Now What?

As we move towards the end of the year, we begin to look at the next.  This cyclical process plays out with great reliability every year and so does the age-old right of passage for our graduating students. For many students there is a fear of leaving the nest of high school.  For the past 13 years, they have been nurtured and supported by many adults.  The anxious fear our students feel is often the stress of change and an unknown future. What college will I go to? Will I get into university? Where will I live? Do I have to leave home? What will I do? These are just some of the questions that swirl through the minds of a graduating student.  Graduation is a milestone; a right of passage in our society.  Overcoming these feelings is part of the transition and part of growing up.

As educators, we are excited for our grads. It’s been our life’s work is to ensure our young people are prepared and ready to spread their wings. Our goal is to help guide them so they have a clear path and an understanding of where they are going.  The truth is, no matter how much we work to prepare them, we always seem to fall short when it comes to ensuring that everyone is in command of where they go next. It seemed to be easier years ago when young people had limited choice as to what they could do.  Work on the farm, take over the family business or get a job in the local industry was the order of the day not too long ago.  Today, many of our young media savvy generation really has no idea what comes next.

As our population grows and the world becomes more complex, the advent of social media has allowed us to focus through connectivity and have a united voice. In many ways, the world is actually smaller than it’s ever been. This shift in focus has changed the way we all think about our future. Today, the possibilities of what we can do seem endless. Undoubtedly this has contributed to the anxiety of the high school graduate.  Just as much as we recognize the endless possibilities and the excitement that goes with that, there is also the scary side in that with so many choices comes the quandary of “what do I do now?”, and “will I be good enough?”.

Have we inadvertently created a generation of youth that are so closely linked with one another that they cannot see themselves making the next move? A recent CBC news report mentioned that an increasingly larger number of young adults are remaining at home well into their twenties.  When asked about this, the answer is all to often “Whatever”.  (CBC News, 2012)

This creates a perplexing situation for us.  It’s our job to prepare students for the future, but how do we prepare them for such a complex future? We want to be sure that we prepare them with the skills to navigate the overwhelming choices. Our fear is that too many grads resort to “Whatever” when confronted with the complexities of tomorrow. We know that yesterday’s skills are not enough; today’s graduates need complex problem solving skills to navigate a very complex world.

Michael Wesch (2012) argues that the answer lies in seeking to foster a continued sense of wonder in our students. He argues that the sense of wonder is eroding from our young people because they are so dialed in with structure and organization. He argues that we must work against the current of structure and organization to ensure young people still have the epiphany that goes with the feeling of wonder in unstructured and free experiences. As educators, maybe the answer lies in keeping reciprocal pace with the corporate world.

Just as the corporate world works ever so hard to ensure we habitually replace last year’s model with this year’s new gadget, we as educators must work just as hard if not harder to ensure our students are armed with today’s relevant skills and knowledge to navigate the myriad of choices and complex options that confront our students every day.

Identify the stakeholders…      Trust the process…      Trust the people…

The Trifecta

The illustrious High School Staff meeting…  Once a month we meet at a pre-determined location to discuss a preset agenda of topics related to what is going on in the school.  In most systems, the staff meeting is in contract; therefore, teachers are required to attend. Some staff really look forward to this time to engage with colleagues and collectively refresh, while others dread the idea.  When we reflect on our past experiences as teachers sitting in staff meetings we recall both highly engaging and highly disengaging experiences.

Now that we’re in the role of setting the meeting’s agenda, we are asking ourselves “How do we tap into the real potential of a staff meeting? Can staff meetings be valued by all staff members? What would a staff meeting have to look like in order to be valued by everyone?”  We feel that the answer lies in understanding what the stakeholders want from the meeting.

As far as different preferences go, some staff prefer the “information download” version of a staff meeting where the agenda is a one-way “Laundry List” of speakers and updates. Others prefer a collaborative session where ideas are exchanged and discussion time is king. Still others prefer the staff meeting for the social dynamics – the experience of being together with other teachers and getting face-time with the principal. How can we meet all of these preferences given the mercurial nature of staff dynamics?

