"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Jan. 31

Watched this at a conference this week. Pretty funny and an interesting way to look at information and how people can know a lot more about something on one end than on the other and that it can be intimidating if you are the one in the dark.

"One Thing" for Thurs. Jan. 30

Ski Day!

Got up just after 5:00 am this morning (and living pretty close to the school, I'm sure that was later than some), in order to get there for our bus ride to Blackcomb for skiing with our grade 6/7's. What a great day. Essentially, the whole thing was organized by our grade 6 Late French Immersion teacher, Mr. Nick Ardanaz. He did a fantastic job and the day went off without a hitch.

Here is the view from my seat on the super comfy bus. It's also not a great place to sit. Right beside the bathroom door. About 30 minutes before our arrival in Whistler, one of our students, waiting for the bathroom politely threw up in my lap. Fortunately I had not yet changed into my ski clothes so was able to change. It turns out that was the only problem on our bus, but there were five or so students that were sick on the other bus.

Here are a couple of shots of Ms. Matheson and Ms. Mathis on one of the runs?

And a couple of the students getting their gear on:

Anyway, it was a great way for many of the students to get a day to go downhill skiing and for many it was an introduction as it was the first time for many. Personally, I hadn't been skiing for about 18 years. I was snowboarding regularly about 15 years ago, but figured I might not be able to remember how to do that as well as remembering how to ski. It was a good decision as I am in one piece, although I'm still a bit sore as I write this...

"One Thing" for Wed. Jan. 29

Basketball season has started!

Before I became a teacher, I was a coach. I coached my sister's field hockey team for 5 years and then later (while I was in university myself) I coached the UBC Junior Varsity team for 2 years. In my opinion, coaching is really just teaching. Except that it's in a different setting and that there are team dynamics going on (not unlike a classroom mind you) but they are perhaps a bit more integral to how the games work out. So, when I began teaching I was also coaching... Soccer, cross country running, basketball, swimming, ultimate frisbee and (even though I'm terrible at it) volleyball.

My favourite thing about coaching is seeing students (sometimes ones who are in my class) in a different setting. I have found that when you are coaching a student on a team it is somewhere that teachers/coaches get to see "an authentic version" of that student. You'll know how hard these students are willing to work (for themselves or the team) and you get to learn a lot about them. It can also be rewarding to see how much they can improve over the course of a season.

Our grade 7 boys team played a game against a fairly strong team from McKinney (blurry photo above shot as I was running/reffing the game!) It was a good starting point and now I know we have a bit more work to do in our upcoming practices. Coaching grade 6 and 7 basketball, I always want my teams to have the basic skills and fundamentals down, so I spend the first part of the season doing a ton of layups and work with the ball instead of "systems" or running set plays. That will come...

Check out the Diefenbaker basketball blog too for updates on the Girls' and grade 6 Boys' and grade 7 Boys' teams as the season progresses...
http://diefenbakerbasketball.blogspot.ca/

"One Thing" for Tues. Jan. 28

In addition to it being Bell's Lets talk day (an initiative to raise money and awareness for mental health issues), I was at day one of a two day workshop from ERASE Bullying:

http://www.erasebullying.ca/

I was at this last year and presenter Rob Rai talked to us about anti-bullying strategies to use in our schools and to be proactive in our approach to all types of bullying.

Today was quite different even though it is a continuation of the same program (a 5 year plan but forth by the BC government). Tanya Weister, a Vancouver Police Officer, was our speaker today. The focus was on Threat and Risk Assessment and it was a bit of an "eye-opener" for me. I like to think of schools as safe places and we watched several videos of (mostly American) news clips where that was not the case. It's been 15 years since the Columbine. A lot has happened since that watershed moment. We talked about how there are imitators out there and people wanting to "beat" whatever tragic event had come before it. Terrible stuff. We also talked about under-reacting and how that might have (by several people in several instances) been the real downfall in the case of Columbine. After all the evidence, and being able to look back at what happened now, it seems like more could have been done by everyone involved given that Dylan and Jason had been building pipe bombs and people knew about it.

