December

During the last few weeks of school we noticed so many examples of the need for community in classrooms and the school. A student in grade one lost her father. It happened very close to the anniversary of one of her classmate's father's accidental death last year. Five and six year olds handle loss in a very different way than older people, it seems. It makes it hard for the adults to know what to do with the children's matter-of-fact honesty about the situation. Then we had another shock as the father of three of our students died. His children, aged 11, 9 and 7, came back to school after a few days, and seemed to resume their normal routines. Then, one of our teaching assistants had to fly down to Arizona as her father had passed away suddenly. She came back, fragile and bruised by grief, but carried on with her work. Finally, the baby hamsters, born unexpectedly a week earlier in the K/one class room, and promised to two of the students as take-home pets, were found lifeless on the Tuesday morning before the holidays began.
So much loss. However...
I watched with admiration as one teacher helped the other deal with the small, hairless bodies of the hamsters, putting them in tissue in an empty Tim Horton's Tim Bit box. The children all wanted to see the bodies, so it was lucky they did not dispose of them before the bell. I watched with amazement as the collection envelope for the family filled with almost five hundred dollars in cash from teachers and parents. I watched with gratitude as the friends of those children who had lost their father rallied round them with wordless support. Many other acts of kindness, putting things into perspective, reminding us to be mindful, gentle with each other, not so inclined to grumble and criticize, more inclined to appreciate. God bless us everyone.

November

The honeymoon is over. As we near winter, we begin to see more challenging behaviours, more conflict in the classroom. It is so interesting. So many bizarre events take place in the course of a school day. Teachers are constantly faced with decisions around what to deal with - in a fleeting or substantial way; what to say publicly and what to save for private conversations with students; how to "read" behaviour and match it to the need that is not being met. Here is an example:
Student A is sitting beside Student B who is autistic, not very verbal and highly impressionable. Student A shows Student B pictures of ladies in the Guinness Book of Records and gets Student B to put his finger on the chests of the ladies. Girls sitting in front overhear this and report to the teacher. Teacher does not quite "get" what is going on, really wants silent reading to continue without fuss, tells Student A to read and leave B alone. Then Student A calls one of the girls a b&^%$. She reports this to teacher who calls both students into the hall, along with a witness. Student A denies calling the girl a b&^%$, says she must have misheard him. He called her a "ridge." Good grief!!!
Where to start? It occurs to me that there are a lot of trust issues here. If there was more trust, more sense of community and shared interest, the girls might have been able to intervene without needing to report A to the teacher. Student A might not have attempted the stunt in the first place. It all comes down to this: Can our students do the right thing, even when nobody's watching? If not - how do we help them learn to do so? I'm pretty sure it takes at least a village, probably more.

This Friday is a professional day. All of the PVP's from Sea to Sky are meeting in a Vancouver hotel to discuss/plan/share around the theme of Striving for Excellence. I have been given the task of warming them up with a team building activity and then leading an hour session on the second day. I've shared many activities and energizers with the group over the years. You may remember the stories. While playing "What are you doing?" someone said, "Scratching my bum." On another occasion, when writing down a little-known fact about himself for us to guess "Who am I?" one fellow wrote, "I'm kind." To which a prankster added, "...of weird!" They don't always play as nicely as the students do.
I've chosen three activities. To start in the morning, we'll do Extended Name Tag. Name in the middle, favourite colour top right, favourite place in Vancouver bottom right, title of last book you read or movie seen bottom left, one thing you'd like to leave the two day knowing top left. Then, I'll put them into groups using Occupations - what would a bus driver say, etc. They'll share their name tags in their small groups. I'll try not to forget the reflection questions at the end: content, process, personal.
Another activity I have prepped is one that I found on a website listing lots of different "ice breakers." I've filled a bag with 30 eclectic objects from around my house: flashlight, elastic band, paper clip, marble, penny, Pez dispenser, screwdriver, spoon, etc. Each person will draw an object from the bag and then think of two ways they are similar to that object, then share with the large group. Reflect, reflect, reflect.
Finally, at the end of the second day, we'll do Client/Consultant. On the other side of their name tags, each PVP will write a nagging question about their practice - one that bugs them in the middle of the night - like, "How can I get my teachers to read their email?" or "How should we be dealing with students and cel phone use in elementary school?" In groups of four, each person will have a chance to ask their question and hear some responses from their colleagues.
I hope it goes well. If I can just get them to turn off their Blackberries....

