Tis the season of travel and recruiting for our team as we look for those needles in a haystack!  We will criss cross the country and travel over 200,000 km looking for the best of the best for CBE!  There is no greater joy and feeling of success than when you interview a keen, passionate young teacher who is anxious to begin making a difference and work alongside outstanding CBE staff.

Sometimes out in ”the trench” there is a sense of disconnectedness to the work we do.  And yet, this front line work is critical to the experiences our students have each and every day.  I vividly recall my Grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Taylor making each day so interesting and exciting for me.  I could hardly wait to get to school every morning to see what new, different and challenging things we would be learning!

In working alongside school Principals, my new endeavors are connected to the day to day lives of students in each and every classroom.   My learning over the past five months has been about the commitment we provide to ensure we continue to be an outstanding system – searching for those “needles in a haystack”.

One goal – simply – to ensure that each child, every day with no exceptions -  has excellent experiences working with outstanding teachers!   A lofty goal in the haystack, but oh how worthwhile in the end.


@jhallfamily - Carol Hall is a Principal Consultant in Recruiting and Staffing in HR.  A tireless advocate for the power of building school community.

​The most common question I hear is about my one time funding learning leader position is “What do you do?” Something changed last week. Standing by the recycling bins at 7:30 am after just having walked in the door. A colleague asked me…

Fast forward to 9:00 am… same day!
 
The students who already knew how to tell time were challenged to make their own scavenger hunt using QR codes. Their task… Make it challenging. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Be kind to the environment. The discussion was electric as they got down to business. Really, I was no longer needed! Click. Drag. Create. Test. Fail.
Try again.
 
They rose to the challenge with rigor and enthusiasm. It was almost too easy.
 
What did I learn today? Task design doesn’t have to be elaborate or planned out over several hours. It can be born from a quick conversation with a colleague by the recycle bins.  Teachers work best in the company of their peers.
 

Donna Gimbel is a learning leader at Douglasdale School with a passion for musicals and making learning engaging for all.

Its 3am, and I am staring at the ceiling and worrying about the days, weeks, and months ahead. How will my students succeed? What are the steps I will take to further my career?  How will I be able to live up to the expectations from my school, the school board, the province? Well, I never did get to sleep again that night, I continued to worry, stress, and think until I woke up feeling exhausted.
 
Does this sound familiar?
 
It has been two years since that night, and I still experience the stress and worry that comes with being a teacher. I have learned a few things that has allowed me to sleep better:

1. It is essential to be healthy in mind, body, and spirit before you can be the best teacher for your students
2. I have the power to take a deep breath before responding when faced with difficult situations
3. Take time to breathe, practice it, make time for it as part of your daily routine

 
Laura’s meditation practice:

• Take 10 or 15 minutes to practice this whenever you can find a quiet moment by yourself. This practice can be used to help fall back to sleep. This practice can be repeated or just done one time.
• Sit or lay down in a comfortable position.
• Starting with your feet, breathe into each part of your body, release tension as your awareness travels from your feet to your head.

 

Laura Elphinstone teaches the Division 2 Bridges program. She is a passionate educator, outdoor enthusiast, and lover of nature.

Second day at City Hall School and already the students knew exactly what they were doing. Entering the space with respectful authority, they found their lockers and began to get organized for the day ahead. Miss Gallant's class had relocated their classroom to this new space with the expectation that they would be meeting experts to pursue their inquiry.

Aware, although slightly frustrated, that they would be “hearing multiple perspectives” and “no one would have the RIGHT answer” for them, these explorers were comfortable in sharing their thoughts with me.  “I feel like I’m supposed to be here,” one student said.

We began to dissect what makes a learning environment welcoming, safe, and vibrant. Collectively determining that this must be a space that inspires energy, open mindedness and creativity.  Learning beyond the walls of their classroom provides the opportunity for students to explore where learning can happen and how it changes them as a learner.

