Leadership: Ethics in Public Education

    The fifth module of our Teacher Leadership Specialist course is on ethics in education. We looked at environmental stewardship and social justice as part of this topic. I would be hard-pressed to find an argument against public educators making sure to include environmental stewardship and ethics as part of their classroom culture. The subject(s) that you teach should not be a factor; not to mention that the environment and social justice are in the ethical standards of the Ontario College of Teachers.

Setting a positive example for social justice and environmental stewardship can come in some small but significant choices. They might include talking about recycling (and the importance of reducing and reusing ahead of recycling) and being an advocate for appropriate language use in the classroom. Students should feel accepted and included in our classrooms.

As leaders we should be cognizant of the same ideas in interactions with colleagues and students in other areas of the school. We can set a positive example for using anti- racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language. We can intervene when we hear this language and educate others about the effects of it. We can introduce ourselves to others and give our pronouns to help normalize this practice and make others feel more at-ease.

These are not big asks, but they can make a huge difference for individual people.

Embracing Vulnerability, Recognizing Privilege and Taking Action for Change

We cannot sit idly by, or simply post resources to social media that inevitably only serves to connect with like minded people, and think that we are doing our part. And by we, I mean the white population of the world.

Black and Indigenous people of colour's (BIPOC) lives matter. They matter, not just because they are just as human, but because they have been systemically disadvantaged and discriminated against for hundreds of years.

It is time for us to do the work. The BIPOC communities have been fighting for long enough. Change starts from within. As white citizens we need to recognize, learn about and work to change the systemic discriminations that are built into who we are and what our country has become. It is NOT enough to be a person who is "not racist". We must work to become informed people who actively engage in the discussion, make personal changes and actively speak up/act when witnessing discrimination.

By no means do I think myself an expert. I am still early in my journey to learning about anti-racism. I am just fortunate to have some amazing colleagues who were doing the work and helped me get started on this journey. Last year we engaged in a lot of learning that allowed me the space to start to look at my own thoughts and actions and start to recognize my own biases and start to see microaggressions for what they are. I started to come to a better understanding that as honest a life as I had wanted to live, I had not seen the racism within myself before. I grew up with friends of different ethnicities and was engaged to a visible minority - so how could I be racist?

And so my journey to embrace mu vulnerability, recognize my privilege and to take action to change had begun. If there is a moment from those early days that really sticks out, it was when student stories (from students at my own school) were being shared with and I found myself realizing that I was (unconsciously) responding to the reactions of students of colour differently in the classroom. I had to do a lot of reflection to identify which of my actions/words/thoughts I needed to become more aware of - the mental list had begun.
What I am sharing here today is no authoritative stance, nor does it necessarily reflect any perfect views or ideas. This is just me trying to use my privilege to stand with the BIPOC community. Hopefully you are starting to ask "So what can I do to fight systemic racism in Canada?" It may not be a simple answer, but it is doable!

1) Educate yourself! This does not mean that you should seek out BIPOCs on your life and ask questions. It is not their job to teach you. (But if someone of colour does choose to speak with you about racism, make the effort to really listen! If a BIPOC tells you that there is something that has caused harm, that is often a moment of vulnerability and trust in their relationship with you - if you are not able to respond with meaning in the moment, be honest that you need time to process and appreciate that they trusted you enough to share - make sure to continue that conversation within a reasonable time to honour your relationship). Start with learning some vocabulary and doing related research on Google OR pick up a book like "So You Want to Talk About Race" which is a good introduction to big ideas and vocabulary OR watch Dear White People on Netflix (and Google vocabulary when it comes up).

2) Do the work! In learning about things like white fragility, systemic racism and microaggressions, do the *personal* work to start to recognize the things you say and do that you may not have realized were racist before and with to change your attitudes, habits and behaviors. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. We are talking about dismantling a system that has been an advantage to you your whole life, try to take your discomfort out of the equation.

3) Be part of the solution! Use your privilege for good. Learn when to stand behind, beside or in front of the BIPOC community to support the work. Say something when you see/hear something. You will not get it right every time. In fact, you will mess up. It's inevitable. But keep learning and keep doing the work. Here is an image about allyship that a friend shared that I found helpful (it is intended for Trans Allies, as soon in the header, but the principles are universal).

Source can be found here.

Privilege can be complicated and comes in many forms. Most of us have some, but some have more than others. Let's choose to use our privilege for good.

Both Grateful & Struggling with the New [School] Year

We are 3 weeks into the new school year. It was a bit of a rushed start for me with a lot of adjusting - learning D2L Brightspace to help with the ILC/Credit Recovery section I have this year, settling into married life and continuing to work on striking a work-life balance, missing my friend and colleague who was forced to change schools by the circumstances created in Ontario, and continuing to try to learn and grow as an educator while circumstances force us to deal with variables that we are not used to having. Regardless, I am grateful for my new husband, my job, and the innate love I feel for my chosen profession.

Some of the struggles I am alluding to have been in the media - an interview here and there with a grade 12 student expressing their frustration with missing courses in their timetables. For most people in Ontario this is something they hear about, maybe even sympathize with, but it is not something they are experiencing themselves. Perspective has a lot to do with how you interpret a story you hear and with the decisions you make.

