The Need for a Time-Turner

 I will keep this short. Usually I write my blog posts on the weekend, but a task that took 6 hours on Saturday and 7+3 hours on Sunday ate up my usual reflection time, so it's Monday evening as I'm quickly reflecting and writing so I can maintain my Monday posting streak. (I can't tell you what the massive project is yet but I hope to be able to share it as some point. The end results will be worth all the hours of hard work, if my biased opinion counts for anything.)

My main thought for today is that I need a time-turner. A time-turner is a device that Hermione Granger uses in the third Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) so she can attend more classes. The time-turner is useful for other reasons that are part of the main plot. 

I wouldn't use a time-turner excessively. Sometimes I just need an extra hour or two, or the students could use an extra hour or two. For instance, the Grade 1-2s have been making accessible playgrounds as part of their media class. We have been working on this project for about three weeks and we had to finalize the work so we could launch our new inquiries. Some did not get as far as they (or I) would have liked, but every group was able to produce something to put in the display case in the front hall. Here are some photos of them working. 

Then there's the collaborative teaching. I am so grateful that classroom teachers are willing to co-plan and co-teach with me, but it's been a challenge to try and find the time to sit down and discuss what we hope to accomplish and how we'll do it. Thanks MN, JD, LC, JC and TL for your patience as I double-book lunch meetings and rush explanations as we pass each other in the halls or through texts.

Marking often takes me a long time - this is true both for the AQ courses I'm facilitating that are wrapping up this week and next, as well as for the social studies, health and media classes I teach in my "regular" job. I hope to get caught up, especially now that this major secret project of mine is (almost) completely wrapped up. If anyone has a spare time-turner lying around their house that they aren't using, let me know!

AML in Action (PS Retired Folx Are Eveready Rabbits!)

I admit it - I'm a busy person. I'm involved in a lot of things. I can do these things because I'm very fortunate; I have a husband who takes care of maintaining the house and my two children are at a very independent stage in their lives. My activity level is nothing compared to some of the "retired" people I know. I'll highlight them in the second half of this post. The first half is devoted to promoting some of the recent activities of an organization I'm involved with - the Association for Media Literacy.

The Association for Media Literacy is a small group of dedicated individuals ("teachers, librarians, consultants, parents, cultural workers and media professionals") who care about society's media literacy. I, along with Chelsea Attwell, am the co-vice-president of the organization. These are just a few things that AML has been up to lately.

1) Offering an AQ Course

Believe it or not, AML is the only group currently providing an Additional Qualification course on Media Literacy. You can sign up for the course using this link - https://aml.ca/professional-development/additional-qualifications/ The Ontario College of Teachers lists three organizations that are certified to give courses in this area (TDSB and the University of Windsor are the others) but AML is the only one with Media on the roster as available. Despite the fact that I'm already involved in other AQs, I really want to take my Media Part 2 - and hopefully OCT will accredit the course in time for me to take it in the spring. I learned so much in Part 1 and in today's climate, we need media literacy skills more than ever before. The course will be taught by two experts in the field: Carol Arcus and (current AML president) Neil Andersen.  Now is the perfect time to become more media literate so sign up if you can!

2) New Mini-series in Mediacy Podcast

Mediacy is a podcast hosted on VoicEd Radio. I recorded four episodes focused on chatting with people who are addressing media literacy in post-secondary circles, even when they aren't "media studies specialists". The conversations were absolutely delightful and chock-full of learning for me. I couldn't have done it without the technical skills of VoicEd founder, Stephen Hurley. Our guests were:

• Dr. Sonja Nikkila from the University of Toronto
• Dr. Michael Hoechsmann from Lakehead University
• Dr. Lana Parker from the University of Windsor
• Dr. Teresa Redmond from Appalachian State University

A common theme that emerged from our talks was that we need to be interdisciplinary in our thinking and approaches. I will advertise when the episodes are ready to be heard. Big thanks to all of the guests for sharing their time and expertise with me.

