Is it the right place?

I don’t focus much attention on new education initiatives anymore, so maybe I am late in hearing about this instructional program. I happened to catch an interview with a teacher on CBC radio about the use of “Classroom Economy” in an elementary classroom in Ontario. I found the associated article, but it doesn’t include the audio of the interview:

Inside a St. Thomas classroom, lessons about math and economics

This class was a Grade 3/4 split. Some students were also interviewed and they sounded positive about the experience. I am sure there are variations to the approaches used in “classroom economy” depending on the grade level and each school context. I was both curious and concerned with the idea of it, so I did some more reading:

What is a Classroom Economy, and Why Use One?

While I can recognize the value of the learning concepts and links to “real life”, I still struggled with the idea and some of the intent of it. For example:

• Students had to decide if they wanted to use their “income” to rent or buy their desk.
• Students had to apply for what classroom job they wanted. It would be their source of income.
• There was a classroom store (run by the students who got the job of running it).
• The teacher of the Gr. 3/4 class gave out “fines” for inattentiveness, etc. to help classroom management.

The second article I posted about the program offered me some reassurance:

• Students use their income to pay bills, such as rent for their desk. This creates a sense of ownership for classroom space and allows students to practice budgeting in a safe environment. It’s important to emphasize that if a student doesn’t have enough to pay their bills- that is okay!
• You also have the option to include fines, however if they don’t speak to you, no need to use them!

As for purpose of the classroom store,

“Students learn to budget, set goals, and can use their savings to purchase rewards from the classroom store. I like to include “experiences” in my classroom store instead of tangible items. My favorites are brain break choice, tell a joke to the class, and have lunch with the teacher. These are all free for me, and fun for the class. You can also set group goals and rewards, like a classroom PJ day or party. Students love working together to save up.”

The “Why Use it” claim in the article states two reasons: Classroom Management and Financial Literacy.

It reminded me a bit of “Class DOJO” and also the debate about that a number of years ago in some education conversations regarding rewards and incentives in classrooms.

I recognize that the times and students have changed. It has been decades since I taught in elementary classrooms, but I don’t think an economy approach would have “spoken to me” then.

As a parent of now grown children, I am uncertain if I would have been comfortable with my children being in an “economy classroom” at the elementary level. I trust that there are many other effective ways and programs to teach financial literacy in classrooms.

Feedback is welcome.

That One Post

My blog is becoming less and less about education and I have been thinking about starting an alternate blog site. I often wonder about the value of my posts of the past, but they remain as archives for the time being. Visits to my blog are few now, which makes sense given I seldom post now. When I do post, I don’t always share further to social media. There has been some comfort with that — my blog is just my blog, a space of my own, but with an open door. I doubt a podcast would ever suit my needs.

But this was about one post…

From time to time, I check my blog stats and clear out spam comments. There is one post that consistently gets “hits” over the months, and now years, according to my stats. It isn’t a post that gets repeated spam comments either. I don’t have details on where the visits to the post originate, just the “via links to my blog site” information. The post isn’t about parent engagement or EQAO standardized testing, or even music 🙂 It is this one:

Appointed vs. Elected School Boards

I wrote it in 2015.

I did a quick follow up about the Chicago school board that I discussed as an example. A short internet search informed me that the board is still an appointed one, but a new mayor has promised to take action to bring back an elected board.

I will go with the assumption that the debate about the value of “appointed vs. elected” board members comes up a lot and the title of the post gets prompted when searching online for the answer. I suppose it might also be linked somewhere as a resource on the topic. But it is one blog post the lives on, for whatever reason.

Parenting: Styles or Responses?

About 7 years ago, I wrote a post asking, “How Do Parent Labels Help?”.  I was concerned about the value of this in helping parent-teacher interactions and in supporting children.  I was also concerned about generalizations made about parents and the labels assigned.  I later wrote a post to emphasize “seeking to understand” parents in the education context.

I don’t think the labelling has lessened much since I last wrote on the topic.  Others have written in concern about it, but it seems to continue being something that is used to help understand parenting behaviour.

Sometimes parental behaviour is also examined or explained in terms of generational influences.  I still also read references to past times when parents didn’t question educators and demonstrated more respect for their children’s teachers.  I think we have to accept that much has changed — in our world, in parenting and in teaching and education.  And also, if some things don’t change, some behaviours will not.

