Technolandy

Day 1a (of SOL 2025) Summer of Learning… Dear Dr Kennedy @chrkennedy

In his annual year end blog, Chris had some good questions… here is question 

1: What do students remember ten years after they leave us and how can we build more moments that stay with them?

I suspect it’s more about the climate and culture of the classroom(s) than it is about the individual lessons (no matter how much we plan for them… blending in FPPL, UDL, etc) – comments I get years after working with students have included “I’m in education – now I understand better why you did what you did”. 

But in 2015 there was a first focused look at lack of engagement https://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2016/03/the-biggest-indictment-of-our-schools-is-not-their-failure-to-raise-test-scores.html in schooling decreasing through elementary and bottoming out in secondary…

Funny thing is my blog is over a decade old, so I can check.  

• balanced a strong promotion of technology along with physical literacy, self regulation and strong basic skills (ie reading sight words) not exclusive ideologies!
• Saw some great provincial movement on eportfolios and descriptive formative feedback (now k-9 is performance standards… only 3 more to go!)
• My daughter telling me about her T/F MC finals……reflecting what happens in classrooms?
• Job action impacts were still resonating since the teacher contract re expired as of today… and while the last two contracts were arrived at positively… I’ve got some weird vibes this time…
• My rant on anxiety was getting some support, and impacting some reports – including: Having to defend a report that showed about 40% of my population is at risk for mental wellness issues – as high as some ‘higher risk’ schools, but lower discipline rates (how do you suspend someone for self regulation issues when self regulation IS your school goal?)

But likely, as I try to recall ‘way back then’ – it was the weird little things in the environment. Teacher/student interactions – fair and unjust (more of those); sayings and inside jokes that you had to be there for; too many multiple choice tests that were meant to be tricky rather than justified answers; stories from teachers; exposure to key books (and debating whether or not in 100 yers if Stephen King will be read in schools the same way Dickens has been…)

Checked with my kids and jot many lessons made their list (event lessons, yes) and only worksheets in general and tests mostly less so… (they had thoughts about the FSA…)

Really about the relationships and the things “we” think are gonna build memories (as I hope our comic-con does) aren’t always the big memory. Sometimes what was a big deal and meaningful memory for them… was a Tuesday for us…