Submitting Your NOII and AESN 2014 - 2015 Case Study

It’s been such an eventful year for Network schools in BC and beyond. Inquiry teams have been sharing learning stories at both the Symposium (more 2015 Symposium presentations now posted on the website) and through many regional Celebrations of Learning.  And the work of Network schools has been highlighted in several research/journal reports, including Creating and Sustaining Inquiry Spaces For Teacher Learning and System Transformation.  

As the school year draws to a close, we welcome Network schools to continue to share their learning over the past year through submitting case studies. Case studies are rich sources of data, capturing both the process of inquiry with regard to a school’s particular focus for improvement, as well as the learning and observations obtained throughout the journey. The templates for submitting NOII Case Studies and AESN Case Studies are now available on the website. In completing your case study, please keep the headings and remove the descriptors for each section. Please use Calibri 12 for the font.  This will simplify the editing process and make our lives a lot easier!

We'd like to get all the case studies in by the end of July so that we can spend some time in August reviewing them and posting them on the website. Then in the fall, we will send out the grants to all the 2014-2015 schools. We are very grateful to the Irving K Barber Learning Centre at UBC for supporting the AESN work on transitions, the BCPVPA for publishing Spirals of Inquiry, and the Ministry of Education for providing funding that will allow us to continue to provide grants to schools that complete their case studies. We know how important it is to acknowledge the contributions you are making and we will continue to find ways to say thank you for all that you do. 

Questions about submitting your case study? Please contact us: dweaving@dccnet.com

Making a Difference Only a Teacher Can Make

We would like to thank Russ Simpson from Walnut Grove Secondary School for giving us permission to share a letter he recently wrote to his colleagues. And a sincere thanks to Michelle Wood, the VP at Walnut Grove for knowing how much we would appreciate what Russ had to say. We hope you are as moved as we were by his words. 

We would like to wish Russ all the very best as he moves into a new phase of his career. We truly believe that  great teachers never really retire, they always find a way to make a difference. Please note that "Tara's" name has been changed at Russ' request. 

So let's hear from Russ:

I recently attended a retirement party, something I rarely do.  I find goodbye to be one of the hardest things to say.  I kind of felt obligated to show up for this one though, given that it was for me.  I listened to many accolades, from staff both present and past that I’ve had the pleasure of working with, from family and friends, and from a myriad of students (past and present) that have left many a deep impression on my heart and memory.  There were a couple of letters, one read publicly and one handed to me privately, that touched me so deeply that I’m still reeling a bit several days later.  I believe there are good lessons for all of us in those letters.  I want to write a bit about the public letter today.

            In her letter Tara, my long since graduated student, described the impact I had on her, and made me sound like a truly gifted and wonderful teacher.  Ah, if only.  I do believe that being a teacher is one of the most rewarding, demanding, and important jobs that one can have in our society.  Consider for a moment.  Parents let go of their children and hand them over to us, entrusting us with their care, safety, and guidance.  It is a truly awesome responsibility, and one that cannot truly be 
fathomed until you have children of your own.  When you have to watch your own child walk away 
from you into the care of others you will understand.  Being a teacher means, to me, always trying to remember that my students are children given into my care.  I feel honored and grateful that I am allowed to share in the enthusiasm, curiosity, energy, and drive of these young people.  They also keep me well grounded.  I think I am a wonderful teacher?  That I do a brilliant job of getting kids to listen or cooperate?  I think I can manage or control my students?  Hah! It doesn’t take long for me to begin having to eat crow while I attempt to scrape up a bit of my deflated ego after it has been shredded by my students.  I well remember one of my conversations with Tara after she had elected to miss a couple of classes.  I thought our little serious talk went particularly well, and I was confident that I wouldn’t have to worry about any more absences for a least a couple of weeks.  What actually happened was that she left my room and made a straight line march up to Starbucks, where she spent the next few hours commiserating with a couple of her buddies on the unfairness of Mr. Simpson’s expectations.    Looking back now, I can see this behaviour for what it was:  a faith that whatever she did, she would be able to return and get forgiveness and acceptance. 

            Understand that while I see my job as teaching, I firmly believe it is not what I teach, but how I teach that makes the difference.  I see ‘prescribed learning outcomes’ as a means to an end, not the end itself.  It is the vision we have of our students (things like lifelong learners, honest and knowledgeable citizens, compassionate and caring individuals, etc.) that I believe is important.   In her letter, Tara says, “You were our constant.  You took us for the good, the bad, and the ugly.  You believed in us.  How many times did you hear the words “I don’t care?”.  You showed us how to care.  You…. taught us love and how to be loved.. even when we had nothing to give in return.”  She does not thank me for teaching her math skills, helping her with her science, or helping her complete her many English assignments, but for showing tolerance, patience, and persistence.   I wish I could say I do this most of the time.  I can’t.  I don’t.  I need to constantly work at listening to my students - not their words, but their emotions, - to gauge what they need, what they can cope with, and how far I dare prod or push them in the direction I want them to head.  Some days I do a good job, others, not so well.

