If you have been reorged and are beginning with a new class, allow me to recommend one of my favourite "start of the year" activities, the I-Poem!

The I-Poem is a fun opportunity for teacher(s) and students to get to know one another, and for the teacher to assess affinities, strengths and gaps in her new class.  For example, from today's lesson, I learned a little more about many of my students' family structures and personal interests, as well as some of their fears and anxieties.  This will help me to build a safe and effective learning community with my new class in the days/weeks ahead. 

I could also see right away which students struggle with writing and with following instructions.  Having them fill in the blanks to complete this easy-to-format personal "poem" lends itself well to a start-of-year or "new class" anecdotal/observational assessment.

Three of my students also failed to complete and submit the assignment (even after two and a half 40-minute periods to work on it!), so that provided me with a quick assessment for learning skills, which need to be reported on for progress reports in a few short weeks!

I enjoyed getting to know my students a little better as I read their poems after school, and I shared my own poem with them as well, so that they could learn a little more about their new teacher:

I have students who dream of becoming professional musicians and olympic skaters.  I have students who love their families and who want to visit Mecca.  I have students who fear math, death and bullying (not necessarily in that order!) 

I have my work cut out for me!

If you are beginning with a new class, I encourage you to try I-Poems with your students, Grade 2-10!

So, I'm confused at why, after a year of working without a contract (and continuing to do extra curriculars, btw, and not going on strike),  I'm being told by my premier that we teachers are the ones being unfair.

"There's no money for education", we're told, when we're not even looking for money.  No teacher I know is asking for a raise.  We just want to keep the status quo, maybe fight for lower class sizes in Kindergarten and in the junior and intermediate grades (which currently have NO cap!!) and, well, keep the things we've already fought for over the past ten years.  (Like the right to take a sick day once in a while -- in a profession where we're surrounded by germs every day -- and be able to recover in bed rather than spending the day at a clinic so we can get a detailed doctor's note, for example.)

And then along comes Wynne and says, "hey, we offered ETFO the same deal that the others settled for, but they didn't accept it!"

​Hmmmm.... 

I did a little digging, and it turns out that this isn't quite all there is to it.

As a matter of fact, what OPSBA and the government were trying to shove onto ETFO members would have maintained the significantly less preparation time and more supervision time we currently enjoy than secondary teachers, that our class sizes would still be larger than secondary classes, and that elementary students would still have less access to specialist teachers than their secondary counterparts.

I'm confused.  Where's the "same deal" we allegedly turned down???

(Never mind the fact that we didn't even get equity in bargaining: The two unions that settled got 18-29 days at the bargaining table before reaching a settlement; we were left abandoned after only 7!)

Here's the thing, though -- we all know that same doesn't equal "fair".  In fact, the ministry of education just recently published a document that speaks to this very fact.

Why doesn't the government then practise what it preaches??!

I'm so done with this nonsense, really, I am.  I am Just. So. Tired.

I love teaching, and I want to do it well.  I am a parent of two students in the system, and I see the stress kids these days are under.  They are buried under a mountain of mixed messages in the media, stressed out by busy or absent parents, and overwhelmed by an overwhelming world.  

Students need strong, engaged, committed teachers who are supported in planning and teaching  effectively to meet their complex needs.

Want me to be a guidance counselor, librarian, nurse and math teacher?  And I should also clean my own classroom properly?  Then support me with systems that allow me to do those things well!  I've always taught in diverse areas where I am as likely to be spending my days with the daughters and sons of engineers as I am with the children of refugees (sometimes they are one and the same).  

27 students like that in one class is more than I can effectively handle, I'll be honest.

If the government wants me to continue to put in long hours planning for and assessing student work, thinking about how best to meet the diverse needs of the students in my class, and still get enough sleep at night in order to come back in one piece smiling for the next day's adventures, then the government needs to respect me with a fairly negotiated contract.

Until such a time, I am going to wear red on Wednesdays and continue to follow the guidance of my union.

I was glad Tats convinced us to go to "customer appreciation day" at Pet Value this weekend... the kangaroo was totally worth it!!!  (Not to mention all the free dog food and treat samples we picked up for Sneakers!)

Afterward, the boys and a friend who came to visit enjoyed showing off with their newly-assigned instruments (we are very blessed that their middle school has an excellent instrumental music program).  Then, we headed over to the playground next door, where their "Uncle" Joel, who was visiting from Portugal, took over one of the swingsets so that he could practise his new ropes routine for an upcoming show!!!

Well, it's that magical time of the school year again, where all the brilliant plans we've layed throughout the summer come to nothing, and classes are re-organized, and people are moving hither and yon. 

In my case, my homeroom class has been collapsed to make way for a new class which is opening in the school, and which I am taking over. (It's the first time in my career that reorganization is affecting me personally so drastically.)

