A Few Bad Apples and a Whole Bunch of Sheep

A few bad apples. That’s the phrase we all keep hearing. 

Anyone else tired of hearing that yet? As if the “bad apples” just appeared out of nowhere? As if we weren’t warned by anti-racist educators that this exact thing would happen? Be disgusted, be disappointed, but by no means can any of us be surprised. 

You see, for a bad apple to fall, first a seed must be planted and a tree must be grown. And this is a tree whose roots are undeniably deep and whose branches are frighteningly far-reaching. 

You may have heard people say: This a “Freedom Rally” against mandates; it has nothing to do with race. 

But the second that we rally behind people who hold white nationalist beliefs, it most certainly DOES become about race. Even if the issue at hand isn’t. You see, when we march by their side in massive numbers like this, what message are we sending about where we stand? We are giving them a platform, elevating their voices, and legitimizing their claims. So, even if we don’t agree with them on “certain issues,” the actual fringe minority of white supremacists sees it as validation and it emboldens them to show up and speak out. Ask yourself: why do they feel comfortable in this crowd that’s supposed to be rallying for freedom? Pride parades are massive and you don’t ever see swastikas freely flying there. 

Only a few bad apples. From one tree. In one city. For every person waving a Confederate flag, there are hundreds more at home looking up “reverse racism against white people.” How many more social media followers do you think Pat King received because of this convoy? Is that a voice you really want to be amplifying? And I know there are rumors that people carrying these flags were “plants” put there by Trudeau or CBC. Why else would they have their faces covered?  And for all I know, they could be right. I don’t know for a fact that they weren’t paid to do it. But what I do know for a fact is that members of the Ku Klux Klan also conceal their identities. So there’s that…

I get it – almost everyone there is there to protest against the mandates. No one is against your right to protest. But we just want you to really consider who you are protesting behind. A few people have said that they didn’t realize who the organizers were or didn’t know their backgrounds. Well, to that I say take the advice that so many of us have been hearing over and over again throughout the pandemic: Do your own research. Wake up. Don’t be a sheep.  

And honestly, the research was already done for you: Activists like Taylor McNallie and Selam Debs put this information out there for us all to see. Anti-racist educators, who have not only experienced the systemic discrimination in our country, but have also dedicated their lives to researching it and helping dismantle it, warned us that this convoy is raging with red flags. And how do we respond? We get defensive. We say that focusing on race is just dividing the country. We ignore. We deny. Or we are silent. How exhausting it must be for BIPOC to be the ones expected to fight against racial injustices when they are the ones also experiencing it everyday. It took me forever to publish this post because I didn’t want to deal with the back and forth that might happen in the comments section. But Selam Debs is literally getting threats of violence sent to her. I think I can handle an uncomfortable conversation or two. 

Only a few short months ago, we all wore our orange shirts. And that’s wonderful. But it’s also a really easy thing to do. Questioning our own biases and prejudices is much harder. So is considering the impact of our actions, even if they are well-intended actions. Residential school survivors had been saying for decades that there were graves. Why didn’t we listen? People are telling us that supporting this convoy is dangerous for our country; why aren’t we listening?

Saying that focusing on the bad apples is only causing more division is also false. Any addict knows that the first step in recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem. Well, Canada, we have a problem. We’re addicted to our identity as a welcoming, diverse country whose only fault is that we apologize too much. Well, and I’m sorry if you didn’t already know this, but we clearly don’t live up to that. We have to admit that our country was built on white supremacy. We have to admit that there’s systemic discrimination. We have to admit that white nationalists are mobilizing. We have to admit that we aren’t honouring the voices of those who are oppressed. And we have to make some changes. 

Let me end by saying this. I do not care if you support the mandates or not. That’s not what this post is about. And if you do support the Freedom Convoy, I don’t think I’m a better person than you. I’m not writing this to make you feel like an awful person. I’m writing this to help you see it from a different lens. To understand how your protest against mandates can all of a sudden be a protest about race. And to hopefully, make you reconsider who you stand behind and beside in the future.

If you are a white person in this country, you might not consider yourself to be a racist person, but you unequivocally benefit from a system that upholds white supremacy. How come you are to blame if you weren’t the ones who established these systems in the first place? How come you are responsible for dismantling the systems of oppression? Why do I clean up my kids’ toys after they go to bed if I’m not the one who played with them? Because I don’t want to live in a messy house. Is that an easy enough analogy? Newsflash: John A. MacDonald isn’t coming back from the dead to say he made a mistake and save us all. It’s on us. Each one of us.

You may not be a bad apple, but ask yourself: are you watering the tree from which they fall?

