Meeting the Minister of Education

A week ago, I was fortunate enough to meet the Minister of Education, the Honourable Nancy Allan.

Back in October/November of 2012, the principal of my school nominated me for the province's Outstanding New Teacher award. I was humbled and touched by the gesture, and the thought of "I'm just doing my job" flew through my mind. Nevertheless, I accepted the nomination, was endorsed by two colleagues, and found myself on April 18th, 2013 accepting an award from the Minister. The news release can be found here.



The entire ceremony (a beautiful luncheon) was very overwhelming, being in a room with innovative and inspiring educators, their family, and friends. The Minister read some background about each recipient before being presented their award, and they were given the floor for a quick acceptance speech. You can read the biographies of the recipients here.



Of course, I had prepared a speech, memorized it, and rehearsed it 5 times on the way to the Legislative building and another 2 times since I had sat down. However, I had never given a speech in public before, especially not an acceptance speech, so the minute I stepped into the aisle, I became tongue-tied and forgot every word. I tried to salvage what I remembered of my speech, but forgot to thank the most important person - and one of the only people to give me a shot so early in my career: my principal.

Below is the speech I would have given if I weren't so overwhelmed.

Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to thank the selection committee for choosing me to receive this award from a pool of what I am sure were some very worthy candidates. You know, I never knew if I wanted to be a teacher. At one point, I thought I might, so upon graduation, I entered the faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg. I was fortunate enough to have an excellent foundation laid for me there, and at St. Maurice High School where I did my first high school practicum. That foundation continued to develop when I went to Dakota Collegiate. But it was when I was interviewed for and received my current position at Ashern Central School that I knew I made the right decision. I'm not one to make an impression, but somehow, some way, the principal at ACS, Neil, saw something in me. I would like to take this time to thank him, my fiance, my family, my friends, and my two endorsers, Erika and Chelsey for their support over the last year and a half. I would not be receiving this award today if it weren't for them and their collective efforts. So thank you.

Making a pre-research plan

Outcome 3.1.4 - I can make a pre-research plan

Part of this outcome means that students brainstorm what they already know and anticipate the places they will go for their research. This is a huge struggle in grade 11 ELA for many of my kids, because they simply go straight to google without thinking about what they're looking for.

One of my artists in grade 11 decided that she was going to map out her thought process before beginning research. Below is what she produced.



When we started talking, I asked her about something that she was interested in. She said "anchors". In my head, I wondered "what in the world do I have to offer her in terms of knowledge to help her get to something she can research?"

It turns out, I didn't need to do that. She did it all on her own. In her representation of her thought process, she moved from thinking about anchors to boats, and that reminded her of sailors, islands and beaches, which reminded her of treasure, shiny objects, and compasses, time, the phrase 'x marks the spot' in a digital age (and what that means - hence the plug at the bottom of the earth), and finally the evolution of GPS devices.

All of this came together when she added her title: How did ancient sailors navigate the globe?


These pictures don't do this particular project justice, in person, the poster is phenomenal.

After her brainstorm session, she found some poster board and a classmate suggested she make it look like a map and burn the edges. Then, she asked me how to make it look old. Now THIS was something I could help with. I suggested using a tea bag and boiling water, dipping the tea bag into the water, and using it like a brush across the poster paper, before doing any of the drawing or burning. It worked! And turned out fantastic!

This is just one example of how some of my students have approached the outcomes. I would have never been able to come up with something like that. A significant aspect to this way of delivering ELA is the quality one-on-one time with students and verbally communicating their knowledge. Some of my students have a difficult time writing down their thoughts, but in a conversation, I can ask them questions to evaluate how well they can make connections, something they may spend a half hour writing a response for. I cherish that time. And more importantly, I cherish my students.

Essential Outcomes - Simplified

For the sake of my students' sanity and my own, I simplified the grade 11 ELA outcomes into a few words (even more simplified than I originally had done).

The good thing about the simple outcomes and the numbers: my students use the numbers, and they're easy to keep track of. They are also the numbers the Department of Education uses.

The down side about the simplicity of the outcomes: they can appear vague, and don't necessarily inspire a lot of creativity.

