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.

Category: Classroom

  • Dialogue


    Photograph by Brian Bailey. Click for source.

    I could have called this post ‘failed dialogue’ but that wouldn’t be entirely true.

    One of the courses I teach is called ERC, Ethics and Religious Culture. The course has 3 competencies – reflects on ethical issues, demonstrates an understanding of the phenomenon of religion, and engages in dialogue.

    So yesterday we did a little work on the 1st and third competencies with an adaptation of lesson 2 in the teaching kit on tolerance called The Power of Words from Tolerance.org.

    The activity starts with individual work. I handed out a piece of paper with a list of names on one side, a list of occupations on the other. I modified the list from the teaching kit to make it more specific for our area of the world. I inserted Mohawk and French Canadian names as well as some occupations from around here. I asked my students to draw lines between the names and occupations.

    Once they had made their decisions – and it was very difficult for them to remain quiet throughout the process, the activity was unsettling for them – I asked them to place their chairs in a circle and we were going to talk. The first thing I asked about had to do with some things I heard during the activity:
    “I feel uncomfortable doing this”
    “I feel like I am racial profiling”
    Giggles
    Saying of names (Eli Goldstein, Latisha Smith, George Two Axe…) and then snickering or laughing out loud

    Then I asked people to talk.

    (this is where we get to the failed dialogue part)

    It quickly became evident that 2 boys were getting into an argument about the activity, which is not necessarily a bad thing but isn’t optimal when we are sitting in a circle for the purpose of open dialogue. One boy said it was a set up, that I put ethnic names and specific jobs to make them be racist/sexist/prejudiced, and the other said that it was just a list of names and jobs and it was their minds that was doing the rest.

    They wouldn’t let anyone speak. For real. Each time someone else tried to talk they continued their argument. I reminded the group of our norm, seek to understand before being understood. I asked the group to go around the circle and take turns to say their piece. I introduced a talking stick (actually a talking pine cone). One of the boys tried to sabotage the process by telling the other students to keep passing the cone around so it would get back to him. Luckily the majority of my students stood their ground and spoke their piece when they had the pine cone. It wasn’t easy though, 2 or 3 boys were fidgeting (ok, jumping up and down in their seats) and saying pass the cone, pass the cone. I had to keep interfering so the dialogue was quite stilted to say the least. Some of the other students were getting frustrated with the boys, telling them to shut up, to stop.

    The pine cone finally made full circle and the first of the 2 boys had it again. The funny thing is, they couldn’t speak. They started to argue about the pine cone, about whose turn it was, about anything but the task.

    At the beginning of the class I reminded my students that each time we have dialogue I will be evaluating their participation and competency development. So at this point the two boys who had so much to say asked what mark they would receive for today’s dialogue. I told them a 1 to 2 (we mark on a range from 1-5, 1 being doesn’t meet the requirements, 5 being exceeds the requirements). They couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t fair. After all, they were the only ones who had anything good to say. It was lunch time, so I asked the rest of the class to leave except for the one prime arguer and the one prime jumper up and downer ‘pass the cone, pass the cone’.

    We talked.
    (this is the part where the dialogue becomes unfailed)
    Oh geez. It’s 6am. I need to run. I will update this from school. But I think I’ll post the first part anyways, keep you on your toes ;)

  • What does your best teaching look like?

    I have a new blog. It’s called Teaching is a Verb and I want to collect stories about actual teaching practice there.

    The long term goal of the blog is to connect teachers to teachers by providing a framework for us to visit each other’s classrooms. We have so much to learn from each other.

    Anyone can register and share stories from their actual teaching practice there, or stories of teaching practice they have seen and admire.

    I’ve started with my own story, and a question. I’m cross-posting it here.

    What does your best teaching look like?

    You know, this blog is called Teaching is a Verb yet when I answer the question I realize that examples of my ‘best’ teaching happen when I am not in the room, during those moments when I am seemingly not doing anything directly related to learning.

    Example.
    I spent much of one day last week, or maybe the week before, meeting with students in crises. Every once in a while we have a day like that (here’s a detailed account of one of those days from last year).

    I walked into my Grade 11 CWI (Contemporary World Issues) class about 20 minutes into the period. They were quiet and had their laptops in front of them (we did a lot of fundraising last year and bought 18 mini laptops!). I figured they were taking advantage of the free time and were checking email, listening to music.

