#OneWordOnt

This school year has certainly been the most exciting and most challenging of my educational career thus far. I was given the honour of becoming a new principal in a large elementary school in our board. The transition to the new role has been a challenging one. We started the school year short two classroom teachers, and my husband and I, along with some very caring helpers including my nephew, some caring staff members, and some student volunteers, rushed to prepare the rooms to receive children. 

We were also short a secretary, a librarian, and two custodians. Not having a secretary was especially challenging given that I was new in the school, didn't know the staff or families, or where anything was filed, stored, or kept. Let's just say I learned quickly and painfully through trial and error, guess and check!

When I saw the tweets for #OneWordOnt, I thought, this year it is a no-brainer, my OneWord is "Listen". As I get to know new staff, students and parents, listening has become the single most valuable skill I've needed to draw upon. 

It is easy to jump to conclusions, to judge behaviour, to make snap decisions, to form quick impressions when we don't take the time to listen. But listening doesn't just happen. It is not always easy to do. It is a skill, and like any other skill, it needs to be learned, developed and honed. When there is a long list of things waiting to be done, and a crisis occurs - whether it be a parent who is upset, a fight on the playground, a child who has been bullied, or a staff member with an ill family member - it is tempting to quickly "solve" the problem, to say, "do A, B and C" without first taking the time to listen. But being new to the school community, it is so critical to take the time to listen, to get to know the people involved in the issue, to hear every side of the situation, and to learn the context. 

Listening means recognizing that behaviour is a form of communication. There are so many great quotes about listening, this is one of my favourites: 

 Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self. ~ Dean Jackson

Listening often means letting my ego go, and realizing that I might not have all of the answers, or know the best way of doing things. Listening means learning; I am not learning if I do all of the talking. Listening requires humility. Listening requires an open mind and heart, a readiness to hear the other person's perspective, it requires caring about what the other person is experiencing. Listening means hearing what the other person is saying, and not saying, without planning a response. Listening means caring more about understanding than about being understood.

This year is a year of building relationships. In order to do that, I plan to LISTEN.

To Know Me is to Love Me

Many years ago, when my children were still young, I joined a small faith-sharing group in our church. We met once a week to read scripture together and discuss the implications for our personal lives as young mothers. I grew very close to and fond of the other moms in this group. At one point I was writing a short article for the church bulletin about prayer, and I was thinking about how lucky I was to have such incredible women in my group, when it suddenly dawned on me that ALL people are incredible, we just rarely take the time to discover the unique beauty in other people that makes them so. Because we were in a faith-sharing group together, I had come to know each of these women on a personal level. I saw their strengths and their vulnerabilities, I knew them.

Nearly twenty years later, I became the Vice Principal of a K-8 elementary school. One day the principal and I were having a conversation about our staff and we are reflecting on how great our staff was and how lucky we were to work with such devoted people. I shared the story about my small faith-sharing group because I realized that it was a similar situation. I felt I had come to some great epiphany and I wanted to share it.

My principal, however, was not surprised. She simply said, "to know me is to love me".

It is that simple - to know me is to love me.

Over the last two years, I've achieved a certain clarity about what is necessary to be successful and find joy in the administrator's role. Love is a verb, it is not just a feeling, it is an action. Actually, it is a series of actions that you choose to make. Love is a decision.

In order to love someone, you have to make the effort to get to know them on a personal level. Knowing them as a coworker is not enough. You need to know who they are in their life outside of school as well as in school. You need to know what is important to them, what they enjoy, what they are afraid of, what their particular gifts are, and where they struggle.

Knowing who a person is, you must then shine their goodness, their assets, back to them. Be their mirror. This involves empowering them to use their assets, their gifts and talents, to help support the community of learners. Need them. Make sure they know they are needed. Let them know how they are needed.

Be of service to them. Take action knowing what they care about, what they need, where they are vulnerable, support them when and where they need support.

Yes, we need to know one another to love one another. But more than that, we need to be there for one another, we need to be of service to one another in order to love one another. It is not the act of being served that makes us love another, it is the act of providing service to someone else that leads to our loving them.

Love is a decision.