            Many of our students have difficult challenges to overcome before they can grow into that envisioned adult.  Some have dysfunctional family situations or backgrounds; some are coping with split families, illness, the loss of family members or friends, poverty, and other situations beyond their control. Some struggle to overcome learning disabilities, mental illness, or anxiety issues.  Others try to balance competing interests such as sports, music, jobs, or other activities with the demands of school.  On top of all that we have the normal teenage challenges of emerging sexuality, desire for independence, and emotional instability that comes with rapid changes in development.  Our challenge is to help them not only cope with their personal challenges and difficulties, but at the same time help them learn, grow, and become the kind of adult we envision for them.  How we meet this challenge provides our students with the models of how we want them to handle theirs.  Warning a student he will fail is neither a threat nor an inducement to try harder when the student already thinks he’s a failure.  Threatening with poor marks doesn’t mean anything to a student that doesn’t have any confidence they can earn good marks.  Sending a student to the office or giving detentions or other consequences to try and ‘force’ them to learn or behave generally only reinforces the belief they have that they are not valued, liked, or wanted.  And trust me on this, a student that doesn’t feel valued, liked, and wanted is not going to acquire any of the ‘prescribed learning outcomes’.  On Friday, one of my young men arrived in my room last period, angry at his teacher, and angrily stating that he wasn’t going to do anything else but just wanted to go home.  When I enquired, he admitted that he had been talking in class and not working, but added that the real problem was that his teacher ‘hates me’.  I started to go into my blunt assessment of the problem and what needed to be done, but.. still thinking about that letter, and mindful that I could almost  see the walls going up, I managed to stop and think.  I was dealing with a stressed fourteen year old boy on a sunny Friday afternoon who at that moment was done with school.   I finally commented that “It is hard to concentrate in last period on a Friday isn’t it.”  He looked at me and nodded. 

            “And first thing in the morning.”  He added.  He then sighed, and went a bit further: “ And before lunch, and after lunch…”  At that point I just laughed and asked him what I could do.  He dragged out his books and offered that ‘maybe’ he should just get his work done. 

 In her letter Tara thanked me for, “.. showing up and being there, even on the days we didn’t deserve it.”  I believe our students don’t have to earn or deserve our compassion or support. We have an obligation to look beyond the student as they are now, and help them grow into the what and who they can be.   She ended the letter by saying, “So many of your students fought to be the people they are.  Thank you for teaching us how to fight.  Thank you for fighting with us.”  Again, I think that is my job.  I share these words so I can remind you to keep your eye on the real goal:  that vision of our students as adults.  It is sometimes hard not to take personally the actions of a frustrated or hurt young teen, but it is necessary.  Be patient, be kind, and be persistent.  May you all have many students who will remember you the way Tara remembers me. 

Russ Simpson

Teacher

Walnut Grove Secondary School

Amelia Peterson - Harvard Graduate School of Education

Today we are excited to feature Amelia Peterson on the blog, with reflections from the NOII Symposium and other international learning 'convenings' she attended this month. Amelia is currently a PhD candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her comments are brilliant and helpful - read on!

 

Four convenings and a principle

(with apologies to Richard Curtis) 

Last week, I was fortunate to attend the Annual NOII Symposium as part of a little consort of British visitors there representing the Whole Education network in the UK. I was travelling with the group in my role as a doctoral student, where I’m in the wonderful early stage of being allowed to follow my nose to seek out interesting things to try and learn from (hence ending up in BC).

As a student, the start of May means the end of the Spring semester and a pile of Finals papers. This year, however, it coincided with four events that took me to four different cities to learn directly from and with practitioners in schools, district and state departments, and school partner organizations. My reflections on the Symposium are now enmeshed in these other experiences, and thinking across them I am struck by what progress there has been in designing adult learning: none of these was a typical conference (and proudly so: alongside the Symposium, the events were a ‘gathering’, a ‘design convening’ and a ‘learning festival’). Each placed an emphasis on creating space for informal interaction, for practitioners to present, and for authentic conversation about education work. More strikingly, three of the four included students among the participants – although given the quality of their contributions, we could have had more.

