Put Your Best Foot Forward

 Last Thursday was an important day for our school. We hosted some very important visitors - the deputy Minister of Education and the director of the Toronto District School Board.

Our admin team wanted to impress our guests. Our superintendent recommended our school as the location for this gathering, and we were selected for the honour, so we did not want to let him down either. (The poor man actually fell sick on this day and was unable to attend.)

How did we get ready? We had LOTS of meetings to discuss the agenda and the flow for the tour. My usually relaxed principal was anxious and very concerned that everything go well. We reviewed what to say. We collected artifacts. We wandered the school, checking that everything was in tip-top shape. We had to determine how to deliver our message to recipients that possessed very different levels of familiarity with education. (We couldn't oversimplify but at the same time, we couldn't use too much school terminology.)  I asked our amazing adult helper, Pat McNaughton, to come by and tidy the shelves. We plotted and planned. We were also prepared to be flexible.

Good thing flexibility was part of the plan. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, we were twenty minutes off schedule. My principal pointed out that none of the things that Colleen or Kate saw were staged; these were all typical things that happened in the classes we visited. One of the communications team members from TDSB was there to take photos (like the first one from this blog post, taken from Colleen Russell-Rawlings' social media post) but I snuck in a few of my own. Here's a quick glimpse.

This is Krisha from Communications. She and the strategic advisor to the director were there before the others, so Connie Chan and I talked to them a little bit about the Board Games Club they saw taking place in the library as they entered. They even had a chance to play one of the games our Board Games Club loves the most - Buildzi. Usually Krisha is behind the camera; I'm glad she got to reverse roles a bit.

Here are Colleen and Kate talking with Diana Hong, our Grade 5-6 teacher who is also a K-12 math coach. Diana is a big proponent and supporter of Building Thinking Classrooms. The students are so used to having adults come to observe that they continued doing their work without a second glance at the extra bodies.

This is a photo of Farah Wadia, Grade 8 teacher extraordinaire, with Kate Manson-Smith, the deputy Minister of Education, checking out the art that incorporated social and eco-justice and perspective taking.

There's always things we wish could have done differently. I wish we could have seen all the classes in the school. As it was, we went to five classes. I wish there was a way to introduce the entire staff. We had to cut short our explanation of how we addressed one third of our school improvement plan, the section on belonging, joy and well-being. We covered it in other ways as we shared tales from the academic/achievement strand and the Indigenous education / future success strand, but it's a shame we didn't delve more into how our PLCs help drive our actions. I am filled with admiration for our TDSB director; she is brilliant and perceptive. (I said as much last year when I saw her at Unleashing Learning 2023 - Unleashing Learning 2024 was the very next day after her visit to our school.) I wish that we had time to answer some of the questions Colleen posed about percentage discrepancies and adult support. There's no need for regret. At our post-visit debrief, our admin team agreed that the event went quite smoothly, even with our most unpredictable of students - the kindergarten learners enthusiastically welcomed the grown-ups and after a hug from a little girl, Kate exclaimed that she was not used to getting affection like that as part of her daily work. 

Thank you to everyone that played a part in making the visit such a success. Next week will be a different kind of busy, with Track and Field, Open House and Jump Rope for Heart on the agenda. It's time to put our best feet forward again, this time for our families and school community. (It won't look quite like this, but I just had to share my polka-dot ensemble to end this post!)

Surround Yourself

 I was driving home late last Thursday night and was listening to The John Tesh Radio Show. During that broadcast, Tesh mentioned that your IQ is an average of your five closest friends. I thought that sounded interesting so I did a little investigation. It turns out that this is a controversial assertion, with articles supporting and debunking this claim. Whether or not it's true, it got me thinking about people I spend time with and how they enrich me in different ways.

Moses

On that specific evening, I had the great fortune to reconnect with a friend. We estimated that it had been about eight years since we had last been in touch. The conversation bubbled and percolated like a tasty, nourishing soup and we talked for hours. It's a shame we didn't take any photos together, but we were more focused on catching up and discussing some really meaty issues in education, rather than documenting with photos. He is, in my eyes, a brilliant pedagogue and every time we chat, I leave feeling smarter, with more insights and suggestions into improving my teaching practice.

