Presence, Participation and Place: A reflection on Short Course II

Margaret Paxton

Reflections on Short Course II Experience

May 2019

Before writing about this past year of learning, I wanted to reflect back on our shared experience, at UBCO and in the community of Kelowna during the BCPVPA's Short Course II.

 

The Water Ceremony – Courage and Clarity

On our first day, we gathered on the shore of Lake Okanagan to take part in a Water Ceremony with Chief Roxanne Lindley.  There was circling, smudging and offering of tobacco and water brought from many places around the province to share.  This moving ceremony required presence, participation, and understanding the purpose and the place.

Building Connections as a Summit Family

After the ceremony, our Table Groups met in smaller circles, during which we shared our “Gifts of the Four Directions.” What emotional, spiritual, cultural and intellectual aspects of ourselves do we bring to share with others?

This: 

·      Took time

·      Required deep listening

·      Required us to be vulnerable – able to share our struggles, not just our successes

·      Was not about what we do or have done, but about who we are and who we can become.

Learning from David, David and Amelia

Back on campus over the next few days, we learned from David Istance, Amelia Peterson and David Weiss.  We wondered:

·      How could the OECD Principles of Learning enhance our schools?

·      How to help our students, teachers and other staff members flourish in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous)?

·     How can we learn from other regions about how to create new kinds of schools with human-centred systems design?

Field Experiences

During our visits to local, innovative businesses, we learned from people creating their own occupations, niches in the world. It was as if they we saying: 

“Here is something you didn’t even know you needed, 

and it’s going to change your life for the better.”

We began thinking about how we could infuse our schools with this energy and entrepreneurial spirit.

As the week drew to a close, participants made connections, shared ideas and made plans for the next steps in their learning journey. We committed to connecting with our table groups and supporting one another through the school year.

My Year of Learning

I began my first staff meeting with the story of meeting those young entrepreneurs.  I told my staff how inspired I had been to hear their stories, especially how school had influenced their development.  I confessed that the word “entrepreneur” to me connotes a business focused on making a profit.  I hoped that our students would be inspired to have the same imagination, creativity, growth mind-set and perseverance, but also a drive to make the world a better place. Our school’s inquiry has been around increasing student engagement and flexible learning spaces.  I wondered, how we could now use those flexible learning spaces to accelerate learning and build learner stamina.

One of the things I have been practicing as a school leader is how to find each individual’s entry point – personalizing and differentiating support for my staff.  One way I did this was by providing choice and “going with” teachers’ personal passions.  Thus, we have a working wood shop, an atelier for math/science/art exploration, and a very versatile outdoor classroom space. We also created micro-environments within classrooms.  They feel now more like family rooms.  

We believe that we have seen an increased stamina for learning, and an increase in collaboration and cooperation, both for teachers and students.  We’ve seen an increase in creativity and critical thinking – prototyping, working through many iterations, working with a growth mindset – not just “keep trying” but try different things. We’ve seen students inspiring each other.

The journey continues.  There are always more bridges to build, more obstacles to roll out of the way.  I am grateful to the colleagues and friends I met during Short Course II for inspiring me to “nudge with love,” both staff and students, and to be a “Possibility Broker,” a co-learner saying, “Yes!” to great ideas.  The best part of being a Short Course II facilitator was the reassurance that I am part of a community of educators who are highly invested, thoughtful and reflective about the craft of leadership and the quality of education in their schools and districts. 

Nuance

I've just finished reading Michael Fullan's new book Nuance. Here are three connections I made.

First:

"Joshua Cooper Ramo's (2016) Seventh Sense shows in detail how networks have become ubiquitous, shelter-skelter, impersonal and unpredictable....The "seventh sense" consists of the ability to connect with networks to see and feel 'forces that are invisible to most of us.'" p. 6

This reminds me of Margaret Wheatly’s description of the current time as VUCA:  volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous.  Nuanced leaders, Fullan says, have to be “experts in both networks and humanity.”  I think this points to a need for all of us to practice using our intuition and emotional literacy in all of our human interactions.

Second:

Sticky Change Process (p. 79)

1.     Use the group to change the group

2.     Precision over prescription

3.     Feedback: collaboration, candor, and autonomy

4.     Trust and interact vs. trust and verify

5.     See the forest and the trees

6.     Accountability as culture

When you use the group to change the group, the principal “creates a climate for all to learn including him or herself.”  Be a learner.

“Specificity matter.”  Be a clarifier.

