Day III @ Congress

Whoa! I stayed up WAY too late last night!! I was writing my blog. I'm not good at the time change. Anyway, I had to chair an 8:30 am session this morning. That's 6:30 in MB and 5:30 in SK and not my time of day. On the other hand, the session was great. The topic was recruitment and retention. It started with a Master's student presentation from the University of Alberta. Her study was really kind of neat. She started with herself and did a narrative exploration of some of her untold stories of teaching. Then, she gathered a group of teachers for a two day "summit" where they used her narrations as a starting point for discussion. She encouraged them to talk about some of the things that we, as teachers, never talk about. When the audience pressed her for an example of the 'silences', she said, "Well, like taking a sick day to catch up on marking." Hmmm...ok, that made sense to me. I can think of a few more examples but let's not talk about them, ok?

The next presenter was a principal from PEI who was doing his Ph.D. at UNB. He was studying reasons that so few people are choosing to apply for administrative positions. The final presenters were from the University of Saskatchewan who had completed a study about teacher recruitment and retention in First Nations schools in Saskatchewan. My favorite part was the discussion that took place following the presentations. There were about 20 people in the room and all but two of them participated in the discussion. That meant that I actually had to be the chair because, of course, they all wanted to talk at the same time!

In my next session, a lady sat next to me who had come to the presentation to hear a specific presenter. She was a member of another association. She was shocked by how the CASEA session stayed on time. Apparently in her association it's a bad thing to present last because the presenters before you have probably gone over time. I guess when you tell an administrator that she is responsible for chairing a meeting and she actually chairs the meeting! Predictable, yet amusing.

Tonight was our Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration (CASEA) banquet. It was held at Frogmore Estate in Fredericton, an old victorian mansion with period furnishings. It was the perfect venue for our group. The meal was catered by BrewBaker's and it was delicious. However, dessert was a bit of a disaster. They set out a table of one bite desserts. The people first few tables (me included) selected 2-4 bite sized portions but apparently they hadn't anticipated that we would take more than one. So, they ran out before all of the tables had been served. I have mixed feelings: guilt because I had three portions of dessert, frustration because even three portions was a very small portion, and relieved that I wasn't at the last table!

Day II at Congress 2011

Ah, fresh clothes, a shampoo, and a layer of make-up! What a great way to boost your confidence! Ok, my confidence! That was the beginning of the excitement on day two of the conference. Today was a great day. I had the opportunity to listen to some amazing speakers. I am torn between two sessions that were both my favorites. Here is a run down of the highlights!!

Chief Shawn Atleo - Wow! He was fantastic. If you know me, you know that I am not a note taker. I'm telling you, I couldn't write fast enough. In previous sessions, I have used the Felix Notes App to write a few comments that I wanted to keep but I had to put it down and get my note book out because he was totally noteworthy! He is the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. In his address today, he was making the point that it was imperative to increase education funding to the point that we could close the gap between Aboriginal students and other students in the system. He pointed out how much we would save in the end by building educational success for Aboriginal children and youth. One of my favorite parts from his speech was something his grandmother had told him. She said, "I raised my children to be fighters. I was a fighter. Grandson, you need to be a fighter, too. We no longer need to fight with our fists. Today we can fight with education. Get an education." He also talked a lot about his favorite new book, David Hackett-Fisher's, Champlain's Dream. Now, I want to read it, too!

Armand Garnet Ruffo - Also, wow! He has written and directed a full-length feature film about the impact of residential schools. It was excellent. After the viewing, there was a discussion with him. Even though I stay at the top of the hill and the movie was playing at the bottom, it was worth the trip. I highly recommend seeing this film - A Windigo Tale. The trailer doesn't really do the movie justice. In the movie the character development was tangible. I was deeply involved with the characters. The music was awesome and the scenery, whereever they were shooting, was breath taking. A good movie. Also, I arrived on time...shocker! And, I found out what it looks like when you arrive on time for something. See below!

Michael Corbett - Michael Corbett was my first CASEA presentation and he was excellent. First, he was a good presenter. He stood in the middle of the room and he talked to us. When the chair person gave him his five minute warning, he hadn't moved from the first slide and my mind had never wandered from his presentation. He was talking about rural policy tensions. After his five minute warning, he moved on and showed us some statistics with the PISA testing results illustrating that Nova Scotia scores fairly low compared to the rest of Canada and that they have a higher number of rural students and a much lower average income. So, he left us with the question, "Is it possible that there is a rural school effect that causes Nova Scotian students to perform above the level that the provincial average income would suggest?" I really liked the way that he took a deficit and reframed it so positively.

The President's Reception - At the President's Reception, I took these two pictures from the deck where it was being held. This is SUCH a beautiful place!

Then, I bought a sandwich and ate it in this little park before the movie!

 ...with this beautiful tree!

I've Arrived...or, maybe not!!

So, I am in Fredericton, NB at St. Thomas University (alma mater of Brian Mulroney according to Wikipedia). I am not quite through the first 24 hours and already it has been quite a trip! The good news is that it isn't all bad news. First of all, Fredericton is a small city about the same size as Brandon. And, it is home to two universities St. Thomas University, and University of New Brunswick (Fredericton Campus). The two universities are located together on the side of a hill, which is a challenge for walking but luckily Congress has a bus looping the main campus drive for 12 hours a day. Needless to say, I walked to the bottom and took the bus up. UNB was established here in 1785 making it one of the oldest universities in North America. It is an absolutely beautiful campus. I have included two pictures that I took today but I will take more as the week goes along.





It's totally the kind of place where you could wear a beefeater hat and it wouldn't look out of place!!




This is my residence. The outside is beautiful, but wait...



 So, I left Brandon at about noon yesterday (ok, I left my house at 12:15 and it was more like 12:45 before I actually left Brandon...LOL) and I picked up something quick to eat in the car. We were late leaving Winnipeg which meant we were late arriving in Montreal. When we got to the Montreal airport the funniest thing happened, we got off at gate 21. There were 10 or more people all travelling to the conference. We found lots of signs directing us towards "Connecting Flights" but we didn't see a screen where we could check for our gate until we had literally gone down an escalator, along a long moving sidewalk, down a second escalator and through three other regular corridors. When we finally found the screen, it said that our plane was leaving from gate 23, which you have probably already guessed was right next to gate 21!! It was even funnier because we didn't travel all in one group so as we were going we met some people coming back and as we were coming back we met people who were going that later turned up at the gate. It begged the question "How many university professors...?" Anyway, there was no time for eating in Montreal.

While I took the walking tour of the Montreal airport, I missed the announcement that had warned passengers travelling on our flight that there was heavy fog in Fredericton and the plane might not be able to land. In that case, the pilot would need to turn around and go back to Montreal. Just like happens on the flights from Calgary to Medicine Hat in the Winter time, when they need to take extra fuel they take less luggage. And guess what? My luggage was among the luggage that was left behind. So, when we arrived in Fredericton, there was no little (little as in big) black suitcase on the carousel!! We arrived in Fredericton at 11:35 but due to the luggage issue it was 2 am before I checked into my room in residence and there was no food in sight! My room was slightly disappointing (You'll see in the picture but the picture actually makes it look nice by comparison to the reality.) and more than slightly cold. By the time, I navigated through the bathroom, unpacked my computer, checked my email fb'd with a friend, and settled in for the night, it was 3am. The very next thing that I did was sleep through breakfast! And, it was 11:30 am before I realized that Tim Horton's was located in the next building.

Still working on the window casings so they gave me a free beer token to make it up to me! I say, "A free beer is a free beer!"

You have probably noticed that at this point I had the window open. Within about 10 minutes I was freezing and that little beige blanket was not made for warmth.

It is currently after 8 pm and my luggage has just arrived. So, I'm off to have a shower. No. Wait. I didn't even tell you about the session that I went to. I'll make it quick. It was called, "Storywork Praxis: Basket Weaving, Narrative Tapestries, Metaphoria, integrative Complexity and Fishing." The presenter was Marlene Atleo from the University of Manitoba. She talked about metaphor, storytelling, and the interface between Euroheritage and Aboriginal heritage. She was a good speaker, interesting, and definitely an abstract random rather than a linear sequential, which I always find somewhat refreshing!

Tomorrow, will be a better day - clean clothes and a clean slate!

Reunited and it feels so good! If you're straining to see what is written on that pink tag it says, "You won't look good in my clothes!"

It's Friday!

Well, let me start by clearing up the confusion about the hood to go with my academic regalia. I was right. It should be green and gold. So, the company is sending out the correct one so that it will be here in time for convocation and I am supposed to send the red and blue one back. Whew! Color is good but that was a bit too much, even for me!

