Spring Music Concert

On Tuesday May 24th, the J.N. Burnett Music department had their annual Spring Concert.  Under the direction of Music teacher, Ms. Sue Freeman, the concert featured several performances by the Senior Concert Band, Junior Concert Band and Jazz Band.

The show, despite taking place during game 5 of the Vancouver Canucks-San Jose Sharks hockey series, was quite well atended, and I am sure that all who were there were impressed by the musical talent and dedication to their craft that the students displayed.  Thankfully for the hockey fans in the crowd, PVR is a wonderful invention!

Kudos and congratulations to Ms. Freeman and the students in the Music program at Burnett for the inspiring show last night!  And oh yeah, congratulations to the Canucks, too!  First time to the Stanley Cup finals in 17 years!

What kind of education do I want for MY kids (Part 2)

In a recent post, I asked the question, "What kind of education do I want for MY kids?"

The answer I gave was that I wanted my kids to gain confidence in school, learn to think creatively and ask questions, practice working with others and building relationships and uncover their passions and develop their interests (notice that I did not write about the traditional "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic", nor did I mention technology or another buzzword in education, "21st Century Learning".  I chose not to include those things not because they are unimportant, but because I am sure those skills and tools will be embedded in whatever children become engaged in).

When I look back upon my own days in school, I recall fondly the friendships and the extra-curricular opportunities (I was heavily involved in sports in high school and beyond).  What I don't recall are the specific skills I learned or exams I wrote or facts I memorized.  If I had it to do all over again, I wish I spent more time taking chances and learning some skills that involved my hands (besides playing sports) like carpentry, cooking and some other skills that I wish I was better at today.  My most rich learning experiences consisted of connecting with other people and watching or talking to them about why they did what they did.  Most of those experiences did not occur in the classroom.  I learned the best and improved the most when I had no fear of failure, could attempt something and fail, then try it again.  Sadly, as I grew older, I lost some of that innocence and willingness to try and fail, and became more competitive, concerned with being right, and less willing to experiment.  I now consider myself somewhat lacking in the creativity department, and am working hard at trying new things that I am less comfortable with.  As an adult, I don't think I am alone. 

I want my children's experience with school to be different.  I want them to try and fail, but not fear being wrong, and learn from the attempt.  I want them to be inspired by what they are learning and excited to keep exploring.  I am not saying we should ignore areas where students struggle or dislike the subject matter.  We should just not focus exclusively on those areas.  I want my kids spend more time developing and enhancing areas of strength, thus feeling confident and excited about school.   Exploring and developing these strengths needs to take higher priority than supporting areas of weakness and providing with them homework in hopes of improving these shortcomings.

So, if this is what I want my children's education to be about,an important question to address as a follow up is, "How can educators ensure they are promoting the things I hope my children get?"

1.  Let go of the curriculum - teachers are too often in a rush to "cover" the curriculum, feeling pressure to teach all of the required topics suggested for a certain grade or subject.  I understand this pressure, but we need not worry so much about covering it all.  Rather, we should be more concerned with getting they key concepts of a topic well understood and experimented with, so students can look to explore the topic more on their own if interested by it.

2.  Find out what interests our students and be aware of incorporating their strengths - build relationships with students, find out what things they like to do in their free time, and bring some of those activities into the classroom as links to concepts being taught.  Allow them to present their knowledge and learning in ways that excite them, and utilize the strengths they already possess.  Fortunately, the more I visit classrooms, the more I am seeing this practice.

3.  Encourage students to explore and not to be afraid of making mistakes - this is a tough one, especially in high school.  Standardized tests appear to be a necessary evil, and by their teen years, students are very aware of the competitive nature of school and life, and don't want to be made fun of for being wrong.  We need to do all that we can to delay this.  Don't penalize kids for mistakes, but help them answer the questions that come with being wrong.  Why did that not work?  What could we do next time? 

4.  Examine and grade less, but provide feedback more - again, reflecting back on the point above, the competitive nature of exams and grading makes this extremely difficult.  However, we need to start giving grades and scores based on the growth we have seen from students over the course of the year instead of simply testing and providing numbers or letters that tell students very little about what they have learned or how to improve.  We need to provide more descriptive feedback and allow students to keep working on things until they are happy that it demonstrates what they know.  Help move students away from "playing the game" and simply trying to "credential", and make it more about learning.  In order to do this, we need to re-examine our assessment practices.  This idea is gaining momentum in education, and is a Professional development topic in Richmond.  I am happy to report that the conversations are having a positive effect.

