Selling Jackson to the Gypsies

I have two cats.

Cami is 9 years old and most of the time, she is an angel. She doesn’t make a lot of noise, she waits patiently to be fed, likes to be near people and is even occasionally affectionate. The worst thing Cami ever does is urinate outside of the litter box if I have been significantly remiss in my duties – which is rare, and pretty much my own fault. She’s quite well-behaved and a very low-maintenance cat.

A few years back I had the bright idea to get another cat to keep her company. I felt guilty leaving her alone all day. In retrospect this seems rather silly since most cats sleep all day, and Cami is no exception. Since she was a girl, I figured that it would work best if her companion was a boy.

And along came Jackson. Jackson is about 4 years old now, but when I got him he was a tiny little adorable kitten. He purred a lot and loved attention. He was (and still is) my “baby.” He always had more energy than Cami, and at first I thought this was a good thing.

However, lately Jackson is driving me nutso. He runs around in the middle of the night and when he’s particularly determined to wake me up, he runs across the bed at various trajectories – usually it’s across my legs, but he’s also been known to run across my head (that’s the worst), torso, or other delicate bits. It’s most disconcerting to be woken up in such a fashion. 3 or 4am is not my idea of a great wake-up call.

It’s particularly bad when my boyfriend stays over. It’s completely endearing and charming that T loves cats despite being allergic to them; he always seeks out Cami and Jackson minutes after arriving, and interacts with them in a playful and loving way. He just takes care to wash his hands afterwards. He takes an allergy pill if he’s staying for a while, just to be sure.

Sleeping here is another matter. If I know that T is going to stay over, I do the best I can to prepare: I wash the sheets and pillowcases, vacuum, swiffer, and use the lint remover on anything that might retain errant cat hairs. All in all, we are both pretty good about controlling his allergy (still, I suspect he has serious misgivings about our moving in together – and rightly so – but that is fodder for another post).

Despite his allergy, T loves cats. But having a cat run across various parts of your body while trying to sleep is totally unacceptable. And when I am at home alone, I deal with it in various ways: I shut the bedroom door (Jackson meows louder and louder outside of it), I fill his food dish (sometimes this works), or I put a pillow over my head and arrange my body so that a cat-race around my bedroom will not cause significant discomfort (but will always inevitably wake me up).

Eventually Jackson calms down and lets me sleep. But when T is here I cannot “wait it out,” and am thus plagued by insomnia. I feel so guilty! I mean, T is extremely tolerant and understanding but when he comes over he already fights an allergy – the least I can do is try to ensure he has the best sleep possible (and I want nothing more than to escape into a peaceful slumber myself)!

Nights like this, when I am woken up over & over, feeling fatigued, stressed and guilty, are the nights that I get grumpy and tell Jackson that I am “selling him to the gypsies.” In the light of the day I try to find practical solutions (although I am not so productive on 3 or 4 hours sleep, ha!) but I feel defeated. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to get rid of Jackson, but I can’t imagine living the rest of my life like this.

And with that, I am off to attempt some slumber; maybe the answer will come to me in a dream!

Pfffffft! The Pitfalls of Presenting at Pro-D

I don’t know about you, but I really look forward to Professional Days. They are worth way more than simply “a day without kids” (which really IS valuable). Often in the school year, we are so busy trying to get through the day, week, month, that time for generating new ideas and collaborating with colleagues is limited.

Like many, I learn best visually and when engaged with others. Even having a conversation with my own staff helps me think my way out of the box. The instant feedback of others is often necessary for me to be challenged and experience growth. It works wonders for problem solving, creating choices, engendering support and inspiring change. One would think that Professional Days would have the same kinds of effects.

The fact that many sessions at Pro-D are inspirational is without debate. It is exciting to hear about the amazing things that other educators are doing with their practice - and I feel honoured that they give up their time to come and share with us at Pro-D. They give us license and encouragement to try something new, take some risks, and hopefully effect vast amounts of improvement in our own practice.

However, I have often left a conference, workshop, or keynote speech feeling a bit demoralized and debilitated - probably pretty much the opposite of what the presenter would have expected. For a time, I just kept my mouth shut about it and said nothing. But as my years of teaching experience grew, so did my willingness to be frank about what I saw as my own “shortcomings.” I was both happy and dismayed to discover that many others had similar experiences at Pro-D - indeed, some of whom are professionals that I highly respect.

Don’t get me wrong, these sessions are inspirational. But the other half of the equation is the reality that seems to set in during the session or after it is over. Some thought processes might reflect something similar to this:

Guilt/Shame - “I haven’t been doing that” / “I’ve been doing it wrong”

Often the presenter will identify some antiquated ways of doing things, or even go so far as to say they are wrong. Wanting the best for our kids, it tends to feel like we aren’t doing the best we can for them, and in some cases are even being a detriment.

