Matt Anderson - A School President with a Vision

I had an opportunity to have lunch last week with our school president, Matt Anderson.  Over the course of an hour, we discussed his vision for success and what he values at Sullivan Heights.  Matt is a very impressive young man who expresses himself extremely well and has a clear vision for the future. 

Matt brings with him, as a student and class president, a strong work ethic fostered from a caring home.  Both his parents are active members of our Parent Advisory Council and have always encouraged him to set goals and work hard.  He told me, with a smile on his face, that his parents were the first people he told when he first found out that he had been elected school president.   In the brief time we spent together chatting, it was clearly evident that Matt has benefited from strong family values. His father coached him in hockey and both parents encouraged him to follow his passion in swimming so that he eventually qualified as a certified lifeguard. A very impressive accomplishment that led Matt to finding employment with Surrey Parks and Recreation and connected him to the mentorship of a swim coach who not only fine tuned a his swimming technique, but also nurtured a growing interest to further his studies in business.

At Sullivan Heights, Matt is an honour roll student who does very well academically.  He has a passion for science and math and wants to further his education at UBC through the Sauder School of Business.  His goal is to eventually find work in a business leadership capacity. Matt told me that he first realized that he wanted to be President when he was in grade 11.  He explained that the tipping point for him was the encouragement and advice he received from Ms. Becker, our student council advisor. He said that Ms. Becker very clearly outlined a strategy of success for him.  He said she encouraged him to get started early by getting more involved with student events so that when he was ready to make the move for president he would have the experience to back it up.

Matt’s vision for his presidency is to create more student engagement.  He wants to see more students get involved in the life of our school.  His plan is to focus his efforts on engaging the younger grades so that the spirit of engagement has a lasting effect at Sullivan. I asked Matt how he planned to do this and with a confident, determined and caring manner, he explained that the best way to move forward was to ensure he grounds his efforts in supporting those working with him on student council.   Matt understands the value of team and is eager to work with and support other members of his leadership council.

 Pancake Breakfast – Matt with some of our Council executives Jeremy Dema-Ala, Rawel Sidhu, Saif Ali

To wrap up our conversation, I asked Matt what legacy he would you like to see his Grad Class leave behind.  Matt expressed a desire for his grad class to be remembered as positive role models, who made ethical decisions and inspired younger students. His vision of a legacy is one filled with helping develop a school culture full of positive examples of leadership and support where everyone is involved in the life of the school.  It is clear that Matt has the passion and desire to be successful.  With great anticipation and excitement we look forward to his vision coming to fruition.

Failure Is Necessary but Never an Option

As we begin our new school year and continue with our conversations around best practice and 21^st century pedagogy, I feel compelled to come forward and say straight out that failure should never be an option within the systems of our schools.

Yes, I’m fully aware that this appears to go against the current voice permeating every facet of educational social media. My desire to make this claim is my reaction to the recent push from educational twitterverse stating that we need to start letting our students fail in order for them to learn. It’s actually all rather tongue in cheek, because as we all know, nothing resonates with more truth than children needing to fall down before then can stand up. I believe the issue I'm feeling compelled to explain is brought on by the uneasy feeling that goes with "allowing our children to fail". The reality is, we all want our children to succeed and achieve to their fullest potential and we know that in order to do this, they must learn from their mistakes. The crossroads, or distinction I’m trying to draw out is, if falling down is the first step to standing up, then let’s be sure we have the support structures in place to ensure that the fall isn’t so great that it causes irreparable harm. In this context, failure is a natural precursor and necessity to learning, but should never be an option systemically within our schools.

The oxymoron that failure is a necessity but never an option must be clearly defined so that no student is left without a safety net.  I believe that the blurring of the issue began when we started navigating the Assessment For Learning paradigm. The unpacking of AFL led some people to infer that “no zeros” equates to not allowing students to fail.  The undercurrent and resounding backlash from this misunderstanding has been a continued push to state the obvious that we must allow students to fail before they can move forward.  Of course students must experience their failures before they can move forward.  From infancy to adulthood, this is how we all learn.   Anyone who has ever touched a hot stove, or fallen off a bike can tell this tale.