Here are some perspectives on public education in the current climate...which one do you connect to right now? Can you put yourselves into the shoes of the others? In the end, what do you value? [*what follows is of course based on generalization and is not meant to depict any particular person, just to provide some of the perspectives I see]

Government/Tax Payers-at-Large
Education is an expensive major item in the budget that we like to say we invest in the future of others but that has been around publicly for so long that most of us do not really see the benefit in day-to-day (if you grew up in an educated circle, it is all you have ever known, so do you really understand why public education is so important?). The $$ value of what is invested into the system is the primary concern. [And depending on political beliefs] saving money on education and putting money in the pockets of private-sector folks benefits "the working citizens".

Parents of Elementary-Aged Students
(There is, of course, a variety of perspectives here but I will choose what I suspect is a majority.) Education is an important part of my child's life that is helping them have a future. It also serves as a place that my child has to go every day that is safe and allows me to afford a life-style that my family can enjoy (imagine if everyone had to pay to send their child to private school). Public education also exposes my child to a lot of things they would not otherwise get to experience and gives the opportunity for equity. I want my child to get the best education possible and need educators who care, resources that matter, and buildings that are safe.

Secondary School Students/Parents
Education is a means to get to a higher level of education and/or to a apprenticeship/job. I need marks that will get me to the next step and that is what matters. I have a specific goal in mind, which requires a certain mark in a certain set of subjects. I want to learn as much as possible but know that the system is built based on the number on my report card. I want to have teachers that care about me and have the opportunity to do as well as I can. If my classes grow, these opportunities decrease and I am forced to choose alternative options like night school and (if my family can afford it) private school to get my credits. (And if my family cannot afford it, I work my butt off and this year might have to be in online classes that make learning difficult for me or go to night school on top of day school and gave up something I loved to make the time for it).

Public System Educators
Education is an integral part of our province and country that can provide opportunities to students from all means and walks of life. We know that the system is not perfect (in fact is far from it) but we work hard every day to move it in the right direction. We care deeply about our students (even if we do not have children of our own) and want to see each of them succeed. We are fortunate to have stable jobs and be compensated with other benefits that allow us opportunities to keep ourselves healthy (though many of us are bad about it, putting so much of ourselves into our job and neglecting our own needs), but every fight we decide to engage in politically has a foundation in wanting what is best for students.

Of course there is probably some bias evident in the above paragraphs, but I am also trying to portray that I get there are different ways to look at a situation. My biggest personal struggle is pinned down roughly through the following connections:

1. Students seek marks --> marks provide entry into further education
But marks are a very capitalist way to determine achievement and were derived in a system where we want to "graduate" people who could follow instructions and be cogs in a factory wheel.

2. Marks are like currency --> students/families seek marks in whatever means they can --> too many private schools to "police" + expectation that "credit is paid for" --> credits granted to students with less integrity

3. Current/future job force needs require more well-rounded skills (including critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) --> a need for courses that focus on these skills --> "marks" are more murky, they don't paint a real picture of a student (arguably they never did)

Needless to say, I find myself as an educator pinned down in a system and fighting against a current that sometimes feels much too swift to continue to want to try. I continue to believe that integrity matters, that preparing students for the unknown future is the best service I can provide and that we are in a huge system that is based on a "currency" that is out of date and does a disservice to our children.

Will you fight with me to build our system up, instead of tearing it down?

Bittersweet Year End

Every year of my teaching career has ended with some similar routines. Report cards are written, work areas are cleaned up and organized, report cards are distributed, commencement happens...generally wrapped up with some kind of staff luncheon with a few good-byes to retirees/LTOs/etc. And of course the personal "have a great summer, see you next year"s are shared and we are on our merry ways to some time to refresh & reconnect with life.

And these days are always filled with a few mixed emotions - but this year was more difficult than most.

It has been about 10 months since my last blog entry. This was not intentional or by design. It was something I thought of many times throughout the year but could never sit myself down (or make the time) to share. We accomplished some great things. There was probably a lot worth sharing. But I couldn't do it.

Personal time was more of a priority, in part. But trying to digest this year's political climate has come with a lot of emotion that makes sharing professional triumph and reflection a lot more difficult. I take it personally. I want Ontario to know what a difference this generation of teachers is trying to have on the future. There is a generation of teachers that politics wants to be ignorant of. It is easier to treat us like the past has treated us then to figure out who we are, why we are here, and what we can accomplish.

My Facebook post from May 12, 2019

Usually my year end would culminate with getting home to enjoy a refreshing beverage and blasting Alice Cooper's "Schools Out". This has been tradition since my university days. But I can't bring myself to bust out the positive vibe that comes with the knowledge that I can relax for a few weeks, decompress, and look forward to another year.

It is hard for me to admit that I am struggling with the idea of summer this year.

We had to say good-bye to some amazing colleagues today who had unfortunately been declared surplus to region weeks ago (and therefore could not have timetables assigned to them with us). Luckily most of them already know where they will be in September - though not all in contract positions and none with confidence that they won't have to go through this again next year.

I am tired of the misleading media (and blatant lies/ignorant statements from the Ontario government) and frustrated with losing rock-star colleagues. I am tired of feeling helpless despite being a front-line worker in our public system. I am tired of having to explain and justify to others as to why surplus to region was necessary and how there is ZERO mathematical support for the claim that "no jobs will be lost."

Today we watched the first graduating class of our school cross the stage. But we also watched the system, as we currently know it, walk out the door at the end of the day.

And it is not okay.

