I vowed - VOWED - to myself that I wouldn't do the usual holiday-related "I am thankful" post today. Instead, I caught up on polishing lesson plans teachers and I have co-planned, creating SMART board files for use this week, cleaning my house, and preparing for some of the four (yes, four) presentations I'll be doing over a three-day period next week. My blog composition came late Monday night, because forcing myself not to do a gratitude-themed post meant I needed a new idea - and fast - for my post.
I already mentioned my initial and subsequent reaction to reading the Ontario College of Teachers professional advisory on the use of social media. I wanted to ensure I understood both sides of the issue and when I visited my parents for Thanksgiving, they handed me articles they had saved from The Toronto Star on "bad teachers" who often use social media to groom their victims. It was very distressing and disturbing, although many of the cases I was familiar with because they appeared (anonymously) in the "blue pages" of the OCT magazine. My parents worry about me - they don't want my activities online to harm my career.
I also read a depressing account of a teacher's foray into provincial politics. This teacher is a podcaster and many of the things he's said online were mis-quoted and used against him in the campaign.
To be more educated about the rationale for the OCT's advisory, I read the backgrounder article; I had always wondered why the time of day for online interaction was such an issue, and they explained:
"Communicating with students or parents late at night, for example, may be misconstrued and considered inappropriate. E-mails drafted late at night can instead be sent the following day using the “delay” option in the toolbar."
A slideshow elaborating on the advisory said that all communication be kept professional and formal, with the example "Please come to room 204 at 3:30 for help with your homework" instead of "c u 3:30 @ my room". I admit that I've shortened my "you" to "u" when I didn't have enough space in my tweet. I've sent direct messages to students when I had a concern that I was uncertain about (e.g. I thought a student was bad-mouthing a teacher but it was unclear - I direct messaged her and it turns out I misunderstood her tweet). Does that mean I'm flirting with danger? I don't think so - but it still makes one worried.
I wanted to ensure I saw "both sides of the story" so I could provide a balanced overview of the issue but ended up depressing myself. I need to remind myself that the message is not to stop using social media, but to be careful and wise in its use. To paraphrase a friend, "let's not even step into that 'social media is bad' debate." It's not going away, it's part of our students' lives, and by using it appropriately, it will do more good than harm.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Election Campaigns and Web 2.0 Tools
It's election time! I'm not referring to the provincial elections that will occur on Wednesday, October 6, although that's a pretty important topic. I'm talking about my school's Student Council elections that will take place on Monday October 4. The teacher that was in charge of last year's student council is on maternity leave and several students begged and pleaded with me to be one of the staff sponsors so that student council would continue to exist at the school. Despite having a pretty heavy workload, including yearbook and my new position as school chairperson, I agreed to co-run it with one of the intermediate division teachers. I've warned the students that I will manage the council in a different style than my predecessor. Some immediate changes centered on the voting procedures: there will be no "teacher vetoes/overrides" of the election results and the candidates are allowed to vote in their class election. There are three classes involved - two grade 7-8 classes and one grade 6 class. Each class will choose three representatives for the student council. When I talked to each class about the election, there were many questions and lots of interest.
"But what if people just vote for their friends? What if it ends up being a popularity contest?"
The teachers and I explained that, just like in real life, democracy can be messy. Sometimes people are swayed by fancy rhetoric or the influence of their friends or the media. We just have to hope that the voting public (the grade 6, 7, and 8 students for the school election, the eligible citizens of Ontario for the provincial election) will be responsible enough to think carefully before voting and choose a representative that will best meet the needs of the group. Responsibility is the character trait for the month of October, so it fit the discussion well.
Students that are up for election have to make a 1-2 minute speech in front of their class explaining why their peers should vote for them. That is the only required element for the candidates. I've been impressed by how these students have taken the initiative to do some extra campaigning. Some samples are below.
One of our grade 8 candidates has a grade 9 campaign manager, who has been busy emailing the students in his class and recommending that they vote for him. He has also taken to Twitter to advertise. Since both of their Twitter accounts are public, I'm leaving their names and photos in the tweets I copied to share on the blog.