James

My husband James is fantastic. I'm so lucky to be married to him. One of his many traits that I find so appealing is his keen mind. He is intellectually curious and reads voraciously. For today's blog post, I was trying to determine the narrative path it would take, and through our discussion, he helped me see how it would proceed without feeling forced. This is neither the first time, nor the last time that James will help me with my work. He's not a teacher, but he understands teaching, so it helps me get out of my echo chamber.

Me and my boys

Mary at the wheel

To be honest, my entire family helps me grow. I admire my daughter Mary for the way she has achieved such a healthy work-life balance; she is much more mature than I was at her age! (One of my former principals even said as much about us, and this was when Mary was a teenager!) Her cosplay outfits are so creative and she's introduced the family to new restaurants and foods. She's thoughtful and brave and tolerant. My son Peter continually impresses me; I consult him about all sorts of tech and pop culture issues (from memes to video creation [Peter edited our Family Feud audition tape last year]). He is turning lemons into lemonade - instead of despairing about how hard it is to find employment, he is using his time to grow his YouTube channel and it is paying off. (Please watch or subscribe to his channel if you are interested in gaming and modern media production in general.) 

My 2024 birthday dinner at The Prague

Renee

Do you have a "work wife"? According to a Newsweek article, a quote attributed to Marilyn Whitman and Ashley Manderville,

"Simply put, a work spouse is one's 'go-to' person, a confidant, one who knows you better than anyone else at work,"

Although the usual reference involves a member of the opposite sex, my "work bestie" is a woman. Renee Keberer and I have worked together on and off since 2004, when we joined my current school. We are physical opposites but collaborate extremely well together. If you search my blog with the keyword "Renee", you'll find pages and pages of mentions, often describing how our conversations lead to new perspectives and helpful rethinking. Her strengths are where I have room for improvement and together we are better. (For instance, I'm all about the big ideas and she has a firm grip on the "nitty gritty" aspects. She is great with numbers and I am good with words.) We are the team that designs the school yearbook each year and we are also running the Board Game Club together. This is her last year in the profession, as she is retiring in June. Many people have asked me how I will cope without my "other half". I reply that I've had a bit of practice; Renee  left in 2011 for a central position in our board. I cried torrents of tears in the car the first day we had a staff meeting and she wasn't there, but I know now that we don't have to be constantly together for our friendship to survive.

So what's the point? Even if this IQ idea isn't true, it's valuable for students, teachers, and people in general to surround themselves with others who will help them stay positive, encourage them, and provide intellectual stimulation that will let them consider different perspectives and allow them to think and grow. Good influences - that's what we need!

 

Easily Eclipsed

 I wasn't going to write about today's solar eclipse. Western news and social media outlets are gleefully sharing all the hubbub surrounding this astronomical event. People are travelling to certain cities to ensure they get the best view. The city of Niagara Falls will be under a state of emergency because of the immense number of visitors expected to descend for this occasion. 

In the end, I had to acquiesce. Something like this that happens so infrequently yet so spectacularly (the last one that impacted Canada was in 1979) that I couldn't ignore it. There are lots of things happening in the world that should probably have more attention paid to them. However, the "novel" can easily overshadow (dare I say, "eclipse") the "mundane".

A similar phenomenon occurs in education as well. The special events get more attention, more photos, more yearbook page space. I just went through all the photos I took from January to now to select some for my annual school scrapbook. It's more interesting and flashy to select things that are out-of-the-ordinary, such as the students skiing at Albion Hills, hosting the first Rubik's Cube Club meeting or building joysticks during Robotics Club.

