Clips & Tips

Clips & Tips

Long ago, this blog article originally caught my interest because having a rule for hats and hoodies to be removed inside the school building previously came up for discussion every year. I remember teachers saying they felt they were being aggressive when they were expected to enforce that rule. Same as many of the readers, I found some comments more interesting than the article itself. It’s clear to see how the article could inspire some worthwhile discussion, especially now that we are continually faced with microaggressions both in and out of school with the enforcement of Covid regulations. It would be an interesting exercise to rewrite the article from either perspective, whether in terms of people aggressively stopping us on the way through doors of stores in bigger cities, or in terms of individuals attacking us when we obediently enforce regulations set by outside organizations.

Clips & Tips

We have explored different stereotypes on previous PD days, so this video review of a book (“Whistling Vivaldi”) offers a simple summary of what stereotypes consist of and how to mitigate the threats of stereotypes. The easy suggestions could help us in the classroom:

If you’d like to find out more about the story behind the title of the book (“Whistling Vivaldi”), read about it here:

Clips & Tips

We use Google so much that we have turned it into a verb, yet many of us do not use it like a pro. Here are two links to help you either use Google better, or use it worse to play tricks on your class:

Since it’s almost summer vacation, I’ll give you a bonus link. This one could potentially take you on a treasure hunt to explore all the possibilities, even in Microsoft Word:

Clips & Tips

Here’s an upstream approach to dealing with problem behaviours: back up from the behaviour (which is downstream) to see what is causing it. Three steps are described (empathy, define concerns, and invitation) to simplify problem-solving. Pretty simple, and it could give us some strategies for our collaborative meetings when we discuss social-emotional learning.

The first link is an interview that introduces this approach, the second is a collection of 2-minute videos (and more in the links on those pages), and the third link is a collection of resources to read.

Clips & Tips

As we get together for the return of students tomorrow, have you thought about how it going to be different? We’ll see action in the hallways, we’ll smell the odor of freshly washed hair in the morning, maybe we’ll bump shoulders as we go through doorways, but what will you hear? You probably won’t hear silence, so here is what you’ll hear—the noise of learning: