Support

I am thankful for the support from colleagues. I am away for the weekend to attend the Provincial Mine Rescue Competition in Saskatoon; I had the day planned for quite awhile, but I am glad it came now.

The weekend will be somber because one mine team scheduled to compete will not be coming to the competition. Instead they are continuing their rescue mission of one lost gold miner. The Seabee Mine is located just north of La Ronge, and I think they are into their third day of trying to rescue one young miner.

I'm going to relax for a couple of days, and then get back at my seminar paper next week...

Busy or Crazy

I think I am forgetting who I am...

In the last few days I have had:
- my life threatened - and I am pressing charges
- organize and hold an open house today, because a neighbouring school has closed down. We want to to make them feel welcome and accepted if they choose to come to our school.
- I have driven 4 hours to go to a University class (last night)
- to submit an assignment for my class
- working on a 20-30 page seminar report
- creating a staff survey
- to attend two evening meetings - one I just came home from where I created a presentation about our school
- I could go on and on - but I still feel hestitant over sharing all of my thoughts with the world. I do plan on writing a book one day to tell all of the things in my life, but not yet. My life is still tied precariously to others.
- not to mention - teaching half time - OK- that attempt was poor today
- I have to write a math test for Friday
- and my kids - one has a music recital tomorrow night

Not Many More Sleeps...

This is proving to be one of the most difficult times of my career. I am taking over the role of Principal , which of course has not officially started, and I am trying to finish my last University class. I feel anxious, excited, nervous, overworked and definetly underpaid. I think I should start up a business; I think I should take a couple of courses in computer science and learn more about languages and software development. One of my brother works as a Computer System Analyst for SED systems in Saskatoon, and he is an amazing guy. He and I could work on a few projects together. I think that what we need is more CAI which delineates best pratices and which aligns with the curriculum. After teaching for nineteen years in so many different subject areas, I think it would be a fantastic challenge. I'm going to do some collaborating with a few people over the summer...

Professional Development and IT

Does Technology Really Change Education?

I believe it can, but professional development is necessary. Teachers, must understand constructivist pedagogy, and how it applies to education. They need to understand that IT can be a powerful tool to support this paradigm shift in education. Karen Henderson's Beyond the Mouse and Modem 2006 results show that only 13% of all educators completed the survey. I was disappointed with this turn-out. How many of the 87% of teachers who did not complete the survey are IT illiterate? How many educators chose not to complete the survey? How many may have started the survey and quit? Were there some who did not know about the survey? I encouraged my staff to complete the survey, but I'm not sure if they all did.

I have been thinking about embedding curriculum consulting. Would the best consulting practice be half time teaching and half time consulting? If I taught ELA and SS for half of the day and had the other half day for working with teachers on my staff and teachers on a few other staffs. There seems to be evidence to support that peer tutoring/teaching is very effective. I could be sharing my ELA unit activities/lessons/assessments with the teachers as I/we use them.

Cathy

Attendance

I have spent a tremendous amount of time mulling over student attendance, particularly with the grade eleven and twelve students. I need some advice. I would really like to know what types of policies are in place in other schools. What are the steps/procedures and what are the consequences? My own son is in grade eleven and his attendance is very good. Obviously one of the contributing factors of this is me.

There are many other parents who feel that their children need to begin to make their own choices in grade eleven or twelve when it comes to attendance, studying and behavior, and I do agree with this. However, many parents will phone the school and simply inform us that their child will not be coming to school in the afternoon or day, or the parent will phone the next day and say that their child had a doctor appointment, I just forgot. I believe that in many cases, this is simply a method for the parent to avoid a fight with their child, and parents may assume that natural consequences will prevail. If their child does not attend regularly, their chances of success are greatly diminished. The conflict that I am having is that the odd parent will not create an alibi for their child and therefore these children receive consequences. I realize that I can't control this, but will the "diligent" parent continue to be diligent regardless of school consequences? I feel that there are probably only about 20% of the students receiving consequences for their "absenteeism's" and these are the ones who do not really need it.

Any advice??

Embedding Professional Development

Today was a good day. Some of our elementary and middle years' teachers attending a math workshop in our school. Our math curriculum consultant and guest came to our school to provide this workshop. I spoke briefly with one of the teachers after school today, and I she seemed excited about the morning. Most of our staff is participating in a Math PLC and I think that we have made some progress. It makes far more sense to target our needs within the school, design a plan together, implement the plan and then reflect on our progress.

I would like to see us continue with this PLC and I would also like to see a tech PLC developed. We have a few experts in our school, who could lead workshops to our teachers. It makes sense and its economical.

On another note... Last fall, we implemented a Pre-K program in our school, and even though we had many reservations upon entering into this new plan, I think we have all agreed it has been a success and a great addition to our school. Currently, there are discussions and plans around implementing a day care program within our school and it is planned to begin this fall. This program will not only help the working families of our community, but it could also benefit many others. For example, we have run a few adult programs in our school in the evening. The day care facility could provide service during these particular times to help facilitate adult learning. I am sure that there may be a few concerns and/or gliches with this new plan, but there are usually a few growing pains with anything new.

Busy Day

I just finished my post for Leader Talk about all of the things which are on my mind: I just can't decide about continuing my education with a doctoral degree. I think I have decided that I will apply for February 2008. I feel like I am making to many selfish decisions; my family has made many sacrifices because I am continuing my education, but I just feel this need to continue.

I have lots of homework to do this weekend - read a book and write a 500 word summary. I guess I'll do that tomorrow; I'll take my laptop outside and enjoy a little sunshine.

Responsible Technology

We need to teach students to be responsible citizens when it comes to the use of technology. Students need to understand courtesy, respect and responsibility. If a teacher asks a student to close his laptop or turn off his calculator, then he should do so out of courtesy and respect. There may be several reasons why a teacher asks a student to follow these directions that may or may not be explained. The teacher needs to be respectful and firm. If a teacher asks a student to create a pseudonym for a classroom blog, then a student should do so. The teacher should explain issues of privacy and respect. I have started another student blog about Shakespeare with my ELA 9 class, and we have spent some time discussing respect and privacy. We have created “user names” and we are working on our fist trial posts. Today I asked my students to comment on the postings of other students. We discussed what and how. One of the students asked if they should point out spelling/grammar errors to their fellow classmates. There were several suggestions, and we have decided that the best way to correct our peers is through modeling. For example if one student notices that every possessive apostrophe is missing in a post. Rather than focusing on this, it was best to model the appropriate use through a reflective comment. All of the students agreed that this might be the best method. We are going to experiment with this. I am currently teaching one class about the use of wikis. They have not “joined” my space, but I have provided the website. Almost immediately we had an issue with names being erased as we tried out the editing. At first I thought that the names were being erased on purpose, but this was not completely the case. There was one name erased on purpose, but the kids are willing to help me solve this issue. This is an example of bullying, and it is an issue that surfaces once in awhile with this group of students. I would like to say that things are now all rosy, but it is an ongoing issue. I feel less confident with some of the younger students with regards to security and respect with regards to some of the technological applications including blogging. This must become a priority.

Gardner and Technology

I plan to heed the advice of Howard Gardner (2000). He states that educators need to focus on two broad goals at all times, including the discourse on technology integration. The first goal should focus on students becoming certain kinds of adults. For example if we want our children to become civil then we need to develop their interpersonal skills. Video simulations and chats can create virtual reality situations. The second goal, according to Gardner (2000) is to get students to understand the major ways of thinking. Using technology, children can understand theory development, test hypotheses. If students are studying the causes of World War I, they can use newspapers, photos and models. Technology can become a viable and efficient medium to teach these goals. Materials are easy to access, they are vivid and fun. They address the multiple ways of knowing. Technology also provides speed and traverses great distances.

Gardner (2000) cautions educators:
Clearly, a marriage of education and technology could be consummated. But it will only be a happy marriage if those charged with education remain clear on what they want to achieve for our children and vigilant that the technology serves these ends. Otherwise like other technologies, the new ones could end up spawning apathy, alienation, or yet another phalanx of consumers. (p.35)

A Bit of a Break

I have taken a bit of a "blogging" break, and I'm not really too sure why I have done this. I don't feel refreshed, and I don't think that I needed to be refreshed. Anyway, I have been busy since I finished my University course and next week I start my final class to finish off my Master's Degree. It will be hectic because I have to drive to the city (2 hours away) twice a week for 6 weeks!

One thing that has been weighing heavily on my mind is a doctoral degree. One of the University professors suggested to me that I set up an appointment to discuss applying for the program. Apparently applications have to be submitted by February 2008 to begin studies in the fall of '08. I am a bit confused. I think that I have always wanted to do this, but I realize what a huge commitment this would be. My oldest child will be graduating next fall, so he would be gone from home when I begin my studies. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. My youngest child will be entering grade eight... I am started my new position as principal this fall, so I'm sure that many new challenges are awaiting me. I love learning, and the possibility excites me.

One other very important factor is my husband. He has always been there to encourage and support me in all of my endeavors. Maybe it is my turn to try to just have a more "normal" marital relationship. A relationship without the long hours of me ignoring him so I can get my homework done....

School is so busy right now with working on staffing for the fall, spring fever, maintenance issues, fundraisers for student exchange and graduation. Traditionally our grad has always been the first Saturday in May, which means that our grad is this Saturday. The kids have been very good, but there is one issue that has always plagued me since I have been at my present school: truancy. The problem really isn't habitual or extensive, but rather parental support of his/her child's truancy. I would say that a small portion of our population has this issue. I have spent several hours thinking about how to address this problem, and I think that the most realistic method is simply to state that if a student is 16 or over, then the school will be responsible to report the student absence to the parents, end of issue. I'm going to continue to contemplate this issue, and I plan to include other stakeholders.

