May 1, 2020

Well my faithful readers, I should begin by apologizing for the lack of material to read over the past two months and considering everything that has been going on in the world, one cannot blame my lack of creation on a lack of ideas. Navigating one’s way through a global pandemic provides an abundant number of threads of ideas just waiting for the right moment to unravel them and spin them into a coherent tale.   So as we launch into a new month, I’ve decided that today is the day that I begin to unravel some of those threads and post a blog a day for the month of May.

I’ve typed, back spaced and retyped this sentence three times now, as I check my calendar to ensure validity.  Are we really about to enter week 8 of COVID-19 restrictions in Ontario?  March 12 at 4:00 pm, when the announcement was shared that schools would be closed for the two weeks following March break, seems like a life time ago. I’m not sure that any of us could have anticipated what was about to happen, nor where we’d be today and what life would look like. Our day to day reality has certainly become unraveled.  I recall spending too many minutes during March Break checking a Coronavirus Update website and worrying as the Canadian number of cases started to slowly climb from single digits to double digits and then to numbers in the hundreds by the end of the break.  Today, that same website is reflecting over 53,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths, with no indication that the curve has yet to peak.  Like so many of you, the reality of knowing someone, either directly or indirectly, who has been infected or who has succumbed to COVID-19 is no longer just a lead story on the news, it is being woven into my narrative.

As many decided to thread their needles and sew protective masks, our day to day interactions have significantly changed. We are no longer able to visit parents, extended family and in my case our newly married daughter and her husband.  Weekly trips to the grocery store are no longer a quick pop in, grab and run or something tagged on to a busy day. They have become one of the few “events” within a week of being quarantined at home.  Social distancing, restricted number of customers, designated traffic patterns, limits on quantities and limited availability of products are all a part of our new reality.  There is a common thread to how we are spending our days ~ for most of us, we’re working from home, trying our best to stay positive and using innovative ways to connect with others.

Throughout the next month, I’ll do my best to unravel the threads of this new reality, as they connect to leadership, learning or life.

I would love to hear how you are navigating your new reality.  Are you unraveling threads, weaving a new way of doing things or quilting pieces of the old and the new together to create something special?

Come write with me….

I love walking into a classroom and hearing an educator share an engaging read aloud with their class.  Last month, when I visited Kim Anderson’s grade 6 room, she was reading a chapter from Sharon Draper’s novel, Out of my Mind.  Her students were enthralled and hanging on her every word.  As the time ticked on and the bell rang for their nutrition break, the students begged her to continue to read more.  In seeing that reaction, I knew that I needed to get a copy and read it.  So, off to Indigo/Chapters to find the blue covered novel with the jumping fish and this snowy Saturday was the perfect day to curl up and crack the spine.  I ended up reading it cover to cover within a matter of hours.

The first person narrative provides the reader with an emotional and honest glimpse into the world of Melody, an 11 year old with cerebral palsy.  I was captured within the first few pages as Melody recounts her frustration of not being able to share her thoughts, ideas and feelings with others. What would that be like? How would my world be different if everything was locked inside, without any keys in sight?

As the narrative continues, Melody takes her audience through her first 11 years, revealing each milestone, each disappointment, each challenge and each triumph.  As readers, we are invited to get on this rollercoaster of experiences and emotions. The joys of Butterscotch, the frustration of the self-contained classroom and some of the educators, the pain of being excluded, the elation of using an augmentative communication device for the first time, the elation of the contest and the agony of Penny’s accident.

Then all of a sudden, as Melody is recounting her experiences of integration with “normal” kids and the heartache at wanting to fit in and be accepted, I was immediately transported back to 1977 when I was a grade 8 student at Byron Southwood Public School. I can recall vividly when Debbie Willows, a fellow student, who had cerebral palsy joined Mrs. Posno’s class. That year, we also welcomed another student, who used a wheelchair for mobility purposes ~ I’m embarrassed to say that I do not recall his physical ailment. One must remember that back in the late ‘70s integration was not common practice.  At that time, our school was not completely wheelchair accessible.  It was a single floor layout, but one needed to use the stairs to enter the gym.  In rereading her biography, Living Beyond My Circumstances, Debbie recounts the challenges of registering at a “regular” school and the mistakes that many of us made ~ not through malice but through misunderstanding.  I can recall watching her use a pencil on a keyboard as the vehicle to release her thoughts, ideas and images and having to listen intently whenever she presented to the class.