For teachers in ours schools, it's important that they feel secure in their practice knowing that their students are allowed to grapple with and experience failure so they can learn from their mistakes, overcome and succeed.  This definition and understanding of failure as an absolute necessity in the learning process is crucial to student success.  The flip side of this discussion however, where failure is never an option, is ensuring that systematically, all the mechanisms are in place to not allow students to ever slip through the cracks. This is at the heart of what it means so say that failure is and never will be an option in our schools.  Blankenstein (2004, Failure is not an option) succinctly articulates the six principles that must come into play so that no student falls unattended.  Schools that systematically support student success, have a clearly communicated mission, vision and value statement, have a thoroughly developed process of intervention to support all students, collaborate in staff teams around teaching and learning, use data to guide decisions, seek and gain active engagement from families and the community and practice sustainable shared leadership. This systemic network of care is the foundation on which schools support student success.

For me, as a parent, the fear of letting go and accepting that my children have to fail at times causes anxiety and a visceral knot in my stomach. When this happens, I find solace by accepting they must experience falling down in order to learn and also in knowing that I will be close by to comfort and encourage them when they get up.  Every parent has at one time or another felt the power of the mother bear’s protective instinct. As parents, we overcome this anxiety and fear by making sure our children don’t fall too far beyond our grasp.  We build safety structures into our lives to keep track of our children so they can learn their lessons and at the same time don’t suffer significant harm. This is what we do in schools. We structure learning knowing that children have to learn from their failures and mistakes, and at the same time we build mechanisms of support that protect, and care for them. We recognize that failure is necessary in the learning process, but will never be an option within the systems of our schools. 

R. Hayes

Connectivity

I recently attended a professional learning session on understanding the influences of self regulation on learning where Stuart Shanker (2012, Clam Alert Learning) asserted that significant learning takes place when we are calm and alert as opposed to being either hypo or hyper alert. As educators this resounds loud and clear because our work demands that we manage the daily ebb and flow of varying states of student engagement.  Sometimes we work to ignite a spark and other times we seek to sooth the roaring flame. Whether you’re a teacher, counselor or learning support, the first steps to engaging our students are the relationships we form that foster trust and understanding in our students.  For me, this professional engagement session provided a great segue to start the year!  As we move into the first week of school, it’s time again to reconnect with those students we know and even more important, to make connections with those students who are new to our school. For many of us, the relational bonds developed in school stay as memories for a lifetime. This is the magic of what makes teaching so intrinsically rewarding. Even more exciting, is the current research coming out now that supports relationships as being the cornerstones to building effective conduits to learning for our students.

The first few days of school, everyone is bright eyed and full of energy.  Schools buzz with infectious energy, with teachers cheerfully greeting students at their doors and everyone overflowing with excitement and anticipation. This is a very important time of the year because first impressions are crucial to how we choose to move forward. Terry Small in his (2012) presentation “Engaging Students” makes reference to the many ways in which we can engage our students in order to ensure they are ready to learn.  One particular interesting point he brought up was the notion that when we are busy paying attention to the tyranny of our tasks, we must be mindful of what we’re not seeing. Terry asserts that familiar paradigms and patterns stand out and are always easy to see.  The challenge for us is to look past what we’re comfortable with and see that which isn’t so obvious.  This thought brings me to the first week of school where we all find it easy to connect with familiarity, whether it is the usual crowd we run with, or the comfort and warmth brought on from finding the usual spot or table in the lunchroom.

Is this your paradigm?  If it is, what are you missing or not seeing?  Are you ready to take a chance and see what you’re missing?  If you are, then take the challenge and move beyond your comfort zone.  Make new connections, seek out unfamiliarity, move beyond your usual crowd; invest in a new circle. For the real brave ones, take a leap and let go of your usual routine and try a new setting, a new perspective; for staff, maybe even a new staffroom chair!

As we begin another year’s journey in our school, we embrace the sacred trust bestowed on us as we work with our community’s children.  We will ground ourselves in the belief that our relationships will foster a calm and caring environment where learning can flourish.  We are all proud to be teachers and we look forward to the intrinsic warmth brought on from really getting to know our students. The work isn’t easy, it takes patience, understanding and fortitude to take a class of students on a journey of discovery where the teacher is fully cognizant of each and every student.  For teachers who build effective, strong, mutually respected relationship bonds, the door opens to a wondrous place where synergistic, reciprocal energy flows. This energy is the heart and soul of what it means to be a teacher.

With great anticipation we are excited about moving forward this year with the belief that we’re all able to reach this sacred magical place where relationships develop and grow, where learning flourishes and where mutual respect is abundant.  A place where every child, every day, every chance is a reality.

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…