The Future of Learning and Sleep-in Mornings - Guest Blogger

Wednesday mornings are beloved by students as “sleep-in days” because classes start at 9 am rather than the usual 8 am. I suspect that we have many Appleby families who assume that it is also a “sleep-in- day” for the teachers. And while faculty may also love Wednesday mornings (okay, okay perhaps a bit of hyperbole there, but they certainly appreciate it,) it is not because of sleeping in, but rather, the hour is provided to them as an opportunity for professional development and collaboration. Each week there is a different focus. One week it may be linked to department meetings dealing with cross-grade initiatives within disciplines, and another may relate to PD around the use of IT in the classroom.

On a regular basis, the Wednesday morning sessions are dedicated to Professional Learning Communities – teams of teachers across divisions and disciplines working on innovative models for learning. These groups meet, share ideas, plan how to implement creative new initiatives, and evaluate them. Some are very practical and others more conceptual.

A couple of Wednesdays ago, some of these were presented in small seminars for all teachers to sample. I was able to stop in to about 6 of them, and was blown away by the variety of initiatives – everything from online learning models, to the modern application of Socratic methods, to exploring how we define inclusivity. They are powerful idea s that will have a great impact of Appleby. Just as importantly, the ability for Appleby to provide this flexibility allows us to attract and keep great teachers. Appleby is a place where very good faculty have the support and opportunity to become even better. As a people-based organization, this is a huge strategic priority and advantage.

I invited Graham Altham-Lewis, our Director of Learning & Teaching Innovation, who is the leader of these programs to guest blog about that session …

 

On 29 May, faculty had the opportunity to share their best practices and projects with other faculty.  Many faculty volunteered to present and we had a mini conference named Faculty Networking Breakfast with 12 different sessions, with faculty choosing three sessions to attend. 

Sessions included:

·       Creating a multi-faceted interdisciplinary projects to both teach the curriculum to Appleby students, and for Appleby students to create a product that will educate other students such as children in hospitals.

·       How collaboration on a creative and contextual assignment grew to include real world and virtual display with twitter, vine and augmented reality.

·       How to use technology within Microsoft one-note to give better feedback for student’s work using video and audio feedback.

·       2 sessions from different perspectives using TIGEd Global platforms to set up virtual classrooms for students to connect with other classes in other countries and learn together.

·       A cross curricular project that combined English and Computer Science with grade 8 students hiring the grade 10 and 11 students and working collaboratively to achieve their interdisciplinary project.

·       Grade 9 ASCENT Project Day; faculty sharing 5 different authentic, collaborative and cross curricular projects that grade 9 students will do one of their choosing during their ASCENT end of grade 9 assessment.

·       Using the software Socrative technology to enrich learning in the classroom; students have reacted very positively to this online platform that allows very quickly to gauge student learning as well as allowing students to collectively create class content.

·       Using the idea of a flipped classroom where content and knowledge is learned at home and in class the more complex problem solving and applications take place.

·        A session about inclusivity and acceptance; following a true story of a boy with Tourette syndrome and how society treats him through his life, and what this means to us at Appleby as we create an inclusive environment for the whole community.

·       How to develop leaders of character and help Captains of sports teams to be deliberately developed; giving all students the opportunity to develop these skills.

The variety of presentations on offer was impressive indeed, and is testament to the creativity, innovation and dedication that the faculty possess to improve the learning experience for our students.  Thank you to all faculty who presented and the feedback from the sessions from other faculty has been extremely positive with faculty learning from their peers!

The Happiness Quiver

In my last 2 posts, I talked about socio-emotional health and the growing issues of anxiety and depression in young people. In this post, I’d like address solutions – ideas about how to help kids solve what can be some scary circumstances. What are the most important arrows for them to have in their quivers when they face these kinds of obstacles?

Resiliency … we are using that word more and more. In part, it is because our collective ability to deal with disappointment, adversity, and failure seems to be inversely proportional to our access to opportunities, our increasing standard of living, the common expectations in successful families that their children will usually “win”, and the consequences of the well-intended parental hope that their children will not have to face emotional/esteem catastrophes.

My good friend Suzanne Heft is a big fan of marketing guru Seth Godin and sent along one of his recent posts about resiliency. Seth talks about resilience and the most common strategies for how people (and groups) try to manifest resilience “in ascending order from brave to stupid:”

·         Don't need it

·         Invest in a network

·         Create backups

·         Build a moat

The more I see of young people and the more I hear from wise souls, the clearer is my view that resilience and challenging experiences are synergistic, and can both contribute greatly to a longer-term, optimistic outlook on life. So, understanding that we get better at jumping over hurdles the more we have already vaulted (or run through), the biggest challenge in schools is helping kids deal with issues for the first time – the first major academic failure, being dumped by your first true love, the first time you really disappoint those whom you love, the first time you feel isolated from your closest friends, or the first you have to deal with the death of someone you love.  

While I am certainly not an expert in mental health and wellness, I have had the opportunity to get to know and/or work with a wide range of people who are.   There are lots of views on strategies and effective practices, and, like most complex issues, there is a combination of right answers. The proper balance depends on each person. Like most health matters, finding that right combination to a complex enigma is as much dependent on the person as on the condition.