Everyone has an Opinion

As a math educator there is nothing I dread more than the wrath of opinions sent my way when standardized tests scores are released (not to mention the fact the it seems to get worse every year...somehow the media gets hold of results before they are public). Everyone has an opinion. And they are entitled to one.

But it does not make them an expert.

It is easy to sit at the sidelines and put blame on someone else - teachers, the curriculum, and the like. Currently most of them blame is on the curriculum and/or so-called "discovery math" instruction.

The Curriculum

Standardized expectations set by the ministry that is publicly available here.

Now I do not ever call myself a math ed expert. My experience is limited to Ontario in grade 9-12 with a bit of tutoring at the grade 6 level. This is the only experience I can speak from. But I am sure I could find many colleagues (elementary and secondary) that would agree that there is too much emphasis on math content. Every grade level is loaded with content that is needed and content has always been in the drivers seat. Elementary grades have to cover content in 5 areas each with a multitude of specific expectations to get to.

Flip to the front matter of either sets of curricula and you will find 7 Mathematical Processes. These are supposed to be the lens through which math is taught - and we need to remind each other of this. Perhaps a redesign of curriculum to make this front matter the meat of each grade would be beneficial. Check out BC's new curriculum - it is competency focused. I am sure it is not perfect, but frankly, it is genius.

You won't catch me claiming that the curriculum does not need to be revisited.

"Discovery Math"

I use the phrase discovery learning in quotations because it is misunderstood by most people. It is over-simplified into this little box definition and believed by many to mean that we give students a problem and then never help them. This is a myth.

I am sure that there is a lot of support needed for teachers to embrace the research behind "purposeful struggle" and I am also willing to go out on a limb and guess that there are many teachers teaching math who are not comfortable doing it (I have friends who would attest to this) and are probably even less comfortable with embracing a different way of teaching. But discovery math is not to blame.

We absolutely need learners to play with numbers and learn ways that they are related. They need to find the number sense within them. Math is not as simple as we make it out to be. It is not a bunch of facts that we memorize and use without understanding (lack of understanding leads to mistakes!) - hey you might be good at arithmetic, but this does not a mathematician make. We need to develop a future filled with people who can problem solve, use logic, reflect and communicate - we do not need a future of human calculators.

Using traditional teaching forced me to always tell kids what to do and how to do it. I could tell them why, but to them why was not important. Students got a lesson and then practiced that work. They only worked on that one skill and never made connections to other ideas. Traditional teaching forced me to teach to the middle of the class and made differentiation nearly impossible.

Discovery math allows me to do a variety of things and to differentiate my classroom. Research supports learning as a complex structure that requires much more than memorizing (and even the parts you do need to "remember" need to be forgotten and recalled many times to bring them into long-term memory). In fact, learning is one of the most counter-intuitive things I know. I bet most people can come up with at least one example of something they thought they had learned only later to realize they had tricked themselves into it - only their short term memory had any idea at the time. By using a discovery approach students have to struggle with ideas (makes learning seem like it takes more effort to achieve - because it does - but lasts a lot longer and leads to making connections to ideas already understood) but they get to do it in an environment with 29 of their peers and a learning coach to help out when the "struggle" moves from purposeful to frustrated.
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Don't get me wrong. I don't have an answer. And there isn't a simple one. I cannot tell you why only 50% of last year's grade 6 students met the provincial expectations (but I can tell you that these tests are not straight-forward and disadvantage many groups of students).

I have rambled at this point and could keep going. I could justify every decision that I made in deciding how I would be running my classroom this year. We don't make these decisions on a whim. We do not do them just because someone tells us to.

One opinion writer this week wrote that the one thing that has not changed are kids - that kids are still kids, capable of learning. This is an oversimplification of a very complex discussion - I could easily disagree with her. But one thing is for sure.

We do it for the kids. Every day.

Finished with the Status Quo

I am currently making my way through Starr Sackstein's Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School. I will likely do a blog when I am finished and will include my takeaways in more detail but one of her lines has inspired me to bring up some provocative conversation.

As are many of you, I am tired of the argument "We have always done it this way." It may be true that there are some thing in our lives that can stay the same year after year and still be the most efficient way to do things but life changes, and often things need to change with it. Most of the stages of my life have come with pretty significant changes and I have also watched the world evolve - computers, internet, cell phones - and would be significantly behind in current knowledge if I had ignored those changes.

Of course, I have also watched the world fail to evolve (lack of change in carbon footprint despite the research and negative effects we are experiencing; decades long wars (in so many cases started by some misunderstanding and a failure to learn from history) that are sometimes ignored by the rest of the world; etc.

I can no longer watch education become something that does not change.

On page 28 Sackstein had me out loud proclaiming "Yes! This is the articulation I have been looking for!" when she said:

In the industrial era, schools were intended to train good workers, so students went to schools that prepared them to enter the work force. This model of education valued obedience, conformity, and rote learning.

We are no longer in the industrial evolution.

Of course, I will not pretend to believe that we do not need workers who can conform and follow specific steps to complete a task, but the majority of work that we need to prepare students for requires people who can be creative, who can think for themselves, and who can solve problems. This is the world I want to prepare my students for - I want them to find success in whatever passion or skill they find for themselves through the use of transferable, valuable skills (not rote learning they can look up on YouTube).

Hopefully my journey can help to bring along more teachers, students, parents, admin, and community members who want to see a change.

