Just a day's reflection is all

It's amazing how tired I am after just a couple of days "back at work". I'm not asking for any sympathy, after all, two weeks of Spring Break was such a refresher and I so enjoyed the leisurely days with my kids walking to the park or skiing the local mountains, doing a little spring cleaning around the house, or going out for ice cream together...and a little sleeping in didn't hurt either. It does point to, however, the intensity and daily demands that teachers face that we become accustomed to in our bodies, minds and spirits; and only with a brief retrieve is it so noticeable. 

My first day back was filled with some usual routines. "How was your Spring Break?" was a hot topic of course. So I had my students write a journal entry "2 truths and a lie" which they really enjoyed. They shared these out loud and their classmates voted on which one did not really happen over the holiday. There was laughter, which is always a good start. At Recess I was on supervision duty, and then right back to teaching. At lunch I put together information for the school Run Club that I coach, and I managed to shove a sandwich down before the afternoon bell. In the afternoon I had my students continue with their banner projects, which we have undertaken with a local community member and are sending down to Brooklyn for students and families affected by Hurricane Sandy. There was paint everywhere of course - so fun! After school I had a Department Head meeting to review special events and pro-d planning for the upcoming month. We had a good discussion about what teachers need to be properly equipped to deal with the overwhelming needs of the students. This is particularly true at a "vulnerable" school such as ours, compounded with the fact that we face such "underfunding" in education these days.


Second day back I welcomed my new student who recently immigrated from Germany with very little English language. This happened before the morning bell of course, and I was busy greeting the family and finding a desk on the other end of the building. I set him up as best I could with a few activities such as making a name tag and trying to help him understand what was going on in class through gestures and visual prompts. I chatted with my regular "late" students and brought them up to speed on what they should be doing, and I made sure to give a few minutes of attention to a special needs student who is on a gradual re-entry schedule to the classroom due to physical aggression and ongoing undiagnosed social-emotional issues. He does have a temporary school district youth worker who supports him; nevertheless, he required a lot of my attention and "checking in" to stay on task and follow my simple, basic instructions. 

While I was attending to these students, I also had 3 differentiated spelling programs running for all the various student levels in my room. Next came Math, and I introduced a new concept of "equivalent fractions". This required a simultaneous lesson to both grade groups with variations of the same concept and differentiation for my students with Learning Disabilities, all with distinct work outcomes...and questions (from the students). 

Finally Recess came, but my time was filled with making trips down to the Library to gather book packs for my Literature Circle groups that I was going to implement after Recess. Why didn't I organize this before-hand? Perhaps you missed the timeline of events that preceded this. I also tweaked a handout and printed it off for my students to explain a little about what they would be doing in these Lit. Circles. (By the way, with groups of 3 or 4 students they aren't really "circles", so maybe I need to rename it?) 

Anyways, prior to implementing this new routine, I had to conference with a student to check how she felt about being placed with some peers, as there have been a number of ongoing social conflicts. All went well and the students were very excited about these groups. I allowed them time to "voice" their past experiences with reading groups and how they felt about this. I organized the groups and then gave them control over book choices and assignment expectations. I think they were a bit shocked and excited by this. Actually they were so into the task that they didn't even want to break for Lunch. I had to shoo them out the door and told them we would continue after Lunch. 

Speaking of lunch, I didn't eat until 15 minutes before the afternoon bell because I was so busy organizing information for the next day, catching up on some marking, and responding to the variety of e-mails from the morning from parents, other teachers in my school, and other educators that I network with in the district and university. After lunch we finished off our book choices and then it was back onto banners (and the clean up of brushes, paint containers, and the sink again!) 

Following that I introduced yet another new group project, this time in Social Studies. I introduced this as a "tribe" project to learn about First Nations culture in Canada. I organized the groups and played a dice game to determine which "tribe" would research about which First Nations group. The students thought this was fun and there was a good energy and buzz in the room. 

After school I went directly into my coaching for our school Run Club. We took the students over to the neighbouring middle school (which I had been e-mailing details about over the past 2 days) to run the 400m track, which we don't have. When I finally said good-bye to the last student, I had an impromptu meeting with my principal about the aforementioned student with special needs. 

Now at home, I have finally just finished my marking and helping my son with his middle school math work.

As I reflect on my first couple of days back I realize that this - is teaching. In thinking back to the discussion (question) from the previous day, "What do teachers need to be properly equipped to deal with the overwhelming needs of the students?"; I see that keeping the students engaged in a variety of ways and groupings definitely helps. This obviously takes time and energy - two things that are a premium, especially when coming fresh off a long break and the body is adjusting back to the "routine"; but this is why I put so much effort into how I set up my teaching. There is no real additional support in the classroom, so I have to organize activities in such a way that will engage all my learners of various needs. I have not had to deal with any behaviour issues in these past few days because the students have been actively involved in thinking, working, and communicating with each other. These are the typical kinds of days we have and will continue to have, and it requires everything we have because the students deserve no less of us (teachers). 

