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On Jumping In

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I remember the feeling I had when I discovered that I wanted to be a teacher. It was this flash of, wow, I could do this. I was in grade 9 science class, and the teacher had to step out of the room, so had asked me to keep taking up the science homework on the overhead projector (remember overhead projectors??) And it was nerve wracking, but I very quickly started thinking about how I could phrase the questions and got students to answer, and I distinctly remember her sitting back, crossing her legs and being all casual, like, you got this... carry on, when she came back in the room. I quickly let her take over, but that moment almost 2 decades ago, has stuck with me.  I remember the feeling when I found my current school, which, no matter where I go afterward, will always have my heart. I cried driving back from Ottawa to Kingston, thinking I would never see the teachers I had worked with ever again, nor work with those students (spoiler alert: I got hired the following September,...
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On Leaving... and Starting Somewhere New

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At my school, a job change doesn't mean getting shuffled down the hallway, or getting a section of a course that you're unfamiliar with. It means going to work in a new building, with a different set of colleagues, a different work culture, and students with a different profile. The rhythm of your life changes. You don't see the same people every day or take the same way to work. The students -- they're different, but not so different. In fact, they're probably the easiest part of the transition, because students are students, no matter where they are. I think all of this change is what makes a significant portion of the staff at our school a little bit nervous come staffing time. We know that teams can be split up, and our day-to-day can look very different, regardless of the fact that we're still teaching the same English course, or whatever.  In my teaching career, there's been a bit of a rhythm to these changes. I haven't been in one spot for longer ...
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Teaching in a Pandemic

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As this school year comes to a close, we aren't doing the usual rituals we are so used to. There are no last day assemblies and there's no celebratory grad cake... there are no students scrambling to finish their credits, waiting to the last minute to hand in their work, no retirement parties or get togethers with friends and colleagues. It is so very strange. Over the past three months, we have been communicating with students over email, google meet, and over the phone. We have tried to motivate them to do some school work, to get that one thing done so they could graduate or finish a course. Everything took 3 times longer and took way more effort. We got through on some level to most of them, but not all. And, really, a lot of them did do it... they did what they needed to do to get to their next step. Marks have been recorded, students will move on to the next grade, and walk across the stage when it is safe to do so, but it feels unfinished. The highlight of my teachin...
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On Feedback... for Teachers

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I had my first performance appraisal today since my NTIP. It has been several years since I have been given formal feedback about how I teach. And, while having someone evaluate me is always nerve wracking -- especially when it is related to something that I care deeply about -- a few hours later, I've come to the conclusion that I really liked it. Am I ridiculous? Somehow, I don't think so, and that's probably why I'm writing now. As I was driving home today, and reflecting on the morning, I had a couple of of different thoughts related to being evaluated. Of course, the fear side of my brain went into overdrive doubting and questioning -- why didn't you think of that already? How could you have not done that thing that seems super obvious once someone has pointed it out? Does this mean that I'm not really good at what I do? But once I got that out of the way, I could really think a bit more deeply about what I had experienced. No one is perfect. And as a tea...
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Success Criteria

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It has been several years since I have used this journal, but I find it the most useful when I have a lot of new ideas from some PD. So, here goes. I'm at the EOSDN Conference focusing on assessment. I had forgotten how much of an assessment nerd I was in the day-to-day grind of teaching in my classroom, but I am happy that I have had the opportunity to take the time to think deeply about assessment again at this point in my career. It is something that I really enjoy puzzling through and trying to better myself as a teacher.  These are the notes that I took during the first day of the workshop. We focused mostly on developing success criteria with students. While this is something that I have done in the past, and feel relatively comfortable doing organically with students in math, I really don't have a handle on it in terms of how I teach science. Taking this opportunity to reflect on my practice means that I want to target a few things about how I am teaching my...
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Thinking about Portfolios

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I'm currently taking my Special Education Specialist course online, and the assignment I am working through right now has to do with portfolios. The module is focused on mentorship and leadership in Special Education, which is applicable to me as a relatively new teacher. Having just gone through the mentorship process, I feel like I have a lot to contribute in this area. Anyhow, back to portfolios… the assignment is to design a one-page handout giving the key parts of a professional portfolio, and then develop a plan to share with staff and use as a mentoring tool. I really felt like a bit of brainstorming needed to happen first, and so here I am. I think that a professional portfolio is a bit like a super-charged resume. It is a snapshot of who you are as a teacher, and serves as talking points for an interview. The interview could be a job interview, or a performance appraisal interview, or something more informal, but the portfolio is evidence. When I interviewed to be an...
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Reflections on some great Math PD

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Another PD Day, another blog post to consolidate everything! This afternoon I attended and helped run the OCDSB Math PD Day. Man, do I love a good workshop! And today, I experienced 5 of them.  Marian Small - Building Number Sense Marian presented a lot of good questions we can ask students in order to improve their understanding of  algebra. Some of my favourite examples were:  1. Look at y = 3x - 9. Is y big or little when x is big? When is y basically the same as 3x? I really like this question because it students get the opportunity to talk about "bigness" of numbers, and what it means to be big or small. Does is matter if the number is negative or positive? Is it the magnitude of the number that makes it small or big? I think there could be some great discussion there -- and it would be great for grade nine students, who are just beginning to relate algebra and graphs, as well as even grade 12 students working on things like asymptotes and end behav...
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