It was discussed that communication is a key to helping prevent incidents (of any level really). Having an open flow of communication between families, staff and administration and being able to include the school's police liaison in any issues that arise should go a long way to potentially diffusing them before they get worse.

One of the other big pieces today was social media and it's relationship within our schools in the mobile device era we are now in. According to research studies, children are now only exploring half of what their parents have explored (out in nature). They don't hike, play in their backyard (if they even have one) and don't catch frogs or climb trees like we used to. This means they are spending time "connected" to others online, but we are losing person to person contact as a result. This also may lead to children developing lower levels of empathy for others.

It was all pretty overwhelming actually and I went home mostly worried about my son. So we talked a bit about video games and the internet and then went and played some basketball. I'm just glad we are tackling issues ahead of time in a proactive manner in our school system and not waiting for things to happen.

"One Thing" for Mon. Jan. 27

I am trying to get this out early so that anyone who reads it can help to spread the word for tomorrow, January 28th which is "Let's Talk" day.

What are we "talking about"? Mental Illness.

How does it work? Well, promoted by Bell, anyone that has a Bell texting plan and is sending texts tomorrow will be contributing to mental health initiatives. Bell is going to donate $0.05 for every text that is sent tomorrow (Tuesday).

You can click here for more information: http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/ 

Please spread the word. I know I will be doing that as the issue of mental illness, for so long an unknown entity to me (as it is for so many others these days) has recently become one of great significance in my life.

Here is another link for help http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/get-help/

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Jan. 24

My teaching neighbour (we both had a 6/7 class at Thompson) from a couple years ago, Mr. Out, took a job at an international school in China this past year. It is their Chinese New Year holiday over there right now and it looks like he is on the holiday of a lifetime... His wife is working at the school too and has been taking some amazing photos on their photoblog. Which I am going to plug here on Fun Fridays because even though we just had a vacation, it would be nice to be somewhere like this right about now:

http://chinabyday.tumblr.com/

There are lots of great pictures of Thailand, but this one of the "Gumdrops" in Yangshao might be my favourite:

"One Thing" for Thurs. Jan. 23

Some days things just go sideways and best laid plans don't work out. I was going to be attending the Sockeyes game with many other Diefenbaker students (they won 2-1) but then a couple of different family situations came up...

Anyway, a really neat thing was also happening in our district today after school over at Homma Elementary, where over 120 teachers got together to learn more about technology integration.

WINTERTECH38:

http://public.sd38.bc.ca/~gpowell/tech/FOV4-000D2822/FOV4-000D2823/?1-20
is the link to the evening's "program" of the presenters and it looks pretty great. If you click on any of those grey links with the chain (link) below the coloured pic/avatars it will take you to the document created by the presenters (Chris Loat, Janice Novakowski, Gordon Powell, Lisa Schwartz, Peter Ritchie and Jenn Barker, to name a few)... Lots of valuable information and techy tips in there.

At Diefenbaker, our generous PAC has just given us the ability to purchase 10 more iPads so that we will have enough for each student in a class to use one (so, 30 altogether). This will allow our teachers to use Apps like BookCreator, Haiku Deck and Explain Everything. Wouldn't it have been great if I could have cloned myself to be able to be everywhere I needed to be tonight. Maybe we'll be able to do that sooner than we think.

"One Thing" for Wed. Jan. 22

It's finally here!

At Diefenbaker today, Jamie finished installing our Water Bottle Refilling station. We have been waiting for this since our PAC helped us by funding the purchase last May. After that, we had to wait for two other schools to sign up (many more than that did) and then they install them three schools at a time. We know that there are many of these in various schools, community centres and places like the ice rinks around Richmond, but we are excited to have our own here.

It became "fully operational" this afternoon and I got to fill up my bottle (as #17) and then again after basketball (as #35).

    This counter:
 
will track how many "Nestle" type plastic water bottles have been saved from being brought to school and, resultingly, thrown into the landfill.

