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Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Leaders Lending Their Calm

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , , on November 21, 2023| 2 Comments »

I love this notion that a leader can lend their calm.

I was recently listening to The Canadian-Ed Leadership Show hosted by Dean Shareski and his interview with the former  Director General of the Lester B School Board in Montreal, Michael Chechile.  He was relaying a story from Michael Fullan.  Chechile, quoting Fullan, said, “you don’t only show your calm as a leader but you lend your calm.”  This is such a wonderful extension to what we often say about modeling the calm we want in others.

Calmness is such an important quality in school leadership. As Chechile describes, it is one of the soft skills that you need to be a team player.   This notion of lending your calm is also referenced in the work of Stuart Shanker, someone who has greatly impacted my thinking – when their storm meets your calm, co-regulation occurs.  While it can be great in the classroom with students, the same principles apply in the interactions school and district leaders have with other adults in our work.

I really like this simple idea of lending your calm to someone else. It can mean offering a sense of tranquility, reassurance, or stability to another person during a stressful or challenging situation. It involves sharing a peaceful and composed presence to help someone feel more at ease or supported.   I am sure it is true in many professions, but I can speak with most authority in the school setting, that calmness from school and district leaders can be one of the most important qualities in times of heightened emotions.  

This idea of extending emotional support and helping others navigate difficult moments by sharing your own inner sense of peace or calmness is very powerful. This act can be particularly valuable in situations where someone is feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or stressed, as your quiet presence can have a calming effect on them.

When I think to the specific work of school and district leaders, lending our calm can:

  • exhibit leadership presence
  • manage a crisis
  • help in decision making
  • assist in communication
  • build support and confidence
  • model resilience
  • promote wellness

School and districts leaders seem to be faced with increased situations of heightened emotions.  This simple idea of lending one’s calm, can help reframe these situations, and help us slow down and react more thoughtfully.

Thanks Dean, Michael, Michael and Stuart for sharing this thinking.

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The Last 1000 Days – A Long Read

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , on October 13, 2023| 5 Comments »

I have always liked a good streak.

Some of them – likely getting a certain number of steps a day have been good for my health. Others, like the consecutive days having a Dairy Queen Blizzard streak – not so much.

So, as of my run today, I have had a running streak for the last 1000 days. Since January 17, 2021, I have run at least 5 kilometres outdoors each day.  I didn’t start it by planning to run every day.  I feel a bit like Forrest Gump, I just started running and I haven’t yet decided to stop.  

So, what have these last 1000 days taught me and what I have I noticed?