Let’s Talk About Seuss, Baby

Hi there. It’s been a while. Actually, I’m not sure if I even have anyone following this blog anymore, and since I’ve completely abandoned it for the last five years, that’s totally understandable. Since my last post, I’ve given birth. Twice.  And, I quit my job to be able to stay home with our kids.

It’s safe to say that ed tech (or education in general) hasn’t been big on my priority list. Don’t get me wrong, there have been a couple of times where I felt like typing something up. Take, for instance, Lecce’s plan for mandatory e-Learning in secondary – ugh. Yeah, I definitely had a few things to say about that. But nothing (and I mean NOTHING) has motivated me more to come on here and share my thoughts than this whole Dr. Seuss fiasco.

As I’m sure you are well aware, Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided to stop publishing six of Dr. Seuss’ books because of racist content. As I’m sure you are also well aware, people are outraged. 

But Katie, what does this have to do with education? Well dear readers, it has EVERYTHING to do with education. In the last 24 hours, I have seen a plethora of people share memes about this situation: “Stop coming after Seuss,” “Cancel culture strikes again, ”Let’s cancel WAP before we cancel Seuss,” “If you’re offended by Seuss, then YOU should be cancelled,”  These memes are shared by people I know, people I consider friends, and people I respect. I saw posts from parents (so so SO many parents), from educators, and even from school trustees. 

And what do I do? Rage type in the comments, of course:

“Excuse me, I hate to be the one to tell you this. You have a little something….yeah, right there. No, it’s not food in your teeth. No, nothing in your nose. It’s even worse. I don’t think you meant it to, but….your racism slipped out!”

Just kidding. 

I don’t do that. That would be mean. And this Snowflake (aka: Karen) isn’t out to do that. But, I do share a well thought-out response, explaining how this isn’t cancel culture and how it’s a good thing, blah blah blah… Someone asked me why I even waste my time commenting on these posts. But to me, it’s not a waste of time. Racism needs to be called out. Always. 

And, to be fair, the majority of the people who share these memes would never consider themselves to be racist. And they likely aren’t. But what they have to realize is that they have spent their entire lives living in a racist world. So sometimes, things seem harmless because they have been around for what seems like forever (like the name of a sport’s team, or a cartoon, or Heaven-forbid, a children’s book). But just because something is harmless to you, does not mean that it’s not harmless to others.

Sure, when Dr. Seuss released those six books, it was a different time. There’s no way those books would be given the green-light in 2021. I think we can all agree on that. Those images are wrong now. But they were also wrong then. You may be thinking: yeah, but it was socially acceptable back then. And my question to you is: SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE TO WHO? Because at one time slavery was considered “socially acceptable,” but I’m sure it wasn’t socially acceptable to the people who were enslaved. At one time segregation was “socially acceptable.” At one time Japanese Internment Camps were “socially acceptable.” At one time Residential Schools were “socially acceptable.” But they were still wrong. 

Do you see where I’m going with this? 

Racism is never harmless. Those books weren’t harmless then and they aren’t harmless now. The difference is that now we are honouring the voices of people who we didn’t include in the “social circle” before.  Again, that’s a good thing. 

It may seem like everyone is offended by everything these days. (I hear a lot of “what’s next?” followed with an exaggerated eye-roll and sigh). But that’s because white people did a lot of offensive sh*t! We were just never called on it before. Ahem: white privilege. And now the “chickens are coming home to roost” (sorry, I’ve always wanted to use that figure of speech).  

We all look at the world through different lenses. And part of that lens is race. Sometimes it’s hard to understand something unless it impacts you directly. But as teachers, principals, educational assistants, and even school trustees – we don’t get to put the blinders on. If so many people are upset by Dr. Seuss Enterprises deciding NOT to publish racist books, then what kind of other prejudices are they (often unknowingly) holding onto? 

It is literally our job to help make our schools a safe place for every single one of our students. Ontario’s Education Act calls it “in loco parentis” – it is a teacher’s DUTY to act like a parent when protecting students from foreseeable harm. Please, let’s live up to that calling. 

Let’s stop asking “what’s next,” and start willingly asking “what else?” 

