Courtesy of Enid Kelly… Thank You

Learning Together in SD46

What a honor and privilege it is to be a part of the SD46 Professional Development Administration Day at Chatelech Secondary today as a school trustee of the SD46 Board of Education.  Short of two years ago, I taught mathematics at this school and participated in such district wide events as a teacher.  Today, as school trustee, it was nice to reunite with former colleagues and take a moment to watch them engage in dialogue and professional conversation.  Thank you Event Organizers, consultant Nancy Hinds, and Superintendent Patrick Bocking for making “Learning Together – An Inquiry Project” possible.  Much enjoyed the venue, catering, morning coffee, opening remarks, and the collegial engagement that occurred throughout the day.  Active learning, for students and adults, lends itself to personal relevance and meaning.  My deepest gratitude to SD46 for letting me be a part of this professional learning experience.  It was outstanding.  Here are a few pics from the day…

Nancy Hinds and Superintendent Bocking

Collaborating in Search of Inquiry Project Themes

Learning Together in Self-Selected Working Groups

LISTEN

Each day on my pedagogical journey I learn something new.  I am much more aware of my surroundings and I feel awakened.  It seems that with every person I meet, with every conversation I have, and with every new experience… I am learning.  For instance, I went to a conference last weekend and listened to many inspirational speakers, but also I had the opportunity to chat with others.  I met one person at the service awards event who completed her EdD and we shared a common experience with our research.  I met another person that I met twice before, once as a mathematics teacher and another time as a graduate student.  This time, I met her as a school trustee.  It was a wonderful and joyous reunion.  Finally, I met a person during lunch who dramatically changed his career after 20 years of service in a different field and he was optimistic.  I love that I get a chance to meet these people and LISTEN to their stories.  I was meant to meet these people.

On the other hand, when I find myself not listening, I am EDU-RANTING.  It’s more like listening to myself.  Note: Ranting serves no purpose but to be heard.  For example, a few days ago I found myself in situations where I wished I had not said what I said.  It is not to say that what I said was “confidential” or “controversial” but I found myself second guessing myself whether or not what I said was appropriate.  I even deliberated the blog’s title.  “Nothing’s a Secret”… “Learn to Listen”… “Right Place, Right Time.”  As you can see, I had moments of regret.  As an extroverted politician, I show my cards to others.  I have nothing to hide.  This could be a good trait, or a bad one.  In hindsight, I could have spent more time listening.  Listening is a powerful tool.  You just don’t know what you are going to learn without listening.  Listen to others, listen to yourself.  Follow your instincts.

BCSTA AGM 2012

Pulling Together 2011 (Me and the Honourable Steven Point)

Life is full of opportunities.  In this photo, I was fortunate to be a part of the 2011 Pulling Together Canoe Journey on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.  On this journey, the Lieutenant Governor Steven Point joined fleet and paddled amongst us for a day.  As we waited for protocol to depart, the canoes lined up side-by-side such that I was sitting beside the Honorable Steven Point.  He is a super nice guy.  This was a memorable moment.  At this time, I was also taking a graduate studies course at SFU with his wife, Gwen Point.  She is a delight and another memorable experience.  As you know, good things do come in three.  This year, I attended my first BCSTA AGM, that is, the BC School Trustees’ Association Annual General Meeting, and the Honorable Steven Point spoke to the delegates in the opening ceremony.  His story was absolutely amazing.  Thank you so much.

I am still considered a “new trustee.”  It’s been 5 months since I was elected and I am enjoying every minute of it.  I love working with the 2011-2014 Board of Education and SD46 senior management team.  I am learning so much about public education in terms of governance, policy, and process.  I am meeting people who I would not have met had I not been a school trustee.  And, being a school trustee has given me a different perspective on public education that is different from being a public school teacher.  Well, the experience as a local politician, so far, has exceeded my expectations.

The 108th BCSTA AGM 2012 was my first BCSTA AGM as a school trustee.  Loved it.  It was a phenomenal event.  The theme of the event was Aboriginal Education, titled “Honouring Traditional Learning in the 21st Century: A Journey of Discovery.”  The 4-day event begins with the Opening Plenary Thursday evening, Professional Development all-day Friday, the AGM all-day Saturday, and unfinished business and/or committee meetings on Sunday.  I attended the first 3 days of the BCSTA AGM and left Sunday morning.  I met so many people, listened to so many stories.  Much learned.