Oh how I wish I could go back in time.  I was never unkind or mean to Debbie, like Claire or Molly, but I didn’t step up and take the time to get to know her like I wish I had. Could I have helped her share her ideas more effectively? Could I have offered to help her navigate in the hallways more often?

Debbie went on to have an amazing life filled with outstanding accomplishments ~ Paralympic goal medals, inspirational speaker, author, Canadian Cerebral Palsy Sports Association Hall of Fame recipient to name but a few.  I have such admiration for her determination and persistence and her subsequent accomplishments. I can’t help but wonder if would have learned so much from her, if I had only overcome my fear of the unknown ~ my fear of doing/saying the wrong thing.

Today’s journey took me “out of my mind” and deep into my memory bank.

When was the last time a book triggered such a memory?

Come write with me….

The Sad Little Fact by Jonah Winter is a whimsical, yet poignant and very contemporary commentary about who decides what is fact and what may be shared as “facts” as determined by the “authorities”.  Pete Oswald effectively portrays the authorities as long-legged, red fisted partial torso figures. The burying of facts is both a literal and figurative image which sparks conversation and controversy.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of cracking the spine of this picture book for all of our grade 3 – 8 learners. Each conversation reached a different depth of discussion that I had not anticipated. I credit that complexity to our educators who, on a regular basis, are providing our students with opportunities to use and strengthen their critical thinking skills as it relates to information consumption. Our students are very versed in how to ensure that multiple, reliable sources are used while researching topics and they easily and authentically pose, “I wonder” statements when pondering information.

Entering into this Read Aloud “tour”, I had anticipated a conversation about global warming, as the story line leads the reader down that road, but I had not anticipated the rich and impassioned conversations about residential schools, Google Home devices and processed foods to name but a few.  In most classes we were also to also refine the conversation from an initial global perspective to a local one, as we discussed how we all need to be “fact finders” instead of blindly believing others ~ whether we are researching life on other planets or school yard misunderstandings. Our conversations even included some clever connections such as the wondering if the “facts” were developed/created in a “fact’ory. Needless to say, our students are rarely passive consumers of good quality texts.  They actively engage in each experience.

As I normally find when I venture on one of my school-wide Read Aloud tours, each introduction to the book becomes more powerful as the thoughts and ideas from previous classroom discussions enhance each subsequent one. It seems to take more and more time for me to get to the first word in the story.  For this tour, we found that the biographical information about the author created the opportunity for lots of background knowledge building. We were intrigued by Winter’s reluctance for a social media presence; especially as an author in 2020. Yet, as we finished the story, our students had effectively drawn the connection between how he depicted the “authorities” and the factory-like assembly line creation of fake facts and his reluctance to join the world of social media.

On the same day that I completed my final read aloud of “The Sad Little Fact”, I received an unexpected invitation to join a friend and see ‘Little Women”, Greta Gerwig’s current adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 classical tale of the four March sisters. I found the movie emotionally riveting from beginning to end, through all of the timeline variations (I was thankful at times for Jo’s change of hairstyle as it aided in my confirmation of where we were in and in which storyline).  It was one of those movies that I will undoubtedly enjoy again, but with a pen and paper close by ~ as the richness of the dialogue needs to be appreciated a second time. Having said that, there was one quote that didn’t need tools to document it, in order to remember it, as it resonated in my mind, as soon as it was articulated in the film.  “Writing doesn’t confer importance, it reflects it”

And there is was ~ that serendipitous moment of connection between “The Sad Little Fact” and “Little Women”.  Could it be that both Greta Gerwig, through the character of Jo Marsh, and Jonah Winter were both using their words to warn us of the perils of the written word and our current abandonment of authenticity? It is becoming increasingly challenging to decipher fact from fiction.  Gone are the days that we could unequivocally trust that the written word was indeed factual? We are bombarded with “fake news” and it is becoming more and more challenging to know what is fact and what is fiction.