The Significance of a Student Summit

For the past two years, I’ve worked closely with the EdTech Team to organize Student Summits for the Superior North Catholic District School Board. At the Summits, students learn about Google Apps: Drive, Docs, Slides, Forms, etc. Both Summits have been amazing – each year there is a dynamic buzz in the air at the end of the day. Here is some actual feedback from our student attendees (spelling and grammar errors included…I think they help to express the students’ enthusiasm…haha):

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome – Grade 6 student

I liked how everybody was helping each other. – Grade 6 student

That was awesome keep it going. I loved all of it you guys are the best keep looking at my post they might just explode your eyes! I went to this last year it was awesome. You guys rock and you da boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂  -Grade 5 student

I REALLY loved the summit. I would go there again if there’s another Summit. – Grade 6 student

It is pretty evident that our students enjoyed the Summit. But Student Summits aren’t JUST about our students learning about some cool apps. There is something much larger at play. If you are an Ontario educator, you may recognize this graphic:

*Please note that there are other MSAC graphics that have been created since then, but this one resonates the most with me. I love it so much that for my birthday a few years ago, my friend and colleague @kfilane had a giant one printed for me. As you can see from the above photo, it’s still on display in my office.

It was created by a MSAC (The Minister’s Student Advisory Council) a few years ago. Let me re-phrase: It was created by a graphic designer who listened to the students in MSAC discuss their ideas of what education should be like. At the very heart of the graphic is the idea that STUDENTS ARE PARTNERS IN THEIR EDUCATION.

You’d probably be hard-pressed to find an educator who would disagree with the idea of students being partners in their education. But what’s great about the Student Summit is that it is a tangible example.

A few years ago our board was in a dilemma: We piloted Google Apps in 4 of our classes, and the student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Great news! However, when we tried to get teachers to learn about GAFE, we had very little enthusiasm. Not such great news…

SIDENOTE: I DO NOT blame teachers for not voluntary jumping into MORE professional learning. This was in the Spring. We all know how it feels to be a classroom teacher in the Spring; the last thing you want to do is to be out of your classroom to learn about something new.

How could we move forward with GAFE (and honour student voice), without waiting for teacher readiness? How was it fair that the majority of our students weren’t accessing these tools simply because the majority of our teachers didn’t want to learn about them? (again, not their fault…they just didn’t know how GAFE had any educational value at the time).

Then I thought, why wait for the teachers to learn the tools? Students are just as capable of learning how to use the apps! One quick email to the EdTech Team and the first-ever Student Summit was a go!

The Summit turned professional learning upside down and inside out: teachers and students attended sessions and learned TOGETHER. When the Summit was over, and they went back to their schools, students were able to say, “Can we try using Google Docs for this?” Their knowledge of the tools no longer depended on their teachers.

At our second Summit this November, some of our students actually facilitated breakout sessions. Let that sink in: Students in Grades 5-8 stood up in front of a bunch of strangers (including people their own age and some adults), and taught others about Google Apps.

Are there still classrooms where Google Apps aren’t being used? Definitely. Are some students still at a disadvantage because of teacher readiness? I’m sure of it. But I can confidently say that we are much further than we ever would have been if we didn’t go this route.

Events like the Student Summits are significant because they convey this message: We are all learners. It doesn’t matter what your “title” is in a school: student, teacher, or even principal – we are partners in education because we learn from one another.

***If you are interested in hosting a Google Summit with the EdTech Team, the person who you should contact is Michelle Armstrong (michelle@edtechteam.com) – she is AMAZING! If you have any questions about how SNCDSB organized our events, feel free to reach out 🙂

 

Why I Love GAFE: The Custom Webstore

There are many reasons why I have a love affair with Google Apps for Education. One of them is the ability to control which apps and extensions our students can add to Chrome. We do this in two ways:

1. We push out certain apps/extensions to all students. These automatically get installed; students don’t need to go to the Webstore. This method is great for the apps/extensions that you want all students to have access to.
2. We have a custom Chrome Webstore for students. When our students click on the Webstore app, they are brought to a store that has whitelisted apps/extensions (approved by the board). This method is useful for apps/extensions that are beneficial, but not all students need/want.

The apps and extensions that we’ve pushed out and added to the Webstore are the ONLY apps/extensions that students can add. Keep in mind that Superior North Catholic is a K-8 school board, and that we are not BYOD (we provide Chromebooks for all of our Grade 5-8 students). Your board may choose to go a different route with respect to students and the Chrome Webstore.

Our staff, on the other hand, have free range in the Chrome Webstore; we do not limit their access. If a teacher finds an app/extension that they want their students to have access to, we have a process in place for them to make the request: They fill out a Google form (and I’ve set it so that I get email notifications anytime a new response is submitted), and I take a look at the app/extension.* If the reviews are good, then I head over to the Admin panel and add it to our list of approved apps/extensions and also add it to the custom Chrome Webstore. This setup allows us to filter student access to the webstore, while also providing teachers the opportunity to add things to the list.

*The Google form to request an app/extension exists in a managed bookmarks folder that gets pushed out to all staff members. Expect a post about managed bookmarks coming soon!