3) International Council for Media Literacy IMLRS Conference

Neil Andersen and I will be presenting at the IMLRS (International Media Literacy Research Symposium) conference in Madison, Wisconsin in June 2022. This is a smaller contingent because many AML board members are preparing to attend MES in British Columbia in March 2023. 

4) Advocacy for Media Literacy Updates to the Ontario Curriculum

Did you know that the "current" Ontario Curriculum document for Grades 1-8 Language was written in 2006? It, and the secondary counterpart, is in dire need of an update, and media literacy should continue to be an important part of the document (and, to be honest, other curriculum documents as well). AML has recently provided extensive feedback to the Ministry on the urgent need to update the media literacy strand and - fingers crossed - hopefully the suggestions will be seriously take into consideration.

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These are just four things that AML has been up to lately. There are many more projects on the go. I really tip my hat to two particular AML members (retired educators) for working doggedly behind the scenes. Between them, and the chair / vice-chair (retired educators) who do so much for Canadian School Libraries and the leader (retired educator) of VoicEd Radio ... notice a trend? Retired educators are some of the busiest people I know! Ergo, a quick photo salute to:

Neil Andersen

(I took this picture of us when we were in Washington DC for the NAMLE 2019 conference.)

Carol Arcus

(This is a picture of Neil and Carol at an AML anniversary event.)

Carol Koechlin

Anita Brooks-Kirkland

(I don't think I have a recent photo with all three of us in the photo - since one of us is usually behind the camera capturing the action. This photo, with Eric Walters, was taken at the Treasure Mountain Canada 6 (2020) event in Toronto.)

Stephen Hurley

(Once again, no photos of the two of us together - I believe I took this photo of Stephen as he listened to the speech honouring him with an award at OLA SuperConference 2020.)

Neil, Carol, Anita, Carol and Stephen - your devotion, passion and energy to the causes near and dear to your hearts are admirable. Thank you for all you do!

March Break Misgivings and Gaming Hitches

 This post appears on the first day of March Break, 2022. The school spring holiday has been sullied in the past few years. It is no longer a welcomed breather before the exciting but hectic final stretch of the school year. There's too much uncertainty. 

2020 = We left for March Break with only a day's notice to pack up as much as we could because there was going to be a two-week delay before we returned to school. That two week delay was extended, and continued, and it turned out that we didn't return to school at all to complete the 2019-20 school year. 

2021 = We "lost" our March Break because it was decided that the spring break would be postponed until April - and then just one day after returning from this delayed rest, educators were sent back to virtual learning. We didn't return to school after April 7 to complete the 2020-21 school year. 

2022 = We departed for a week away after being told that when we return, all the regulations and routines that were in place to manage COVID would be up-ended. 

It is really difficult to "rest" and "relax" when this pattern of upheaval exists. Will we really return? What changes will "stick" and which will be modified or altered? Will this lead to more illness or absences? For this holiday, I won't be traveling anywhere. I will sleep in, work on finishing a huge project with a looming deadline, go to CrossFit, and have a few appointments (hair and nails). I will try to not think much about school.

Speaking of school ...

Maybe by writing about this school issue, I'll be less likely to think about it during the rest of the week. 

I have been having the hardest time incorporating gaming into my programming. It's not because I don't know how. My years with the GamingEdus has taught me a lot about games-based learning. It's the technological hurdles that are making integration difficult. Let me give two examples.

1) Minecraft with Grade 4-5

Our Grade 4-5 teacher has been keen to use Minecraft Education Edition with her in-person students. Minecraft is still "a thing" with many of the students and she wanted to honour their interests. The students all have school-issued Chromebooks, which runs Minecraft Education Edition, EXCEPT

• teachers cannot play (if an educator logs into a Chromebook, I/he/she/they cannot access M:EE)
• we cannot host a cooperative world (the students can open their worlds but only about two students can join before it crashes)

Playing cooperatively in a shared virtual environment is/was one of the wonderful features of Minecraft. Our board's IT department has not made this a priority (understandably). There's even a bizarre dead-end path if you try to ask for help even installing Minecraft. The Grade 4-5 teacher and I are arranging work-arounds, like solo challenges, but it's not the same. I haven't used Minecraft for a while, ever since Microsoft purchased the property. This recent experience, and an email I received demonstrated exactly why. I just got notifications that I'm required to transfer my Mojang accounts (and I have a lot, because I own several personal and GamingEdus "vanilla" Minecraft accounts) to a Microsoft account. Thankfully, Andrew Forgrave will help me with the tedious and ridiculous process. 

