U School

From the Jubilee Auditorium it is a quick, short swooping flight to the University of Alberta north campus. Evolving on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River since its founding in 1908, it covers 230 acres or 930,777 square metres (almost but not quite bringing meaning to a million). With over 37,000 undergraduates it would have ranked 9^th as a population centre in Alberta. The program is under the aegis (I owe my personal love of Greek mythology to my most memorable U of A undergrad professor, Dr. Robert Buck, who demonstrated every class to me the essential place of sharing passion in learning) of the Chancellor and Senate of the University of Alberta, and makes the most of its volunteer experts to open the window of endless possibility in inquiry to U School students.

I caught up to Michaela Mann, U School program lead, working at her apartment near campus. COVID-19 means U of A classes are being delivered remotely and only essential work is being done on campus.  Most U of A research is continuing remotely, but essential research is being conducted on campus related to COVID-19 and clinical care activities.

Michaela’s path to Inquiring Minds started when she was working for U of A Students Union in professional development and program design for students on campus. The previous U School program lead, Melania Woloszyn, reached out looking to fulfil a U School teacher’s big idea. Mel asked Michaela to make a presentation to a U School class on leadership. There was also an “off the wall” connection, which literally came while she was climbing a wall. Michaela got to know a facilitator of class experiences at U School while on the climbing wall at the Wilson Climbing Centre and as a result in the fall of 2019 applied for the position of Program Lead.

Her first thought when asked about an overlooked aspect of U School concerns the walking. “It is a big site, basically a small city,” she told me, “and we walk everywhere.”  Walking across campus provides a visual representation of the breadth of the university. We agreed that walking is an essential and wonderful learning activity built into every Inquiring Minds site.

Michaela relishes the constant opportunities U School provides for her own learning. One of the first presentations she saw connected the spectrum and the thermo-dynamic (hot and cold) science of lasers. After predicting the effects of shining a green laser at green balloon and then a red balloon (absorbed and reflective energy) and watching one explode, she now has an incredible love of all things laser. She routinely sees that happen to U School students; exposure to something mind blowing plants seeds of interest deep in a brain.

The Inquiring Minds website describes U School this way:

U School is designed to give students the opportunity to interact with University of Alberta staff, students, professors and community members while learning about a wide variety of teacher-directed topics.  Students are introduced to the U of A and our sessions take place primarily on North Campus.  Please note U School only accepts applicants from socially vulnerable metro areas and provides rural opportunities to those outside of metro areas.

Take a look at the U School webpage. https://www.ualberta.ca/chancellor-and-senate/u-school/index.html

Do you want to know more? Contact Michaela at uschool@ualberta.ca

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/

Hook, Line and Sinker for building journaling practice

I’m excited!

I can’t help it.

It is back to school time. Today I spent 75 minutes with 12 wonderful teachers who are preparing to bring classes to the brilliant Edmonton Inquiring Minds site called U School.  I wanted them to feel inspired, empowered and eager to begin the skill of journaling. I could have talked the whole time but that is always my problem; I know that telling is not really the path to true enlightenment. So I tried to spend at least some of our time writing and walking.

These are the links to some of the ideas, websites and books I mentioned.
Boost your metacognition and brain vocabulary and read Brain Rules by John Medina. The brain science is so clear about how effective this is for learning.

Hook – Get a big idea that grabs you then find a collection of things your students can touch and/or experience to make a start. Today, I took in my personal horse collection but suggested Dollarstore seashells or free-for-the-picking-up-outside right-now spruce cones. One of the teachers mentioned collecting smooth rocks and then using them to create story stones. (Google “story stones” to see some lovely ideas).

A good collection needs to have at least 6 items more than kids in the class so everyone has a choice. If you are smart, things are not too breakable or expensive. Back in my ICE School days I filled a bin with old skates Sports Central was going to throw away. I have used old and new small things from the farm to prompt inquiry and writing about agriculture.

Check out the videos at Edmonton Inquiring Minds by Gillian Kydd about writing and drawing about objects. 

A great book with lesson plans around a variety of objects is Inquiry Based Learning Using Everyday Objects by Amy Alvarado and Patricia Herr.

Write about them. Connect them, reflect on them, observe them, wonder and sketch them.

Line – Take journals, pencils and get out and walk with your class. One of the teachers today suggested a one-time, year-long blanket permission to cover walks with-in a six block radius of the school. Great idea. She also mentioned making the job of caboose or back gate keeper one of the regular rotating class jobs. She has a bright safety vest for that student to wear and they love it.

