Tag: innovation

Posted in R.I.S.E.

R.I.S.E. and Woodroffe HS SHSM ICE program

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

Last week we had the opportunity to work with another amazing group of youth during our Social Change Maker ICE training. This time we were at Woodroffe HS in Ottawa, ON. We had amazing community partners join us and the youth all took action to help them out. We had one student work with Parkdale Food Centre to share suggestions on how to get more youth to their program. He also wrote a wonderful blog post about them. Check it out below.

Written By Alden Thompson

This morning, I was given the opportunity to talk with Karin Freeman, an Ottawa resident who volunteers with the Parkdale Food Centre—specifically, a branch of the PFC known as Growing Futures. Upon being asked her motivations for joining this cause, Karin described how her extensive experience working on farms, and the creation of Growing Futures, acted as a sort of of “Eureka moment” which convinced her to get involved. 

Over the last several years, the Parkdale Food Centre—located on 30 Rosemount Avenue—has evolved into one of Ottawa’s most unique organizations; and redesigned what it means to be a food bank. Comprised largely of volunteers, the goal of the PFC as a whole is to support those affected by food insecurity through organizing a wide variety of programs (cooking classes and entrepreneurship opportunities are both examples), emphasizing positive neighbourly relations, and attempting to discover the root causes of what is truly a multi-faceted issue. Growing Futures offers a fascinating, and essential perspective, in this complex discussion of food security. The objective of the organization is to work with youth on all aspects of the issue:  supporting youth in their discovery of systemic causes, connecting young people with community members, and helping them pursue collective action are defined as the major pillars in achieving this.

 Food security is, by all accounts, a major problem within society and it is because of this fact that the Parkdale Food Centre’s cause is so essential. Unfortunately, many people who are struggling are either unaware of the PFC’s existence or may feel a sense of stigma in going to a food bank; therefore preventing those individuals from getting the support that is essential for their wellbeing. The Parkdale Food Centre does certainly have the capacity to help, both by giving a wide range of fresh food ro people in need and through its many fascinating programs. Additionally, Karin repeatedly cited a struggle to get youth involved with Parkdale’s mission—the unique input of youth is a valuable step in the PFC’s mission— though difficulties in pursuing this have arisen due to factors like young people not being as directly affected by food insecurity.  

To support the Parkdale Food Centre’s cause, all members of the community are encouraged to attend their outdoor event; expected to be hosted at Hintonburg Park which is only a short walk away from the main building. This event aims to create a sense of camaraderie between those attending through organizing collaborative events, providing free food (though donations are greatly appreciated), and offering volunteer hours for anyone who helps out with the activities. By the end of the event, participants will hopefully leave with a better understanding of the PFC’s goals, know where to find the community fridge, and discover their own ways to aid those affected by the issue. 

Further information about the mission of these two organizations can be found at their Instagram: @parkdalefood and @_growingfutures. 

Posted in Uncategorized

Amplifying Youth Voice

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

By Aldine Emerimana, R.I.S.E. Intern

A showcase is an occasion or celebration at R.I.S.E Academy that takes place at the end of each semester. In comparison, in traditional school exams are provided before the conclusion of the semester, whereas at R.I.S.E Academy, students are given the chance to showcase their work (passion projects) to their family, friends, R.I.S.E. employees, and community members. For roughly 5-10 minutes, students are divided into breakout rooms where they can explain their projects and guests are able to ask questions and learn more about their projects. This gives students a sense of empowerment and is an alternative, less stressful way of evaluating success when compared to the stress of succeeding or failing tests. For example; one student is currently working on creating a new course for R.I.S.E. The modules he created are about different topics Another student was interested in the effects that covid has had on individuals physical/mental wellbeing. That being said, this encouraged her to pursue a career path in sports psychology. These showcase events allow students to share what they are passionate about and how they have incorporated this into their courses with R.I.S.E.

Another benefit of these showcase events is that doing so teaches them how to communicate in front of a crowd, which is a valuable career skill. They prepare content for public presentations and develop their communication skills via practice. Furthermore, students are asked questions throughout the showcase which helps them develop critical thinking skills. 

