#HandsOffFDK

In 2009, the Ontario provincial government announced the implementation of Full Day Kindergarten in all publicly funded Ontario schools, to be carried out over a five year period from 2010 - 2014. Each kindergarten classroom would be staffed by a kindergarten teacher and an Early Childhood Educator, except classes of less that 16 students which would be staffed by a teacher only.

The Draft Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program document, which was released in 2010 detailed the program expectations and pedagogy which was a play-based, student inquiry driven model which supported student learning in language, mathematics, science, physical education and health, the arts, and social-emotion domains.

Research conducted by the Ministry's own staff in partnership with Queen's and McMaster University  as well as research by others has shown that the FDK program has had a positive impact on student learning and achievement"

Yet, in spite of all of this evidence, Premier Doug Ford recently announced that his government will not guarantee the future of FDK beyond the 2019-2020 school year. In mid-February, my former school district will begin kindergarten registration for children beginning school in September 2019, welcoming parents to Open House and Registration events.  Yet parents who are registering their child to begin a two year kindergarten program in September have no idea what the program may look like by the time their child reaches senior kindergarten in September 2020.  Educators who are welcoming these parents to their programs have no idea what the kindergarten program will look like in another year, or if they will still be the ones staffing the program.

Immediately following the initial announcement there was a huge response from media, parents and educators denouncing the government's plan to cut FDK and outlining the importance of the program to children, to families, and to society. We know that the earlier we can intervene in a child's learning, the greater the chance of changing their trajectory.

A few days later, the government issued a clarification and stated that they are "committed to full day learning."  What does that mean for the future of the program, for the educators, the families, and the children? No one knows.

What can you do?

• contact your MPP and tell them Hands Off FDK
• share your stories on social media using the hashtag #HandsOffFDK

Share your ideas for action in the comment box.

Articles:
Experts call Ontario's full-day kindergarten visionary
With Our Best Future in Mind - the Pascal Report and additional research and resources
FDK: Why it works (ETFO)
FDK: How it works (ETFO)

Ontario considers removing kindergarten, primary class size caps

Most read posts of 2018

The three most read blogs from Opening Doors for Learning in 2018 were:

Why Do People Come To Work When They Are Sick?: my own wonderings about why people who wouldn't send their child to school when they are sick come to work when they are so sick that they should be home.  Why????  This post generated lots of discussion on social media and I posted a reflection on some of the responses in a later blog post.

Class Lists - Reframing That Child:  a reflection the discussions that often ensue in June as class lists are being created for the coming school year, and a reminder to view all children with 'soft eyes', even the child who hits, or kicks, or misses so much school that their learning is fragmented.  

Resources for World Down Syndrome Day: a list of resources for educators for World Down Syndrome Day which is held each year on March 21. 

I think it's very positive that two of the three most read posts were about creating schools and classrooms that are inclusive for all students, while the other challenges us to rethink our beliefs about ourselves and our role in the classroom.

One Word Challenge 2019

The One Word Challenge is based on a book by motivational expert Jon Gordon called One Word That Will Change Your Life.    The premise of the book is that most people give up on their New Year's Resolutions by the end of January.  By focusing on just one word and remembering WHY you chose that word, you are more likely to stick to your resolution.  Here's a brief video of Jon Gordon explaining the idea behind One Word That Will Change Everything.

In 2017, my One Word was Stretch and, as I wrote in my year end reflection, I thought I did a great job of stretching out of my comfort zone both personally and professionally, For 2018, my word was 'well-being.'  In one of my first blog posts of 2018 I wrote: This year, with each choice I make both personally and professionally, I intend to reflect on whether this choice will contribute to my physical and mental well-being.

As a retiree, there is no reason not to get to the gym or outside for some exercise on a regular basis. When I choose to stay home and lounge on the couch, I need to make sure that I am making a mindful choice. Is this relaxation what I need right now for my well-being or would my well-being be better served by getting up and getting some exercise?

I have to be honest - earlier this week when I looked back at last year's one word challenge I had totally forgotten what my word was for 2018.  And I can't say that I have done a much better job of putting my well-being front and centre in 2018 than I did in 2017.  I'm afraid I didn't have much more luck with One Word than I did with my New Year's resolutions in years past.

So for 2019 I am going to keep my one word from 2018, and vow to do a better job of remembering that my well-being - physical, mental, emotional, social - is my goal for the year.  I intend to post reminders in my bullet journal and to look for other ways to remind myself throughout the year.

• Do you make New Year's Resolutions?
• Do you participate in the One Word Challenge?
• What strategies do you use to 'stick to it' with your goal?
• Have you ever realized that you completely forgot your goal (like I did?)