Cassandratsao Cassandra Tsao
Haha, @MzMollyTL said to me today "Nice campaigning idea! ;) " @Cassandratsao
aww, dressed up today to do my speech but we had our terry fox run so we couldnt do them! :(
By the way, I did remind the candidate and his campaign manager that it is illegal to try and buy votes using bribes. Amazing how school life and real life intersect!
The grade 6s have their own private blog, the Agnes Macphail Learning Playground. Once again, of their own accord, the students decided to do some campaigning online. Because this blog is private, I'm altering their names so they aren't completely identifiable.The comment section is just as fascinating as the original posts, so I've copied them here as well.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
VOTE FOR ME- student council
Tired of the same spirit days every year? I will change that for you if you VOTE for me. Want better merchandise in school fundraising activities? I will ask for you if you VOTE for me. I know what you guys like. Trust me, I DO. I am a student just like you. VOTE for me, and you will have the best school year ever!
For more info, please contact me in room 114.
Thanks for your vote.
7 comments:
- J said...
- Eh... Maybe
- September 29, 2011 7:25 PM
- P said...
- That's all you got! MAYBE!!!!! :( :( :(!!!!!!!!
- September 29, 2011 7:39 PM
- J said...
- Well when I read it it wasn't 1 min and I gotta hear other people's speech first
- September 30, 2011 4:54 PM
- V said...
- And are we suppose to post our speech on the blog?
- September 30, 2011 9:42 PM
- M said...
- DONT HAVE TO!!!!
- October 1, 2011 9:29 AM
- P said...
- I didn't make it 1 minuet, that is for the real speech. This is just to get some publicity
- October 1, 2011 1:03 PM
- C said...
- We'll see.... But will you vote for me? thats the question. Um you spelled minute wrong.
- October 1, 2011 4:51 PM
Thursday, September 29, 2011
STUDENT COUNCIL
Hey guys, This is a little speech why I want to be in student council and why you should vote for me. I think you should vote for me because I am honest, reliable and responsible. If I get choosen for student council I will try to do whatever events, funds and spirit activitys you want is there apropiriate. Also if I come up with any funds, events or spirit activitys I will make sure you will like it and if I make up anything and you have suggestions to make it better feel free to tell me. Thank You !!!!!!!!!!
5 comments:
- V said...
- You posted your speech on th blog so what am I suppose to do!!!!!!!!
- October 1, 2011 11:58 AM
- P said...
- Now everyone is copying my way of campaigning!
- October 1, 2011 1:05 PM
- M said...
- I had this idea b4
- October 1, 2011 2:38 PM
- P said...
- Well I posted before you
- October 2, 2011 4:41 PM
- MZMollyTL said...
- It's okay folks - no one said that there could only be one candidate up on the blog. Remember that the class will be voting for three council reps. You people are campaigning respectfully and in different ways - so that's what counts. (Yes Philo, you did post first - although the only first you'll need to worry about is being the first three with the most votes!)
- October 2, 2011 9:27 PM
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Student Council
Hey guys, so voting is on Monday and this is just my campianging stuff. Not my specch becuase this is confidanctal. So you should vote for me because I am responsiable, helpful and filled with lots of ideas! I will help you with all our questions about fundrising and spirit days. I know I can handle this job because I can handle the pressure of being on the Student Council. Above all that I can still keep up with homework and lessons so it won't affect my schoolwork. I know that I'm one of the right people to be on Student Council because I know want it takes for it. Such as responsiliblty, respect, being helpful and good ideas. If I am one of the members of Student Council, I will listen to everyone's ideas and in coopate them in fundrisers or spirit days. Also being creative and willing to change some things for the better is also part of it. Think about it and VOTE FOR ME!!!!!!!!! (C) P.S I didn't copy anyone! 3 comments:
- Jsaid...
- That's nice...
- October 1, 2011 7:22 PM
- Jsaid...
- And pretty persuasive
- October 1, 2011 7:22 PM
- P said...
