Salvaging Old Lessons for New Students

 School is busy! I have a fantastic schedule, filled with open collaborative partner time, and those periods have already been snapped up by teachers eager to have a second adult body in the room. It's been invigorating to work with friendly, familiar faces - thank you so much Kerri for popping in the library at the end of the day just to say how nice it was to work together again - and it's also such a treat to work with new staff members.

I'm collaborating with our new Grade 4-5 teacher (I haven't written her name because I didn't get permission yet to talk about her on my blog) to teach social studies. I pitched an idea that I've taught before for Grade 4 students that incorporates social studies, health, drama, and learning skills. She supported the concept and we tinkered a bit about how to include the Grade 5s. We launched it last week and the students are super-excited about it.

The lessons are "oldies but goodies" - in fact, it's so old that the accompanying files were made using ClairsWorks and HyperStudio! Thankfully, my husband and I did some digging and found ways to open the documents. It was fascinating to see which aspects were outdated and which aspects still held up. I plan on writing a similar reflection for the AML website.

The first lesson of the unit involves a mysterious email. Originally, when I first taught this lesson, we used HyperStudio to explore the concept, a la "Choose Your Own Adventure". I really liked (and miss) the non-linear way that HyperStudio operated, but the graphics were archaic.

The concept was still valid - it's about a type of phishing email exemplified by the "Nigerian Prince" scenario. Back in 2004, I was pretty proud of my limited animation skills as the cartoon figure actually spoke and moved her lips and eyes. Now, I cringe at how primitive it looks. 

I updated the look of the email, eliminated the photo and audio components, and shared it with the students.

I also examined the explanation slide from the original work. I've learned so much more about media education since then. One important thought is to not position certain media texts as "good" or "bad" but rather as "interesting". By avoiding a simplistic value judgement, learners can better examine the "strategies" (instead of "tricks") that different media creators use to match their purposes and allow them to form their own opinions. After all, we educators use some of the same methods to attract our students' attention, and I suspect we don't want to be labelled as "evil manipulators". Compare the 2004 rationale with the 2021 rewrite:

The ability to create attractive, realistic mock media texts has improved tremendously over the years as well. The final task in this unit is to participate in an auction to purchase chunks of land; I think I may revise the post-auction reflection to include a section on how land was seized from Indigenous people and sold without their proper input or consent. The money the Grade 4-5 students will use (Nadcaa Bucks) will be "earned" from demonstrating certain learning skills during the research process (e.g. staying on task, sharing resources, citing sources, etc.). I am aware of the dangers and problematic elements of creating a token economy in a classroom, but I justify my decision by noting that it's a short-term exercise and that the fake funds are tied to the end task. Take a look at the money templates from before and now.

I guess the lesson that I've learned from preparing for this collaborative teaching unit is that I don't always have to "reinvent the wheel", but I cannot use older lessons without examining them first to update the words and images to better reflect my current understanding of effective pedagogy. There's always room for improvement, even in "tried and true" tasks.

Reconnecting

 This is going to be a short blog post, composed on the same day it is published.

I had a good time reconnecting with relatives over the weekend. We chatted so much that I even forgot to take photos. (The picture here is from August 2021 of me and my Uncle Carlton, who is actually my first cousin. I call him my uncle because of our age difference and cultural traditions around elder respect. We saw each other by chance at a mall in the summer and that's when we made plans to see each other again.) 

Even though it takes time and effort to make these visits, the result can really nourish your soul, especially when you have a shared history. The stories and perspectives are eye-opening and interesting to share. Thanks folx for welcoming me and spending time with me!

Now to get to planning collaborative library units (hooray! I've missed that so much!), assessing my Queen's University TL AQ participants' assignments, going to Cross Fit, and voting. (ETA I voted! It wasn't an easy decision for me, but I encourage everyone that can to do so.)

More Questions Than Answers

We are back!

