`Ethnographic Field Journal
Semester One, Week One, Erin Woods Elementary
25 Erin Park Drive SE, Calgary AB
Day One: Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013 (The Culture of the School)
We arrived at 8am and were sat in the staff conference room. We were immediately
greeted and welcomed by the school AP who sat us down and asked us a few questions
and told us a bit about Erin Woods. She was very warm and welcoming. Next in came the
Principal who was also very nice and extremely welcoming. She had lots to say about the
wonderful things that happened at Erin Woods and what made it a special school. She
went over…
-The school mission statement
-The involvement with the community and the parents
-What they do to foster learning, good citizenship and respect in students
-The special learning programs they offer (Bridges)
-The staff and their general experience
-The new Report Card template
-The goals of the CBE and the new methods they are trying to implement
-How to conduct ourselves around the kids
- She said that we were more than welcome to get involved in classroom
activities, ask questions, and interact with the kids. We could also ask
teachers for whatever types of hard copy classroom activities that we
liked. We were not under any circumstances allowed to take pictures
though.
-She gave us a number of helpful documents including
-School Mission statement
-Map of the school as well as a timetable for the week for us
-Learning goals of the CBE
-Learning goals at Erin Woods, expectations and guidelines for fostering
success
The AP then took us on a school tour and showed us all the classrooms and introduced us
to some of the teachers. She talked about the demographics of the school, mentioning
ethnicity, socio economics, and the number of kids that were “coded”. The bell rang and
we were off to our first classes. (429 students total, 80 students are coded, 10% native
population, the school is in area 3, which she mentioned was seen as being a school with
a lot of ‘needs’)
Grade 6
[This was a team teaching setting. With two female grade six teachers
We were welcomed by two teachers in this extra large grade six class. They were very
nice and told us right away that we were welcome to talk to the students at any point and
get involved as much or as little as we were comfortable with.] [classroom had desks
arranged in groups of 4. There were 4 computers in the class. There were ‘some’ books,
not many though.]
They started the day with a personal writing assignment. They had 3 questions to answer
in a personal reflection about the election. The questions were designed to make them
think, and each ended with “why?”. They also had held their own grade 6 election, where
they researched aldermen, trustees and mayoral candidates and then cast private ballots. I
really liked this idea for a class activity. The students seemed super engaged in the
election and genuinely cared about the results of both the city election and the one they
had in the classroom. They chose 2 people to share their answers to the class, and the
teacher asks “why”, and then poses the same “critical analysis questions” that they use
every morning regarding their sharing…
-what is something specific that you though “jake” did well
-were his answers complete sentences (mentioned that if you covered up the
question, would you still know what he was talking about)
They then gathered both classes together and talked about the importance of voting and
the value of voting to society. I liked the way the discussion happened too, the teacher
was scaffolding them by getting them to further to expand on ideas and then asking why,
or how or what do you think about this…
Next the classes split up again and they each did a sharing circle, where they each rate
how they feel on a scale of 1 to 10, and why. It usually has to do with an event in their
lives that they are reflecting on. The teacher asks one or two questions or makes a
comment about what they said and other students could ask questions as well. The kids
seemed very familiar with this routine, and all seemed extremely comfortable with one
another and with the teacher. They all were supportive of one another and seemed very at
ease during this time. It was also clear that it was a very well established part of their
morning routine.
-ROUTINE
-INQUIRY BASED
-TEACHER INTERACTION
-SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
-*ENACTIVISM
[They had everything up on the smartboard, the questions, and then the voting stuff. They
used the smartboard in a very cool way for teaching math. There was a youtube video
that they used to teach a lesson on differences.
SCHOOL CULTURE
-They talked a lot about ‘WE DAY’, which is a “an educational event and the movement
of our time—a movement of young people leading local and global change. We Day is
tied to the yearlong We Act program, which offers curricular resources, campaigns and
materials to help turn the day’s inspiration into sustained activation”
-The grade six and three students went to WE DAY and every other class was streaming
it live throughout the day to catch the different speakers and performers
-The culture in this class and every other class was one of caring and sharing. That
sounds extremely cheesy, but they all were strongly encouraged to share, their feelings,
their thoughts, and their opinions. And they are all taught to be considerate and respectful
of one another and never to criticize. The teachers also seemed genuinely interested in
hearing the answers to the questions they asked.
-started noticing today that the teachers called all the students ‘friends’, instead of
girls/boys/students/guys or whatever else. “Friends, lets be quiet” “Let’s get in a nice
quiet line friends” etc. It was one of my favorite things about Erin Woods
-Art/Posters/projects all over the walls. It felt so homey and welcoming. The kids would
take you through the halls and point out where their art was and ask you if you liked it.
Then they would tell you facts about the unit that surrounded the art.