Here they are:


Below, you can see how I simplified the entire ELA curriculum and sorted the essential outcomes for students by grade.

Pre-Release - Experimental Education

The experiment I am doing with my grade 11 students is turning out better than I anticipated. Approximately 80% of my students are opting-in for the alternative delivery model of grade 11 ELA. I have been developing the process for when we meet with one another, and am making my expectations for them clearer than I did initially.

I have spent the last few days watching Ted talks, the BYTE2013 conference in Neepawa online, and following different educators, schools, and divisions within MB on Twitter. There is so much PD out there, but as I was talking with two other teachers in my building, we have zero time to decompress and DEAL with all of the info we are thrown.

Sometimes, I feel like my kids. They go from class to class to class, and sometimes, to one more class - with breaks and a lunch in between of course. They have 3 or 4 subjects thrown at them, assignments to do, teachers with different expectations, and tests or quizzes to study for. How can I ask my kids to keep performing to their highest potential when they are running out of steam? Especially during our last period of the day. Part of this (at least I believe) is the transition between the quarter system (or Copernican system) we were on last year, and the other part is... well something I do not know yet. I know some people would be hard pressed to say "lazy", but I do not think that that is the case. Stressed, maybe? Frustrated, or overwhelmed?

I have one student who has completed all of the required outcomes for the course. I have told my grade 11s that we will be going through all of the basic outcomes in class and if they have opted into the alternative delivery program, they need to show me each of those outcomes at least once more to a capacity of a 50% - but they should be showing me more than that.

Below is an example of what I'm having my grade 11s do in class. The first part of the MB ELA curriculum states that students need to find the main ideas in a text and come up with their own thoughts about the text. For the first part of the class, I use my document camera (my newest - and favourite - piece of technology in my class) to model what I expect them to do as they read their articles/texts. I read it aloud to them, and they follow along in their handouts. As I read aloud, I do a think aloud, meaning whenever I make a text-to-self connection, find a main idea, or something I don't agree with, I highlight it and label it on my handout and they do the same. At the end of a reading, my pages are usually covered in multiple colours of highlighter and are all marked up!

Then, we work through the questions or the response together, with me leading them when we get off track a bit, or giving them some background information (like in the renovictions in the WFP in August 2012). Then, I give them some time to soak in what they've learned and give them a new text to try it out on. I walk around and let them work, leaning over shoulders, prompting when they're stuck, and generally try to help them get something that they might have missed. But the only thing that changes between what I did and what they're asked to do is the actual content of the article. Everything else is the same, no tricks here.

Here is a sample for outcome 1.1.1 - identifying main ideas and coming up with their own thoughts.




So once all of my students who have opted in for the alternative delivery model finish their outcomes, they complete one last outcome, an evaluation of what is to come. Below are two students' examples of the process. I'm excited, because THEY'RE excited. I also had one of the two students view the video at the bottom of this post, which explains why for the last question one student said N/A. Maybe I could say that I'm collecting data on their anticipation levels?





Here is the video I had my kids watch about what we're (kind of) doing. I told them that we wouldn't do the weekly questions, group endeavor, and weekly presentations (these kids were in the program all day at school, not just one period).
If students designed their own schools...

Experimental Education

Often, late at night, or at the end of a particularly long school day, I find myself wondering about what I'm doing right in the classroom and what I might be missing.

Today, I found out about one of my grade 12 students who happened to have anxiety problems who also spent a portion of today in the bathroom throwing up due to these issues. The question I was asked, then, was "does this student need to finish the novel and the booklet to receive their credit?" Immediately, the strict teacher within me jumped up and down, screaming "yes, yes - YES!" After some conversation about the structure of the course (a basic grade 12 Transactional course) and explaining how this unit had started well over a month ago, the strict teacher within me compromised on the issue, and I explained the expectations for the course with another teacher in our school who this student trusts and works well with.

I thought that what I was doing in the classroom was right. I still maintain that my expectations are not too high. They are high, but not unreachable - after all, with a week left in the course, I have two students who have completed the course and all of it's outcomes. And those students are choosing to still attend school - one to finish his history course work, and the other to help his girlfriend receive her English credit.