  1.  It is not really a run streak. It is a discipline streak. It is about consistency, habit, and stubbornness.  When I started, it was about running.  I had run fairly regularly before the start – usually 2 or 3 times a week.   But it is not the running that is hard.  It is the getting up in the dark and going outside that is hard.  I always feel better when I come back, but even after 1000 days, while it is a habit, it is still a challenge.
  2. People will always find ways to question what you are doing. I have not told many people I am doing this (I realize this post kind of ruins this).  I connect with a few people on Strava who see and encourage my daily run posts.  When people find out that I have been running every day there are a few common first comments – 1) “That can’t be good for you”  2) “You know that is not how you get faster” 3) I’m surprised you haven’t got injured yet.”  I do often think of the quote, “You will never be criticized by someone doing more than you.”  
  3. You can’t outrun a bad diet.  This mantra is something I have often heard – and it is true.  I am about 2 pounds heavier today than when I started this running streak.  When my diet is poor I gain weight, when my diet is better, my weight stays in balance – and really, the running hasn’t really changed that.  I have always been conscious of weight – from when I was 246 pounds in university to when I was having trouble keeping above 165 pounds at different times in the last decade.  My running streak is fairly divorced from my weight journey – which is really tied to my eating.  
  4. People online can give you motivation.  I have been skeptical of all those influencers online.  I have thought that change is strictly something that comes from within.  Well, this commitment to running has been fueled in part by my obsessions with David Goggins and Jesse Itzler.   I read Goggins first book, Can’t Hurt Me over the Christmas break in 2020.  He argues that we only tap into 40% of our capabilities.  Following Goggins introduced me to Itzler who wrote a book Living with a Seal on his being trained by Goggins.  I got to following them and adopting their approaches  – my intermittent fasting over the last year is a direct result of following Itzler on Instagram.  
  5. Track metrics. – I know all metrics have their limits but I track resting heart rate, weight, body fat and step totals every day and I have targets for all of them. I know, we are supposed to be motivated intrinsically and I am impressed by those who say they have never stepped on a scale in their life – I am just not that person.  I need concrete goals to always be chasing.  
  6. You can fight getting old.  I am not ready to embrace aging.  I am coming up on a significant birthday later this month and this run streak is part of an overall plan to hold onto my youth.  I want to be running with my kids when they are 40.  I follow Peter Diamandis – one of many out there looking at new technologies and the fight against aging.  This run streak is part of staying young.  During the last 1000 days, I have run faster 5 k, 10 k and half marathons than at anytime since my late 20’s.  
  7. Covid helped me reset.  The Culture of Yes had really taken its toll on me in the years leading up to Covid – I was saying yes to everything.  My life was bloated and my priorities were everything, all at once.  Through Covid, I was committed to getting and staying healthy and this run streak came out of that.  I would have said I didn’t have time before Covid to carve out 30 – 90 minutes a day to run, but now it seems easy, as I reset what mattered to me and my priorities.
  8. Setting and meeting goals is fun.  Even within this run plan, I have a series of other goals.  I commit myself to running at least one half marathon distanced run each month as an example.  I have also set a goal of doing my run in each province.  With work and pleasure, I have been able to get through seven provinces – only Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland left.  There is a sense of accomplishment even in micro goals that are part of a larger plan.  
  9. Running does help your mental health.  The connection between well being and exercise is regularly promoted.  And running definitely raises my mental being.  I use my runs to relax, reflect and reset. 
  10.  Outlasting brings fulfillment.  One of the favourite things about this blog is how long I have been doing it.  During that time, I think millions of blogs have started and been discarded.  I think about this and the run streak.  I will never be one of the greatest runners in the world, but not many people ever run 1000 days in a row and that brings a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment – not in the sense that I beat others, but I am doing something others just can’t / won’t do.

I realize this post is coming off a bit as a self-help seminar.  But as I have said before about this space, I like to use it to work through my thinking.

And yes, I am going for a run tomorrow.  The problem with streaks is that there is not a natural way for them to end.  I assume one day I will just wake up and decide that’s enough.

This is the second post  that I am tagging “A Long Read.”  These are more personal essays that I am trying to write every few months reflecting on parts of my life and generalizing some lessons that have come from them.  The first of these, The Most Important Game of My Life I published in March. 

 

 

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COVID’s Lasting Impact on School Sports

Posted in Health, SD45, tagged , , , on October 12, 2022| 3 Comments »

This blog post also appears in the Fall Newsletter for the Canadian Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association 

As we return to school this fall, we are applying the many lessons learned from the last three years.  There is a worry that we will simply snap back to pre-COVID times without implementing what we have learned throughout the pandemic.  In our district, we are holding onto many of our COVID adjustments, from keeping some meetings online, to building in flexible time for students and staff schedules, to focusing more on well-being.

This same reflection should be happening in all our jurisdictions as we look at school sports. 

It also just seems like the right time to reassess what we did pre-COVID, by asking ourselves questions like: are we offering the right sports to meet the current needs of our students?  Are our leagues achieving what we want? Are we happy with the mix of practice and competition, and are we satisfied with the level of competition with our school sports?  Over the last three years, almost every sport was impacted for at least two of those years, and instead of racing back to ‘the way things were’, it seems like the ideal time to be revising and evolving our vision for school sports.

As COVID eliminated school sports to varying degrees, we were reminded of just how important these activities were for social connectedness, and how for young people, and their coaches and families, school sports are crucial to social, emotional, and physical well-being. I would regularly hear from parents that school sports are the glue that connects their children to school. The importance of school sports is not just a gut-feel that many of us have, a 2021 University of Wisconsin study, found that athletes who were able to continue to play sports during the pandemic were less likely to report anxiety and depression symptoms than those who didn’t have the opportunity to participate.