This post is a reminder to me that I need to give equal time and attention to the boring but necessary tasks that are part of day-to-day teaching. I'm making a point of writing down on my to-do list these chores so that I don't ignore them. It's things like 

• evaluating the social studies classwork completed by the Grade 1s and 2s
• recording marks on my spreadsheets so I'll be ready for report card writing
• planning an assessment for the Grade 3s and 4s mid-way through to see if they understand the concepts already presented
• documenting the library recess visits so I can include the numbers in my annual report

We need special days to spice things up once in a while but it's the routine tasks that help us function. Trust me, I'd rather devote my time to something "sparkly" (like crafting my IMLRS presentations) but we need the basics done first. 

I don't have any plans to view the solar eclipse live. Toronto isn't in the direct path, and I don't want to risk injuring my eyesight. I'll peek at photos online after the fact. Students aren't in school, for safety reasons. I'll be at school, working on student class placements for next year, student recognition procedures, tidying the library, making new signage for the shelves, and choosing new books for the guided reading room. It's not solar-eclipse-level glamorous, but it's necessary for us to function smoothly. Kudos to STAO and the public libraries for sharing information or free viewing goggles so that people can safely enjoy this big moment. Use caution, everyone!

Let the Clubs Commence!

 Happy Easter and Happy April Fool's Day! I don't have the energy or inspiration to create a fake post (although I'm sure there will be plenty online; save them if you want to teach about lateral reading and verifying information). 

The topic for today's post is based on how I've noticed some additions have crept into my schedule. "Crept" probably isn't the right verb to describe it, as I'm the one that's inserted them.

There are only three months left in this school year and I am about to launch several new spring clubs. A couple of other clubs are relatively new as well. I peeked at my blog and saw that I ran similar clubs in 2019 before the pandemic blew everything out of the water.

Here's a list of the clubs that are just about to start:

1) Ukulele Club

My first attempt to run Ukulele Club was last year. I'm not an expert by any means. I was fortunate last year to have several Grade 8 students with a lot of ukulele experience and they helped a lot. This year, we have a smaller number of students signed up but I'll have a second adult with me - the kind and talented Mrs. Thess Isidro. She is self-taught, thanks to YouTube videos, and she even owns her own ukulele! We will see if we learn enough to compile a song for the spring concert in May.

2) Rubik's Cube Club

I have never run Rubik's Cube Club ever before, and for good reasons - I have no clue how to solve a Rubik's Cube! However, I offered to organize and supervise it as long as I had help from a fantastic fan. Andy graduated last year from our school. He is in Grade 9 at the local high school and told me that he'd be willing to help students learn about the techniques for solving this puzzle cube. We had 34 students indicate interest and 12 bring back their permission forms. Andy and any of his high school friends that he brings to assist will earn volunteer hours for their time and effort.

These are the clubs that just started recently that I'm involved with:

1) Board Game Club

I love playing board games. When I ran a version of this club in 2018, each group only had a month (or four sessions) to gather and play. Heck, staff members enjoy playing games too! This time around, this club was formed by invitation-only, for reasons related to our Specialist Teacher Professional Learning Community focus for the year. My partner in crime Renee Keberer and I co-run it with ten participants in the junior division. We've met twice so far. During our first session, we played The Game of Things. In our second session, we played Imagine. Here are some photos from our recent Imagine game. I was really impressed by the players. One is of the topic "Jobs" and the other is "Art and Literature". Can you guess what the visuals are supposed to represent?

(The answers are "plumber" and "Moby Dick". Yes, some of our students know about Moby Dick.)

2) Primary Robotics Club

Matthew Malisani and I started this club in February. He deserves all the credit for what goes on during these Mondays at lunch. I offer the space and support. He brings the robots and plans the activities. We average about a dozen regulars from Grades 2-3 who have built their own joystick controllers with Makey Makey circuit boards and programmed with Dash robots. Take a look at some of these photos that I took of our little engineers in action!

These are the clubs that I have not yet started but will begin once I'm done with all of my Forest of Reading chats. (For the record, I conducted 65 chats in January 2024, 91 chats in February 2024, and 64 chats in March 2024. I want to try and exceed my "score" from 2023, when I held 239 chats in total. I beat my January and February numbers, and fell short of my March 2023 number by 3. I'll need to keep up my chat count if I want to surpass last year, as April 2023 was my highest figure.)