- When you hear my speech, YOU WILL THINK AGAIN
- October 2, 2011 4:43 PM
-
-
Monday, September 26, 2011
Twitter Teaching
In October, I will be presenting three times at the ECOO (Educational Computing Organization of Ontario) conference. One of my sessions is about creating a positive digital footprint "without putting your foot in it". As part of my preparation work for this workshop, I re-read the OCT (Ontario College of Teachers) Professional Advisory bulletin on the Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media. It's a very serious and grim document, and the tone suggested that educators not use social media. I then read the June 2011 issue of Professionally Speaking and followed their link to see their OCT video. I was much happier with the video and the irony that they were using social media to talk/caution about social media wasn't lost on me.
The tone of this video is a lot more positive to me than the booklet. I was also impressed because I knew one of the featured teachers on the video - Andrew is a teacher-librarian at Joyce Public School in the TDSB. I wanted to reflect in today's blog post about my most recent experiences with Twitter and my students.
I do not allow my students to friend me on Facebook, but I do allow them to follow my Twitter account. Why the difference? Twitter is a micro-blogging site that is most effective when tweets are public, and I chose early on to use my personal Twitter account as a means for professional development and dialogue. The posts I make on Twitter are things I would say in the classroom. Once I began to follow students, and them me, I discovered a couple of things.
1) Twitter is a great place to" teach" real-life lessons in authentic circumstances.
I've conducted lessons using the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada resources for youth and with other tools but the most effective way to reach my students is as they are conducting themselves online. The students were talking about the various boyfriends and girlfriends using Twitter. I sent a tweet reminding them that they were having this conversation publicly and asked them if they were sure they wanted to continue it there. Some laughed it off but I did notice that some started to mention to the others to DM (direct message) each other or take the conversation to MSN.
Some of my students are also a bit cavalier about what they say about others online. One student used a slur against his cousin and another student's complaint about homework veered towards criticizing the teacher. Mentioning to the students - either in person on through a tweet - in a non-judgemental way that they needed to exercise caution in how they phrase things. The common phrase "I'm going to kill so-and-so" takes on larger significance when said online and when I saw that in a tweet, I had to explain that jokes of that sort don't translate well through a computer.
2) Twitter makes collaborative problem solving do-able.
This past weekend, I was going over the library helper application forms. I wanted to make my decision by Monday so I could begin training the new assistants. Two of my students realized that they had forgotten to submit their forms. They tweeted me about their dilemma and I sympathized because the library was closed on Friday for a meeting, I was hard to find, and they had other club meetings after school, but I still wanted to be firm about my Monday decision. Another student recommended scanning the form and emailing it to me - would I accept it on the weekend? I thought that was a really creative compromise and I agreed. The students then shared a flurry of tweets experimenting together. Instead of scanning the paper, they took photos of it with their iPhones and emailed it to me. They checked that I had received it via Twitter.
Another wise and impressive use of Twitter came from a grade 8 student that saw my tweet about the school board summer writing contest. The prize was a laptop and he was really keen to win it. After he sent his entry, he was worried that he had some grammatical errors and tweeted me for revision help. We exchanged a couple of emails tweaking his entry and he re-sent it. Tweets were also used for encouragement and support. Although he didn't win, I was really proud of how he used Twitter to further his writing. I think he liked the public praise via Twitter as well.
Many of the students in my school that use Twitter have more posts logged than I do by far. That's because they use Twitter like an instant messaging tool, such as MSN. Thank goodness Tweet Deck saved me from the flood of tweets that were just meant for a couple of people - inside jokes, questions about homework, and such. In a way, I feel like I'm like the dog Nana in the story Peter Pan: keeping an eye out for the kids and their safety as they explore the wonders of Neverland/Twitterland. I can't stop them completely from making mistakes, but I can bark, or wag my tail, and help them where I can. I'll continue to abide by the OCT's advisory - "maintaining professional boundaries in all forms of communication, technology-related or not, is vital to maintaining the public trust and appropriate professional relationships with students" - and/but I'll continue to use social media because it helps us all learn, teachers and students.
The tone of this video is a lot more positive to me than the booklet. I was also impressed because I knew one of the featured teachers on the video - Andrew is a teacher-librarian at Joyce Public School in the TDSB. I wanted to reflect in today's blog post about my most recent experiences with Twitter and my students.