We Need to Stop Testing and Start Thinking

I heard something that was music-to-my-ears today. Apparently there was a presentation to senior leadership in my board a few weeks ago that included a prof from UTM and one from UGuelph (both from math departments) that passed on this message (I am paraphrasing of course) that I hope makes its way around the board sooner rather than later:

"We need secondary teachers to stop using tests as a crutch claiming they need to "prepare students for University". Your students are coming to us as great test takers, but without critical thinking and problem solving skills. These skills are vital, and students who have these skills will be able to succeed no matter the assessment environment they are put in."

I have been saying for years now that we are graduating hordes of students who do not know how to think - even the ones getting 90s. This was confirmed by the numerous peers who have become math teachers and admitted that they now realize that they never actually understood the math they did in high school (until they started teaching it). We need to stop testing and to start giving students the opportunities they need to do some true learning and thinking.

To this I add....we need to bring back the Al Geo course! That had to be the course that I did the most thinking for in high school, without a doubt.

Digital Citizenship: A #flipclass Flashblog

This week on our #flipclass chat we are discussing digital citizenship - what we teach (or don't) and what students need to learn.

I have always been a big supporter of the need to USE technology with students so that they have a change to learn about being positive digital citizen, to be safe, and to learn to cite and respect the work of others. I am sure I have blogged about some of these ideas in the past particularly when I was developing my ideas for doing formal Twitter chats with students as review. Essentially my point of view is this - if kids are usually ahead of their parents online, then if we do not teach them, who will?

Since I have stopped using those chats the need to explicitly teach the first two has dwindled. Since I am teaching science teaching the third one comes hand in hand with any research project we do. Creating research notes and reference lists are a much and is scaffolded throughout our department's program.

Our board uses a BYOD (bring your own device) model and my school often has a student run day somewhere around the topics of bullying/self-esteem, so aspects of digital citizenship often get touched on. I wish I had a photo of the poster most of us have up in our rooms to share with you. It uses the acronym THINK to help remind students to think before they post. Here is a link to a PDF of it instead. The description is also below:

True?
Hurtful?
Illegal?
Necessary?
Kind?

When instances for a teachable moment come up in class (or on our online classroom) I always cease them to discuss - sometimes with a particular student, and sometimes with the whole class. But maybe I should do more. I would love to have some kind of simulation I could run. Where students are participating in an online chat and they get spammed with inappropriate comments or something...then we could discuss what they could do, etc.

Food for thought, anyway.

Approaching Change

A week or two ago a colleague asked a great question. What needs to come first: a shift in mindset or a forced shift in practice?

This question was in context of creating change in assessment practices where a lot of change is necessary and we are unsure how much growth mindset we will encounter when we try to create that change. I am curious to hear how others may have tackled something like this...or how you think you might tackle it. Here is some background info if you think you might have some ideas/advice for me:

We have a small team of teachers who have joined a working team to both collectively move assessment practice forward, and to help each other achieve personal goals of change in assessment practice. The latter is the primary goal at this time.

We are working together using Rethinking Letter Grades (mentioned in my last post) to start to shape the foundation while getting people to revisit backward design (a concept that is not new, but has probably not been formalized in many areas of the school in a long time - teachers coming into a course are rarely being handed this type of thing). So at our next meeting (which is next week) we are going to help guide each other through creating Overarching Learning Goals for a course. Now here is the thing that this not help us do....it will not help us gauge the willingness of the rest of the staff to try to undertake this - a task we will probably be attempting to undertake next semester.

So if we assume that, for the most part, we are the willing group then we have to decide: Do we try to tackle the willingness first? or do you just go head on into forcing them to make a change?

This question interests me because there will obviously be many options (combinations of the two options anyway) that will differ based on your leadership style and personality. But I really do wonder what will be the most effective approach.

I think I am leaning towards a joint approach. That we will have to use the purpose of the changes to convince people to be willing to change. But I don't think it will be an easy road.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Teachers Need to Fail

As teachers, we are constantly asked if we are ready/looking forward to going back to work. I usually say that I have "mixed feelings". I mean, of course I like summer and (if the weather would stay nice) I could live with a few more weeks of "free-time"....but I actually love my job. I actually spend a lot of time thinking about my classroom, year-round. And I'm not alone. Just venture to the many education blogs out there...the thousands of teachers on Twitter, learning on their own time...the Staples locations where teachers are spending their own money on the "little things" that make a difference - and I guarantee you will find them.

What September gives us is a new start. A new year to try new things, to tweak old things, to wonder out into the vast world that education is becoming and to take a chance...to risk failing. There has been a lot of talk about grit, perseverance, and mind-set over the recent years in education - a discussion hoping to find a solution to the need for change in education, to remedy the apathy we see in our classrooms. I think the answer lies within the system - the system that needs to change, if only in its own mind set. A change to finally believe, that it is okay to fail.

Isn't this what we want our students to learn? We want them to take risks with their learning. To "guess" answers based on what they know, even if it might be wrong. To take a chance on something new, because what is new might just be what they are looking for (even if they don't know it). I do not claim to think that this is a novel idea. I am sure many people have had it before me - in fact there is research to support failure as the backbone of learning. I do not even claim that I am the first person to believe that teachers need to start failing to learn to get students to do the same, I have just realized that this is the easiest way I can express my feelings about what education needs right now.