2) Terasology with Grade 3

I'm doing some collaborative teaching with the Grade 3 teacher and her virtual class. I didn't want to repeat my use of Gather, like I did with the Grade 6s for social studies. I did some investigation and stumbled across a Minecraft-like game called Terasology. Since I wasn't sure what devices the students would be using at home and I didn't want anyone to have to purchase any software, I thought this free game would be just right for our purposes. Articles like this one or this one suggested it would be worthwhile to try. Unfortunately, Terasology has been a big flop. The students had difficulty downloading it. Only 8 out of the 16 were successful. Even after reducing the resolution size of the graphics to make it run smoother, game play was bumpy. I opened up my collaborative world and either the students could not find me in the big wide world, or their attempts to join my world failed. We did "play" Gather, even though Gather isn't technically a game, but this was better than all the issues we faced with Terasology.

Thank goodness the gaming hitches aren't related to my personal gaming. I just earned the "GOAT" designation on Animal Crossing New Horizons Paradise Planning, and I just finished paying off my final house loan in Animal Crossing New Leaf. 

Pricking my Conscience

 When I was a child, I was very involved in my elementary school operettas. I was the title character in Puss 'n Boots, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, and Pinocchio in the play of the same name. Pinocchio was always being prompted by both Jiminy Cricket and the Blue Fairy to do the right thing. (Some of the lyrics to one of the songs went "Heed the warning / of Blue Fairy / Go thou quickly / Do not tarry").

This is a bit of a convoluted way to introduce my thoughts to today's posts. Lately there have been several Jiminy Cricket like figures that have been prompting and probing me to think critically about what I do and to do better.

Anita Brooks-Kirkland and the Library Dragon

A prominent figure in the Canadian school library scene, Anita Brooks-Kirkland, asked several of us to complete a survey so that she could have data to write an article for Canadian School Libraries Journal. The article came out this week. You can read the article at https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/taming-the-library-dragon-mission-ethics-and-library-routines/ 

Anita was very good about quoting people and about protecting the identities of people when they mentioned a library practice that wasn't exactly laudable. Both the questions Anita asked and the results she shared in the article really gnawed at my conscience. Some of the areas where I am guilty of lagging behind include limiting the number of books the kindergarten students can borrow, fixating on the kindergarten library book bags ("no bag, no book"), and the use of my adult library volunteer to handle circulation. You might wonder why having an adult helper might be problematic. As Anita explains, 

Freeing up professional staff time for higher level interactions and instructional interventions is very desirable, but inappropriate access to circulation may constitute a serious breach of privacy. Integrated library systems hold personal information and borrower records. Trained library staff are bound by professional ethics to protect that information. Allowing volunteers, or students or even un-trained teachers to run circulation puts all borrowers’ right to privacy at risk.

Anita deliberately didn't attach any names to the less-desired practices but I have to admit that I do some of these things. I'm trying to "loosen up" with my kindergarten library practices, although with only me (and sometimes our part-time secretary) shelving books, I confess that I had to put a "flexible cap" on borrowing limits so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by the amount of books I need to put back. Yes, that was for me and not for the benefit of the learners in the space. Fingers crossed that once the restrictions are loosened a bit that I can return to library helpers and large book borrowing possibilities.

Jennifer Brown and her Guiding Principles

On Thursday, March 3, Jennifer spoke to the Winter 2022 York University TL AQ cohort. In her talk, Jenn described her guiding principles.

In case you can't read the image, it lists 5 key areas.

