MrSoClassroom

Power

For a bit now I have been thinking about the similarities between being a teacher and being an Administrator. I know for some there is such a disconnect but to be fair and honest, there really isn’t. In my most recent reflections, I have been thinking about Power and more importantly how I wield it and how I share it.

We all have some kind of power in our lives, depending on the circle in which we situate ourselves. In some circles, we have more and in others, we have less. For myself, I recognize that in the majority, if not all, of my circles I will always hold the power. So this continually makes me think about how it is wielded, how it is perceived, and more importantly, how it is used.

When I was a classroom teacher, I had power and even though I often shared my power I still held it in the classroom. This is innate in the ways in which the system is built. I was the one to give grades, I was the adult in the room and just the sheer idea of educator and student gives any teacher power. But I always tried to reflect on the ways in which I shared my authority and also ways in which to make students feel part of the process and decision-making. For example, going gradeless and feedback-based assessment allowed me to have students part of the learning processes. It gave them control in sharing opinions and ideas in order to help them through one of the most powerful processes a teacher has, report cards. I also tried to ensure students had a choice in how they would like to be assessed or even in the projects they wanted to do. Students created maps of the classroom and often designed how it was to look. There was free seating choice and one of the best things I did was allow free dialogue about how I was teaching and also how events unfolded in the classroom; through our community circles. But now I am an administrator.

So now I continue to reflect: How am I sharing authority and power? Who has the power in my school? How is it being wielded?

I know as an administrator I have even more positional authority then I had as a teacher. I also know that when I was a teacher, I have come across many admins that misused this power and would often lord it over teachers; this was never a great environment to work in. So the question is always around me: What is Power? Who has it? Who is wielding it? How is it being used?

Now ultimately, though I am the one reflecting it isn’t really me who can answer if the use of my power is shared but I can talk about what I am doing to help understand where it stands. The first is allowing voices in the schools to be heard. This is both teachers, students and parents. There are many different ways but one is that we have an open door policy at the school. Teachers, Students and Parents can come by or phone in at any time to talk to us. As an Admin team we have also sent out surveys to ask about the school and also to ask for feedback. We then action or at the very least communicate the feedback to various groups so that it isn’t just asking and never actioning. We also have various committees to also help with advice and direction of the learning at the school.

Another move that I have tried to do is ensure that I am not the only one making a decision. This has been one of the hardest things to remember. Sometimes as a teacher we are so use to just making split second decisons for the classroom but now I need to remember to slow down, reflect, evaluate and gather all the information to make the best decison possible. Part of that is seeking the advice of those around me. This includes everyone in the building. Ensuring that all are involved allows me to help share power and authority.

I am still fairly new at being an admin so would love to hear anything else others have to offer. I know for myself I am always questioning the power that I have and how it is percieved. I try to stay humble with it and remember that my first role as an admin is to serve and to serve you must stay humble and reflective.

Building a Classroom Community

In my Math Part One Class that I teach at OISE, we have been having a great conversation about climate and classroom community. As teachers, we all have our own ways, and we all build these communities, but there are many similarities to the ones that see as great. Just thought I would share some of the ones that I thought have been key components of the community.

Collaborators: I know this seems like an obvious one to be thinking about, but it often isn’t one that I see too often. Now I also know during this time with COVID it is harder to have collaboration as we can’t be less than 6 feet away from each other but collaboration is a key component of a healthy and vibrant classroom. For me, it fosters idea sharing, willingness to listen, risk-taking, and friendships. I often start my year off with a collaboration task like building/ designing our classroom and solving puzzles to get into the classroom or community circles.

Risk Takers:

For me, this was and still is one of the number one things that I think about when building a classroom community. Kids need to know that what they are doing is going to be hard, and that is okay. How do I try something new and still know that failing is fine? Or how do I do something new and be okay not doing what everyone else is doing? Students need opportunities to take risks and be outside of their comfort zone, but they also need opportunities to talk about these frustrations and know they are not alone. Talking about taking risks and feelings will also help students communicate and learn how to take risks safely and comfortably, but risk-taking is essential to learning.

Accountability:

This component seems to be a regular component of the classrooms that I visit. The ones that have their students accountable to themselves for the learning and accountable to the classroom community.