Here is also a shameless plug for one of my favourite "Green" documentaries called Tapped. You could watch the whole thing right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf64t6TkoBY  on Youtube with no worries of Copyright issues in your classroom!

Here's the trailer:

Did you know that Dasani water is just tap water anyway? This video stopped me from purchasing bottled water. Period. Not that I bought much of it before, but I certainly don't anymore. We have some of the best water on the planet, why not just enjoy that. Many people in the world don't even have access to clean drinking water at all... We need to appreciate what we have here. Ok. Rant over...

Look for more "Green" related posts coming up as we are going to be doing our inaugural planting in our garden soon with the help from the gardening club!

"One Thing" for Tues. Jan. 21

Welcome back to "Twitter Turesdays" where (it's been a few weeks since I did this last) I search my twitter feed for something interesting educationally speaking.

Today's topic/post: Can you teach "GRIT"? http://www.coolcatteacher.com/can-you-teach-grit-grit-matters/ . Written by Vicki Davis. She mentions psychologist (and former teacher) Angela Duckworth's Ted Talk video about the key to success.
The answer? Grit.

Here is that Ted Talk:


I recently read the most recent Malcolm Gladwell book, titled "David vs Goliath". In it he mentions a trend that he noticed that successful adults, as students were often those who had family experiences that included overcoming hurdles and obstacles. While you might think that students coming from two parent families where everything always works out for them might be a measurement of future success, it sometimes turns out to be the opposite of that. Students that have had a more difficult upbringing and have faced challenges, and failed along the way, are able to be more resilient, gritty and are able to deal with the real world as it comes to them.

I think that the word resilience is being used a lot these days in the research of students too. I suppose that "Grit" and "Resilience" are pretty similar. I know that on a personal level, I am seeing my children's resilience tested on a regular basis. Some days it's there, others it's a bit harder to find but we seem to be able to push through most days.

Edutopia has put together a whole list of resources on resilience and grit: CLICK HERE . This is a fantastic starting place to go if you (or someone you know) is in need of some material on these topics. I know I'm going to use it both personally and professionally.

Here is Oscar winner Hailee Steinfeld (in a supporting role, 2010) from her role as Mattie Ross in "TRUE GRIT".

  Wasn't she fantastic? 

"One Thing" for Mon. Jan. 20

It's coming. Well, actually, it's already here (in many areas anyway)...

I'm talking about the new BC curriculum. Located here: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum

Two summers ago, I was taking a course at UBC called "The Short Course for Principals". One of the guest speakers was the person responsible for the "task force" which was putting the new curriculum together. "For a change", this was an individual who had actually been an educator. He told us that he was going to be bringing in teachers and administrators to help put the curriculum together. Logical, right? He told us about the fact that teachers would be able to have more autonomy over what they were teaching. That also sounded good. He told us about the idea behind shifting towards a few "core competencies" that all students would need to learn (instead of the current list of PLOs) To me, that also felt like something headed in the right direction. He probably made a few more salient points that I cannot remember now, but everyone there (all educators) stood up and broke into a genuine and natural applause. The man, who also had a sense of humour, said: "Excuse me. I just need to send out a two word 'tweet': Ministry Applauded," as if it had never happened before. That stuck with me. Maybe it hadn't. Perhaps because the ministry had never before involved the various levels of stakeholders in the process the way they did this time.

I'm hoping that all the work, resources and help from current educators with ideas about how students learn best that has been put into the new curriculum will be as good as it seemed back when I first heard about the changes coming to the new curriculum in its "idealistic" sense. They've opened it up to parents, had feedback from readers and users online and have continued to revamp the process as it has gone along. Now we are getting to look at it and use it in our classes if we like (and why not try it out now if we're going to be using it soon anyway?). Sometimes change is a good thing.

Here is the link for the home page again https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Jan. 17

I think everyone loves Fridays, but one of the reasons I do is that I often (if my schedule permits) get to play basketball with some fellow teachers at Homma Elementary in the gym. We play 4 on 4, run, joke and have a great time. It's a great way to end the week and something that most of us look forward to each week.

