Teacher Thanks Christy Clark

Written before the passing of Bill 22...

Yes, you read that correctly.  Never did it cross my mind that I would be saying thank you to the same person who is the reason I am on strike this coming Monday.  I am not thanking her for Bill 33.  I am not thanking her for refusing to agree to mediation.  I am not thanking her for her net zero policy.  I am thanking her for being the impetus for a very valuable conversation I had with my students today.  Now Premier Clark, please do not get carried away and quote me as a teacher who appreciates the role you play in educational change - yet.  Rather, your government and your stance during these negotiations, if we can call them that, opened discussions about the very values we pride ourselves on as Canadians - freedom and democracy.

Now, it is true, we are lucky to live in a country where these words even ring true at all.  However, without biasing my students my stance in this particular struggle, I try to open them to how important it is to stand up for our rights when we think they are being threatened, in order to protect their sanctity. After covering the basics of the dispute from both sides in an effort to be as unbiased as possible, for my students deserve this, these are the questions they had:

• Didn't the people in government go to school?  Don't they know how important schools are?

• How can the government say they don't have enough money for education when we pay taxes?

• Don't the people in government have children?  If they do, do they not care about their children's futures?

•  Are universities on strike too?  Why not?

• Can we go to private schools while you are on strike?

• Can we go on strike with you?

• Can PM Harper do anything [about our schools]?  How about in Ontario?

This was just the beginning, so thank you Christy Clark.  I can't wait for the discussions now that Bill 22 has passed and students will not only hear what the Bill means, but to live it.  

Wandering Day

This looks like a perfect start to a wandering day...

I subscribe to a newsletter from one of my favourite artists, Ali Edwards, called 52 Creative Lifts.  She recently wrote about The Fine Art of Wandering, in which she quoted from a children's book Best Friends For Frances by Russell Hoban.

"Let's play baseball," said Frances.

"I can't," said Albert.

"Today is my wandering day. "

"Where do you wander?" said Frances.

"I just go around until I get hungry," said Albert. "Then I eat my lunch."

As a planner, this might be stressful for me, but it sounds fun, so maybe I'll give it a try...
Have you ever just wandered?
 

Letting Go...

This past week I have been nursing a 'stuck' neck. As recommended, I have stayed home and rested for five days now, in addition to going to a daily emergency chiropractor appointment.  I am not good at resting on command.  Unable to turn my neck and with a constant headache, my days have been mostly watching videos and thinking about how much I could be getting done if I could only ignore the pain.  On the third day of treatment, my chiro worked pretty hard on me with many adjustments alongside massage of areas that were refusing to let go without some help.  At the end of the treatment I was quite emotional, feeling frustrated with my body and my inability to move along the healing any faster.  I needed to feel some light at the end of the tunnel, some relief from the physical and emotional tension.  I asked if there was anything I could do to relieve the headaches or speed up recovery, and after a few basic reminders about ice and water intake, Dr. J. said what I needed to do was to rest.  To let go.

Letting go.  A practice in which I am not very skilled. I like to have plans, lists, projects.  I like to be in control.  I am a teacher and our lessons, our units of study, our teaching strategies, they all need to be planned in advance.  In taking on the uncomfortable role of the primary cook for our family after our child was born, I set up a plan.  A system.  I have no problem if the plan needs to be changed last minute, I'm quite flexible, but I always feel more relaxed with a plan in place, just in case I need it. Type A? Perhaps.  Anxious? Without some control, yes.  So this letting go business is hard for me.

As I walked home from my appointment, I started to give thought to what I would do...how I could plan to let go. (No, the irony is not lost on me.) So yesterday (day 4) I spent the day watching more movies and staying on the couch in an attempt to do nothing.  I woke up this morning feeling looser physically and more relaxed.  I was busier than I should have been today, and on the computer a fair bit which I know is not great for my neck, but I'm taking it one day at a time.  I'm learning how to find a place for my active mind and body and still feel rested.  Have some control without letting it control me.  I'm musing on the meaning of 'letting go.'  Letting go, what does it mean to you?

