Class of '87 - A Family Reunion of sorts.

Twenty-seven years ago I graduated from grade 8. I left my elementary school. The institution that had been such a big part of my life for nine years. I attended my graduation, said "goodbye" to friends I had known for my lifetime and walked away from a wonderful school full of amazing memories.

This past weekend I reconnected with more than a third of those friends and it was an amazing experience. But who does that? We hear about high school reunions and university reunions but elementary school? I suppose the world of social media, particularly Facebook, is a big part of it but it is also who we were as a class. When my life-long friend from this class told me that everyone from WHPS was on this thing called Facebook, I had to check it out. 

My elementary school experience was a unique one. I was in a class of 25 or so kids and most of us remained together from kindergarten to grade 8. Some faces came and went but there was a core group that remained the same for nine years. When I reconnected with these people on Facebook, it was amazing to see what they were doing in life, how they had grown up, and for some, to see their children.

But this is no different than many other people's experience. What is it about us that brought us back together for a reunion? Why did we all feel the importance of reconnecting like we did (even those who wanted to be there but unfortunately could not)? 

Part of me feels it is who we each are and how we were raised. We didn't move around like people do today. Our school was not a transient school where people moved in and out. We spent many years together and really got to watch one another grow up and develop into the people we are today. 

I am not saying that those years were perfect. I do remember some instances of typical adolescent behaviour of "today I am your friend, tomorrow I am not", and exclusive groupings, but by grade eight we moved away from that and accepted each other for who we each were. I remember grade eight being more like a big family where we supported each other and accepted one another. Part of this has to do with the caring and genuine people we were growing up to be but I also remember our grade 8 teacher, Mr Tetley, encouraging the friendships we had rather than separating people in fear that they would not do the assigned class work. He trusted us to do the right things or accept the consequences if we did not. As a result, this strategy worked to our benefit because we appreciated our close friends and developed acceptance of everyone in the class. As a teacher, I hope that I can instill the same kind of respect and cohesiveness in my students.

(Again, I am not saying that we were perfect, for example I do remember a food fight one day at lunch when we had a supply teacher, that resulted in one of my horse drawings being splattered with strawberry yogurt.) 

There was no pretentiousness in our gathering. Everyone was genuine and happy to share their memories and relive those good years. There were even tears as some reflected on what it meant to see what was home for so many years or to see their children play exactly where they did when they were that age. As the day faded into evening and some of us stayed up way past our bed times, we enjoyed sharing our first "legal" drink together and, danced to tunes we loved in the eighties. There were plenty of laughs and hugs to carry us on to the next time we see each other where hopefully more of us will be able to share the memories and reignite old friendships.

Here's to the class of '87! 

Friends...Reason, Season, Lifetime

I find myself reflecting a lot lately on the true meaning and value of friendship and who my "real" friends are. As a teacher, I teach my students the value of friendship and how to interact with each other in a positive manner. We recently had a big discussion during homeroom about peer pressure and standing firm on what you truly believe and how it is important to not follow the crowd simply because you want to be accepted by that ever important crowd.

I followed up the discussion with an activity with the iPad app Haiku Deck where the students needed to create a six word memoir about teenage relationships. They could share something about the true meaning of a friend, how it feels to be bullied, or the fine line of peer pressure and how to deal with it. As a result, they have come up with quite a few good ones, here are three examples:
1. Friendship - Will it always stay with you?
2. Stop Bullying - Don't be a standby, stop bullying. (This one has a picture of a picture of two boys sitting behind a grate and a third boy kicking a soccer ball at it)
3. Friends - The ones you can rely on.

These short little messages made me realize that a lesson on friendship is not just something to be learned as an adolescent. It is a lesson we need to carry with us for our entire lives as we navigate through the various people we meet and learn the valuable lesson of trust and the importance of a true friend. We learn that a true friend does not judge, or hold expectations that may never be realized because they are their own expectations or they are unreasonable.

About a decade ago, someone shared with me the poem "Reason, Season, Lifetime"; a poem that identifies the meaning of relationships with others and answers the question regarding why some people seem to be in one's life forever, regardless of situation or circumstance, and why others seem to fade off into history, thought of with fond and distant memories; others end quite abruptly, leaving one to question what ever happened and never really knowing.