What pieces do you think need to be added?

Fueling Change

It has been a huge learning curve as I enter a new phase of my professional life but it has also been some of the most rewarding.

Lately I have been pondering how do we sustain and fuel change. As a classroom teacher/leader I have always been thinking of this but it has always been through the lens of iniatives or even just conversations. I knew that change from a teacher stand point was through keeping my practise consistent and showing others through my work. Now that I don’t have a classroom I have been left pondering what do I do now?

My current Principal has been amazing and she made a statement that has left me thinking.

Fueling change is much like building a fire. You start it but in order to sustain it, you must keep fueling it, stoking it and even breathing life into it or it will fade and loose power.

As a leader now I have to think about what does fueling look like? What does true sustainability mean? How does one continue to breathe life into the work you do?

As I sit with this thought a couple of things comtinue to make me reflect.and think. One is once again my relationships I have with my staff. Do I continue to create spaces that my staff feel welcome to challenge, talk, collaborate and share with me as a leader. Do I also create spaces that they feel like they can collaborate, challenge, share and lead in the school? All of this in my opinion is vital to a healthly and sustainable culture. I also know that some of my staff read my work so hopefully they know these are not empty ponderings.

I also think about the type of conversations I am having. Does my talk model the walk I want? Am I consistent with my messaging. Now this is something I am very conscience of as I know at times I often will waiver. I need to remember to keep consistent the messaging I am communicating and if change is needed then consultation needs to happen.

The final thing I have been thinking about is the support I give. I was talking with Rolland Chidiac and Chris Cluff and they reminded me of support and that not all leadership or sustainability should look the same. I am reminded like my classroom, my school will need different voices and different supports and though it may not show leadership like the board may want all teachers are and can be leaders, so what am I doing to create those opportunities. Do I listen to the needs of my staff or do I continue to barge in and solve the matter or give what I think is needed versus what is being asked of me?

I also think that a missing piece is that like a fire, sustainability may wan but if fueled right or with the right encouragement the fire can easily be roaring properly. Build a solid foundation and supports and feed the process then sustainability can be found.

I am still reflecting on this but I would love to hear what other have to think and say on this topic. How do you fuel/sustain change?

Fueling Change

It has been a huge learning curve as I enter a new phase of my professional life, but it has also been some of the most rewarding.

Lately, I have been pondering how we sustain and fuel change. As a classroom teacher/leader, I have always been thinking of this, but it has always been through the lens of initiatives or even just conversations. I knew that change from a teacher standpoint was through keeping my practice consistent and showing others through my work. Now that I don’t have a classroom, I have been left pondering. What do I do now?

My current principal has been amazing, and she made a statement that has left me thinking.

Fueling change is much like building a fire. You start it, but in order to sustain it, you must keep fueling it, stoking it, and even breathing life into it, or it will fade and lose power.

As a leader, now I have to think about what does fueling looks like? What does true sustainability mean? How does one continue to breathe life into the work you do?

As I sit with this thought, a couple of things continue to make me reflect and think. One is once again the relationships I have with my staff. Do I continue to create spaces that my staff feel welcome to challenge, talk, collaborate, and share with me as a leader. Do I also create spaces that they feel like they can collaborate, challenge, share, and lead in the school? All of this, in my opinion, is vital to a healthly and sustainable culture. I also know that some of my staff read my work, so hopefully, they know these are not empty ponderings.

The final thing I have been thinking about is the support I give. I was talking with Rolland Chidiac and Chris Cluff, and they reminded me of support and that not all leadership or sustainability should look the same. I am reminded like my classroom, my school will need different voices and different supports and though it may not show leadership like the board may want all teachers are and can be leaders, so what am I doing to create those opportunities. Do I listen to the needs of my staff, or do I continue to barge in and solve the matter or give what I think is needed versus what is being asked of me?

I also think that a missing piece is that like a fire, sustainability may wain, but if fueled right or with the right encouragement, the fire can easily be roaring properly. Build a solid foundation and support and feed the process, and then sustainability can be found.

I am still reflecting on this, but I would love to hear what others have to think and say on this topic. How do you fuel/sustain change?

Why?