INQUIRY BASED LEARING
Example
They had “Daily 5” which were newspaper presentations
-They could do it on the smartboard or a poster (if they didn’t have access to a computer
or didn’t want to)
-They would choose an article and present the
-who –what –when –where –why as well as the caption and the source and what
they felt about it
-the teacher summarizes the article and asks the presenter to ask the class if they
have any questions, and they usually ask some good questions and the student
answers. The teacher then gives the student positive feedback as well as some
things they could have expanded on.
-When learning math they watched an instructional video on youtube about multiples and
factors. They also used pages from the text book, and the teacher drew out two ways that
the students could use to figure out the problem.
The teacher was always asking questions like “whisper to your buddy was a…is”
“what is that” “how do you EXPLAIN that” asks a question and then gives cues.
Asks specific kids sometimes as well as the group as a whole.
-watch the video one way, practice it –watch another video another way, practice “You
can choose which way is right for you”
Grade 2
-There is artwork and helpful posters all over the walls of this classroom. The desks are
arranged in a giant horseshoe around the center of the class where they have their class sit
downs and where the smartboard is located.
-The teacher has been teaching for a very long time, and seems to not totally love her job
very much. Everything seems “beyond routine” and she doesn’t seem very enthusiastic
about teaching.
-They play a game which makes no sense and has no academic value. The kids have to
guess the word she is thinking, but not through helpful cues that would build word
associated, but by where they are in the group of words that are on the wall of the
classroom.
-The teacher calls on mostly 5 kids, 4 are girls. On those kids she calls 15 times and
everyone else combined she calls on 5 times.
-There seems so be very little order in this classroom.
At the end of the classroom time that we saw with the teacher, she asks them to write 5
new words in their books, 5 times each. She did not give the words in sentences, explain
what the words meant or give them any other context to put the words in. When they
were done they could join the others on the carpet, but not until then. Inevitably there
were 3 or 4 kids that didn’t complete it in the same time as everyone else so they were
left at their desks trying to finish by themselves while everyone was on the carpet
engaged in something else.
Day Two: Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013 (The Culture of the School)
Grade 4/5
The kids started this day off with another ‘morning meeting’. They gathered in a circle
and rated what they felt out of 10 and why. The teacher responded and would ask them
one question. They were all engaged, open and comfortable with one another and their
teacher. A lot of them seemed very proud and excited to share about something they had
done or had happened to them. I think this is a great activity for IDENTITY BUILDING.
The kids are free to express themselves and anything they wish to about their friends,
family, and lives outside of school. They do this every morning and in doing it, they get
to know one another very well, and the teacher gets a chance to get to know them too,
without having to set time aside one on one to ask them about themselves and their lives,
which can potentially make them uncomfortable and not as open.
They develop the ability to actively listen and ask meaningful questions. In getting to
know one another they become more of a group, better friends, and are less likely to
segregate into different groups based on affiliations with how they perceive themselves,
how they perceive others, and how they judge and are judged by others.
They also played a ‘brain rise’ question. The question was put up on the smartboard, and
the students were to walk around and brainstorm with others and then go back to their
desks and put the ideas on paper. They were handed large playing cards, and that’s how
their groups were determined. They were to list 3 ideas on their paper. The brain ride
question is different everyday.
When talking about the brain rise question, she says “is there a right or wrong answer”
“noooooo” (students say) “right, because its our opinion right?”
This class also had a “daily 5” just like the grade 6’s. Their daily 5 involved Letters, daily
organization, visual, and word collector. They would write about what they saw or found
in their “daily 5 journals” They could do their daily 5
-independently, listening or using a computer -can be reading with a partner
helping each other -can be doing a word game -can be reading with the teacher
(THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST ACTIVITY)
The teacher does another activity on the smartboard (breaking down big words)which is
instructional, then the class does an activity involving the map of Canada. She says they
are able to work alone or in partners for this activity, and she goes through the class
helping them out.
*There is a great mix of instructional versus collaborative time in this classroom
Bridges
In the afternoon we went to the Bridges Classroom, which is a group of 5 boys that have
severe behavioral difficulties. They are unable to be integrated into their classrooms
because they have a tendency to become very violent, very fast.
The atmosphere in the classroom was surprisingly calm and very relaxing given the
severity of issues that the kids tend to have. There was their art up all over the class as
well as helpful, instructional and motivational posters all over as well. There were about
8 activities that the boys were able to do when they needed “time” to re-focus and
“breathe”. There was an elliptical, as well as a bike, a sand box that they could use. There
was an area with blocks and other very simple toys to use and build, and lastly there was
a “calming room” which was a room about 8x8 feet squared that had nothing in it but a
couple bean bag chairs. When they got super out of control they would go in here and be
alone, when they were ready to come back, the teacher would let them back.
