Christine Ho Younghusband

Bubble Bursted – Week 4

I am not going to lie… this will be a difficult reflection. What can I say? Twitter Troll. I know… it’s not a very nice thing to say. Some would consider me a Twitter Troll at times. I get it. Passion gets in the way of reason. I respect a person’s desire to “fix,” inform, or persuade people on social media but there’s a moment when you just have to let go. It was self-regulation at it’s finest. For me, I had to block this person.

Before class started… I was catching up on some with with my Saint Mark’s College students. I was so inspired with their work that I left Starbucks on campus towards my Educ 471 class at SFU with a skip and jump in my stride. Here’s some irony… today’s theme was STRENGTH BASED LEARNING (SBL). Today could have been a better day. I tweeted out during the break a few photos of our small group discussions (aka. to celebrate student learning). Apparently, my tweet provoked someone online who insisted I provide empirical evidence for SBL.

Well… I didn’t and tried to clarify few times the intent of the tweet. Nonetheless, no satisfaction by this Twitter renegade and she persisted. I called it quits but I continued to receive multiple tweets after class and through the night. This person also tagged my employers and recruited another researcher to fight a good fight. I was not responding. Then, I was accused of shaming, avoiding, and bullying. By 2 am, I blocked both of them. My energy and spirit was completely depleted.

As mentioned, I get it. I’ve been blocked too. Forget about SBL and let’s think about EMBEDDING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT (Dylan Wiliam, 2011). This person wants citations. For me, my number one concern is STUDENT LEARNING. When I receive tweets like that, make it a learning opportunity. I can see how students feel when the teacher tells them they’re wrong over and over again. You don’t want to take a risk to be wrong again. I got that sense from the twitter convo. I get it… I’m wrong.

The Twitter Troll tried to supplement their point of view with links to blogs and articles. They too were of opinion. What’s the empirical evidence that says otherwise? What is the measurable craze in education? This is the inquiry. What I care about is, does it provoke people to think about what they do. It’s metacognition. My education course is not a content-dump onto students. We are thinking. We are communicating. We are making personal and social connections. #bccurric #corecompetencies

So, I apologize to my students… I was not my best self during the second half of our class. I want to thank my students for reaffirming to me that they understand what I am trying to achieve with them in class in the context of curriculum development. I am thankful to SFU and Saint Mark’s College for their patience, kindness, and willingness to take a chance. And, I am thankful to my daughter and edu-buddy for keeping me in check and saying, “it only matters if you make it matter.”

Exceeding Expectations – Week 3

It’s already the fourth week at SFU… labelled WEEK 3 for those in Educ 471 (the first week didn’t count… aka. WEEK 0). We are on our way… moving from grading and assessment to 21st Century Learning. It was YONG ZHAO day in our class. We read his article, watched a brief plug on his book “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?,” and watched his TEDxAmsterdamED video on “Everyone is a Rudolf.”

We had a full slate of student participation… 2 reflective readers, one warm-up activity, and one Wild Card activity. I should also mention that we also had someone do an online summary of the article as well as record the “unfolding” of the class. They are living their “dream school”… choice, freedom, and personalization.

The Wild Card activity was so unexpected, timely, and entertaining. The warm-up activity was engaging and interactive. And the two reading reflections just WOWWED me. I did not expect these student to make connections with previous readings or videos. Surprisingly, they were very similar in terms of what each of them quoted and cited. I loved how each of the reading reflections concluded with their own thoughts and a thought-provoking question. What more can I say?

Oh yes… the group discussions were amazing. What is your dream school? They hit it. What they genuinely want is exactly what BC’s New Curriculum is intending… and what we’re doing in Educ 471. Most of the class was student led… facilitated and orchestrated by me (the teacher). The class concludes with a self-reflection journal on What’s your definition of personalized learning? Key words from both the group discussion and journal reflection were shared on the white wash board… participation to contribute key words was voluntary. What a collection of words!!!

I am so proud of this class. We put assessment and evaluation aside to focus on learning. I am resistant to tell them exactly what I am looking for because they are exceeding my expectations every time, every week. The class concludes with a half-hour discussion about WHAT’S THE ANSWER with a few students after 8:20pm… the end of class. Full engagement and the irony to realize that deeper learning, intrinsic motivation, and inquiry happens when there is no multiple choice test at the end of their journey. This is what I know for sure… anything is possible!!!