I do not allow my students to friend me on Facebook, but I do allow them to follow my Twitter account. Why the difference? Twitter is a micro-blogging site that is most effective when tweets are public, and I chose early on to use my personal Twitter account as a means for professional development and dialogue. The posts I make on Twitter are things I would say in the classroom. Once I began to follow students, and them me, I discovered a couple of things.
1) Twitter is a great place to" teach" real-life lessons in authentic circumstances.
I've conducted lessons using the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada resources for youth and with other tools but the most effective way to reach my students is as they are conducting themselves online. The students were talking about the various boyfriends and girlfriends using Twitter. I sent a tweet reminding them that they were having this conversation publicly and asked them if they were sure they wanted to continue it there. Some laughed it off but I did notice that some started to mention to the others to DM (direct message) each other or take the conversation to MSN.
Some of my students are also a bit cavalier about what they say about others online. One student used a slur against his cousin and another student's complaint about homework veered towards criticizing the teacher. Mentioning to the students - either in person on through a tweet - in a non-judgemental way that they needed to exercise caution in how they phrase things. The common phrase "I'm going to kill so-and-so" takes on larger significance when said online and when I saw that in a tweet, I had to explain that jokes of that sort don't translate well through a computer.
2) Twitter makes collaborative problem solving do-able.
This past weekend, I was going over the library helper application forms. I wanted to make my decision by Monday so I could begin training the new assistants. Two of my students realized that they had forgotten to submit their forms. They tweeted me about their dilemma and I sympathized because the library was closed on Friday for a meeting, I was hard to find, and they had other club meetings after school, but I still wanted to be firm about my Monday decision. Another student recommended scanning the form and emailing it to me - would I accept it on the weekend? I thought that was a really creative compromise and I agreed. The students then shared a flurry of tweets experimenting together. Instead of scanning the paper, they took photos of it with their iPhones and emailed it to me. They checked that I had received it via Twitter.
Another wise and impressive use of Twitter came from a grade 8 student that saw my tweet about the school board summer writing contest. The prize was a laptop and he was really keen to win it. After he sent his entry, he was worried that he had some grammatical errors and tweeted me for revision help. We exchanged a couple of emails tweaking his entry and he re-sent it. Tweets were also used for encouragement and support. Although he didn't win, I was really proud of how he used Twitter to further his writing. I think he liked the public praise via Twitter as well.
Many of the students in my school that use Twitter have more posts logged than I do by far. That's because they use Twitter like an instant messaging tool, such as MSN. Thank goodness Tweet Deck saved me from the flood of tweets that were just meant for a couple of people - inside jokes, questions about homework, and such. In a way, I feel like I'm like the dog Nana in the story Peter Pan: keeping an eye out for the kids and their safety as they explore the wonders of Neverland/Twitterland. I can't stop them completely from making mistakes, but I can bark, or wag my tail, and help them where I can. I'll continue to abide by the OCT's advisory - "maintaining professional boundaries in all forms of communication, technology-related or not, is vital to maintaining the public trust and appropriate professional relationships with students" - and/but I'll continue to use social media because it helps us all learn, teachers and students.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Loose the reins - let the volunteers do their stuff!
I am the luckiest teacher-librarian in the world! I have a fantastic group of dedicated volunteers that come to my school library to help out. I think the last time I spent a huge amount of time shelving books was when Global TV asked me to do some for filming purposes, because between my student library team members, adult assistants and high school helpers, I usually don't need to complete it. The thing is, volunteers shouldn't be considered free labour to be used only according to the teacher-librarian's whims. There were two examples last week where I found that, by loosing the reins of control in the library and allowing volunteers to make significant changes that they initiate, everyone benefits.
A.L. is a grade ten student that used to attend our elementary school. He is absolutely AMAZING. He teaches me so much and has a great combination of a strong work ethic and creative thought processes. He's one of the people that worked with me on improving our school library website - I already wrote about him in this blog here. I really appreciate the fact that I don't have to tell him what to do when he enters the library - he evaluates the condition of the library and responds appropriately. This week, he was tired of our messy graphic novel collection space. We have one of the largest elementary school graphic novel collections in our board, I suspect, but we don't have adequate storage space. I've ordered new shelves but they haven't come in yet, and in the meantime I've been using a hodge-podge of tables, old wire spinners and racks. It was just chaos, with books piled everywhere and falling onto the floor. A.L. saw that we had some space in the fiction section because we weeded our chapter books last year. He shifted some book over and cleared up three sections. He then moved series with many titles over to the fiction shelves to temporarily allieve some of the congestion in the comic area. We were able to get rid of the tables and it's now so much more manageable. I don't think I would have done what he did but it works well and even spreads out the human crowding when students go searching for graphic novels.