Ultimately, the showcase is empowering and gives guests the opportunity to learn more about the difference between traditional school and R.I.S.E Academy. In addition, they learn about topics that they don’t teach in school such as; mental health, socializing & networking. In fact, at R.I.S.E Academy, students get the chance to do some research about those topics, learn more about them, and teach it to others. R.I.S.E Academy’s mission is to level the field for historically underprivileged students by reducing and eliminating the discriminatory structures that are built within the standard school education concept. This showcase event is helping with this.

Posted in Uncategorized

Penpal North

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

By Aldine Emerimana. R.I.S.E. Academy Intern

Reynah is a grade 12 student at Woodroffe High School, who has launched a passion project in hopes of connecting students with Indigenious youth. She began her journey with R.I.S.E Academy as a student in the summer and continued in the fall. As part of R.I.S.E. Academy, she had to complete a passion project, which is when she chose to assist Indigenous youth living in the North, which is very meaningful to her and is a population of people she wants to continue working with in the future. Her project is titled “Compel North”, and it is for non-Indigenous and Indigenous youth to develop a bond through emails and photos, and it is an incredible way to get to know more youth in Canada, relate, and learn about their differences and resemblances. Through Reynah’s research, she became connected with a teacher in the North, Miss Connell. Reynah learned that many students in the North do not have access to proper hygiene products and clothes, which is unfortunate and saddening. She mentions that clothes and hygiene products should be a necessity not a luxury. For example, young women often struggle to afford feminine hygiene products (ie. pads and tampons). She was drawn to this idea and she decided to start a gofundme page to raise money for this school to help young women access these necessary items. 

Furthermore, Reynah is helping people understand the difference between necessities and luxuries. Relating back to our feminine hygiene products example, tampons are a necessity; thus, feminine hygiene is a crucial issue that must be prioritized. If neglected, feminine hygiene can lead to the discovery of a host of diseases. Both health and social considerations necessitate good personal cleanliness. It comprises keeping hands, head, and body clean to prevent germs and illness from spreading. What constitutes a decent personal hygiene routine? Rinsing, dental hygiene, showering, sanitary clothing, and so on… which is why they need access to these proper hygiene products such as; soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and toilet paper.

  The funds Reynah is collecting also go towards clothes that can help provide insulation from the cold or heat, as well as act as a hygienic shield, keeping contagious and hazardous items away from the body. Due to the extreme cold weather that Northern Canada experiences, it is crucial that these youth have access to adequate warm, winter clothing. Clothing also protects them from the sun’s harmful rays. Therefore, the students in the north need to have access to the proper clothing that ultimately protects them from extreme weather conditions. 

If you would like to support Reynah’s GoFundme click here to donate!

Check out Reynah’s CTV appearance below!

Posted in R.I.S.E.

REACH INSPIRE SOAR EMPOWER

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted, I have been a little busy. Between May 19, 2020 (my last post) and now a lot has changed. In a nutshell, I took a leave without pay from my job and opened up a Not-for-Profit, virtual, alternative high school called R.I.S.E. (Reach Inspire Soar Empower) Academy and it has been quite the ride. Between September 2020 and today we moved from a very small team of me a student teacher a few part time staff and some volunteers to a team of Board of Directors, a Principal / Facilitator (me), two full time facilitators, one math / science specialist, two Social Work students, Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Manager, three student teachers, 5 + volunteers and soon to be 10 + student interns. Last year were were able to have youth accumulate 95 credits between September and July and this year we are projected to have youth accumulate 200 credits by the end of July.

The goal of R.I.S.E. is to provide students a learning experience that compliments their public school or homeschooling experience. We want to find ways to take the “system” out of learning and recognize, celebrate and utilize their individual passions, strengths and motivators. Below is a breakdown on how the program works.

