It's Cold Inside

I had this thought today: "I hope I don't die just before Christmas". Crazy as it sounds, my year has been a bit rough and my health concerns have made me paranoid about every racing pulse or short breath. But when I thought this to myself, I actually wasn't overly concerned about dying just about dying this close to Christmas.

It was a cruel thought, particularly as a mere 6 days ago and 11 days before Christmas, 27 people, 20 of them children, were gunned down and killed in Newtown, Connecticut. The week before, a friend's sister had committed suicide. I know with certainty and without googling it that millions of people are suffering or dying in some sort of fashion regardless of the advent of December 25th. Of course, suffering or dying does not limit itself to calendar holidays, be they religious, secular, or silly. What are held fast to that digital or paper calendar, perhaps even one magnetized to your fridge, are the cultural and familial traditions that bind us to the rituals, emotions, and expectations of  this particular "holy day".

Grief and loss can be unbearable in any context and fraught with private and painful reminders and triggers. But grief born at Christmas? A constant, excruciating sensory inundation of reminders - each song, smell, tinsel string a slap. Each year, a grief to be ushered in by early November and marched relentlessly through December in a fierce grip of public celebration, commercialism, and obligation.

When we were 24, my same-aged cousin nearly died. Just before Christmas, however, he came out of a coma, and the family rejoiced and did great goofy happy dances down the hospital halls. My cousin, however, came out of the coma a quadriplegic. He had a year of physiotherapy and suffering ahead of him. (spoiler alert: he has since recovered and is almost his old self) For years, we never understood why he would withdraw around Christmas time. He had lived! He had survived! He had proven all the "experts" wrong!

But, of course, he had lost a great deal too: his independence and mobility, for awhile; his short term memory, for a long time; his youth and innocence, forever. He grieved at Christmas, for his lost self. None of us in the family realized this until he finally stood his ground three Xmases ago and said, "I can't do this anymore". He couldn't fake the frivolity any longer. Christmas made him sadder than sad and none of us had noticed.

I don't need to tell you that Christmas oscillates, that some years it seems crass and others magical; some are twitch-inducing; others, delightful. I don't need to tell you that just as we are conscious of those in financial need at Christmas, we can be equally sensitive to those whose hearts are quietly breaking and re-breaking at every sight, smell, and sound of Christmas cheer, their grief and sadness inextricably and irrevocably linked to this cultural zenith of celebrations.

We can pray our own times come, late in life, on a bright, insignificant Spring day when frosts are slain and flowers begotten. Peace to all.






And, to banish what might be your imposed Christmas soundtrack of grief, there's nothing like a little Van Morrison, Summertime in England. It just is:

Informative and devastating: school lockdown procedure for parents

This was in my inbox this morning and while it may be deemed necessary, I couldn't stomach this line: "These sights have been selected based on their visibility to an intruder". Rest in peace, children and guardians of Sandy Hook.

Good morning SJD parents,

As a follow up to my email earlier this morning, I would like to provide you with information regarding our procedures here at the school should we need to go into a lockdown situation. I am providing this email for information only at the request of our PAC president and am not anticipating any need for an actual lockdown at our school.

You may recall that we had an unconfirmed sighting of a cougar around the school in mid-November. Our school went into an indoor only lockdown so that no child and/or staff member was out on the playground during the school day. This type of lockdown is the least intrusive to our school as the children and staff are able to move freely within the school but not permitted outside. We were able to stay in contact with the conservation officer and Victoria Police throughout the day as to the level of risk to our community, and provided that information to parents on email as well.

Should there be a need to go into a full lockdown of our school, the teachers and students are trained to lock the classroom doors (if not already locked) and move the children to the designated lockdown area of the classroom, music room, library or gym. These areas are identified by a symbol of a lock that is displayed in clear view within the classroom. These sights have been selected based on their visibility to an intruder. The children practice this drill regularly, just as they do fire and earthquake drills. The administration, office staff and custodian have additional duties during a full lockdown drill (e.g. locking our front door, accounting for missing students …). We run our emergency drills from time to time with our police liaison officer in attendance and/or the Victoria Fire Department. We are also required to log our emergency drills with our district Health and Safety Department.

Should we need to go into a lockdown while the children are outside (threat is within the school at the time), we have a protocol to move our students to the nearest available facility which is Central Middle School. Children would go into the gymnasium at Central and parents would be contacted to pick the children up from there.

I hope that this information regarding lockdown procedures reassures you that we have protocol in place to keep your children safe at SJD. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Mrs. Teri Wickes

Principal,

Ecole Sir James Douglas School


Ford Pier's haunting and beautiful song: Why On Earth?

Is school out forever? Teachers, students, and the inevitable now of education

Coming soon to an educational institution near you: the innovation revolution*

The school PAC had a presentation on Smart Boards last month. I couldn’t make the meeting but I was certainly curious – my American tweeps have been tweet tweet tweeting about them for almost two years now. I hear they are useful, *engaging*, and de rigeur in this modern age. I’ve never seen one except on Youtube.

There are times I feel the outside world might be whipping circles around our cosy lil’ Victorian town. Everyone else seems tech-light years ahead of our education system. Geez, all last year, our teachers weren’t even filling out report cards.

My #edtech twitter feed freaks me out: pinterest, iBooks, cramberry, audiopuzzler, wibbitz, edmodo, mixbooks, juno, voki, dvolver, gosoapbox, zooburst – no, it’s not a Clingon language- edtech tool choices multiply by the minute.  And you thought Facebook took up too much of your time.

BYOD, BYOT –bring your own device, bring your own tech – these are the #hashtags of the edtech revolution.  This call to arms naturally invites push back.

The push and the push back are usually summed up thus:

PUSH: Students are using technology already and using it better than us teachers; let’s learn it and implement it fast to enhance the educational experience.

The PUSH BACK: Students are already using technology too much and it’s distracting and detracting from the essential information; let’s explore it cautiously and limit it to very specific use.

And if that weren’t enough to put a knot in your pedagogical knickers, students are saying things like this:

“the concept of teaching something verbally, having students take notes, memorize material, and then pass tests on it is simply outdated…I missed nearly all the classes [one]semester. Nobody noticed my absence…there was no discussion and no real reason to stay. After all, the notes were posted on the Moodle website”  

While not exactly yearning for a “flipped classroom” – another 21^st century learning innovation – this sentiment hints at the perceived need for what Juliette LaMontagne calls “models in the margins [that have] effectively disrupted the status quo”  - models that also have educators questioning their own purpose and paradigm shifts that will almost certainly include technology.

But there is a disconnect between the perception and reality of what is actually occurring in a technology-enhanced classroom just as there is a disconnect between what is #edtech trending on Twitter and what is really happening in the majority of educational institutions around the world.  And as we reach what might be, paradoxically, a critical mass in innovation, there is time for REFLECTION:

As I pull out some hairs and grow a few grey ones over how to engage this new crop of learners, all my questions and fears rise to the surface:  How much of the old can we keep? How much of the new has value?  Why does this new paradigm of education feel like shifting sands?  If my students are not even reading but only taking pictures of my boardwork, what is retained in their own memories? Does the lack of remembering mean not learning? And if not retaining and not remembering is part of the new learning, then there remains this inescapable question: what is knowledge?

And if it comes down to “what is knowledge?”, I’m screwed.

*will not be tweeted because it has already happened

Alice Cooper - School's Out .mp3

Found at bee mp3 search engine