1) Relationships (Know myself. Be myself. Don't centre myself.)

2) Expectations (I don't ask anything of students that I won't ask of myself.)

3) Criticality (Everything in education can be weaponized.)

4) Authenticity (My daily practices need to match what I say I believe about kids.)

5) Focus (Kids matter more than books or anything else for that matter.)

Jenn doesn't pull punches when she talks and I felt some of the "blows", even though they weren't necessarily directed at me. I pointed out my own discrepancies between what I enforce and what I claim I believe when I reminded the AQ participants that we were not required to put on cameras during the session, to honour adult learning, but that I needed people to contribute somehow via a question or comment to provide evidence that they had heard and understood the presentation. I openly admitted that the requirement did not indicate that I trusted individuals to be fully present during the learning. I also cringed internally when Jenn showed a list of all the many things that can be weaponized in education, from recess to book access. Heck, even hand holding can be weaponized, as in "you can't handle walking on your own so you have to hold my hand" or "I'm sorry, I can't hold your hand right now until you ...". Jenn pointed out that even the famous Maya Angelou quote about doing better once you know better has been weaponized. I'm not sure what my next steps are going to be after noticing my own inconsistencies and unfair conduct. Maybe it's establishing a "truer to me" set of guidelines (like "I like accountability" or "I catch more flies with honey than vinegar"). 

Harvard University's Implicit Bias Test

How do you measure progress in equity goals? I am one of my school's chairs (a "position of responsibility") and our admin team members have been talking a lot about our SIP (school improvement plan) goals. Thankfully, the Forest of Reading has helped us unexpectedly. In one of this year's Yellow Cedar nominated books, This Is Your Brain On Stereotypes, author Tanya Lloyd Kyi mentioned the Harvard IAT, an implicit bias test. We plan on introducing this tool to our staff for some private reflection.

The tool can be found at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html (and by the way, if you are in my school, don't take the test yet, okay? Or just take one version - there are many!) What this test does is get us to move beyond knowing "the right things to say" and actually looking at your subconscious reactions and implicit bias. I know of several people who can parrot the "politically correct" phrases, but attitudes that are closer to their true feelings are revealed in casual conversations. My co-chair and I took one of the tests together - this is technically not what you are supposed to do, because this is an individualized assessment, but we wanted to see what taking the test was actually like - and I plan on taking 10 minutes after the staff professional learning to take the test myself and then take a hard look at the results. The study states that you do not have to like or agree with your results but I think that denying what's happening in your head means you cannot address it.

Having your conscience pricked isn't fun but sometimes we have to exit our comfort zones in order to grow as educators and as people. 

Chiu's Ways That Go Beyond

It is time for another tribute post for one of my co-workers. I received her permission to write about her and it's long overdue.

I have worked with Jenny Chiu for a very long time. She was already a fixture at the school when I arrived there in 2004.  Right now, we are co-teaching together for a partner unit addressing community and I am enjoying our time together maybe even more than the kindergarten students are with two adults in the room. It gives me the opportunity to witness the considerate, good things she does on a regular basis.

I could talk at length at how no-nonsense, frank, flexible and funny Jenny is. I could mention how she works hard and is willing to admit when she doesn't have all the answers or how she might do things differently. These are all part of her personality. What I want to focus on is how Jenny Chiu puts her family, friends and students first.

This focus on helping those around her is not new behaviour. Back when Jenny Chiu was a primary division teacher, she took extra steps to help her students be successful. I remember that she had a student who we'd now call a "reluctant speaker" - in the past, we called them "selective mutes". Chiu made a point of visiting this student's house, where he felt more comfortable. She played Beyblades with him and developed a positive relationship with the family. During those home visits, he spoke to her. Chiu wasn't required to do this; she wanted to because she knew that school was a stumbling block and she wanted to help him communicate without anxiety.