    Get ready for this: they were ALL working on this assignment. I had not yet assigned it.

    They went to our blog, read the new assignment, and began their research. The quiet dissipated as I walked in with, Tracy, I think I need to change my article, and Look at what I’ve found, I think there’s a connection here, can you look?, etc…

    This was a class that only a week earlier had to be stopped numerous times during each period in order to regroup and address issues of silliness, noise, etc. I had taken away their seating privileges because they weren’t making smart choices in that area (sitting with friends who distract…), I spent time each class with one or another student in the den having conversations about their behaviour.

    And then I realized it was about a month into the school year and that this was about the time that teaching and learning really starts.

    So what does my best teaching look like? It ‘looks’ like nothing when it is happening but it is actually made up of at least a month’s worth of and ongoing consistent classroom structure, making connections with individual students, and providing them with work that they can find meaning in for themselves and create meaning from together.

    The best thing about this is it eventually frees me up to work with individual students on either technical issues to do with assignments, personal issues that require some out of class intervention, comprehension issues, etc…

    Here is an example of that kind of work for a course in Contemporary World Issues. It’s what they are working on right now.
    Personal News Story Project

    What does your best teaching look like?

  • Interdependence

    Sept. 28: After I wrote this post I decided to create a blog for the Contemporary World Issues class. I’ve now re-posted this and my students are commenting over there: cwi.tracyrosen.com

    Our Contemporary World Issues class has been talking about the concept of interdependence for the past week or so. We’ve done some individual exploration on David Suzuki’s website, we’ve had some classroom and small group conversations on the subject as well.

    I’ve taken some of our words and phrases and put them together in the presentation below. When you read them, think about them – what do they really mean?

    I’ve also added someone else’s words on the topic. Do they add to your ideas? Do they make things clearer/more complicated?

    Though this post is directed towards my Grade 11 Contemporary World Issues class, I hope that others will comment as well.

  • I can not change what I tolerate

    This morning I yelled. But big. At my dogs, at my cat, at my house, at my students.

    EX34C_C_YellingLady

    I adopted a cat (Betty) a few weeks ago because of the mice. Not into mice. But my big dog (Toby) stalks her and my little dog (Jacob) alternates between ignoring her, stealing her toys, and barking his head off at her. Things have broken (teapots, my pepper plant, wine glasses…) as Toby chases her into the kitchen. This morning I set myself up in a spot in the sunshine to do some coursework and, after a few forgot my coffee, pen, post-its, battery is dead need the charger, trips back into the house I finally settled in to do my readings for this week’s class discussion. Then Toby darts into the house and I hear a crash. I’m guessing that Betty, thinking it was safe (dog-free) ventured out of her hiding spot on the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets and into the house. Toby must have heard this, at which point he chased her back up on top of the fridge, where her food bowl was, which she hit and it crashed onto my ceramic countertop, hitting the coffeemaker, and so I was left with coffee soaked cat food all over the place. Then of course Jacob came in to eat it so I yelled at him, Don’t even think it, but he did, and I threw a towel at him, so he jumped away right into the dog bowl full of water, spilling it everywhere, including on a vacuum cleaner which is impossible to dry with all of its parts and wires.

    So that is when I yelled at the dogs, cat, house, my life. One of the things I yelled was, All I do is clean up what is left after you creeps (ok, the actual word was different but I prefer not to repeat it here) destroy my house and I do the same thing at work. Everything’s a mess! Everywhere!

    The other day Jacob tore apart a down comforter in my bedroom. Take a moment. Imagine the scene.

    Yesterday I only taught 2 periods and managed to get myself all worked up over the blatant disrespect I witnessed in some of my students. Students feeling they could just sit themselves down at any computer and use it – including teacher computers – without permission. Students taking things from my desk or from the top of a pile of my books on a table in the hallway. Not even just to look at or to borrow. Taking. Students leaving newspapers, plastic wrappers, napkins, broken pens, wherever they last were. Students having their own conversations while other students/teachers are addressing the group. Then continuing even after the class is stopped to get silence for the speakers. I have other students also complaining about this, that they can’t focus in class because of a chatty climate of disrespect. I walked into my classroom after lunch and just about lost it when a student was sitting at my desk, checking her email on my computer while behind her I saw written on my white board a student’s name with a few different phone numbers and the caption – Man whore, call after 12.