My Teacher Voice

I am a teacher.  I come from a family of teachers that goes generations back.  Teaching is my calling and I can not imagine doing anything else.  I am proud to be a teacher.  I am not proud of what is becoming of our education system.  Rather, I am scared, frustrated, outraged, and feeling more helpless with every legislation that is imposed on us.  As a teacher, I do not feel heard.  In fact, in the current political climate I do not even feel like we are being asked to speak.  The government would rather we not speak.  With Bill 22 they are ensuring we won't be able to.

I have been teaching for more than 11 years.  I have two degrees and completed my graduate work in both Supporting Diverse Learners, and Literacy and Leadership.  For many years I was on the planning committee for District Leadership Conference, have taught English-as-a-Second Language to international students, and led many professional development workshops to both new and experienced teachers.  I am up-to-date on all the current educational practices and practice what I preach to the best of my abilities using the limited resources to which I have access.  I attend professional development on school time, after school and during vacation.  I feel like I am more than qualified to weigh in on what is best for my students, for my classroom, and for our education system.  No, I do not have all the answers, which is why I would like to be invited to be part of the conversation.  We can all learn from each other.  But first, we have to talk - openly, honestly, with egos, agendas and budgets left at the door.  What is best for our children?  What is best for our future?  What can we do to work toward the ideal education system together?  We all understand that there are budget constraints and there always will be.  I do not think this is only about the budget, though.  If Bill 22 is truly the 'Education Improvement Act', shouldn't teachers on the list of professionals to be consulted?  So I have a suggestion: let's go for a walk on the seawall, tea in hand, and actually talk.  The government has decided we need a six-month "cooling off period," so we have plenty of time to reflect, gain perspective and listen - to our own hearts, to our neighbours and friends, to our children and students.  Then we need to go for a walk. 

I recently heard a clip on CBC Radio of how MacMillan Bloedel and Greanpeace first began truly getting somewhere in the debate over Clayoquot Sound. I wish I had been listening closer to names at this moment, but I was driving in the car with my son and could honestly barely even hear the radio above his singing.  What I remember is that two important employees of the two major players above bumped into each other walking by the ocean, stopping to pause as they realized they were both pushing their children in identical strollers.  When they looked up to recognize each other, one was introduced to the other's husband as her 'arch enemy', but this moment helped them to realize that outside of the politics of their jobs, they had something in common.  This common ground led them to a nearby coffee shop where they talked as people, not members of the opposition.  They continued to meet after this day, albeit secretly, and began working together on a solution.  So I invite you, Christy Clark, to meet with me and go for a walk in the coming weeks, before Bill 22 is legislated, and just talk.  As humans.  As parents.  As people who want a better world. 

Perhaps having an open discussion with the Premier herself will help clarify another question I have.  In the past few weeks in particular I have begun to wonder what role teachers will play in the future of the education system.  I feel as if we are political candidates trying to gain the trust of the public and being smeared by the opposition.  Rather than being in a trusted and respected position, we are being criticized for how we do our job, often by people who do not understand the reality of our day to day professional lives.  Please, visit our classrooms.  See what we do and ask us why we do it.  Yes, we have been on job action since September, but honestly many did not even know.  No, we are not doing report cards, but do we know where each and every one of our students stand? Yes.  Do we still teach, grade assignments, give tests and projects, and provide clear feedback to our students?  Yes.  Do we have data, written or anecdotal, that demonstrates each student's strengths and challenges?  Reams of it.  Are we open to meeting with parents to discuss their child's progress? Absolutely!  In fact, we encourage you to come talk with us.  We have so much to share.  Just ask us and we will make the time.  For those of you who have asked us and those of you who have shared with us your support, we hope you know how much we value your involvement.  I need to be very clear here: we are doing everything we can for your children.  Sometimes we need to take a stand because the future of education and the future of our children depend on it.  If the education system is going to rise up, we all need to take a stand.

I am proud to be a teacher.  I share the lives of children on a daily basis and would not have it any other way.  Who else gets to be so fortunate?  Every day I see the excitement in a child's eyes when he finally masters a concept that until that moment, was unattainable.  Every day I listen to their stories, hear their hopes and dreams, and am invited to be part of their journey.  Every day I see students supporting each other to become better students, problem solvers, and friends.  Every day I have the opportunity to open their eyes and hearts to knowledge, beauty and understanding.  Every day I wish I had more time, more resources and more support to help them reach their potential. In the coming weeks I fear that Bill 22 will take this all away.  And no, it is not really what they want you to believe.  It is NOT an 'Education Improvement Act.'  It is quite the opposite.