We need to try new things. We need to start failing. So that we can learn. So that we can truly embrace the 21st century as educators (and learners). So that students will care. So that students will learn to fail, too. So that students will not just come to school to "get knowledge", but will come to school to work on problems, to learn from others, to actually "Forget what you know" and start thinking! 

It's funny, I initially titled this entry "A New Beginning" and I was going to share how I am going to start my first week of classes - but this is what evolved. Sometimes taking the time to write helps us find some clarity. Maybe it will even spark a discussion that will help evolve my thinking even more. If you would like to participate in this discussion feel free to comment below or to reach out on Twitter.

Have a wonderful 2015-2016 school year! May it be filled with risk, failure, triumph, and laughter!

[The link is to a boys TED talk address about how some of the worlds most influential minds have stopped learning so that they can start thinking. I highly recommend that you watch it, in entirety]

Week 27 - Using Investigations to Teach Quadratic Functions

Part of using a flipped class model means identifying lessons that will not be best taught by mass instruction (i.e. video) but will be better served by something like an investigation. A big part of my current philosophy of math education is that most (if not basically all) students memorize algorithms and never really have a strong grasp of the material, so I seek to change this trend and try to push students to make connections between ideas and really understand why it works. "If you understand the basics, you can use them to figure out the hard stuff" is what I am often heard saying. I think I came to this realization when I was in my B.Ed year and/or my first year of teaching when my friends (a year ahead of me in school, so already teaching) were commenting that they couldn't believe how much they realized they did not understand in high school. In fact they did not understand it in university and were only getting it now because they had to teach it!

As part of these ideas I wanted to find a more effective way to teach quadratic functions that would (hopefully) lead to less memorizing. I set out to find/modify/create some investigative tasks for students to work on. This usually involved them doing the intro portion for homework the night before and then working through the rest of it in class in their groups. The first two investigations explored and linked step property (the pattern created by the changing slope - the idea being that students start to make a connection between linear and quadratic relations), first differences, and congruence (as well as symmetry). In the third investigation they were given some challenging problems that they would hopefully be able to solve using the ideas they had discovered.

These classes were then supported afterward with short video lessons to hopefully help students consolidate and to make sure everyone took away the key ideas I was hoping for. One of my biggest challenges has been creating that authentic, risk-taking environment where students are not afraid to be wrong while working through tasks like this. Many of them have never really worked through such challenging tasks or ideas and they seem to fear the unknown, to fear trying new things. I sometimes feel like a broken record, but I really do wonder if this might have been different if these tasks had come later in the semester.

What I am hoping to do in the future is to work toward creating this elusive learning environment is to focus more on talk strategies in class to help students enhance the communication among themselves (so they do not always have to have a conversation with me to feel like they have gotten anywhere). I think that this, in combination with a higher confidence with linear relations before embarking on this unit, will lead to better results (i.e. less memorization!).

I would love to hear from others who are trying anything similar. What worked in your class? What didn't? Why?

Week 17: I Was Tapped on the Shoulder This Week

In my board the department headships (positions of responsibility, or PORs) are 5 year terms. This means that every 5 years they are posted internally for anyone eligible to apply to. I have been told for a long time that I have some natural leadership qualities which has lead to many people in my life asking me if I have plans to be a principal/department head/etc. I have always found this a difficult question and the short answer is usually "I love my classroom right now".

I do sometimes think about a POR, and have explored a bit about what it would mean, etc. In our board it has been defined as leadership in three areas: curriculum, administrative, and school. The administrative portion is often what we see as the headship - the budgeting, ordering materials, making decisions, doing the timetabling - and as much as I enjoy logistics this is the part of the job that does not interest me. I don't want those concerns to take away from what I do in the classroom and the difference I am trying to make in various areas of the school. The school leadership part seems like a bit of a given to me. Attending and helping with Grade 8 parents night, in school leadership, etc. The curriculum leadership is the part that I am passionate about. I love learning and working on my teaching practices (especially as they relate to assessment and evaluation), but it is also the part that I find I can do as a teacher. Being a teacher-leader has been a pretty satisfying piece of my job in recent years.

With the PORs posted this winter it was indicated to me by various people that I should consider applying. I was, of course, flattered by the suggestion and have taken their opinions into consideration. It would be neat to work with a team of people at the school to work on improving the learning and working environment (although we already have a pretty good one), but when it comes down to it, I felt good about what I was accomplishing in my current position. I have always felt supported by my admin, and I already feel that I am able to make a positive impact on my peers. There were, of course, other concerns that I had as well, as it can be difficult to change roles within the same group of peers, and I did not feel ready to think about applying to another school's POR at this stage.

There are many pros and cons to consider overall, but in the end I think that I am going to decide to stick with the current challenges I am taking on, as I do not feel the desire to take on a new one (a big one, at that). Maybe sometime down the road I will change my mind, but for now my decision is to see what happens at my current school (as I am sure there will be some changes) and make decisions from there.

What 21st Century Learning Means to Me

Over the past year or so there has been a lot of talk about 21st Century Learning. Recently it was suggested that "what does 21st century learning mean to you?" should be used as the next #peel21st blog hop so I decided to jump on. You can find the links to the other bloggers participating tonight below. Here goes!

When we talk about 21st century learners we’re often referring to student learning, but it is just as important to look at our own – it makes it possible for our students to do the same. 21st century learning means taking learning into our own hands. Formal PD is no longer the primary source for learning.

