Christine Ho Younghusband

My Quantitative Inquiry Question

EDUC 454 D100 – Week 3 – May 23, 2017

“How do you know when enough is enough?”

My quantitative inquiry project is about cedar bark harvesting. Today I shared my teaching experience and Math 8 Project from about 10 years ago titled “Math Embedded: A Tribute to Susan Point.” I showed a few images of Susan Point’s spindle whorls from the Vancouver Art Gallery and compared them to those made by my students who were demonstrating their understanding of linear and rotational symmetry. I am so proud of the work my students did back then, which inspired me to pursue other interests in the First Peoples, mathematics education, and now… environmental education with EDUC 454 D100. This year I want to learn more about cedar, weaving, cedar bark harvesting, and culturally modified trees.

Within this context… my quantitative inquiry question is “How do you know when enough is enough?” I was curious how the First People new how much bark to take from a tree without harming it, but also to take enough so that they could weave the baskets, clothing, and other items with the bark harvested. I love weaving. I have a small collection of cedar baskets that I brought into class and looking at them makes me even more enamoured by the craft because it took me forever to weave this 9×9 matrix as seen in the photo above. This bark was so beautiful. It was harvested a year ago. This is from the 7th Annual UBC Aboriginal Math K-12 Symposium.

I would like thank Dr. Cynthia Nicol for being so gracious and letting me attend. I presented at the symposium a few years ago presenting “Math Embedded: A Tribute to Susan Point.” This year’s symposium was about CEDAR. How serendipitous was that? I had to go. We learned about reconciliation and mathematics education. I just loved it. We did a timeline activity, then a map activity. These were two exceptional interdisciplinary activities that incorporated First Nations history, geography, mathematics education together. The audience was challenged by the tasks.

The keynote speaker was Alice Guss from the Squamish Nation. I just loved listening to her talk. She was an outstanding storyteller. I loved her take on cedar and appreciated how important cedar was to the Coast Salish. During her talk, she asked the audience if we had any questions. Of course I did… I wanted to ask my inquiry question… and, I did. “How do you know when enough is enough?” She answered, “you don’t. You use two hands. You may get 30-feet, 40-feet, or 50-feet… but the tree decides.” Wow. She modelled the process on the pole beside her on stage. The imagery was powerful, but also the idea that the tree as agency and action. This was the first talk from Dr. Cynthia Nicol about our relationship with the environment.

The final task of the symposium was weaving cedar. I loved the math that was embedded in this activity. We had to complete patterns by shading sheets of graph paper then weave our pattern using cedar. I had never done this before. I have made a cedar bracelet before, but never weaved a pattern like this before. This took collaboration, time, patience, and problem solving to get this done. And yes, I even asked the keynote for some help on how to twine my pattern together. I just loved the experience and had to share this with my EDUC 454 class. If you see below, they were just as engaged as I was, but they had to unfortunately weave with bristol board instead. That said, I believe the math experience was similar for may students.

I appreciated the class participation. I still wrestling with their math efficacy and how they can build student math efficacy, even though they do not intend to become secondary mathematics teachers. We had a great discussion today about math efficacy and I wonder how we can shake our habits so that we can shift the mindset about mathematics for the next generation of learners. In this weaving activity, some math anxiety was present… some dexterity frustrations… but overall joy from the learning experience. It was an excellent opportunity to connect with the students.

I look forward to my next learning about cedar. My next adventure is the Sea-to-Sky Gondola. I also look forward to the quantitative projects my students create to demonstrate their learning that is interdisciplinary, which includes environmental education, mathematics education, and their subject speciality. It should be good.

What is Your Math Story?

EDUC 454 D100 – Week 2 – May 16, 2017

After having my first class with EDUC 454, I was struck by their sense of math efficacy as secondary teacher candidates. I get that math can be difficult for some, but I am brought back to my long term curiosity of… “What’s your math story?” Everyone has one. Most of them are not so positive, so I wonder about what made the learning experience so challenging or difficult. If I continue with my research, this is something I would love to investigate further. Was it the pedagogy? the teacher’s understanding? the relationship? the uncertainty? the difficulty of the subject matter? WHAT IS IT?

