Christine Ho Younghusband

Telling Your Story

Sasquatch Tour at Harrison Lake

Life as a politician and edu-junkie… I am enjoying my experiences and learning as I go.  Last week, I attended a professional development conference and networking opportunity at Harrison Hot Springs.  First of all, what a beautiful area.  I feel honoured and privileged to partake in this event.  I met many wonderful people and learning more about governance.  Second, what an appropriate venue.  The conference was hosted by the Columbia Institute, titled “The Future is Local.”  Fantastic theme.  The conference was designed for those elected into civic governance (i.e. school trustees, councillors, and mayors).  The political vibe was “progressive” that is “nurturing leadership for sustainable communities.”  It seemed like a good fit for me.  Although I did not take the opportunity to enjoy the hot springs or swimming pools at the hotel, I attended the pre-conference workshop and many other workshops and plenaries afterwards.  The pre-conference workshop focused on Aboriginal Education.  The boat tour of the lake with the Chehalis Nation known as the “Sasquatch Tour” which had high school students from Hope and Chilliwack and a small group of school trustees from the conference.  The facilitator sung traditional songs with his drum and told stories about his heritage, the history of the area, and his experiences.  We concluded our tour with a delicious barbequed salmon lunch.  It was amazing.  This pre-conference workshop set the stage for the weekend.  Each session and plenary were  stories of real-life experiences, leadership, and governance.  I was truly inspired.  Aside from the pre-conference, the plenary that I would like to mention was the one delivered by my colleague and fellow school trustee, Betty Baxter.  We are both newly elected to the SD46 Board of Education and we both love serving on the Board.  With that said, we are both public speakers.  Since being on the Board, we have attended several provincial conferences in the first few months of our term.  To make a long story short, we appreciate and learn from the content being presented, but we were somewhat critical of presentation.  When I found out that Betty was presenting at the civic governance conference… GAME ON.  We joked about it before and during the conference prior to her time to speak at the breakfast plenary.  All I can say is, BEST plenary I had ever witnessed as a school trustee (and educator).  Her presentation was honest, engaging, and powerful. It was the best 30 min of the conference.  I was moved.  Others cried.  You know that she did a great job when conference participants want to talk to her one-to-one for the rest of the day.  She was a STAR.  Content becomes personally relevant when connected to a personal story.  Thank you Betty for Telling Your Story.

Fill Your Cup

Attention Caregivers:  You know who you are… moms, dads, teachers, grandparents, health care workers, social workers, counselors, school administrators, and the list goes on…

If you ever feel like you are on the brink of burnout, that everything is on your shoulders and can’t catch up, and you are giving more than you are taking… GET OVER IT… and Fill Your Cup.

This is a metaphor for living.  Notice, I have chosen a coffee cup for my blog to depict this metaphor because I like coffee.  Certainly, choose any cup and beverage of choice you’d like.

Here’s the metaphor: You cannot give to others when your cup is empty.  If your cup is empty, there is nothing to give (aka. burnout).  When your cup is half full or half empty, it’s not about perspective or level of optimism; your cup is still not full.  Fill Your Cup.  The best time to give to others and feel good about it is when your cup is overflowing.  When coffee is flowing over the rim, your cup is full and there is more to give.

So what?  Two years ago, my cup was empty.  I burned out.  Teaching is a challenging career.  I love teaching, I love inspiring students, and I love collaborating with colleagues.  For many years, teaching was challenging, rewarding, and fulfilling for me.  Then, I turned a corner.  I became a mom, I stopped curling, and no longer felt challenged with teaching.  My cup slowly emptied, yet continued to give.  In time, I had nothing more to give and left teaching.

Strange.  I had nothing left to give and something had to give.  Since leaving the profession, I have been filling my cup.  I am engaged in my graduate studies and the Certificate of University Teaching and Learning (CUTL) program at SFU learning about learning, teaching, and leading.  I am tutoring students and adult learners mathematics and loving it.  I appreciate the educational leadership opportunities I am involved with as school trustee and the feedback I receive for my work.  I am training for the 10K Sun Run race in April and I am spending more time at home.  No more Bag of Chips (BOC), it’s now a Bag of Carrots.  My cup is full again.  I feel confident, purposeful, and happy.