As many of know, my daughter has a learning disability. Now this in itself is not anything special or alert nor really is this what I want to draw your attention too. I mean a lot of kids have learning disabilities and many students struggle in school for various reasons. However, what I am more concerned about is how much, as a parent, I have to fight for what my daughter needs in the classroom. The funny part is that I am not alone in this battle. almost every parent I talk to that has children in a school system comment on the difficulties that they have with teachers following IEPs or even accommodating students with various learning styles. As a parent I am frustrated but as an educator, I ask myself why is this?

Since Izzy (my daughter) has been in school I have really begun to question the role that our education plays for children. What is its purpose? What does it do? Why is it here? Most importantly I wonder why we continue to teach the way we have always taught, just because that is the way we were taught.

I feel like this is what happens with our students with special needs. Not all the time and not with every teacher but it seems like more often than not we continue to teach these particular students like every other student.

Differentiating for our students is just one of those things that makes me wonder and ponder. In today’s world, we know a lot more about the ways we learn and how we learn. We know that everyone is different and more importantly, we know that the world needs these different skills and to be honest they need these skills more now than ever before. So why is it that we continue to teach each child the exact same way?

I know that teaching is hard. Balancing all the learning styles, behaviours and curriculum can be and is overwhelming but the problem is our student’s don’t all learn the same way.

As an educator, I realize that the world looks completely different than when I grew up. My perfect dream is that each child learns what they want and how they want. I want them to question, inquire and have fun learning. Basically, each child is on their own Individual Education Plan (IEP). None the less we often create IEPs to centre our own practise instead of the learning style, needs and strategies to help our children close the Gaps.

The IEPs that we write need to focus on our students specific learning needs and specific strategies that will help them understand what to do next. For example, thinking mathematics, if a child isnt at grade 5 level we need to think about the why and also the big ideas. The specifics shouldnt be a grade 3 expectation but what we are going to build on for that child to move forward. So that might be, building fact fluency though learning doubles, fives and tens or it maybe learning how repeated addition is connected to multiplication. Thinking about language it should focus on the lagging skills instead of a generic expectation.

Now I know the program in which we write has drop down menus but these can be changed and should be changed. Our students and parents deserve a working document that is fluid and built on child strengths and specific next steps.

This wont happen over night but as you think about next year, question how you will a) know your students and b) be able to think of specific strategies to allow our students to succeed the best way they can.

What do your students see?

I have been contemplating the idea of mathematical Indentities lately and more importantly how do our students see or percieve themselves as mathematicians. I was passing a construction site around our house and it reminded me more about how students see themselves in a math class. Now this particular site just had a chainlink fench up and my kids could see everything. They asked about which digger did what? What that person was doing? And what was this here or there? There was so many questions (as 4 and 7 year olds tend to have) but then I thought about some of the other construction sites that I have seen before with full up fenced in areas or some with just small windows where kids and adults have to peer in.

This got me thinking about the classroom. Do our students have opportunities to see the full construction, from the foundation and up or do we put up complete barriers or small windows into the process. Unfortunately we know that data shows that certain students have full barriers and many only see the small windows into the process. And though we may think as educators we provide a barrier and bias free classroom, it unfortunately isn’t. However, I do believe that there are things we can do.

The first: start with self reflection and personal learning. There is so much power wrapped up in our identities as teachers. We have influence over many things in our classroom and we are clearly not bias free. So sit back and just look at yoir practise through a lens of your students.

Bring culturally relevant, responsive and sustaining pedagogy into our classroom is a must. Students have to be seen and heard in our classrooms. Question the ways in which you groups students, question who talks the most, question if you allow space for students to bring in relevant news and topics for discussion, question who is centred in the curriculum you teach; basically question everything and think who does this serve and why.

Finally, as math classes go, who does the thinking in the classroom? If we are thinking about what do our students see? Do they see themselves as thinkers or is it you as the educator doing the thinking. Do students have opportunities to talk, make conjectures and/or debate mathematics? Do they have the opportunity to bring in other ways of knowing and doing mathematics? All of these questions are important to think about when asking ourselves what do our students see.

The classroom as we know it cannot continue to centre us as teachers. Students need to know they belong and that they are part of the space they occupy. Just as my kids looked through a partial space in a construction fence so do many of our students. Lets open up that space and allow them to fully inquire and build the spaces they occupy together with us.