Last week, school resumed for students in my board for two days (on Thursday and Friday). Tuesday and Wednesday were spent frantically trying to prepare. I am back in the library, as a teacher-librarian. I am surprised and delighted to share that I have more open collaborative time (aka Partners Time, if you are an old TL like me and still occasionally use the title of the 1982 document) than ever before. Despite this return to what should be familiar territory for me, there are still a lot of hiccups and uncertainties. This is also true for teacher-librarians new or returning to the position. I've tried to help as best as I can, both on our board's Google Currents community site, as well as via private emails and on the Facebook group devoted to school library professionals (run by my dear friend, Ruth Gretsinger). People are desperate for clear explanations and solutions, but a lot relies on consultation with administration and site-specific decisions. That's not comforting, unfortunately.

Even though I've been trying to be a source for potential answers, I still have a lot of questions. Here are some of the main ones, with my attempts at resolving them.

How do I sanitize and disinfect objects quicker?

Our students need a chance to play together, but we still have rigorous standards to maintain about cleaning touched objects. Providing individual buckets of supplies works when we are talking about pencils and erasers, but not loose parts or toys. On Friday, students spent 30 minutes playing and I spent 50 minutes afterwards cleaning those toys! There's no sink in the library. Attempting to wash my Lego led to wet shoes, pants, and very damp Rubbermaid bins. Thankfully, our wonderful new caretaker Quentin saved the chicken wire I was going to get rid of and suggested I could hose things down on the wire in the big sinks. Hopefully the Lego isn't small enough to drop through. I will be consulting with the kindergarten team to see how they handle this time-intensive job.

How do I avoid visual overstimulation when all the students' cameras are on?

Last year, I taught Grade 6-7 and then Grade 5-6. When we were online, they didn't have their cameras on most of the time. I know this makes some teachers feel lonely, but I realize now that I got used to "less is more". Now that I am doing a lot of primary prep, and many of them are virtual, I find myself getting completely overwhelmed at the sight of 27 kindergarten children jumping on sofas, playing with robots, picking noses, eating snacks and doing all sorts of other things. When they need to perform their "what is media" actions, I found it difficult to observe so many of them simultaneously. I tried to have students turn off their cameras and turn them on when needed, but it seems like it's part of the primary online class routine to keep cameras on. The wonderful DECE Jen Cadavez is helping me consider different strategies to use to help me manage.

How do I get to class on time between online and in-person?

My schedule was engineered and designed in a special way so that we would avoid back-to-back classes of students. This is great for health reasons, but tricky when I need to take back an in-person class when an online class is waiting for me. I don't think this will be a huge issue; many of the teachers have been very understanding about me being a bit late.

How will I have time to shelve books?

I learned that volunteers are not yet permitted in the building. My students know that Pat McNaughton was the backbone of our school library when it came to organizing and shelving books. In consultation with my principal, I am adopting the most stringent of guidelines, and I am quarantining the books in huge Rubbermaid bins for a week after they are checked in. I am technically the only one permitted to handle the circulation computer and scanning wand. Maybe I will see about whether or not Pat can come in after school when there are no students, or if we should lower the amount of books that students can be permitted to take out. 

How do I share photos ethically and in a timely manner?

If I was a kindergarten parent sending my child to in-person learning, I'd want all the reassurances I could possibly get. I took photos of the kindergarten students playing with Fisher Price toys (which was the calmest part of the period, to be honest - many of our youngest learners will need a lot more time to get used to the "routine" of school, since there's been no opportunities to practice things like lining up, adhering to an institutional schedule, and other restrictions). I want to share these photos with the parents, but I don't know if I can send a mass email with a slideshow of all the images, because I don't know if they've signed media release forms. Sending photos individually may take a really long time. I don't have an answer to this one yet.

How can I use technology when the most useful items have all been distributed elsewhere?

We have no more Chromebooks to spare for in-school learning. As it was, I was scrambling to locate all the teacher laptops and ensure everyone had something that could possibly work. I still have some old iMacs (the white ones and grey ones we won back in 2008 [I think] in the Best Buy Best in Class contest) but they won't run Google Classroom or anything that takes too much power or has too many images. Word processing, maybe?

When can I bring in Cola the skinny pig?

Students have already been asking to see our resident school library pet. I've read the Program Guidelines and Operational Guidelines published by the board, but I don't remember seeing anything about pets - it's probably a low priority. 

I'm sure that these problems will be resolved eventually in time. I just hope we figure things out before the rules and procedures change again!

What if we are the villains?