Recently I read a Parents article, A Year-by-Year Guide to the Different Generations and Their Personalities.  I still have concerns about generalizations in such articles, but it provided a useful timeline and good contrasts to examine the evolution of parenting.  It was the first time I read the reference to “parennials” (Millennials who are now parents) . The writer claims that Gen X parents (born between 1965 and 1979) were the first to use “helicopter” parenting styles.  I am not sure there is a full or common understanding what a helicopter parent is — same goes for “snowplow” or “lawnmower” parenting (etc.!).  The article links to a previous article that provided some definitions and examples of helicopter parenting.  I am glad it also offered some possible reasons, or “common triggers”, to help understand what might be behind the parenting behaviours and choices.  They include:  Fear of dire consequences, feelings of anxiety, overcompensation, and peer pressure for other parents.

Others look to study and explain parenting behaviours in other ways.  An article called, “What’s so wrong with helicopter parenting?”, highlights research and a book written by two university economists.  They categorized parents according to three types (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive).

Developmental psychologists use parenting categories to figure out which styles favor better academic and personal outcomes. Doepke and Zilibotti use these types to try and understand why parents make the choices they do, and why those choices look so different between countries and generations.”

Their research and data analysis could only prove association and not causation.  Some further statements from the article include:

Their message is clear: Contrary to popular stereotypes, those who succumb to the lure of helicopter parenting aren’t hysterical or illogical.”

“Parenting has become very unequal,” said Doepke. “It’s one of the big social problems we have because we have high inequality now, and if kids don’t get the same starting conditions, it’s just going to get worse and worse in the future.”

Wisely, their prescription is not to fix the helicopter parents, but the institutions that are perpetuating inequality.”

In other research, helicopter parenting may also result in “hothouse children” — a term/label I came across reading, Helicopter parents and ‘hothouse children’ — exploring the high stakes of family dynamics.

There is also dismissal of “HP”.  Alfie Kohn offers and backs up this stance: “Helicopter Parenting” Hysteria: The Epidemic That Actually Isn’t.

I often hear the opinion that we parent how we were parented.  I suppose to a degree, but I think there are many influencing factors in play.  It can seem very complex and difficult to understand.  If certain parenting styles (responses?) and family inequalities continue, how can school contexts respond, partner, and support appropriately?  If there is the view that some parents are too involved and others are not involved appropriately, how does one proceed in family engagement?

I re-visited a blog post written by Nancy Angevine-Sands, a parent engagement facilitator (@withequalstep), entitled Sharing the Pedestal. She addresses the impacts of inappropriate judgment of parents.  She reminds of the realities of parenting and how educators may inadvertently alienate parents if they don’t share both their own struggles and “the pedestal”:

Would authentic partnerships develop that allowed schools to understand the vulnerabilities of families, and families to accept the imperfections of schools?”

Another great reminder from Nancy:

Rhetoric extolling the virtues of schools shouldn’t seek to boost the morale of the teachers at the expense of families.”

I agree with Nancy.  I think it is important to reflect how that affects relationships with families, for whatever reason such extolling occurs.

I thought this recent article with parent engagement advice from school administrators offered some solid, respectful approaches for today’s families:  What We’ve Learned: Administrators share advice for engaging families.

If readers know of other examples or strategies that focus on seeking to understand parents and getting past labels or assumptions, please share.

Minding the Children

Whether it is the end of the school year or at the beginning, the posts on social media that poke fun about parents or teachers “handing off” the kids don’t always sit right with me.  Maybe they are just for a chuckle and mean no harm, but they often seem inappropriate to me.  Whether it is, “Tag, parents, you’re it!” in June or parents doing the happy dance posts on the first day of school, I am sure that both transitions are often bittersweet for those involved.  I am also not sure if such humour does much to support working relationships and respect between teachers and parents.  It doesn’t have to be about the teachers or parents, if the focus is on what students and children need from us — in and out of school and from our communities (it takes a village…).  I get it — sometimes teaching becomes parenting, and parenting is teaching.  If there is a sigh of relief about a break from either role, I don’t think it has to be jab in either direction.  Both roles are hard work.  Teachers and schools can have limitations in support, as do many families.  Communities may also vary in the support (of schools and families.)  Both teaching and parenting can be lonely and isolating.  The school year presents difficulties to parents, as well as the summer months. Playing in the community has changed for children and it can be hard to transition from the structure of school to the open-ended days of summer.  Many parents have to work and adjustments are plenty for the months the children are off school — regardless of work and family schedules.