Assessment Again – Week 2

Even though the blog is labelled “week 2″… it’s really our third week together. We are talking about ASSESSMENT AGAIN. The course is about curriculum development: theory and practice yet we need to clarify what is expected, discuss what needs to be done, and establish when things are due. I appreciate the meta-conversations as we discover one of many factors that influence curriculum implementation.

What you see in the photo is the class figuring out a rubric for the 5 participation activities. The work was collaborative, exploratory, and student led. 8 groups of four challenged with what a rubric would be to assess a student’s demonstration of their understanding. Students have choice in what activity they want to be evaluated for and choice on how they facilitate the activity. What would the rubric look like?

Eight groups led to 8 different rubrics. Different sub-divisions, different criteria, and different rationales why they had constructed the rubrics they did. Furthermore, I loved the creative and collaborative aspect of producing a rubric using NON-PERMANENT VERTICAL SURFACES. I knew NPVS works in high school mathematics, why not Education 471? It worked like a charm. We saw diversity and subjectivity.

What a wonderful teaching/learning opportunity to show that something that is seemingly objective really isn’t. We also discussed Assessment AS Learning, Assessment OF Learning, and Assessment FOR Learning in the context of curriculum and student learning. This tied nicely last week’s article on curriculum theory with this week’s topic of “The Heart of a Teacher.” I love Chapter 1 by Parker Palmer.

Identity and Integrity. I am reminded why I am a teacher and why I am in education. This class is a part of me restoring my broken heart and stoking my fire for the love of teaching/learning. I also love that this class has quickly become a family… a community of learners… where we are focussed on the divergent and personalized nature of learning versus the potential narrowness of testing and grading.

THANK YOU Education 471 E200 students!!! You make me whole. I love your leadership, your thoughtfulness, and your vulnerability to ask questions, have voice, and share ideas. You have embraced the direction of this course and I look forward to what’s to come in the next few weeks. It’s been an awesome 3 weeks and I appreciate your willingness to engage in student choice and student voice. I am learning.

You’re Different – Week 1

Fulfilling my commitment (and catching up). Here is the OFFICIAL Week 1 of my reflective journals for EDUC 471. Today was a full house. Yay! 32 students is the official count. It was so nice to see more students in the classroom. The class vibrates at a higher frequency. I love the buzz. It was great seeing new faces in the room.

Today, we had our FIRST warm-up activity. It was so nice. We all got into 4 groups, counted off by the student-facilitator. We were challenged by naming occupations, places, and food from A to Z. It was like survivor. The winning word was xynthan gum. Who would of thought? Well… I thought it… kinda said it… second guessed it. DOH.

The class started with many questions… about assessment… in this course. I am reminded that not all of these students have taken an education course before and many are accustomed to the major essay or final exam mindset. Throughout the class I was clarifying and fielding more questions. One the one hand, I love that students feel safe to ask. On the other hand, it was clear to me that I was not being clear with them. Their questions heightens my awareness of my audience, their prior experience, and their expectations of me. This is a good thing. I invite the questions.

After warm up, no other students had signed up for an activity, except for the class recorder. It was me who was left to summarize this week’s article… an oversight on my part regarding sign up. Furthermore, it provided me with some insight about my class. After our first week together, no one wanted to go first… not the the first week, first name on the list, or first to embark on facilitating a WILD CARD activity.

We had come to terms as a class that our academic risk taking level out of a scale of 1 to 10 was about a 3 or 4. We have much work to do and I hope that this will improve over time. That said, it was Week 0. I am confident things will change over time. What I do know is the STRENGTH in group discussion. Wow. The summaries that come from our group discussions are AMAZING. The groups are self-selected. Each member of the group has a role to fulfill. And, many of the groups report out much of what I had hoped for, while others give me something to think about.

As expected, what I imagined we would cover in a 4-hour time period, I’m a couple slides too many on my PowerPoint. I guess it is better to be over prepared than under, but I also like to be guided by the students and what they are learning and contributing to the course. In saying that, there must be a balance between teacher direction and student input. The class has to be meaningful and purposeful to both of us. I wonder about RIGOUR in this course. I believe there is some rigour, but it may not be as INTENSE as maybe a 400-level economics course. I have no idea.