P.M. is the mother of another teacher-librarian in my board. P.M. lives in our neighbourhood and is recently retired; she offered her services to the school library and I happily accepted. She is marvelous at what she does and the library has never been tidier. One day, as she was working on the well-used everybody book section and she mentioned an idea she had for making paperbook picture books easier to find. In her daughter's school library, she has her paperback books stored in bins located near the hardcover versions. I had used this technique in my previous school libraries but never considered doing it here. She pointed out that paperback books get lost, even when stored among other paperback books in their section, and they get damaged on the shelf. She even offered to buy the bins and label them. I had some money in the school library "pot" and so I gave her some of the funds to purchase the bins.
The roles of a teacher-librarian are three-fold: instruction, management, and leadership. In a Learning Commons, educators need to take a flexible and responsive approach to helping schools learn collaboratively. That means letting go of the notion that the school library is "your space" in which you are the king or queen of the domain. I'm not insulted by the recommendations for change my volunteers bring to the table and the suggestions they make create a place that is easier for all users to manage. Even though last year, my shared governing style led one primary student to exclaim "Mrs. Mali, you don't do anything!", I know that together we are able to achieve more. This coming week, the book fair commences at my school, thanks to the dedication of another volunteer of mine - my mother. We talked on the phone about some new ideas; she'll handle all the sales so that I can continue teaching the classes I have. I'll help her count up at the end of the day and select books for our collection based on our earnings, but I'll let her do her stuff - something she's been doing in school libraries since I was in junior kindergarten!
A.L. is a grade ten student that used to attend our elementary school. He is absolutely AMAZING. He teaches me so much and has a great combination of a strong work ethic and creative thought processes. He's one of the people that worked with me on improving our school library website - I already wrote about him in this blog here. I really appreciate the fact that I don't have to tell him what to do when he enters the library - he evaluates the condition of the library and responds appropriately. This week, he was tired of our messy graphic novel collection space. We have one of the largest elementary school graphic novel collections in our board, I suspect, but we don't have adequate storage space. I've ordered new shelves but they haven't come in yet, and in the meantime I've been using a hodge-podge of tables, old wire spinners and racks. It was just chaos, with books piled everywhere and falling onto the floor. A.L. saw that we had some space in the fiction section because we weeded our chapter books last year. He shifted some book over and cleared up three sections. He then moved series with many titles over to the fiction shelves to temporarily allieve some of the congestion in the comic area. We were able to get rid of the tables and it's now so much more manageable. I don't think I would have done what he did but it works well and even spreads out the human crowding when students go searching for graphic novels.
P.M. is the mother of another teacher-librarian in my board. P.M. lives in our neighbourhood and is recently retired; she offered her services to the school library and I happily accepted. She is marvelous at what she does and the library has never been tidier. One day, as she was working on the well-used everybody book section and she mentioned an idea she had for making paperbook picture books easier to find. In her daughter's school library, she has her paperback books stored in bins located near the hardcover versions. I had used this technique in my previous school libraries but never considered doing it here. She pointed out that paperback books get lost, even when stored among other paperback books in their section, and they get damaged on the shelf. She even offered to buy the bins and label them. I had some money in the school library "pot" and so I gave her some of the funds to purchase the bins.
The roles of a teacher-librarian are three-fold: instruction, management, and leadership. In a Learning Commons, educators need to take a flexible and responsive approach to helping schools learn collaboratively. That means letting go of the notion that the school library is "your space" in which you are the king or queen of the domain. I'm not insulted by the recommendations for change my volunteers bring to the table and the suggestions they make create a place that is easier for all users to manage. Even though last year, my shared governing style led one primary student to exclaim "Mrs. Mali, you don't do anything!", I know that together we are able to achieve more. This coming week, the book fair commences at my school, thanks to the dedication of another volunteer of mine - my mother. We talked on the phone about some new ideas; she'll handle all the sales so that I can continue teaching the classes I have. I'll help her count up at the end of the day and select books for our collection based on our earnings, but I'll let her do her stuff - something she's been doing in school libraries since I was in junior kindergarten!