Even just this school year, I've seen Chiu bend over backwards to help families and friends who are struggling. She arranged to have important documents translated. She negotiated so that truant students could make it to school closer to the regular start of the day. She phoned families to plead with them about their decisions relating to in-person and virtual school so that they could make the most beneficial choices for the students. She has offered to take students into her class so that other educators could catch their breath - even though she herself has her hands full with students in her own class with special needs. 

Jenny Chiu still keeps her expectations high for her students. She has her students counting in French and English during attendance and constantly challenges them to "look, listen and think". Her inquiries with her students involve intriguing concepts that are often dealt with in older grades, such as structures and stability. She works hard and so do her students. She expects nothing less from her fellow teachers. Together, during this partner unit, we've pushed ourselves to have students conduct video interviews, take photos on exploratory walks, build a 3D replica of the school, and articulate how young people are just as much a part of various communities as the adults (who are traditionally the sole focus of "community helper" units). 

Jenny and I were chair people together, about "two principals" ago, and we also served with Kerri Commisso as union stewards for two years. It is a pleasure to work with Jenny because I can count on her to be honest, observant, insightful, and dedicated. We can't all be like Chiu (and I should explain that we got in the habit of calling each other by our last names when we had 3 people named Diana and 3 people named Jenny in the building - it was hard to distinguish so we became "Mali" and "Chiu"). It's probably a good thing we aren't all like Chiu - but I hope everyone has at least one Chiu-like person in their school, someone who is a champion for those families and students that aren't always the easiest to understand or assist.

School Families

 

This image comes from https://parade.com/1045384/marynliles/family-quotes/ and full credit goes to them. No copyright infringement is intended.

This image comes from https://quotes2remember.com/quotes/439 and in other images the words have been attributed to Les Dawson, Bear Grylis, and others. Since this site encourages sharing, I am posting it here with a link to the original source. 

Monday, February 21, 2022 is Family Day in Ontario. I will be spending it with my immediate family (consisting of my husband, daughter and son). Family Day was first celebrated in Ontario in 2008 and on that very first celebration, we took my children out to a restaurant to eat. They declared "this is now a tradition" and sure enough, every Family Day, we go out to eat together. I love my family!

I may love my family, and my family loves me, but that doesn't mean we live in utopic bliss. We don't get to pick our family (except for those we marry into and, well, it's part of the whole package, I guess). Our family members are precious to us but they can be a bit trying at times. In our family, we have superhero and supervillain names we've given each other, which hint at some of the traits that sometimes make interactions difficult: The Quibbler, Crankenstein, Professor Malice (more of a troll than malicious, before you get too alarmed), and The Lizard Queen. As the first quote suggests, sometimes we save our worst conduct to share with those closest to us. We are less polite or snappish or respond with less appreciation than we should. 

Challenges reset these patterns of behaviour sometimes, or moments that remind you that circumstances can change without warning. For instance, on Sunday morning, I woke up feeling "not right" and after examining the clues, especially the tingly aura surrounding my left arm, I realized that I was having a migraine. I treat my migraines with a combination of medication, dark spaces and sleep. I lay on the couch with a pillow over my head and conked out for three hours. Everyone in the family was so considerate and sweet. They let me rest and when I awoke, they made me lunch, gently hugged me and checked in on me. (My love language is all about the hugs, so this made me happy.) 

School families operate in similar ways - but without the hugs. We don't get to pick who is in our school. The principals may get a bit of hiring choice at some point but not enough to hand-pick every member of the team. The staff members and students I work with are special to me but that does not mean we always see eye-to-eye or we never get on each others' nerves. I know I get frustrated with things my colleagues say or do. I grit my teeth. I grumble. I rant to sympathetic ears. Depending on the person, I may even subtlety address the issue. As the second illustrated quote in this blog post says, families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. (Apologies for the implications around mental illness, but I couldn't find an appropriate quote that captured the essence of my thought in a better way.)   I still like my school family members.  After all, I'm sure that sometimes they might feel similarly about me. Like actual families, we deal with each other the best way we can, be it minimizing contact with those who are particularly vexing, taking a tolerant approach to those who are merely irritating, or seeking what role you can play in improving relationships. Happy Family Day!