They talked at least twice while we were in the room about “calming strategies” for when
they got angry or upset. And the boys came up with a list themselves that involved, going
for some water, doing any of the activities they had in the class, and quietly excusing
themselves to draw at their desks.
The teacher had informed us that these boys typically came from very broken homes,
were abandoned, had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or had experienced something very
traumatic in their lives to offset their tempers and ability to control themselves. They
were very delicate. The point of the bridges program (of which there are only 2 in the city
for kids that age) is to eventually get them back integrated to their normal classrooms
once they have been given all the tools they need to manage their anger. Often kids spend
many years in the bridges program and never re-integrate. They go off to junior high
programs that are very similar and eventually to a high security, high discipline high
school. A large percentage of these children actually end up in jail.
To us, that day though, they all seemed like such normal, cute, thoughtful and hilarious
kids. It was very sad thinking about the likely future that was ahead of them.
They were still very involved in the school though, and it seemed like they didn’t think of
themselves as “outsiders”. Although they did have a specific classroom title (bridges) and
they did most things separate from their actual grades. They often were able to take some
classes with their peers like gym, so that they felt more integrated and part of the school.
Bridges was my favorite class to be in, and I was absolutely amazed at how unbelievably
patient and kind the teacher in that classroom was. I was also amazed at how sweet those
boys could be. There were many moments when they would just be acting like typical
grade 2’s or 3’s or whatever, and you could talk to them and laugh with them. Then you
would think about everything that they had been though and wonder how much strength
it would have to take for them to go through what they had and be the cheery and
excitable kids they were.
Day Three: Thursday, October 24th, 2013 (What do the students do all day?)
Grade 1
-There were two classes put together in this one double room. The desks are arranged in
groups of 2 or 3. All the desks are on one side of the room, and then there is an open
space in the middle and an area where they have group circle with two teacher chairs, a
drawing board, and some book shelves on the other. There isn’t too much artwork on the
walls, but there are tons of “words” all over them.
-They start the day with agendas and the teachers go around and look in everyones
agenda, and check it off to see that it was signed by their parents. They say it’s a great
way to communicate with parents because a lot of them don’t have too much time to
come in or even make it for parent-teacher interviews.
There is a sentence on the smartboard that says they have to “copy down one sentence
about fall and draw a picture”. The students have a generally hard time doing this, as not
all of them know their letters, words or what sounds the letters make. This activity takes
about half an hour for them to complete and many of them don’t finish. While they do
this activity, the teachers go around and help each one try and sound out the different
letters they need to complete their one sentence about fall.
-The students are used to doing this activity, they do it every morning. Copy down
a sentence and then write another sentence about something else, accompanied by
a drawing.
When the class goes to the middle of the other room, for story and brainstorming stuff, to
get settled they all know a song. It’s the “wiggle wiggle” song. They ALL know the
words, and do this song every morning too. It gets them focused, concentrated and their
learning directed at the teachers. (Both teachers are sitting at the front of the group) and
they take turns telling stories and doing the activities with the kids, but mostly they are
both present at all times.
Then they do another song on the cd player called rise and shine. It is the cutest song I
have ever heard. Some of the lyrics are “rise and shine and welcome to school today,
we’re so glad you’re here”. This song and other little activities like this seem to make the
kids happier, and bring them closer together. They support good thoughts and being
excited about school.
Their group activity was talking about the spaces between words. They were all called
upon at one point, and sometimes the group as a whole was asked certain questions. One
teacher would write on the board what they were coming up with while the other would
add in as well as try and discipline the kids that were misbehaving or not paying
attention. One thing I noticed was that it was quite difficult looking to control a group
that size, even for two teachers. With twice as many kids, there was twice as much
talking and twice as many of the normally few kids that are constantly not paying
attention and bothering those around them. The group just seemed almost too big. The
teachers did an excellent job of team teaching though, and each seemed to know all the
students very well. Often in team teaching settings, the kids are more familiar with one
teacher, and just kind of know the other but aren’t totally comfortable around them.
These kids were equally responsive and comfortable with both teachers.
One of the things they mentioned was that they had to spend the firs few months of every
school year getting the kids into routines. When they have routines, things are easier for
them. Expectations are set, they don’t try and cross lines, and they know all the
consequences to their actions. When they’re that young, having that type of structure in
their day is very important. We saw an example of this in their “recess line up”. The
teachers put a big stop clock on the smart board, and they had one minute to clean up
their snack, put everything on their desks away, get on their coats and boots and line up
quietly. If they couldn’t do it by the time the minute was up, they had to do it again. And
they would do it until they got it right. I have never seen 38 kids move that fast. They
also knew exactly what the rules were from the door to the playground and while they
played. When one of them misbehaved, the teacher would call them over, ask what they
did wrong, they all knew exactly what it was, tell them what they would do differently
next time, and then they would promise not to do it again, then they would sit quietly on
the bench without a fuss until they were allowed to go back in. The system was
astonishing.
