I. Am. A. Teacher.: This is My Journey

Thomas King has a way of getting across First Peoples History through his sense of humour, that at times can be satirical, condescending and sarcastic majority of the time. I have been reading his book The Inconvenient Indian out loud for 10 minutes each morning to my First Peoples History 12 class. King’s points of views and excessive historical evidence strongly support many of the learnings that we are doing from the text in class, as well as sheds light on big ideas to support the curriculum outcomes.

King begins his Novel with his sense of humour that sets the tone for the entire read. “Helen said, ‘Just don’t start with Columbus.’ She always gives me good advice. And I always give it my full consideration… In October of 1492 Christopher Columbus came ashore somewhere in the Caribbean…” (King, pg 2) This allows the students to recognize the sense of humour King is going to portray throughout his novel. I believe King does this for two reasons: This is simply who he is and how he writes but I also believe he does it so that when he delivers some horrific historical information, we are able to get through it without being traumatized.

Some of the more eye-opening truths King has brought us through in his journey are his points with: false histories (The Almo), over exaggerated histories (Pocahontas), temporary/full loss of identity (As a First Nations Person, not even King wanted to play the “Indian” in “Cowboys and Indians” when he was little), 1800’s “scientific evidence” on dehumanizing First Peoples and lastly we stopped at the White Man’s fascination with “Indians” where our class had an enriching discussion on the moral behind hiring an actor of European heritage to play the role of a First Nation’s character in a movie or TV series.

One of the most powerful talking points was when King quotes “Chauncey Yellow Robe, a Lakota from the Rosebud reservation who played an “Indian” in a number of movies, including the 1930 silent film Silent Enemy.” But he knew and understood the issues of cultural degradation Hollywood had set upon First Peoples So he spoke at the Society of American Indians in Denver in 1913 with a speech of “We see the Indian… he is pictured in the lowest degree of humanity. He is exhibited as a savage in every motion picture theater in the country. We see the Indian, in his ful native costume, tamped on the five-dollar bills as a reminder of his savagery. We see a monument to fIndian in New York harbor as a memorial of his vanishing race. The Indian wants no such memorial monument, for he is not yet dead.” (King, pg 36)

It has been interesting to see the students make connections to our learnings in the classroom as King walks side-by-side with us on our Historical journey and constant relations of the past to the present. King gives us a link of discussion to think about Reconciliation when we see how history has depicted First Peoples as “less than human” and “White is the highest colour… therefore the best man; black comes next, and is put to live in the neighborhood of the Whiteman, as tolerable, and fit to be made use of; and the red comes last, which shows that those that made ‘em never expected an Indian to be accounted as more than half human” (King, pg 29) from James Fenimore Cooper’s Novel The Deerslayer in 1841.

We have been learning in class about our near and local First Peoples prior to colonization. We have learned that we had established economies, trading systems, Nations and order in place prior to colonization. We have learned that our Women ran the trading system where they made and produced trading goods and therefore set the price. We have learned the Grease Trails were a part of a First Peoples society, where trade and tariffs were already in place. We have learned that our people ran the Fur trade at first and the Maritimes fur trade, and that Europeans saw and documented that our people held ownership of this trade. So it provokes an enriched discussion with the class when you have an author such as James Feinimore Cooper spouting off “facts” that the “Redman” is “less than human.”

Overall, King’s historical research on the colonization of First Peoples allows our students to see the connections between what was, what happened, what went wrong with our First Peoples land, culture & traditions and encourages students to create a sense of historical empathy while looking to a future of Reconciliation.

When I got my placement for my final practicum, I cried. With a degree in music and a background in Physical Education, I have always been the expert when I enter a room in those areas which instills a certain level of confidence. However; when I read on the screen “Psychology 11, First Nation’s Principles English and Social Studies 10,” I was overwhelmed with fear. But why?

After I was able to assess my situation, I was able to come to the conclusion that there were lots of positives to go along with this opportunity- yes, opportunity, not death sentence. The goals that have sparked now from this upcoming adventure will be to derive from the teaching practice I have of being the “expert” in the classroom and lean toward being a “life long learner.” I will not have all the answers, and that is okay. Being vulnerable with my students and learning beside them will be key to this practicum, and showing how to overcome obstacles, research and write are all areas of strength I can share with my learners. Instead of focusing heavily on content, we will lean heavily on competencies with the content as a guide instead of a staple. My final goal will be to forgive myself through mistakes that will be made, and to own those mistakes as I move forward in my practice.

