Summer Detour and the Detour Bag

August 26, 2012 — egregory

At the start of the summer holidays, I wrote about a detour. I wrote about my purposeful move away from thinking about teaching all summer long, something I had done for years. I love teaching, and I love learning about learning, and I love reading about new research, and it’s easy to get caught up in spending summers in an altered working mindset. This summer, I detoured off that path and, as tomorrow I start back to work full-time prepping for students next week, I thought a little reflection would bring closure to my summer.

The detour was a bit of a bumpy ride to begin with, but I was determined to shift my mindset so that being a teacher would fade into the background. I admit it didn’t fade easily. I had to push it aside for awhile. In retrospect, it was wonderful to focus on nothing directly work related and instead put all my energy into everything else in my life. The struggle for balance was blissfully absent once I’d pushed aside the temptation to stay in the teacher mindset all summer.

I did all the things I listed in my original post. The boys and I read, biked, swam, and made things. We watched movies together, made cardboard box forts in the living room and spent time being bored.  We traveled through this beautiful province to visit family and friends. We spent rare, special time with the oldest of my nephews. We laughed, fought, goofed around, teased each other and tested one another’s patience. We grew closer. I hope everyone had a chance to do that – my students, my friends, my colleagues near and far. It’s that relationship piece that people always talk about working on in their classrooms. I hope we all remember to work on it at home, too.

The best part? I was able to focus on being a mom. I let my two energetic, growing boys have all my attention. I used to think that working full-time made me a better mother. I used to think that I’d be bored being a stay-at-home mom with kids. I wondered this summer how I could have ever thought that at all. What was I thinking? Was I delusional? Young and foolish? Trying to convince myself that working was better for me and the kids? I love staying home with my boys. It’s precious time that could not be better spent.

I did do one thing on my own. Because I like a challenge, and love to create, and knew that I’d need something interesting and novel to grab my attention and focus on this summer, I made a knitted, felted bag. This may not seem like anything interesting or special to you, but to me, through the summer, as I carefully interlocked yarn stitch by stitch, it became a symbol of my detour. It was the one goal that I set out to achieve this summer, not to read the latest ed leadership book or finish my Masters degree, but to simply finish a bag.

I think I learned a lot more from the process of knitting that piece than I ever thought I would. First off, it was much more difficult than anything I’d ever knitted before. I had to jump in, just do it, take the risk. Also, I made some mistakes and had to figure out how to fix them, or, in a couple of cases, learn to live with them because I couldn’t figure out how to fix them. I had to persevere when it started to get boring. I had to pay attention so that I wouldn’t miss a stitch. Tonight, to finish the project, I went through the process of felting – another thing I’d never done before and one of those things that you realize you have no control over, you just have to do it carefully and hope it all works the way you wanted it to. Many teaching and learning metaphors can be found in the process if you look just a little bit closer than most would.

So, in the end, with work tomorrow, all I really have to show for my summer is a bag. A little, knitted bag, that’s a bit crooked, and according to my older son, looks like a hat upside-down. I call it my detour bag.

It was only a little project, but not so little of an accomplishment. To me, it symbolizes a summer where, day by day, as with stitch by stitch, I slowly bound my family closer and closer together. A little project which gave me the reminder that I was detouring from work to focus on family, and symbolized my priority on having a closely knit family at the center of it all.

 

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Sometimes you have to stop teaching to learn the lesson

July 24, 2012 — egregory

Today I felt like telling a story. This story has waited a long time to be told, almost 20 years to be honest.

It’s shaped who I am as an educator and stays close to my heart even now.

The day started as most Tuesdays started for me at the time. I woke up early, caught the bus, and arrived at Charles Dickens Elementary, an inner city school in Vancouver, to do my weekly volunteer work. I was learning how to be a teacher and I needed volunteer experience in a classroom to gain entry into SFU’s very competitive PDP program.

I loved Charles Dickens Elementary. The old brick school was demolished a few years ago and was rebuilt to modern standards. If I could, however, teleport that old brick school with those teachers through space and time, I would work there forever and make sure my children went there too. The school was led by a nationally recognized, award-winning principal and the librarian had been my grade three teacher. She was kind enough to bring me in, introduce me around and arrange the volunteering schedule for me. But that’s another story to tell.

