The Shape of Education to Come

It's 2021 – what's news with you? Maggie Macintosh knows! The Free Press Education reporter talks with me about the relationship between reporter and subjects, what people are interested in reading about, what “counts” as news, how you report on stories, truth in reporting, anonymous sources, and predictions for the news of 2021.And if you, like me, missed this article, here's is Maggie's mini-review of education in Manitoba: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/education-special-568917622.html

This conversation with Michael Fullan packs a lot of big ideas relating to the nature and necessity of change (post-COVID and in general) and the role of technology going forward.

I reach Rebecca from her home (which is not a school but is a place of learning) to talk about her switch from working in the public school system to home schooling. There's lots of talk about what this entails, similarities and differences between home and public schooling, but also the differences between child and learner and teacher and parent.

We're back! Who better to join me than Ellen Bees, middle school teacher and Queen of Data on EduTwitter. We talk about the pandemic (how could we not?), classrooms of the past, present, and future, what success might mean this year, social justice, and media literacy.

President of the Manitoba Teachers Society James Bedford talks with me about the recent WE scandal, the presence of WE in schools, the 2017 MTS decision to not support WE, and what all that means for teachers.

Tara has a great Youtube channel, and you should all check that out! As that loads, you can listen to this! I talk to Tara McLauchlan about graphic novels, what high school literacy can or should look like, using tech in the classroom, using tech, online learning, and the 6Cs.

In a digital conversation, as is the way things go now, Michelle Arnaud talks with me about her experiences teaching in the inner-city, teaching Indigenous perspectives, what remote teaching looks like for her, and being an Online Teacher.

As we come to the end of the year, I chat with Jen Watt on the occasion of her podcast, Schools of Well-Being. She talks with me about what wellness, well-being, and well-making might look like in the context of working with students.

Graphic novelist and former teacher Gene Luen Yang talks with me James Naismith and Historica Moments, finding your footing in your first years as a teacher, a pivotal moment that shifted his teaching, the lessons we can learn about his attempts at video lessons, and what a teacher would need to know in order to teach a graphic novel well. And I geek out about comics.

It is a fact that I was trying to find someone who teaches phys. ed to come on the podcast for a long time. Between not knowing a lot of gym people and gym people being busy…it took awhile. But here we are! This week, I speak with Colin Donato about his remote phys ed teaching, what it means to be ‘good' at gym and how to work with students who don't like to participate, assessing success when everyone is running around and more!

I had two reasons to talk to Tim Callahan. First, he wrote about his Five Core Principles of Virtual Learning: something we ought to be thinking about as digital teaching seems like it might be around for awhile. The other reason was more selfish. I read Tim Callahan's comic criticism yeaaarrs ago, especially his writing on Grant Morrison. So when I found out he's a principal? Well, this just made sense. In this episode, we talk about Grant Morrison and comics, leadership lessons from Dungeons and Dragons, what's happening in his school regarding COVID, and the five core principles of virtual learning.

In this episode, Joel Westheimer joins me to talk about what education means in pandemic times, citizenship, assessment and standardization - you know, all the fun stuff.

As we start wondering what school needs to look like and how we can get there, I speak with Didier Jourdan, holder of the UNESCO chair and WHO collaborating center for Global Health & Education, and Nicola Gray, Affiliated Researcher to the UNESCO Chair for Global Health & Education. We talk about their respective roles pre- and mid- COVID, the importance of reliable information, inequalities and those students with long term conditions, the impact of school closures on students and on COVID, conditions for re-opening schools, long-term implications, strategies for re-opening, challenges for social distancing in the classroom, and the actual question we're asking when we ask “When can we re-open?”You can read their article in The Conversation referenced in the episode here: https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-there-is-an-urgent-need-to-re-open-schools-this-is-how-to-make-it-happen-137818

This is an episode about policing. It's an episode about race. It's an episode about education. It's an episode about identity.Listen carefully.

In another episode recorded back when things were normal, I talk with Marika Schalla! She tells her story of becoming a teacher, and in doing so, shares many lessons for how teachers can support their students, then we talk about teaching in the inner-city, the successes and challenges of being a first-year teacher, Indigenous woman, getting the knowledge to feel confident teaching Indigenous perspectives in the classrooms, teaching the water cycle and water teachings, land-based education, the need for discomfort, and math and science classes with all that in mind.

