End of an Era - Life Skills Reflections (Part 1 - The Kitchen Community)

Eight years ago I applied to Ryerson's Junior Life Skills program.  It was a means to an end.  Ryerson was getting a rebuild and I so desperately wanted to be involved in opening a new school.  I had no idea what the program involved, it was my ticket in the door.  What I very quickly discovered is that I loved this job.  This job was meant for me. Flexible curriculum, increased budget, assistance from amazing Educational Assistants, and the autonomy to go where the learning led us.  I became very passionate about using technology to support our neediest learners and, over the course of eight years, was able to do some really amazing things with kids.

The Special Education department recently decided to close my program (and three others) for a variety of reasons around enrollment, funding, and a change in philosophy that leans towards integration instead of congregated programs at the junior level.  While I 100% disagree with this direction, I must move forward on to something new.  For me, it looks like the next stop is grade three in September.  Normally, I would be spending my last week of school reflecting on the year, and in this case, the last eight years that I've been in this role.  But that was not to be as I missed the last week of school due to a terrible illness.  Now that I'm slowly returning back to the land of the living, I have to pack up my room and get ready for the big move.

My mind is racing with memories and emotions as I move around the room and box up the journey that was Life Skills.  I thought I'd start with an easy part...the classroom kitchen.  Seemed straightforward enough, right?  It was, until I started sorting the items I brought in for Lil Chefs Cooking Club, or the left over aprons from our amazing cooking shows we produced a few years back, or the specialty fish dishes that were gifts to "Gill-Ville".  I spent more than two hours going through four cupboards!  I was so deeply affected by the realization that I'm losing my classroom kitchen and, more importantly, the kitchen community that it created.  I left school that day, unable to focus to accomplish anything else.  Instead, I went home to create this sketchnote in attempts to share my feelings about my classroom kitchen.

 

This kitchen provided curriculum connections to healthy living and math expectations, in addition to providing nourishment for hungry, disadvantaged bellies. I'm sure you think back to a time when you were little and helped a parent or grandparent make a meal, or cookies, or a special recipe.  If you thought about it, you would recall the smells, the tastes, and the conversations that took place (often not related to academia).  These kitchen activities made us a little more connected, more human.  We shared stories, recipes, memories, and in those moments, completely forgot we were special education learners.  The classroom kitchen really was the envy of all the other classrooms.  The smell of our baking would fill the halls and attract visitors in hopes of being in the right place at the right time.  Our kitchen made us special, but this time in a good way.  We liked to extend our kitchen community and invite others in.  Over the years we did lessons with buddies, hosted staff luncheons and school wide hot dog lunch days, and created personalized gifts for family members. The kitchen not only brought the members of our class together, it also brought us closer to the staff and students in the school.  

And while I thought starting with the classroom kitchen would be the easiest part of packing up Life Skills, I was dead wrong.  This is the part of Life Skills that I think I will miss the most....or until tomorrow when I pack up a different part of the classroom!

#ConnectED Canada

This past weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Alberta for the first ConnectED Canada conference. There were so many different events and people that impacted me greatly that it's difficult to process it all and get it into words...however, I will try!

First off, a big hats of to Erin (@erincouillard), Neil (@neilstephenson), and George (@gcouros) for all of their work co-ordination, organizing, preparing, and running the conference and related social events. As someone who spends a great deal of time coordinating events such as Family Math Night and EdCampWR, I am fully aware of the dedication and work involved in taking on a project this size. Kudos to these three fearless leaders and to the staff and students of the Calgary Science School that opens the doors to their classrooms to provide us with a window into their learning.

I was most impressed with the manner the students presented themselves, their pride in demonstrating their work, and their genuine interest (and ability) in communicating their learning. I can't help to be a little envious of their learning spaces, with wide open areas, couches, and non-traditional classroom furniture that promotes collaboration and invites learners to move to a place more suitable and/or comfortable for the task at hand. It was interesting to see the students working in a 1:1 mobile device set up, with students using iPads, cameras, and laptops to research, record, and present their learning.