Do I need to lighten up about this?  I would hope such “jokes” are really an expression of and/or a reaction to the lack of support that can be the case for each role.  If support improved (for parents, teachers and children), would such “handing off” jokes even be a thing?  I have to wonder…

Featured post re: Effective School Councils

I haven’t seen much written about Ontario about school councils lately (although I am not paying as much attention to the topic anymore).  Today I appreciated reading a post, Effective School Councils, by an education superintendent from Alberta, Chris Smeaton.  I have followed Chris (@cdsmeaton) on Twitter for many years.  Although he writes for the Alberta context, I thought his insights and list of discussion questions would be useful to Ontario’s school councils as well.  I thought I would post here to keep it handy.

Chris mentions a workshop presented by their provincial school council association,

The presentation reminded me of the important work that should be done by this group but often gets lost because of well -intentioned volunteerism. I don’t believe that staffs will ever say no to the work that many of our parents do in schools today but, the true essence of their role is far more reaching than simple involvement.”

He describes the realities and challenges of engaging school councils and parents in school planning and improvement discussions but offers some good suggestions on how to improve these opportunities and make them more parent-friendly.  He also provides list of possible discussion questions for the school council table.  Please read his full post.  What would you add to the list he has started?  Have Ontario school councils made any significant shifts in roles lately?

Fixing or Fighting Public Education?

I have become more selective in what I read about public education lately and I also pay less attention to the issues now that my own children are out of the K – 12 system.  I spent years trying to be informed of the issues and advocating where I could.  I didn’t always feel effective then, but even more so now.  When I was more involved in education advocacy, I would always wish that the general public would also keep informed and care about education, but I get now how easy it is to drift from the issues and feel powerless to make a difference.

As I stated to Doug Peterson, I only read this article about fixing public education in Ontario because he wrote a response to it on his blog, here.  The author of the article is a former president of an education advocacy organization.  She discusses 7 areas to address in order to “fix” public education in Ontario, and claims that 6 out of the 7 recommendations will save money.  She also states in the article’s subtitle, “It won’t be easy to implement any of these recommendations. The educational establishment will fight every step of the way.”

I thought Doug did well in addressing each of the 7 areas with his insights and thoughts (Non-Government Tuition Subsidies; Teacher Training; Curriculum; Textbooks; School Boards: Ont. College of Teachers; Provincial Testing).  I am only going to share some thoughts on one area/recommendation.

Given that I have thought and written a fair bit about school boards, that section jumped out at me. From the article,

The school board trustees, who theoretically represent the voters, are basically powerless: I have yet to hear of a parent who successfully sought help from his elected trustee. The trustees’ representational responsibilities would be better relocated to democratically-elected and influential school councils in each school.”

and with that,

Recommendation #5: Abolish the school boards”

Doug states a good case in his post,

This has long been a controversial issue but the fact that school districts exist ensure that local priorities can be addressed.  The notion of a High School Major is a perfect example.  The careful design plays to the importance of certain fields to the local community.  What works in a downtown community may not be appropriate to a rural location.  Having said that, within a community, there can be so much duplication of services with four school districts in operation.  Since they all teach in Ontario, there may well be significant savings by rethinking this way of organization and addressing the duplication of efforts.”

My thoughts:

As a parent, I received good help from some elected trustees — others, not so much.  Trustees have their limitations in power too.  Am I the only one who “successfully sought help”.  As for school councils being the better representational structure because they are “democratically elected and influential”, when has that been the case in any consistent and supported way across the entire province? (A post I wrote about representation here) I highly doubt that the abolishment of school boards would lead directly to improved functioning, representation, or influence of school councils.  Careful what you wish for?  What do others think?

I agree, the education system is hard to change.  There is also much disagreement on what change should look like.  I see the comments and exchanges are adding up on the original article though.  When I skimmed, most were about public vs. private schools.  Opinions are abundant, but no straight path to change.  I wonder if big shifts will occur anytime soon in Ontario.

Here is a podcast I hope to listen to soon, but if anyone else would like to beat me to it:

When Public Isn’t Public: Education in Alberta

That topic again…

“Doing away with” trustees seems to be a topic once again in Ontario.  I think it was prompted in part by a recent Globe and Mail article.  It appears to me that the responses and debates quickly become polarized, but it is a discussion that keeps returning.  The election for trustees is every four years — next year, 2018, brings that around again.