And here is the best part: with love comes joy. While love is a deliberate act, joy is its byproduct - a freely given gift to one who loves.

Being an educator is not for the faint of heart. Being an educator is a call to love. It is in the loving that we empower others to be their best selves, whether it is our students or our colleagues, and it is in the loving that we find joy in our jobs.

Developing a 21st Century Vision for Education

Our school board has provided administrators an opportunity to be in a book club together. The book we are reading is "The Leader's Guide to 21st Century Education - 7 Steps for Schools and Districts". Authors Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill provide a 7-step framework for building professional capacity that will support schools in developing students who are prepared for the 21st Century.

Step 1 is a all about developing your own vision of 21st Century teaching and learning. In order to help you develop your vision, the authors provide 8 perspectives they believe worthy of consideration: the evolution of work and the change in skills required by graduates as they join he workforce; the flattening of the world with our increasing ability to access and participate in information creation; the increase in the service economy; the impact of citizenship in the global society; the ever-increasingly fast pace of change; the growing need for creativity and innovation, which is so closely related to the pace of change; the volume of available information and the shelf-life of that information; and of course, technology.

Kay and Greenhill suggest that the inclination of educators, when recognizing a need for change, is to focus too quickly on educational strategies, rather than first considering the desired student outcomes one hopes to achieve.  They suggest the "4Cs" as outcomes to focus on when developing your vision:

• critical thinking
• communication
• collaboration 
• creativity and innovation

I have strong ideas about how and why education needs to change. But I've never sat down and put into words my vision for the 21st Century learner. I wonder, though, if the term "21st Century Learner" is already out-dated. The first group of students born in the 21st Century are at the cusp of graduation already. 

I prefer to consider the changes in education necessary to support the "Networked Learner." I use this term because I believe it aptly describes our learners today. They are connected to the Internet and social media at a very early age, sometimes as young as five years old, and this greatly impacts who they are as learners and who they will be as graduates. Before we can even establish what outcomes we want for our students, we need to know who these students are as learners. How has being so "connected" impacted today's learner? And how does education need to change to support such a learner? 

I agree with Kay and Greenhill that critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are outcomes today's learner will need as they enter the workforce, but I'd argue that today's learner needs those learning outcomes now, not just by graduation. They need them to navigate the world in which they are currently living, and possibly, as educators and parents, we are failing them in this. We make available all of the tools they need to connect, but do we provide the skills they need to take advantage of all that is available to them while being safe in the process?  On his blog, Principal of Change, George Couros paraphrases a student who says:

“Social media is like water because it is everywhere in our life.  We can ignore it and watch kids drown, or we can teach kids how to swim.  Which way are you going to go?”

In the Leader's Guide, the authors offer other outcomes administrators may want to consider adding to their vision for 21st Century learning, one of which is citizenship.  In my vision, citizenship is at the forefront, whether you call it "digital citizenship" or "global citizenship", it's recognition that we are all connected, and that the decisions and actions I make impact others. What are our civic responsibilities as global citizens? I want to help foster in my students a sense of responsibility and to consider their role in making the world a better place. 

The world is flattening. Knowledge is power, and for the first time, information is freely available to anyone who can connect. We also have an opportunity to share our voices and be a part of knowledge creation as never before. Our students are both accessing information and leaving their own digital footprints. As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are thinking critically as they access that information - right now - because that information is impacting them and playing a role in who they are becoming and how they view the world. They are creating a digital footprint that will not be erased, and they need help in creating a footprint that will represent them well in the global community to which they belong. 

We can't afford to keep our heads in the sand any longer. We are not simply developing a vision that will help our students enter the world of tomorrow. We are developing a vision to support our students who are connected right now, and we need to educate ourselves on how to provide the type of learning they need to navigate the digital landscape in which they currently find themselves. 

Hail to the IT Department

We recently started a Makerspace Club in our school. Last week, we had MinecraftEDU installed by our IT technician so that we could use it for our Makerspace. The kids were so excited. But yesterday, when the students went to use it, we noticed that someone had inadvertently deleted the pathway. These types of glitches can be so frustrating and they happen all of the time.