1) Forest of Reading Quiz Bowl

We already have nine schools signed up and a location selected! My school won the non-fiction competition last year, so they are eager to try and make it two in a row.

2) Red Maple Marketing Team

A team from my school also won this event last year as well. Two of the Grade 8s have already read over 30 of the titles from this year's Forest of Reading roster, so until we launch the Red Maple competition, they are helping to do some chats (under supervision, so they aren't handing out signatures on Forest of Reading passports too freely). 

Why is there such a plethora of new clubs? I can suggest a few reasons. The end of the year is within sight, and many of us want to squeeze in some extra opportunities for our students before the school year ends. As I alluded to earlier, our Specialist Teacher PLC is focused on how extra curricular clubs and teams can benefit our students. We are forming some of these clubs with specific goals in mind. The primary and junior division students do not have as much clubs available for them to join as the intermediate division students do. Part of my efforts is to alter this inequity. For reasons I won't elaborate on here, fewer staff members are able to run clubs at our school. Some of the educators who do run clubs regularly have very time-intensive clubs they operate, so it's hard for them to add to their plates. (Some of the other clubs that occur at our school include, but are not limited to: Crochet Club, the Huddle Up Crew, Eco-Club, Recycling Team, Student Council, Fitness Club, and the Swifties Club.) It's important to remember that clubs are optional for teachers to run. It's not part of our designated duties. (I like the quote I saw online recently that said something like "Teaching is the only profession that if you do exactly what you are contracted to do, that counts as job action.")  Whatever the reasons, whatever the clubs ... I hope students enjoy these offerings coming up!

Increase, Decrease, Rearrange: Fluevogs and the Reading Room

 What I originally wanted to discuss had no photographic evidence to supplement it, so I combined it with a favourite new topic - my shoe collection!

My school has a place that is sometimes called "the guided reading resource room" or "the book room". This is a separate space from the school library. The purpose of the guided reading room is to offer levelled readers and materials for literature circles and guided reading lessons for teachers. 

One of the activities that brings my current principal joy is physical plant upgrades. He moved our lunch room to a classroom and transformed the old lunchroom into a fitness studio. His latest idea is to turn the special education resource room, located in the library, into a STEM / STEAM lab. The SERT classroom will move to the former guided reading room, and the guided reading room will combine with the teacher workroom. The addition of a STEM / STEAM lab will benefit the school library learning commons. It just will take a lot of work to make it happen. Thankfully, my principal is willing to devote time, money, and effort to make these projects a reality. This past week, he freed up two of us on staff for a day to weed the book room. 

Sheri and I were very methodical about our deselection approach. She began with the materials for the youngest learners and I started at the opposite end, with novels. I referred to our TDSB Policy Guide on the Selection and Deselection of Learning Resources. These were a few of my observations, which can also be applied to my collection of Fleuvogs. 

When I last wrote about my shoes on this blog, I had five pairs of Fluevogs. Now I have nine. 1/9 I bought at full price from the store. 4/9 I bought at the store on sale. 3/9 I bought second-hand from an individual seller. 1/9 was a gift. 

More Isn't Always Better

Otherwise known as "quality over quantity", we found that there were many, many copies of books in the book room, but some of the copies were in terrible condition. Many of the titles hold no appeal to our students. I forgot that the "whole class novel study" used to be a thing. We had 40-50 copies of a single title - and rather old titles, at that. (Think The Westing Game, or The Giver or even The Outsiders.) The current pedagogical practice leans more towards literature circles or guided reading groups, which means smaller numbers of copies of a particular title. 

The other problem with having too many things is that items get misplaced in the vast volume of material present. We thought we had almost no copies of levelled readers at the early stages. We actually do possess more than we thought; it's just that it was scattered throughout the room. The room was in a mess and was quite a dumping ground for all sorts of other items that didn't belong in there. (More on that in the "Ownership" topic.)