This week is a catalyst as the students have visions for creating a classroom space and sparking change at their school.  Colour, natural light, and nature infused were top on the list of attributes. Their teacher stops to pose a thought…can colour be more than visual? Can a colourful place speak to the nature of the people there and the energy they bring? Inspired by this thought, students make notes in their journals.  Converging and diverging on design of learning spaces, this class is deeply in the ebb and flow of discovering new information, applying it and jumping back in to find out more.  Although they are still unsure of the answers, the acceptance of ambiguity is tangible. Their journey continues…

City Hall School is one of 11 Campus Calgary/Open Minds Sites. For more information: http://ccom.cbe.ab.ca
Thank you Jody Danchuk City Hall School Coordinator and Jennifer (Gallant) Doeve, teacher Westgate School.

@jlgray22, Learning Leader Campus Calgary/Open Minds @yycCCOM, passionate about experiential learning, creativity, journals and inquiry

Our principal Cathy Turner attended the Summit Conference at the beginning of the school year and came back inspired and full of ideas for the upcoming year. She asked her staff to do one thing: Spend 10 minutes each day reading good books with your whole class, using the same book each day for a week, intentionally targeting a different reading skill. What if that book inspires a love of reading?

What did we notice? The kids love this part of the day. Students who generally have difficulty with story time were engaged and actively participating. Struggling readers began experiencing success in a safe and predictable environment. Strong readers had new opportunities to act as leaders and support their peers during our 10-minute reading time. Don’t’ dare miss a day, as you will have 38 wronged grade 1’s.

Serendipitously, West Dover School was given a generous gift through the Chapters Adopt a School contest. We were given a substantial donation to replenish our Learning Commons with great books and buy one book for every student. Families were invited to Chapters in Chinook one evening to pick out a book of their very own. Those that couldn’t make it were given a book chosen by their teacher. Our students were ecstatic and grateful and wore huge smiles. The books still travel back and forth to school each day in the backpacks of many students. They are cherished.

What if that’s the book?   As David Bouchard states….It only takes one book.


Karen Given teaches grade 1 at West Dover School with her team partner Devon Knuttila, learning alongside 39 capable, creative, and kind learners.

As always, my students have surprised me.  What started out as a quick, fun activity the week before break, connected to an ongoing inquiry, became an awesome example of student creativity and ingenuity. 

Given time to plan and share, and the freedom to create whatever the students wanted, they went above and beyond and demonstrated originality and innovation with minimal information and background knowledge. 

Stacey Cropper (@StaceyBeth82) is a third grade teacher at Hidden Valley School, who has an endless capacity for remembering useless information.

What Did You Learn Today?
 
“The Idea Lab has changed my life.  This is my dream come true.  School is now my dream place.” a grade six boy remarked with a smile wide as a prairie horizon.  Not words one usually hears from a big, burly preteen about attending school the first day back after winter break.
 
Our Idea Lab was built over the course of the last three months.  The goal of the space is to have a flexible, integrated and imaginative space for students to create, build test and re-design products or services with the intent to solve a problem in our community…a real-life problem, real-life solutions.
 
Makerspaces.  Tinker tables.  Design labs.  All names for spaces where students enjoy hands-on, construction-based, trial and error type learning.  “Design Thinking”, the name of the process used to structure tasks for all students so that they can learn and practice their physical and evaluative skills (building, testing, de-constructing, re-building or repurposing), and use tools (hammers, nails, fabric, soap, pipe, marbles, straws, sand, drills, electrical circuitry, lego, solar panels) in a school setting.  What’s the big idea?  Maker Education.  Where student creativity and ingenuity is captured and celebrated in order to better prepare them for a world where the problems that exist, could never have been predicted and now need to be solved.
 
The stuff my generation did in our basements and garages, tinkering, building and exploring, has come to school.
 
Buzzword?  Maybe.
 
Trend?  Possibly.
 
Necessary?  Absolutely.
 
After all, it changes lives.