These teachers had done an absolutely spectacular job of the team teaching set up.
TALKED TO TEACHER ABOUT ASSESSMENTS, SHE GAVE ME A TON OF
STUFF, WHICH IS INCLUDED IN MY JOURNAL.
Another thing they did that helped the students stay focused and on track was put the
daily schedule on the board and talk about it all the time. They would say “we get to do
math, but then if you guys listen well and do a good job in your math books, we get to go
to gym and then recess”. Constantly reminding the students where they are at in their day
and what types of rewards and incentives they also have when they behave and focus
really seemed to help them.
These were the teachers that I first saw call the students “friends”. They used the term all
the time, every time they addressed the class. I truly think that it helped the students think
of themselves as a community and not a group of school children. They were all strongly
encouraged to use one another’s names all the time, and to work collaboratively with
different people in the class, so there weren’t cliques or groups or anyone being meant o
anyone else.
This was a true example of community in this grade one class. The students got along
wonderfully; they were very comfortable with one another and the teachers. They were
encouraged to ask questions and they were praised for good behavior and well thought
out answers.
Kindergarten
This Kindergarten class was like nothing I have ever seen before in my entire life. It was
the most peaceful, and engaging classroom I can even imagine. When you walked in, the
lights were a little more dim than a normal class, there were two trickling water fountains
placed in there, and you could hear the sounds of running water. There were the kids
names made in little rocks and dried beans hanging up as well as all sorts of interesting
and creative learning assistors. The letters of the alphabet and all the common words and
pictures associated with that letter were on a clothes line, the kids paintings etc. the room
itself would make you want to just stay in there forever and learn.
The teacher had about 7 stations neatly set up all over the classroom.
-A light station with a blue light table and books about light, with translucent things to
hold up to the table.
-There was a sea life station with figurines from the ocean and picture books on fish and
whales and what goes on beneath the ocean.
-There was little vets office
-A “fine motor skills area” with foam beads and mini blocks and a little things for them
to do on a mini carpet.
-a lego station with big and small lego
-an art station with paints, markers, crayons, paper, stencils, and easel and books on van
gough and Picasso.
-a building station with fake tools and big wooden blocks
-a full mini kitchen
-a sandbox
-a water box
-a doctors office
-a reading station with a “bucket of books” and two rocking chairs and stuffed animals to
listen to the readers
The place was surreal. The whole time we were in the kindergarten class, they went from
station to station very calmly. They all were engaged the entire time (which is extremely
hard to do with kindergarten kids). The teacher spoke very calmly and never raised her
voice. When the kids did something bad she would say “no thank you…” and their name
and they would know what they did was bad. I thought this was a very interesting
alternate approach to some of the ways that kids are usually disciplined. She was calm
and composed, and they were calm and composed. It was like a mirror image. When they
did something right, she would say “thank you…” and they would know they did
something good. I have never seen a better-behaved group of kindergartens. And there
were 27 of them!!
I think that the teachers attitude really shaped their behavior and the way that they
conducted themselves. The louder a teacher tends to be, the louder the class tends to be.
We saw this when we visited the grade three class the next day.
Day Four: Friday, October 25th, 2013 (What do the teachers do all day?)
Grade 3
We went to a grade three class this morning. This class had about 25 kids. This was
taught by one of two male teachers in the school. This was an especially rambunctious
class, but as we later found out…that wasn’t a bad thing.
They started off their day with routine too. He would say “good morning room thirteen”
and they would say “good morning …” and they did this everyday. It let them know that
the day was about to begin and to start listening and get focused. They talked about their
day, the schedule and a little bit about what they were going to do for each subject or
event. It got the kids excited.
The teacher seemed very casual with the kids. Like they were his friends. He would joke
around with them and give them a bit of a hard time sometimes, and they loved it, they all
took it well and they all seemed to be very comfortable with him. He had a much
different way of teaching than the other teachers we had encountered. He let them talk a
bit more, a bit louder, and go a bit more off topic than anyone else we had encountered.
He wasn’t as strict. But they still listened and respected him. I think this particular group
of kids were just more excitable, more talkative and slightly more hyper than the average
group, and this is how he chose to deal with them. By constantly telling them to be quiet,
and not letting them sort of do what they had to go to eventually get ready and focused, it
would have made it harder to control them. So he let them go a bit farther, and in doing
this, they felt as though they weren’t being smothered and that they could be themselves
but knew that there was a line they were not to cross.
This classroom can be summarized as fun. They all co-operated well with each other, and
seemed to know each other very well. They were all friends too. They did a lot of group
activities that had them all over the room socializing with different kids, and never
isolated in groups for too long. The incentives in the class involved some sort of game all
the time, or listening to a very animated telling of Charlie and the Chocolate factory by
the teacher. They go SO into this math game (around the world) , the teacher said they all
went home and practices their times tables for hours just to be good at this game.