For us here’s the trifecta: a staff meeting should be the place where we share updates on what is going on school-wide, within departments, and within teams. It is also the place where we collaborate on what is working and what needs to be adjusted. And it is the place where we are face-to-face with staff and ready to engage in communication at that personal level. It is our chance to let staff know that we are present and in touch with the goings-on in the school.

As we revise and plan for next year, our goal is to make our staff meetings valuable for everyone. The ideal staff meeting will be a trifecta of informational updates, effective collaboration, and personal connectivity.

 

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Springboard or Status Quo

As we push through to the end of a very challenging year and begin planning for September, we are feeling the tug of two opposing forces. The tug is the pressure between just maintaining status quo in our school versus forging ahead and making changes. These changes include not only adding an extra period to our day because of increased enrollment but also the desire to maintain pace with the 21^st century model of education.

Maintaining the status quo is the natural instinct: keeping our heads down, our noses to the grindstone and doing our best to make it to the end of the school year, avoiding as many potholes as possible. It’s the “smooth it over the best you can” approach. To a large extent, the labour unrest has forced us to have this approach for most of this year. Yes we have made some small changes due to policies adjustments from the school district and responses to job action but, for the most part, maintaining the status quo has proven to be the only option.  

As we plan for next year, the status quo isn’t an option. We are being forced to retool our daily class schedule to a flexible schedule with five periods in a day instead of four. Unfortunately, this change cannot be sidestepped. The question we face as we navigate this change is to either embrace it and use it to springboard into a 21^st century example of change, or to seek to minimize the change and strive for status quo. What we’re really talking about is the management of change and the fear of change. In the 70’s, Edward Deming recognized the debilitating effects of fear in the work place when he coined the phrase “Drive the Fear out of the System”.  In order to use our mandated change to maximum benefit, we must navigate the BCTF's desire to define every work minute and at the same time, drive the fear out of our system.

As we plan and prepare for next year, we find ourselves at a cross roads where we can really make a difference for what is in the best interest of kids. Our springboard could include more flexibility and a 21^st century modeled delivery of education. For the most part, our staff, even in these difficult times, has been very receptive and has contributed to a great number of creative discussions. We recognize that the forces at play are extremely alluring, the politics confusing, and the timing terrible. In spite of all this, we believe that our change is going to be a significant milestone that will be looked back upon as a renaissance in our school culture.

The conundrum we face in the ebb and flow of our change process is that the labour unrest has eroded what we have come to know as the status quo. The need to align our day with minute-to-minute contractual obligations is in some ways eroding teacher autonomy and professionalism. Are those teachers who have consistently demonstrated leadership now calculating their participation in the context of defined “work” hours? As we wind down this year and plan for the next, we can’t help but wonder if we will ever recover the true professional spirit of what it means to be an educator. One thing is certain, the erosion of the status quo will either serve as a springboard for educational change, or it will further continue to divide the masses. 

  

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

My Fellow Graduates...

In the educational system, the mantle of valedictorian is bestowed upon the student who best represents the school’s values. However, a difficulty we almost always face is determining which values represent the entire graduating class? Should we be looking for academics? Athleticism? Activism? The challenge is to look beyond the mold of the stereotypical “top student” and let the strengths of the candidates present themselves.

This week, we held the selection process for our school’s valedictorian. This process involved a committee of teachers and administrators listening to a sample of the student speeches, and providing some feedback. After this meeting, five students made their speeches to their peers as part of a grade-wide assembly. It felt like the Olympic rings: the five distinct elements coming together to represent a whole community.

First was Sarah, rugby player and theatrical stage manager. She brought wit and charm to her speech. She brought a brightness and joy to her words that we see every day in the school. This is what our students are like: bright, energetic, and beaming with pride.