I am off to Fredericton tomorrow. I will write a few posts while I am at the conference just to let you know how my presentation is progressing. I present it next Wednesday and I am hoping to see it transform into something significant by then.

Currently, I am debating the wisdom of my choice to use software to analyze the data rather than doing it manually. It's organized but somehow it feels inaccessible. And today, the program refused to open. It said that I needed to supply the activation code but when I did, it said that the activation code was already in use. That's right, it was in use because I had already activated the software two months ago! When I finally got it to open, I promptly made Word files to back up all of the work that I have done so far. Although I love technology, sometimes I still question whether it is the most efficient process.

Have a great weekend!

Wow, Time Flies!

It was one week ago today that I published my last post. Where did the week go?

I finished my coding last week and moved on to getting ready for a presentation yesterday and one today that I wasn't actually able to attend. So, since Wednesday I have spent many hours using PowerPoint. It was kind of fun because I was determined to make the slides more creative and to venture outside of my usual point and click. But, as you know, creativity always takes longer!

Our presentation yesterday went really well. We, myself and a graduate student from the University of Manitoba, were facilitating a discussion between eight school divisions about sharing the responsibility for several professional development initiatives that they are planning for next year. This group of school divisions hopes to overcome some of the challenges by working together. Our role was to review the literature that might be helpful and to lead the discussion around how to work together.

There are several challenges that face rural school divisions as they endeavour to offer professional development opportunities to their teachers: For example, a) travel costs - The large distances between schools often means that it is costly to move teachers to a central location to participate in professional development. Additionally, it means that it is sometimes unreasonable to have 1/2 day sessions or after school meetings. Or, b ) work loads - Rural schools usually have a small number of students. Therefore, one teacher teaches a wide range of subjects or teaches every one the courses offered at the school in a particular subject. So, rather than having a Mathematics Department there is only one Mathematics teacher. This issue limits the opportunities that rural teachers have to build professional learning networks with other teachers in their buildings. 

To arrive at the meeting on time, I had to leave my house by 6:30 am. I am not a morning person. So, leaving early is always a colossal challenge for me! I did leave by 6:45 and we did arrive on time...whew! It was a good day with a fantastic group of people. They gave us Gerbera Daisies as a thank-you gift. They're my favorite kind of flowers so they couldn't have made a better choice!

This morning, I slept until 8:30. I felt like I deserved it after yesterday!! I was hardly out of bed when my door bell rang. I wasn't dressed yet so I checked through my blinds to see who it was. I couldn't see anyone so I decided not to answer it. The bang that followed suggested that the person had left a package in my mail box. As soon as I was sure that he or she was out of sight, I decided to go down to see what it was. When I got half way down the steps, the phone rang. It was one of my students who needed me to attend to several issues regarding his Master's thesis. By the time I had resolved his issues, I had forgotten all about the package. When I left my house to go out for lunch, I found a package, not in the mailbox but, wedged between my two doors. It was my academic regalia. Yay! It's beautiful! The gown is black with a green velvet panel down the front, gold trim, and big round poofy sleeves with three strips of green velvet. The hat is the round beefeater variety and has a green, white, and gold tassel. The part that I am unsure about is the hood. First of all, who wears a hood and a hat at the same time?? Second of all, the hood is red and blue. What the what? It's very colorful and it actually looks kind of cool with the red and blue hood coming across the black and green gown but... I am not convinced. So, I phoned the company...sigh. The person that I needed to talk to was not in the office today. So, I emailed her...twice! Then, I called the University of Saskatchewan. Again, the person who I needed to talk to was not available today. So, I went on the University of Saskatchewan website. The hood that is shown in the picture is green and gold...whaddayathink? Is it possible that there are different hoods for different specializations? Do you really think that Education would choose the old red and blue one?? I'm not quite buying it (I mean, I already bought it and it cost a fortune but...). Tomorrow, I plan to get to the bottom of this issue. I'll keep you posted.

Tonight, I mowed my lawn. I love freshly mowed lawn! It just smells good.

How do you $pend Time??

I LOVE analyzing people. Today, I've been thinking about different ways that different people spend their time. Time is precious. We use the verb "spend" in reference to time because it requires a budget similar to money. It is a finite resource. I probably spend more time in my life wishing for ‘more time’ than I do wishing for ‘more money.’ I guess, in some respects, that places me in a privileged group.

Spending time presents a bit of a conundrum for me. I can’t decide whether I should try harder to scrimp and save or whether time is like love and that magic penny – “lend it, spend it, you’ll have so many they’ll roll all over the floor!” I usually try the magic penny approach first. When it doesn’t work I become very stingy about the few precious hours that I have left over.

