Posts in Education Transformation

With teacher strikes looming all around us, are you able to find something great? As an adult, I am always learning. Here is my experience in a recent adventure. I hope it encourages you in your learning. Life is an adventure. I feel that I am at the peak of my career, and I want to make a significant contribution to society. So, off to New Zealand, we go to see the country the way the tourists do, travelling in a camper van. It is a fantastic experience that allows us to see this spectacular country and experience many highlights…

Education Strategies, Education TransformationCreative Education In ActionFebruary 27, 2020Social and Emotional Learning, City of Calgary Teachers Convention, Searching for Gems, WorkshopComment

Teachers Matter Conference Day 2020

Spectrum Education has been hosting a Teachers Matter conference two-three times per year (throughout Australasia) since 2006, attended by 10,000+ teachers. These are jam-packed with a professional focus of making teaching more effective in the classroom with practical learning strategies and teaching resources, plus a personal focus of teacher wellbeing and welfare.

Tired of Sorting out Recess Squabbles?

“He won’t let me play soccer at recess.” “She said she won’t be my friend.” “That’s not fair!” “He is always on the computer. It is my turn!” It seems every day after a recess break, students want me to solve their squabbles. Children have a good sense of fairness and equity. Why can’t they solve their own problems? As a teacher, I have asked students to “sort it out” between them before entering class. Later I realized children are not born with the ability to figure out these higher-order emotional skills on their own, just like they are not born with manners. They need pro-active, explicit instruction.

Education Strategies, Education TransformationCreative Education In ActionNovember 21, 2019Squabbles, styles of communicaton, authentic integrationComment

Developing Innovative Minds is Vital for Future Ready Students

How do we prepare our students for the 21st century? This is a question that educators have asked for years. Teaching content no longer sets our students up for success. Many of the jobs our graduates can get now will no longer exist in a number of years. Of course, teaching the basics is important and we must teach the basics in the context of developing innovative minds.

Education Transformation, Education StrategiesCreative Education In ActionOctober 30, 2019Margaret Boersma - Creative Education in Action21st century, innovative minds, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, ne, cog, Complex Problem Solving, People Management, Coordinating with Others, Judgement and Decision Making, Service Orientation Comment

Empathy Training and SEL, the Keys to Thriving

Having just returned from an exhilarating international conference, 2019 SEL Exchange, I am excited to share. “Defining Quality in the Context of Innovation” was the focus of the conference hosted by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the best place to get resources and information about Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).

Education Strategies, Education TransformationGuest UserOctober 22, 2019SEL, empathy, SmArts, well-being, Parents and Children, way to be, CASEL, Social and Emotional LearningComment

Communicating Empathy is Essential?

Can your students communicate their ideas clearly and succinctly after raising their hands? When students have the opportunity to defend their point of view or articulate their ideas more fully, I often become aware of their inability to communicate. Even with ample “wait time,” they stammer, can’t find the words or don’t express their ideas in full. The listener is left guessing at the meaning and several exchanges are needed to clarify rather simple thoughts.

Education Transformation, Education StrategiesCreative Education In ActionSeptember 27, 2019communication, empathy, listening, speaking, perspective Comment

Make Well-Being Your Focus This Year

Teachers and principals see first-hand the impact of violence that shows up in children as emotional dysregulation. I hesitate to use the term “mental health problems” as only a professional licensed in mental health has the training and authority to make a diagnosis of a mental health problem. What we educators see are behaviours that are not conducive to learning and norms of behaviour at school – so I prefer to use the word “dysregulated”.

Workshop, Education TransformationCreative Education In ActionSeptember 5, 2019SmARTS, well-being, Teachers, Susan CiminelliComment

Oct 22, 2024

Breaking Free from Screen Addiction: Strategies for Parents and Teachers

Analogical Problem-Solving ™ is what I call teaching by living inside a story such as the Us and Them unit. Students have agency/voice to make decisions inside their class story, an analogy of life. As teachers, we carefully follow their suggestions and integrate lessons as we plan strategies that allow them to discover their learning. Students learn real-life lessons without real-life consequences. They realize at a profound level that we have so much in common. We are all connected. Ultimately the students decide war is not worth the enormous human cost. And they internalize that we are all part of the human race.