 I love how Gerwig portrays the stand-off between Jo and her editor to emphasize that very point.  “The right ending is the one that sells”, he states, when Jo blatantly answers, “She doesn’t marry either of them”.

So….is all lost? Or is this a call to action?  What is our role as educators when it comes to teaching our students about how to distinguish between fact and fiction?

Come write with me…..

“To be without learning is to be without eyes” is the only phrase, singularly situated in the middle of the first page of Jennifer Nielsen’s latest young adult novel, “Words on Fire”.   It is a Lithuanian proverb.

The theme of being “without” is intertwined throughout this beautifully crafted, emotional and thrilling young adult novel.  Audra, the main character, who has led a very sheltered life up until now, is suddenly thrust into a world of survival, discovery and more importantly into a world of books, words and ideas.  It’s a world that had been intentionally kept from her. Her only connection to the written word was her knowledge of the letter A, as the first letter of her name.   So it makes perfect sense that she begins her journey without a deep understanding of the power of the written word and ends up risking her life once she realizes that words have the power to save a culture which is doomed to extinction.

For those of us who love to devour books and can’t imagine a world without them, Nielsen effectively uses Audra and Lukas’ interactions as a vehicle to explain how words, when intentionally blended, can transform the worlds of their readers.

As Lukas shares with Audra, “This is a book of ideas. Someone thought the idea and put it into words on paper. That became a seed, and every time someone reads those words, the seed is planted in their minds too, and it grows and spreads and becomes a plan, and those plans begin to change the world”.

As educators, that is the magic that we want to share with our students. We want our students to do so much more than just “read” the words on a page. We want them to see their power, to know that they (our students) can take those words and use them to create, dream, plan and make a difference.  We want our students to become completely immersed in their reading world like Audra when she shares, “I loved the feel of the paper between my fingers, the smell of the ink. Every word was a symphony, singing in me of other lands, of other people, of places where new ideas were encouraged, not made illegal”.

But beyond becoming immersed in a world as readers, we also want our students to know the power of creation. We want them to use words, play with words and combine words to create other worlds, to create characters and to create tantalizing images of places that others will want to visit.

As this heartwarming tale comes to an end, whether intentional on the part of the author/publisher or just a serendipitous detail, I found tears rolling down my check, in tandem to Audra’s, as on cue, with a 3,2,1 countdown.   When you read page 321 you will know the reason for the tears!

I challenge you to read this book, to share it with your students and to then take up the task of writing with them as they explore the power of words.

Come write with me.

And just like that, we find ourselves ringing in, not only a new year, but a new decade.  Last night at midnight, as the multi-coloured ball dropped in New York City, the revelers were adorned with 2020 glasses, the streets were lined with 2020 balloons and multiple images of 2020 were sprayed across the television screen.  We all knew that this next year was going to be 2020 ~ it naturally follows 2019. But there was something about seeing it so vividly displayed that solidified the reality of a new decade.

For the past few years I’ve committed to selecting #oneword as my first blog post to ring in the new year and in this case, a new decade.  With the images of 2020 still fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help but make the connection to both the popular ABC newsmagazine show 20/20 and the sharpness or clarity of vision that is associated with 20/20 vision.  Ah, should my #oneword for 2020 be VISION?  Although I could find a number of connections and possible tangents to explore with that word, I wanted to narrow the focus and be more precise. Plus, I learned from my #oneword last year, “PRESENT”, that selecting a word that has both the capability of being a verb and a noun brings a richness to the selection and creates the conditions for me to revisit it multiple times throughout the year within various contexts.  As I begin to reread the first few lines of my post, transforming a few of the words and playing with punctuation my #oneword seems to magically jump off the page.