Some highlights… The event opens with students from School District No.92 (Nisga’a) drumming, singing, and dancing.  The children even sang O’Canada in their native language.  Loved it!  As mentioned earlier, the Lieutenant Governor Steven Point addressed the delegates with a beautiful story of his educational experience as a First Nations student in BC public education to be followed by the stories shared by keynote speaker, Dr. Evan Adams.  Dr. Adams’s academic history and life experiences are diverse, dramatic, and inspirational.  Thank you both for sharing.  On the following day, I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Lorna Williams from the University of Victoria and a panel of Aboriginal educators from North Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, and Kamloops.  Thank you all!

Aside from various speakers who addressed the delegates throughout the weekend, the AGM portion of the weekend was also productive, enlightening, and very enjoyable.  It was great to see the delegates vote for (or against) motions put forward and debate.  The SD46 Board of Education Chair, Silas White, was “the closer” of the AGM as one of the Deputy Chairs.  He did an excellent job utilizing Robert’s Rules and keeping the delegates in order.  Well done, Silas.  At last, I would also like to mention Trustee Lori Pratt from SD46 who put her name forward to as one of the 8 candidates for the position of Director of BCSTA.  Although she did not make the final 5, Lori’s speech was thoughtful, well-spoken, and reflective of the conference.  She, too, did a great job.

Thank you BCSTA Staff, the BCSTA Education Committee, and BCSTA Aboriginal Education Committee for organizing and creating such a wonderful event.  All my relations.

Making a Difference

One of the most wonderful things about teaching kids is making a difference in their lives.  I was inspired to write this blog after sharing a story with a colleague about one of my former students.  This student completely turned his life around 180 degrees and I was convinced after sharing this story that teachers do make a difference in their students’ lives in one way or another.

This story was about a student who had a bad reputation in the school.  I had not met this student before in grades 8-10, but he certainly had a legacy that I did not want to know about.  I would best describe him as a ‘tough guy.’  He was known for his physical strength, but when he entered into my Principles of Math 11 classroom I saw intellectual strength.  This ‘tough guy’ was a ‘smart guy.’

This student started the Math 11 course with a B, but his grade steady declined.  As his grade decreased, the more disengaged this student got.  This student relied much on his natural talent or ‘gift for math’ to get by.  There is always a turning point for this kind of learner.  There are limitations with natural talent and without nurturing the natural talent, the grade will one day dramatically drop.

He lost hope.  This student gained more of my attention due to behaviour management instead of intellectual engagement.  One day, he stayed after school and approached my desk.  I was sitting down and he hovered over me, pointing at me… “You are a bad teacher”… “I’m going to drop this course”… “I’m going to fail anyway.”  Albeit intimidated, I was unwilling to accept his claims.  I rebutted with “Come to tutorials”… “Think about retesting”… “You don’t have to repeat the course.”

Nothing happened for a few days, then one day he walked into my class during lunchtime tutorial.  He sat down face-to-face with me and said, “help.”  My personal fear quickly turned into JOY.  I replied, “You’ve got to start doing homework.”  One step a a time, one day at a time… we strategized, we struggled, we conquered.  By the end of the semester, he changed his failing grade to an A.  In fact, he achieved 88% in the course work and 88% on the final exam.  A true victory!

This student was able to transfer what he learned about himself and his ability to learn to other courses and other facets of his life.  Before I left teaching, this student started my Math 12 course with no-retesting, doing homework assignments, and achieving grades in the top 10% of his class.  In the end, he graduated from high school with a School District Scholarship.  As much as I may feel like I made a difference in his life, he in turn made a HUGE difference mine.  Thanks Dom!

Talking About Education

It was brought to my awareness a couple of nights ago that I could talk about education for a long time… a very long time… and not get sick of it.  Is that weird?  I’ve heard that if you find your passion, time seems to cease.  I think my passion is Education.  Sounds strange to say that my passion is education when I have taught in public schools for 16 years (ie. the life span of about 2.3 careers), I’m pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership, and I am an elected school trustee in my community. Personally, I find it kind of weird to finally actualize my true calling when it is something that I have been doing for years.