Fear/Uncertainty - “I don’t know how to do that”

Sometimes the presenter introduces something that is foreign or complicated and it instills fear about the unknown.

Overwhelmed - “How do I even begin?” / “It’s too much”

Of course it makes sense to show us all the end product – we want to be wowed, and the process to get there might be lengthy and mundane. But without a map to get there we can feel lost and the task too great to undertake.

Shut Down/Defeat - “I can’t” / “I’m not good enough”

All of this can result in not very much change: It’s easier to stick with what we know—we’ll do it later—there isn’t enough time to “figure it out”—obviously we don’t have the skills that the person presenting does—etc.

Any time I have been asked to present at a Pro-D, I have done it. As a nervous public speaker, I am not the most confident about my abilities to deliver a useful, riveting workshop. But I do it because I have no hesitation sharing what I have with anyone - and I want to give back to my professional community. What do I try to keep in mind when presenting so that people don’t leave with any of the aforementioned feelings? Here are some suggestions (and I’d love to hear more):

**Relate to your audience by telling them the kinds of things you were doing before you changed your practice with your new method/strategy.

“I also used to teach PowerPoint every day before I discovered the impact of this Media Literacy program”

**Validate some common practices, and then talk about how your new method/strategy could improve them.

“Teaching this lesson out of the Math textbook works ok, but using Lego-Dacta manipulatives totally improved how my kids could visualize the problem solving questions”

**Identify the parts of your method/strategy that may seem foreign or complicated to others.

“When I first started using the online program with my class, I thought it was strange that the menus were located on the side – but I got used to it pretty quickly”

**Give the audience your email or your Twitter ID and encourage them to contact you if they have questions or hit roadblocks. Give a sample activity to try with their class, and tell them to email you with feedback afterwards.

**Near the end of the presentation, review some starting points for teachers. Give a handout or send an email with step-by-step instructions on how to get started. Or give a “Top 5” list of the most important points you covered.

**Emphasize that these major changes will take some time, and that teachers shouldn’t expect themselves to accomplish all of it at once. Suggest biting off small chunks and making goals, like trying something new each week or each month and developing change slowly. Teachers are more likely to shut down if there is too much to change all at once.

A Twitter colleague (@bengrey) asked a question the other day:

“A very high percentage of what many presenters demonstrate at conferences, isn’t happening in their own district. Why?”

I think it’s because of many of the reasons I’ve stated here. There is amazing & inspiring work going on around the world, in your own country and in your own district. It is important to not only make it accessible, but also realistic and digestible for teachers. When we support growth amongst ourselves as professionals, we are better prepared to nurture growth for our students – because after all, we are all students in this journey together!


(This post was originally published here)

Valentine's Day

I usually alternate between making fun of Valentine’s Day and being disdainful of it. I resent this holiday for being one of the biggest commercial & consumer gluts of the year. Still, I do try to see the good in it – it’s good that we be reminded that we should love each other, and that love should be celebrated in all its forms. I just don’t like being told HOW to celebrate – specifically, with dinners, flowers, chocolates, etc. Love & Romance is not obligatory, contrived, prescribed, manufactured, required, stipulated, or imposed – but Valentine’s Day seems to be. Perhaps it just isn't a day that we need to take very seriously.

Here's some of the sites where you can send a very politically incorrect Valentine's day card:

Some e-cards – Valentine’s Day
http://www.someecards.com/upload/valentine_s_day/index.html?ep=30

Be My Anti-Valentine
http://www.meish.org/vd/

Notes from the Teachers' Congress

Teachers’ Congress – Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Asia Pacific Hall
November 28th, 2008

Minister of Education Shirley Bond
- welcome, overview & introductory remarks

Dr. Martha Piper – Keynote
- times have changed
- world of challenge leads the way to a world of hope
- confront global issues with hope rather than fear
- education rids us of fear and equips us with hope
- global citizenship is imperative
- we each dwell in two communities: local community of our birth, and the global community
- each of us needs to do our part
- Lester Pearson in 1946, foresaw the dangers of a rapidly changing world: “there is no refuge in remoteness” – no protection to be gained by distance
- we must seek mutual understanding through education
- three areas of educational focus as designated by Mr. Lee, president of Singapore: 1) language 2) scientific/computer technology 3) understanding of world cultures & religions
- five possible approaches to introducing global citizenship:

o How many schools have adequate language departments? How do we expose children to foreign language?
o How do we integrate what it means to be human into curriculum? How do we emphasize humanity?
o We must embed the messages of global citizenship within every class and every class, every year. Socio-political implications need to be introduced into our curriculum. Global issues need to be interwoven into teaching.
o Community Service Learning. Volunteering, giving, and service to others.
o Teach tolerance, respect & citizenship. Be a role model and demonstrate through your own actions. Students need to be secure enough to explore their own curiosity. Celebrate diversity.