I participate in organized twitterchats such as #flipclass, #cdnedchat and #peel21st. I have been able to connect with like-minded people for ideas, growth, and support. Furthermore, I have attended board EdCamp network meetings and city-wide, full-day EdCamps so that I can discuss these topics in person.

I feel better prepared to interact with the learners in my classroom when I embrace myself as a learner in this technological age.

Check out what my colleagues have to say on the topic :)

Susan Campo @susancampo
Jim Cash @cashjim
Shivonne Lewis-­‐Young @SLewisYoung
Greg Pearson @vptechnodork
Phil Young @_PhilYoung
James Nunes @jameseliasnunes
Donald Campbell @libramlad
Ken Dewar Bestbefore2030
Graham Whisen @grahamwhisen
Lynn Filliter @assessmentgeek
Debbie Axiak @DebbieAxiak
Alicia Quennell @AliciaQuennell
Jonathan So @MrSoClassroom
Jim Blackwood @jimmyblackwood
Jason Richea @jrichea
Tina Zita @Tina_zita
Sean Broda
Donald Campbell
Josh Crozier
Engy Boutros @mrsboutrosSean Coroza @SRCoroza

Why I Don't Use Remind 101

Since the invention of the smart phone my memory (for my life schedule) has become a lot worse. Sometimes I miss the days of the hanging calendar in my parents house colour-coded for my sister and my schedule for the many sports and activities we were involved in. Somehow it seems like I was able to keep better track of my life. But I slug on and continue to use the calendar in my phone, setting reminders for myself so that I hopefully don't miss a beat. What I don't seem to do is check the calendar for upcoming events, I rely on these reminders (if I somehow miss it or have forgotten to set the reminder, then I might forget altogether). My new phone often puts that day's event onto my home screen, which is nice and does make me open my calendar more often.

Maybe the above was pointless, or maybe it has lead you to the point I want to make about Remind 101 (with respect to high school classes). It is my strong belief that we have to graduate students who can fend for themselves in the world - and if I have come to struggle with the above, imagine those who never learn to find their own way to remind themselves?

I think there are some great reasons for Remind 101 to exist and it definitely has its place. It is just my opinion that using something like this gives my students an excuse to miss something if I forget to remind them - but it is there job in the first place to remember homework, tests dates, etc so I want my students to come up with a system that works for them. I encourage them to use their device's built in calendar, find an app they like, or purchase a paper agenda if they prefer. I also post important dates on my LMS if they need to access a calendar or are away from school.

I am sure there are many amazing teacher that use the Remind 101 service successfully and for great reason, and this post is by no means an attempt to spark a debate. Just some thoughts that have come up a few times that I felt the need to write down. In the end, the purpose of a teacher in the classroom is to have an educational philosophy and to use that to decide on purposeful things to try to teach students to make them successful, contributing members of society.

And so, we try.

BYOD, Equity, and The Shrinking Computer Labs

I last blogged about the idea of the flipped classroom and what I was already doing to work my way toward the increasingly student-centred classroom that I have envisioned. Since then many weeks have gone by where I have continually thought that I needed to take the time to sit down and reflect on these ideas more and try to put into words what I envision our future classrooms looking like.

My school board has had huge announcements this school year with the intention to make all schools wireless (we are now in those first stages, working out those beginning kinks) and their ideas behind BYOD (bring your own device). There are mixed feelings on every level, especially on the equity piece.

It is true that many of our (high school) students nowadays come to school armed with a smart phone or iPod touch which have wifi capabilities and can contain many useful apps. We are armed with the ability for students to, at the very least, do simple research at the touch of a button - no computer lab necessary. But we are not armed with students who are going to want to type an assignment on their phone. We are not armed with students who are going to have devices capable of using the full abilities of a complex website that we might use to post assignments or edit work. So there is a ways to go.

Here we are at the brink of all of the new "21st century learning" and I have had the opportunity to use an iPad for the first time (I am involved in an action research project whose funding was used to purchase two iPad minis). Now I have actually been able to find and use some apps that I could see being useful (and have reason to do a bit of research and seek out people who can recommend things). But I have also run into the same equity piece - even if I were to find an app that could function in similar ways to something like turnitin.com (where students can self and peer evaluate and I can comment and evaluate) I would then have to make sure one exists for blackberry and android devices as well: or expect that my students can do this. I see this as quite the barrier. As our computers come off of warranty and have an issue they are no longer being replaced or fixed, so our computer labs are shrinking. What will I do in a year when I teach grade 9 science again and cannot take them to a lab to peer evaluate - a part of the process I have come to find valuable (but only if I get them to do it in class - at least the first time or two).

I am sure there are solutions to my concerns, but I don't have them. Hopefully somewhere down the road someone does.

P.S. There are some great, easy to use, apps on the iPad for the idea of a flipped classroom. Record lessons and post! Check out explain everything ($2.99) for enhanced functions (i.e. add photos and videos) or educreations for a free more simple experience.

The Trouble with Technology (and Teaching)

I just finished reading a blog entry by Denise Krebs called "What Does Technology Have to Do With It?" and it made me want to write an entry of my own. (At the start of each school year I always vow to do this more and never succeed in doing so...it takes inspiration, and I guess I don't see the inspiration to share in my every day "teaching".)

Here is what I see as a problem with the every day technology in our classroom:
We have yet to change the way we teach. Period.