Back to the Tuesday morning. This particular morning I was to spend time in the grade 2/3 classroom. As I arrived I noticed that Blaire (not his real name), the teacher, was busy speaking with a family I hadn’t seen before. The family, I soon learned, were refugees to Canada who had recently arrived from a war-torn country in Africa. This was their second day in Vancouver, the first day for their children to attend school.

Soon after the day started, Blaire asked me to work with the little refugee boy registered into grade three. To this day I cannot remember his name but I can picture his face like I saw him yesterday. He was fairly tall for a boy of that age, stocky and strong. His skin was a rich, dark brown and his eyes looked sad and overwhelmed, yet curious. He had thick, curly, springy-looking hair. 

I immediately asked Blaire what he wanted me to do as I had not been in this situation before. Blaire told me to see if I could figure out anything about the boy, if he could read, talk, draw, count, etc. so, with that broad, yet helpful, direction, I asked the little boy, with both words and gestures, to accompany me to a circular table at the back of the classroom.

I soon figured out the boy could not speak any English. He would point to himself and say his name when I pointed to myself and said my name. He couldn’t read English, couldn’t count from what I could tell, didn’t seem too interested in books and didn’t draw when I put paper and pencil in front of him. As it was math time for the rest of the class, I soon pulled out some math manipulatives, cards, dice, counters, etc., and decided to teach him to play a math game.

I knew a few different dice games and spent the next twenty minutes trying, and failing, to teach him a math game using the dice. I kept reminding myself that this was his first day in school in Canada and that I needed to show patience and kindness. It was extremely frustrating to me and seemed futile. He didn’t seem to understand anything I was doing but still sat there looking at me and trying, sort of, to play along, even though I could tell he had no idea what I was doing. I wonder now what he thought that day – what he thought about me, what he thought about what I was doing, what he thought about his first day at school.

I admit that after twenty minutes I was discouraged and a part of me gave up. I stopped trying to teach him and instead just rolled the dice around with him.

In was then that I learned my lesson.

After about five minutes of rolling dice around, I noticed a change in his behaviour. I’d noticed earlier that he did a certain movement with the dice and some counters, but I had misinterpreted that as him not understanding the game I had been trying to teach him. He did that certain movement again, and this time I also noticed that his body posture had changed and he looked right at me. He seemed to have a purpose, to be trying to show me something.

I stopped trying to be a teacher and started being a student.

The boy was trying, had been trying for quite some time I realized after reflecting on the whole thing, to teach me a game using dice and counters. It didn’t take long for me to begin to understand what he was trying to teach me. After that, he, being a great teacher, taught me how to play a very simple game, something young children would play, I’m guessing, in his home country in Africa. There were no words, no shared language between us, but suddenly, after nearly an hour together, we were having fun and playing together. At one point I was rewarded with a huge smile that reached all the way to his eyes – I’ve never forgotten that.

Even though we couldn’t talk to each other, he somehow managed to teach me a game. With no words, he managed to teach me. Just think about that from a teaching point of view for a minute. But, and this is the important part, he wasn’t able to teach me until I stopped trying to teach him. As soon as I stopped, as soon as I paid attention to him, he taught me.

Sometimes you have to stop teaching to learn the lesson.

I’ve never forgotten that little guy and that lesson that day. It speaks to me and my teaching philosophy still. Children have so much to teach us, if only they have the chance. If we stop trying to get through that lesson, or finish the unit before the end of the month, if we stop all of that and just pay attention to our brilliant students, they do, I believe, have a lot to teach us.

 

Imagery: Portrait “Untitled“ by Michiel Van Balen from Flickr.com, photo of the old Charles Dickens school taken by Rom@nce and accessed from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9961621 July 25, 2012.

 

Posted in pedagogy, Reflection, stories. Tags: , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Detour

July 10, 2012 — egregory

I am trying to keep away from the field of education this summer. Despite my mindset to avoid anything work related, I keep getting drawn in – reading a blog post here, checking twitter there (okay, all the time), and thinking that, hmm, maybe I should finish reading one of those books I bought and started during my Masters last year. The Masters year and thesis writing last summer are two reasons why I need to avoid a work mindset this summer.