In the shoe department, (and this will make my husband happy), there will come a time where I will have enough Fluevogs. Shoes need to be worn. Right now, all the Fluevogs I own are in regular circulation. I know people who own 40-plus or even 100-plus pairs of shoes, and even though the variety is marvelous, it's impossible for them to get all those shoes in rotation. There are bound to be favourites that are worn more often. Then comes issues of storage and whether or not the owner is getting adequate use based on the money they paid. (This is where I can benefit; some people will sell off items from their collections at a reduced rate. I just have to resist the pull of purchasing shoes simply because they are my size and are a good price!

This was a photo of my Fluevog shoe collection before I added the most recent acquisitions. (Top row, L-R = Slacker Vagabond, Thrillvog Paulson, Slacker Nap / Bottom row, L-R = Thrillvog Tippi, Enneagram Innovative, Fellowship Trish)

These are the newest additions. (The single photo is of a Wonders K2. In the photo below, the one on the left is a Fellowship Cleo and the one on the right is a Mellow Motown.)

Organization Influences Use

The layout of a room really makes an impact. That connects with the AML Media Key Concept #7 - Form and Content are Closely Related. For instance, we had buckets of books that had a sign with a general theme description (e.g. "Adventures"). They hadn't been touched, because no one know what was in there. Teachers use the book room to find books for their readers. We plan on breaking up these bins and setting them up more by approximate grade suitability.

Before library folks get concerned, rest assured that I will and would NEVER set up my school library collection based on lexile stages. The purpose is vastly different. School library collections are for recreational reading and subject-specific inquiry, not for the ability to decode a text. 

I rearranged my closet to accommodate my Fluevog collection. I own one of those hanging shoe racks, but I was worried that the shoes would get too banged up and/or fall out (as the pockets aren't deep). I cleared out the top shelf of my closet so that the shoes can sit soles-down in their own spot.  

The set-up shows what you possess. This is true and helpful for shoes and books. If you can't easily find what you are looking for, you might give up searching, or miss out on a perfect fit (for your size or mind!) Take a look at this post asking for storage advice from the Flummity forum on Facebook. (Plus, I love her shoes!)

We need to make the space look good so that people will flock to it and use it more. Less clutter and clear signage will help with that. To apply this to my shoes, I've been exploring how to take selfies so that my shoes can be seen better. I've experimented with angles and find that setting a timer and hoisting my leg up on a desk helps give a fuller picture. I posted this shot to Instagram recently and received a positive reaction from my friends. (This way, you can see my face, my shoes, and the outfit I paired the shoes with.)

Hoarding Isn't Always Beneficial

This relates to "more isn't always better". Saving items that you aren't going to use is fruitless. It takes up valuable real estate. To use the gardening analogy, the weeds crowd out and choke the things you truly want to cultivate. Some of the books in the book room were yellowed with age and caked with dust. Maybe the new storage set-up will help some of the titles that aren't in poor physical shape. If they still don't get used, then they'll be recycled.

I won't recycle shoes, but I will pass them along to someone else who might love them more. I swore that I would wear every pair of Fluevogs I obtained. However, I bought a used pair that fit me but just weren't comfortable to wear for long periods of time. (This surprised me a bit, as almost all my Fluevogs make my feet happy, with the exception of my first pair without socks.) I am not yet ready to enter the selling market, so I plan on shipping them to my sister in Calgary. I hope she doesn't see this, because it's supposed to be a surprise. If she does see it, then Mary, enjoy your new-to-you black, size 6 Fellowship High Lucilles!

Add But Also Subtract

My dear friend Kim, one of my Fluevog enablers, has a personal rule now that if she buys a new pair of Fluevogs, she has to get rid of a pair. This is a pretty reasonable practice, especially when space is at a premium. If we keep adding books to the book room without getting rid of the ones that we aren't using, we will run out of space. I have no clue what the "magic number" is for books in a library collection or shoes in a personal collection, but it is possible to "max out".

Ownership Fosters Responsibility

If your name is attached, then the state of the collection reflects on you. The reading room never truly "belonged" to any particular individual. That made it possible to become a dumping ground for extra items. We found puppets, board games, clothes, stationary supplies and all sorts of junk stashed in the reading room. Shared spaces sometimes have a similar problem. We tackle this in our other locations (i.e. the stock room, the gym cupboard) by having a committee, led by a single person, who can take charge and ensure that the spot is properly maintained and not abused. 