If you take one thing away from reading this, I hope it is that teachers care about children and we are doing everything we can to protect them and to help them achieve the education and opportunities they deserve.  We put our hearts and souls into our profession and can only hope it makes a difference.

A Moment to Take Stock

Where life is right now for me...

1. Beginning my process of a new One Little Word for the year.  This year it will be Present.  I am still percolating on the why and how and what, but it feels good.  So far it feels calmer.  Doing less, paying more attention.  This could also be because I'm sick and can't get my body or brain to do much other than observe, but it is a good place to start.

2. Horseback riding: I wanted to do some lessons after a wonderful fall trail ride with my students at Timberline Ranch, and the time was just right.  Every Monday in January for an hour.  Fun and hard work, for both brain (coordination) and body (my inner thighs are getting strong, baby!)

3. Clothing: Since September I have been taking the time to dress nicer, buy more professional, yet casual clothing and actually wear it...with jewelry, some scarves and occasionally makeup too!  I am working on the art of layering as my body is often cold but my classroom is warm.  I have received nice comments at work, so it is fun that others are noticing as well.

4. Catching up with friends.  In August I went to Montreal for a McGill field hockey reunion.  I spent most of my time with Matthew and an old teammate and new friend, Carolyn.  Last week we finally connected again for dinner at her place in North Vancouver.  I look forward to hanging out more!

5.  Nursing my fingers.  Last week at basketball I jammed two fingers on my right hand.  A week later, and a doctor visit and xray later, the swelling is down and the fingers are almost straight.  They are still fairly bruised and I can't bend them properly yet, but at least the tape is off and I can move them better.  No ball for a while, but I'm going to retape them and hope for the best this Thursday at Whistler.

6.  Snowboarding.  This week brings the beginning of our annual Grade Five Ski Program up at Whistler.  We take the students up three times over the next month, where they get lessons and we attach a pager and spend the days going leisurely between boarding/skiing and eating.  They are rough days at work, I tell you!

7.  Appreciating Kai's reading.  Kai is devouring books these days.  He can't get enough.  On the weekend I read to him for about 1 1/2 hours straight while Marc and his parents had a nap.  I had to stop as I was sick and my throat couldn't take any more, but he could have kept going for a long time.  I feel so lucky to have slowed down enough that I could spend this wonderful quiet time with him, learning from books and about my son.

8.  Sleeping.  Perhaps I'm in a holiday routine still.  Perhaps I need it. Whatever the case, I seem to be in bed early every night and I am really enjoying it.  I try to listen to an audiobook, but more often than not I wake up an hour into the book to turn it off and go back to sleep...aaahhh, hibernation.

Kai: 3 years, 3 months

Okay, so two and three (so far) have not been as tough as I had been warned. <insert 'knock on wood' here>  Yes, he is stubborn, willful and can occasionally scream, hit and throw things.  Aren't these things we all want to do from time to time?  However, more often than not, Kai is laughing, playing pranks, entertaining anyone who will watch and listen to him, and giving hugs and kisses.  A sweet boy.  Here are some of things he is up to lately:

1.  playing 'money': this has emerged just in the past week.  We dump out a pile of change of all denominations on my yoga mat.  Kai sits on one side with a good number of his Hot Wheels cars lined up nearby.  We take turns buying and selling these cars.  It goes something like this - "Would you like to buy a car?"
"How much is the red one?"
 "Two nickels."
"The one with the beaver?"
"Yes."
Customer counts out money, gives to seller.  Money gets put in the 'bank'. Car given to buyer.  Change roles.  This goes on for a LONG time.  SO much fun!

2. Is beginning to be interested in letters for the first time, and understanding that they make words.  He is working on writing his name by tracing dotted lines, and likes to type names of people he knows on  my computer.

3. Playdate obsessed! Every day he wants a play date, even as we get in the car right after a playdate!

4. Pretends to be a puppy.  Wants us to throw a ball, and he will chase it on his hands and knees, pick it up with his mouth and drop it for us.