Throughout my K-12 experience, I did not find mathematics very difficult. That said, I did not excel at mathematics either. I was a solid 85% average student… a solid B but not quite an A. I remember opting out of Calculus 12 in Grade 12. Big mistake. Why? I failed Math 100. Not proud of it. I remember having to purchase my professor’s “unpublished math book” as my learning resource and him saying after this long, diluted calculation that “as you can see, the answer is zero.” Disappointing. After all that math, the answer equated to nothing!!! I stopped learning. I blamed the teacher. As a result, my undergraduate experience was an obstacle course because every course I needed or wanted required Math 100 as a prerequisite. On the brighter side, I took Math 100 for the second time and got an A with 92%. Redemption.

However, I don’t think this is my “math story” anymore. There was no question that math was challenging, just like any other subject area. And yes, it posed as a barrier to many of my course selections throughout my undergrad because I wanted to become a Chemistry Major and I was a General Science student for most of my undergraduate years until my fifth year of university. In the meantime, I tutored mathematics at Kwantlen College Adult Basic Education program and decided that I wanted to become a teacher. The extra year was a blessing because I had the time to complete the required prerequisites for teacher education at UBC. Truth. I think that I had an “English Story” rather than a “math story” for most of my life. I always believed that I could not read and write. I hated reading out loud in my Grade 4 class. I hated reading out loud on the first day of teacher education orientation at UBC.

Anyway, back to my math story. I think that my math story shifted when I became a secondary mathematics teacher. I was always curious about how students became so disinterested in mathematics as they moved from Grade 8 to 12. This is not to say that all students arrive to high school with wide eyes and a love for mathematics, but I know ratio wise that not all Grade 8 students will take Math 12. My math story as a secondary mathematics teacher was solidified when I first taught Essentials Math 11. In previous years, I was the Math 11, Math 12, Calculus 12, and Enriched Math 8 teacher. That year, my teaching assignment switched. It was an eye opener. It took almost a month within a semester to establish a relationship with these students to find out that most of them should not be enrolled in the course. Most of these students were math-able. Why were these students here in Essentials Math?

Essentials Math, at the time, was the low level math pathway in BC education. Every student needed a math 11 credit to graduate from high school. Most of these students “chose” to be in Math Essentials 11 after three years of high school math. Because I was curious, I asked each student who they had as a mathematics teacher in Grades 8 to 10. Most of the students who I perceived to be math-able had teachers who were not mathematics subject specialists. What did this mean? Not really sure, but this informal finding was eye-opening. To make a super long story really, really short… I delved into this problem with my dissertation and focused on the professional learning experiences of non-mathematics subject specialist teachers and their acquisition of the subject matter as practicing secondary mathematics teachers in BC schools. This was a 9-year journey after 16 years of teaching secondary mathematics. I am satisfied with my results and hope to defend soon.

Now, my mind has drifted onto another math story. It just happened during our second class of EDUC 454. This math story is an extension from my research and the math-story-phenomenon. Because my students had expressed a mild dislike for mathematics in my Q-course, I wanted to explore this further with an outdoor activity. Students were asked to go out in groups of 4 or 5 and take photos of “the environment” and describe “what math do you see?” They also had to embed their understanding of their subject speciality into their findings and present what they had found to the class. Their findings could be presented to the class as an inquiry question that incorporated the environment, mathematics, and their subject speciality. One group after the other… they had wowed me. Great questions. I loved the different photos they took around campus. I was completely engaged.

These students exceeded my expectations (again). Here’s a group of teacher candidates with a perceived math efficacy of “mediocre at best” and they excelled in this group activity… incorporating mathematics, the environment, and their subject speciality to develop quantitative inquiry questions. How does this happen? Once again, I am more curious about teaching, learning, and mathematics education.

Why Am I Here?

EDUC 454 D100 – Week 1 – May 9, 2017

This is the first reflection journal entry for the course EDUC 454 at SFU. I had promised my students that I would blog at the same time as they would and blog about the question posed. Before I do, I must say… it’s been an incredibly enjoyable class so far and I look forward to the next 12-weeks with them. So, why am I here?

First of all, I love teaching. It has taken me many years to realize that I love to teach. My first 16 years teaching secondary mathematics in public schools was challenging and rewarding. I did not realize that being a teacher meant being a learner. Looking back, I loved what I learned and because of that, I am here. 9-years ago, I enrolled in the Doctor of Education program at SFU. I now understand that I was ready to learn something new. It started as frustration in the system and transformed into a research question. The dissertation journey led me down a new path of learning.

