Paul McGuire guest hosted the voicEd Radio show this week. To the conversation, he added a blog post, insights as an educator, Principal, and Faculty Advisor, and a couple of songs in his new role as an Old Fellas, New Music blogger.
We started the show with this post from Paul’s blog. Reading it may well be the best thing that you can do for yourself today.
Paul was very open and insightful with some of the challenges that people have in education at times, amplified during COVID times with anxiety and depression. There was a great deal of inspiration for how to cope at these times. As schools reopen in September, you just know that there will be more.
Paul’s done his research and shares some external excerpts to support his post. The biggest takeaway might well be being fully aware – of that colleague in the corner, that little girl in the second row, or that face you see in the mirror.
He asks “Could this be a dialogue?” Absolutely – it always should have been and if we need to lean on COVID as the motivator, do it.
When I read the title to this post from Lisa Corbett, I expected a fun article outlining the nerves that teachers have as they prepare for September. Goodness knows that I had them every year.
The inspiration here though was from a child’s birthday and a thunderstorm. Lisa had friends over, presumably to have the party in the backyard but that was only a plan. The lightning scuttled it.
Instead, the kids came inside and kids are kids. Loud and very active and this was an experience that Lisa hadn’t had for a long time. Paul pulled this quote from her post.
It’s the whole “dealing with other humans who don’t live with me” thing that has me feeling like hiding in the basement instead.
Premonition? Throw in a “close talker” or two and we can understand why she’s not ready.
It was great to see Matthew Morris back at the keyboard and blogging again.
This time, he’s noting how July flew by. I’ve called this the month that the Minister stole from the system by promising “the plan” only to have it arrive in August.
Again, Paul pulled an interesting quote from this post.
I’m ready for August but not ready for much beyond that. That makes me queasy. The more I try to decompress the more I tighten up. I’m not used to this. I’m used to thinking; about school, and plans, and predictions. But this shit right here is brand new to me.
August isn’t really a good time for the conscientious educator at the best of times but this year is a totally new experience. Anxiety is higher than ever and Matthew throws in something I hadn’t thought about – being out of school for so long, he’s afraid that he might not recognize the students.
The big saviour will be that first day of school. Once those bodies arrive, teaching kicks in despite all of the other things that are happening. Teachers will be dealing with a new environment to be sure, but that’s been expected all along.
In Search of Creativity in Education
I won’t quote all that Paul pulled from Dave Cormier’s post. You’ll have to click through and read it all. It is worth the click.
Dave’s been asked by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation – CERI to develop a curriculum piece that he’s calling Creating Creativity in the Online Classroom. Think about that for a second – it seems so counter-intuitive to be but Ontario Educators have been doing action research on this since the first lockdown.
We know that the talking head at the podium doesn’t work in the face to face classroom or at conferences and the windowed version of teaching online sure doesn’t work either. Teachers have been imagining all kinds of ways to engage students despite the conditions.
Dave equates creativity with fun and it’s easy to see how that connection can be made face to face. Online is a whole different ball game.
I think that this is huge job but Dave is an excellent choice as he seems to like to think about things like this. I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time now.
He’s identified these issues going into this.
- The nature of creativity and the balance between a teacher’s sense of creativity and different sense of it in different students
- The relationship between ill-defined problems and the kind of engagement that leads to the fostering of creativity
- The challenges and opportunities of doing creativity with access to such an abundance of influences.
This is one to follow. It’s something that the Ministry and/or subject organizations should be following and seriously buying into.
The Truths About Self-Regulation & Maths
Tina Bergman inspired me to write an entire “fun” post about mathematics yesterday. (Click back if you’re interested)
In the post, Tina analyses a piece of work (Chapter 7 from Reframed). In particular, these five steps:
- Step 1 Asking Why (History) Recognizing Stressors
- Step 2 Reframing the Anxiety
- Step 3: Aware of the Why and THAT
- Step 4:Reducing the Stress
- Step 5: Developing Pre and Post Strategies to Restore Blue/Red Brain Balance
I thought it was a good discussion and she’s really thought this through.
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed mathematics and saw it more like a series of puzzles instead of a curriculum. In the way of good puzzles, I understood that I couldn’t solve them all and learned to be good with not getting 100%. I found myself actively nodding when she talked about “play”.
We live in a different world with all the pressure put on teachers and students by the curriculum and schools and a community that isn’t hesitant to speak about their own challenges with mathematics.
A Journey: Student to Teacher & What Lies Beneath
This was an interesting post from Heather Lye about her personal philosophy and trek from, as she says, “Student to Teacher”.
Reading the post was a wonderful reminder of how teaching is truly a higher calling for those who enter and wish to be the best educator they can. In Heather’s case, she respects her own teachers
I’ve had many great teachers in my past that have impacted my decisions – I cannot wait to make them proud.
The post covers her personal thoughts about:
- Care
- Respect
- Trust
- Integrity
Use the post to see her thoughts and maybe inspire a refresher of your own reasons why you went into the profession.
THE YEAR TEACHING AND LEARNING CHANGED
I think that this post from Bei Zhang writing on the TESLOntario blog closes off this week’s collections of posts so nicely.
- Fears Are Okay
- Challenges Push Us to Move Forward
These two major points and subsequent thoughts are a reminder than it’s normal to feel the way that you do and secondly, this is why educators didn’t pack up everything and check out. Instead, they dug in and made the best happen.
All teachers (and students) have had to endure challenges and huge learning just to get connected and make it work at times. Bei throws kudos to the ESL teachers and students for their efforts.
Please take the time to click through and read all these terrific blog posts. Then, follow these bloggers on Twitter.
- Paul McGuire – @mcguirp
- Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett0261
- Matthew Morris – @callmemrmorris
- Dave Cormier – @davecormier
- Tina Bergman – @blyschuk
- Heather Lye – @MsHLye
This week’s voicEd Radio show:
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.