Here are some of the things that we – as schools, teachers, parents, and friends – should be considering when dealing with both medical issues like anxiety, depression, as well as non-medical hurdles like intense stress and failure:

·         Sense of community: There is lots of research showing that mental health issues are both fewer and less intense in areas where there is a greater sense of community and attachment. There is some interesting research that relates to the role of the internet and “virtual communities” – some which may seem counter-intuitive to those of who are not as technologically native as students today. The implications of “community” are clear for schools. Does each student feel some sense of connection? Does he/she have some friends? Is there at least one adult at the school with whom s/he can speak when feeling under duress? Does the school feel like a home? If the answer to any of these questions is no, we have to figure out how to do it better.

My read of Appleby is that school culture here is already very strong. I’ve had lunch with about 500 students in small groups over the year and in most cases, I’ve been able to ask them about school culture. While there are some opportunities to improve things, I was very happy to hear their reflections on what seems like a very positive and warm environment.

·        Understanding that “you are not alone”:  One of the terrible factors in the past has been that people struggling with these kinds of conditions weren’t aware of anyone else in the same boat. The ability for someone who is depressed to talk with others who are, or who have, faced the same can make a huge difference. The same principles applies to children dealing with divorce, or a death in the family, or trying to come to grips with things like sexual orientation or religious beliefs. There is great benefit to knowing that others have struggled with the same issues and been able to overcome them. This kind of interaction, either one-on-one or through support groups, allows for some of the despair to be relieved and replaced by hope. And I know, from close friends who have dealt with depression, that hope is often the thing they need the most, especially during the first few bouts. However well-intended and empathetic a family member or friend is, they cannot take the place of someone who has walked in the same shoes.

·        Self-awareness: One of the great gifts that wise people have is self-awareness. Growing-up should include increasing self-awareness. (Sadly, there are lots of adults whose tanks are running alarmingly close to empty in this regard.) An important role we play as schools and parents is the encouragement of self-awareness – helping all of students understand how as individuals they think, how they react, how they process, interpersonal skills, how others see them,  those things they are good at, and, most importantly, those things they aren’t so good at. It is only with understanding of the last point that an individual can start to be truly comfortable in her own skin, and be open to strategies that can help redress these vulnerabilities. As schools talk about leadership, character education and preparing for the life beyond high school, I wonder whether students have enough self-awareness, and what else we should be doing to better develop it.

·        Ability to ask for help: If self-awareness includes the ability and the willingness to understand vulnerabilities, then it is also the most helpful foundation to be able to ask for help. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of mental health, and is particularly an issue with men, for whom vulnerability can be seen as being anathema to masculinity. A common refrain of some families and friends of those who committed suicide was that they had no idea things were so bad. The sufferer never said that he was in this much difficulty. As a community, part of our job is to ensure that the individual does not feel alone. We have to find ways as adults to weave into our narratives the fact that we have faced very difficult situations (see post on The Story of Family), and that we were able to cope by reaching out to others.  Asking for help is a show of strength rather than weakness.

·        Perspective and Experience: It is a truth that for most things in life, reps count. The more you do something, the better you get at it. While we often think in terms of athletic prowess – putting or shooting hoops, or laps – and other things we want/like to do, the same things apply to the most difficult events in life, including dealing with emergencies or tragedies. The Nietzsche quote, made popular again recently through songstress Kelly Clarkson, “That which does not kill you, will make you stronger”, applies to dealing with death, with loss and with failure. As adults, one of the most important roles we play for young people is to serve as guides through these difficult journeys rather than shields from them. People I am very close with who have struggled with anxiety or depression have also told me that they found that dealing with tough times often became a bit easier over time (although no less unpleasant) because they knew that they would get through them and things would get better – they had hope.

·        Diagnosis and Treatment: Medical science has come a very long way in how it deals with mental health. There are so many examples of how psychological and psychiatric counseling and treatment allow people to deal with these conditions either in terms of curing them, or allowing them to live in a fully functioning way. If the afflicted and their families are able to come to grips with asking for help, it is remarkable how freeing a proper diagnosis and effective treatment can be. From the school perspective, we are increasingly finding that a proper diagnosis is an essential prerequisite to our providing the proper supports for a student.

·        Skills to cope: Last week, I was talking with a colleague about whether students today have sufficient skills to cope with highly stressful circumstances. It seems to me that the line between bona fide mental illness and having difficulty dealing with high pressure/high stress is hazy. Clearly, many young people have a difficult time coping, and families are understandably concerned about confusing a normal stress-related reaction with a major diagnosable condition. There are lots of well-defined strategies for how to manage stress, and we have many people at Appleby with lots of experience in this area. From a programmatic standpoint, it seems increasingly important not to protect kids from all stress, but instead give age-appropriate challenges AND the tools to self-manage and navigate the through the shoals, even if the outcome isn’t always perfect. While some people think these tools (often called “soft skills” – tactics like chunking, organizational skills, relaxation, time management, triage skills, problem solving methodologies, etc.) are secondary, I think they can be among the most important arrows for people to have in their quivers to be successful at university and in life.