Partnerships

Last year we partnered with Multifaith Housing Initiative (MHI) and received our very first grant from the Ottawa Community Foundation. MHI exists to build affordable housing that helps fix Ottawa’s housing crisis and gets at-risk people into secure, safe homes. This first grant allowed us us to provide free programming to 18 youth in their neighbourhoods. Next we partnered with Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre where we received a grant from Ontario Teacher Insurance Plan, here we created a summer pilot Entrepreneurship program where we had 7 youth start businesses and work on a credit. Our partnership with MHI and RRCRC continued into this year where we once again received funding from Ottawa Community Foundation and more recently a grant from the Rideau Hall Foundation. In total we will be able to provide free programming to 100 youth between September 2021 and June 2023.

We are always working on new partnerships, stay tuned for our latest connections!!

Youth Services Bureau Interns

In the fall we connected with Youth Service Bureau where we were able to support at-risk youth by hiring young people to give them meaningful employment and learning experiences. We hired our first group of 4 interns in January and it has been amazing. These youth not only have meaningful employment at R.I.S.E., but those who are high school aged are also working on credits that go towards their O.S.S.D. So far we have a Video Editors, Social Media and Community Outreach workers and Blog writer.

Our blog writer intern has been working hard over the last few months to learn the ins and outs of blog writing and what R.I.S.E. is all about. Please stay tuned for some updates from her, she will be chronicling what has been going on.

Give us a follow on instagram to follow along with us.

Thanks for continuing to Unlearn With Us 🙂

Thank you to all our amazing partners below!!

Posted in Classroom Examples, Why Unlearn?

My Twitter feed doesn’t give the full story

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

Screenshot 2019-11-28 at 7.58.52 PM

On my way home from work today I listened to my students recent Twisted System podcast episode # 8.  In it, they talked about mental health and social media. They had a great conversation about how social media impacts their lives.  If you would like a look into the teenage world and social media you should have a listen, I heard about apps and things that I had never heard of.  In the episode they talk about how people only post the good on social media, how we often compare ourselves to others and what social media is doing to our mental health.  This got me thinking about my own Twitter feed. If you follow me, you will know that I love showcasing what we are doing in our classroom. If I go back and look at my feed, things look like they are going great.  There is no doubt that my students are doing amazing things. But our classroom is far from perfect. I started this blog two years ago to chronicle mine and my students unlearning journey, all of it, not just the good, I wanted to share the good, the bad and the ugly.  So, I will let you in on a secret, my twitter feed does not represent the whole story.  

Recently I have been feeling anxious, overwhelmed and exhausted.  Sometimes I doubt myself and what I am doing with my students. Sometimes I feel like quitting and finding a different job completely.  I struggle daily trying to manage this new way of “teaching”. I am innovating inside the box and sometimes that is really hard.  Amongst the good, and there is so much of it, here is what we are dealing with.  Here is the reality of innovating inside a box.

Students

I work with amazing students who are super on board with trying out a new way of learning.  They have embraced it and are working hard on their passion projects. But they are teenagers.  They all come with their different abilities. I want to learn about each and every one of them so that I can help them be successful.  I want to give them my undivided attention to help them with their individual projects, but it is not always possible. These things are hard to do when you have 30 students in a class.  (Can you imagine if we end up with 40, don’t get me started on that). Sometimes I feel like a complete failure. I feel like I am letting them down, that I am not doing enough and then I realize that I just don’t have anymore to give.  I’m exhausted.

Accountability

My students are all working on different passion projects.  They have between two or three 75 minute periods a week to work on their projects.  For some they are in two of my classes so that means they have between 4 – 6 periods a week to work on their projects.  My students are learning time management skills, they set their schedule for the week and are supposed to stick by it. Every Monday they set these goals for themselves.  My students are teenagers and regular human beings. They don’t always follow through when they say they are going to, some times they are having a bad day and need a break and other days they work like mad men and women. On the days that they are not working it is hard to watch. On any given day I have students who are working diligently and then on another day they are off task and not working on their projects.  This makes me really uncomfortable, however, what I have to remember is that this is how life works. I don’t know about you, but I rarely work diligently every single minute of the day. I often have to motivate myself to get work done. I have options to take a break or work and sometimes I take the option of procrastinating. If I tell my students what to do, how to do it and when to do then I am not allowing them the freedom to learn from their mistakes.  But this is hard to watch. I am often there to help keep them motivated, but again I am only one person and so I have to leave it in their hands. Again, this is a constant struggle for me.