 This is an unusual reflection on the Labour Day weekend, just before we return to another year of unusual teaching. Some may say it's an insensitive post, considering how hard many educators have been working this week and next to prepare for their students in this uncertain time. However, one of the criteria for including something in my Monday Molly Musings is if it is a topic that keeps "tickling my brain". 

I belong to a Cross Fit gym that has a lot of educators in the membership. One day, as we were working out, the topic of residential schools came up and someone said that they wished they weren't called schools because it gives schools a bad name. I disagreed. I was too busy gasping for breath as I exercised to provide an eloquent explanation, but I thought I should articulate it somewhere, at some time.

Schools are established institutions, where parents are often required to send their children and "rules rule" in schools. For the longest time, corporal punishment was allowed because of the "in loco parentis" concept. Schools also used (and still use) the suggestion that teachers, due to their training and experience, sometimes "know better" than the parents. You can see this still reflected in comments directed to educators like "remember you may be the best part of a child's day", insinuating that home life is terrible and that school is a sanctuary (and the teachers, the saviors). Parents send their children to schools, trusting them to do their best to help the children learn and develop. In residential schools, there wasn't even the pretense of trust - families were forced to hand over their children. 

Schools have power. Our current schools aren't murdering children and burying them on the property, like the residential schools did to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children, but sometimes educators do things to students that hurt them. This was my biggest fear when entering teachers' college - that I would discover that, either through ignorance or due to some other reason, I had harmed a student in my class. I wish I could find the tweet I saw that said something like "we see ourselves as the heroes in a story, but what if we are the villains?" However, I did find this tweet I saved.

This 🎯
Sometimes we [teachers] make bad choices, perpetuate harmful practices or miss the mark.
Being called out/in is a gift. https://t.co/U4ShsmgL6q

— Kristen Bynoe (she/her) (@KristenBynoe) August 11, 2021

This idea of bad choices or harmful practices could be large-scale or small-scale. A few days ago, Matthew Morris tweeted this interaction:

Not even an hour at school and was already asked if I was the caretaker. His excuse: “I saw you walking around and thought you were out of uniform.”

Really?!? Is this what we’re STILL doing?!?

— Matthew R. Morris (@callmemrmorris) September 2, 2021

People mostly responded with messages of dismay and support - but have we ever done something similar and just not realized the harm? What if we weren't called in or out and merrily continued on with our day, not understanding how our words or actions impacted others? One of the biggest regrets of my career was when I was facilitating a Tribes training, and we used an energizer, called "Tribal Dances" to have people learn what their "tribes" were. (Yes, I know already by this description that there are several levels of "wrong" already present in this recount.) The facilitators set up the groups, based on several factors we were told to use. My racial bias was revealed with the song choices I made for each group as well as the groups my co-facilitator and I formed. A couple of participants pointed this out to the facilitators privately at the end of that session. We, the facilitators, were ashamed and embarrassed. We wanted to mention the error we made to the whole group but the individuals that pointed it out asked us not to, because they didn't want to draw further attention to this injustice perpetrated against them even more. We respected their wishes, but I wish there was another option, because it might have been a learning moment for more than just the facilitators. This happened over twenty years ago, but I still feel ashamed by my actions and I want to know better and do better.

It's that whole intent vs impact thing, isn't it? It doesn't matter if an educator's intention is good, if the impact is negative, then things need to change. As we begin a new school year, may we see ourselves and our practices more clearly so we don't accidentally become a villain in a student's (or fellow teacher's) story. 

ETA - I forgot to include this link from the Globe and Mail about Black students showing greater gains in reading during the pandemic, and that a potential explanation being less exposure to racism. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-tdsb-data-show-rapid-reading-improvement-in-black-elementary-students/ 

Dress for Success

 Usually, credits appear at the end. This time, they'll appear at the beginning.

Thanks to: 

Aviva Dunsiger @avivaloca for her two blog posts, one on Clothing, COVID and Unexpected Decisions, and the other on Clothes Shopping Be[ing] a Sign of Something More.

Doug Peterson @dougpete for his #twioe review that led me to Aviva's writing, as well as his clothing reflection blog post. (Doug, for what it's worth, I had school clothes, play clothes, and church clothes too growing up!)

Matthew R Morris @callmemrmorris for two tweets on August 27 about beard trimming and professional aesthetics. 