In honour of that, along with the fact that basketball season is starting in our schools, here are a couple of bball related "fun" videos.

                                  

Who is Uncle Drew?
And yes, they're "staged" Pepsi commercials. But still kind of neat.

"One Thing" for Thurs. Jan. 16

Today (at a meeting) I learned that the Richmond School District now owns 4 Nissan "Leafs" which are electric cars.

image from: http://www.californiasolarelectric.com/electric-vehicles

I think this is awesome. So does the man who bought them for the district, Michael Palmer. He crunched some numbers for us in terms of Richmond School District Fleet vehicles which, over the past 20 years have been getting slightly more environmentally friendly (and at the same time better in terms of cost for gasoline) but the reduction in cost (a whopping 84% if my memory serves correctly) to power one of these new cars is fantastic. Plus there are zero emissions. Unfortunately, they don't make electric vehicles (well they do, apparently, just not yet in North America) large enough for all of the Service staff to be able to use them, but they work perfectly for the IT department. Laptop and Leaf? Good to go.

This movement is great to see and makes me a bit less angry at the ending of the most frustrating documentary I have ever watched, Who Killed the Electric Car. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/
I watched parts of this with my class last year after first seeing it a few years ago. Essentially, the GM company made a fleet of (functioning) electric cars but then (as they were only leased out at the time) they pulled them all back in and then crushed them and ended the company's electric car program despite their being a demand for them. It just seemed totally inane. Fortunately, some other companies have seen that there is a market for them and are building them. Additionally, in Europe (where the power of gasoline does not have quite the same stranglehold as it does here) there is much more in the way of choice of electric cars. Let's start thinking like that over here, shall we?

"One Thing" for Wed. Jan. 15

I wanted to write about some young adult novels that I think are great. I typically have a young adult novel on the go (to stay up with what my students are reading) at the same time as I'm reading an adult book. Sometimes, the young adult ones are better, because I can finish them whereas some of my regular books I can only get to on the holidays...

I might be "late to the party" with this one, but I noticed a girl in my class (Fion) reading this book before the winter holiday: 

Then, Angela and Jacson, students who were in my class last year, were talking about the same book in the hallway. I asked them about it and they both said they loved it. So, I asked Jackson to borrow his copy and started it last night. Given the subject matter (two teens meet and fall in love at a Kids' Cancer Support Group) I'm sure it's going to end in tragic fashion, but it's "smart" and sarcastic (my kind of book) so far. I was laughing out loud (picture me alone in the downstairs of my house at 11:30 at night filling the room with laughter). I call that my "Cheers" laugh (from the old tv show), where it didn't matter if anyone was around. Funny is funny, so I would laugh. Loudly. The same with this book. Given the content, I would only recommend it to "mature readers" but it is thought provoking so far.

Recently, my teaching partner and I read

as a class read-aloud. It's a neat story about someone who looks really different and how the main character, August, is treated when he attends school for the first time. The interesting part about this book is that it is written from the perspective of several different characters along the way (his sister, his friend, another girl in the story) and everyone sort of gets a say. Except the "bully" in the story. Good stuff.

I also read Ender's Game

over the holidays on the recommendation of a couple of my colleagues. I figured it was a recent novel (by the cover) and the fact that the movie just came out recently. I was wrong. Written first as a short story in 1977 and then published (in full) in 1985, it's a sci-fi/military classic that I had never read (even though that's my favourite genre and I have owned the book for about 3 years). I haven't seen the movie, but all of the child psychology and "limit pushing" in this one was interesting.

And last, but certainly not least, is a book that is possibly now my second favourite Young Adult novel (Louis Sachar's HOLES is my favourite). It's called Out of My Mind:

It's a really well researched book that depicts the "school" parts accurately and tells a great story about a girl, who has cerebral palsy (similar to Stephen Hawking) and even though she can't communicate is a really smart girl. She gets some technology to help her communicate and the world opens up for her...