So many projects

Between three classes of approximately 25 – 30 students there are a ton of projects going on.  In an ideal world I would have the opportunity to sit with each student / group of students and help them plan out their projects every week.  I try to touch base with all students at some point throughout the week to see if they need help. I watch their weekly updates and provide suggestions to them every weekend but often I feel like a failure in doing this.  The reality is that this model of teaching can happen in this environment, but a lot of onus has to be left on the students. Managing over 30 projects in really hard…period.

The Naysayers

As with any new or out of the box model of thinking there are going to be supporters, those who are curious and the naysayers.  I know I have people rooting for me, I know that what I am doing is right for the students, but I often focus on the naysayers. I am super lucky to have admin and a whole experiential learning department and Director who  supports what I am doing. I also have some amazing colleagues who have joined the crusade to change the way we educate our youth. It is awesome being able to chat with them about the things that they are trying out in their classrooms and to talk about the future of experiential learning. I have cheerleaders that I have met on Twitter and amazing community members and parents who support me.  But I am human and unfortunately I often focus on those who just don’t get it. This is counterproductive and destructive, but sometimes I just can’t stop myself.

Mental Health

I struggle with anxiety and all of the above makes it worse.  As mentioned already I often second guess what I am doing, I often feel out of control and I struggle with so many things that go on behind the scenes of my classroom.  

It’s definitely not perfect but we will power through because we are rocking our projects, we are making so many community connections, we are learning our curriculum by doing, we are working on time management, we are making a difference, the students are empowered and we are learning from our failures.

We will be resilient and continue to:

  1. Do good deeds and podcast about them. (Stay tuned for their first episode)
  2. Create a prototype of an app to help fight antibiotic resistance.
  3. Pack birthday boxes for a young indigenous girl in the north.
  4. Create a podcast called Human 2.0 about AI awareness.
  5. Connect with mental health partners, fundraise and put together packages for teens who suffer from mental health.
  6. Work with and support students with intellectual disabilities.
  7. Run a kindness program in a middle school.
  8. Give lessons to classes about shark finning.
  9. Collect and donate clothing to the Salvation Army.
  10. Detail teachers cars to raise money for Miracle League.
  11. Rake lawns and collect sports equipment to raise money for Waupoos Family farm.
  12. Collect e-waste as a social enterprise.
  13. Create doggy care packages for the homeless who have pets.
  14. Create a cooking show and health and nutrition podcast.
  15. Run a DIFD hockey game to raise money and awareness for Mental Health.
  16. Support the local Santa Claus parade.
  17. Fundraise to support a family in need at Christmas.
  18. Create a social enterprise called STAIN. (start talking about it now period) to end stigma around women and their periods.
  19. Learn to sew with retired ladies from the community and work with Days for Girls to sew reusable feminine hygiene products for girls who stay home from school because of their periods.
  20. Podcast live on Voiced radio on the Twisted System Podcast.
  21. Take part in an anti anxiety yoga therapy program.
  22. Put on a fun day to raise money and awareness for Leukemia.
  23. Volunteer in elementary classrooms.
  24. Learn to grow an inside garden.
  25. Start a vegetarian blog with yummy recipes for everyone.
  26. Ride 200 kms to raise money and awareness for pancreatic cancer.
  27. Run a sports program for preschoolers weekly for free for parents who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it.
  28. Organize a blood donor clinic and get swabbed campaign.
  29. Volunteer at a retirement home and organize a prom for them.
  30. Interview Veterans and local politicians to help share the veterans concerns.
  31. Interview people and write songs about their stories.
  32. Organize a fundraiser for local housing community.
  33. Become climate change warriors by joining POW.

If you are in the midst of making a change, it is definitely not easy, but don’t give up – as you can see from the list above, it is so worth all the struggles.

Thanks for unlearning with us 🙂

R

 

 

Posted in Why Unlearn?

What do we need to let go of?