5.  Make learning fun - get students to laugh at and enjoy what they are learning.  Use real world experiences like field trips and mock performances.  Try to create memories for the students with assignments and projects that they will remember and talk about with their parents and friends.  Again, the creative side of our teachers is starting to come out, and I am seeing more risk-taking and fun activities in classrooms than ever before.

I got a few comments and tweets from people who read my original post on the topic, most of whom agreed with what I had written, and wanted similar things for their kids.  One tweet came from a parent @nikidun, who said, "Agreed.  Advice for parents wanting to help it happen?"  This is a great question, and while I don't have the silver bullet to ensure it does, I will attempt to give a few suggestions for parents wanting to help start the conversation at their child's school.

1.  Share your child's areas of interest and strengths with their teacher - you know what your child is good at, gets excited by and responds positively to.  Inform their teachers.  It will help them get your child engaged, and engagement is the key to success at school.

2.  Ask questions of the school - don't hesitate to talk to all members of your child's school community.  Teachers, Counsellors, Administration, Support staff.  They are all in the business of supporting your child, and if you have a question about why things are done a certain way, or how things are decided, assessed or presented, ask.

3.  Ask questions of your children - what are you doing in school?  What do you enjoy about school?  Share the answers with the school staff and encourage your kids to continue pursuing those interests in ways outside of school.  The strengths and interests they have are likely to become what they work with for most of their lives.  Help them develop those strengths and encourage them to appreciate and be proud of what they are good at.

4.  Make learning fun - like teachers, parents need to role model learning and share it with their children.  Make it fun for you and them, do things together that you can both learn from.  Show your children that learning is a life-long process, and that it is enjoyable.  Compliment them on the growth that you have seen.  Nothing makes someone feel better about what they are doing than positive feedback.

Above all else, we need to make school a place where when our children come home at the end of the day and we ask, "How was school today?", or "What did you do in school today?", they are excited to tell us about all that went on, and where they develop a hunger to do more of it on their own and with their families.  That is what I want from school for not just my children, but all children.

Fine Arts Night

The past 2 weeks have been eventful, challenging and tiring.  The length of days has averaged 14 hours, with one going until 2 AM.  Much of what I have had to deal with has involved unhappy people... parents, students and even myself.  Our administrative team has begun the massive task of building next year's timetable, we had a few discipline issues that resulted in students facing some consequences for poor decisions and some in crisis from the stress of the time of year.  We have even faced some criticism from a few parents for our handling of certain issues.  It has been tough and sometimes I ask myself why I do what I do.  But nights like this past Thursday answer the question of why I signed up to be an educator and how much I love my job. 

Our school put on it's "Fine Arts Fiesta", an open house designed to showcase the talents and abilities of our students enrolled in the Arts.  Artwork is hung throughout the halls and on display in classrooms, face-painting and photographs are being worked on, and parents and children are walking through the halls taking in a plethora of fantastic student work. There are special performances by our Concert and Jazz bands in the gym, improvisation, dancing, singing and acting performances in our theatre, a showcase of student work in the Computer Animated Design lab and a Fashion Show in the cafeteria showcasing student-made textile arts and crafts. 

Ironically, this morning, as I was finishing off this post, I stumbled upon the blog of David Truss (Principal in Dalian, China) who wrote about Perspective and the importance of looking at the positive, rather than allowing the negative to consume all your energy and thought.  An important reminder, especially when we are working through difficult situations.  Try to focus on the good things in your life, and remember that the difficult things are not as bad as they may feel, and make the positives that much more sweet.

Thursday was one of those nights where the positive felt especially sweet.  There was a huge audience turn out (despite it occurring during game 4 of the Canucks playoff series), and it was impressive to look at the student work, and watch their performances.  They are extremely talented.  But what makes the evening even better, especially given the previous couple of weeks I have been through, is that I saw kids who were extremely excited by why they were doing, and were proud to share it with parents and friends.  I saw smiles, laughter, enthusiasm, pride, energy and excitement.  All of the things that are most important to me in education.  Events like these a perfect examples of schools helping students find their passions.

  

Kids being excited about the things they are doing in school.  That is why I signed up to be a teacher!  It was great to witness, and I want to thank the students for their energy and passion and willingness to share. Also, a special thanks for the hardworking and creative teachers who ignite the flame.  What a great night!

JNB Wake-a-thon 2011 (Guest bloggers)

After 1 week of having no at-home internet connection (my modem died, and it took Telus 5 business days to get us a new one), I am finally reconnected with the world of blogging and Twitter.  I will admit, I feel very disconnected, but likely was more productive around the house.  Perhaps I need to get some balance back into my life.  I was able to connect at work, but simply can't find the time to write much during the workday, and struggle to have uninterrupted time to read many of the articles that get mentioned on Twitter.  I will attempt to reconnect now, and have employed a couple of guest bloggers to help me out.....

The J.N. Burnett Secondary Leadership 11/12 classes, under the direction of teacher Ms. Leslie Cain, for each of the past seven years have hosted an event called the Wake-a-thon, similar to the 30 hour Famine, whereby students are asked to raise money for causes outside of their own.  One of the main beneficiaries of the monies raised at our Wake-a-thons is a school we are helping build in the Dominican Republic.   This year's Wake-a-thon was one of the most successful yet, raising over $10,000, and in the 7 years we have run the event, we have raised in excess of $70,000.  The overnight extravaganza, for which students must raise $50 in order to participate, was a smashing success, and to explain the event, the cause and the learning that has taken place in running it are guest bloggers, Jeevan Sandhu and Sarah Aljeboury, two of the Leadership students who took on major roles in facilitating JNB Wake-a-thon 2011.

Wow, looking back at this one huge event our school raised more than $10,600 for building a school in Dominican Republic and Haiti, sending aid to Japan and lastly raising money and awareness for our very own JNB ARC Club.      

The event itself took weeks and weeks of preparation by our school’s leadership classes. First  came the registration and compiling our database. We had to make pledge and permission forms, advertise throughout our school, and set up the registration desks to allow students to sign in. Our database was essential to our success because without it there would be no event. We needed to ensure all forms were returned one way or the other because we were dealing with legal documents.

           

Next up was our task of finding some sponsors so we could provide our students with food without charging extra money. Gratefully, we secured three generous sponsors. First was our  PAC, which donated us a delicious continental breakfast that was available to the students during the closing ceremonies. Cobs Bread also gave us a money donation which allowed us to buy burgers, buns, condiments, and veggies with dip. Our last sponsor was Live Vision, which not only gave us a monetary donation but also came in as a live band to perform for us. The live band provided us with a nice break between activities and meal time.

           

Finally after countless hours of preparation the day of the event was here. For us leadership students it meant being ready to go right after school in order to set-up for the event. Once we were done set-up students had already started to roll in and in no time at all everyone was ready to go for the opening ceremonies. The grade 10 PE incentive class did a great job by keeping everyone energized and active. However the opening ceremonies were controversial to say the least. The infamous teacher’s team was cheating every chance they got. Somehow they still came out as winners in the overall standings. We believe Ms. Bateman, our scoreboard judge, was a co-conspirator with the teacher’s team.

            At last, after the opening ceremonies, group photo and a minor mishap in our communication with the band, the activities started. We had basketball and hockey in the south gym, and a volleyball game in the north gym. Burnett's famous badminton was a hit in the small gym. In Ms. Batemans room we had taboo and other board games however it was soon transformed into a beauty parlour. Guys and also one of our staff were getting their make-up done. It certainly was a sight to see! In the theatre we had the Cage-a-thon, which was our JNB ARC students raising awareness about animal cruelty. In Ms. Cains room we had our super busy video games room. Unfortunately for Mr. Blair and Mr. Ghaug losing in FIFA leaves them with a sour taste for that room. However, both Mr. Anderson and Ms. Davis were glued to their video game TV’s. Ms. Davis successfully conquered the world of Super Mario.

            We ate, played, listened, and most importantly stayed up the whole time during the wake-a-thon which made this year’s event a great success. All students had fun and joked around without forgetting the true reason we were there. For us leadership students it was also a success because everything ran smoothly without any major problems. We are all honoured to be given the opportunity to play an integral role in such an important event. It is impossible to say that everything went as planned and ran perfectly without any problems or disagreements. However that just shows the great teamwork of our group and the magnitude of the event. Our ultimate goal was to raise our target money amount and also raising awareness for these global issues and we feel that was done!