Soon enough we will settle in to the regular routine; tomorrow will be no different though. As I start the day, before school I have a meeting with a parent (who believes that I am not challenging her child enough), and after school I go immediately to a learning team meeting (network meeting) about the Learning in Depth project in conjunction with Simon Fraser University...and then there are all the lessons and learning that happen in-between. 

Every day holds promise, potential, and unknown challenges. This - is teaching. This - is why I love teaching. This - is why...I am tired now as I have given all that I have. Good night:)

"time flies" when we're having fun!

Most children these days have no concept of what time is, how to manage it, or even how to "read" an analog clock. I know what they are thinking, "Why do we even need to know this stuff!?" So, rather than just giving my students a number of worksheets with a thousand clock faces on them to complete; I wondered, how I could bring the concept of measuring time to life?

When I thought about analog clocks, the following person came to mind:

Do you remember Flavor Flav? Not exactly the best role-model, but surely a funny guy. So I dressed up with my sunglasses, crown (that I always have on hand), microphone, and a big blue analog clock that I hung around my nect with a long rope / chain. I got into character and I think I had their attention. I showed them some images of Flavor Flav to prove that I wasn't just a crazy teacher telling untrue stories. Although they may think this anyways.

Then I asked them about other "images" that come to mind when thinking about clocks and time. There were many comments: hour glasses, sundials, watches, pocket-watches, alarm clocks, etc... Then I asked them, "What do you think is one of the most famous clocks in the world?"

So, what image came to your mind when I asked you that?

Big Ben! I gave them a little history on the world's most famous clock tower.

Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock in London, and often extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower officially named the Elizabeth Tower, as well. Elizabeth Tower holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower. The tower was completed in 1858 and has become one of the most prominent symbols of both London and England.

Suddenly learning about clock faces and being able to tell time becomes a little more fascinating. (I have so many clock jokes, but I don't have the time to tell you all of them here!)




And another lesson...

How often do we take time to just rest and reflect, even for just one minute? That's what I asked my students to do recently during a lesson on "telling time to the minute". The question I asked myself prior to teaching this lesson, and the series of lessons on time, was: "What does a minute feel like?" The answer is very dependent on what is happening during that minute.

So to begin, I had them sit quietly at their desks without speaking to anyone or doing much of anything for one minute. After the minute had passed I asked them what that minute was like. For most of them it was much longer than they anticipated. But what is the experience of one minute while we are doing other things? I decided to have a little fun with the students and see what is possible in a minute's time.

For the next activity we looked in the textbook that showed a picture of a girl doing push ups. It said, Maria can do 25 push ups in one minute. (That is one very fit and strong girl!) So I challenged my students. "How many can you do? Can you beat Maria?" I had them estimate how many they might be able to do, and then try it out. Well, let's just say we have some work to do fitness-wise.

Immediately following this, I stretched their imaginations a little further to the very extremes of what is humanly possible. I had them try to guess what the Guinness Record is for most push ups in one minute. Then I showed them some information about the Guinness Book of World Record holders for most push ups for one minute:

Doug Pruden, a Canadian, holds many world records in push ups. His many records include; one arm, one arm back of the hand, back of the (two) hands, and fist (knuckles). Doug has done over 10.5 million push ups of various types in his lifetime so far. As of 2007, Doug Pruden holds 10 current world records in push ups. Doug's fitness pursuits have gained him a place in the Record Holders Republic Hall of Fame. He is also a Canadian Vice President within that same records keeping agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Pruden's push up national/world records

• 5557 Fist push ups in 3:02:30 hours on July 9, 2004
• 114 one arm push ups in one minute in March 2003
• 546 one arm push ups in 10 minutes on July 30, 2003
• 1382 one arm push ups in 30 minutes on July 30, 2003
• 1,777 one arm push ups in 1 hour on November 2004
• 575 Back of Hand push ups in 15 minutes on April 29, 2005
• 1045 Back of Hand push ups in 30 minutes on April 29, 2005
• 1781 Back of Hand push ups in 1 hour on July 8, 2005
• 677 push ups on one arm on the Back of hand on November 9, 2005
• 1025 push ups on one arm on the back of hand on November 8, 2008
• 59 push ups on one arm on the Back of Hand in one minute on March 24, 2007

Additionally I found that:


Record claims up to 199 in one minute have been made. We do, however, not continue to publish these record claims, because it became impossible to judge about the correctness of the exercises at this speed. The last record that was accepted by the Guinness Book of Records was 138, achieved by Roy Berger (Canada) on 28 February 2004 in Ottawa.