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

letting go

With a new school year comes another year of professional learning.  I am super lucky to be a part of a group of teachers at my school who are embarking on a second year of unlearning together.  Last year my Principal, myself and four other teachers met almost every three weeks to talk about school and the need for change.  We had some really great discussion, some disagreements and some aha moments. It was amazing to have a safe place to share ideas and not feel judged.  Amazing things happened in classrooms as a result of our time together. If you are interested in seeing / reading about some of the other teachers experiences / unlearning journeys you can check out The Stoppels Show blog or Jess Packer-Quinnel on Twitter and Liz Coolen on Instagram.  

This year I am privileged to continue working with the group above, but am also lucky to get to work with a new group of teachers who are interested in learning more about community based learning.  There has been a huge push in our board to make learning more experiential so this year our professional learning teams are called the XLPLT (experiential professional learning team).  

We had our first meeting a week ago to talk about what the XLPLT was all about.  My Principal went over what we did last year and what we hope to do this year. He asked me and the others from last year’s team to talk a little bit about what we are doing in my classes.  We also spoke about the journey that the teachers in our PLT took to get to where they are today. It really made me reflect on my past PD experiences and what is necessary to let go of in order to completely change up your practice.

I have done a lot of PD over the past 17 years.  I worked on a PLT that focused on critical thinking, I worked on a PLT that looked at engagement of at risk students, I participated in lesson studies and I attended numerous workshops on how to make my lessons better.  All of these have been very important in my growth as a teacher. I learned a lot by working with my colleagues and found great ways to change up lessons and to embed critical thinking and engagement into my practice. However, what they didn’t really look at was the structure of the traditional education system and how it is outdated, systemically racist, focused on preparing students for a work world that doesn’t exist anymore and not preparing our students for their future.  

In this years XLPLT we are obviously interested in finding ways to have our students become critical thinkers and engaged, but more importantly we are more excited about how to change up our classrooms so that they reflect the modern world.  So, what are the things that a teacher needs to do in order to make this happen? Below is what I have come up with.

  1. Understand why this change needs to happen – more specifically understanding your WHY for doing it.
  2. Let go of control.  
  3. See students as partners.  Give them a say in what and how they learn.
  4. Realize that learning can happen differently than what we know school to be – and value that learning just as much.
  5. Let go of hierarchy and grades – see the brilliance in everyone.
  6. Embrace failures, reflect and learn from them.
  7. Connect learning to community.
  8. Focus on teaching / using 21st century technology.
  9. Have students become creators rather than consumers.

This is not an easy task, but by looking at the work that they are doing at Beaver County Day School in Massachusetts, it is possible.  Check it out here Why ‘Unlearning’ Old Habits Is An Essential Step For Innovation  However, closer to home it is evident that it is possible too.  After about 8 months of working together on our Unlearning PLT I interviewed the team on what unlearning meant to them.  Here are their answers.  

So, what will it take for you to make the change, what is your WHY?

Thanks for unlearning with us 🙂

R

Posted in Classroom Examples

Another Year and The Unlearning Continues

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

Image result for unlearn

We are now a month into school and I am feeling like I need to write.  It has been a busy three months since I last posted. Two months of summer and a month of start up.  This summer I took a stab at trying to be an entrepreneur. I offered an online course to teachers who were interested in learning to unlearn.  We had a very small cohort, but overall I think it went well. I really enjoyed working with the teachers and I really hope they got something out of it.  I hope to continue with these courses – there will be a few tweaks to this summer’s course but I am hoping to relaunch later in the fall. Stay tuned if you are interested.  

Now that we are back at school we are full on into a passion project based classroom.  I am currently teaching grade 11 Intro to Anthro, Psych and Soc, grade 12 Human Growth and Development and grade 12 World Issues.  We spent the first two – three weeks learning about the course material, getting ourselves organized with all the tools / housekeeping items we will need (twitter, research skills, google classroom, excursion forms etc) and we listened to guests talk about their passions, about different not for profit organizations and about what it means to be a social entrepreneur.   Now the students are in the process of creating their passion projects for the semester, it is chaos and I love it.  

