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Post date: 28-Oct-2015 22:51:11
This year, I have the privilege to attend the Substitute Teachers' Convention in Calgary sponsored by the ATA. Though it was a long drive, some of the things that I was able to walk away with from the conference made it absolutely worthwhile.
The conference typically starts with a Curriculum Update and then we broke into morning sessions. This year, the one session that caught my eye was the "LGBTQ Issues in Schools". This session was facilitated by Calgary Sexual Health Centre. If you are not aware, LGBTQ stands for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders, and Queers. Why this session caught my eye is because I have witnessed numerous people in the school environment - be they students or adults - who are involved with the LGBTQ community. Some students have expressed a desire to be addressed by a certain pronoun or a name different from their birth name that also contradicts with their assigned gender. Or that students exhibit more effeminate behaviour and are being bullied for it. Not knowing how to deal with issues like these can put the trust that children place in us at great risk.
We all attended the session with an open mind, however, the lack of knowledge and familiarity with these terms and labels surprised me a little. We spent much time defining what each of the LGBTQ categories mean, while avoiding using the term "normal" because we do not want to ostracize these groups further. We discussed how mainstream society tend to normalize heterosexuality, thereby furthering the discrimination of LGBTQ.
The facilitator also gave us advice as to how to act when students have confided in us about their sexual orientation and preference. The take away is that we need to respect their wishes and not force our questions and opinions on them. For example, if a born female wishes to be addressed as "he" and use a different name, we need to respect that and also not bombard them with questions about their decisions. And the most important part of it is to check whether what they have confided is us is also common knowledge among other people and groups in their lives (e.g. parents, classmates, etc.).
We as teachers who are also entrusted with the role of in parentis loco need to provide a safe and caring environment for students of every walk. Calgary Sexual Health Centre has also provided data that minors who come from the LGBTQ community and have parental, school, and peer support experience far less suicide, homelessness, mental illness than the ones who don't have such a support network.
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Second session was for improving personal resiliency with Jo-Ann Pawliw. Teaching is a tough job, and some will even say that substitute teachers have it harder. In this session, we looked at ways to use stress to our advantage and avoid losing our smarts when things don't go as planned.
Jo-Ann suggested that being stressed is not necessarily a bad thing. Stress can enhance our response system, but if we let it go too far, then we will experience what she calls "emotional hi-jack" . During this emotional hi-jack, our working memory capacity decreases and the number of solutions that we are able to conjure during a crisis greatly decreases which will lead us to feel hopeless. While we fall into a pit of hopelessness, the body also releases toxic chemicals which affects our body negatively - the symptoms varies from individual to individual - however, this "depression" and "panic" can take 3 to 4 hours to clear from our body.
With all that information in our hands about what happens to our body when under high levels of stress. Jo-Ann also provided us methods of regaining our composure. It can be something as simple as thinking positively about how to improve instead of blaming or negatively finding the culprit, to something like breathing. We often do not breathe well when under duress, but if we take the time to remember to breathe, it brings in oxygen to our brains for better functionality and it helps us focus. Our ability to focus is our tool to overcome tough situations by being able to see the problem and find various solutions.
How we can increase our personal resiliency is ultimately something as simple as changing our perspective on the issue, recognizing our stress symptoms, and bring back our focus by breathing. Imagine that!
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Typically, over the lunch break, all the chair representatives from each school board will meet to discuss the current affairs within their division. At this conference, the meeting facilitator wanted to discuss "Substitute Appreciation Week" about what each division does for their subs to show appreciation - what works and what does not.
Rather than truly sharing ideas for that one special week, we started talking about our relationship as a local with the division office or human resources office. This is where I have noticed a huge disparity of working environment and relationships between different school boards. From a school board where substitute teachers feel appreciated everyday and are supported by each other and by the administration as well as human resources department to no amicable relationships and also receiving no access privileges to certain services such as computer network access.
As the conversations went on, I felt that this disparity is unacceptable. While I cannot do much for other divisions with a smaller rapport with their division office, I felt determined to build that relationship and also collect information from other school boards on how they treat their substitute teachers and bring it to Parkland School Division. Though this will take some time and the right people to help make this happen. But I firmly believe that substitute teachers' well being, and work environment is essential to a school system.
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Afternoon session was a huge disappointment. I have signed up for a "Technologies in the Classroom" session, not sure what I was hoping for.
I walked in to a stack of iPads set on the tables and saw the first presentation slide being prepared on the projector screen with a heavy focus on iPads and Apple based apps and devices. Someone else at my table asked what the session will involve and the presenter informed us that we will be learning about how to use Dropbox, Google Drive to collaborate and share materials mainly and that her last session spent a lot of time helping people logging into various services. I apologized and walked out.
While some may find a session like this useful. I guess I was hoping to attend a session where I can use technologies to make my sub day easier in terms of teaching a lesson or even managing student behaviour. There are lots of applications and hardware out there which allows for teachers to pre-record their lessons and we can run it like a video on the computer, to something like using Apple TV or even Chromecast to project a tablet screen onto an overhead screen so that we won't have to turn our backs to the students and annotate notes left for us as we teach the lesson.
Again, not sure what I was hoping for, but it certainly was not "how to use Dropbox".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While it was great to see some innovative sessions on current issues and trends that we may encounter in the classroom or even self-improvement lessons, technology or even sessions that deal with lesson ideas and "toolkits" needs to be more relevant to substitute teachers. There are a lot of repeat sessions from previous years, some of which are considered staples, but some can use a bit of revamping. Though overall, it is still a great professional development weekend.
