Exploring education and challenging my thinking. Figuring out life, learning every day and trying to do better.
I’ve been watching what is happening in the United States now that Donald Trump is President. And while I haven’t yet found the collection of words I wish to share, there is one thing I do believe in.
I want my future classroom and or future students to know:
Don’t remember if I’ve posted about Bell Let’s Talk Day in Canada before, but January 25th, 2017 was a good day.
Bell raised money in support of mental health, asking Canadians and Bell subscribers to share messages with #BellLetsTalk in text messages and various social media platforms. The idea is that by talking about mental health openly, we can help end the stigma around it, and hopefully better support those around us who are affected or who are dealing with mental health.
This year’s #BellLetsTalk results:
Some people might say that Bell’s approach to mental health awareness isn’t the right one, that money needs to come to programs and from the government and while this is all true, at least Bell is actively doing something, and they are getting people talking. Change happens when people start talking. “We must all work to eliminate the stigma around mental illness” by Erin O’Toole is a good read.
I’ve struggled with depression for a long time, and in January 2016 when things got really bad, I had a few great friends who were instrumental in getting the support and medication I need. Things are not perfect now but they are better than they were.
It’s been almost a year since my last post! During the time, I have been working on my research and have just completed data collection! On to hours of transcribing!!!
However, during that time, I had the privilege to work with refugee women and university students in a program to help teach English.
Check out links to two published stories about this experience.
It was a wonderful experience and everyone was sad that it had to end. We are working on a similar program for the women in the new year though!
As part of the ED 808 class I have just finished completing, we were to take action towards a social justice issues important to us. You can read more about this from my October 28th post: Social Justice: Taking action GSAs
I decided to write a letter to four people, regarding the need for Gender & Sexuality Alliances (commonly known and Gay-Straight Alliances) to be implemented in all publicly funded schools within Saskatchewan. If you’d like to check out the letter, you can view it here.
I though I would share the response I received regarding the letters I sent about gender and sexuality alliances (GSAs) in schools. I wrote to Premier Brad Wall, Bill Hutchinson, Rob Currie and Don Morgan – the same letter sent to each person individually.
December 11 – I received a response from Don Morgan, Minister of Education in Saskatchewan. I found it interesting that he states that he is responding to the letter sent to Brad Wall and not the letter I sent him. While his response tells me nothing new (he references many things I researched in order to compose my letter), and no action that will be taken by the government, I do appreciate receiving a response.
December 21 – I received a response from Premier Brad Wall. His response is very similar to Don Morgan’s; none the less, I appreciate hearing back from him regarding my letter.
Letter of response from Don Morgan
Letter of response from Brad Wall
@SaskTeachersFed why is there still so much emphasis on “measuring”? Isn’t there more to teaching and learning than this?
— Cynthia Schultz (@CynthiaSchultz1) November 1, 2015
Why indeed is there still so much emphasis on measuring – moving from “what we can measure” to what “we care about”? What is it that teachers care about and wish to measure that they are already not measuring? Measuring and moving towards standardization is the problem. What do standardized assessments really tell you? – that students can regurgitate what we teach them? That if we teach to the test, then hopefully students can past the test? There is no feedback for the student other than a grade. There is not much feedback for the teacher or the school either.
Photo Credit: cfdtfep via Compfight cc
I remember school goals being: “By the end of the school year, ___% of students will be reading at or above grade level.” The same holds true for math as well. What do these school goals really tell the school – do they reflect the students? Do they reflect the teachers and how well the teach? Do they reflect the way in which students are taught? I hope that there would be more important goals for a school to measure over the course of a school year than reading and math scores/levels.
As Kumashiro (2015) tells us,
[I]t is not possible to say exactly what the students were learning. And therein lies the uncertainty of teaching.
Still Learning 