Don’t get me wrong… filling the cup takes time, effort, and hard work.  It is recognizing that the cup is empty or emptying and what are you doing to nourish the soul.  If you put yourself last, then everyone loses.  You can’t help others unless you can help yourself first.  This is a tough life’s lesson.  I had to learn it the hard way, but certainly enjoying my journey back and looking forward to the day when my cup is overflowing.  That’s when the fun truly begins.

Trustee Tuesday

It was a hat-trick of meetings today for Trustee Younghusband.  The day begins with a working group meeting at the school board office.  We started the meeting with the mayor of the Town of Gibsons and ended the meeting with preliminary talks about the budget.  The 3.5 hours went by pretty quickly.  The dialogue, sharing of ideas, and presentation were engaging and purposeful.  With a bit of a muffin break, the afternoon heads into a 1.5 hour Education Standing Committee meeting that I chair.  We had two content rich topics for discussion and a quick overview of agenda item #3, parent engagement.  Once again, another lively, dialogical meeting with many attendees.  My deepest appreciation to those who attended. Swimming lessons, math tutoring, and dinner made by husband… the day concludes with the District Parent Advisory Committee (DPAC) meeting.  Another stakeholder group interested in public education chatted for 2 hours discussing the upcoming budget and Strategic Plan.  A full day of work for Trustee Younghusband on Trustee Tuesday.

The Literature Review Blues

One of the most challenging mathematical concepts and processes in secondary mathematics is factoring trinomials.  When I taught secondary mathematics, there were two distinct areas that students struggled with: fractions and factoring trinomials.  Although you can “get through” high school mathematics without understanding these two areas, the concepts of fractions and factoring trinomials reoccur throughout the curriculum.  In essence, you can’t get away from it.  With factoring trinomials, the idea is introduced in Grade 9/10 and continues into Math 11, Math 12, and Calculus.  The same with fractions, finding the common denominator, reducing to lowest terms, and multiplying by the reciprocal are concepts learned in Grade 7/8 and continues into Math 11/12.  What happens in Math 11/12, students may understand the new concept but unable to implement due to a lack of math understanding from years previous.  As a result, students procrastinate, build negative attitudes, and believe they are unable to do mathematics.  This is how I feel about my literature review.  I have two to write.  Let’s be serious, I am a mathematics/science teacher.  I majored in chemistry with a minor in mathematics.  Reading, writing, and English as a course are not my strengths.  Yet, I have managed to complete a Master of Education and I am trying to complete my doctorate in educational leadership.  I have managed to get to a particular level of academia yet struggle with the writing process.  My struggle is a misconception.  The struggle is, am I willing to do the extra work to learn what I need to learn?  I have much to gain but avoidance will not resolve my problem.  This is the struggle.  Hence, I am experiencing The Literature Review Blues.

A Good Day

If you look closely, you can see my daughter holding a four leaf clover.  It’s a good day.  Today was a good day.  There was nothing in particular that was exceptional or life-changing, but today seemed to unravel into something wonderful.  The day begins by getting up a 4 am to catch the 5 am bus to catch the 6:20 am ferry.  I nice chit-chat with friends and a bowl of oatmeal, the commute continues with the 257 Express bus to Vancouver, a latte break at Starbucks, then off to catch the Expo Line and then the Millenium SkyTrain.  At Production Way, I catch the bus up Burnaby Mountain to attend the Certificate of University Teaching and Learning (CUTL) program at SFU.  I arrive at 9 am.  That is my 4-hour commute.  CUTL lasts for 3-hours, then I’m back on transit to do the 4-hour commute back home to the Sunshine Coast.  Although this does not sound like a good day, everything in between seemed to align.  I am communicating with my academic supervisor, I am feeling connected with my CUTL classmates and instructors, I am enjoying my trustee/committee work, and I am excited about my writing/research for CUTL and my doctoral program.  Best of all, I have an awesome family who supports my chaos/joy.  At the end of the day, my husband and daughter picked me up at the ferry terminal.  Yes.  I did not have to take the bus.  I returned home and took a 3-hour nap.  All is good.  Are you having a good day?