    I am exhausted. I was supposed to go to a New Year’s dinner with my family last night but instead I stayed home. I went to bed at 7:30. I was so tired I could not imagine driving. I didn’t think it was safe.

    What is tiring me out is that I am acting reactively. Responding reactively to these annoying day-to-day activities requires way more brain power, brain power that should be conserved for more important activities, than if I approach my life proactively. Instead of yelling at my students, my dogs, my house when something goes wrong, I need to prepare for things to go right. If I tolerate the disrespect, if I tolerate the canine craziness in my house then I certainly can’t change it.

    So what can this look like?

    At school. I’m starting over on Monday. As if it were day one. Since a third of our students are returning students I assumed that the climate of respect that we worked towards last year would continue. It is mainly those students however that are acting as if my classroom was their private gaming hall. I love that my students are comfortable with me but they are too comfortable. They need reminding and the new students need more structure than I provided them based on my initial assumptions. I need to set them up to succeed, not to get into trouble. At the same time it saves me from turning into a crazy teacher. By exploding once in a while and not changing systems, it shows that I tolerate the behaviour for a while, until I get angry, and then I tolerate it again until the next time. I can’t change my environment if I tolerate what is going on in it.

    At home. I need to keep my house tidy. Some things broke because they were on the counter instead of away in a cupboard. But mainly I need to crate Jacob when I am not at home. I don’t like crating dogs, I prefer to teach them where to be and how to be. But that’s not working so much with Jacob. By allowing him to roam the house even after he eats the comforter, poops in the living room, destroys a kleenex box I am tolerating the destruction. And when I don’t want to be interupted I need to tie the dogs up so they can’t dash into the house all goofy-like to chase poor Betty.

    In myself. I get frustrated at myself for being so tired and not having the time to do what I want, for having a messy house, for not being able to find that brown blazer I want to wear 5 minutes after I was supposed to leave the house in the morning… I’m hoping that some of the changes I make at home and school will help in this area as well. At least, I’ll start on those two areas and see.

    You’re in control you know. It’s your life and it’s up to you to make it what you want it to be. Tolerate nothing. You are in control. This is your life, not a dress rehearsal. – Jim Donovan

    Phew. Needed to get that out there.
    Enjoy your day. And now that I have cleaned up the coffee flavoured Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lovers Soul and broken glass from my kitchen floor, wiped up the water from all over the dining room, and tied the dogs to trees in the yard, I am ready to get my reading done. Just in case you are interested, it’s on the reliability of oral histories for my course called first nations peoples.

    ****note added just after posting….****
    As I returned to my spot in the sun outside I noticed that, though I could hear Jacob yip, I couldn’t see him. He is now stuck under my deck. He managed to get under it and get his leash wound around something under there. I need to take apart part of the deck to rescue him. Looks like I won’t be getting to my reading this morning.

  • 6 lessons from the first week of school

    What a week. I’m sure we all say the same after the first week back with students in September! I had a few 14 hour days last week and this is really the first time my head feels clear enough to reflect on my first week with new students and a new organizational structure at Directions Alternative School. I decided to frame this post with the lessons I learned.

    Lesson 1: Though it was fun (ish) don’t plan a huge, physical field trip for the first day of school.
    I say ish because, though it was fun meeting the new students and seeing them interact outside of the classroom, I am a big baby with heights and for some reason agreed to the plan during our pre-schoolyear meeting to spend the day zip-lining at Morin Heights. Yes, I had to be rescued part of the way. I should have known from my panic-ridden chair lift ride up the mountain that perhaps I don’t need to make my way through an obstacle course while attached to a wire by 2 clips some 50 odd feet from the ground.

    We left for the trip at about 8:30 am and returned around 5:30. We then had to meet to separate our students into leadership groups and talk about the following few days of classes. Though a beautiful sunny day in the country, it had been both physically and mentally exhausting. It left me with very little energy for the ensuing 3 days of classes. Great trip for a Friday or the day before a holiday, not for the first day of school!


    Lesson 2: Confident kids don’t make fun of others
    By watching the group dynamics both in my classes and out of them, during lunch or other break times, I am noticing more and more that the students who are the most self-assured do not make fun of others. The students who aren’t do. The lesson in that is for me (us) to create conditions that promote the growth of self-assurance, confidence in my classroom, our schools.