Their incentive for good behavior and being a good “citizen or friend” was a to get a
post-it from the teacher. Every Friday you would write your name on all the post its and
put them into a draw. He would usually draw 5 or 6 names (so the more post its you had
in there, the more likely it would be that you would win). When announcing the winners,
he would describe some of the students attributes…”blank is a verrrry fast runner, and he
loves reading, he can always be found reading something, and he has amazing manners”
and they would all guess who it was, and there wasn’t one time when they were wrong. I
liked this incentive system more than a group table one because it made kids be more
responsible for themselves and their actions and didn’t let the misbehaviors or one
student ruin it for everyone else.
I quite liked this classroom, and it was very refreshing to see the amount of fun they had
in here while still maintaining respect and getting their work done.
This was a half day, so after grade three, we had lunch and said goodbye to Erin Woods.
It was an absolutely amazing experience, everyone was so, so nice and welcoming and
the kids were just unbelievable little people. They all work so hard together to make
everything about that school work. They have some of the poorest kids in the city coming
to those classrooms everyday, but they truly do make them feel like a million bucks while
they’re there.
Semester One, Week Two, Forest Lawn High School
1304 44th st SE, Calgary, AB
Day One: Monday, October 28th, 2013 (The Culture of the School)
Our day started out by meeting the liaison for the UofC who talked to us about what went
on at Forest Lawn, mostly in the form of what they had to offer in terms of the activities,
clubs, and services they had at the school. With a lot of emphasis on the culinary program
as well as the cosmetology, and autobody programs that made the school somewhat
notable within the city. She also mentioned that they carried all sports teams and had
some pretty standard issue clubs.
She didn’t really talk at all about what set the students or teachers at Forest Lawn apart
from the other tens of high schools in the city. She didn’t talk about their goals, any
school mottos or mission statements, and she certainly didn’t talk about any of the ways
that make Forest Lawn the best place to teach in the city. Whether it is or not is still up
for debate, but one would think in an orientation that the school liaison would definitely
brag at least a bit about the staff and students. She did say that she loved teaching there
though, and was planning on retiring from Forest Lawn because it was “such a great
place to work, and that the kids were just great”. That was the only mention about school
pride, purpose or even culture for that matter.
She mentioned that the teachers all knew we were there and that they would be
welcoming and friendly to us during our time there. We were welcome to go in any
classroom, unless there was a test, or the door was closed. She said she got no responses
from teachers saying they didn’t want us in their class. So one would assume then, that
after no responses, that there would be nothing but open doors. Not the case. Quite the
opposite. Oh and in her welcome speech, my favorite thing she said was “welcome to the
hood”.
The assistant Principal came in to explain some of the other things going on and answer
any questions we had. She talked mostly about being an AP and answered out questions
about the R.A.P (apprentice program). They put a lot of focus on R.A.P at Forest Lawn,
as they value a students choice to go into the trades and say academics aren’t meant to be
in everyone’s path.
We were taken on a school tour by the other AP, who also didn’t say to much about
Forest Lawn, it’s history, or anything that made it special or even remotely different than
any other high school in the city. Except for making references to Western Canada High
School and how “it was different over there”. The most interesting part of the school was
going to the “Learning Commons” which is another name for the Library. I don’t know
why they don’t call it a library, but it seemed like they were trying to get as far away
from it being thought of as a traditional library as possible. They had about 6 large group
tables set up in the middle for students to work at, with books around the edges and two
sets of computers. No one was looking at books, in the shelves or at the tables. They had
received a grant for $25,000 that they were putting towards getting “living walls” which
are walls that are made of plants, that are moveable. After seeing the rest of the school
and some of the classrooms that are overcapacity without a single computer, or enough
ovens or sinks to run all the foods classes they have, I wondered why the money was
going to plant walls in a perfectly excellent looking library.
The tour was not memorable or interesting. The only thing I really remember was that
they had a “pride room” which I thought was for LGBTQ, but it actually an aboriginal
pride room. They call it a “safe place” and have posters and student work all over the
walls, and there were questions on the board about aboriginal history, language, and
traditions. When it was done, we had time for one period before lunch.
Grade 10 Math/Science
This was our first experience in the Galileo framework that we have been hearing so
much about. I mean now I realize that they had implemented it at Erin Woods, but it just
didn’t look as drastic as it did here. It wasn’t just the organization of the desks into
“learning groups”. It was 70 kids together in a large classroom. Learning one subject at a
time, but in what they call a “math/science” class. Where they either learn math or
science for an hour and a half, then go to social and English for an hour and a half. There
is a math teacher in there as well as a science teacher. In science, they learn physics,
chemistry, biology and environmental studies. These are supposed to be divided in
quarters, but some take longer obviously because they are harder to grasp, or because
they will be the most useful to that particular group of students. They alternate usually by
chapter, segment or lesson.