 Having this access to technology has really helped them take their learning to the next level and share it easily. I enjoyed seeing the QR Codes posted on the walls so that others classes can see what other students are working on. In fact, I was blown away by how much the student tour guides knew about what other grades/classes were working on. You really got the sense of a learning community. When students are involved, they frequently steal the show, and in this case, there was no exception! They were definitely a highlight of the conference for many attendees.

The Saturday break out sessions were very thought provoking and included some great debate and sharing.  It always amazes me the conversations that occur when you place passionate educators together in a space and let them talk.  The "educon/edcamp" model for these sessions allows people to connect, collaborate, and become active participants in their learning.  This usually only occurs during breaks and lunch time at regular conferences.  By switching up the format, these discussions are taking place everywhere and are not limited to brief gatherings in the hall.  It allows educators to personalize and control their own learning, a choice that we value when working with students and appreciate even more when applied to ourselves.  During Tom Fullerton's (@tomfullerton) session we had great discussions about professional development that is driven from the top down and how effective this really is.  I loved Tom's analogy of "PD being like shoes" with "value coming from a variety of models".  Not only did he win over the women in the room, but he makes a valid point about the time and place for different forms of PD.  With educators entering the conversations at different starting points, it becomes increasingly apparent that various levels, forms, and models of PD are needed to address the diversity of teacher learners' needs.

 This was very evident during my own breakout session on using Twitter in the Classroom.  I had to admit that I was a little stressed out about the format of my session prior to it beginning.  I have not attended Educon but have been involved in edcamps, and I was a little concerned that my session involved too much "showing" and not enough "sharing".  This fear went out the window as soon as I asked the participants where they were in their own social media use and with respect to using Twitter professionally and with students.  After polling the audience, only 5 educators were on Twitter (three of them had just joined that day) and NONE of them were using Twitter with students.  Although this hinders my planned discussion about how people were using Twitter in Education, it allowed me a chance to start fresh and introduce a new concept to this audience.  That excited me.  So, my session became more of a "presentation" but I am OK with that because it was where the group was "at".  It was also great to hear the feedback from session participants that claimed they were "wowed" by my students' use of Twitter and social media.  Thanks Verena Roberts (@verenanz), Julie Gummesen (@juliegummesen), Fiona (@fina_bro), Laurie Besenski (@besenski), and Preet Dhaliwal (@tweetteacher) for taking the time to talk to me specifically about my session.  Your feedback was much appreciated!

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the new additions to my PLN over the course of the weekend.  I think I received over 150 new Twitter followers over the 3 day conference!!  It's always exciting to meet people face to face that you've been following for a while (such as my new lilac loving buddy, Michelle Baldwin - @michellek107).  There were many opportunities for this, especially with my western colleagues.  I thoroughly enjoyed the online and live dialogue with new friends, Aaron Akune (@aakune), Steve Bloom (@teckteach), Wayne Deptuck (@wdeptuck), Robert Wielgoz (@rwielgoz), Rosalind (@rozgoldsmith), Valerie Irvine (@_valeriei) and Lindsay Bingley (@lbingley).  I look forward to continuing these conversations online!  I also found it ironic that I had to travel to Calgary to finally meet Ontario Tweeps, Tania Sterling (@taniasterling) and Brian Harrison (@bharrisionvp).  All of these new connections have lifted me up and will help sustain me through the last few days of this school year (and beyond).

The one theme that kept popping up, session after session, discussion after discussion, and during the social events was that of RELATIONSHIPS.  Relationships matter!  I also took some time to nurture existing relationships with friends from the Unplugd Summit, reminiscing about the event and the relationships that developed from the experience.  It was a great pleasure to take some time to spend with Zoe (@zbpipe) hearing about her adventures in Jerusalem and touring Banff with Rodd (@thecleversheep), and most importantly, my amazing travel buddy, Alanna (@banana29) who took care of me every step of the journey.  The Unplugd Summit had a huge impact on me both professionally and personally.  So much so that I just couldn't resist attending Zoe and Rodd's Unplugd session.  To hear what you missed, check out my livescribe pencast recorded that day.

This conference was such a full and rich experience, from start to end.

One thing you won't hear from this cat is "I attended #ConnectEDca and all I got was this waterbottle!"



Thanks ConnectED Canada! 

Unplugd 11

I have been struggling where to begin with the many thoughts and emotions floating around in this body of mine after attending #Unplug'd11.



As I begin my weekend of networking and learning at #CATC11. I am bombarded with questions from my WRDSB tweeps about the event. I find myself not knowing where to begin. Do I start with the events, the structure of the weekend? You can go to the official site for all that. Do I start with the purpose and artifacts created? Nope, those can also be found online with the epub releases. Do I start sharing stories and tales of connections made? Well, I could but many of those can be seen in the flickr photos or through the stories shared in our document. Do I explain the impact this had on me? I'm not sure my words can even begin to describe the intense range of feelings I have around the relationships developed and the many "ah ha's" and touching moments. I had hair-on-end styled goosebumps this past weekend more times than I can count. How do you even attempt to recount the experiences that led to those moments?

What I can say is that I've been forever changed. Each and every one of these people that told their stories, shared a song, engaged in down time play, or simply smiled and listened somehow made this weekend what it was. I don't think that any one of us going into this could even imagine what would occur. Although we began with a goal in mind - to unplug and connect to collaborate on a published document about what matters in Canadian education - so much more happened. When people asked me what I learned, I think I can say that "face to face relationships matter" and that "story telling is important". The other things I learned were all lessons from people, not programs, tools, or books.

Even as I sit here in my room at Kempenfelt conference centre, alone, I hear Melanie McBride's words about autonomy and how if I want to sit alone and reflect, that OK. This is my fourth time attending this camp and I always wanted to make the most of each and every moment, working late in the room with others, helping and soaking in everything there is to learn. I would have NEVER taken a break at 3:30 of DAY 1 to go off by myself to write. Thank you Melanie for reminding me that I don't always have to be "ON".

I have been having the "Unplug'd tinglies" as Alec Couros called them ever since the event ended. I have been glued to my screen, looking at the photos being posted, the tweets coming through my feed, and the blog posts that are slowly trickling out a few each day. Each time I see one, I immediately feel that heart in throat feeling that brings me right back to that time and space. When I read Daryl Bambic's words on her blog, I was speechless. She was able to capture many of the emotions I had been experiencing and articulated them much better than I would have. I agree with Jaclyn Calder's comparison to summer camp on her blog and can relate to the words shared by Alana Callan and Kelly Power. I am touched by Danika Barker's story and related to many of the feelings Lorna Costantini expressed with her initial reflections. When I read Rob Fisher's words, I am transported back to that moment when his simple phrase "I spent 3 days in Algonquin park at the Northern Edge with 37 people that care so much about education that it hurts." literally took the breath out of the room. Unplug'd lives on with all that is shared.

I was also reminded of the power of music and how much it means to me. From the canoe serenade by Bryan Jackson, to the campfire tunes with Stephen Hurley, to the introduction of ds106radio by Giulia Forsythe, to the chats with Andy McKeil about my favourite band, music was a big part of this experience for me, as it is in my daily life. This weekend reminded me that I have to feed this part of my soul frequently. Music lovers, share on!



I also learned that I need to make changes with what I do with my time. I am spending WAY too much time in from of a screen and working. I need to unplug more often to feed my soul. I already knew that water, being near it or in it, grounds me. I need to spend more time near water. Thanks Todd and the folks at Northern Edge Algonquin for helping me to remember this. In fact, as soon as I press POST here, I'm heading down to the water with a book and my beverage of choice (I know you Unplug'ers will find that hard to believe) to enjoy the sunshine before I re-engage with the current learning that is going on here in this time and space...