Throughout every semester I keep a running document of things to change for the next year.  Before this years start up I went back to those documents, looked at what went well last year and what needed to change and made some tweaks to this years structure.  After teaching the dual credit course I realized that having specific days for specific tasks brought back some of the structure into the classroom that I seemed to be missing.  Therefore this year this is what our day to day looks like.

Mondays – Get Organized

  • Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
  • Fill out weekly planners
  • Create a weekly update via a vlog, blog or podcast
  • Class announcements and sharing

Tuesdays – Content Day 

  • These days are reserved for lessons and guest related to the curriculum
  • Research Days – work on research for their issue that relates to the curriculum
  • Tweet about what you learned

Wednesdays – Community Outreach

  • Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
  • For my grade 11s we are working with a group of students in the General Learning Program who are going to visit us every other Wednesday for the semester.
  • For my grade 12s students can go out into the community and do a placement that is related to our course.
  • Grade 12s class podcast – run by students.

Thursdays & Fridays – Passion Project Days

  • Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
  • These two days are to be scheduled by the students.  Many of them are out working in the community, having meetings and phone calls.

Since I have about 95% of the same students in my grade 12 classes that I had last year, it has been an adjustment for them.  They were used to a little more freedom, but are learning to follow the day to day. My grade 11s don’t know any different and seem to have settled just fine into it.  Overall I am super excited for the semester – there are some really cool projects that the students are working on already. Follow us @MrsRChambers and  #jmsshpa11 & #jmsshpa12 if you want to see what they are all up to.

Thanks for unlearning with us 🙂

Rebecca

Posted in Why Unlearn?

Introduction to Unlearning June 23 – August 17.

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

Screenshot 2019-06-18 at 4.27.43 PM

Over the past 5 years, as an educator,  I have been on an unlearning journey. I have gradually transitioned from a traditional classroom to a more modernized classroom that reflects our ever changing world.  In the last year I have had the opportunity to share this experience at a few conferences via workshops, through my blog and twitter. I have been fortunate to be contacted by people who are interested in what I am doing. The most consistent comment / question that I get is, I love what you are doing, but where do I even start?

Everyday I challenge my students to seek out problems and find solutions. Therefore, I am going to walk the walk and will be taking the leap into the edupreneur world.

I am excited and nervous to announce that I will to be offering an online course / workshop for teachers who are interested in modernizing their classroom but just don’t know where to start.  The course will run for 8 weeks and will include the following:

  1. Why we need to unlearn.

  2. The importance of a Professional Learning Network in our unlearning journey.

  3. The gradual steps taken to let go of a traditional model to a more modernized approach to the classroom. (5 Steps to leaving the traditional model)

Each of the Step modules will include:

  • A video overview of what change was made to my traditional classroom.

  • Student Voice / examples

  • Links to the people / educators / resources that influenced the change.

  • Changes in assessment from traditional to reflective / gradeless.

  • Discussions: networking / brainstorming with other participants and myself.

  • 30 min one on one consultation with me / module.

You can check out a promo video here if you would like a little more information.

The course will be $299 CND / $249 USD.

The first session will run from June 23, 2019 – Aug 17, 2019.

Come and unlearn with me, register today here !!

Any questions please feel free to ask. Please share with anyone else who might be interested.

Cheers, Rebecca

Posted in Why Unlearn?

Why not more Destreaming?

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers
Screenshot 2019-06-18 at 4.04.45 PMhttp://www.thereckoner.ca/op-ed-is-grade-nine-too-soon/applied-academic-jeffrey-liu/

In the Ontario high school system we stream students in grade 9 and 10 into either academic / applied or locally developed and in grade 11 and 12 into either university / college or workplace / essential designated courses.  When we stream our students, we create an “us” versus “them” mentality. We (school system, parents, society, students) create a hierarchy, which in turn makes students who are not at the top feel that they are not smart or not good enough.  Why are we ok with this?

This past semester I had the opportunity to work with students who have many different post secondary destinations.  Some will go off to the workplace right from high school, some will come back for another year, some will take a gap year, some will go to college and some to university.  As a result my class became a de-streamed classroom and it was amazing.