For reasons I often rail against, we don't have administrative rights over our school technology. In my more frustrated and impatient moments, I can rant against the imposed limitations of not having administrative rights over the technology we use and the dependency on a "middleman". However, in my more rational moments, I understand the logic behind the school board having some control over what goes onto our computers. 

So this morning, I emailed our IT technician to tell him about our issue with the MinecraftEDU pathway disappearing and the kids not being able to log onto it yesterday. He answered my email within ten minutes, ON A SATURDAY MORNING! That made me think about how much I truly depend on our IT department. I call or email one or more of them several times a week. They must get so tired of  all of the calls they get, but they are always so polite and accommodating. It must be difficult to have a job where most of the people contacting you are contacting you because they are frustrated. (Of course, we could have a whole other conversation about why they are frustrated, and what needs to be done proactively so that no longer happens... but that is a for longer conversation another time.)

Our IT department is full of unsung heroes. They are pretty much at our beck and call. And we don't ever really acknowledge all that they do for us. We have "Secretary Appreciation Day", "Educational Assistant Appreciation Day", and "Teacher Appreciation Day". I believe we need an "IT Department Appreciation Day". In fact, I don't even know what we are supposed to be calling them. They are usually referred to as the "IT Guy" or "IT Person". I think "IT Technician" is probably the more accurate term, but I am not even sure. 

I would like all of the IT support people from our board to know how truly grateful I am to each and every one of them for all of the help they have given me over the years, the patience they've shown, and the openness to supporting all of my requests (even the seemingly crazy ones!). Thank-you Wayne, Bill C., Melba, Ryan, Paulo, Bince, Roger, Saleem, Victor, Beverley, Joanne, Mike B., Brad, Jason, Mike A., Bill B., Dan, Jeff, Carl, Todd, Martin, Jordan, and Tim! (That isn't even the whole team, but I've never worked with the Secondary folk). I hope I didn't miss anyone because you are all rock stars in my book!

Empowering Students to be Agents of Change - Battery Blitz

Yesterday, the Earth Rangers came to our school. It was an incredibly exciting presentation. It was also a call to action. Many of our students felt compelled to sign up with the Earth Rangers after seeing that presentation. The Earth Rangers are working hard to "Bring Back the Wild" and save our biodiversity.

The Earth Rangers  suggested that we can help our endangered species by protecting their habitats. They have a campaign on right now called the Battery Blitz Mission  to help dispose of batteries safely and keep them out of landfills.

Some of our Grade Six students were so empowered by this call to action, that they went home, created a flyer, and passed it out in their neighbourhood. They collected 159 batteries in less than 24hrs! Isn't it an amazing flyer?

We are learning to teach through inquiry in our school. But I think teaching through inquiry is just one thread in a much larger tapestry. I wish we were learning how to empower our students to have agency! Inquiry is one way to put our students in the driver's seat of their own learning. But it is not the only way. Some people feel the goal of teaching through inquiry is to keep students engaged in their learning. I don't think so, I think the goal of inquiry is to empower our students to recognize that they have power, or agency, that what they do and think matters, and that they can make a difference.

Students need to believe that when they don't understand something, or when they are stuck on a problem, there is something they can do about it. They are not helpless. They have the power to change their misunderstanding into understanding. They can get help or they can help themselves. There is always something they can do. We need to teach them that. We need to teach them how to be learners.

Once they recognize that they are in charge of their own learning, they become empowered to be agents of change in the world in which we live.

The Grade Six teacher was so excited when her students showed her their flyer. These students took what they have learned in school and applied it for a real purpose to solve an authentic problem in our world. And they did it on their own, not because someone told them they had to. They were autonomous, they had purpose, and they believed they could master the task. As Daniel Pink says, that is all they needed to feel the drive to get things done!

Inquiry is a powerful way to engage our students, but connecting an inquiry to a real-world problem that they can help solve empowers our students and provides purpose for the learning we ask them to do.

The Making of a MakerSpace

I want to create a MakerSpace in our school. A space where students can come to create, innovate, and explore. A space and place where they can make discoveries and solve problems. This space can also be a place where they are in charge, where they learn to collaborate, and truly work together to get the job done.