Beyond reinforcing the value and importance of school sports, these are some opportunities, lessons, and takeaways:

  • Livestreaming sporting events in schools for health and safety reasons, while not new, engaged more students and families, and efforts should be made to continue once health and safety rules are relaxed.
  • In 2020-21, when most jurisdictions did not allow inter-school competition, many sports saw increased participation for what amounted to yearlong practicing. These are students we should be looking to keep engaged in school sports now that we are returning to traditional league structures.
  • There was a reset on competition. School sports doubled-down on their values of being about student growth, development and wellbeing, and further distanced themselves from the for-profit, win-at-all-costs programming we see from some community sports vendors.  Building on the reset of competition, we also witnessed increased levels of participation, more students involved in each sport, no cuts, and a reemphasis on well-being and school community.
  • As the rigid edges of hyper-competitive athletics were softened during COVID, we noticed and observed a more inclusive and accepting school athletic community.
  • As we build our school sports back to pre COVID levels, students and families are showing a greater appreciation for the opportunity to play and for their coaches, that make school sports possible.
  • Teachers and other volunteers found more sustainable routines during COVID.  I often heard coaches say they found balance.  As we work to reengage these key people, we might need to adjust the expectations in order to encourage them back.

What lessons about school sports did you learn during COVID, and how are you applying these lessons to meet the needs of our students, families and schools?

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Retelling My New Year’s Story from 20 Years Ago

Posted in Health, Parenting, tagged , , , on December 31, 2021| 4 Comments »

Well before I had this blog, I had a regular column for several years at the turn of the century at the Richmond News.  The posts are no longer easily accessible on the internet, but I have all the columns cut-out in a scrapbook (truly old school).  I have been rereading some old posts over the break, and mixed in with posts about the Vancouver Grizzlies, dial-up internet, street racing and various local political issues was a  more personal post about New Year’s 2002 – 20 years ago!

And at a time we all owe great thanks to the doctors, nurses and others in our hospitals doing amazing work, here is “Caring folk make for best new year’s party in town” from Kennedy’s Corner in the Richmond News – originally published on January 9, 2002.

On New Year’s Eve and the days that followed I got to meet some of the most caring, skilled and committed people I have ever known.

It wasn’t what I had planned for New Year’s Eve, but the evening and the following morning turned out to be my best ew year’s celebration ever.

At about 11 on the morning of December 31, I was running around getting the last supplies for our small new year’s party.

I called home to check on any last-minute grocery purchases and caught my wife just as she was going to the hospital.

Apparently our first child who was due around January 10, decided that she was going to come early.

Richmond General was a hub of activity.

The doctors and nurses were so supportive and caring, each one friendlier and more willing to help than the last.

It was very apparent from everyone I met, that while there are many problems with the health care system in BC, the people on the front lines are the very best at what they do.

Dr. Robson was the most popular person in the hospital that night.  We saw her when we came in at noon on the 31st, and some 24 hours later she was still up and going.  Being paged from emergency to the operating room, to checking on all her patients in the maternity ward, she was always calm.  When someone asked how things were going, I heard her say, “Busy, but no problems.”

I doubt the new year’s eve to new year’s day shift is the most popular, but never a word of complaint.

The same shift is also probably not coveted by nurses.

It is really unfair to single any individuals out, as the 20 or so that I had some contact with were all first rate.  From Kerri who took time to explain everything to my wife and I, to Sherri who was with us through the night, to Narinder who cam on in the morning, they were all unwavering in their support for us.  After some 18 hours in the hospital, our daughter was born on the morning of January 1st, the second baby born of the new year in Richmond.

The following hours and days in the hospital saw the same caring that we had enjoyed through the labour and birth.

Nurses like Lillian and Rite and doctors Wagner and Duncan shared in our joy of the birth of our daughter and did everything they could to make things as easy as possible for us.

The list of thank-yous is really endless.

These nurses and doctors working 12-hour or sometimes longer shifts treated us always as if we were their main priority and nothing was going to stop them from helping us.

This type of support, commitment and enthusiasm is so special.

