Can an old dog learn new tricks?
 
After teaching exclusively in a high school environment for the last 18 years, this cliché permeated my consciousness as I prepared to start a new job in September.  I was leaving the familiar world of high school Social Studies to work at the system level as Student Voice Learning Leader.  I would be responsible for the Chief Superintendent’s Advisory Councils, one each for junior and senior high students from across our system.   It was an incredible opportunity, and I eagerly anticipated the challenge awaiting me.  Still, I had one slight apprehension…..

I didn’t have any experience working with junior high students.  Unless you considered my university practicum, that is. I wondered if eighteen years in a high school classroom meant I wouldn’t know how to interact effectively with younger students.  I wondered if I had what it took to channel the power of youthful exuberance.

What I’ve learned in my first full month on the job is that age really is just a number.  These students are as mature and committed as any group I’ve worked with.  They truly embody what our school system strives to produce:   active, engaged citizens determined to lead change.  I leave our meetings inspired, and excited to plan for the next one. This age group might initially have intimidated me, but their ability astounds me.  Their enthusiasm has reignited my own passion for my chosen profession, and for that, I am sincerely grateful.
 

Jodi Olson is a teacher and the parent of three children who attend CBE schools.  She is a lifelong learner, voracious reader, and enjoys baking and travel to warm destinations.

In October, 2015, we brought our group of grade 4 students to attend the Healthy Active School Symposium (HASS) Conference; it was our second year attending HASS.  In 2012, our focus was creating a balanced wellness program at our school focusing on Being Active, Healthy Eating, and Valuing Others.  In 2013, we focused on increasing the voice of adult stakeholders by including school council, parent volunteers, school nurse, and at least one teacher from each grade team.  2014 was our third year and we focused on increasing student voice by initiating the Student Wellness Action Team (SWAT).  This is a student nominated leadership group that works to increase leadership opportunities for themselves and their classmates. In some classes, students were nominated by their classmates.  Candidates gave speeches, and then the classmates voted for the best person to represent them in SWAT.  As well, we began building partnerships with local community groups.

The first team building exercise was attending the HASS Conference this year.  At the conference, the students worked together diligently to complete their Action Plan for Healthy Living for Colonel Sanders.  Now, in our fourth year, our SWAT members identified that our focus should be to increase student leadership opportunities and to build global partnerships beyond our local community.

Our SWAT Team proved their independence and leadership skills when they presented their parachute activity at HASS.  This activity demonstrated promoting cooperation and team building through physical activity such as parachute games.  They guided discussions in regards to strategizing to improve performance. For instance, they listened to others’ ideas to put the ball through the hole in the center of parachute.  We observed that normally shy and timid students took pride in their leadership and knowledge.  They led the group through a number of cooperative games while at the same time, promoted healthy living activities as they progressively made the task more challenging.  In our SWAT members words: “It was the best day because we got to learn new activities to do in our school!”  “I think we learned about what other school’s did, took back their ideas, such as using pedometers.”

Wendy Chan & Mugdha Khatu, Grade 4 Teachers @ Colonel Sanders School, who love savoury cuisines and travelling around the world

Balancing resources can mean a lot of different things.  For instance, today in learning studios 77 and 78, it came to our attention that our time with the ‘museo kits’ would be limited.  We wanted students to be able to have the most time to work with this amazing resource, and dig deep into the opportunity to infer about our community, as life was lived, in the past. We decided that the best way to make use of our limited time, was to build on each other as a resource.
 
Team-teaching makes sense for us:  it helps to have another professional who knows the students in order to create reasonable entry points to attend to diverse needs. We have found that sharing the work of presenting, and working with groups, helps us to better keep students actively engaged in learning, throughout the lesson. We rework methods as we go, and check on in on each other during the task. 
 
Today, Paulette and I were able to focus on building students experiences with research materials by helping students in gathering their thoughts.  Students worked with teachers to help bring words to their ideas, and moved toward developing reflections on their research experiences.  As the students talked in groups, they considered each others’ contributions, and built on them.  When problems arose, they tried to solve them, drawing on each other’s  ideas to help gain an understanding.
 