What I do know for sure is, this class gets me thinking. I am now cognizant of the Chinese-student perspective and being an international student. I am also aware that many of the students know and understand curriculum development in a tacit way. And, many of the students find structure (and solace) from the syllabus, assessment, and due dates. Can I get away with one final assignment? When I taught Math 8-12, the final exam was worth 100% but 100% of my time was invested in Assessment for Learning. This makes me wonder about how I’m assessing in EDUC 471… and why.

Anyway, the class ends with an abbreviated ending (to be continued next class) and a few more questions from students about assessment. I love that students are willing to stay after class to seek clarification about what’s expected from them, but also challenges me to be more clear about what I’m expecting without being too prescriptive. As I was cleaning up, a student says to me, “You’re Different.” I believe this was a compliment, but my inner voice says, “why aren’t I like everyone else?” I shake my head because I am intentionally designing the course to be different.

After 2 weeks, I am madly in love with the student engagement, student input, and student voice in the course so far. I am learning as they are learning. I feel so privileged to do so and honoured that this class is allowing me to do so. We are learning and teaching together. For example, I love how I am trying to figure out how to post PDFs on CANVAS and I ask a student via email if she can see what was online. In no time, she confirmed that we had achieved success. It was 11pm!!! #nice

Learning Curve – Week 0

Well… I am embarking on a new edu-adventure. I started teaching my first class at SFU. I am teaching EDUC 471 – Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice. I had promised tonight (one week after my first day of teaching EDUC 471) that I would also participate in a “reflective journal” via blog. Many of my students opted to complete their reflective journals in Word or by pen & paper even though they were invited to blog or use Google Docs. Nonetheless, we are all doing reflective journals.

I have to admit… this is a learning curve. I did not know what to expect nor did I even know where my classroom was. Although I had completed my master degree at SFU (via Sunshine Coast) and EdD course work at SFU (Surrey), I had no idea where SECB 1011 was located. I was just going to have to learn-by-doing. After driving from Sechelt to Langdale Terminal, taking the ferry to Horseshoe Bay, the 250 bus to Vancouver, SkyTrain to Commercial then another SkyTrain to Production Way, then finally the bus up to SFU mountain… I found my classroom. Hooray!!! Success.

When the class started, the class seemed almost 2/3 or 1/2 capacity. I was expecting more students. Not that I was disappointed or anything, but my class list indicated 35 students enrolled and there were about 20 in the classroom. I was not taking it personally didn’t understand why I had few students. I ventured forward. I spent many hours contemplating how to start the first class and assumed that it was all about course expectations. Students confirmed this. My class goes from 4:30 pm to 8:20 pm. How was I going to talk about course expectations for almost 4-hours?

We introduced ourselves, I did a quick overview on course expectations (that needed some more explanation today during our second class), and we engaged in some learning activities such as group discussion and reflective journalling. Did you know that I have students in the Faculty of Education and not in the Faculty of Education (mainly economics). Some students are taking this course as an elective, while others are taking it as a required course for their Education Minor. I did not know you could have an education minor in your undergraduate studies. In the end, we successfully consumed the 4-hours and spring boarded some interest in assessment & evaluation in the context of curriculum development. This is cool. I was so stoked.

What I learned today is (a week after my first class), maybe I didn’t have to go through the entire 4-hours of class to talk about course expectations. Maybe I over extended myself (and the students) by jumping into some learning on the first day of classes. Maybe this could be the reason why some students don’t attend the first week of school knowing this. Hmm… I did not know. Now, I know. FYI: In doing this reflective journal, I am also committing to keeping this a free-write (as best as I can). This is what I am asking for from my students. At the end of the course, students will look back on their reflections and write about THE BIG IDEAS of EDUC 471. I cannot wait.

Family Fondness

Family… like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.

What an incredible summer… I’ve been super busy with preparing and facilitating summer institute workshops on BC’s New Curriculum on the one hand… and travelling to different places to visit and connect with family on the other hand.

After teaching two BC’s New Curriculum workshops at St. Mark’s College and presenting research at the Canadian School Board Association Congress 2016 in Winnipeg, I had the privilege and opportunity to travel to New Jersey and New York City to reunite with three generations of the Ho-Family (my dad’s side of the family). All 44 of us (and one of my aunts from my mom’s side) gathered together for 5-days to engage in activities ranging from family photos, talent show, and Master Chef to backyard olympics, mariachi band madness, and Zumba. We had a tonne of fun. From friendly competition to eating lots of yummy food, I learned more about my family and myself. Thank you Uncle Tom & Aunt Mabel for your hospitality… and, thank you to my brother & Ho-Minions for making the reunion memorable.

Travel highlights to New York City included eating NY style pizza, climbing up the Statue of Liberty, catching Pokemon in Central Park, tipping ‘strangers’ in Times Square, and visiting the 911-Memorial & Museum. In such a short time, my little family experienced so much. We must return back to NYC again. After the reunion, my little family took the train to Montreal, QC. We stayed at the Gingerbread Manor B&B in the Plateau for a few days and visited McGill University, toured around Old Town, and ate the BEST smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz. In the midst of our Montreal visit, we connected up with my cousin on my mom’s side, Rhetta, and her little family.

My husband loved Montreal for the lifestyle and prominent cycling community. My kid found some joy chasing squirrels in the park and catching Pokemon with the available free-wifi. I loved the food. Wow. The food in Montreal is absolutely delicious. We went to several restaurants ranging from vegetarian to Korean. Yum, yum, yum. We left Montreal on a bus to Quebec City. We did not visit any family but watched the changing of the guards at the Citadelle of Quebec, ate escargot and maple syrup on a stick, and watched live performers on the streets. We ended our vacation with another bus trip to Ottawa, ON. We toured the Parliament Building (in French), visited the Canadian Mint, and cruised through the War Museum. We stayed at my aunt & uncle’s place (Rhetta’s parents). It was another opportunity to connect up with family (and food). We had a wonderful time visiting with Aunt Lillian & Uncle Dave.

The best part about vacationing is the greater appreciation for the comforts of home. After our plane, train, and bus trip, we returned home. Wow. I love living on the Sunshine Coast… and that very moment when you drive past the gorgeous ocean view of Davis Bay. I am quickly reminded why I love living on the west coast in British Columbia. Super nice. It was nice to settle back in, pick fruit from our trees, and reconnect with my little dog, Sally. It’s good to be home. Unfortunately, my husband left soon after drove up to Prince Rupert to visit his dad. My kid and I also went up a week later to Prince Rupert. We flew to Terrace and met up with my husband who drove us back to my hometown of Prince Rupert. It was an interesting few days.

We visited places in Terrace and Prince Rupert to reminisce. We went to Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Mr. Mike’s, and Smile’s Cafe. Yes… FOOD… again. We stayed and my husband’s mom’s house. It was nice to visit Heather & Jim. It was also nice to connect up with Tim, my husband’s brother, and Ellen, my husband’s aunt. However, our primary objective was to visit my husband’s dad (as seen below). We had an awesome visit. We took the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit better but also provide some love and support. It’s also nice to return to my hometown to see where I come from and understand where I am. My kid and I had such a great visit with Randy Sr.. We were so glad that we took the time to see him. My kid and I flew back home from Terrace and my husband stayed for a few more days.

Now that I am back home… I have meetings and I am prepping for a summer institute in Kelowna and two university courses I am teaching in the fall. I am so lucky to do what I do and I am so fortunate to see family throughout the summer. I learned more about my family and learned more about myself. Thank you family. I love you all.

Preparing For the Unknown

On the one hand, this is a wonderful metaphor. On the other hand, it’s exactly what’s happening. I am so stoked to be presenting at the Central Okanagan Teachers’ Association (COTA) Summer Institute for 3-full days on BC’s New Curriculum in Mathematics. What an incredible opportunity and I am deeply honoured. I am also second billing to SD38/UBC PhD Candidate Shelley Moore. She is incredible and I feel that she is only at the beginning of her edu-awesomeness. I am so “jelly” of those who get to see her speak. I won’t be able to see her speak as we are teaching the same 3-full days. That said, I am super excited for the educators in SD23 and their professional learning experience. There is an awesome slate of speakers/educators coming to COTA on August 30th, 31st, and September 1st.