The classroom was a zoo. 70 kids to 1 teacher is way too many, it’s insane. Half the
students weren’t even paying attention, and those that were couldn’t be described as
being “engaged’, they were just sort of listening more than the students who weren’t
listening at all. The teacher was explaining and writing on the board, but only a few
students were even answering his questions, and he didn’t seem to bother calling on any
of the other ones. The other teacher went around and handed back work, went and
planned his next lesson on the computer and also visited to students with questions when
they had time to work on their own. He was a math teacher though, so he was learning
chemistry at only a slightly more advanced rate than they were.
The teachers said that the first year they did it, it was a huge struggle, it was very very
hard. Part of the point of the Galileo system was not to stream the kids anymore, but not
doing that presented some major challenges in the classroom.
The goal was to make accountability higher, as well as to have more interaction with
students, teacher to student and student to student. Peers were suppose to help and guide
peers. From what we saw, peers distracted and talked to peers (for the most part, although
there were a few tables of the 16 that were working), and teachers had so many students
and so many distractions in that massive classroom that they had much less face time
with the students and were not able to connect with them on a personal level because they
didn’t know them as well.
They said that accommodating to the framework was very difficult, and not being able to
stream students was very challenging. The higher achieving students weren’t being
challenged nearly enough, and despite their normally excellent work ethic, they too had
entered the mindset of “just getting by”, doing what was necessary of them to get good
grades, but seeing no reason to put in the effort when the other students were receiving
very similar marks, and when everything was simply just too easy.
IDENTITY
The Gallileo approach helps promote individualism and identity in some ways ,but also
takes away from it in many ways. The students are not streamed, so they are working side
by side, all year round, very intimately with students of much higher and lower intellects
than themselves. This forces them to get to know people that they would not normally
include in a circle of friends, or study group. It inherently forces them to not segregate
themselves entirely based on their identity. They have a “salad bowl” mentality when it
comes to learning in a grade 10 classroom, mostly with respect to intellect but ends up
also affecting their immediate and closest peer group with respect to ethnicity,
nationality, religion, gender and sexuality.
The learning in this setting is supposed to be “inquiry based” as well as “project based”.
With many of the projects being very open ended with room for interpretation and
freedom to explore. This in many ways hurts the goals of teachers trying to abide by the
curriculum, especially when the projects take so long because a)there are 70 kids to
assess based on the project type and b)because the absorption of knowledge is much
slower given that there is no streaming. Anyways, the projects allow the students more
freedom to explore their identity and critically analyze from more than one perspective.
Another emphasis in Galileo is the importance of “skill set” over “knowledge”. Given
this is the case, students have more freedom than they probably ever have had to be the
authors of their own stories and feel the least amount of discrimination possible over the
interpretation of content.
Galileo hurts student identities in more ways than it helps. Classes have 70 students, and
2 teachers. That ratio even if the two teachers were ALWAYS teaching and ALWAYS
interacting with students is already very high. But in this setting, one teacher is teaching,
the other has to be marking, or passing back assignments or answering questions from the
students who have trouble understanding (which again, is a lot because of integration).
There is cannot possibly be enough time for the teachers to get to know the students. And
when it comes to identity formation and pride, this is key. Teachers need to have the time
to know the students. And not just academically. Especially in a high school like Forest
Lawn, where the socio-economic background of these students is usually very low, they
come from single parent families, blue collar families that work a lot, broken homes,
there are more drugs and alcohol, gangs and general unrest in their homes and lives.
Without that connection, they can never bring who they are to class, or feel comfortable
enough to establish an identity that is natural to them in an educational setting.
They are thrown together with 3 other people who they may have nothing in common
with, and may feel alienated from for any number of reasons. Academically being the
primary one. A student who can’t keep up and is surrounded by high achievers has a hard
time developing the confidence necessary to do well in school. Or a high achiever
surrounded by students who are doing the minimum to get by will have to alter their
identity to fit in, by sacrificing their grades, or risk alienation from the group.
Day Two: Tuesday, October 29th, 2013 (The Culture of the School)
CULTURE OF THE SCHOOL
Students in the halls in between classes and at lunch were never friendly, and when we
tried to talk to them in class were not very responsive. We found this particularly true
with the -2 and -3 classes. They would answer with one or two word responses to our
questions. Some classes however were very keen to talk to us and could be extremely
friendly. We found that when the teacher was welcoming of us and came to talk to us
about their class or how they found it at forest lawn, the students were far more likely to
talk to us.
When we asked them questions about grade 10 and Galileo, they couldn’t stop talking.