Block Out the Noise

2011 Civic Election (District of Sechelt)

How does one move forward without blocking out the noise?  This sounds like a rhetorical question, but I am curious how individuals succeed.  When I ran for municipal election in November 2011, I did look for some validation to see if this was the ‘right move’ for me.  A litmus test, if you will.  To be honest, it didn’t matter.  I was going to put my name forward regardless of what others thought.  I blocked out the noise.  In the end, the outcome of the election worked out in my favor.  I am most productive with my work when my family is asleep and there is nothing on TV; and least productive when I am well-rested and watching TV.  Then I had an aha-moment watching the interview of Lady Gaga with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah’s Next Chapter.  (FYI: I am an Oprah junkie and Lady Gaga fan.  Do not judge.)  During the 2-hour interview, Lady Gaga said that she has to block out the noise in the creative process.  No media, no influences.  An excellent life lesson to share.  I’ve heard this lesson three times: once by a mentor when I was in teaching at the high school; a second time by BOB via social media; now a third time on TV from Lady Gaga.  BLOCK OUT THE NOISE… great things will happen.  Stay focused, take risks, and believe in yourself.

Funny Feedback

Flat Christine (Educ 809)

One of the biggest challenges with my dissertation is DISEMBEDDING myself from what I write. With four proposal submissions comes four opportunities for feedback:

• Get out of the problem.  The dissertation is not the problem.
• It’s not political.  It’s not about union vs. management.
• It’s not about you.  Excuse me?  It’s not about me?
• Make it academic.  It’s not a blog.  Ouch.  That hurts.

You can see why I am a bit fearful of future feedback and have become tentative with my writing.  This spring I am enrolled with the Certificate of University Teaching and Learning (CUTL) at SFU.  This program provides an interesting perspective on teaching and learning.  I am the only participant this session who is from the Faculty of Education and has more than ten years experience teaching.  A requirement of CUTL is the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW).  I took ISW last summer which transformational my teaching practice.  CUTL has also influence how I perceive teaching and learning.  With CUTL and ISW, I have gone through great lengths to disembed myself from my writing for the past few years.  My research topic is inspired from a problem in the workplace.  Personally, I found it difficult to stay in the teaching profession while writing my dissertation proposal and achieve the first three bullets as mentioned above.  Now I am trying to write out my ideas in edu-academic speak.  It’s been challenging.  This brings me to my funny feedback.  For CUTL, participants are required to write a literature review about teaching and learning in higher education.  I wrote about ISW and how it could be used as a framework for professional development for K-12 mathematics teachers.  I used some of my resources from my dissertation proposal for this literature review.  My greatest concern was flow, coherence, and disembedding myself from my writing.  After the rough draft submission, participants of CUTL are divided up into small groups to present their literature review to peer and receive formative feedback on presentation skills and content.  Here is my feedback from last week:

• You seem comfortable presenting to the group with good motion and gestures; very natural.
• You have given a good rationale why to implement ISW as a framework for professional development.
• You did not quite achieve the intended learning outcomes of the literature review assignment.
• Your next step is to write about implementation and how I would use it as a teacher.

Pardon me?  I need to include myself in the writing?  Now that’s funny.  You don’t get a true sense of how you are doing unless someone tells you.  It’s like looking at a mirror.  This is what formative feedback is all about.  This is what my CUTL literature review tries to emphasize.  This is what I wish for with my dissertation process.  Feedback matters.