5. Mimicking phrases we use.  Recent favourites are "That's the deal!" and "First things first."

6. Growing so fast.  He is getting taller and thinner by the minute.  He has gone from size 3 to size 4 pants in what seems like a few months.  We still have to roll up the 4s, but 3s barely fit...crazy.

7. Finally he is falling asleep by himself at night.  We bring him up, read him a book, kiss him good night and turn out the light.  He likes us to check on him 'in 5 minutes', but mostly he doesn't need us to.  Very exciting!

8.  He is painting objects more often now and tells me what they are. Although what they are is not always obvious, when he tells me what they are, the colour and shape make sense.  He really likes trees and the sun.

9. He often gets up in the morning by himself, and if he's not coming to crawl into bed with us, he gets himself fully dressed.  Then he decides what he wants for breakfast and we pack most of it into a bag for him, as he wants to eat at daycare like Lukas.

10. Again, every time I write, it seems like his stories are getting more and more elaborate.  He is always telling a story, mixing what has really happened with something he saw on a video or heard about once.  Very funny kid.  We love you, buddy!

Desires List: Christmas Gift Ideas

In my family, Christmas has always been a big deal.  Not for the religious meanings, or the gift giving, but for the traditions.  We love gathering, and Christmas is always a season of fun and celebration for us, especially as we are all teachers in some form, so have some extended break over the holiday season.  With marriages and children, our family keeps getting bigger and as a result, our big gathering is every second year.  This is that year.

Over the past few years, again due to the enlarging family size (as you can see above), we have begun to draw names so the siblings and spouses are assigned two others for whom to buy gifts.  One year, we made gifts. Fun and interesting to find where everyone's talent is, but apparently not a tradition worth carrying forward in the eyes of the majority.  So, this year we picked names, but also a letter of the alphabet.  The gifts we purchase must begin with that letter.  The good part is that we pulled letters and names on Thanksgiving weekend.  The bad part is the letter I pulled.  I can only imagine that everyone else pulled equally challenging letter, so I am going to save them a headache by writing a list.  Okay, we have always written lists, but this one will be longer and start with a greater variety of letters.  In fact, as a personal challenge, I will attempt to write one idea for each letter of the alphabet.  Some may think this is overkill, or perhaps a bit greedy, but I know from my birthday experience this year that my family actually reads my desires list and buys gifts from it, so I would like to think that I'm simply giving them some options.  Here goes:

A- afternoon tea (like we did for my birthday a few years ago) with you!
B- baking sheet(thank you, Ute); books
C- Chapter's - love everything in the store; canvases, any size for painting
D- date night babysitter...this could start with the letter of the month you can do it
E- big elastics for my hair
F- Fluevogs (just dreaming here)
G- gift certificate of any kind
H- horseback riding lesson(s) (thank you me!), homemade anything, especially Christmas decorations
I- iPod connector so I can listen to it in the car - we don't have a tape or CD player (thank you Derran)
J- jewelry of any kind - earrings, long necklaces, bracelets
K- knitting paraphernalia
L- lasagne pan (deep, big) (thank you Kel and Mom and Dad); loose tea
M- magazine subscription (Canadian Living? Canadian Family?), tea mug for travel (thank you Savanna)
N- nice silk scarf to keep me warm and fashionable :)
O- opportunity to do something off your desires list with you
P- paragliding; pashmina - black; pregnant Paverpol statue
Q- quilting class at Spool of Thread
R- recipes, your favourites; rubber scoop for slow cooker; anything from R & W Co.; rotary cutter (sewing)
S- stove top kettle, silver clip barrettes to hold my hair during basketball; self-healing cutting mat (table size)
T- tickets to a Premier League or World Cup soccer game (not serious as a gift, just as a desire)
U- unique (not necessarily new) story from our childhood, written down for posterity
V- vin rouge
W- Wimbledon tickets (okay, again not realistic, but had to write it down); weekly menu pad for the fridge (thank you Kyle, Ryan and Odette); water bottle for the car
X- exciting night out...remember, it's the night out, not that activity that is exciting! (our rules didn't specify the letter had to be at the beginning of the word, did they?)
Y- yarn
Z- zzzzz...yes, if you could figure out how to get me more sleep ins, it would be a gift indeed