Coming to Fruition

 I'm going to combine two (and a half) rather different topics into one today. The path will become clear in a bit.

Braiding Sweetgrass and My Garden

I was in a very long line on Friday so that I could renew my passport. (I should have listened to my husband, who warned me way back in January that travel is not always possible when your documentation is due to expire soon thereafter.) As I waited, I finally had the chance to catch up on some reading. I've been trying to read Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults for months, but I just didn't have the time. There were a lot of parts that made me want to record them so I don't forget. One part came on page 105. The author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, says:

People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore the relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always "Plant a garden." It's good for the health of the earth, and it's good for the health of people. Something essential happens in a vegetable garden. It's a place where if you can't say "I love you" out loud, you can say it in seeds. And the land will reciprocate, in beans.

Robin is right. To my husband's great surprise, I have taken an even keener interest this spring in gardening. Last year, I grew a few cucumber plants as an experiment.  In July, I actually harvested enough cucumbers to make several Greek salads. We decided to plant a bit earlier than we did last year so we went to the local garden center and bought a wide variety of seedlings. We have three different kinds of lettuce, strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We are even trying to grow strawberries and lavender from seeds instead of seedlings.

I wanted to cover my little plants with chicken wire because I was worried that wild animals would eat them before they had a chance to grow. I'm feeling rather protective of them. Hubby advised me not to be so hasty. Turns out his advice fit with some more information from my reading of Braiding Sweetgrass. One section talks about "The Honourable Harvest". Here are the principles:

These principles make sense. In another section of the book, the author learns about weaving baskets. She is schooled by John Pigeon from the Potawatomi Gathering of Nations. She quotes John when he explains:

"People think it's 'just' basket weaving, but 80 percent of the work comes long before you weave. With finding the tree, pounding and pulling, and all, you barely make minimum wage" (page 119)

This unseen effort that leads to beautiful results is what leads me to the second portion of this blog reflection.

The Art and Culture Concert

Thursday, May 23, 2024 was our Art and Culture Concert at school. It went very well. I shepherded the kindergarten performances. At our last concert, all the kindergarten students performed in one large number. This time, to get a closer glimpse at smaller groups of students on stage, we arranged for three performances. It was a mix of drama, dance and music combined. The students performed very well. The secret to our success was that we have been working on this performance since February! We needed the students to be comfortable and familiar with the song and actions. It also took us a while to assemble the costumes and build the props. Big thanks to Matthew Malisani, Thess Isidro, and Jenny Chiu for the extra hours of practice, fittings, and in some cases, financial contributions.

It took a long time for all this preparation to "bear fruit". Often, you can only tell that hours and days were poured into polishing something when it doesn't go smoothly. I didn't spend as much time as I should have with our stage crew, and it was evident to me and some of the teachers, even if it wasn't to the audience. You get out what you put in, I guess.

Other Braiding Sweetgrass Takeaways and Anime North

I wanted to leave this post-script as a place for me to add other insights from the book that didn't necessarily fit in with the structure of today's blog post. 

• "the cure grows near to the cause" (page 197)
• "how does one become indigenous to place while upholding the rights, dignity, and teachings of those indigenous to the land?" (page 189)
• "we have constructed an ecosystem where we perpetuate the illusion that the things we consume have just fallen off the back of Santa's sleigh rather than ripped from the earth." (page 174)
• "I think we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude to once again become cultures of reciprocity" (page 172)
•  "to be heard, you must speak the language of the one you want to listen" (page 136)
• "if we use a plant respectfully, it will flourish. If we ignore it, it will go away" (page 135)
• "what would it be like to live with a heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor? To follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect. How would it change the way you interact with those items and your world in general?" (page 131)
• "we should consider this a Four Sister garden; the planter is also an essential partner. The ones who clear the land, pull the weeds, pick the bugs, and save the seeds over winter to plant them in the spring" (page 117)
• "it's a liberating idea that the earth loves us back. It would mean the earth has agency. It also opens the notion of reciprocity that with that love and regard for the earth comes a deep responsibility" (page 104)
• "wild strawberries fit the definition of gift because the earth and sun create them naturally. Grocery store berries do not because the relationship is between producer and consumer" (page 44)

I also wanted to include some photos I took of my own children as they prepared for Anime North. My daughter is an avid cosplayer. On Saturday, she and her brother dressed as Luffy and Buggy from the Impel Down arc of One Piece and on Sunday, Mary was a character from Delicious in Dungeon. The assembly of the costumes, the learning of makeup techniques to apply, the collection of wigs and accessories, all of these also come to fruition for a brief time at the convention.