That means all five of my math classes will now be likely taught by someone else, as I take on a brand-new "main" class of students, and one supplementary class, most of whom I've never met before.

Mostly it's exciting news for me; I had wanted to have fewer students and more time with them. Teaching the same group of students for many subjects will allow me to pursue a better inquiry model of teaching, and teach at a pace that is less rushed and more in line with student learning. 

And the five groups of students I am leaving behind will go with a strong foundation to carry them into their new classes: Together over the past weeks we've immersed ourselves in learning the basics of accountable talk, effective communication, and digital citizenship to support BYOD. We've also begun to explore a variety of problem-solving strategies and how to use them within the framework of the "G.R.A.S.P." problem-solving model. Students have been exposed to Edmodo and online learning etiquette, and I've had a chance to acclimatize to Grade 6.  

But there were tears…

My old homeroom class was the hardest: After having a group chat in the circle with our principal this morning to talk about the transition, we read the book "Voices in the Park" together. Then I had students brainstorm the different perspectives relevant in our own story, following which they wrote letters to a recipient of their choice - me, or their new teacher, or a new student coming into the class. 

Some of the students' tears were matched by my own as I read there and doing letters to me, and their empathetic letters to my new students.

(It was also a great way to get some insight into their first impressions of me as a teacher, lol!)

There were tears in my incoming class as well… A kind colleague willingly covered my class so I could go down to the cafeteria this afternoon, where the students moving into the new class I am to take over had been released from their respective "old" classes.

At least two students were crying; they were as distraught about leaving their old homerooms as my own students had been this morning, and I felt for them.

After the principal made a few introductory remarks, she left them alone with my new charges, and we got to know each other a little… I began with my "two truths and a lie" stories, and left them to ponder whether each statement was true or false. We will begin next Wednesday morning by taking up these "stories", and hearing their own stories so that I can get to know them as well.

In the meantime there's plenty of behind-the-scenes work to be done: New teaching resources and materials to be pulled together (I'm no longer just a math teacher!), new class lists to be printed, new virtual classrooms to be set up on Edmodo, 50 new names to be learned, tracking sheets to put together, copies for first weeks plans to be made, unshakable 3-week cough to be kicked...

Wish us all luck!

According to provincial and classroom data, communication is one area that students consistently perform poorly in, especially in math.  That's why I spend considerable time at the beginning of the year developing and practising communication skills, both oral and written.

Recently, after examining several solutions to problems communicated by their peers in other classes, I had students work in small groups to consider what it was that made the effectively communicated solutions they saw, well, "effective"!  Students came up with a relatively comprehensive list, which we posted and will add to throughout the year.

I also drew students' attention to the "Six Cs" chart in the front of their Learning Letters notebooks, so that they could see the similarities between the criteria they had developed and the "teacher-given" list:

In addition to communicating "effectively" in math, I want my students to be able to describe what it is that makes them effective communicators, and/or how they or a peer can improve.

She sits nicely, gives paw, sometimes comes when called, "leaves" and "drops" socks, underwear and toys when an alternative treat is offered (preferably boiled chicken!), and walks well loose leash, as long as there are no people, dogs or any other distractions around.

Oh well... it's a start!

Nearly as tasty as chocolate covered potato chips from PEI, "Chocolate Sweeties" are also sold by the Anne of Green Gables Chocolate Shop.  

These little cubes of brown sugar fudge are covered in a delicious, creamy milk chocolate,  and come in packages of 6.

We opened one such package in the kitchen after dinner the other night, and I immediately smelled a math problem!

"They're sooooo good!" proclaim Alex and Simon, and Ms. K decides to generously give a third of her portion to the boys to share.  How much of the package did the boys end up with each?

If everyone kept their fair share, how many packages would we need to open so that each person gets a whole number of chocolate sweeties?

Can you think of any other math problems the chocolate sweeties cause?  If so, please comment below!

I believe strongly in a combination of self-regulated and instructional approaches to effective classroom management.  

If students are to be successful 21-century citizens, they cannot spend their entire school lives being spoon-fed by their teachers.  In order to foster the effective self-regulatory, meta-cognitive and collaborative skills I believe (and research states) students will need in order to succeed in the society they will graduate into, considerable time needs to be spent at the beginning of each school year establishing and reinforcing routines in ways that help students to co-develop a safe and inclusive learning space.

One of my pet peeves is people who blast their music on public transit either through cheap, crappy headphones or none at all. 

Apart from the fact that the music is usually annoying pop music of some sort, devoid of more advanced artistic merit of any appreciable kind, I just find it incredibly rude that someone would choose to be in a public space and force their particular auditory tastes upon everyone around them.