Every time I start to get drawn in to professional development, I remember a tweet by Alec Couros that I saw on the last day of school:

I have a great deal of respect for Alec. He’s a smart guy, and he’s right. I need to resist the Ed literature. I need a detour. I need rest. I need a summer with a different purpose. I want to focus on learning “something outside of the expected”. And through that, I’m going to keep my mind open to the relevancy and connections I can make to becoming a better teacher even though the purpose, the focus, will be far removed from work. Detours do connect back eventually, though, and my learning will connect back too, I’m sure, in late August when I’m preparing for the next school year to begin.

So, (don’t laugh), I’m knitting, (yes, knitting…) and just started a project that is well beyond my comfort zone. I keep thinking about how I like the challenge and how I don’t care if I make a mistake because I’m a beginning knitter just learning and it’s a project purely for my own satisfaction. There’s a whole blog post applicable to teaching just waiting to be deconstructed in that last sentence right there.

I’m also bringing my sons along on the detour. One is working on mastering the art of juggling, and not just three juggling balls, but a screwdriver, and two other, both-different, round objects. Watching his energy, enthusiasm and determination while trying to master that feat is joy to watch.

The other son is focused on reading. I’m hoping this is the summer he’ll finally start to read on his own for pleasure. He’s also focused on friendships and learning how to be a better friend. And finally, one thing he wants to get better at this summer – pretend wand battles with the magic wand his dad made him. Kids are so darned cute…

Other plans for us all are to draw, to build, to make crafts, to create. Also to move – bike riding, swimming, running, walking – all things the luxury of time affords. And to read, and write (I’ve decided blogging doesn’t count – another post on that hopefully soon), and organize, and plan, and cook, and bake. Lots of diversions to choose from now that I’ve decided not to work this summer.

The detour is engaging so far. It’s a refreshing change from the norm. It’s a breath of fresh air from the heaviness of thesis writing last summer. And it’s only just begun!

Detour used under creative commons license and accessed July 10, 2012.

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Disillusioned

May 2, 2012 — egregory

Not sure if disillusioned is the right word. According to the Apple Dictionary, disillusion means “disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed”.

I don’t think it’s disappointment I’m feeling. Searching deeper, according to the Apple Thesaurus, disillusion has a similar meaning to “disenchanted, disabused, disappointed, let down, discouraged”.

Discouraged, yes, but that’s only part of it, although, that idea fits. Disabused, absolutely not. Let down? Maybe. Disenchanted sounds promising. The same source as above defines disenchanted as “free (someone) from illusion”. Hmm, getting closer, and the idea of ‘ignorance is bliss’ comes to mind. The origin of the word is basically the reversal of enchantment. Interesting thought. Thinking backwards helps to get closer.

The thesaurus, once again, helps to focus the flavour in my mind, suggesting that “fed up, dissatisfied, discontented; cynical, soured” hold similar meanings as disenchanted. The fed up, dissatisfied, discontented all fit. Cynical, I hope not, and upon inspecting the definition of the word, thankfully not. Soured, no. But that makes me think of people in the job too long, unhappy with the job to long. Soured describes them well.

After all that, still not sure how I feel. Now that the first school year since completing my masters degree is nearing the end, what is this state of mind that I’m in? I don’t recognize it, it’s new. It has settled in, I think, as a result of the masters learning. It creeps in, despite the fact that I still love working with students in the classroom each day, enjoy helping them, teaching them, learning alongside them. I take comfort in that. I do enjoy the kids and the learning.

So why do I feel so apprehensive of this new mindset? And what does it mean for me, my students, my future students, the career I love and feel so ‘right’ in?

 

Image by gingisklown and accessed from Flickr.

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Impact of the elementary connected classrooms on student engagement

April 12, 2012 — egregory
This writing is cross-posted at the Elementary Connected Classrooms Project. It is focused on topics related to our work on the Growing Innovations grant project and my second contribution to our collaborative ECC blog. In less than one month, all the groups involved in Growing Innovations are attending an event showcasing each project. The following post is a response to one of the final questions we are to answer as the project timelines come to a close.
 

How has Connected Classrooms impacted student engagement in the classroom?

 

Starting with today

I looked through the doorway during a lesson this morning, peeking out to see what the group of students outside was doing. I could see what looked like a huddle of nine boys, all squeezing in around the one student holding the camera. They were watching the playback of a video clip they had just filmed. As I watched, the Aboriginal Student Support Worker supervising students working outside caught my eye. She smiled and said “they’re sure having fun!” As she spoke, the group suddenly broke apart, smiles on every face. They started running toward the classroom, having completed their video clip, ready to upload it to a netbook. Each student looked energized, happy, and motivated. They were fully engaged in their learning.

