In honour of our Feast of Fiction Gala this weekend, here’s a video that was passed on to me yesterday morning from one of our grade 5 homeform teachers, Rob Sawyer. The message: Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover.
Derek Logan
Head of School
“A man is what he thinks all day long.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
When was the last time you thought about who you are?
I don’t mean the self-affirming thinking that most of us fall prey to on occasion – you know, the kind where we tell ourselves how right and good we are relative to those maniacs on the road, or the grumpy, nonsensical others who enter our consciousness.
I mean the kind of thinking that a scientist would bring to a petri dish.
Thinking is at the heart of who we are. It’s at the heart of everything we do. Even our habits, the ones so hidden in our basal ganglia that they happen without apparent thought at all, are rooted within it.
With this in mind, shouldn’t we all take time to think about our thinking?
We believe so, which is why Think About Your Thinking is a KCS Habit. Reflection and goal-setting begin in grade one. They happen in all subjects, formally and informally, and include everything from our Super Seven learning skills, subject-based skills, extra-curricular involvement to the KCS Habits of Mind, Body and Action.
The grade 6 students, all of whom are participating in our electives pilot, have been thinking about their thinking lately. Each elective is built to develop 4-8 Habits. The Habits were explained, and then students were asked to look for evidence of each Habit, and identify whether they think they are growing or not in each. As an exercise, it is simple in design, but not so simple in execution.
Try it.
In your life, how are you doing on the following:
We are what we think. Honest self-reflections are just the first step in the job of being a disciplined, successful thinker. Having said that, thinking about our thinking is where it all begins. We can take charge of our thoughts, or be their sidekick. At KCS, we’ve no doubt what we think is the best route.
What do you think?
Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
A few blog posts ago, I wrote about what two grade one boys said outside my office during one of our Spirit Days. Moments ago I overheard another two grade one boys says to each other: “I wish my schedule was: “Gym, Gym, Gym, Gym, Lunch, Recess, Recess, Recess.” Dream big, boys. You just can’t make this stuff up. Enjoy your weekend everyone.
Derek Logan
Head of School
Maybe we already ask too much of education. Our profession has certainly evolved from a focus on the ‘3 Rs’ to include many other expectations, academic, social, moral, physical and otherwise. Because these expectations are all worthy, we accept them as part of our role. And because making room for passion is also worthy, and increasingly so, it should be included among the expectations we place on ourselves.
Anyone following the dialogue in education is aware of the growing need to prepare students for an unknown future. Students today are likely to have many different careers in their lifetime, holding jobs that don’t even exist yet. The future is full of opportunity for people who can drive their careers, who are adaptable, who can learn what needs to be learned, and who are energized enough to make their role matter in a global competitive market. If it ever was straightforward, the world is decreasingly so, thanks to technology and the interconnectedness that binds our lives to every other person and place in the world.
Sir Ken Robinson is one of the most highly renowned voices, and critics, in education today. A major theme in his work is the importance of nurturing creativity. Another theme, captured in his book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (2009), is the importance of nurturing one’s passions, and the unfortunate absence of that as a priority in conventional schooling. Of course, all is well for students whose passions align with the school curriculum. The trouble is, the world is much bigger than the scope prescribed by the Ministry of Education. Student-driven learning, during the school day and with the guidance of interested adults, is too rare a part of formal education. Yet this is exactly what we need to instill in them to be successful as adults.
Finding one’s passion can be the difference between a life driven by happiness and one crippled by disinterest. It can be the difference between a life fully lived and one only a fraction so. It can also be the difference between the students who feel school matters, and those who feel it doesn’t. Make room for students to explore their passion at school. And see how it changes everything.
Andrea Fanjoy
Assistant Head, Academics
Twitter: @afanjoy
This article also features in the April edition of SNAP Etobicoke.
A hero is an ordinary person who finds the strength to persevere and endure
in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
– Christopher Reeve
Need a hero? Look no further – we’ve cornered the market at KCS.
Every student is creating a work of art that represents either a hero or heroism to them. Students in grades one to five are each working on a teacher-led project. Students in grades six to eight have designed their project entirely on their own, choosing everything about it other than the theme. Each student has his/her own hero, and their own way of showing it. The Spring Showcase from May 17th to June 6th will be the richest, most interesting, and most inspiring exhibit of Sharing What You Know at KCS ever, I’ve no doubt.
Since reading a biography of Golda Meir in high school, heroes have always nestled in the periphery of my thoughts – all the big ones, the ones who stared down gross injustice, the ones who believed humanity could be better, the ones who courageously devoted their lives to it – reminding me to get off my duff and strive to live a life that matters.
I’m also recently thinking a lot about a smaller hero. Most people don’t know him, though all KCS faculty and staff, and many of our parents do, as well as many people like us in communities across the continent. He’s small in stature, quiet and humble in demeanor. In that way alone could he be considered small. A hero for me, he speaks a common sense about raising and educating children of character that few people speak. Challenging mindsets à la mode, he devotes his life to helping parents and educators be the better people they are capable of being.
This hero, Ron Morrish, is speaking at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School on May 9th. You can also learn more about his message by visiting http://www.realdiscipline.com/ or reading his book Secrets of Discipline for Parents and Teachers: 12 Keys for Raising Responsible Children.
Heroes come in all sizes. Whether big or small, far away or right in our midst, their example has earned them a place in the periphery of everyone’s thoughts. Thanks to the artistry of our students, our Spring Showcase is KCS’s effort to make that so.
And maybe, just maybe, this occasion of Sharing What You Know might help us ordinary folk move one step closer to being heroes: people devoted to making humanity a little bit better.
Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
On the weekend, I finished reading a book entitled, Inside Out Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives by Joe Ehrmann. The author is a former scholarship athlete who played football in the NFL. He now coaches high school football, writes and speaks about the impact coaches have on children. He certainly provides an important and thoughtful perspective on a coach’s influence.
While reading the book, I made notes on a number of quotes/stories that he references. Two of my favourites are below. This morning I forwarded the first story on to my son’s soccer coach as I know he’s experienced similar situations to this one over the past few years.
From page 193
The following is the story of the coach and a conversation he had with one of his players. Please note the quote is taken directly from the book and does not reflect the everyday vocabulary of the author of this post.
“Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?” The player nodded in affirmation that he knew. “Do you understand that what matters is not whether we win or lose but that we play together as a team and do the best we can individually and collectively?” Again, the player nodded yes. “So,” the coach continued, “I’m sure you know that when a coach makes a bad call or the referee drops a penalty flag you shouldn’t argue, curse, or call them a peckerhead. Do you understand all that?” The player again said he did. Coach continued, “And when I take you out of the game so another player gets an opportunity to play, it’s not good to call your coach an idiot, is it?” The player shook his head. “Good,” said the coach, “now go over there and explain all that to your mother and father.”
From page 214
We are all familiar with the saying, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” Ehrmann prefers Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy’s retort: “The only must win was World War Two.”
Derek Logan
Head of School
“Happiness varies more with the quality of
human relationships than with income.”
– World Happiness Report, presented at the United Nations Conference on Happiness
Call us old-fashioned. For all the impassioned talk about ‘21st century skills’ and life-changing advances in technology, manners remain at the core of what makes the world go around.
Our grade fives went on a field trip the other day. At KCS we directly teach, practice, review and remind students of behavior that is right. Before leaving to get on the TTC, the grade five teachers did so.
Here is Mr. Sawyer’s account of what followed: “…the thing that stands out most in my mind was the excellent manners that the students displayed on the subway…I felt so proud watching students in our class get up and offer their seats to elderly passengers or to women with small children. I also saw two occasions where a boy from our class offered their seat to a lady. All of this was done without me saying a word…I had many people comment to be about the excellent manners of our students. I agree!!!!!!!”
Positive relationships with others, nourished through the use of manners, have always mattered. Encouragingly, in a world that has sometimes forgotten the importance of this, it is starting to get the public attention it deserves.
Offering your seat, holding the door open for others, welcoming visitors to the school, and greeting others each day are but a few of the ways in which ‘doing what is right’ is practised at KCS. Practice makes perfect.
Grade fives, that was perfect.
Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
Kingsway College School
Over the past eight years, I’ve been involved coaching and taking my son to minor sports, mainly soccer. I’ve watched him play for club teams and various school teams over the years. I’ve written about some of my thoughts on what I’ve seen in minor sports in this blog and in other newsletters at KCS over the years: treatment of referees by spectators as well as the behaviour of some coaches are topics that I’ve observed and commented on. Upon reflection, I realized that I’ve never written about the players. And this brings me to a story of watching my son play basketball with five guys he never knew before he stepped on the floor with them on Easter weekend.
My thirteen year old son, Brandon, and I went to work out at the fitness facility our family joined. We started off together doing various exercises and then he went off to shoot baskets in the gym. Earlier this year he decided that he was going to play on the school basketball team for the first time. The playoffs were starting the next week so he wanted to go and practice dribbling and shooting for a while. After an hour or so I finished what I was doing, and with the help of an oxygen tank, made my way up to the gym. When I arrived, I noticed Brandon was involved in a 3-on-3 game with some other boys, who ranged in age from 12-15. I sat and watched for twenty minutes.
To me, this was sports at its essence: a group of children getting together to play a game. It reminded me of my childhood when a bunch of us would congregate after school or on the weekend to play road hockey, soccer, football or baseball. We’d set a time to meet and then we “figured it out” from there. So many times, other kids we didn’t know would wander by and get invited to play in whatever game we were playing. Brandon and these five other boys ended up together on the court not knowing each other when they arrived. They picked teams, changed them when necessary, and called their own fouls. They congratulated each other on great plays and shots; they competed, disagreed, laughed and poked fun at each other for over an hour. Amazingly this was all done without listening to the input of others on the sidelines. They just played.
I think for my son, he likely took away other memories than I did from that Saturday; as a thirteen year old, he’s likely forgotten about the game in the same way he forgets about the things I ask him to do around the house! But for me that game allowed me to witness something about Brandon’s personality: it showed me that he has the willingness to get together with others he doesn’t know for a brief moment in time, and because they shared a common interest, have a good time. It also reminded me what my role is as a parent of an athlete: to get Brandon to his games and training on time, let his coach do the coaching, and let Brandon tell me about the training or the game afterwards. The rest is really up to him.
Derek Logan
Head of School
One of our grade one classes had a big talk last week about the habit ‘Act with Empathy’. A classmate was away that day having teeth extracted, so they all thought about what they could say to express their empathy and make him feel better. Here is what they came up with:
Empathy matters, so we teach it at KCS. ‘Sharing What We Know’ also matters, so we do that too. If someone in your life could use a little empathy and you’re wondering what to say, revisit this post. The grade ones know what to do.
Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
Today we had a Spirit Day at KCS. It was beach day. I was sitting in my office with one of my colleagues with my door open. My office is across the hall from the grade 1 classrooms. The younger students are always interested in seeing what the faculty and staff wear on Spirit Days. The two boys peeked their heads in to see what I was wearing – my Toronto Maple Leafs beach shirt, shorts and sandals. One of the boys said to the other, “He doesn’t look that weird.”
Derek Logan
Head of School
kcsmatters.blog 