Next was Steve, hockey goalie with self-proclaimed “model-worthy” calf muscles! He spoke of his mistakes and spoke like he wanted to bear the burden of his peers’ mistakes, too. He demonstrated that our grade 12’s are truly young adults.

Then we had Navneet. By far, hers was the most passionate speech – the voice of student activism. This is something that we are extremely proud of in our building: the pride and passion to speak up and care about the community, whether it is popular or not. Her words were robust and brave and let her peers know they should embrace the future.

Fourth in line was Janaya, the artist, who spoke of challenges and difficulties and complexity. Hers was a speech about fearlessness and courage, of pride and community, sticking together. Hers was a complex theme: we may not be growing rapidly in stature, but we are becoming more sophisticated.

Finally there was Brian, the philosopher. His words were eloquent and lyrical. He spoke to the crowd with a genuineness and sincerity that seemed to soothe those fears about heading into the open world that the young people in the audience must have been feeling. He let the group know that they have what it takes to succeed, to be well-adjusted adults.

In the end, it was difficult for the MC’s of the assembly to turn to the crowd and say “Now choose the one you want”. Each candidate presented a unique perspective of our grade 12 student body. The downside? It left us with the feeling that we believe every school staff would want: we wanted to keep them all! 

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Emotional Nourishment

In the animal kingdom there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs with impending natural disasters. It seems that animals have the innate ability to detect pending disasters just before they happen. For example, animals will act in very strange ways just before an earthquake occurs. In schools we have a very similar phenomena; as educators, we refer to it as the anxiety and often disruptive behaviours that occur just before report cards are sent home.

Over the past two weeks, we have dealt with a number of major discipline incidents involving students. To say that these are uncharacteristic of our school is an understatement.  When we discuss these incidents and try to make sense of them, we are drawn to the conclusion that the stress and anxiety of report cards probably played a role. We also concluded that this year's public battle between the BCPSEA and the BCTF has amplified many of the stresses in our schools and as a result has heightened the anxiety in our students and teachers. The fact that it is May 3rd and our students just received their first report card leaves no coincidence that the general level of stress and anxiety in our building has increased. All this anxiety and heightened stress leaves us thinking that we must have a closer look at how we universally and systematically support our students' emotional health. We know that report cards are an anxious time for students, but the levels of anxiety and stress this year is definitely more pronounced.

As part of our ever-expanding student support model, we recently added a period of time within our schedule to further support some of our vulnerable students in their social, emotional and academic domains. What differs from what we have done in the past is the greater emphasis on supporting their social emotional being.  With the increased levels of stress in the building, we are aware more than ever that we need to start looking at general anxiety as a significant risk factor for lack of success. Our plan is to work towards integrating a more universal network of support that addresses our students’ social-emotional well-being.

We know that the pressures of our current political climate have forced many emotional issues closer to the surface. The response to the pressure is resonating as a wake up call to take a deeper look at how we manage our students' emotional health. The reality is that all of us; students, teachers and our community, need daily emotional nourishment. If there is a positive thread running through the current political climate, it is the realization that we must do a better job at caring for our collective social emotional being.

More and more, we are seeing what we always knew in our heart; the measure of our academic and/or personal success in life is very much directly proportional to our social emotional health and well-being.

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Liberated

Working in a school is truly a magical experience.  Every day we come to a building where hundreds of children come to actively engage. The energy within a school is truly infectious. With over 1200 students and over 80 staff, there is no end to the connectivity that takes place every day. What makes it even more significant and special these days is the incredible journey we are on to define our piece of the 21^st century educational model of education. We are actually living in a revolution. I am sure that years from now they will write about this period of time as being the tipping point of educational change.  If you take time to really look around, you can actually see the paradigm shift evolving in our halls. The collective energy and group think is shifting right in front of our eyes. It is actually quite a liberating feeling watching the many students and staff let go of old ways of thinking.