For the 2020 year my #oneword is going to be FOCUS. I want to purposefully narrow the work that we’re doing at school and focus on a few initiatives and do those well ~ instead of spreading ourselves and our efforts too thinly.
A few weeks ago I had bookmarked an article that peaked my interest, “Focus is the Gateway to Business Success” by Dr. Jim Taylor. Within the article, Taylor shares, “Focus is so important because it is the gateway to all thinking: perception, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making.”  He also provides his readers with a few tips bring focus back into focus.

1) Declutter your mind and your work space

2) Master your technology

3) Practice the 4 Ps ~ Perform, process, present and productivity

Lately I’ve been finding it challenging to stay focused on any one task for any length of time.  Even today as I’m working on this post, my phone is close at hand and each notification draws my attention from my laptop to the possibility of something more interesting on another device. Hence the reason that it has taken most of the evening to pen this post.

As we venture into this new decade, which holds limitless possibilities, my goal is to purposefully embrace those possibilities with both precision and focus so that we can yield meaningful and measureable results.

As you ponder the possibilities of this new decade, what will your Focus be?

Come write with me…..

Over the years, I learned, that when watching an Avengers movie I need to wait until after the credits roll in order to see the true final scenes ~ the ones that whet the appetite of the true fans. Those short but extremely meaningful scenes where the premise for the next installment is dangled in front of us ~ conjuring up possible story lines; even though in some cases it may a year or more before our predictions are confirmed or destroyed.

In demonstrating that learned behavior, after completely consuming “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle, I diligently read the Epilogue. It was there that I met Carson and it was there that the previous 242 pages of print transformed from a brilliant, engaging tale of highly successful groups and how their leaders built culture to the heart of why I even dove into the book in the first place.

Last week, our incoming Director of Education, Mark Fisher, started to tweet out passages, quotes and his reflections from the book. The first one to catch my eye was, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one” ~ a quote from Sam Rayburn, shared within the first 12 pages of the book.  In admiring good carpenters, I continued to follow the tweets and got excited about what added value this book may have as we continue to cultivate our culture at Sir Arthur Currie.  Thanks to Amazon it arrived within days and I cracked the spine within minutes of its arrival.

Page after page, I was drawn to the stories of leaders, who throughout history all found themselves at a turning point where they needed to create, cultivate or change culture.  I found myself filling the margins with notes, exclamation marks and/or question marks.  Phrases and sentences became underlined once and in some cases twice.  So much of what Coyle penned resonated with my current practice.

Days earlier, I had just mailed personalized summer letters to all of our staff, thanking them for an outstanding year and more importantly acknowledging their dedication and commitment to our school community.  Imagine my surprise when Coyle included a paragraph on “Overdo Thank Yous” sharing that “thank-yous aren’t only expressions of gratitude; they’re crucial belonging cues that generate a contagious sense of safety, connection and motivation”.

As a school, community who experienced an unanticipated population explosion during our first week of school followed by a first year filled with constant construction, constant hiring and constant purchasing we were poised to either come together as strong as any school family or lose ourselves in the never-ending challenges.  “We are all in this together” is a common theme throughout many of the narratives and its one that I’m proud to share epitomizes our SAC Crew.

I loved Meyer’s response to the actions following the breaking of a glass at one of his restaurants. In watching his waiters’ interactions, he was looking for one of two things.  However, what was most important was that their “number one job is to take care of each other”.  When you have created that culture in a school community, anything is possible.

I have been accused of using “Bruynisms” on the odd occasion….smile.  I have a few catchphrases of my own that I tend to rely on. For example, when others ask what is SAC all about?  “Learning, Laughter and Love” roll off my tongue. It doesn’t mean that we’re not working towards a math goal or that we’re not modeling the expected practices. It means that at the heart of EVERYTHING we do, we are always learning, we are always laughing and at the end of the day, we love each other like family. At SAC, we refer to our occasional educators as “Guest educators”.  It makes conversations with students very easy.  “Today, we welcome Ms. Alba as a guest educator. Let’s conduct ourselves like we do when we have a guest in our home”.   I’ve started to refer to bulletin boards as “teaching tackboards”. That one has yet to gain momentum.  However, the catchphrase that I most frequently use is “I can’t help but wonder”.   There is an intentionality and vulnerability in it.  I am truly looking for input and a rich discussion when I lead with that phrase.