To put this in context, we started a multimedia unit last week in the Connected Classrooms. Today I introduced software for creating and editing videos. After a 15 minute lesson introducing the learning intentions, software and a quick review of royalty-free audio sites from the week before, I set students free to explore, create and direct their own learning.

That was when the learning started to get messy.

By messy, I mean that some students immediately went over to grab a camera and start filming video clips. One group of students began taking photos for a stop motion animation film. Several students opened up the royalty-free music sites from the week before and started downloading audio. Many students decided to try out the software for themselves and started creating a slideshow right away.

There were students working alone, lost in their own world of multimedia exploration, other students worked with a partner and learned from each other as they went along, and still other students working in small groups. Students were inside, outside, in the back room, out in the hallway and working in the room next door.

I could barely finish up with one student before another came up with an urgent question – How do I upload the video onto my flashdrive? How do I download this song? Where are all the cameras because we need one? – and on and on and on. The students wanted to know, needed to know, the answers so they could get on with creating their multimedia pieces. No hesitation to ask questions from this group.

And that was just the students in my classroom at Cayoosh. Watching the screen from time to time, I could see most of the students in Ashcroft and Lytton at their computers, but I wondered how many of my other students in those places were off with cameras and ideas during the connection. I also wondered if there were any questions from those students afar, but, thankfully, as both of my Connected Classroom colleagues are extremely tech-savvy when it comes to multimedia, I was confident that they were able to answer all questions at their sites.

It was a great class and the learning only stopped because lunch arrived. Students didn’t want to stop. They procrastinated when it came time to finish up – just let me download this one last song, I just need to get the photos off the camera, I want to show my friend the video I made – please Ms G? When I turned the microphone on to finish up the connected lesson with all three sites, I felt as if I was interrupting all the students. The Ashcroft and Lytton students seemed completely engaged as well. The chorus of “Goodbye!” was quieter than usual, and my guess is that students were so into the multimedia activities that our closing farewell faded in importance, a rare and unusual occurrence.

How has connected classrooms impacted student engagement?

Which brings me back to the original question: how has connected classrooms impacted student engagement in my classroom? Even reflecting solely on today’s lesson, there are so many ways to answer this question. There are the obvious answers based on the latest research focused on student engagement in schools. During the connected lesson, students were focused and on task.  They wanted to keep going and didn’t want to stop and disengage from their activities. They took the initiative to ask questions and move beyond the walls of the classroom to get the photos or video footage they needed. They were animated, energetic and brought that ‘edge of chaos’ feeling to the learning environment that seems productive and alive.

Multimedia

Going beyond a quick study of student cues, I would argue that learning in an environment in which multimedia and new technologies are simply embedded into everyday activities is highly engaging for students. Our students have a variety of multimedia equipment available to learn with and from. The students constantly engage with multimedia content; showing them how to create multimedia themselves is of interest to them. They want to learn it. It is relevant to their lives. And in the Connected Classrooms, with resources and people to help, students couldn’t wait to get started on multimedia creations all their own.

Digital teachers

I think that our role as ‘digital teachers’, an idea I developed during my Masters coursework, is also one aspect of the connected classrooms that impacts student engagement overall, and certainly within multimedia unit lessons like the one today. As connected classroom teachers, we create at least one multimedia project per month. The monthly news is created and shared from each site at the end of the month. While students help with this process by recording special events in photographs and video each month, the task of creating and editing the video falls to the teachers. We take this role seriously, showing students responsible, appropriate and safe ways to create and share content online.

Teacher engagement

Another way in which Connected Classrooms impacts student engagement is through teacher engagement. All three of us have choice as to what we teach. I still remember the shock I felt when my administrator asked me what I wanted to teach on my days as the lead teacher. Not surprisingly, we each teach an area that is highly interesting to us. Brooke’s passion for environmental stewardship comes through loud and clear during her Tuesday lessons on current events. Aislinn’s love of children’s literature is obvious not only in her Reading Power lesson activities, but also in her always new and interesting book choices. I love photography and multimedia and I know that my excitement passes along to the students during my Thursday lessons. Our authentic engagement with the topics we teach is obvious; the students get to learn from not one, but three people excited to share about a topic both personally and professionally important to them.