Since I spend money (and rather a lot of money) on my new and new-to-me Fluevogs, I need to be much more careful about their treatment. I clean them. I try not to wear them during inclement weather. I put them away in their designated storage space so other shoes don't scuff them up. 

Watch Your Biases

Weeding the reading room with someone else was a real treat. We were able to check with each other to get a second opinion on whether or not to keep certain titles. I know that even though I have policies to guide me with the decision to select or deselect, my own personal preferences can interfere with the process. For instance, I like graphic novels, so I'd be less inclined to remove them from the collection than other books. My predecessor had an affinity for cranberries and cats, so there were a lot of books on those topics in the school library collection. 

The same applies to shoes. I know I fall into patterns or trends. My husband, who is not a big fan of my latest shoe obsession, said after viewing my pair of Cleos, that they look just like another pair I already own. There are some differences, but he makes a fair point; I lean towards black shoes in a Mary Jane style. I need to be very conscious about diversifying my collection. Maybe these Dorotheas would do the trick?

Deal with the Desire for More

Getting new things is a lovely feeling. Buying fresh new books is a thrill. Purchasing a snazzy pair of shoes is a delight. However, it is important to spend responsibly. Take inventory to see what you have before making a rash decision based on the adrenalin rush of consumerism. We originally anticipated that we would have to spend a lot of money to boost our guided reading options, but the situation isn't as dire as we originally thought. I was gung-ho about getting a nice round number of ten pairs, but unless I find a pair that I know will fit, is a new but useful style, and is a good deal, I'll need to resist. This hasn't stopped me from taking screen shots of some shoes I'm admiring from afar (or not so afar). Kim and I took our friend Wendy to buy her first pair of Fluevogs and tried on a few ... for research purposes.

In my defense, some of these are definitely out of consideration because of size (I'm between a 6-7), location (I try for pick-up purchases rather than incur extra shipping costs), price (needs to be under $200) and duplication (I must stop buying black shoes!) But aren't they cute?

March Break in Maryland

 The spring respite from work in the 2020s has been a mixed bag. Last year, it was a quiet affair with a visit to Toronto ComiCon thrown in for good measure. March of 2020, 2021, and 2022 were all times of upheaval and uncertainty. I'm relieved to share that this year's time off was unusual only in that we actually went away. Often, we make it a habit of staying home at this time because it's so short, but this year it was just short enough and just long enough to drive south to visit my husband's side of the family. The last time we were in Maryland was the summer of 2018. My eldest was able to arrange for time off from her jobs and so the entire family was able to travel together. To do the math, it's been six years since we were there.

(I chose this photo of me with my Over the Rainbow Refresher drink because a. I love the colours, b. I like the expression on my face, c. It reminds me that many things in America are bigger, and d. Despite the gaudy appearance, this was a really tasty drink! It turned my tongue blue but it was delicious!)

I wasn't sure what "angle" or "theme" I wanted to take with this blog post, but I figured it out as I leafed through the photos I took and the receipts I collected. Ironically enough, it connects to school.

I teach social studies this year and the Heritage and Identity unit for Grade 2s is all about Traditions and Celebrations. The neat thing about this unit is that it doesn't just focus on the basic details of various holidays, but instead on how traditions and celebrations evolve over time and due to changing circumstances. I looked up the revised Social Studies curriculum and it lists these three "big ideas":

1. Understanding the diversity that exists among families and within the local community leads to an appreciation of diverse perspectives. 
2. The traditions that we celebrate today have developed over the generations
3. Canada is made up of various communities that have diverse traditions and celebrations. 

Things have changed since the last time we visited Baltimore County. The area has changed. We've changed. Our extended family has changed. We knew it was going to be different from the last time we visited. (For perspective, we went to Baltimore regularly every summer from 2003-2007 and then from 2013-2018.) Certain traditions were maintained. Others were altered. New ones were developed. Let me describe it using the "stop / start / continue" headings.

