Monday Quotes are back...

I haven't posted in a while, but feeling recharged and ready to keep sharing.... especially as I work more and more with new teachers, I really value having a space to share and store ideas I come across.

Less of my own adaptations and more a collection of others amazing ideas... at least for now.

Keep cellphones out of bedrooms!

It’s an attention-grabbing poster – a teenager girl, typing her on her phone at night, with a text bubble lifting up her skirt. But the Coquitlam-based Children of the Street Society say their “Hooked” campaign, meant to convince parents to ban smartphones from their children’s bedrooms at night, is grounded in education.

Source: http://globalnews.ca/news/1778928/coquitlam-organization-wants-cellphones-out-of-kids-bedrooms-at-night/

Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty

For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.

The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches. The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nation’s public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers.

“We’ve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but it’s here sooner rather than later,” said Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University, noting that the poverty rate has been increasing even as the economy has improved. “A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school.”

The shift to a majority-poor student population means that in public schools, a growing number of children start kindergarten already trailing their more privileged peers and rarely, if ever, catch up. They are less likely to have support at home, are less frequently exposed to enriching activities outside of school, and are more likely to drop out and never attend college.

It also means that education policy, funding decisions and classroom instruction must adapt to the needy children who arrive at school each day.

“When they first come in my door in the morning, the first thing I do is an inventory of immediate needs: Did you eat? Are you clean? A big part of my job is making them feel safe,” said Sonya Romero-Smith, a veteran teacher at Lew Wallace Elementary School in Albuquerque. Fourteen of her 18 kindergartners are eligible for free lunches.

She helps them clean up with bathroom wipes and toothbrushes, and she stocks a drawer with clean socks, underwear, pants and shoes.

Romero-Smith, 40, who has been a teacher for 19 years, became a foster mother in November to two girls, sisters who attend her school. They had been homeless, their father living on the streets and their mother in jail, she said. When she brought the girls home, she was shocked by the disarray of their young lives.

Read the rest here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-school-students-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

Powerful Lesson on Privilege - buzzfeed

This resonated with me:

I once saw a high school teacher lead a simple, powerful exercise to teach his class about privilege and social mobility. He started by giving each student a scrap piece of paper and asked them to crumple it up.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

Then he moved the recycling bin to the front of the room.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

He said, “The game is simple — you all represent the country’s population. And everyone in the country has a chance to become wealthy and move into the upper class.”

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

“To move into the upper class, all you must do is throw your wadded-up paper into the bin while sitting in your seat.”

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

The students in the back of the room immediately piped up, “This is unfair!” They could see the rows of students in front of them had a much better chance.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

Everyone took their shots, and — as expected — most of the students in the front made it (but not all) and only a few students in the back of the room made it.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

He concluded by saying, “The closer you were to the recycling bin, the better your odds. This is what privilege looks like. Did you notice how the only ones who complained about fairness were in the back of the room?”

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

“By contrast, people in the front of the room were less likely to be aware of the privilege they were born into. All they can see is 10 feet between them and their goal.”

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

“Your job — as students who are receiving an education — is to be aware of your privilege. And use this particular privilege called “education” to do your best to achieve great things, all the while advocating for those in the rows behind you.”

Source

Art Journal: Passion: Teachers

From facebook:
I belong to an art journalling group on FB (Journal52 if you want to join in). One of the latest prompts was passion and a member in the UK (Angela McOwan...she's given permission for me to share) posted this lovely piece. For a reminder that some people really do get what we do. #rayofsunshine

Better versions of 24 hours front page advertisement #BCED

There is no money for education, however, there is for a lot of other things this government makes a priority.

This is a great summary of what happened - the ad backfired on social media.

After this full page ad in 24 hours newspaper was bought as a 'fake' front cover by the Liberals (remember, they did this during election time with 'Christy Clark the come back kid' fake front page ad too)

Well, I much prefer some of the more accurate statistics contained in these 're worked' ads [Found via facebook from various sources]:

Check out this news story on the ad.

BCFED & BCTF Rally for #BCED tonight at Canada Place

What an amazing rally. There was a Maple Ridge teacher who spoke, a Vancouver grade 12 students, BCTF President Jim Iker, Jim Sinclair from BCFED, Ontario Teachers' president, CLC President Hassan Yussaff, leader of the NDP John Horgan, and many other wonderful speakers.

What was inspiring to me

• Passionate speakers
• Student who pointed out she could vote in 6 months and Christy Clark had lost her vote
• Ontario Teachers support "Your fight is our fight"
• Reminders of the importance of what we are standing up for
• Sinclair - passionate as always
• hearing enthusiasm in Jim Iker's usually calm voice
• Listening to NDP leader supporting education
• seeing past NDP leader Glen Clark who I met as a young youth advocate
• reading creative and clever signs
• seeing colleagues 
• the music, one group is made up of local band teachers (and a drama teacher) who I have worked with 
• it was massive, so many people!

I tweeted more and posted some on my facebook.

14 things that are obsolete in 21st century schools

I highly recommend checking out this post on 14 things that are obsolete in 21st century schools.

Things like computer rooms, no wi-fi, banning personal devices, junk food, 'one-size fits all pro d' and isolated classrooms make the list.



Source

I am a greedy teacher (Shared Status from Facebook)

I am a Greedy Teacher

Andrew Turner - June 7, 2014 at 1:30pm

As I stress and think about the upcoming strike vote, in order to unscramble my internal conflict, I decided to write down my own thoughts and echo some feelings of people I have spoke to. This is the result...

I am a Greedy Teacher.

I want more than I currently have, a lot more. I don’t think that I should have to apologize for that. You see I have a son that will need help in school. He will need one-on-one attention, and a speech pathologist. I am so greedy that I am willing to walk out on strike and potentially lose over $4000 because he isn’t the only one.

I am a greedy teacher. I work in an alternate school and teach students with behavioural and mental health issues, high anxiety, ESL, Learning Disabilities, and drug problems. I have seen all of the teachers I work with struggle to make decisions as to who should get testing and who shouldn’t, since access is limited. I am so greedy that I am willing to sacrifice my strike pay to make sure that they get what they deserve when it comes to service.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that I believe a raise that is in line with cost-of-living is something everyone is entitled to. I am so greedy that I believe this even after being legislated back and taking 0% for almost 3 years (and potentially a 4th) for fighting to protect the rights of students learning conditions, that are illegally being stripped away by a Neo-Liberal government. I am so greedy that as I watch my profession get trashed in the media, and assaulted by many of the parents who have entrusted me to protect their children, I still keep fighting for their rights. I am so greedy I sacrifice my ability to bargain for a fair wage because the government wants a lower wage offer in order to start to negotiate class size and composition and when we give them one they still refuse to negotiate on “key issues.”

I am a greedy teacher. I want the government to tell the truth. Peter Fassbender goes on Global and states that the government has been at the table ready to negotiate 24/7 since last June. Then maybe he can explain why, after threatening our benefits the government wanted to take from April 30th – May 26th away from the table and the BCTF had to use precious negotiating time to try to convince them to come back for May 6th, 7th and 8th. I am so greedy that I think that the fact the government agreed to come back by the 12th, and waste 2 weeks, is ridiculous.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that I would rather believe Dr. David Zyngier who did a comprehensive review of 112 research papers, written between 1979-2014 discussing the effect of class size. I would rather believe the 109 research papers that argue smaller class sizes are better for students than the 3 that argue it’s not. I am so greedy that I would rather believe UBC education professors Dr. E. Wayne Ross and Dr. Charles Ungerleider who study curriculum, pedagogy, class size and composition, sociology in education and policy research, and state the government is wrong about class size, rather than Peter Fassbender who read a few research papers and the one OECD report he quotes the most he misrepresents.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that I don’t think that “below average” funding is good enough for the children of British Columbia. I am so greedy that despite “below average” funding I have still managed to give my students one of the best educations in the world. I am so greedy that I managed to do this by buying supplies with money out of my own pocket. I am so greedy that I am constantly searching for new technology and software that I can use to engage my students and efficiently facilitate learning, for different learning styles, and then realize it will have to wait because the money isn’t in the budget.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that when the government locked me out of my own school and docked me 10% pay for fulfilling my contractual obligation I stopped doing extracurricular activity. I am so greedy that instead of coaching, running plays, facilitating environmental clubs, etc… I took my VOLUNTEER time and went home and played with my kids instead.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that I think that the government should increase the corporate tax rate that they have been cutting since they go into power. I am so greedy that I don’t believe I should have to pay more tax than a mult-billion dollar corporation that has not created the jobs that the Liberals corporate tax cuts promised. I am so greedy that I believe all corporate tax cuts should be incentive based and not handed out until the jobs are created, not before. In legislature, when discussing BC’s weakened finances and loss of revenue Christy Clark admitted, “It just doesn't add up.” I am so greedy that I think we should have a government that will admit it when they get things wrong and fix it.