As we rest quietly at home, I know I speak for my wife and young Elizabeth when I say thanks to all the doctors and nurses at Richmond General for making our new year’s the best ever.

Thanks to Dixon Tam, then editor of the Richmond News, who gave me a chance to write for his paper.  I got $35 a column – but I would have done it for free 🙂

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Keep Being Passionate After This is Over

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , , on November 30, 2021| 9 Comments »

This is one of those dangerous posts to publish.  I know people will take parts of it out of context and repurpose it for their own benefit.  I am not new around here, I know that is what people do to superintendents and what people do in the age of outrage on the internet.

I have been getting a lot of phone calls and emails lately.  I am not sure of another time in the last decade when there have been so many.  I know I get a lot during job action, or when people think I have made a bad decision on calling or not calling a snow day, or when there are budget challenges.  This is different.  From mask wearing to vaccinations, COVID has brought people to the school district. 

Of course, it is not only a local issue, there are lots of videos circulating on the internet of school board meetings, particularly in the United States, of name calling and sometimes violence over COVID protocols.  Even Saturday Night Live noticed, and did a sketch (HERE) earlier this season on the growing phenomenon.  While more subdued in Canada, my colleagues tell stories of protestors at their doors, fights between parents in the parking lot over vaccinations, and name-calling and threats towards school officials.   And this is not a “don’t worry, it is just happening somewhere else” issue, our teachers and principals are seeing increased tensions and short-tempers regularly.   

My first thought is we need to be better than this.  Our kids are watching.  I appreciate there is great anxiety and frustration.  And I also know that school boards – staff and elected officials – are often more accessible than other government officials and thus an easy target.  Many of us spend our careers in education helping students see nuance, and trying to engage with challenging topics or those with whom we disagree in thoughtful ways – unlike all these images we are seeing.  I have yet to meet anyone in health or education who is not going above and beyond right now to do what they think is best for students.  

I also think about a post I wrote on “the hat rule” a few years ago.  We love topics that are easy to think about.  Masks are either good or bad, same with vaccinations.  When I listen to the health experts each week, I feel their frustration as they try to tell a far more detailed and nuanced story, but we do love to jump to things that are simple to think about.  Keeping kids safe in schools and providing rich opportunities for learning in our times of COVID is complicated and “hat rule” conversations are easy but incomplete.  What we love about these binary topics is that you are either with us or against us – it is like supporting your local sports team and uniting with everyone wearing the same coloured jerseys.

And finally, when this is over, I hope people stick around.  Those who have spoken to me about masks, ventilation, hand sanitizer, or vaccination,  don’t stop being engaged in schools.  Regardless of whether you have been happy or unhappy with the health guidelines, please keep holding me and others accountable.  Hold us accountable for ensuring that all students by grade 4 can read, that students of Indigenous backgrounds are succeeding at the same levels as all other students and that graduates have opportunities for post-secondary and other options after grade 12.  And hold us accountable for ensuring students are learning the skills and attributes of engaged citizenship.  This is our work and the success of all students in the community should be a concern for all of us. 

I realize it may seem far more important to a parent that all students in their child’s class are wearing a mask or are vaccinated than it is that they can read or socialize with others.  I get it.  COVID is scary.  The last 18 months have reminded us of the importance of school and the importance of collective action.  I do hope we show some of the same engagement and passions for the collective well being of all students – as I know it does not feel as immediate and personal as COVID, but we should all want all of our learners to be successful.

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Is it Time for School Sports to Return?

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , on October 25, 2020| 1 Comment »

Using my blog for something different this time.  Last week I had a good conversation with Vancouver Province Sports Reporter Steve Ewen on the possibilities for school sports – even in the middle of a pandemic.  Readers of this blog know how interested I am in youth sports.  In an effort to share the article with a larger audience, I am sharing the text from Steve’s article below.  You can also see the original article on The Province website HERE.

West Vancouver school district Supt. Chris Kennedy thinks it’s time to try to restart high school sports.