This has been a heavy set of 3 posts, so my next few will be more light-hearted and celebrate this wonderful time, when we look back on the year, celebrate our achievements, and congratulate our graduates.

Here are some other resources dealing with mental health and wellness:

·         The Canadian Institute for Health Information

·         CAMH Knowledge Exchange

·         Resources from the Jack Project

·         Queen’s University’s Principal’s Commission on Mental Health Report

·         Mental Health in Halton Region

The Anxiety Wealth Connection

In my last post, I talked about the sea change in how society is viewing mental health and how prevalent these issues are. I decided to revisit this topic because of articles that were recently sent my way, as well as the experiences of two close friends who are dealing with significant anxiety issues with their university-aged children – both of whom are what I would consider to be great kids and high achievers. Finally, I recently met with a most interesting parent of Appleby alumni. Raised by immigrant parents in a tough part of Toronto, he has gone on build an extraordinary business empire that stretches across 32 countries. Among other subjects, we discussed the challenges of raising children in times and places of affluence, and how to provide enough “real life” difficult experiences outside of “the bubble.”

The first piece sent my way (in this case by my wife Alison) was a Reuters article about a paper authored by Suniya S. Luthar, professor of psychology and education at Columbia University: “I Can, Therefore I Must: Fragility in the Upper Middle Class.” The article outlines the reality of increasing polarization of educational investment and experiences in American society as the wealthy pay more to ensure premium education (i.e. independent school education and high-end private universities.) In part, this is happening because of parents are compelled to prepare their children for the more competitive and flatter world in which they will live. Especially in times of fiscal restraint, the gap between haves (those who can afford premium education) and have-nots seems to be widening. And while the study is clearly American (like most things, Canada does not have the same degree of polarization,) her title is typically Canadian in its labeling of the “Upper Middle Class.” Rich, poor, or somewhere in between, we all seem to prefer to be considered in the middle class spectrum.

On the surface Dr. Luthar’s conclusions seem shockingly counter-intuitive – that children growing up in privileged, affluent environments are very much an “at risk” group.  She states, “We happened to find that substance use, depression and anxiety, particularly among the girls, were much higher than among inner-city kids.” She then goes on to say, ““What we are finding again and again, in upper-middle-class school districts, is the proportion who are struggling are significantly higher than in normative samples,” she said. “Upper-middle-class kids are an at-risk group.”

I know many people who fear that there is a culture of victimization that seems to be growing as individuals who do not achieve what they want, or covet, or feel they deserve, chalk it up to some inherent systemic unfairness with a giant target on their particular backs. The “at risk” stamp is sometimes seen as a desirable attribute. However, in my experience, while the shoe may fit some, the vast majority of people in at risk categories do not in any way reflect this view. Moreover, it doesn’t take much life experience to realize that, due to family, economic realities, genetics, the geography of birth, and plain bad luck, there are many, many people have to climb a steeper hill that the average person. It’s just hard to imagine that the affluent have treadmills with a steeper incline that those with fewer economic advantages.

But here is Dr. Luthar’s premise, which has been supported by the evidence of her study: In a world where families invest more and more in their children – sports programs, travel, camps, coaching, tutoring, and yes … independent school education – there is an almost limitless range of opportunities for children. But with those opportunities come huge demands and expectations for performance and fulfillment. Her study describes a world in which the opportunities, and therefore the demands, for upper-middle-class children can be overwhelming. The inability to fulfill these demands can be psychologically crippling. I am sure that this is further compounded in families with a legacy of high achievers – where the base expectation for “success” means performing in the top percentile or better. Kids who perform in the average range may feel (or be seen) as failures.

“It is an endless cycle, starting from kindergarten,” Dr. Luthar said. “The difficulty is that you have these enrichment activities. It is almost as if, if you have the opportunity, you must avail yourself of it. The pressure is enormous.”

Educators see many examples of this. In some cases these sometimes unattainable expectations are self-defined by students. In other cases, parents lay down the expectations (I have been amazed at circumstances where parents’ demands far exceed any level of performance that they themselves attained at the same age.) And in other cases, while parents may never say a thing and, indeed, may deliberately NOT set an unrealistically high bar, their children may infer all sorts of expectations that set them up for misery.  

Over the last few decades, many of the senior people in education I know, especially at the secondary and university levels, have recognized a significant upward swing in both anxiety and depression. I have a number of good friends who have served in university counseling roles such as Deans of Students, Chaplains, and advisors. They all talk about how much pressure these kids feel that they are under.

Of course, as parents, we also want to ensure that our children aren’t lazily floating through life. We want to them to take advantage of the gifts that they have been given. But where is the right line?

A great gift in life, especially for teenagers – is a trio of traits: a) to feel that you belong, b) to be self-aware, and c) to be comfortable in your own skin.

So, what does that mean for us at Appleby? And what about education generally? In my next post, I’m going to outline some thoughts on how we can empower kids to develop these traits and to help them cope when times may not be so good.

As always, I would be delighted to hear your comments and thoughts. (ivannostrand@appleby.on.ca)