Here is a list of approved apps and extensions at SNCDSB.

 

It Is Just No Longer An Option.

This blog post originated as a reply to Kim Figliomeni’s blog. Needless to say, I realized that I had too much to share and decided the length of my “reply” was more appropriate for a dedicated post. Kim has asked other educators to join her in spending 10 minutes a day to connect with others. She is following OSSEMOOC’s Ten Minutes of Connecting Challenge that Donna Fry (@Fryed) created.

Here is my take away from OSSEMOOC’s Day 1 post:

I love the quote:

“Using technology is no longer an option for us. We must support our students to succeed in our physical and digital world.”

In my role as the Technology Enabled Learning and Teaching Contact for SNCDSB, I sometimes hear:
“I’m no good at that technology stuff.”
“I just don’t do computers.”
“I’m not a computer person.” ****
A colleague of mine (@WallwinS) often asks the question: How would we respond if an educator said something like that about Math? In Ontario, we have worked so hard to improve teacher efficacy with respect to Mathematics. In fact, it is absolutely taboo for an educator to say: “I don’t do Math.” Why? Simply put: We want our students to feel confident that they are all capable of learning new Math concepts, so we have to model that growth mindset for them.

Why should we approach technology enabled learning any differently? The Khan Academy video that is shared in the OSSEMOOC post is correct – you can learn anything. I remember thinking that html code was perplexing. To me, people who could code were magicians. Now that I’ve been forced to use it a bit, I see that once you understand the “language,” it is not such a scary and mysterious thing.

The second video shared in the OSSEMOOC post, Learning to Change – Changing to Learn really emphasized that as educators it is our duty to take ownership over technology’s role in education.  We need to use technology in our classrooms – to borrow a quote from our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau – because it’s 2015. And we aren’t using technology for the sake of using technology; we need to use it to provide some new and innovative learning opportunities for our students (but this is another blog post in and of itself)!

 

****FYI: These teachers usually know way more than they give themselves credit for.

Model What you Seek.

“Model what you seek.”

Those are the words I needed to hear. And those are the words that have been simultaneously stressing me out and encouraging me ever since George Couros spoke to me about blogging at SeLNO (Thunder Bay’s regional conference on technology-enabled learning).

George: Katie, do you blog?

Me: No

George: You should. Model what you seek.

Between you and me, I didn’t like hearing those 4 words: Model what you seek. I didn’t like them because they were what I knew deep down to be true. It’s not as though I’ve never thought about blogging before. Last Spring, I made up my mind that I was going to start sharing my thoughts in a digital space. Here I am – ONE YEAR LATER – finally doing it.

So, what took so long? I can chalk it up to 4 questions:

1. What if no one thinks that what I have to share is worthwhile?
2. Is it going to make me look like a know-it-all?
3. How can I fit it into my schedule?
4. What if people see me working on a blog post during the work day? Will it look bad?

I was afraid – afraid of the vulnerability, afraid of the time commitment, and afraid of how it would make me “look.” But, then there were those 4 words: Model what you seek. I decided to take myself out of the equation and think about how I would answer those questions if a teacher in my school board came to me with them.

1. What if no one thinks that what I have to share is worthwhile?

Of course what you have to share is worthwhile! As an educator, we spend our entire career encouraging our students to share what they’ve learned with others – that’s how we grow as people; we learn from one another.

2. Is it going to make me look like a know-it-all?

Think about the people who you know who have blogs. How do you feel about them? You likely don’t think that they believe they have all of the answers. Bloggers are just eager to share their thinking to a large audience. Part of what they are doing is  looking for a conversation with others, so that they themselves can become better educators.

3. How can I fit it into my schedule?

You need to make it part of your work day. If you read through the Ontario College of Teachers’ Standard of Practice, you’ll see that Reflection is part of your job. Writing to an audience will help you gather your thoughts, encourage you to question, and give you a venue to get others’ opinions. All of this is worth the time it takes, because it will make you a better teacher.

4. What if people see me working on a blog post during the work day? Will it look bad? 

This question has less to do with you, and more to do with the people who are assuming that you are doing something that isn’t related to student learning. If anyone questions you, take it as an opportunity to show them the value of having a professional learning network who you connect with online.

So, my beliefs obviously didn’t match my actions. Why in the world could I encourage another person to blog when I was afraid of doing it? It’s simple: this is a risk for me that takes me out of my comfort zone. But, as the contact for technology-enabled learning for my school board, how can I be asking teachers to blog when I’m not willing to take that risk? Am I scared? Heck yes! But, in my role, I’m often asking people to try new things. And this blog is “my next”  (Mark Carbone). Model what you seek. Thanks George.