The next part of my goal is to be able to embed some of my learnings from our classes into my practice such as historical thinking (for Socials 10), First People’s Principles and approaches in my English 12 class, First Nation’s participation (SS10) and First Nation’s beliefs tied into Psychology 11. One of the biggest take away from our 336 and 446 classes where First People’s spirituality and western science can pair and harmonize each other instead of being a stark contrast as we have been led to believe. I am excited to embed these new learnings into my teaching practice and have the opportunity to grow and expand in this practicum.

Here we go!

For the EDUC 490, I had a dream practicum of Gr. 10 Active Living (Physical Health Education) and Gr. 11/12 Active Living. If there were ever two polar opposite configurations of humans to form classes, I had the pleasure of experiencing and teaching them. From the first week impression of an energetic, excited, polite, silly humored, playful and willing Gr. 10 class to a stand off, low energy, partial attendance, complaining, verbally abusive, “too-cool-for-school” Gr. 11/12 class, it was a blast getting to know every single individual, and find the clues that led to the “key” to open the door to successful learning for both classes.

Building relationships was absolutely the single-hand most important part of my job for this practicum, followed by knowing/ learning my boundaries as a teacher. Finding balance in classroom management tools as an educator between these two stark classes gave me whiplash at first, as I couldn’t understand how Gr. 10’s, who had no choice but to be in P.E. in order to graduate, were so hyped and how Gr. 11/12’s who CHOSE to be there, had no interest in learning, participating or even being there. I quickly learned that my pedagogy that strongly believes in student advocated learning was able to be implemented with the Gr. 10’s, because they could safely advocate for their own body needs by week 3 & 4 based on our learnings, but the Gr. 11/12’s if given an inch- they’d take a mile. I had to keep things very structured and fast paced with the senior class as opposed to giving more time on certain drills/ activities for Gr. 10’s who really wanted to master certain skills. I had to adapt my teaching style to two vastly different dynamics- and you know what? It turned out just fine. 🙂

To set myself up for successful relationship building, I become the the full classroom teacher from Monday- Thursday (because of the major teaching differences between my coaching teacher and myself, I believed this to be a more consistent platform for the students.) I made sure to lay out the land before we began anything with either class making learning intentions, expectations and criteria very clear, introduced myself/ my background and opened the floor for any questions. I felt this gave students in both classes an idea of who I was as a person before we started any sort of learning, and made myself more relatable as a human being to students.

The main goal for the practicum was to introduce various types of active living that students could carry throughout their lifetime. We learned how to properly warm up/ cool down our muscles in a variety of ways and related this to injury prevention/ anatomy. We were able to explore different types of physical activity that was not just “sports” (ex: Boxing for Cardio, HIIT circuits, Pilates, Yoga, Zumba, Weight Room and more) to make it more relatable for every BODY, and for those who love sports, show how these activities can enhance performance through developing strength, balance, flexibility and endurance.

When I had feedback from an introverted Gr. 10 female in a private conversation say “Miss T, I’ve hated P.E. my whole life until you showed me there are so many different options for me to be active. I love the HIIT circuits and yoga that we do and I cannot wait to join classes in the community once COVID is over.” That. Is. The. Whole. Point. All. The. Yes!!!!!! Collectively from the Gr. 10’s they were impressed with themselves as we focused a lot on reflection and self: Where are you at today, where do you want to be tomorrow and what are your long term goals for the end of the four weeks? Students began to realize they had: Gained strength, endurance, confidence, lost healthy weight, improved in physical skills and found coping mechanisms to improve their mental health; all of which were goals at the beginning of the practicum- yay!

