But, He Can Do It At Home….

Have you ever had a parent tell you, “But Johnny (insert any child’s name here) can count to 100 by 2’s (insert any skill here) at home with no difficulty at all. He does it all the time!”

As a classroom teacher, a Learning Support Teacher and even as a Vice-Principal, I’ve heard this countless time, as I am sure most educators have as well.

What have you thought when a parent tells you this? How have you responded?

Your reaction may have been something like, “Yah, ummmm sure!”. Those words were muttered only in your head, of course, I hope.  Yes, I’ve muttered those same words to myself on a number of occasions.

Being a parent though, has really opened my mind in so many ways.

I understand parents and children so much different now that I have my own children.

Take my 4-year-old son as an example.Continue reading “But, He Can Do It At Home….”

Important Message

Important Message by an Inspirational Adult

I would like to introduce you all to Riia Talve.

I really wanted to feature Riia on our Inspirational Kids blog, but she is no longer a student. She is an adult with a very important message, one that we should listen to carefully and then reflect on our own practises with her thoughts, feelings, and wishes in mind.

Riia went through elementary school and high school with learning disabilities.  She worked with an Education Assistant whom she relied on greatly.  According to Riia, too much. As a result, Riia was expected to do very little on her own. According to Riia , she didn’t do anything on her own. Everything was done for Riia.  Some may feel grateful for this extra assistance.  Not Riia.  She felt robbed from never having the option to try and then fail.

Here are a few important and influential messages from Riia,

Before switching schools in Grade 9, Riaa

“felt more like a servant of the school than a student of the school.”

Once Riaa switched schools she was allowed fail. In her video below, she talks about the importance of this.Continue reading “Important Message”

PLN Starter for Elementary Teachers

Our school is one of the schools who received an Innovative Learning Designs Grant for this coming year.  This is Phase 2 of the District project.  You can learn a little about the Innovative Learning Design Project here.

To help our teachers build their Personal Learning Network, I thought it would be a good idea to bundle up a bunch of great blogs at various grade levels for them to get ideas and inspiration. Jennifer LaGarde (aka Librarygirl) made a similar tool you can find here. I wanted to create one that was more specific to different grades.

To start following and reading blogs, you may find it useful to create a Google account and then set up a Google Reader associated with that account. This will allow you to “subscribe” to blogs via the blog’s RSS feed you find interesting and that you’d like to revisit.  You could also just copy and paste the link (URL) of the blog directly into your Reader (once you click on “subscribe” in the Reader) and then click ADD.  Every time you open your Reader, it will show you which of the blogs you have subscribed to have new posts. It’s quite handy.  This will also ensure that your email isn’t bombarded with emails when people add new posts to their blogs (we know we all don’t need any more emails!).  When you are getting started, you may want to limit the number of blogs you add to your reader though, so you do not overwhelm yourself.

So, let’s get started.  Below I have listed a few blogs you may want to consider subscribing to, as you begin this journey. In no way is this list complete. It actually barely touches the surface of what is available for you on the world-wide web.  I just wanted to give teachers a starting place, without making them too overwhelmed, hopefully. I tried to include many local bloggers – from SD#36, BC, and Canada. I have also included a few amazing bloggers from around the world as well.  The inspiration is endless!  You may even want to consider following the authors of these blogs on Twitter (I have not included their Twitter Username, but they would be easy to find if you search their name).Continue reading “PLN Starter for Elementary Teachers”

Inspirational Kids

I started a new blog last night.  Kind of a spur of a moment thing, really, but I think it will be fun.  The blog was inspired by George Couros (@gcouros on Twitter) who posted a wonderful video about an amazing little boy named Caine.

The blog will focus on all the amazing kids we teach (like Bridget), kids we may know personally, and inspiring kids we find on the internet (like Caine).

We can learn a great deal from these inspiring young people. We can learn many lessons about how we take on challenges ourselves, and how we can help our students and children face challenges and become resilient.

