Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Author: Tracy Rosen

  • Latest Goings On

    I’ve got a few things going on lately.

    End of year – I’m creating, invigilating, correcting exams on an ongoing basis. And there are still 2 weeks to go! Of course along with that comes student stress. I teach Grade 11. Some of my students won’t graduate this year, some will, some are unsure. The emotional vista in my classroom is panoramic.

    Lacrosse – We (not me, the boys at school) made it to the championship game and are silver medal finalists in the GMAA this year! We had a great season – what an accomplishment for a team that did not exist 3 years ago.

    laxactionshot

    Unfortunately our final game was a huge blow out, both in terms of the score and the atmosphere surrounding it. The winning team had a large number of student supporters at the game, which is normally a great thing. It adds spirit and excitement. Not this time. The fans were heckling our players and our coaches. The officials were not experienced enough to really deal with the situation and they basically lost control of the game.

    There was an underlying current, steeped in history, of hatred and animosity between the two teams – one French and one predominantly Mohawk.

    One of the officials called over some police officers who were patrolling the area to help keep control of the crowd so our players could safely make their way to our bus after the game. Can you believe that even the school’s principal was involved in intimidating and verbally harassing some of our players? It was that out of control.

    We have a facebook group to which members of the opposing team posted racist and bigoted comments during the weekend after the game. I was shocked. It’s one thing to call things out in the heat of a game but quite another to post comments a day or two or 3 later. One player even posted one of the most disgusting images I have ever seen. Obviously I have changed the permissions on the group and banned those members. We’ve also made an official letter of protest to the league, to which I am awaiting an answer.

    Moving – After 3 unsuccessful offers to purchase homes, I have finally purchased a house! The signing date is next week and I am moving in on the 13th of June. I’m moving out of province so the move will not only give me a new address and phone number but I’ll need to get a new driver’s license and plates for my car. It’s a reconditioned farmhouse, built in 1910, on 2 acres of land. I am very excited and feel slightly overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, not to mention the money that is pouring out of my pockets, over the next little while.

    newhouseanddrive

    Just to make things a bit more exciting – I took in a new dog 2 weeks ago. An 8-month old pug named Jacob.

    Jacob at a Lacrosse game in 28 degree heat.
    Jacob at a Lacrosse game in 28 degree heat.

    He is in constant motion, except for when he passes out for 15 minutes or so at a time. He had been abused and you could definitely tell the first 2 days I had him. I brought him to work his first 3 days with me and he spent those days sleeping in the arms of students. I swear they healed him. He and Toby play well together and I barely have a sliver of space to myself on my bed now, not to mention at my computer desk.

    Toby got fed up with Jacob sleeping next to me so he muscled his way in between us.
    Toby got fed up with Jacob sleeping next to me so he muscled his way in between us.

    Yup. Life is busy, life is full. Looking forward to summer :)

  • Teacher as Container

    I’m groggy because I was woken early and then made the mistake of going back to sleep for the hour or so before my alarm rang at 5:45. My sleeps lately are fitful, at best. Oh the joys of end of year!

    We began our first ministry exams this week. This week my role has shifted somewhat, from teacher to invigilator. I’m no longer working with content and structure but with time and stress management. For some of my students, these exams are their last for others they aren’t so sure. The stress is palpable.

    A few years ago, when I was working on my Masters project in Human Systems Intervention – a project where I consulted with a small school to help them rediscover their focus – I read an article called Consultant as Container: Assisting Organizational Rebirth in Mandela’s South Africa. This article comes to mind often as I work with high school students, especially given the kind of work that I do. The premise is that when the consultant is able to work with clients in a way that they absorb their feelings of anxiety, despair (*insert emotion here*), they (clients and consultant) are able to address those emotions and work together towards change.

    I definitely absorb student emotion. That’s part of my job, especially at exam time. For students who are so stressed that it is presenting in behaviour (from tears to sleeping in to violence) I meet with them individually in a separate room and try to get them to talk it out. I tell them to get it off their chests, leave it in the room. I’m not going to judge, I’m just giving them a chance to share their stress so they don’t need to deal with it all on their own.

    I am starting to distinguish between my own anxiety or stress and that of my students – or maybe I am trying to convince myself that I’m not as stressed as I feel in order to keep sane for the next few weeks ;)

  • Do you add students as facebook friends?

    I do.
    I know teachers who absolutely refuse to as well. Where do you stand?

    At the beginning of the year I tried different online techniques to give out information (homework, resources, etc…) and found more and more that students weren’t using the software or the applications. My facebook status updates usually looked like, “don’t forget to check the class site for homework”. Eventually I just put the homework reminder directly in the status update instead of sending them elsewhere.

    I am happy that my students are comfortable enough with me to let me into their facebook worlds. I see their updates, photos, and videos and am able to celebrate or give a hug when needed.

    I am the staff rep for our school’s lacrosse team and created a group for them where we talk about our practices and games and share pictures.

    In the huddle, right before the winning goal was scored.
    In the huddle, right before the winning goal was scored.

    I absolutely love when I see status updates like

    my house 8:00 to work on project or who is down for math group tomorrow?

    I also love when students post links or videos to my wall as suggestions for classroom resources. Even especially when they ask questions about homework they are having trouble with.

    At times, it is a convenient way for students to contact me about issues they are having, either with school work or socially.

