One of My Great Teachers is Reaching the End of The Line

"There are only two ways to do something ... the Siwak way and the wrong way."

Needless to say this is a man with whom I've butted heads a few times. My dad. And now he has reached the end of the line. He's decided that his battle has gone on long enough. He's done with dialysis and pain, and falling and incontinence, and pain and itching and pain. "I've lived a full life, I'll miss Ronnie (my mom) and the kids (my sister, myself our spouses and our children). But I'm done. Give me the big pill NOW!"

And so, this weekend we moved him into palliative care.

Growing up, I used to think that my father did things on purpose - just to piss me off. And then, I had a daughter just like him and I began to understand. It is really in my adult years that I've come to truly appreciate the man who is my father.

He is a child of Polish immigrants. His father a gypsy carpenter who came because of the promise of land and his mother an indentured servant who was maltreated by her "owners" and had to be rescued.  My grandparents were Saskatchewan homesteaders and he grew up in an era where people were not afraid of hard (and I mean hard) work. An era where nothing was wasted. An era where you got on with the job and didn't concern yourself too much with how someone "felt" at any particular moment in time. Cows had to be milked. Crops had to be planted.  Bread had to be baked. Babies were born, but the work didn't stop. He is one of 12 twelve children; nine made it to adulthood. At the age of 15, he and his second eldest sister ran the family farm while the rest of the family wintered in town. He is a man who knows how to build or fix anything - and do it right the first time. Because that is how Siwak's do things. And make sure your work site is tidy at the end of the day and all tools put away. (Yes, I know, I missed out on that organizational gene). He is a self-taught man who developed a love for classical music and photography and theatre and mathematics and travel and anything tech.

He worked on oil rigs and built railway tracks before making his way to Toronto where he became a computer programmer during the early days. I remember visiting his work and watching with fascination as the data cards flew through an enormous machine that filled an entire room and was incredibly noisy. Even then my dad knew what was important in life.  He was frequently approached by headhunters with handsome job offers. He always said, "No thank you."  He wasn't prepared to sacrifice his greatest asset for prestige and income.  He earned a good living. He worked 10 minutes from home. He enjoyed his job. Why give away his time when life was already good? And so he chose to have time to indulge hobbies, to go dancing and have parties and build a life of worth. From him I learned that time is precious and not to be wasted on the unimportant things in life.

He taught me many other things. His tool shop is a thing of beauty and every tool has its place (which he knows ... heaven help anyone who puts something back in the wrong place). He is a man who paid cash for everything and knew not to spend more than he earned. His mortgage was paid off quickly.

He and my mom built a home that was and continues to be a welcoming place. This past spring my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary which, to be honest, none of us thought would come to pass given the state of his health.  I was astounded by the number of people who came to honour their commitment. (including several nuns in full habits on bicycles). The years of welcoming and reaching out to others was now being reflected back. On that day I saw yet again the value of sticking it out through the ups and downs of marriage and child raising. My father, dressed in a new suit, managed to get up and dance one more time with my mom and everyone cried.

His generosity and love for his grandchildren is well-noted. There is nothing he won't do for his family, including giving my eldest daughter money to buy a replacement car when hers was ruined in a car accident. Give, give, give to others. Why hold on to things? If you have it, share it.

He has endless stories to tell and laughter to share. His tales of growing up on the prairies, of planting and harvests and the wild risks they took. I'm still trying to imagine what it must have been like for the teacher in the schoolhouse to face a class in which every child was a sibling or cousin.

I've learned so much from him. Things that aren't taught in school but are so worth knowing.

And now he is reaching the end of the line.

For those who've noted the absence of blogposts and tweets, this is what has been keeping me busy since the summer.

I can't say I don't value what I am learning about this stage of life.

Nurses are amazing people. That's one thing I've learned.
Health care is worth protecting and fighting for; that's something I've learned.
Eat right and exercise. I've witnessed the suffering of the dialysis ward and a world of type two diabetes.
I've learned that personal support workers don't have cars and have to take public transit to provide care, which steals hours of time that could be given to care.
I've learned that there is no end to the number of prescriptions a patient might be given in hopes of  providing ... not sure  what all those bottles were for exactly.