Same with the teachers. The teachers that seemed most passionate about teaching, and
had been at forest lawn the longest, were the most friendly and wanted to give us as much
feedback about their particular class and school as they could, as well as give us advice
for teaching in general. They talked about the time it took to make bonds with the
students and earn their trust. They talked about the plethora of issues that tend to affect
many of the students at this school that related mostly to their socio-economic class. It
was heartbreaking to hear about what some of these teenagers were going through on a
day to day basis with their family or friends, with bullying, drugs, alcohol, and how
disconnected, neglected and even abused they were at home. These teachers are what
make Forest Lawn what it is. You have to have more patience than I can imagine, more
character, and more determination than I have ever witnessed anyone have in this
profession or any other. They spent long days planning lessons around the very wide
spectrum of intelligences and capabilities that are overpopulating their small and illequipped classrooms. They spent time during and after school talking with students and
guiding them through their problems. They held tutoring before and after school because
they knew that the kids just weren’t getting it, and they dealt with the disrespectful and
unappreciative masses of kids day after day, for many, many years. They are what builds
the school culture there. The students know that they can make something of themselves,
that they can be anything they want to be, if they are willing to work for it. Many of them
choose not to. But a lot of times, it isn’t even a choice, it’s just the circumstances they
were dealt and not being provided with enough of these extraordinary teachers
throughout their educational career to help them make the right decisions in the
beginning before it was too late.
In the classrooms we went to with these types of teachers (which I can say I probably saw
about 5 or 6), the students were friendly, respectful and nice to us. In classes where the
teachers seemed stressed out, fed up, unenthusiastic and not respected by the students, we
felt like a nuisance, and a hindrance on whatever was going on in the classroom.
It was these instances I realized that a teacher can truly shape a classroom and can better
a student. The teachers were reflected in the students, and the students were able to
portray this to us.
One example of school culture on this day was when we visited a grade 11 chemistry
class (Chem 20-1). The teacher welcomed us into the class with open arms, talked to us,
made some jokes with us and had the students welcome us. He went about his lesson, and
then after he asked us to come up and chat with him about any questions we had. So we
did. He talked to us openly about his time at Forest Lawn, his thoughts on Galileo, the
administration, the school board as a whole and what teaching was like there. He also
encouraged us to ask the students what they felt. So we asked them a bunch of questions,
and we had an overwhelming response from them. They talked politely and respectfully
to us, thinking about all of their answers. They checked with him first to see that it was
okay that they talk candidly, because clearly they trust him and didn’t want to make him
or anyone else look bad. They were intelligent and engaging and they provided us with
extremely useful feedback that we could never have gotten anywhere else. In our last
question we asked them how they felt about going to Forest Lawn, and they all said they
loved it, it was hard, and things got hard. That it was different from other high schools,
but they would never want to be anywhere else.
So despite the lack of tangible school pride on the walls, no apparent mascot, last place
sports teams, and a large number of burnt out teachers that would rather be elsewhere,
they still have school pride. But it lives within them, and not in the halls for everyone to
see.
Day Four: Thursday, October 31st, 2013 (What the teachers do)
Social 30-2
We started out the day in a PLP class, but we never had the opportunity to talk to the
teacher because he was busy with the other half of the class. So it was just the three of us
sitting in a room with three boys that were minding their own business and on the
computers doing some sort of research project, I think. None of them talked to us, or
acknowledged us…but we didn’t expect them to. So we moved on after 15 minutes.
We went to a Social 30 class next. This was a teacher we had sat in with before, and we
went again to compare what the two different class types of students would act like in
response to his methods of teaching. The previous class had been a social 10-2 and was
composed mostly of students that had failed the class at least once, most of them twice.
He had decided that he was going to teach the grade 11 (social 20-2) curriculum instead,
so that the students could at least try and attempt at mastering a new set of learning skills
and be engaged in content that would be more helpful to them in the future, rather than
seeing the same content they had not been successful with twice over. Anyways, so these
were the 30-2’s, and this was the last social class they needed to graduate.
At the time, he was showing a movie, an older one about American history tied in with
the principles of supply and demand as well as taxes and tariffs.
He would stop the movie every couple minutes and ask “everybody get that”, some
students would raise their hands with questions, you could tell they were all very
comfortable talking to him and had no shame in asking questions. He would use another
real life example to try and explain certain things in the video and then ask the students
questions about his example. How they felt about it, what was right about it, what was
wrong, and what they predicted would come of the situation. He called on individuals as
well as the group. He had them vote a few times on certain decisions that they would
make in their own lives and then relate the results back to the example. It was brilliant.
Almost all the students were listening and actively engaged in the group discussion,
which is something we had yet to see in a -2 class.