As previously stated, most of the money raised ends up going toward a school we are helping build in the Dominican Republic.  A small group of interested staff and students partner up with a group called Hero Holidays, and actually go on-site, performing the manual labour of building a school, working with other interested volunteers from around the world, and getting to interact with the locals.  For all those who have been I can say it is a life-changing experience.  Below are some photos from our last trip there, as well as a link to the blog the students wrote while there last July.

 

 

 

A fantastic evening for a very worthwhile cause that speaks volumes about the type of caring students and staff we have at J.N. Burnett Secondary.  In excess of 200 students stayed the night, and all participants raised well in excess of the minimum $50 required.  We also had 24 different staff members who participated at some point on a Thursday night/Friday morning of a long Easter weekend, very willing to support the cause and contributing to its success, as well as getting to know their students on a personal level and exposing their own human side.  It was the type of event that makes me proud to be a Breaker! 

PS-Are you saying we cheated?  Never!

A Great Weekend

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of engaging in a series of events with others in the field of education, athletics and family (3 of my passions!).  Saturday started out with Edcamp Vancouver, an "unconference" designed for people interested in discussing issues of their choosing in education.  It was an opportunity to meet face-to-face with many of the insightful and thought-provoking people I had recently come across through blogging and my still-neophyte use of Twitter.  It was an excellent day, where educational topics fostered dialogue about experiences and thoughts on "best practice".  While the dialogue was inspiring and spurred on more thought for future Professional Development efforts in the Lower Mainland, what struck me most was the passion the participants shared, and the value in coming together to share these thoughts.  Sharing our experiences and creating a new shared experience (the conference itself) was, in my opinion, the most valuable part of our day.  The ideas had already been shared via Twitter and blogs, but coming together to elaborate and converse about them is invaluable shared experience, and means so much more.

Friend and colleague @terryainge and I reluctantly left the conference a little early, since we had tickets to the Vancouver Whitecaps versus Chivas USA soccer match.  A game synopsis can be read here.  Again, this was a fantastic opportunity to share an experience with others, meet new people and discuss the event or any other interests we may share.  I could easily have stayed home and watched the game on television, but there is something different about going to a game in person.  Being part of the crowd, talking with others and appreciating the efforts of those we are watching with many people does have a significant effect on the experience of watching an athletic event.  It was also a treat to witness the galvanizing nature of such events.  Vancouver is an incredibly diverse, multicultural city, and events like last night's soccer game remind us of that, and give great opportunities for people of different backgrounds to come together.  A Whitecaps game, similar to a Canucks game or the experience we shared during the Olympics last year, are prime examples of diverse backgrounds coming together, sharing an experience and learning about and embracing one another.

Sunday morning, my wife and I headed downtown to participate in the 2011 Vancouver Sun Run.  In excess of 50,000 people converged on the area of Burrard and Georgia and proceeded to tour this beautiful city on a 10 km run.  The competitor in me at times got frustrated, since I was unable to break free of the crowds and thus couldn't come close to a personal best or my goal time for the run.  At the finish line, I asked myself why I come to these events, since I could run 10 km at home, free of the people and get a better work out and post a better time.  I answered the question quite quickly.  It is because, again, I am sharing the experience with others.  I ran into several other people whom I knew, one I had met only the day before at Edcamp Vancouver.  @remi_collins and I  introduced ourselves to each other at the conference, since we had followed each other on Twitter and read each others blogs.  Remi also wrote a blog about the Sun Run.  I saw a few others I knew in the crowds, and when my wife completed the run, I gave her a hug, and mentioned how proud I was of her, and that she seemed proud of herself.  Again, the best part of the event is sharing the experience, seeing others enjoying and being proud of themselves and their family members.  My goal time, once I thought about it this way, seemed inconsequential.

After the Sun Run, I came home, played with my kids, washed the car, mowed the lawn, then sat down to reflect on the weekend.  I am now tired, and very much looking forward to watching the Vancouver Canucks playoff game #3 versus the Chicago Blackhawks.  I never played hockey (I was a basketball, rugby, soccer guy who now loves golf), but I seem to care passionately about the Canucks.  Why?   Because I am sharing the experience with much of the rest of the city, and the galvanizing effect of the success of any of our sports teams (but especially the hockey team) is something I enjoy watching impact the people.  The game is due to start soon, so I better finish this up...!  Go Canucks!!  Give us something fun to talk about at work tomorrow.  It seems to have a positive effect on most of the people in our city.