    At the beginning of the year I had my students on a limited profile list of some sort but I soon changed that as I realized that there was nothing that I posted on facebook that I needed to hide from them or anyone else.

    So, where do you stand on maintaining a relationship with students outside of the classroom via facebook (or twitter or plurk or anything else)?

  • classroom conversations with myself

    I read this today and it rings so very true:

    The last weeks of school is something that few people really understand.  When I was in business I often thought that teachers had it easy.  To those business people (including my former self) – I ask them to imagine if budgeting, taxes, capital budgets, montly operations review, and quarterly reports were all due in the same 7 days.  Ending school is like nothing you experience in business.Cool Cat Teacher Online, project based learning, May 2009

    Today is a non-working PED day at our school board, in preparation for the last stretch of the year. Non-working my butt, though. I’m preparing presentations for history tutorials and correcting student writing. Oh, and there’s that 5:30 Lacrosse game this afternoon I need to be at :) Our team is undefeated so far!

    I basically come back to myself about 2 weeks after I walk out of the school at the end of June. But, like Vicki, I wouldn’t trade this for the world. In fact, I almost did but couldn’t hack the grieving process that went with it. Not being in the classroom creates a hole in me. I have learned so much from my students this year. I am a different person because of them. They have taught me how to be more me.

    I had coffee with a friend of mine – Sebastien Moreau, a wonderful painter – about a month ago and we got to talking about painting. He said,

    When I paint it’s like I’m having a conversation with myself

    That is how I am starting to feel when I work with students. They help me to have that creative conversation with myself. I don’t get that raw conversation as deeply and as heartfelt anywhere else as I do with them. I almost do when I am painting or gardening. But even then, it is more often than not a continuation of one that began in the classroom. With kids.

     

  • Lessons from fake blogs

    I want to reassure those of you who read this blog that it is all real. Moreover, I am a real person – Tracy, a dog owning, just bought a house, reflective, love my job as a teacher, can’t wait to get to the country, goofy grin and all, real person.

    me

    Just thought I’d reassure you about that since we can never be too sure about who or what we are reading. Heck, you can friend me on facebook if you need more proof. Oh. Wait. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything either…

    Montreal launched a new self-serve bicycle service (for a fee) on May the 12th – BIXI. It’s said (by the mayor) to be unique in the world and everyone is very excited about BIXI. Including three authors of a grassroots biking blog called A Vélo Citoyens (To your bikes, citizens) who loved the idea so much they wrote about it everyday, they spread the word to all their friends on facebook. They filmed video of the soon to be released BIXI bikes. These were citizens with a cause!

    However they weren’t citizens at all. They were characters in a marketing scheme. They don’t exist. Bet all those new facebook friends feel kinda used.

    I searched for the blog this morning but it seems to have been replaced with one that is obviously a marketing tool. What I did find was at least one blog (Cycle Fun Montreal) with an author who felt angered enough to complain about the legalities of using the blogging community as a marketing tool in such a fallacious manner – ok, what’s with the fancy words so early in the morning? – who felt we were lied to and from within a normally trusting community to boot!

    (The original newspaper article that exposed the marketing campaign was BIXI, Blog, et Bullshit by Patrick Lagacé of La Presse, but you can read an English translation in the comments if you click on the Cycle Fun Montreal link above)

    So. Why am I writing about this? The point here is that everyone (I’m assuming) who read that blog thought it was the real deal. They thought the authors were real people. Enough so to befriend them on facebook (one of the authors had over 800 of them, according to an interview on CBC). Luckily they ended up only being duped by an advertising firm and the City of Montreal (I’ll leave that can of worms closed …). People say that they only friend people (facebook verb) they know, so what constitutes knowing people?

    I teach my students about their online presence. My students are about to leave high school (or so we hope ;) ) . They are entering CEGEP or the job market and need to rethink things like that cutiehotty hotmail address and those partying pics they have on facebook. They also need to take care of who they talk to and who has access to their info online. We all do, but they in particular – teenagers are targets, they don’t have as much life experience and the world knows it.

    Yesterday MissTeacha asked me what my classroom looks like, in particular economics. Here is an idea of how I am going to teach about advertising when they return from their 2-week stages (woohoo – they get 2 weeks of work study, which they love, and we get 2 weeks to gain strength before the last few weeks of school, which we need) next Wednesday. It’d be great if that blog were still up, but since it’s not I may recreate one like it to present to them, or I may just share the story of BIXI, show some videos (BIXI marketing videos and those that are but maybe don’t look like marketing videos). We’d have a conversation, either full-class or in smaller groups, about advertising – it’s purpose, deceptive qualities, how it plays with our emotions – I’d then have them explore this post at Fagstein’s blog “Why do Marketing Companies Hate Themselves?” along with it’s accompanying links with various reactions to the BIXI marketing campaign. Then we might debate – good, solid campaign vs. dirty, rotten scheme or is it better to market by any means necessary or to be truthful at all times, something like that. Eventually down the road (though our school year is almost over so we don’t have much time…) I’d love for them to create their own sneaky marketing campaigns.

    The idea is, they search for their own meaning. I don’t need to ‘teach’ them anything much beyond how to locate information and different strategies for organizing and thinking about the information they find. They are engaged – talking, researching, talking some more, acting (debating is like acting), creating… you get my drift. If they are engaged in doing they are learning.

    So it’d look something like that.