Please excuse me though, as I'm going to go read some more "The Fault in Our Stars"...

"One Thing" for Tues. Jan. 14

Don Taylor, retired Richmond principal, brought Jacob Wozney and Jordan Andrews, two members of the Richmond Sockeyes by our school today for a visit.

The boys showed off some of their hardware (pictured on the table) their skills (they were able to beat M. Ardanaz in a stick and puck relay and answered many questions from our hockey-crazed intermediate students. 

As part of a community initiative, we are working with Mr. Taylor and local schools to support the Sockeyes and have secured tickets to a game at their home arena (Minoru) next Thursday (Jan. 23). The game begins at 7pm. Notices about this opportunity will be coming home tomorrow if they didn't already do so today. 

you can also check out their team site at: 

http://www.richmondsockeyes.com/leagues/front_pageSockeyes.cfm?clientID=2861&leagueID=7242

Go Richmond. Go Sockeyes!

"One Thing" for Mon. Jan. 13

What a day! My kids and I were at the emergency at RGH after my daughter fell off a table at her after school care and onto her chin. She got 4 stitches and now has some in the same place as me!

I know she doesn't want them, but she was such a trooper today. I'm proud of her. 

Technically this was my "One Thing" for today (it was "One" important thing happening to "One" of my "one things"). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check out my first post/the inspiration for the idea behind the "One Thing" blog here: 

http://diefenbaker2point0.blogspot.ca/2013/10/one-thing.html

However, I would also like to mention the following about school today: 

I was lucky enough to get in and see every classroom this morning for a visit and it was great to see all the students this way. Some of whom I had seen at Watermania or the Canucks Skills competition this weekend (I always forget how excited students are to see one of their teachers out and about doing things), and it was great to see others singing, doing calendar, playing or learning about Energy on a visit to the staff room (to see how many items actually run on power there). For me, I love visiting the primary students as I have never taught primary and have only done so in short stints. It's probably for the best. 

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Jan. 10th

These OK GO videos are from a few years ago, but I think they are fantastic.

Have a great weekend!


This Too shall pass (Rube Goldberg Machine)

Here it goes Again (fun with a treadmill)

White Knuckles (fun with puppies and cups and stuff that looks like it came from Ikea)

and

"One Thing" for Thurs. Jan. 9

How much pressure is too much? On a twelve year old? How much is too much on a 6 year old?

Do schools do put too much pressure on our students? If so, is it high schools that do that with all of the requirements to graduate that need to be fulfilled or is it done the same way at elementary schools too? Are we forcing students to learn too many facts and memorize things that they will never need to know again? Or are we giving them opportunities (in their time at school each day) to work cooperatively, problem solve and learn about things they can use outside of the classroom. Are we giving them enough time at the end of their school day to play? Or, along with outside of school activities do our kids not have enough time to do stuff like play with cardboard boxes and just "be kids"?

Do parents put too much pressure on their children? Do I put too much pressure on mine? I think being a teacher gives you the ability to have the perspective to see things from both sides in that regards. I have seen students who got a question wrong on a test or even a quiz or an assignment that have not been able to handle that failure/hurdle. How did we get to this point? When students resort to cheating or plagiarism in order to "succeed or be successful" in school, does that mean that they have been pushed too far? I would say it does.

I know that this is mostly, (well pretty much entirely, actually) just a bunch of questions. Something to think about though anyway...I know I am.

"One Thing" for Wed. Jan. 8

As I was ill and not at school today, I thought I would continue on a bit with my post from yesterday in the "How do we know when we've seen something amazing"? category. I have had many great students in my 15 years of teaching and even some gifted ones. I mentioned to the students in my class yesterday that part of why I love this job is that often they do things that amaze us. A few years ago I was at a different Richmond school when a grade 7 boy named Liam, who was new to our school, handed in the story below. It contained only a single "mistake" (as he had spelt Marilyn Monroe's name incorrectly) and the "voice" of the piece (sarcastic) really blew me away. 