Woven throughout each “Ideas for Action” section is the overarching message that words matter. In my margins, I penned that phrase repeatedly.  I relished in reading how some leaders were bold and brazen in sharing their messages, while others were described as quiet and unassuming.  At the end of the day, their team members knew the importance and they led teams to victory.

Needless to say, I found many of the components of “The Culture Code” reaffirming and yet, as is the case with all that I read, it also left me with some additional skills to hone. Listening like a trampoline is bouncing around in my mind as I look towards this upcoming year.

Now, back to Carson and the Avengers.  When all is said and done, as school leaders, we invest time, effort and energy as we learn how to cultivate the culture in a school community for the thousands of Carsons that we are blessed to interact with each and every day. As a result of Coyle’s reflection and putting his words into action, Carson shone in his own way.  That is what is at the heart of all that we do!

Lastly, as for the very final scene in the first Avengers movie ~ maybe it wasn’t about the Shawarma.  Maybe it was about what had just happened to an unlikely group of superheroes who needed to build safety, share vulnerability and establish a purpose.

I would love to know how this book resonated with you?

Come write with me….

Here we go…. the countdown is on! When we return to school on Monday, we will have only 20 days left with our current SAC crew and only 18 days with our current cohort of students.

As I reflect on the upcoming month, I can honestly say that I am feeling the emotions of pride, pressure and purpose.

Pride ~ As a school that is just finishing their second year, we have much to celebrate and be proud of.  Our team of educators have already built a reputation of being a strong, caring, highly motivated, intelligent and fun loving crew.  We are known as a school community where kindness, collaboration and high standards are non-negotiables.  As our population continues to increase, we continue to welcome more educators, who embody those same traits.  Our students are afforded incredible, cross-curricular, engaging and challenging learning activities on a regular basis.   Each of our classrooms could be featured in a “Third Teacher” Ministry monograph.  Our staff has embraced a Learning For All model of instruction, support and assessment.  My Walk Throughs are celebratory moments.  Moreover, if I am having one of those days, when the emails/phone calls and system needs overshadow the important work of getting to classrooms, I can always count on a few visits from learners excited to share the number of books they have read, their latest persuasive paragraph or their latest math strategy for decomposing numbers.   We have a number of magical places that morph and evolve on a regular basis (our LLC and our Forest of Learning to name but a few) and arrive daily to find out what is in store for our staff and students.

Beyond the classroom, our students have been offered a large selection of sports opportunities, Arts opportunities and community projects.

Our vision of what a school could be, with everyone invested and seamlessly working together is quickly being realized.  I wish there was a word stronger than PRIDE.

Pressure ~ “So much yet to do and so little time” is probably the same mantra that all of my administrator colleagues are thinking this weekend.  Timetables, supervision schedules, final newsletter, class placements, fire drills, ordering furniture and equipment for 4 new classrooms, welcoming new team members, hiring for unfilled positions, graduation, report cards, final staff meeting and PD Day plans, transition meetings for incoming K1s and similar meetings for our a few of our K2s who will be going to grade 1 in the fall.  I am sure that I am missing a few more things on this list.

For me, the list is not as important (as tasks always seem to get done) as being able to maintain a sense of calm and business as usual as we work through the list.  Our students and our crew deserve for month 10 to be just as wonderful as every other month of the year.  For some of our students, they have already started to exhibit signs of anxiety as we near the end of the school year ~ so we need to dig a bit deeper into our support tanks.

Purpose ~ Last week, I was challenged by a friend of a parent (of a student who is struggling with being kind and not physically assaulting peers and adults) who felt that I was overreacting by holding the student accountable for his actions.  She started to quote the phrase, “boys will be boys” and then asked, “Who did I think I was trying to control those natural tendencies”. She tried to share that this type of behavior happens everywhere and therefore we should not be making such a big deal about it.   I, calmly, but sternly replied that although that may be her experience at her child’s school, we are determined to actively watch for, address and alleviate all unkind behavior.  It would be easier to turn a blind eye, but we have our purpose is to create a safe community.