Too many of us are looking to use technology to change the way we teach instead of changing the way we teach and then adding technology. Yes, it is cool when your colleague who is a few years from retirement wants to add a doc cam to his classroom and then uses it and tries to explore it. But really it's no different than when an overhead projector was used.

Unfortunately I am just as guilty of this phenomenon. And I am in my fourth year of teaching.

I grew up with teachers who taught us concepts and then asked us to practice them. It is easy for me to now do the same. Don't get me wrong. I am making efforts to change and am trying new things, but it is extremely overwhelming. There is so much out there and there are so many great educators that I am now connected to (through blogging, voiced, smarter science, and the verity of educators and education technology folk on my twitter account).

I give smarter science (and my colleague that first went to the work shop with me and got equally excited about it) the credit for the start of my changes. I am a math teacher at heart and have been teaching science exclusively since my second year on the job - so it has been great to be motivated about the subject and the job despite it really being a "second" love. It has shown me that we can use ways to motivate our kids to learn and it has given me the first few opportunities to stop "teaching" and start "coaching" (this is what I see as ultimately the change that most of our classrooms need - and I think would be a huge challenge when I get back into math).

So here I am. Excited. Motivated. Hopeful. But I still find myself teaching. And using the doc cam as a fancy overhead projector. And being scared to even begin to find something tech related to start with. because here's the truth - I may be seen as a "tech" teacher at school (people like to come to me to "fix" things when they are not working) but the REAL tech (the new apps, ideas, etc) has a learning curve that frightens me.

Hopefully we are able to end up with class sets of tablets at our school in the near future. Hopefully this encourages me to tackle something new. Because I still want to try.

I just worry that the technology will never be the motivator [of students] we are wishing for.

((I am realizing this entry is a little all over the map. For that I apologize.))

Or maybe I am doing this all better than I think. We are our best critics after all. And every time I go to any PD hoping to come out with a new tech idea, I feel less behind the curve.

Data Driven Triangulation

Like many educators I often find myself frustrated with the education world lingo. Every once in awhile some new initiative comes down the the Ministry of Ed that forces some modifications that, in essence, just takes us back to something that used to be with a new name. Not entirely what I am about to talk about, but it is definitely related.

Current big ideas/words/phrases
- triangulating assessment
- observations and conversations

We are continually told that there are things we can do and tools we can use that can decrease the marking work load and lead to more reliable and accurate grades for our students. The current thing being "triangulation of assessment" - where we consider student products (the part we all know and love), observations, and conversations. And this is all well and good - we effectively use these all of the time. For instance, maybe in conversation with a student they showed understanding of an idea but on a test they struggled to use the correct terminology, etc in a question. I may give them the benefit of the doubt based on the conversation. Really what we are now being asked to do is have written "evidence" of these conversations and observations and include them as part of the grade calculation. Less work? I think not.

Now there are some really neat ideas, don't get me wrong. And I am more than aware that there are students who gain understanding and then struggle to read and/or write about those ideas. So the question is, how do we determine the value of all of this and what can actually predict the success of these students in the future? The last thing I want to do is lead a student to believe they will be academically (or otherwise) successful when they, in fact, may get to the next stage of their lives and discover they are missing a valuable skill. Or maybe I am just over-thinking all of it.

The one thing I like and can take away from this right away is feeling like I have permission to translate the inquiry based lessons and process that I use (especially in my Applied classes) into grades. One of those lessons from this semester was manipulatives I created to get my grade 9s to show me Bohr-Rutherford diagrams. I used a word processor to create a document with a large nucleus, small electrons, and various numbered charges (protons/neutrons). I printed them on coloured paper and cut-out 5 copies so that I could put students in groups of 4. It seemed helpful for many of the students, especially those who had missed one of the lessons needed to successfully draw a BR diagram. So here is my problem - now I have to either find a way to record each student using them (i.e. recording each other on flip cameras for me to view later and assign a mark) or spend more hours creating enough manipulatives for each student to have a set (the 5 copies took me more than an hour). Either way, time required...and how many really benefit from this compared to drawing a BR diagram on paper?

Of course I should collect data. Try it both ways. Reverse the order with another class and try it again. Analyze. But I am frankly sick of the data driven obsession that has been created recently. Everything is about credit accumulation and wanting to increase these numbers and increase graduation rates. The way I see it, what we end up accomplishing are skewed grades and students ending up in streams, grades and levels that they are not yet ready for. I would way rather help a student succeed at their pace than use some way of assessing that increases my credit numbers and pushes students into things they are not prepared for. It does them no favours.

Please bare in mind in this entry that I am barely grazing the ideas and issues at hand. I am aware that there is more to it and that there are many like-minded people that will seek to answer these questions and help students to the best of my ability. I just needed to rant so that I can go to sleep and wake up refreshed tomorrow to seek for more answers.

Despite our system's difficulties, I love my job. Let's keep the conversation going.

Things I Can't Teach

There are so many school related things that I could blog about right now, but for some reason I feel the need to talk about something that I feel I could never show, teach, etc to students. Something that life has to teach you. Something that most kids/teenagers are not exposed to. Some are, and I feel that at that age many persons still don't learn it.