To finish

Student engagement is a tricky topic and the Connected Classroom is an extremely rich and complex learning environment so I’m quite certain I have not in any way adequately answered the Growing Innovation question, but hopefully my thoughts prompted by one lesson have at least made sense and perhaps inspired some new thinking along the way.

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Back to an impossible task

February 9, 2012 — egregory

I haven’t sat down to write about the ECC since last summer. At that time, I was at the end of my thesis, obsessed with trying to sort and articulate my learning from an indescribably amazing MEd year. One of the struggles I experienced at the time was trying to simplify the Connected Classrooms. At the time I remember thinking that the more I learned about the ECC, the larger it became in my mind and that no amount of thinking or learning or discussing or writing could ever justify, simplify or capture all that the ECC really is because it is such a rich, complicated, wonderful learning and teaching environment.

I’m supposed to be writing a post for the ECC blog, yet, as I sit, all topics I had brainstormed that stare at me from my pages of notes seem to swell, and the familiar outward swirling of this topic seems to appear in my mind. I feel very much still within the final processing stages of learning from my Masters year and I realize that I’ll have to reconcile within my mind to isolate one little snippet to write about today. Now, to grab that one little piece before it gets picked up in the gigantic vortex of thought…

The reason for all of this is the Growing Innovations Grant. Last year, Brooke, an ECC colleague, and Brenna, a Connected 8 teacher, started the grant application process and, long story short, our application was successful and we received the grant. With that came responsibilities, including the creation of, and regular contributions to, an ECC blog. At our most recent ECC collaboration day, we decided that one blog post per month until the spring would be a good way to move forward and make progress towards our project goals listed in the grant application.

Now, while I was excited that we’d be collaboratively blogging about the ECC, I was even more excited when I learned that we could use some of our grant money for release time to actually do the thinking, writing and posting. I love to write, and find writing for professional purposes very valuable, but if you read my blog, you’ll know that, lately anyway, I rarely post. Priorities being what they are, I just don’t have the time to spend writing at my computer a few times a week. Give me a choice between playing Battleship with my child or writing a blog post in that last 30 minutes of free time after dinner is done, dishes are washed and the laundry is on, etc., etc., I’ll choose Battleship every time.

Fortunately, the luxury of time has been afforded to me in small parcels over the next few months. I’m excited to write. But, at the same time, it’s interesting that while I am supposed to be thinking about writing on the ECC, instead I end up on a tangent about the situation of writing itself.

Writing about the ECC again will be both challenging and extremely valuable. It’s a great opportunity to continue the learning that I started in my MEd year of research and, without the extra push of the ECC blog and release time, I probably wouldn’t have the time to do it, not to mention the challenges I still experience trying to wrestle one manageable piece to tame into being my topic.

Enough thinking, I’d best get started…
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It’s official! I’m a Master!

November 14, 2011 — egregory

Shaking the hand of the Dean of Education

Last month my Masters of Education in Educational Practice degree was conferred at Simon Fraser University. My father took some amazing photos, including this photo of me about to shake hands with the Dean of Education, Dr. Kris Magusson. It was an amazing day full of friends, family and colleagues. I had a huge smile on my face all day!

I’m still processing and debriefing, in my mind, all that I learned and all the shifts in my thinking from the MEd last year. It’s absolutely changed the way I teach, the way I think, the way I live my life. I’ve taken a bit of a break from blog posts and professional reading. I continue to tweet, I write in my private journals at home, and I still work too many hours each week, but overall I’m finding time to give my mind a break. There are numerous topics that I want to post on each week but I’m choosing to spend my time with my thoughts and my family instead of spending my time on the computer. I’m thinking that I’ll get back to regular writing in this space soon because I am craving it. I just need a bit more time…

Posted in about me, MEd, Reflection. 6 Comments »

Thinking back on the first month, looking forward to challenges ahead

October 2, 2011 — egregory

I’m thinking back today, in order to better think ahead.

The first month of school is already done. It went by in a blur. One of the things I love about teaching is that the days never drag. The classroom is never boring to me. I love the energy, the fast pace, and being in the presence of children and learning every day. That fast pace was certainly evident last month! The year ahead became more clear as well.