I left teaching 6.5 years ago. I had to get out of the problem. I could not get to my research wholeheartedly. However, one thing I miss most of all about the practice is the opportunity to teach. Yes, I was tutoring mathematics, but there is something magical about teaching a group of students. In this case, I am teaching Educ 454… Quantitative Approaches to Environmental Education. Interesting topic. I taught Educ 471… Curriculum Theory and Practice in the fall but this is a bit of a switch.

I pondered for many months how to approach this course. I asked colleagues/friends in the field who teach science who I could approach this course. Furthermore, it’s a Q-course… meaning a “quantitative course.” What this means is that there is an element of MATH embedded in this course. Nice. What kind of math? How would I connect this to environmental education? How can I embed the principles of BC’s New Curriculum, Aboriginal Education, and my needs and wants into this course? This is why I LOVE TEACHING. This is the fun part. I love the creativity and problem solving.

Classic teaching… I was prepared for the first class. This entailed getting the logistics managed and to set the tone for the course. I was conflicted by the idea of providing a PowerPoint and going outside. Usually how I set the stage for myself is to give myself a framework and go with the flow. I want the students to embrace their learning too and I have to roll with them sometimes. We did go outside as everyone took their laptops and valuables with them. We played a game so that I could get to know them better. Truth… I forgot the title of the game… but it’s one that @MsVictoriaOlson facilitated at EdCamp35 years ago. Worked like a charm.

Boy did I get to learn more about these student teachers. First, their ages range from 22 to 44. Second, they are ALL secondary school teacher candidates. (This is sooooo nice. They are in my tribe, which changes my approach to the course completely. This was good to know.) Third, they had lots to say about the “homework”… and, many of them DO NOT LIKE MATH. Most of them enrolled into my course because they had to. Nice… but this changes my purpose as well. My goal: MATH IS FUN!!!

Considering that this group of teacher candidates were “required” to take this course, it has been absolutely amazing to interact with an engaged group of learners. There is no question that this course is going to be FUN to teach. I’m already getting that vibe. In turn, I hope the students will have fun learning in this class too.

Stay tuned for future reflections from Educ 454… I’ve already learned so much about this class and I am stoked about planning and prepping for future classes. I have decided to get outside more, make this course personally and professionally relevant, and math will be an integral part of this awesome Q-course at SFU. I am ready for this challenge. Teaching is learning. I cannot believe I have this opportunity to teach at SFU. I am so happy to be back in the classroom with this class. It’s truly a joy.

Nine Years

Oh my goodness… did I love looking for a picture for this blog entry. My kid is going to hate this photo… she was not a fan of the bangs I gave her as a small child. Some of the photos made me laugh (see below). She is such a ham. I’m glad she is the same girl today as a thriving 13-year old in high school. For those who follow me on social media, you’d know that my daughter is 4 inches taller than me and she loves sports. I cannot believe that I started my doctoral work in 2008. I was working full-time, I had my little bub, and I embarked on a journey of a lifetime. Nine-years. No shame.

Admittedly, my dissertation journey changed the trajectory of my life. I don’t want to sound over dramatic, but it did. I left teaching in 2010. I became a school trustee. I feel privileged to be a part of the Math K-9 Curriculum Development Team, teach at SFU and St. Mark’s College as a sessional instructor, and be part of the BCSTA Board of Directors. I also had the opportunity to become an entrepreneur, be part of the Sunshine Coast Community Futures Board, and be part of the BC Association of Mathematics Teachers Executive Committee. There is so much to be grateful for… and there is so many opportunities I got to be a part of that I have not mentioned. It’s been incredible and I needed these opportunities to write my dissertation but also restore my love for education.

The dissertation journey (aka. this chapter of my pedagogical journey) will end this summer of 2017. My paper is with an APA editor and it was previously with another editor who looked for flow, grammar, and sense-making. I’m not done yet… but will be very soon. I might be writing this blog entry a bit too early but I blog when I am inspired to write. I am overwhelmed by the idea that I have been at this for nine years. Why was I so persistent? Who cares? Why did I walk away from my teaching career with hopes of finishing this research in a timely manner. In fact, I went overtime. 8 years is the max. I timed out… and now I’m back to defend. Oh yes… I am. I struggled with my research question for the first few years. The next few years I struggled with my “why” and “Chapter 1.” The last few years have been phenomenal. I have no complaints. Change takes time. Oh yes… and I took my time. I have no regrets. I cannot believe how beautifully my literature review, my data, and my recommendations serendipitously converge into a place of solace. I am hopeful.