He’s very clear. He’s not talking about something leading to a massive provincial championship. Kennedy’s talking about neighbouring high school teams, in cohorts of four, playing against only one another with extensive coronavirus protocols in place.
He’s talking about what community sports was granted in August by the B.C. government and has been doing since then. The government’s return-to-school plan released in July said inter-school events wouldn’t be permitted to take place initially but would be “re-evaluated in mid-fall 2020.”

High school teams have been allowed to practise since classes returned.

The provincial election has taken the focus of the government of late. Kennedy understands too that the rising COVID-19 case numbers may spark concern. He believes that schools can make sports run safely — “we’re living those protocols every day,” he explained — and a return to games between rival schools, albeit in a limited format, would benefit the overall well-being of students and school communities.”

“There’s so much positive will trying to make it happen right now. I’ve spoken to a number of my superintendent colleagues and there’s a common belief that sports can aid in the physical, social and emotional well-being of students,” explained Kennedy, a longtime high school basketball coach himself, highlighted by his time guiding Richmond’s McRoberts Strikers.“We’re worried about the mental health of kids. We’re looking for more things to connect with kids. If school becomes just a place where you go to get credits, then it’s not really school.”

“I don’t want to underestimate the complexities of this, but everything we’ve done so far with schools this year has been complex. Getting the kids to school, getting the cohorts figured out, dealing with different technology issues … every day we’re faced with problems that we never imagined before the pandemic.”

The basic frustration for school sports folks about being on the sideline is the simple fact that community sport is up-and-running. As Kennedy says, there are “kids in our gymnasiums with school teams from 3 to 6 p.m. obeying by certain rules and then they can be back in those same gyms with their club teams from 6 to 8 p.m. playing under a completely different set of rules.”

There’s the price point issue as well. School sports is subsidized. Club sports is often a business. The longer school sports sits on the sideline, the more you wonder about how it might look when they do eventually return, and whether programs will be lost long-term. There are also families who don’t have the money or wherewithal to take part in club sports regularly.

“There’s probably been little change for the affluent families regarding sport through this. They’ve found club situations that work for them,” Kennedy explained. “The kids who need school sports the most are the ones who aren’t getting it.”

Kennedy downplayed the idea that student/athletes were missing out on university scholarship opportunities with school sport in limbo, calling it a “red herring.” He believes that university coaches will find ways to find players.

In fact, he thinks that the return of school sports in this era would have an even greater focus on participation, since teams wouldn’t be gearing up for a run at the provincials.

“You’d probably carry a bigger roster, you’d probably play everyone more equally because you’re not worried about that high-level competition piece,” he explained.

Kennedy contends high school sport could “look different” for it to be allowed to return. He talked about switching to 3-on-3 basketball or 2-on-2 volleyball, for instance, if that help makes things safer.

“You shouldn’t skip out on something just because you think it might be hard,” Kennedy explained. “We’ve found ways to make music and art and drama happen in so many of our schools. There are other kids who have passions for athletics. We need to help them.

“We’ve got schools launched. We’ve got club sports launched. Now we take what we’ve learned from both of them and put it together for school sports.”

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Maybe Youth Sports Come Back Different

Posted in Change, Health, Parenting, tagged , on June 7, 2020| 6 Comments »

I have used this space a number of times over the last decade to think out loud about youth sports.  And I can reaffirm my bias upfront that sports in our schools and our community and the values they largely promote are important, and perhaps more significant than ever.

And now I see the opportunity, that the shutdown of the last three months could be the catalyst of something different to emerge.  Especially as the pandemic has reshaped the economy, ideas around travel and issues of safety – there are barriers and opportunities for sports in all of these.

There is a definite hope for sports to re-emerge soon.  In British Columbia Via Sport released it Return to Sport guidelines this past week.   In our rush to return to normal, there is an opportunity to consider if normal is really what we want.  Of course this is a conversation happening across society as items that have been closed begin to re-open.

So how might school and community youth sports come back different (and yes many of these are related)?

Cheaper

Youth sports have too often become games for the rich in recent years.  The professionalization of childhood sports has left many behind. So many families will emerge from the pandemic with less money to spend on activities for their kids.  There is an opportunity for cheaper options to emerge and be successful.  Linked to other changes like less travel and more volunteerism, and a refocus on play, growth and development and a lessening of competition, sports could be cheaper.  And likely sports requiring less equipment costs, and without heavy facility rentals (which may be more expensive because of additional cleaning costs) will be more popular.   I think sports like ultimate, track and field, soccer and baseball all might fall into this category.