Vancouver Sun Run

The Sun Run was fantastic! I wasn't sure how I would enjoy running shoulder to shoulder with almost 55 000 strangers, but it was amazing!

I starter under the green and it took me 58 minutes and some seconds to finish the 10K route. I didn't break any records, actually not even close. I was placed at 11 000 something or other, so technicially I finished in the top half - even the top quarter, not bad for a first time. If I decide to do it again, or another run of this type, I think I might do a little serious training - trying it three times before hardly qualifies as training...

I went with two of my sisters and we stayed with our first cousin who works as an air traffic controller. It was my fist time in Vancouver and it was great! Anyway, I'm exhausted - pathetic eh?

Leader Talk

I wrote my second post today for Leader Talk regarding professional development and technology. I feel so strongly about this issue because I believe that there is such unlimited potential for student empowerment. Please take some time to peruse Leader Talk; there is some great stuff happening.

Today, I spend the majority of the day cleaning up my office, and I found that I was feeling a little sad thinking about the past six years which I have spent as Vice-Principal. I thought about beginning my to-do list for the fall, and then I thought that at present I have so many things on the go that I would wait until I can fully concentrate on my new job.

I have been missing my son who is still in Kelowna golfing with a couple of golf coaches. They take 16 boys for 8 days for a golf camp. Today they were golfing at Vintage Hills, so I hope they had a good day. Tomorrow they are golfing at the Harvest.

HATS

I would just like a little input regarding the issue of “HATS”. Over the past couple of years, my staff has had a tough time agreeing on the issue of students wearing hats in school. The main problem is the hallways. None of the students wear their hats in class, but in the hallway they put them on their heads as soon as a teacher walks away. I have been of the opinion that this is such a non-issue. There are days that I wish I didn’t feel this way, because it is such an important issue to some of my staff members. I empathize with them, because it is important to feel supported. I want to be supportive, but I just don’t get it. I really could care less if kids wear hats, shorts or halter tops. It just doesn’t matter to me; what does this say about me? I’m still reflecting on this; I’m not sure. Also, our SRC has decided to hold every Friday as a “Hat Day” which in my opinion is contradictory to the hat rule! I have expressed this opinion to the staff, but I think this is an issue which they need to work out. Each student has to pay a dollar to wear their hat for the day (teachers wear jeans and pay the same) and all of the money is donated to Telemiracle. I think this is fantastic; we have worked hard at our contributions to Telemiracle! I think that my noncommittal attitude may be contributing to the issue.

I do feel strongly that kids do not wear clothing with inappropriate messages, but I don’t usually notice these unless someone points it out to me. I think that I am very observant when it comes to personalities and personality conflicts among students, so I’m really not walking around with my head in my papers all day. Any suggestions?

Second Life

For those who are interested – I’m still on Orientation Island. I can’t seem to drive, even though I can fly! I’ll get off of the island sometime, but I only have a couple of days before I go to Vancouver for the Sun Run. My name is Camadali Ducatillo if anyone is interested.

My Daughter's Blog who is in Sixth Grade:

Maddi

NEW JOB

I have had a stressful couple of weeks, but I’m beginning to feel the anticipation and excitement. I have to hold off though, because there is MUCH to do before then!

I was offered the position of Principal at my school beginning this fall, and I accepted! But before I can begin planning and work I have to get through the next couple of months. I have just finished my second last University class, and I have one more to do which begins in May. It will be a tough one because I am required to drive to Regina twice a week for six weeks – the hard part is the distance (two hours one way). We also have our graduation coming up the first weekend in May, but I really don’t have to do too much – everyone at my school really pitches in and helps. I am organizing a fundraiser for our Grade 11 exchange trip which will take most of the weekend of April 20/21. Also, I help to coach Senior Badminton and we have games all next week – Monday, Wednesday and Thursday night. We then begin play-offs for two weekends in a row. Plus, my own two kids… For them, they are really between seasons. My daughter will begin baseball, and my son is already into golf. He is in Kelowna right now on a provincial golf camp, and he is loving it.

Anyway, I know that I can get through the next two months… With or without sleep. I’m very excited about this weekend, because I’m flying to Vancouver with two of my sisters to participate in the Vancouver Sun Run!

Webquests

Here a a couple of interesting educational resource links from my class:

Grade Six Webquest - Integrated Science and ELA project:


Saskatchewan Sustainable Development Project


Grade 4 Farming Unit

Second Life

One of my classmates M Brooks has introduced me to Second Life which is a 3D online digital world. When you first begin you will need to create an avatar... which can have your characteristics of your own physical body or something much different. The possibilities of creating/building learning communities for students seems to be unlimited. I plan on getting started on my own journey over EAster. I'll let you know how it goes.