I was unsure if that same reflection was as deep with the 11/12’s, but in their own words, on the last day, they were able to provide feedback. After weeks of me giving formative feedback, and noticing some improvement in skills, I was unsure if the connections were happening because when I asked; I was met with resistance, complaining and suggestions to switch activities. However; I was pleasantly surprised at the end, when I individually went to each student to say “goodbye” and provide one last comment on the course, each student openly gave feedback on their learning. Whether it was “thank you for taking the time to teach me how to properly throw a ball” to “thank you for creating a safe space for us to be” to “thank you for teaching us the rules” every single comment was positive and students showed they were grateful for one learning outcome or another. The highlight; was from one particular student that gave me a lot of verbal abuse at the beginning, grief, pushed buttons and tested the limits daily, was able to at the end of practicum muster up to tell me “Miss T, you’re f*cking legit’, thanks for being here.” Now, I know this doesn’t seem like much and it seems profane, but to see the efforts that went into relationship building not go to waste and to see this particular student felt seen, heard and cherished meant the world and with so little words, gave so much feedback.

My fondest memory for the Gr. 10’s was our last week when we began our Zumba warmup unit (followed by weightroom and minor games.) The students had such a great relationship with each other, and the dynamic of safe space was set- so our class had no problems having fun and being vulnerable in learning something new together. Our first Zumba song was “Waka Waka” by Shakira, and it just so happened that the Spanish teacher walked by as we were doing our Zumba and was so impressed, she asked we collaborate with her class to show how it was done. Now, unsure if you’ve ever taught 40 students a Zumba dance while exercising your rusty Spanish, but it sure was a heck of a lot of fun! Students also enjoyed seeing their peers in a learning environment, and were empathetic to those learning the moves for the first time. What a great experience!

For my Seniors, I think the highlight was most definitely our softball unit, where the most improvement happened with specific skills. Students seemed interested in developing their abilities in throwing, catching and learning game strategy and the evidence was obvious when their abilities began to thrive. By the third day of softball, students began their warmup by themselves, on their own, with no complaints and without being asked or prompted. I was also informed by my Coaching Teacher on this day, that he had 3 separate gentlemen come up to him to let him know their areas of improvement. It was also in this unit where the 3 women of our class asked to work on their hitting technique during break, and felt enormous amounts of joy and confidence when they began crushing the ball in games. It was in this unit, where some students began realizing learning was rewarding and “fun” and was the beginning of the majority of positive turn- around for this class.

Needless to say, EDUC 490 practicum entailed steep learning curves in boundary setting, adapting teaching style to learning style and overall full of amazing memories and lessons to reflect on for next time. Who am I as a teacher? I teach who I am: I care, I teach to the individual, I value relationships and embrace change and dynamics, but mostly, I love what I do because there’s nothing else more worthwhile or magical than seeing learner’s faces when they succeed, meet a goal or exceed their own expectations.

Video Attached: Gr. 10 class: Promoting Females in Sport

This video was taken on the last day of practicum where my Coaching Teacher and I were “phasing in and phasing out.” Once he took over, I was able to take video of the learning we had done in our Football unit that was all finally coming together in a scrimmage.

You will see we have one of our female students who, up until this class, had never thrown a ball of any kind before and avoided it. It is in this video (after our softball unit) that this student was able to take her throwing abilities and adapt them to football. Not only did she gain confidence in her skills, but she decided to be the Quarterback in the scrimmage where she conducted her teammates to run learned plays (slants/ posts, in/outs/ button hooks etc…) this was definitely a proud moment as a teacher to see how far this individual has come in 4 weeks.

My biggest takeaways of Block 2 from each class that are shaping my thinking and teaching pedagogy are the following:

EDU 399: I use to think- Now I think: I use to think ADST as a pedagogy would get me fired in a P.E. setting if I allowed for “creativity” with P.E. equipment. Now I think that ADST is a perspective, and if we are open-minded to multiple perceptions of ADST concepts, we will be unlimited to imbedding Design Thinking and being able to take “making” into the classroom. We learned about Reggio’s philosophy on Design Thinking and were able to gain many ideas from “Lifelong Kindergarten” by Mitchel Resnick. It was from this book, that we were able to learn about the free online coding program called “Scratch” that cultivates curiosity through an ADST designed curriculum. This book had many wonderful quotes that I related specifically to my teaching philosophy for student advocacy and I would like to document a few:

“Finding the right balance between freedom and structure is the key to creating a fertile environment for creative Learning. (81) With too little structure, many aren’t able to come up with ideas or follow through on ideas.” (82)

“When learners have more choice and control, they can build on their interests and passions, and learning becomes more personal, more motivating, more meaningful. (78) The only way that they can persist and persevere through all the challenges is if they work on topics that they’re truly passionate about.” (72)