This poster is going on my bulletin board, where I will see it every day.
My plan is to find a new inspiration well-being quote to post each month as one strategy
to remember my commitment to my own well-being. 

Why do people come to work when they're sick? - A reflection

December is a time for looking back at the year past, and many bloggers post lists of their 'most read' posts for the calendar year.

For me, the most read post on my blog this year had more than double the readers than the next most read post, and it generated a great deal of discussion on social media. That post was my wonderings on 'why do people come to work when they are sick?' 

The responses to my post from those teachers who do show up at school when they are sick fell into three general categories:

1. It is more difficult to prepare for a supply teacher than it is to just 'tough it out' and go to work sick. I get that preparing for a supply teacher is not easy, but if your daybook already contains information on the routines and procedures that don't vary from day to day, then completing supply teacher plans shouldn't be overly daunting. In this day and age when teachers can email their plans to the supply teacher or to their admin, not having a detailed lesson plan already at the school is not an insurmountable obstacle. Years ago my administrator asked each teacher to have an emergency one day and one week day book prepared.  My one week plan was literacy based - a read aloud book with aligned literacy and math activities that weren't necessarily connected to our current unit of study, but in an emergency, they would suffice.

2. A supply teacher won't be able to handle my class/teach my lessons the way I would.
A number of people currently working as supply teachers responded that they found this reason for coming to work sick rather insulting. Maybe it won't be done exactly the way you would teach it, but is that necessarily a bad thing?  Maybe it will just be 'good enough' and that will be okay for a day or two. Most of us in teaching have worked as supply teachers.  In my year of supply teaching, there were times the teacher left lessons that I knew were busy work and practice lessons, saving the key instructional lessons for when he/she returned.  That's fine.

Another strategy suggested by many teachers is to enlist your students to take on leadership in your absence.  Make sure that they know the rules, routines, and procedures and that they have responsibilities in your absence for ensuring the smooth running of the classroom.  Even our youngest learners are capable and competent of assisting a supply teacher. So, if upon your return the literacy centres are a mess, you can follow up with the students who are supposed to be in charge of those centres if and when you are absent.

3. We don't have enough supply teachers and/or occasional ECEs.
This is a tricky balancing act for school boards and unions.  There need to be enough supply teachers/ECEs available to cover absences but not so many teachers/ECEs on the supply list that people aren't getting sufficient work.  What sometimes happens is that an educator calls in their absence and there is no one available to cover the absence.

Educators are then between a rock and a hard place.  If they stay home, too ill to work, they feel guilty because they know their colleagues are going to have to try to cover their absence and their students may have someone different teaching them each period of the day.  If they drag themselves to work anyway, then does that relieve some of the pressure on boards and unions to find a solution to the shortage?  In our board, when I was working in the program department we went through a period where there were not enough supply teachers. We would begin a workshop or meeting, and teachers would get phone calls from their principal saying, "There's no supply teacher here to cover your absence.  You need to come back to the school." After this happened several times, our superintendent met with administrators and told them, "No more phone calls.  Professional learning is important.  The work of our consultants is important. Find another solution."  Had we continued to accept teachers being pulled from professional learning due to a shortage of supply teachers, there would have been less pressure on Human Resources to hire more supply teachers.


It's never easy being away from work.  It's hard to entrust our students and our teaching to someone else. But teaching is hard and it's even harder when you're not feeling well. While our work and our students are important, so is our health.  We owe it to our students, our families and ourselves to take care of ourselves.

December Reflections

December is a time for reflection on the year past, and even though I'm retired, this has been an amazing year of professional growth and challenges. My OneWord for 2017 was 'stretch' and I vowed to stretch myself, personally and professionally, out of my comfort zone. I've continued to 'stretch' this year as well.

Rather than list all of them, I've selected four instances that pushed me out of my comfort zone professionally this year:

1. Finished my doctorate! I began this journey before I retired, knowing that I would need a continued intellectual challenge in my retirement. Boy, was it challenging!  But I did it - even though it was difficult and there were times when I wanted to quit, I did it!  Walking across the stage at Western's convocation and meeting all of my online classmates and professors in person was a real thrill. My doctoral work explored Enacting Self-regulation Expectations in Kindergarten Programs Using A Distributed Leadership Framework, and I have published a few articles based on this work. I hope to continue publishing in 2019.


2. Speaking of publishing, my book, Lab Class: Professional Learning Through Collaborative Inquiry and Student Observation became available in August 2018 and it was chosen as Learning Forward's Summer Book Club selection. What a thrill to hold a copy of it in my hands!  It is based on work that we did in our board, engaging as co-learners with educators using a collaborative inquiry approach to professional learning. Going through the publication process with the team at Corwin Press was exciting and scary at the same time - lots of revisions, lots of questions - but totally worth it in the end.

