The SHIFT Blog

I’d like to introduce you to Alex.  She was a student of mine who graduated last June.  I met her for the first time when she was in my Grade 9 Academic Math class.  My first impressions of her was that she was a hardworking student who seemed to be interested in school.  I don’t know if a teacher can ask more from a student. It was midway through the semester when I learned that Alex was also a competitive diver.  I’ll plead ignorance in that I didn’t really know what this meant, except for the fact that sometimes she missed classes for competitions.  Every so often Alex would travel on a weekend to B.C. or Nova Scotia and miss Friday or Monday, or both.  From my perspective, these trips didn’t impact her achievement very much.  She was always on top of her homework and would seek me out when she needed to make up a test. I saw Alex every once in a while when she was in Grades 10 and 11, but never taught her during that time.  Sh...

Here we go, all set for another year playing this game called school!  Some of you undoubtedly have spent some time last week preparing for students’ arrival on Tuesday, some of you unpacking after moving schools, or perhaps arriving at your first school. Differentiated seating comes to life in this classroom just in time for a new school year #GettingReadyforSept5 #HDSBInspires pic.twitter.com/zxdz8p4e9q — ÉFT (@HDSBEFT) August 31, 2017 It is a time of transition, beginnings and reflection:  how are we going to do better this year?   Just finishing up a couple of great reads to best meet the needs of all learners. #gettingreadyforsept5 pic.twitter.com/uqzTe4eZqj — Mrs. Paci (@MPaci1) August 29, 2017 If you are like us, the inevitable nervous butterflies are settling in.  Imagine how our students must be feeling, especially if they are transition into a new school. Bateman LINK Leaders are hard at work training to support our incoming Grade...

I hate end of period bells.   #Observe’em observation day and the Most Likely To Succeed film gave me a lot to think about how the school day can be structured.  I don’t know if we can get rid of them entirely, but I’ve been working on playing with a timetable that offers some flexibility, as well as some opportunities to go deeper and longer in a class period.  What are your thoughts on this one? Pros? Cons?  Would love to hear your ideas and feedback!

A few weeks ago, six teachers at our school volunteered to become students for a day.  Each of us was given our own timetable, we were banned from our regular offices, and we were expected to eat lunch in the cafeteria.  After a day of learning, we made some initial observations which you can read about here .  Last Thursday we all (finally!) found ourselves in the same room for a more in-depth debrief.  So what did we learn from our collective time pretending to be students in our own school? TECHNOLOGY Bryn, true to the student experience, waited in line in our library the morning of to sign out a Chromebook for the day.  This sounded hilarious to us.  It also impressed us that Bryn would go that extra mile for the student experience.  However, it reflected something important in our student community (and we are willing to bet the majority of student communities) and that is that students rely on technology a great deal.  It’s important ...

It’s 12:25.  Jamie is ten minutes into Grade 10 Boys Phys Ed.  He is dripping with sweat and all he is doing is goofing around with a basketball.  He’s wondering, just how did I end up in this situation?  What he doesn’t know is that in twenty minutes he’ll be suited up in road hockey gear playing goal for twenty moderately aggressive students who want to take a shot on net.  How did he get here? Matt Coleman, Andreea Stoica, Jamie Mitchell, Bryn Dewar, Ashley Stephenson and Sahar Monzavi on the steps at the beginning of the school day Flash back 4 hours to when six teachers agreed to become students for the day.  We gathered on the steps before the bell at the start of the day, waiting with the other students, grabbed a quick photo to mark our day, and after Oh Canada, off we went to our various classes.  Our lead guidance counsellor, Tracey Forde, helped craft our timetables, as guidance counsellors so expertly do, so between the 6 of us, w...