I am a greedy teacher. So greedy that I think the government should prioritize public education and healthcare above a new roof on BC place, or LNG projects. I am so greedy that I think that the government spending money on students is a better investment than a retractable roof that rarely opens. I am so greedy that I believe the government should not
make promises, about BC’s economy, based on a gamble with LNG and a lot of “could’s” and “maybe’s.”

I am a greedy teacher. I want for all students what Christy Clark obviously wants for her own son. I am so greedy that I want Christy Clark to come on TV and tell the people of British Columbia that she chose private school for her son because she wanted him to have smaller classes and more one-on-one time. I am so greedy that I want her to explain why she finds it necessary to spend over $18,000 a year of the money tax payers pay her to put her son in a school that promises classes no bigger than 26 and senior electives no bigger than 16, when over 30 students in a class with 4 or more special needs students is just fine for everyone else.

I am a greedy teacher because I want more, and I want better. I want more for my own children, I want more for the students of British Columbia, I want more of my taxes to be reinvested into the province not into private corporations pockets, and I want a better government that cares more about the people of the province on all socio-economic levels.

If being greedy means not being complacent, I am proud to be greedy. In fact I teach my students to be greedy, to not settle. In the words of Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”

Connectivity and School Culture

Came across another great article I wanted to share, How Transparency Can Transform School Culture.

It talks about how leadership in a school can create connectivity and a culture of sharing of both successes and struggles. With social media, sharing becomes easier and more

“The culture offline or online has to say we care about being open minded to the rest of our learning community whether that’s local or global.”

Many educators have found connecting through social media and other online platforms is valuable for sharing resources and inspire one another. But some teachers are still wary of social media after a few high-profile incidents of teachers being accused of wrong-doing on the web, Mazza said. “Once teachers understand that the leadership is taking a risk, then they feel a lot more comfortable doing so,” he said

I encourage you to check out the article as it has some great points surrounding transparency and school culture, along with social media and how the connectivity is growing from it.



“When you’re using digital tools and other social media it’s like you’re yelling out the front door of your school because you are so proud of something.”

Read more here

Activity Boxes

Came across this blog spot about activity boxes that can be used similar to centers, or as activities for students who need something different to help them with self-regulation. It can help with classroom management.

The objective is to redirect the negative behavior before it escalates.  I have used activity boxes with students that could become aggressive, and violent not only to themselves but also toward other individuals. It also is helpful for children that may not fully understand why they are behaving inappropriately.

Setting up activity boxes is simple.  Sometimes the simplest idea can be the one thing that helps you connect with a student!

There are a few guidelines I like to follow when setting up activity boxes for individual students for the first time.

1.  Include the student in the process.   This is important because the box is intended to help that student re-direct their negative behaviors.  It isn't going to have the degree of success if the student isn't engaged in the materials included in it.  

2. The container should be the size of a shoe box.  My first activity boxes were actual shoe boxes.  I love the Nike shoe boxes that have the flip flap lid. I would go to the Mall and ask for the empty boxes.   Students can pick their box, and help decorate it.  Shoe boxes are compact, and will stack easily in a storage closet.

3.  The contents of the activity box should have an educational value.   Using activity boxes is not intended for a student to get out of doing work, or to play after disrupting class. This is a tool to use to defuse negative (escalating) behaviors.

