsea and Neil, who had prior commitments. I was happy to attend because the facilitator was the talented and knowledgeable Moses Velasco. I swear, I become smarter every time I have a conversation with Moses. (I even said this the last time I talked about Moses on my blog, back in April!) 

Then there are my friends that I work with at my school. I've learned, from bitter prior experience, that you cannot be friends with everyone you work with in a school, but you can always be friendly. There's a difference. Our staff members have been praised, from everyone from LTOs to single-day visitors, about how friendly and welcoming we are. We pulled together to take a #redfored photo on November 1 to show our support for our union negotiators. We hope that these photos make a difference.

Photos for a greater purpose, photos for fun - this past week was Diwali and Halloween and we snapped a few fun photos to use for the yearbook. 

(Here's generous Thess Isidro, distributing her own candy to every child in the school!)

(Here's serious police officers Diana Maliszewski and Brenda Him mugging for the camera!)

Finally, even though we have to respect professional boundaries, I must say I treasure the positive relationships I have with our superintendent and with the parents in our community. This past Tuesday (October 29), we had our area superintendent visit our school in the morning, and we had a Parent Council meeting in the afternoon. I am really grateful that these people take the time out of their busy schedules to come to the school to see what's going on and to offer their help and support in various ways. 

So, thank you friends and friendly folks, for bringing the joy into my life. Thank you to people like Kerri and Serena, who have volunteered to assist me with choir, and to Lisa, who is helping me to plan the Remembrance Day assembly in Connie's absence. Work is less onerous when you have helping hands to lighten the load, and familiar faces to focus on when the going gets tough!

Supporting STEM in the SLLC and Beyond

 This past week was another busy one. I'm composing today's blog post just a few hours before it's scheduled to go live. 

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) was a common theme in last week's adventures.

Dreamer Day

On Tuesday, October 22, my dear friend Farah Wadia arranged a trip to Dreamer Day 2024 down at the Enercare Centre. The goal was to expose young women and girls to opportunities for careers in STEM fields. Every Grade 6, 7, and 8 female student in my school went, along with Ms. Wadia, Ms. Berwick, and me.

At first, the girls were shy. We encouraged them to ask questions and check out all the displays. They enjoyed collecting all the fun swag and by the end of the day were much more confident in setting their own agendas and exploring on their own. Farah learned about this opportunity by thoroughly reading TDSB guidance department emails and the whole experience was free for our students! Thank you Farah (and the sponsors of Dreamer Day) for making it possible.

First Lego League

My lunch hours have been full with supporting our school's First Lego League robotics team. I'm one of the coaches. Matthew Malisani is the other, more experienced, coach. Our team consists of about 8 students from Grades 4-6. We finally (FINALLY) got our confirmation that our team is officially registered and received our mat and parts a few weeks ago, although we've been working since late September to develop coding and building skills. Matthew built our FLL table and the team has amped up their efforts to prepare for our upcoming competition in December. I may not have the skills to program the robot to complete the "Submerged" missions, but the students do! 

STEM Classes in our STEM Lab

I see two classes for STEM instruction. Both of them are Grade 1-2s. We have been learning about the Engineering Design Process and our challenge was to find a way to connect two pieces of cardboard together without the use of anything sticky - no glue, no tape. The students would rather skip the plan and design portion and jump immediately to building, but it's important to have ideas in mind. We are close to completing these experiments.

The school library learning commons and the teacher-librarian are positioned perfectly to help make STEM / STEAM education possible, practical, and pedagogically appropriate. The library space is large enough to house equipment (and the tops of shelves have become important storage spaces for projects, not just the ones I help coordinate, but for Ms. Gomez and the Grade 2-3s she sees for STEM time as well). Going to see experts or bringing in experts enriches the experience; I didn't arrange that trip to meet women in construction, the military, or other industries but Farah did and she has her TL Part 1 AQ. 😉 Extra curricular clubs and teams that relate to STEM (and less formal gatherings like Maker Spaces) can be run in the library. One of the aspects of a FLL competition involves research, so I'm getting to flex my teacher-librarian inquiry skills muscles as I show the students how to take notes from reliable online sources, send emails to gather information from people who know things, and ask good questions.

Now I just need to use my STEM skills to design a cloning machine for myself, or at least an external battery so I don't get exhausted keeping up with all the demands that late October brings!