That Forest Festival Freedom Feeling

 I've noticed that my students have started to read my blog more frequently than in the past. As we were on a trip last week, one of them commented that I'd probably be writing about the experience here.

They were right.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 was the annual Forest of Reading Festival for the Silver Birch category of nominees. Wednesday, May 15, 2024 was the second day of the festival, focused on the older readers and novels. It was a wonderful pair of days. The weather cooperated more than I thought it would.

The cheers and screams at the awards ceremonies were impressive. It can be intimidating and overwhelming to some, especially if you are an introverted writer faced with the tsunami of loud admiration.

As a teacher-librarian, it's a joy to connect with other school library professionals at this event. Adult supervisors who are new to bringing students to the Forest of Reading Festival are often worried about keeping a close eye on the young readers. It's a bit revelation for them to see that students can have a lot of freedom with where they wander and what they can do.

Even though we are deep in the heart of downtown, there are clear boundaries. As one of my teachers told her students, don't go further south because you'll fall in Lake Ontario; don't go further north by crossing the main street (Queen Quay); don't go further west by crossing the bridge and don't go further east by passing the black Harbourfront building. It's actually pretty nicely contained.

There's also a lot of things for students to do. If they have money, they can buy food and snacks from food trucks and vendors, or books. There are free things they can win or earn. There are autographs to collect. There are activities to undertake and even big spaces where students can run around. There are lots of educators on-site that can provide guidance and assistance to lost students who become separated from their groups. It's a chance for students to "choose their own adventure" and determine their own schedules. Some of my students planned their day thoroughly, with workshops to attend and autographs/selfies to collect. Some of my students had a harder time deciding what to do, and maybe that's because they don't have an opportunity to make these choices for themselves. I have a reputation as being a "cool cucumber" at the festival, bringing lots of kids but not looking stressed about it all. That just comes with experience. I've already had to deal with some of the "worst" scenarios so I'm not easily phased. (In the past, some students and I missed the school bus we rented and had to take the TTC back, which took 90 minutes. This year, a couple of students and I missed the GO Train and got split up from the rest of the group. It meant we got to Harbourfront an hour later than usual, but thankfully the award ceremony didn't start until 10:30 am so we didn't miss the whole thing.) 

It was great to see the students happy and active. Here's a photo of some of my students participating in the Junior Librarian activity at Harbourfront.

Thank you to all the teachers who helped supervise, organize all the paperwork and support our student readers. This coming week is School Concert time - get ready, get set, go!

Mother Figures, May Madness, and Marking

 Happy belated Mother's Day to those for whom the day has meaning and significance. For me, the holiday is somewhat bittersweet. My (husband, daughter, son) family dotes on me which is nice, but my mother has dementia and doesn't really remember me. She's almost always happy to go with me weekly to church and can recite the prayers quite well considering her situation, but I still miss the force of nature she used to be.

My husband and I were talking about physical resemblances to our parents and I was curious to see how grey my mother was at the age I am now. Thank goodness I got into a version of scrapbooking early so I could see dates in my photo albums with my typed-on-a-typewriter captions! This photo of my mom was taken in 1989 when she was 53 years old (and I was 17). I'm 52 right now in 2024.

One of the things my mother used to do was help shelve books at my school libraries. (She did this at all three schools I've had permanent contracts with and worked.) I could really use this as right now it's May Madness. I have a "library mother" that I share with another TL, but she is not able to do her usual magic right now. My thoughts are with her this week and I miss her a lot. It's a busy time of year and I find that having a tidy, organized environment helps keep me settled - too bad that I myself am not a tidy person! This past week held a staff meeting, a TL facilitator meeting, and MC auditions for our upcoming concert and June graduation. This coming week is the Forest of Reading Festival and I'll be there with about 65 students attending on one and/or both of those days. I had boxes of painted boxes and bins of costumes floating around related to concert, and I'm trying hard to keep up with my marking.