I have a challenging assignment this year. I thought last year was tough with a new job, the Connected Classrooms to learn about and my Masters degree to finish. One thing I quickly realized during the first month of school was how challenging this year’s group really is. If I want to teach them all, make sure they each get the individual attention they deserve so that no one falls through the cracks, if I really want to teach them, I’ve got my work cut out for me. I almost feel like last year was a warm up, and I did a good job, so this year the universe has decided to throw a new challenge at me and see how I do with this one.

 

To be productive, here are the successes of last month and a few things I need to be mindful of as the year progresses.

Positives:

  1. Overall, an active group! Another 2:1 ratio for boys to girls, and they are very active, fit, energetic, athletic kids in general. The top three students in the Terry Fox Run last week were all from my class. Needless to say, there can be no PE or DPA times missed! I think students perform better with an injection of physical activity into the school day. I know it takes time, but it’s time well spent.
  2. Diversity is going to be our overarching theme this year. Without going into details, I have several students who live life with extra challenges each day. I want to somehow turn the diversity of our classroom community into our strength. I plan on highlighting everyone’s strengths and talking about ways to compensate and live with the struggles. I want to emphasize the humanity in each person in the room. I hope to build tolerance, acceptance, understanding and strength. No small feat, but I see it in my mind and feel strongly that it’s the right thing to do.
  3. I have a lot of support. My admin is aware of the challenges this group brings, so my class is a priority for extra support this year. I’ve attended two meetings focused on how best to meet student needs and ensure their success with this class composition. Meetings with parents are upcoming. I have at least one other adult in my room throughout the day, and, during numeracy and literacy blocks, I have two extra people in to help out. I am very grateful for this support and I plan to work with parents and families as much as possible this year.
  4. I’m loving (and the students are too!) the new methods I’m using for teaching math. Thank you Dan Meyer. I watched the TEDx talk of his entitled ‘Math Curriculum Makeover‘ and it crystallized all the concerns I had from teaching math last year. If you haven’t watched it, and you teach math, take the twelve minutes. Absolutely worth it!
  5. I was able to achieve a nice balance in my life during the transition from summer break into the school year start up. I’m going to need energy for the students, but also for my own children at home, and I am aware of the fact that I’m still recuperating from the Masters coursework last year. I’ve been able to establish a nice balance between looking after myself, being a (I hope) good parent, and working hard to be a good teacher.

Things to be mindful of as the year goes along:

  1. Stay positive! I found myself sliding into a state of worry last month. Yes, it’s a challenging group. But I can handle it. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly why I’m sliding into a ‘down’ mindset, but I think part of it is that I miss the enthusiastic, intense infusion of positive energy that I experienced working with my MEd cohort every other weekend last year. I miss those people and the way that they inspired me each week. I get to see them all this Friday (so excited!) and I’m going to have to find a way to keep in touch from afar. Thank goodness for Twitter and email!
  2. Connected to this purposeful striving to maintain a positive mindset is my own professional development. I need to use pro-d in a positive way this year. I have several conferences that I’m looking forward to, partly because of the great learning I expect to experience, but also because of the passionate educators I know I will meet. I need to look for those opportunities to engage with others in an upbeat, uplifting way. Thank goodness for social media and my PLN!
  3. I need to figure out a good system for assessment. I’m thinking of splitting the class into groups and observing/paying extra attention to/talking with/taking notes on one group each day. I usually don’t do my assessments in such a structured way, but with this group, I think I may need to.
  4. I’m still settling and I need time to think. I’ve never liked quiet. I grew up in a noisy household and I used to be the type of person who would turn on the radio and the tv if I was home alone. Not any more. Now, I seek quiet and time to think. I’m guessing that I need this time to let my thoughts continue to settle from all the learning of the last year. It’s as if I need processing time. I’ve only just figured this out in the last week, so now that I now, I’ll be seeking quiet spaces for contemplation and time to let my mind wander, process and settle.
I could keep going, but that seems manageable for now and I’m hoping to revisit this at the end of next month. It’s all part of the purposeful mindset that I seem to have now that the Masters degree is done. It still feels a little unsettling, but the new awareness is worth being pushed beyond my comfort zone. And I’m sure, eventually, at some point, I’ll figure it out. With a little help from my friends, colleagues, students, family, keyboard and pen, no doubt!
Imagery Wither on the Vine by dianecordell from Flickr.com and used under creative commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Posted in professional development, Reflection. Tags: . 4 Comments »

First Day

September 6, 2011 — egregory

The first day is done. It went by like a blur. And, true to my desire to continue to learn from writing as inquiry, I’m taking a few minutes to write out my thoughts and debrief my mind from a very busy day.