 

Stop

When we first began vacationing in Maryland, our children were very young. During the second phase, they were teens/pre-teens. Now that they are adults, we no longer have to pack as many things. The spend-a-palooza that used to occur is also significantly reduced. (Granted, they are the only grandchildren on both sides of the family, so it comes with the territory.) We no longer drive back with a trunk full of new toys or clothes. I think the customs agent might have been surprised by the low figure I quoted at the border that summed up our purchases. We obtained a few books, some Yankee Candles, a couple of items of clothing and some teacher supplies and board games to use at school from Five Below.

Start

Lodging was a big shift for us. In the past, we stayed at my mother-in-law's place. Five years ago, she moved into a senior's villa called Oak Crest. It's gorgeous, and perfect for her, but less than ideal for a family of four to invade. For the first time, we stayed at a hotel. Thankfully, we selected a place that was very close to Oak Crest as well as my husband's childhood neighbourhood, so the amenities and local features were familiar. We were able to walk to The Avenue at White Marsh, a really nice shopping and dining district, and took advantage of the lovely weather. It was our biggest travel expense, but choosing a suite that had room to sit and chill was worth the extra money.

Continue (with Change)

The main reasons why we drive ten hours are two-fold: we like to visit family and we like to eat Maryland food. This mostly stayed the same with a few shifts. We saw my mother-in-law every day while we were there. We visited my sister-in-law as well as James' maternal uncle and paternal aunt. I was delighted that hubby was able to squeeze in get-togethers with two of his friends from the area. Brad and James went to high school together. James has known Greg since James was in college. We were grateful that his buddies were able to make accommodations and gather on such short notice for dinner.

Oh, the dinners and eating in general! Back in 2014, I made a list of all the places we ate during our three-week summer stay. Instead of three weeks in July or August, it was a single week in March, and getting older means that I/we can't consume "out food" as frequently or in large quantities as we might like. (I was very strategic about how I ate, but others in our travel party started to feel quite bloated after a regular diet of restaurant food.) Here was our dining summary, as well as the ways I modified my choices so that I didn't suffer ill results. (I was especially cautious because a couple of weeks before we left, I was popping Tums to calm my irritated insides.)

March 9 = Bob Evans for brunch, TGI Friday's for dinner (and I chose appetizers instead of a full entrée)

March 10 = breakfast at Oak Crest, lunch at my sister-in-law's place (pizza), and dinner at Sonic (and I picked a smaller combo)

March 11 = Olive Garden for lunch and Casa Mia for dinner (and we shared different dishes buffet-style with the group in the evening)

March 12 = lunch at Friendly's and dinner at Red Robin (and I split a supper meal with my son)

March 13 = lunch at Applebee's and dinner at Red Brick Station (and I packed most of my lunch to eat the next day, and selected a lighter dinner option)

March 14 = dinner at the Double T Diner (and I split dessert with my husband and ate leftovers for breakfast and lunch)

March 15 = "linner" of fish and chips (no need for more than one meal after the feasting!)

We had a "first day in Baltimore" restaurant and a "last day in Baltimore" restaurant tradition. We kept the first day location (even though TGI Friday's no longer serves deep fried green beans) and chose a new place for the last day meal. We were happy with the change, since the old place stopped serving many of our favourite dishes, including crab.

I was able to squeeze in three meals that included crab. (Thank you Casa Mia, Red Brick Station, and Double T Diner for the yummy crab cakes!) This is a slow evolution. I used to dislike eating crab. It wasn't part of my eating repertoire. I gave it a chance in the 2010s and grew to love fried crab cakes. Toronto is not a great place to get crab, especially the kind of crab I like to eat in Maryland. Eating crab is a tradition I'm glad we were able to continue mostly unchanged.

Big thanks to all my relatives for welcoming us during a time that was not a holiday for them and fitting us into their schedules. We are very privileged that we have the time to spare for such a visit, as well as the financial and automotive means to afford to go away like this. Now that we've experienced this latest iteration and version of our "down south" trip, we can tweak it even more to make it work for us. Evolving traditions are neither good nor bad; they are just different.

