#sparKtalK5 Solutions Sought

What-so-what-now-what...Indeed. After an especially productive pro-d session with my Principal, Sean McCartney, I reflected on the amazingly positive impact a collaborative partner can have on my own attempts to problem solve. Unfortunately, he's a busy guy and not always available. My program is a pilot: a multi age group of learners (7-13 years) in the annex of an elementary school, focusing on inquiry and hands-on learning opportunities in a highly personalized learning environment, sees me with a "schedule" that is different than that of the school we are situated at. As a result, we are almost always on our own; we have recess breaks on our own and lunch on our own and the peer group is very small. My school-based peer group is even smaller.

Following my pro-d morning where Sean and I tackled Learning Plans and reporting options, I am all the more aware of my lack of readily available collaborative opportunities. Unfortunately, I've got more than my fair share of new-program-problems to solve and am feeling a little desperate for collaboration opportunities. I've been sharing out through my #sparKtalK vlog posts trying to build a network with which to collaborate, but the momentum continues to be...non-existent. I am pushing through however, and am committed to my vlog through to the end of June with the hope that things pick up. As well, I will continue to pursue interactions with my PLN on Twitter and consult with professional and community contacts as that network continues to grow.

This week's "What"...Technology and limited resources. Have a watch (it's brief! honest!!) and please comment, questions, critique, chat, collaborate, or contribute in any way shape or form in the space below, via Twitter (@spedlearner) or via email: tross@sd61learn.

Stuck on the other side of the world.

Anxiety is a b*%#ch. Seriously. Many of us get anxious, but to have an anxiety disorder, to love and support someone with an anxiety disorder, is utterly exhausting (on both sides).

A few days ago our eldest son embarked on the trip of a lifetime. At 22 years of age, he has a trip to Cuba with classmates, a 3 week adventure in the UK with his brother, and 3 and a half months away from home on a ski leadership training course under his belt. Each one brought with it a unique set of anxiety symptoms. Each demanded support from us as parents that was far reaching and exhausting, but which we were more than willing to attempt to provide. And each experience has helped to further hone and develop our son's own skills and strategies for dealing with his anxiety.

The morning of his departure was met with a racing heart; I could feel it pounding through his chest as I hugged him; words of "I can't do this" spilled out of his mouth. For the first time ever, I suggested he take an Attivan. I felt terrible about offering it ("here, have some drugs"), but it was 4 a.m. and the time for departing was nearly upon us. It was impulsive on my part, but much to my surprise, yielded very positive results. The bulk of his travel day was manageable and he arrived to his destination with very few anxiety based obstacles.

He had the luck of being able to travel from Munich to the ski resort in Austria with his ski coach, but once he settled into his own room, he found himself stuck there. These last 72 hours have been filled with numerous video chats and phone calls to home. Requests to come home, tears, irrational fears and what-if's pour from his lips. Feeling as though we are in an entirely different universe, we try to talk him through these intense anxiety attacks--"breathe with me, come on you can do this...in-2-3-4 and out-2-3-4...let's slow it down, nice and slow...in-2-3-4 and out-2-3-4...slower now, there you go...you got this....keep breathing"--and on it goes.

Once out of that place of sheer panic, we work on perspective, replacing "what-if-negative-statements" with "what-if-positive-statements", reminding him of other times he has felt this way, when things felt unfamiliar and new, times which ended up leading him to some of the best experiences of his life. We remind him to see the familiar: "It's there if you are looking for it!"

There is only so much we can do from so far away. My heart aches for my boy--I am both so proud of him for continuing to try to overcome this debilitating anxiety and so pained for what he must endure as part of his experience. It is hard as a parent to see that this thing that was an obstacle and so misunderstood in my child as a toddler-school aged-and then young adult, is not really going away. While the panic and tears are no longer about the innocent and simple aspects of childhood: costumes of Halloween or a first job interview, they still show up for other, more adult based, events: world travel, finances, and, well, for all the other job interviews!

My husband and I recognize and acknowledge that our son has made great strides and we know he will continue to. As a teacher, I can always recognize which of my students would have been my own kid and it moves me in my connection with them. The qualities of a relationship with any young person struggling with anxiety: respect, compassion, understanding and empathy. I celebrate the baby steps, those almost undetectable signs of progress, as they happen. And it's okay if you could do it yesterday and you can't today. One day, all today's obstacles will, in hindsight, seem to be the easy stuff. It's the supported persistence, trusting your supports, and the ongoing honing, development and practicing of strategies and skills for kicking anxiety's butt that continues to be the hard part.