This year, I have the privilege to attend the Substitute Teachers' Convention in Calgary sponsored by the ATA. Though it was a long drive, some of the things that I was able to walk away with from the conference made it absolutely worthwhile.
The conference typically starts with a Curriculum Update and then we broke into morning sessions. This year, the one session that caught my eye was the "LGBTQ Issues in Schools". This session was facilitated by Calgary Sexual Health Centre. If you are not aware, LGBTQ stands for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders, and Queers. Why this session caught my eye is because I have witnessed numerous people in the school environment - be they students or adults - who are involved with the LGBTQ community. Some students have expressed a desire to be addressed by a certain pronoun or a name different from their birth name that also contradicts with their assigned gender. Or that students exhibit more effeminate behaviour and are being bullied for it. Not knowing how to deal with issues like these can put the trust that children place in us at great risk.
We all attended the session with an open mind, however, the lack of knowledge and familiarity with these terms and labels surprised me a little. We spent much time defining what each of the LGBTQ categories mean, while avoiding using the term "normal" because we do not want to ostracize these groups further. We discussed how mainstream society tend to normalize heterosexuality, thereby furthering the discrimination of LGBTQ.
The facilitator also gave us advice as to how to act when students have confided in us about their sexual orientation and preference. The take away is that we need to respect their wishes and not force our questions and opinions on them. For example, if a born female wishes to be addressed as "he" and use a different name, we need to respect that and also not bombard them with questions about their decisions. And the most important part of it is to check whether what they have confided is us is also common knowledge among other people and groups in their lives (e.g. parents, classmates, etc.).
We as teachers who are also entrusted with the role of in parentis loco need to provide a safe and caring environment for students of every walk. Calgary Sexual Health Centre has also provided data that minors who come from the LGBTQ community and have parental, school, and peer support experience far less suicide, homelessness, mental illness than the ones who don't have such a support network.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second session was for improving personal resiliency with Jo-Ann Pawliw. Teaching is a tough job, and some will even say that substitute teachers have it harder. In this session, we looked at ways to use stress to our advantage and avoid losing our smarts when things don't go as planned.
Jo-Ann suggested that being stressed is not necessarily a bad thing. Stress can enhance our response system, but if we let it go too far, then we will experience what she calls "emotional hi-jack" . During this emotional hi-jack, our working memory capacity decreases and the number of solutions that we are able to conjure during a crisis greatly decreases which will lead us to feel hopeless. While we fall into a pit of hopelessness, the body also releases toxic chemicals which affects our body negatively - the symptoms varies from individual to individual - however, this "depression" and "panic" can take 3 to 4 hours to clear from our body.
With all that information in our hands about what happens to our body when under high levels of stress. Jo-Ann also provided us methods of regaining our composure. It can be something as simple as thinking positively about how to improve instead of blaming or negatively finding the culprit, to something like breathing. We often do not breathe well when under duress, but if we take the time to remember to breathe, it brings in oxygen to our brains for better functionality and it helps us focus. Our ability to focus is our tool to overcome tough situations by being able to see the problem and find various solutions.
How we can increase our personal resiliency is ultimately something as simple as changing our perspective on the issue, recognizing our stress symptoms, and bring back our focus by breathing. Imagine that!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Typically, over the lunch break, all the chair representatives from each school board will meet to discuss the current affairs within their division. At this conference, the meeting facilitator wanted to discuss "Substitute Appreciation Week" about what each division does for their subs to show appreciation - what works and what does not.
Rather than truly sharing ideas for that one special week, we started talking about our relationship as a local with the division office or human resources office. This is where I have noticed a huge disparity of working environment and relationships between different school boards. From a school board where substitute teachers feel appreciated everyday and are supported by each other and by the administration as well as human resources department to no amicable relationships and also receiving no access privileges to certain services such as computer network access.
As the conversations went on, I felt that this disparity is unacceptable. While I cannot do much for other divisions with a smaller rapport with their division office, I felt determined to build that relationship and also collect information from other school boards on how they treat their substitute teachers and bring it to Parkland School Division. Though this will take some time and the right people to help make this happen. But I firmly believe that substitute teachers' well being, and work environment is essential to a school system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon session was a huge disappointment. I have signed up for a "Technologies in the Classroom" session, not sure what I was hoping for.
I walked in to a stack of iPads set on the tables and saw the first presentation slide being prepared on the projector screen with a heavy focus on iPads and Apple based apps and devices. Someone else at my table asked what the session will involve and the presenter informed us that we will be learning about how to use Dropbox, Google Drive to collaborate and share materials mainly and that her last session spent a lot of time helping people logging into various services. I apologized and walked out.
While some may find a session like this useful. I guess I was hoping to attend a session where I can use technologies to make my sub day easier in terms of teaching a lesson or even managing student behaviour. There are lots of applications and hardware out there which allows for teachers to pre-record their lessons and we can run it like a video on the computer, to something like using Apple TV or even Chromecast to project a tablet screen onto an overhead screen so that we won't have to turn our backs to the students and annotate notes left for us as we teach the lesson.
Again, not sure what I was hoping for, but it certainly was not "how to use Dropbox".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While it was great to see some innovative sessions on current issues and trends that we may encounter in the classroom or even self-improvement lessons, technology or even sessions that deal with lesson ideas and "toolkits" needs to be more relevant to substitute teachers. There are a lot of repeat sessions from previous years, some of which are considered staples, but some can use a bit of revamping. Though overall, it is still a great professional development weekend.
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