Monday, September 12, 2011
The first week - and those who don't go
The first week of school has flown by. I am going to work hard at actually recording my reflections more often, both on the blog and on paper in my day book /lesson plans), and there are lots of things that I can reflect upon, like:
I have to admit it - I have had (and probably still have) a bit of a bias against families that choose not to enroll their children in either private or public schools. I felt it was like an insult to me and other teachers - "we don't need you, we can do this ourselves". I also worried that it undermined public education and the funds that go to support it. Why spend so much of the provincial budget on something regular folks can do on their own? I wondered how it would be possible for home-schooled children to have similarly enriching learning experiences without a large group of peers, a fully equipped gym or a certified music teacher. Most of the people I knew that chose the home-school route did so because their particular religion clashed a bit with mainstream education or because their child/ren has special education needs that were neglected by their local schools. A few years back, one of my favourite kindergarten students, a clever, highly intelligent young girl, left our school because her parents decided she would get more out of learning via home school - I felt disappointed, because she was such a delight to converse with and the other students and I would be denied her company.
Recently, I've reconnected with that girl's parents. They are still fantastic people - wise, fascinating to talk to, witty and super-nice. Their girl is thriving, not suffering, by getting her education at home. I still miss getting to learn from her - she taught me a great lesson about "appropriate books" and individual children when she was in JK - but I fear she might've been bored in class if she were still with us. That's not a knock against our wonderful school staff. It's just that, for the first time, I could agree with a home-schooling decision.
Melanie McBride, in a different context, has recommended that people "go to the places that scare them" and try/read/do things they wouldn't usually try/read/do. For me, subscribing to this blog is one of those out-of-character gestures. The Innovative Educator blog writes a lot about "unschooling" and is a big supporter of it. Sometimes I read the posts and I get angry - is school and the school system such a horrible, terrible, worthless monstrosity of a creature? I realize my reaction occurs because I'm a teacher and I have a lot of personal identity tied up with schools. My own children attend public school in a different school board than I work in and I do not consider myself an inferior parent because I choose to send my children to school instead of instructing them myself. Occasionally, there are posts that make me think instead of react and those are the ones that remind me why I still subscribe to the blog. Maybe it's as my mother says: "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar".
So, although I still sigh a bit when I hear about people opting out of public education, I think my hard stance is softening a bit. I complain about the school system and I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I'm becoming more open minded about the choices people make for their children's education.
- the students taking the initiative to ask me to be the student council rep (I was the fourth teacher they approached. I know I won't be able to do it all by myself and I probably am going to have to choose between student council and yearbook. How do you choose?)
- the kindergartens taking charge in their second drama-dance lesson with me (They punched my life-sized Grinch in the face because he was sitting in my rocking chair, and when I couldn't find the book I was going to read, they said that the Grinch took it and wouldn't give it back unless we all danced. We danced but I still couldn't find the book so instead I "winged it" with an activity on playing with toys and finding the "right voice" for them that was much more successful than the original plan.)
- students already "invading" the library to read books and do homework together with their friends, even though book exchange officially begins Monday
I have to admit it - I have had (and probably still have) a bit of a bias against families that choose not to enroll their children in either private or public schools. I felt it was like an insult to me and other teachers - "we don't need you, we can do this ourselves". I also worried that it undermined public education and the funds that go to support it. Why spend so much of the provincial budget on something regular folks can do on their own? I wondered how it would be possible for home-schooled children to have similarly enriching learning experiences without a large group of peers, a fully equipped gym or a certified music teacher. Most of the people I knew that chose the home-school route did so because their particular religion clashed a bit with mainstream education or because their child/ren has special education needs that were neglected by their local schools. A few years back, one of my favourite kindergarten students, a clever, highly intelligent young girl, left our school because her parents decided she would get more out of learning via home school - I felt disappointed, because she was such a delight to converse with and the other students and I would be denied her company.
