B.I.T.S.

Best Information to Share - Quick Bits of Professional Learning to Challenge Your Practice

What the world is talking about this week

in Education

Barriers to Educator Learning

Years ago, I was trying to coach a teacher to start blogging. To keep it simple, I said, "Why not just write objectively about something you learned today?".

Her response was that if she said she learned it today, she would be admitting that she didn't know it yesterday, and people would know she was stupid.

This is a remarkably common situation in education. We are afraid to say we don't know.

As a leader, how are you giving people permission not to know?

Once people have permission not to know, they have permission to learn, openly, and in collaboration with others.

When you are focused on hiding your vulnerability, you keep your practice private. Private practice is a barrier to learning throughout the entire system. We need to make learning visible and open to all.

Are you willing to say "I don't know"?
Are you creating the conditions where educators can safely admit they don't know?

Please take 6 minutes and watch this video shared with our NLESD School Reading Specialists.

NLESD Blogs: Cathy Baker @Baker1973Cathy
But what about the curriculum?
Play-Based Learning

Read the Blog Post Here

As Allison Tucker shared this week, our work as educators is to learn and share, converse and question, consume and connect.

This week, education blogger Cathy Baker shared her recent experiences with parents, and she asked some important questions about parent and community expectations. Visit the site (button above) and you will also see comments from Aviva Dunsiger.

The status quo is a big ship to turn. The word "play" is not one parents immediately connect to learning. While as educators we have learned much about the critical importance of inquiry in learning, our communities have not had the opportunity to do this learning.

How are we, as educators, helping parents understand the value of play and self-regulation in the long-term success of their child? Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon discuss this in this episode of the Modern Learner's Podcast.

The quote below is from Timeless Learning (2018) by Ira Socol, Pam Moran and Chad Ratliff.

Be Optimistic with Daily Practices in October

BITS from the web

What We Learned This Week

"One of the prime responsibilities of all teachers and other educators today is to support young people in developing their identities, individually and together. "

Leading from the Middle: Spreading Learning, Well-being, and Identity Across Ontario

Bill Ferriter has been in my PLN for many years. His pinned tweet and those that follow in the conversation are worth your time when you are thinking about relationships in your school.

As we think about kids, screen time, digital identity, physical and mental health, we are reminded that screen time eats into the very things that keep kids healthy - sleep and exercise.

Are you looking to help kids learn to work with data? Here are some open data websites that might be of use.

Brene Brown Leadership Manifesto

Remember - Questions are more important that answers!

Ending Public Shaming in Schools

Shaming students has no place in schools.

Traditional schooling has many practices that shame children. This article from ASCD: Educational Leadership exposes some of our practices from the perspective of the child.

When you combine this thinking with what we are learning about how Childhood Trauma impacts learning and behaviour, it helps us to rethink outdated approaches to classroom management.

Listen to the podcast from Mind/Shift, and read the blog here.

(I've collected further resources on ACES and Childhood Trauma here.)

Student Voice

We often talk about Student Voice, but in Ontario, the province has worked to empower it for years. There is an Ontario Student Trustees' Association and a Minister's Student Advisory Council. Speak Up grants and projects, encouraging student led forums in every school.

So it was no surprise to educators when students took to the streets to tell the Premier they had a right to the most current information on sexual education.

And for a recent resource on the sex education topic, try here.

Digital Citizenship

Common Sense Media has posted new lessons for students in grades 3 to 5. As an educator, what do you need to know to teach digital citizenship?

Are you a blogger? Please join our blogging group in Newfoundland and Labrador! Do you want to be a blogger? Email donnamillerfry@gmail.com and I'll send you to the blogging support work we created for Ontario Leaders through the OSSEMOOC project.

Do you enjoy this learning? Please feel free to share widely.
Reply with suggestions and link for next week's edition!

You can find all of the past editions here.

Creative Commons CC-AT-NC-4.0 2018 Learning About Learning, Some rights reserved.

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September 30, 2018 Leadership Learning Edition