In response to my last post, Mike suggested that I needed to read a post on Ordinary Courage, a blog hosted by Dr. Brené Brown, called “In the Weeds.” In the post, she talks about how our modern society pushes us to use up all of the white space between our activities. For example, while you’re stopped at a red light, you could tick a few things off your list – send a text or an email. She concludes that she is going to take a step back, refuse to feel ashamed, and enjoy her white space for a while. I completely agree with her. In reference to my previous post, I would like to have some of that white space left over for my favorite activities.

On the other hand, I’ve been trying to analyze where I can find time for some of those activities while still maintaining my current work schedule and keeping up to date with my list of household chores. In reference to this, Dr. Bev and I were talking about what you could do in the 2 minutes and 30 seconds that your food was in the microwave or during the commercials in one television show. Today, she challenged me to see, if I could dust the surfaces in the living room in the space of one song on the radio. It worked…sort of…and coincidentally the song was Bruno Mars, “The Lazy Song”.

Today, I don’t feel like doing anything.

I just want to lay in my bed.

I don’t feel like picking up my phone so leave a message at the tone

Because today, I swear, I’m not doing anything.

Clear Improvement!

My work: It’s going well. I have one interview left to code and I can move on to a more exciting phase of the process. I will try to finish that interview tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, I have three meetings…sigh.

My Non-negotiables: Nutrition, check. Exercise, check. Sleep, check. Recreation, check.

Today was a good day. I was a frugal spender. Tomorrow, I hope to have a few more magic pennies!

Priorities and Happiness: Is there a connection?

Before my coaching call at lunch today, I decided that I wanted to go back to an exercise that I completed while I was doing my Master’s degree. The activity asks you to identify the 10 things that you enjoy doing most, prioritize them from most important to least important, chart how much money each of them requires, whether they are group activities or individual activities, and how many times a month you are currently engaging in those activities. Below are the results from this morning…

Here is the chart. It's missing television but I would add that in right between telephone and reading!

Wow, it’s amazing how little time I spend doing the things that I enjoy the most. The fact that I spend relatively little time doing the things that I LOVE the most contributes directly to my ongoing dissatisfaction with life. If that is so easy to analyze, why not change it? Hmmm…easier said than done, apparently!

I could easily add in more cooking, baking, art, movies, television and reading for pleasure. I could even add in a walk or two! I’m pretty sure that even a small increase in those activities would help me to feel more fulfilled, more satisfied, and happier. Before Gilbert (the cat) died, I took time each day to watch television with him. It was one of his favorite activities. Every time I would pass by the stairs to the basement, he would get up from wherever he was laying and run part way down the stairs to see, if I would follow. When I didn’t, he would come back up. After work, when he had been alone all day, I felt like I needed to give in. So, he and I watched ‘Ellen’ every day. We both loved that time. Now, I still tape Ellen every day but the episodes build up in my PVR and I seldom take time to watch.

When I talked to Dr. Bev today, she made a statement that has had me thinking all day, “Your real priorities are the ones that you make time to do.” Ugh, how can I side-step that one?? The truth, for me, is that I simply need to manage my time better. I need to set my priorities and honor them. I’ll keep you posted on how that’s working out in the upcoming days/weeks/months…It would be wonderful, if I could keep you posted for months. That would really mean that I was doing something about it!!

Here are a few of the priorities that I set today! :)

I baked!

I finished my literature review for the PD presentation on May 24th!

...and I gave in to the guilty pleasure of the birds!

Tuesday, Wednesday...

Well, a short update tonight...

On Monday, I was pretty pumped about what I had accomplished and I felt pretty energized about what I was looking forward to. I was ready to pull out the sticky notes and get down to business. Tuesday dawned a whole new day. Literally, it was rainy and grey and I felt the same. My progress slowed to a painful grind. I cleared my to-do list but I couldn't persuade myself to dig out the markers and get back to work on my project. I went to bed last night disappointed in myself but with the knowledge that it couldn't last another day.

So today, I got down to business. I pulled out my favorite lined orange sticky notes and my purple pen. How can you be depressed about those colors?? Then, I realized that I would probably want to share the websites and the articles that I had collected for the project. So, I set the stickies aside and went to work creating a document that would be like a annotated bibliography. It was an excellent exercise and one that took longer than a day. I will have to finish it off tomorrow morning!