Reaching Through the Screen

 I've been pretty open and transparent about my concern for the virtual students I serve. Back in December, I designed inquiry projects that I thought were accessible and interesting. I decided that this project would not count negatively towards their final mark, despite it being a significant portion of our time in class and the expectations from the term. If the project improved their grade, it counted. If the project lowered the grade, I commented on the project but did not let it impact the grade. Some students did a fantastic job and their marks rose. Others ... well ...

There's a higher-than-average number of students doing poorly, especially in one particular class. For some individuals, this coincides with what other teachers are seeing. For a few, I'm the only one not seeing the results I had hoped. It's tempting to dismiss it as "it's not me; it's you" but I feel compelled to try something different to lead to greater success without lowering the standards for the age and grade too much. 

I've turned to Kerri Commisso, a conscientious and hard-working teacher on my staff that I've written about before on my blog. I showed her a list of all the main tasks I provided during the first term, and asked her for ways to help the under-performing students to participate more and contribute more evidence that they are learning. She suggested a few things, which I wrote on a list that's posted in my office. Some of the tactics she suggested included keeping a class list and tracking who had spoken during a class discussion, then calling directly on students who had not spoken. I tried this and, although I was able to reach some of the students that usually try to slip under the radar, I had at least two other students complain that this "was taking too long" and was "boring". 

Kerri also suggested small group tasks and Jamboards with the students names on stickies, so that they could see when they've made a contribution. My latest task is to play virtual "hide and seek" using a map of my office. The slide deck gives them a word bank so they know how to type their clue. There are instructions on how to Arrange > Order > Send to Back items so they can be "hidden" on the map. Plus, we've used two class periods so that I could help students complete the task, so they didn't necessarily have any "homework" to complete outside of instructional hours. This task was due on Friday, February 11. When I checked on Sunday afternoon, 57% of one class and 50% of the other class finished it on time. I guess I'll need to make another extension before playing with them online.

The challenge is just as real in kindergarten. Some students are focused and some are distracted. I have been reading the Blue Spruce books with them online and attempting some "Forest of Making" like activities. I never get 100% participation. I thought I'd make it easier by taking the photos of the students and their work myself; it felt frenetic and I was able to capture over a dozen students who, in response to the book Malaika's Surprise, wrapped something from their home and wrote a word on it. (The follow-up goal was to have others guess what was wrapped and then do a version of an "unboxing" reveal, but many students misplaced their wrapped surprise.) 

I really wish there was a way I could reach them more effectively through the screen. There are times where I think that the online version of a task will give better results, but that has not yet been the case. For instance, for my health class, I gave the same type of task to an in-person and virtual class: we played a PBS video game called Arthur's Lunch-O-Matic. The second time we played it, I asked students to record the first letter of their guess. Online students typed the first letter of the object in the chat and in-person students wrote the first letter of the object on a mini-chalk board and held it up for me to see. Questions were things like "Which one of these items would give you protein? Spinach (S)? Chicken Fingers (CF)? Apple (A)? Or Orange Juice (OJ)?" A couple of times, I even showed the explanation for each item, which would often actually directly give the answer. The average score for the virtual class was 4/10. The average score for the in-person class was 8/10. 

At least one success has been our staff professional learning. Last Wednesday, February 9, we had a staff meeting and conducted it virtually. We embedded a SIP-connected activity and it seemed to go quite well.

What are your thoughts looking at these @unlearn_com posters. Open discussions during our @AgnesMacphailPS staff meeting was thought-provoking! pic.twitter.com/biDWBNVAnx

— Jen Balido-Cadavez (@jenabee_c) February 9, 2022

What's the answer? Every time I think I'm close to understanding how to address the problem, my results tell me that it's not the case. Sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining - it's not all that bad, I guess. Students ARE learning online. They are happy and safe. Some teachers are going to extraordinary efforts to engage their students. It's just not easy. I hope that the 2022-2023 school year will be in-person for most of our learners and that we can do it safely.