As we look towards the bigger picture of school improvement, we want to ensure that we are honouring what is special about SAC throughout the process.  I want our Purpose to lead those discussions ~ not a deadline.

Finally, our main purpose is to ensure that we continue to love and care for each other during our final month together.  Two years ago, as I was planning our first June PD day, I intentionally created a day filled with team building, fun and laughter as I wondered, what would it look like if we created a family, not just a staff of educators.  Would those nurtured relationships allow us to come together to do the best work possible and to create a school community where we are just as invested in each other as we are in our students?  From what I see each and every day, I would say that our Purpose is alive and well.

What emotions are you juggling throughout the final month of this school year?

Come write with me…

The best way to describe today would be to say that it was a kaleidoscope of events.  Not unlike the workings of a kaleidoscope, with a simple turn (of phrase, in this case) something new and unexpected appeared. There was an interplay of lights, colours and reflection (both literal and figurative)

I started my day doing something that feeds my never-ending learner’s appetite. With a small group of trusted, respected colleagues we spent some dedicated time in conversation and reflection about school improvement and our own learning associated with the new SIPSAW. As we worked through the process, it was like turning of the tube in a kaleidoscope as each new idea and concept would create a different possibility.  The structure of the mirrors ( the intended outcome) was the constant, but the pattern would be modified each time we brought more clarity to our thinking.  I can’t help but wonder if each of us walked away with a different mosaic of thought, as our initial thinking was undoubtedly impacted by the groups’ prompting and provoking.

Upon returning to the school this afternoon, there was a whirlwind of activity and opportunity.  We are currently in the process of re-assessing our K2 students with an oral addition question to determine if they have mastered automaticity or if they have a bank of strategies to use.  We are videoing their responses for the Kindergarten team to review on Monday at our staff meeting.  I had 3 more students to work with today. Two of the students I know quite well as their K1 year was a challenging time for them.  One has a diagnosis of ASD, but her K team has worked miracles and the other student cried for most of her first year with us.   So as I asked them the question, they both took some time, but used a strategy to arrive at the correct answer.  I couldn’t help but wonder what patterns they see as they worked towards their response. For me, the mosaic was a beautiful one of success and celebration.

As I made my way back to the office, there were a couple of intermediate girls waiting for me.  We needed to embark on another conversation about being kind ~ especially in the online world. It seems as if we continue to turn the tube on this conversation, but the mosaic stays the same. It’s as if the mirrors are warped and the reflection isn’t working.  But today, I think that we actually made some progress. There was some genuine reflection in connection to our conversation.  I chuckled to myself at the end of the conversation when one of the girls said, “You should write a book”

The day continued with a few more conversations about being kind on the playground and responding to a couple of emails.

Then, once the students were safely on their way home and the buses had pulled out of the driveway, Heather Elliott, one of our grade 1 teachers, was waiting to share her new purchase, an Abacus ~ thanks to Tracey White and the Math AQ course, and how her students were using it to determine doubles. Heather had recalled a comment I had made a few weeks ago about the importance of doubles.  She said that it caused her to stop and think and now with the Abacus, some of her students can quickly determine halves and doubles.   Her fingers flew over the math tool, navigating the beads from left to right. It was probably at that moment that the idea of a kaleidoscope popped into my mind.

Those moments with our SAC crew, (which occur daily and some days multiple times) when they are so excited about something they can’t wait to come and share are magical ~ much like the beautiful mosaics created by turning the tube on the kaleidoscope.  Those moments are filled with reflection (about their practice, their students, their learning environments, etc.).  They light up as they share and each experience is different and unique ~ yet always breathtaking.

As the sun sets on this mosaic marvelous day, I can’t help but wonder who’s turning the tube?  How are my actions influencing those moments?

Come write with me….

1. When you think of the adults in an elementary student’s life who they would identify as their Social Supports/Caring Adults, your list would probably include their home room teacher, maybe a Learning Support Teacher or a favourite specialty teacher. Occasionally, even administrators might make the list.  But today, we had a student identify someone who should undoubtedly be included on every one’s list.