After 9-years, I am so please with what I found in my research. My research started with a problem in education. I had many questions. Thankfully, I was able to stick to one. The messiness in my mind attempting to transform a problem from practice to research was a HUGE challenge. To top it off, I had to deprogram my stories or beliefs of myself… “I cannot write. I cannot read.” Those were two barriers that I had to overcome internally. No one can tell your story but yourself. Anyway, I don’t feel that way anymore. I do wish I would read more. The introverted tasks of research is extremely challenging for someone who is extremely extroverted. I love talking and connecting up with people. I thrive on people’s stories, especially ones about education, teaching, and learning. I am even more interested if you can relate it to mathematics education and leadership. I am curious. It leads me to many questions, but also to many solutions. Once I was able to bring my research proposal to ethics and start gathering data… it was a joyful dissertation experience. The rewriting, recalculating, and reevaluating my work was intrinsically rewarding. I loved it.

So, what’s next? I am planning to submit my paper in the next couple of weeks to my committee. Hopefully, it will make it’s way to the external examiner and a defence date will be announced. EVERYONE IS INVITED… if you want to hear more about my study. In the meantime, I will finish writing up my trustee study on gathering information and sense-making for decision-making and I am teaching a course at SFU. So, expect to be flooded with blog reflections from my Educ 454 course this summer. Part of the course is reflection and I like to do what I ask the students do in my course. I have a 13-blog entry series of Educ 471 from the fall session. Please refer back if you’re interested. This time I will answer the same questions I ask the students. In my Educ 471 blog entries, I reflected on the class as a whole and my experiences as the sessional instructor. This time, I want to reflect on the same questions posed to my students. I want to make my learning visible. I want to lead by example. I want to “be the change I want to see” in education. We lead together.

My big take-aways from my 9-year dissertation: (1) I cannot do this alone. I want to lead by lifting others up. I don’t want to be dragging a bunch of people behind me. Leadership has nothing to do with me and it has everything to do with the people I serve. In return, people life me up. I have to be willing to accept/ask help from others. This was a humbling point for me. It’s not easy for me to ask for help. The relationship is reciprocated. The lifting is mutual. (2) Have a goal in mind. This was a personal/professional challenge set upon me by my supervisor and my sister. What’s my why? At first, I wanted clarity. Midway, I wanted to explore and experiment. Now, I have a 10-year goal. I have a vision. My mission and purpose are actionable. I cannot wait to take my first steps soon after my dissertation is submitted into the SFU library. (3) Finally, do what you love. I am convinced that when you put your passion into practice, only good things will happen. The key here is, what are you passionate about? This has to be clear. Your actions need to be aligned to your passion. My dissertation helped me to define what’s important to me and I hope that I will have many opportunities to explore my passion further and put it to practice.

Nine-years, not wasted. I would not have learned what I have learned had I not taken this detour on my pedagogical journey. I would not have met all of the wonderful people I have met or experience all of the experiences I’ve had in the last 9-years. There is always something to learn and you are only ready to learn when you are able to receive those lessons. Some of these lessons were tough ones. Please do not take this joy-filled blog-entry and believe that the path was easy and straightforward. That is furtherest from the truth. I have learned what I value the most, what I care about the most, and what I am most passionate about. I am heartened by those who lift me up and I am honoured to have the privilege to lift others up. This is my purpose. Let’s ask the tough questions, listen, and just go for it. I feel such solace nearing the end of my dissertation journey that I can only feel hopeful and optimistic for what’s to come. My daughter will be turning 14 soon and I look forward to what lies ahead.