I've witnessed countless poignant moments of love and care between spouses and family members and medical staff and complete strangers, who reach out to others. I've learned that in the end, all that we leave behind is how we've touched other's lives. That's it.

Critical Thinking: Teaching Students to Recognize Their Assumptions - Follow-Up

This is a follow-up to a previous post.

Yesterday when my grade 7's were asked what assumptions they might make about their Digital Citizenship projects that could lead to problems, most could easily identify problems they might encounter, but few could articulate the assumptions that could lead to problems. Today we worked on this skill.

I conducted a brief whole class lesson where the first two examples below were shown and then students were partnered off to identify the rest. This is such a crucial element for learning.  Students need the opportunity to talk and practise their thinking out loud. Most were still unable to articulate the assumptions. Many simply listed additional problems.  It was only when pulled into small flexible discussion groups that students were able to grasp and then identify the assumptions. I encouraged their thinking by saying, "This is the problem, what might they have assumed that would lead to this problem.?"  It took lots of discussion, several examples and much modeling of language use to get them to use the terminology and phrase their thinking correctly. By the end of class most students "got it".

"They must have assumed ..."
"They might have assumed ..."
"They could have assumed ..."

Beyond The Thinking Matrix: Elements of Thought

Most of my grade 7 students have  had experience with The Thinking Matrix and so my job as an educator is to move them beyond its limitations. My tool of choice for intermediate students has become: http://www.criticalthinking.org/ctmodel/logic-model1.htm

We began the school year by learning about assumptions. This is not a term that students use with confidence nor adeptness, yet the assumptions they make can lead them astray in their thinking. I am encouraging them to recognize how making certain assumptions leads them to sometimes draw erroneous conclusions, but to also recognize that sometimes it is expedient and productive to make assumptions. This is high level thinking indeed and they need practice!

In our introductory activity, I read them a series of statements about a person and they were to discuss their thoughts about this person as each statement was revealed.

The Thief

(I included a picture from the internet of someone with a questionable appearance)

Paul is 19.

He is covered in tattoos.

He is a high school dropout.

He smokes and drinks.

He is unemployed.

He has just been arrested.

He was arrested for stealing.

He stole diapers and formula.

He has a girlfriend and a 1 year old child.

Paul has been working for the past 3 years for the same company.

He was laid off from his job when the company moved to another country.

The economy is bad and he has been unable to find other work.

Paul has never previously been in trouble with the police.

This, of course, led to a rich discussions about the assumptions we make about others that are so often based on insufficient information. 

On a bulletin board we have begun building our "Elements of Thought" wheel. If you were to see my classroom at the beginning of the year, it is empty. Nothing goes up that hasn't been used directly with my students. It seems rather barren at the moment but as the year moves forward, the walls will reflect our learning.

This week we have been working on Digital Citizenship - I have many posts about this topic, so will not go into detail about the lessons. What I'm more interested in is encouraging learners to think about how they approach their learning and what they are thinking as they go.

In the past, I would have designed a very nice task with clear instructions for students to follow. With the introduction of inquiry and project-based learning, this of course, has shifted and my students have engaged in some very interesting inquiries. I realize, however, that an area of weakness for many are planning skills and more importantly awareness.  How do we get students to become aware of their thinking as they approach learning?  How do we get them to be very clear on their purpose?  Below is an attempt to make them think more during the initial stages of a project. Instead of me creating or us co-creating the task, I have asked them to describe their understanding of the task.

This reflection was assigned after a text-based slideshow, discussion and some independent exploration of the topic.

The one question most students had trouble with centered on assumptions. Tomorrow we will practice articulating the assumptions they might make during this task that could cause problems. For this student, we will rephrase her statement to: "I might assume that all the information I read is correct and then include that in my presentation."  This will be done in flexible groups while others continue working on their projects.