Follow Your Bliss

Do what you love… find your passion… follow your bliss.  When I look back at my life, I am following my bliss.  What is my passion?  I love to teach.  I love to learn.  I love to lead.  When I was teaching at the high school, I was teaching, learning, and leading.  After 16 years, it was time to move onto something else to embrace new challenges and a new way of being.  Now, I tutor mathematics, I’m a graduate student, and I’m a school trustee.  Once again, all three components satisfied with three distinct educational opportunities. The problem is, I have to acknowledge that I am following my bliss.  It’s so easy to dwell on what should be and lose sight on what I am trying to achieve.  I have three obstacles to overcome:

1. Unrealistic Expectations: You cannot cram a literature review, a 10K run, or dissertation proposal.
2. Fearful of Feedback: You cannot move forwards without feedback, input, or insight from others.
3. Living a Lie: You cannot realize your dreams when you feel like you are not deserving or worthy.

According to Alasdair MacIntyre (1984), to achieve the goods internal to the practice one must exercise the virtues of JUSTICE, COURAGE, and HONESTY.  To be focused on the goods external to the practice (eg. money, status, or fame), one can never achieve the goods internal or standards of excellence.  MacIntyre (1984) provides the theoretical framework of my research study, but also guides my way of being.  The more I can understand what is, the more I am able to identify that my obstacles correlate with MacIntyre’s virtues… set realistic goals (justice), be open to feedback (courage), I am worthy (honesty).  I am living my dreams.  It’s not about what other people say or what they think.  What matters is what you think and what you’re going to do about it.  Follow your bliss.

Change in Roles

Photo from Claudia Ferris

What a photo opportunity… Me (School Trustee), Silas White (Board Chair), and Nathan Cullen (NDP Federal Leadership Candidate) standing together at the Blackfish discussing women in politics.  Thank you Claudia Ferris for the introduction and photo opportunity.  The last time I saw Nathan Cullen was more than 500 m away and he was on stage with the other federal leadership candidates campaigning during the NDP Provincial Convention December 2011.  A change in roles… shifted from high school teacher to local politician.  This was brought to my attention during the March 13, 2012 Board of Education meeting that was well attended by SD46 teachers, my former colleagues.  While speaking to a motion, the Chair kindly reminded me during my speak to address the Chair and that the Board of Education are my colleagues.  True.  I am a teacher and a politician.

Board Motion

Sechelt Learning Centre, March 6, 2012

On March 5, 6, & 7, 2012, teachers of the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) walked out for 3 days to protest Bill 22, a legislated contract.  On the Sunshine Coast, members of the SD46 Board of Education visited teachers at various sites to show support the teachers and mutual want for a negotiated contract.  Being present at the teacher demonstration and verbal support was greatly appreciated by the teachers, but a letter of support to send to the Minister of Education was desired.  What I appreciate about School District No. 46 (Sunshine Coast) as a school trustee is the relationships between the Board, teachers, CUPE, exempt staff, parents, students, and administration.  Although we each have roles to bare and a point of view to voice, we manage to communicate, connect, and share ideas.  Days leading up to the SD46 Board of Education public meeting on March 13, 2012, the Sunshine Coast Teachers’ Association (SCTA) had a special general meeting to pass 2 motions not volunteer or provide extracurricular activities for the rest of this school year and next school year.  This was not an easy decision.  In the meantime, a desire to have a letter of support from the Board of Education was expressed by the SCTA.  Email, phone calls, and word of mouth led to the Board of Education meeting last night.  The Board was aware that this would be a well attended meeting, standing room only.  After presentations from Charlene Smith and the Music Local Specialists’ Association (LSA), the SCTA president requested to make a change to the agenda.  The amendment to the agenda item was addressed near the end of the agenda.  After Board business was reported, one trustee motioned to respond to the Minister of Education with a letter of support.  The Board Chair had a draft letter prepared and all school trustees spoke in support of the motion.  The Board motion carries.  The Board Chair took into consideration what was spoken at the Board table and a final draft was composed, received, and sent this morning.  We support a negotiated settlement.
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