Do You Wanna Dance?

 Bobby Freeman sang this song, the title of today's blog post, in 1958, but I'm not talking about this rock and roll classic. I'm talking about how reluctant students of a certain age are to dancing.

I teach dance to the kindergarten students and to a Grade 3-4 class. The kindergarten students have no problem moving to music. It's my other class, filled with 8- and 9-year-olds, that are super timid about dancing. I've tried to investigate what causes this aversion, and embarrassment is a part of the equation. They don't want anyone to look at them or judge them. 

This can get a bit complicated when I need to see them dancing to help me determine a grade, even if it's just a simple participation mark. These are some of the things I've done this year to try and alleviate this "dance anxiety".

Dancing Between the Shelves

I am blessed to have a large school library. After we watched some videos of different kinds of dances, I encouraged students to find a secluded spot somewhere in the library between the book shelves where they could dance while I played the music. (For the record, the two songs we used during this lesson were Gangnam Style and Michael Jackson's Thriller.) I did forewarn them that I had to peek to see if they were participating. They danced a lot more than they did the previous week when we did the Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide more in an open area together.

Consider It a Video Game

My students like video games, and we have a Wii permanently set up in the library. The students expressed interest in using Just Dance as part of their dance curriculum. We established (based on my previous experience doing this with other classes) what the points would mean and I spent time explaining how they had choice in selecting which song they wanted to use and how it worked. 

"What if we don't like to dance? Do we have to?", asked one of the students. (Note that none of them have any cultural or religious beliefs that prevent them from participating in dance class.)

I replied with a question of my own: would they ever ask their regular classroom teacher if they had to read a book in Language class, or solve a problem in Math class, or answer questions in Social Studies class? I said that they would need to make an attempt. I promised that the whole class could do something else when it came to the point where I was evaluating, but we also needed a chance to see how the dances went. When it came time for them to practice, none of them wanted to try. I volunteered to show them how to do it. They watched (and sang along to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up") and only a few brave souls copied the actions in the far back of the room. 

Other Ways to Demonstrate

I can use other dance expectations to get marks, one where they don't have to dance themselves. They can analyze dances. They can describe dances. They can watch videos and answer questions. Thing is, the easiest way for them to earn points is to just dance. I'm not asking them to perform complex or inappropriate moves. I want them to move and have fun moving.

The Extra Challenge

This relunctance appeared particularly challenging because the Student Council arranged to host a school dance for the Grade 4-8s on the last day before March Break. The administration and student council liaison teachers realized that our students, who have not attended a recreational dance in years, would be at a loss for what to do. That's why they arranged to have a DJ with experience leading junior and intermediate division students in group dances. There would be neither "slow dancing", nor "partner dancing". The company even brought dancers with them to help loosen up the crowd.

(Sorry I don't have a lot of photos to share. It was hard to get good shots unobtrusively!)

The great news is that 99% of the students actually danced! The moves were easy enough to follow along. The focus was on the stage, not on each other. The DJ played songs they seemed to like. There were prizes, and the gym was darkened enough with lights and decorations to make it special. I guess a lot of it depends on setting the right atmosphere to make it conducive to dancing. I did not get the name of the DJ and the company, but the teachers were very happy with the outcome. Big thanks go to Ms. Daley and the student council for making this happen on the last day before March Break.

Why Insist?

Why is it so important for us to encourage dance? So many of our students only see dance as performative, which means they miss out on the joy, expression, and exercise that dancing can bring. If I hear a song that I like, it's hard not to bounce in time or walk to the rhythm, never mind bust a move. Dancing is a great way to show your feelings or demonstrate understanding of concepts and themes. I remember ages and ages ago when I first came to my current school, I had a conversation with a class teacher about what dance could combine with, and he had his students give evidence of their learning in science via dance. One of my present AQ students talked about combining dance with coding and choreographing (and participating) in dance routines with robots. And dancing vigorously can make you sweat in a good way!