The TDSB TL Expected Practice Writing Team - Mark, Dawn, Wafaa, Kim, Wendy, and Andrea - for being such a lovely group of people (inside and out) and allowing me to take and publish our team shot here. It was such a joy to work with you all!

You can see in this photo that I'm no fashionista. I'm wearing my "When in doubt, visit the library" shirt and only recently got rid of all of the animal hoodies I was renowned for wearing. I'm not really great at dressing professionally. When I first was accepted into the Faculty of Education (at York), my parents bought me a coat that they thought would be appropriate for a teacher to wear. I still have that coat. I don't wear it often. I can "fake" it with some business casual outfits, but if I'm more inclined to wear it to a conference to impress people, rather than to school to work in, then it's not an actual teaching ensemble for me.

It's important to unpack some of the classist and gendered assumptions that accompany ideas around teacher attire. I'm no expert on the subject but my attempts at initial research just made me irritated. When I tried to do a Google search on the topic, I found articles such as Reasons Why Teachers Should Have a Dress Code (which was surprisingly one of the most balanced portrayals, with three reasons why they shouldn't and four why they should) a research paper on The Effect of Teachers' Dress on Students' Attitudes and Students' Learning (from a post-secondary view that did more about supporting student biases than about anything else), Dressing (Teachers) For Success (from an admin POV, where they talk about the "controversial" decisions around stockings and blue jeans), Teacher Attire Matters, and Here's Why (which made me bristle because the message was it's not okay for a police officer to reprimand a speeding teacher in the same way he/she would scold a speeding teen), Professional Wardrobe Tips for Teachers (by the NEA, who say at the end of the article, "Thrift shops are a good place to find bargains, but that may not be a good idea for teachers, Weingarten cautions: “Kids can be so critical of what their teachers wear.”", which made me wonder what they considered "thrift"),  What Is The Dress Code of an Elementary Teacher (a 2004 article that pronounced "T-shirts and sweats don't belong in the classroom, nor do shorts"). and Tips for Dressing Like a Professional Teacher (which was the most "reasonable" of the articles, although I chafed at the "age-appropriate" comment). Many of these articles do more to reinforce stereotypical ideas - don't even get me started on the race and size issues that underlie many of these position pieces. (For instance, all the models are white people - are natural or Black hair choices such as corn rows "unsuitable teacher attire"? What about tattoos?)

If you do an image search for "professional dress for teachers", you will see plenty of skirts and dresses, which are usually not part of my rotation AT ALL. Young children especially like to touch legs (bare or stockinged) and it's not practical when sitting on the floor or running around. This fits with what Aviva was discussing with regards to her criteria for selecting clothes (i.e. their compatibility with paint, mud, floor time, outdoor time, and creatures) . 

Aviva said in her August 15 post that she'd prefer to be purchasing school supplies than buying clothes. Ditto. I'm not a huge fan of clothes shopping, although it depends on the circumstances (e.g. I enjoyed those Weekenders clothing parties - see https://www.weekenders.ca/ for an explanation of the phenomenon, - and searching thrift stores with my sister and daughter are fun times), and others presume differently. For instance, my spouse is convinced that I actually own more than the average amount of shoes for someone in my income bracket. I disagreed; I own 15 pairs of shoes but this tally includes one pair of bowling shoes, one pair of flip flops, two pairs of Crocs and two pairs of Converse, and excludes my rain boots and winter boots - is he right? 

Having said I don't really like clothes shopping most of the time, I just spent more money than I anticipated on matching thread and buttons to repair and alter some clothes owned by my family members, and sometimes it's easier to just buy.

Tangent: I spent the weekend hemming pants, sewing seam splits and other seamstress activities, which was quite a bittersweet task. Originally, I was intimidated to learn how to sew because my mother was so good at it. I felt like I needed to learn because she wouldn't be around forever. At my request, my mom started to teach me how to sew (see the 2016 story here), then I took lessons from someone else and now in 2021, she's still around but her advanced dementia makes it impossible for her to operate her sewing machine safely anymore, so she's here but not. Returning to the original "thread" ...

My recent clothing journey also involved me resetting my internal "files" about myself. It took several returns for me to finally accept what my new size guidelines are and to purchase within them. It's better to be comfortable with a larger number on the tag. 