Yesterday, I was talking about education over a span of 12 hours. Seems excessive, but it exemplifies my passion for education. First, I met up with one of my colleagues and chatted for 2 hours about teaching and learning. The coffee was pretty good too. However, The 2 hours felt more like 20 minutes. I had to end our conversation abruptly to go to the school board office to chair the SD46 Education Standing Committee meeting. Once again, the 2 hour meeting (that is, 30 minutes overtime) felt more like 20 minutes. Zoom. I had to rush home to greet my daughter and start tutoring students. My first client of the afternoon was more like a goal setting session than a tutoring session which lasted for 1.5 hours (again, 30 minutes overtime). He seemed content with the session but my second client canceled due to illness. So, I made a yummy dinner for my family, ate dinner, and my third client arrives. In this session, we plowed through several big concepts in Chemistry 11 and Pre-Calculus 11. The hour just flew by. Finally, the fourth client arrives but we soon realize that she was still ahead on the content compared to the rest of her class. Last week we worked on topics that she would be potentially miss during her excused absences. We used the session instead to talk about course planning with her mom; another engaging conversation about education. Talking all day about education and loving it.

My little family does not like to talking about education as much as I do and that’s OK. They are passionate about other things like hockey, softball, swimming, and mountain biking. They are all good things too, but not something I would be interested in (at least, not yet). What’s your passion?

Big Day in SD46

Signing with George Abbott for Gibsons Elementary

Discussion Session of SD46 Strategic Plan Public Forum

Today is a day of celebration.  This morning, our Board Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Superintendent were in Victoria with Education Minister George Abbott to sign for the Gibsons Elementary expansion project.  This has been under works with two previous Boards.  Thank you to all those who made this happen for our kids and community.  We were granted 14.3 million dollars for the project.  A step in the right direction with construction to start in a year or so.  Looking forward.

Tonight, we had our public forum at Chatelech regarding the 2012-2015 Strategic Plan.  This was an opportunity for community members, parents, and SD46 staff to give their 2-cents on where they would like to see our District in the next few years.  The plan provides direction and a framework for the school district.  I was pleased to see tonight’s attendance.  It is good to know so many people in our community want to contribute to public education and the strategic plan.  Thank you everyone who participated.

People ask me if I miss teaching or if I like being a school trustee.  First, I am still teaching.  Second, I am learning.  Third, I work in the school district I love.  Fourth, I continue to work with great people.  All is good. 

Make the Investment

Meant to Happen

You put your thoughts and wishes out there into the universe and they will come back to you in spades.  The tricky part is that you have no idea how it will come back to you.  That’s the scary part.  So, make sure whatever you put out there has good intentions behind it.  Otherwise… look out!

I’ve been meaning to write this blog entry for quite some time.  As you may know (or not), I have been working on my doctoral thesis proposal for quite some time.  It’s been frustrating and easy to avoid.  I have gone through great lengths to “clear the way” so that I could get my writing done in an expedient way.  Here’s some news… you can’t get the job done unless you are completely focused on the task.  My deepest apologies to all those out there who are “waiting” for me to finish.  It’s in progress.

What I am realizing is… everything was meant to happen.  It’s strange to believe that when I’m in the midst of writing limbo and people in my life are “waiting.”  No pressure.  In the big picture, I needed to have the 16 years of teaching experience to write about professional learning and mathematics education; I needed to deal with adversity in the workplace to disembed and engage in other educational leadership opportunities; and I needed to embark on self-employment to take risks and BLOG to restore my confidence in my writing and passion for my teaching practice.

In the small picture, I was reworking my research question.  I was unfocused with my writing with full intentions of “saving the world” and “making a difference.”  I needed to divorce myself from many of the ideas I wanted to write about to harness my deepest desires and rewrite a research question that is doable and contributes to academia.  In the midst of re-evaluation, I bumped into a former colleague of mine on the ferry.  It was good to see him.  He’s a great teacher, mentor, and PhD recipient.  I mentioned a research question I was considering and he responded with “sounds specific, what’s the so what?”  This was so great!  Formative feedback from someone I did not expect.

What I am saying is, big picture or small picture, it was all meant to happen.  No one could have road-mapped this journey, not even me.  My dad told me that as a child, I had always wanted a PhD.  I do remember writing my name out with “letters” after my name.  I had no idea that life would work out the way it did.  Put it out there to the universe and it resolves itself in ways you cannot expect.  A good friend reminded me of Steve Jobs’s 2005 address to Stanford University… You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking back.  The dots are connecting.

Vancouver Sun Run 2012

Evidence Based Running

First Nations Drumming and Singing… a Sun Run first

Cambie Street Bridge and One More Kilometre

A few of us from the Gibsons Sun Run IN Training Group