This fall is an excellent time to walk and connect with the federal election. Watch for lawn signs, count them, see if the number changes. Take a look at this lovely humorous video called Election Signs by Edmonton Journal photojournalist, Ryan Jackson. Then look at his behind-the-scenes of its creation.

The City of Edmonton has created a wonderful resource called Make a Better City. It includes a set of activities centred on walking the neighborhood in the section City Scene.

Looking for prompt ideas for the walk? My favorite collection is How to be an Explorer of the World (this link is to one of my favorite blogs about books and how I found this book in the first place) by Keri Smith. Or check out the Write About website. It is free for an individual teacher to register and has some organized opportunities for joining groups based on interests.

Or maybe just inspiration? Consider Alexandra Horowitz’s On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes. Think about inviting some experts on your walks. Ask them lots of questions.

So, take some walks. Write about them. Stop and sketch on them. Map them when you return.

Sinker – All the brain research is supporting engaging learners and taking them deeper. Let your big idea include doing something that makes the world a better place.  Plan some action because of it. Write some letters, make some videos. Here again Make a Better City has some suggestions in the section Make it Real.
Michael Norton has done research that discovered spending even a small amount of money on something for someone else makes us happy.
Create something to share.
Consider a pop-up museum event. Invite parents to bring in an object related to the big idea for a celebration of learning. Get your students to view the museum and you guessed…write about an object, connect it, wonder about it, sketch it.

In the State of Gratitude

I belong to a School of Thirds – most events are 1/3 anticipation, 1/3 experience and 1/3 reminiscing. This approach to life is a very real experience of the dimension of time in our cosmos as past, present and future all in the NOW. 

Last week was my final week of EJ School for 2013-14. Reflecting on the year fills me with gratitude I must voice. Gertrude Stein said “Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.” 

Ever since I left the more conventional classroom in 2002 for my role leading site-based education experiences, I have toned down my joy to a private revel and quiet thankfulness that I have no year-end progress reports to prepare.  However, I do miss the accumulated satisfaction of accessing the growth and witnessing the learning that 10 months can produce in a collection of students that make up any given class.

I will visit the classes that came to EJ School this year and deliver the glossy Front Pages the Edmonton Journal loving prepared for each student. I will collect students’ comments on things like their biggest surprises from the week, their favorite activities, anything bad that happened and what advice they would give a student coming to EJ School next year. I will get a rush reading through those student evaluations of the program.

But on the planet of Inquiring Minds Edmonton, like most other places in the education universe, we are thinking about next year. At the Greater Edmonton Teachers Convention booth I had the pleasure of connecting with amazing teachers I have worked with in the past. Some of them introduced me to new teachers.  I will be helping a couple of other sites get ready to try the site-based, week-long, inquiry approach and fine tune elements of their programs.

Bringing students into direct contact with the world of journalism has opened my eyes to many things about the nature of inquiry, accurate information and the burgeoning uses of technology. The risk the Edmonton Journal took in opening its doors during this time of dramatic changes for them to a program like EJ School speaks to its deep commitment to the community of Edmonton. Barb Wilkinson and Karen Unland observed the use Linda Hut was making of just one morning a week for her City Hall classes and knew it was good. They have nurtured me these past 2 years and I am so grateful.

I shared classes and experiences with City Hall School and U School this year. I can’t say enough about those chances to collaborate with Linda Hut and Amissa Jablonski. I attended the U School Convocation for our joint class and the experience of watching students at Convocation Hall will be a culminating highlight of my year. I look forward to Linda's Citizenship Fair that celebrates City Hall School's year end.

Brian Dunsmore and the volunteers at CKUA designed a wonderful afternoon of learning for EJ School classes this year.

SAGE (Rachel Tassone and the Senior’s Association of Greater Edmonton) and Kevan Lyons, the Poet of Churchill Square played such an important role in the connection of students to powerful true story.

The Stanley Milner Library and community librarian, Angie Mills took us around the world and into the past with their newspaper collection.

The Marian Centre opened its doors to share its mission with Edmonton’s less fortunate.

The changing downtown of Edmonton was our landscape.

And my biggest thanks goes to the staff of the Edmonton Journal who were so welcoming and forth-coming with students who watched and interviewed them. The Edmonton Journal is more to our community than a source of accurate information.

The brain research says it takes a village to raise a healthy, resilient child. In the past, present and future it is so and in my EJ School village there is a state of gratitude.