As our grade 8 SAC Coyotes were working on their Individual Student Learning Profiles in preparation for their upcoming transition to secondary school, our Guidance Lead was printing them from the photocopier when she noticed that one of the students had listed our school’s lead secretary as his “Caring Adult”.

As you can imagine, our kind, caring, wonderful, Joanne Schinkel, was extremely touched by being included within this student’s profile. She called today, “One of the best days ever, as a school secretary”.

As an office helper, this student gets the opportunity to have conversations with Joanne on a regular basis as he helps with band-aids and ice packs and the occasional walkie-talkie signal to our custodial team.  But he also gets to witness the magic that happens every day in our welcoming front office.

Joanne epitomizes what it means to be a caring adult for ALL of our students.  She is the one who greets them each morning with a “Glad you’re here” smile.  She patiently listens to the school yard stories of bumps and bruises and the exciting tales of first teeth that have finally fallen out.  I’m sure that she must have her medical certificate as she effectively identifies the difference between a sore stomach syndrome and an academic avoidance aliment.

And it’s not only the students who benefit from her kindness ~ every guest teacher is warmly greeted by Joanne as they sign in.  She sets them up for success even before the first bell rings.  Her support for our family members extends beyond the warmth of her smile as she effectively helps them navigate their way through registrations, CashOnline, field trip forms, police checks, lunches, extra clothes, appointments etc.

And as for our staff ~ we all LOVE her, APPRECIATE her, RESPECT her and can’t
imagine life at SAC without her !

Thanks to the one student who recognized and publicly included Joanne’s name on his Learning Profile.

Sometimes it’s those who are most deserving, who are most often overlooked.

Who would you identify as a Caring individual in your life?

Come write with me….

Earlier this week, there were a number of retweets and Facebook shares about this article, “New Filipino Law Requires All Students to Plant 10 Trees to Graduate”

https://gearjunkie.com/philippines-students-plant-trees-graduate

Having students contribute so significantly to their own future is innovative, creative and meaningful. The impact of such a law will be felt on a global scale.

In Ontario, students are required to perform 40 hours of community service. As both a mom and a school administrator I have seen examples where a student has taken this requirement seriously and other cases where it becomes a case of “find anything” in order to gain the appropriate signatures.  Community service has become a subjective term and hence I am not sure that we can be assured that all graduating students have equally given back to their communities in order to gain their diploma.

With this new Filipino law, there is now an intentional partnership between Education and other departments such as agriculture and the environment. Modeling that partnership bodes well for the Filipino people. In addition, the planting of trees is a tangible task that has an easy to monitor outcome.

Requirements to graduate ties in nicely to a conversation that we were having yesterday in relations to elementary students and access to social media platforms such as Snapchat. We are finding that a number of our students, who present so kindly and mature in person, are resorting to nasty, rude and inappropriate posts within various chat rooms. In addition, for those students who are being targeted with unkind words, it is becoming more evident that their sense of self-worth and their confidence are being compromised by the ongoing online insults.  It is heartbreaking to read what is being posted online and even more painful to think about an 11-year-old girl reading such nasty, negative things about herself.  We can continue to provide learning opportunities focusing on digital citizenship and we can continue to provide parents with the suggestion of “turning off the tech” if it is becoming harmful and hurtful ~ but it does not seem as if that is enough.  We have found ways to monitor use at school ~ but that still leaves a lot of evening and weekend access.

In our conversation, we could not help but wonder what our current elementary world would look if students needed to pass a test (something similar to a driver’s test) before being granted access to such platforms. An opportunity to learn how to communicate online appropriately as well as the negative impact of being unkind when online.  Many of us remember the videos of car accidents that they showed us in Driver’s Ed class. What would it look like if the “entry screen” to Snapchat required the user to watch a reminder video ~ would it make a difference?  I wonder if the online conglomerates would consider adding features that block unkind, cruel words and phrases. I know that we cannot completely shelter our students from such cruelty, but it would certainly make this world a better place.

Let us give our students a healthy mind and a healthy sense of self in order to enjoy the healthy environment that our Filipino friends are working on creating.

Come Write with me….