Tomorrow the ski week intensive starts, and I know with another good-night's sleep, the arrival of familiar faces, the addition of structure and regular, intensive physical exercise to his day, he is going to rise out of this. That's how I'm envisioning it at least. Breathe-in-2-3-4 and out-2-3-4.

#sparKtalK5 Vlog: The Big Reveal

Ah, delayed reflection reaps the greatest reward, at least for me through this week's vlog post. I struggled with what to do with my learners’ apparent lack of ability in the area of making connections earlier this week. Of course, I was quick to interpret this as a problem of theirs that I would need to support them with. However, after taping my reflection, walking home from school, I considered this whole connecting thing further. What did I do wrong? Why, after watching a video they all seemed completely intrigued by, was it so difficult to draw out some connections? What role did I play in this struggle?

Watch this week’s vlog post, beginning with my embarrassingly early and quick resolve as I explain my “what”, followed by a later reflective post sharing my own more significant learning. The big reveal. Here it is!

Thanks for watching! As usual, I’d love to hear back from you! Questions, comments,  criticisms, cheers, or chit chat—all feedback is welcome and appreciated!

#sparKtalK5 Vlog - Make Me a Maker

So, hands-on-collaborate-create-make-and-maybe-even-bake, seems like one big undertaking to me. I've done some reading, some viewing, and some consulting to try to figure out this whole maker movement thing. Inspired last year by Sylvia Martinez's visit to our #tiegrad cohort (thank you to Alec Couros for setting that up), I made sure this year's class supplies included a MakeyMakey and a Raspberry Pi. I know very little about either, but it seems like a good starting point. We are barebones in terms of our SPARK Maker Space otherwise. Please view this week's #sparKtalK5 vlog to hear my what-so-what-now-what explanation!

Comments, criticisms, questions, contributions, and any other forms of collaborative efforts are GREATLY appreciated! Please add your two cents worth below.

#sparKtalK5 Vlog If you build it, they don't necessarily come

Thanks for tuning in to this week's #sparKtalK5 vlog post. In attempting to reflect and collaborate, I'm learning it isn't enough to just share out a vlog each week. If I really want to build, nurture, and maintain meaningful professional and learning relationships in my PLN, I have to continue to connect in a variety of ways with my peers. I've been seeking collaborators to share in my journey, and a few show up here and there via blog comments, but I'm realizing it's only one means of generating discussion. Here's my #sparKtalK5 vlog on the topic:

Feeling more hopeful, I'll leave it at that for this week. So appreciative of the interactions that come my way. Leave a comment below! I promise I'll reply!...Keeping it real (and brief) via #sparKtalK5 .

sparKtalK5 Vlog - Flexibility on the Spot

This week, the learners I worked with pushed me to be more flexible. It really got me wondering if there are times/situations where we can't really afford the flexibility our learners need. I want to believe no, but I also know that logistically, I'm one person, trying to support a number of different learners at very different places in their learning. Please comment and share with me how you handle student tangents in learning, learners moving in a different direction, and other opportunities for practicing flexibility.
In the example I share, my goal was have learners create an artistic image that uses line and colour to communicate the mood and theme of fall. Pre-activity, we all looked at the same work sample, discussed the connection to our Autumn theme, and the creative process we would be exploring. Sharing the experience, we all sat around one big table together, and a natural evolution of creation occurred;  learners began to make suggestions to each other (leaf drawing strategies, ways to add texture through rubbing, and how to shade the leaf as opposed to "colouring" it, for example). One learner went in a completely different direction (see photo above).
I'm working really hard to support and respect learner differences (be that in their understanding of directions, their own desire to do something different, or simply where they are "at" in their learning) and a big part of that is being flexible. Reflecting also allows me to consider what my role might have been, if any, in influencing the learner's diverted path.

I am feeling a little lonely in my program and my attempts to pursue personalized learning and inquiry in a multi-age (7-13 years) environment. Any comments, questions, advice, constructive criticism, feedback, or words of wisdom are greatly appreciated!! (Does that sound too desperate??)

Thanks for watching and please subscribe!

#sparKtalK5 Tackling Overwhelm

An sparKtalK5 vlog post to share; I wish it was an update on Learning Plans, but alas, it is not. Just tackling my looming overwhelm this week. Really appreciate the support I've been getting both via this blog and via text/email from friends who are teachers. Please keep it coming as it really does help!

And, just to be clear, the tears were indeed my own and I did, in fact, recover before students arrived. Boo-hoo-ing at work is really not something that happens for me, so this was a big deal. Onward!