I could not imagine growing up now in the world of social media. As much as it has its benefits, it must be frightening to feel like friendship is based on how many followers you have on Twitter or friends you have on Facebook. Those posts that come out now and then from some of my "friends" asking me to complete the test of a true friend before she decides if she will delete me from her friend list on Facebook make me laugh. I can't imagine how a fragile teen would feel getting a message like that, or worse, being deleted as someone's friend because, overnight, they have decided not to be his or her friend anymore.

Its funny, the whole reason why I got on Facebook, six years ago, was because I found out, through my lifelong friend I have known since kindergarten, that my grade 8 graduating class was all on Facebook. I had gone to school with most of those people for nine years. Some of them for another three years into high school. Those were people I thought would always be in my life but we grew up and each of our lives took us in different directions. Was it ever amazing to catch up with those people and some of us have reestablished our friendship and met up with each other whenever possible.

I guess as we mature we discover that the bullies we knew in elementary school and then in high school are the same people we later meet when we are adults. Lessons like the ones I have recently given my students give them the coping skills for how to deal with those bullies presently and, I suppose, well into the future when they are adults and meet their childhood bully all over again. In the end, we realize that no matter how old that bully is, the bully is just insecure and I hope my students develop the skills to deal with that bully and perhaps have empathy toward him or her.

First Day of School

Labour Day Monday. The night before the first day of school. It is almost like the calm before the storm because we know that once tomorrow arrives it will be a whirlwind of craziness until we get to take a breather for the Christmas break in December. I often use the metaphor of being shot out of a canon to describe the feeling of the first day of school.

I have mixed feelings about the first day of school. I love summer and the freedom it allows me. I get to travel, ride my bike whenever I want, go about my day as I wish. However, I am a teacher and my job is to teach. It is time to go back to work.

This will be an exciting year for me. After three years, I will finally be back at the Valleys for the whole day. No more running off at 11:05 to get to my 11:30 physed class at Edenrose. No more feeling like I am missing out on opportunities to bond with my students and share good middle school memories (i.e., Terry Fox Run, Talent Show) because I need to be at my afternoon school. I can finally open up clubs for the students to participate in or coach some teams. And I can fully jump on board the technology and get literate in the world of classroom technology.

It promises to be a good year at the Valleys this year and I am excited to share that enthusiasm with my students and colleagues at the school. See you tomorrow!

My First Blog

I just attended a two day PDSB conference on how to use technology in the classroom #TLDWpeel.  I figured since the schools are going BYOD, I best prepare myself for the change, and a little birdie, @the_mulcaster, told me that I was going to join her there and share my experiences using iPads with the students. Well, I am now ready to "jump" in and...I kind of feel like, if I don't, I will be left behind.

So, what did I do? First of all, as our keynote speaker George Couros (@gcouros) was sharing with us the reasons for embracing the world of digital technology, I finally opened up a Twitter account and made my first "tweet."

I have Facebook and use it to keep up with friends and share what is happening in my life. It is often a time sucker and, when I am on it, before I know it 45 minutes have flown by. So I find it a bit of a time sucker. I have postponed starting a Twitter account because I did not want to have one more thing to eat away my time.

I also feel that in this world of the internet and Smart Phones, I often feel over-stimulated and that there is too much information being thrown at me. How do I ever sift through it all?

But, I did it. I joined Twitter. During the keynote yesterday, I realized the importance of my role as a teacher. What I like most about my career is that I am always building relationships: with my students, their parents, and my colleagues. Let's face it, that is why I became a teacher. I love connecting with people, teaching, learning and sharing. To do that in the 21st Century means embracing this world of technology, a world that, as George Couros informed us, is mobile.

My second leap is to start a blog, another thing I just feel I don't have the time for and something I have always felt that I did not feel comfortable doing because who is really interested in what I have to say? But again, this is the 21st century and it is how we connect with each other. This will be something I will use with my students and their parents and, if I am going to ask my homeroom class to start blogging, I better start doing so too.

George Couros ended his presentation with the following clip which does epitomize how I feel at the moment but we will see what works:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtGRvP3ILg Let the journey begin!