All at Once

What does it take to ground oneself? It was only a week or so ago when I had officially stepped down from the BCSTA Board of Directors. I wanted to get things “off my plate” so that I can get my dissertation done. Since the BCSTA AGM, I find myself engaged in a plethora of things that continue to capture my attention. For example, the same day that the AGM ended, I rushed home to be one of the parent chaperones of my daughter’s fundraising event washing cars for volleyball. The next day, I participated in the Canadian Education Association (CEA) regional meeting in Vancouver to discuss the future of education and how to we know that we’re getting there. Two days after that, I went to West Vancouver to see one my fellow trustees speak at the North Shore IGNITE. A few days after that, I traveled to Langley to attend EdCamp35, then to Abbotsford to watch my daughter play in the U14 Girls Volleyball Provincials. In the meantime, my dissertation went from one editor to the next, I interviewed a few candidates for the Sunshine Coast Community Futures Board of Directors, and I helped organize and facilitate an All Candidates Forum in my community that was focussed on PUBLIC EDUCATION. Oh wait, then I just started a new Twitter edu-chat called #mentorchat yesterday with a teacher from South Carolina and we’ve been collaborating online. With the times in between, I am still tutoring, driving my kid here and there, and cleaning the house as best I can. I still have to do my taxes, prepare for my upcoming course I am teaching at SFU, and write the trustee study as I had meant to do a few years ago. It happens all at once. I still have to complete my dissertation and defend, review policy in my school district, and now prepare a presentation for IGNITE35. These are all good things. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to engage in so many different things that captures my attention. Sometimes though, you just have to stop and take a break. Yes, I made room on my plate by stepping away from some things, but I uncovered other things on my plate I had no idea that were there until I took something off. I am so glad that I took a walk in the rain today and connected with nature. That’s all you need sometimes to get grounded so that you can happily face the next “thing to do.”

Now What

There is nothing I like more than pulling from my stock photos from the past. This is a good one and I have no idea who took it. It must have been a former student of mine from the golden days of teaching secondary mathematics. As you can see, this photo depicts deep thoughts. So, now what?

I am driven to answer this question. When you step away from something you love to complete a HUGE task (i.e. my dissertation), you have to answer what’s next. In the short term, my goal is complete my dissertation and defend successfully. Right now I’m still in the middle of the editing process, but hope that ends soon so that I can get my paper to my external examiner and get the ball moving towards the oral defence.

I am also watching. What do I mean by that? I am looking around and listening to see where my next step lies. I know that I am in the field of education… possibly teaching… learning and leading, for sure. I love being in the classroom but I also love presenting too. I am drawn to working with people and provoking people to think. I am also curious about other people and how we are all interconnected.

I am reminded by one of my professor’s THREE AXIOMS in education: (1) the money is the money, (2) be careful for what you wish for, and (3) do not underestimate the power of self-interest. Over time, these axioms make a lot of sense to me. I am sometimes bewildered by what I see and I have to always keep my ego in check. This can be challenging when you perceive yourself to be in a position of power or influence. These axioms also inform my next steps. My THREE AXIOMS are (a) you only know what you know, (2) you can’t go back in time, and (3) you don’t really know someone’s story. I am motivated to learn more about what I don’t know.

In the long term, who knows. I have started a 10-year goal setting process. I tried to start doing one several times in the past and could not do it. I could never see past my nose. I definitely don’t want to define every step along the way because there was no time in my early days that I had a desire for school trusteeship. However, I had always wanted my hands on the big picture and looking at system change. I know that I am a change agent in many ways with my many hats in education, but I have always wanted to steer the big wheel. My dad says you can’t… or at least do it alone. I totally agree with that. However, I do believe we can make system change.

I think about my colleague and friend Dr. Peter Liljedahl from SFU who just won the $100,000 Cmolik prize for Big Thinking Classrooms. I remember chatting with him a few years ago. He spoke about how he taught secondary mathematics and he had no tables or chairs. His students learned mathematics with non-permanent vertical surfaces (aka. white wash boards). The learning was collaborative, dialogical, and problem solving oriented. When he became a professor, his Master of Education students would also do projects related to this practice. The current BCAMT President just finished his MSc in mathematics education studying student movement using non-permanent vertical surfaces. Sooooo crazy!!! Peter travels around the world with this concept. Slowly but surely Peter is putting his PASSION into PRACTICE.

This is what I want to do. I am passionate about student voice, professional learning, and leadership. How do these fit together? This is for me to find out. I feel that I am on my way. I am so grateful for being a mathematics educator. Teaching mathematics helped me to understand more about teaching and learning but also lend itself as a vehicle to my research and dissertation. I look forward to what’s next. Every step has been exciting so far and I am open to the opportunities that are set before me.

