Professional Development: Building Futures

 On Wednesday I had the privilege of attending the Ontario Ministry of Education's professional development presentation called Building Futures. The two workshops I was able to attend specifically were:  
  1. promoting well being: developing positive conditions for learning; and 
  2. supporting students with special education needs. 
I won't go into extensive detail, but I found there were a lot of common themes throughout the workshops and I'd like to highlight several key messages. 

First, we can't 'fix' students' problems or 'make students better;' all we can do as educators is promote positive mental health and well being. This was a powerful moment for me when I heard this message. We can do everything 'right' as an educator and still have students who are in distress, and we need to leave it to the experts at that point. This is a concept, in general, that I struggle with. I want to fix everything all the time, but I've learned that this isn't always an effective approach and I'll just end up burning out if I try fruitlessly to fix everything. 

Retrieved from: https://goo.gl/RNZ2TA 
The second message that struck a cord for me was about delivering bad news to parents. I'm sure everyone has heard of something along these lines before, but it was new to me. The strategy is called 'sandwiching' and essentially you highlight a child's strengths at the beginning, followed by your concern, and finishing with a strength again (as demonstrated in the graphic). My adviser pointed out that these positive comments need to be genuine since parents will be able to tell if you're making something up or seeming 'fake.' The facilitator also suggested that you map out what you're going to say prior to making the phone call, and wait until your calm. This sandwich approach could also work really well for report cards. 

The final message that stayed with me, and it's one I've heard before but is worth repeating, is that students aren't going to remember us for teaching them multiplication or narrative structure; they're going to remember how we made them feel, whether they felt safe at school, and whether they felt supported in their learning. This is definitely something I need to keep in mind, since I tend to get caught up in the curriculum and forget about the student. This is a professional goal of mine to always keep the student in the forefront of my mind and remember how much of an impact I can have (either in a positive or negative way). 

Overall, I found it engaging to hear from new perspectives in the world of teaching and get some new ideas to take with into my practicum next week.  

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