“”Autonomy and collaboration are not mutually exclusive.”  Be a collaborative professional.

“You have to invest in trust before people have earned it.”  Act as if.

Be on the balcony and the dance floor.

Be coherent.Coherence is “the shared understanding of the nature of the work. Collective efficacy.

Third:

“Empathy for context is an essential requirement for making change with the people who live the context every day.” p. 114

This make me think of Dylan Wiliam’s reminder:  nothing works everywhere or all the time.  Everything is contextual and in the messy, human work of schools’ we can learn all the “best practices”, but still need the adaptive expertise to create the conditions for student success, one student at a time.

Learning for the 22nd Century

Yesterday, our staff attended a day of professional development with Apple Educators.  

For those of us that “grew up” using Microsoft products like Excel and Powerpoint, it was a big shift to begin to navigate Apple programs like Numbers and Keynote.  However, the more we practised the more comfortable we were, and I am motivated to spend time becoming more proficient.

At times during the day, however, I got a glimpse into the world of the struggling learner.  As I was given new tasks and introduced to unfamiliar language, I sometimes felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, frustrated and tempted to “shut down” and give up.  “This is too hard!”

I thought about our students and wondered who among them might experience these same feelings every day at school and what can we do about it.

Some thoughts for teaching:

Slow down.  We do not need to instantly absorb content and expect instant mastery.  Learning comes from having patience and time.  Give lots of practice time.  Promote experimentation.

Allow students to learn with a classmate. When I was sitting by a supportive colleague, my anxiety lessened and I learned more quickly with their gentle guidance.  Learning is a social process.

Wherever you are, that’s ok. Let’s teach students where they are, not where we think they should be. This means differentiating and personalizing learning.  It’s not a hard thing to do.  It’s just different from what we are used to.  One approach does not fit all.

During the keynote speech, one of the Apple Educators talked about the need for our students to become entrepreneurial in their thinking and habits.  The world is changing at such a rapid pace that we do not really know what future we are preparing them for.

I  looked up the definition of an entrepreneur:

A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Personally, I am not really interested in educating a generation of business people.  Not that we don’t need business people, but there are many other ways to make a living that are vital to society, such as teaching.  I want to teach children to make the world a better place, to thrive and flourish in whatever work that they choose. 

We do agree with the Apple Educator who said that the Core Competencies of communication, critical and creative thinking, inter- and intrapersonal skills, and social awareness are the survival skills of the  21st century.  In fact, some of our students will be around to see the advent of the 22nd century.  We need people who are agile, reflective, inventive, and yes, empathetic.

Looking around our school, I see many of the conditions that will help students become citizens of the 22nd century.  We are allowing time, conversation, and personalized learning with an emphasis on kindness and curiosity.  Teaching and learning are not exact sciences: they are hugely contextual.  If we keep an ethic of care and a commitment to seeing each learner as an individual at the core of all we do, we will succeed in our goal of fostering a love of learning in each student, which will certainly help them navigate the rapidly changing world.

Happy New Year

Today McNeely students learned who their 2018 - 2019 teacher would be.  No doubt about it - there was some anxiety and trepidation!

Even our teachers were nervous:  Will my new students like me?  Will parents be happy?  Will I be able to meet the needs of all of my learners?

Our students also felt anxious:  Will I have friends in my class?  Will I fit in?  Will it be too hard/too easy?  Will my teacher like me? If I am staying with my teacher for a second year, does that mean I failed? (No, it means your teacher loves you, and believes that he or she has more learning to share with you.)

Parents felt anxious, too:  Will my child be happy?  Will my child be challenged? Will my child be supported?

Change is hard. More and more, I wonder why, in Canadian public education, we are still following the agricultural calendar that has determined school schedules for over 150 years.  We spend all of June winding the whole thing down, only to spend much of September winding it all up again.

I dream of a day when schools can be more flexible, responsive, practical for families, with reasonable breaks in the school year, without the learning loss that results from the eight weeks off.

Every single McNeely teacher has gifts to share with every child in our school. We are lucky.  All of our students are cared for, loved, celebrated for their talents and supported in areas in which they need to grow.  I hope our families feel the same confidence as I do - in our ability to provide a strong foundation of learning, an emphasis on social/emotional development, and a desire to foster the characteristics of global citizenship.

We are all Mustangs.