I talk with Geoff Krall about active caring his role as a coach, the context for teachers where he is, active caring remotely and otherwise, best remote math practices (if such a thing exists), and whether or not math teachers have a problem with caring. Oh, and we hear from his cat, which is genuinely joyful (as you will hear in my voice.)Check out his blog post on active caring here: https://emergentmath.com/2020/04/13/active-caring-now-more-than-ever/

Remember life three months ago? What a simpler time! You might wonder why we don't talk about the anxiety of living in a pandemic. Take a stroll with me back in time to what was approximately the 100th day of school and spoke with Geneviève Sprenger. We talk about Being president, dream MTSPDDay speakers, two different Edward Finneys, math education, unlearning to use textbooks, the pressure of teaching young students math, the 100 day conspiracy exposed, soccer as teaching identity, centres, inquiry, why parents might value French immersion over a full English class, soirees and Festival du Voyager, francophonie, and empathy and compassion.

Superintendents are teachers too. I called Brian O'Leary at his office.

I called Kirsten Thompson at her remote office.

Micheal Geist joins me to talk about Access Copyright and the lawsuit happening in Hanover School Division and across Canada as well as, yes, how this pandemic might have an impact on how we are teaching in terms of copyright and what materials we access.

Cornerstone of educational philosophy and right good chap John Dewey talks briefly with me about college, among other things on this April 1st.

I call Jon Sorokowski in his home office.

I call Jenny Hughes at Governor Semple School.

Okay, so things are weird now. And next steps aren't readily clear. One step being presented is shifting classroom learning to the digital sphere. There's one person I trust to talk about digital teaching and learning.Audrey Watters talks with me in this rushed-to-print episode to discuss digital tools, teaching online, the difference between remote teaching, e-learning, and moving online, if teachers have the background to pivot to online, digital privacy, the myth of free, how the school year might be a wash, and how we all ought to make sure we're caring for each other.

I caught Shelley Moore between sessions at the MASS Conference and we talk about if inclusion is a fundamental reimagining of how schools have operated, the baggage people bring when discussing inclusion, being an expert at inclusion, working at high schools, frowning at universities and the necessity of knowing each others stories.Watch her Five Moore Minutes videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU-GCW3-EwNxcbJEFKKaABw

In a deep-dive on public education and issues surrounding it, I talk with Marc Kuly about Titles, teaching adults, teachers' passion, the promise of public schooling, student teachers' perception of schools outside their communities, perceptions of immigrant families vs. indigenous families, comfortable narratives, service learning, bringing students together in extracurriculars, finding joy in learning and sharing, world issues/global citizenship, a bold new way to assess the school system, external validation, schools as storytelling institutions, the range of stories that schools allow, the stories students tell about themselves and the stories we never hear as teachers, masquerading to find success, what teachers need to do differently, and recognizing the work of inner-city teachers.

I'm talking Kindergarten this week as I visit Sara Neufeld to discuss Trees instead of numbers, how words reflects beliefs, how we can understand the world by observing kindergarten classrooms, deepening our relationships, inquiry, play: the first language of children, how different stories emerge depending on the classroom setup, noticing and wondering, social problem solving, the ways different cultures might effect the ways we solve problems, the capacity of children to hear each other, what we mean by ‘we', the expectations of kindergarten versus other grades, kindergarten report cards, and my worry that there is an encroaching idea that play is less important than the academic piece of kindergarten.

I talk with Dave Hoag, Victor Kolynchuk, Doug Hanna, Frank Locker, and Kyle Lewkowich about the structure of schools – the buildings themselves. We cover how a school begins in the planning stages, progressive and traditional design, portable classes and Michel Foucault's idea that the design of school was inspired by prison. This episode is all about the *literal* shape of education to come.

It would be the end of a decade/start of a new decade without a retrospective, so Audrey Watters joins me to talk about her Top 100 Ed Tech Debacles of the Decade list. We take a close look at the top ten and some of the trends for the decade in ed tech.

Back at it for the now-annual new years resolutions round table special, we do a bit of a check-in then discuss provincial exams, successes this year, the transactional nature of public school, Kelly Gallagher, and next steps. Recorded over a lunch break, it's a whirlwind episode with lots more I wish we could have gotten into.