3. I was a guest on not one, but two podcasts on voicEd.com.  I'd never been on a podcast before, and they are kind of challenging.  You're talking with other people whom you can't see. I've read that over 90% of communication is non-verbal and in a podcast you don't have any of those visual cues - head nods, eye gaze, etc - to support the conversation. Luckily the others with whom I was chatting were very experienced podcasters and the hour flew by.  Thanks to Stephen Hurley & Doug Peterson for inviting me to join them on This Week In Ontario Edublogs, and to Stephen Hurley & Susan Hopkins for allowing me to join them on the Voices of Self-Regulation podcast.

4. I have presented at lots of conferences over the years, both locally and provincially, but this year I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and did something different.  Instead of presenting a workshop, I facilitated a conversation which is much more open and fluid.  And, to make it even more challenging, it wasn't at a Kindergarten conference or a self-reg conference (which are my strengths) but at the Bringing IT Together Conference, which is a technology focused conference with lots of intermediate and secondary teachers. I was worried that no one would attend my session, or that the people who did attend wouldn't have much to say.  I needn't have worried - I had a great group and they engaged in a very fulsome conversation.

Here's hoping that 2019 offers many more opportunities to continue to stretch and grow!


Thanks to Lynn Thomas for inspiring this blog post, and to Doug Peterson who posted the link to her blog in This Week in Ontario Edublogs.  I always get so inspired by the blogs he shares!

BIT2018 Conference Reflections

Attending a conference can be a great way to get new ideas, connect with other passionate educators and consolidate your thinking.

This past week I was able to attend two days of the Bringing IT Together 2018 (#bit18) conference in Niagara Falls.  It was two days of pushing myself out of my comfort zone and, back home and reflecting on the experience, I'm so glad I went.

As a former primary teacher and Kindergarten/Primary Consultant, most of the conferences I attended and presented at were geared to an audience of primary and kindergarten teachers. At BIT2018, the participants at the sessions I attended were mostly secondary teachers. Even though we were coming from very different contexts, the overall consensus was 'good pedagogy is good pedagogy.'  Whether we are talking about online learning or learning in a bricks & mortar classroom, it's about building relationships with students.

To push myself even further out of my comfort zone, instead of presenting a workshop with an agenda, powerpoint and speaker's notes, I facilitated a Learning Conversations session.  In these sessions, participants sit in a circle and engage in conversation on the designated topic. The facilitator guides the conversation, provides prompting questions when necessary. The topic I selected was Building Community in an Online Classroom, and the participants shared lots of ideas.  I had been worried - what if no one shows up, what if no one talks, what if.........  I shouldn't have worried. It was a group of teachers - of course they're going to talk!

I attended another Learning Conversation about the pedagogy of online classes, and having attended and facilitated a Learning Conversation, I'm now a huge fan. While there is still a place for 'sit and get' sessions at conferences, it was a welcome change of pace to engage in a small group discussion with other educators. The Learning Conversation gave us an opportunity to talk about the ideas we were hearing at other sessions, and consider how to apply them in our own context.

Thank you to the organizers for a relaxed, well-organized conference.  I left feeling renewed and re-energized with lots of new ideas to try in my online classroom.

Self-Regulation and Art

Image from Surrealistic Reality

Each person has different strategies for restoring their energy and their sense of calm after dealing with or even while dealing with stress. Earlier this month, I wrote about exercise as one of my go-to strategies.

This image popped up on a social media feed today and I was reminded of how we can use the arts for self-regulation. The arts can encompass a wide range of activities - drawing, sketching, painting, sculpture, music, fabric arts, writing, singing, composing music even culinary arts. 

For some people, it is restorative to create art while others are restored by listening to music, reading poetry, or viewing art. 

One stumbling block for me was the idea that art had to produce something and the something I produced had to be 'good.'  Instead of reducing stress, this mindset made art more stressful for me. As a kindergarten teacher, I was a firm believer in the importance of process over product. It was all about allowing students to explore different media and being expressive. So why wasn't I able to grant myself the same permission to focus on exploration instead of focusing on the final product? 

There are a number of very creative, artistic people in my family who create beautiful art that they can display in their home or give as a gift.  I had to stop comparing my artistic efforts to theirs, and turn off the voice in my head that said, "You're not good at art."  Gradually I began to enjoy the process again.  Now I like doodling in my bullet journal, putzing about with paint, writing poetry, and other creative endeavours for their own sake and not as a means to an end. Drawing, painting, and writing are tools I have added to my self-regulation toolbox.

Do you use the arts as a stress reducing strategy? 

What arts do you like to use to reduce stress?

Do you enjoy the process and/or the product?