4.  Go over the ground rules for using the activity boxes.  This would include proper way to use and take care of the materials in the box, appropriate time to use them, etc.  Remember to focus on the positive as much as possible!

Check out photos and examples of activity boxes at - SOURCE

Foldable Writing Projects

This is from pinterest and links to a teachers pay teachers site where you can purchase the book, but I just liked the photo as it shows some cool foldable writing assignments.

I have done foldables assignments with the Canada Food Guide in Home Ec this year with grade 6/7s, as well as with flour mixtures for my Grade 8s. They made pyramids, cubes, all with foldable parts to give details about different topics. Love it!


Source

Prizes for all? Why aren't rewards working?

I frequently discuss this issue with teachers, in particular, new teachers and TTOCs. What is acceptable for  'rewards' and when should they be used?

As a parent, I do not give my daughter allowance or rewards for doing what she is supposed to do... make her bed, take dishes to the sink, keep her room clean, do her homework... those are things she needs to do. Now, if she does additional chores or helps out above her own responsibilities, there are sometimes thank-yous such as a verbal thanks, an ice cream, a mall date... but I digress...

When do rewards work and how do rewards work, if at all? I found this article that examines the use of rewards and why they do not work.

“Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”

Lewis Carroll’s Dodo, Alice in Wonderland

“When the new system was introduced, one of my pupils shouted: ‘You get points just for showing up! What does that teach us?’ Looking later at the stats, I noticed that the top five reward earners were the worst behaved students in the entire school. Prizes were simply being used as a way of getting kids to do what they should be doing anyway, rather than to reward students for going the extra mile. The attitude was ‘oh well, I’ll get more later anyway, I can’t be bothered to answer these questions, so I won’t’. That’s when it struck me: giving out unmerited rewards all the time actually legitimised their poor behaviour.”

A couple of stories from economic research can enlighten us as to why incentives backfire:

‘When people were given a small stipend for donating blood rather than simply praised for their altruism, they actually donated less blood. The stipend turned a noble act of charity into a painful way to make money, and it simply wasn’t worth it.’

‘Nursery schools started fining parents who turned up late to pick up their children at 4pm. The result was striking: the number of late pick-ups more than doubled.’

 There are two main types of incentives: economic, and social or moral. The fine and the stipend backfired because they substituted an economic incentive for a moral incentive. 

Daniel Pink, author of 'Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us' says what really motivates us is mastery, purpose and autonomy. Deci‘s psychological research suggests competence, relatedness and autonomy are the key ingredients, although to my knowledge these are nowhere in the research split out and measured for their relative importance.

I’d build on this and suggest that pupils develop their intrinsic motivation through three nutrients: mastery, responsibility and relationships. I think responsibility is a more foundational nutrient for young primary and secondary school pupils than autonomy; that you can’t be truly autonomous until you’ve achieved responsibility for your choices and their consequences.

Read the entire article here

But, I hate math....

I hear it all the time... students who don't like math.. the correlation between what they like and what they do well in doesn't require extensive research, it is clear... so what impacts students' attitudes towards Math? I found a great article on that...

Factors Influencing Students' Attitudes Towards Math.... This is some great research and an excellent read. My daughter struggles with math in part because she doesn't enjoy it. I am seeking ways to help change that, but this research really helps put the attitudes of "math haters" in perspective.

You need not look far to sense that our current education system is in a state of upheaval. Proponents of Common Core Standards, Alberta’s Curriculum Redesign and the new BC Ed Plan have all placed mathematics in the limelight of educational reform. Addressing the development of negatives attitudes and confidence in mathematics is likely one of the biggest concerns in education today and there is certainly good reason for such concern. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed a decrease in the percentage of students who indicated they like math from 1992 to 2000. Likewise, a survey by Olson (1998) revealed that one-third of students reported that they did not enjoy mathematics. With a rising resentment towards the subject, economists fear the work force will be impacted after research revealed that negative attitudes can decrease the tendency of individuals to consider careers in mathematics-related fields (Haladyna, Shaughnessy, & Shaughnessy, 1983; Maple & Stage, 1991; Trusty, 2002). In fact, further studies have shown that students’ attitudes toward mathematics were the strongest predictor of their participation in advanced mathematics courses (Ercikan, Mccreith, & Lapointe, 2005). In the field of mathematics education, this is nothing new. Educators as early as the 1960’s have held the belief that attitude plays a fundamental role in learning and achievement in mathematics (Neal, 1969) and while recent programs in BC and Alberta have identified the steps needed to generate a shift in attitude there is limited literature that summarizes the research about the causes of negative attitudes.

