Technolandy

Day 42 (of 2025/26) the ultimate day to school, education and everything! (And a final share on hallows eve in schools)

42 – the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything according to Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – but my biggest connection in re-re-reading it this year has been that the ultimate job (and maybe key job moving forward) is going to be: asking the right questions. Whether using AI to create social media slop or to create an engaging motion picture, the right questions and prompts are going to be what drives the collaboration between people and Alternative Intelligences forward. 

It’s why my favourite costume (when dressing up in schools) has been Arthur Dent… though most often it has been described to me as ‘lazy guy’ – so now I carry a copy of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (with a custom quilted cover a student made for me) with me on towel days… 

It’s also why, as I continue my equity scan (and don’t love a lot of what I see around the pressures of Halloween in school) I am promoting though modelling:

• Home made costumes
• Connections to literature (or metaphors or ‘others’ that are clever)
• Mindful inclusion into the day… not assuming that everyone celebrates the same… or is even aware of ‘the day’ (had a student that we did a lot of pre-work with to get him ready to wear a costume… missed the fact that we should remind him that EVERYONE ELSE was going to also be dressed up…
• Pointing out some contradictions (had to tease a colleague who shared a ‘staff ghost costume team’ that covered their faces, even though the school+ rules for this day are to keep faces easily identifiable…)
• Introducing social events like ‘dances’ with scaffolding:
  • We are having a video-led dance, making use of Lets Dance/Dance-Dance-Revolution videos so that some dance moves are modelled with the music for students to join into or not… 
  • No pressure to dance with a partner
  • K-12 blended music and shared online via Teams for those who are unable to make it into the school for our community connections – our community is much more than those who are local and can be in-person; we stretch around the province and are mindfully aware that we have many families that do not celebrate Halloween or dancing but are inviting those who want to ‘check it out’ to do just that!

Are you mindful of the pros and cons of hallowe’en in schools? Start with this: who is absent today – and why… if some are not present because of the day… then how do you reconcile designing activities that are exclusionary? The advantage to our POLS program, is that everything we offer is something that students and families get to choose to do… rarely are there ‘have to do’ events

Here’s the 2025 playlist:

Hallowe’en PlayList 2025 (check marks mean visual support found)

Blinding lights ✔️

APT ✔️

Look What you made me do ✔️

KPop Demon Hunters soda pop ✔️

KPop Demon hungers golden ✔️

How it’s done ✔️

Monster mash ✔️

Somebody’s watching me ✔️

Thriller ✔️ 

Ghostbusters ✔️

Popular ✔️

Look what you made me do ✔️

Spooky scary skeletons ✔️

Day oh ✔️

I’m Poco Loco ✔️

Abracadabra ✔️

Time warp ✔️

Addams family✔️

Purple people Eater ✔️

Disturbia ✔️

This is Halloween ✔️

Toxic ✔️

Monster (gaga)✔️

Ophelia ✔️

Murder on the dance floor ✔️

Death Dance ✔️