So, what's now in Diana's closet, if all the animal hoodies are gone? Well, I still am attached to my ponchos, which are perfect for layering. I bought significantly more blouses or dress shirts than I owned previously. I have quite a few rompers / onesies / pantsuits but fewer dresses. I still fit into many of those Weekender jacket/pants combos, so I still have those. I bought more jeans (after despairing that I could no longer fit into almost any of my jeans and giving away what no longer worked - thank you Value Village!) but I also have slacks.  Flowy Fairweather pants and long shorts are also part of my collection. Ironically, I think more of my outfits fit the "teacher professional dress" category.

PS - Happy 19th birthday today to my beloved son, Peter! Love you to the moon and back, Peter.

Love Languages

 I'm late to the party but that's okay. Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a book back in 1992 called The 5 Love Languages. (It was republished in 2015.) Wikipedia says, 

According to Chapman, the five ways to express and experience love called "love languages" are:

• words of affirmation,
• quality time,
• receiving gifts,
• acts of service,
• physical touch.

 For some reason, this topic arose while I was in Calgary, and when I returned home, I took the free online quiz from the Love Languages website. Every member of my immediate family took the quiz and posted the results to our family Discord channel. Here were my results:

This has interesting implications for me in my family as well as for me as a teacher. It's important to note that I have neither read the original book, nor have I read any of the relevant sequels (e.g. The 5 Love Languages of Children, Discovering the 5 Love Languages at School, or The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace). Maybe some of my answers might be found in those publications, but in the meantime, here are my insights and further questions.

If you cannot read the visual, my top two results were for Words of Affirmation, at a whopping 37%, followed by Physical Touch at 30%. Quality Time and Acts of Service were tied at 13% and Receiving Gifts was the lowest at 7%. This feels like an accurate profile. Even just perusing my blog shows me that I love to hug (while still respecting boundaries and consent, even at ECOO conferences and as early as in 2014 when I hypothesized that my inclination for embraces was partly due to my upbringing) and that many of my "tribute posts" are essentially words of affirmation for colleagues that I admire. It's why my favourite end-of-the-year gifts from students always involve some sort of words - one of my classroom students obviously inferred this quite well, as her gift included a six-page letter. 

Guess what? Even though my husband's statistics are in the exact same order (with a much more even spread between the top four), my own children have different priorities - their top result was Quality Time. It made me more aware that they might feel a bit drowned or smothered by the constant barrage of hugs/kisses/pats, and flood of compliments, praise and warms words of affection that I frequently direct toward them. So, lately I've been trying to show how much I care more by doing things with them. I hang out in the living room with them. My daughter and I go out on errands together - she's been putting together a new cosplay outfit and we've driven all over the GTA collecting parts. 

My husband also theorizes that after living with me for so long (July 5, 2022 will be our 25th wedding anniversary), he's actually learned to be more like me in terms of affection-giving and -receiving. I'm curious to see what his "pre-Diana statistics" would have been. 

As a teacher, there are some definite lessons for me to learn. I searched but couldn't find the joke tweet by a male teacher who said there was no way he was revealing to his students and staff that his primary love language was physical touch. That's a big no-no for several reasons. I was going to try to encapsulate some of my ideas in a series of "I will" and "I will not" statements, but they mostly boil down to "respect and honour the ways students and colleagues show they appreciate you, and when appropriate, reciprocate in similar ways". Maybe this is why I've been spending time over the summer with some of my delightful colleagues, visiting retired teachers, shopping at farmers' markets, and chatting together via the House Party app.

I tell my friends and family that I love them (using the L word) and I do. (Apologies to any of my pals who get weirded out by the practice.) If I have time, I should see if I can get my hands on a copy of one of those other Chapman books to see if I gain any further clarifications. (Maybe I should try to finish Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond before I start a new read!)

Random Thoughts from A (AQ) to Z (Zita)

 I couldn't decide what to focus on this week with my reflections. Usually, I like to tie them all together thematically - some of these connections can be "complex" as Doug Peterson noticed (such as his commentary on my blog a few weeks ago on Tracking, Timing and Tiring that combined my thoughts on the gym, my AQs and my ETFO SA). I couldn't detect a unifying element, so instead, I'm going to write some random reflections based on this week's events.