So how do the experiences I had this weekend affect my thinking about education?  They reinforced much of what I already thought about school.  I believe that the reason the buildings still exist is because coming together to share experiences and develop relationships is worth so much more than curriculum and facts.  Bruce Beairsto has written about the "core benefits" of school, mentioning that one of them is relationships and community in his post  "Necessary Disruption (part 3)".  Students could stay at home and credential and even learn much of what they need to know to graduate.  But, if given a choice to come to school or not, the vast majority of children would come.  Why?  Because school is the ultimate shared experience.  We have all done it, and we all have opinions about its benefits, drawbacks and how it can/should be done differently.  With all of the call for reform, much of which I agree with, we do need to keep one thing in mind....  School is an incredibly important shared experience, and being human, shared experience is something we enjoy, want and NEED.

All in all, a great weekend that will only be improved when the Canucks win Game #3!  Go Canucks, go!!!

Take Your Time

As we enter what Cale Birk (@birklearns) described as "the month of AprilMayJune" in a recent blog post (here), he reminded us to take the time to reflect and ask yourself some important questions about your work.  I would like to add to Cale's comments the reminder to take your time and think carefully and investigate thoroughly the issues you are dealing with.  Sometimes in haste, we make assumptions that can lead to errors in judgement. I made such an error today, and the issue ended up taking me longer than it should have and could have fractured a relationship between a student and myself.

I was dealing with a discipline issue that a teacher brought to me when two students were exchanging menacing comments and threats with one another.  One of the students was well-known to me for his history of non-attendance and poor achievement.  The other boy had no history whatsoever and was a quality student.  The two combatants had very different stories, and eventually I brought them together in hopes of resolving the issue.  Both boys stuck by their stories in the presence of the other and I was in a rush to get back to some of the timetabling and report card issues I was dealing with.   Rather than take the extra time to speak with other classmates who may have been witnesses, I sided with the student who had no history of poor decision-making, warned the boys to leave each other alone, and sent them back to class with a warning (since nothing serious had come from the comments).  I know better than this, but tired and rushed, I skipped some critical steps...

As you can imagine, the young man I did not believe was upset with me and his counterpart when he went back to class.  My gut was uneasy, so I backtracked and decided to speak with a couple of potential witnesses, just to confirm my suspicion.  Much to my surprise, the witnesses corroborated the story of the young man whom I did not believe.  Immediately, I needed to go back and speak with the boys again, first to reprimand the student with no history of dishonesty, and help him understand the damage he had done to his reputation, and then with the boy whose story I thought was inaccurate.  I apologized to him, and to his credit, he accepted it and smiled.  The issue between the boys was significantly improved after I spoke with them a second time, and the day continued without incident.  I was fortunate I listened to my gut and followed up, but wish I had done so in the first place.  In my haste to get back to the many other tasks I was working on, I ended up spending more time sorting out the problem than I would have if I had taken the time it required in the first place.  Worse, I risked a relationship with a student, and made him feel unheard.  I can offer no excuses, only an apology.  I am fortunate that my apology was accepted, no further issues came of it and the relationship between us was salvaged.

So, as Cale suggested, take time to reflect and ask yourself some important questions, but also take the time to investigate as you know you should.  It will likely save time in the long run, and will help maintain the quality relationships you have worked so hard to develop.  The busyness will eventually pass, but reputations and relationships last much longer.

10 Picture Tour of J.N. Burnett Secondary

Last week, Cale Birk (Principal at South Kamloops Secondary School) proposed that people in his Personal Learning Network take some photographs of their school to give others an idea of what their learning environment looks like. 

He posted some photos of his school here, and challenged us to do the same.

I thought it was a great idea, and equipped with a substandard cellphone camera and no eye for photography, I decided to enlist the help of a couple of our Senior Photography students to give their perspective of what our school is all about.

Below is a 10 photo tour of Burnett Secondary School in Richmond, B.C.  It is a great place to work and learn, filled with 1250 enthusiastic and friendly students, and progressive, passionate educators.  Special thanks to photographers Bernard Patascil and Wendel Genosa.

Overlooking our Multipurpose area/cafeteria

Outside one of the many hubs of activity-the library

Looking down the hallway at some of the past Grad composites

The student managed store-I love the name...Passion!

Hard at work making cream puffs!

Working on a Biology lab

A Physical Education class playing badminton

The other student-run school store

Student artwork outside the art rooms

We are Breakers!  We have slogans all around the school. 

"Breakers Believe in the Power of their Dreams"

Just had to add one more.  A sunny afternoon in beautiful Richmond.