An Exercise of…

As a friend had kindly reminded me… “this will be an exercise of letting go.” Let me tell you… it sure was. This year my name tag at the BCSTA AGM does not bear the “candidate” ribbon. I said in a previous blog titled “Trajectory” that I was not running for the 2017/18 Board of Directors. At the time, I was not willing to run for director. I had been the director for three years and I was ready to learn more. However, I was not sure if I was prepared to take on the roles of Vice-President or President for various reasons.

One of the reasons is my family. I could not bear being more away from my daughter any more than I am. You’d think that she would need me less now that she’s 13-years old, but really… she needs more. I want to be there for her as she transitions into teenager-dom. Another reason is my dissertation. I think that if I was finished my dissertation a month ago that my decision would have been different. I am in the middle of editing my dissertation and preparing to defend in the summer. That’s about 2-3 months away. I want to focus my attention on completing my dissertation and not campaigning. Third reason… it’s nice to leave on a high. I loved my three years on the Board of Directors. I had the opportunity to get to know boards of education from around the province, meet with various education partner groups, and connect up with staff from the Ministry of Education. Not only did I have a voice at the table, but I also had the opportunity to grasp a broader point of view of BC public education.

I am proud to have served on the Board of Directors for 3-years. We were a diverse team and we had much to contribute. Admittedly, not all times were easy. It was a labour of love for quite some time. But our board made many changes and I am proud that I was somehow a part of that. Furthermore, I loved my time serving on the Education Committee and Legislative Committee as a Board Liaison, but also loved being the Branch Liaison to VISTA, Metro, and Northwest Branch. And, I really enjoyed working with the staff of BCSTA. What a hard working crew… and THANK YOU for all that you do. It’s AGM and today I had my last board of directors meeting and tomorrow will be my last VISTA Branch meeting and Legislative Committee meeting. Although I’m experiencing a lot of “lasts” this weekend, I am very grateful for the kind words people have shared with me and their support of my work on the Board.

Saturday will be election day and a new BCSTA Board of Directors will be decided. This will be up to the membership to decide who they want to represent them at the provincial level. As we approached the nomination period tonight, I was tempted to put my name forward. Luckily with the support of my friends (via text), I followed though on my initial decision. Now is not the right time for me. I feel that. I know that. And as tough as it is letting go, I am overwhelmed by a sense of relief that I made the best decision for me and my family. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I never say never but I will take the opportunity to enjoy my time at AGM without the worry of campaigning, speech writing, and Q&A. The membership will be faced with tough decisions. I hope they make the best decision that is best for BCSTA and students.

The Closer

“Professional learning is BETTER THAN PHO.”

Thank you @GabrielPillay1 (and side-kick sister @RosePillay1) for asking me to speak at #Edvent2017 #getfED. I was honoured and delighted to learn that we were to talk about “food and professional learning.” Hello? I thought this was a serendipitous moment. FOOD + PROFESSIONAL LEARNING = WINNING COMBINATION. I felt validated. My food pics took front stage as I talked about professional learning.

Of course I wanted to take a play on words with my 5-minute pecha kucha presentation. For those who don’t know what that is… it’s 20 slides, 15 seconds each and the slides are automated. You have to make your case in 5 minutes. There is no time to meander or be indecisive. You have to have a point and getter’ done in 5 minutes. Not only did I get the opportunity to highlight my favourite food pics, I was going to title my presentation after my ultimate favourite food from Kien Giang Vietnamese Restaurant in Sechelt, BC… medium #5 soup… beef and meatball Pho.

Why wouldn’t I compare professional learning to my favourite food? They go hand in hand. I look forward to a warm bowl of Pho. It’s warm and inviting. Pho tastes super good like someone spent a lot of time and LOVE preparing it. You can enjoy a bowl by yourself or in the company of others. It’s something I look forward to and can eat everyday. I am never disappointed. This is how I feel about professional learning.

Even preparing for #Edvent2017 (and this blog entry) brought me much joy. I take a lot of food pics. I don’t know why but I do. I try not to post every pic on social media, but I am compelled to take a picture of my meal. When I look at the picture I am immediately brought back to that restaurant and the good memories that were attached to it… like this one. This is my favourite cheese burger from The Village Restaurant in Sechelt, BC. It reminds me of my mom’s cheeseburgers when she owned a coffee shop in Prince Rupert, BC when I was a young child. Now, I bring my daughter to The Village Restaurant to spend time with her and enjoy a cheeseburger and vanilla milkshake. It brings me back. BTW: this pic did not make my #getfED Powerpoint. It’s was tough choosing my best 19 food pics for #Edvent2017.