Though not a teacher as in K-12, Scott Forbes is still involved in education. As an Early Childhood Educator, he works in a daycare, which is extremely important job that is too often under-resourced. We talk about ECE classifications, men in daycares, changing philosophies, the image of child, burnout, lack of PD opportunities, bringing ECE into the school system, the importance of play, planning the program in a daycare, play provocations, playing guns in daycares, and remaining unbiased.

In the conversation eighteen months in the making, I finally sit down with my pal Jamie Leduc to talk about the Sisler CREATE program, Disney movies, non-silver photography and land art, classroom setup, spaces of learning and spaces of not learning, there's a brief interruption which proves Jamie's later point about how visitors drop in, building community, the purpose of school, students' passion, leaving your mark, the structure of a day of his course, ripping down the barriers, the role of a teacher, and if you should try to recreate Jamie's model: spoiler - you shouldn't.

After a failed recording, I sit down with Mike Johnston again to talk about his work as a welding instructor. We talk about his work in engaging students, his initial dislike of school and how he came to become a teacher, embedding Indigenous perspectives, knowing the difference between good and great welding and how to help even the worst welding students - like me - improve.

You can dance if you want to, but please, whatever you do, don't leave me behind! In this not-so-scary episode released on Halloween, I do a dance of the words (aka talking) with Romeo Suban, dance teacher at St. John's High School. We talk about if there are any bad dance moves, knowing the context for dance, the similarities and differences between English and dance, seeing both the individual dancer and the whole group, assessing dance, lead dancers vs. backup dancers, subjectivity, the importance of character in dance, motivation, and wondering why we have competition.

Did you know that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has an educator-in-residence? I didn't! But they do – his name is Graham Lowes, and I talked with him about how the world sucks, moving away from essays and towards project-based learning and inquiry projects, banning the backboard, the Upstander Project, engaging learners by building a jail cell, effective vs. ineffective teachers of human rights, Paulo Friere, what we remember from high school, starting with stories, awareness as the first step, moving forward when we admit that these problems might not be solved, and how to move action past just awareness (if you can).

I get a little self-indulgent in this episode as I talk with David Cooper Moore about teaching and media literacy, but also a bunch about music.Specific topics discussed include digital literacy, what criticism brings to teaching, how our feelings inform our practice, Taylor Swift and youth culture, relating to youth culture (or not), rating yourself as a teacher through the Pitchfork rating scale, understanding your students, how we can address the gaps in student learning when they arrive in high school, working hard and a problem with the structure of the school day, and a bonus question about the new Taylor Swift album, which was about to be released at the time of this recording.

In advance of the federal election, I talk with the education coordinator for Elections Canada, Joseph Péloquin-Hopfner. We discuss inspiring students to become thoughtful citizens, questions that matter, the resources that Election Canada has to offer and some of the pedagogy behind them, The Constitution Express, gauging how we know when a lesson was successful, co-teaching, the how and what of teaching, *not* telling students to vote, whether or not we should teach that democracy is good, the right of youth to vote, and teachers and partisanship.There was also a moment where Joseph was unsure if he was allowed to say something in particular due to the nature of working for Elections Canada...we got it approved by EC, so listen to hear him try in vain to sound neutral, then give up entirely.

Matt Henderson and I talk about all things Slavoj Zizek following his lecture at the University of Winnipeg. We discuss the role of a superintendent and being a pedagogical leader before discussing Zizek and some of his ideas in connection to education. We touch on Zizek's ideas around experience and how we 'experience' it, the singularity, failure and imagined perfection, 'invasive' technology and its possibilities (or not) in the classroom, superintendents as gatekeepers, and other heady concepts!