I hope that in the classroom my students are feeling like they are learning something, or at least understanding that they need to do something to receive their credit. Granted, some of my grade 12s put their work off to the last minute and are now frantically trying to receive their credits.

But next semester, things will be different.

Before I begin explaining how things will be different, let me explain two things about what is right now going in my school:

1) We are currently an essential outcome-based school
This means that our administration has required all of it's teachers to study their particular content areas and decide which outcomes are essential for their courses. For example, in the Manitoba ELA curriculum, we have approximately 56 outcomes (I haven't counted for a while) - and while these outcomes might be essential for a student to learn, it's impossible to assess each one every year for every course.

This is where the teacher's discretion comes into play. At the same time, it's purely subjective. I am currently the core ELA teacher in our school, but this year, we have another teacher teaching the other section of grade 9 ELA, and another teacher covering a second Transactional ELA in the second semester. The essential outcomes that the three of us have identified are different. I met with the other grade 9 ELA teacher at the end of last year to ask her what she covers with her students, and I tried to follow suit, but I assessed less outcomes than her this semester.

Once a teacher has identified their outcomes for their course (I have 16 for grade 9, 9 for grade 10, 12 and 14 for my different grade 11 courses, and 14 and 17 for my different grade 12 courses) they begin assessing based on individual outcomes. At the end of the last school year, I spent nearly 2 weeks re-writing the Manitoba ELA curriculum into plain language (student and parent friendly language - and Ms. B friendly language too). In the content areas like Science and Mathematics, it's much more cut-and-dry, because for each unit, a teacher can have 2-3 outcomes, assess those on an assignment, quiz, and test, and move onto the next section of outcomes. But ELA is different.

I find that I am constantly re-visiting my outcomes with my students, with the exception of the "learning goals" section of GLO 1. I have the outcomes posted on the side of my classroom, with the essential outcomes marked with arrows so the students can see the entire curriculum as well as what I have chosen for them to learn. Some of the outcomes have been assessed 3 times, some 5 or 8. It depends on the outcome and how they have performed in the past.

Based on these outcomes, they are assessed on a scale, explained in #2.

2) The scale
The scale that we are currently using (and I'm not particularly fond of calling it a scale, but it's the only thing that comes to mind to explain it) specifies that a score of 0 on an outcome means anywhere from 0-49% in the traditional marking scheme.
A 1 is the equivalent of a limited understanding of an outcome, and represents an understanding of 50-60% of the material.
A 2 is the equivalent of a developing basic understanding, the 3 is representative of basic (at the low end) or clear (3.5+) understanding, and the 4 is representative of exceptional/sophisticated/thorough (where the / = OR) understanding. The percentages also increase, with the 3.0+ being 80%+

I still haven't memorized those numbers. And I'm writing this from my desk at home, not school like I sometimes do.

With this scale, combined with the outcomes, students are assessed a variety of times, like I mentioned before. The marking looks like a nightmare, and we use excel spreadsheets, but now, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not sure if I could go to another division or school for that matter and feel like I was assessing appropriately.

This brings me to the "experimental" part of this post.

We are having "learning vision" meetings at our school and within our division. A great way for staff to come together and discuss what we'd like our schools to look like. A few days after the first meeting, I was talking with our Mathematics/Chemistry/Physics teacher (also a second year teacher) and we were brainstorming how to reach our kids who are not attending school. I would go as far as to say the single biggest issue right now with our kids at our school is attendance. Unfortunately, we cannot say "10 unexcused absences and you're out of the course," but that is okay. We can work around this belief.

Our students are not attending for a variety of reasons: they don't like their classes, they're bored, they feel held back, they have other interests (like work - it's really important to mention our school is in a rural community, where significant value is placed on hard work in a number of our families), or they may already be academically at a higher level than they are currently practicing.

What we came up with (and I decided to take on) was my plan for my second semester, to address most of these issues. My plan is this: spend 4-6 weeks in-class with all of my grade 11 students in their respective courses (Transactional and Comprehensive), teaching them the skills they will need to meet their outcomes for their ELA course and doing a preliminary evaluation of each of them. Following the 4-6 week period, they are given the option of taking the course outcomes and coming up with their own projects, working on them, and meeting the outcomes in whatever way they choose to.