Life needs to be lived like there is a tomorrow and like there is no tomorrow all at the same time. We need to strive forward with a positive outlook on what is to come - strive forward as if the negative things that come our way (or in the way of our loved ones) will be over come. To look forward into our life that although it might end tomorrow, that maybe it won't end for many years to come. To not worry about the little things but to make a difference in someones life. To be convinced that there is a purpose to your life.

I don't think I can teach this. I think we all learn it in our own time. Sometimes we learn it many times.

Tweet Chat 1

I followed through with the steps from my previous post and the SPH 3U0 class had a Tweet Chat on Motion two days before their unit test. We had picked a date and time as a class. The day before I showed them some basics on twitter (how to write a tweet, what a hastag was, searching, following, dealing with spam and other safety concerns) and we talked about the importance of using the hashtag and internet safety. I also posted an online resource on Netiquette onto our class website. I ended up with approximately half the class logging in and indicating that they were at least watching the chat.

Here are some of the things we did and that I noticed during the chat:

- Some people made themselves known but many were hesitant to participate in the chat
- I started them off with 4 or 5 starter questions. They used a couple of them and added a couple of their own (or modified ones I had used)
- A few of them were very comfortable with twitter already
- They were respecful when answering a question or correcting someone's thought/idea/answer
- They got confused if I did not acknowledge a correct answer

Here is some of the feedback I got from the students the following day (in an "I learned, I liked, I wish" format):

- some had trouble following the conversation and got confused
- some liked the conversation as a whole and found it helpful
- some would rather just do it in class
- some liked the clarification especially related to the idea of "negative acceleration"

Here is some of the things I have interpreted and want to use going forward:
- more instruction is needed on using the reply function on twitter and only trying to follow one or two questions/lines of conversation via the hashtag - especially the idea that it is OK to get into a side conversation and not read the rest!
- I recently downloaded TweetDeck and LOVE it: I can follow both of my accounts at the same time (my professional handle is @TchngPassion); you can customize the columns it shows, the order they are in, and how many you use; AND it updates live (which is more than I can say for browser and smartphone apps I've used so far)
- I am going to show my class TweetDeck and recommend it's use - I think it will help them follow the tweets better since they live updates instead of appearing in chunks
- future tweet chats will be for part of the communication section of the corresponding unit test - there will be multiple chats per unit (which should make them less dense/confusing) and they have to post at least one question or answer in a set number of the chats to get full marks for it

I think there is going to be some resistance to the continued use of tweet chats for the time being (even though there was a chunk of positive feedback given to me by some of them) but I am hoping that with time passing and the modifications that I am going to make that it will go in a positive direction.

I have my VP on board with the process. I update her on what is going on (i.e. sent her the archives of the chat so should could see the conversation, participation and how the class handled some inappropriate comments) and hopefully we will get this to a place where she will be comfortable allowing me to share the endeavor with my colleagues. It is such a positive use of social media and has been a way for me to model its use to teenagers who know so much more about it than their parents do. If we, as educators, don't start to do this we are going to end up with a generation of our population that never grows to use the internet in a positive light and the cycle will have started with the next generation.

It is up to us. And we have to act now.

--- An aside
There was a phenomenon the week before March break on Social Media with a video link to "Stop Kony 2012" that went viral (the narrator even stated in the video that it was a social experiment). These are the types of things that are teachable moments in our classrooms. I had some great discussions with my students about responsible use of the internet and the idea of not taking everything you read/here/see to be truth without doing your own research. We discussed at length the idea that you have to know what you are sharing/tweeting/etc before you do it and about the media reports that "only 31% of the funds raised were actually going to the cause" (so we also talked about statistics and how they can be manipulated especially if we don't know what to compare them to)!

Here are the links I used as part of the discussion if you are interested
- Twitter hashtag search
- Invisible Children's website
- George Stroumboulopoulos' Blog (which had been updated to March 8th at the time)
- and the music video for Black Eyed Peas "Where is the Love" (as a wrap up we discussed social justice and how there are many causes, we have to decide what is important to us and fight for it)

Happy teaching!

Inspiration has Returned!

I promised myself that I would head to bed at 10pm last night (I stayed up to watch the Oscars with my mother last night and still had to drive home and organize myself afterward) and then the inspiration bug hit.

I actually came home from work, completed some of the work that had to be done, had dinner, and found myself listening to a colleague's take on her tweetchats with her Grade 11 Biology class on an ed pod cast. I have been following her on twitter since meeting her at a Smarter Science conference last June and had taken an interest in the idea - so I was excited to find out she had done this podcast. I think it was the perfect time to get myself reconnected with the online ed world and engage in something new. I had been feeling particularly disengaged from the passionate teaching world recently and somehow tonight made a turn for the better.

In past posts I have vented about technology in schools and how discouraged I felt about being technical and using it to connect with my students. So often we are discouraged by our union and school board about taking these paths, but the fact of the matter is - it is here to stay, and there are ways to do it safely! @EurekaTeacher is active proof - and I want to be a part of it.

Step one - tomorrow I will speak with my admin and make sure they are behind my initiative - to get my 3U Physics class on twitter and discussing concepts, without the numbers, from home (or anywhere on their smart phones!).

Step two - find out if there is a way I can access twitter from school so that we can discuss the idea of internet safety, twitter itself, protected tweets, spam, etc

Step three - host the first class tweetchat on motion!

Wish me luck! And please let me know if you have ideas, comments, questions, or concerns. It will be a learning experience and I will appreciate what others have to say on the topic.