EDU 361: Rhetorical Literature & Historical Thinking. We had a fun time discussing Rhetorical Literature and arguing what the word “rhetorical” was meant to display. We learned that Rhetorical Literature helps make meaningful connections that we can relate to the big picture of what we are teaching. We can move beyond “silo” mentality toward an interconnected understanding of the world. The big idea of our approach to the humanities course that was a takeaway teaching practice was that we are “Teaching for the Transfer of Learning.” 2 of the key teaching practices we learned about to infuse the transfer of learning as a pedagogy is Historical Thinking & 5 Themes of Geography. In Historical Thinking, we learned how stepping into the shoes of the past, can help gain understanding of the present and a relation to the future. For the 5 themes of Geography: Place, Location, Region, Human System/ Environment Interaction and Movement were concrete starting points any humanities teacher would want to simplify a geography process. The assignment I found most useful in this course was our “Tangible” assignment where we had to create a hands-on activity for our classes. In this assignment, we were able to use our cross-curricular knowledge of ADST, mixed with all the learning outcomes of 391, and being able to receive feedback on a less or potential other lessons it could be was so relevant to the teaching practice.

EDU 421: We not only learned the difference of approaches of Pre, Formative, Self and Summative Assessment, but how we could apply all of them in a holistic approach to learning. We learned that not only could self and formative assessment be turned into summative assessment, but we learned how to apply that process in our practicums. The question we had to ask ourselves constantly was how are we going to invite students to demonstrate their understanding? If we were conscious of that question, many times our expectations would align with the learning outcome and student understanding.

EDU 391: Recipes for Success, Stages of Groups. We learned how to implement the practices of “I do, we do, you do” for our students, where we can model, try and execute the learning outcomes together. We learned that the 8 key steps for success with our students learning outcomes start with: Relationships, Routine, Concrete Information, Consistency, Structure, Supervision, Simplicity and we must Repeat the above steps over for each new learning outcome. We learned about developing a Unit Plan, Assessment Plan, Planning for Diversity Plan, Lesson Plans and all of their relevancy for taking making into the classroom.

GOALS MOVING FORWARD:

1. Try a different assessment practice. Even though I am quite content with my holistic approach to assessment that involves conferencing, collaborating and negotiating with my students through formative feedback and self- assessment, I would like the opportunity to try a gradeless approach if my school district allows for this. I would do this by having a portfolio for each student to document their daily activities, and provide clear criteria rubrics for students to gage their learning.
2. Implement FPPL (First Nations Principles of Learning) as a pedagogy into each subject- no matter how difficult. I struggled this practicum to embed FPPL into the Gr. 10 P.E. classroom, because the three weeks I had did not contain the appropriate content to allow for this learning to occur considering my lack of knowledge of how to embed it. Moving forward, I have gained multiple resources from Fred Rogger at SD28 to guide my FPPL teaching and learning moving into the next practicum should it be P.E. or another teachable area.

This Teacher Candidate did not grow up with technology in the classroom. This TC got excited anytime the massive TV trolley was rolled into the classroom and a VHS was put in- you knew it was going to be a good day. Throughout University (the first time…) our professors thought that we were “Too used to our technology and therefore needed a reminder what it was likc ‘back then.'” so, instead of “tinkering” or “exploring” what the internet had to offer, we were plundering libraries for primary and secondary sources that could be physically held in your hand. So when it was time for our “Coding Workshop” where we used the free online program called “Scratch” I definitely was excited to learn and become more confident and competent with coding given my lack of experience but if I am being totally honest, and entirely different lesson came out of it than I had expected.

I’ve always known that learning styles and teaching styles exist, and the best way to be great at both learning and teaching, is to be adaptable at how we give and receive information to gain the most out of our experience. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try as a teacher or learner, our styles and adaptations of our styles, still won’t jive, and therefore the material will not be fully comprehended. Sadly, this was the case with our workshop BUT before you think this is a sad blog, oh reader it is not! I learned, that I became “that student” and in turn, I have learned how to reach “that student” based on my own personal experience.

Where my learning style would have flourished with this particular workshop, would have been if we were in person. Of course, you and I both know this is not possible with COVID but in person would have been better for the reasons of: not having to flip back and forth between tabs where I was constructing my coding and the workshop at hand and being able to ask questions openly and the presenter easily able to see my screen what was going wrong vs. me having to explain it.

