Happy New Year...A Rainy Day's Reflections

It's raining.
It's pouring.
The teacher is planning...

The weather is interfering with many things today so it makes sense to use the time to sit and take stock. To make some lists. To reflect on the start of another coming year. To make plans.

Last year was such a busy year as I went from being a full-time classroom teacher in Grade 5 to being an Assistant Principal and Learning Resource Teacher (aka school librarian!) with teaching duties shared in a co-teaching arrangement for Language Arts and Social Studies.

Obviously there were quite a few changes and challenges but I just had to jump in and deal with them on a daily basis. This year I want to build on what I felt went well and tweak what didn't turn out as I envisioned! And September always feels a little like New Year's with possibilities for changing and improving, setting new goals. So here's what's on my mind:

• Focus on relationships.

My leadership role in the school became more formal with my name on a door and in some subtle and not-so subtle ways it affected my relationships with staff members. I feel I have a great relationship with my colleagues, several of whom I taught!  I am seen by many, if not all, as a go-to girl, a mentor, someone willing to listen and to share from my teaching experiences.
I recognize I have a somewhat different role now, one that can be a positive. As part of an administrative team, I want to continue  to model what I believe as a teacher. I also want to "coach", be someone who finds the strengths of each member of our staff and as George Couros suggests, help unleash their talents!

"They're all your kids now!" Those words from my former principal put into perspective my concerns about not being in my classroom full-time, about not building the close relationships (perhaps) if we had teachers moving in and out of the room. I had to move to a place where I saw each and every student and their families as "my" students, that my role asked me to focus on building a sense of a school family much like I aim for within the classroom.

I also had to rely on the trust I had in the teachers who are sharing the students with me. I know they have the same ideals and that the Grade 5s were in fact, having an opportunity to learn with, and from, individual teachers who added personally and professionally to our group!

So this year I will strive to get to know even more about students and their families as I walk through our school, as they come to the library, as I talk to parents in the corridors or in conferences. Some things I will also learn from their teachers as I spend time in more classrooms this year, doing whatever I can to make this a successful teaching and learning year.

• Be patient.

I need to be kinder to myself! Trying to accomplish everything I wanted to last year was an impossible task. Though, I am proud of what I did get done! Realistically, however I need to set smaller, achievable goals and not feel like I have to be in five places at the same time (Well, maybe I do but I have to be okay with that!!)

Sandy Cove Beach (Image from here)

I don't know about you but I can't jump into the ocean to go swimming! As a matter of fact I prefer no one near me when I do ease my way in to the chilly waters but I do get there eventually. When it comes to embracing change in education however (not the bandwagon approach, though!) I don't mind jumping in but I have to be very aware that not everyone can do that.

Facilitating real change takes time. And changing mindsets does too. There are several initiatives that our District has set in motion around Differentiated Instruction, technology integration, play-based learning and improvement in Mathematics that directly impacts the teaching and learning in schools. There are also expectations for continued professional growth expected of any staff; ours is no different. I will strive to be aware of the different comfort levels of our staff while letting them know they won't be swimming in over their heads ...we are part of a team doing it together.

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What Matters - Reflections After Parent-Teacher Conferences

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I always look forward to the day of parent-teacher conferences. There is something special about sharing what I have come to know about a child's learning with their parent(s) or guardian(s). And with twenty-five years experience of these meetings, I know that talking to someone else who cares about that little person can be powerful -- in sometimes unexpected ways.

Thursday past was no different.

While the stories differed in the details one thing became abundantly clear again.  What we say to children matters.  What we say about children matters.

Trying to capture the strengths and the concerns about academic progress we have observed each term, in the short space allotted on report cards, is always a challenge for teachers.  We are expected to create a record, a snapshot of where the child is, at this point in their school year and share it in terms clear to both families and other colleagues. The words we choose so carefully leave out the many ways we provided opportunities to become engaged with the content and to practice expected skills. It doesn't account for the many ways we now assess learning, the myriad situations in which we directly and indirectly observed the student.

Needless to say, communicating to the parents about that over each term is essential. There should be no surprises when the brown envelope is opened! That being said, sometimes parents react differently when the words about their child's progress, or the concerns about it, are in black and white.

We have to keep in mind that a parent reacts first and foremost on behalf of their child. When a parent tells you that their child thought being asked to writing conferences meant they weren't good enough, then something needs changed. It matters not what actually takes place - that every student has participated in those individualized sessions with me, nor that I know what we do and say in conferences is carefully constructive, somehow that child's perception has been framed a certain way and I have to do something about it.

That parents want and expect the best for their child sometimes is demonstrated in what we would see as unrealistic or unachievable goals. "I want him to get 5s this term."  His teachers know his reading is not (yet) at grade level.  We know he resists writing tasks -work- as much as he can.  Words like "inattentiveness" and "struggling" were on his report cards this year. Encouraging him to get to the level of achievement demonstrated so far has been a regular challenge.