I am totally preparing for the unknown. I took for granted the gift I had as a practicing secondary mathematics teacher and the relationships I developed with my students. You get to know about their strengths and weaknesses in mathematics, you learn about their interests and dislikes, and you build an unwavering connection with them so that we can engage in learning. When teaching workshops for teachers, there is little or no time to build a relationship in a deep and meaningful way. You do connect with some of them, but you have no idea who your audience is. It is challenging to prepare for an audience without knowing their prior knowledge or experience.

I was asked to present three workshops on the new curriculum with a focus on math:

• Math Embedded – Aboriginal Education and Mathematics (August 30th)
• Transforming Pedagogy with BC’s New Curriculum (August 31st)
• Math 10-12 and BC’s New Curriculum (September 1st)

The best I can do is to organize my thoughts and knowledge in the best way I can with hopes of satisfying the professional learning needs of this unknown audience. I suspect that they are mathematics teachers or generalists who teach mathematics, but I don’t know their years of experience, pedagogical alignment with the new curriculum, or familiarity with the new curriculum. It’s a challenge and I love it. As uncertain it is, the more engaging it becomes. I love honing my practice. Creating three workshops is like completing three 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles. Two are complete and one more to go. Even with an early prep, I will likely make last minute changes for each day and wield the workshop on-the-fly to meet the demands of the unknown audience. I will learn about my audience. Can you say fun? It’s super fun!!!

I am so excited to be teaching again. It’s like coming home. I look back and I believe that everything was meant to happen as it should. I wouldn’t be here today without having doing what I have done. Sometimes I think about WHAT IF… What if I stayed in the classroom? What would my career be like? I could do that, but I don’t. Ultimately, I would not have been working on the curriculum had stayed in the classroom. As weird as that sounds, serendipity took control of my pedagogical journey. I am not sure if I would have met the people I have met, have the opportunities that I had, or learn what I am learning had I not taken this meandering path to see my light.

Watch out COTA!!! Here I come!!! #happylearning #bccurric #mathisfun

Assessment AS Learning

I wonder about “Assessment as Learning” where one engages in self-reflection to self-assess one’s achievement, progress, or place of being. Reflection is an integral part of my practice, yet I find myself moving along lately without much consciousness. It’s mid-August and the summer is almost over. So, here I sit… blogging… to identify what is going well, what needs improvement, and what I need to do for my next steps.

How do we know when we are really looking at ourselves with an authentic lens? Our sense of self can easily be distorted by denial, avoidance, and insecurity. I am reading a couple of books… Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection and Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach. Both books tap into the inner self and talk about fear, shame, and authenticity. I look at myself and I am called to question… Am I on the “right” path?

Why am I doing what I am doing? My purpose is to find ways to enhance the students’ learning experience. I achieved this as a high school mathematics teacher when I taught in public schools, but also I am achieving my purpose with my research, school trusteeship, curriculum development, and teaching teachers. I love everything that I have learned and experienced since leaving public schools but wonder what’s next.

My sister would say, “What’s your goal?” I could never answer this. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t know or don’t want to commit. For about 10 years, I held onto a “vision” with hopes of achieving it. My vision seemed like a dream that would be difficult to attain. However, I realized that I have achieved my vision multiple times. This would explain I feel like I lost sight of where I am and where I am going.

Solace. It’s time to reimagine my next vision or goal. Much like my last vision, I don’t have specific details as to how the vision will exactly unfold, but I do have a clear picture in my mind as to what I would like to see, live, and experience. I am in the field of education and I continue to fulfill my purpose. My ‘new’ vision seems unattainable, much like the last one, but I know it will happen if I believe it can happen.

Lately, I’ve been numbing myself from my own achievements and successes. I was feeling disconnected. Shame and fear were holding me back. It’s time to embrace my new vision. On reflection, many things have gone well this summer such as facilitating workshops, presenting at a conference, and becoming a sessional instructor. What needs improvement is believing in myself and following through. I need to reignite my light again. I will commit to reading, writing, teaching, and my research.

Wow… I had no idea where this blog entry was heading, now here I am. I understand my place of being and what my next steps are. I have a new vision and I trust that with each step I am heading towards this new vision. I will continue to have a voice in education as an educator, school trustee, and mom. I will continue to be vulnerable, learn, and accept feedback. The goal is to become a better person than I was.