We know that change is always difficult.  As creatures of habit and comfort, we settle into familiar ways of thinking and being. The irony with this is that the 21^st century model of education actually offers more freedom and liberty to both the learners and teachers.  Once you move past your fears and let go, you will find the new model has fewer restrictions on assessment and evaluation, and at the same time empowers students to be the architects of their own learning. As a student, what is more liberating than knowing you can show you have met learning outcomes through a variety of media. The letting go of the belief that the teacher is the primary keeper of knowledge should be liberating for everyone. With the ability to find answers at your fingertips, the answers themselves don’t really have the same relevance they use to. What matters more today is how you arrive at the answer and what you do with the answers once we get them. And further to this, is the reality that it is not about one person knowing how to arrive at the answer; the real power is actually found in the collective almost global response to seeking answers.

The conundrum for many teachers is rooted in the fear of not knowing how to engage students using these new paradigms. If I let go, will they respond? For many teachers, the locus of classroom management is rooted in control and positional power. What we need now is more research and practical examples on how to support the delivery of wholesale change in education. The researchers have and are proclaiming that change is needed and that we must do it now; we get it and we hear you. Now that we have heard your message, we politely ask that the ivory tower researchers return to their labs and work to develop practical methodologies and structures that can be implemented in our classrooms. Proven strategies and methodologies used to support 21^st century education will help reduce the stress and anxiety and make the change more manageable for everyone.

  

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Aiming Higher

In February, we held assemblies with all of our students – a “mid-year check-up”. We introduced them to Maslowe’s Hierarchy of Needs and challenged them to recognize that (for many of them) the lower layers of the model were already in place: personal safety, security of food/shelter, security of resources etc. We challenged them to take on more complex ideas like creativity, morality, and self-actualization. What we didn’t realize was that the students would turn this challenge back on us: we have been addressing the “lower layers” through the basic mission in our school, but what have we been doing to address Maslow’s more complex needs?

As part of last week’s blog, we discussed empathy and compassion as key tools underscoring our vision of connectivity at Sullivan Heights. This belief came into place as a product of lengthy, sometimes difficult conversations about our school’s Supporting Student Success model. Part of the development of this vision involved conducting a series of focus groups with a variety of students in our school.  The goal is to revise our school code of conduct by linking empathy and compassion to other values that emerge from the focus groups. It was at this phase of the process where the students surprised us with their challenge: “Aim Higher” they said!

The first of the three major themes was student perception of safety. We could have predicted this because we are constantly putting mechanisms in place to ensure safety. What we didn’t predict was the students higher-level interpretation of what it means to feel safe. Their concerns had little to do with the physical realm; instead, they argued that they did not always feel safe enough to take academic and social risks. Our students used terms like “persecution” and “harassment” in their definition of safety. Of the students involved in our focus groups, most reported they wanted to make it clear that they did not always feel safe from [over] criticism of their ideas.

The second theme to emerge from the focus groups was the feeling of worth. Part of our challenge from February was to encourage students to engage more in the school, to contribute, to make a difference. Since then, our groups argued that they are trying to do so, but we are not doing enough to give them those opportunities. The message we got was that the students “want to belong in their own way” but the school’s emphasis on more concrete, less intrinsic factors like grades, graduation, and requirements is making it difficult for them to be part of the community.  

The idea of “success” was the third of the three major themes. Once again, the students challenged us to rise past the concrete idea of graduation as the ultimate marker of success. They felt that systematically targeting an outcome (recognizing students for getting a good mark, giving an award) missed the point of success. It was loud and clear that we needed to make the act of recognition, itself, the goal. They told us there are many ways we could be celebrating student success, but we have been hyper-focused on celebrating the same traditional indicators: grades, clubs, teams – organized structures that, coincidentally, they perceived as being led by the adults in the building.

Where do we go from here? We will continue to engage our students in these discussions and use these findings to engage other members of our school community in discussion. Although the initial impetus for the process was to revise our school’s code of conduct, we recognize that it indicates that we are ready to review our mission, vision, and goals. The mandate from the students is clear: listen to your own challenge and aim higher.

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…