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

  • What it takes.

    “To help others to make a better world is healing.” Harley Wylie (Huu-ay-aht First Nation and American in ancestry. His mother went to a residential school in Port Alberni where she was regularly beaten for speaking her Native language. from Straight.com After the Settlement Comes Healing, Closure by Carlo Pablito)

    Male fireflies flashing in unison, from The Millenium Bridge Simulator Project of the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering (2000)
    Male fireflies flashing in unison, from The Millenium Bridge Simulator Project of the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering (2000)

    I just commented on Jose’s rich post What Will It Take? and my comment or, rather, the feelings that were stirred in writing it, are rising in me.

    Cynicism poisons my motivation for change. I know this about myself so I purposefully disallow it. I shake it off when I feel it coming. I have to. Some have called me a blind optimist and Iā€™ve become comfortable in that. I refuse to allow any part of me to believe that something I see as necessary wonā€™t happen. I think that is why I became a teacherā€¦ ā€œTeaching is the greatest act of optimism. ā€ (Colleen Wilcox)

    George Carlin also said ā€œAnd then there are the times when the wolves are silent and the moon is howling.ā€ The challenge is to maintain hope and positive energy until it is our time to howl again.

    As I prepare myself for a new school year – one that is certain to be rife with challenge – I am paying attention to what I read, what I listen to, what I feel, what I add my voice to.

    I’m filled with struggle and hope. I am deeply cut by how we can treat each other.

    In June I wrote about the pride I felt for the Canadian government’s apology to residential school survivors and families of survivors. I felt it was a step toward a positive future. I still feel that way, though differently. I am confused about this apology. I hear accounts of healing, I also hear accounts that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a sham, a tool wielded by the Government and the United Church to ensure that the truth never really does come out. That the Aboriginal leaders involved in the commission and the acceptance of the apology are working in tandem with the Government and the Church for these secretive and shameful ends. That the apology comes from a misguided place. That until genocide is acknowledged it means nothing. That there are mass graves of children across Canada. That those (i.e. Kevin Annett) who try to point out these facts are lying or crazed.

    When I look to the centre of my confusion around this history – and the agonizing, wretched, ripping and at the same time damming effects that continue to resonate in our rivers and hearts – and dredge out my feelings I find myself focusing on the people and the acts that represent hope. On the healing journeys. I believe that by focusing on hope for the future we have it. And we will see more of it. This is how I am preparing myself for the new year.

    Recently I asked readers, ‘What are you looking for?’ and Michael Doyle (go read the post I linked to with his name. do it. he’s awesome) created a strong image in response

    I am not sure I can answer this question directly, but I will tell you that I am closer to it when I am sitting at a pondā€™s edge at dusk watching lightning bugs attracted to their own reflected light than when I am in my cortex, trying to approach this rationally.

    I am attracted to your light. That’s what it takes.

  • Taking Action


    I added a new plugin to Leading from the Heart this morning – ‘Possibly Related Classroom Projects’.

    This plugin checks out the keywords of a post and matches them with keywords from classroom projects that need your help from donerschoose.org. It then includes links to those projects at the end of the post.

    I initially saw this plugin at work on Clay’s blog, Beyond School, and then saw it again on Social Actions, a network I recently joined (It’s founder, Peter Deitz, is a fellow Montrealer – shout OUT!).

    Not believing in coincidences, I knew it was time to check it out further. So here you go. Teachers have great ideas to help children learn and a passion for making them come alive – and can always use help with that. No doubt.

    So this is my way of spreading the news about teachers who could use a helping hand. Check out the links below my posts. Who knows, maybe you can help out.

    I have an idea brewing for my own use of both networks. Jim Murphy of Wounded Knee Skateboards and I have been plotting all summer to join forces in getting my students involved in raising awareness about aboriginal situations. Some of my students are Mohawk and involved in skateboard culture, so it’s my entry point for them to explore personal and community history. Still at the plotting stages, I’ll definitely be keeping you all posted as it unfolds and, if needed, we will be tapping community resources via Social Actions and Doners Choose.


    Click on the board to see the board designs at Wounded Knee Skateboards

    Keep an eye on us – we intend to be shaking em up, waking em up…

  • Ethics or (doing what we do)

    Up at the top of this blog has appeared a new little grey box. Right there, next to Home. See it? Today I’m going to introduce you to it – readers, meet ‘Ethics’. Mine.

    I’ve been thinking about all of these words I’ve put into this blog, into my comments on other people’s blogs, about which blogs I read and return to again, and again, and again.

    What inspires all of this? What am I looking for?

    Hope for the future. That’s what it is all about for me.
    When I meet/see/do/participate/read/write about actions and people who care for each other as people, who help each other be our best selves – who show each other how we can care for each other.

    Who don’t put up with the opposite.
    Who stand by their beliefs no matter what.
    Who write about them, talk about them
    live them.
    (caring is biological)

    It gives me hope for a future with more caring than we have now.
    It gives me hope that our children can learn a curriculum of humanity before and behind any other.