A (1st letter) - AQ course

I finished running my first Queen's University AQ course. I've referenced it frequently over the past few weeks. "Frequently" is actually an understatement; I checked my blog history and I have mentioned it in passing every single week since July 19! Summer AQs (taking or teaching them) keep me from getting bored or restless. Summer 2021 was a different experience than my previous AQ teaching opportunities (in Summer 2018 and Summer 2019) with another university. Although I was quite uncertain when I began, I felt very supported by the Queen's CTE staff. They provided lots of links, handouts, and even a Zoom meet on August 7 to help their AQ facilitators understand the process. They are very clear (some may call it strict) with deadlines and overdue assignments, but there is comfort in that kind of structure. As for the participants, I only saw the faces or spoke live to very few of the candidates, so the only way I "knew" them is through their assignments or discussion posts. I get the feeling that this late summer TL Pt 1 AQ that began August 8 is going to be quite a contrast from the one before. The last group consisted of 18 individuals. This class has just 4. With fewer participants, I can respond more frequently and even partake in some of the assignments myself. Last time, I was still getting used to the onQ D2L system but now, I have a better working knowledge of the virtual environment. I also get the sense that the candidates are interested in each other as people and not just as classmates whose posts they will need to respond to for marks. I actually got teary-eyed at the compassion and assistance they've already demonstrated. I can't wait to spend more time with these humans!

D (4th letter) - Dining

I know it's not the healthiest activity, but I love eating in restaurants. On Tuesday, I went to Korean BBQ at Chako. It was so nice to mimic a buffet experience with my husband and daughter. The restaurant employees were cautious and attentive. They recorded data on all who entered, wore masks, kept guests apart, and themselves kept their distance as much as possible. I wonder if there's anything we can apply to school re-opening that the restaurants have done? (PS - This week's food outings also included Great Canadian Bagel, Tim Hortons, McDonald's and Mary Brown's.)

L (12th letter) - Lines for Service Ontario 

On Friday, I took my son to a local Service Ontario to get his identification card. He had an appointment but it was still a dauntingly long line that greeted us when we arrived. His appointment was at 1:00 pm and he was finished at 2:30 pm. The backlog is despair-inducing. My friend's son travelled all the way out to Kingston to complete his final driver's test. I'm sure the workers themselves must be feeling a lot of pressure and I hope they aren't getting verbally lambasted by members of the public. They are trying their best. I see some parallels with education workers. The demands may be intense and I wish that they will be treated with kindness and understanding as much as possible. 

T (20th letter) - Thrifting

On August 3, I mentioned that I went to Value Village with my daughter to buy a few things. Some items did not fit, and I have promised myself now not to buy "aspirational pants" (a term coined by my husband to refer to pants that don't yet fit but you hope to fit into in the future). I took the pants in for an exchange yesterday and walked out with even more clothes. This was necessary because I did a significant weeding of my entire clothing collection and there are a lot of items that were in bad shape and/or could no longer fit. I love shopping at what my sister calls "VV Boutique" because I can buy a lot of things for very little, and I feel like I am making a small contribution to the environment by giving old things a new home. I have been focusing on picking clothes "for school". If I get a chance, I will have to post some pictures of the things I bought, to see if they fit other people's perceptions of what counts as "teacher clothes" (or even "work clothes"). 

Z (26th letter) - Zita, Tina

From August 10 - 12, I was the tech support for Tina Zita's ETFO Summer Academy session on More Than Words. As I said to the participants, I am a member of the Tina Zita Fan Club. Tina is talented, smart, humble, thoughtful and such a joy to learn from and with. She gave the participants lots of time to explore and play with the tools and ideas she shared and I know they appreciated it. She was the one who made my experience rewriting the OCT TL AQ guidelines so rewarding and gave tips so that I could replicate some of the strategies she used with my own TDSB TL Expected Practice writing document. Tina's motto should be "Create-Coke-Continue", because she is constantly making wonderful things digitally and is constantly offering her abilities and expertise to others. She was in PEI on an iPad during our course and made it look easy! Julie, thank you for allowing me to support Tina (truly, I didn't do much) and hanging out with such a wonderful human being for three days.