For example, a student really interested in music might decide to write a number of songs and produce their own album for a semester-long project. Side assignments might include physically writing out the connections the songs have to one another, or experimenting with other musical forms. They will be required to meet with me once a week during a pre-determined time slot where we will chart their progress and determine what next steps they need to take. It is not realistic to say that every student will work on their ELA every single day, but they will be required to keep a log of when they DO work on their ELA.

My classroom will always be open to these students who choose to opt into this "Alternative Delivery" program, but regular class will still be held. Regardless if I have students in my classroom or not. Students may choose to attend these classes and "audit" them during the semester, but completing the in-class assignments/work will not be required. This "Alternative Delivery" model will allow students to demonstrate knowledge and learning on their own terms, on their own time. I'm hoping that this delivery will be beneficial for students who find it difficult to come to school (either on time or at all), struggle with suspensions, or may not feel challenged enough in the classroom. So far, I've run the idea past some of the grade 11s and many of them seem very receptive to the idea. Especially the idea that if they can demonstrate their knowledge and learning right away, they may receive their credit as early as a few days or a few weeks following the 4-6 week in-class instruction.

Another aspect to mention, though, is at the end of the semester, all of my students will come back together during the last 2 weeks of the semester to do an exam review and complete an examination similar to the provincial exam administered in grade 12.

I am very excited about this new venture, and feel the support of the staff, administration, and the school division behind me. I cannot wait to get started next week!

Using Colouring Pages for APK/Synthesis

A few weeks ago, my school laptop wouldn't connect to the network in our school. I was planning on sending my work to the photocopier before class (sometimes I'm not always prepared) so I quickly photocopied a colouring page and had my grade 10s do an activating prior knowledge/synthesis activity.

I instructed my students to do representations (in the form of patterns) in the "waves" below the ground under the train station. The representations had to be of their favourite books, their favourite genres, or in the case of one student, their favourite teams. I didn't want any text (some did anyway), but I wanted to be able to guess the genre/book they were representing. I had them activate their prior knowledge (what was it that they remembered from their favourite books/genres?), and synthesize what they knew about the books/genres. The second part of the synthesis was to represent what they knew in a visual way, and of course the patterns threw in another twist.

Below are a few different pages I received.

This student used skulls, crossbones, and blood to represent violence in both a genre and her favourite book. However, she also likes to read about love, mystery, and fantasy. She's a Harry Potter fan too.

This student likes books about angels, fairytales, and likes the Hunger Games novels. The colours represent the intensity of emotions she feels, usually one mood which fluctuates (pink love - a "fluffy" kind, which changes to passion, the red love).

This student also likes to read about love, music, mystery, and fantasy. Another Harry Potter fan. This student included a "rainbow" of colours because she likes to read books where characters experience a variety of emotions.

This student is one of my hockey players, he chose to complete the page in the colours of his favourite teams. For book club, he read a book about hockey and how to improve his game.

8 Reading Comprehension Strategies - Plain Language

Approximately 2 weeks ago, I ran a meeting based on my October 2012 SAGE presentation with part of our school's core senior high teaching team. As a group, we discussed the 8 different strategies and determined what we are already doing in our classrooms, as well as what language we are using (if any).

Basically, it was an informal vote, and we isolated two of our priorities: asking questions, and monitoring comprehension. These were the two areas where we have not specifically worked on in any of our classrooms.

As a refresher, here are the 8 Reading Comprehension Strategies as identified by Lakeshore School Division, with plain language.

Making Connections - text to self, text to text, text to world
Visualizing - creating mental pictures
Determining important ideas - what is important? what does the author want me to know?
Inferring - “based on what I know – previous knowledge – I think that” - making educated guesses
Activating prior knowledge - determining what I already know
Synthesizing and expressing opinions - taking what I already know, integrating what I’ve learned and being able to put it altogether
Asking questions - asking good open-ended questions (questions can be critical or non-critical)
Monitoring comprehension - determining when and where to use a “fix up strategy” – often (but not always) during reading

A few weeks ago, I did something interesting with colouring pages in my grade 10 classroom and genres of books and movies. I'll be posting those findings later this week.