At the Oppi Learning Festival, I was lucky to be on a panel with students from City-As-School and a Big Picture Learning school in New York. Nothing can convey the spirit of the personalized learning these schools aim to provide better than seeing these three very different students tell very different stories about how their teachers had helped them reconnect with learning. Hearing these students reminded me of another I had met at the Symposium, who was worried his dyslexia would hold him back from higher education; this same student had founded a start-up, aimed at helping students find passions and develop a future pathway (I won’t mention his name to protect his privacy – and because I want to keep this investment opportunity to myself…) Traditional schooling still struggles to allow the level of personalization these students need and thrive on; inquiry, however, can open up the space for it.

I’ve been grappling with this possibility since wrapping up my finals and returning to England this week. The motto of Big Picture schools is ‘one child at a time’. In England, it is more everyone at the same time. As in the U.S., our system is full of structures to ensure that ‘no child is left behind’: principals and teachers are under extreme pressure to demonstrate that everyone is progressing at the required pace, or faster, regardless of what else is going on in their life – or whether the destination is somewhere they want to reach. It is when I am able to talk with students that I feel most sharply the limitations of the deterministic edge of value-added measures and of mandated progress towards standardized goals: as the U.S. student and author Nikhil Goyal has written, ‘One Size Does Not Fit All’.

Yet the last few weeks have also been a stark reminder as to why such systems emerged. One of the events I attended took place in Durban, South Africa, where one legacy of apartheid is lingering inequality in school provision. Likewise in the U.S., where I live for most of the year, we are reminded on a daily basis why ‘different but equal’ is treated as a hollow promise, and the possibility of promoting diversity and equality simultaneously is looked upon with some skepticism. As long as we do not confront racial biases – and engage in the serious work of coming to understand and really appreciate the cultures that make up our countries – different will not really be equal. This is as true of beliefs about intelligence as it is about race: in B.C. I did not hear the fixed-sense language of ‘ability’ as I do in England, and I can only hope that in the future we will look back at that as an outdated form of prejudice.

While these biases stand, it is understandable that some systems can only interpret equality as standardization, and pursue it at all costs.

This brings me to my (design) principle. It was with interest that I read a speech this week by Scotland’s Secretary of State for Education, Angela Constance. She spoke of teachers who ‘[see] the children they teach not just as pupils or learners, but as individuals with foibles, weaknesses and challenges but importantly too, strengths, opportunities and enthusiasm – all the qualities that make each of them who they are.’

From that perspective, everything becomes so simple. If all system leaders believed that teachers saw students in this way, they would design systems where practice is driven by the needs and enthusiasms of each child, and where standards exist just as useful tools – way-markers to take into account on the way to some larger goal.

Many, many educators already hold this perspective and its accompanying beliefs. The accountability structures in England and the U.S., however, assume otherwise; that the system must enforce adults to care for every child, in the only way that systems know how. Jal Mehta, my teacher, has written about the importance of replacing ‘bad man’ education policies that assume non-compliance, with 'good (wo)man’ theories that assume people want to do good work and to get better at their work. In B.C., I saw what a system based on good person theories can look like. Not one that blithely assumes we will all be good all the time, but knows that with the right structures of support and mutual accountability we can try to get better. Spirals of Inquiry seems to be shaped by that spirit of optimism, and, as a process, by starting with the experience of students and planning adult actions from there. Scotland’s government, in various ways, and sometimes haltingly, is promoting the same philosophy. England and the U.S. have many strengths in Education, but we also have a lot to learn from our northern neighbours. 

So what can we do about it? This, for me, is the role of convenings that bring together participants from different parts of a system and different countries: they provide opportunity for people to talk with others who see the world from a different perspective; to question some of their own assumptions; and maybe, over time, shift their beliefs. For this to happen, convenings need to continue to bring new people into the fold, and to bring in the voices of a generation who are – sometimes – not as weighed down by some of the assumptions we are still shaking ourselves out of.

But now I am just preaching to the converted.

I look forward to seeing the networks continue to grow, and thank you again for letting me learn from you.

First Peoples Principles of Learning - Now en français

The First Peoples Principles of Learning, developed by British Columbia’s First Nations Education Steering Committee, is a key resource to guide both the inquiry process and one’s approach to learning and teaching. It is a useful resource for school/district wide professional learning, as a tool to help shift thinking around using wise ways to develop Aboriginal understandings.

Network members are already very familiar with the First Peoples Principles of Learning, and many have been actively incorporating them into the core of their teaching and learning. Thanks to Richmond School District’s Coordinator for Library and Information Services, Gordon Powell, and Ecole Secondaire R.A. McMath Secondary School teacher Carl Ruest, the Principals have now been translated into French! Check out the French version, as well as the French/English document. 