Recently, I've reconnected with that girl's parents. They are still fantastic people - wise, fascinating to talk to, witty and super-nice. Their girl is thriving, not suffering, by getting her education at home. I still miss getting to learn from her - she taught me a great lesson about "appropriate books" and individual children when she was in JK - but I fear she might've been bored in class if she were still with us. That's not a knock against our wonderful school staff. It's just that, for the first time, I could agree with a home-schooling decision.
Melanie McBride, in a different context, has recommended that people "go to the places that scare them" and try/read/do things they wouldn't usually try/read/do. For me, subscribing to this blog is one of those out-of-character gestures. The Innovative Educator blog writes a lot about "unschooling" and is a big supporter of it. Sometimes I read the posts and I get angry - is school and the school system such a horrible, terrible, worthless monstrosity of a creature? I realize my reaction occurs because I'm a teacher and I have a lot of personal identity tied up with schools. My own children attend public school in a different school board than I work in and I do not consider myself an inferior parent because I choose to send my children to school instead of instructing them myself. Occasionally, there are posts that make me think instead of react and those are the ones that remind me why I still subscribe to the blog. Maybe it's as my mother says: "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar".
So, although I still sigh a bit when I hear about people opting out of public education, I think my hard stance is softening a bit. I complain about the school system and I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I'm becoming more open minded about the choices people make for their children's education.
Monday, September 5, 2011
If school were like summer swimming lessons
School's about to begin and there are a lot of inspirational start-of-the-year articles out there on the blogosphere. I'm approaching this year much like my own children. My daughter is eager and excited. She wants to get back to learning new things and seeing old friends. My son is anxious and apprehensive. He will miss the freedom and relaxation that summer brought. I feel both ways. This is my fifteenth year teaching (happy anniversary to me!) but every summer I get those "school dreams" in late August - the ones that show that I worry about the start of school just as some students do.
Ideally, I'd like things to be like the swimming lessons my son took this summer.
During our holiday, my family and I went to Wasaga Beach. While we were there, I noticed that my son really enjoyed the water. If waves tried to push him over, he'd laugh. If water got in his face, he'd shake his head and go right back to playing. I wanted to keep him at arms' length from me but he kept straying away, exploring the bay further. Maybe this is a good time to consider swimming lessons, I thought to myself.
I spoke with a dear friend who is both a fellow teacher and mother. She told me about the private instructor her boys see during the summer. I emailed him and we arranged to give it a try. My son does not participate much in organized extra-curricular activities. We've tried gymnastics and sports in the past and he's participated but never asked to return or shown any enthusiasm for any of the clubs or teams. He showed a bit of concern when we drove up to Ryan's house in a quiet residential neighbourhood ("it's in a house?") but his swim coach was an absolute dream come true and perfect for my boy.
Swimming lessons were twice a week around noon. Ryan was patient and positive. I stayed during the lessons; sometimes I'd read and sometimes I'd watch. It was delightful to hear my son chatting with his teacher and laughing out loud because he was having such a good time. It was amazing to see how his teacher scaffolded the tasks, praising him when he did it correctly, encouraging him when his energy flagged, and describing exactly what he needed to do to improve his bubble-blowing technique. My boy never whined when it was time to go to lessons. Near the final days of summer, my family and I took another trip, this time to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, home of a huge water park. My son practiced his bubbles and his "basketball" float while we were in the pool and promised to teach me some of the things Ryan had taught him ("but you need to get goggles like me, Mom" he instructed me).
After the final lesson, Ryan gave me a written description of what my son was doing in the pool. There was no passing or failing, just an account of the things he learned, the things he needed to do to continue getting better, and some suggestions. None of the things his swim coach wrote in the letter was a surprise, as my husband and I both had ample opportunity to see for ourselves. Then, Ryan gave my son a medal for all he had accomplished in his one month series of lessons. Peter wore that medal around his neck all day and we promised we'd pin it to his door like his sister's horse-riding and masquerade competition ribbons.