I often wonder what the main concerns are about not having boards of trustees in place.  Is it the worry that public education will not remain public?  Do some fear it would mean one step closer to “school choice”?  Is there a concern that parents or parent groups would then have new roles and responsibilities in governance and accountability?  Other?

It might be said that only “a few” school boards are dysfunctional in Ontario — but how do we know for sure?  Are they all transparent?  Should they be?  It can seem very complicated the more one digs into the questions.

I knew I had written one post about Ontario boards of trustees in the past, but upon further looking, I see I wrote two on the topic.  Although not specific to Ontario, my stats tell me that this one still gets a lot of search hits/views:

Appointed vs. Elected School Boards

The other post is more specific about the working relationship between Ontario trustees and parents:

The trustee – parent connection in #onted

If anyone has thought or written on the topic more recently, please let me know or add.  Thank you.

**Update (April 28):  Paul McGuire had posted on this topic and in response to the G&M article early this week.  Good questions and points to consider from Paul:

Should we still have School Boards? A Public Challenge

Doug Peterson featured Paul’s post in today’s, “This Week in Ontario Edublogs“.  Doug added his response there as well.

I wonder (if either ever happens…), what would happen first:  No Catholic school boards, or no school boards at all?

Paths and Gaps: Part 3

I have written about about “gap” years a couple of times — in both the general and personal sense:

Graduation Caps and Gaps

Paths and Gaps: Part 2

My daughter who took a “gap year” before going away to another city for university was recently home on her study break or “reading week”.  It is also now that time of year in Ontario when many Grade 12 students are starting to receive and consider their acceptances to university and/or college.  My daughter is now in Year 2 at university and I asked her again if she was still glad she took a gap year.  She gave me permission to document her answers and thoughts on my blog:

I benefitted by the exposure to the “work world” that year.  It gave me a new perspective on ways to live life and be successful in different ways.  It helped me improve other qualities and skills other than just “book smartness”.”

I had time to find out a bunch of things I wasn’t … in order to be able to start finding out who I am.  This happened in both my gap year and also during my first year at university.”

I thought the gap year would give me time to figure out what I really wanted to study at the post-secondary level, but it was really about learning other things instead of discovering what I wanted to study.”

In the end, I realized I just needed to try something at university in order to find what I wanted to do.”

My daughter included the subjects she was passionate about in her first year of university.  I think that this is one advantage of a first year at university — she was expected to take courses in different faculties.  This worked well for her as she could include her love of science, math, art and women’s studies.  It was through this “sampling” that she was able to decide what she didn’t want to study in depth while also leading her to what she did want to focus on.  It was something she hadn’t thought of initially at all.

My other daughter didn’t take a gap year after high school.  We had discussed the option with her, but it just wasn’t something she found comfort in doing.  As it turned out, a gap year after university before a college program was more beneficial to her.  We are happy with their paths and choices and I am sure other decisions would have worked out fine too.  There will be bumps regardless of the path!

Given all my thinking and reflecting on this, People for Education’s report released this week about career and life planning in schools caught my attention.

The press release here.

Career and Life Planning in Schools full report here.

I still need to spend some more time with the report, but they have made some recommendations for improving student portfolios for career/pathway support, the community involvement requirements, guidance counselling, and more (for a quick look start at page 14).  “Multiple paths, multiple policies, multiple challenges” indeed.  I don’t recall the mandatory “career/life planning portfolios” that my daughters brought home here and there as being very useful at all, but their community volunteer hours proved quite valuable in different ways.  I will be curious about what changes ahead.  What do others think?  What are the areas that need to change the most… and when?

Conversations about parent-teacher interviews

It wasn’t too far into summer when I started to catch blog posts in my Twitter feed about parent-teacher interviews.  Well at least educators were discussing the merits of… not sure many parents were yet. 🙂

I have posted on the topics of parent engagement and report cards on this blog, but not necessarily about parent-teacher interviews specifically.  I thought I would attempt a post on the topic to pull a few threads and ideas together.

In late July, Doug Peterson posted a personal story and reflection about parent-teacher interviews in his “Whatever happened to…” series.  He offered some good questions for educators that are worthy of repeating now that “the season” of interviews is well underway.