Read more at original source

Letter: Here’s one teacher who earned every dime

There has been a lot of recent talk about our teachers, government and job action. I'd like to take a moment and talk about Jane Powell. 

She was my drama teacher from eighth grade until I graduated (with a brief respite while I was in 11th grade) and she passed away on Oct. 1. 

Like most people, I had a difficult time in school. With hormones controlling my every move, bullies in the hallways, less than stellar home life and an intense need to be lippy, poor Ms. Powell had to deal with the results of that equation.

All I wanted to do was play around and when I found out how easy it was to make people laugh, I felt that I had found my calling, but Ms. Powell had different ideas.

Very early in my drama studies she was quick to tamp down my eagerness to be a jackass.

I have never been a person to blindly accept authority and Ms. Powell, like all of my other teachers, had to deal with it on a daily basis. She, like the others, never gave up on me. 

I don't know what she or any other of my teachers were paid to deal with the rag-tag group that we were in school, but given the crass behaviour she was exposed to daily, it probably wasn't enough.

This was before teachers had to deal with students text messaging in class etc. (our text messages were hand- written notes passed around the room!).

When the B.C. Liberals gave themselves a pay raise a few years back, there was talk that “we need to attract the best and brightest.”

The best and brightest people in the world are not grown in petri dishes. They are challenged and taught by a specific group of professionals who dedicate their lives to their work.

Teachers.

"They get weekends, stats and summers off” is a common argument I've heard.

According to the Parliament of Canada website, last year our MLAs had 46 sitting days in parliament? (I am not going to give them credit for work they do outside of Victoria until we give credit to the work teachers do outside of the school.)

“It shouldn't be about money, if they really love their jobs,” is another common argument I've heard.

The same could be said about people choosing to run for public office.

JOEY JACK

Kamloops

SOURCE

Blog Staffroom Confidential: BC Teachers: Liability & the Lockout

Here is part of a blog post, I encourage you to go read in its entirety. Regarding WCB coverage, I find the debate interesting as there are several cases pre-job action or lock-out, in which teachers were NOT covered by WCB for extra curricular activities.

Here is the start of Staffroom Confidential's blog post:

The war of words between the BCTF and the BC Government, heated up this week as the government denied that their lockout prevented teachers from organizing and participating in extra-curricular events and blamed the BCTF for warning its members of potential liability.

The Victoria Times Colonist reported this morning:

Education Minister Peter Fassbender said he was against any disruption of extracurricular and volunteer opportunities.

“I think that’s a shame,” he said. “As I said at the beginning, I am concerned because this is now affecting students and their parents and the communities. Teachers have a choice to participate in extracurricular activities as they have previously.”

While the union said teachers should wait until there is confirmation from WorkSafe B.C. that they are on solid ground with extracurricular activity during the partial lockout, Fassbender said WorkSafe B.C. coverage for teachers will not be compromised.

“Any teacher that is at any activity that is sanctioned by a school district is absolutely covered by WorkSafe. There is no question of that."

( - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/union-tells-teachers-to-stop-volunteering-cites-liability-concerns-1.1076148#sthash.BWAx6nAh.dpuf)

What are the facts we know?

The first claim, that teachers are covered by WCB (WorksafeBC), is almost certainly false. WCB has been issuing orders denying WCB coverage to teachers involved in extra-curricular activities for some time now. See, for example, this WCAT (the appeal body of the WCB) decision.

In it, the adjudicator determines that coverage is not provided because the activity was not "work" ....

Read More here