Relationships

I have been listening to Dr. Sheldon Akins podcast leading Equity for the better part of a year now and if you haven’t listened I highly recommend that you do. As I listen I am constantly hearing about relationships and if you have been reading my blog posts you know that relationships have been a key message for me but I really want to sit back for a minute and think about the word and how we form them.

The reason for this is that I know when you speak to many teachers relationships are a must and many of us would say this is my strength. To be honest I always felt that this was for me too but the longer I teach and the more my own kids go to school the more I question what relationships mean and how are they formed.

For many of us, we know that it is essential but I speak for myself here, at times my relationship building has been performative at best. I would spend time saying hi or doing warm-up activities but did I truly invest in meaningful discussion with students or care about them the same way I do my own kids. Now, maybe this is me being hard on myself but I do know that when my own kids come back from school on the first day of school they already have made assumptions about their teachers and for better or worse that becomes their lived realities.

So what can we do as educators to build relationships? I think the first step is to realize that relationships don’t just happen on the first day or even the first week. They take time and they take effort to sustain. relationships will also ebb and flow. There will be ups and downs and during those down moments, it is important to realize how you can repair and sustain the healthy parts you created. And during the ups is when you start to bank all the great relationship moments for when the downs come. The second part to remember is that we all build relationships in our own way. How I interact with students is going to be completely different than yours and that is okay but for me, the most important way is to remember that you are working towards a relationship/connection and not just something you do because your Admin has said we need to build relationships.

True relationships are critical for a healthy classroom. When behaviours occur it is often because of a breakdown in relationships or communication. But it is relationships that will bring everything back to reality. Without them, you cannot talk to students sustainably, and often resort to compliance and control. So as we are in full swing mode of school, I would encourage you to reflect on how you are building and sustaining relationships with your students, your peers and the whole school community. Is it just a performative job action or is there meaning and intent behind what you are doing? If you also have any great ways you love to build relationships pop that in the comments too, I am sure the community here would love to have some ideas.

My New Journey but same story

I know I seem to start off every post with I haven’t been writing much but to be fair it has been a whirlwind of a year for many of us. I started my school year as a Math resource teacher but it quickly evolved into a journey of becoming an administrator and for the last 2 months I have had the privledge of being a VP at a middle school in Peel.

Now those that have known me for some time may laugh because I think I have said numerous times I would never become an administrator. I just didn’t see myself in that role. Sure I saw myself as a leader and an influencer but not as an administrator. I always said that was for someone else and I never saw my personality fitting.

We often talk about windows and mirrors for our students but we also need windows and mirrors for ourselves and though I saw some representation ethnicity wise, I didn’t see me and who I was in those roles and so I never thought I would fit in.

It wasn’t until I was in the resource role that I realized how much impact an admin had on a school climate and culture. Yes it was one school but that one school has the ability to affect many students and teachers. I was able to notice how change can be constructed and how change can be implemented. It was this that started me thinking more of being in this role.

My journey as a teacher has been well documented throughout this blog but now that I start my newest adventure I cannot help but see how really it is a continuation of my teaching. The more I taught the more I learned that relationships were the foundation of any practise and any lesson. Building community and setting the tone began with me first knowing who I taught and more importantly who everyone is/are in the classroom. This still holds true to being an admin.

I was recently asked to do an acting role for the last 2 months of school. I will not lie and say it hasn’t been challenging but the fundalmental thing that has kept me alive is the relationships that I have formed. As an Admin you often see the worst of staff and students. You often get called to talk to students who are struggling to comply and teachers often only talk to you when they themselves are struggling or cannot handle a situation. All of this seems logical especially if you set up a system that honours the professionalism of your staff. Even in the hardest moments I have had to harness my own self reg and remember to listen and have compassion in every situation. I am constantly reminded about Izzy and the learning that I have done with her. I am constantly reminded that if progress is to be made it is with the heart first and then the mind. Did this always work? No but over time it is the relationships that have made progress forward not me just telling things. More importantly when I make mistakes it is my relationships that allow me to recover. This goes for students and staff. Failing is only natural but if I didnt spend the time building relationships asking for forgiveness is a lot harder.