More Local

We are all getting used to traveling less.  And until there is a COVID vaccine, it definitely seems like some travel restrictions will be in place.  In recent years we have become obsessed with traveling long distances for competition.  It does not seem like 4 or 5 kids from different families will be sharing hotel room anytime soon.   Rather than the top players being siphoned off to play on teams in other communities, structures could be built for intra-club and other localized competitions and these would have value and be important.  Leagues would be refocused on individual communities and playing through this would be culminating events rather than larger events with travel.

New Role for Parents

One of the first things I hear from coaches about the pandemic is that if parents are not allowed to watch – that might be a good thing.  Too often youth sports have not been about young people competing with other young people, but about parents competing with other parents through their kids.  If in the short-term youth sports become drop-off activities, parents could either 1) commit to be volunteers and assist with the program or 2) treat this as found time – workout, read a book, enjoy their own pursuits.  The lack of parents in attendance could really refocus youth sports.  We just might have more teenagers willing to be officials knowing there wouldn’t be anyone there to yell at them.

Less Game Focused

Even though we know better, far too many teams have more games than practices.  This will change as we have smaller, more localized leagues.  As we start back up with sports the focus will be on practices and no competition.  This will likely be a reset for many sports.  The practice to game ratio will be adjusted so there are far more practices to competition dates.   It will still be competitive but it will be done within an individual club set-up.

Volunteer Driven

When sports become local, we will hopefully see the return of the volunteer coach.  The volunteer coach has gone missing in recent years.  The professionalization of youth sports has happened alongside the reduction of volunteer coaches.  It is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.  As youth coaches became paid coaches, the volunteer coaches began to disappear.  Of course, it could be argued that the volunteer coach disappeared so we moved to a paid coach model.  In cheaper, more local models hopefully the volunteer coach returns – the parent or other community member who is supported by local sports organizations to improve his / her skills and gives back through coaching.

Different Sports and Modified Sports

Some messages we keep hearing are more outdoor activities, smaller groups and less physical contact.  As Dr. Bonnie Henry has said “fewer faces, big spaces.” I am not sure what the complete list of sports are that will thrive but it is definitely different from many of the ones we have grown up with.  Might we see more beach volleyball and 3×3 basketball (which are both outdoor sports) than their more well known traditional indoor counterparts?  We may see sports with different rules that reduce physical contact.  It seems as though some of the more high profile sports will be slow to return as they are based on contact and often happen inside.

Sports meeting the interest of all youth

The time off has hopefully allowed us to reflect on purpose.  How can we make sports more inclusive of all youth?  It is a small example, but out of necessity we held a virtual track and field meet last week in West Vancouver Schools.  Every student could do all five events and be part of it – dozens of them (and their parents) shared these stories on social media.  Nobody got cut or not selected, everyone participated, there was something to celebrate for each student and it promoted health and fitness.  We need more of this.  We have an opportunity to look at school and community sports and ask questions about purpose and ensure that we really are serving our communities.

Conclusions

It would be a missed opportunity if we just raced to return youth sports to as they were before the pandemic.  And anywhere I wrote youth sports – you could really replace it with school sports.  Many of the same issues and opportunities exist.  We know sports are powerful for young people and so important at developing life skills but we also know our system we had was fine but not great.

There is a chance now to do better.

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New Wardrobe Rules Announced for All Staff

Posted in Health, tagged , , on April 1, 2020| 7 Comments »

During these challenging times there has been some interesting research coming out as students and teachers learn and work remotely.  It is being said that some things that are happening now will change how we do business forever, and that in the post-pandemic era we will never go back to some of pre-pandemic practices.  West Vancouver continues to take pride in being one of our world’s most innovative jurisdictions.