Once that part is finished, I can start to commit my ideas to the poster paper. Tomorrow afternoon, I am going to talk with the person from the school division who is organizing the event and tomorrow night I am going to talk to the person who is going to work with me at the event. So, I will have to be mindful that I don't move too far along with my plan so that there isn't room for further input.

Manic Monday

Yesterday, I did less than nothing. It was amazing. It was Sunday. I rolled in it. I wallowed in it. I loved every minute of it. Monday morning came as a big shock and I could feel myself once again, for the gabillionth time in my life, relating to that old Bangles song:

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I don't have to runday
It's just another manic Monday

 It's not that I did much running. I did get up and I headed to the shower but before I got there I decided that it would be a waste of time to shower before I did some reading to get my head around my tasks for the day. At 10:30, I was still sitting at the computer in my pajamas deeply engaged in reading and research. It was good. I was excited. Although I don't generally feel very excited when I know I have reached the point in my study at which I have to submit myself to the literature review process, once I am engaged I truly enjoy it. Tonight, I am going to choose, against all of my sustainability instinctes, to leave my computer running so that I can return tomorrow morning to the open windows and the waiting information. I am preparing a presentation/discussion about school divisions collaborating with each other to offer better quality professional development for their teachers in a more efficient way. Today, I read and thought. Tomorrow, I will be back to the poster paper, sticky notes, and pretty colored markers. I can't wait. I love that part!

In Brandon, we are gearing up for a serious flood. Flood cams have been set up so that we can watch the river rise in real time but unless you are familiar with the area, it might be difficult to understand how incredible the water levels are. 1000 Brandon residents have been asked to evacuate their homes by 8:00 tonight (10 minutes ago). Students from one of the elementary schools in Brandon are going to be using classrooms at the university. We are expecting heavy rain between now and Thursday.

On the news tonight, the reporter described that there was kind of an erie feeling in Brandon today while everyone waited to see whether the weather would force even wider flooding. I thought it was a good description. I could feel it, too. It's one of those odd times when people are brought together around an issue that seems much bigger than the regular issues of our day to day lives.

On a personal note, I had my hair cut today. It is such a relief. I have taken before and after pictures to share. I hope you agree that the transformation is positive and significant.



I'm Ba-ack!

Hello to all of my loyal followers...ok, I know that there are actually only three of you...well only two unless you count Dr. Bev at livethesolution.com. Even though she doesn't officially follow me, she does read my blog. So, I count her. I am considering the idea of expanding the circle and allowing more people to read my daily accounts. I've been away for a while. During that time, I tweeted a link to my blog and survived. That was a big step. The next and probably most logical first step is to send it out to family, friends, and colleagues. I'll work up to that in the next few weeks.

Today was my first day back in Brandon and back at work. It was really a hodge-podge of catching up to emails, phone calls, and requests that came in while I was away. It went smoothly for the most part and I think I am pretty much prepared to leave for Winnipeg tomorrow. On Friday morning, four of my colleagues and I present at MADLaT. I will be home on Friday night and prepared for a VERY low key weekend.

I participated in a coaching call with Dr. Bev on my way home on Tuesday. Although I thought I had left my mom's house early enough to be in Regina by the time Bev called from London, I had the times mixed up and I realized a few hours into my drive that she was going to call before I reached Regina. So, I watched the clock and the bars on my phone to make sure that I had service and I pulled over just a few minutes before she called on an approach just outside of Parkbeg, SK, home of Gainer the Gopher! Just after she called, a train chugged by and, of course, blew it's whistle as it crossed the small trail that I was parked on. I promised her that I would take a picture and post it on my blog so that she could see where I sat as we had a serious conversation about non-negotiables and saying 'no'.

Looking West

 

Looking East

After I talked to Dr. Bev, I anticipated that the rest of the trip home would be pretty uneventful (double lane highway, good weather, good road conditions) but there was one more picture worthy moment. The water was over the highway between Grenfell and Broadview. I slowed down to about 40 but there was a big truck right on my bumper and I was scared to slow down too fast. So, I hit it pretty hard and the water splashed up all over my windows. By that time, the semi that you can see coming towards me in the picture was right in the middle with me. I knew he was there but I couldn't see anything. When I finally got the windshield cleared, I was steering towards the open water!!! Yikes. That wasn't uneventful at all. Lucky for me the panic only lasted for a few seconds.

River Boat Captain or Splash Down Park??