So what does this do for students? It inspires them and engages their minds and bodies in a new way. It gives them perspective on something that is otherwise ordinary and boring. In this way I am using the thinking tools of the imagination of "extremes & limits of reality", "change of context", "making associations with heroes" and "the humanization of meaning" to engage the students with our topic of time.

Ironically we were having so much fun that, yes you guessed it, in the end we ran out of time:)

New Year, New ideas...and a few old ones too!

Over the Christmas holidays I decided to rearrange my room - yet again. To those who have worked with me over the years this is nothing new, but for each year of students it is! Change, even small ones, to the spaces we work in can have that "sparking" effect that is needed. It reminds them (and us) that there is always the potential for excitement and freshness, you never know what to expect. In schools I would think that this is partcularly important. Yes this can be achieved in many ways and we don't need to always lift heavy furniture around; however we certainly don't have to keep things as they always are, especially if something isn't working the way we want it to. Do you use your filing cabinet? If not, then get rid of it, it's just wasting space! There is something to be said for the unexpected changes which can create new pathways for what lies ahead...and sometimes it causes us also to reflect on the past. This is what happened for me today.

student made stained-glass covering our classroom window

This morning I was welcoming my students with some announcements as I sat at a newly positionned round table, the Sun was shining through our stained glass windows that we had made at the beginning of September and it reminded me of all that we have done so far in this school year. It also made me think about what else we might be able to accomplish together. I haven't blogged about most of what has happened this new school year because I have been busy with other new adventures: organizing a conference, joining a new network/learning team about Learning in Depth, and moving into a new house. 

When I was trying to decide at the end of the summer about what direction to go this year, the pressure was certainly on because many teachers and students had been asking me at the end of June, "What are you going to do next year?" I wasn't sure. My last year had been a real success with the Island theme I chose, and before that I had done a Medieval theme. I decided to go with my Medieval theme again because I felt like there was much more I could do with it and it worked so well with the curriculum that I am teaching again this year. (Teaching a combined grade means that we typically use a 2 year academic plan.) 

Well, time was running short, and my own daughter - who was about to find out that she was going to be a student in my class said to me, " Aw, you're going to do that old stuff again!" My heart sank, but I knew that I could bring it to life again and even make her love it, she just didn't know it yet. As I said previously, there is always the potential for excitement and freshness, even with something that has been done before. Besides, I knew it could never be exactly the same, because this was going to be a new group of students. And why shouldn't they get a fun "Medieval" experience that another group had a few years prior? My own anticipation grew as the days of school grew near. I got to work planning the "entrance" to the kingdom by covering and painting my classroom door with a sign attached that reads, "Welcome to the Kingdom of Imagination", and by altering my desk to make it look like a mini castle.





Medieval King Sclater

Medieval halloween outfit



As a fun way to greet my students last year I met them with passports, dressed in a Hawaiian outfit, welcoming them to a journey to "The Island". This year, I came dressed as a Medieval King, crown and all. This is something I never did last time and I think it set things up well and got the students really excited about our year together. I also had made up some ancient scrolls to welcome the students on the first day of classes and set the stage for our experiences together for the year (see below). 

writing on the scrolls given to students

In the first week we started to transform the classroom more and make it come to life with our "water wall" and "stained glass" windows. The students had full control and input as to what images they worked on and who they would work with.

student paintings on our Medieval waterwall

cabinet transformed into a "treasure chest"

my castle desk in progress

As I sat back at my desk today, I scanned the room and was pleased at what I saw, but I wasn't focused on all the Medieval imagery in the room. I saw my students enjoying themselves in the freedom of our classroom space. I observed a number of students working at their own desks on various projects; a small group of girls sharing ideas about their stories around the round table at the side of the room (where my desk used to be); a few boys gathered around the tall table near the coat area figuring out what drawings they are working on (this also doubles as our ping pong table at Recess and Lunch); a few students on the carpet in the reading area at the back of the room were finding some alone time; a couple of girls were working at the low, long rectangular table (which is often used as a chess playing and card games area); and others still sprawled out in the open area of the carpeted floor in the middle of the room. You might get the idea that this was a very unstructured time. Most definitely yes, but so much getting accomplished!! What would it look like if all the desks were in rows and there were no spaces to move around in or work with others? Not fun, I'll tell you that! My suggestion - Change it! 

I have tried to create a space within the classroom at the beginning of the school year where the imagination can grow and anything is possible. I am even more thankful for what I saw today in my classroom. I realized that if I hadn't moved my desk over the Christmas holidays and rearranged a few things; I would have never sat down at the table, near the stained glass windows, and reflected on the experiences I have had so far with my new group of students and just enjoyed the moment:) I am inspired once again to look forward to new possibilities!