Ugh - marking. I complain a lot about marking. It takes me a long time to complete fairly and to track thoroughly. This is true for my "day job" assessments and my AQ course work. It's important to me to keep people "in the loop". After each Learning Block, I send every York U course participant an email with their AQ completion status, detailing anything that hasn't been completed according to specifications so they can address any gaps. With my Queen's U AQ, I chose to create video commentary based on the latest two course modules, and that seemed to be received quite well. Recently I fixed up a social studies mark summary containing all of the relevant evaluations I've collected so far to send to the families of the students in Grades 1-4 that I teach.

I can hear my friend Francis' disembodied voice in my head chiding me, saying "Look for ways to be more efficient!" I know there are ways ... some of them might involve Generative AI or Large Language Models - but I'm not going to turn in that direction yet. Why? Even though I'm enjoying my "dives" into AI with students, exploring the ethics and possibilities, I am proceeding with caution on tasks related to assessment and evaluation. Growing Success is the Ontario Ministry of Education document that deals with assessment and evaluation. It was written in 2010, so it has no references or guidance on the use of AI for marking. In the introduction, it states:

The policy is based on seven fundamental principles, the first of which tells us that assessment, evaluation, and reporting practices and procedures must be fair, transparent, and equitable for all students. At the same time, students and parents need to know that evaluations are based on evidence of student learning and that there is consistency in the way grades are assigned across schools and boards throughout the province.

Generative AI is not a transparent tool. As I teach my students, algorithms (which form the basis of AI) are programs that collect data and search for patterns to try and respond to the given prompts from the user. If I have to input my students' assignments into the AI-fueled program, along with the rubric, where is that information going? What information was used as the "data base" for "training" the AI to "make decisions"? What role do I play as the educator? Sometimes, other factors need to be taken into consideration when marking, such as the student's language capabilities; would the program do that? It may be "unbiased" in some ways that I am not, but it may contain other biases that are not as obvious. (Below are the seven fundamental principles of Growing Success.)

The Seven Fundamental Principles: To ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students, teachers use practices and procedures that: • are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students; • support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit; • are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students; • are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course; • are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning; • provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement; • develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning. 

Just as we need to draw a line between too little, just right, and too much AI use for students, we need to do the same for teachers.

Splitting Yourself

 Have you ever had two events on the same day and wished you could attend both?

On this past Thursday, it was both the Spring GTA Resource Fair and the TDSB Heritage Fair. 

When it comes to the Heritage Fair, I really wished I could have split myself in more ways than one. Last year, I was able to use my collaborative teaching time to work with both the Grade 7s and Grade 8s on their history projects from start to finish. I loved it. However, this school year, I wasn't able to have any collaborative teaching time in my schedule. This became particularly painful as the intermediate students were preparing this year's projects.

"Why don't you come up and help us with our projects like last year?", the students asked.

When I explained that I had to teach other classes, their suggested solutions involved having a Grade 8 supervise the younger students while I came up to give advice and help them with their research. Although creative, this idea would not fly.

The students worked around my absence by frequently seeking me out at recess, lunch or after school to pepper me with their questions about their projects. It seemed as if they valued my input because I had helped with their Heritage Fair projects the previous year AND they knew that in the past, I was involved with school projects that made it to Provincials. My students are academically inclined and competitive. They wanted to do their best and they knew that having their teacher-librarian involved in the process would give them an advantage. If only others in positions of power and authority knew this!

Huge credit should go to Farah Wadia and Lisa Daley, our Grade 8 and 7 home room teachers. They devoted a lot of class time to these projects. I also want to thank Farah Wadia, Renee Keberer and Neelam Singh for supervising the students that were chosen to represent our school at the TDSB Heritage Fair, held this year at Toronto Metropolitan University. It took them over two hours to travel to the location via taxi vans. I can hardly wait until the results are revealed.

While Farah, Renee, Neelam and 14 students were in the Yonge and Dundas area, a fantastic parent volunteer, 8 students and I were by Lakeshore Boulevard West and Dufferin Street, buying books for the school library. The students were busy.

Their opinions were solicited for a survey on the TDSB Virtual Library.

They selected books and stayed in budget (as in $88 under)!

They even helped the wonderful Tippett staff (otherwise known as the Library Technical Services Department) barcode the books we bought. One of the newest members of the Tippett team is a former students from our school. I was so happy to see her again. She is a treasure.

Voldemort has taught me the perils of splitting yourself too thinly; you lose part of your humanity. Still, I regret that I wasn't able to assist as much as I wanted.