It was a great day. As a mother, I was lucky enough to get a hug from both of my children before I let them out the back door of my classroom to go find their line-ups. They are both attending classrooms that are located in the same hallway as me. Last year I worried about separating that teacher/mom identity while teaching at a school my children attend. This year I am enjoying it. It’s still a line I am careful to always respect and honour for everyone’s sake, but it’s lovely to see them more, drive to and from school with them, be more involved in their education, never miss a school performance and make that extra connection with their friends.

As a teacher, I spent the day with 27 people in a blur of activity. I have, at this point, 26 grade five students and one STA for added support. I have yet another class (I had one like this last year too) with a ratio of two boys for every girl and many athletic children in general. Note to self: bring running shoes. I also know there are many who really enjoy art. And their creative, I can see that already.

I made sure that in the short time we had today that there was time for quiet, time to talk, time to write, time to read, time to draw and time to run. I also gave them choices and asked them to tell me what they want to learn this year. I watched and listened and took notes. I’m learning them. I’ll learn them all year.

And what will they learn? Well, certainly more than math, science, art, and other subject areas, which, the longer I teach, the more blurred they become. I’m quite certain they’ll learn how to get along with others, they’ll learn more about the person they are and the person they are becoming and they’ll learn what they’re passionate about in life. They’ll learn that learning can be fun, and quiet, and independent, and noisy, and cooperative, and intense, and playful, and physical. They’ll learn me, and each other, and the STA and the class pet. They’ll learn themselves.

I guess that’s a little bit of a goal statement coming into being. We’ll see how things go…

Posted in Reflection. 2 Comments »

Relaxed and grounded in a state of being uncomfortable

August 31, 2011 — egregory

        As I near the end of a summer filled with thoughts of overarching themes in the education system, as I ‘cook’ my thoughts and my learning from the culmination of my graduate coursework, and as I continue to read and engage online with virtual colleagues who constantly motivate and inspire me, I noticed a shift in my mental mindset this week as I planned and prepared for the start of the school year.
        At times I feel relaxed. Maybe it’s because I’m teaching the same grade for the 2nd year in a row. That’s a favourite because I’m finished with the hectic pace of teaching something for the first time (I’ve been a first year teacher five years of my fifteen year career) but while the situation is familiar, it’s also relatively new because it’s only the second year so the inherent excitement of novelty is still attached.
        Other times I feel very grounded. I do feel a certain, new confidence in myself as an educator. The Masters degree allowed me to find a solid theoretical and methodological basis for not only who I am as an educator, but also why I teach the way I do. I am more sure of what’s important to me and my ever-evolving pedagogy. I feel my ‘peeps’ with me, bolstering, offering support, adding to my life’s work.
        And then, at times, I feel unsettled, uncomfortable. As I plan, I notice that I am engaging in the planning process in an entirely new way. After fifteen years of teaching, I’m doing things radically different;  if that’s not transformative learning then I don’t know what is.
        What’s different? I’m faster. I’m able to use social media to ask experts questions and get almost immediate answers. I’m able to find excellent, relevant resources quickly. I know myself better so I’m able to sift through and discard the irrelevant with much more certainty.
        But it’s more than that. I think in a different way. I have a heightened awareness of the different layers of thinking in everything I do whether I’m talking with a colleague or planning a math unit. I have a clearer sense of what I think to be important and I am aware that the kids needs are much more in my mind as I go.
        It’s exciting and a little unsettling at the same time. I am excited about the start of the year. I can’t wait to see the students next week. I know my passion to work with children and help them along in life is an strong as ever. The tricky part is, as I wrote in an earlier post, that after my MEd learning I need to learn how to walk differently as I move through my classroom, my school, my home, my community. That’s the part I’m still adjusting to. And it’s uncomfortable. But that’s okay. That uncomfortable feeling only means I’m still learning and that is a state of being uncomfortable that I’m pretty sure I can handle.

Imagery: iEllen by boeke from Flickr.com

Posted in MEd, pedagogy, professional development, Reflection. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments »
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