Today I Learned:  Collaboration as professionals is mirrored in students’ actions.  As a team, we have a common learning goal.  Bringing diversity of ideas to the fore of actions helps to create a peaceful learning space.
 
 
 @MsGoldbergSays is a learning leader, and teaches gr. 1 & 2.  She loves learning about STEAM in early learners, and her dog Max!

In walking around Belvedere Parkway School this morning, I realized the huge impact our partnerships have had on “growing” the best opportunities possible for our students.
 
Our school, in the community of Bowness, partners with groups to support parents and students in social and family issues that are outside the realm of classic education (BowWest Community Resource Centre and Bow Wellness).
 
We partner with groups to make sure kids get a great care experience when they are outside of school (Kids Love Bowness OOSC and Bowness Montgomery Child Care).
 
We partner with groups that help us connect with experiences outside the school, such as mentorship programs with Olympic athletes and mathematicians (Classroom Champions and Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary).
 
We also greatly partner with our parents. Our Belvedere Parkway School Council and our Parent Fundraising Association centres around creating and developing the best learning opportunities for all students. For example, we are implementing our “Food for Thought” program with healthy snacksavailable without stigma to those students who need healthy food. An amazing group of parents run an early morning exercise program called BOKS for all interested students. We have a school garden program lead by awesome parents where students just finished harvesting and utilizing the plunder in tasty ways!
 
If I had more room, I would share even more examples of partnerships that develop our students. As a principal, these are some of the great possibilities of work that I get to set up for our school!

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Derek Rakowski (@derekrakowski) has been a CBE student, teacher, and principal. He thinks he has the best job in the world, and is learning more every day…

Recently, I listened to a podcast about fear. In the episode, they talked about a woman who has a disorder that shut off her fear response. She is incapable of feeling fear!

It definitely got me wondering what an inability to feel fear would be like in everyday life for my students and me. What would the absence of fear allow students to be able to accomplish? What thoughts, questions, ideas would they share, what designs, innovations or challenges would they take on?

For me, the best things in my life that I am most proud of and enjoy immensely did not come easily, I had to work at them. I appreciate them all the more because I know I earned it!  Can I convince my students that the best learning happens when you are uncomfortable?

I saw a post that changed the word FAIL to “First Attempt In Learning”. Awesome! I have it up in my classroom; it truly applies to real life. In all that we first try, we stumble, fall and fail, maybe the second time too, heck maybe even months later but we keep going at it. Or we don’t and we move on and try something else, and we learn something from that too.

What did I learn today? Try, and try again. Don’t be afraid. We are all learning, all day long, in everything we do. The best stuff in life is scary but getting to the other side of that fear feels awesome!


​Jessica Bates (@Jessica4books) Jr. High Science & Social Teacher who is a voracious reader, lover of food & talks way too fast!

Let me tell you a secret…
 
Learning a new way to teach—or learn— is fun. 
 
Last week I had the privilege of attending a Vulnerable Readers Summit: When Struggling Readers Thrive.  As an educator it was valuable, engaging and yes, even fun.  While I haven’t yet mentally unpacked all my professional learning, there was some great material I could take back and start using in my grade one classroom immediately. 
 
Keynote speaker Katie Garner M. Ed, creator of The Secret Stories, shared a way, based on brain research, to explain all of the exceptions that exist in written English. Her Secret Stories help students make sense of those times when they discover letters behaving unexpectedly and ask why.  Having these stories to teach is much more engaging that an abstract rule or an answer of “we just have to memorize that word”.
 
Although we are just beginning with this system, my students can already tell you why only vowels can say their own names—they are Super-Heroes.   Why does Letter Y have three sounds? He’s Sneaky Y” and stole the super hero capes of letters E and, but only wear’s them in the middle or end of words where he won’t get caught!  
 
I’ve already heard students telling the stories to each other, singing  “The Better Alphabet” that we learned, and using alphabet bingo cards to test each other on the sounds. 
 
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Lisa Schoeler (@LisaSchoeler and @GWgrade1s) is a Grade 1 teacher at Guy Weadick Elementary.