This post may not be as coherent as I would like but I felt I needed to process some of the newness I experienced these last two months. I have been asked, “you sure this is what you want?” And quite frankly, yes. When I see/hear students tell me I am making a difference I know it is based on relationships and I also know this is why being an Admin is special. I may not always see the successes everyday but I do feel the impact when listening to students. Is there always things to improve, yes but I do feel that because I have been learning and reflecting on relationships, listening and self reg I have a great start to leadership.

My place is to serve and those I serve are in my building and the staff who teach them. My journey so far has me reflecting on how I am listening, how I actioning andhow am I uplifting the voices in the building. All of which were important as a teacher but now have huge impact on school climate.

Thoughts about Motivation

As I was running this morning I was thinking about this word and what this actually means for our students. I have often heard in the hallways and discussions with teachers that students aren’t motivated to learn. I will even admit that I have said this on numerous occasions. But the reality about motivation is, it really isn’t determined by others but by the individual. I love to run (I know I tell everyone I meet) and so that in itself motivates me but when I tell others how easy it is to do, I get yeah I’m not doing that. In fact, running is a great example because I often hear it just isn’t enjoyable to me and I don’t really understand why you love it so much. For me, it is very easy to get motivated about a run. In fact, it is what I use instead of doing things that I know I need to do, like report cards or finishing my book. Running allows me to think, it allows me to process and it controls my ADHD but running isn’t for everyone. So why do we as teachers think that motivation for learning works the same for our students as it does for us?

As most of you know my daughter and myself have ADHD. It has been interesting to read about this and how our brains function and work in comparison to normal brains. Both of us have a hard time staying motivated for long extended times (unless we are hyper-focusing, which is quite a superpower) because of the dopamine production in our brains. I love following this channel if you want to learn more about ADHD.

Basically, what happens is that at times both my daughter and I really want to buy in and do the work but slowly our motivation starts to lag because well we are creating the same dopamine and our attention and motivation strays to something way more engaging.

The reality is though not every child we teach or person in the world has ADHD motivation sort of works the same way. We as a human race are motivated by the things that we value and often think that others around us should be motivated by the same measures. I am guilty of this. My whole life school has been something that I sort of did, I got by and I did the work (my mother hated my work ethic) but then when teachers college came I was highly motivated because I finally found something that I love and wanted to do, same with my masters and other things. I put tons of effort into being better and getting better because it is something that I am highly interested in learning and doing. But this isn’t true for others around me and the same is true for our students.

Motivation is about creating experiences for students so that their brains create those dopamine patterns and in the end even create dopamine in anticipation. So how do we do this?

A couple of days ago I met a student who loved to do cartwheels and constantly move around. In fact, I don’t think I ever once say him sitting or doing work because he was always moving. I asked if he wanted to write a book. At first he said, “meh” but when I told him that I didn’t know how to do a cartwheel and needed help being taught his eyes perked up. In the end, he ended up writing me an ebook about doing a cartwheel and created about 5 sentences to go with this.

Now I mention this story because for this particular child work is hard and writing even more so. I know for myself it has been a struggle to motivate myself to write. Even this blog takes effort and my brain wants to wander and do other things but because I am writing about something that I love and am interested in I can sustain it a little more. For this child the moment that I added in his interests and made him the expert he was able to buy in and finish. Now we also had breaks but instead of wandering he came back ready to write and finish his book. This is the same for any subject. We know that the more we incorporate student identities and knowledge into a task the more motivating it is. This doesn’t mean we use “real world” problems because often those problems are only real to the person who designed them. This means that we use things that students want to talk about and are interested in, like cartwheels. It also can be something new and flashy, like 3D printing, or video games. Or it can be simply a problem a student wants to solve from ther experience. The point is creating tasks that are motivating depends on the individual and also the situation.

Now I know this can be hard especially when we have a lot of students and we as adults have a lot of other things to think about but we if we are thinking about reaching all of our students then teaching really isn’t about making life easier for us but more about changing our practice to serve those we have in our classroom. There are some great ways to do this though that can make our life easier.