He states in the post,

Parent/Teacher interviews are still the lifeblood of communication and I do hope that Faculties of Education are not failing their students like mine did.  But, is there a more effective way of communicating with home?”

Doug’s curiosity/questions:

• did you ever get good advice before your first parent/teacher interview?  Have you mastered them now?
• do you use report cards and attachments as communication tools?
• do you have a class blog/website and use it effectively?  How?
• does social media fit into your communication plans?  Is it effective?
• do you worry about the privacy of student/parent information in any of these formats?
• where would you be without computers to facilitate this?
• is a physical meeting a thing of the past?  Couldn’t you just do a hangout or Skype instead?

Please read his full post and I am sure he would welcome comments still.

Also in the summer, my friend Nancy aka @withequalstep shared this post with me (and probably on Twitter): Reporting to Support by Janet Goodall.  It is also a worthy read to challenge ideas about traditional parent-teacher interviews and reporting on learning.  The idea of shifting reporting to supporting is interesting.  The article has some good suggestions and insights.  I was left wondering about the delicate balance that K – 12 teachers must face.  How do they communicate (be “accountable”, as much as I don’t like that word) what may be expected about how they are teaching to support learning, and then also determine what is appropriate to suggest to parents to support learning at home, especially during a short “interview”?  Perhaps that comes clearer over time and through relationships and partnerships, as the post mentions:

What if, rather than being focused on the teachers, the event was focused around a partnership between parents and the teachers to support learning?”

Another August post that I read and appreciated was by Rusal Alrubail.  She wrote, as her title suggests, How To Create a Culturally Responsive Classroom for Refugee & Migrant Students.  I also took note of some good suggestions for connecting with immigrant and refugee parents, including:

Another piece of advice is to connect with parents on a regular basis, whether that may be through messaging, letters, phone calls or face to face, to update them on their child’s progress. Many immigrants and refugee parents might not feel comfortable asking about their child’s progress as they don’t want to take the teacher’s time. In some cultures, asking about the child may seem like an act to undermine the teacher’s authority. So it’s important to let them know you’re available if they have any questions or concerns.”

With all this reading, it prompted me to wonder what I learned about communicating with parents while taking my B. Ed program (over 20 years ago).  (I posted previously about the research that Tracy Bachellier conducted to look more closely at current programs in Ontario’s Faculties of Education.)  Since our family moved houses recently, I found and tossed all kinds of stored paper and files.  I did find a few good notes and handouts specific to preparing for parent-teacher interviews and being sensitive to parent needs.  This was before much technology of course, but I was still rather impressed with the tips that I had noted during a lecture.  Interestingly, I found this quote copied down in my notes:

Teachers in consultation with parents must strive to know each child as soon and as thoroughly as possible in order to provide learning opportunities which will help their child.” (Min. of College and Universities, 1979-80).

We still may not have all the answers or best approaches, but it is clear to me that the conversations about parent-teacher interviews carry on through the years and over the summers!

Pushing Back (together)

I noticed “The Professional Pushes Back” post on Seth’s Blog being shared on Twitter, but I didn’t get around to reading it until I read Doug Peterson’s post and expansion on it to include teachers and invite further thoughts.  Doug asked:

• Do you consider yourself a professional?
• Give an example of how you pushed back in the manner that is used in the original post

Soon after, I read Aviva Dunsiger’s post in response to Doug’s post.  She took on the challenge to post about ways that she has pushed back as a teacher.  She ends her post inviting and questioning how other members of the school community push back,

If pushing back means helping children more, I’m happy to push back. What about you? Educators, administrators, and parents, how do you “push back?”

Whether a professional or not, I am sure it isn’t an easy task to push back within a school system.  Pushing back can be met with disagreement and conflict.  I am sure I have a blog post or two where I have stated the worth of collaborating with parents to help create and support change.  The conversations aren’t always easy, but parents might be able to push back in ways that an educator might not be able to — or together they can make even more of an impact.  (Some related points in this UK article here)  I think it might be best to have a supportive team of mixed roles and voices when it comes to pushing back in education.  Aviva extended the conversation to administrators and parents.  I noticed that trustees weren’t mentioned, but I think they could be a part of push back efforts too.  It has always been my hope that education stakeholders could work/push back together, but maybe individual efforts and leadership are still really needed and important.  Do these individuals get the support they need?