Hopefully, we, as educators, can also think of ways of taking some of these lessons into our schools and into our classrooms.

Here’s the link: Inspiring Kids Blog.

If you know of any inspiring kids you’d like to share, please send me a message I’d love to include their story in the Inspiring Kids blog.

Inspiring Video

While on Twitter tonight, I can across a tweet by David Culberhouse (@DCulberhouse on Twitter) to Chris Wejr (@ChrisWejr on Twitter). David was recommending Chris watch a video by Simon Sinek (@simonsinek on Twitter).  It was a recent talk that Simon had given at Creative Mornings, a monthly breakfast lecture series. Each event is free and includes a 20 minute talk by some amazing speakers, including this one by Simon Sinek.

There are many thoughts and comments made by Simon that really caught my attention.  His talk is about people and the way people are cared for by each other, and by people who are their bosses. In turn, he talks about what inspires people to do the things they do. In hopes to inspire you to watch this wonderful video, and to do really make a difference with those around you, I would like to share a few important ideas by Simon about leadership.Continue reading “Inspiring Video”

Professional Reading for the Summer

Summer Reading

I have bitten off way more than I can chew when I look at the books I have bought and downloaded to read this summer.  Oh my.  I thought I would share some of the titles here, and, hopefully, writing this post will hold me a little accountable and help to ensure that I read them (or as many as I can)!

So, in no particular order, here is the list of professional books I have for my reading pleasure this summer. I’ve included the Amazon links below, in case you’d like to read more about any of the books.

Shifting the Monkey – Todd Whitaker – Finished

The Connected Educator – Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach & Lani Ritter Hall – In Progress

Drive – Daniel Pink – In Progress

Getting Things Done – David Allen – In Progress – A colleague suggested that I read this one first so that I might have a chance at actually reading the others this summer.  Good idea, Carol!

Hold on to Your Kids – Gordon Neufeld – In progress

Leadership on the Line – Ronald A. Heifetz & Marty Linsky – In progress

What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media – Scott McLeod & Chris Lehmann

Power Questions – Andrew Sobel & Jerold Pamas

The Real World of Technology – Ursula Franklin

Switch – Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Lost at School – Ross Greene

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol Dweck

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain

Start With Why – Simon Sinek

I’m sure there may be a few titles I am missing, but this is my list of the professional books I hope to read over the summer (this, in addition to a few fiction books I have downloaded as well).

Are there any books here you have read and would like to comment on? Perhaps your comments might help me decided on the order I read each of them (or their priority).

What’s on your list of professional books to read this summer?

Happy Reading!

It’s All About Relationships

I have been back on Twitter for a year now (I was originally Twitter in April, 2009, but didn’t really see the point of it, so I left it behind for a few years). It has been truly an amazing year of professional development and relationship-building.

During this time, I have learned a great deal from so many educators around the world.  I also started a blog and started blogging about some of the things I was learning about and trying in my own school.

To say that Twitter has changed who I am as an educator would be an understatement.

I was a little disturbed though last night, when I read David Wees’ (@davidwees on Twitter) blogpost about Twitter and the connections we make online.  In it, in part, David reflects on the connections he has with those he interacts with online and writes,

“I know very little about their families, their history, their relationships, their beliefs about God, their dislikes, their intolerances, their emotions, and who they are. What I do know, I know only through their statements about themselves, so I know really nothing about them except what they have confessed themselves. What I know is their manicured self, their selves with the make-up on, and I do not really know them at all.”

Continue reading “It’s All About Relationships”

My Resilient Little Girl

My 7-year-old daughter continues to amaze me every day. A little over a week ago, she broke her elbow playing on the monkey bars (or more specifically, falling OFF the monkey bars). It was a very bad break so she had to undergo surgery to fix it. You can see pictures and read the blog post about it here. After an overnight stay, a tough time coming out of surgery, and then a rough, painful 4 days, things are back to normal.  Well, as normal as they can be with a cast covering your entire arm.