But when we find out from Mom that he really loves to be out in the woods, that he spends time ice-fishing and hanging out with his grandfather whenever he can and that he will watch shows on the Discovery Channel, don't we have a means by which we might now engage him in school-based learning, too? Might it  now be possible to support him in ways not yet addressed and help him attain higher scores than he possibly thought attainable?

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Finding out things about your student that has not been shared through the phone calls or emails can sometimes be hard to hear, as we know their potential impact on a student's success. Separation of parents, a death in the family, a parent leaving to go away for work are not uncommon topics at parent-teacher conferences. Some things need to be shared in person. Such was the case when one mother explained her son's recently changed attitude and effort was a result of him standing up to a classmate who had bullied him for the last three years! That was a shock! We have a co-teaching team in the classroom this year and support teachers as well; none of us picked up that there was anything of that magnitude going on between these two.

It was hard to think that we missed that. It was hard to think of him in class worrying and we missed that. It was even harder to consider what we might have said ( even as nicely put as one does) about his lack of focus on what we were saying and/or doing at the time. It was hard to think how we let him down.

As vigilant as we may think we are, we do not see everything that goes on in our classrooms, hallways and other spaces where students gather. Things happen. And as caring as we know we are with our students, we have to ensure all our students understand how available we really are, how supportive we can really be  ...that our words are not empty. What we say and do every day with every child matters. We cannot ever be complacent about the words we espouse about building a safe and caring school community.

Letting our students know that we care is a goal, part of the everyday experience at the school where I am proud to work. In each and every corner of the school, the staff and students greet each other warmly, ask about and share thoughts about the weather, the hockey game, the lost tooth, the lost pet. From the principal's high fives in the Drop-off zone to the caretaker helping to find a sneaker to the teacher sitting by a desk at recess to review something, I can see countless acts of caring everyday.

As I walk through the corridors each day, I hear many positives from our parent community about how things roll at our school! What we say and do matters.

When a parent tells you that she hears everyday about the way you touched her child on the shoulder, that you smiled at her, that you liked her story... it matters not so much what scores she got on "problem solving" or "uses writing strategies" as it does about how she feels coming to school everyday willing to try her best because she knows we care about her. We gave her that smile.

That matters.

Audrey Hepburn, Eat Your Heart Out!

As educators, we all know, or find out soon after beginning in a classroom, we have many "hats", or roles in our professional lives.

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In taking on a different role this year, one that has me in the classroom, in the Resource Center/library and in the office, I have had hats fly on and off so fast, I can hardly consider which hat I've donned!


While I would love to be able to wear a hat like the incomparable Audrey Hepburn...

and though my "hats" this year may be less glamorous than hers, upon reflection, they are none-the-less attractive to me! 

I love the challenge, the change, all the children that I deal with each and every day. Whether it's helping a student select a great read, discussing areas of concern or accomplishments with parents, reading to a rugful of little ones, rushing off to work with my Grade 5s or co-teaching with other teachers, this year has been quite rewarding!

However, the new job has impacted several things I intend (ed) to accomplish, among them to continue to blog here. With "Blogging From the Edge" this year I had hoped to expand topics and move away from how I began blogging  or my concerns about how it was going.  I wanted to develop more posts about teaching reading, especially in light of all the professional material that is available that appears to provide contradictory viewpoints.

I also hoped to reflect and write about being an administrator by now. It is definitely a more complex leadership role than it seems from the other side of the door!

However, these blogging goals have yet to take off in the way I envisioned in September but what has replaced it has been worthwhile, too.

I have established a website/blog for the school's Resource Center that builds connections between the school and our parent community. I have also shared it with other teacher/librarians in my part of the world as one example of how to make information and ideas accessible.

I have also taken the lead on using Twitter as a means of sharing the teaching and learning that happens at our fabulous school with families and friends. The school's Twitterfeed shows students and teachers at work and play, decorated doorways and walls, as well as notes and announcements! We have our own hashtag to quickly access shared resources at a later date.

Meeting with teachers to plan and to share how technology can continue to be integrated at our school, what new apps can be creatively and constructively used, how blogging with other classrooms locally or globally can be developed, what assessment strategies might be enhanced with digital tools...have been incorporated into my days.

So, in taking stock,  I have decided to pat myself on the back for what I have gotten done instead of ruing the lack of posts here. I will be kind to myself and be reminded that the time to blog (regularly) will happen...sometime.  In the meantime, I will enjoy the hats I do wear! (And just watch the occasional Hepburn movie!)

Until then, all of my hats are off to the wonderful, glamorous teachers who also put on so many each day!

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