Destreaming is often a bad word at the high school level.  In the traditional method of teaching (the way it has always been done), teachers find it a necessity to work with a group of students who are similar in ability, who are working on the same content and assignments and who are all capable of working at the same pace.  However, if we shake things up in the classroom and personalize learning, find out who our students are, what their strengths and weaknesses are the destreamed classroom can happen.

What happens when you destream a classroom?

When you put a wide range of abilities and strengths in a classroom, so many amazing things can happen.  The incredible things that I witnessed this semester are proof that when you provide personalized learning, have students recognize their strengths and weaknesses and work to those strengths, extraordinary things will happen.  

A.N.D. (Abilities NOT Disabilities)

Screenshot 2019-06-18 at 4.00.21 PM

Over the semester my class teamed up with another class at Woodroffe high school.  Both of our classes had a wide range of abilities in it. My class was a grade 12 destreamed class, who were studying child development and gerontology and the other class was a Junior General Learning Program.  Together we created a social enterprise called A.N.D. We focused on everyone’s strengths and worked as a group to raise over $400 and spread awareness about different cognitive disabilities. They had booths around the city, they made compost bags and fire starters to sell by donation, they made friendship bracelets and friendship beads to hand out and they spoke to younger students about the importance of kindness.  Each person in both classes contributed in the best way that they could. The different roles included:

  • Creating a logo
  • Creating a brochure
  • Creating a twitter page
  • Creating a website
  • Creating a video
  • reaching out to community
  • Making the compost bags
  • Making the Fire starters
  • Making the friendship bracelets and pins
  • Giving a presentation
  • Creating slideshow for the presentation
  • Organizing booths at malls, outside of stores and at City Hall
  • Talking to people at the booths


Focus on growth vs comparing students

If we look at each student as an individual and celebrate their strengths and weaknesses everyone can be successful.  For example, in my classroom each student comes to the table with different skills and abilities. Each student learns in a different way and should be allowed to flourish no matter what way that it is.  My philosophy is to focus on the growth of each student rather than comparing them to others in the classroom. In order to achieve this, there is a lot of ground work that needs to be laid for students to buy in.  The students who have not been successful in school still struggle with this, even though it allows them to feel good about who they are and what they can accomplish. Unfortunately, they have always been made to feel that they are not good enough because the do not fit the one size fits all “school” model and have always felt inferior to those who have had success in school.  On the other hand it is just as difficult for the students who have done well in school. They struggle with not being at the top, their identity depends on it and are not ready to move over and let those “below” them have success. When we are able to break that cycle and celebrate everyone’s strengths magic happens.

The goal for me and the students is to look at where they are at the beginning of the course and track their growth.  All students can learn about child development and gerontology in their own personalized way. I can meet them where they are, figure out what skills and abilities they bring to the table, where they want to go in life and see how we can work on and refine the necessary skills that they will need.  For example, for one student, just coming to class and being a part of something might be where they are at right now. They may need time to build the confidence that was stripped of them over the years of feeling inadequate in school. If they are able to show up on a regular basis, participate and even do some work, then they have been successful and have grown. Whereas, another student may come to the table with a whole different set of skills. They may know that they want to go off to post secondary and will require certain skills once they are there. They can do projects that push them further in their own growth and work on skills that will allow them to be successful in their future. Both of these students can have success, it is not compared, it is about personal growth.

If we were to get rid of labels and hierarchies we will create an equal playing field for everyone.  For some reason some people are not ok with this, it challenges their idea of what has always been and some how demeans their own value.  I would argue that three quarters of our students / society have felt this way in school at one time or another, so why do we continue to value only a quarter of our population?

Thanks for unlearning with me 🙂

Cheers, Rebecca

Posted in Why Unlearn?

Disruption is necessary, who’s with me?

Posted on by Rebecca Chambers

The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world. (2)

The Breakfast Club

In my last post Dreams do come true if you persevere, my vision of an experiential passion based classroom have come true  I gave an overview of the two credit course that I am facilitating called The Experiential Passion Based Study of Child Development and Gerontology.  This course is a mish mash of bits and pieces that I have taken from the Independent Project, Iowa Big, Don Wettricks Innovation and Open source learning class and Blue Sky school.  If you want the day by day on what happens, check out the last post.