The scene of the accident.
The scene of the accident – 9 days later.

Today, we spent a family day in Stanley Park, as we often do on Sundays.  We returned to the scene of the accident.  She was not too impressed with the monkey bars, but she just carried on doing what she does best – being a smart, happy, fun-loving, active little girl. She just makes the best of every situation. I am so very proud of her.

Hmmmm…. I wonder if the surgeon would approve?

I have come to the realization that if you are going to break your arm, 7-years-of age is probably a pretty good age to do it.  My daughter can be reasoned with quite well.  She doesn’t put up a big fuss when she remembers that the doctor said that she can’t do certain things (like run or jump or go into the water park for a couple more weeks). She is careful, for the most part, and very responsible.  I think it would have been much more difficult if she was a little younger and was trying to deal with all the things she can’t do while she has this huge cast on her arm (over summer, nonetheless). Today, she even announced, “Mom, my arm feels just like normal!  Well . . . Except it’s in this cast.”  hahaha

Here’s Trista finding something to do while her brothers played at the playground.
She was pretty proud of herself making this creation.

So, through all this, I guess I’ve learned just how strong and resilient my little girl has become. She amazes me each and every day. I am so fortunate to be her mom.

Here are a few pictures to show you just how resilient my little girl is. Here she is about 30 minutes before the horrible fall that broke her elbow:

Happy as a clam, not knowing what 30 minutes later would bring.

And, this is my little girl today, being as silly as ever!

There’s my girl! Oh how a few days make a world of difference. She’s back to herself again! She makes my heart smile.

What have your children or your students done to demonstrate their resilience?

What makes you proud of them?

We Need to Get These Kids Reading!

I was reading a blog post tonight written by someone I admire in my PLN, Jessica Johnson (@principalj on Twitter). She is a principal in a K-5 school in Wisconsin.  She is a principal whom I’ve been following for the past year and someone who I can really relate to.  I find her to be very inspiring with many down-to-earth ideas and ways of  presenting these ideas to others.

Anyways…  I read a recent blog post of hers entitled, Why Students Don’t Read What is Assigned in Class.  Interesting, intriguing title, right?

What I found most interesting was the video that she included in this post: Why Students Don’t Read What is Assigned in Class. Maybe I am a little naive, okay, a lot naive, but it just didn’t cross my mind that so many students read so little in high school.  Now, I know when I was in school, if something didn’t interest me, I used Coles Notes to help me out as well, so I really should be surprised.   As the students commented in the video, today there is something called SparkNotes. These look way more hip – they include video as well.Continue reading “We Need to Get These Kids Reading!”

Power of Your Words

“What if . . . ?”      “Yeah, but . . .”

These two phrases include only a couple of little words each, but they are very powerful words which can either change the way things are done or keep things stagnant.

Recently, I listened to a EdAdmin podcast on the EdReach Network.  This third EdAdmin podcast (#15 on the above linked list) was recorded on February 1 and focused on reflections on Educon Philadelphia which took place January 27-29, 2012.  This podcast is hosted by Chris Atkinson (@ChrisLAtkinson on Twitter).  The regular guests for this episode were Lyn Hilt (@L_Hilt on Twitter) and Patrick Larkin (although he had technical issues during this podcast) (@patrickmlarkin on Twitter), with a special appearance by Dwight Carter (@Dwight_Carter on Twitter). These are all amazing leaders in education whom I’ve been following on Twitter for a year now. If you are not following and learning from them, I highly recommend you do.

The podcast starts with introductions, a brief discussion about the values and purpose of Educon and then each guest talks about one of their main take-aways from participating in this conference. There were some interesting take-aways and things that had me nodding my head throughout the show, but I want to focus this blog post on one take-away in particular that focussed on the power of our words.Continue reading “Power of Your Words”