As I re-read my description, there are so many elements that I would like to see or implement as part of "regular school". Some are silly or wishful thinking, like just going twice a week, attending because you are interested and not required, or having one-on-one instruction. Some aren't possible the way things work in "real life", like watching your own children take class regularly or ignoring grades on a "report card". Many things, however, are do-able with the right attitude. I'll try my best to make this school year just like my son's swimming lessons - a truly positive learning experience - and I hope my children's classroom teachers will do the same.
Ideally, I'd like things to be like the swimming lessons my son took this summer.
During our holiday, my family and I went to Wasaga Beach. While we were there, I noticed that my son really enjoyed the water. If waves tried to push him over, he'd laugh. If water got in his face, he'd shake his head and go right back to playing. I wanted to keep him at arms' length from me but he kept straying away, exploring the bay further. Maybe this is a good time to consider swimming lessons, I thought to myself.
I spoke with a dear friend who is both a fellow teacher and mother. She told me about the private instructor her boys see during the summer. I emailed him and we arranged to give it a try. My son does not participate much in organized extra-curricular activities. We've tried gymnastics and sports in the past and he's participated but never asked to return or shown any enthusiasm for any of the clubs or teams. He showed a bit of concern when we drove up to Ryan's house in a quiet residential neighbourhood ("it's in a house?") but his swim coach was an absolute dream come true and perfect for my boy.
Swimming lessons were twice a week around noon. Ryan was patient and positive. I stayed during the lessons; sometimes I'd read and sometimes I'd watch. It was delightful to hear my son chatting with his teacher and laughing out loud because he was having such a good time. It was amazing to see how his teacher scaffolded the tasks, praising him when he did it correctly, encouraging him when his energy flagged, and describing exactly what he needed to do to improve his bubble-blowing technique. My boy never whined when it was time to go to lessons. Near the final days of summer, my family and I took another trip, this time to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, home of a huge water park. My son practiced his bubbles and his "basketball" float while we were in the pool and promised to teach me some of the things Ryan had taught him ("but you need to get goggles like me, Mom" he instructed me).
After the final lesson, Ryan gave me a written description of what my son was doing in the pool. There was no passing or failing, just an account of the things he learned, the things he needed to do to continue getting better, and some suggestions. None of the things his swim coach wrote in the letter was a surprise, as my husband and I both had ample opportunity to see for ourselves. Then, Ryan gave my son a medal for all he had accomplished in his one month series of lessons. Peter wore that medal around his neck all day and we promised we'd pin it to his door like his sister's horse-riding and masquerade competition ribbons.
As I re-read my description, there are so many elements that I would like to see or implement as part of "regular school". Some are silly or wishful thinking, like just going twice a week, attending because you are interested and not required, or having one-on-one instruction. Some aren't possible the way things work in "real life", like watching your own children take class regularly or ignoring grades on a "report card". Many things, however, are do-able with the right attitude. I'll try my best to make this school year just like my son's swimming lessons - a truly positive learning experience - and I hope my children's classroom teachers will do the same.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Why does T4L=despair for some?
- start writing an annual report and share it with people in the school
- write up some teaching ideas and strategies as "lesson plans" to show administrators what we teach
- buy a camera and start documenting via photos some great things happening in the library
- make a blog but target it for the teachers so that more professional dialogue can occur
- start a wiki with the students and a teacher to show that we aren't "just book pushers"
- use the "paper blogging" idea to introduce the idea of sharing information and privacy
- restart the area's "Battle of the Books" using the Forest of Reading and social media
I'm not exactly sure why T4L elicits this sort of response. In my brief introductory chat with the DPCDSB teacher-librarians, I used the following analogy.
Look at your school library more like this.Yes, it may be small, but you're doing a good job.
And look at those openings.
Those are openings for new possibilities.
So add something new.
Try a new teaching strategy.Borrow a laptop.
Let the students choose the next book to read.
You've still got your school library, but with just a bit more.
Squeeze in a new collaboration.
Try a new Web 2.0 tool as part of a unit.
Through deliberate "baby steps", you can make your school library a learning commons, the hub of a flexible and responsive approach to learning collaboratively. If anyone has any insights on how we can transform the despair felt by some after reading T4L into inspiration, please comment below.
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