Our presenters were amazing, well-spoken, knowledgeable, patient and kind. Our speakers also stopped to ask us if we were doing okay, and took questions when we had them. So, Rae, what went wrong with you then? I’m so glad you asked…

Our main objective was to through coding, create a cat to move towards it’s ball in a variety of ways and directions. Now let’s all laugh together when I tell you that when we needed to move the cat towards the ball, my cat turned green, multiplied by 100, and each cat was enlarged sideways giving it a rather “bloated” look, oh and the ball? I think I deleted it. I was so lost trying to keep up with what was being presented, and was so determined that I would “get it” that I got lost in the instruction and was so far down a rabbit hole that I had no idea how to get out. I found myself tuning out of the discussion and shutting down because I was frustrated with myself… until I realized this is exactly what I’ve seen with some of my students in the past. So what did I do?

I tinkered. ADST’s main source of exploration is to allow “tinkering” to occur. So as the presentation continued, I was able to reflect on some of the skills they had given me at the start, and start over fresh. Instead of trying to make the cat move towards the ball, I decided I wanted a horse instead. I also decided we would be playing baseball, and racing another horse around the bases. This became a lot more fun for me once I decided the outcome even though I was making mistakes along the way, I was okay with it because I didn’t have a “set goal” in mind, and therefore did not feel like a failure.

I learned that throughout this coding workshop, that even if a child does not seem to be “on task” to what we envisioned it to be, that we need to stop, look, and listen to what that student is really doing, and in turn, they could also be having valuable learning time throughout their exploration. We should ask questions, pose potential obstacles and learn with/ alongside and take time to understand their perspective.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the coding workshop. Me and my 100 cats, 2 horses and baseball stadium are all very happy and feeling much more confident and competent with “tinkering” in the Scratch world.

During this practicum, we were to be teaching 25% of the time, prepping 25% of the time and observing the other 50%. This was not the case with my practicum, because I advocated for my own learning. I learn best by “doing,” and receiving formative feedback on how to improve. I thought this to be easier if I took over the class full-time, so I could build on my own lesson plans and learning progressions. So, let’s just say that teaching two, 3 hour blocks of Gr. 10 P.E. was absolutely exceptional thanks to the utmost support of my coaching teacher for letting me try new things, give feedback on lessons and help reflect as I move forward.

My main 3 goals as I entered this practicum were this:

1. Learn how ADST as a pedagogy and FPPL could be implemented in an every day P.E. class
2. Be clear on my expectations for learning throughout my time so that ALL students felt they were equal in a safe environment.
3. Not only “Keep Girls in Sport” but also inspire those not keen on P.E. to find a physical activity they enjoyed and would continue with. I wanted to inspire “Healthy Living” as a whole

So how did I implement these goals? I started out immediately by building relationships and finding out who my students are. I found out their electives, their current jobs, hobbies and dislikes. I made my expectations of learning intentions clear at the beginning of practicum and re-iterated them every day. These two things helped achieve the overall “Big Idea” I wanted to share, which is that P.E. is for everyone.

When some think back to their P.E. times in Highschool, they aren’t exactly fond of the memory. Usually because P.E. seemed heavily reliant on sports that involved a ball, puck, frisbee etc… but the classroom and objectives have changed. Although I had no control over the content of which sport I was teaching (Pickleball, Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer, Volleyball & Badminton) I explained to my classes that:

1. Being “good” at a sport will not be the reason you get an “A” in this class
2. This class is about being inclusive, building skills, and developing life-long relationships with activity
3. If you are the person who dislikes or “hates” sports, this class is still for you! If you are that person, I would take the opportunity to participate heavily in the warm-ups and cool-downs which I will be giving different types of physical activity, and hopefully you enjoy one enough to continue with it.

Every day for the next 3 weeks, we did warmups and cooldowns together, giving modifications, low-impact and high-impact options so that each student could challenge themselves individually. For warmups, I introduced workouts like Cardio Kick Boxing, HIIT circuits, Tabata and Zumba (we don’t use trigger words like “dance” and “Zumba” though). For cool-downs, we would debrief on what muscles were used (or what was sore) and learned copious stretches together. We were able to discuss health benefits of both warm-ups and cool-downs and learn about our bodies, how to monitor exertion levels and eventually- students were able to advocate for their own warm-ups and cool-downs based on their needs. It was such an amazing process to watch, especially when you have a 99% buy in.