I want to do this for the students in my school. But I also want to do this for me. I NEED to create, to innovate, and to solve authentic problems. Creating this space will be a project that will serve my needs too. 

Students feel the same way that I do. There is undeniable pleasure and motivation in being a part of something that solves a problem, meets a need and makes the world a little bit better for someone else. 

Frederick Buechner said, "Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world's greatest need". 

Daniel Pink says that for people to be motivated, they need to have autonomy, mastery and purpose. I am hoping to create a MakerSpace where students can create and innovate autonomously with tools they can be successful with. The trick will be to ensure that their creations and inventions serve a purpose. 

There have been many things I've been considering prior to embarking on this project:

1. Where will I find a space for it in the school? I've decided on the computer lab, which we call the "Lighthouse" (seems appropriate for an idea warehouse doesn't it?) Our Lighthouse is large, with tables in the centre of the room and computers around the periphery. We have storage cupboards in there as well. The walls are still bare - lots of potential for those walls!

2. Who will be using it and when? I've decided to start small. I am going to call it a "MakerSpace Club" and have it opened several days during the week during the lunch hour. That way, I won't be disrupting class use of the computer lab during the day. Ideally, I would love to see this evolve into a space where teachers feel the need to take their students to during the day to work on some problem-based learning and inquiry. 

3. Who will supervise students in the MakerSpace? Since it will be running during the lunch hour, I will need adults to supervise. Luckily, I am in a school where teachers are constantly giving up their lunch time in the service of our students and I've already got two volunteers!

4. What resources will I need and where will I get them? This is a bit trickier. As with all publicly funded schools, money is tight. I am starting with my own resources, Legos and K'Nex for building that my own children have outgrown, along with odds and sods of craft materials I've collected over the years. Being in the computer lab gives us the additional option of using the computers, so I've looked into getting a school account with MinecraftEDU so that students can also be creating in the virtual world as well. I'm planning on putting out a call to our parent community in the search for cardboard as well. The question is, should we also look for used electronics to start taking apart and building with as well, not to mention wood working materials? I don't know a lot about that sort of stuff, so am feeling a bit out of my comfort zone. 

One of the teachers asked if I was going to come into the school on the weekend to get it all organized, and that was my original thought. But I reconsidered this. If this is to be a space where students can work and explore autonomously, then shouldn't they be involved in the creation of the space? So tomorrow, we will begin together to create our very first MakerSpace. 

If you are interested in learning more about MakerSpace check out these links. 

Renovated Learning - MakerSpace Resources

Edutopia - Designing a School Makerspace 

#OneWord2016

Last year my #OneWord2015 was AGENCY. I'm still enamored with the word because I believe wholeheartedly the real "transformation" that needs to take place in education is the empowerment of our students to be agents of their own learning.

So I was really stumped. How could I pick a new #OneWord2016 when I'm still working through last year's word? (I think that word alone will continue to evolve for me - and for education - over the next decade!) I continued to ponder the word AGENCY and all that it has come to mean to me this past year.

In the hopes of getting inspired, I read other people's posts, including The Bloggess, Mark's Musings, Miss Kit Kat, Learning About Learning, and Living Avivaloca. I felt very inspired by each of those blogs, and they really moved me to think. I especially loved that Aviva chose "hearing" because unless we make the effort, we often don't hear what others are telling us. Without careful listening, we stand to miss so much!

Then I read David Fife's Perspectives and I was actually quite envious. His word is "mindfulness". I wished I had picked "mindfulness"! "Mindfulness" is strongly connected to "metacognition" for me, but it is far more beautiful.

I sat and pondered these posts thinking how each impacted me differently, how my thinking was extended and strengthened with each new post.

In his post David wrote that there are 3 simple steps to find your "One Word - Prepare Your Heart, Discover Your Word, Live Your Word."

So as I sat and pondered, and as I attempted to prepare my heart, I realized that my word had been with me all along. My #OneWord2016 is PONDER.

This year, as I learn to be a Vice Principal in a new school community, I want to be sure to think things through carefully before arriving at any conclusions; I want to contemplate all possibilities before making any decisions. I want to think deeply. I want to attentively listen to what others are saying and mindfully reflect on what I don't hear. This year I want to PONDER.