Think about the task and what the students can handle and cannot. In some instances breaking it up into smaller tasks and with closer due dates can increase motivation
Ensure that identities and students ideas are always centred in the classroom. This can be done through discussions, surveys, creation of teaching tools, even in our assessments. This helps because even if one or two tasks aren’t as motivating because of interests students know that their voice is heard in other areas and they can talk to you or you will notice them. This also allows you to change your assignments easier because you get to know your students a lot better.
Remember that planning and reasoning about tasks is not something that naturally happens, even for atypical brains. Learning to organize and plan and sort is a skill that needs to be taught. Yes it is time out of our “curriculum” but it is also time well spent.
There has to be buy in from the student. One of the most simplest ways is giving students choice and this doesn’t mean the 9 things that I choose for them but true choice in how they best learn and best display their learning. Sure we have curriculum and things that need to be taught but how I show you that learning should be up to the student.

Here is another of the Brain videos that can help.

I hope that this sparks some thoughts and would love to hear your thoughts as well. Leave a comment below or tag me in a Twitter conversation.

Reflecting

I know that this beginning of 2022 probably isn’t the best start to the year. There has been a growing rise in the hashtag #2020too, along with many educators, health care workers, and parents feeling the weight of this pandemic. But it is also a time to think and a time to reflect on what we have been doing and where we would like things to go. I was recently reading my newest NCTM Magazine (I am behind an issue) but the note from the editors sent me into a writing mode with their reflective questions.

They start the article off with this question: Have you ever heard the phrase, “We’re building the plane as we fly it?” (Altman, Jackson, 2021)

I think we can all relate to this statement. It is basically how we as educators or anyone really in this pandemic has felt for the last two years. As we constantly pivot and shift and change we are basically making things up as we go but with that comes stress and often mistakes. It is something that we as teachers are not a too comfortable feeling. We like to plan, we like structure and we often like direction. But building and reshaping our way of learning has its pros too. It allows us to reflect, rethink and reevaluate systems and structures that weren’t really working. I know that we all wish for a sense of normal but as the editors of the article remind me, “do we really want to return to normal? What does the return to normal look like for the teaching and learning of mathematics (you can insert any subject here) in many classrooms?”(Altman, Jackson, 2021) They further remind us that for many of our students Black and Indigenous especially, the system and structures we had in place weren’t working, and to be honest, even for those that have privilege in our system it wasn’t either. So the question that sits in my mind is what does returning to normal really mean?

As some of you may know that I am in the process of writing a book and in there I talk about the need to honestly reflect and think on the moments in our life that challenge us and make us think. I believe this pandemic is one of those moments. We know that there are things that work with online learning and there are things that don’t. There are things that have worked with even in-person pandemic learning and of course things that don’t.

So the question is and the editors of this article state it best: “What have we learned about ourselves this year? What have we learned about our students? (Altman, Jackson, 2021)

To further our profession and the learning that is happening we must be mindful of constantly reflecting. Now I know in the midst of stress this is one of the hardest things to do. It almost feels impossible to slow down and listen to the voices that are around us. We have been on an amygdala hijack for 2 years and when that happens rational thought is almost impossible but if we can take moments in our day to breathe, think and reevaluate, we will only serve our students and communities better.

I will end this post with the questions from the editors as they are great ones to think about.

What have I learned about myself this year?
How did I provide the necessary support, so that each and every student could engage and participate in rich, challenging (insert subject)?
how did empower each and every student as a capable doer and learning of (insert subject)?
What did I notice or wonder about _____?
What strategies/ activities did you implement in your classroom?
Did the strategies/activities give your students an opportunity to engage in productive struggle? (Altman, Jackson, 2021)

I know for myself I have learned that I am more capable of things that I didn’t think possible. I learned that my family is more resilient than I give them credit for and I learned more about the privilege and power that hold and what I can do to help amplify the voices of those that don’t have the same as me. I have learned that the only true litmus test for my teaching is hearing my students and parents tell me that I am making an impact and that listening to my students is one of the most powerful things we can implement as teachers in our classroom.

I would love to hear what you have learned too.

Article: Altman, Tomika & Jackson, Christa. (2021) “Mathematics + Self-Care = Being the Best You” in Mathematics Teacher: Learning Teaching PK-12. Vol. 114, issue, 12. NCTM.