When it came to implementing ADST as a pedagogy into the classroom I wasn’t quite sure where to start. My first initial reaction was if I let students be “curious” and “create” with P.E. equipment, I would surely be fired. But I realized that ADST is what you make it- so by encouraging students and giving time to “tinker” with their skills once introduced in a safe manner, I found many students working on skills THEY wanted to improve. It was really neat to see certain goals each individual had and many times they were open to sharing and reflecting with me and the class- which richened everyone’s experience.

We also used the app “Socrative” which creates a virtual, online communication network between teacher and students to gather formative feedback data on both accounts. On the app we as teachers are able to ask questions to our students how things are going, what they are working on, what they would like to see more or less of, and adapt our teachings to their feedback. What I love about the app is you can set it up so that students can put their name or you can manipulate it for anonymous feedback, which definitely creates room for honesty and a shield for vulnerability!

I struggled with implementing FPPL into the classroom with activities, mainly because we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this until mini-games and even then, my knowledge is very limited. So for next practicum, I would definitely say that will need drastic improvement. I was able to meet with the CSS resource teacher, where we gathered resources to make this process easier for my next practicum, so I am very excited to research, study and learn on my own and alongside my students next time. Not all was lost though; we verbally discussed some principles as we were learning, especially with new skills reminding that “Learning requires patience and time,” and “Learning is holistic and reflexive.” We talked about what this means and what it could look like to keep up engaged and less frustrated when we are challenged.

I could go on and on about the students themselves, their learnings, their struggles, weakness, accomplishments and strengths. I could talk endlessly about situations that made me come home feeling triumphant and some that made me come home almost in tears. The truth is, I could comment how the relationships with my students over the last three weeks just solidified my reasons for wanting to be an educator, but for this blog, we will keep it at the reflective/ material level.

All I can say in conclusion is, I am absolutely grateful for this experience. To learn, grow and play alongside my students and have a mentor right there to bounce ideas off of allowed me to really nurture the skills I already possessed and grow them as well as reflect and build new skills for the future. I am so excited for my next practicum, wherever it may be; I am ecstatic to keep learning (and to keep stealing resources!)

“Something we view as harmless; ‘Freedom of Self Expression,’ from a professional perspective? You’ll be fired no question.” –  Michelle Sadrena Pledge

With technology and the world in our hands, how many times does one slow down and think of it’s consequences or repercussions and how it can be socially fatal. What are Digital Footprints and why do we care? From applying to post secondary or a job, those interviewing you are also interviewing your integrity.  Leaving a trail of “Digital Footprints” to trace back to moments where posts on Facebook, Instagram, twitter and more can be found, one better hope that where those footprints lead are a proud place, and not a jeopardizing sentence to one’s livelihood.

So, how does it feel knowing there is a trail left of the things you do online? I recently ‘googled’ myself to see what Digital Footprints I have left on this internet/ social media world.  You know what I found? Newspaper Articles written about my accomplishments throughout my youth that I had no idea about. Of course, my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram etc… comes up, but with the privacy settings adjusted, the public sees that of which I do not mind sharing, and for more personal documentation, I have for myself and close friends. Overall, I feel pretty great knowing I set some provincial javelin records (who knew), my softball scholarship to the states was documented, my short-lived acting career in the paper, major piano and vocal performances written about- how neat is it that those memories live in cyber space and can be accessed just by googling my name?

Flip side: Now imagine being an employer and seeing all those wonderful things about a person when you google them.  Words like “diverse,” “adaptive,” “hard-working,” may come to mind (I’m not just tooting my own horn here- there is a purpose.) So what if you were an employer and googled my name and the first thing to pop up was photos of me upside down chugging a beer keg? What if you saw public Facebook posts I left about extreme political views or degrading a teacher I didn’t like in high school? What if you, as an employer looking to hire me, notice my profile photo is me smoking a bong and blowing smoke at the camera? Now… are you still going to hire me?