His desk was right next to the poster below (her name is Tracy) that I had up on the bookshelf. During a free writing assignments (probably no more than an hour), he wrote the whole story (appearing below), inspired by that very poster. It's definitely time I shared this with a wider audience as I know I couldn't produce something half as good if you gave me a month. 

When I read his piece, I was "amazed" and soon after, with some assistance, we determined that Liam was a gifted writer. 

Sometimes though, when you don't expect it and something "Amazing..."like this comes along, you know why it's so great to be a teacher. 

image from: http://radar.boisestate.edu/image/cache/TobaccoPosterChild-500x500.jpg

TRACY: A STORY OF LOVE AND HEARTBREAK

I was 12; she was some age under 16. I had never smoked; she already had twenty times the chance of dying of lung cancer. I had braces; she had gum disease. Her name was Tracy, and although she was but a poster on the side of a bookshelf in an elementary school classroom, she was my first love. Her leathery skin, cataracts, skin damage, throat cancer, psoriasis, heart disease, and stomach ulcers - who could resist her? She was addicted to cigarettes, and I to her.

I had recently changed schools, and was still reeling from the shock. When I first entered that unfamiliar classroom, I was alone, but she saved me, a gleaming star in my stark, cold, and unfeeling universe. Alas, I could not muster the courage to talk to her. She was the tobacco industry’s poster child, who was I? I had to face facts. She was, as they say, “out of my league”. I tried to push her out of my mind, but my efforts were in vain. My schoolwork suffered, and I became depressed. The seasons seemed to cry with me. As I sunk further into my depression, the weather turned from sunny summer to cold winter. My family wondered what had happened to me, but I couldn’t tell them, they wouldn’t understand.

But, Dear Reader, this is not the end. One cool, fall day, towards the beginning of October, I decided to talk to her for reasons even I cannot understand.  The day’s studies seemed to speed by. I waited until everyone was gone, and approached her. She was in her usual position, standing by the bookshelf, smoking a cigarette. I cleared my throat.

“So, what’s up?” I asked, trying to make conversation. No response.  “Uh, you should maybe quit smoking. Cancer, and all that.” I immediately realized I had overstepped my bounds. “But, uh, well, whatever you want is good.” Silence. I had blown it. “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Marilyn Monroe?” She looked at me as if examining a specimen under a microscope. I sighed. “Look, I’m going to level with you. I love you. I have since I first saw you. Just… please, please take me seriously, because I am.” Now it was her turn to sigh.

            “Look, Liam - that is your name, right? I’m sorry, but I’m just not ready for commitment. “

“But –“ I started.

            “No buts. I think I’ve been nice enough, listening to you, and it’s really time for you to go.”

My eyes began to water. “Please-“

“No!”

I wiped away the tears. “Fine.” I said, and walked away. The last thing I saw as I left was some kid I vaguely remembered from my class walk up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. She had lied to me when she said she wasn’t ready for commitment, but I didn’t care. She was my first love, and she broke my heart. She was always there, smoking that cigarette in the corner, but I never looked at her again.

"One Thing" for Tues. Jan. 7

How do we know when we've seen something "Amazing"?

That was the question in our humanities block today. Without giving any examples (as I didn't want to set a precedent) we first came up with a definition for the word.

• Unique
• standing out
• wondrous
• extreme
• astonishing

were some synonyms we came up with. In the era of Youtube and things "going viral" we agreed that we might have seen some "amazing' things on the internet (or television) but that it would have been so much more amazing to see these things for ourselves. It might also be that they weren't necessarily amazing after all when we compared them with some other "amazing" stuff.

We also agreed that amazing depended on/was all relative to our own preferences. For one person, something they felt was amazing might not be amazing to someone else who didn't share that same passion. Sidney Crosby's "golden goal" in the 2010 Olympics against the USA was an example given that fit both of these criteria. Amazing? If you're a hockey fan, then sure. If you don't care about hockey? then maybe not. Amazing to have seen it on tv? But what if you were there? How many more times amazing would that have been if you were a fan?