What a great way to start #Edvent2017. I love this quote… “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” All of Julia Child quotes during #Edvent 2017 were awesome and so appropriate to #getfED. That was my personal challenge. How was I going to connect my love for Pho to professional learning? I’m a math teacher for goodness sakes. Could I pull off a 5-minute metaphor? I was about to find out. It was an interesting process as we approached the event. Speakers were asked months in advance to participate. Look at who I presented with? https://findinganswersinlife.com/archive-edvent-2017/  What a phenomenal group of educators presenting at #Edvent2017. I was truly honoured.

What blew my mind… like this delicious shrimp salad roll and deep fried roll with peanut sauce from Kien Giang… was that I was THE CLOSER. What was Gabe & Rose thinking??? I was expecting to speak, but the Closer? You know what people remember the most, right? UGH. No pressure, of course. I was the last to speak at #Edvent2017. I did not know about this until a week or so before the event. By then, my PowerPoint was submitted and there was no looking back. I’m the closer.

Seize the day. Carp diem. Hello CANDY BAG… “Life itself is the proper binge.” Just live life to the fullest and JUMP IN. Of course, as the day approached… I was at a meeting in Vancouver all day… and more meetings before this event… and little time to prep for this event. Classic. It just seems to work like that sometimes. And of course, like any good educator, you just make it happen. So, when I arrived to the WINGS Pub & Restaurant in Burnaby, I cracked open my computer and started “practicing.” There comes a point where I had nothing to read from and memorizing was not an option. My secret… just remember what your BIG IDEAS are and proceed from there.

Like this bowl of curry chicken from Saffron Restaurant in Sechelt, BC… the speakers at #Edvent were HOT. Oh my goodness… when you want to see educators with passion speak… Go to an event like #Edvent2017. The topics were diverse but the drive for our love of education was definitely the same. Topics ranged from teach with passion to making kids hungry to Aboriginal Education to inquiry based learning to Buns & Roses. One speaker even talked about not being able to eat anymore and that life is a CHOICE. Soooo powerful and I loved her message. So True!!! Life is a choice.

Going to events like #Edvent2017 is a wonderful way to meet people within your PLN face-to-face. Here is a picture of me and @MsOlwenCowen. Below… is a picture with me and @dspyksma (Darren Spyksma) and @perfinker (Gillian Judson).

Below is a picture with me and @CraigMah and @RosePillay1. It was at the inaugural #Edvent2016 where I met my #bcedchat co-mod @CraigMah face-to-face for the first time. Craig was one of the speakers that year… and the topic was “What did I learn from Kindergarten?” That was a doozy. My answer would have been don’t jump at the mobiles during break time or else you don’t get to go to gym class. True story. Craig is a super nice guy and an awesome #bcedchat co-moderator. I was so glad to see him again at #Edvent2017. (Rose is a pretty awesome person and super educator too).

Tough to capture the night… There was appetizers, candy, and lots of people enjoying the learning experience. #Edvent2017 is organized and facilitated by a bunch of very passionate educators who will attract a very passionate crowd. The event was so well thought out. We had speakers Skyping in and other speakers with a HUGE fan-base. Love that. Speakers even walked away with some pretty awesome SWAG.

Not going to lie… the speakers were outstanding. I was so inspired by their love for education and their creativity. Wowza. Tough acts to follow. I had to remind myself to BE MYSELF and that my strength is to just go with the flow and ad lib if I need to. No one knows your script. Keep to your message and everyone will understand your BIG IDEAS… that professional learning is BETTER THAN PHO… go out and try new foods… find new favourites… and not everyone likes the same food as you.

Thank you @GabrielPillay1 for your vision and passion… and thank you @RosePillay1 and @kvkerrigan for SOUS CHEFFING… and thank you to all those who volunteered and supported Gabe’s vision. The evening was incredible, thoughtful, and inspiring. Once again, SUSHI did not make my #Edvent2017 PowerPoint or my edu-blog entry on #getfED. (photos were just deleted prior to publishing this blog… #bummer).

Looking forward to next year’s #Edvent2018… on sitcoms or sitcom songs and professional practice… Stay #tunEDin. https://findinganswersinlife.com/