The First Nations Education Steering Committee website has a number of other resources, including classroom resources and the First Peoples Learning Blog. They are also hosting a Summer Institute in August: Indian Residential Schools & Reconciliation – limited spaces are available.

Celebrations of Learning

With the end of the school year in sight, school districts across BC are coming together to host Celebrations of Learning – opportunities for school and leadership teams to showcase their inquiry work and share learning from the past year. Taking time to learn from each other through in this way is important.  Not only do year-end celebrations provide a space for networking, collaboration and professional learning, but it’s a time to recognize the effort, time and energy that goes into the commitment to improving our practice and positively influencing student learning. It’s also really nice to just take the time to recognize each other – to congratulate each other for being a risk-taking, brave, curious community of leaders and learners.

Last week the Lower Mainland region hosted their Celebration in the Delta School District. School teams showcased their work with poster boards and colleagues had time to chat with each other and their about the projects. Please remember to send your pictures to us at noii.aesn@gmail.com or share them with us via @noiiaesn. 

Sharing #sd38 playful storytelling inquiry project @noiiaesn pic.twitter.com/kRU3ujYbOL

— Janice Novakowski (@jnovakowskisd38) May 20, 2015

On June 1^st the Northern BC Region will host their Celebration in Prince Rupert from 10am – 3pm at the Museum of Northern British Columbia. Judy and Linda will be there to share in the learning. To register for the event, please click here for more information.  

In addition to celebrations, you can learn about what others are working on by reviewing school case studies. Both NOII and AESN case studies are available on our website. 

Hosting an event in your region? Please let us know!

Inquiry and Innovation Summer Institute at UBC - July 7 & 8

INQUIRY AND INNOVATION FOR SYSTEM LEADERS

July 7-8 | UBC Vancouver

Registration is now open for this 2-day intensive working session for teachers, teacher/district leadership teams, or others interested in making inquiry-informed and innovative practices a way of life in your school and district settings.

You will leave well prepared to make a difference to your learners by leading inquiry-based and research-informed learning in your school during the 2015-2016 school year based on:

• Applying a disciplined framework for professional inquiry
• Exploring and learning from innovation and change cases from BC, England, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe
• Developing knowledge of the key learning principles that are central to innovative learning environments
• Considering the connections between social emotional learning and physical well-being
• Understanding how inquiry-based approaches for learners of all ages can build motivation and engagement

Facilitated by Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert, BC coordinators for the OECD / CERI research study on Innovative Learning Environments, Co-Directors of the Centre for Innovative Educational Leadership at Vancouver Island University, as well as authors of Spirals of Inquiry: for equity and quality and co-leaders of the BC Networks of Inquiry and Innovation and the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network.  Exemplary school and district leaders will be joining Linda and Judy in facilitating this session.

Share a copy of the flyer with your colleagues. 

Register online by June 5:

pdce.educ.ubc.ca/Inquiry2015

Early registration is recommended as seats are limited for this program.

Paddling Together - Our Journey Continues

Our minds and hearts are full on this sunny Sunday morning after another amazing journey through the NOII Symposium over the last 2 days. We were at standing room only (really!), packed to the brim with thoughtful, engaged, empowering educators working together to ensure that every kid crosses the stage with dignity, purpose, options, curiosity, passion, resilience. The theme of passion and purpose was a good reminder to be excited, to stay energized, to continue to ask and seek answers to hard questions…and to be thoughtful and focused when putting this all into action. Over 20 students participated in the Symposium this year, sharing their unique perspectives and contributing to rich dialogue, making this one of the best legs of the journey thus far. 

My mind is full with new ideas and new ways to move my practice forward. My heart if full with all the new friendships and connections that I know will help me along the way, even when things get tough (as we know things can). That’s powerful. But it can be overwhelming too – I don’t want to forget the multitude of perspectives presented over the last 48 hours (uncovering curriculum, passion to praxis, grounding our work, putting the Ferrari into gear!). Luckily, with so many participants capturing ideas at #noii2015, we have much to now reflect on. Thanks to Jennifer Delvecchio, we also have this storify (see below) which pulls many thoughts into one place. We’ll also be posting more on the NOII website very soon – more to come.

To everyone who attended, contributed, volunteered in numerous thoughtful ways – we thank you…meegwetch, gilakas’la, huy chexw, kw’as ho:y, kinanâskomitin, (add others in the comments below!). The Network has always been a combination of multiple moving parts. As Judy and Linda have so thoughtfully reminded us, the Spiral of Inquiry is about all of us – it doesn’t exist without our collective efforts.

On that note, remember to save the date of May 12 – 14^th 2016 for next year’s Symposium!