In this highly informative discussion, David and I define mindfulness and neoliberalism and then have a thorough discussion of neoliberal practices in schools, how to implement mindfulness, how mindfulness can be a trojan horse (for good or ill), McMindfulness, mindfulness as a tool for liberation, the failures of a post-Frierian education system, cultural appropriation, the challenges of assessment and more.David supplied a treasure trove of resources. They include:Mindfulness and social change network based in the UK:https://mindfulnessandsocialchange.org/A collection of social mindfulness voices: https://mindfulnessandsocialchange.org/2019/04/02/a-new-social-mindfulness-resource/A Canadian website run by Deborah Orr: http://www.contemplativeeducation.ca/Beth Berrila's website on mindfulness and critical pedagogy: http://www.contemplativepracticesforantioppressionpedagogy.com/And David's own podcast on mindfulness:www.mindfulcranks.com

Rich and Chantelle DROVE A CAR to come sit down and talk about what it means to teach at the end of the world. We chat about their roles as support teachers and dive into finding away to teach about sustainability in our courses, what it means to model this for our students (and how far it should go), deepfakes, the nature of truth itself, and if our role as teachers is as a propagandist.

For a deep dive in math - something I hadn't done a lot of, to my embarrassment - I called Marian Small who has literally written the book(s) on math education. We talk about fear of math, how math has changed, balanced classrooms, PISA, rote learning, how to know when you've got it right, and a school that was great at math but hated it.

I met with Clara Kusumoto, and we talked about photography and fear, how classrooms are like a photo, THE CURRICULUM, genius hour, independence, the Student Spaceflights Experiments Program, what it means to get better at teaching, and THE CURRICULUM AGAIN.

I stopped by to see John Colin Steele in scenic Wolseley where we discussed Having a sense of humour, the most beautiful language, the language of skateboarding and other specialized languages, teaching grammar, the relevance of ‘social justice' for framing writing, what students need for the 21st century and how English teachers can prepare them, millennials, Colin's experience learning English in the Sixth grade in Switzerland, a great lesson to stimulate writing, and treating each writer as an individual.

In advance of his appearance in Winnipeg on August 19th, educational superstar John Hattie connects with me from Australia for a long chat about his work with Visible Learning, and I try to puzzle my way through the effect sizes ranking with him.

I talk with distinguished educator/superintendent/leader/professor emeritus John Wiens about the current climate for education in Manitoba, “kids these days,” the closure of the Instructional Resources Unit, The Glaze Report, local school boards, achieving equity vs. reducing inequity, conflict between administration and teachers (in other provinces), the Filmon days, and predictions for what might come for education in Manitoba in the coming years.

Cheryl Zubrack is a master in the area of inquiry education, and she spoke with me at length in a deep-dive on the topic. We touch on home renos as real-life inquiry learning, cluster zero of the curricula, slowing down the learning process, inquiry into inquiry, structures and misconceptions of inquiry, conceptions of power in the classroom, working with Task – Intent – Criteria, credits/marks/exams, finding inner power, the hierarchy of questions and more!

Jenn Wiebe came to visit me at my house to talk about the reasons for teaching middle years, truth and reconciliation (the concept) and Truth and Reconciliation (the course), anxieties around responsibilities and teaching as non-Indigenous educators and how to own it respectfully, knowing what not to teach, the residential school of River Heights, student disinterest and finding ways to listen, service projects, how to assess something with such deep meaning, building a classroom culture, Indigenous Writes, and more! Bonus dog barking in the background!

Kath and I chit chat about inquiry, IB programming, intent for teaching, Thompson Owens, Task – Intent – Criteria, The Teachers Institute for Parliamentary Democracy, how schools change and how we change (for the better), when we need to mark things, Ken O'Connor and other things!

John Ralson Saul, one of the great minds in not just Canada but also the world, spoke with me about a wide range of issues in education including the origins of public education in Canada, defending public education today, class (size) and class (economics), private schools vs. public schools, post-secondary education, the leisure afforded to wealthy students but not others, utilitarianism, schools as colonial spaces and more!

I talked with Terry Burr about the levels of EAs A to D, what we want our own children to learn, the commonalities between having a foster home and working as an EA, if mean teachers can be successful, some tricky situations that we were both working on and the way those problems came to a conclusion, philosophies of working with students, the difference between teacher and EA in the eyes of a student, starting the relationship between teacher and EA, what teachers don't see, the power of sitting back and watching, the different expectations between teachers and EAs, and more!

All-time great person Jackie Connell will soon be leaving Winnipeg School Division to become Assistant Superintendent in Frontier School Division; our loss is their gain! Before she goes, we talk about what it means to be a principal, what successful learning looks like, the role of social media, decolonized classrooms, engaging with the community, work/life balance, and various aspects of change in schools.