Students’ Voices at CSBA

The closing keynote address at CSBA 2016 was a student performance titled, “Students’ Voices.” It was a performance written and designed by Grade 10-12 students from Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School. The students defined what “Courageous Leadership” means to them with quotes, dance, and short skits. The performance was outstanding. I was so moved by what the students had to say. Everything that they wanted and hope for was what I want and hope for my daughter, the students I serve, and myself. I was holding back the tears throughout the performance. Thank you to the students of Lord Selkirk and thank you to the teacher who encourages these students to create and express themselves.

I love the message of the Students’ Voices performance. You have to believe in yourself, like yourself, and empower yourself. I was struck by this as three questions to self. Do you believe in yourself? Do you like yourself? Do you empower yourself? These are not easy questions to answer. My knee-jerk response would be NO times three. With a sincere self-assessment, the answers are “yes” (lower case, italicized). It’s a learning process. I’m in my mid-40’s, still challenged by my pedagogical journey. When I left teaching more than 5 years ago, I did not realize that I was still teaching. My role or title may have changed but I continue to teach. Presenting at CSBA 2016 was a good example of this. Teaching comes in different forms. The power is in me.

I learn so much from students. I am a huge supporter and advocate for STUDENT VOICE. I am proud that my school district has a student trustee. SD46 (Sunshine Coast) have updated our policies to include a student trustee. Although the student trustee does not vote, nor does he or she participate in the closed meetings, having the student perspective at the table influences how I act as a school trustee. We are one of two school districts out of 60 in BC that have a student trustee. Student voice was mentioned during my presentation as an “information source” school trustees from across Canada would like to see more of. In the upcoming school year, our board has changed the SD46 Education Committee time to 3:30pm to include students and student trustee. I cannot wait for these meetings. I chair the SD46 Education Committee and STUDENT VOICE will contribute to our discussions.

CSBA Congress 2016

Mmm… it feels so good to land. There has been much on the go lately that it has been almost a month since my last blog post. My last blog post was the speech I delivered on behalf of the SD46 (Sunshine Coast) Board of Education at Elphinstone Secondary. Since then, I have prepared for and facilitated two summer institute workshops on BC’s New Curriculum at St. Marks College at UBC and in between I travelled to Winnipeg, MB to present the findings of a research study I am working on with Dr. Daniel Laitsch about BC school trustees at the Canadian School Boards Association (CSBA) Congress. I have regrettably taken a break from my dissertation for the last few weeks and I am so glad to be back at the keyboard to reflect, write, and learn.

I am likely to write a few short blog entries on CSBA 2016, so look forward to them. There is so much to write and reflect about the CSBA congress. One blog entry would be about all the great people I’ve met and their lived experiences as school trustees in their provinces. Another blog entry would be about student voice and how powerful the student performances were that moved me in such a way that almost brought me to tears. This blog entry is about the presentation I prepared for and facilitated at the conference titled, “School Trustee Information Sources and Research.”

Good on people for coming to my workshop presentation. I had quite a few attendees and I was pleased on how I facilitated it. I could not imagine presenting the research and our findings for 1.25 hours. LISTEN TO ME… is not my mantra. My drive is student engagement. My students in this case were generally school trustees. I had a few BC delegates in the crowd. At this moment, I felt that my three worlds were colliding: educator, researcher, and school trustee. After spending a few minutes introducing the study, the attendees were asked to form small groups. Attendees participated in the study in group discussion. In the end, we compared our findings in group discussion with findings from the study in BC and District of Virginia.

The workshop presentation was engaging. I loved how our group discussion led to similar results from BC school trustees. I enjoyed the discussion of information gathering and the role of research. Best of all, the workshop attendees were actively participating. The small group discussions were lively. We learned a bit more about school trustees from other provinces, the similarities and differences. And, attendees were interested in the results of the study after being immersed in the questions as workshop participants. The 1.25 hours went very quickly and I am glad that those who attended my workshop found the content interesting, relevant, and worthwhile.

I never thought it would be possible to have my three worlds collide… and they did, beautifully. I appreciated all of the compliments and I enjoyed the process of preparing, creating, and presenting the contents of this research study. This experience was rewarding and validating. Thank you to my supervisor/principal investigator of this study for creating this opportunity to research with him as his research assistant and take the unknown step of applying and presenting at CSBA 2016. Thank you to the organizing committee at CSBA 2016 for accepting my application and giving me the space to present. And, thank you to the school trustees who attended my workshop and actively participated. It was a great experience.