"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,172,486 people from around the globe.
From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges. "

Listening

Today I asked my boss to identify my professional weaknesses. He cautiously told me a couple of things. (Apparently, one must be that I don't take criticism well.) He told me that he thought that I should be careful about personal friendships with staff members. I feel that I respect and like each of my colleagues. I respect these people for so many different reasons. Some of them are kind; some are helpful, some are reliable, some are extremely intelligent, some are extremely dedicated and hard-working, most of them have that special touch with kids, some are friendly... I could go on and on, but I think what he really meant was that they all need to feel the appreciation and respect of their bosses. I have always felt such admiration for my colleagues, but now I know that I have to share this with them – all of them. Not just the ones that I think I more receptive to my praise. I think I know why I haven't done this in the past. I have felt that my praise really isn't worth much to some, being only the VP. Most days, I really underestimate the effect that I may have on people, even as their colleague.

The other issue that he mentioned is "listening". We (probably all teachers and administrators) tend to want to solve everyone's problems. They come for help, and we assume that because we are the "boss" that they want us to fix their problem. I really don't think this is the case. Many times they just want someone to share the issue and affirm their point of view. Over the years, I have tried to remind myself of this, and I will continue to strive towards being the "coach" on the side. Perhaps, it is the motherly instinct (or parental) in us where we feel the need to control and solve all the problems.

We did go on to talk about our strengths, but I haven't enough time to go through all that. (Haha)....

A New School Day?

Changing Our Schools to Meet the Needs of Today’s Kids...

I feel that we could make some big changes to today’s schools:

1. We need to incorporate PD into the regular day/week. It NEEDS to be scheduled. Some teachers may want to read journals. Some teachers may want to blog. Some teachers may want to work on the University classes. Some teachers may want to work with math manipulatives, or plan a unit of team teaching. This PD needs to have a point or a personally created portfolio – something for accountability, as long as the teacher has input into this.

2. Teachers/administrators need to leave their work at work in order to maintain healthy lives. This could mean an 8:00-5:30 or 7:30 – 5:00 work day. Perhaps there should be one or two evenings scheduled for two hours. Weekends are for self and family. I feel that this is important for health and longevity. Change and initiatives do not usually come from overworked and tired staff.

3. Students could be at school from 7:30 to 9:00 and 3:30 – 5:30 if they or their parents need them to be. This is crucial. Kids need our support. We can schedule this into the work day. For example: The average teacher would teach 4 hours/day, prep and correct for one, lunch and breaks – one hour, PD for one hour, supervision/extra curr – 2 hours. This extra curricular might include supervising kids in the gym, lab, resource, tutoring, playing games, talking, counseling…Our day needs to support our kids. Today’s kids are on their own and this is often for hours before and after school and lunch hour. Why can’t they be at school, just like they are at home. Have a large common TV/computer/games room – multifunctional room. Provide breakfast and snacks… Let’s face it – much of the best times at school for teachers and kids are all of those informal times.. These kids with two working parents, single parents… they need us.

4. Let’s invite parents to have a cup a coffee when they get off of work when they come to pick up their kids. Kids ages 14 and up could come and go, and perhaps kids ages 11-14 could too, with parental permission and/or guidelines. We (staff and parents) could create this outline together. Maybe this is happening.... Let me know...

Any thoughts?

A Few Difficult Days

Difficult days

I’m certainly not a poet like Kelly, and if only I could sound as eloquent as several other bloggers… I guess this is part of the reason why they blog. I started to blog as an experiment – just to see if I could. Then I continued to blog for my grad studies. Now, I’m blogging to connect. I simply could not have fathomed the connections – from people in positions just like me, to gurus and experts. I have been spending time perusing elearnspace, which takes about Connectivism, and until I began this journey into rss feeds, checking my google reader each day, I really didn’t contemplate the possibility of such a journey. For the past few days, I have been pondering over my learning. As June 30th looms ahead, I have been worried about many things. I will be finished my Master’s Degree – where will I find those invaluable leads? Colleagues are moving/retiring. Technology is changing so rapidly – how will I continue to grow.. Where can I continue to study?

Now I know where I have some “connections”!

Class Act Portals

I have been reading some interesting work by Tom March on Class Act Portals, and I have been contemplating class and topic. A Class Act Portal is relatively the same as a class blog, but with the following differences:
- The new blog/portal needs to be a passionate interest for the teacher. The reason for this is that the teacher’s passion will rub off on the students. The topic should not just be selected because this is where the class is at in the curriculum.
- The topic should be timely; something from current event could have sparked the topic.
- The topic should also lend itself to technology: blogs, photos, podcasts…
Tom March provides a list of possible topics that may spark your interest. I’ll keep you posted.