    Lesson 3: Change is hard
    I’m sure that zip-lining was not the only cause for exhaustion this week. New students, new head teacher, new schedules. There have never been schedules in our program before. We always planned things on what was needed at the time. We also always had the same students all day and this year we are subject-specific teachers rather than core teachers. A lot of change at once. It is tiring to get used to. Much more so for some of the returning students. I had one student write, in his welcome day essay, Yesterday was probably the best thing about this whole year. Other ones have made similar noises. The lesson from this is that change is hard and I (we) need to remember that change is even more difficult for students in need (emotionally, academically, socially) and to give them the time and space to adapt.

    Lesson 4: I love spending time with my students
    When I woke up yesterday morning I thought WHY did I offer an art field trip to my students for the first Saturday of the school year? What, am I crazy? We met in Montreal (they live in Chateauguay, I live in Ontario, an hour away) at 1 and had a great day. We made our way to the Meeting Of Styles outdoor painting site at 1825 Cabot (Les Papiers M.P.C), spent some time there, took loads of photos, then walked around my old neighbourhood in St. Henri and visited a few art galleries. Before going home we stopped by the graffiti site again and I am so glad I did! I spotted someone I know writing high up on a wall, called out to him, and may have found the perfect guest teacher for art class :) His writing name is Fluke. I was so excited about it and all the girls who came with me could say about it is – does he have a girlfriend? (He’s a cutie.) All told, we spent 4 1/2 hours walking and looking at art, save for about 30 minutes for lunch. A great day. The lesson here, I plan things because I think they are good ideas. Don’t give up on the plan because you’re tired. In fact, the day energized me in a way that would not have been possible had I stayed at home. I love spending time with my students.

    I’m planning on asking the 3 students who came with me to create a post at our art class blog, with images and commentary on the day. I’ll let you know when it is done. For now, here is a picture from the day. If you are a friend of mine on facebook you can see a few others at MOS art trip 2009.

    MOS MTL 09, Saturday afternoon
    MOS MTL 09, Saturday afternoon. Yes, there ARE female writers!

    Lesson 5: Life doesn’t stop because it is the first week of school
    I was eating corn the other night and my top left front tooth shifted position. I managed to move it somewhat back into place but couldn’t quite close my jaw properly. It’s a crown. I went to my dentist and turns out I bent the post and managed to crack off some of the existing tooth structure. He repaired as much as he could as a short-term solution so I can finally close my mouth BUT I will be needing an implant. Front tooth. Ugh. Surgery, time, money. What a time for it to happen, eh? Lesson learned here is that life does not stop because I am busy. Managing all of the different elements in my life is important so that surprises like this don’t throw me way off track. It helps to have a wonderful dentist who agreed to stay late to see me so that I wouldn’t have to take time off of work during my first week.

    Lesson 6: The more I learn, the more I need to learn.
    Last January I withdrew from the PhD program I had started the previous January. I was a slave to two schools. What a horrible way to live something I love – teaching. So it was important for me to stop. However, I miss learning. I really do. I miss that feeling of excitement as I see things connect, as I feel my new learning integrate with the old, creating new knowledge. I feel it throughout my pores. So I decided to go back to school but in a way that makes more sense for me right now. I am starting with one online course at Seneca College (Toronto) and am working my way toward an Intercultural Relations Certificate. Here is the description from Seneca College:

    Globalization brings the peoples of the world closer together. However, discrimination and other forms of intolerance continue to cause problems. In our increasingly multicultural society these issues can lead to exclusion and inequality, often along racial and ethnic lines.

    This on-line program is a direct response to learning needs identified by a broad range of representatives from human services and justice agencies who recognize that racial inequity and negative stereotyping are significant social problems. In this six course certificate in Intercultural Relations, learners will examine diversity issues in a social context, explore critical differences in cross-cultural communication and identify the sources, causes, forms and manifestations of these issues in our society.

    I chose this program because I find myself working more and more with students who live these realities, in particular my Native students though certainly not only them, and I find myself witness to some adults in the school system – who are meant to care for them – who continue the negative stereotyping and enable the inequities that exist. The more I see and the more I learn, I want to learn more. The lesson here is to learn from my heart. This online Certificate course at a small college is more in line with what my heart needs than the PhD course at the well-known university I decided to leave 9 months ago.

    So, here are some of the lessons I learned this week. What about you?