This weekend I went over to Victoria for the marathon. I took a pile of books with me - didn't get to them all, but was able to read one during dinner Saturday: Learning in Safe Schools, by my friend, Faye Brownlie and her friend, Judith King. If you do not have this book - be sure to get a copy! I can't believe I have not read it before: it is a real treasure trove of ideas for creating a sense of belonging in schools and classrooms. It is also a valuable resource for resource teachers and anyone who works with students who need adaptations. Published in 2000 by Pembroke. A couple of quotes:

• "When you solve the little problems then you don't have big problems." Robert, Gr. 2


• "Learning experiences that call forth our feelings and engage our imaginations are more likely to stimulate thought and to last over time." Jacquie Dunn, teacher.


• "Belonging - connected - appreciated - supported...These are feelings essential for success." Gladys Rosencrans, District Coordinator.

I'd love to talk to you some more about this book - let me know when you've read it, too.

October

October already! What happened? I've had three Mondays with our class and have to be away at the board office this Monday. I'm having to accept the fact that it is really had to build community with a group that one sees only once a week. I think that my teaching partner has done a fantastic job of creating a class cohesion - something I sense when I pop in to talk to her or to a student during the week. So when I say that it has been hard to create community with the class, what I mean is that I do not yet feel part of their community. Interesting.
We started Family Groups this week. These are groups of about 16 students K-7 who will meet every other week with their teacher-leader. The staff has agreed to take this leap of faith with me and I so badly wanted the first meetings to go well. I prepped the grade 7's to go and pick up the kindergarten and grade 1 students and take them to their groups, but some of the kindies were too afraid to go. That was really the only hitch. I have already heard some positive feedback from teachers and students. Nancy explained to her group that they were like a school family, like brothers and sisters, and when the students had to return to their own classes, they all said, "Bye Mom!" Liam, in grade 7, has "adopted" the kindergarten students that he picked up from class. He's decided they are his. Teachers are having conversations about students. They are noticing strengths in some that they did not notice before. I am pleased!
October is a month for giving thanks. I am going to try to focus on all of the people to whom I am grateful: for the students and teachers and parents, the support staff, the custodians, the plumbers and the painters who keep our school looking good, for the board office people who keep up the paperwork and for my wonderful office assistant, Denise. Thanks.

Yesterday, as I sat at the back of the the room, listening to the keynote speaker, I was feeling very guilty. Guilty because I was not paying attention. The presenter was a nice lady, well-meaning, sincere, and her Wayne-Dyer-esque message was nothing I would challenge. But I did not want to shut my eyes when she asked us to; I even looked around to see who else was not cooperating. I did not want to get up and sit with someone new - and didn't. I stayed glued to my friend who was writing up lessons for next week, totally oblivious. And instead of taking notes, I wrote a list of "Things to do this weekend." I thought, "What's wrong with me? When I give a workshop there is nothing more annoying, even hurtful, than those who sit at the back and mark math sheets while I am sweating up front! Why am I doing this?" Then it occurred to me, and this is not an excuse for my bad behaviour - that a lot of our students are probably sitting at the back of the class, distracted, doodling, anonymous, thinking that their participation doesn't matter, thinking about their weekend, letting the teacher's words wash over them like a comforting blanket of elevator music, embarrassed and angry when they are jolted back into reality by the sound of their own name, "Margaret, what do you think of what Tony just suggested?"
I thought about what would have made a difference to my attitude and level of engagement during the keynote address: personal connections, intrinsic motivation, relevant material, a chance for structured talk, and positive interdependence with my peers. Our keynote speaker didn't have a hope in Hades of creating those conditions for learning in that auditorium. The class size was way to big, for a start! I am sorry for my bad behaviour. I promise to try to be a better student in future.