While remote learning is still fairly new, there is some exciting research around student learning that is leading to some permanent change in policy.  Based on the global research conducted around remote learning that teachers are able to have students perform at least 5% better when they teach in their pajamas we are making a change to our district dress code rules.  I am pleased to announce today that going forward, all teachers will be required to teach in pajamas – even when we return to in-person learning.  It is Sweden, and the work of Loof Lipra, that has shown us first some of this exciting research.  Pajama-Based Learning (more commonly referred to in the research as PBL) is being positively received around the world.  A quick search of “PBL” on Google will find you quotes like this:

Of course, there has been some long standing suspicions that teachers teaching in pajamas improved student achievement.  Many schools that had “Pajama Days”  saw those teachers who were active participants have their students score higher marks than the students of non-participants.  This quiet study which compared achievement results of teachers who participated versus those who did not participate has been a real sleeper that has finally come out from under the covers.

Now, on remote learning, with all our teachers at home teaching in their pajamas, the results are exceptionally powerful.  While the research is not clear as to the reasons for this surge in achievement, some of the speculation includes:

  • teachers can spend more time planning lessons as they don’t have to think about what they are going to wear
  • dressing for comfort puts teachers at ease and more able to convey information to students
  • students feel “more at home” with teachers as a result of their casual dress
  • when you wear pajamas you care less about what you eat, meaning you eat more and have more energy
  • pajamas have some magical powers 

For those teachers who still want to maintain the formality of school, I hear you.  For most of my work I have adopted the “Zoom Meeting Casual” look – business on the top, time for bed on the bottom.  As the kids say, I am livin’ la vida jam-jam.

Of course there is still more research to do.  Questions like “Does switching from daytime to nighttime pajamas affect achievement gains?”  and “Do staff wearing matching pajamas lead to increased sense of community?”  There is also work to understand why wearing pajamas leads to improved achievement, but dressing in the close cousin of pajamas the yoga pant seems to have little effect.

While we look forward to the return to in-person learning, and we continue to do our work to “flatten the curve” it is exciting to see that we are already learning lessons that will forever change our education system.  We are not afraid to engage in acts of PDP (Public Displays of Pajamas).  So the innovation continues – Welcome to West Vancouver Schools – Where We Wear Our Pajamas So you Can Learn.  

Today’s announcement is the latest in the long line of innovative actions from our school district.  Here is the list of those from recent years:

In 2012 I launched my FLOG.

In 2013 I made the announcement of Quadrennial Round Schooling.

In 2014 we formalized our System of Student Power Rankings.

In 2015 we created our Rock, Paper, Scissors Academy.

In 2016 we introduced the Drone Homework Delivery System.

In 2017 we introduced the Donald J. Trump Elementary School of Winning.

In 2018 we announced the construction of Soak City Elementary.

In 2019 we went back to the 80’s with the launch of the Belvedere Learning Academy.

We know these are challenging times, but innovations just can’t stop. Happy April 1st.

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More than just getting moving

Posted in Change, Health, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 17, 2019| 6 Comments »

Photo by Mike Wakefield, North Shore News

I feel as a society we are tackling the current challenges around physical activity and the need to be more active a bit like we did with the “just say no” drug education in the 1980’s. If we only told people that they were more likely to suffer a variety of health conditions and potentially die at an early age, they would wake up and change their ways. If only we produced more reports on health that said we were failing, we would stop failing. It is from this backdrop that I am so excited about what we are doing with physical literacy in our schools.

We know health guidelines say that kids should get at least 60 minutes of exercise a day, and we also know that few are doing it.  And there is no shortage of blame to go around.  Of course schools get some of it for how we structure our days, and then there is the overly protective pressures in society that leads to kids often not going outside.  And of course there is technology.  Any discussion around kids and activity often turns back to those damn phones!  All that being said, I think we were all shocked in West Vancouver when of the 1580 elementary aged students we tested a couple years ago on their abilities to run, hop, throw, kick a ball and walk backwards heel-to-toe, only 13 could competently perform all five tasks.