Why is this important for our students and youth to be aware of Digital Footprints? Because they are at such an influential age where they may not be thinking about “the future” or “safety.” Never mind the fact that what you post could inflict consequences on your post secondary or job career, but what about safety? In Justin Boyle’s online article of “12 Tips for Students to Manage Their Digital Footprints” he writes tips such as: “Use privacy settings, Keep a list of accounts, Don’t Overshare, Use a password keeper, Monitor linking accounts, Know that sending is like publishing forever” and more.  This list contains the foundation of many questions we should be asking ourselves prior to making comments or posts.  If we can at least put the thought into our students that they should slow down and take a moment to really think if what they are posting should be on the internet, then perhaps then we can make a difference.

The point to drive home is although posting photographs of drinking, smoking or exercising our “freedom of speech” is not illegal, it taints a certain professional expectation and integrity we are expected to uphold as an educated citizen.  Furthermore, it is not for certain that you can get hacked or scammed if you do not follow some helpful guidelines with passwords and accounts… but it is not for certain that you won’t either.

 

CITED SOURCES:

1. Christensson, P. (2014, May 26). Digital Footprint Definition. Retrieved 2021, Jan 25, from

 https://techterms.com

2. Justin Boyle. (2019, May 10 updated 2020, Jan 22). 12 Tips for Students to Manage their Digital

Footprints. TeachThought. From

https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/12-tips-for-students-tomanage-their-

digital-footprints/

3. TED. (2014, July 24). Digital Footprints |Michelle Sandrena Pledger [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGyTp4Nd4M

As soon as I heard this my mind immediately went to words like: Drive, Motivate, Perseverance, Determination and so many others that I have exhausted throughout my very intense lifetime.

From farm kid, to college athlete, piano accompanist, opera singer, pipeliner, coach, fitness enthusiast and teacher… everyone is always letting you know how you can be “better.”  My whole life has been a drive to not only be “better” but be “the best” (we’ve had a lot of counselling about this… but that’s a story for another time.)  My point is; I could never just be happy with myself… until 2020.

Prior to the pandemic, my daily life look like this:

4:00 Wake up

4:15 Gym

5:15 Feed/ Groom Horses/ Poop Scoop

6;30 Get ready for work

7:30 Go to work an hour early

8:30 Teach

10:15 Recess? I think not- you’re either on duty or students are with you

12:00 Lunch? Wrong again. You’re coaching a sport- you love it though!

2:40 School’s Out, but only for the kids, you’re going to spend the next hour with emails and documentation

4:00 You Teach Piano Lessons Now

6:30 You should eat before your sport

7:00 Volleyball, Softball, Football or a Sport or Exercise of some kind (You’ve convinced yourself this is your “social time”

9:00 Bed? No ma’am, you are now marking and lesson planning for tomorrow

11:30 Night Night, get ready to repeat

 

Is this sustainable? I mean… I sustained it for 3 years (with an unhealthy amount of black coffee I might add.)  You definitely don’t want to see what my pipelining life or college life looked like… let’s just say there was no social life and I was “stoked” if I ever got 4 hours of sleep (16 hour work days or taking 13 classes per semester will do that to someone.)  Why am I going into such detail about the last 10 years of my life on high speed? It’s either to justify to you  or myself my word for 2021. #repose

Hear that? I still feel the need to justify why I need to rest, sleep and slow down, but that’s an even bigger reason why I chose it, and maybe someday I won’t feel the need to have to justify taking a break.

When the pandemic hit, and my sports were cancelled, my job came to an end and summer began… I found myself putting all of me into my horses, and even got two more beautiful mares.  I spent the entire summer immersed in training these green horses and found a new/ old passion again.  I also realized I was getting copious amounts of sleep and exercise, while not being stressed (unless dealing with the Arabians…) I had more time for friends and family and was able to realize… slowing down might be a good thing.

Now that I am in school… I’m still sleeping 8 hours a day (over break I slept approximately 11 hours but my body needed it!) I’m able to balance so much more into my life or out of my life because I have decided to put me first, and remind myself to slow down.  Some days I do more, some days I do less, but overall I am doing way less and I think I might keep it this way.

Could my #oneword2021 be balance or patience? Sure, but I would justify “balancing” 5,000 activities a week and convince myself to just be “patient” with myself as I slowly go insane.  No, my #oneword2021 is “Repose” because I am putting me ahead of being “the best” because I deserve rest, sleep and tranquility of mind.