Tribes in Leadership

I am sponsoring a new student leadership group this year, with my intrepid colleagues Jill and Veronica. We have begun each meeting with Tribes activities, learning names, practicing safety and "paying attention." The students really enjoy these activities, but one of them asked, "Why do we play games in leadership?" Of course, we replied that the "games" help them to work cooperatively. When I ask the reflection questions they give all of the right answers. I'm not sure they see the connection clearly yet, but hopefully, when they get down to actually working, they will be more able to interact with people who aren't their close friends. I wonder what they think student leadership is all about. I wonder what motivated them to join. We were surprised by some of the students who came to the first meeting and who keep coming. Some of the more "popular" and confident students have faded away. Aren't group dynamics fascinating?
In my classroom this week, I repeated some of the activities we did last Monday, like Milling to Music, but with different questions, instead of Fruit Salad we did "I Like People, All Kinds of People," and I brought out the popsicle sticks to pair them up for peer editing. We also did "Something Good in My World." There were a lot of "passes" the first time around, but on the second time, everyone had something to share. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Eduardo said the day was "fun." There remains, however, a wariness in the room, a kind of tentative atmosphere - I think some are still trying to figure out whether they can trust me. (Kind of like my staff!) I realize now that because I am teaching them only once a week, it is going to take a while to build that trust and comfort. This gave me a sense of the challenges that the highschool teachers experience. Patience required. And remember: it might get worse before it gets better! These days when I feel discouraged about anything, I console myself with: "This is an implementation dip! It will get better!" Take care of yourselves!

Community Before (and with) Curriculum

I've realized that this blog is going to be about more than Tribes. But as you know, Tribes is not an entity, a program or a book. Rather it's a way of being together. It's not about playing games, warm fuzzies and a lack of discipline. In fact, it is about building discipline: "norming" the behaviour of ourselves and of the group so that we can function in a civilized society. At the same time, we are supposed to be teaching children about math and science and social studies. When I wrote "community before curriculum" last week, I was thinking about what is most important in our classrooms. It is more important for a student to feel safe and secure and appreciated, or to know her 9 times tables? Can she even begin to memorize her timestables if she's anxious, tired, frightened? This year, I like to work harder on those ways to use the Tribes activities with the curriculum. I want to find more ways to use group processing in the subject areas, not just as energizers or the start and end of the day. We did Milling to Music last Monday with "What is your favourite colour and favourite holiday." This week I'll try Milling to Music with a science question. I'll let you know how it goes.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school! Actually, we have been at school since August 31st, but today was my first day with my new class. I am their Monday teacher. There are 28 grade 4 and 5 students. Having been a grade 6/7 teacher for so long, I was really afraid of frightening THEM! Especially as most are newly hatched from primary. It was fine. No one cried, not me or any of the students.

I started by showing them how to move their desks to the perimeter of the room in order to create a community circle. Thank goodness they do not have chairs attached to the desks, as in some of our classes. Once in Community Circle, we did some name games: the Koosh Ball game, I Sit in a Chair, and a new one I read about in Journey Toward the Caring Classroom (Laurie Frank): It's so easy! In the circle, have each student say their own first name, one at a time around the circle. Time them. The first time the kids did it it was 21 seconds. I told them I thought they could get it down to 15 seconds. It took about 5 tries, but they did it - 13 seconds! Reflection questions: What skills did you have to practice? What was hard/easy? How did you feel waiting for your turn? Extension: have one student start and the two on either side then pass their names- to the right, to the left... Which side will finish first?


After that we played Apple, Peach, Pear, Plum. I remembered to stress safety! We went over the Four Agreements. We started some "Get to Know Me Maps" that I`ll laminate. We did some spelling and some math and before I knew it the day was OVER!

I can`t wait until next Monday! There is so much to do, so little time! My daughter is in Mrs. Kelly`s class at BES and it was so great to hear about all of the Tribes activities Marian has already done - she has a orangutan called Tango, who watches from his perch - that reminded me to introduce the kids to Cosmo next week.

I will look forward to hearing from all of you about your classes and your great adventures in learning and being together!