I appreciate that if we were talking about reading or math these kind of statistics would be reason to declare an emergency.  And we do think this work is as important as other foundation skills.  Instead of bemoaning the state of kids today – we got on with teaching them.  In just one year we were up to 65% of students being able to complete all the tasks.  The grade 2 students who never learn to kick a ball, become the high school students who don’t participate in soccer intramurals, the primary students who never learn to throw a ball are the ones who fake an illness to get out of softball in PE class, and those who don’t learn to properly run or hop, limit the athletic social events they will ever want to participate in.  But wow, what a difference we are seeing.  From agility ladders in hallways, to outdoor circuits to purposeful teaching of physical literacy skills – we have a team of teachers changing the culture.   And it is more than just getting kids to run around.  That is important, but we also need to teach kids the core skills of physical literacy.  It is great to have silent reading so all kids get time to read, but we also need to teach reading skills – the same theory holds for physical literacy.  And don’t be fooled into believing physical literacy can only happen in a gym.  The game changer is seeing people embed it in their work right in classrooms.

K Class Circuit at Ridgeview Elementary

We want students to develop physical literacy skills for their lives. If not at school, some kids will never have places to develop these skills.

And so interesting to read a Canadian study (HERE) published just last month that finds that there is a link between resilience and physical literacy among children, encouraging the importance of physical literacy development in schools.

I have always been struck by the simple idea – when will what we know change what we do.  We know physical literacy matters for youth.  For their physical health, their mental well-being, the academic success and their enjoyment in life.  And we are seeing some simple strategies are making big impactful changes across the district.  It is exciting to work in a district that is changing thinking and practice with physical literacy.

I am so lucky to work with a team including Diane Nelson, Erin Crawford, Amber Pascual, supported by Drew Mitchell and professional and researchers across Canada – all working together in West Vancouver to make this happen.  And teachers who are embracing the work.  When I get asked about what is new in West Vancouver, I tell people you need to see what we are doing with physical literacy.

 

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Is it Time to Ban Cell Phones in School (this is not what you think)?

Posted in Health, Parenting, Technology, tagged , , , on September 5, 2019| 10 Comments »

Over the last few weeks I have been asked a number of questions regarding the cell phone ban in Ontario schools.  Of course the ban is not really a ban.  According to  the CBC story on it , “The directive says students can only use personal mobile devices during instructional time if it is for educational purposes, for health or medical purposes, or for special needs.”  That is pretty much how things are in all the classrooms I see in BC, and to the best of my understanding the general guidelines across the country.  Technology is intended for learning.

And while the headline of banning cell phones nicely ignites people who hold views on both extremes,  the reality I am seeing in schools is that teachers and schools have put guidelines in place and worked on building culture with students that make cell phones a part of school as needed.  And this is nothing new, I was blessed to work at Riverside Secondary in Port Coquitlam more than a decade ago and even at that time they were figuring out thoughtful ways of using handheld devices in classrooms.  Saying “ban cell phones” in schools is one of those things that wins easy political points, but like “the hat rule” or “proper dress codes” or “making homework mandatory” or any other of these kind of catch phrases are actually kind of silly.  Schools, and our world, is far more grey.

So OK, if this is what I think, why do I think it is time for a ban of cell phones in schools?

Well, I am actually not talking about the students.  I find generally students have it figured out pretty well.  I have been wondering about a parent ban of cell phones in schools.  It is funny that one of the most common reasons I hear from parents around banning student cell phones is “my kid texts me in the middle of the day when they should be learning.”  I always think, well, why do you text them back.  Or often, why did you text them in the first place?

We have a generation of parents who lack presence when they are at school.  I see this at parent nights, with parents scrolling their social media as the Principal speaks, at Parent Conferences when they are texting to organize something later in their days while their child is reviewing her work, and I really see it at school sporting events and school productions.  Look up in the crowd at any elementary or secondary basketball game and you will see parents plastered to their screens, maybe looking up when their son or daughter is on the floor.  And at school productions they are using these phones and other hand-held gizmos to stand-up at the front, often blocking the audience to record the event.

Imagine if schools were a cell phone free zone for parents.  I often say that parents could learn a lot from their children regarding technology use, I also think they could learn a lot from their children about when not to use their technology.

This is a little tongue and cheek, and I don’t really want to ban parents from their devices, but I do want all of us with children in schools, who actually so rarely get to visit these schools, to better treat this time as a gift, and to be a bit more present when we do.

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