    Words are powerful things for me. Once said or read they resonate in me. So I prefer to read and say ones that push toward our best selves. Our ever changing best selves.

    Where do I look for them?
    Everywhere I can. Lately that is

    Here.
    Here.
    Here.
    Here.
    and
    a new place for me, Here.

    So I adapted and absorbed and hold before you my statement on ethics. Read my blog, participate, come visit my classroom (for real) to see more. Read the links above and in my blogroll to see even more.

    And answer me this question to help me to understand more:

    What are you looking for?

    morning hug

    %NOCP%

  • How it works…

    Getting the most out of this blog

    • Read favourite posts by clicking through the images on the home page.
    • Listen to some of the posts by clicking on podcast (category link located in the sidebar)
    • See permanent pages by clicking on the page titles above the header image.
    • See posts organized by descriptor tag by clicking on the tags in the sidebar cloud or at the bottom of each post.
    • See who inspires me by reading through my blogroll (link at the top of the page, above the header image).

    Participating

    • This blog thrives on comments. Most of my posts are inspired by comments made on previous posts.
    • Add your voice through the comment form at the end of each post or page.
    • Or you can contact me privately at Contact/Web (link at the top of the page, above the header.)
    • I always look forward to responding to your comments and messages.

    If your comment does not appear immediately it is because my spam blocker has held it for some reason and I will release it as soon as I notice! This doesn’t happen often, but it has been known to happen and I am working to fix that.

  • Why I don’t do zeros.

    Listen to these ideas. (Go here to see a mindmap of this podcast and links to resources I refer to in it or just keep reading normally. Whatever turns your crank.)
    [haiku url=”http://www.tracyrosen.com/leadingfromtheheart.org/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/assessmentAug9.mp3″ title=”Why I don’t do zeros”]

     

    report card

    Image: from Not So Good by zephyrbunny, found on flickr and made available through a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license

    It’s Saturday morning, a little over 2 weeks until the school year starts again for teachers at the New Frontiers School Board, where I work. My mind lately, as it usually does around this time of the summer, has been shifting from summer to practice, and this morning it opened up to assessment. Here’s the flow chart of how it hit this groove:

    Saturday Morning FlowChartMind Map made with Bubbl.us

    And here is that comment I made over on Hugh O’Donnell’s post (which you better go over and read if you want any context):

    Thatā€™s right, not radical at all. We do NOT need to give zeros and, Iā€™m sorry, but the excuse that weā€™ve got so many initiatives thrown at us warrants the practice? (the practice = completely demoralizing children and doing nothing to help improve their learning) Come on. A zero as feedback gives me no hope.

    I really began to learn the art of assessment about 5 years ago, when I met Ken Oā€™Connor at a conference in Ottawa. And then I started to read everything I could about it, which Iā€™m still in the middle of doing ;)

    So I guess Iā€™m one of those teachers who read. And you know what I do when I am reading? I do it publicly – I carry the book around with me, I talk to others about what I am reading and about how, if at all, it is helping to change my practice.

    So it DOESNā€™T need to be top down. If we sit around waiting for someone else to do something, wellā€¦wouldnā€™t it be lovely for there to be the perfect piece of grading policy to fall from above that all teachers would embrace and follow. (whereā€™s the smiley guy for sarcasm?) Un-unh. Iā€™m not waiting for policy to inform my practice. I prefer to focus on my practice and allow it to inform policy.

    I googled Ken Oā€™Connor and found this. An administratorā€™s notes from one of his sessions from last year. I particularly like the list at the end – repair kit for grading.
    http://carnets.opossum.ca/roberto/2007/10/ken_oconnor_excellentevidemmen.html

    he he – first comment of the weekend. Guess the coffee is kicking in ;)

    (and that’s the edited version…)

    Assessment informs learning. I assess before, during, and after units of study so that my students and I know where they stand with the learning that is going on. If a student is NOT meeting the expectations for ANY reason – be it ability, interest, learning style, or socio/emotional issue – it us up to me to address it and assessment is data that shows me if how I am addressing it works. Evaluation is when I look critically at all of the data that I’ve culled from assessment, and reporting is how I share that with parents.

    So…I don’t do zeros because of my professional ethics, which are closely tied to my core values:

    • always hold on to hope for the future –> a zero in no way informs a learner of anything to do with potential for learning and change and can completely destroy any possible hope that was there.
    • always teach with integrity –> giving a zero undermines my integrity as a teacher.
    • always maintain the utmost respect for my students and their families –> a zero indicates to me that no communication has been made between me and my students/families about progress and how to fix things.

    Very often a zero is tied to behaviour. It is a punishment for skipping class, not studying, acting jerky or disrespectful, whatever. When these things happen to me (and they do) I focus on why this is happening instead of trying to punish it. It makes more sense for me.

     

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