- students need ownership of their own thoughts and speech
- the need for free citizens with free minds has never been greater
- African sentiment – ubuntu – “I am, because you are”

Focus groups – Developing Global Citizens
- discussions with groups of people around us
Thoughts:
- mandated curriculum and provincial exams severely limit our ability to create global citizenship because of the need to teach to a test
- teachers need to expand beyond provincial curriculum
- also a need to teach appreciation of what we have
- in order to teach languages and cultural literature, we need to stop underfunding libraries, closing libraries
- how to implement language education when the ESL program is underfunded and has little support
- “tyranny of coverage” – if you take a breath, you miss something. There is so much curriculum that it does not allow for the tangents that so often contain the best teaching moments
- reconciling the noble ideal with reality – we are struggling to keep our heads above water
- creativity costs money and it costs time
- teachers are overwhelmed, overworked, overtired
- we need to give hope to the teachers as well as the students
- teachers need to feel inspiration in order to be inspirational

Daniella Salazar, Todd Bethune, Lauren Bone & Brent Greenless – Sharing the Dream Webcasting Series – Student Led Initiative and Overview of 2010 Educational Resources
- webcasts coordinated between highschool students from Prince George and Coquitlam (Heritage Woods)
- the leadership program at College Heights Secondary, Prince George involved many initiatives outside of school
- reflections about interview with Carol Huynh – overcoming obstacles is about learning at every possible opportunity
- http://www.sharingthedream.gov.bc.ca/
- Next webcast is February 20th, 2009

Don Black, Director, Education Programs for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
- teachers can access online bilingual resources, events and activities to be integrated into curriculum
- teachers are integral to the program development
- teacher forum is hosted by UBC faculty of Education
- teachers can showcase lessons and student work on the website
o http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/culture-and-education/education/feature-programs/-/34032/33978/11dl109/sharing-the-dream-webcast-seri.html

Kathryn Graham, Amber Church & Matthew Carroll – Youth Climate Leadership Alliance – Integrating Sustainability into the Classroom
- engage and encourage youth to take action for the environment
- Idle-Free Ambassadors – work to reduce instances of idling
- Climate Action Facilitators are located all over BC – there are 2 for Metro Vancouver
- Key concept – CARE: Complexity, Aesthetic Appreciation, Responsibility, Ethics
- Students come to understand how their actions affect both local and global environments
- Websites/programs/initiatives that are available:
o http://www.treesfortomorrow.gov.bc.ca/
o http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/environment_ed/
o http://www.greenlearning.ca/
o http://www.hastebc.org/
o http://www.bcgreengames.ca/

Ian Grbavec & Cheryl Woods - Healthy Schools Network and Draft Healthy Living Performance Standards- healthy living is an umbrella topic that permeates all other learning outcomes
- direct links to: PE, HCE, Planning, Grad Transitions, Home Ec
- Emerging/Developing/Acquired/Accomplished – change to use positive language instead of the old performance standards
- Comprised of 4 aspect areas: Healthy Eating, Active Living, Healthy Relationships and Healthy Practices
- 6 big strategies:
o thoughtful feedback
o criteria for success
o teaching/learning
o etc.
- integrating DPA into curriculum
- Canadian Medical Association praises DPA but says it’s not enough

Minister of Education Shirley Bond – General Discussion
- mental health issues are prevalent as well as physical
- issue of too many IEP kids in provincially examinable classes
- comprehensive provincial plan for suicide prevention
- brain-drain of top BC students to out-of-province universities
- struggling families are not being addressed – they are in survival mode – students have specific learning needs that are not being addressed
- the issues that students bring to school today are often very different than the issues that were brought forward 20 years ago
- school counselors would like to come to the table to discuss issues with the government/ministry
- with staff shortages and class size increases, how can you ensure an increase in student (specifically aboriginal students) graduation rates
- DPA: who, what, when, where & how
- moving away from universal FSA’s to random selection with no identifiers
- the need to invest in social services, mental health, etc.
- 6-8 IEP kids in a class – added initiatives just further stress and overwhelm the teacher
- premier spending thousands of $ on newspaper advertisements instead of investing in education
- less than 20% of students choosing to write the provincial exams in courses where it is optional – will they be cancelled?
- what can teachers do to prevent burnout – and keep ourselves healthy and happy
- parental leave for fathers/harmonization of benefits
- gifted and advanced learners deserve to have their needs met as well
- help schools that score low on the FSA’s by investing in them – if you are going to persist in giving the FSA’s then do something positive with the results
- money was “de-targeted” from gifted programs, but stayed in the system – boards made decisions about how to allot the money
- teacher education courses should include ESL training since there are ESL kids in every classroom
- teaching practitioners need to inform policy more than any other partner
- ranking schools and then allowing parents to choose which school they send their kid to