He said something that I will remember forever as a teacher “if you raise you hand, you
may appear foolish for 5 minutes, if you don’t, you’ll remain a fool forever”
The example that he used that got everyone so engaged was talking about tariffs on
apples, and apples coming from the States and Canada and what they as consumers chose
to do, all factors considered. This flared up a huge group discussion and everyone seemed
to be wanting to put in their 2cents.
He had all of them, every last one of them with their hand up at one point. It was seeing
teaching at its finest.
English Learning Language Classroom
We then spent some time in the E.L.L classroom. This was also one of my favorite
classrooms. There were about 12 students in there. The teacher said all of them were
recent immigrants to Canada, and most of them had refugee status. They had little or no
education in their own language, and arrived knowing maybe 5 words in English.
This classroom was so so interesting to see. The students were from all over the place,
and there were no more than 2 that had the same first language. They were all generally
very engaged in what was going on in the class, and seemed extremely eager to learn. We
also found this very refreshing coming from a lot of the classes where they would have
less than half the students show up, and when they were there they were talking, sleeping
or on their phones.
They were learning grade 3 math. Taking turns solving problems on the board and the
teacher was walking through the equations with them, while an ed assistant when around
and helped them out. The dynamics in here were unreal. They all got along so well, and
were very willing to help one another out. They all spoke English to one another because
that was the only commonality that most of them had. They had never been to school in
their home country, and some of them still didn’t know more than 20 words in English.
They were a very great group, fun and keen and respectful of the teacher. They asked
tons of questions and always wanted to know more.
The teacher in that class had been teaching ELL for over 10 years and said she wouldn’t
want to teach anything else. The students were so attentive and always ‘thirsty for
knowledge’. The only had one text book for the class and it was the math book. She
walked through the problems step by step on the white board with them, and then got
them to answer by raising their hands. She chose some of them to do the next problems
on the board while she went around to help them.
She encouraged the ones that seemed to be the most shy and reserved to go up and do
problems on the board as opposed to shouting out answers. They all seemed to like her,
and she was able to joke around with them a lot. The jokes were very elementary level
and they all thought she was hilarious. She seemed very kind, patient and caring. Her ed
assistant seemed the same way.
I talked to one student from Albania who was very nice to me and told me about his
move over here. He said he had arrived 5 months ago not knowing any English. He said
he loved coming to school and was able to make a lot of friends, but that he also kept in
touch with his friends from home through facebook and whatsapp and facetime. He said
he spent a lot of time connecting with friends back home and that made living here a lot
easier. He said he was grateful for the opportunity to go to school, and he found it hard to
believe that when kids were able to get a high school diploma, they would just ‘mess it up
by not showing up and getting into bad things”.
The kids in that class will not be able to receive actual diplomas for finishing at Forest
Lawn, but I think they do receive some sort of certification of completion of basic
English comprehension that they can use for their resume.
Day Five: Friday, November 1st, 2013 (Revisiting and Interpreting my learning)
Learning Commons
Today we spent the morning in the learning Commons. The library teacher there was
beyond helpful and wanted to assist us in any way she possibly could. She chatted with
us for over an hour about Forest Lawn, the state of technology as it pertains to reading
and some of the best resources available to teachers. She was an absolute wealth of
knowledge. She says she usually spends around 10 hours a day there, just trying to get a
hold of new sources and databases for the kids to use, that have less to do with popular
culture and more to do with the kind of thing that will “help guide them into a more
meaningful future”
She gave the three of us over 4 pages of useful information regarding databases and
online libraries we can use. She was so enthusiastic and you could tell she was
unbelievably passionate about her job, as well as making that library the very best place it
could be. She says she spends about 3 hours a week writing grant proposals requesting
money, and she actually gets a lot of them. She had turned the space into a very
comfortable place that they students enjoyed hanging out in. Not all of what they were
doing in there was academic, but they were still in there and doing work regardless.
We also watched a production of beauty and the beast put on by the dance class. It was so
good! And this group of kids who were a total mash-up of many different “typical
cliques” were all just getting along so well, and were so passionate about their
production. It was something that they owned, that they could sign their name on and that
they worked very hard on. Even if they skipped every other class in a day, they would
always make it to dance, because they loved it, and because people were counting on
them.
The teacher was very supportive of them, and was of course giving constructive criticism,
but the students adored her. She was another teacher that they considered to be a friend
and ally.
My time at Forest Lawn was very eye opening. At first I was having a really tough time
with it. The lack of respect, the fact that the majority of students just didn’t seem to care,
that many of the teachers didn’t seem to care, and the fact that down a long corridor of
classrooms, 1 in 7 doors would be open, allowing us to take a glimpse into the life of a
student and teacher at Forest Lawn. By the end of the week though, my opinions had
changed drastically. It only takes one teacher to change the minds of possibly thousands
of students over their career. To make them into better more caring, hard working and
thoughtful people. Which at one point I thought was impossible.