Team Courage

This summer I had the privilege of learning with a group of inspiring educators from around BC.  These committed principals and vice-principals gave up a week of their summer to take part in the BCPVPA's Short Course II Summit, held at UBCO.

Leading parts of our learning:  Dr. David Istance (retired from OECD), Amelia Peterson from Harvard, Dr. Sabre Cherkowski (UBCO) and Dr. David Weiss (author of Innovative Intelligence).

Facilitating our conversations and organizing us all:  Jessica Antosh, Liz Bell from the BCPVPA, Terry-Lee Beaudry and Jamie Robinson (SD#23).  Kevin Reimer (Executive Director) and David DeRose (President) of the BCPVPA were also in attendance.

We also heard from the Ministry of Education through Scott MacDonald (Deputy Minister) and Pat Duncan (Superintendent of Learning).

In the course of the week, we had many rich discussions about innovation in schools and how we can empower our students to be thriving, contributing global citizens.  We were excited to meet with local business leaders who are creating their own occupations by recognizing needs and filling gaps.  They spoke passionately about the growing need for employees who are hard-working, committed, loyal, flexible, inventive, creative, able to take risks, create prototypes, and pivot when necessary.  In essence, they want people who know how to fail well and rebound with vigour.

The small group of leaders with whom I worked amazed me with their courage and dedication to public education in BC.  Each member of our group was able to articulate a gap in their own practice and commit to working together to support one another in the coming year, using a spiral of inquiry framework.

I am proud to be an educational leader with such smart and caring colleagues and excited about the learning journey ahead.

Self-Regulation

Since the fall, I have been taking the Foundations Course with the MEHRIT Centre, based at Trent University, with Dr. Stuart Shanker, author of Calm, Alert and Learning and Self-Reg.  What I have learned has had a profound effect on my practice as an educator.  I have learned that the bond between baby and mother affects the baby’s brain development, even before birth.  I have learned that when exposed to repeated excessive stress a child can develop a negative bias, a habit of thinking that threats are everywhere, and a hypervigilance that interferes with relationships, learning and overall wellness.  I have also learned about some helpful and effective ways to respond to children whose anxiety or sensitivity leads them to behave in unexpected ways.

Shanker strongly believes that children want to do well, but sometimes have maladaptive responses to stress, the sources of which may be hidden.  He believes there are five domains of stressors:  biological, emotional, cognitive, social and pro-social.  The job of a caring adult is to help children co-regulate in response to stress.  We can do this by reframing the behavior as a stress response rather than misbehavior.  We can then try to determine what is the source of the stress, and seek to reduce or remove it by soothing the child.  Reflecting on this process and developing self-awareness can then help a child develop strategies for responding to stress and restoring equilibrium, returning to a state of calm.

                 

Now when I see children through the lens of self-regulation, I am less likely to feel annoyance or impatience.  I feel very curious about what the stressors might be, and I look for ways to alleviate the anxiety that is causing the behaviour.

Recently, I have been thinking about how stressful some children must find recess and lunch outdoor playtime.  Even though we know that outdoor play is really beneficial for children, it is unstructured and has the potential for a lot of discomfort in each of the domains.  One idea I have is to equip each class with not just balls and Frisbees and skipping ropes, but also playing cards, jacks, marbles, sidewalk chalk, dexterity toys and other things to choose from.  I think these kits might help those students who find the length of time and unpredictability of the recess stressful.  We shall see.

                 

I am very proud of my teachers who have been creating flexible learning spaces in their classrooms.  These micro-environments held students build stamina for learning.  When kids are comfortable and able to stand, sit, or kneel, they will far more likely persevere at tasks.  When the lighting is soft, the colours and visuals not overly stimulating, students are more calm and able to focus.  We have noticed a big difference.  For example, this year very few students have been sent to the office for misbehavior.  Three years ago, this took up most of my time.  It also helps that this year class sizes are significantly smaller in the intermediate grades, giving teachers more time to deal with less serious infractions.  Teachers are more willing to do hands-on learning activities when they do not have as many students to manage.  This boosts interest, engagement, and academic success.

                 

Learning through the Foundations course has given me a renewed sense of responsibility toward the learners in my school, child and adult alike.  People need to feel safe, secure, cared-for, and calm in order to do their best at anything.  We, the adults, have the privilege and responsibility of co-regulating, of helping younger brains develop, of being half of the dyad for each school day.  I did not know that my brain was so fundamentally important in this process. Now that I do, I feel a stronger sense of belonging and purpose.  Thank you, Dr. Shanker!