Marc Kielburger – “Me to We” – Approaches to Fostering Student Engagement – Free the Children
- http://www.freethechildren.com/
- parents endure major sacrifices to ensure that their children have access to education
- student achievement = student engagement
- sign up for Monday column in Vancouver Sun that have lessons/ideas/suggestions for global issues
- make gratitude a regular part of their lives
- every child can be a philanthropist
- become a responsible shopper
- lead by example
- reach out through empathy
- don’t shelter young people from the issues
- celebrate heroes and people that make the world a better place
- teaching compassion
- www.metowe.org
- “do small things with great love” – Mother Theresa

Edinburgh to Galloway

Hello lovely people,

Rest easy, because this just might be the last email you get from me about my travels (for some of you that will be a welcome relief, I know...)! Today is Friday, we head South from Edinburgh to the Borders/Dumfries/Galloway region, stay down there for tonight, and then come back up to Glasgow and fly home on Sunday. Yay!

Edinburgh was easily the best city that we saw on the trip. However, cities were my least favourite part of the trip. But considering I am *still* awed and excited to be in Scotland, it's really all good. Edinburgh Castle wasn't terribly impressive, but we may be coming to the point where we have seen so many castles and churches and galleries and museums and historical sites, that it's a bit of overload. C'est la vie... I'm not going to complain. ;)

Today is the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008, which I gather is a very very lucky day for Asian culture. My cousin Mike is getting married today, so I hope that the luck works in his favour to make everything go smoothly. From what I hear, Vancouver is looking rather gorgeous as of late! Should be a lovely day.

Christine & I have been trying to add up how much we have spent here to make sure we have our stories straight when we get to customs (cough, cough), and more importantly, trying to see where it will all fit! All I have to say is, whisky is big and heavy, not to mention expensive. It better not break!

One thing that doesn't often happen here is when we go to a restaurant and pay with a credit card, there is no place to add a tip. I never really realized how much I appreciate having that little gratuity line, because I am trying to travel here with as little cash as possible, and sometimes that has meant a meagre tip or worse, none at all! With food being as expensive as it is, I kinda just wish the tip was included in prices -- wouldn't that make everything so much easier?? Anyways.

Being that Christine has so many food allergies, we have been virtually unable to share food. Or at least, she can't have anything that I can eat -- which is good in a way, because it keeps the money thing very separate and "yours/mine" issues very clear, but I feel bad that I can't give her some of my treats or share an entree when neither of us are particularly famished. Ah well. I am just happy that she stayed healthy. :)

So, highlights of the trip? Barra. Love Barra. All the islands, for sure -- Orkney and Iona and Skye... but Barra still is my favourite. The people were also a highlight -- I love the people here. And the landscape -- wow. The museums and galleries and castles etc. were great too (except for the overload). Still haven't found that deep-fried Mars bar, but despite that, the dinner at Iona was the highlight for food.

And with that, I am off. Hope to see y'all soon... expect photos to come sometime in the next few weeks. :)
Cheers
xo
Elaan

Edinburgh

Hello hello

Yesterday and today was Edinburgh. We got into the city later in the evening and Christine did an amazing job of navigating the craziness of downtown (one-way streets and festivals and bus-only lanes and people everywhere and bridges and basic insanity) and I was the stellar co-pilot! Woo! Anyways, we had to stay in a hostel last night, which we were NOT looking forward to (the B&B's have spoiled us), and with good reason... it was the same sweaty stinky noisy sleepless experience. The difference was, it was located RIGHT on the Royal Mile! Which is the main strip of downtown.

Unfortunately we had to leave our car several blocks away, and so we had to get up this morning at 7am to go move it before it got towed. That's okay, we didn't really need an excuse to get out of that hostel. We decided to drive straight to the Marriott and hopefully leave our bags and car while we found food and maybe also our way back into the city. The Marriott was a package deal we got with our tickets to the Military Tattoo (big military band, music, marching, dancing, singing performance that is apparently quite famous, although neither of us had heard of it before we started telling people that we were going to Scotland, and then many of them said "are you going to the Tattoo?" and "you HAVE to go to the Tattoo!" -- so, we got the only tickets left, which were a package deal with the Marriott hotel).

