Ta da! The first week of school for the 2026-27 year is already complete. There are some new students and new staff members to become acquainted with, and new schedules to learn. It'll take time to get used to the new people and new routines.
This is my second year of being the main guidance teacher-counsellor (note, not a guidance counsellor; I don't hold any graduate degrees in psychology - I have my Guidance Part 1 AQ credit). Since my program is an intermediate division focus, I am in the middle of developing new methods to cover similar topics, so that students don't roll their eyes and say "We did this LAST YEAR." That way, I can rotate between my Year A and Year B plans, modifying as necessary.
Last year, I began guidance by looking at memes. This year, my introduction was a collaborative build that lent itself to metaphorical interpretations of my purpose in their classrooms. Small groups had to get a marble from one side of the desk into a cup pasted at the other end. They earned track by sharing some facts about their group members / classmates. When the period was nearly over, we discussed what each portion of the build represented (e.g. the cup might be high school, or their goals, or success / the marbles are the students).
The train tracks can represent many different things. They can be the teachers guiding students on their paths to success. They can be the long range plans and lesson plans for the year. (Speaking of which, I don't have my long range plans written yet for the year, because the board-provided versions aren't suitable for teacher-librarians or ESL teachers or other specialist educators. I look forward to helping shape the template to make it useful for these just-as-important-as-class-teacher educators.) The train tracks can be teacher and students actions. They can be examples of "curriculum fidelity" (to quote the latest education buzzword). There's no one set way to get to the end. Whatever the tracks represent, they are meant to be vehicles to help students achieve and thrive.
The way we deliver library programming this year will involve some path renavigation. All of my library time will be collaboration, rather than prep delivery. This means that, for the first time for our primary division, homeroom teachers will be managing their own book exchange periods. I will support the classes as we transition, and it will probably mean that it will look different for every homeroom. I am trying to figure out if I should prepare some "passive programming" activities (i.e. tasks that are set up on the tables for students to explore before or after their book exchange) so that they continue to have library experiences like loose parts, library orientation, book locations, etc. Last year, I began the year by reading We Don't Eat Our Classmates. My "launch book" for this year was I Am Cherished by Onome Ako.
For those of you who mainly read this blog to see photos of my Fluevog shoe collection, I had a mix of old favourites and new editions in the lineup.
Day 1 (September 8, 2026) = Fellowship Sandra
I wore the new-to-me purple Elizabeths (my 38th pair of Fluevogs) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish 75th Anniversary dinner. IHM is my childhood parish and I split my time between my home parish (St. Barnabas) and this church, when I used to take my mom weekly to Mass, before she moved into a long term care facility. It was nice to be able to reconnect with people and look back on some of the paths that have gotten me to where I am now. Congratulations on the installation of the new pastor and happy anniversary to "Immaculate".
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