Setting a Collaborative Foundation

The school year has begun and in the lead up to September I have been thinking about what I've learned over the past two years and how I might more deliberately build a collaborative thinking classroom.

 I am working with three premises.

1. Students need many opportunities to practise critical thinking skills.

2. Students need many opportunities to develop oral communication skills where they can fully develop, articulate and clarify their thoughts before writing.

3 Collaborative skills need to be taught and practised.

My focus for the beginning of this year then is to lay the foundation for learning in a way that I haven't done previously. I am taking my time to carefully set the stage so that when we begin PBL certain habits are in place.

With my grade 7's we began our first foundation lesson to develop collaborative skills.

1. We generated a list of what typically goes wrong in groups. Things such as:

-one person doing all the work
-one person dominating
-off-task
-arguing

2. I then created random groups of 3 or 4 and asked these groups to anticipate 3 things that might go wrong and how they would deal with them.

     1. What will you do to ensure that every person has a turn to speak?
     2. What will you do if someone begins to dominate the discussion?
     3. What will you do if you get off-task?

I also pointed out that their groups needed to look like groups. Physical placement is part of successful collaborative work. A few groups shuffled to new spots or adjusted their seating to be more inclusive.

Once the groups had determined their "Rules of Engagement", I gave them a discussion topic:

Is it ever right to do the wrong thing?

As I wandered the class, I was very pleased with the level of discussion.

One group finished a little early, but had only touched upon minor issues. I threw them the most serious one I could think of: murder. That caused them to enter into a much deeper and more passionate level of discussion.

We came together as a class and a few students shared what they had discussed.  I then asked them to think about what they had learned from this exercise.  Some responses related to group skills; some to moral choices.

Finally, they responded to the question in writing. One thing I've learned: if you give students the opportunity to discuss a meaty topic, when it comes time to write, they have something substantial to say. I was not disappointed.

Welcome to a Brand New School Year!

Is the Internet Tearing Us Apart?

Is it just me or does it seem that politics has become decidedly more polarized and vicious?

Politics in Canada, of course,  has always been tainted. One doesn't have to look farther than the history of voting in Canada to shatter any illusions one might have about the integrity of our political stakeholders. Alcoholic bribes, gangs blocking polling stations, disenfranchised groups and even murders of citizens attempting to vote are part of our Canadian story (although this is NEVER mentioned in our history textbooks). Still, I can't help but think that something more disturbing is causing increased polarization and vitriol.

Yesterday, Bernie Frank , a long-serving member of the US government, was interviewed by Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio 1. He shared his insights on why he feels we have become so polarized.

I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this.

In the old days we always had extreme members on both the right and the left, but we had common information - we read the same newspapers, we watched the same newscasts and although we might have different opinions, we were working with common tools. It was possible for us to come to agreements. Today the right and the left are living in parallel media universes. The left reads their news, the right reads theirs - we can't come to agreements because we're working with different tools.

What does this say for the future of democracy?

What does this mean for educators and our responsibility to develop citizens who know how to participate and contribute to the evolution of our democracy in this age of the internet?

What does it say about the necessity of expanding our approach to digital citizenship and our responsibility to teach children how not to get stuck in silos and how to avoid confirmation bias.

What does it say about curriculum and the often inane things we are asked to do with children rather than letting them tear apart the really important issues of  our communities?

Frank's interview left me with much to ponder at the start of this new school year. In this global discussion on education, in what ways have we cornered ourselves by the people we've chosen to follow on twitter? by the links we choose to click on?  Are we suffering from the illusion that we are engaged in bringing global voices together, but are really just fostering isolaton by allowing in only those voices that fit well in our streams?

I remember having a discussion with a masters student in Sociology many years ago about why she read Babara Amiel. This student would read Amiel's columns and then frequently rant over her interpretations of the world. But, this student went on to explain, there was often an uncomfortable grain of truth in what Amiel had to say and this could not nor should not be ignored.

 It would be prudent to remember this as we rely ever more on the internet as our source for information.