So, we get to the Marriott totally exhausted from not sleeping at the hostel, and have a super awesome gourmet breakfast... yummmmm... and then they manage to get our room ready quickly so we could get in there. SO nice! We showered and napped and Christine even went for a swim. Ahhhh, luxury. Hostels are bollocks and rubbish I say! We got onto a handy-dandy bus that took us straight downtown and went to the National Gallery. Wow... I don't even know what to say about that place. Amazing and stupendous. I could have spent all day in there. Except that they don't let you wear your backpacks on your back (or front, or one shoulder) which is annoying. What the purpose for that is, I have no idea.

We also went to the Fruitmarket Gallery. Weird stuff in there. Weirder stuff in the gift shop even. Brits have some messed up sense of humour... sometimes it totally works and is hilarious but other times it just crosses the line or doesn't make any sense. Like a card that said "catch the ball, because if you don't your wife will leave you and take the kids". Dub-tee-eff?! Anyways. Just sayin'. Weird.

So we had dinner at a great little Italian joint called Rocco's and then headed to the Tattoo. It was awesome, amazing, marvelous, incredible and wicked. It also poured rain on us like God was trying to put out a fire in our souls (I have no idea where THAT imagery came from, honest). No but seriously, it rained so hard that people started leaving the stands (oh, did I mention it is an uncovered, outdoor performace that has never ever been cancelled in any weather conditions?) about 30 minutes into the 90 minute show. I was fairly miserable, but I kept my mouth shut and just focused on the excellent show. I tried with all my might to avoid thinking about how my shoes had become puddles for my feet, and how my jeans had wicked the water all the way to my waist.

I think the last time I was completely soaked like that was when I was a kid taking swimming lessons and they asked us to get in the pool with our clothes on so we could get the feeling of what it felt like. But, my core remained fairly dry -- that raincoat I bought the night before I left did a really great job. Not sure what I am going to do about my wet shoes. I may have to break out the hairdryer.

All in all, we have had really great bright and sunny weather, so I am not going to complain if it rains. We have been super lucky so far, so it is what it is. :)

We have tomorrow and Friday morning in Edinburgh, Friday afternoon and Saturday in the South, and then on Sunday we are back in YVR! I hope the nice heat wave you guys are having holds out until we get home. :)

Hope y'all are well, and dry, and snug
xo
Elaan

Orkney to Inverness to Blairgowrie to Edinburgh

Hello everyone,

So on Sunday in Orkney we went to see the Tomb of the Eagles and a Bronze-age house, and we also stopped at a famous Italian Chapel that was made completely out of garbage and found materials during WWII. Very neat. Then we stopped back in Kirkwall, and went shopping. I must say it's the first time on the trip I really wanted to buy something for myself -- so guess what I bought -- a necklace and earrings, and a cheese board. Yes, I said cheese board. It's not just any cheese board though, it has ancient viking runes etched into it! So that makes it an ultra-cool awesome cheese board.

Anyways, with those purchases I think I have officially run out of money. Any time I consider buying anything it is usually at the expense of a meal or two, haha. So I think my purchases will stop there -- I just don't have room in my bags or money for anything else! Although Christine thinks we could buy another bag to check at the airport... but my motivation for being here really isn't shopping, so that's okay.

Yesterday at the B&B we were staying at in Inverness, they offered haggis as part of the morning meal, so I tried it!! I figured it was a safe way to try it since there would be lots of other food, and it was all part of the package. So, haggis... hmmm. It wasn't bad really. It kinda tasted like ground beef and barley put together. It sure wasn't my favourite, me being not a very big meat-eater anyways, but it was fine. I didn't finish it all. So now I have had the whiskey AND the haggis. I wonder if there are any other Scottish traditions to have before I leave here?

After breakfast we went down to Loch Ness to go swimming. Except... that it was freezing ice-cold. We stood in the water up to our calves and I swear after about 30 seconds I couldn't feel my feet anymore. So, we didn't swim. But we did dip our toes in the water!

After Loch Ness we went to Dundee (not a very pretty city, but family history abounds there for Christine). We also went to the famous Glamis Castle, which was amazing, and headed to a lovely B&B for the night.

Oddly, we have seen 4 or 5 instances of fighter jets?? in the sky while we've been here. Seriously, it's something out of Top Gun. Strange to see them flying so low. And we have also seen many instances of mating cows. Related? Maybe so.

Anyways, I must be going because my time is running out but tonight we head to Edinburgh! It's going to be fabulous! We are home soon after that. Hope y'all are well...
xo
Elaan