Dec 2, 2021

Us and Them

Nov 21, 2021

The Dynamic Teaching Model

For years we thought the primary emphasis in school should be to teach digital technology to our students. The Information Era would solve everything! Mind you, tech skills are absolutely essential. But, this emphasis, at the exclusion of something else, has placed a couple of generations at a major disadvantage! How do you say? Let’s explore in our latest SEL Blog below where Margaret Boersma, an instructional coach and education consultant, writes about the importance of emotional well-being in classrooms. #SocialEmotionalLearning

Jul 8, 2021

Communication is a Life Skill Most Kids Don’t Master

When students have the opportunity to defend their point of view or articulate their ideas more fully, I often become aware of their inability to communicate. Even with ample “wait time,” they stammer, can’t find the words or don’t express their ideas in full. The listener is left guessing at the meaning and several exchanges are needed to clarify rather simple thoughts.

May 16, 2021

Essential Workers: Thinking about Social Class Inequity and Education

Andy Hargreaves suggests in Canada we have an unspoken culture of social class in which diversity issues are not addressed. When rethinking schools, he says, “We must teach working-class identity as history and culture of pride involving the dignity of labour, solidarity with one’s fellows, the value of hard work, and the importance of self-improvement. [We must] rethink everything [we] do on social class lines, as much as [we] have in relation to all other aspects of diversity.”

Nov 29, 2020

Free SEL Videos for Home and School

Free Lessons Available in Social Emotional Learning for Children.. Every lesson has an affirmation that students can memorize to remind themselves of their ability to influence themselves and others in positive ways.

Oct 22, 2019

Sep 26, 2019

How Do We Support Students Who Lose Control?

As teachers and administrators, we experience these kinds of interactions more often. Doing our best to be equitable, we can still be misunderstood. Our goal is to move our students forward so they can reach their fullest potential. And yet, we are often at a loss as to how to make that happen.

Jun 11, 2019

Building Tools in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Educators

Sometimes we try so hard to ‘work on our relationships’ by doing thoughtful favours, giving gifts or helping out in practical ways and still…it will come out that something is not perfect about the way we are being perceived by that person. We will have a better-quality life if we take responsibility for everything…even if we feel that only a smidgen is really our responsibility. Consider, that there may be, even a small amount, of truth to the comment. Consider, there is an unresolved issue from the past that keeps these thoughts and comments alive. Consider, that taking responsibility brings us freedom.

May 10, 2019

Encouraging Student Voice in the Classroom

While examining the plight of modern refugees by living inside a story, students reflect on their own journeys and those of “change” in their families. This inquiry-based learning unit is a model for deepening understanding and social/emotional learning with themes of equity, inclusion and well-being. Students experience learning in "first person" as they build empathy, compassion and a growth mindset. Personal well-being is nurtured through immersion in the arts. Storytelling, drama, dance and visual arts are central to this cross-curricular unit. As well, Language Arts, Current Affairs and Social Studies expectations are integrated in the work.

Apr 18, 2019

7 Steps to Teach Responsibility

How do we teach RESPONSIBILITY? As teachers, we often complain about students who do not take responsibility for their learning. It seems difficult for them to make good choices e.g. as to where they sit and they have a bad habit of side conversations. We worry about these students and their progress. As teachers, we work very hard to make lessons compelling and spend time scaffolding and planning. And sometimes it seems we work harder than our students! We sometimes say to ourselves at points of frustration, “Well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” What if there was a way to teach responsibility?

Feb 5, 2019

Working with Values of Indigenous People

In this unit: game, writing, dance, drama; Grades 2-adult. Resource: “We are the Earth” by Bobbie Kalma Cooperative Game: Atom – One Teapot: 1 chief, 2 eagle, 3 whale, 4 grizzly bear. Information: Read and discuss pages 16 – 19 of “We are the Earth” by Bobbie Kalman. Minds On: Creative Movement: In a circle, body-storm ,the grizzly bear on the land, whale in the water, eagle in the air and fire in the forest.

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