Everyday I am so thankful that I get to work with these students.  Each and everyone of them has their own unique story and it is amazing to watch them all shine in and outside of the classroom.  Since we are a two credit course we spend a lot of time together. We do a lot of reflecting, discussing, podcasting and supporting of each others passion projects.

The other day we were having one of our informal discussions and one of the students said, “I really feel like this class is like The Breakfast Club, we all come from different groups and backgrounds but we are getting to know each other and we are talking to people that we probably would never have talked to if it wasn’t for this class”.  He had no idea how much of a compliment that was to me, I had goosebumps.

Disruption is necessary

However, on the daily I hear about the rumours and discussions that go on behind closed doors about me and what is happening in my classroom. My normal is not everyone’s normal – I get that. I understand that what I am doing challenges people’s identities as educators. I know that I am relentless in getting my way and that I am a disruptor to “how we do things here”. I understand that change takes time, but here’s the thing – we don’t have time.

According to an article from Global News, “While Canada’s economy is on track to add 2.4 million jobs over the next four years, virtually all of them will require a different set of skills than young people are currently learning. According to the study, a growing demand for “human skills” will be more crucial across job sectors. In particular, critical thinking, coordination, social perceptiveness, active listening and complex problem solving — described in the report as “human skills” — were identified as being key characteristics Canadians should develop to prepare for changes to the workforce.”

Unfortunately many educators still believe that rote learning, direct instruction and testing are what is needed to prepare students for the future.  The more I research about the future of work, it is evident that simply put, they are wrong.

A recently published article How to make high schools better for students outlines research conducted by Jahl Mehta (associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education) and Sarah Fine (High Tech High Graduate School of Education).

“Our research in 30 public high schools across the country found that great high schools share something essential in common: They cultivate mastery, creativity and identity. In other words, students in these schools are given regular opportunities to develop significant knowledge and skills, to use their knowledge to produce something original, and to connect their learning to who they are and who they seek to become. The presence of these qualities produces deep engagement — the thing that educators so often struggle to foster.”

“Unfortunately, these qualities are fairly rare in American high schools today.” (this would go for Canadian schools too, in my opinion) In most of the schools we observed — even those with reputations for being innovative — students saw little purpose or meaning in what they were doing. Some were defiant; others made sophisticated attempts to “play the game of school.” Very few, however, described their schools as places where they could thrive. National studies confirm that the bulk of high school students are bored at school daily.”

The Call to Courage – Brene Brown Netflix Special Brené Brown

Sometimes I give too much time to the naysayers, according to Brené Brown it is only human to want to be liked.  However, after watching Brown’s Netflix special called the Call to Courage I am going to try and focus on and surround myself with positive people.  I am going to live by the three things she learned from doing her TED Talk on Vulnerability.  NOTE If you have not seen this yet, it is a MUST!!  Thank you Logan for suggesting I watch it!!

I vow to live by the following and never feel shame because I do:

  1. I am going to live in the arena, I’m going to be brave with my life, I’m going to show up and I am going to take chances.  I am going to fall, fail and know heartbreak.
  2. I am going to be vulnerable, it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.
  3. And finally to the critics, if you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion because you are being brave, I’m not interested in or open to your feedback about my work.

It is time for all educators to be brave, vulnerable and courageous for the future of our students and society in general.  Who is with me?

I can promise you this from my journey, it is messy, it is chaotic and it is scary.  But on the flip side I get to hang out with The Breakfast Club and it is so worth it. 

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Thanks for unlearning with us.
Cheers, R 🙂

 

 

Works Cited
Mehta, Jahl, and Sarah Fine. “How to Make High Schools Better for Students.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2019, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mehta-fine-education-high-school-excellence-20190426-story.html.
Vomiero, Jessica. “Half of Canadian Jobs Will Be Impacted by Automation in next 10 Years.” Global News, 26 Mar. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4105713/automation-workforce-canada-human/.