Sometimes, we've done amazing things too. We tried to think of times when we had accomplished something amazing or done something that might have been a once in a lifetime event or even something on our "bucket list". Flying in a helicopter (and actually steering it for a few moments) as a 7 year old was an experiential version of amazing that one of my students shared.

We also decided that for "How do you know when you've seen or done something amazing" that you might have to go outside of your house/country to experience one of these amazing events. One student just returned from vacation in Dubai and saw the world's tallest building, The Burj Khalifa.

image from: http://www.newsilike.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/jan2010worldtallestburjkhalifa.jpg

On the same trip he then went on the world's fastest roller coaster, travelling 240 km/h. For a 12 year old boy, I'm pretty sure that qualifies as amazing. 

All of this was leading up to my point where I then shared some pictures of me in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza from when I travelled there in 2001 with my sister and Mrs. Rollins. As a class, we are about to lead into an exploration of Egypt and my goal was to get the students to actually think about the different levels that something might be "amazing" on. While that youtube clip of the day might be "cool" it might not be as neat as some of the things we can actually get out and see or do. I think they realized what something needed to be in order to qualify as "amazing" and we'll see how interested they will be in some of the "amazing" artifacts/monuments of ancient Egypt when we get to look at them. I think "amazing is in the eye of the beholder" but for me, seeing these certainly "made the grade for me":

"One Thing" for Monday Jan. 6

Yes, it's January and we are back (well, for the next 10 weeks anyway)...

The topic of conversation in a lot of places at school today was sleep. Some got lots of it over the holidays, and some (like me) didn't get much of it last night. I went to bed at my usual time but had trouble falling asleep and was up past 1am. Then I woke up about 5:00 and tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 6:30. Made for an interesting day. I was excited/nervous to head back to school, (and was probably thinking too much) about all the things coming up.

We all need sleep. Our kids do too. Interestingly, when Mrs. Rollins and I taught overseas in 2000 in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, we would go out to dinner at a restaurant. We would arrive at 8:00 (late to eat in our opinion) and we would be the first ones there. When we would leave at about 9:30, local families would just be arriving to dinner. With their children! We even saw some who were in Mrs. Rollins kindergarten class. So, they are there eating until what, 11:00pm? Then getting up and going to school the next day? Clearly not the best situation for growing children.

The following (for elementary aged children) is from the sleep foundation. At: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/children-and-sleep

Sleep and School-aged Children (5-12 years)

Children aged five to 12 need 10-11 hours of sleep. At the same time, there is an increasing demand on their time from school (e.g., homework), sports and other extracurricular and social activities. In addition, school-aged children become more interested in TV, computers, the media and Internet as well as caffeine products – all of which can lead to difficulty falling asleep, nightmares and disruptions to their sleep. In particular, watching TV close to bedtime has been associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep, anxiety around sleep and sleeping fewer hours.

Sleep problems and disorders are prevalent at this age. Poor or inadequate sleep can lead to mood swings, behavioral problems such as hyperactivity and cognitive problems that impact on their ability to learn in school.

Sleep Tips for School-aged Children

• Teach school-aged children about healthy sleep habits.
• Continue to emphasize need for regular and consistent sleep schedule and bedtime routine.
• Make child's bedroom conducive to sleep – dark, cool and quiet.
• Keep TV and computers out of the bedroom.
• Avoid caffeine.

One of the interesting ideas I have heard floated around to do with teens and sleeping is that school would be better for teens if it started later (like 10:00 am) and went longer in the afternoon. Apparently that might mimic the sleep patterns of most teens and make things easier for them. There is some research that has been done that supports this as well (see below)... There are obstacles to making a change such as this, of course. I wonder if that would be better or worse for teachers? 

CBC doc on Canadian schools starting later:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/schools-let-sleepy-teens-lie-in-1.1169804

and in some cases, where they just switched from what to me seemed like insanely early start times, to more regular ones, benefits were found: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/hot-topics/backgrounder-later-school-start-times