Short Week, Tough Week, Unsolved Challenges

Why is it that shortened weeks seem tougher to complete? You'd think the opposite would be true. I had four days to rest, rejuvenate, socialize and satiate my appetite. (Thank you Jen S for the fudge!) However, not everyone enjoys the extra days at home and the transition back can be difficult. When I contemplate the past week and what stood out, it's specific students and certain behaviours that are sticking in my mind. I can't go into details, because I have to protect the privacy of my students. This is a list of the issues I've struggled with these past four (which felt like eight) days:

• overhearing a conversation and making the phone call that every educator dreads [Tuesday]
• being at a loss for words at a soaked classroom that felt like it happened in a blink of an eye (and where did all that hand sanitizer go?) [Tuesday]
• preventing a student from self-destructive conduct and unusual, unsafe ways of dealing with frustration [Wednesday]
• inviting a new teacher-librarian to my space and having her see a lesson bomb, as well as what might be considered "shaky class management" [Thursday]
• witnessing students try to by-pass the library visit limits and not telling the truth initially when asked [Wednesday and Friday]
• listening to outright defiance when asked to do reasonable (but maybe unpleasant) tasks [Thursday and Friday]
• getting yelled at and kicked by a student because he didn't live up to the end of his part of an agreement [Friday]

I've been reading A Guide to Documenting Learning by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano and Janet A. Hale (only Chapter 1 so far, because I'm trying to read it slowly and digest the messages thoroughly). I was pleased to accidentally discover that I already did the Chapter 1 Action Step because the post from two weeks ago as well as last week's post were actually examples of turning "documenting OF learning" snapshots into "documenting FOR learning" artifacts. It has also confirmed that this blog is my own "documenting AS learning" because it is a metacognitive process. There's strategic preparation involved ("what was memorable? what's on my mind? what do I need to puzzle out?") and it helps me immediately ("Aha! As I wrote it out, I can see the situation and possible next moves more clearly!") and over time ("So that's what I was thinking before, and yeah, I can see why X must change or Y must stay the same") and now I like getting comments or suggestions because it's easy for sharing and obtaining feedback (which wasn't my original purpose for blogging but has become a valued part of it). (The underlined words part of the key words from page 11 which describes "documenting as learning". The one part this blog doesn't fulfill in this description is that it isn't completed while it is happening, as least, not when the incidents themselves are happening.)

But this blog, this documenting, ... me - I don't have any answers to these current dilemmas. I want to fix things but things can't always be remedied quickly or completely. I've read Stuart Shanker's Calm, Alert and Learning and I realize that some of our students are disregulated in many of the domains. I remember that I cannot control students but I can control my reaction to students (and that varies - sometimes I react calmly and professionally, but not always). I'm grateful to our SNA, Stephanie Paterson, because I can talk to her and the conversation always moves away from venting ("Can you believe what that student did?") to problem solving or what Renee Keberer likes to reframe as solution-finding ("So what can we put in place that will lessen these outbursts and ease transitions for those students?"). Our specialist teacher PLC will focus on helping our students self-regulation skills, and I have a ton of new books to read (like the Minds Up handbook and Lost at School, a book Stephanie highly recommended.)

Back to Guide to Documenting Learning and these particular students swimming in my head. Tolisano and Hale tell me to "keep the sharing short [and] be conscious of privacy concerns" (page 21). A few pages back, they list samples of documenting learning purposes, asking if the documenting action:

- supports growth?

- moves learning forward?

- tells a story about the learning?

- gives learners a voice?

- causes ownership of one's learning?

- creates opportunities for feedback?

- encourages reflection and metacognition?

- makes meaningful connections to future learning?

- supports collection through curation?

- encourages community communication?

- embraces communication with a global audience?

- creates professional learning opportunities?

I despaired that today's blog post couldn't move the learning forward and was unable to engender community communication (since I can't go into detail with a wider audience). Yet, the act of writing them down in that list, thankfully, refocused me and told me that documenting via this post of my struggles (and the students' struggles) doesn't require that it meet all twelve possible purposes. By showing I'm not perfect (something I'm still surprised that others think of me) and wrestling with these situations, I guess I am taking ownership of this problem and am determined to try finding solutions.

Before you think my entire week was a complete disaster, (and three brutal Cross-Fit sessions didn't help to improve my frame of mind, I gotta say) let me end it on some positive notes.

1) The students are still enjoying the Keva planks and working together with incorporating marbles or trying to extend their structures as far off a table as possible. They are the ones that tell me that I must take photos of what they've made. (Great beginnings for a documenting learning mindset, I suspect - I don't know, I haven't gotten that far in the book.)  The Larkspur Library Learning Commons liked my tweet/post about the Keva plank challenge and have been sharing their own experiments with the challenge.

It was so busy today that I didn’t get a chance to post these pics of a group of Gr 5s trying out the @KEVAplanks challenge inspired by @MzMollyTL . They made it to 30cm... and the best part “Mrs. Lyons, can we come back to try again?” 🤩🤩🤩 @LarkspurPS #larkspurmakes #peel21st pic.twitter.com/42r8hzaczO

— LarkspurLLC (@LarkspurLibLC) October 9, 2018

2) Ernie the skinny pig inspired soft voices, nurturing actions (like kindergarteners feeding him lettuce leaves) and great inquiry questions. One class were so calm and careful that I had them hold Ernie in his sleep sack while I cleaned his cage. They were delighted that they were given this privilege and really treated him with gentle kindness. I had never been confident about allowing this sort of responsibility with such a young group of learners before. (They were between 8-9 years old.)

3) I saw Jennifer Orr's blog post and was inspired by it. When I was writing a "good tattle" note in a Grade 4 girl's agenda, she told me that I should write one like it in some of her classmates' agendas too, and recommended someone and the reason. My heart melted!

I really like both ideas here: 1. To send positive notes home to students as often as possible & 2. To be kind to yourself by remembering the good parts of your teaching day, not just the "darn-I-shouldas" https://t.co/dYzcBLQ6nO

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) October 12, 2018

4) "Miss Landra", our orientation and mobility teacher with the Vision Department, taught me a whole lot about how maps differ for people who are blind. She modified a library assignment I had for the student she works with, and the two of them explained to me how the assignment was completed and why the map has the structure and features it contained.

5) Our Grade 3-4 teacher, and I (with the amazing Stephanie Paterson) are working on a collaborative unit that incorporates science, language, and visual arts. I appreciate that this teacher values "Library Partners" time and was willing to shift her schedule to make it work. When we first explained the project to the students, many didn't understand (and this was confirmed when we did "exit tickets" with the students). The teacher [name removed upon request] and I talked, and we re-did the lesson, based on the students' feedback to us. It went so much better, and the students now have a better understanding of what they will do and how they can accomplish it.

I hope next week will have more examples like the ones closer to the end of the post and less of the examples listed at the beginning of the post. Truth is, we handle what we are given, like it or not. My hope is that my actions help lead to the positive instead of the negative.